Veggie Bowl

A few weeks back my sister and I decided to do the Daniel Fast, a 21-day vegan-with-restrictions fast. If you’re wondering why I’m talking about the fast I did, you’re not alone. Several other people mentioned too that usually when we’re fasting we don’t talk much about it. But if your on a very restricted diet for 21 days, the only way you won’t talk about it is if you don’t have any guests at mealtime, never eat anyone else’s home or never meet anyone at a restraurant.

In a nut shell, only plant-based foods are allowed. Any processed foods that contain only plant-based foods are allowed, but may not contain any chemicals/preservatives. Salt is allowed and many seasonings and of course all herbs, dried or fresh will add a lot of flavor to the food.

We did cheat several meals. Two birthday meals and 2 family meals. There are times when it is okay.

One of our favorite meals is rice and black beans, covered with a colorful veggie salad. On the fast you’re supposed to eat brown rice instead of white but said to say, neither of us like brown rice much. In these pictures I have white rice.

Cook white rice until done. Drain a can of black beans. Throw half the beans into a bowl with canned whole kernel corn, diced green peppers, purple onion & tomato. Chop some cilantro real fine and add it to the veggies. Add some rice vinegar and a little olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Rice Vinegar:

Veggie Bowl

Fill a bowl with rice. Top with some heated up black beans. Top that with the veggie mixture and add a little salsa (not a sweetened kind like some homemade recipes are – if I don’t used my homemade restaurant salsa, I use a bought salsa casera) on top. And then top that with some avocado, cut into little chunks. Yum. Some grilled or sauteed chicken would be really good with this if you didn’t want to go vegetarian with this.

Veggie Bowl 2

Last night I took one of my homemade tortillas, fried it on both sides in a little olive oil until it was a little crispy. I used that as the base for the above ingredients. Sort of a veggie tostado. Delicious!!! The only problem was I put too much on top and half of it fell off as I was eating, causing veggies to go flying with each bite I took.

This fast is fairly radical and it’s best to do it if you really want to. If you go into it half-hearted you probably won’t last 21 days. There are just so many things you can’t have. The second day was the worst for me. I had such cravings for what, I wasn’t sure. I just wanted to EAT something. After that I was fine. By the last few days, we were getting anxious to be finished and those weren’t as fun either.

I think I missed milk products more than meat or sugar. I really like cheeses of various kinds, milk, sour cream, cream cheese … but it didn’t hurt me to do without. In fact, the scale was quite happy about it!

I’ll probably post a few more recipes late, including a veggie burger.

Here’s to healthier eating (some of the time – I don’t suppose that Ben & Jerry’s Cheesecake Brownie ice cream I just had would be considered healthy)!

Update

Yes, I finally have DSL at home. No, that doesn’t mean I have more time to post. I keep thinking of things I want to write about but inspiration is not lining up very well with free time. When one has a post just itching to be written, and one is about to fall over from weariness from too many late nights, one must resist the urge to crank up the computer and write. Rest is more important. So is cleaning up my room. Laundry from last week begs to be folded and put away.

But.

We are in our new office now. It is not finished but it is very exciting to have plenty of room!!! Cabinet guys have been hinting for cookies ever since they made sure the kitchen cabinets were finished first. Today cabinet guys were lamenting the fact that they could not smell cookies baking. I told them every day they keep bringing more cabinet pieces, their chances of smelling cookies increases. First we have to get an oven.

And another fridge.

Inadequacy

 

Said my boss the cabinet guys this morning, “You didn’t measure right for the fridge opening.” Humor goes along way when things are less than ideal!  Oh, and the cabinet doors will be getting pulls on them.

But let me tell you what AT&T pulled with our whole internet thing. Go to their website, put in our phone number and “Congratulations! You qualify for DSL Lite.” And only lite. Specially introductory price even. So we order the service. With DSL Lite you do not get a free modem. It would be cheaper to get a modem elsewhere but a previous experience doing so made me think it was worth getting their modem. Sure enough. Plug it in. Works great. Speed is tolerable. Far better than no internet. Far better than dialup.

I went onto their website a week or so later just to see if an upgrade was available. Sure enough, the plans that would’ve included a free modem are available. So I upgraded. Checked the download speed and it is on par. Yay! We can get DSL Extreme 3.0. Could get 6.0 but don’t feel like shucking out any more $.

But. We don’t get the free modem. And we don’t get the special introductory prices on DSL Extreme that are offered to NEW customers. I wonder if talking to customer service would help at all.

Good night to all!