New Year, New Me.
Well, the new year has come, and it is time for me to make my new year's resolutions.
I would like to not eat any meat this new year. I would also like to start targeting firming and toning certain areas of my body while I continue my weight lose journey. I would like to focus more on my blogs and businesses and other creative entrepreneurial projects. I am interested in learning the art of feng shui to help declutter my house and learn to clean better. And incorporate more belly dancing and yoga to my daily life
My Brother came over to celebrate New
Years with me and he brought this delicious banana candy and Some Hops Tea. We cooked a big feast and watched a couple cool movies.
The second movie we watched was a comedy about a dead-beat stoner brother and it was pretty funny.
I made a big wonderful vegan feast for the new year with my brother. He loved it and said it reminded of wholesome clean food he would eat at hippy festivals.
I made steamed collards, sauteed carrots and okra, curry rice, peri peri tofu, and coconut black eyed peas. Everything was delicious but the black-eyed peas were by far my favorite.
Instapot Coconut Black Eyed Peas
Ingredient:
1 lb Black Eyed Peas Soaked for 30 minutes
1 whole coconut cracked, and fruit ripped into chunks
1 qt Veggie Broth
1/2 onion diced
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp liquid smoke
1/4 cup vegan bacon bits
2 tsp Slap Ya Mama seasoning
4 tbsp my homemade vegan bacon seasoning (see recipe down below)
Instructions:
Add Ingredients to an instapot and cover and pressure cook for about 45 minutes on the soup button.
Yield: at least 6 servings.
Vegan Bacon Seasoning
Ingredients:
Scraps from 2 lbs of brussle sprouts
Scraps from 3 sweet onions
1/4 cup vegan bacon bits
3 tbsp McCormick Brown Sugar Bourbon rub
Instructions:
Dehydrate brussel sprout and sweet onions scraps. Add to food processor with bacon bits and McCormick seasoning. process until it turns to powder, about 2 minutes. Sift to remove any large particles.
Curry Rice
Ingredients:
3 cups brown basmati rice rinsed
2 tbsp yellow curry powder
1/2 cup minced onions
4 tbsp vegetable seasoning (instructions below)
7 cups water
Instructions:
Add all ingredients to a rice cooker and stir. Cover and cook until rice is done.
Yield: at least 8 servings
Vegetable Seasoning
Ingredients:
Vegetable scraps from making vegetable broth
2 tsp Sea Salt
4 tbsp parsley flakes
Instructions: Dehydrate vegetable scraps and then process in a food processor until it becomes a powder. mix in parsley and salt.
Steamed Collards
Collards can easily be made with the steaming basket in the rice cooker while rice is being made, all you need is 1 lb of collards washed and chopped. My brother and I dressed our collard with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
Sauteed Carrots and Okra
Ingredients:
1 lb carrots peeled and sliced
1 lb bag frozen sliced okra
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp Slap Ya Mama Seasoning
Instructions:
Add chopped carrots to a skillet with coconut oil and sauté until they start to brown. add frozen okra and seasoning and stir. cover and let simmer on medium for 5 minutes then uncover and sauté until water evaporates and okra is not slimy.
Yield: at least 5 servings
Peri Peri Tofu
Ingredients:
2 lbs frozen firm tofu
1/2 bottle peri peri sauce
enough oil for frying
Instructions:
Defrost tofu and towel dry ripping into bite size chunks. Either deep fry in hot oil for about 5 minutes or crisp up in an air fryer.
Toss cooked tofu in peri peri sauce.
Yield: at least 5 servings
This past week has been great for my diet, I only had a few holiday snacks that weren't vegan, but my body is staying in pretty good shape for making it through the holiday season and all its temptations.
The way my body is reshaping is really starting to show itself but like usual I am having issues of shedding lbs of body weight as my body is converting fat to muscle and who knows what else.
but I have a few charts from the past 180 days on my fitness pal to show a bit of what has changed so far in my body composition.
I did add a few extra lbs this holiday season, but the weight is now starting to head back down.
I made up for it on Tuesday eating Christmas leftovers and thanksgiving leftovers and a yummy sandwich that I shared with my brother.
Surprisingly such a small plate was pretty high calorie, but definitely delicious.
On Wednesday I was craving one of my go to snacks that is so tasty but is higher in sodium. Steamed rice with bacon bits, butter, soy sauce, mushroom seasoning and coconut sugar. Trust me it is amazing.
My brother and I had fun going to Salvation army and the Humane Society Thrift store. I scored lots of thrift treasures and my brother scored a stack of CDs.
I loved the way I did my makeup and I used lots of awesome vegan and cruelty free product.
My eyeshadow palate was Tresluce by Becky G which is a vegan and cruelty free Latina owned brand. I used tower 28 by SOS facial mist which is also vegan, and Milani black liquid lipstick which says cruelty free, but I am not positive if it is vegan.
I took a nap and later prepped carrot dogs and cooked an impossible burger.
Friday was a low maintenance cleaning day. I ate carrot dogs and the other impossible burger and got my house prepared for my brother to visit.
Saturday was new years and the day I ate the new year's feast with my brother. I had made some vegan French toast for breakfast that day that turned out pretty tasty.
Vegan French Toast
Ingredients:
1 cup Non-Dairy milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 dash of nutmeg
1 pinch of black pepper
2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions:
Whisk together batter and then coat top and bottom of white bread slices and fry in vegan butter on medium until golden brown.
Yield: 3-4 pieces
My brother and I also walked over to Albertsons where I got these two tasty new kombucha flavors. Kombucha was an essential part of my initial weight loss journey last January. I didn't even really focus on a diet back then I mostly focused on getting my gut health back to normal by eating lots of fermented foods. I recommend this as a starting point for anyone just starting their fitness journeys. gut health is so essential to weight loss so remember to get lots of probiotics in the first few months of weight loss.
After My brother and I had watched the second movie and enjoyed some smokable oregano we had an epic craving for something sweet, so we tried to construct and apple crisp together. Thankfully our combined vision fused into a very delicious dessert and future breakfast.
Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
6-7 peeled and sliced apples
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp date syrup
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup coconut sugar
4 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions:
add apples to a baking pan with water and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Combine oats with, brown sugar, flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon and coconut oil to make crisp topping.
pull pan with apples out of the oven and drain anly excess water.
top apples with date syrup and crumb topping and bake for another 30 minutes.
Yield: 4 servings
Overall, I feel very happy with how successful 2022 has been for me especially after how crazy 2019-2021 has been for us all. I feel like 2022 was the year for us all to get back up on are feet and now we are all going to go twice as hard into 2023 with nothing but success and abundance on our mind.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and I look forward to continuing my journey with you all!
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