Down Mulberry Lane

Time for a new plan.

I have a new plan for trying to work in foods into our diet.  I seen tonight it will already need some tweaking, but I need to go with this to start.  What I decided to do was to try a new recipe each day, well at least 4-5 a week, I am hoping.  And no better time to start, than TODAY!

Today's recipe was a Vegan Macaroni and Cheese.  It was easy to cook.  It was a crockpot recipe.  The cheesy sauce however was a bit "sour" for our tastes.  After it was all done, I had to cut it with a bit of honey to even make it palatible for our family.  And then... it was still a no go.   I found that when I took a bite of steamed broccoli which I had for a side dish, with a bite of the pasta, it really wasn't too bad.  But alone, it was just too sour.  I know that lemon can be a great taste, but I did not grow up with it, and the sharpness of the flavor was nothing our family was used to. 

I also tried a cashew gravy.  It had onions in the gravy and the way it was directed to cook, they did not get blended up.  I put it onto a vegetarian loaf (which was new also, but I just tweaked a burger recipe that I had and made it into a loaf).  The flavor... was good.  The family says... It is a keeper.  Though, next time the girls would prefer me to blend up those onions instead of leaving them in pieces within the gravy.  Dh said he would have liked it better if I had made potatoes with our meal, LOL.  He lives on potatoes and prefers it with every meal unless it is mexican or pasta ...and even then we add potatoes occasionally.  The new loaf was a keeper as well.  I have one daughter that requested I exchange the carrots for more potatoes, but I just smiled and everyone else said... it's fine...leave it as it is.   When my girls don't eat too many carrots (this daughter especially), it seems that if it is tolerable, I ought to leave it in.  *grin*

After all the cooking tonight, I realized that I struggle with doing dairy-free and soy free at the same time.  An automatic substitute for dairy is soy.  I made the vegetarian loaf with a vegetarian burger, didn't even dawn on me that there was TVP (Soy) in it. 

I did not take a picture of the loaf, but basically here is what was in it...

One can of vegan vegetarian burger, one potato shredded, one cup of carrots shredded, 3 eggs, 4 slices of ww bread cubed, a good set of shakes of sage, onion powder, and garlic powder.  I baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.  During that time, I made the gravy and then topped the loaf with the gravy and baked another 20-30 minutes.  (enough for the carrots to soften and the gravy to bubble). 

The gravy recipe I found in the book "Choices:  Quick and Healthy Cooking" by Cheryl Thomas Peters.  It was good and I am relieved that I had ONE new recipe for today approved by all (even if I need to tweak it and blend the onions into the gravy next time!). 

My plan will need some tweaking as on the first day I was given some comments on the plan.  The new recipe is planned to be a side dish to the main meal.  That part works, that way if it doesn't go over, the kids still eat.    The next part is that I need to keep the menu plan a bit more "normal".  This will prove to be difficult as we are ingrained in a particular style of food and when you can't eat that food, finding a new normal isn't always as easy as substituting one food for another.  Like tonight, I should have made a potato dish for the new loaf.  It would have been much easier for the family to accept the new food without feeling like they were being deprived.  But, in my thinking... we had plenty on the table... the menu consisted of:  Trial: mac and cheese, pineapple and banana salad (have bananas that need eating), burger loaf, gravy, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and squash (trial... we had a crossbreed in the garden and we tried it tonight...not so good! LOL).  After looking at the menu, I need to try and keep it smaller/simpler as well.  It's not like we're going to potluck, so I don't need to have so much food on the table. 

Anyways, I will be sharing our journey as I try new recipes.  I will share my flops, my forgetfulness, etc.   All in all, going to a new diet will be hard on the entire family.   I guess it isn't that it will be... IT IS. 

Today's aftermath of whatever little Paige ate, allowed her entire dresser of panties to be emptied.  That is about 15 pairs of underwear.  She told me at about 6pm, that she ran out of panties.  She also had about 6-8 bowel movements today.  Totally cleaned her out, I guess.  Her skin still has  the redness that appeared yesterday afternoon.  She also has a red blood mark in her eye today.  She was aggitated most of today, but seemed to calm down after supper and fell asleep a bit early for her (around 7:45 pm).  She didn't eat the loaf tonight, she has always seemed to say no to soy substitutes, although she does like gluten and those usually have soy flavorings.  I guess I will likely need to make my own at some point.  Anyways... hopefully tomorrow is a better day. 

Warmly, ~Melissa