Post-Holiday Blues

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, and for those who wanted recipes, I'll put them at the end of this post. I'll also be sure to tell Chase how much you liked his Falafel-men!

Happy New Year to you all! It's good to be back home, and I guess I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I think I have a good case of the blues. It must be because of a combination of many things:

1. Trying to get rid of sugar cravings and back to healthy eating.
2. Missing two weeks with my trainer.
3. Missing my office buds.
4. Worrying about Chase taking a heavy class load this semester.
5. The general icky weather - cold and rainy.
6. A sinus infection I can't seem to shake.
7. Looking back on the past year and wondering if I've accomplished anything, besides becoming vegan, of course.

I'm sure it will pass. I'm also still a bit travel weary. Chase and my brother have not made the Alabama trip the last 2 Christmases and my folks and I have decided we just made our last one too. We were delayed 3 hours going over. We were delayed 1 hour on the trip home - and we didn't get our luggage until the next day. This happens nearly every trip. This is always upsetting to me because I am a "stick to the plan" type of person.

My sister still likes to eat at McDonald's and when not eating out, cooks mostly from cans, boxes, and pouches. I made my pumpkin lentil soup one night, which me and my mom and sister ate. The nephews ran from it. My dad and brother-in-law watched football and ate chips. I also cooked some greens one night. We found a sparse farmers market, but they did have lots of greens, most of which were 3 feet tall! My mom and I ate those. My sister said she would eat them after I left and she could add chicken broth to them.

My oldest nephew is 8 years old. He already goes deer hunting regularly. When he shot his first deer, his dad processed it, then they threw him a big party and ate his deer. He showed me pictures of him posing with the deer he had killed. It was all I could do to say congratulations. My sister served lasagne made with deer meat the first night we were there. I had salad and broccoli. I also ate too much snacky stuff, like nuts, dried fruit, tortilla chips, and crackers.

But for the most part, I had a wonderful time being with my family. My nephews are so smart and fun and loving and well-behaved and beautiful. Here's a picture of them, and then a picture of my sister.





Now on to more fun things - food! For New Year's Day I fixed a blackeyed salad, of course.




For dinner that night, I had the salad along with barbecue baked tofu, broccoli, and a delicious cornbread from a recipe on recipezaar. I make my barbecue sauce from the recipe on All Creatures. It's Chase's favorite.

Last night I made myself a half-burger on one slice of spelt bread, with a Boca burger, lettuce, an avocado I needed to use, and leftover barbecue sauce. It was yummy. I had it with more blackeyed pea salad.

I found these neat little baking cups in Alabama and made some muffins in them last night. You just put the cups on a parchment lined baking sheet, fill the cups, and bake. You can also bake them in your muffin tin.

I thought the muffins turned out great - look how tall they are! I made them with carob chips, raisins, and almonds.

I'm not sure how much I like cleaning them, though.

Last night I also made a bagful of chickpeas. I will make something from Vive for dinner tonight. There are two or three chickpea casserole recipes that sound pretty good. I can't make the Morrocan Chickpea Patties because I hate fennel!

And finally, answers to recipes questions from my last post:

I used the sugar cookie recipe from Nov/Dec 2006 Veg Times.

The falafel recipe was from about.com Middle Eastern food. It was not a really good recipe. I spiced it up a lot and had to add a lot of liquid.

My bean salad had EVERYTHING in it - black beans, red beans, corn, red bell pepper, green onions, water chestnuts, grape tomatoes, and parsley. I made a dressing of fatfree garlic or italian salad dressing, rice vinegar, agave, and spices.

Texas Trash

4 c. tortilla chips

3 c. Crispix

1 bag microwave plain popcorn, popped

1 can (12 oz.) mixed nuts

1/2 c. corn syrup

1/2 c. margarine

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 T. chili powder

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. cayenne

Heat oven to 250.

Combine chips, cereal, popcorn, and nuts in a large roasting pan.

Combine corn syrup, margarine, sugar, and spices in a small saucepan; heat to boiling, then pour over cereal mixture. Stir to coat. Bake one hour, stirring every 20 minutes. Cool on waxed paper. Keeps in an airtight container for two weeks.

I hope to get by all of your blogs later tonight. That for sure will make me feel better!