Day 18 | Just another day...

It's been another productive day for me. I find myself getting little things done that I have put off for a long time. It's nice to be pleasantly busy all day long rather than sitting for long periods of time working. I like the extra energy I have from eating healthy.

Another nice thing about eating healthy is the ability to focus and analyze - things I haven't been able to do consistently for quite some time. I'm having complete thoughts about issues and I follow through with actions. This sounds like a perfectly normal thing to do but when you've had major depression mixed with post-traumatic stress and grief, none of the normal things you did before are easy.

Food

Today was a good food day - I feel that I'm already on auto-pilot when it comes to eating now. Breakfast is usually fruit and toast or oatmeal. Snacks are crackers, bean dip with vegies or pickles. Lunch and dinner are either large mixed vegie salads, my fiesta bean salad, mashed potatoes with vegies (new recipe provided below) or vegie rice (new recipe provided below). When eating out it's a little more challenging depending on what they have but now that I'm used to eating fat free vegan it's easy.

What I ate today:

• Green grapes
• Rice and wheat/rye crackers
• Bean dip with celery stalks
• Bubbies and pepperocinis
• Vegie Mashed Potatoes (see recipe below)
• Nectarine and grapes

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RECIPES

Vegie Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Russet potatoes - with skin on - washed and cubed

Vegetable broth (without fat added)

Almond milk (unflavored)

Steamed spinach

Garlic - minced

Onion - diced

Mushrooms - quartered

Jalapeno - small dice

Corn (off the cob)

Zucchini - small dice

Scallions - sliced (for garnish)

Pick-A-Peppa Sauce

Soy Sauce - Low Sodium

Sambal Oelak Sauce - to taste

Garlic powder

Sea Salt

Make the mashed potatoes:

• Place potatoes in boiling pot with lid
• Cover potatoes with vegetable broth
• Add a little sea salt
• Stir a few times until boiling
• Bring heat down to low, place lid and let cook for 15 minutes
• When fork tender, strain out water and put in a mashing bowl
• Add a little bit of almond milk (depends on how creamy you want them) - add as needed
• Mash and then use a large spoon to make sure the milk is incorporated - cover and set aside

Make the vegie sauce:

• Heat up pan on high
• Dry saute the garlic and onions by constantly moving them around the pan
• Lower heat to medium
• Add the mushrooms, zucchini, spinach and corn - fold into onion mix
• Add soy sauce, sambal, pick-a-pepper sauce, garlic powder - make sure all ingredients are incorporated
• Lower heat to low and cover - let ingredients meld for 10 minutes

Once the sauce is done pour the sauce over the mashed potatoes and use a large spoon to mix them - it's ok if it's not perfectly blended. Top with the scallion garnish for a fresh and sharp taste. Enjoy!