Tight budget, tight jeans

That's where I find myself after these past few weeks. Sitting around studying, while munching on carby, less-than-healthy snacks has taken its toll on my body... and with me being out of work until late August, I find that my checkbook is being slowly depleted. So it seems like the perfect time to try and detox, and turn back to the basics: Whole, fresh foods, including plenty of grains and legumes and raw or lightly cooked veggies and fruits. I'm trying to drink nothing but water and the occasional ginger tea, until my body forgets that it ever wanted caffeine like it sometimes does. I'm trying to limit my intake of soy, as it's more highly processed. And I'm trying to sever my sweet tooth by eating nothing refined or having added sweetness of any kind. I've been going at it a couple of days now, and I'm doing fairly well except for the blasted cheesecake left over from Bob's birthday, from which I keep sneaking little nibbles. But I think it will be gone soon!


I made this quick soda bread from La Dolce Vegan--Sarah's Sandwich Spelt Bread. The green flecks you see are sunflower seeds. So far I like this bread a lot--and there is one tablespoon of maple syrup in the entire loaf, which is no cause for alarm as far as added sweetness goes, methinks.


A slice of this bread toasted and topped with Vesna's satarash makes an excellent breakfast...


And as per the name of the recipe, it's good sandwich bread too. This sandwich consists of SusanV's white bean pesto, which is really not so much a pesto as a white bean spread, topped with plenty of sprouts, mushrooms, and local cucumbers, and a bit of dijon mustard.


I asked Bob what he wanted for his "birthday dinner," and he requested beans and rice. Fine by me! I made a huge crockpot full of black beans, and we had them with brown rice and kale. Bob loves it when I put green peppers in the beans--it sort of lends a ranchy flavor that's quite nice.


For the kale, I used another recipe from LDV--Emira's Speedy Gourmet Kale & Tofu Delight. That's a long name for sautéed kale with little tofu cubes. It was absolutely delicious... my new favorite way to make kale. A sprinkling of toasted pine nuts adds a lot of flavor.

This is unusual for me, but today I have not had much of an appetite. I ate a little bit of granola for breakfast, but around 2:00 PM I decided I should probably really have something to eat. I can't understand why, but I've been jonesing for miso soup like none other, so when I found a recipe in LDV called Quick Miso Soup For One, I knew that it had been placed there just for me.


It made a gigantic portion of soup for one person, but I ate it all up. I skipped the tofu and just added carrots and baby spinach... It was the perfect soup for a rainy day.

It actually is a rainy day... I'm sitting next to the window right now, listening to the thunder rumbling in the distance. The rain was so good for our hot, thirsty land... I can see little eddies of steam rising off the asphalt, from being cooled so abruptly by a half-hour downpour that just slowed to a sprinkle. Georgia summers can be unbearably hot and humid, but an afternoon thunderstorm makes it all okay. I hope you all are enjoying your day, wherever you may be!