Lovely Lentil and Mushroom Dish

Here's another super easy vegan/vegetarian dish that can be either a side dish or a main course for those who need a protein and there's nothing else.

Cut an onion, some garlic and a few mushrooms. Put in a pot. Check then add a cup of lentils. Add a spoon of oil, then three cups of boiling water, cover and simmer until the water is almost absorbed. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Turn off the flame and leave for another twenty minutes.

That's it. It's that easy. Cooking doesn't have to be a lot of work.

Optional: Add carrots, squash and other vegetables, too.

Simple Chickpea Salad

Since we were hosting a vegetarian for a meat meal, I needed to serve a suitable protein for the guest. Summer weather made a salad seem like a good fit.

You need chickpeas, either from a can or cooked. I cooked these. It does take a few hours plus. First you soak them in boiling water in a covered pot for a few hours until they begin to swell, and then you pour out the water and rinse. Add lots more water and boil them for another couple of hours until they are nice and soft. Let them cool.

Once the chickpeas are cool, pour out the water, and in a nice bowl add:
chopped garlic
onion cut in small pieces, red onion is great if you have one
diced tomato

Mix them with the chickpeas, then add some olive oil and then coarse pepper and a bit of coarse salt to taste.  If you wish you can also add leaves or/or additional fresh vegetables. My guests loved it, even those who eat meat.

Nu, And How's The Diet Going?

It's certainly no secret that I have been struggling with my weight for a very log time. A number of years ago, I made it a very public diet which you can find by using the search engine of this blog by asking for "public diet," "diet saga," "low carbohydrate" and other labels.

I did manage to rid myself of about fifteen 15 kilo or thirty plus 30+ pounds, most of which has stayed off ever since, but about a third, five kilo found their way back about a year ago. When that unwanted weight had reached three kilo, I went to war, but lost the battle and gained another two kilo. But about six months ago, after the pool closed, I tried a few different tricks, about some of which I have blogged.

Over 12,000 steps is pretty rare for me.
12,000 is now very common.

The first thing I did was to make more time to walk, since the pool had closed. Three months of water exercise hadn't reduced much, except that my body looked and felt better. And even the experts say that walking is better for weight reduction than swimming. I increased my daily steps, as I could see on the pedometer.

The second thing I did to lose weight was to change my breakfast. For years I had been eating a large vegetable omelet, but not that long ago I felt terrible sugar/fruit cravings as soon as I finished it. I took that as a hint. Maybe I need to eat fruit for breakfast, since the omelets and vegetables weren't satisfying my hunger.

Now, for the past few months, I have fruit, fresh ginger and goat yogurt for breakfast. I must admit that there are days when I crave cashews afterwards, so I eat a few. It's clear that I need more protein early in the day in addition to the sugar/fructose.

Another thing I've noticed, and I do weigh myself almost daily on the same scale, is that the fewer restaurant or catered meals I eat, the lower my weight is. It goes up a bit when I've eaten out. And it's lowest when all the food I've eaten has been my own home cooking.

My weight seems to have stabilized close to where it was post-big diet, bli eyin haraa, let's not tempt the "evil eye." I do have days when I eat things I "shouldn't," but there are diet mavins who actually  say that once a week or two it is good to go off the restrictions. It stimulates the metabolism to work harder and burn calories more quickly. Also, it makes the "diet" easier to live with, and that is a major trick/technique. If you adopt a diet you find impossible to live with, you won't be able to stick to it very long.

And how is your diet going?