One of my favorite recipes yet from The Kind Diet is the Edamame and Sugar Snap Peas. The recipe is so easy to make and uses only olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, shallots and ume boshi plum vinegar.

I tried to make myself a wrap on Monday but it was less than stellar. I managed to get through half of it, but then put the rest back in the container.

My wrap consisted of:

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Lemon Juice (added when I went to eat it

It seemed to be lacking flavor, I tried to add lemon juice to make it a bit tastier but I think I should have actually used more roasted red peppers.

Today’s wrap was quite a bit tastier. This is what it consisted of.

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Couscous with Pine Nuts
• Cannellini Beans

I’m thinking of trying some seasoned tofu in my next round of experiments along with getting better at actually wrapping up wraps.

A big issue for me going vegetarian or vegan, is I do not love beans. Granted I like Tofu, even though too much of that doesn’t really like me. Great, the story of my life. So I’m wondering about some alternative protein sources. My sister in law pointed me toward cannellini beans which I like a lot more than kidney beans. But outside of those I’m not sure. I do eat tofu on occasion, had some Tofu Pups the other night and I like Boca Burgers. But what else is out there?

Tonight’s dinner was quite yummy as I’ve rediscovered couscous.

I got The Kind Diet for Christmas, along with Chef Keith Snow’s book Harvest Eating. I’ve flirted, as Alicia would say, with vegetarianism for probably 11 years. I’ve never stuck to it. My own laziness and lack of commitment is what usually has me faltering. The Kind Diet is a step further with going vegan. I grew up in a family that loved their milk, cheese and eggs. I stopped drinking cow’s milk about 8 years ago. I’ll have it in a hot chocolate or coffee, but that it. Cheese on the other hand is my Achilles’s heal. I love it! But I also know it doesn’t always love me and my sinuses always clog up after having too much cheese.

My schedule is still a bit crazy to get into cooking big meals. This past weekend I decided to simplify, choose only meals that could be quick, not even heated and still fall under the vegan and healthy guidelines.

I made home guacamole for the first time. It was awesome! I’ve been eating oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. I cooked up crispy orange tofu from the Kind Diet cookbook. Tonight I made couscous, which I haven’t had in a very long time. I also attempted to make a wrap for lunch. I used a tomato tortilla, hummus, roasted red peppers, avocado and sprouts. It was…ok…I need to figure out something to first add more flavor, but also make the avocado a bit smaller. I used chunks and I wasn’t really loving it.

I’ve also gotten into the habit of impromptu exercising. My Mom called me up on Saturday and gave me a 20 minute notice if I wanted to go for a walk. I was in the middle of working on some projects, but I decided, this nice weather doesn’t come along that often and I need to get out from behind the desk. So off I went for a good walk. Tonight, I was waiting for Craig to be free but he got busy with a few different things. I watched as the sun went down more and more, and said, screw it, I need to take advantage of this weather. So I took myself out and went for a walk. 45 minutes later and my heart pumping I feel much better.

I’ve always made the excuse of not enough time, energy and being too busy as to why I didn’t just get out and exercise. It’s fun… you only live once right? and I’m sick of not being able to take off my rings and not being as flexible several years ago. I’m only 31, not 61.

I haven’t been the first person to get excited about working in the kitchen. In the past I have not been very adventurous. A client of mine though has made two delicious meals from scratch and my mother in law makes these incredible meals all after a day of work. They’ve inspired me.

The other night I made meatballs from scratch. We had ground turkey, we did not have bread crumbs, so I used the magic bullet we have to crumble oyster crackers. They came out delicious. Tonight I decided to do something different with our kielbasa. I bought red and green peppers, a sweet onion and some French bread. I sauted everything in a large frying pan. It too came out really good and pretty healthy. I’m hoping to do more cooking and start thinking outside the box
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