Banana chocolate chip muffins

Unfortunately, I've now learned baking vegan goodies is the easiest thing ever. Or maybe with the holidays upon us, it is a good thing. With buttery vegan sticks from Earth Balance and 1/4 c. silken tofu to replace 1 egg, you can take most any standard recipe and get a respectable baked good. Case in point (and perhaps my most successful ever)--banana chocolate chip muffins adapted from a banana bread recipe I found on epicurious.com. Here goes:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. toasted walnuts
1 T. flour

1/2 c. vegan margarine (1 stick of Earth Balance buttery sticks)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. silken tofu
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 ripe bananas
2 T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together first four ingredients in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Next mix chocolate chips, walnuts and 1 T. flour together in a small bowl. Make sure toasted walnuts have cooled completely. In yet another small bowl mash bananas.

In large mixing bowl, beat margarine until creamy (with electric mixer) and gradually add in sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in tofu and vanilla. Beat in bananas and lemon juice; followed by flour mixture.

By hand stir in chips and walnuts. Bake in muffin pan (use either paper baking cups or spray pan with nonsstick cooking spray) for about 20 minutes or so--just until brown. I hate to say I didn't time these and original recipe was no help since it called for baking in loaf pan.

Bridging with Burgers

I love grilling "burgers" of all kinds because it is an easy way to bridge everyone's eating styles. I've made regular burgers for my two meat eaters and then portabello mushroom burgers for Will and I who are eating vegan. And easy--I've been marinating the mushrooms in balsamic salad dressing. I've posted the recipe for the dressing before. But when fixing it for marinade, I don't pay so much attention to proportions. I just mix a dollop of dijon, a teaspoon or so of brown sugar, then pour in roughly 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 3-6 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Choose portabellos roughly the same size as your burger buns. let them marinate 30 minutes-1 hour then toss on the grill. They are great. Ross has been having a double burger--meat and portabello. Easy and not much to clean up when you are grilling. My idea of great weekend cooking.

Back to school cookies!

We had about three coolish days (93 degrees--seemed so fall like!) and I thought about how I hadn't baked anything since the Fourth of July so I pulled out a new cookbook, La Dolce Vegan! Not only is it a pretty entertaining cookbook, it has a healthy (no not healthy as in low fat good for you; healthy as in chunky) section on desserts and decided to try these chocolate chip cookies. They are a little less sweet than regular chocolate chip cookies and have a cakier texture and little less fat than regular chocolate chip cookies. But very good with a glass of soy milk and I have to say, the uncooked dough was excellent!

Rachel's Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 c. vegan margarine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. silken tofu
3/4 c. Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a food processor, blend together the sugar, margarine, vanilla, and tofu until smooth. Add the tofu mixture and chocolate chips to the flour/soda/salt, and stir well. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of cookie dough on cookie sheat; press down with fingers. Bake 8-10 minutes. Let cool before removing from baking sheet. Makes 24 cookies.

Green Chile Season Has Begun!

When I lived in New Mexico, green chile season was a great time of year. The days had started cooling off a bit after the summer monsoon season (which meant about 4 drops of rain every afternoon in July and August) and the smell of roasting green chiles was everywhere. This year I knew chile season had begun when Al's Aunt Jane called to tell us she had left us a freezer full of green chiles in Verdin, NM at Al's dad's house and asked when were we coming to get it. Until Al and Ross make that trip, I'll have to depend on Central Market. They had their green chile roasters out on Saturday so I bought a big bag full and made these wonderful enchiladas. I did put cheese in the boys' pan, but left mine fully vegan. So good and worth the effort and several dirty pans that result!

Green Chile Enchiladas

For sauce:
1 1/2 pound roasted green chile, peeled, de-seeded, and chopped
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 T. olive or canola oil
2 T. flour
16 oz. vegetable broth
Salt to taste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes; add chiles and saute for a few minutes more. Sprinkle mixture with flour, then stir in and let it cook a minute or so before adding broth. Stir well so there is no lumpy flour and add salt to taste. Let cook on very low heat for another 15 minutes or so. Add water if needed. You want the consistency of stew--not too runny and not too thick. Set aside.

For filling:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 onion, chopped
1 portabello mushroom, grilled and chopped
1/2 red pepper, grilled and chopped
1 T. olive or canola oil
Saute onion in oil for a few minutes. Add beans, mushroom, and red pepper. Cook for a minute or two more until warmed. Set aside.

Soften 18 or so corn tortillas by dipping briefly in hot oil. I usually do all of them at once and let them drain on paper towels. (I hate to be too specific about the number because it is going to depend on how fat you want your enchiladas and if you add cheese to each enchilada with the vegetable filling, you are going to get a bigger batch of enchiladas than if you just use vegan filling.). In 9 x 13 baking dish roll enchiladas by starting with tortilla and putting in desired amount of vegetable filling (and grated cheese if you want just vegetarian enchiladas). After all are rolled, pour green chile sauce over all. You can top with additional cheese if you are going the non vegan route and additional chopped onion if you are going either vegan or vegetarian. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until bubbly.

Happy Chile Season!

It's all about the dress(ing)

I was off to San Diego last week for four days, thinking that SD would be a vegan friendly type of place. I was kind of wrong about that and ended up having some feta cheese at two different meals. But my E2 guy is perfectly okay with being a bit flexible, attempting to eat a plant-based program most of the time. One result of the SD trip was photos taken of me--I have so few photos taken that I don't realize how bad I look, even after going vegan for a good month now. So it's time to go cold turkey on those yummy ice cream substitutes and other desserts and stick to the low fat E2 diet. Luckily, I really do love salads in just about any shape or form. I had a really wonderful roasted beet salad (red and yellow beets!) in SD which I've been wanting to re-create but haven't gotten around to yet due to having tons of freelance work this month in addition to the ol' job. I did come across this salad dressing, perhaps best described as a cross-dressing ranch (it looks like it but not quite the real thing). It is thankfully light--only 19 calories & 1 gram of fat for 2 T. and fairly tasty. It is made with silken tofu which I've come to learn is the go-to tofu for any creamy delectable such as vegan sour cream, vegan pudding, vegan mayo and now salad dressing. And I actually have been keeping it on hand, which is a big plus! It could be more flavorful with more tahini but that would also up the fat and calorie count.


6 ounces lite firm silken tofu (1/2 pkg. of Mori-Nu)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon tahini
2 green onions, white parts removed, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, packed
1 large clove garlic

Place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth.

Muffin Mania

One of the more "difficult" (and I put it in quotations because it isn't that difficult) things about following the vegan diet is that I'm doing lots of double cooking, especially on the weekends. Although, I think the breadwinner is beginning to come around, admitting today that perhaps no red meat is the way to go healthwise.

The three men in my family are accustomed to having rather large breakfasts on the weekend. On Saturdays it generally means eggs and muffins or biscuits and on Sundays waffles and bacon. The breadwinner and Gigi, our old retriever (who is here by my feet snoring LOUDLY), are muffin maniacs. I usually bake a batch of muffins each Saturday for their morning snacking throughout the week. Last week I fell down on the job and left them both rooting around in the kitchen every morning for a suitable substitute (to which they agreed there was none). I've been trying vegan muffin recipes so here's the latest offering. But before I begin recipe, I must mention that I turned on the oven and then walked around the corner to Tony's store for a single ingredient. The trip takes all of five minutes. When I came back, the breadwinner had turned off the oven because "it was getting hot." Duh--that was the point the dear. It's a good thing I'm the cook in the family. We would all starve otherwise.

Cherry Streusel Muffins
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. fresh cherries, pitted & roughly chopped
1/3 c. safflower oil
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. soy milk
1/3 c. orange juice

Streusel topping
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. shredded coconut (which I omitted due to a certain someone's distaste for all things coconut)
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
3 T. earth balance margarine (or some other vegan butter substitute)

Preheat ove to 450. Spray muffin tin with canola oil spray or use paper cupcake/muffin cups to line the muffin tin. In mixing bowl, whisk milk, oil, and orange juice. Sift together dry ingredients and stir into wet ingredients. Fold in cherries and spoon into prepared muffin pan. Combine streusel ingreddients, mashing with fork until mixture is crumbly. Top each muffin with streusel mixture and bake 18-20 minutes.

Planning ahead

My friend Carolyn and I had emailed back and forth today about a few things. She is the one who originally got me interested in the E2 diet. She mentioned that she was worried about planning for vegan meals once school starts back up (she is a head start teacher). And she was right--planning ahead is important especially since we're fairly new to this way of eating. I have had a super hectic week thus far and had very little in the house in the way of food until my trip to Central Market this evening. My fall back on these super hectic days is hummus and nuts for a snack or source of protein and steamed vegetables and rice for a quick dinner. I've been keeping frozen brown rice on hand (you can buy it frozen in microwavable bags) for those evenings when I come home really hungry. By cutting the vegetables into small pieces they steam really quickly and the rice takes only 2-3 minutes in the microwave. The only thing quicker is a hippie sandwich with hummus, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and onion. Groovy!

Tater Salad

Fourth of July really is my favorite holiday. Besides celebrating our country, it is such a great day to get together with friends and family and have a blast--as Bart Simpson says "We're going to celebrate our country's independence by blowing up a little piece of it." 

For this year's Blair Blowout we did veggie burgers and regular burgers plus several salads, a lemon cheesecake for most and vegan cupcakes for moi. For the cupcakes I used a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, a cookbook based on the Post Punk Kitchen, an NYC vegan cooking show. Cupcakes were great and all who ate them said they couldn't tell they weren't regular cupcakes. So score. But the real highlight food-wise was the potato salad.

Potato Salad with Herbs and Lemon

3/4 c. olive oil

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 c. chopped onion

1/4 c. finely chopped fresh basil

1/4 c. finely chopped fresh mint

2 1/4 pounds small red-skinned, potatoes (I think I had more potatoes than this)

Whisk oil, lemon juice and lemon peel in small bowl to blend. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Place 1/2 c. dressing in large bowl. Mix in green pepper, onion, basil, and mint. 

Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain. Cool 15 min. Cut potatoes in 1/2 inch cubes. Add potatoes to bowl with dressing and toss to blend. Let stand 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, adding more dressing if desired. Serve at room temperature. 

Vegano TexMex

TexMex and going vegan are pretty incompatible. If you made a venn diagram of the two, it would be a pretty slim overlapping area. But there are options--at least in Austin and if you don't look too closely (i.e., did not ask "Is there lard in this?"). Yesterday I had a two-fer TexMex day. Lunch at Amaya's with Kati and Deborah. Surprisingly Amaya's borracho beans have no meat in them. So I had a cup of beans with rice and guacamole. Pretty durn good. Then Guero's for dinner with Nancy and Debbie. Their grilled vegetable plate was great--lots of grilled vegetables over rice with a cup of black beans. Again guacamole. However, I won't see much weight loss having Guac 2x in a day but that makes it a pretty perfect day in anyone's book (except Debbie's whose allergic to avocados).

Love lost

It's now been 2 1/2 weeks since I started this vegan diet experiment and it is going great. I've lost 5 pounds and am now wearing a green skirt that I've been wanting to wear since March.
Should no longer call it an experiment because it is something I think I can stick with. My energy is good, my workouts at the gym haven't suffered at all. In fact, I had 100 pounds on the leg press on Monday.

The main reason I think I can stick with this new way of eating: my taste for dairy has diminished. I was at a lunch meeting yesterday on campus and had the veggie wrap from a campus cafeteria where I often grab lunch. Their veggie wraps are usually always hummus and occasionally have a balsamic vinegar/oil dressing in place of hummus. I took a bite and could immediately tell it had a heavier "off" flavor and sure enough looked at the label (in about 5 pt. type that one over 50 certainly has a difficult time with) and it had a cream cheese/pesto spread. And it didn't taste at all good. This is good news as I thought dairy would be the hardest food item to give up--my love for cream cheese and butter was evident in nearly every birthday cake I've baked for the past 20 years. But like bad boyfriends (not that I've had any experience in this category for 28 years) they can be replaced.

Luckily vegan food is fairly easy to find in Austin, especially around campus but for venturing out in the world, I've decided it is always good to take a Lara bar with me. These are great--the apple pie flavor is very good. They also have cherry pie flavor, cashew, peanutbutter cookie, and chocolate. The only downside is they are high in fat due to all the nuts used to make them. Since they have no flour, ground nuts are what binds the fruit and other ingredients. But the nuts also make the bars fairly high in protein. Another "find" which I just found yesterday is Simply Delicious soy ice cream. Again, relatively high in fat and calories--lower in fat and calories than Blue Bell or HagenDaas however and 0 cholesterol. I picked up the Chocolate Almond Brownie and it was GREAT--so good that throughout the course of the evening, I ate the entire pint. I'm surprised that green skirt fit this morning! Won't be buying that again for a while.

The Thrill of the Grill

Due to the incredibly hot weather recently, the grill has become the preferred venue for cooking. Tonight for example, I grilled a salad (though not what you are probably visualizing right now) and it was delicious, fit the ol' diet as well as the tastebuds of everyone in the family.

Grilled Corn Salad
4 ears of corn prepped for grilling
1 large red bell pepper
1 zucchini sliced in half long-ways
1 Anaheim green chile
1/4 c. chopped red onion
1 tomato, chopped
2 T. olive oil
2 T. fresh lime juice
Salt & pepper

To prep the corn you can either strip the husks & silk off and wrap each piece in foil or you can use the method which results in very tasty corn but more work (I learned this from yet another in-law, my brother-in-law Robin). Robin's method involves pulling the husks down but not off the ear of corn and removing all the silk, then putting husks back up around corn. Soak in water for at least 30 minutes before putting on the grill.

So get the grill going and grill corn, red pepper, zucchini, and green chile. Cook red pepper and green chile until they are charred and blistered, then peel and remove seeds before chopping. While still warm, remove kernels from corn, chop peppers and zucchini. Combine in bowl with red onion and tomato. Add olive oil, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temp.

This salad was so good--there was not a bite left in the bowl after dinner. In fact, I'm going to make it for the Fourth of July when the masses of Will & Ross's friends descend on the house here in Dripping Springs. Though I'm going to add more zucchini. The above recipe would have been a bit better with 1 ear less corn and maybe another zucchini.

Who (Re)Moved My Cheese?

The title of this should be Who Replaced My Cheese? And the answer would be "I did." I've mentioned before that Rip Esselstyn, whose book moved me to start a vegan diet, is not a fan of cheese replacements. They are still high in fat and some have caseins. However I found one that is pretty durn good melted--in fact I could not really tell the difference when it was melted on my chalupa (or tostada for those of you with New Mexico/California roots).  Here is how it stacks up with regular cheese. The vegan one I chose was Vegan Gourmet's "Monterrey Jack." It is made from soybeans and has no casein. I didn't have any regular Monterrey Jack so I'll compare to the cheddar I had around in the fridge. Here are the stats:

Vegan Gourmet (1 oz) Regular Cheddar (1 oz).

70 calories 110 calories

7 gr. fat 9 gr. fat

0.5 gr. saturated fat 6 gr. saturated fat

0 trans fat 0 trans

0 cholesterol 30 mg. cholesterol

150 mg. sodium 180 mg. sodium

2 gr. carbohydrate >1 gr. carbohydrate

2 gr. fiber 0 fiber

0 gr. sugars 0 gr. sugars

1 gr. protein 7 gr. protein

So it is lower in calories but only a little lower in fat--however no saturated fats, no cholesterol, and it has a smidge of fiber. The chalupas were divine (corn tortillas, vegetarian refried beans, cheese, avocado, tomato, onion, and chopped romaine). Though technically vegan, probably not a Rip Esselstyn approved item because I did fry the tortillas in canola oil. He suggests brushing with oil and baking--which I will try soon. Some things are just hard to give up--like crispy golden tortillas and a Saturday evening vodka and tonic on the back porch. 

Deception never tasted so good

Last night I made a vegan spaghetti sauce by sauteing finely chopped onion, carrot, & garlic, adding Morning Star meal starter (which is crumbled textured vegetable protein) and then a jar of Seeds of Change marinara. Served it the breadwinner and didn't tell him it was vegetarian until halfway through the meal when he mentioned how good it was. Served with romaine and tomato salad with lovely divine tomatoes from Gretchen (my nextdoor neighbor and a really really good and generous gardener). Topped the salad with balsamic dressing made just how my sister-in-law Elizabeth taught me. It is a very good, forgiving, salad dressing and every batch comes out slightly different.

E's Dressing
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 T. brown sugar
juice of one half of a lemon
3 T. olive oil
3-4 T. balsamic vinegar
pinch of kosher salt and a couple grinds of pepper

Whisk together dijoin and sugar, then add everything else, whisking well. You can adjust ingredients to taste. Some days we feel like a sweeter dressing add more sugar; other days we feel like going heavy on the balsamic with almost no oil. You also can substitute the juice of half an orange for the lemon for a little bit different flavor.

Be Prepared!

This morning was a good lesson for me. Like the proverbial scout--I should be prepared! I left for work, forgetting my cereal, but figured it was okay because I was going to stop at Fresh Plus and get an Amy's frozen dinner for lunch. But Fresh Plus wasn't open yet. I am starving...where to go that has vegan offerings? That's right someone told me about a vegan bakery, supposedly wonderful, just off Guadalupe on 29th St. So I head that way. In the maze of the little businesses jumbled together on 29th St., I finally spy it (after turning around once) but it is closed and from the looks of things maybe for good. That leaves my breakfast option oatmeal at Starbucks, which I'm sort of tired of. It has been a standby breakfast for a couple of years now, even before I started this diet. When I get to desk after checking email and voicemail, I google Starbucks trying to find other vegan offerings. The Vivanno can be made with soymilk so it could be vegan only the Starbucks on campus doesn't offer it. By now it is nearly 9 a.m. and I'm really really hungry. And not even lunch in sight because I've got a meeting from 10-noon and another from noon-1:30. Despair. I should keep nuts at my desk, a Lara bar, ANYTHING. Coworker Erica suggests Jamba Juice--yeah Erica. Berry workout boost made with soy milk--yes! It is perfect and wonderful and maybe I'll survive 85 degrees at 9:30 a.m. after all.

Mindfulness or lack thereof

Sunday I cooked a big father's day dinner. My parents came, and there were the four of us and Ross's friend from Tacoma. For the meat eaters I cooked 2 pork tenderloins and made lots of vegetable side dishes for Will & I. While cleaning up, not paying any attention, not thinking at all, I took a little bite of the tenderloin. Oops. But it made me think about how mindless I really am--I just don't pay attention to a lot of things. Not being mindful is how I got to be 30 pounds overweight. Not being mindful is how I spilled a cup of coffee on myself as I walked out the door to go to work (Joyce, you'll be happy to know I still keep stacks of little shout or oxi-clean packets spread around home & office for just such emergencies).

So that tiny bite of pork was an aha moment for me. I will try to be mindful today (that should become my mantra everday)--to think and pay attention before I eat, speak, load up to walk out the door to go to work.

At least the tiny bite did not taste heavenly.

Bread & Pudding

My youngest came home from college this week--the day I had brought home a loaf of vegan friendly multigrain bread. It was 2 a.m. and he was starving after a day on the plane and in 3 different airports. He wanders into kitchen and spied the bread.

Ross: You know you can buy four or five loaves of white bread at the grocery store for the price of this.

Mom: Yes, but this is so much better for you, it tastes better, and besides I haven't been working for nearly 40 years to eat 79 cent a loaf white bread.

Ross: Yuppiedom has come full circle. (this from a kid who went to private school and is attending college on my nickel). He says this while slathering with my hummus.

Next day: I come home from work. There is one--count them--one slice of multigrain bread left.
After accusing dog of getting loaf, I learn that yuppiedom or not, son does not go buy 79 cent white bread but eats all of mine--in one day (with a little help from older brother). Proof is in the pudding, as they say--multigrain vegan beats the other stuff any day.

Speaking of pudding, about a month ago Mark Bittman published a chocolate vegan pudding recipe in NY Times. I made it then and thought it was way too sweet but definitely good. I made it again today for father's day dinner tomorrow but have tweaked it a bit so it isn't so overpoweringly sweet. Next time, I'm going to cut back on the chocolate as it is pretty decadent as is. I'm not sure this recipe would be E2 diet approved because of the sugar. Esselstyn includes a similar recipe in his book with 3T. cocoa and agave sweetner. On his Web site, reviewers gave his version a thumbs down for being too grainy. The tweaked Bittman version is as follows:

Mexican Chocolate Pudding (Really more like mousse)
12 oz. silken tofu (I used Lite)
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
4 oz. semi sweet chocolate
4 oz. 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool. Melt chocolate in microwave and cool. Put tofu in blender; add simple syrup, chocolate vanilla and cinnamon. Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape sides as needed. Pour into 8 small ramekins and chill for at least a couple of hours (overnight better).

First Few Days

After finishing The Fire Engine 2 Diet on Sunday, I was ready to start the E2 plan immediately. One problem--hadn't been to grocery store and it is obvious that planning ahead is required for following a new eating plan. Second problem--I have issues. Issues with dairy for one. Love butter and cheese, both of course not vegan except for soy cheese which Esselstyn advises to use in moderation because of casein in it and the fat. And butter is the double bad--fat and dairy. As for milk, I have been a fan of soymilk for a couple of years so no problem switching strictly to soy option. Other issues: caffeine. E2 advice--lose the caffeine. Alcohol: ditto.

For this first week I had already previously scheduled several lunches and one drinks/dinner with friends. So I decided my first week would be easing into the E2 way of life (which Esselstyn offers as an option though his cuts out dairy and includes fish). So butter and all dairy out except for fresh mozarella (which I have a minor addiction to thanks to the salad at Wheatsville Co-op which has little chunks mixed in with the greens); alcohol either wine or vodka, limit to 2 servings per week, and caffeine--we will deal with that next week. I began to feel like Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones (1 vodka, v.g.)

But you know what by Day 3 I felt lighter. Day 4 I hopped on the scale and had lost two pounds. I haven't missed not having meat, cheese or butter. I did have mozarella on a squash/mozarella sandwich at Foodhead on Tuesday but the rest of the week I have been vegan baby.

This blog is a first for me. I've always thought blogs are a tiny bit self-centered and narcisstic but there are a number that I really enjoy reading (Yo's Kitchen Counter, Orangette, Zen Habits) that convinced me to try it myself.

I decided to start a blog to chronicle my effort to become vegan, based on Rip Esselstyn's book The Engine 2 Diet. Esselstyn is a firefighter, a triathlete, an FOL (friend of Lance) and most of all, a convincing motivator. He is also the son and grandson of doctors. He lays out the case for eating a plant-based diet in understandable terms. His book has an easy-going tone--it makes it sound like the simplest thing in the world. He has turned an entire Austin fire station vegan and run his own trial study of the diet.

In truth, I had begun moving toward being a vegetarian lately, just sort of naturally. As this humid, hot spring has progressed I've eaten less and less meat. It just seemed too heavy. Then my good friend Carolyn and I headed to Port Aransas to relax on the beach for a couple of days and she had a copy of The Engine 2 Diet. I picked it up and started reading it and didn't want to put it down. The day we got back from our trip, I ordered my own copy. After reading it all the way through, I was convinced it was right for me to follow Esselstyn's four-week plan. He has such an easy-going approach, it seems doable. And he gives meat eaters a couple of weeks to ease into it if they desire by first cutting out all fats and dairy but allowing some fish and chicken.

So armed with Esselstyn's advice, I'm on my way.