My poor neglected food blog. I keep saying that once I get a light box I will start taking more photos and then I will post more. I have been cooking *a lot*! I even made a new curry variation.
I made some muffins today – the low-fat banana bread muffins from Veganomicon. They are made with molasses and applesauce and they are a delicious use of stinky bananas. I made them for a second time today since they are so convenient for my father to bring to school for lunches, and I omitted the sugar. By accident. Papa Miao has a sweet toof and he will certainly notice the difference, whereas I wouldn’t care if it was only for me. It seems that whenever I make a recipe while listening to an audio book, something goes awry, be it an extra cup of flour or no sugar or who knows what. Hopefully I learned my lesson this time.
But who knew that muffins are so fun! I realized that you can take any bread recipe and put it in a jumbo muffin pan instead and it cuts the baking time down to 20 minutes. Now that I finally have a muffin pan, I will be making them often.
mani floofifying the food
Omitting the sugar could also have been subconsciously deliberate, since I have been lamenting my inability to lose the 10 pounds I gained since moving home and I keep telling myself to stop eating a batch of cookies every two days. I know that would completely solve my problem. When I can go running, cookie-consumption isn’t an issue, mostly because I don’t have the time to sit around eating cookies all evening. But I keep twisting my knee whenever I go out onto the slippery sidewalks. Whatever I tore at the beginning of January keeps getting agitated by my limited activity. Since I can’t run away from cookies, I will just have to rely on what little willpower I have. Can I go for 10 days without refined sugar? I doubt it, but I will try.
Floof in my food 
What is that delicious photo of above your post? It looks a little like this white bean and bacon soup I made for my parents. I realized it would make a good vegan soup as well, so I just switched the chicken broth and bacon for vegetable broth with a drop of Liquid Smoke. It worked great, and nobody noticed the bacon was missing.
Muffins….yum.
The photo is one of my coconut curry variations. just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
I’ve seen liquid smoke listed in recipes but I have never used it. It sounds almost magical, so I assumed that none of the stores here would carry it.
It took a lot of searching here too, but I found it in the spices and baking aisle of our local grocery store. Another store used to place it with the barbecue sauces and ketchup. Since it’s a little bottle, it used to get lost among all those “family size” jugs of red goop.
(I’m not a fan of barbecue or ketchup, though my kids get me to eat it with fries sometimes. It just doesn’t taste like anything to me. Not tomatoes, not even like spaghetti or pizza sauce.)
Mmmm.
Yum!
::sniffs::
They smell fabulous!
Aw, hi Mani!
I have been trying to eat less sugar and it’s working pretty well. I try to find recipes that use another sweetener, not buy a lot of sweet foodz, check the ingredients, and keep fruit and dark chocolate around. One of those two usually helps the sweet toof feel satisfied enough. It takes a little getting used to, so don’t expect those feelings to go away all at once 🙂
And sometimes, the sugar craving means it’s time for moar protein
I need to try harder! My resolution only seems to last until about 7pm, and after that it’s the worst time to eat sugary stuff. Ooof!
I used to eat dark chocolate – just one square was enough to keep me satisfied.
Maybe I should try eating hummus whenever I feel the urge for a cookie.
What time do you eat dinner? Maybe that needs to change…?
Lately I’ve been eating after seven and snacking whenever I feel like it. Ooof. Definitely needs to change. Honestly, I think one of the problems is that I don’t know anyone around here so I’m bored and since I haven’t been running I have too much time on my hands.
Hmmmm…sounds like something resembling a routine might be necessary. Yoga? Maybe throw that in the mix?
Good idea. I need more routine.