Chickpea Cutlets

                    Chickpea Cutlets
                Makes 8 cutlets (280 calories each)

I got this recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook. I have been making this recipe for the past few weeks. My boyfriend says it reminds him (texture wise) of chicken fried steak. I think it has a field roast taste. Very savory mmmmmmm! I have only baked them but I'm sure they taste just as good sauteed in olive oil. I serve mine with steamed asparagus and smothered the cutlet in mushroom gravy. Let the cutlets rest about 10 minutes before eating.

 

Chickpeas mashed with olive oil.

After 3 minutes of kneading.

shaped into a cutlet shape.

What they look like after being baked.

All done with gravy!

1 16 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/2 cup vegetable broth or water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
Olive oil for pan frying
Optional ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, pressed or grated with a Microplane grater
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest ( the zest of 1 lemon)


1. In a mixing bowl, mash the chickpeas together with the oil until no whole chickpeas are left. Use an avocado masher or a strong fork. Mash until no whole chickpeas are left.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and knead together for about 3 minutes, until strings of gluten have formed.

3. If baking: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. then put the cutlets on a lightly oiled baking sheet and spray or based their top side with oil.  Directions call to bake 20 min the first side, then flip and bake 8 min.

If pan frying:  Preheat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.  Add olive oil and cook the cutlets 6-7 min per side, adding oil if necessary when you flip them.

Update on my total inches lost and my Sunday wiegh in results.

I haven't updated my inches lost since my birthday post (January). I usually try measure more often because I often see better results that way, even when the scale says I've gained weight. Here are my inches lost since January 2011.

Total inches lost

 Before               Now                       Lost
Arms: 15''            Arms: 12''            (-3")
Bust: 48''             Bust: 36"             (-12")
Waist: 52''          Waist: 38"            (-14")
Hips: 51''             Hips: 39"             (-12")

My arms are getting pretty toned lately. The extra skin is getting filled out with muscle so they don't look as bad. All that weight lifting is paying off. My stomach on the other hand is still pretty tragic =(. My belly button crease is like 4 inches long (I'm serious I measured). But I'm just gonna keep working hard at the gym and I'm sure that will help over time.


As for my weigh in today. The scale said 162.6. A 1.8 lb loss from last week. That's exactly where I was 2 weeks ago. I'm a little surprised by that number because I only went to the gym a couple of times and I have been eating out WAY too much.

I'm gonna try to work out hard this upcoming week because it will be my last week to go to my Golds Gym since I am moving next weekend. I will miss that gym a lot since that is where I lost all my weight. I especially am going to miss the movie theater room. The new gym I am going to is pretty basic and doesn't have one. However, it does have built in fans for each cardio machine! The one thing I hated at the Golds Gym was fighting over who would get to use the only three fans in the whole three story building!

Purging my old clothes for some trades @ Crossroads Trading Co.

My 1st stop today was Crossroads Trading  Co. I let them peruse my mondo bag of old clothes. About 30 minutes later I was called to the desk. I was told that they would be selling 4 items out of my bag. 1 purple old navy scarf, 1 H&M Jacket, 1 Treve Sweater, and I think the last Item was a top of some sort. I could choose between $17 cash or $23 dollars in store credit. I chose store credit and purchased these for trade.

Top and Dress form Crossroads

Then I went to Buffalo Exchange to try to sell the rest but they said my clothes were not what they were looking for. I thought for sure that they would have taken my flats and Roxy dress at least but no. So my last stop of the day was Goodwill. At least I got a couple items out of the whole Adventure. Not bad for stuff that I was never going to wear again anyway but now my closet is freaking empty. My boyfriend now has way more clothes than me!

Here is a pic of me in the top. It's a pretty frivolous purchase but it's just plain awesome!

Picture Updates!

I figured that I haven't put any updates up in a while of my progress. Since I look spiffy today I took these pics.

Medium clothes (164.4 lbs)

Today I am going to the University District to see if I can sell my used clothes that don't fit to Crossroads or Buffalo Exchange. For whatever they sell of yours they give you either 30% cash or 50% store credit upfront. I might do the store credit if these stores have anything I like...if not I will just take the cash.

 Wish me luck! I need new clothes bad!

Oh Oreo. Why must you taste so good?

This week I gained 1.8 lbs. I am now 164.4. I did get in 4 pretty good work outs though.

My Activity Log
 See March 17th? That is my Ideal workout to do 6 days a week.

 However, I know that I ate out too much and went over my calories by a lot.

*Note to self never have birthday cake flavored Oreo's in the house again. They are so good. I just could not control myself!

At least I did not eat the whole package in 1 sitting. ( I actually did that the day before my diet). Now lets just see if I can work out 6 days next week and stay away from those cookies.

1 year lease in the U-District and recent eats.

I have been trying to post more on Sundays (weigh in day). This Sunday I just didn't have time because my boyfriend and I have been trying to find a new place to live. We have been looking in Chinatown (international district and University District. The first places we checked out in Chinatown were SO TINY. Only 140 square feet. Pretty much enough room to put a bed and that's it! It is a reality check for sure when you realize that you can barely afford a place like that. Those "efficiency studios" were running for $418 not including utilities. When I walked in the studio I felt like one of those animals in those animal cruelty videos where they can't even turn around! Good news is that we found a decent sized studio in the U-District for $695 including utilities (that's really cutting it close money wise for us). It was recently painted and has new carpet. My boyfriend and I signed a 1 year lease today. I can't wait to move in. I will be close to my fav vegan grocery store and vegan friendly eateries. Its like vegan central over there man!

I found a new gym called Experience Fitness. The only downfall is that I will be tempted with Citra Frozen Yogurt right underneath the gym everyday. They have Vegan Frozen Yogurt. Todd and I may have gone there today for dessert =).

I ordered the small.

Soy Frozen Yogurt. Left--Mochi with blackberries. Right-Pineapple with coconut.

Mine was the Mochi Blackberry. With toppings the 6 oz. is only 224 calories. Without toppings only 98 calories. So creamy and delicious!

When we arrived home I made Todd some Chickpea Cutlets (from Veganomicon).

It turned out so savory and good! Not that hard to prepare either. The mushroom gravy was the instant kind from an envelope. Next time I want to make home made mushroom gravy though. I will post the recipe for the cutlets soon!
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P.s. ---- Last weigh in was incredible! Somehow I lost 5.8 lbs in one week. I stuck to my 1300 calories but only went to the gym 4 times. 162.6! 95.4 lbs lost! Lets hope I can say 100 lbs lost soon. I have gone over my calories a bit this week and haven't worked out as much as I wanted so we will see.

Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread

         Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread
                   Makes 12 slices (164 calories per slice)

My co-worker gave me 3 very ripe bananas last week. He suggested that I make banana bread. I have never made banana bread before. Mainly because ripe bananas don't last very long around my boyfriend and I (maybe I need a special banana hiding place). Google to the rescue! I found this recipe on Post Punk Kitchen. Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a genius and her recipes have never failed me. I loved that half of the batter in this recipe has cocoa powder and is low fat. It is pretty fun to make the swirl design in the pan! This bread tastes so good! Compared to 1 slice of Starbucks banana nut loaf (490 calories and 19g of fat) this is just a no brainer.

1 cup mashed very ripe banana (3 regular sized bananas)
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup almond milk (or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water, divided

1. Prepare boiling water, no need to measure yet. Also, preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Mash the banana in a large mixing bowl until relatively smooth. It should take 3 average sized ones, but spoon the mashed ‘nanas into a measuring cup to make sure, then return to the mixing bowl. Beat in the sugar, canola oil, milk and vanilla.

3. Now add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently mix just to incorporate. It’s okay if there is some flour still visible, just be careful not to over mix at this point.

4. Scoop one cup of the batter up and transfer it to a separate mixing bowl. Now, in a small cup mix the cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons boiling water and stir vigorously with a fork until the chocolate is dissolved. Add this chocolate mixture to the one cup of banana and mix until the chocolate is thoroughly smooth and incorporated.

5. Now back to the original plain banana batter; add 3 tablespoons of boiling water and mix the batter just until relatively smooth.

6. Here comes the fun part, it’s time to marble! Lightly grease an 8×4 loaf pan. Scoop alternate 1/2 cupfuls of chocolate/banana batter into the loaf pan. Nothing has to be precise here, in fact, the more random, the better. Once all of the batter is in, take a butter knife and swirl it through the batter in circular directions for about 10 seconds.

7. Bake for 55 minutes. Use a butter knife to test for doneness. Let cool and enjoy!

Nutrition Info: I found the nutriotion info by using the meal feature on my fav website caloriecount.com