Chocolate Cranberry Bread

~1/4 cup of warm water
~1 package active dry yeast
~3 teaspoons granulated sugar
~3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
~1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
~1/3 cup packed brown sugar
~1 3/4 teaspoons salt
~1 cup freshly brewed coffee, cooled until warm (105 to 115
degrees F)
~4 tablespoons butter or margarine,softened
~1 large egg, separated
~3/4 cup dried cranberries
~3 squares (3 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
~1 teaspoon water

1.In cup, combine warm water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar; stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2.Meanwhile, in large bowl, combine 3 cups flour, cocoa, brown sugar, and salt.
3.With wooden spoon, stir warm coffee, butter, egg yolk (cover egg white and set aside in refrigerator), and yeast mixture into flour mixture. In bowl, with floured hands, knead several times to combine well.
4.Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, working in enough of remaining 1/2 cup flour just to keep dough from sticking. Knead in cherries and chocolate.
5.Shape dough into ball; place in greased large bowl, turning dough to grease top. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees F) until doubled in volume, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
6.Punch down dough.Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and cut in half; cover dough and let rest 15 minutes for easier shaping.
7.Shape each dough half into 5-inch ball. Using the sides of your hands, tuck sides of dough under to meet in center. Rotate and repeat to form taut ball. Place balls, 3-inches apart, in opposite corners of ungreased large cookie sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
8.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
9.In cup, beat reserved egg white with water; use to brush tops of loaves. Sprinkle loaves with remaining 2 teaspoons granulated sugar. With serrated knife or single-edge razor blade, cut shallow X in top of each loaf.
10.Bake until loaves are crusty, about 20 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

I Heart Bob

I started this morning off with a Jasmine Green Tea instead of coffee. I work in a tea room, so I have access to the best loose leaf teas available. And loose leaf is definitely the way to go. Tea bags from the grocery store are basically just the dust left over after the good tea is packaged!

Bob's Red Mill. I love their products. For breakfast I'm having his 10 Grain Hot Cereal. Ingredients: Whole grain wheat, corn, rye, triticale, oats, soy, millet, barley, rice, oat bran, and flaxseed.

Only 140 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving, BUT it has 5 grams of fiber! That's 20% of your daily amount (according to them). I personally like to consume twice the recommended amount of fiber. Oh, and it has 8% iron, too. I like to add a bit of maple syrup and some Earth Balance to sweeten it up a bit.

Topped off with some freshly juiced orange and carrot juice. I always add some fresh ginger to *ZING* it up a bit!

SOHL Challenge

SOHL: Sisterhood of Healthy Living. A group of mamas on my favorite forum APU formed SOHL as a support system for living healthy. We talk about our goals, whether they be food, weight loss, or just lifestyle in general. Whit came up with the idea to keep a food journal for 21 days (rest of July) because of some research proving that keeping a journal helps make better food choices. So, coinciding with the birth of my journey into veganism, this blog is going to also be my food journal!

Right now-at 8:17 am I am drinking a cup of coffee with a splash of homemade almond milk. I will be referencing Sara's blog, Happy Foody, quite a bit since she has awesome recipes and ideas.
I am also having a spinach/pb/banana smoothie with about a tablespoon of flaxseed for breakfast.
Green smoothies are my favorite things. You can get up to 11 or so servings of fruits and leafy greens a day by making a blender full of yummy green smoothies. This one has about 2 cups of spinach, two bananas, 2 T of fresh pb, and flaxseed. So, about 4 servings right there. And the kids go crazy for them! I've been drinking them off and on for about a year and a half (every since I started growing my own greens in the garden) and the kids finally decided to taste them this year. If you put enough fruit in them, you can't taste the "green" at all! And they love to freak people out with them! *hee*


I am going to take lunch today because, working in a fancy tea room leads to horrible temptations. I made a yummy Pad Thai last night (see picture above!), so I will be having left overs. I'll post the recipe later.

Tonight, I am making....hmm...I had an idea and lost it....*looking it up real quick-like*

Ah, Tuscan Vegetable Ragout....yum!

Well, I'm off to work-I'll be back later to post the rest of the day!

I'm back! So, at work I had 1 slice of pineapple, about 5-6 baby carrots and 5 french fries in addition to my Pad Thai.

So, I decided that instead of cooking again tonight, since I have a TON of Pad Thai left, we will be eating that for dinner and I'll cook for lunch tomorrow.

Final summary of food journal:

• coffee with almond milk-5.7 calories
• Green smoothie-384.8 calories
• Pad Thai-665 calories
• Carrots and pineapples-15 calories
• 5 French Fries-29 calories
• Pad Thai (again)-665 calories
• Grand Total-1764 calories