For the fourth I went to a friends house who was having a vegan potluck for the 4th. That made it really easy to get through a holiday with no problems!

I took a lasagne from the Engine 2 Diet (E2) book. It took a long time to prepare - over an hour, but it smelled great when it was cooking, and everyone really liked it. Here is the recipe:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianlasagnarecipes/r/engine2lasagna.htm

I used only one box of lasagna noodles instead of two, and had about two cups more filling than would fit in my 13x9 pan, so you could cut down a bit on all of the chopped ingredients (onion, corn, broccoli, carrots, red pepper, tofu) and skip the second box of noodles.

Everyone took some home with them, so you know they really liked it too!

I tried the meatloaf last night. It was probably an "8" out of 10. I'm still not used to the idea of "veggie crumbles" as a protein. I also fixed collards from a Dean Ornish book - "Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish" http://tinyurl.com/82fxy7x The collards were a "10" out of 10!

Tomorrow will be a week, but I've lost 4 lbs this week. That hasn't happend in a couple of years. I'm sure it's sodium reduction, but it feels great.

Vegan Pizza Dough

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast (0.25 oz.)
1 c warm water
2 c whole wheat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill WW Pastry Flour)
1/2 c wheat germ
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp agave nectar

Directions:
Place warm water in small bowl. Add yeast. Allow yeast to dissolve and set aside until mixture becomes creamy (about 10 min).
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, wheat germ and salt. Scoop a well in the middle of the mix and add agave and yeast mixture. Stir until ingredients are well combined. Cover mixture with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place and allow to raise for about 5-10 min. *At this point I drizzle with grapeseed oil, but not necessary*
Roll dough on floured pizza pan. Using a fork, poke a few holes in dough
Bake at 350 degrees until desired crispiness.

Sounds good an no more complex than anything else I've made this week!

When you use it, do you bake it a bit before adding toppings to make it toasty on the bottom? The first one I made stayed doughy because of all the liquid cooking out of the veggies.

I obviously stopped counting calories!

I've stayed on a plant-based diet this entire year, got off of my blood pressure and cholesterol meds. When I checked yesterday my blood pressure was 120/85. I haven't had a cholesterol check in a while, but it went down after 30 days on the Engine2. I don't necessarily follow that exact plan... but pretty close.

Started juicing and getting more greens that way about six months ago. I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and thought I'd never do a juice "reboot", but over the summer I got depressed and started gaining a few pounds back after a full year of slow steady loss. I decided to try nothing but juice to see what that would be like.

I didn't think I'd have any "withdrawal" since I hardly eat processed foods - but I did drink a large volume of decaf coffee, which still has some caffeine. I had headaches for a few days and felt tired, but after that, I was AMAZED that the juice really supported my body. It's clearly not a "fast" in that you're getting about 1200 calories a day in juice, but it's all fruit/veggie, and I haven't had any problems with daily life. What I thought I might be able to do for 3 days, I've done for 24. This is my last day as I'm going on a 90 mile bike ride with some friends this weekend and want to be back to my normal plant-based diet.

When I started Engine 2, I didn't understand the oil restrictions, but over the year, I've read more and learned more and now realize our culture is not only obsessed with anima based protein, but oil as well. I now view my high blood pressure as a vascular disease that effects every blood vessel in my body, and that reducing oil as much as possible is the best thing I can do to help heal the lining of those blood vessels, which will in tern prevent heart attack and stroke.

I take B12 every week, but no other supplement, no meds. I'm at my lowest weight in a long time... I have 5 years of tracking data, and I'm at my lowest point in my data set. This path changed my life.

Oh, and although I've lost weight over the past year just on the plant-based diet (about 10 lbs, of which I gained back 5), today I'm down 19.2 lbs from the day I started Engine 2.

I'll be back to logging food for a while as I transition back from juicing. :-)