Fake Cheesecake Yummy Yums

In the old days (2 years ago?) I would print out recipes and use cookbooks.  Then, I would make notes on my recipes so I'd know what I wanted to do differently next time.

Now, I do almost all of my cooking from Pinterest.  And, I haven't figured out a way to make notes on pinterest recipes.  So, my solution is to write a blog post and then pin this post.  If anyone has a better technological solution, I'd be happy to hear it!

The recipe below is borrowed almost entirely from here with a few of my modifications.  The original recipe called this a cheesecake, but I think that's a bit of a stretch.  They are good, but not like cheesecake.  

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Vegan (or almost vegan), Gluten Free, No-Bake

Serves: 12

INGREDIENTS

• Crust:
• 1 cup pitted dates (soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then drained)
• 1 cup raw walnuts, almonds, hemp seeds in some combination
• Filling:
• 1.5 cups raw cashews, soaked in water 4-6 hours then drained
• 1 large lemon, juiced (scant 1/4 cup)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted.  (I think the combination of the coconut milk and the coconut oil made the flavor too cocunut-like, so I think I would eliminate the coconut oil next time.)
• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup honey or agave nectar (Scott feels like honey is healthier than agave nectar.)
• Optional Flavor Add-Ins:
• 2 Tbsp salted natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup wild blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• Any other berry

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Start this recipe the night before you want to eat it.  The cashews need to soak for 4+ hours.  And, once it is all assembled, the yummy yums need to sit in the freezer for 6+ hours.  
2. Put crust ingrediants in a food processor and blend until a dough forms - it should stick together when you squeeze a bit between your fingers. If it's too dry, add a few more dates. If too wet, add more almond or walnut meal. Add a pinch of salt.
3. Scoop the crust into the muffin cups in heaping 1 Tbsp amounts and press in firmly with fingers. Set in freezer.
4. Add all filling ingredients to a blender or food processor and mix until very smooth. I did half a recipe at a time.  In the first half, I did the peanut butter add-in and in the 2nd half, I did frozen blueberries.  
5. Add your add-ins.
6. Divide filling evenly among the muffin tins. Freeze until hard - about 6+ hours.  Do not skimp on time.  After 4 hours, my peanut putter version was not completely set, but my blueberry version was.  The following morning, they were both fabulously set.  
7. Once set, get them out by loosening them with a butter knife. 
8. Transfer the uneaten treats to a pyrex and keep that in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.  

So, What Does a Vegetarian Wheat Free Diet Look Like?

Once the horrible wheat detox week finished, being vegetarian and wheat free is actually quite easy.  One of the main things that I've noticed is that my appetite has decreased dramatically.  All these years that I've been eating wheat, it seems like it has been acting as a stimulant.  The more wheat I ate, the more I wanted and the more weight I gained.  

In these 3 weeks that I've been wheat free, I eat less.  So, the first question is what do I eat?

Breakfast.  That's easy since I didn't usually have any wheat for breakfast even in my wheat eating days (unless we went out to breakfast).  So, at home, I normally eat a smoothie or yogurt with fruit and nuts.  If we go out, which isn't often, I'll eat an egg or tofu scramble with veggies and/or cheese (hold the toast).

Lunch.  If I'm at work, I'll eat a soup, or salad, or on a fancy day, I'll have a brown rice or a quinoa bowl with veggies.  If I'm at home, I'll eat an egg scramble or some dinner leftovers.

Dinner.  I generally eat veggies and tofu in some combination.

The second question is am I losing weight?

Not yet, but I have some excuses.  First, my wight does seem to be shifting around for the better.  My tummy looks flatter; my pants are loose.  My second excuse is that I haven't been exercising.  Dealing with pneumonia, the wheat detox, the recovery from pneumonia, and now the BART strike which has doubled my usual 2 hour daily commute, I'm only now getting back to working out. 

Pneumonia

It's been a rough few weeks.  After the horrible part wheat detox was nearly over and I was no longer acting like an addict searching for my next hit, I started coughing.  I did some googling and came to the conclusion that coughing could be a detox response, so I thought this was normal.  Then, my breathing started to get really labored and shallow.  On Saturday, I couldn't get enough oxygen in, so I went to urgent care.

End result, I had pneumonia and was having an asthma attack (which I had never had before.)

Now I'm on antibiotics, and therefore probiotics so I get back some of the good bacteria in my system; an inhaler; sudafed and mucinex.

Cough cough.  Wheeze wheeze.

Wheat Detox

I've been between 10 and 40 pounds overweight for probably 10 years.  Before that, I like to think that I was curvy in a sexy way.  Nice full boobs, a small waist and nice sized hips.  Proportional and sturdy.  Healthy and curvy.  Snuggle-able.

I'm not sure when the moment was, but there was a point when I went from sexy curvy to fat curvy and I don't like it.

Some people, when talking about their struggles with their weight, say that they "tried everything."  Grapefruit diets.  Fat farms.  Boot camps.  I honestly didn't.

For the past 25 years, I've been doing basically the same thing.  It just used to work better for me.  I'm a vegetarian, and I work out.  For me, being a vegetarian means that I don't eat meat, chicken or fish.  I do eat eggs and cheese.   I became a vegetarian for purely ethical reasons - nothing to do with health.  I do believe that there are health benefits to being a vegetarian.  I don't ingest all the toxins that we give to animals.  However, in our society, I think the negative part about being a vegetarian is that you are relegated to social situations filled with carbs and no protein.

Regarding my exercise, there have been times in the past 25 years when I worked out a bit more than others, but I've generally been an active person and I enjoy working out.  My recent workout routine has been to power walk 2-3 times per week and do Dailey Method 2-3 times per week.  I like this routine a lot.  The walking clears my head and makes me sweat on the hills, and Dailey Method makes me feel strong.  In the Dailey Method, I'm surrounded by beautiful women who have wonderful long limbs, strong, but feminine, muscles, and a nicely curved butt.  Even though I like this routine emotionally, it's not working on my body.  I'm still the fat girl in my Dailey Method classes. 

I am ready to admit that this pattern that I've done for 25 years is no longer working.  I want to be healthy for myself.  I want to be healthy for my daughter.  I want to feel comfortable when my husband takes a picture of my daughter and I together.  I'm sure I will always be "flawed" in various ways, but I'd like to get to a healthy weight.

To be of "normal weight" according to BMI calculators, I need to be 140 pounds (and that's only if I enhance my height a bit).  Honestly, this feels quite unmanageable, so I'm going to ignore this number and just aim to lose weight.  I'm not sure I have a realistic goal weight at this point. 

Somehow, I found out about Wheat Belly and requested both the original book and the cookbook from my local public library.  The cookbook became available first, so I read it.  I went wheat free on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013.

Detoxing from wheat is no joke; it sucks.  Here's what my journey has looked like so far.

Day 1 - I cried at a work meeting.  This is not my norm.
Day 2 - I felt like I had a horrible flu.  I was freezing in bed at 6:30pm with the heater on.  My daughter brought me one of her stuffed animals to snuggle so I could feel better.  I peed about every hour throughout the night. 
Day 3 - Flu like symptoms persisted.  Foggy head.  Huge headaches.  Chills when it was warm.  Stinky sweat.  Peeing a lot.  Horrible night of sleep. 
Day 4 - Still had headaches and a bit woozy.  Sometimes it feels like I just swallowed something huge without chewing (when I hadn't) and it was fighting its way down my digestive track.  I have a dry cough.  But things were finally beginning to feel better - I was beginning to feel human.
Day 5 - We went to Ikea which always makes me feel a bit sick and overwhelmed.  I felt woozy, but way less.  I ate meals and snacks, but my appetite has decreased substantially.  I no longer have chills or sweats.  I seem to have more energy.
Day 6 -  My main negative symptoms right now are a dry cough and sometimes the weird lump in my throat/chest thing. 

My husband and I talked, on day 5, about this new eating plan.  He's supportive of it.  We agreed that I would try it for 30 days and then evaluate how it's going.  He asked how I will evaluate success.  I said that this will be successful for me if: (1) All these negative flu like withdrawal symptoms are gone.  And, (2) I'm losing weight.