Liszak, Party of 3

It's been a while since I've written a blog post. Five years, but who's counting. I'd completely forgotten this blog even existed until about 30 minutes ago, but I had been recently toying with the idea of starting a blog, so here we are. Honestly, my life has changed so dramatically since the last time I wrote anything in here that I'm not even sure where to start. The last time I was here I'd recently given birth to a beautiful baby girl. That baby girl turned 5 a couple of months ago. It's so hard to wrap my head around it. Especially because she's so smart. She handles conversations with adults like a pro. And don't even think about taking her to a museum and have this idea that you're going to teach her tons of awesome new things...she already knows. Yep...I made that mistake. I could probably thank PBS and the fact that she catches on to things quickly, for that. The title I gave this blog was "Liszak, party of 3." Since origi

I hit my one month mark last Monday.  I've been meaning to post a final "My Vegan Experience" post, but hey, life happens.  So here it is, only a week late.  Through eating this way, I've definitely felt like I had more energy and so does Michael.  Michael especially because he always felt tired before switching his eating.  I ended up losing a total of 8 pounds....I definitely won't complain about that! Through this I've learned that if you tell someone you're vegan it comes with a stigma (although it did stop this guy who was selling steaks from harassing me).  Typically, I'd get a weird look and probably hear one of a few questions.  One of the more popular questions being: "Where do you get your nutrients?" and typically what people are really wanting to know when they ask this question is "where do you get your protein?"  So what I decided to do in this blog post is respond to questions or comments Michael and I received the

It's been a little over half way and I'm not tired of it (surprisingly). The only thing I have really been craving is a milkshake and I got the vegan version of that yesterday.  It was pretty steep in price, though. A whopping $8!  However, this place puts all of the ingredients on it's menu so I'm sure I can make it at home for much cheaper.  Even though the "milkshake," or as the restaurant refers to it "smoothie" was a little pricey, I still HIGHLY recommend Luna's Living Kitchen if you're in the Charlotte area. Also, after 2.5 weeks of eating vegan, I've lost a little over 6 pounds and I feel great.  I absolutely hate being hungry so I love that I can eat any time and anything I want (as long as it's vegan) and I don't have to worry about how I'm going to work it off the next day. Every few days I try to make a new vegan dish.  This week I made vegan cornbread.  My husband let me know it was the best cornbread he

It's been 1 week without meat and all I want is a milkshake.  So being that I am who I am, I will still attempt to get my "milk" shake and not break any vegan "rules." Since I've been wanting one for a few days I decided to google vegan ice cream recipes.  To my surprise there were TONS.  Ice cream flavors such as cake batter and peanut butter chocolate chunk.  I can make those and add in some coconut milk or soy milk and VOILA milkshake. Honestly, meat does not even sound appetizing to me.  But meat hasn't sounded appetizing since I watched that documentary.  Now, I would very much like some cheese or yogurt, but I am surviving. I absolutely love the new things that I am trying, though.  I've made black bean hummus and black bean burgers.  Both are ABSOLUTELY amazing.  I love that my refrigerator looks extremely healthy and I can grab any snack that I want and not make a "bad" food decision. On a side note, tonight is our nigh

Over a month ago I committed to making cake pops for a friend's gender reveal.  Well now that I've changed my eating habits, that means cake pops are out of the question, right? WRONG! It took a few google searches and a little bit of planning, but I actually did it. I made vegan cake pops and surprisingly...they were REALLY good. In case you're interested in making vegan cake pops yourself, this is how I did it: Ingredients: 1 cup white sugar 1 small avocado 1/2 cup apple sauce 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup vanilla rice milk Combine all ingredients and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  I use a cake pop pan for this. And then for the "icing" coating.  I bought "allergy-free" semi sweet chocolate and combined coconut oil to help it melt and then dipped the cake pops in that mixture. End result: ABSOLUTE DELICIOUSNESS! Photos by Kristin Marie Dustman Photograph

Day 1 and I have my first issue.  What's for breakfast? "Typical" breakfast foods are all animal products.  No sausage, eggs, milk, pancakes, etc.  I could do peanut butter toast, but that'll get old after a while. Time to get creative! So I did some research (what would I do without google) and apparently there are some interesting, vegan-friendly ways to make toast. Option One: Toast, with olive oil, crushed red peppers and garlic salt. Hopefully Michael doesn't mind my breath after that one. Option Two: French toast, with tofu and soy milk....not a huge fan of tofu Option Three: Toast with hummus or guacamole Looks like an open mind is needed for this journey. And as promised, starting weight: 170.0 (no judgement, I did have a baby recently and have had to have a sedentary lifestyle due to complications) Disclaimer: Due to nursing, I have decided to drink one glass of soy milk in the mornings to keep up my calcium and vitamin D.