Vegan Day 15: Falafel is a fun word.

Today has been a long, busy day. I was up at 4:45 AM to make it to 5:30 AM boot camp. "There's something different about you lately, like a glow. I don't know what it is!" That's what Damon, the class instructor, told me today. That's a nice thing to hear on an early Monday morning! I smiled and said, "It's the vegan diet!" He just shook his head and chuckled. 

I felt pretty full and satisfied for the first half of my day. I think much of that was because I was so busy at work, I really didn't have time to think about food. I had a banana and a spinach, kale, almond and dried pomegranate salad around 12:30 and that kept me going for quite some time. Around 2:45, I decided to break up one of my black bean burgers into a whole wheat wrap with some salsa. Now, I wasn't feeling all that hungry prior to eating my burrito, but about 10 minutes after I finished eating it I was STARVING! I don't know what the heck happened, but it honestly felt like I hadn't eaten all day. I had to stay late at work to get some things done and left the office around 5:45. Normally I leave at 5:15 and am home by 6. There was a car accident on the way home and I didn't get home until 6:30. By the time I walked in the door, I was ravenous. I couldn't even entertain the idea of cooking dinner for Dan and I until I ate something. So, I ate the last remaining piece of my tofu spinach lasagna that I made on Wednesday. It was a small piece - just enough to hold me over. I can't believe I had to eat something just to be able to cook tonight! Thank goodness that's a rarity. 

So tonight was my first time making falafel. I had falafel once before at Naf Naf Grill in a pita, and I remember it was pretty tasty, so when I found this falafel recipe on Pinterest I decided to try to make it. There are a ton of falafel recipes out there, but this one seemed pretty easy for a first timer. 

What you're looking at here are mashed chick peas, red onion, garlic, and cilantro.

Far too much cilantro.

At this point, I had a feeling I messed these up. Still, I moved forward with the recipe and cooked the in some hot oil.

Here's the final product, which I stuffed into half of a Brownberry pocket thin. These pocket thins are my new favorite thing! I've been putting black bean burger patties in them too. 

Alright, so my review of the falafel stuffed pitas...they were good, but they could have been way better. WAY TOO MUCH CILANTRO.

Photo credit: http://happyorhungry.com/2011/08/30/cilantro-the-recipe-killa/

You did own me, cilantro. I should have used a measuring cup instead of eyeballing the amount. I also forgot to pick up a container of vegan yogurt to put in the pitas, so I planned on putting hummus in the pitas. Well, guess what? I left the hummus in the fridge at work. So again...these were good, but they could have been way better! I will definitely try to make them again and will be sure to use less cilantro and add hummus or yogurt. Dan liked this recipe more than I did.

I also realized tonight that I am going to run out of food within a couple days. I don't know what the heck I was thinking yesterday, but by Wednesday evening I'm going to need at least one extra meal idea to get me through the rest of the week. I'm thinking this stovetop broccoli and white bean lasagna recipe sounds pretty tasty.

Monday 4/15 Food & Exercise Log

5 AM

-Multigrain Cheerios with Almond Breeze unsweetened original almond milk

5:30 AM

-45 minute boot camp

8:15 AM

-Thomas's 100% whole wheat bagel thins with peanut butter and Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

-Coffee with Silk soy vanilla coffee creamer and 1 packet of sugar

I've been meaning to review the Tofutti! Before I started my vegan challenge, I would always have a whole wheat bagel thin with peanut butter and Philadelphia whipped cream cheese. For the first week of my vegan challenge, I stuck to just peanut butter on my bagel. Then I spotted Tofutti at Jewel and decided to give it a try. The first day I had it, I kind of missed my Philly cream cheese. But after day two and day three...I became obsessed! I am absolutely in love with this stuff, and combining it with the peanut butter is heavenly. You really should try things more than once. I wasn't crazy about my almond milk the first time I tried it, and now I can't live without it. Funny how your taste buds change and adapt.

12:20 PM

-1 banana

-Spinach and kale salad with almonds and dried pomegranate and raspberry vinaigrette

2:30 PM

-Black bean burger patty in a whole wheat tortilla with salsa

6:45 PM

-Small slice of tofu spinach lasagna

7:20 PM

-Falafel stuffed pita with spinach

-Sweet potato fries

I normally make homemade sweet potato fries, but I had a $1.50 off coupon for these guys, so I gave them a try. They were fantastic, they turned out nice and crispy.

Last but certainly not least, I want to take a moment to recognize what happened at the Boston Marathon today. I didn't have a chance to read up on what happened until after dinner tonight. I first watched a video of the explosion. I am absolutely appalled and heartbroken to see the photos and read the witness's stories. It is so sad that we cannot go to school or to a movie theater or now to a marathon without fear that something tragic is going to happen. My heart goes out to all affected by this tragedy.