Lentil-Mushroom Burgers - à la Scott Jurek

If you don't have an excellent vegan burger in your repertoire yet, give this puppy a shot.  I had long held the erroneous belief that a structurally sound burger couldn't be made without the magical binding  properties of eggs.  How happy I am to have been wrong!  (Just this once)  These burgers are the bomb.  Flavourful, hearty, packed with protein and fiber, you'll never want to eat a Boca Burger again.  

This recipe comes from Scott Jurek's wonderful book, Eat and Run.  If you haven't heard of him yet, Scott Jurek is an ultramarathon runner who is 100% powered by plants.  He rocks my face off.  The man is a vegan who runs races of 100 miles and more, through deserts, through mountains, over multiple days.  He's an animal, who chooses not eat animals  This book is an account of his life, interspersed with lots of great recipes.  For me, he's an inspiration and a welcome role-model in a crazy world.  I can't recommend his book highly enough.  

Sugar-Free Week Wrap-Up + A Few Dinner Ideas

Well everyone, the sugar-free week challenge is over.  I don't know about you, but I learned that cutting out the usual sugary junk from my diet isn't actually that hard.  I did just fine not having tons of Dyno Bars, chocolate bars, or after-dinner ice-cream.  I cut out pasta, which I hadn't originally intended to do.  I even survived the week without peanut-butter brownies from Le Cagibi.  (If you're in Montreal and you don't know what I'm talking about, go to there and get them in you ASAP.)

What I also learned is that I have a hard time not substituting.  The first two days I went nuts on potato and corn chips, something I rarely do, and the third and fourth day I may have taken a nap in a pile of stevia-sweetened brown rice pudding.  I caved and ate bagels and baguette on day 6, observing that my love of bread bears close resemblance to a crack smoker's love of the rock, as I pillaged the cupboards eating any and all sad bread remnants in my path.  A bread addict in her flour bin is an unlovely creature.

Creamy Lemon Pudding and Day 6 Sugar-Free

Hello people!  As we near the end of our Sugar-Free Week, I'd like to take the opportunity to share with you my current favourite cold, creamy, sweet treat.  It's as simple as lemon juice, stevia, silken tofu and chia.  

If you're new to using silken tofu, I recommend going for Mori-Nu tofu, commonly touted as the go-to dessert tofu for its absence of aftertaste.   It's the stuff in the little rectangular box at the grocery store that may or may not be refrigerated.  It's widely available, fairly cheap and non-GMO.  Go for the Firm variety, Lite Firm if you want a lower fat version.

Day 4 Sugar-Free and My Tiny Kitchen

Hey there people!  Depending on when you're reading this, you're probably either wrapping up day four or getting started on day five of sugar-free week.  Some of you are reporting excellent results (over on my FB page) and I'm so happy to hear it!

Personally, I can't say I've been an angel these last few days.  I've had entirely too many chips, and I must admit to eating (gasp!) a Clif Bar today at work when I was "under prepared."  (Under prepared, my foot.  It was a six hour shift and I'd eaten a huge salad for lunch.  I surely would have starved to death without it.)  And while I haven't been having peanut butter + bread + syrup-of-choice party, I have been having a bit of a peanut butter + rice cake + banana party.  I know, I know:  shameful.   You should scowl and point and do that weird shame-shame thing at me where you brush one index with your other index finger while looking at me disapprovingly.

Cilantro Sunflower Seed Pesto (And day 3 of sugar-free week!)

Hello people.  It's a rainy Wednesday in Montreal, perfect for staying inside, reading a book, cleaning my filthy apartment, and saying 'hello' to you.  How's everyone doing?  For those of you who haven't been following along, today is day three of a individually-tailored sugar-free week for people who are tired of having their arses handed to them by sugar addiction.  Feel free to jump on the bus with us!  No matter if you're starting at a different time.

one, two, three...GO!

Alright people, as promised - a week of good, clean, sugar-free livin'. (I've been perfecting a lemon pie recipe over the last three weeks, but promise not to post it until sugar-austerity week is over.)  I'm going to keep this short and sweet as I'm low on time and in need of a bath after yesterday's absurd Spartan race at Morin Heights.  It was good, dirty fun:  glad I did it, won't be needing to do it again.

For a wee bit of background on this week's sugar cleanse, take a look here.

Now here's what I propose:

1.  Tailor this cleanse to meet your needs.

Let this be a chance to deal with something that's been bugging you.  Perhaps you have jam on toast every day for breakfast and it doesn't trigger you, but you can't make it through the afternoon without going apeshit on a box of Thin Mints.  You tell yourself you're not going to eat Thin Mints today, but 4 o'clock rolls around and you're calling the girl scout down the street.  You might feel like keeping your breakfast routine, but cutting out the Thin Mints.

Sugar Schmugar - Who wants to take a break?

Hey there folks!

Sugar seems to have me by the ovaries these days and I'm thinking about taking a break.  Truth be told, I'm always thinking about taking a break, but I have a damn hard time doing it.  I'll eat like a champ for the whole day - smoothie for breakfast, big salad for lunch, (a few coffees here and there) some kind of something special for dinner.  If I would just quit there I'd be golden.  I'd go to bed as pleased as Punch, smiling sweetly, all ready to sleep peacefully and wake up feeling refreshed.

Instead, 8, 9, or 10 o'clock rolls around and I get overcome by an insane desire to consume everything sugar within a 20 yard radius.  If I don't have anything sweet readily available, by god I'll whip something up.  It could be a peanut butter and honey on a piece of bread, followed by peanut butter and honey on another piece of bread, followed by peanut butter and chocolate chips on another piece of bread, followed by coco krispies.  (How did THOSE get in here?)  The problem is that I don't just do a bowl of ice-cream or a piece (or three) of dark chocolate.  I'll do 1000 calories of god-knows-what right before bed.  Then I either sleep like crap or sleep like the dead and wake up late feeling groggy, fuzzy, inflamed and filled with regret.

The funny part is that I also wake up filled with conviction to change - Not going to do THAT again!  That was the last time.  Today I'll leave out the sugar, FOR REAL.

So I go about my day, doing quite well, and then...return to paragraph two - the cycle continues.  This, friends, I have come to understand as the cycle of addiction, and god knows sugar is addictive.  Recent talks with friends have, once again, assured me that I'm not alone in this.  This is a struggle that a lot of people are dealing with on the daily.