Pure Protein

I got my protein powder in the mail already! I ordered it two days ago!

I have only tried the Meal Replacement so far. I'm not sure that the flavor is a favorite. It's very different. The aftertaste reminds me of halva. And if you don't know what halva is, you've come to the wrong place to find out. I have NO idea how to describe it properly. It looks like a hunk of cheese, swirled like a marble cake. Has sort of a grainy texture. Is very dense. Sweet, but not not really. It's just a very odd dessert. If your curious, you can get it in the grocery store. Ours is on the same shelf as the Cheese Whiz. (Ew. Don't even get me started on how nasty that $&!t is!)

Or maybe the aftertaste is like tahini (sesame paste). Which is probably why halva came to mind. Some halva has tahini in it. I used tahini to make vegan cheese once. Once. (Johnny Dangerously fans? Anyone?) Also hummus. Hummus is amazing.

Anyway, I feel it's going to be an acquired taste.

I may order from Prograde next, just to compare flavors. But it might have a similar taste being both are flavored with Stevia, and that can have a bitter or odd sort of aftertaste. It's definitely something I'm used to though because I've substituted stevia for sugar in many things for many years now. I started back when practically nobody knew what stevia was. I couldn't buy it in stores so I had to order it online. Now, it has really caught on, which was a wish of mine back in those days. I used to always complain, "why don't companies start replacing harmful synthetic sugar substitutes with natural stevia in their products???" - just ask my husband, haha. These days, stevia is pretty available.

So that's the skinny on OnlyProtein. I can let you know what I think about it after I've been drinking it regularly.

My routine and a little about vegan cheese

My morning routine is so solid. It's basically set in stone. And I like that.

Every day, the first thing I consume before anything else, is a glass of pure grapefruit juice. I am too lazy to squeeze my own and too cheap to buy a citrus juicer, so I buy the organic stuff with NO ADDED SUGARS or concentrate or any other crap.

Then, I get the kids off to school.

Then, I get my veggies juiced. I get 2 tall glasses of green juice. Usually 1 cucumber, 1 green pepper, spinach or romain hearts, 2 tomatoes, 1-2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery and maybe one other thing, depending on what I have. But those I've listed are staples and always a part of the drink.

Then, I take my supplements, which I've scaled WAY back. What I take now are Prograde Metabolism, Prograde EFA Icon, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Multi-vitamin, BCAAs, glutamine. (but the last three I take later)

Then, I eat my oatmeal with a splash of almond milk. Unsweetened.

Every. Single. Day.

I have had this same routine ever since I bought the juicer. And I'm not the least bit sick of it. It makes me feel good. I have energy to workout. It sticks.

By the way, I tried a couple of vegan "cheese" recipes. This is how I know I'll never be able to be vegan. I just love cheese way to much. And meat. And eggs. Dang! I know it's like uber healthy for you but it's just never going to happen for me. I'm not passionate enough about it.

So here was sauce number one:

Looks chunky. And it was. It just had a weird texture. It called for ground oats, which I didn't understand the need, mostly because it made it chunky. And it called for Tahini. If you don't know what that is, it's sesame paste. But it made the cheese taste sort of like peanut butter. I just wasn't impressed with this recipe. Although after it had cooled down, it sort of took on a consistency of Velveeta, and I decided to save it and try it again today. Cold.

Sauce number two:

Much creamier. This was taken from a vegan alfredo recipe, and it had a very alfredo texture. It was pretty good. I didn't find any vegan parmesean like the recipe called for but I'm sure if I had, it would have tasted even better. This is the sauce I chose to put on my pizza last night. My pizza was good but everyone else's pizza looked SO MUCH BETTER, with real cheese.

I saved this sauce too. I figured I could pour it over some brown rice noodles or something one of these days.

Oh, and this is the nutritional yeast I was talking about that is supposed to give the "cheese" it's cheesy flavor. There is a recipe for cheese sauce right on the package.

So that was my vegan cheese experience. I like the slices they sell in the store better.

In the end, I have discovered that being a vegan is just not for me. At least not until it might become necessary in old age, for health reasons.

For now, I'm happy to stick with healthy eating as usual, including meat and dairy.