Carrie: Day 29 - Gnocchi it to me!

First, let me start off by saying HOLY BLOATING, BATMAN! Seriously, be careful when you ease back in to animal products because today I was so bloated I felt like I was going to float away. Wow, did my body forget how to handle that stuff. If I could go back, I think I would go one product at a time - i.e. eggs one day, a little milk the next, and so on. It seems the combination of a few different items I had completely detoxed from was too much, particularly in combination with the above average amount of alcohol. Bad idea! Needless to say, I'm thinking about continuing eating vegan a few days longer since I feel like poo now.

That said, I did end up making gnocchi tonight. I like to make mine with extra lemon juice to give it some zing, but I'm lazy and don't like to knead the dough with my hands like you're supposed to - electric mixer, baby! - which is why I have to use extra flour to roll out the dough so it doesn't stick to the counter, and ultimately the cooked gnocchi ends up a tad sticky from that extra flour ending up in the boiling water. I don't really care, since it's just me eating it, I put sauce on top, and to me it tastes the same, but if you try it for the first time be careful not to use too much flour if you're not a fan of sticky food.

Gnocchi is actually really simple, although beware - it makes a huge mess! Or maybe that's just me… Hmmm. Anyways, there are very few ingredients - potatoes (I prefer red), lemon juice (or zest), salt, pepper, basil, and flour. Easy!

So I mixed up the dough (I prefer leaving the potato skins on, although others I know prefer to peel them before they are boiled)...

Rolled it out...

Cut it up...

…and after dropping in the boiling water (for those who haven't made it before, it's done when the gnocchi floats to the surface) VOILA! Gnocchi, covered in a simple tomato basil sauce.

This particular vegan recipe actually called for a cashew cream sauce, but that sounded really heavy so I decided on a light red sauce instead. It was delicious! I've actually only used this recipe once before, and I forgot how good it was. The recipe makes anywhere from 60-70 pieces, which is 6-7 servings for me. I'll have this for my lunch the rest of the week now!

I also threw together one of my fav recipes - a spicy vegetarian chili - so I can just turn on the crockpot when I leave for work tomorrow and have a wonderful smelling house AND tasty dinner when I get home. Easy day!

With all this food I'm cooking coming up to the last day, looks like I'll be keeping vegan until at least the weekend. But like I mentioned earlier, with the way I'm feeling today I don't think I'll mind in the slightest…

Until tomorrow…

xoxo

Carrie