Creamy vegan mushroom soup

This was the best recipe to come out of last night. It's so good I would make it even if I wasn't serving vegetarians with cream and gluten allergies. I would make it just to eat it myself. I wish I'd taken a picture...

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower
2 box containers of veggie broth (I prefer Nature's Own)
1 small sweet onion
minced garlic
1 package mushroom mix (baby bellas, crimini, oyster, shiitakes)
1 cup frozen peas
olive oil
salt
black pepper

Special equipment:
Immersion blender (a regular blender would work fine too, it just takes longer and makes more of a mess).

Finely dice the onion. In a soup pot, add 1/2 of the diced onion, two teaspoons of minced garlic, and a tablespoon of olive oil.
Sautee until the onion gets brown, then add one of the containers of veggie broth.
While you bring the broth to a boil, pull the cauliflower into golf-ball sized chunks. Add the cauliflower to the broth and let boil until the cauliflower is very soft (15 minutes?).
Add salt and pepper liberally. Once the cauliflower is soft, use a wooden spoon or potato masher to break the cauliflower into small pieces.
Take the soup off the heat and let cool for a couple minutes, just so you don't burn yourself when the blending makes a mess (I make a mess EVERY time).
Add some of the second box of veggie broth a little at a time to make blending easier. Add no more than half the box though. Blend the soup until very fine and creamy looking. **It's worth noting at this point that what you have now would make a really excellent vegan gravy. It can be boiled down easily enough if you want it thicker
Once blended put the soup back on low heat, add more pepper and the second half of the diced onion and bring to a simmer.
While the soup simmers, coarsely chop your mixed mushrooms until they're about bite sized pieces. Add them and the frozen peas to the soup.
Let boil on low until all the vegetables are soft.

I didn't add parsley this time around, but I think it would make a really good addition. This soup would be phenomenal in a bread bowl, if you have the time and energy.

Staying focused while dieting

1. Find some new coping techniques. Seriously.
2. Don't let yourself get hungry.
3. Don't buy junk food. Not even snack sized junk food.
4. Make exercise obligatory. "I'll visit the gym" or "I'll go running" is too amorphous and won't cut it. Sign up for a weekly dance class. If you have to pay for the classes, even better.
5. Seriously, make your meals ahead of time; don't leave your diet up to fate.
6. Make yourself 100 calorie snacks. Good ideas: cheese stick, banana, apple, yogurt, 100 calories of nuts, 100 calories of those little flavored rice cakes. Let yourself indulge in multiple of these snacks if you get hungry.
7. Focus on the stuff you did right. "Yeah I ate too much dinner, but I didn't eat dessert." "Yeah I had more carbs than veggies today, but I did my exercises that I really, really, really didn't want to do."
8. Planned candy. I let myself have a couple pieces of chocolate per day. This takes care of my sugar cravings while keeping the chaos at bay. This way I don't get so deprived that I binge, and I also don't feel guilty for eating candy because it's *planned*.

More meal planning!

Day 1:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 2:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 3:

Eggs and bacon
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Smoothie

TBD for Thursday and Friday dinners.

Meal Plans!

Day 1:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 2:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 3:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
Diet soup
apple & pb
banana
yogurt
tuna melt

Day 4:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
smoothie

Day 5:
Eggs
coffee
smoothie + protein
apple
banana
yogurt
TBD dinner

Grain Free Recipes

Vegetarian:
Batatas Mujadaras
Veggie Soup
Stuffed Peppers
Potato Crust Quiche
Twice-baked Potatos
Saifun Noodles
Stir Fry
Smoothies


Meaty:
Hot and Sour Soup
Chicken and Zoodles
Tuna melts on Oopsie bread
Chicken Salad Wraps
Tuna Wraps
Chili
Spaghetti Sauce
Greek Chicken
Kabobs
Meatloaf
No Tortilla Chicken Enchiladas
Pan Fried Chicken
Teryaki Salmon and Saifun