Vegan Nachos

I love going to vegan restaurants where you can order absolutely anything off the menu--it's so stress free!  But I would also love to go into a chain restaurant and order something and say, "veganize that, please."  Although we try to eat really healthy food at our house, sometimes we get cravings for things that are a little more junky, but vegan nonetheless.  The other day I wanted something quick and easy, and we had just bought some organic tortilla chips and salsa at Costco, but I wanted something a little more substantial--NACHOS!  This is one of those things I would love to order in any restaurant and have then veganize.  I quickly looked in the refrigerator to check on the Daiya Cheese situation, then the pantry to see if I had any canned black beans.  Damn!  Out of black beans, but what do we have here?  A few more cans of Amy's Organic Vegetarian Chili.  Sliced canned black olives, score!  So here's what I threw together in 10 minutes, baked for 15 minutes, and satisfied my family's junk food cravings.  This is also great for parties and potlucks where it can be balanced out by lots of other more healthy options.

Vegan Nachos

• Organic corn tortilla chips (Or make your own by baking corn tortillas; less oil)
• 1 15 oz can Amy's Organic Vegetarian Chili
• 1 small can organic sliced ripe olives
• 1 bag Daiya Cheddar Shreds
• 1 cup or more organic salsa or pico de gallo

Spread enough chips on  a jelly roll pan to completely cover the pan a few chips deep.  Spoon chili over chips, sprinkle with sliced olives, then sprinkle Daiya Shreds on top.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  Remove and spoon salsa/pico de gallo over hot nachos.  Transfer to a platter or individual plates with a spatula and eat out on your deck or patio with some nice vegan brews or margaritas!  If you have some guacamole on hand, serve that on the side as well!

Watch the sodium.  A lot of the above ingredients can be fairly high in sodium, which is why a fresh pico de gallo might be better than jarred salsa (event the organic varieties can have higher sodium content).  Also, I don't think Amy's Chili is anything special in the world of totally tasty homemade vegan chili, but we had bought some to try out, and although it's not my favorite to eat out of a bowl as a meal, it worked great on nachos and made this quick and easy!

The World's Best Chick'n Salad

As I said before, Soy Curls are my favorite mock meat right now, and we use them to substitute for chicken strips and beef strips in many different recipes.  Chop up those chick'n strips and you can make your favorite chicken salad as well!  Here is my new favorite Chick'n Salad recipe.  People will swear it is made with real chicken!

World's Best Chick'n Salad

• 1 8 oz bag Soy Curls
• 3/4 cup vegan white wine
• 3/4 cup low sodium No Chicken Broth
• 6 organic spring onions, finely chopped
• 4 ribs organic celery, finely chopped
• 1 organic Granny Smith apple, finely chopped
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup (or more if needed) Veganaise vegan mayonnaise (I use the reduced fat)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper or more to taste

Boil the wine and broth together in the microwave making sure to keep the end amount at 1.5 cups.  (This is the minimum amount of moisture needed to rehydrate 8 oz of Soy Curls.)  The chick'n will not be cooked further, so make sure the wine boils enough to eliminate the flavor of alcohol.  Add Soy Curls to hot liquid and leave for 10 minutes (you may need to place a weighted plate on top so all the curls get to absorb the liquid.)  While those are re-hydrating, chop your celery, onions and apple and place in a large mixing bowl.  When curls are re-hydrated, let cool, chop into small dice, and place in mixing bowl with chopped veggies.  Sprinkle in black pepper and mix to combine.  Add Veganaise and mix well until you get the creamy consistency you want.  Use as you would any chicken salad in sandwiches or stuff some tomatoes.  In the pictures below, we stuffed tomatoes with this Chick'n Salad and with our Fegg Salad from my March 8, 2012 post. 

Which do you think people will eat first? The Chick'n or the Fegg?

Indian Dal With Brown Basmati Rice

Wow!  It's been a while since I've posted anything here so I better get crackin'!  We've been enjoying a lot of favorite dishes these days, so I have not been terribly creative of late, but I did come up with quite a nice Indian Dal a few weeks back.  I looked at a bunch of recipes online: some were simple; some seemed more complex.  Mine is some type of hybrid and I kept it easy, of course.  We serve this lentil soup with brown basmati rice, and it's a hearty meal on its own.  This recipe will easily make twelve servings, but it's kind of tough to limit yourself to just one serving unless you have a big salad and other dishes coming afterward!

Indian Dal With Brown Basmati Rice

• 2 cups organic brown basmati rice
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 lb organic red lentils
• 9 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp yellow curry powder
• 1/2 tsp red curry powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 large organic tomato, finely diced
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

So, pressure cooker for the rice, Dutch oven for the soup.  Get the rice and the 4 cups of broth into the pressure cooker on a high burner and lock the lid on.  When pressure valve pops up turn heat to low and set timer for 25 minutes.  Meanwhile, chop the onion and saute in a bit of water over  medium heat in the soup pot.  Add ginger and garlic and continue sauteing until onions are translucent. Keep a bit of water in the bottom of the pot so nothing browns too much.  Add all of your spices and stir, add lentils and  9 cups of broth.  Turn heat to high, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer with lid on for 20 minutes.  When the timer for the rice goes off, remove rice to a cool burner and let pressure decrease naturally.  By the time the soup is finished, that pressure valve will drop.  After the soup has simmered 20 minutes, stir in the tomato and cilantro and simmer 5 more minutes.

Presentation - My wife says I'm all about the presentation and well, sometimes I am.  I use a 4 oz Asian tea cup as a rice mold, inverting the rice into the center of a standard size soup bowl.  Then I ladle about a cup of the dal around the rice island.  You can add some additional cilantro on top as garnish as well.



A note about the spices: as I said, I looked at a lot of different recipes online and some had long lists of spices.  I just took out all of the spices in my pantry that were often used in Indian cooking.  The red curry powder, yellow curry powder, and garam masala are all spice blends anyway, so combined they probably are equivalent to a much longer list of individual spices!  LOL  I just winged the amount at 1/2 tsp each (except for the cayenne and black pepper) and the finished product had a great mild flavor with a very slight kick from the cayenne and a bright, fresh hit of cilantro.  You can certainly adjust any of the spices to your taste, or use a different mix of what you have available in your pantry.



Broccoli with Beef--Veganized!

My wife and I recently went through about fifty banker's boxes full of paperwork, receipts, holiday decorations, and odds and ends from closets and drawers after our most recent move.  We also repaired and reorganized a secretary desk so that we could actually store office supplies in it and use it as a desk. (What a novel idea!)  This activity was strewn over several days and produced two very important results: 1) we discarded a lot of old paperwork that was now trash, donated unused items and reduced the number of banker's boxes we needed from fifty down to twenty two! and; 2) we found a few stashes of unused gift cards to various stores, over $400 in value!

Among these gift cards we had $50 to spend at Barnes and Noble.  Since my wife and daughter both have Kindles, there weren't a lot of books they wanted to physically purchase, so they let me buy several more vegan cookbooks to have on hand.  Later at home, as I was thumbing through new recipes, I came across a new product called Soy Curls in one of the books.  There was a brief description of what they were and it intrigued me enough to look them up online--what a find!  Here is the website so you can look at the product information yourself: Soy Curls  There was a list of retailers on the website and I was hoping to find that our brand new Whole Foods in Lynnwood carried them, but no such luck.  An Albertson's just a few suburbs away did carry them, however, so I took a twenty minute drive on a beautiful day to try them out.  The following Broccoli with "Beef" recipe was my first use of them and the result convinced me that I would transition from using TVP (textured vegetable protein) to using Soy Curls instead.

As you know from previous posts, I use TVP or dehydrated soy chunks a lot and it can mimic meat texture and flavor really well when re hydrated properly.  TVP is made from defatted soy flour and is highly processed so it is a fractionalized food as opposed to a whole food.  Soy Curls are processed as well, but are made from non GMO whole soy beans without chemical pesticides.  So, it's closer to a whole food than TVP is, and because it has the natural fat left in, the texture is actually more genuinely meaty and gave my recipe a superior result.  The best news is that you use them the same--re hydrate with water or broth or, as I always do, half broth half wine.  Soy Curls end up producing "beef" strips or "chicken" strips instead of chunks, but if you are making a stew, for example, you can cut the strips into chunks after re hydrating.  So now, when you think of beef strips, you can use Soy Curls for Asian stir fry recipes, Mexican fajitas and burritos, stroganoff, "steak" sandwiches, etc.  And when you think of chicken strips, again think of stir fries, fajitas, pasta with "chicken," etc.  You can make them more like pork and put them in a slow cooker with barbecue sauce for a pulled "pork" effect, or you can cut the "beef" strips into chunks for stews or the "chicken" strips into chunks for chicken salad.  You have to try these out to wean your families off of meat--they are less expensive* to buy, better for you, and can probably fool most people!

Veganized Broccoli with "Beef"

• 1 8 oz bag Soy Curls
• 2 cups vegan Merlot wine
• 2 cups water
• 4 tsp half sodium Better than Bouillon No Beef paste
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp minced ginger root
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1 additional cup cool broth
• 3 lbs organic frozen broccoli
• Ground black pepper to taste

In an extra large skillet (I use my 14 inch skillet which I also use for things like paella) heat the wine and water and bouillon paste to  boiling.  Turn burner off, add Soy Curls, place lid on skillet and set timer for 10 minutes.  You can remove the lid and stir every once in a while to make sure that all the curls have contact with the hot liquid.  While the curls re hydrate into strips, slice your onions, mince your garlic and ginger, and mix the corn starch with the additional cup of cooled broth.  When the timer goes off, remove the lid and turn your burner to medium heat and add onions, garlic and ginger.  Saute with the curls until onions are translucent and there is little liquid left in the pan. At this point add about a half cup water to deglaze the pan and stir until brown bits come off the pan, add frozen broccoli and put lid back on, turn heat to low and simmer until broccoli is cooked but still bright green.  Remove lid, add soy sauce and remaining broth with corn starch and continue stirring until sauce is thickened.  Turn heat off and serve with steamed brown rice.  This quantity will easily serve eight people.  I think next time I have to make something sweet and sour!  MMMMMMMMMMMM!

Lower fat, lower sodium and way cheaper than take out!

*An 8 oz bag retails for $3.99 and will produce 24 oz of "meat." If you buy bulk direct from Butler Foods you can get the cost down to $2.54/8 oz, and that cost includes shipping expenses!

Whole Food Smoothies

Here is something I started making for my family on mornings when there is little time to cook or eat.  Yeah, it's a smoothie, but there are no added sugars or even fruit juice.  It's made from tofu, walnuts, and whole fruit only.  It comes either extra thick or super extra thick!  The ingredients are per 16 oz smoothie.  I can make three in my Ninja blender.  My wife and I go out walking every morning and sometimes this is our reward when we get back--yum!

Whole Food Smoothie Ingredients

• 3 oz silken firm organic tofu--1/4 of a 12.3 oz package (I use the aseptic Mori Nu Organic Non GMO) The silken blends better than the non silken; the firm tofu has higher protein content than the softer tofus
• 1 organic banana, peeled
• 1 organic seedless orange, peeled (the riper and juicier the better!)
• 1 oz walnuts (I keep a huge bag in our freezer)
• 1/3 cup organic frozen blueberries
• 2-6 (depending on size) organic frozen strawberries

Depending on the size banana and orange you use, this smoothie will have between 500 and 600 calories with approximately 14 grams of protein, no added sugar, a serving of omega 3 fat from the walnuts and it will fill you up--as long as you can suck it through the straw! (You may want to get some of those extra wide bubble tea straws for these smoothies!  LOL)

"Do you want your smoothie thick or thick thick?"

What's Easter Without Vegan Deviled Eggs?!!

You're heading toward another holiday, and suddenly you decide that you miss some of the special foods of the season.  What's a vegan to do?  Fake it.  Veganize it.  Pre-vegans eat eggs; we eat feggs.  You could make your own ham flavored seitan, there are plenty of recipes for that, but again it's usually going to be full of sodium and more processed components.  These feggs are made from organic tofu, organic potatoes, seasonings, Veganaise, and they will satisfy your craving for deviled eggs.  You bring these to the family get together and let everyone eat cholesterol free feggs.  They will simply wonder why they are in potato shells!

Deviled Feggs

• 2 lbs organic extra firm tofu (drained and crumbled)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• black pepper to season
• 1/2 cup Veganaise
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 15-20 baby potatoes (look for red and russet potatoes that are approximately the size of eggs)
• black salt
• paprika to garnish

Clean potatoes and place in cold water in pot to boil.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium and let boil for about 20 minutes (time will depend on size of potatoes; check by inserting sharp knife into center of largest potato).  While potatoes are boiling, add tofu to large cast iron skillet and add seasonings.  Stir and saute over medium heat until tofu resembles scrambled eggs.  Turn heat off and transfer tofu to a large mixing bowl.  When potatoes are done, drain hot water and replace with cold tap water to cool potatoes.  Cut each potato in half and place on serving plate (they will cool faster so you can better handle them).  When potatoes are cooled, use a melon baller to scoop out most of the potato flesh leaving the skin and about a 1/4 inch of potato.  Add the potato flesh to the bowl of tofu mixture.  When all potatoes are scooped, use a fork to thoroughly mix in potato flesh with tofu, add Veganaise  and mustard and mix well.  Spoon in tofu/potato mixture into scooped out potatoes and mound on top.  Sprinkle with paprika to garnish, and for an authentic eggy aroma, sprinkle a tiny bit of black salt on each fegg just before serving.  Black salt is available at Indian food stores.  It is a mineral salt that is purplish or pinkish gray and has some sulfur in it, hence the eggy aroma.  Go easy on it--it just takes a tiny amount to give a salty hit to your feggs!

If you have some of the tofu mixture left over, "How about a nice fegg salad sandwich with a left handed glass of Tang?"  "Thank you, Mrs. Loopner, but I'm vegan now and I don't drink Tang anymore!"

Beans and Greens

Well, I have been using canned beans for so long that I have not made a recipe using dried beans in ages.  But, I had some dried beans in the pantry and decided that I wanted to test out the true ease of the pressure cooker for these tough legumes.  Perfect results, every time!

Now, most cooks know that when you begin a recipe with dried beans, you need to soak them first.  There are a number of reasons for soaking beans, and if you need any convincing about this step, here is a site that explains what you need to know: Why should I soak dry beans?  If you are going to soak beans the traditional way, you would need to soak them overnight in 3-4 times the amount of water as you have beans (lentils, split peas and other softer legumes do not need pre-soaking).  To quick soak beans in a pressure cooker, rinse and sort beans, add to pressure cooker with 4 cups of water and 1 teaspoon salt per cup of beans.  (Do not worry so much about sodium content, this first batch of salt water will not penetrate the beans too much and it will be drained away).  Turn heat to high and lock lid in place, bring to full pressure, reduce heat to low and cook for two minutes.  Quick release by running cold tap water over top of pressure cooker in sink.  Drain beans, rinse with fresh water and drain again.  Now your beans are ready for your recipe.

Beans and Greens (Kidneys and Kale)

2 cups dried organic kidney beans
2 bunches organic kale
6 cups water
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Broth paste

Quick soak your beans as above, rinse, and add 6 cups of water to beans in pressure cooker.  Turn heat to high and lock lid in place.  Bring up to full pressure, reduce heat to low and set timer for 15 minutes.  While beans are cooking, rinse and finely chop kale.  In a small, non stick saute pan, add cumin, coriander and turmeric and heat over medium heat for five minutes or so, stirring every so often so all the spice gets some heat.  It may smoke a bit and fill your home with some nice aromas.  When your timer goes off, quick release steam by running cold tap water over pressure cooker in sink.  When valve drops, remove lid, add remainder of ingredients, including spices, and stir until combined.  Lock lid back on pressure cooker and place back on same burner but be sure heat is turned off.  Set timer for 15 minutes.  Kale is a green that really holds its texture even when cooked.  The resulting "stew" is chewy and meaty without meat!  Serve over cooked brown basmati rice.  This is simple comfort food that will satisfy you and your family any time the weather says "soup tonight?"

Does Natural Always Mean It's Good for You?

I often grow weary of advertising hype, buzz words, and flavor of the month mentality.  And we, so many of us being lemming like, get caught up in that hype and sometimes lose our sense of critical thinking.  Consider the term natural.  One hundred percent natural, no artificial ingredients, no added chemicals, etc., etc.  Well, here's some common sense news for you.  Many chemicals are found in nature, and so are, by definition, natural.  And just because something is found in nature, it does not mean that it is good for you!  Opium comes from poppies; cocaine comes from the coca plant and was in the original recipe for Coca Cola--and you thought the buzz was only from caffeine!  Caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, and tobacco grows in nature.  Do you think that if a carton of cigarettes was labeled with "100 percent natural and organically grown" it would change your mind about taking up smoking?  Supplement and vitamin companies and stores have lots of products that are all natural.  But all natural does not always mean safe for you in all circumstances.

Research things online before you purchase.  Look up individual ingredients in supplements and see what experts have to say.  Which chemicals in the long list of ingredients are actually vitamins?  Are they from a vegan source?  Are some of the chemicals actually toxic?  Did you know that the talc in talcum powder is more than likely carcinogenic?  How many generations of families used talcum powder on their infant children?  Here's a link that gives you the low down on cosmetic grade talc: Talc Talk.  There are a lot of food additives that simply don't need to be there, like the dissolved human hair in bakery products that I discussed in a previous post.  Now that we have the interwebs, it's so much easier to do your own research!

Does vegan equal healthy?  Well, no.  I could be completely vegan and eat no animal products at all, but still have a poor diet.  If I had Mighty-O donuts for breakfast every morning, vegan hot dogs for lunch every day, and a Boca Burger with French fries for every dinner, do you think that would be a healthy diet?  It would be completely vegan, but it would also be completely unbalanced!  So, vegans need to strive for balanced nutrition.  Focus on all of the great, healthy foods that you can eat, and eat a wide variety of those.  Get creative about new ingredients and new recipes and remember that you need to make your vegan diet a healthy, balanced, plant based diet!

Did Someone Say, "Curry?"

This recipe first appeared in my wife, Kate's blog Vegan Wife.  I have modified it a bit, and you can certainly adjust seasonings and ingredients to your heart's content!  This recipe makes an insane amount of food, so cut the recipe in half or freeze half of it for future meals.  It is also great for potlucks or a buffet meal with a bunch of friends.  For a buffet meal, make a pressure cooker full of brown basmati rice, buy some whole wheat naan bread, and serve along side the curry with a nice green salad with lemon tahini dressing.  YUM!

Vegan Curry:

In a large Dutch oven (or large stew pot) brown 1 onion in water or broth
While doing that, microwave 1 cup white wine and 1 cup water with 1 "Not Chick'n" bouillon cube.
When onion is translucent, add 2 cups dry soy chunks (textured soy protein chunks) and boiling bouillon liquid into the pot.
Turn heat off. Put lid on the pot and set timer for 10 min.
While chunks are re-hydrating, cut up 2-3 medium sized potatoes and 2-3 medium sized carrots.  Add the following to the pot:
1 heaping Tbsp curry powder
1 heaping Tbsp cumin
1 heaping Tbsp garam masala (available in any spice aisle)
1 heaping tsp minced garlic
1 heaping tsp minced ginger root
Stir and add
2 15 oz cans chick peas with liquid
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
1 15 oz can coconut milk
2 cups additional boiled water and 1 bouillon cube (no additional wine)
turn heat back up to high
add potatoes and carrots
put lid on and turn heat to low, simmer for 20 minutes
after 20 min, add
1/2 cup tahini
2 cups frozen peas
1 pound bag frozen cauliflower
1 pound bag frozen chopped spinach
put lid back on and simmer another 10 minutes

Serve over brown basmati rice and enjoy!  Makes enough for 12+ people.

Pesticides and Foods You Never Realized Weren't Vegan

So here's a post without a recipe.  Already in withdrawal?  Fear not, the next post will definitely go back to having something yummy for you to create.  But I wanted to share some other information with you because you don't already have enough decisions to make when you eat out or shop for food as a vegan!  LOL

The first thing I wanted to share was something about pesticides and Conventionally Grown vs. Organically Grown produce.  The following list ranks forty nine common Conventionally Grown  produce items from worst to least, meaning celery is likely to have the highest levels of pesticides and onions the least amount of pesticides.

1. (worst) Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries - U.S. Grown
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale and Collard Greens
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes – Imported from outside U.S.
13. Lettuce
14. Blueberries - Imported
15. Carrots
16. Green Beans – U.S. grown
17. Pears
18. Plums - Imported
19. Summer Squash
20. Cucumbers - Imported
21. Green Beans - Imported
22. Hot Peppers
23. Red Raspberries
24. Oranges
25. Grapes – U.S. grown
26. Cantaloupe
27. Cucumbers - U.S. Grown
28. Cauliflower
29. Tomatoes
30. Bananas
31. Broccoli
32. Winter Squash
33. Cranberries
34. Plums - U.S. Grown
35. Honeydew Melon
36. Sweet Potato
37. Grapefruit
38. Watermelon
39. Cantaloupe - U.S. Grown
40. Cabbage
41. Eggplant
42. Kiwi
43. Asparagus
44. Sweet Peas (frozen)
45. Mango
46. Pineapple
47. Sweet Corn (frozen)
48. Avocado
49. Onions (least)

For produce higher up on the list, say the first 12-15 items, you would probably want to opt for Organically Grown instead of Conventionally Grown items.  For the last 15 items you can more safely opt for Conventionally Grown.  For the items in between, well, I personally try to buy organic whenever possible.  The fewer pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and non food chemical food additives you consume, the healthier you will be.

Your liver not only assists in the digestion of fats (emulsification of lipids), but it also functions to detoxify your blood.  So, if you have a high fat diet, and eat a lot of conventionally grown produce as well as a lot of processed foods with long lists of non food chemical additives, and drink tons of diet soda on top of that, then you are being particularly unkind to your liver.  It truly becomes overworked, and if you consume alcohol as well, I think your liver just might want to put in for a vacation or disability leave!  Keep chemicals out of your body as much as possible, keep fat close to only what your body truly needs, and eliminate any drinks with added sugar, Aspartame, Sucralose, etc.  Keep alcohol consumption to a minimum or eliminate it altogether as well.  Drink lots of water--before meals to curb your appetite, but also so your liver and kidneys can more efficiently filter your blood.

Non Vegan Foods--Who Knew?!!

• White Sugar is sometimes not vegan.  Why?  If cane sugar is processed into white sugar, bone char (yes from burned animal bones) is usually used in the processing.  Processed beet sugar is fine for vegans.  Organic cane sugar is fine for vegans.  If you use powdered sugar or brown sugar, use organic.  So eliminate the processed stuff and stick to less processed organic options, then reduce your overall consumption of any added sugar.
• Bread and Baked Items often have dairy and eggs in them if not whey or whey protein.  But even if you find something that has no dairy or eggs, if it has dough conditioners, it may very well have L-cysteine which is an amino acid.  Our bodies synthesize this amino acid when needed from proteins (plant or animal) that we eat.  The source of L-cysteine in dough conditioners, however, is usually dissolved human hair.  Did I just hear you choke a little while you were eating that Wonder Bread or Twinkie?  I thought so.
• Wines and Beers are often clarified with animal products such as milk, blood, albumen (egg whites) and gelatin among others.  Isinglass is a gelatin made specifically from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish.  So, that white wine you love so much may have been combined with fish guts to pull out sediments.  Use this helpful website to discover if your libations are truly vegan or vegan friendly!  Barnivore
• Fortified Milks, Yogurts, Orange Juice and Breakfast Cereals are often fortified from animal sources such as sheep wool lanolin, pig skin, or cow skin.  YUK!  I prefer my vitamin D3 from vegan sources, thank you very much.  So make sure that soy milk you drink is labeled vegan so that it has no vitamin fortification from poor dead animals!

Are you on information overload yet?  I know, it's a lot to pay attention to, but just think of all the disease you will be preventing in yourself and your loved ones.  Totally worth the up front time to prevent the worry and sadness if you or a relative were to get chronically or seriously ill!

Arroz Verde Con Sollo

OK, this could not be a simpler dinner to throw together.  It's green rice with soy chicken (sollo = pollo de soya).  It satisfies my craving for two things: chicken and rice and green rice.  It also satisfies my quest for high nutrition in a short amount of time.

Arroz Verde Con Sollo

• 2 cups brow rice or brown basmati rice
• 2 cups dried TVP chunks
• 6 cups low sodium Not Chicken Broth
• 2 4 oz cans diced green chilies
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 bunches kale, finely chopped

Pull out the pressure cooker for this one.  Combine rice, TVP chunks and broth in pressure cooker, close lid and turn burner on high.  Once pressure valve pops up set timer for 25 minutes.  While pressure cooker comes up to heat and during cooking, chop greens and place in microwave safe bowl.
Microwave greens for about 5 minutes to wilt them.  When rice and soy chunks are done, run cold water on pressure cooker.  Once steam is reduced, remove lid and stir in greens.  Replace lid and set timer for another 15-20 minutes but leave pressure cooker off heat.

This has become a real staple in my house.  Kind of like the colcannon (mashed potatoes with greens).  I mean, if you want your comfort food to be good for you as well, add a bunch of flavorful greens and you've got something tasty, satisfying, and quite healthful.

Sorry there's no picture.  I could swear I took one, but it's not in my cell phone.  I'll add a picture to this post the next time I make this (which should be later this week since we all love it so much!).

Guacamole? Or Seven Layer Dip?!!

Growing up I never cared much for guacamole, or avocados themselves for that matter.  I thought they were slimy, mushy and pretty flavorless.  As an adult, I love what you can do with avocados!  I still don't care to eat them plain, but give me the right spice mix and preparation and I can down huge volumes of guacamole.  If I have a bit more time and want to make something that will serve a large crowd, then I usually go all out for seven layer dip.  This recipe yields a huge amount and can feed eight people as a meal or a much larger crowd for snacks.  When I make this for a crowd, I use a big pasta dish to serve it in.  When I make it for my family, I use two covered containers like the one in the picture.  We sometimes end up snacking on this for the better part of a week.  If you serve it at a party, it will be gone before you know it!

Vegan Seven Layer Dip (or sometimes only Six)

• 1 15 oz can vegetarian refried beans
• 1 4 oz can diced green chilies
• 1 4 oz can chopped black olives
• 1 cup TVP granules re hydrated with 1/2 cup Merlot and 1/2 cup No Beef Broth
• 1 package taco seasoning mix (check ingredients to ensure it's vegan, McCormick is not!)
• 2 large, ripe avocados
• 1 package guacamole seasoning mix (check ingredients to ensure it's vegan, Great Guacamole! is not!)
• 1 12 oz container vegan sour cream (Tofutti Better than Sour Cream or Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream)
• 1 8 oz bag Daiya Cheddar Shreds
• 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 small bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 6 Roma tomatoes, finely chopped

For the first layer, mix the beans and green chilies and spread on the bottom of your serving dish(es).  For the second layer, spread the chopped olives over the bean/chili mixture.  Mix the taco seasoning with the re hydrated TVP granules to make a nice taco filling for the third layer.  Mash the avocados with the mix and use as the fourth layer, then spread sour cream as the fifth.  Spread the Daiya Cheddar Shreds as the sixth layer.  Combine the tomatoes, cilantro and green onions into a salsa and top as the final layer!



Let's talk vegan sour cream for a minute.  Tofutti's Better than Sour Cream is great stuff, but it does not taste quite like sour cream so I use it combined with other things but rarely plain.  The Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream tastes way more like the real thing.  This I would eat on a baked potato!  When I use the Better than Sour Cream, I usually mix it with the guacamole and get a creamier, lighter guacamole layer, thus, only six layers.  Both of these products are highly processed and have plenty of fat.  If you would rather venture out to make a healthier version, try this link and give it a whirl!  Vegan Tofu Sour Cream  If you store leftover dip in your refrigerator, moisture will leach out of it moreso than the traditional, animal laden versions.  Just wick away with some paper towling and you are good to go for round two snacks.

Serve your Seven Layer Dip with baked tortilla chips, veggies, vegan taquitos, or pile into taco shells for a delicious cold taco!

What Would Superbowl Sunday Be Without Vegan Chili?

Wow! It's been more than two weeks since I posted anything. I guess I better get back to it!

What would Superbowl Sunday be without a bowl of spicy chili and some chips and guacamole, or better yet, seven layer dip! I have to say, Mexican and Southwestern foods are some of the easiest to veganize, because the real flavors come from spices, and it's easy, as well as very healthy, to let go of the authenticity of lard. Give these recipes a try and tell me if your friends could even tell the difference.  Their arteries will definitely be able to tell the difference!

Three Bean Vegan Chili

• 2 cups TVP chunks re hydrated with 1 cup Merlot and 1 cup No Beef Broth
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 3-4 cloves minced garlic
• 4 15 oz cans organic, low sodium tri bean blend (red kidney, pinto & black beans), with liquid
• 2 15 oz cans organic, diced, no salt added tomatoes, with liquid
• 2 4 oz cans organic diced green chilies
• 1 8 oz can organic sliced ripe olives, drained
• 1 32 oz can or jar of organic, low sodium marinara sauce
• 3 heaping tbsp chili powder
• 2 heaping tbsp ground cumin
• 1 heaping tbsp unsweetened cocoa or cacao
• 1/4 cup masa harina (corn flour) or oat flour

Use the large Dutch oven or a large soup pot for this--it makes at least 6 quarts.  In a large Pyrex measuring cup, heat the wine and broth to boiling in the microwave then add TVP chunks.  In the Dutch oven, over medium heat, saute the onion in some broth, then add the green peppers and continue sauteing.  Add garlic and stir.  When onions are translucent and bell peppers softened, add re hydrated TVP, chili powder, cumin and cocoa or cacao.  Stir until the spices are coating everything else.  Add beans, tomatoes, green chilies, olives and marinara sauce.

You can bring up the heat and continuously stir to prevent scorching at this point.  When chili temperature is near a boil, reduce heat to low and continue to stir until heat reduces and chili is simmering.  Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  To thicken, sprinkle in masa or oat flour at the end and continuously stir to prevent lumps.  Let simmer 5 more minutes covered.  You can leave the burner on the lowest setting, or put on a warmer, or transfer to a preheated crock pot set on low or warm.  Serve in bowls or large mugs and  top with chopped onions or scallions and Daiya Cheddar Shreds if you like.  Everyone will want a second bowl!

The next blog will be that seven layer dip!



Pasta Night!

Since we went vegan, we pretty much switched to whole grain everything with few exceptions.  We only use brown rice, we buy 21 grain bread (it is soooooo delicious!), whole wheat naan, whole wheat pizza crust, whole wheat pasta.  When I was in college, I was vegetarian for a few years when I lived with a group of other vegetarians.  Back then, whole wheat flour and pastas were rather course and almost gritty.  The pasta often seemed a bit tougher than al dente.  Today, however, they really grind whole wheat super fine.  My favorite flour is King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour.  It is made from whole wheat but has a much finer texture.  Whole wheat pastas must be made with this same finely ground flour as well because they achieve the same texture as regular pasta when prepared.  We usually have pasta once a week, and, of course that means a few meals that week because I make a lot.  I love marinara sauce, and it's easy to make vegan, but the rest of my family prefers white sauce or olive oil and garlic only.  I try to keep pasta sauces lower in fat, so I do what I can to accommodate everyone and keep the fat content fairly low.

Easy One Pot Pasta

• 1 12-16 oz box whole wheat pasta (I often use spirals)
• 2 cups dry TVP chunks re hydrated with 1 cup white wine and 1 cup No Chicken Broth
• 1 16 oz package frozen cut spinach
• 1 15 oz can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
• 1 15 oz can no sodium diced tomatoes with liquid
• 1 4 oz can green chilies
• 1 7 oz can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Vegan Parmesan

I use my Dutch oven for pasta as well.  While the water is coming to a boil for the pasta, I microwave the wine and broth for the TVP.  Once that is boiling, I add the TVP chunks to re hydrate and add pasta to the pot of boiling water.  I usually set whole wheat pasta for about 12 minutes, but it will depend on what shape of pasta you use.  Five minutes prior to the pasta being done, I add the frozen spinach to the same water.  One minute before done I add the artichoke hearts and olives.  Drain all of that (you may not want to use a Dutch oven because they are very heavy to drain, but I have strong arms!  LOL), then add the tomatoes, chilies, re hydrated TVP and any liquid with it, garlic, and the 1/4 cup olive oil.  A lot of people would use up to a full cup of olive oil for a pound of pasta.  There is still a lot of liquid in the tomatoes and the broth from re hydrating the TVP, so just a quarter cup will add the right amount of additional moisture and only about an additional 50 calories per serving.  Serve with Vegan Parmesan (from January 21, 2012 Eat Your Greens blog).  Bon appetit!


Colorful and loaded with protein, fiber and veggies!





Quick Pressure Cooker Meals

Sometimes you just want to throw a bunch of things in a pot and get it on the table in a short amount of time.  A lot of my cooking is like that, but I want flavor, texture and nutrition even for minimal effort.  I do a number of meals in a pressure cooker because it speeds things up, especially rice dishes now that I only use whole grain rice.  Again, when I cook, I make a full pot of food that can last several meals or be frozen, so if you need to cut back on volume, feel free!

Pressure Cooker Beans and Rice

• 2 cups vegetarian broth (you will need more liquid, but some is coming from other canned goods)
• 2 cups long grain brown rice
• 1 15 oz can organic, low sodium black beans with liquid
• 1 15 oz can organic, low sodium dark red kidney beans with liquid
• 1 15 oz cans no salt, diced tomatoes with liquid
• 1 4 oz can chopped green chilies
• 1 7 oz can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 lb frozen corn or 1 15 oz can corn drained
• 2 rounded Tbsp chili powder
• 1 rounded Tbsp ground cumin

Optional: 

• Some re hydrated TVP chunks
• 1 bunch of kale, chopped

Place broth in pressure cooker and crank your burner up to high.  Add rice, beans, tomatoes, chilies, olives, corn and spices.  If using, add TVP.  Lock lid onto pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure.  Once pressure valve pops up, set timer for 30 minutes and reduce heat to low.  When timer goes off, remove from heat and set timer for another 15 minutes.  Remove lid and fluff and stir with a fork.

If adding kale, do not add at beginning.  After first 30 minutes, run cold water on pressure cooker to reduce steam.  When pressure valve drops, remove lid, add chopped kale, replace and lock lid and set timer for 15 minutes.  This will allow the kale to wilt enough without losing too many nutrients.  After 15 minutes, fluff and stir as above and serve!

This makes quite a lot of food and so we had it available for several meals.  Sometimes we just eat it like a casserole, but we had this big bag of whole wheat tortillas, so we made burritos out of it for one meal, and for another (pictured) we served it with some grilled quesadillas made with our whole wheat tortillas and Daiya cheddar shreds.



Beans and rice and quesadillas!  YUM!!

A note about canned foods.  A lot of canned foods have high amounts of sodium in them, which is why you are often better off starting with dry beans, soaking and cooking with limited added salt.  A pressure cooker is great for this!  It can still be time consuming, and you would probably want to prepare those beans on the weekend and use throughout the week.  A lot of supermarkets, however, have organic, low sodium canned items.  They are not always the least expensive, but they are available for your convenience.  Balance things out between your budget and your time, but definitely move toward lower amounts of sodium.

Vegan Cassoulet

So, I was watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals the other day and got inspired to veganize something.  She was making a quick version of a French country dish called Cassoulet.  The traditional recipes usually include a lot of sausage, pork, duck, duck fat (sounds rich, right?), beans, some veggies and a bread crumb topping.  Her recipe, of course, was the 30 minute time saving version with chicken instead of duck and beans from the can.  I dug around on the Internet a bit and came up with a simple, vegan, one pot version that is fairly quick to throw together but has a very slow cooked taste.  This is ideal for transitional vegans who like to still experience "meat."  There are other recipes on the Internet that leave out meat analogues and countless traditional recipes for inspiration.  My family was quite pleased with this the first time I made it, so I think it's a keeper for us.

Vegan Cassoulet

• 1 package (1 lb) Tofurky Italian Sausage
• 2 cups TVP chunks, re hydrated with 1 cup Pinot Grigio and 1 cup No Chicken Broth
• 1 Large onion, diced
• 3-4 ribs celery diced
• 2-3 medium carrots, diced
• 1 full head of garlic, all cloves minced (this is where the big economy jar of minced garlic comes in handy!  Just use an equivalent amount.)
• 3 15 oz cans Great Northern White or Cannellini Beans (Italian white kidney beans) with liquid
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
• 1 No Chicken Bouillon Cube
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 4 bay leaves
• Black pepper to taste
• 4 slices bread for crumbs (the end slices of the loaf are best for crumbs)
• 1/2 cup dry parsley

The Tofurky sausage has some oil in it, so I do not add any other oil or fat to this and it works out great.  On medium heat, saute the sausage in a Dutch oven, then add onions and garlic (reserve about 3 cloves worth of garlic for topping), celery and carrots and continue to saute, stirring frequently enough to avoid sticking to the bottom.  Add the re hydrated TVP chunks along with any additional liquid which will help to deglaze the pan a bit as you stir.  Add beans and tomatoes, and nestle the bouillon cube down near the bottom of the pan.  Add seasonings and bay leaves, stir so all is uniformly combined, then cover and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes.  Process the bread into crumbs and add remaining garlic and dried parsley.  Most recipes would have you use some butter or olive oil in the crumb topping, and you could certainly add some melted Earth Balance vegan margarine if you want, but I found that the added fat was unnecessary.  Pour bread crumb topping on top and pop the Dutch oven (without lid) in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes until crumb topping is crunchy and golden.

Once the liquids reduce, flavors are concentrated and savory.

This is hearty peasant food without all of the animal cruelty and health risks!  Carnivores will swear it's full of meat (and it is, just not meat from animals!)  This will serve 8-10 people easily and is great with a nice spinach or kale salad served on the side. 

Eat Your Greens

Day 16 since I caught the nasty virus and it is pretty much gone--finally!  Wow!  What ever happened to a week to ten days?  Why has it stretched to fourteen plus!!???  My wife still has the hacking cough and is on day 11.  She is feeling better, but it won't be gone for another several days.  Oh well, we were virtually trapped inside for nearly a week with heavier snowfall than is normal for our area, so at least we weren't missing out on a lot of planned activities.  We drove through the slush yesterday to do our weekly shopping and went out to lunch as well, so we're not quite as stir crazy today.  On to today's topic...

My family is not tremendously picky when it comes to eating veggies.  If I make it, we will all eat it, even if it's not the most creative dish.  That makes it easy on me in one respect, but I hate making several things for one meal on a regular basis.  I am the king of one pot, one casserole meals.  And I know a lot of families have members who are somewhat picky about veggies, so I have a strategy to slip them in more regularly and make things easier on you, the chef of the house!

In my last blog, I had made a nice vegan Irish stew and mentioned at the end that sometimes I make colcannon to go along with it.  Colcannon is an Irish version of mashed potatoes that puts greens right into the potatoes to get young'ns to eat more greens with minimal effort.  They often put cabbage and green onions in colcannon; I used kale, green onions and parsley the other night when we had some leftover stew to eat and wanted a slightly different experience.

Kale Colcannon

• 3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes or red potatoes, scrubbed with skins on and cut into 1 inch dice
• 1 bunch kale, washed and rinsed well, finely chopped
• 1 bunch green onions (6-8), washed and diced
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, washed and chopped
• A few tablespoons Earth Balance vegan margarine
• Some So Delicious Coconut Milk Drink
• A few cloves freshly minced garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until tender but still firm (15 minutes or so depending on your dice size).  Chop other veggies while the potatoes boil.  Saute the onions in a nonstick skillet and then add garlic, parsley and kale continuing to saute until all are heated through and wilted, but still brilliantly green.  Drain potatoes and mash adding margarine and coconut milk until you get the consistency you want.  Add greens to potatoes and mix well to incorporate all together.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve any time you would normally serve mashed potatoes but this is especially wonderful with a ladle full of Irish Stew over the nice mound of potatoes and greens!

Spinach is also a big staple in our house.  Though I am a fan of fresh spinach and spinach salads, I am more a fan of the value of chopped, frozen spinach.  Do you know how much fresh spinach you would have to cook to yield one pound of chopped, cooked spinach?  A LOT!  The chopped, frozen stuff is an incredible value when you think about all the nutrition you get from just one reasonably priced bag of veggies.  In any event, I add spinach to a lot of casseroles and pastas and just call it Florentine!  One of our meals this week was our vegan mac 'n cheeze and I Florentined it (notice how I verbed that?!) to make it a more balanced meal since I did not feel like making side dishes.  Throw a pound of spinach into any pasta or rice dish and see what you think!

Mac 'n Cheeze Florentine

• 12-16 oz whole wheat pasta (elbows, corkscrews, etc.)
• 1 recipe Cheesy Sauce (from January 4, 2012 blog)
• Extra So Delicious Coconut Milk Drink
• 1 lb frozen chopped spinach, thawed in the microwave, squeezed dry

Put your pasta to boil and cook about 10-12 minutes while you make the cheesy sauce.  One the sauce is made, thin with some coconut milk to get the consistency you want, then add the thawed spinach that has been squeezed as dry as possible.  Mix sauce and spinach with pasta and serve or bake in casserole with breadcrumb topping--your choice.  This is also delicious with vegan Parmesan sprinkled on top.

Vegan Parmesan

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/4 c small nutritional yeast flakes (1/2 cup large flakes)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Process nuts in small food processor until ground, add yeast flakes and salt and process again until uniformly mixed.  Store in refrigerator and sprinkle on soups, salads, pastas, and, of course, on vegan Mac 'n Cheeze!

Vegan Irish Stew and Home Made Bread

This should be my last catch up blog from my family's sick week.  I still have a bit of a hacking cough on day 11 of our mini plague, but I have felt considerably better the last few days and I was feeling ambitious enough yesterday to make some bread from scratch along with a huge pot of Irish Stew.  Outside is covered in a blanket of snow and inside is less germy by the day.  I have to say, our cats must like it when we are ill because we nap and rest more and that is right up their alley!  Snow, cold season, snuggling, purring cats--it is time for some vegan comfort food!

Homemade Vegan Challah (Not pronounced the way Michele Bachmann would pronounce it)

• 1 cup warm water (115 degrees)
• 1 packet (2-1/4 tsp) quick acting yeast
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup vegan sour cream or pureed tofu
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbl Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer powder
• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2-1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

I use a bread machine on the dough cycle only to make this dough, then I divide the dough in quarters and weave to make a traditional braided loaf.

Place water, agave and yeast in the bread machine pan and let sit a few minutes until yeast begins to foam.  Add oil, vegan sour cream and salt, then add egg replacer powder and flours and set machine for dough only cycle.  My bread machine will mix and knead the dough for 30 minutes and then let rise for 1 hour.  The dough will have doubled in that hour.  I then reset the machine to the dough only cycle again and let it mix and knead for 15 minutes, then I shut off the machine and work by hand.  Divide dough into 3 or 4 equal pieces, roll into ropes and braid.  Here's a handy guide to braiding Challah if you have never done so:  Braiding Challah.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with canola spray.  Place braided loaf on baking sheet, spray loaf with canola spray and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise 60-90 minutes until at least doubled.  Remove plastic wrap and bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 25-35 minutes until golden brown.  OK, so you caught me using unbleached white flour, but you could use all white whole wheat flour or half white whole wheat and half whole wheat pastry flour if you would like.  If you use all whole wheat, keep the dough moist and allow a little longer for dough to rise.

OK, so the loaf was bigger before we had dinner last night!

Vegan Irish Stew

• 2 cups dry TVP re hydrated with 1 cup Merlot and 1 cup No Beef Bouillon broth
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4-5 ribs celery, chopped
• 3-4 medium carrots, thick sliced
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup red lentils
• 3-4 medium Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 8 cups No Beef Bouillon broth
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp each rosemary, thyme, marjoram
• 3 bay leaves
• Black pepper to taste

Microwave the Merlot and 1 cup broth until boiling and add TVP chunks to absorb hot liquid.  Saute onions in Dutch oven in a little water or broth, add celery and carrots and continue to saute.  Add a bit more cool broth to the vegetables and then the flour and stir constantly to avoid lumps, add rest of broth, lentils, potatoes, mushrooms and heat on medium high heat stirring frequently until boiling.  Once boiling, reduce heat to low, add re hydrated TVP, parsley, spices and seasoning.  Simmer on low for 30 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking on the bottom of the pan.



I've had coworkers swear this was actual beef stew!

You can use parsnips, turnips, rutabaga or other root vegetables according to your taste.  Sometimes I make the stew without potatoes and then serve over Colcannon Potatoes (mashed potatoes with cabbage, green onions, parsley and/or other greens mixed right in with the potatoes---YUM!).

Another Quick Casserole Night

During this past week of coughing, Robitussin and gallons of hot tea to keep us hydrated, meals have had to be simple to prepare and have been made in large quantities.  In case you had not noticed, all of my recipes thus far are enough to feed ten to twelve people.  My wife and I do not mind leftovers, and if I am going to bother to take the time to make something incredibly delicious and healthful, then I make it in mass quantities and freeze two thirds of it for future use!  Here is another one of my quick casseroles that can be put together in about 20-30 minutes and then popped in the oven for 30-45 minutes.  It fed us for three meals and allowed me to rest more during our sick week!

Cheesy Potato, Broccoli and Chick'n Casserole

• 3-4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 16 oz bag of frozen broccoli florets
• 2 cups TVP chunks re hydrated like chick'n
• 1 recipe Cheesy Sauce (from January 4, 2012 blog)
• 1 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk drink

I start with 1 cup of Pinot Grigio and 1 cup of No Chicken Broth in the microwave until boiling and then add the 2 cups of TVP chunks to that hot liquid.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Pierce your potatoes and pop them in the microwave until they are nearly cooked like baked potatoes.  Cut potatoes into three quarter inch dice while thawing broccoli in the microwave.  Combine potatoes, broccoli and re hydrated TVP chunks in casserole dish.  Mix 1 cup of coconut milk drink into cheesy sauce and pour over casserole ingredients.  Cover with foil and bake in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes until well heated through.  (The closer your broccoli is to completely thawed and your potatoes are to completely baked, the less time the casserole has to spend in the oven.)

Kick it up with spice!  If you find the Cheesy Sauce bland to your taste, you could add more salt, but if you are trying to reduce your over all sodium consumption, try adding some curry powder or Cajun spice or spicy brown mustard to the sauce to give it more flavor without sodium.

Turmeric 'N More

So sorry for the week long silence.  You know that virus my daughter started with last Friday?  We all got it, and for my wife and me it turned into the worst week of lethargy and coughing--yuk!  I am now on day 11, and I think it's just about run its course; my wife is on about day 6.  The doctor said it was not flu, and to just take lots of decongestant, push fluids and get rest.  Robitussin is our friend!  We dragged ourselves out for a movie and dinner this past Friday for my birthday, then collapsed for the weekend once we got home.  It was just as well to stay in the rest of the weekend since we got a snow storm here in the Seattle area and it's nice to stay off the roads!

Last weekend, when I was on about day 3 of our mini plague, we had ordered Indian food from a local place here called Turmeric 'n More.  It's not a restaurant that you can go to, but a food service that has a rotating weekly menu.  You order by the end of Tuesday and they deliver the following Sunday.  We love Indian food, and before we went vegan, we had two favorite restaurants in Colorado Springs that served awesome Indian and Nepalese dishes and had incredible lunch buffets with lots of vegetarian options.  Since we went vegan again, I have greatly missed any kind of spread with such variety.  Oh sure, I make the occasional vegan curry, but to have a large spread of vegan options would be a dream come true!  Turmeric 'n More is the next best thing for us since they are the first Indian/Pakistani food service I have found that has a whole host of vegan options on their menu!  They do not use ghee or cream in any of their dishes; they cook a much healthier fare and have many items that are specifically vegan, free of any dairy or other animal products.

We ordered Aloo Lobia Masala (potatoes and black eyed peas with onions, tomatoes and spices), Palak Mung ki Dal (split mung beans with spinach and spices), Diwani Handi (five assorted vegetables with onions, tomatoes and spices), and of course, some Naan bread.  You can order basmati rice, but we were more interested in ordering the tasty dishes and so I whipped up some turmeric brown basmati rice in the pressure cooker and let them do the tough stuff.  You can choose your spice level on each dish tailoring your meal or even individual dishes to your family, friends and guests.  We sat down Sunday evening to a nice spread of wonderful Indian dishes that would help to fortify us for the upcoming week of viral rampage!

The food was excellent and it was nice to have a variety of spicy, vegan, Indian dishes with little effort on my part.  We also found that the food was a good value and paid what you would expect to pay ordering in from a restaurant.  (If each dish had come automatically with a side of rice, like with many Chinese restaurants, it would have been a great value!)  All in all, we had a good experience with Turmeric 'n More and I highly recommend anyone in the Seattle area give them a try some time.  Here is a hyperlink to their web site and menu: Turmeric 'n More.  They are located in Kenmore, WA which is about ten minutes southwest of where we live in Bothell, but they deliver into Seattle and all along the northeast suburbs of King and Snohomish counties. 

Soup du Jour

Chowders, gumbos, chilies, stews.  There's something about a hearty soup or stew that just says, "You can relax now."  They are satisfying, tasty, chock full of nutrition, and make a great starter or a great main course.  At the Vegan Inn, my menu would always have Irish Stew, Three Bean Chili, and various chowders and soups of the day.  My daughter woke up Friday morning with a sore throat (curse you cold and flu season!), and I had just bought some fresh broccoli, so I thought I would make something appealing to her.  She is still a cheesaholic, so I thought a nice cheesy broccoli soup was in order.  I often make this killer garlic and kale soup when we are sick (it's waaaayyyy better for you than chicken soup, and it has the added benefit of warding off vampires), but it's a thin soup, and my family prefers the thicker, creamier soups and chowders.  So I invented this one as I went along and it turned out darn well, so here is the recipe!

Nate's Broccoli Cheddar Soup

• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 ribs of celery, finely diced
• 2 medium carrots, finely diced
• 3 medium potatoes, finely diced
• 1crown of broccoli, finely diced
• 2 4 oz cans green chilies
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable stock
• 4 cups coconut milk (not the canned kind, the milk substitute drink from So Delicious)
• 1 recipe cheesy sauce (from 01/04/2012 blog, Welcome to the Vegan Inn)
• 1/4 cup oat flour
• Ground black pepper to taste (salt is optional)

I have three favorite cooking vessels: my large casserole dish, my pressure cooker, and my cast iron Dutch oven.  Pull out the heavy dutch oven and saute the onions, celery and carrots in some of the vegetable stock.  Add the potatoes, broccoli and green chilies, 3 of the 4 cups of vegetable stock, all of the coconut milk and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  In the last cup of vegetable stock, which should be at room temperature, whisk in the 1/4 cup oat flour.  Add the cheesy sauce and the oat flour mixture to the soup and continue to stir over low heat uncovered until soup thickens.  Add pepper to taste, and salt if you really must (although the green chilies in this recipe give it lots of flavor and slight kick in order to reduce the need for additional sodium).



The Cheesy Sauce really gives it the look and flavor of cheddar!



My family deemed this worthy of any Denny's or Village Inn type restaurants, and this version is much healthier for you than the traditional salty, gummy, orangish stuff with a few flecks of broccoli greens.  It's another one pot meal (unless you have to make the cheesy sauce the same night), that won't disappoint, and the large pot I made will easily serve twelve people (which meant leftovers for us and it was a good thing because the next day I came down with a cold and did not feel like cooking anything new!).  Give me your feedback and recipe tweaks if you try some of these dishes out at home!

Meat Analogues and A New Food Pyramid

As I said before, I use meat analogues.  I also use dairy analogues, oils and vegan margarine.  Again, these are all vegan, but some are just as processed as the animal based items they mimic.  For transitional vegans, analogues might be an important bridge to the new world of a plant based diet.  Sometimes, we just need great comfort food and that might come in the form of a (or several) delicious vegan chocolate chip cookie(s), some awesome coconut ice cream, or a trip to Mighty-O Donuts here in Seattle where they serve nothing but vegan donuts and fritters--yes, vegan apple fritters!

We have cut out refined white flour from our diet for the most part, and when I make sweet treats I use organic sugar or other organic sweeteners, but my family is prone to type 2 diabetes, and if I'm going to be vegan, I may as well seriously reduce my sugar and simple carbohydrate intake so that I can drop some weight and avoid the family curse.  So far, my blood sugar has been fine at my annual physicals, and my wife and I have been walking regularly, but I could still stand to drop about sixty pounds.  There is certainly room for me to reduce simple carbohydrates, fats, and processed vegan foods from my diet, so I guess that 2012 will involve even more transition.

The following link is to a blog by a plant based dietitian and includes a plant based food guide pyrimid.  It very much mirrors the RAVE diet (RAVE stands for no Refined foods, no Amimal foods, no Vegetable oils, no Exceptions and Exercise).  Plant Based Diet Food Pyramid   A Plant Based Diet is a very radical way to eat when compared to our typical western diet, but the western diet has deteriorated into processed and fast foods, empty and overly abundant calories, and an abnormally obese population fraught with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancers of all kinds.  Now, we all need fat in our diets, but rather than using refined oils to cook with or dress our greens, the goal on a plant based diet is to get that fat from nuts, seeds, avacados and olives as whole foods, in moderation.  This is one of the reasons that I started making the cheesy sauce made primarily from oats, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds and pimientos.  It's made from whole foods rather than refined ingredients and so is a better choice than even Daiya Vegan Shreds.

Meat analogues are often rather processed and may contain high levels of sodium for flavor.  I make a great vegan club sandwich from Dave's Killer 21 Seed Bread, Smoked Tofurky Slices, Smart Bacon, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and Vegannaise. But, it's an occasional special treat rather than a frequent menu item in our house.  My meat analogue of choice is TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) which is also used in many processed meat analogues.  Dehyrated TVP granules and chunks, however, are made solely from defatted soy flour and have the following macronutritional value:

• One quarter cup of dry TVP, which is equivalent to about 24 grams, contains 80 calories, 12 grams of protein, 3 grams of sugar and 7 grams of total carbohydrates. It also contains 4 grams of fiber, which is equivalent to 16 percent of the U.S. recommended daily allowance of fiber.

I reconstitute TVP with vegan Merlot and Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base to mimic beef chunks, vegan Pinot Grigio and Better Than Bouillion No Chicken Base to mimic chicken chunks, and a combination of the two to mimic pork.  TVP is considered a processed food, but it's made from soy beans, so I really am eating legumes!  You can certainly make great whole food stews, chilis, curries and soups without anything that mimics meat, but I still need the meaty chunks in these dishes to round out the gastric experience.  Eating a hearty, vegan Irish stew is more pleasurable to me knowing that no creature had to sacrifice it's life for me to enjoy the experience.

Original Vegan Boca Burgers are processed, but some times my family and I are just in the mood for a burger, or a patty melt.  I will be working on my own whole foods burger recipe soon, so I will post the results when I have hit the right mix of ingredients. In the mean time, if you have created or found the recipe for a great whole foods burger patty, please share with me!

Quick, Easy Fusion Food--Naan Pizza

We have a Central Market near our home and it carries many organic, vegetarian and vegan options for shoppers.  They have a packaged Indian naan bread that also comes in whole wheat and is to die for!  When we gave up dairy and eggs, we also switched to whole grains as much as possible.  We rarely eat foods made with only white flour, so this naan was a great find for us.  Not only is it a perfect accompaniment to a nice vegan curry (future blog focus for sure!), but it is the best pizza crust if you do not have time to make your own dough.

Last night was one of those nights after most of the day slipped away and I came up short on both time and motivation for meal preparation.  My wife and I had made a late afternoon grocery run and we had picked up some of that wonderful whole wheat naan.  My daughter would be getting home from class after 6:00 p.m. and we were wanting to watch results from the Iowa caucuses, so something quick and easy was in order.  Last night became pizza night!

Sometimes our pizza night features Papa Murphy's Gourmet Vegetarian.  We have them use olive oil and garlic only as the sauce; it comes with lots of  fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, red onions, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Unfortunately, they do not have a whole wheat crust option.  We have them leave off the cheese and then we add a bag of Daiya Mozzerella Shreds at home before baking.  But tonight was naan pizza night, and we would get our whole wheat crust!

The size of the naan bread is perfect for individual pizzas, I use either olive oil and garlic for the sauce or sometimes hummus.  I add fresh or frozen spinach, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, black olives, and may or may not top it off with vegan cheese shreds.  We always keep cans of olives and artichoke hearts in the pantry and frozen spinach in the freezer to have this great combination of Mediterranean flavors close at hand.  Naan pizzas take 10 minutes to throw together and I bake them at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Keep the veggie content high and the oil and cheese content low and they are filling and nutritious.

OK, so I forgot to take a picture of dinner again!  LOL  I have to get used to pulling out my cell phone and snapping pictures during meal prep in case I need to post them.  I'll even try to add some pictures to these first few posts once we have those meals again, which should be soon because they are some of our weekly favorites!

Welcome to the Vegan Inn

For years I have often thought it would be great fun to run a Bed & Breakfast Inn.  My wife and daughter and I have been vegetarian for more than fifteen years and would name our place The Veg Inn.  Our slogan would invite guests to come and relax and "veg out at the Veg Inn."  The Inn would have accommodations, spa and massage services, warm pools and vegan cuisine for a healthy getaway.  Perhaps one day my wife and I will have the capital to make this a reality, but for now this blog will be my Virtual Vegan Inn!  As it would be difficult to offer guests a virtual overnight stay or a virtual massage, I'm going to focus this blog on the vegan cuisine.

Our family decided to stop eating meat for a number of reasons, and then our reasons evolved, and then we gave up dairy and eggs for a while, and then we went back to eating dairy and eggs, and then I got cancer (which was surgically cured), and then we saw an informative program on PBS, and then we decided to be vegan again.  I will never go back to consuming animal products and at this point in my life, it is as much about cruelty issues as it is about my own health.  Our western meaty diet is not only cruel to animals, but cruel to our environment and to the rest of humanity.  We could produce so much more wholesome, organic vegan foods for our world population than we could produce cheap, toxic animal protein.  I'll get off of my cruelty soap box for now, but I will on occasion provide links to articles and web sites that better explain the science behind why a plant based diet is better for humanity.  Just remember one thing about eating animal flesh and eggs and dairy--cholesterol is their way of killing us back!

I am the primary cook in our household and I will definitely post recipes on this blog, but I also expect that there will be an evolution to my cuisine.  Eating vegan does not necessarily mean eating healthy.  There are plenty of foods that are technically vegan but provide little nutritional value and can contribute to an unbalanced diet.  Some of these are processed foods that contain high levels of sodium or fat, some are foods that many of us vegans make from scratch.  Again, I will at times provide links to articles and web sites that give better guidelines for proper vegan nutrition.  I will also include some commentary within any recipes to provoke your thoughts about what you are trying to achieve through your own diet.

So, on to the first recipe and it will contain quite a bit of commentary.  I do need to mention that I currently specialize in vegan transitional food, that is, food that helps pre vegans become vegans because it has familiar tastes and textures (yes, I use meat analogues).  Some vegans shun meat analogues, so my recipes are versatile enough for anyone to adapt to their own personal taste.  Many of my recipes are also convenient one pot, one pressure cooker, or one casserole meals, because cooking should not be complicated just because you don't eat meat and potatoes!

Nate's Mexcellent Casserole (so named because my wife said, "This Mexican Casserole is excellent!")

Ingredients (original recipe)

• 1 15 oz can black beans with liquid (organic and low sodium)
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid (organic, low or no added sodium)
• 1 6 or 8 oz can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 4 oz can mild diced green chilies with liquid
• 1 15 oz can corn, drained, or 1 lb frozen corn
• 2 heaping Tbsp chili powder
• 1 heaping Tbsp cumin
• 1 12 oz package corn tortillas, quartered
• 1 8 oz package Daiya vegan cheddar style shreds (or one recipe cheesy sauce, below)*

Additional optional ingredients

• 1 bunch of kale, finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 cups dried TVP (textured vegetable protein) chunks, re hydrated (recipe below)**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees



In a large mixing bowl, combine beans, tomatoes, chilies, olives, corn, chili powder and cumin (and, if using, kale, onions and re hydrated TVP chunks).  The liquid from the vegetables along with the spices will make a nice, enchilada like sauce as the casserole bakes. 

Simple ingredients and spices in the
convenient economy size!









Use a large (GINORMOUS) mixing bowl when adding kale.



 Spray a large casserole dish with non stick cooking spray (I use canola or olive oil spray).  Put about a cup of the mixture on the bottom of the casserole, then one layer of the quartered corn tortillas, then another 1-2 cups of the mixture over the tortillas, then about a third of the Daiya shreds (or spread a third of the cheesy sauce). Repeat mixture, tortillas, shreds/cheesy sauce another two times ending with the shreds/cheesy sauce on top and cover the casserole with foil.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour (depending on how thick your casserole is and whether you used frozen corn and raw onions).  The original recipe will serve six hungry people (or our family of three twice), and I would serve with sides of kale and green salad.  If you add the kale to the casserole, then maybe just serve with a green salad.  My original recipe tasted amazingly like a combination of Amy's Cheese Enchiladas and Amy's Black Bean Enchiladas.


 

  

Kale adds volume so use a huge casserole.









 



  







With raw onions and kale, I baked this for 75-90 minutes.

   
My family loves Daiya non dairy cheese, and although vegan, it does have a considerable amount of oil and sodium. (Note that there was no salt added to the above recipe.  The spices give it so much good flavor there is no need for salt other than what's already in the ingredients.)  For vegans who would like a more nutritious, whole foods cheesy sauce, use the following recipe.  It might add time to your cooking, but if you really like it, you can make several batches on the weekend to use during the week.

*Cheesy Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oat flour (or 1/2 cup oatmeal)
• 1/4 cup large nutritional yeast flakes (or 2 rounded Tbsp fine nutritional yeast flakes)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 4 oz jar pimientos
• salt to taste (either none or up to a tsp depending on whether you are controlling your sodium)

Place water, out flour, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder in sauce pan and whisk together as you bring the mixture to a simmer on medium heat.  It will begin to get very thick at which point you can remove from heat and add tahini and pimientos.  Blend with an immersion blender until smooth; add salt (if using) while blending.  If too thick, add a little more water or non dairy milk and blend some more. If too thin, sprinkle in a little more oat flour and return to low heat to thicken while blending.  The pimientos along with the yellow nutritional yeast give this sauce a nice cheddar color.  The nutritional yeast and the tahini give it a nice, sharp cheesy flavor.

**Reconstituting TVP chunks (I buy mine online since I cannot find them at Whole Foods or other natural markets in our area)

Ingredients

• 1 cup vegan red wine (I use Merlot)
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp Better than Bouillon No Beef Base (they are just coming out with half sodium products!)
• 2 cups TVP Chunks

In a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup heat wine, water and bouillon in microwave just until boiling (about 6-8 minutes).  Add TVP chunks and let stand for 10 minutes (it helps to put a small plate inside the measuring cup on top of the chunks, weighing it down with a large can of food or other weight).  The red wine gives the TVP chunks a very beefy look and the bouillon gives them a very beefy flavor.

Note that my recipes often include convenience options--canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned corn, packaged vegan cheese.  If you are on a budget or would otherwise prefer to start your recipes with dry beans, by all means do so.  You can plan your meals ahead for the week and cook a larger pot of beans then, along with multiple batches of cheesy sauce, etc.  I use a pressure cooker any time I want to cook brown rice or brown basmati rice or dry beans or lentils.  You can also use completely fresh ingredients, and make your own vegan corn tortillas.  It all depends on how much time you want to spend in creation mode!

Live long and prosper! (except the V  I am now forming with my hand, stands for vegan rather than Vulcan!  LOL