A Few Reviews
Great news!! I got my tax return and it was a little bit more than it’s been the last few years. As soon as I saw it had been put in my bank account this morning, I ran down to Greenlife Grocery. Not for a shopping spree (which I’m sure will come later), but just to grab a few items and look for one in particular – Amy’s new vegan Mac n Cheese. To my disappointment, however, they didn’t carry it.
Since I had planned on having that for lunch, I had to think of something else. I decided I wanted a fresh salad with some kind of pasta. I made a quick spaghetti, just enough for one serving. The sauce I used was Newman’s Own Sockarooni sauce, which is my favorite spaghetti sauce. It’s chunky with tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms, and it has a deliciousness to it I haven’t found elsewhere.
The salad was simple: baby spinach, carrot, celery, red onion, raisins, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper. While I was at the store I stared at the multitude of dressings for at least ten minutes before I finally settled on Drew’s Goddess Dressing. I knew I would like it – Goddess dressing is my favorite, although it’s not exactly good for you.
As a snack, and because I wanted to try something new, I picked up a small bag of sweet potato tortilla chips from Food Should Taste Good. I loved the ingredient list I saw upon picking them up: just corn, oil, sweet potato, corn bran, evaporated cane juice, and sea salt. It bothers me to eat junk food because there’s usually a super long list of mystery ingredients and chemical that have no place in your body.
I was a wee bit disappointed, however. They just weren’t flavorful enough. I suspect they would be great dipped in hummus though, because the crunch was perfect.
So that’s what I had for lunch. I also have a stir-fry to share because I don’t think it needs its own post. I made it for lunch for my boyfriend the weekend before last, and both of us thought it was delicious.
The stir-fry was sliced red and yellow bell peppers, broccoli, extra-firm tofu, turmeric, cayenne, mushrooms, onions, and soy sauce served over saffron rice.
There’s the food. Hopefully it’ll get more interesting around here now that I have money to spend on food again. I was getting mighty tired of peanut butter ramen noodles.
Sassy Sandwich Bread
I will never buy another loaf of bread.
Right now, my apartment smells incredible – just like freshly baked, homemade vegan bread.
While this wasn’t my first attempt at bread, it was my first time making a loaf of bread. All I wanted was something I could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with, which for some reason I’ve been craving for days.
Also, why don’t I use Sarah Kramer’s La Dolce Vegan more often? I usually skip it for one of my “fancier” or newer vegan cookbooks, but then I cook from it and the food is great.
For the bread I used Kramer’s Sassy Sandwich Bread. The ingredients are basic, which is great for someone with a very limited pantry. For the flour I used half whole-wheat and half all-purpose.
Besides the smell, it tastes delicious. It was a little soggy along the sides, but I think I greased the loaf pan with a bit too much oil.
In other news, my birthday is this Friday! Yay!
“Chicken” Seitan and Quinoa
I’ve ate so much beans and rice lately that I’m starting to go crazy. I wanted something different for dinner, and went through my cookbooks looking for something I could make with the few ingredients I actually have on hand right now. In Sarah Kramer’s La Dolce Vegan, there is a recipe for basic instant gluten, which is like a super-easy seitan. The only two ingredients are equal parts vital wheat gluten and water. You then take the resulting dough and use for one of her mock meats (such as sausage, fish, ham, etc).
I was pretty suspicious at first because the dough was pretty watery. Also, it looked like such a small amount given the recipe says it makes enough for “2 large or 4 small servings.”
The faux chicken broth looked pretty good, so I put the ingredients together. Although the seitan dough is super simple, it is the broths that make these recipes. The chicken recipe was a combo of herbs like sage, thyme, and celery seed with some other ingredients. I actually tasted the broth before adding the seitan, and was impressed with how tasty it was considering its simplicity.
It took about an hour to cook. Unlike other seitan I make, you cook this until the dough absorbs all the liquid. I shouldn’t have been worried that it wouldn’t make enough for 2 servings – the seitan absorbed the liquid and expanded considerably.
Best of all, it was really good. The recipe suggests baking it for 30 minutes to give it a chewier texture, but I didn’t feel like turning the oven on, so just ate it as is. I cooked some quinoa with peas, capers, nutritional yeast, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar to go with it.
So thumbs up to Sarah Kramer’s recipe. Next I’m going to try the faux ham recipe.
Balsamic-glazed Turnips with Kale
Folks, I am so so happy to share this recipe with you. The flavors melded together so well, it was colorful, and filling. Plus it smelled fantastic while it was cooking and even on the plate. To be honest, I’m a little surprised at myself for creating it. Go me 
Balsamic-Glazed Turnips with Kale (serves 4)
4 medium turnips, peeled and diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground coriander
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar, plus extra to taste
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1. Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion slices and 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is absorbed. This will take 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the carrots and turnips. Add the red wine vinegar, and I added another splash of balsamic vinegar. Also add the salt and sugar.
3. Add 1 cup of water and cover. This will help the vegetables to cook quicker. Cook, stirring every so often, until water is almost absorbed.
4. Add the kale, and cover. Cook until liquid is absorbed. At this time, if the kale is still not done, add a little more water (1/4 cup at a time) until it is tender.
5. Serve over grain of choice (I used Israeli couscous) and drizzle with a little more balsamic vinegar.
I served this alongside broccoli with a little Earth Balance, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. The whole meal was completely satisfying.
CNN: Dog Meat
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Anyone who refuses to eat dog or cat because it is “cruel” and yet will happily take a bite out of cow or pig, is a hypocrite. Cruelty is cruelty and suffering is suffering, regardless of how cute and adorable an animal is.
I hope that stories like this will get people thinking about where their food comes from, that a cow, chicken, pig, or duck is just as sentient and alive as a dog or cat. It’s time to stop eating meat, people!
EDIT: Sorry, I couldn’t get the video to embed properly. Just click the link to view the video.
Miso Soup and Mango Lassi
The weather has been so incredible here in Asheville. Mid- to high-60′s, sunny, happy. I feel rejuvenated after that long, snowy winter!
With the sun shining so brightly, I was craving something light for lunch. I didn’t have anything to make a salad, so I settled on some instant red miso soup and the mango lassi from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen.
I’m not a fan of instant soup at all. I would much rather whip up my own. However, I have seriously been wanting some miso, but right now I can’t afford it. I found a packet of Sushi Chef Instant Red Miso Soup for about $1.50, so I thought “What the hell – I’ll try it.” I was pretty surprised. It doesn’t have the health benefits of homemade miso soup (boiling miso kills some of the nutritional goodies), but it tasted pretty good. Waaay better than the last instant miso soup I had!
Last summer, I relied on Ani Phyo’s smoothies as breakfasts before I headed to work every morning. I tend to relate summer pretty heavily to smooties and fruit drinks (homemade of course – why drink something with 10% juice and buckets of added sugar?). The Mango Lassi is one of my favorites, mainly because I love mango with a passion.
Overall, my lunch was light and flavorful, just as I wanted it. Now I’m ready to get back inside before the rain hits.
A special spot within the Botanical Gardens where I played in the creek with a very lovely fellow
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Review
This is a very belated post. I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life months ago, and I’ve been meaning to give a review.
The book is basically a memoir of Kingsolver and her family’s experience of living as very self-sufficient locavores over one year. They grew their own heirloom vegetables, baked their own bread, canned sauces and veggies, etc. For people who are passionate about knowing where their food originates and how it comes to their plate, this book would be an interesting read.
However, this wasn’t exactly a vegan-friendly read and it is hard for me to recommend it. The family raises their own poultry, and slaughters them in their backyard. Parts are relatively graphic. I do want to say one thing, however – I would much rather have people eating pasture-grazed meat than factory farmed. At the same time, though, it’s still completely unnecessary and cruel.
There is one major reason I don’t want to recommend this book too strongly: Kingsolver’s ridiculous rant on vegetarians and vegans. Up until page 220, I was very happy reading this book – after all, I worked at a farm market for six years and I love learning about how food is grown. But the few pages the author devotes to hating on vegetarians ruined the book for me. I wish I could reprint the whole section here, but here are a few excerpts:
Most of us, if we know even a little about where our food comes from, understand that every bite put into our mouths since infancy was formerly alive. The blunt biological truth is that we animals can only remain alive by eating other life. Plants are inherently more blameless, having been born with the talent of whipping up their own food… Strangely enough, it’s the animals to which we’ve assigned some rights, while the saintly plants we main and behead with moral impunity.
To believe we can live without taking life is delusional. Humans may only cultivate nonviolence in our diets by degree.
I’m unimpressed by arguments that condemn animal harvest while ignoring, wholesale, the animal killing that underwrites vegetal foods. Uncountable deaths by pesticide and habitat removal – the beetles and bunnies that die collaterally for our bread and veggie-burgers – are lives plumb wasted. … without it [animals for food] our gentle domestic beasts in their picturesque shapes, colors, and finely tuned purposes would never have had the distinction of existing. To envision a vegan version of civilization, start erasing from all time the Three Little Pigs, the boy who cried wolf, Charlotte’s Web, … Next, erase civilization, brought to you by the people who learned to domesticate animals.
Emphasis mine.
Those are just a few things Kingsolver says. Her argument is weak at best. She uses as ammunition a few points that anti-vegetarians have been saying for years: plants have feelings, there wouldn’t be pigs if it weren’t for people eating meat, blah blah blah. I don’t think I can express how disappointed I was in Barbara Kingsolver as I read those words. Like I said before, it ruined the book for me.
Plants do not have a central nervous system. Nor do they have a brain with which to process feelings. Therefore, they do not feel pain and are not sentient. The plant argument is tired and redundant and unfounded in science. I wish people would stop using it. It’s hard for me to take someone seriously who even brings it up.
Also, how were animals domesticated? Humans took them out of the wild and bred them. Without humans, there would still be animals, although they wouldn’t be quite what we have today. Another silly claim.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the book. I love food, and I love how it is grown. I just hope people don’t read it and believe the myths Kingsolver puts forward about veg*nism.
Snow, cake, and more jerk seitan
Asheville got another couple of inches of snow this week. Coming from the Outer Banks, even a tiny bit of snow excites me! Here’s a couple pictures of the snow:
Of course, after the 12 inches we got in mid-December, 2 inches isn’t much. But it’s still beautiful.
As long as I’ve had Veganomicon, for some reason I never noticed the Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Pecan Streusel. When it comes to sweets, I’m seriously lacking a sweet tooth. I just don’t care much for candy/cookies/etc., although I looovve baking (luckily I have a boyfriend who will eat all of my treats!). This recipe didn’t seem as if it would be overly sweet though, so I bought a can of pumpkin and made it.
It was great. Not too sweet, perfectly moist, exquisite smell. I would make this again, especially for thanksgiving. The pecan streusel topping was crunchy, and the pecan-pumpkin combination was really tasty.
Remember the jerk seitan I made a few days ago? Well, it was so good I decided to make it again, this time for two. For some reason, it tasted even better the second time around, and looked better.
jerk seitan, mashed sweet potatoes, and brown rice
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Via the EasyVegan blog, I became aware of a great interview with Ph.D and author Dr. Melanie Joy. In the interview, she discusses “Carnism.” It’s fascinating stuff. Part One/Part Two
BBQ pineapple pizza
Last weekend my friend Carol came over and we had a little pizza party at my boyfriend’s house. Carol suggested BBQ pineapple pizzas, which was great because pineapple is my second favorite pizza topping (after artichoke hearts). We spread some Carolina-style BBQ sauce over the crusts (one with a little ketchup), topped it with slices of green bell pepper, onion, garlic, and some soy curls she had bought with her. We also put some Teese on top.
This pizza was my first encounter with both soy curls and Teese. The soy curls were better than I had imaged they would be – I sort of expected something bland and chewy. However, they tasted pretty good and soon I’d like to get my own bag to use for tacos and stir-fries. The Teese was pretty good too (we used Cheddar), but I honestly think I prefer FYH or Cheezly.
The next day the BF and I went hiking near Grandfather mountain, and I took the leftover pizza for lunch. These are the only two pictures we managed to take since we didn’t think of doing it the night they were made.
