Where did summer go?!
- Dinner, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
29 Sep 2010
Holy cow – has it seriously been 2 months since I posted here? I think about posting all the time! But honestly, since I went back to work in August (I’m a teacher), life has sped up to mach-2 (with my hair on fire – hehe!), and I haven’t done much in the kitchen.
I’m getting back to it, though, with the return of the usual fall and winter suspects. I can’t wait to get back into my butternut squash loving mode! While I’m sad to no longer find yummy blueberries and cherries and other amazing fruits at my local farmers’ markets, I’m equally happy to get back into the winter bounties.
As a sort of pot-luck dinner last week, I pulled together some of my recent Whole Foods organic produce finds – namely, a zucchini, a yellow squash, an orange pepper, and a leek.
I chopped them all up…
… sauteed them in a bit of extra virgin olive oil, along with some Italian seasonings and a bit of Garlic Gold nuggets, then added a jar of organic marinara and simmered for a bit.Add that to some whole wheat pasta and, dinner!
I proceeded to clear out the leftovers, eating this meal every day for most of last week!It made me wonder: why don’t we always put veggies in our spaghetti? It was delicious, and it definitely bulked up the meal without adding crazy calories (while totally adding a nutritional punch!) I think even non-veggie eaters could enjoy this, because it’s so much like… spaghetti!
And, it was super easy, to boot
I’m certainly no chef, but I have had a blast so far this year learning how to cook. I would have never tried anything like this before 2010. I think a lot of different veggies could work in this dish – just roast or saute or steam whatever you’ve got on hand, and toss it in with your spaghetti sauce! I’m thinking broccoli would be good… or maybe even a spinach spaghetti sauce. Nom!
Look out, world – I may need to create a category for my spaghetti sauce experiments. I love spaghetti in the winter. It’s such a warm, gooey comfort food. One thing I’d like to try this winter is making “noodles” from squash. I just read a post on one of my fave food blogs – The Front Burner – on just this sort of thing!
So, while summer has made its way out, and old man winter will be creeping in, I plan to enjoy the bounties of winter. How about you?
Posted: September 29, 2010 at 10:28 am
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Real Food FTW!
- Dinner, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
21 Jul 2010
Food, real food!
Dinner consisted of black bean veggie burgers – a concoction from Emily over at The Front Burner, topped with a roasted red pepper pesto and spicy dill pickles, roasted broccoli, and roasted garlic potatoes.The other day, when I was making the roasted potatoes with the last of my bag of ‘taters, I threw a red pepper in the oven with it. I found the perfect use for that pepper today – I made roasted red pepper pesto, loosely based on a recipe from Brendan Frazier’s Thrive
book. It included 1 roasted red pepper, some basil, a couple tbsp of nutritional yeast, some sesame seeds, a tbsp of hemp oil, and a pinch of salt. I think that was it! Very tasty.
The spicy dill pickles were a farmers’ market find.
The burgers were very easy to make – throw some raw oats, black beans, pumpkin seeds, and spices into the food processor, then form into patties and bake! I plan to experiment with some different spices. This burger was very savory and really didn’t need any toppings – it was that good!
This was the first time I ever roasted broccoli. I tossed it with some olive oil and salt and pepper and stuck it in the oven with the burgers. It turned out to be the best broccoli I’ve ever had! Steamed broccoli seems flavorless to me, and raw broccoli just isn’t my favorite thing in the world. But roasting it gave it a really subtle, delicious flavor. So good!The roasted garlic potatoes were the splurge of the plate
Posted: July 21, 2010 at 6:54 pm
{Tags: beans, broccoli, pickles, potatoes}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Ethical Eating
- Organic, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
08 Jul 2010
Caitlin over at Healthy Tipping Point has a great post up about her definition of “ethical eating.” I enjoyed reading the post and its comments, because this topic has been one I have mulled over a great bit over the past 7 months. (Wow, has it really been 7 months since I went organic?!)
In order to eat ethically, one must have some sort of code of eating – some set of principles or ways of thinking about eating (such that to be unethical would be to break those rules). Defining my own personal “code of eating” has been a challenge, and not just due to the changes it has invoked in my lifestyle. That has been the easy part. The challenge has been in navigating the social labels, and in absorbing and responding to the reactions from the public, friends, and family to my choices.
Caitlin’s definition of ethical eating is this:
I believe that “ethical eating” means you strive to make educated decisions about your food choices and the impact such choices have on our community, animals, and our environment, and then you strive to reach the best conclusion for YOU.
Notice that nowhere in her code of ethical eating does it say, “eat this, but not that,” or, “you have to be a vegetarian,” or, “you have to be vegan.” I like her definition. Based on Caitlin’s definition, I am an ethical eater.
With that, each person’s set of principles for eating will be different – and the point is, that’s completely OK.
Another concept hit upon in Caitlin’s post is this notion that you have to be a “perfect” eater to make a difference. This is the part of the equation I have wrestled with, and this is where the labels come in. When people ask me how I eat, I respond that I am vegetarian. If it is somebody that is truly interested, I’ll go on to say I’m “vegan at home,” but that I do eat cheese 4-5 times a month when I eat out at restaurants. So, what am I? A 25-days-a-month vegan? An 83% vegan? I don’t like labels, personally, but they are helpful in explaining my choices to others with less knowledge on the subject.
I don’t eat meat, seafood, or eggs. I don’t drink cow’s milk. I infrequently eat dairy products (cheese, yogurt, or dairy used in baking). I choose organic foods whenever possible – and to make this possible, I go out of my way to do my grocery shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. This is my code of eating. These are my rules.
Knowing what I know about factory farming and how we come to get most of our cow’s milk, I’m equally inclined not to eat dairy as I am not to eat eggs or meat or seafood. When I do eat cheese, it’s not because I can’t live without it. (Don’t get me wrong – I love cheese, but I really don’t miss it). I eat it because it is easier to allow myself to eat cheese at restaurants – because picking through a menu to try to find vegan options and then get the servers to relay your message appropriately to the cook staff can be complicated. Is that a cop-out that allows me to break the vegan ethos and eat cheese? I don’t know. But I do feel “guilty” about it – that I eat cheese. That I’m not “vegan enough.”
Yogurt is another bone of contention with me. I stopped consuming dairy milk and yogurt because of my desire not to spend my hard earned money on an industry that does not operate in line with my sense of compassion toward animals. But, I’ve had a hard time reaching my daily vitamin D and calcium requirements without my daily cup of yogurt. I’ve tried many different brands of soy yogurt. I don’t like any of them (though I love soy milk). I have resorted to taking a calcium/D vitamin supplement. This goes against my preference of getting my nutrition from food when possible. But eating dairy yogurt would make me even less vegan.
Here’s the question: who said that 100% vegan is perfection? Why does perfection even enter the equation? Am I not helping a great number of animals by not eating them? Am I not helping our planet just the same?
Last year, I went on a little day trip with my family to a dairy farm in Indiana called Fair Oaks Farms. What I saw there did not disturb me. I did not feel like I was watching unhappy cows. Of course, I know there is a deeper truth, and that deeper truth is disturbing (like, the fates of all of the baby calves that are born that happen to be male). It’s not a perfect industry, and not all farms are as “happy” as Fair Oaks. But if I choose to eat yogurt or cheese, I am doing so having fully considered where my food comes from and what effects its processing and manufacturing have on the animals and the environment.
Does that make me an animal killer? No. Life is not black or white. There is a gray area between these extremes. We have to maintain some sense of perspective, especially on a topic as personal and broad in scope as what we put in our bodies. When I visit an animal shelter, I want to take every single abandoned puppy and kitten home. I want to help all of the critters in my back yard – the birds, the bees, the rabbits, even the baby minks. Can I save them all? Should I save them all? No.
I can and should do my best to find a balance between what I need in my life and what is best for them – my animal friends. I rescued 3 cats; that is enough. I could not have more than 3 cats in my house and care for them properly. When I feel the need to do more, I donate to animal welfare organizations and local no-kill shelters. I do my part, whenever I can, however I can.
It’s the same with food. I need to find the balance between what I need for my health and well-being and what’s best for the animals and the planet. And I need to be OK with the fact that there is no such thing as perfection. Eating is a lifelong practice. We rehearse our food choices 3 times per day or more, every day, in hopes of achieving improvement. I hope to improve to the point of balance – a sense of peace with my choices and their effects on the world around me.
I need to draw my lines in the sand, enact those principles as my code of eating, and allow myself the luxuries of reflection, revision, and flexibility.
What is “ethical eating” to you? Do you have to be vegetarian or vegan to be an ethical eater?
Posted: July 8, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Mickey Mouse Breakfast
- Breakfast, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
28 Jun 2010
When I was a kid, my parents used to take my brother and I to a little restaurant down the street called Olympic Star. It was (and still is) your typical American diner. We didn’t eat out often, so it was a treat when we did.
The kids’ menu had one novelty item that on most days, I felt too grown-up to order. But sometimes… just sometimes… I’d succumb to its sweet, gooey calling:
The Mickey Mouse pancakes.
These were no ordinary pancakes, you see. First of all, the looked like Mickey Mouse. One big pancake made up his head, and two smaller pancakes were cooked right onto his head to make up the trademark ears. (In retrospect, how in the world did they flip that giant pancake without breaking off the ears?!) But that wasn’t all – these were chocolate chip pancakes.
Oh, the decadence of chocolate for breakfast! (Actually, back then, I doubt I knew what “decadent” meant – I just thought it was so naughty to eat chocolate for breakfast, and could not believe my parents would let this happen!) But they did, and every so often, I’d dig into that melty, chocolaty mess with reckless abandon.
I decided to whip up some vegan pancakes for breakfast this morning. While they were cooking, I tossed some frozen blueberries in there.
I topped them with a drizzle of 100% pure maple syrup (if you’ve never had real maple syrup, try it – you’ll never go back to that chemical laden fake stuff in the cute little bottle that talks to you) and a sliced up banana. Then, it hit me – the call of the Mickey Mouse pancakes.
What the heck. I’m a grown-up now – I am certainly entitled to a little bit of chocolate love with my breakfast! So I blobbed on a teaspoon of Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter too.
Posted: June 28, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Food is so undeniably woven into our lives and our memories. This breakfast was a wonderful trip down memory lane – and I didn’t have to beg my dad to buy me a candy bar from the glass case on my way out.
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
A Twist on Baked Beans
- Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
23 Jun 2010
It’s grilling season! What’s the one thing you always find at a summertime cookout? Baked beans.
I just tried baked beans for the first time this summer. I know – all these years, you’d think they’d have been one of my favorite foods – so sweet and smoky. But no. I thought they looked weird. Strange color. Mushy. So I never tried them. But when I finally did (since this is the Year of Trying New Foods), whaddya know – I loved ‘em. Doggone it.
So last night when I dug through my produce drawers in the fridge to see what had to be used up, imagine my glee when I found a couple corn on the cob! (Corns on the cob? Corn on the cobs? Whatever!) I’ll take any excuse these days to throw veggies on the grill.
What goes great with grilled corn on the cob? A grilled veggie burger or veggie dog, of course! (I went veggie burger, to have an excuse to try out a new jar of pickles I got at the Lockport Farmers’ Market – a spicy dill pickle). And… baked beans!
I was feeling creative as I dug through the pantry, so instead of whipping up traditional baked beans, I went with a new twist on an old favorite: BBQ baked lentils.
These took a little while to prepare, as the lentils take a half hour to cook, and then the baking process takes another hour – but really, I only spent 5 minutes or so actually tending to the prep. The rest of the time was unattended cook time. So, they’re easy! If you plan ahead just a bit to fit them into your schedule, they’re well worth the wait.
Lentils are a great source of plant-based protein (third highest behind soybeans and hemp). When not going with the traditional cookout meal, I could see having these lentils on top of a salad or in a wrap (hmmm that may have to be my lunch today!) They’d even be good mixed with some brown rice and a side of greens for a complete protein and some vitamin C to help with the absorption of all that good iron in the lentils.
Behold: a typical summertime meal!
[recipe-show recipe=bbq-baked-lentils]
Posted: June 23, 2010 at 12:28 pm
{Tags: bbq, grill, lentils, Recipes}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Simple Lunch
- Lunch, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
16 Jun 2010
I get really excited when I make a wrap and it actually wraps up nicely. Sometimes I stuff it too full. Sometimes I’m a clutz and just can’t get the thing to roll up without all of the guts falling out. Sometimes I do great, right up to the cut-it-in-half part, and then destroy the whole thing while trying to cut it.
Today, the stars aligned, and I made a pretty wrap!
I really could make a category here called “Adventures in Wrapping,” but it would be nearly empty because most of my wraps are nowhere near photo-worthy.My first foray into the world of making wraps was based on the discovery that cucumbers make a pretty decent sandwich base. You see, I occasionally have a hankerin’ for a Jimmy John’s sandwich. When I went vegetarian, I had to change my normal sandwich order over to the #6 – the creatively named “Vegetarian” (sans mayo and tomato, please – I still can’t stand the texture of tomatoes). It basically amounts to a cucumber sandwich with a wonderful avocado spread.
I started using cucumbers in my wraps, and was really digging them. Then, I worked out my own version of a vegan avocado ranch spread, inspired by a dressing recipe in the You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!
cookbook.
Ever since, I’ve been using those two as the basis of many delicious veggie wraps.
Today’s concoction features, of course, cucumbers and avocado spread, along with a chopped up veggie burger, about 3/4 of a carrot (shredded), a handful of baby spinach, a handful of arugula, and a drizzle of garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil. (That’s my giraffe friend Milly pictured in the background).I have tried a lot of wraps in my day, and finding ones without offensive ingredient lists can be difficult. Lately, I’ve been using Smart & Delicious Tomato Basil Soft Wraps from La Tortilla Factory. The ingredient list isn’t perfect, but it’s not terribly bad, and they’ve got 12g of fiber per wrap at only 100 calories. They’re nice, big 9″ wraps and are (as the name says) very soft and easy to stuff with goodies (even for a wrap-challenged soul like me).
I swear, wraps taste better when they look pretty.
Posted: June 16, 2010 at 5:20 pm
{Tags: arugula, avocado, carrot, cucumber, spinach, veggie burger, wrap}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Grilled Banana Sandwich
- Breakfast, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
15 Jun 2010
Oh, you sweet, decadent thing, you. You naughty, naughty thing… or maybe not so naughty! A naughty imposter.
Behold: the grilled banana sandwich.
Or, the bottom half of the grilled banana sandwich.Sweet, delicious goodness. This brunch sandwich was inspired by Caitlin’s Grilled Banana Sandwich over at Healthy Tipping Point. The only real difference is that I vegan-ized mine to avoid using eggs and dairy. This thing is like french toast and bananas all wrapped up in a sandwich!
I figured this would make a good post-run meal, as it’s got a good amount of carbs (and readily-available sugars via the bananas), and a little bit of protein. (I actually pumped mine up a little by adding a tablespoon of hemp protein powder to the liquid mixture, but didn’t add that to the recipe as it was pretty specific to my workout recovery goals – but for the record, it worked just fine!)
The whole thing clocks in around 300 calories, and makes for a pretty darn huge breakfast! You could even eat it like french toast – though I don’t think any syrup would be required, as the warm grilled bananas offer plenty of gooey delicious topping. I have visions of tossing warm blueberries on top next time. This one is definitely entering the regular rotation
[recipe-show recipe=grilled-banana-sandwich]
Posted: June 15, 2010 at 1:33 pm
{Tags: banana, bread, Recipes}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Italian Eggplant over Pasta
- Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
13 Jun 2010
This week’s trip out to Whole Foods Market yielded a beautiful purple organic eggplant! I’ve never cooked with fresh eggplant – only with pre-prepared, frozen varieties. I was excited to get to work with the real thing!
I knew I was going to go Italian with this beauty (thanks to Armando for the suggestion!). I wanted to try grilling it, but rain (like Niemi) said NO! Enter: the ol’ George Foreman grill. There’s got to be a way to make eggplant on the George, right?!
Indeed! So I whipped up a simple cornmeal breading with oregano, garlic salt, and a little chili powder. Then I sliced up that eggplant and rubbed each slice with a light coating of garlic-infused olive oil. I dredged the slices through the cornmeal breading, patted them down, and tossed them onto the George Foreman grill. 5 minutes later, they smelled wonderful! I transferred the eggplant rounds to a baking dish, topped with a jar of organic basil marinara and some Daiya dairy-free mozzarella, and baked for 15 minutes until the cheese melted.
I served the eggplant and marinara over some whole-wheat pasta, and decided I could eat that dish ALL DAY LONG. Mwah! SO good!
Fresh eggplant is SO much more delicious than the frozen varieties! It tasted so fresh, but was so easy to make. And, regarding non-dairy cheese – I’ve tried quite a few brands, all of which have disappointed me. But this Daiya brand – I have found a winner! It feels a bit more moist than typical shredded cheese, but melted and stretched just like dairy cheese, and tasted wonderful! It almost had more of a parmesan taste to it, but that was fine with me. Daiya vegan cheeses are casein-free, dairy-free, have no cholesterol or trans-fats, all natural, and free of common allergens like soy, gluten, lactose, and others. Thumbs up!
I was drooling as everything came together with this meal and as such, didn’t take the time to get a picture – but this meal is definitely going into my weekly rotation!
[recipe-show recipe=italian-eggplant-over-pasta]
Posted: June 13, 2010 at 6:47 pm
{Tags: eggplant, marinara, pasta, Recipes}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
Vegan Pancakes
- Breakfast, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
23 May 2010
I’ve been craving pancakes for about a week now. It all started last weekend when I made a breakfast crumble-cake that called for pancake mix in the ingredients. I don’t keep much of the pre-made stuff in my house these days, so I found a recipe to make my own pancake mix. The leftover mix has been sitting on my kitchen counter taunting me ever since.
This morning, I decided to remedy that situation! I used my homemade pancake mix and made some vegan-friendly pancakes. Now that they are happily in my tummy, I can declare with confidence that you do NOT need that chemical-laden crap-in-a-box to make a fluffy, tasty pancake – and my tummy is even happier knowing that no animals were harmed in the making of this breakfast.
You get way more fiber and protein with a 1/3 less calories in these pancakes versus the standard stuff from a box. Huzzah! I served mine with blueberries and a drizzle of 100% pure maple syrup. I don’t have a photo to share, but that’s mostly due to embarrassment over my pancake-flipping abilities. I could use some practice in that arena.
[recipe-show recipe=vegan-pancakes]
Posted: May 23, 2010 at 11:21 am
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
No-Mess Sweet & Sour Tofu
- Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
07 May 2010
I just received my first issue of Vegetarian Times magazine (I love magazines!!), and was excited to see a section with some recipes made using FOIL! Recently, my sister-in-law Amanda suggested I try roasting veggies and such with foil for easy clean-up. I hadn’t thought of that (I’m new to this “cooking” thing, remember?!) So when VT came to my rescue with some recipes, I barely waited a day to try one out.
My first foil adventure is with the Sweet & Sour Tofu Packets recipe from the May/June 2010 edition of Vegetarian Times. I adapted the recipe to what I had on hand, leaving out a few spices and using a bag of frozen organic tri-colored peppers instead of the recommended fresh red and green ones. Still, it turned out really good!
I’m totally hooked on these Garlic Gold nuggets from Kath’s Open Sky Store. They’re tasty and crunchy and organic!
I’m also totally digging tofu. It’s so versatile! And it takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with. This recipe originally called for Asian-marinated tofu, but as hungry as I was, I just couldn’t bring myself to commit to the hour or so required for a proper soaking. I knew, however, that the tofu would pick up the wonderful flavors of the pineapple and coconut milk, so I wasn’t worried.I learned a tofu trick from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s “Food for Thought” podcast over at Compassionate Cooks. She recommends freezing the firm varieties of tofu, then thawing them before using. It makes the tofu much easier to drain (you can almost wring it out!) – no more stacking towels and books on your tofu blocks. It worked really well for this recipe and saved me a good 20 minutes or so.
Here’s a packet, ready to fold up and pop into the oven! Tofu, veggies, pineapple, and a sweet-and-sour coconut milk sauce. I learned some cool things about coconut milk from another recent book purchase – Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide by Brendan Brazier
Tada! My packets turned out a little runny – I drained off some of the liquid before storing the remaining leftovers, but hadn’t figured that out in time for this plate! I served the sweet and sour tofu over brown rice. It was exactly what I was expecting – yummy, sweet, and sour. This meal came together really quickly and had very little clean-up due to the use of the foil packets. Thumbs up![recipe-show recipe=sweet-and-sour-tofu]
Posted: May 7, 2010 at 8:10 pm
{Tags: coconut milk, foil, peppers, pineapple, Recipes, rice, tofu}
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
Related Posts
