Monday, March 19, 2012

Long time no post!

It's been quite a few days since my last post, and I have been cooking up some goodies lately now that I'm on Spring break. My mom's birthday was last week so when I came home I made a vegan Chocolate Mousse Stuffed Chocolate Cake - delish! That mousse is honestly one of the best I've ever tasted, and is going to be my go-to mousse recipe from now on. It may seem a little too liquidy at first but firms right up in the fridge. I can't wait to make these in my fancy little martini glasses.

We went out for lunch yesterday at a new, extremely empty restaurant, in which I had a black bean burger. It was very tasty, and the waitress said that it was vegan, but anytime you let someone else cook for you, you run the risk of eating some animal product. Normally I don't care about this but it all goes into how easy it is to live the vegan lifestyle, and I've found that it really isn't that easy unless you cook for yourself.

Anyway, this morning I cooked up some Scrambled Tofu, leaving out the nasty nutritional yeast. It was awesome! I can't wait to make it again with some chopped tomatoes and peppers. I liked the taste of it more than regular eggs, to be honest. The seasoning was great.

I do have a little confession to make though: Thursday was my and my boyfriend's 4 year anniversary, so I decided that for ONE meal in 40 days I could eat non-vegan. And I did. I stuffed my face with buttery, cheesy lobster mac and cheese, crab cakes, salmon, shrimp, and scallops. I was kind of wondering how my body would react to that much seafood after a few weeks of eating just plain plant products but I was fine. Okay, I had leftovers for lunch the next day, too.

As I mentioned I am now on Spring Break, which means I will have to try to survive an entire week being vegan with my family. From what I've gathered, we're only going to all eat vegan food if I cook everything. My mom is interested in trying new vegan foods but I don't think my dad or sister are too into it, although they've given me rave reviews for everything I've cooked so far. Like tonight, I made Portobello burgers, and they were SO GOOD! We put tomatoes and avocados on top. Mom and I even split a second burger. I baked some sweet potato fries, too, which made a slightly soggy but tasty addition to the meal. I'll take soggy sweet potato fries over regular ones any day! I think I'd even take a portobello burger over a regular patty, too!

Well that's about it for now. My 8 month old cat is desperately trying to sleep on the desk in front of me but keeps getting woken up by all the noises around the house. Not sure why he prefers a cold, hard surface over the comfy chair in the corner! Alas. Buenas noche!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Tomorrow is my 4-year anniversary with my boyfriend and we have a lovely evening planned of going out for a fancy-dancy dinner. I've had a package of Mori-Nu soft silken tofu in the fridge, so this is the perfect occasion to whip up a fancy Vegan Chocolate Mousse for dessert. I found this delicious recipe, which actually makes at least 4 servings, if not more since this stuff is pretty rich. The best part of all is that this is super easy to make!


1 package of soft silken tofu 
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Blend tofu (preferably at room temperature) in food processor, blender, or with hand mixer until just smooth.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips with a tablespoon or two of water over low heat. Stir constantly.
Add maple syrup and vanilla to melted chocolate and combine.
Blend with tofu until creamy.
Pour into very small serving dishes or glasses, cover with saran wrap and put in fridge- this stuff is rich!!

Vegan Zucchini Mini-Loaves

I just wanted an excuse to use my mini-loaf pan :) This recipe is sooo good! They come kind of dense but very moist, which makes it good for breakfast because it keeps you full. I highly recommend it!

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon flaxseeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x5 inch loaf pan or an 8-section mini-loaf pan. Sift and whisk together the flour, flax seeds, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and arrowroot in a medium bowl until evenly blended; set aside.

Whisk together the applesauce, white sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture and shredded zucchini until moistened. Spread the batter in the large loaf pan or divide the batter evenly into the 8 mini-loaf sections.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 70 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

More boring updates

Well things are going okay for the most part in regards to my diet. I had some creamer in my coffee this morning but I was in a public place and didn't have any other options. My foods are getting more and more boring and I'm pretty sick of soy and coconut milk. I feel like I eat a lot of Mexican or Indian foods. I really just want some good old mac and cheese, or some grilled fish. Plus I've had a lot of tofu lately and the texture is getting a little ugh. Thankfully my favorite Chinese place made my General Tso's Tofu vegan which was awesome, but just not the same.

I did make Applesauce Bread yesterday, which is pretty good. I simply just put 1 cup of applesauce in place of the three bananas the recipe usually calls for, substituted 1 cup of all purpose flour for whole wheat flour, and added 1 tablespoon ground flax meal. Next time I'm thinking I will actually fold some apple chunks into the bread - num!

This Thursday is my 4th anniversary with my boyfriend so we're planning on going somewhere nice. Hopefully the place we go has vegan options but I really want some seafood or cheese or actual chocolate! Gah.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Chocolate Chip Banana Bricks


To be completely honest, I was trying to make a banana bread version of Isa Chandra’s Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf. I just received my mini-loaf pan in the mail so I was all excited to have cute little loaves. I also just bought vegan chocolate chips so I was pumped to try those out, too.

Well, it turned out that I forgot to add the baking soda, which resulted in little chocolate banana bricks. They taste just fine, and this recipe is actually a little healthier since it contains whole wheat flour. These are heavy little bricks but tasty and make for a good snack or dessert :)

1/4 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons boiling water
2 small, ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure chocolate extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a mini-loaf pan. Also, boil some water in a tea kettle (no need to measure yet.)
Put applesauce, canola oil and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, spices, and salt.
Measure out 1/3 cup boiling water and pour into the bowl with the chocolate mixture, mixing quickly to make a smooth chocolate sauce. Add banana, sugar and chocolate extract and mix well.
Dump about half of the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and gently stir just to incorporate, then measure out 1 tablespoon of boiling water and stir again. Now add the rest of the flour mixture and another tablespoon of boiling water and stir just until smooth. Take care not to overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Separate the batter into the mini-loaf cups. It will be good and thick. You can smooth the top out with a spatula.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Stick a steak knife into the center of a loaf to check for doneness. A little bit of wetness is okay since it could be from a chocolate chip, but the knife should come out mostly dry.
Let cool for 10 minutes, then invert pan and place loaf on a cooling rack to cool most of the way.Yum!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Uncreative updates

I am now two full weeks into being vegan and have to say I'm enjoying it. I've eaten more delicious food than I normally do and have boosted my creativity in the kitchen. I've even lost 5 pounds which is really saying something considering I do nothing but sit on my butt all day. I'm going to keep track of my weight and see how much more I lose by the end of Lent.

Last night I went to the Riverwest Co-op with my roommate and got some more vegan goodies. One of them was boxed vegan Mac and Cheese - I'm going to make it tomorrow night and toss in some veggies. Hopefully it doesn't taste like crap like my homemade stuff did. At the co-op I also got a Teese Cheese quesadilla. I'm not sure how I feel about the Teese - it has an egg white texture and a fake mozzarella flavor. It was just... off. I couldn't really eat the whole thing. My roommate got a Tempeh Reuben sandwich - I wasn't too excited about that either. I was happy to find some silken tofu, which can be used for frostings and mousse :)

Tonight for dinner I had Bangkok Curry again... I was starving by the time I left campus and did not have energy to make dinner. Noodles & Co. to the rescue!

I think that's about it for now. Buena noche!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Yay!

For lunch on Friday I had a Bangkok Curry from Noodles and Co., supposedly vegan according to the Vegan Restaurants Master List, except maybe for the traditionally refined sugar, but I don't care about that (should I?). Anyway, I'm glad I could find a vegan option there because it was delicious and it's one of my favorite restaurants. Last night I went to California Pizza Kitchen and got the Arugula and Asparagus salad (sin queso) and then the Tomato Basil Spaghettini, both also supposedly vegan according to the website. It's not that I don't believe these restaurants, but any time you let anybody else cook for you, you run the risk of not getting completely vegan food.  

Sooo I have some good news: I have lost 5 pounds since being vegan! How awesome is that? It's definitely the diet because I get virtually no exercise. Imagine how much weight I would lose if I did exercise? Eh, oh well.

Bad news: Spent another $50 on 3 bags of groceries this morning, but a lot of it was coconut and soy milks and coconut water. And soy ice cream. Num. Just trying stuff out. I imagine my grocery list would be a lot less if I weren't just trying a ton of things out.

I ordered a mini-loaf pan on ebay - how awesome would it be to bake 100 loaves of whatever and sell it at the farmer's market this summer? Maybe I could make $100 in profit. How cool! Something to think about.

Have a pleasant Sunday!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Puffy Piggy Pancakes

My roommate got me a little pig pan (I love pigs) for Christmas and I finally had a chance to use it this morning! They are adorable. I got the pancake recipe from Isa Chandra's website, theppk.com, called "puffy Pillow Pancakes". It's a keeper!







1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center.
Measure the milk into a medium-ish sized bowl, or a two-cup measuring cup. Add vinegar and ground flax seeds, and use a fork to vigorously mix the ingredients until foamy. This will take a minute or so.
Pour the milk mixture into the center of the dry ingredients. Add the water, canola oil and vanilla and use a fork to mix until a thick, lumpy batter forms. That should take about a minute. It doesn’t need to be smooth, just make sure you get all the ingredients incorporated.
Preheat the pan over medium-low heat and let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
Lightly coat the pan in oil. Add 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake, and cook for about 4 minutes, until puffy. Flip the pancakes, adding a new coat of oil to the pan, and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Pancake should be about an inch thick, and golden brown.
Rest pancakes on a cooling rack covered with tin foil until ready to serve. To reheat, place pancakes in on a baking sheet covered with tin foil in a  300 F degree oven for 5 minutes or so.

Peanut Buttercream filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Buttercream Topping

My roommate had a birthday party last night which put me in the mood to make cupcakes from VCTOW. I made Peanut Buttercream filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Buttercream Topping. And they're vegan.


Yup. They were awesome but I think I should have left out the almond extract and put vanilla instead. The taste was just a liiiittle off.

Anyway, these are the best chocolate cupcakes you could ask for - super chocolately, fluffy, sweet - and yet strong enough to take a filling AND topping without breaking too much (but just a little bit, I'll admit).

For the cupcakes:

1 cup soy milk (I use coconut milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For the peanut buttercream filling:

1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 tbsp shortening
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp molasses, optional (I used maple syrup)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1-2 tbsp rice milk (or whichever dairy-free milk you have)

With electric handheld mixer, cream together margarine and shortening at medium speed till smooth. Add peanut butter, molasses, and vanilla and beat until very smooth, 2-3 minutes. Beat in sugar; mixture will be very stiff. Dribble in rice milk a little at a time, beating continuously till frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.  Adjust the thickness of the frosting by adding rice milk or more confectioners’ sugar in small increments, if necessary.

To fill each cupcakes, poke a gentle hole in the middle of each cupcake with your finger, and kind of press on the inside to make the hole wider. Be VERY gentle as the cupcakes may crack on top. Use a wide, circular frosting tip to pipe the frosting into the middle of each cupcake. You should have about 1/3 of frosting leftover - you'll use this up in the next step.

For the chocolate peanut buttercream frosting:

Leftover peanut buttercream
1/4 cup margarine
2 tablespoons shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt (optional)
2-3 cups powdered sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (or to taste)
2 – 4 TBSP plain milk

In a large bowl, cream the leftover peanut butter cream, margarine, and shortening. Beat in vanilla and salt. Sift in sugar and cocoa, beating at low speed until combined. Turn the mixer to medium or high and whip the frosting for about 2 minutes. Mix in milk to thin out to desired consistency.

Using a star tip, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. You should have just enough to give the cupcakes a nice topping. Add sprinkles if desired.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Mmm mmm good!

On a happier note:

Twizzlers are vegan!!! My world has meaning again! Mmmmmmm.

Me Want Moo!!!

Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy. Dairy.

Milk.
Cheese.
Milk chocolate.

That's all.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

So far so good.

Almost 1 week in and so far I'm not really having any cravings.

Okay that's a lie, but mainly I just want some regular dairy milk since my vegan milks are kinda getting ugh. I'm also craving some seafood since that's the only kind of meat I really enjoy. I'm thinking that after Lent I'm not going to completely continue this vegan thing - just things I bake. Idk. We'll see.

I like eating vegan - and it's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. But, idk, it's just starting to seem so unnecessary, at least for me. I'm doing it to save the animals, because they are indeed delicious, and I'm not doing it for any health reasons, especially since I can still eat sugar, which is my worst habit. I have a deadly sweet tooth.

Anyway, I did some research about what all those un-pronounceable words are in ingredient labels and found some very useful websites, like this one: http://www.happycow.net/health-animal-ingredients.html.

Wow. This list makes this whole vegan thing seem impossible. How can one possibly go their entire life avoiding every single one of these ingredients? This means I have to look through all of my food AGAIN and pick out stuff that I'm sure has these items.

Buuut how picky should I be? Again, I'm not doing this to be kind to animals. I'm just mainly seeing if I can do it, while trying to reduce the amount of animal fat I intake. Being so picky feels really unnecessary in my situation, but then I can't consider myself vegan. Or can I? Maybe just semi-vegan? Or a lazy vegan? Either way the products are still going to be on the shelves.

Besides, what about other kinds of products that contain animal ingredients? Should I not ride in a car because the wheels might contain something from an animal? Should I toss out some of my clothes? I just don't think it's possible to avoid everything that contains animals products unless I lived in the jungle with leaves as my clothes.

I think I'm just tired.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Spaghetti & Vegan Veggieballs

As I noted earlier, mom and I created some Vegan meatballs this weekend, and they were pretty good! We even made our own vegan sauce, too. I looked everywhere online for some decent vegan meatballs but all seemed weird.
Uncooked balls - still okay to eat! :)

Ready for baking!



Om nom nom!
3 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed
2 cups, firmly pressed, grated carrot and zucchini (or really any veggie you want! This is what we used)
1 cup cubed, firm tofu, out of water
1 small onion, diced
1.5 teaspoons minced garlic
Olive oil
1 cup bread crumbs
Dried parsley
Dried basil
Dried cilantro
Dried oregano
Salt
Pepper

Makes about 30 meatballs

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine grated veggies and potatoes in a bowl by hand. In a food process, process tofu (do not add extra water - it is supposed to look chunky and a little dry). Add processed tofu in bowl of grated veggies. Fry the diced onion and garlic in olive oil until just brown. Add to the tofu and veggie mixture. Add bread crumbs. 

This is where you can get creative. Add as much parsley, basil, cilantro, oregano, salt, and pepper as you want. We used some of our Kirkland Organic No-Salt seasoning we had on hand. The fact that everything is a vegetable makes it possible to taste-test to your liking. We added about 1-2 teaspoons of everything.

Form the meatballs. Grease a cookie sheet and place the meatballs on top. Bake on each side about 15 minutes. Be careful when you flip - these are very delicate little balls and can smash or break apart easily. Watch so they don't burn.

Vegan Spaghetti Sauce

1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon garlic
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped vegetables, such as mushrooms, peppers, more onion, etc. Optional.
2 cups tomato sauce

Dried parsley
Dried basil
Dried cilantro
Dried oregano
Salt
Pepper

Fry onions and garlic until just brown. Add crushed tomatoes, cooking a little bit. Add chopped vegetables if desired. Add tomato sauce. Add as much parsley, basil, cilantro, oregano, salt, and pepper as you want. 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sugar Maple Walnuts

From my copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Vegan Cupcakes cookbook. Personally I think these would be better with pecans, but I didn't create the recipe.


1 cup walnut halves
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Dash of salt
Dash of cinnamon


Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a pan and bake for 6-8 minutes. Toss after 4 minutes and keep a close eye on them so they don't burn. Remove from oven and place in a bowl to cool. Prepare a lightly greased piece of parchment paper to use in just a minute (I just greased the same pan). Pour sugar, maple syrup and salt into a large, heavy skillet. Heat on medium, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts, bubbles, and turns into an amber-like liquid. Remove from heat and stir in the walnuts and cinnamon. Stir to coat each nut. Immediately spread coated walnuts on the parchment; use a spatula to keep them from clumping. Cool completely before handling.



If there are massive chunks don't fret - the walnuts break from each other easily when this is dried. Just try to separate them as much as possible before it cools.


Another warning: these are REALLY hard to stop eating.


Note 2/27: These were gone within about 12 hours.

A world of possibilities...

Guess what - I'm not allergic to tofu! Spent the weekend at my parents' house and made tofu stir fry for dinner last night, and had no reaction. I decided to be a little more daring an bought a half gallon of Silk soymilk, which did make my throat scratch a little, but it will taste waaay better in my Peanut Butter Panda Puffs cereal than coconut milk. I think coconut milk will be strictly for baking from now on.

Made some yummy recipes this weekend, including the previous banana bread, and a couple new ones, such as Sugar Maple Walnuts from VGTOW and Spaghetti and Vegan Meatballs (recipes to come later). Mom and I had a lot of fun making up the vegan meatballs - I love trying new recipes and being forced to learn how to properly chop an onion, lol. The meatballs were great and had a few simple ingredients. Plus it allowed us to use up the remaining tofu! :)

So far I have to say this vegan thing isn't all that bad. I really feel like I haven't been eating anything too different than what I normally do. I have been feeling the effects of the extra fiber though...

Friday, February 24, 2012

Good ol' canned indian food

Had a delish vegan meal of canned curried chickpeas over basmati rice and sauteed spinach with coconut. Nothing much else to say here except that I'm sleepy! Glad it's the weekend.

Tomorrow I'm going home for the night. Looking forward to a soak in my parents' new jacuzzi jet tub and making some vegan banana bread for them and Max's family. Goodnight!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Butter and Jesus.

Sigh. Tonight was not a vegan night for me. I received an email invite to a Leadership Dinner (I'm the psych honor society president) and took next year's president with me. Little did I realize that this conference was sponsored by our campus Christian club. There were three speakers who stood up to talk about ways we can be successful leaders in our careers, and each talked about how how God had played a role in their success - the last one, the cheesiest speaker of all, even ended his little spiel with a Bible verse. This guy definitely looked like a typical Christian speaker - fake laugh, bright white teeth, pressed suit. We were so disgusted by the end of their speeches that we just up and left as soon as the dinner was done. There were little comment cards and I definitely left my mark, saying I felt a little insulted because there was so much religious stuff and I had no idea this was sponsored by a religious organization or I wouldn't have come. Now I respect the role that religion plays in others' lives, and am pretty fascinated by how and why, but for me this just wasn't what I needed. What advice would they have given me if I raised my hand and said I couldn't relate? It's just so lame that they assumed everyone there was Christian and relates to what they talked about. I need to read my emails more carefully.

But that's not what this blog is about. This blog is about food. So, the dinner was paid for in full by the three speakers and unfortunately there were no vegan options except the plain salad. Thankfully there was still vegetarian, which consisted of veggies slathered in butter over rice. My stomach is feeling a little gross from all that butter - I never top anything with butter so any amount just tossed over food is weird for me. I'm a little sad I couldn't follow my new diet tonight but I can't turn down a dinner in a conference that someone else paid for. At least I ate vegan for the rest of the day - a bowl of Peanut Butter Panda Puffs with coconut milk for breakfast, PBJ for lunch and some grapes, and then a banana. And now I'm just feeling gross from all that butter.

Anyway, tomorrow night I'm going home for the weekend so we'll see how well I can follow my vegan diet. My mom is going to make tofu stir-fry so hopefully I won't have a reaction to it like I did to the soymilk. I'm also planning to make vegan banana bread Saturday morning.

Did I mention I tried coconut yogurt? It was bad. Just bad all around. Looked weird, tasted weird... just bad.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Vegan dairy

This morning I woke up with a slight headache and just feeling icky all over so I skipped my three classes. In my downtime I decided to test out the three vegan milks I have on me: soy milk (one small carton from my roommate), my usual coconut milk, and flax milk. I have to say, the soy milk was sooooo good! It was creamy and sweet and everything a fake milk should be. I drank the whole thing (again, just one small carton). And then my throat started itching and felt dry and a little while later my stomach felt gross... I felt fine after some time and am almost thinking to just suffer through the allergy because it tastes so good but idk. And then I drank a few sips of coconut milk, and it has just the most bland, empty texture... very watery. It's like going from 2% to skim milk. And the flax milk had a great texture but I'm questioning the taste.

Sigh. So I'm thinking I'll just try to stick with the coconut milk and maybe keep giving soy a try. I bought some tofu yesterday so I'd like to try it, too.

Anyway - continuing the fake dairy topic - I found an amazing recipe for vegan butternut squash mac n cheese and have been raring to make it for my first all-vegan day. I waited all day long to come home and put it all together and was so excited to try out my newest ingredient, Nutritional Yeast (I have no idea what it's made of but it's kind of like fake cheese powder? Or tastes like it? idk). Anyway I wanted to double the recipe so I'll have the cheese sauce for later in the week and had to add 12 tbspns of this yellow yeast stuff. So I poured the sauce over the pasta and tried it. It was.... okay.... but just the fact that I knew it was fake cheese and made of something I wasn't familiar with made me want to puke. I got through half my bowl and then just looked at it and dumped it out, along with the rest of the sauce. What a waste. I think I'll have to eat whole foods and not add crap that freaks me out.

I'm ending my night right now with some Coconut flavored Coconut Ice Cream. Super delish! This stuff is really growing on me :) I love chocolate coconut milk so I'm going to buy some chocolate coconut ice cream and see how it works for me. Num!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

20 minutes in and grocery shopping

Well it's past 12AM on the day I plan to start eating vegan, so I guess I'm officially in now. I still have no idea what I'm going to eat for breakfast so the morning should be entertaining. I guess just some fruit? Unfortunately I finished the last of my banana bread today, which is typically something I'd go for at breakfast.

Anyway, I went grocery shopping again today at Whole Foods and spent $70 on three bags of vegan foods. What can I actually eat you ask? Well a few of the items include:

Quinoa/rice/couscous
Nutritional yeast (look it up - helps create a cheesy flavor apparently)
Flaxmilk
Coconut flavored coconut ice cream
coconut yogurt
Tofu (I want to try it and test out my soy allergy)
Chickpeas
Pizza crust/tomato sauce
And Peanut Butter Panda Puffs cereal (I can't make this up)

Now that I'm $70 poorer and still shoving dairy/egg based food down my roommates' throats hopefully I can find something to actually eat out of all this mess. I'm going to go back to Falls this Saturday and give my family the rest of whatever I can't eat and steal some spices from them so I can figure out how to make vegan indian food. I talked to my mom today and tried to explain more about what I can and can't eat and she remarked how difficult it sounds. But when I really look at it, I don't think it will be so bad. I just need to get creative in my cooking to make enough food that will keep me full and will contain all the nutrients I need. And from everything I've read it sounds like I will be feeling physically better in a week and maybe even shed a few pounds and get some energy which sounds like heaven :)

I was also hoping to buy some pine nuts but there were $30 per pound (?!!??!!) but thankfully my roommate gave me her box so now I can make some spinach pesto! :)

Tomorrow night for dinner (well really tonight I guess) I'm hoping to make vegan mac n' cheese - found a great looking recipe that uses that nutritional yeast stuff. Hopefully it tastes good or I'll have to stick to eating my vegan-version of instant soup in a cup.

Strictness of Veganism?

Before I start my vegan adventure, I need to figure out how strict I want to be. Just thinking of not having the rice and pasta sucks just because they "may have contained" traces of egg or milk so I kind of want to put those back in the pantry. I mean, they are not direct sources of animals and nothing animal-related is in the ingredients (or is it? There are a bunch of long chemical words I don't know so how can I be sure? But that's for another post...).

I think some vegans would tell me I shouldn't eat my rice or pasta because of the egg/milk warning but I think I can be either as strict or loose about it as I want. I found a sarcastic article discussing the different of veganism, and they seem to be kinda true:


Vegan Level One - Doesn't ask if there is chicken stock in the rice, doesn't ask if there is lard in the beans. 

Vegan Level Two - Occasionally buys milk chocolate products. Doesn't worry if the wine they drink is clarified. 

Vegan Level Three - Only eats milk chocolate if someone else bought it. Eats doughnuts at work if someone else brought them in. Eats their roommate's ice cream. Also known as a Freegan.

Vegan Level Four - Still wears the old leather and wool products they had before they went vegan, but feels guilty about it.

Vegan Level Five - Stopped using their car because of the animal products in tires, the animal testing of vehicles, the animal products in the pavement.

Vegan Level Five point one - Stopped riding with friends to the movie theater because of the above and the fact that film is processed with animal gelatin.

Vegan Level Six - Has given up all products that involve animals in any way. Hires someone to sweep the path ahead of them as they walk so they don't tread on insects.

Vegan Level Seven - Similar to a Jain. Wears a mask to keep from breathing in small critters. Uses a mild vegan soap that doesn't kill microbes, it just floats them away. Washes their raw organic produce outside with bottled water so that any little beasts will return to the earth rather than going down the sink. Realizes that having someone sweep ahead of them hurts the insects and so doesn't move around much anymore.


I think as far as this project is concerned, I'll put myself at a 3.5. If someone cooks me something non-vegan I'm not going to be rude and turn them down just because I'm trying to eat vegan. And I'm not going to give away my sheepskin rug I've had for 12 years, but I do feel a little guilty, especially considering the state it's in, and our new kitty loves digging his claws into it haha.

Here are some more informative categories of vegetarianism/veganism:


The word “pescatarian” is occasionally used to describe those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. Although the word is not commonly used, more and more people are adopting this kind of diet, usually for health reasons or as a stepping stone to a fully vegetarian diet.

You don’t have to be vegetarian to love vegetarian food! “Flexitarian” is a term recently coined to describe those who eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat.

When most people think of vegetarians, they think of lacto-ovo-vegetarians. People who do not eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish or animal flesh of any kind, but do eat eggs and dairy products are lacto-ovo vegetarians (“lacto” comes from the Latin for milk, and “ovo” for egg).
Lacto-vegetarian is used to describe a vegetarian who does not eat eggs, but does eat dairy products.
Ovo-vegetarian refers to people who do not eat meat or dairy products but do eat eggs.

Vegans do not eat meat of any kind and also do not eat eggs, dairy products, or processed foods containing these or other animal-derived ingredients such as gelatin. Many vegans also refrain from eating foods that are made using animal products that may not contain animal products in the finished process, such as sugar and some wines. There is some debate as to whether certain foods, such as honey, fit into a vegan diet.

A raw vegan diet consists of unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). “Raw foodists” believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body.

The macrobiotic diet, revered by some for its healthy and healing qualities, includes unprocessed vegan foods, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and allows the occasional consumption of fish. Sugar and refined oils are avoided. Perhaps the most unique qualifier of the macrobiotic diet is its emphasis on the consumption of Asian vegetables, such as daikon, and sea vegetables, such as seaweed.

As far as this list goes I think I'd describe myself as a flexitarian... I'm not much of a meat eater except for seafood so not having meat won't be foreign to me.

So I think I will in fact put my rice and pasta back in the cupboard. I mean, they don't directly use animal products in the ingredients so I think I'll be okay with them. Are there any vegans who oppose this? Let me know!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Nada

I also just want to say that I bought the BEST smelling candle at Urban Outfitters the other day: Portfolio Collection "Embers" scent... it's a small candle and half the wax is already gone because I constantly burn it while I'm in my room. So buy it now! Or buy me another one since this will be gone soon. :)

I know I shouldn't complain, but...


I cleaned out my pantry of anything containing milk, egg, or meat products (the cans of tuna were obvious but my Lemon Herb marinade contained traces of anchovies???) and got a big reality check. Even the brown rice label said it contained milk! I can understand the pasta but the rice! And the cereal contained honey, so that was a no-no. And none of my soups would work either. These are all things that I eat regularly. Well, the cereal won't be so bad since I barely ever eat it and I usually don't add honey to anything (I'll have to use maple syrup in my baking instead). Worst of all is the hot cocoa that has dried milk (or something) :( That's my dessert alternative!

So what the heck am I supposed to eat? Well, here's a vegan food pyramid that might help me out:


I still need to get rid of some leftover milk, yogurt, 50% off Valentine's milk chocolates from Walgreens (one and a half boxes... sniff...), some mozzarella cheese balls, and a whole carton of eggs. This means I have to go grocery shopping again, which I just did this past weekend. And I still have to get used to the taste of my SoDelicious coconut milk... it's great for baking but I'm not too sure I like the bland flavor just drinking it straight up. I think I'll get used to it though.

Some of the stuff I did keep was Rozini brand pasta, although it did give the warning that it was made in a facility that may have used eggs (I'm assuming that this means it was made in the same factory as eggs were being used for something else? I took out everything that said "may contain traces" of this or that). And of course some lentils I bought this weekend, my decaf coffee bags, some crackers, and other stuff that didn't contain traces of anything except wheat or soy. 

I'll give in to the soy since it would be such a small amount, and eating those products never affected me before. It's just straight up soy products like beans or milk. I still want to try tofu, though. An interesting point about soy - my mom said that Dr. Oz said that soy is good for you unless you have a history of breast cancer in your family - which we do - in which case it might increase the likelihood for breast cancer. I guess my allergy is more of a blessing than a curse!

Or at least that might hold true until I go out to eat somewhere. I searched menus of several vegetarian restaurants around Milwaukee and the only veg alternatives I found were tofu or soymilk.... So I won't be able to eat the regular stuff nor the veg alternative. Hmmm. Looks like I'll be sticking to sah-lahds and hummus for a while. But I guess it's not all bad...

Yes, this is vegan.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Which vegan cookbook to buy?

Well I spent about an hour at Boswell Books in front of the Vegan Cooking section trying to decide which vegan cookbook to buy. I'm normally indecisive, but this really threw me for a loop as every single book had its pros and cons and things I would and would not eat. My first choice was Veganomicon by Isa Chandra, and while it looked good, I just can't see myself cooking every recipe in that book - plus the $30 price tag was a deal breaker. Looking around some more, none of the other vegan cookbooks seemed particularly appealing to me either. Plus they all contained recipes with tofu, which doesn't work with my soy allergy. So I walked out empty-handed. I think I'll just stick with the internet for now - much more variety, and I don't have to pay for a bunch of recipes I don't want (or do I?). At the end of Lent maybe I will make my own vegan cookbook of all the recipes I'll be posting in this blog. At least then I'll know I like them all! :)

One recipe I'm really looking forward to is Butternut Squash Mac 'n Cheeze http://ohsheglows.com/2011/10/03/butternut-squash-mac-n-cheeze/. It contains nutritional yeast, which apparently is NOT yeast but more of a grainy, cheese-like flavored condiment. I looked all over Sendik's while buying other vegan-friendly items but I could not find it. Would it be weird to order it online?

In the meantime, I will just sit back, do some homework, and sip on my a-little-too-sour freshly squeeze orange juice from Sendik's.

Vegan Banana Raspberry-Swirl Cupcakes

I altered this recipe from Isa Chandra's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (VCTOW from now on) - originally Banana Split Cupcakes. I forgot to post this recipe - I made this along with the vegan Banana Bread last night. I guess some might call them muffins since they do not have a frosting, but I like the word "cupcakes" better. Here it is!



Vegan Banana Raspberry-Swirl Cupcakes

1/2 cup raspberry jam (with or without the seeds)
1 medium, very ripe banana, mashed well
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup coconut milk (I used Vanilla SoDelicious coconut milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (I originally put in 1/2 teaspoon as the recipe calls for but I think it's a little too almond-y so I'm putting 1/4 here)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with paper liners. Stir raspberry jam in a small saucepan over low heat until melted and easily pourable. Set aside (can always microwave a little later if it seems to set again). Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and mix. in a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, coconut milk, vanilla, almond extract, and mashed banana. Create a well in the dry ingredients and fold in the wet ingredients, mixing to just combine - don't over mix (some lumps are okay). Fill the liners two-thirds full. Top the batter of each cupcake with 1 teaspoon melted jam and carefully stir each cupcake two or three times to swirl in the jam. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes till knife inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Vegan Banana Bread

Here is my tweaked recipe of Vegan Banana Bread from www.theppk.com that I made last night.


Vegan Banana Bread

1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup coconut spread or margarine, room temperature
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla coconut milk or your favorite non-dairy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, set aside to curdle
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8×4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Cream together the coconut spread, maple syrup and sugar. Add bananas, coconut milk/apple cider vinegar mixture and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together until well blended. Spread batter into pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes.

I'm really bad at thinking of names for these posts.

Woke up this morning to some lovely Vegan Banana Bread from last night! This vegan thing might not be so bad. I was thinking of all the things that I'll have to give up starting on Wednesday and how I can pawn them off on my roommate. And then I saw that my International House (I think that's the brand?) French Vanilla coffee creamer does not contain any dairy! I was so sad to have to give that up but now I don't have to :) Yay!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The latest thing in my head.

Everyone's favorite time of the year is just around the corner - Lent! The time when every apparent Christian makes a change and sacrifice for 40 days. 

Well, hey! I'm apparently Christian - according to how I was brought up at least - and now is a chance for me to make a change.

I've become very interested lately in the vegan diet lifestyle. It all started when my friend Liz introduced me to her vegan cupcakes, which prompted me to buy and drool over Isa Chandra Moskowitz' "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" cookbook and led me to the greatest cupcakes of all time. So now I am a strictly vegan baker. And just today I made some banana-raspberry swirl cupcakes and banana bread - both vegan, of course.

But while I've never been much of a carnivore, I've had a hard time thinking of how it would be to go completely vegan. I love my seafood, milk, eggs (sometimes), and fresh mozzarella cheese balls. In fact I just bought some of these lovely items this morning which means I'm going to be stuffing my face with animal fat until Wednesday (fine by me). 

So, as a challenge to myself, I am going vegan for Lent. Which means my frozen shrimp in the freezer is going to have a to stay frozen a little longer. And no getting my favorite General Tso's chicken delivered anymore :( 

The main obstacles I'm anticipating are: 1) my soybean allergy, which means no soymilk (cheapest dairy free milk) or tofu, 2) my almond allergy, so no almond milk, and 3) the fact that these meat/dairy free alternatives are sooo expensive! I spent 2 hours at Whole Foods today just looking at everything, spent $60, and came out with not very much to actually eat. I might need to get pickier at PickNSave.


The main goal I'm hoping to achieve are: 1) Losing weight? Maybe? 2) Just feeling more "clean" in my body, if  that makes sense. 3) Learning a greater variety of recipes, maybe putting together a cookbook for myself. 4) Educating myself on the vegan lifestyle - I'm thinking of this as a little case study on myself. Yes, I'm a psych major.

So, in the spirit of veganism, here I am making a change that I hope to somewhat maintain even after Easter.


I may go crazy.