A blog half vegan?

It has been a couple months since my last post and I have an explanation for that...or an excuse, is there really a difference? I was doing very well with maintaining the vegan lifestyle until the middle of March when I hit a major slump and started craving all of my favorite foods again, or as I jokingly called it my "mac and cheese night sweats." I also began to feel somewhat marginalized in my community and even in my group of friends. A friend of mine when speaking about another vegan stated, "they are imposing their extremist lifestyle on those around them." I had no intention to impose on others when I began this journey, and in fact have not done this intentionally. However, it became apparent that others were placing impositions on themselves that I had not put there, like my boyfriend lamenting that we could no longer go to certain restaurants (where there were vegan options for me), or friends apologizing profusely for putting cheese on the salad they had brought to a potluck (when there was plenty of other food for me to eat), or my father throwing out suggestions for any food that I could eat or make myself when I went home for the weekend (when I had already eaten and was not even hungry).

I also noticed that something about using the word "vegan" demands perfection unlike other self-identifiers that allow a little room for...say, humanity? If you say you are on the Atkin's diet, no one jumps down your throat for enjoying a bagel every once in a while. If you say you are trying to stop drinking caffeine, no one gasps when you have a sip of a friend's latte. So why is it that people feel the need to scream "aha!" every time I dip the corner of my finger in a cheese sauce to try it or take a bite of a scone that may have been made with eggs? I am still not sure why this is the case, perhaps it has something to do with the area I call home or perhaps there is something about the nature of veganism that breeds a certain hostility in others? I do know that at this time, I no longer want to call myself a vegan...

What types of changes has this meant for me since I came to this realization? Honestly, not many, except feeling free to eat whatever I want makes me feel like every time I choose a vegan meal over a non-vegan one that I am making a choice that is better for me, animals and the environment. I am still eating at least 80% vegan, but now I will occasionally eat something with eggs in it or enjoy some tuna or salmon rolls at my favorite sushi restaurant. Yes, I understand that I could do better at this whole vegan thing, but I also know that by eating such a small amount of animal products I am doing a hell of a lot better at reducing my eco-footprint and reducing animal suffering than most people out there, including those pesky "aha!" people. So I have changed the name of my blog to reflect my new direction (and to reflect the fact that I cannot seem to take a picture of anything without devouring at least some of it first :P) and I hope that you continue to tune in! Here are a few vegan recipes from this week, enjoy!

Ooey Gooey mac and cheese:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

8oz whole wheat penne pasta

2 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine, divided

2 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

2 cups rice milk

1 package Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds (About 2 cups)

2 cups chopped broccoli

1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

Directions:

Salt pasta water and bring to a boil, Add penne. During last few minutes while pasta is cooking, add broccoli to cooking water. Drain and set aside.

Melt 2 Tbsp of the butter in a large saucepot over medium heat, stir in flour and cook for a couple minutes. Add nutritional yeast, then very slowly whisk in rice milk. Bring to a boil and stir a few minutes until thickened. Reduce heat and add daiya, stirring until melted and thickened. Add pasta and broccoli to cheese sauce, stir and pour into casserole. Top with 1/4 cup bread crumbs mixed with remaining 1/2 Tbsp butter (melted) and sprinkle over top.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until browned and bubbling.

Nutritional Information

Calories = 311, Fat = 14g, Carbohydrates = 40g, Fiber =5g, Sugars = 5g

Healthy cherry pocket pies:

Makes about 10 servings (1 pie)

Ok, maybe these pocket pies aren't exactly healthy but they are definitely a step up from the mcdonald's apple pie...

I used my awesome mold that my boyfriend's mom got me from Williams-Sonoma to cut them into these fun shapes and although they are shaped like apples they are filled with cherry pie filling, yummmmm! Also, the crust is borrowed from the wonderful book Babycakes by Erin McKenna.

Ingredients:

Crust -

3 cups spelt flour

7 Tbsp organic coconut oil

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp agave nectar

Filling -

1 1/2 cups frozen sweet dark cherries

3 Tbsp. agave nectar

1 Heaping Tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

To make filling: Mix 3 Tbsp of agave nectar with the cornstarch in a sauce pot, add frozen cherries and a splash of vanilla extract. Cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes until thickened. Set aside to cool.

To make crust: In a large bowl, stir flour with coconut oil (melted on low in microwave), vanilla and agave nectar until well incorporated. Add 2-3 Tbsp cold water slowly until dough is moist. Shape dough into ball and wrap in floured plastic wrap, refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Roll out to 1/16th to 1/8th inch thickness on a floured board and cut out the two halves of pocket pie using your cutter. Place bottom of pie (without hole) on cutter and top with 2 Tbsp of filling. Place top of pie (with hole) on cutter and sandwich the two pieces together (the cutter flutes the edge). Freeze pies for about 20 minutes, then brush with rice milk and dust with large crystals of sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool on wire rack.

Nutritional Information:

Calories = 315, Fat = 11g, Carbohydrates = 50g, Fiber = 6.5g, Sugars = 23g

Veganetarian Valentine's Day

So I had a wonderful (almost) Vegan Valentine's Day with my sweetheart. We drove up to Ann Arbor for the day and made a stop at our favorite sandwich shop Zingerman's. Seriously, I could write a love song to this place, it's that good! When you first walk in to your left is a smorgasbord of organic and local cheeses, meats, and smoked fish and to your right hang freshly baked breads and stacks of pastries, yum! Straight ahead is a wide array of house-made salads and traditional jewish treats like potato latkes and blintzes, mmmm...If you can make it that far without falling to your knees, the sandwich board has nearly a hundred sandwiches along with salads and sides. I chose the #5 Rodger's Big Picnic with oven-roasted asparagus, grilled portabello mushrooms, cheddar cheese (I got avocado spread instead!) and Dijon Vinagrette on grilled farm bread, it tasted amazing and was totally vegan!!! Plus, when I told the guy I was trying not to eat dairy, he asked me about any food allergies and went back to the chef to make sure the dijon vinagrette was vegan, have I mentioned that I love this place! Notice in the picture that the sandwich is half gone...I should have named this blog "half-eaten blog" because I can't seem to take a picture before taking a bite, it's like my brain shuts off and the primal instincts kick in, "rrr...food...arrr."

After that, I bought some gourmet chocolates from their cafe and sweet shop, which we feasted on later in the car. One of those was a vegan ginger pear truffle and there was also an aztec heart flavored with chiles and coriander, mmmm. We walked around town and my valentine picked me out a fair trade bracelet made in Ecuador from the Tagua nut, a renewable resource often called "the vegetable ivory!" I couldn't have asked for better Valentine's Day jewelry!

We walked around some more and then made a stop at Whole Foods Market to pick up a few last things to cook dinner (and as always, I "needed" to buy a bunch of extra stuff). When we got home, I whipped up some Kale Lasagna Diavalo (this is where the vegetarian part comes in!) from Vegetarian Times Magazine and some Creamy Broccoli White Bean Soup (totally vegan if you sub veg broth for the chicken and leave off the parmesan shavings) from Whole Living Magazine. We threw in some premade vegan garlic bread which I picked up from whole foods, just their french bread topped with oils, herbs and garlic, and some wine (he had red, I had white as usual). Finally, the meal was topped off with some lemon bars from Veganomicon which turned out amazing! They were so rich I needed a glass of almond milk to wash them down. See recipes for the soup and lemon bars below (I will leave the lasagna out to keep this a vegan blog ;)). If it makes you kind-lifers feel any better, the cheese in the lasagna totally ravaged my sinuses afterwards, guess there is something to this vegan diet!

Creamy Broccoli White Bean Soup (Veganized) From Whole Living Magazine

Ingredients:

1 head broccoli (1 lb), cut into florets, stems thinly sliced

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

15-oz can cannellini beans, drained

2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp toasted pine nuts

Vegan parmesan, for topping if desired

Directions:

Steam broccoli florets and stems until tender and bright green, about 3 minutes. Let cool slightly, reserve 1/2 cup florets to garnish. Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat, saute onion and garlic until translucent, about 6 minues. Add beans and stock and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, add broccoli and puree in a blender in batches until smooth (or use an immersion blender, I want one of these!!!). Season with sea salt and pepper. Garnish each bowl with broccoli florets, toasted pine nuts, and parmesan.

Veganomicon Lemon Bars

Recipe reprinted here: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-lemon-bars/

I'm a souperhero!

If I could choose one food category to eat for the rest of my life it would probably be soups! I'm not kidding, there is something so wonderful and nostalgic that happens when you take that first spoonful of a soup. A good soup has an array of flavors and textures and nourishes you, both body and soul. You can eat soup when you are old, young, sick, healthy, and yes, even Vegan! Thankfully, most of my favorite soups don't require meat or cheese, not that I haven't enjoyed my fair share of chicken noodle and wonton, but I can still have miso and mushroom barley and broccoli and chili and white bean and minestrone and tortilla and even vegetable wonton! I love soup!!! Ok, now that you understand that, there is nothing like not having to chew your food when you are sick, I mean who has the energy for that anyways? I went to Qdoba yesterday for lunch and had a bowl of their Mexican gumbo (totally Vegan!) with rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, and tortilla strips. The soft rice, guacamole and beans, with the spicy broth and crunch of the tortillas was a fantastic combination! I also made a more nourishing soup yesterday that could fit in with anyone's souperhero, ahem, I mean superhero diet. Here it is:

Ingredients:
4-5 cups water
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp minced garlic, optional
1 tsp minced ginger
2 good pinches wakame flakes
1-2 cups chopped bok choy (or cabbage or spinach or whatever sounds good!)
8 sliced shitake mushrooms
1 Tbsp brown miso
1Tbsp white miso
3 sliced scallions
3 oz udon noodles, optional

Directions:
Cook udon noodles according to package directions, set aside. Bring water to a boil in large soup pot. Add wakame, onion, garlic, and ginger. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes, add bok choy, then mushrooms, stir. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove about a cup of soup broth to a large measuring cup, add miso and stir with a fork until dissolved. Add mixture back into pot, and heat through making sure it doesn't boil. Stir in scallions and noodles, if desired.

This soup can heal you! I'm serious, my cold from hell came on just Thursday night and when I woke up today I actually felt way better! It just HAS to be the soup...and the rest, hydrating, zinc, and vitamin c :) Seriously people, don't mess around when you are sick! Or when you aren't sick too for that matter."Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live" -Jim Rohn (and now me)

No vegan diet! No vegan powers!

So a few days of being a junk food vegan finally caught up with me, I have been overtaken by the cold from hell. It feels exactly like the flu, yet I don't have a fever. Honestly, I don't have a clue where I got sick from, all I can think of is that I went to a new yoga class the other night where we did a self-lymphatic massage to "release toxins." Perhaps I am just too "toxic" at the moment and my body couldn't handle it, damn you Qigong! Cooking a meal for myself last night was the last possible thing I wanted to do so my boyfriend and I went to eat at the restaurant where he works. I was feeling a bit like I was fading into nothingness so I ordered a piece of grilled salmon, sorry Nemo! I half expected the vegan police to come and haul me away right then and there:

Milk and eggs, bitch! Anywho, after a trip to Kroger last night I am all stocked up for the recovery process. Made some quick vegetable noodle soup (w/ kroger egg-free soup noodles!) for lunch and plan to throw together some Miso tonight, yum! If anyone reads this and has more ideas for healing vegan recipes, please let me know!

Wrap on the run!

Ive been feeling like a bit of a junk food Vegan for the past few days, eating a lot of processed foods and way too much dessert! Today I got called in to work, but woke up way too late to make myself a decent meal. Thankfully, I thought of a really quick healthy meal to make mid-shampoo. Here is the recipe!

Ingredients:
15oz can white beans (I used great northern)
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1 portobella mushroom, sliced
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp sea salt
Fresh black pepper
Some torn fresh basil

Directions:
Steam broccoli and mushroom together until softened, 5-8 min. Rinse and drain beans, toss with veggies, oil, salt, pepper, and some chopped fresh basil. I heated a sprouted wheat tortillas and wrapped up half the filling for lunch! It was so good, I wrapped the rest in a couple of sheets of nori later, yum!

The lazier thin mushroom pizza

So the pineapple cashew quinoa stirfry and hot and sour soup didn't go over as well as I hoped last night. I loved the stirfry but the hot and sour soup was well, hot and sour...not sure what I was expecting there. The taste of the soup kind of overpowered the stirfry last night so I didn't really get to enjoy it much! Thankfully, I ate some leftover pineapple cashew quinoa stir fry for dinner tonight which tasted much yummier! However, 2 hours of studying later, it was as if I hadn't eaten. I still had the ingredients for the Vegan Pandemonium's lazy version of the Kind Diet mushroom pizza (VP's Thin Mushroom Pizza). That pizza was SO good, but after eating it two days in a row I was looking for something a bit different. The variation I made tonight is the same basic idea, I sauteed one sliced portabella in just a little olive oil, seasoned with some sea salt and threw in a Tablespoon of chopped sundried tomato at the end. I loaded it into a sprouted wheat tortilla with just a tablespoon or the tofutti cream cheese and some chopped scallions and basil and browned it up on the griddle. Tasted really good, but next time I might use two mushrooms and it would be perfect! Had a Kind Diet Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup after dinner part 1 but now that I had dinner part 2 I am craving dessert part 2...s'mores perhaps?

Vegan S'mores!

This isn't exactly a recipe, but I made some FANTASTIC Vegan s'mores last night. I just put one square of endangered species dark chocolate on a graham (use grahams without honey if you are abstaining), then I roasted two Dandies Vegan marshmallows over the gas stove. It tasted so close to the real thing I had to double check my ingredients to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong!