Have Gone Vegan

so nice Noel Nog

 
Before it gets even later in the year and even more ridiculous to still be talking about Christmas, did I tell you that I found vegan eggnog for the holidays? It tasted just as good, except it wasn't as thick as the regular stuff. Will definitely buy again!

  

I do NOT like mushrooms

In fact, as a friend of mine knows all too well, I DETEST them. So you can imagine my surprise then when I found out that the delicious dish I was noshing on (can't remember the specific name) was composed of the fried or breaded (dreaded!) mushrooms. I recoiled when I found out, but have to admit that they were so good that I continued to eat them. ALL of them. That'll teach me! Snort. The buffet to the left at the small but wonderful vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Affinity, was responsible for this minor mushroom miracle. ;)

breaking the tofu barrier

Yep, I finally did it. Made something with tofu the other day and absolutely loved it, which means that I can no longer claim to hate the stuff, and should change the subtitle of my blog if I don't want to be considered a liar. It all started when I decided to bake a vegan cake for my sister-in-law (I'll have to make that a separate post), and bought some tofu in case she wanted coffee icing. She opted for chocolate instead, so I ended up with tofu that I wanted to use up. Consulted my vegan cookbooks, and decided that scrambled "eggs" couldn't be that bad. Chopped and fried a whole onion, threw in some minced garlic, and then added and fried the cup of tofu I had cubed until it had all crumbled and was starting to get browned. Added a big splash of Bragg, and OH MY GOD -- it was heavenly! And so filling, which is great for me as I tend to get hungry right quick. But that all goes to show that it's NOT the tofu, but the tofu maker, snort. I think in my case though I've always had tofu served in fairly big cubed pieces which I found too bland and slippery. So now I know what to do, and hey, I'm even ready to play around with the soft silken stuff for desserts, so bring it on! :)

p.s. haven't forgotten about trying to find some vegan statistics and am working on it

vegans on The Amazing Race!

Yep, there will be two vegans on The Amazing Race premiering this Sunday evening. Eric and Lisa are married yoga instructors, and it'll be interesting to see how they fare. But apparently there was a vegan last season as well (Mike, who appeared with his father Mel), although I don't remember this ever being mentioned. I wonder what he thought of the challenges involving animals at the Phuket Zoo in Thailand? I certainly wasn't too impressed with the elephant portion of the show, and the posing with the tiger just made me sad. In fact, the exploitation almost made me stop watching The Amazing Race altogether.

And what about the food challenges? How as vegans will Eric and Lisa react? Usually the food is meat or fish-based, so would they make an exception and eat items they normally wouldn't? In Season 13, Terrance, a vegetarian, ended up eating sheep, and I think he regretted it. But being vegan means an even greater commitment to not consume animal products in any way, so I wonder how the vegan couple will handle this ethical dilemma.

How would you?

made my own jam!

I'd been meaning to do this for a while ever since my neighbour gave me some of his. So I found a recipe for sugar-free berry jumble jam in The Garden of Vegan cookbook (click on link in Amazon widget if you want more info on the book), and it was super easy. I decided to use a 600 gram bag (equals about 3 cups) of mixed frozen berries instead of fresh, and 1/2 cup of frozen apple juice concentrate. Couldn't be bothered putting it in a blender, so just used my potato masher to squish the berries a bit more. Cooked them for about 10-15 minutes, added the frozen apple juice concentrate, brought it to a boil until it reached a consistency I liked, poured it into a warm glass jar with an air-tight lid, let it stand overnight, and voila! Tasted really good, although I have to admit that buying store-bought jam IS cheaper. But hey, not half as much fun and making my own jam really impressed my mom. :))

Will take and upload a photo when I can, although it might take a while what with moving and all. Hope to be back soon, and hope to post more regularly then too.

expanding culinary horizons

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very brave when it comes to food. I like dishes that I'm familiar with, am not too fond of anything too hot or spicy, and tend to make the same stuff over and over. And even before I turned vegan I would order favourite items from restaurant menus (not that I ate out a lot), instead of trying something new. But I was in a mall the other day and realized that I was hungry enough that I wouldn't be able to make it home before having to eat. So I walked around the food court looking for something quick, cheap, filling, and vegan. Quite the order! Luckily, I then happened across The True Indian Gourmet where the staff patiently filled me in on what the different dishes were. When I explained that I was vegan, they right away understood and pointed out the dishes that contained no animal products at all. I ended up trying the vegetable samosa, and they let me sample the chana masala (chickpea curry) with basmati rice and boy were they both ever good! Spicy, yes, but I didn't seem to mind, and it occurred to me that maybe I should try more ethnic dishes that I wouldn't otherwise consider in order to literally spice things up a bit. Hmmm.

good soup, but not vegan!

good soup, but not vegan!,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

I could have sworn it was as I checked the label in the store, but after making and eating this quite good soup, I checked the ingredients again and found it contains parmesan cheese. What a bummer. And here I've been eating only vegan stuff without fail for almost a year!

an accidental soup

So I was standing in my kitchen today looking at my fairly bare cupboards wondering what to make (haven't gone shopping yet!), when I spied a can of black-eyed peas. I only had about 1/2 cup of red lentils left, but then remembered the head of cauliflower languishing in my crisper, and voila, another pot of soup was born! Kind of an odd combination of ingredients, but I let it simmer for a while, and it tasted pretty good. :) 

speaking of spuds

Last month's recipe for sweet mashed potatoes reminded me of the time someone gave me a bag of spinach that I didn't quite know what to do with. Even though spinach is healthy and all, I'm not that fond of it and rarely buy it for myself. But I didn't want to waste it, so it finally occurred to me that I could mash it in with potatoes, which I do like! And I have to admit it tasted really good. I first sauteed some onion with garlic, threw the spinach on top, closed the lid and let it cook for about ten minutes. After my potatoes had boiled, I mashed them, then put in the spinach, onion and garlic mixture and mashed that in. Yum!

variation of pasta dish below

another pasta dish,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

This time I used whole wheat rotini instead of elbow noodles, and Romano instead of navy beans, and I have to admit I liked it even better than before. And because it makes so much I get at least three meals out of it which is great as I bring some of them to work!

super easy pasta dish

quick easy pasta dish,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

I'm always looking for things that are easy to make, with not too many ingredients, hearty and filling, and enough to last me for at least a couple of days! This pasta dish did the trick, and adding the beans made it healthy too. Yum. Oh, click on the pic to see what I used. :)

who doesn't love mashed potatoes?

My good friend Krissa forwarded a recipe for mashed sweet potatoes from the George Manteljan Foundation. I love sweet potatoes myself (are they different from yams?), but have never thought of mashing them. I usually roast or boil them instead, so I'll have to try this! But I have to ask: What is garam masala?

Healthy Mashed Sweet Potatoes - no dairy

This full flavored sweet potato dish is quick and easy to prepare for an interesting, and healthy way to serve potatoes that are traditionally full of calories. In fact one serving of this recipe contains only 98 calories but provides 249% of your daily value (DV) for vitamin A! You will find the flavors of the spice mixture and orange juice a wonderful complement to the flavor of the potatoes. Enjoy!

Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized sweet potatoes or yams, sliced thin for quick cooking
• 2 TBS fresh orange juice
• ½ tsp garam masala
• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a steamer with a tight fitting lid.
2. Peel, slice and steam sweet potatoes in steamer basket, covered, for about 10 minutes, or until tender
3. When tender, mash with potato masher, adding rest of ingredients. Serves 4

Healthy Cooking Tips:

If you do not have sensitivity to fats, an extra TBS olive oil will give it a richer taste.

homemade pea soup

can't beat homemade pea soup,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

I love most soups, but split pea soup is probably one of my favourites. Easy to make, filling, hearty, and perfect for winter. Will miss this as spring finally makes her appearance, but that's a sacrifice I'm more than ready to make! :)

the best jam I've ever tasted

the best jam I've ever tasted,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

I think I'm going to have to learn how to make my own jam. I've never liked the store-bought stuff because it's just too sweet for me, but my neighbour's homemade plum, apple and pear gem was lovely. And according to him not hard to make!

celery~navy bean~potato soup

celery, navy bean & potato soup,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

This soup, even though thrown together from leftovers, was surprisingly delicious. But that's what I love about making your own soup from scratch -- it turns out differently every time! And the pot it was made in was found in one of my favourite thrift stores.

carrot and squash pie

carrot and squash pie,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

Okay, I had promised in my very first post that I would be reporting failures as well as successes. Now this dish was by no means a complete failure (and actually didn't taste that bad), but I would definitely change a couple of things the next time around. Click on photo to see what I mean.

banana bread

vegan banana bread,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

High time that I posted a few more food pics! Click on the Flickr photo for description. Oh, and I've decided to upload smaller pictures from now on as the bigger ones may take too much time to load for some computers, and you can see the bigger-sized version when you click anyway. Not sure if I can change older posts though.

pizza pic as promised!

Looks good eh? It was made with an Italian style flat bread pizza shell, casein free vegan mozzarella flavour soy block, red onion, red pepper, green pepper, yellow pepper, orange pepper, and tomato. I cheated a bit with the veggies by buying the precut stuff ready for making a stir-fry (I was feeling lazy!), but it cost under a dollar and I felt it was worth it. Took about 10 minutes to cook in the oven and I can honestly say it was one of the best (and most colourful) pizzas I've ever had. It even felt healthy!

vegan cooking

As you can imagine, cooking has changed somewhat since I became vegan. Although to be honest, throwing a frozen Stouffer's meal into the oven can hardly be said to constitute cooking. And that's the thing; I'm actually doing real cooking these days and quite enjoying the process. I'm making lots of soups, which I've always loved, but these days making them from scratch instead of an envelope. And while that may sound time-consuming, it actually isn't. Everything begins with sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil, and then I just add whatever I have on hand; red lentils or green peas as a base, any vegetable I have lying around such as tomato, yams or cauliflower, and then rice, noodles or canned beans. Every soup turns out differently as well, so I never get bored eating the same dish.

Baked potatoes I've always liked, but I often mash them now with garlic and onion; oven roast dishes I still make but minus the roast; and spaghetti, rice with Indonesian spices and bean dishes continue to be staples. A vegan pizza I made recently was excellent (I'll post the pic sometime), so apart from eggs, I can't say that I really miss my former way of eating. I'm even baking again which I hadn't done in years! So no, I would say that turning vegan has put me back in touch with real food again, and has even reawakened a love for something that I had all but abandoned. Oh, I also got a few vegan cookbooks that I love (they're in the Amazon widget if you want to check them out), and I imagine that they'll be adding to my repertoire. Hey, I might even turn into a real cook one day! :)

hubbard squash soup

Happy Thanksgiving II, originally uploaded by Tulip Girl (is back!).

My neighbour made this for me and left it on my doorstep last weekend. It was fabulous! He's made it clear though that he has no intention of ever giving up his meat-eating ways no matter how clever or cunning my vegan agenda, LOL, so unfortunately I don't get to sample much of his food anymore. And it's a shame as he's a great cook. Oh well, can't win them all!