Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 22

No pictures of poo food, EER. So sorry. However, last night's dinner was fajitas made with portebello mushrooms sliced into strips, tossed with onions and red, yellow and green peppers and sauteed.

With that much taste you don't really need cheese. Okay. I didn't.

Add to that cilantro lime rice. Which was precooked and frozen servings of brown rice. Juice of a lime and fresh cilantro (or dried) to taste.

Threw it all together into a multi-grain tortilla. Added tomatoes, good lettuce. Really satisfying and delicious.

I also did some searching for the difference between coconut oil (which is one of our staples) and coconut butter which we've never used (not even on our heels, EER.)

http://nouveauraw.com/special-ingredients/coconut-oil-vs-coconut-butter/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4733159_milk-coconut-cream-coconut-water.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/245310-what-is-the-difference-between-coconut-oil-coconut-butter/

http://paleohacks.com/questions/890/coconut-oil-vs-butter#axzz1KDRLEnLI

I'm also reading the Coconut Oil Miracle that goes into all this Coconut Oil craze.

More to report after the Holiday weekend.

For Easter dinner I will be serving Tropical Eggplant - eggplant coated with toasted coconut and served with Mango/Pomegranate Salsa. And Vegan Scalloped Potatoes. And some delicious Orange Cranberry Pecan Vegan Cookies.

And there will be items to please the meat eaters who will attend as well.

Hope you have a meaningful Resurrection Sunday. Christ is alive. He is indeed.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 21

All these comments and questions, Friends. Thanks for all the support/interest.

Just in case you are looking for a healthified treat I'm posting a recipe I "fixed/veganated".

Apple Chunk Cake

4 TBSP ground flaxseed
6 TBSP warm water (combine these two ingredients in a small bowl and let sit approx 7 or so minutes. This will gel and will replace eggs)
1/2 Cup coconut oil (don't melt, but you can set in a warm place to soften.)
1 Cup sugar (minimally processed - I used turbindo which is darker because it retains some of the natural molasses)
2 tsp vanilla
2 Cups flour (I used spelt)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt.
2 medium apples cut into small chunks. (I used tart ones)

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a 13X9 pan.

Combine the coconut oil with the sugar, add flaxseed/water blend and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Add the flour, stir, and finally mix in the apples. Spread in prepared pan.

If you want a crunchy topping mix equal amounts (approx 2 TBSPs each) of oatmeal, finely chopped pecans or walnuts and approx 1 TBSP of brown sugar. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the dough.

Bake for approx 40-45 minutes.

Xta asked about Earth Balance and Coconut butter.

Here's the skinny Earth Balance.

Earth Balance spreads are: "made with a proprietary blend of expeller-pressed oils and are a good source of important Omega 3’s. Available in both tub and stick forms, Earth Balance® Natural Spreads are vegan, non-GMO and free of gluten, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and artificial ingredients of any kind. Earth Balance® Nut Butters are Non-GMO Project verified. Earth Balance® Soymilk is certified organic, Non-GMO Project verified and made with USA grown soybeans. Earth Balance® Soymilk is vegan, free of lactose, cholesterol, dairy, gluten and is an excellent source of calcium, vitamin D and ALA omega 3s."

You can use in place of butter. Cook, bake etc. And it tastes good. Of course it's fat/oil so sitting down and eating a tub would be a poor choice. But when you need an oil/fat, this is a good choice. I linked their website above, there are lots of recipes hanging out there and I have favorited it as a nice resource.

As far as coconut butter, Xta. I have not tried it. I've also heard of coconut cream. So I need to look into that a little more. Coconut oil. Here's the best price for organic and great quality (look around a bit on Amazon. The free shipping at the 25.00 mark is great, but I've gotten a better deal before, I've noticed prices change almost daily on lots of items.) I use coconut oil as a lotion, as a facial moisturizer and as a butter replacement in recipes. It makes super delish popcorn. (The cook on the stove kind, and you won't need to add butter to it. Doesn't take much, just a coating in the pan.) But I'll look into the other coconut products and report back.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 20

So Xta asked a good question.

If we aren't animal activists then why avoid animal products? Why are we staying away from animal milk, yogurt, eggs, cheeses, butter?

After all. Organic means that the animals are treated well, fed well and aren't pumped full of hormones, genetically modified "food"stuff and are allowed to do things like move and feel sunshine. Organic is better. period.

But. Why are we avoiding those items? Mostly for the inflammation aspects. And because of possible underlying allergies to things we've always eaten but didn't know we didn't tolerate oh so well. 24 has a longer trial and error period. She has decided that she is definitely going to avoid dairy because when she has played her flexitarian card and eaten something containing dairy her head gets stuffy feeling. And when she eats several things that are non-Vegan she feels it energywise. Since Rob and I aren't at the flexitarian stage yet, I am interested to see if we notice differences in the way we feel if we eat dairy. As far as I'm concerned, this whole thing is a lifetime learning process. If there are alternatives to dairy products that leave us feeling satisfied then I feel like I'm going to lean towards those products.

These links go into all sorts of information. I even put a counter-point one in there. Casein is one that raised a few red flags in my mind. (The China Study) And there is a compelling enough reason to me to avoid it. But, there are other scientists who say "pshaw!"

But isn't that life? No matter what subject you chose to expound on, someone is going to be able to tear it apart....maybe only within their own mind....maybe to multitudes. Since I'm not a scientist, since I can't tear things apart on a molecular level and figure out the puzzle of life, since life is a journey...I guess I'm just going to keep on keeping on....doing my best to become more and more like the person I was created to be.

So. Share your thoughts. What do you think?



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html
http://www.dldewey.com/columns/milk.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/025258_butter_calcium_cancer.html
http://crossfitmaximus.com/2010/08/the-adverse-effects-of-milk-loren-cordain-ph-d-and-pedro-bastos/
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=122585
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nutrition-advice-from-the-china-study/
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=385

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 19

Delicious Eggplant Parmesan for dinner.

And some answers to a couple of questions.

EER asked about Rob's joints. I have been guessing that once he overcame the plague he'd start feeling some differences.

But last night I asked him. And this was his answer. "I am very pleased with this project. I feel good. I worked physically hard today. And I don't have a tweak or a twinge in the normal problem areas."

Losing the quotations...he went on to say that he has struggled with little intense flashes of pain in different joints almost every day. His hands, shoulders and arms especially. And he is currently not having any of those. Even though he was fighting the creeping crud for the first ten days of so of this adventure....he's been feeling okay. And now he is feeling good. He says this is a success as far as he's concerned. Though he won't claim rigid Vegan as a lifestyle, he is planning to be as conscientious as possible about what he puts into his body.

He also said that the small changes we've made over the past couple of years, going more toward organic and natural, one step at a time, have all been little steps that have made a difference.

Stopping the fueling of his body with chemicals, sugar, highly processed and total crap began the process of reclaiming his health. Animal-product-free-eating is one more tool in his health arsenal. The early steps kept him from having to add that injectible to his regimen. Will he ever be able to remove the prednisone and methotrexate? We can hope and keep trying. If not, the real food he eats will strengthen his body to maybe avoid some of the side effects of those big gun medications.

He did say he suggests that no one go completely cold turkey into something this extreme. 24 and I have been slowly learning, rethinking and restocking our pantry,freezer, and garden ... getting rid of the the stuff that is not fuel for our bodies and replacing those uber-processed and food-free items with things that really are fuel. Today has come about because of almost three years of rethinking and learning. But. Every step we have taken has been important on some level.

I will continue to share products, information and recipes with you because this trial month is the beginning of another lifestyle change. We may not end up 100% animal free, but those items are not necessary to eat things that taste good.

So stay tuned.

And now that I've gone on and on, I'm going to have to save the rest of my thoughts til later.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 18

Lots of opportunity to eat not-so clean this weekend.

We had a tea party at church. Full of delectable sounding and smelling desserts and sandwiches.

However, I stuck with the four Vegan friendly items on the menu.

A cup of fruit. Check.

A cup of celery and carrots (and a whole lot of extra carrots as my table mate kept giving me hers.) Check.

Cucumber sandwiches. Classic seasoned cream cheese with a cucumber on top. One of my favorites. And we made the recipe with Vegan Cream Cheese (Soy). My table mate said it was hand's down the best sandwich. So that was all good. And the dang thing was tasty.

The Vegan cookies fooled lots of people and tasted just grand.

I created a dish Saturday night that was super good. I had some sauce leftover because I only cooked half the box of spirals so I adapted it for a casserole on Sunday, too. I was really excited that the sauce kept it's flavor. If you ever eat leftover alfredo or mac and cheese you know what I mean.

At the beginning of our journey I said I had made a Scalloped potato dish that needed tweaked. This sauce will do it. Seriously. The other one was good. But it was made with more Nutritional Yeast and cashews and lemon juice (among other ingredients). So it cost more, too.

This would be fabulous with sauteed mushrooms, too. Rob loved it. So did the girl...and her dogs.

Here is the recipe.

Spring Fling Greenfredo

5 Chopped Green Onions.
10 Chopped Asparagus Spears
1 Minced Clove of Garlic
4 TBSP Soy Free Earth Balance Spread
4 TBSP favorite flour (I used Spelt)
1/3 tsp salt
2 and 1/2 Cups unflavored Almond, oat or soy Milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder.
2 Handfuls of raw spinach leaves (approx 2 jam-packed cups)
1/4 heaping cup of Nutritional Yeast (this is sold in bulk at Whole Foods)(and probably at health food stores. I couldn't find it at my local store that has a healthy/organic food section)(It has a cheesy, almost parmesan-y flavor).
1 - 12 oz Package Eden Organic Kamut Spirals

Put water for pasta on to boil in a saucepan. When the water reaches boil. Add pasta and stir. Then cook for 7-8 minutes.

While pasta boils, in another saucepan melt the Earth Balance spread.

Toss in the minced garlic, the asparagus spears and the green onions. Saute until tender. Approx 2 minutes.

Add the flour and salt and garlic powder and stir. The mixture will become paste-like. Add the milk and stir. When blended toss in the spinach which will wither and cook down. Stir until mixture thickens into an alfredo type sauce. About 3 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Toss in nutritional yeast and stir.

Spoon pasta onto plates. Top with Greenfredo sauce.
Serves about 6.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 15

Oh Snap!



These are tasty!

Found them at Whole Foods, thought we'd give them a try.

Yum. If I don't find the perfect "burger" in my pantry, and in my quest to make the perfect one, I can find something totally satisfying in my freezer.

Cooked them on our cast iron stove top griddle, popped them on buns with avocado slices, alfalfa sprouts and spinach.

Not just any buns. Rudis. Also at Whole Foods (T.J.'s has one or two of their products). These are tasty buns. (We ate the dinner roll version, cut the eggplant burger into smaller portions and had mini-"burgers". I haven't tried the actual full-size buns or bread yet, but we will since the dinner rolls are so tasty. They've got the texture and feel whole grain, but not cardboardy or sawdusty. If you click on the picture you go to their website where there is a $1 off coupon.

Nice that we are finding products that are something we can keep on hand for those nights where we just couldn't find the creativity to think ahead. And when the alternative is oatmeal for dinner, or a smoothie. Or when the thoughts of Applebees dance through our heads.

Cooking and creating is fun. Lots of fun. But finding something in the freezer that we feel good about eating is terrific, too.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thirty Day Vegan...Day 14

We tried this recipe last night. Some of the comments are helpful and interesting, too.

Over coconut ice cream (not the mouth feel of the real deal, but works when you've got a wicked bad ice cream craving - kind of fudgsicle texture). We used Almond Milk though. It was a nice treat. Creamy. Decadent.

Rob shared that now that he's kicked his final bits of plague he's feeling terrific on his new no-animal lifestyle. However, he is looking forward to the kick-off of the Flexitarian part of the experiment. In other words, he is planning for his reentry into eating occasional meat dishes. Told the people he was talking to that he had his first meat meal planned out in his mind. Hmmm. Wonder what it will be. I also wonder if it won't have some kick-him-in-the-head negatives. This stands to be seen.

The TJ's pizza crust was okay. I like Naan as pizza crust way better. So I'm going to have to perfect that Vegan Naan recipe so we can do that.