Thursday May 14th, 2009 the weeks just fly by for me..anyone else feel that way? Breakfast Pumpernickel bagel with tofutti cream cheese. I do seem to have a bagel for a lot of my morning meals, and I wonder how healthy this is, but I'm pretty energetic in the morning, and I eat pretty early in the day, like 6:30am. So I'm usually hungry again by 11:30...so I guess I'm burning those carbs off right?
Lunch So although I was not happy when I left the Bistro...I did save the food for lunch today. Ratatouille, mixed greens, and sweet potatoes curry soup with coconut milk, yummy!
Dinner "Beef" & Broccoli stir-fry overJasmin rice. Used our seitan from the weekend and cut it into thin slices. Browned it and added various spices and a stirfry sauce. Then added some brocolli, shredded carrot and onion. Cooked the rice and put it together! Yum! Here's a photo of the seitan before it was in the stir-fry....
Breakfast blueberry bagel with Tofutti cream cheese.... 3 cups of coffee!
Lunch Leftover Pasta- (remember the seitan parm?...oh yum!)
Dinner Hummus and black bean chips- really. So I stopped at a cute place called Bistro-to-go...they had a variety of vegan side dishes, so I got the mixed greens, and stuff you'll see for Thursday. But I had a horrible experience while the lady ringing me up talked to another lady about a chicken wing festival. Gah, did they not remember the vegan girl they were just helping standing next to them. I barked at the 2 women, after listening to about 3 minutes of chicken wing banter (yeah it took that long to ring me up, gah!) "I don't want to hear about chicken wings, I have pet chickens and I love them, I don't want to hear about a festival for their wings!" The lady, (who seemed to be the manager,) tries to empathize and goes, "oh yeah it's sad, my dog got into a rabbit nest this weekend...." How the HELL was that supposed to make me feel better!
Long story short, got to my fellow vegan friend's house and we ate black bean tortilla chips with hummus while we watched Twiligh with the commentary on... good night.
Dinner on Monday the 11th Amy's Burritos with white/ black bean sauteed over Spanish rice & quinoi I stopped at the store on the way home, and I really wanted "mexican" night but without all the preparation. Boy was I happy to see that Amy's Burritos went down a whole $1!! So I bought 2, one bean and rice, and one vegetable and rice- both vegan, and a simple box of Spanish rice (which I usually don't get because of the high sodium, but this was a lazy night.) I added quionoa to the rice mixture, which I usually always do, because it's so so good for you. I cooked the beans with onions and some Sofrito seasoning, and the Amy's burritos went into the oven for 20 minutes. Voila, a yummy tex-mex night- easy peasy.
Tuesday May 12th, 2009 So you know you are lazy when 3 out of 4 meals are the same thing. Is this laziness or being a thrifty eater? I go with the latter. Breakfast Kashi Cereal with Almond milk, raisins and bananas Lunch Half a bowl of the rice from Monday night with 1/2 of another Amy's burrito. Dinner The OTHER half of the bowl of rice with the OTHER half of the burrito. I was supposed to have karate on this night, so I eat dinner at work and then go, but it got cancelled, while I was eating my dinner...so I went home...having already ate dinner at work. haha.
Wow... another exciting "difficult" day of eating as a vegan :)
I'm writing this Monday morning, and it was very tempting to skip most of my weekend meal descriptions because I thought, boy they were boring. But I guess that is sort of the point of this blog- although we eat a lot of interesting foods, a lot of it is very simple substitutes...all the more reason to make the easy switch to a vegan diet!
So I will try and be quick with the standard meals...
Friday, May 8th 2009
Breakfast Bowl of Kashi with Almond Milk, raisins and bananas
Lunch
Bowl of mesculin mix salad with shredded carrots, raisins, sunflower seeds and lemon juice. Silk Yogurt- Vanilla
Snacks 1 Apple
Dinner Nate loves to make pasta- this time it included some sauteed garlic broccoli rab!
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
Breakfast Bowl of Kashi and an apple
Lunch
oops...no lunch, I was busy cleaning!
Dinner
Leftover mashed potatoes with broccoli and a small mesculin mix salad.
Dessert
Nate made berry smoothies!
Sunday May 10th, 2009 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Breakfast
Pumpernickel bagel with Tofutti Cream cheese, side of hashbrowns
Lunch
Leftover cold pasta- somehow that was appealing at the time :)
Snacks
Rice crackers with Sabra hummus Dinner
Baked Seitan Parmesan We love to make our own seitan, it's so simple, delicious, & saves money. Here is the recipe I use for making about 4 cups of seitan. I usually double this recipe to get enough to freeze part of it for later. I choose to bake the seitan, rather than boil it, because it comes out with a firmer texture. I also added a variety of spices to the actual mix, including allspice, thyme, seasoned mustards, and even liquid smoke.
Ingredients: Ingredients
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 cup very cold water or vegetable broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane grater
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Add your choice of spices to this mix
Directions In a large bowl, mix together Vital Wheat Gluten Flour and nutritional yeast flakes.In a separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients: water or veg broth, soy sauce. tomato paste, garlic, lemon zest.Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine with a firm spatula, knead dough for about 3 minutes until a spongy, elastic dough is formed. Let dough rest for a couple of minutes and prepare a broth and 2-3 casserole bowls for the oven. Now roll your dough into a log shape about 8 inches long and cut into 3 equal sized pieces. You can take small pieces of this and flatten them into patties in your palm, or keep them in small chunks. Place the pieces in the casserole dish with the broth. It is important that the water/broth be very cold when you add the dough, it helps with the texture and ensures that it doesn't fall apart. Put into an oven preheated at 375, bake for 30 minutes, and then turn the pieces and bake for 10 more minutes. These cooked pieces can now be added to any recipe you choose!!
breakfast I'm pretty predictable when it comes to breakfast. I like cereal, and I like bagels... I love tofutti cream cheese, so I try to avoid it, or else I have more than the "suggested serving size" This morning I forgot to eat. You know when you get up early and start accomplishing things and you're like "yeah I'm getting so much done before I go to work, one more chore..." and then it's like "holy crap I'm just barely going to make it to work on time!" That's me a lot of days.... lunch Did I mention how much I liked Nate's 3 bean sauteed with onions over jasmine rice? Oh I didn't, ok well this is the third time I've had it this week....still very yummy!
dinner No Soy Vegan Baked Ziti Sauteed Zucchini 2 Scoops of So Delicious Chocolate Velvet ice-cream
Tonight I had dinner with friends from work, we do this at least twice a month, lots of fun, and they are always very open to my strange vegan dishes! Fantastic test subjects I might add! So this week I tested a new recipe even for me! I love Pasta, I love baked pasta dishes, like Ziti! Well usually my Ziti consists of some sort of faux cheese, like VeganRella, and at least 1/2 a package of tofu for the ricotta. Well I recently got my new issue of VegNews,and inside I found an interesting recipe for Ziti, no soy, the cheese was all made with nuts!
I've done mac & cheese with cashews, (actually that's how I always do it...) but this called for cashews as the creamy sauce, and macadamia nuts as the ricotta, mmm, rich! (and expensive, haha)My friends were eager to try this interesting recipe....I'm kicking myself now because I took a picture, but left my camera at work..so I will post the photo tomorrow when I edit the post. (I find myself editing these days after...hmm)
It came out delicious, and now I can share with you a very yummy recipe!!
For the Pasta 4 quarts water 1 tbs salt 12 oz ziti
Tomato Sauce (They give a list of spices and of course tomatos...but make your own...experiment! I will tell you they call for 28 oz of fire roasted tomato puree)
For the Ricotta: 1 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts, soaked for at least 4 hours in water (this is important) 1/4 cup water 1/8 tsp garlic minced 1/2 tsp salt 1tbs olive oil
For the Cashew Cream: 3/4 cup raw cashews 1/8 tsp dried dill 3/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice 1/3 cup water 1/4 tsp rice vinegar 3 tbs fresh parsley
Directions 1. Prepare pasta, when al dente, set aside and drain. 2. begin your sauce (onions and garlic sauteing...add your other stuff, let it simmer) 3. Preheat oven to 350 4. Add ingredients for Ricotta into a food processor, grind until macadamia nuts are fluffy and the texture you desire. Set aside in a bowl (about 2 minutes of blending) 5. Add Cashews to food processor and blend into a powder. Add salt, dill, lemon juice, rice vinegar and water, blend until smooth. 6. In a large bowl toss the Ziti with the red sauce with the freshly chopped parsley. Add in the the Ricotta leaving chunks, and then add the cashew cream sauce. Mix all and pour into a casserole dish. 7. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve garnished with fresh parsley Bon Appetite!
Thursday May 7th, 2009
breakfast This morning I had Kashi cereal with raisins and bananas, with almond milk, simple and yummy!
lunch Leftover Ziti! How could I resist?
snack 2 apples 1 banana 1 Strawberry Silk Yogurt
dinner Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, creamed corn and Morningstar Farm's Riblets When I came home Nate had prepped all of the side dishes for dinner, "You make the main course" he said.... ah-ha! He didn't know I had a trick up my sleeve! We rarely rarely buy packaged foods, like faux meats, we usually make our own seitan or use tempeh, but we did have a box of Morningstars revamped 'riblets'.... 4 minutes in the microwave and my end of the deal was done!
So I'm still catching up my weekend of eating: Saturday May 2nd, 2009 breakfast Bagel with cream cheeseI love Tofutti! lunch Leftover mashed potatoes with some kale.
dinner PASTA! Nate is famous for his pasta, he makes all his sauces from scratch, tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices, it's always delicious.
Sunday May 3rd, 2009 breakfast homemade pancakes (no mixes here) with blueberries and raspberries, local maple syrup. A lot of people don't realize how easy it is to make pancakes from scratch, without using a mix- here is a recipe from Vegan Planet: 1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached all-purpose flour) 2 t. baking powder 1/2 t. salt 2 T ground flaxseeds 1/4 c. water 1 1/2 c. plain light soymilk 1 t. pure vanilla extract 1 T agave nectar (or may substitute 2 T sugar added to dry ingredients) 1 c. fresh blueberries
Directions
Preheat griddle to medium heat.Mix flour, baking powder, & salt together. In a blender, mix water & ground flaxseeds until thick (approx. 30 seconds). Add remaining wet ingredients & blend until smooth. Gently stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moist. Fold in the berries. Pour approx. 1/4 c. of pancake batter for ea. pancake onto the griddle. Cook approx. 2 minutes on ea. side. Serve w/ pure maple syrup.
lunch This was a hodge podge lunch, we were working outside, and we came in and just grabbed what we felt like eating. Nate's famous macaroni salad, (you know it's warm outside!) pumpernickel bagel with White Chocolate peanut butter, rice crackers and Sabra hummus, my favorite hummus in the world!!
dinner Our neighbors treated us to a cookout! White rice topped with an easy peasy roasted vegetables dish. They wrapped leeks, peppers, portobello mushrooms, asparagus and onions in tin foil, and covered them with oils, spices, garlic and lemon juice, then grilled until sizzling! We put that over our rice, plenty of left overs, delcious!
Monday May 4th, 2009 breakfast of Kashi cereal with raisins, bananas and almond milk.
lunch Leftover pasta and a Silk yogurt
snacks 2 apples and 1 orange
dinner 3 bean sauteed over jasmine rice with mashed sweet potatoes! This was just something Nate whipped up, no cookbooks needed. I even took a picture!
Tuesday May 5th, 2009 breakfast bowl of Kashi cereal with blueberries and almond milk
lunch Leftover 3 bean sauteed with rice and mashed sweet potatoes, 1 blueberry Silk yogurt
snacks 2 apples
dinner I have karate tonight! I'm actually testing for my yellow belt, usually on these nights I have a snack before I go to karate....so I guess we will see, wish me luck! UPDATE- Tuesday May 5th 2009 Nate brought me a peanut butter jelly to karate class, but I didn't, eat it, so I had a hodge-podge meal at 8pm,
Alright, so I've started this blog, mostly in an attempt to be able to say, "oh you think because I'm vegan I must only eat lettuce? well check out my blog, I track what I eat there, har har.." I probably won't say that, but I definitly want to use this as a tool to show people, you can eat delicious foods that don't have any animal products in them, and for the most part, are healthy!
So I guess how I plan to break this up is just by adding a post each day that has my 3 main meals... I will tell you what cookbook I used, if any, and if there's an awesome recipe or picture to go with it, I will post it.
Alright so let's begin....
I will fill in as many meals as I can remember from last week to today:
Thursday, April 31st, 2009 dinner
Using the cookbook Veganomicon I made some tasty Chick Pea cutlets, with sauteed kale with ginger and mashed potatoes. So simple, and tasty, plus it lasts for a few days.....
Here is the recipe for the chick pea cutlets, they come out very chewy and crunchy!
Mash the chickpeas and oil together until no whole chickpeas remain.
Add remaining ingredients and knead for 3 minutes until strings of gluten have formed.
You can fry these up, or bake them, I choose to bake them, but here are directions for both: Frying:
Preheat large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Divide dough into four equal pieces. Flatten each piece and stretch to roughly 4x6 inches.
Add a thin layer of olive oil to to the pan. Place cutlets in the pan and cook on each side for 6 to 7 minutes. They are ready when lightly brown and firm to the touch.
Baking: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 2. Drizzle oil over cutlets on a lightly creased pan. 3. Bake for 20 minutes, and then flip and bake for another 8-10 minutes.
Friday, May 1st 2009 breakfast Pumpernickel bagel with Tofutti cream cheese- I love Tofutti!
lunch leftover chickpea cutlets, kale and mashed potatoes.
dinner Nate probably didn't realize I had the leftovers for lunch, so we had more leftovers... we made the chickpea cutlets into a BBQ sandwich for dinner!
I may have sent you to this website, in hopes of showing you that people who give up animal products can still eat wonderful and delicious food!
What does a vegan eat? I'll tell ya....
Hopefully everyday I will write about my meals....and any other food thoughts.
Ok, now about me....
I live with my husband Nathan up in the Catskill Mountains of NY. We have a beautiful mountain-view property, with 22 rescued animals. This blog is meant to show how very busy, normal, passionate people, can still eat yummy foods...in large amounts- all while being healthy and VEGAN! :)
