Chocolate chip cookie attempt #2

While my first attempt at veganizing chocolate chip cookies didn't go too badly, I still need something better.  I wasn't crazy about the aftertaste from Ener-G egg replacer, plus I didn't feel the cookies had enough depth of flavor.  So on with my search for a better vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I went.

Surfing and googling led me to this recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies that looked promising for several reasons. First of all, no Ener-G egg replacer; instead it calls for 1 flax "egg" (1 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water), so it hopefully won't suffer from that chemical-y aftertaste.  Second, the flour component is a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flour - I was interested in what extra flavor interest the use of whole wheat pastry flour might impart, plus with a lower gluten content relative to all-purpose, I wondered how it might also enhance texture. Third, it calls for cinnamon and molasses - great ways to improve the depth of flavor which was lacking in my previous attempt. Very promising recipe!

It's very straightforward in assembly. No biggie there. My only substitutions were regular vegan cane juice sugar for the brown sugar it calls for, so I added a little bit of extra molasses to create "instant brown sugar" in the mixer. It also calls for vegan buttery spread, but since I had Earth Balance in stick form I used that instead.

After 14 min (just as advised on the recipe if you're baking them on a Silpat), they were ready.

Texture-wise, they were chewy and moist without feeling too greasy, unlike my veganizing of the Nestle's Toll House cookie recipe. I'm not sure that the whole wheat pastry flour made a huge difference as far as texture goes. These weren't any lighter than a regular chocolate chip cookie, which in itself isn't a tough cookie at all to begin with (well, unless you over-bake them).

Flavor-wise, I was very pleased with these. The best way I can describe the cinnamon is "I could hear it in the background, at a distance." These were not cinnamony, which I was glad for because I tend to be a traditionalist for traditional things - too much changing around of a classic and it's no longer the classic; call is something else, then.  I felt the same way about the molasses. Both of these ingredients weren't the least bit overpowering to where they took center stage. But together they added a certain depth of flavor that made these anything but bland. The flaxseed "egg" could be detected but again, nothing overpowering. The cookie had a very nice, hearty flavor, and not too sweet, either.

If I were to change anything about these, I would change baking soda and use baking powder instead to see if they would rise a little more.  After all, the original Toll House recipe calls for baking soda but it also calls for eggs which contribute to leavening. While the flax "egg" helps with texture and binding, as far as I know it doesn't contribute anything in the rising department.

Overall, I found these better than the straight veganizing of the Toll House cookie. I'm hanging on to this printout!

Tahina!

One of the things I love most about my line of work is the opportunity to meet, interact and build friendships with people from all over the world. Over the years I have come to know people from France, Lebanon, India, Italy, Nigeria, Turkey, Israel, Argentina, Egypt, Venezuela, Palestine, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, China... This may not be listed among the formal list of benefits by my employer but it is the one I cherish the most thanks to being in science.

People have great pride in their country and the evidence for this is never lacking. Whether it's during down time in the lab while you're waiting for an incubation or while setting up something repetitive which may not require strenuous concentration, we engage in conversation about customs, habits, holidays, history and most certainly food from their country of origin. And if you're sitting down to lunch with them, they waste no time in sharing little glorious tidbits of their ethnic foods with you for you to try.

One such sharing happened this week with one of my coworkers, who comes from Israel.  I noticed an interesting little dip he was using. He offered some for me to try but it looked so creamy and silky white that I had to quickly point out that I'm vegan so don't do any dairy. I was certain that it must have had either sour cream, yogurt, or some other such dairy product since it looked so rich and creamy white. Nope, I was wrong! Tahina is made from ground up sesame seeds. Certainly I could taste it, then. Oh!! :-)

After much oohing and aaahing over it (it was so yummy mixed with my brown rice and veggie stir fry), he later sent me the recipe, along with some pictures of the starting base to purchase. That same night I made myself my first batch of tahina.

The Tahina base

Getting the brand he recommended, I came home that night with my own bottle of the base. A few ingredients are added and pretty soon you have your own dip for pita bread, flatbread, chips, or to put in just about anything, like my coworker does.

To this base you add the juice of 1 lemon, water, 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves, and paprika.

Tahina base with lemon juice just before stirring. 

To measure the water, just fill the now empty Tahina jar, cover and shake (that way you can also rinse off the base that stays behind coating the inside of the jar). You'll need to add the water a little at a time, then whisk it in. Measuring the water this way, it takes almost the whole jar of Tahina base in water. You want it to get thick and creamy, like a thick ranch or blue cheese dressing. After that you then add the crushed garlic and paprika to taste. And voila! Tahina for you!

My finished Tahina.

 

The total yield came out to be around 2 1/2 to 3 cups or so, judging from the 4-cup container in which I stored it. 

Next, what to have with it? I felt like the rosemary flatbread recipe I discovered a few months ago and which I make frequently would go really well with it. It's so quick and easy to make, so why not?

Within a half hour, I had the whole flatbread recipe all baked and ready to be broken into pieces for dipping.

 And with that, I had me my own little Tahina party.

Maybe I'll have some with my brown rice for lunch today, while feeling so lucky and thankful for this wonderful benefit of exposure to cultures from all over the world that comes with my line of work.

Interesting ingredient

A few weeks back I ended my post titled "Sunday randomness" with a picture of a vegan parmesan cheese I found at Whole Foods which includes 'love' as one of its ingredients. In what seems to be a trend of wholesome, loving foods, imagine my delight when tonight I discovered yet another loving product:

Abdallah's wheat pita bread

At first glance, perfectly harmless, wholesome pita bread. But look closely:

Ha! This one doesn't just contain love, but centuries of it. I wonder how many more calories per serving that comes out to.

Another perfectly vegan product. :-)

(You'd think that after listing stone ground whole wheat flour and untreated wheat flour that the whole "contains wheat" thing would be self-explanatory.)

Boca burger

OK, so Boca burgers have been around for a while. They're not as obscure as some of the other stuff I've been eating. So why haven't I had one yet?!

Boca has a whole variety of meatless patties and crumbles, but I gravitated towards the safest choice:

I like how it's the perfect size for a standard hamburger bun, and not too thin.  I'd definitely do these on a skillet to give them some crispiness.

Sizzling with a little olive oil.

Best thing is, they don't shrink like meat burgers do.  With this, you pull out something that looks like it's going to fit perfectly on your bun, and that's how it stays.

I used Vegenaise, ketchup, and a slice of Galaxy Nutritional Foods Vegan cheese, american flavor, which I melted on the patty in my toaster oven. This cheese doesn't melt nearly as well as Daiya does. In fact, it kind of puffed up and it ended up looking like a square pillow on my burger. I wish Daiya made sliced versions of their vegan cheese. I might just sprinkle Daiya shreds on it next time and melt those.

On a whole wheat bun with a little Vegenaise, first went the burger with cheese, then a little romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and more romaine.

So... did it taste good?

I got ZERO points for presentation tonight.

Honestly, I thought it was pretty good. I think they could up the ante a little more with herbs and flavorings, though. I have to find a Morning Star equivalent and compare, because I've been a fan of the latter brand of vegetarian morning sausage patties for ages. But these are perfectly doable.  I can live with them.

First vegan cake

OK, so technically it's a cupcake. But if I were to pour the batter into a single large pan, then it'd be a cake.

I found this recipe for vegan vanilla bean cupcakes with chocolate ganache that looks really good and which I've been anxious to try. So finally today this baker got to make her first vegan cakey thing!!

They were super easy to make, though the batter came out way runnier than I'm used to.  Instead of a vanilla bean I used the equivalent of vanilla bean paste, which is 1 tablespoon. It worked great.

I also welcomed the lack of Egg Replacer, which is another reason why I was so curious about how this recipe would turn out. I'm not crazy about that chemical-y aftertaste Egg Replacer imparts on stuff. This recipe uses cornstarch as a thickener, and canola oil for the fat. It leavens not only with baking powder but also with baking soda and almond milk curdled with apple cider vinegar.

As the recipe promised, it would yield 12 cupcakes, and that's exactly how much batter there was. Using an ice cream scoop is the way to go when pouring batter into cupcake cups.

After 20 min, out from the oven they came.

Although they look a little 'wet', they were all nicely cooked through.  I just haaaaad to taste one right away to check for things like moisture, texture and, well... flavor.

These cupcakes are super-duper moist. So much so that the paper cupcake liner comes out a little saturated with oil. I don't see the need to spray them with non-stick spray. And the vanilla paste worked great as far as taste goes.  They're also not very sweet. These are the type of cupcakes that you can just eat directly, without having to make an icing or anything for them, they're that moist. A sprinkling of vegan powdered sugar might have even been enough. I really enjoyed their moisture level and that nice and strong vanilla bean taste.

For the ganache I used vanilla-flavored coconut milk instead of the almond milk in the recipe. I finished the almond milk carton for the cake, had the coconut milk carton already open, and I love the mix of coconut with chocolate.  So I thought "What the hay, use coconut milk." I used vegan chocolate chips and pure maple syrup like the recipe calls for.

I'm not sure why but my chips didn't melt as evenly as I would have liked. I don't know if it's because they're vegan chips, or maybe my heat was too high, or what. Normally classic ganache is made by bringing cream to a boil and adding it to the chopped chocolate (or chips if that's what you're using) and then mixing so that the chips start to melt right away from the hot cream.  These were melted into the boiling milk at low heat. So I'm not sure if it was the vegan chips or just something about the amount of heat, or maybe that I used coconut milk instead of almond milk.

I did love the way maple syrup gave the ganache sweetness and cut into the bitterness from the chocolate without making the whole thing taste like chocolatey pancake syrup. I thought the use of maple syrup was perfect.

Chunky ganache. Gotta work on that.

Despite my chunky-ish ganache,  taste and texture-wise these vegan cupcakes were really, really good. I'm impressed with the moisture and texture of the cupcake. I'd be curious to try melted Earth Balance butter in place of the canola oil.

Oh, and I need to work on my vegan ganache some more.  :-)

Jam-packed stir fry

After having grocery-shopped this weekend I came home with so much produce that I filled 2 "crisper" drawers and the one wide, "party platter" drawer in my refrigerator and I still had to store stuff out on the shelves. It's time for a stir fry.

I also wanted to try the Bragg Liquid Aminos that I bought this weekend.

The final mix of vegetables that went into this:

1. broccoli
2. cauliflower
3. carrots (these 3 from a frozen mix)
4. green onions
5. asparagus
6. onions
7. red bell peppers
8. green bell peppers
9. Napa cabbage
10. mushrooms

For my "protein":

1. seitan
2. tofu (firm)

For cooking/seasoning:

1. extra virgin olive oil
2. garlic
3. fresh chopped cilantro
4. hot sauce
5. Bragg Liquid Aminos
6. garlic powder
7. freshly ground kosher salt
8. Mrs. Dash "Southwest Chipotle" seasoning
9. vegetable broth
10. blue agave nectar

First, my protein. I sliced seitan from my last batch (with the Italian Blend herbs and liquid smoke) and the tofu into little strips. This was sauteed in a little olive oil with garlic and green onions. To that I added Mrs. Dash seasoning, a few dashes of hot sauce, a little garlic powder, and a small handful of the chopped cilantro. Tossed and tossed then transferred to a bowl where it waited to be added to everything else.

Moving on the the veggies. I worked in my Dutch oven just because I didn't feel like hauling my heavy wok (it's an iron wok brought straight from China). I did have so many veggies that I had to cook them in batches so they'd cook evenly.

Starting in the same way as for my protein, I heated olive oil with garlic and green onions. The first batch was the onions, both kinds of bell peppers, Napa cabbage, asparagus and mushrooms. In went the liquid aminos, hot sauce, Mrs. Dash, garlic powder, chopped cilantro, vegetable broth and agave nectar, with a little kosher salt to taste. Then transferred to a bowl to wait after they were done. I had to do 2 batches of these.

Then the broccoli - cauliflower - carrots mix was treated in exactly the same way, transferred to a bowl to wait once they were done.

All of the seasoned, brothy mix remaining in the pan was then brought to a boil and reduced a little. Meanwhile, in a great big bowl all of the veggies were mixed together, and finally in went my seitan and tofu.  To top it all off, the reduced flavored broth was drizzled all over and they were all tossed a few times to finish the dish.

As for the liquid aminos, I found its flavor much more subtle than soy sauce, and not as salty.  With brown rice, whole wheat orzo, quinoa, or couscous, this stir fry is sure to be a hit.

Final numbers

Formal challenge concluded, I finally got around to compiling all of my numbers and generating all my charts. So here it is, the final data from my Vegan Challenge experiment.

1.  Average Numbers

In general, in the course of 31 days, there weren't remarkable differences in blood pressure or blood glucose level.  There was a decrease in average total cholesterol after 31 days vegan of 24.75 points relative to my baseline control average. The other endpoints - blood pressure and blood glucose - remained fairly comparable.

(Note - in my post "Control Month Is Over" I already included links to sites like the CDC and the American Diabetes Association, showing the recommended guidelines for what the healthy ranges of these numbers should be.)

In order to look at the behavior of these endpoints throughout the month, I charted the weekly averages of each one separately.

2.  Total Cholesterol

Oops - forgot to label the Y axis. Units are "mg/dL" or milligrams per deciliter.

This is how my total cholesterol behaved throughout both my control and vegan months. These aren't weekly averages since I only measure cholesterol once a week. In other words, the point on week 1 is from one measurement, rather than an average of "X" number of measurements for that week. The Week 5 data point shown only on the vegan diet curve refers to the fact that I have continued a vegan diet beyond the month of January. I plan to extend the vegan diet curve beyond the time frame shown above so as to chart what hopefully will be a continued decline in my total cholesterol values. Interesting how there was a drop on both months between weeks 2 and 3.

On week #2 my total cholesterol reading was 313, not too far from my highest reading in my control month of 324.  My first reaction was: "What??" seeing how I hadn't ingested a single molecule of anything from an animal in a week. I talked to some people at work about this and the consensus was that precisely because I suddenly stopped ingesting dietary cholesterol, this might have triggered a metabolic feedback mechanism whereby the body's cholesterol synthesis system 'over-reacted' to the sudden drop in dietary cholesterol by turning on cholesterol synthesis. Analogous to the body's reactionary nature to preserve everything it has if you put it in starvation mode, for example, the body may have 'overshot' cholesterol synthesis as a reactionary measure to the sudden drop of it in the diet.

3.  Blood Pressure

Here the Y axis is "mmHg", or millimeters of mercury, the unit used to measure blood pressure.

Here's how my blood pressure numbers behaved throughout the month. The top two lines are systolic, the top bottom lines diastolic, blue and orange sets for control and vegan months respectively. Unlike total cholesterol, the data point for each week here is an average of measurements for the whole week. In this case both the control and vegan months have a 5th week data point referring to the fact that, since I take this endpoint measurement daily, there are a few trailing days in a 31-day month (a week would technically be 28 days), which both my control and vegan months were. Therefore, the final 3 days would be like starting a 5th week, and it is those last few numbers that are plotted here for "week 5". I can always extend the vegan lines as I gather more measurements during my second vegan month and continue the comparison with my control month. Basically, I don't consider that there was any significant difference after 1 month vegan relative to my control month as far as blood pressure goes.

4.  Blood Glucose

As with total cholesterol, the Y axis here depicts "mg/dL" as well.

These are weekly averages as well, as was the case for blood pressure. I take 4 weekly measurements for blood glucose. These certainly look all over the place, don't they. Overall it appears as though blood glucose was a little higher during my vegan month relative to my control month, while still remaining under the threshold level of 100 (phew! :-) ). On the other hand, during my control month the range was more 'spread out', from a lowest week average of 78.75 (week #2) to a highest week average of 89.5, for a difference of 10.75 mg/dL. The range for my vegan month, however, seems a little tighter, with a lowest week average of 85 (week #3) and a highest week average of 90.67 (week #4), for a difference of 5.67 mg/dL overall.

I'm not sure how to explain the general trend for my vegan month numbers to be grouped higher (i.e. the chart is higher up) relative to my control month numbers.

5.  Weight - I didn't plot weight because I wasn't good with the exercise. I exercised a lot more during my control month than my vegan month. Just for accountability's sake: while in my control month I gained 8 lbs (!), I lost 4 lbs during my vegan month, hardly doing any exercise at all. If I get my act together and become serious and consistent about this requirement (and get myself at home at a decent hour), I imagine weight loss will kick in more seriously. And I hypothesize that exercise could very well play a role in my blood pressure and total cholesterol numbers as well.

So... what does this all mean?

Objectively speaking, either a) my numbers weren't that grave to begin with so in one month you're not going to see dramatic changes in them, b) a vegan diet does nothing for blood glucose or blood pressure, c) it takes more than one month for a vegan diet to dramatically, steadily, and consistently improve these numbers, if it's going to do so at all.  Basically, either there won't be significant changes or it takes more than 4 weeks to see them. In order to answer this quandry, it's a great idea to keep going for at least another month, if not longer.

Latest new products installment

Another trip to Whole Foods, another set of new goodies to try.

Apparently somebody couldn't wait to try the chocolate flavored So Delicious cultured coconut milk. :-) They had this in vanilla and strawberry as well, so had to bring one of each home to try. It's labeled "greek style" and has the consistency of regular yogurt. Pretty good! Also got a container of their drinkable cultured coconut milk in strawberry to try - sounds perfect for my smoothies!!

I've also read a lot of good things about Bragg's Liquid Aminos, so finally remembered to get a bottle. The label says it's like a seasoned soy sauce, except that this isn't made from fermented or heated soy beans. Can't wait to try it on my next stir fry, and possibly in my next batch of seitan.

Another item I had my eyes on was Almond "cheese" shreds in mozzarella and cheddar flavors. I already tried the cheddar tonight on some burritos and I have to say, I think I still like Daiya a little better. These aren't bad, though. I may try the mozzarella tomorrow either on a homemade pizza or on a Boca burger and see how that one compares to the mozz-flavored Daiya (when are they gonna make sliced versions?).

My love affair with all these wonderful milks has grown larger with the addition of vanilla-flavored 7-grain milk. Really, I mean, how many of these nut and grain milks are there? I'm crazy about all of them!

So much fun trying all these new, different things!!

Final day of my challenge - thoughts

Sometime in mid to late November, on the same day I heard that a friend had been vegan for a month and was loving it, I bumped into a rerun of an Oprah episode where all of Harpo Studios went vegan for a week. Feeling as if God was trying to tell me something, from that moment on I couldn't stop thinking about a vegan diet: what it would be like, what substitutes take the place of animal products, how are those dishes cooked, would it have a significant effect on my health... That's when I decided I wanted to try a 100% vegan diet for 31 days. The concept of my own little 'vegan challenge" was born.

Being in science, everything is an experiment, so naturally I turned this into one. I thought "I have to have endpoints to measure, data" and selected easy-to-measure things. I found out there's a meter with which you can measure not only blood glucose but total cholesterol as well. I thought "OK, those are two easy endpoints right there". I already had a blood pressure monitor so that was a no-brainer. Plus I have the evil bathroom scale staring me in the face. There were my four endpoints. So as to have something to which to compare my vegan month numbers, to have a 'baseline' point of departure and for this to have the semblance of a 'proper' experiment, I made December my control month. I would carry out scheduled measurements, a schedule that was to be duplicated during my vegan month. Finally, this blog was born out of wanting to have a sense of accountability, to have a fun way to document things and, well.... I'm nuts about writing.

I didn't know what to expect, much less what to eat besides salads. Therefore, my control month was also my homework month. Googled like crazy, gathering lists of meat, dairy and egg substitutes and alternatives, studying recipes and boning up on nutrition information. I can hardly claim to know all there is to know about a vegan diet but at least I gathered enough information to get me off on the right foot.

The first shopping trips were a blast, discovering all these new products. The variety of milks are still one of my favorite things. I chuckle thinking about those very first few nights, though, especially coming home late from work, where I would normally have set things that I would always make with limited time. Instead, on those first few vegan nights I stood there in the kitchen thinking "Um...What... do I... eat."

For someone like me who loves to cook, it's been fun, it truly has. The whole experimental aspect of it, trying this, that and the other, has been a blast. The biggest challenge I've found so far is the proper substitution of eggs in baking, where the role of eggs is multipartite. As such, it's really hard to find something that truly takes their place without any "side effects". As a passionate baker, I really need to delve more into this.

I would also like to try cooking more new things, like breaded and/or baked seitan, making "cheatballs" (for which I did find very helpful YouTube videos), new ways to use TVP and tempeh, play with ethnic foods (e.g. Mexican, Italian, Indian) and definitely more baking the basics. I mean, I haven't made a vegan cake, for Pete's sake!

I can honestly say I have not felt deprived. I selected a lot of my favorite things to eat and styles of cooking, and veganized them. If I've missed anything, it's the dairy and eggs, not really the meat. I've missed scrambled and hard-boiled eggs, greek yogurt drizzled with clover honey, and butter. But there's been ways to substitute those. I quickly learned that the notion that going vegan means you're left with hardly anything to eat is a myth, plain and simple. There's a lot of things that can take the place of what you've removed. But seitan just isn't going to taste like meat because - and here's a newsflash - it's NOT meat. You just won't be able to embrace any of this if all you do is compare the new options to what you gave up, setting up unrealistic expectations for them, instead of accepting them for what they are.

Money-wise, a lot of people have also commented on how I must be spending a lot more money buying all these special foods, having to shop more frequently at Whole Foods, etc. I haven't felt a significant added dent to my wallet. After all, I'm not buying chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken wings, Tyson frozen chicken strips, turkey cold cuts for sandwiches, honey ham for sandwiches, ground beef, or any of those other meat products I would normally buy. The money I would have spent on those things instead went towards the added price of vegan butter, vegan mayo, soy yogurt, vegan cheeses, plus tempeh, vital wheat gluten, TVP, the yummy extra milks, etc. So if after all this I'm still spending a little more on groceries, it's a bit more, nothing driving me to a second job. Besides, I'd sooner have an added expense go towards healthier eating than spending it on Coach purses or designer clothes any day. But that's just me.

Trips to the supermarket did take longer during my vegan month, and they were long already. :-) I've always been big on browsing at the supermarket, checking out products, nutritional labels, ingredient lists. During my vegan month I had to do that a lot more - more time spent reading ingredient lists and browsing in aisles of the supermarket in which I barely spent any time before. I truly enjoyed that!

If there is one area that I still need adjustment on, it's the social arena. Before, I could taste anything anyone brought in to work to share with everyone. If the group went on an outing or food was ordered in for an activity, I didn't have to say things like: "Oh, I can't eat that" or "Does that restaurant have a vegetarian menu?" I could eat anything from anywhere and not have to feel like the one causing all the trouble and needing special accomodations. If I went to a friend's house before I could eat whatever they were offering and could bring food knowing that most people there would enjoy it. Now I feel that if I accept an invitation to someone's house I have to decline pretty much anything they offer, or they might have to go out of their way to offer something that I can eat. If I bring anything they're going to feel like "Oh Lord, what tasteless vegan concoction is she bringing for us" (since people seem to have such grave misconceptions about vegan food). This I'm not too crazy about. I need to find ways to adjust to this.

However, with all the things I still want to try, having enjoyed my 31 days on a vegan diet and not having felt deprived, I've decided that I will continue this eating lifestyle for another month. One month at a time and I'll take it from there. 

So on to month #2 of my Vegan Challenge!

I still need to put together my final data but it's midnight and I gotta go to sleep. That'll come later. For now, it's more products with symbols like this on it:

Veggie and tempeh tacos

Tonight on my way home from work, this idea popped in my head. What about a chunky, "chutney-esque" vegetable mix with a chipotle-style dressing, tempeh crumbles, Daiya cheddar cheese shreds, on a whole wheat tortilla? Convincing myself that it would be the perfect quick dinner, I made a quick stop at Whole Foods for a few ingredients then got myself home, anxious to get started putting this together.

For the veggie mix, I decided to dice the following:

• tomatoes
• red onion
• cucumber

Then to this mix I added canned black beans (after washing all the goop off) and corn.  How much of each depends on your preference. I kept all of them more or less even in amount. In retrospect, I should have picked up some cilantro, but I didn't think of it until I got home. 

For the dressing:

• organic vegan ranch dressing (I use Organic Ville)
• Vegenaise (reduced fat)
• hot sauce
• Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning mix (I'm nuts about this thing!)

I started out with about 1/4c. of dressing. Wanting to make it a little richer in texture I added one heaping tablespoon of Vegenaise to it. After that, a couple of dashes of hot sauce went in. This gets whisked together and then it was time to add the Mrs. Dash. I added quite a bit, tasting along the way.  As with the hot sauce, the amount of this seasoning would be to taste. I can't have enough of this Mrs. Dash mix.

Oh yeah, the tempeh. This is pretty quick - just take some organic smoky tempeh strips (a.k.a. Fakin' Bacon) and brown in a little olive oil. Drain in a paper towel and crumble up once they're cool to the touch.

After stirring a little of the dressing in with the vegetables and adding the tempeh, it was starting to look exactly as I envisioned it.

Meanwhile out came the whole wheat tortillas (the kind made fresh at Whole Foods), which I just heated in the microwave a bit.  On them I placed the Daiya cheddar shreds so that the 'cheese' could warm up a little from the hot tortillas. A couple of big dollops of the veggie mix completed the taco.

I would have loved some chopped cilantro in this, but otherwise I'm nuts about this mix!  I'm thinking of making a dessert version with various diced fruits, mixing in some of that awesome coconut yogurt (kind of like an ambrosia), all on a homemade sweet crepe on which I've spread a little bit of melted vegan chocolate chips. But first I gotta figure out how to make vegan crepes.

In the meantime, these tacos are a definite keeper!

Forks Over Knives

"Let Food Be Thy Medicine."  -- Hippocrates (father of Western medicine)

This weekend I watched the 2011 documentary "Forks Over Knives".  Written and directed by Lee Fulkerson, this eye-opening film chronicles the decades of nutritional medicine and biochemistry work carried out by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. The film's aim is to expose the detrimental trend the United States' nutritional habits have followed over the decades, its contribution to higher incidence of cancers and heart disease in our population, and to support the claim that a whole foods, plant-based diet can not only halt but in some cases reverse the symptoms of multiple diseases, some of them deadly. They focused primarily on heart disease and diabetes and how strictly by following a whole foods, plant-based diet patients can go off their medications and their conditions can be completely managed if not reversed.

Forks Over Knives uncovers the perils of a diet high in animal products and processed foods and tracks the progress of several heart and/or diabetes patients before and after they changed their diet to one based on whole foods and plants. It details the pioneering work of Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn. Furthermore, it also uncovers some of the ugly truths regarding our government agencies and the influence that the private food industry has had on their policy-making, policies that influence the dietary habits of our entire population, including our school children. The website has a complete synopsis.

I found it particularly poignant when Dr. Esselstyn was talking about how many people say a plant-based diet is extreme. He pointed out that about half a million people in this country this year will have to have the front half of their body opened in half and their heart exposed. That's extreme. And he's right. They make the case for how this can be avoided with diet, no medications necessary.

I did notice they barely used the word 'vegan' per se, instead reiterating "plant-based" to describe the diet they were promoting. Then again, 'vegan' is considered more of a lifestyle than just a dietary choice, a lifestyle which also incorporates choices driven by ethical and moral viewpoints. The film isn't exactly delving into the ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding the consumption of animal products, but instead is suggesting a way to eat for better health and disease prevention.

I have to say that I have not read the publications by any of the physicians or research scientists on this film. It is not until I were to do so that I could take that information as hard fact or at the very least draw my own conclusions. Just from my own experience in research, I suspect that for every claim made in this film there are both supporters and dissenters, the latter probably with their own sets of data ready to debunk every stated claim, with both groups equally well-educated and experienced. A little Hegelian Dialectic, if you will...

That being said, I got a general sense that the science presented was perhaps a bit oversimplified, and it may be that they did so due to the broad and diverse nature of the target audience. I would be particularly interested in the study where rats whose diet was switched back and forth between a 20% casein and a 5% casein diet showed either increase or decrease in number of tumors, respectively, as if cancer were under the control of something as simple as a dietary protein switch. I would need to hear more about what's going on here.

Nevertheless, I still think that this is a very interesting documentary for anyone interested in learning more about the correlation between nutrition and disease, about what we've been doing to our bodies by consuming a diet rich in animal products and highly-processed foods, and the potential for preventing or even reversing disease and live healthier lives by following a whole foods, plant-based diet.

"The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs,

but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition." -- Thomas Edison

Best seitan yet

I'm reminded of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears where, common to all things she tries after entering the bears' home was that the first two were always extreme opposites but the third thing was always just right.

My first batch of seitan was too spongy and fluffy. My second batch was a little too chewy. But aahhh.... this third batch of seitan is juuuust riiiight.

I used 2 cups worth of vital wheat gluten, as always. To that I added about 2 tablespoons of a dried Italian herbs mix. It's got all the basics: oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, savory, marjoram.... Also added were 2 tablespoons of garlic powder and dehydrated chopped onions, about 2 tablespoons. Liquid smoke went into the mix as well, the equivalent of... oh, about 2 tablespoons. I guess it was '2 tablespoons' day. I started the mixer with the dough hook attached and, while still running, added vegetable broth a little at a time until the mixture achieved elastic dough consistency and it started pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Let it knead for around 5 or 10 min. and it was ready to boil.

This time I decided to slice some of the dough, and cut the rest into small chunks.

This time I didn't do two kneadings with a resting period in between. I just did a longer, single kneading, mostly with the mixer but also finishing up with some kneading by hand.  Between the liquid smoke and the great herb mix, this batch smelled great even before it was cooked.

For the boiling, this time I used 6 cups of water with soy sauce, liquid smoke, and about a teaspoon of molasses, simmered for about 1 hour.

And voila, my best seitan yet:

I tasted a little piece and it has the best flavor of the three batches I've made to date.  The texture also isn't too gummy, but not as spongy and fluffy as my first batch. It's a nice compromise.

It almost looks like meat, doesn't it. ;-)

A few new products

There's a few new (to me, anyway) products I've tried recently. I didn't take a picture as soon as I brought them home but consumed them nonetheless AND.... they're awesome.

Hazelnuts are my favorite nuts on the planet. I'm a huuuuge fan of all things Nutella and Gianduja chocolates. So imagine my excitement when, upon closer inspection of the health food section at my local Kroger, I discovered they carry this little jewel. It almost brought tears of joy. I think I did let out a little squeal of happiness. This was heavenly... like drinking liquid Nutella. Mmmm.....

We had our monthly 'cake and ice cream' at work to celebrate the birthdays of the month. Being vegan, eating the regular cake and ice cream (Kosher and all as I usually get for the group) would have been a problem. As much as I planned on making me a little batch of vegan yellow cupcakes so I could have something to munch on along with the rest of the group, I didn't get around to it. However, I thought it'd be the perfect excuse to try something from the So Delicious line of ice creams. This brand strikes again. I'd go out on a limb and say that anything these people make is just awesome.  The ice cream is fantastic, with a little hint of coconut, and the cookie dough chunks were a nice size and abundant. On top of that they also put in chocolate shavings. This was an AWESOME ice cream, again making me have problem deciding which version I prefer, regular dairy or this one. It's amazing.

It's been so much fun trying all these new products. :-)

Little ramblings

As I look back at the meals I've cooked and the fun experimenting I've done so far with all these new vegan ingredients, I keep thinking about the stereotype society has about vegetarians and vegans. One of the most common reactions people had when I said I was going vegan was: "What are you going to eat?????" People think that the only options vegetarians and vegans have are salads, steamed vegetables, and bowls of fruit. Then I started tallying what I've had so far. Things like red velvet pancakes... homemade spaghetti sauce... homemade pizza... chili... fruit smoothies... chocolate chip cookies... homemade whole wheat sandwich bread... I dunno, but this hardly sounds like deprivation. And did it taste good? Well, none of it had anything coming from an animal, so it's not going to taste the same. But with some ingenuity, and the right combination of spices, herbs, and aromatics, it tasted pretty darn good. That's the beauty of cooking from scratch - things come out tasting just the way YOU want them to taste (unless they don't come out at all).

Another thing I was noticing is the change in kitchen cleanup. For almost 3 weeks I haven't had to worry about chicken "juice" on the cutting board or the faucet handle, I haven't had to make sure I wash my hands after handling chicken, I haven't had congealed grease spatterings or spills to clean up on the stove or the counters, why the nastiest grease I work with is olive oil! I can eat raw cookie dough without the paranoia of the raw eggs in it. The vegan kitchen modus operandi is way cleaner. And it smells cleaner, too.

Time for a dessert smoothie. :-)

Vegan chili

So I had all this leftover bean mix from a salad I made recently, and kept thinking "What to do, what to do with these".... chili, of course. :-)  Now, why y'all debate whether with or without beans is 'correct', I'm just gonna make me some vegan 4-bean chili with TVP.

So out came the slow cooker... and in went a large can of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of tomato paste, and vegetable broth. How much? Until it looks right. :-)

As for flavoring, in went chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, liquid smoke, garlic powder, ground red pepper flakes, black pepper, Louisiana hot sauce, and summer savory. How much of each? Until it tastes right. :-)

Meanwhile, I reconstituted 2 cups of textured vegetable protein with close to 2 cups of vegetable broth. The ratio is 7/8c. boiling liquid for each cup of TVP, so there's the math for ya. After about 10 min or so, it was all reconstituted so in it went.

I then went ahead and pressed about 5 cloves of garlic, and chopped about 1/2 a large onion. I sauteed these in a little canola oil on medium-high heat until the onions became transluscent. And in it all went.

Lastly, I rinsed and freshened up my 4-bean mix: kidney, pinto, black and garbanzos. I think I must have put around 3 or 4 cups-worth of bean mix. In it went...

And then it steeped.... and slow-cooked.... and simmered.... I checked flavor often, tweaked and added what I felt was needed. Cook to taste; it's an art form. Be creative.

Then finally, after about 5 hrs, it looked like this:

Looks like regular chili, doesn't it.

Finally, some Daiya cheddar shreds on top, nuked for about 30 sec. to melt the shreds, and it was time to dig in!

Flavorful, chockful of protein, and hey, not a spec of grease.

Vegan flatbread pizza

Time to veganize some flatbread pizza!

I've tried this recipe for crisp rosemary flatbread before in my omnivorous days. I love the simplicity of it - great to throw together even on a workweek evening and still have pizza from scratch - and how nice it comes out. It's put together very quickly especially since there's no yeast or rising cycles involved, so it's become my standard recipe to use for flatbread pizza. It's also really nice to just make the flatbread, break it up, and use it for dipping into hummus, baba ghanoush, or a nice cucumber-dill dip. It smells so wonderful from the olive oil!

Working on parchment paper.

Olive oil applied on flattened dough with a Misto sprayer.

Veganization here was easy. I made a simple sun-dried tomato pesto out of tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic powder, basil, oregano, a little paprika, and pesto amounts of olive oil.  As for toppers, I sauteed some of that yummy smokey "fakin' bacon" tempeh and crumbled it on top of the pesto, and then topped it all off with some Daiya mozzarella cheese shreds.

With sun-dried tomato pesto and tempeh crumbles.

 

Topped with Daiya on its way to the oven.

And after baking at 450F for around 10 minutes on a pizza stone:

Yum.

Daiya melts but the appearance is a little on the dry side. Nevertheless, it tastes pretty good, with the pesto going well with the smoky tempeh crumbles. The flatbread came out tender but not so much that when you lifted a piece it would droop down. Each piece held its shape nicely. I think if I were to want it crispier I might prebake the flatbread a little on its own first, then add the toppings and broil to melt the cheese.

Veggies would be great on this, as would a margherita version with halved cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.  This one's definitely a keeper. Who said you have to give up the fun stuff when you go vegan. :-)

The halfway point - thoughts

I've been an omnivore since I was born over 40 years ago. I hadn't known what it was like not to ever put milk in my cereal, eat scrambled eggs on a Saturday morning, or put grilled chicken on my salad until 2 weeks ago. Here it is, the halfway point of my 31-day vegan challenge. And I've made it so far. I'm still alive, all in one piece.

So.... what do I think? Do I feel any different? Miserable? Just fine? What were people like? Could I do this for longer than 31 days?  Here are some thoughts and ramblings out loud on what it's been like so far.

An American classic.... veganized

I had to take a stab at veganizing a sweet treat. It's time. And what a better place to start than the one and only, the classic Nestle's Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie.

:-O

Aw, it'll be OK.

The 'veganization' agents:

The protagonists.

The forgotten protagonists. (Forgot to include these in the picture above. Oops.)

Perhaps you've lived under a rock your whole life and have never made these cookies. Hey, perhaps you're new to the U.S. For that reason, here's the recipe of this American classic. I, like many Americans, have made these cookies a bajillion times. Enough to prefer them with half the salt and twice the vanilla. Now, that's not veganizing, that's just personalizing.

As far as veganizing:

• 1 cup of Earth Balance vegan butter in place of regular butter
• 2 egg equivalents of Ener-G egg replacer in place of 2 eggs
• vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips in place of regular chips
• 1 1/2 cups vegan sugar (evaporated cane juice) in place of 3/4 c. sugar + 3/4 c. brown sugar
• ~1 tbsp. molasses - to "create" brown sugar in the mix
• butter flavoring - decided to add this after the batter was made to add extra buttery flavor

The rest of the ingredients stay the same.  Procedure also stays the same as the original.

Ready for the oven.

The finished product.

 So here are my thoughts after having veganized chocolate chip cookies for the first time.

1. Vegan chocolate chips taste pretty much like non-vegan ones. They melt really nicely. They just don't have any chemicals derived from animals, milk proteins, whey proteins, etc. But they're pretty much like the real thing.
2. Vegan butter provided the same level of greasy gooeyness as you get in the regular cookies, so texture-wise they weren't lacking in anything. They were still very moist and fairly gooey-chewy.
3. They rose, but not as much as the original cookies can. Now, my dough was room temperature. I have leftover dough which I've frozen, so the next batch will be with cold dough to see if it allows the leaving agents to do their job a little more before the butter totally melts in the oven and brings the cookie down too fast.
4. Taste - here's where the biggest difference was noted. I would add a) more butter flavoring, and b) more vanilla. You don't know the richness of flavor that eggs and butter impart until you've done something like this. I did welcome the molasses, I could detect them subtly and they added a nice depth of flavor. But at the very least, as much as I had already doubled the vanilla, I would maybe have to triple it. That, or use vanilla bean paste - I think this would be a great thing to try. 
5. Egg replacer - I noticed a slight "chemically" after taste. I'm guessing that was the egg replacer. Here's a cookie that may benefit from an alternative, more natural binder rather than this stuff. Maybe some ground up flaxseeds mixed with a little water and/or applesauce, perhaps. 

Overall, not bad at all. For my taste they need a little more depth of flavor, that's all. I'm in the "you can never have too much vanilla" camp, so that's where I'd start. Maybe a little nutmeg, cinnamon.... it needs more notes. But texture-wise, they were still great, chips and all.

Sunday randomness

Fakin' bacon in the house!

Just thought I'd post a pic of my whole wheat pasta dinner with homemade marinara sauce with TVP, topped with nutritional yeast and - yup - fakin' bacon smokey tempeh crumbles. I LOVE those.

The crumbles add such a nice crunch. I've become a big fan of those!! By the way, I can't put too much nutritional yeast on this stuff.  Love me some 'fish flake food'.

I also found the coconut milk yogurt, so I got one container to try on smoothies. Wow.

I think I may have finally found my first vegan product which I actually prefer to the regular version!

I vary the milk I use when I make these. I use soy, almond, oat, rice, hemp, or coconut milk, and always vanilla-flavored. I use either honey-flavored or plain blue agave nectar for sweetening. These are super delicious. I have one (sometimes the small cup) every morning and every evening after dinner, as dessert.

While shopping at Whole Foods Saturday night, I decided to browse the parmesan cheeses. While looking at ingredients, much to my surprise I discovered that one particular brand includes one of the most important ingredients to life:

Sorry for the fuzziness - trying to get close, plus it's a cell phone pic.

Definitely vegan.