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.

Vegan whole wheat bread

My meanderings on the internet looking for a vegan whole wheat bread recipe suitable for making sliced sandwich bread led me to this recipe, which I had to make today.  What attracted me to it was the use of molasses. I made half a batch, and this was the result:

I did my little "cheating" step with my bread machine. I add all ingredients in the correct order needed when using a bread machine (at least as far as my bread machine instructions say to do): all liquids first, then all dry, and keep salt faaaar away from the yeast (I dissolve it in the liquids, and add yeast last of all, in a little hole in the flour mound). Then I set it on the dough cycle, forget about it for an hour and a half and go do other stuff. When the cycle ends, I turn the dough out onto a heavily-floured counter where, using a dough scraper, I incorporate just enough flour for the dough to be kneadable. This, because after the dough cycle has completed in the machine the dough comes out sort of "pourable" and sticky, so you couldn't possibly knead it unless you want your fingers to become part of the dough itself. After incorporating 'just enough' flour and kneading then I give it whatever shape I want or set it in the corresponding pan for its 2nd rising, usually for about an hour. Oh, and as for the yeast that I use, I started this bread machine dough shortcut with quick-rise but have tried regular active dry yeast on a lot of recipes and it works fine. (This vegan bread was made with regular active dry). It seems that 1 1/2 hr gives it enough time to rise optimally. It helps to measure the temp of the water to make sure it's around 105 - 110F to "wake up" the yeast without scorching it. I've also tried blooming the yeast first and adding it to the liquid ingredients, then adding the salt at the end in the flour. That works well in this bread machine shortcut, too. I've also made ciabatta bread using this method adding the 'biga' starter first, salt last. Most commonly I use this short-cut method to make my French bread, which I make just about every other weekend.

OK back to the vegan bread. I sprinkled rolled oats and flaxseed on it before the 2nd rise in the pan. I was hoping that as the dough rose these tidbits would sort of 'encrust' themselves in the dough. After baking, however, the flaxseed came right off. Lesson learned: flaxseeds don't stick. Ironic, seeing how according to many a vegan cooking site ground flaxseed mixed with a little water provides one of many alternatives for an egg-like binder in vegan cooking (I haven't tried this yet myself). So ground flaxseed? Apparently gooey after wet. Whole flaxseeds? Not so much.

I let it rise in the loaf pan for 1 hour and came back to a dough that was starting to spill over the edges of the pan hahaha! So at least in my kitchen, 50 min. may be enough next time. Or maybe even less than that. Or get a bigger loaf pan haha! Then when I took it out of the draft-free place where I had it rising - the microwave (not running) - it sort of sank a little in the center. It was so risen.

If you don't like a rich molasses flavor, you might want to tone that ingredient down. Personally I really enjoyed it. Although the recipe does call for what seems like a lot of molasses, it makes the bread a little sweet and very hearty. Mmmmmm.

I was also really happy with its texture. For a whole wheat bread, it's very nice and delicate.  I'd watch what I put between 2 slices of it when making a sandwich. If really thick stuff is used, the bread might flatten more and more with every bite. A nice French bread is always better for those situations anyway, don't you think? 

Great toasted with some Smart Balance light (vegan) spread. :-)

Favorite products so far

This will by no means be as refined and decadent as Oprah's list of "Favorite Things", but it's my little list of favorite products so far. And there's still so much more to try!

1)  Coconut milk and products made with it:

So far I've only tried vanilla-flavored coconut milk and the French Vanilla coconut milk creamer. I think they're both very, very good!  I'm planning to try their yogurt and maybe their ice cream (and I say maybe only because I'm not a big ice cream eater).  I'm trusting that anything from the So Delicious line of products is bound to be very good.

2) Kashi GoLean Crisp! Toasted Berry Crumble:

I really like all things Kashi, but this one - technically vegan - is fantastic! It has the perfect amount of sweetening, wonderful crunch and awesome flavors. The dried berries like to stick to your teeth, but it's a small price to pay for how delicious this cereal is. I like it best with vanilla-flavored hemp milk.

3)  Daiya cheesy shreds:

I've bought both but so far have only tried the cheddar one. It's amazing how well they got the flavor. The stuff also melts very nicely and has the feel of cheese, though I find it takes a while longer than regular cheese to melt. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic alternative.

4) Lightlife's Organic Smoky Tempeh strips:

I tried making a dish with tempeh recently but didn't blog about it because it didn't come out right. I didn't work with the tempeh correctly. Then I was introduced to this variety of tempeh at work. I joined a vegan/vegetarian group that meets once a month to cook, share ideas and recipes, then enjoy what was cooked for lunch for a small fee to defer food costs. Run by a registered dietician, her choice this month was to make a pasta dish with tempeh crumbles on the side to add on top if you wished. Wow - this stuff is great! The coolest thing is how much this stuff really does smell like bacon as it cooks. It's very aptly nicknamed "Fakin' Bacon"! It's even cut into thin, long strips resembling bacon hahaha. Just brown in a little oil until it gets nice and crispy. Crumbled over the pasta we also had, this was so delicious.  Just watch any additional sodium you add to whatever else you're cooking, as this stuff is cured with soy sauce.  This stuff is awesome.

Let's see what else I add to that list.... :-)

"Steak" anyone?

Just wanted to post real quick on this dinner that I had last night. Last weekend I prepared a new batch of seitan and shaped then sliced it so that it came out looking like "steaks". My plan was to grill some of them and make a really yummy sauce for them.

Done!

I just had to give it grill marks.

The sauce was inspired by Alton Brown's meatloaf sauce. I made that meatloaf recipe a couple of months ago and fell head-over-heels in love with that little sauce he makes.

I left out the Worcestershire sauce and honey.  What I did to substitute was look at the ingredients in Worcestershire sauce and replace with some of the key ones. So I added about 1/2 tsp. of black strap molasses, about a tsp apple cider vinegar, a little garlic powder. Also threw in a few dashes of soy sauce. And then for the honey I used honey-flavored agave nectar instead.

(I have a problem - I only measure for sure when I do any baking of any kind. As far as savory stuff goes, a lot of times it's to taste when I cook. Hence I don't always measure stuff. So you're gonna have to play and experiment if you want to reproduce any of my stuff.  Playing and experimenting are what I did, after all!)

Together with my sides, this was the final meal:

The potatoes were sauteed in olive oil, seasoned with Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning, and topped with Daiya cheddar cheesy shreds. The broccoli was just steamed, seasoned with the same Mrs. Dash seasoning, and topped with Smart Balance light spread (hey, that one's vegan!).

When I made this batch of seitan I kneaded it, let the dough rest, then kneaded it again. I wanted to see if that caused a change in texture. It most definitely did. This seitan is not spongy-fluffy like my first batch. Instead it has a stronger texture. It's chewier and gummier.  So how many times you knead makes a difference. This should come as no surprise to anyone that makes bread regularly (yours truly included here!). I always hear about how it's the gluten in flour that gives bread its elasticity and how if you overstir batters made with all-purpose flour you run the risk of developing the gluten too much, such that your product may lose some of the desired delicate texture as a result. It was neat to see that concept in action here, with this being straight gluten and all.

And Daiya cheese? I really like it. It melts slower than regular cheese. But it melts and tastes great.

Yum!

"Cheat" balls anyone?

OK, so I'm perusing YouTube for ideas and inspiration. So many ideas, so little time!!

I came across this video for seitan "cheatballs". So interesting how she put tomato paste in with the vital wheat gluten during the making of the dough. These look like they would taste really good on their own.

What about sautee'ing these in olive oil instead of baking? I've always liked me a browned meat ball. Hmmmm.... but they certainly look like they'd be flavorful.

Then there's these, where she uses wheat germ instead of vital wheat gluten and ground-up walnuts, among other things. Creative! Then she fries them to brown them (now we're talking!) then bakes them in tomato sauce. Makes me want to try this one, too!

Check out all the stuff that she puts in for this recipe!

I can't decide! I want to try all of them! :-)

Sunday homemade goodies

Running low on my first batch of seitan, it was time to make more. I've so been looking forward to it, since I've been wanting to try some different things on my next batch.

The recipe on this blog for Vegan Korean Bulgogi Style Seitan gave me inspiration for my next seitan experiment.  This time I didn't want to go with just a few herbs and powdered stuff. So I decided to add chopped veggies. I stayed in my comfort zone and chopped onions, bell peppers, and carrots using my blender's chopper attachment.

I also added a little liquid smoke as I read on someone's blog that it can help make it taste more "meaty". I checked the ingredients and nothing really stood out as potentially coming from animal products. I still also added the garlic powder, plus included Hungarian paprika and black pepper.

Another thing I did differently this time was I did a first kneading, let the dough rest for around 10 minutes or so, and then kneaded a second time.  I've seen a lot of recipes on the web where they do this, even though the recipe on the package didn't say to do so.  I had to try it and see if it'll make a difference in texture.

I also wanted to cut it differently this time, so as to make it more like little seitan "steaks". I can always cube these or slice like strips as well before using in a dish.

So, this is what they looked like before simmering:

Seitan "steaks"

I also wanted to change the flavorings in the water. I don't want the seitan to end up with a bias towards any flavor profile in particular, so I just went with 3 cups water and 3 cups vegetable broth.
It simmered for an hour, and this is the result:

In retrospect, I could have also put some liquid smoke in the water. I might do that next time.  I can't wait to grill these and make a little barbecue sauce for them. Mmmmm!!!! All stocked up for the week now.

I also played around with tofu today, making me a mix of veggies, nuts, and extra-firm Nasoya tofu for brunch, along with a couple slices of my homemade French bread.

This was so good!!! Oh, and this was my first time trying Daiya cheddar. I really like it!!  It does melt nicely and I don't know how they got the flavor right, but it tastes a lot like cheddar cheese. If the veggies look familiar, that's because it's the same combo that I put on the seitan above. I just chopped them a little more coarse for this dish, finer for the seitan. I also added a couple of handfuls of my nut mix (almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds). I cooked all this in Earth Balance vegan butter, seasoned with soy sauce and a little powdered ginger, and I have to say it came out pretty darn good.

For dinner, I also made a homemade spaghetti sauce with TVP using my slow cooker. I hadn't played with TVP yet - it was time!

I reconstituted it with vegetable broth according to package directions. I totally love the stuff!  On spaghetti sauce and chili it's a must.  Also I want to look into maybe making some "cheatballs" with it.

The sauce was pretty basic - canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, dehydrated onions, and herbs to taste (I used oregano, rosemary, thyme, a little cayenne pepper, and lots of dried basil from my yard). Also put in some evaporated cane juice to cut on the tomato acidity.  I used no salt since a) I'm kind of 'anti-salt', and b) the canned tomato products have enough salt of their own.  I added the TVP about halfway through and also used an immersion blender to break up the whole tomatoes.

I had this with whole wheat linguini and - GASP! - I think I was so hungry (by then it was around 7:30pm) that I just sat down to eat and didn't take a picture of my final product. Hahaha! However, it still looked just like regular spaghetti sauce with ground meat in it, despite being vegan and all.

I did try a couple of parmesan cheese alternatives on it:  Galaxy Food's Vegan parmesan, and nutritional yeast.  I didn't mind the Vegan parmesan too much, but nutritional yeast (or, as I'm going to start calling it because it looks so much like it - fish food flakes) has a slight tanginess that makes it the winner in my book, at least for this purpose.

So today I played with tofu, TVP, and made seitan. Quite a productive day in my now vegan kitchen. :-)

On animal fats and flesh

A friend of mine sent me a link to a very informative video.  A lecture by a physician, it's a 1-hr education on the negative aspects of eating an animal-based diet.

The Effect of Animal Fats on the Human Body

Truly enlightening. Just yesterday I was posting about animal abuse in animal food farms and how there must be some good places out there, but the hard part is knowing the difference. This video gives me yet more to think about as to whether or not we even need to be looking for those good places in the first place.

Priorities

I've never been and don't plan to be a member of PETA. I am a scientist and have done research with mice. Thanks to this type of research, drugs to help treat diabetes, hypertension, cancer, etc have been developed, diseases that have plagued my family as they have millions of others. You will not get me to think this is wrong no matter how hard you try.

But that doesn't mean the treatment of these little 'saviors' has to be inhumane. There are very strict guidelines at research institutions as to how to conduct this research humanely. Things like how many animals per enclosure, the proper way to sacrifice an animal, anesthetic and pain killer use during surgical procedures, all of these are part of what is known as an animal research protocol. All animals are monitored daily by bona fide veterinarians. Investigators are not allowed to conduct research if they fail to follow these guidelines, and they cannot perform procedures unless they are contained in each investigator's animal protocol, a protocol that must receive approval by staff veterinarians prior to its implementation. Any health problem - even so much as weight loss - is reported back to the investigators following daily monitoring by veterinary staff, and action is required to remediate the issue. Things like a tumor burden have a limit; if the tumor reaches the threshold size for that animal species, either you sacrifice the animal (to give you the opportunity to collect tissues for studies) or the staff will. Anything above that size would be deemed too much of a tumor burden for that animal. The welfare of research animals is an important issue in animal research.

Likewise, raising animals for human consumption doesn't mean it can or should be done without ANY regard for the welfare of those animals. Farms, hatcheries, etc should not feel like they have a 'green light' as far as how to treat these animals. Their welfare should be made a priority, and the way in which the animals are handled in their "final hour" should be humane. It should be no different from the human considerations we pet owners carry out when a beloved pet has developed a terminal illness that significantly diminishes its quality of life - it doesn't mean this can't be carried out humanely, inflicting little to no pain if at all possible. Of course it can. I disagree with those that think 'humane sacrificing' of an animal is an oxymoron. It doesn't have to be.

There's probably a lot of farms in the U.S. that follow humane practices. But there have been enough undercover investigations to show that they don't all do. So when you buy a quart of milk, 3 lbs of ground chuck, or a dozen eggs, how do you know whether or not you're giving the inhumane ones continued sustenance, or whether or not those products came from a conscientious, humane operation? How do we know where our food comes from?

When I first watched videos like this one, I was traumatized. YouTube is full of them. As a dog owner and all-around animal lover, I was quite disturbed. You have to wonder the mental state of people that act like what you see here. But furthermore, I had to wonder how much of the meat, dairy, eggs, etc that I've consumed since I was born came from places like this, or if it came from a conscientious place. I don't know, because I don't know where my food comes from.

Warning:  EXTREMELY GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

OF ANIMAL ABUSE

This is a short documentary under 12 min long by a group called "Mercy for Animals" titled "Farm to Fridge".  You may or may not be able to stomach the whole thing. I did but it was difficult. Towards the end the graphic nature of the footage wasn't the only reason I couldn't see it, eyes flooded with tears. Truly traumatizing.

But just like there's that, there's this. Lisa Ling did a documentary called 'Inside a Slaughterhouse', documenting cleaner, more humane practices in the cattle industry. It serves to give one hope that for every so-many bad slaughterhouses and hatcheries, there are consciencious ones. But what's the ratio - how many good ones? How many bad ones? And how do you know? How do you know that your food comes from a place like the one Lisa Ling documented, or from places like the ones in the video from Mercy for Animals?

Going vegan, like the Mercy for Animals video suggests in the end, is certainly one option. But it's a hardcore one, perhaps deemed "drastic" by some, and one that I'm sure a lot of Americans will not go for. This is too much of a "meat and potatoes" society. Is it possible to buy grass-fed meat, cage-free eggs, etc? Yes. But then you get into issues like the free-range issue pointed out on this CBS News report. So do your homework. Make informed choices. Read labels carefully. Is this stuff pricier? Yes. But the bigger question then is, which price is really the highest.

I wish all chickens had it like these:

There ARE good places out there. The problem is.... how do you know. It's a challenge for sure.

Veganized waffles

It's Saturday morning in my house, and that means one thing:  something super special for breakfast!!

Today's experiment: veganizing waffles.

I've had this waffle maker for eons (and it still works!). It was a gift from my godmother, though I can't remember for what - birthday? Christmas? For the most part I use the recipe that came with the machine. It's a very standard, basic recipe that gives you a classic waffle. You can then take it to whatever level you want with fruit, nuts, flavorings, chocolate chips, or whatever else you want.

The standard recipe (to be veganized) is as follows:

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. milk
3 egg whites, beaten stiff

PROCEDURE
Measure dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Blend. Combine egg yolks and milk. Sir into dry ingredients. Stir in cooking oil. Carefully fold in egg whites. Do not overmix. Pour approximately 1/2 cup batter onto the preheated grid. Close and bake. 

OK, so that's what I'm starting with.  Right away there's one glaring challenge: 3 egg whites beaten stiff. I doubt that Ener-G's Egg Replacer product grows and whips stiff. Hmmm..... what to do....

Basically a source of starchiness, leavening, and gumminess.

I know that beaten egg whites impart fluffiness, airyness, and a more delicate texture. So one thing I thought to do was to substitute some of the all-purpose (AP) flour with cake flour instead, to get a more delicate texture.

So veganization #1:

• 1 c. unbleached AP flour
• 3/4 c. cake flour

The remaining veganizations are pretty straightforward:

• 3 tsp. evaporated cane juice
• 3 egg equivalents of egg replacer
• 1 1/2c. plain soy milk

I mixed in the same order and cooked spraying canola oil cooking spray to prevent sticking, as usual. Well, OK, maybe not quite "as usual". My usual would be the butter spray.

Voila! Vegan waffles!

The very first batch left a lot to be desired as far as flavor goes. This was a real lesson on the importance of eggs in that classic waffle scent and flavor. They also didn't seem to brown as much, despite leaving them in for longer. The waffle iron could be smoking and the things still wouldn't brown any more than this. Texture-wise, though, it was right on. I loved the texture. There's plenty of leavening in this batter both from the baking powder and the egg replacer, so there should be no reason why they wouldn't rise. And they were nicely delicate. I think the cake flour made a nice difference.

So after tasting the first batch and finding it rather bland, while I still had batter in the bowl I added 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.

Vanilla Voodoo!! Magic! Oh what a difference!

So I'm going to go with one more veganization:

• 1 tsp. vanilla

This is for the whole recipe. I had already cooked about 1 cup's worth of batter without it, so that's why I just added 1/2 tsp. to my remaining batter. It made a difference for the better but I felt it could have used a little more. So my next batch will contain vanilla. I thought it was weird that the standard recipe didn't call for at least a little vanilla in the first place. I mean, hello, it's vanilla!

This is one recipe where I would like to try applesauce and see what contribution it would make, now that I know what they're like without it. 

With maple-flavored agave nectar, I can live with these as my 'vegan waffles'.  Another success story. :-)

More goodies

Found more goodies today!

I kept looking for the Vegenaise in the room temperature section of mayonnaise by the salad dressings and it wasn't there. Well no wonder - Vegenaise is kept refrigerated (not true of other vegan mayos out by the dressings), next to the Daiya cheese! 

Also picked up a pack of Daiya cheddar (already have the mozz), vegan ranch dressing, vegan parmesan cheese, and vegan cream cheese. I tried the latter and.... all I have to say is: hmmm.  Tasted the parm and it reminded me of nutritional yeast a little bit. I didn't have a problem with it. The challenging one is going to be that cream cheese... ;-)

I was dying to try oat milk, so I did tonight. I'm nuts about it!!!  One thing I'm really liking about this is the repertoire of milks. Before, milk was just one: cow's milk. When I needed milk, I just reached for one thing in the fridge - that ONE container of skim milk. Here, I have so many choices, and I can honestly say I really enjoy all of them. So far I've tried soy, almond, rice, hemp, and oat. I find myself reaching for the rice milk the least only because it's so thin and runny - I think after drinking skim milk forever, the thicker, creamier texture of the other milks is too good to pass up! But still, rice milk tastes great. And the fact that these come in either plain or vanilla - and several in chocolate, too - makes it even more fun! Once I clear some of these open containers out of the fridge I'll have to try coconut milk.

This weekend will be one of making a marinara, a pizza sauce, and making homemade flatbread pizza to try with Daiya mozzarella. I'm also thinking about veganizing some waffles. We'll see. Should be an interesting weekend of more experimenting!!

Vast seitan improvement

Wow.

I think I finally hit 'the note' with my current batch of seitan.  This stir fry was the BOMB.

In extra virgin olive oil I sauteed onions, carrots and bell peppers - my favorite trinity. I sliced the seitan thinly and seasoned it with adobo. After the veggies were softened I added the seitan, and started a'stirring and a'frying. At this point I added (to taste): soy sauce, ginger powder, and agave nectar.

Whoa. No garlic?  Eh, dare to be different. 

And bada bing... bada DAMN!!

With brown rice, that's money right there. I'm having so much fun exploring this ingredient. Can't wait to make my next batch!

Supplements & a few goodies

In non-vegan mode I would take a Centrum multivitamin, fish oil caps and Vitamin D-fortified calcium every day. After doing some homework I discovered that besides the obvious fish oil, my supplements weren't vegan. Therefore, I finally got around to finding vegetarian supplements. It was particularly important to get the B12 supplement, which I've read is very important for vegans.  Here's an interesting article on recommended supplements for vegans.

I've been wanting to try out hemp milk so while at the store I also picked a vanilla-flavored version of it. I had to try it right away and I'm sold. I think it's very good! And this one claims to be a good source of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which of course I won't be getting from fish oil during this experiment. So more power to it!

Here's an interesting primer on the omega fatty acids and a vegan diet (I need to reread this thing!).

Heaven in a carton.

I also picked up some of this unbelievable goodness. This dark chocolate-flavored almond milk from Silk is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. The ingredient listing looked safe and I've confirmed online that it's vegan. It's luscious, thick, creamy, super chocolaty.... just... wow.

Something I'm finding on my 4th day as a vegan is that I feel hungry sooner after a meal. I was chatting about that with a coworker who is vegetarian and he kind of nodded, like he wasn't surprised. He said he keeps a nut mix at his desk and usually snacks on that around 4pm, his 'scheduled' hunger attack.  

I remember also reading on how it's highly recommended for vegans to eat a lot of nuts since they're such a great source of protein and the omega fatty acids, so off I went to get ingredients for my own custom-made nut mix:

I went with: walnuts, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts (my favorite nut!!), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, and I threw in some raisins for a little natural sweetness. Only the sunflower seeds were salted. Now I've got an awesome snack to keep around at work and munch on when hunger strikes!