 |
Enjoyed with whole wheat couscous cooked in vegetable broth. Not bad at all!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Seitan improvement
Tonight, seitan slices sauteed in olive oil infused with garlic. MUCH better.
I enjoyed the slight toasty crunch on the edges, and the garlic essence. Not strong at all, but you could tell it was there. And not nearly as 'slushy' and juicy with every bite.
Enjoyed with whole wheat couscous cooked in vegetable broth. Not bad at all!
Enjoyed with whole wheat couscous cooked in vegetable broth. Not bad at all!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
First vegan dinner
Brown rice cooked in vegetable broth with olive oil and Herbs de Provence, Seitan stewed Puertorrican-style, and mixed veggies (bell peppers, onions, carrots, and asparagus) sauteed in olive oil and a ton of garlic :-) with vegan butter and herbs.
I enjoyed the taste of everything, but I don't think I want to cook seitan in a stewed way anymore. It soaked up a ton of the sauce making every bite like you were biting into a saturated sponge. Very wet and "slushy". I will try baking or frying it next. I also think that the flavor from the soy sauce/molasses brine in which it was boiled introduced a certain flavor that won't necessarily go with *everything*. In the past I've had seitan cooked Chinese-style. It would lend itself to those flavors much better, unless the seitan was made differently to begin with.
Not bad for my first ever vegan dinner, though. :-)
I enjoyed the taste of everything, but I don't think I want to cook seitan in a stewed way anymore. It soaked up a ton of the sauce making every bite like you were biting into a saturated sponge. Very wet and "slushy". I will try baking or frying it next. I also think that the flavor from the soy sauce/molasses brine in which it was boiled introduced a certain flavor that won't necessarily go with *everything*. In the past I've had seitan cooked Chinese-style. It would lend itself to those flavors much better, unless the seitan was made differently to begin with.
Not bad for my first ever vegan dinner, though. :-)
Control month is over
The control month in my dietary experiment has ended, and with that my consumption of all forms of dairy products, eggs, honey, and any other product from an animal source. I have been good on some fronts but not as good on others.
As planned, weight, total cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure were monitored, and data collected. So here's what my average "baseline" measurements look like:
First, blood pressure. My average for the month was around 131/74. I measured it every night just before bedtime, sitting at the edge of my bed. My lowest systolic was 108, which happened once, while my highest systolic was 152 which also registered just once. It mostly hovered in the mid-120s to low- to mid-130s, with a couple of readings in the 140s (142 and 146). My diastolic, however, was much more consistent. It ranged from 67 to 81, but mainly hovered in the 70s.
According to the CDC, normal ranges should be below 120 and below 80 for systolic and diastolic, respectively. Pre-hypertension would be the state where the systolic is between 120 - 139, and diastolic between 80 - 89. My systolic alone puts me in a "pre-hypertension" category. My diastolic stayed pretty consistently below 80. I see these numbers not so much as a sign of an all out problem, but as a red flag. With my family history for hypertension being as strong as it is, this shouldn't go unnoticed.
Now on to total cholesterol. I measured this once a week, in the morning before eating anything. My average for the month was 294.8. I had a low of 248 and a high of 324.
The CDC defines high total cholesterol as anything above 240 mg/dL. A level below 200 is considered desirable. My average for the month was 294.8, so by CDC guidelines I have high total cholesterol. Even my lowest measurement was already above the CDC cutoff for high total cholesterol. Coupled with my strong family history for heart disease and the red flag seen in my systolic blood pressure level, this adds another tier of concern.
Blood glucose was a very nice surprise. My average for the month was 84, and ranged from a low of 69 to a high of 99, with measurements being 4 times/week in the morning before breakfast. The American Diabetes Association recommends a desirable blood glucose level of 70 - 130 mg/dL before a meal. I was very pleased to see that I fell within the normal range. I was particularly tickled about my average considering that it was an A1C of 6 after a yearly checkup and my doctor calling that "pre-diabetes" that led me to seek a healthier lifestyle, since I know the strong genetic predisposition for diabetes that I have. My doctor's message was that if I did not lose weight I would end up having to go on medication in the near future. That was all I needed to hear.
However, I still need to work on the exercise. While I started with a goal of 5 times a week, it came out to more like 2 - 3 times a week, so I did not meet my goal there. My form of exercise was my recumbent bike, on which I did 45 min translating to 10 miles and a calorie burn of around 350 calories (according to the bike's computer, anyway). I chuck it to a late schedule at work, coming home around 8 - 9pm exhausted with barely any energy to cook anything, much less exercise.
It also didn't help that December was a holiday month. I figured going in that this might be an issue, so I wasn't going to focus so much on the weight, since it would probably be affected to some extent. Indeed, my weight went up by 8 lbs! With being hypothyroid (although on medication), if I don't exercise the scale does not budge, and if I add to that indulging in too many holiday treats, the scale will budge in the wrong direction.
However, if I don't keep exercise the same between this experimental month and the control month and saw weight loss now in my vegan month, the question would then be how much of that loss was due to a vegan diet and how much to the fact that I exercised more this month. If I keep exercise frequency the same as my control month, that variable will not be introduced. Then, if there's any weight loss during this month it can be more safely attributed to the vegan diet itself since everything else would have stayed the same. Of course, a part of me wants to correct that weight gain right away, but I really want to see what changes a vegan diet alone will cause.
So my baseline numbers have been set, and now the experiment really begins!
As planned, weight, total cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure were monitored, and data collected. So here's what my average "baseline" measurements look like:
First, blood pressure. My average for the month was around 131/74. I measured it every night just before bedtime, sitting at the edge of my bed. My lowest systolic was 108, which happened once, while my highest systolic was 152 which also registered just once. It mostly hovered in the mid-120s to low- to mid-130s, with a couple of readings in the 140s (142 and 146). My diastolic, however, was much more consistent. It ranged from 67 to 81, but mainly hovered in the 70s.
According to the CDC, normal ranges should be below 120 and below 80 for systolic and diastolic, respectively. Pre-hypertension would be the state where the systolic is between 120 - 139, and diastolic between 80 - 89. My systolic alone puts me in a "pre-hypertension" category. My diastolic stayed pretty consistently below 80. I see these numbers not so much as a sign of an all out problem, but as a red flag. With my family history for hypertension being as strong as it is, this shouldn't go unnoticed.
Now on to total cholesterol. I measured this once a week, in the morning before eating anything. My average for the month was 294.8. I had a low of 248 and a high of 324.
The CDC defines high total cholesterol as anything above 240 mg/dL. A level below 200 is considered desirable. My average for the month was 294.8, so by CDC guidelines I have high total cholesterol. Even my lowest measurement was already above the CDC cutoff for high total cholesterol. Coupled with my strong family history for heart disease and the red flag seen in my systolic blood pressure level, this adds another tier of concern.
Blood glucose was a very nice surprise. My average for the month was 84, and ranged from a low of 69 to a high of 99, with measurements being 4 times/week in the morning before breakfast. The American Diabetes Association recommends a desirable blood glucose level of 70 - 130 mg/dL before a meal. I was very pleased to see that I fell within the normal range. I was particularly tickled about my average considering that it was an A1C of 6 after a yearly checkup and my doctor calling that "pre-diabetes" that led me to seek a healthier lifestyle, since I know the strong genetic predisposition for diabetes that I have. My doctor's message was that if I did not lose weight I would end up having to go on medication in the near future. That was all I needed to hear.
However, I still need to work on the exercise. While I started with a goal of 5 times a week, it came out to more like 2 - 3 times a week, so I did not meet my goal there. My form of exercise was my recumbent bike, on which I did 45 min translating to 10 miles and a calorie burn of around 350 calories (according to the bike's computer, anyway). I chuck it to a late schedule at work, coming home around 8 - 9pm exhausted with barely any energy to cook anything, much less exercise.
It also didn't help that December was a holiday month. I figured going in that this might be an issue, so I wasn't going to focus so much on the weight, since it would probably be affected to some extent. Indeed, my weight went up by 8 lbs! With being hypothyroid (although on medication), if I don't exercise the scale does not budge, and if I add to that indulging in too many holiday treats, the scale will budge in the wrong direction.
However, if I don't keep exercise the same between this experimental month and the control month and saw weight loss now in my vegan month, the question would then be how much of that loss was due to a vegan diet and how much to the fact that I exercised more this month. If I keep exercise frequency the same as my control month, that variable will not be introduced. Then, if there's any weight loss during this month it can be more safely attributed to the vegan diet itself since everything else would have stayed the same. Of course, a part of me wants to correct that weight gain right away, but I really want to see what changes a vegan diet alone will cause.
So my baseline numbers have been set, and now the experiment really begins!
Soy smoothie
Who doesn't like a smoothie, right? I live on these daily, so they HAD to pass the vegan test.
I made it the same way I make my smoothies: about a cup to 1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed fruit (this mix has canteloupes, peaches, strawberries, grapes, and pineapple), 3-4 heaping tablespoons of yogurt, and 2 packets of no-calorie sweetener. I like Ideal a lot. Then just whip in the smoothie blender and enjoy!
Here I can taste that there's something different, compared to regular yogurt. But it's different, not *bad*. The fruity taste is still the primary player here flavorwise. Texture is the same as any other smoothie.
It passed the test. :-)
I made it the same way I make my smoothies: about a cup to 1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed fruit (this mix has canteloupes, peaches, strawberries, grapes, and pineapple), 3-4 heaping tablespoons of yogurt, and 2 packets of no-calorie sweetener. I like Ideal a lot. Then just whip in the smoothie blender and enjoy!
Here I can taste that there's something different, compared to regular yogurt. But it's different, not *bad*. The fruity taste is still the primary player here flavorwise. Texture is the same as any other smoothie.
It passed the test. :-)
First homemade vegan meal
Happy New Year! Well, the day has come. It's January 1st, 2012: the start of my 31-day vegan challenge.
I wanted something special seeing how it's the New Year and all. So I opted for a yummy breakfast: red velvet pancakes.
This is not a vegan recipe. If there's one thing I've noticed from looking over and studying a lot of vegan recipes during my "homework" month, is that they try so hard to overcome the lack of dairy and eggs. All kinds of different flours, sweeteners, texture enhancers.... It occurred to me to start with a different route instead, as part of my experimentation. What if I just use the same recipes I've come to accumulate, know and love, and veganize them, instead of reaching out in vegan websites for every single thing that I am to cook during this month. Will that be enough to make delicious vegan food? I'm about to find out.
This is the red velvet pancakes recipe I used, from allrecipes.com. I did not make that mascarpone spread because I haven't gotten vegan cream cheese yet. I would veganize that with the vegan cream cheese and soy yogurt in lieu of creme fraiche, and vegan cane sugar instead of regular. If I make these again I'll make sure to try that.
As for the veganizing of the pancakes, it was pretty straightforward. White sugar was replaced with vegan cane sugar. The large egg was replaced with Ener-G egg replacer, mixing up one egg's worth. The buttermilk was made the same way you would make it with whole milk if you realized you had no buttermilk around: you add a tablespoon of vinegar to a measuring cup then bring the volume up to 1 cup with plain soy milk. For the creme fraiche, soy yogurt was the substitute, the same way that regular yogurt (or sour cream) can substitute for creme fraiche in the non-vegan world. And finally, Earth Balance vegan butter took the place of regular butter.
And so the cooking started:
I tried both brushing some canola oil and vegan butter on the pan. The latter was the best, although I did find it a little salty relative to butter, which isn't salty at all.
I found there was really NO texture difference between these and regular pancakes. Since these call for baking powder and baking soda, they fluff up just the same. And the melted butter in the batter made them nice and moist. They weren't hard or too dense or any of those stereotypes that people have against "healthy" baked goods. It was an even swap of vegan ingredients for non-vegan ones.
As for the syrup, I went with a maple-flavored agave nectar option that I had. I did miss using pure maple syrup. I will definitely go back to that, making sure to get one that has been processed with vegetable oil instead of lard.
I was so pleased and happy with this. A successful vegan meal.
I wanted something special seeing how it's the New Year and all. So I opted for a yummy breakfast: red velvet pancakes.
This is not a vegan recipe. If there's one thing I've noticed from looking over and studying a lot of vegan recipes during my "homework" month, is that they try so hard to overcome the lack of dairy and eggs. All kinds of different flours, sweeteners, texture enhancers.... It occurred to me to start with a different route instead, as part of my experimentation. What if I just use the same recipes I've come to accumulate, know and love, and veganize them, instead of reaching out in vegan websites for every single thing that I am to cook during this month. Will that be enough to make delicious vegan food? I'm about to find out.
This is the red velvet pancakes recipe I used, from allrecipes.com. I did not make that mascarpone spread because I haven't gotten vegan cream cheese yet. I would veganize that with the vegan cream cheese and soy yogurt in lieu of creme fraiche, and vegan cane sugar instead of regular. If I make these again I'll make sure to try that.
As for the veganizing of the pancakes, it was pretty straightforward. White sugar was replaced with vegan cane sugar. The large egg was replaced with Ener-G egg replacer, mixing up one egg's worth. The buttermilk was made the same way you would make it with whole milk if you realized you had no buttermilk around: you add a tablespoon of vinegar to a measuring cup then bring the volume up to 1 cup with plain soy milk. For the creme fraiche, soy yogurt was the substitute, the same way that regular yogurt (or sour cream) can substitute for creme fraiche in the non-vegan world. And finally, Earth Balance vegan butter took the place of regular butter.
And so the cooking started:
 | ||
| Very red. |
I tried both brushing some canola oil and vegan butter on the pan. The latter was the best, although I did find it a little salty relative to butter, which isn't salty at all.
 |
| Gotta be careful not to burn them! The red coloring threw me off on my first batch. :-) |
I found there was really NO texture difference between these and regular pancakes. Since these call for baking powder and baking soda, they fluff up just the same. And the melted butter in the batter made them nice and moist. They weren't hard or too dense or any of those stereotypes that people have against "healthy" baked goods. It was an even swap of vegan ingredients for non-vegan ones.
As for the syrup, I went with a maple-flavored agave nectar option that I had. I did miss using pure maple syrup. I will definitely go back to that, making sure to get one that has been processed with vegetable oil instead of lard.
 | ||
| A hit, basically. :-) |
I was so pleased and happy with this. A successful vegan meal.
Making seitan
My first batch of seitan has been made!!
I bought Bob's Red Mill's vital wheat gluten, so as my first attempt at making seitan I decided to just follow the recipe on the side of the bag. Here's Bob's Red Mill seitan recipe.
And so I started with the star of the show: vital wheat gluten.
I used my stand mixer with the dough hook, and to the gluten in the mixing bowl were added the flavorings:
I bought Bob's Red Mill's vital wheat gluten, so as my first attempt at making seitan I decided to just follow the recipe on the side of the bag. Here's Bob's Red Mill seitan recipe.
And so I started with the star of the show: vital wheat gluten.
I used my stand mixer with the dough hook, and to the gluten in the mixing bowl were added the flavorings:
Since I didn't have any onion powder I reconstituted the same amount of dehydrated onions and added those. After the marjoram, sage, and garlic powder, in went the water.
I did find one issue with the water amount. The recipe calls for 2 cups of water and says that the dough shouldn't be excessively wet. Well, after 1 2/3 cups of water, already there was a little standing water in the bowl after kneading for a while, first with the dough hook and then by hand. So 1/3 cup of the called-for 2 cups of water didn't get used. Good thing I didn't just dump it all in at once. It would have come out "excessively wet".
After the kneading felt complete, this is what it looked like:
 |
| That's a Dachshund underneath the seitan dough... |
I basically chopped it up into random strips not knowing what to expect after cooking, other than "it's going to grow".
Well, immediately after putting it in the recommended soy sauce/molasses broth (which for some reason smelled beer-like to me - and that's not a bad thing!) it looked like this:
And after the suggested 1-hr simmering period, BOOM!
 |
The magically poofing mock meat!!
|
And so here it is, my first batch of seitan:
Kind of looks like chunks of meat after all, doesn't it?
 | |
| Chunks! |
Tender, spongy, and ready to soak up whatever sauce or flavors you add to it. It really reminds me of deep-fried tofu. It has that same spongy, tender texture. The flavoring wasn't bad at all. Not so overpowering that it would take over after cooking in some other flavors, but not totally bland. I can see how one could easily tailor the flavor profile - make an Italiany basil-oregano-garlic seitan with tomato paste added, or a more Asian twist with ginger, toasted sesame seeds and green tea leaves. Plus the cooking liquid could be straight vegetable broth and new flavors could be added to this instead for additional notes to be incorporated. And who can forget the wine! Lots of flavor possibilities here.
This was a nice first-time try to make it with some flavor, but not locking it into one whole flavor profile or style of cooking. I'm thinking a little liquid smoke and tomato paste might enhance things a bit, though.
I did find that it was kind of watery, so I squeezed all the excess broth out of the chunks by just squeezing them in my hands. I saved the broth as I think it'd be great to use in cooking brown rice, quinoa, orzo, for boiling pasta, or to reuse in making the next batch.
Ready with my seitan. :-)
Of sugar and bones
As I continue to read up on veganism, I've run across the controversy over sugar and whether or not it's vegan. Sugar does not actually *contain* any animal products. However, since bone char is used during the refining/purifying process, the more "orthodox" vegans believe sugar is not vegan. After all, an animal must be killed in order to get its bones, turn them into bone char, and then use them in the sugar refining process. This animal killing would be contrary to basic vegan lifestyle, and using sugar would be condoning this practice.
The thing is, not all sugar-producing companies use bone char in sugar processing. So by looking at a bag of regular sugar, how would you know?
I came across a listing of companies that either do or don't use bone char in their sugar processing. Here's a listing of companies that make bone char-free sugar. I was tickled to discover our local Texas company, Imperial, among the companies on this list! Then here's a listing of companies that have confirmed the use of bone char in their sugar processing. Domino and C&H are two national sugar giants and they use bone char. Now, when it comes to "store brand" sugars, I guess there's no way to know.
But white, refined sugar isn't exactly a health panacea in the first place, is it.
So in the vegan circles beet sugar, which comes out white after processing and hence doesn't need to be exposed to bone char, is acceptable. So are choices like evaporated cane juice, Demerara and Turbinado (a.k.a. Sugar In The Raw). And when consistency isn't a big issue and liquid is acceptable, agave nectar, pure maple syrup, molasses, brown rice syrup, and corn syrup are some of the perfectly good vegan options available.
So no, one doesn't have to give up sweetness when entering into veganism. :-)
The thing is, not all sugar-producing companies use bone char in sugar processing. So by looking at a bag of regular sugar, how would you know?
I came across a listing of companies that either do or don't use bone char in their sugar processing. Here's a listing of companies that make bone char-free sugar. I was tickled to discover our local Texas company, Imperial, among the companies on this list! Then here's a listing of companies that have confirmed the use of bone char in their sugar processing. Domino and C&H are two national sugar giants and they use bone char. Now, when it comes to "store brand" sugars, I guess there's no way to know.
But white, refined sugar isn't exactly a health panacea in the first place, is it.
So in the vegan circles beet sugar, which comes out white after processing and hence doesn't need to be exposed to bone char, is acceptable. So are choices like evaporated cane juice, Demerara and Turbinado (a.k.a. Sugar In The Raw). And when consistency isn't a big issue and liquid is acceptable, agave nectar, pure maple syrup, molasses, brown rice syrup, and corn syrup are some of the perfectly good vegan options available.
So no, one doesn't have to give up sweetness when entering into veganism. :-)
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