What’s Seitan? From Wikipedia:

Wheat gluten, also called seitan ([ˈseɪtɑn]), wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten, is a food made from the gluten of wheat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as a gummy mass, which is subject to further processing.

We followed a recipe from one of our Native Foods cookbooks, and it all together took something in the ballpark of 4 hours to complete. This is not bad considering how little the ingredients cost, and how much we generally pay at Whole Foods for the pre-made stuff.

Mixing the dry goods with the sifter, kneading the dough and then finally rinsing the dough were Lane’s favorite steps. He didn’t seem to care for the process of adding water to the dry goods and making the broth.

After the dough had simmered in the broth for an hour and a half, and cooled off on a plate, we prepared our Fourth of July dinner. Lane helped me puree carrots, potatoes and turnips for a base. Shelly steamed and then pan fried asparagus spears with sesame oil. And then we pan fried some steaks made from our homemade Seitan.

Man, was this ever delicious. All the hard work throughout the day really did make the whole meal taste a lot better! And, now we have a whole bunch of Seitan on hand to use over the next few weeks! Hurray!

Pad Thai recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, my favorite, with bean sprouts, chives, broccoli, green beans, carrots, cilantro, lemongrass, onions, peanuts, and garlic.  I made the Seitan O'Greatness recipe, but with chilies, ginger, coriander, lemon peel, and peanut oil.

I made my own noodles for this recipe with spelt, oat, and unbleached white w/ wheat germ flours.  The protein for the pasta alone (for 6 small servings) was 41 grams.  The seitan added 172 grams.  The person I am making these dishes for likes to eat lower fat and high in protein.

So.... I cooked up the biggest and most savory dinner to sooth the pains. I used an entire package of store-bought seitan (I could have made my own, but this was on clearance and claimed to actually taste like chicken, which it didn't; it was its own good thing). I stir-fried it with a couple baby onions from the garden, some leftover grilled asparagus, and carrots, then drenched it with sesame dressing and garnished it with pineapple. So good! I couldn't eat all the seitan though -- being so hungry made my eyes reaaaaalllly eager to get my tummy fed, and I think they overcompensated a bit. So I have leftovers for tomorrow!

And of course I made a little sundae for dessert with Purely Decadent's cookie dough, Panda Puffs, carob chips, and PB & Co.'s* cinnamon raisin swirl. Seriously good. I ate it while watching The Wind that Shakes the Barley (movie recommendation for any who haven't seen it -- it was my second time and I'll gladly watch it a few more). 

Now I need sleep to prepare my body for another possibly long and hungry shift tomorrow. I need to start keeping almonds in my apron or something...

* I used to work at the one and only PB & Co. restaurant in NYC, and I can tell you that I stand by their product with all my heart. Shameless promotion here; sometimes I feel like I still work there because I'm constantly telling people to buy their stuff! But it's amazing -- you can probably find it at your local grocery store, so go get it -- now!

We were in Jeff's mom's basement trying to get the MP3 player we bought his stepdad for fathers' day to work, when I noticed this book on top of a stack of books in a cardboard box.  I said Jeff's mom, "Why do you have a vegan cookbook here?" while picking it up, to uncover a second vegan cookbook beneath.  She said that she had bought them for Jeff years ago, and when she asked him what he wanted her to do with them (now that he doesn't live with her and she is trying to get rid of 18 years of his stuff), he said he didn't want them!  I was shocked and appalled, of course, that he did not even think that I might want them.  But, needless to say, I got them.  The first book that I have leafed through is Vegan Vittles by Joanne Stepaniak.  It might very well be one of the best vegan cookbooks I now own (and yes, I have Veganomicon).  I like it so much, it solidified a fleeting thought I had a couple weeks ago about doing recipe reviews in addition to adding the recipes I create.

I had never made seitan at home before, though I've had it at restaurants and thought it was delicious.  For some reason, it seemed like it would be hard to make. But it really isn't at all.  On pg. 37 of Vegan Vittles is a recipe for making three huge chunks of seitan.  When it was finished, I sliced one up to use for the vegan gyros, put one chunk in the fridge for next week, and another in the freezer (quite the stash!)

Making the gyros was really easy (recipe pg. 109).  All I had to do was sautee the sliced seitan in a simple sauce, make a cucumber tofu dressing, and top it all off with some chopped veggies over a pita.

The only thing a bit odd is that the directions for grilling the seitan strips say to bring the 2 1/2 or so tablespoons of pre-mixed soy sauce, water and spices to a "boil." Obviously it is pretty difficult to boil 2 1/2 tbsp of anything in a hot pan, so I just did my best to get an even amount of sauce on each strip and tossed them quickly.

As I suspected after reading the ingredients for the cucumber sauce, it turned out to be somewhat bland.  I bought some dried dill, thinking that it would be in the sauce, but it was not called for.  Next time I would add a couple pinches of dill.

When we were eating, Jeff pointed out that he had never had a gyro, so had nothing to compare it to.  Personally, I haven't had one in years and also do not remember what it was supposed to taste like.  (Though I find with a lot of vegan fakes, it's probably best if you don't remember what the real thing tastes like!) In any case, it was pretty tasty and would've been better with a tangier sauce and fresher pita bread. (Though my supermarket's lack of fresh pita is hardly the recipe author's problem. Maybe next time I'll have to make pita from scratch!)

Easy to make, tasted good, and the grilled seitan strips were even enjoyed by my 13-month old daughter.

I started the clean-out game last week with this meal, mini bowtie pasta with cheesy sauce, sauteed seitan beer brats, zucchini and red pepper, caramelized onions, paprika and roasted brussels sprouts .

pantry:  pasta, paprika
freezer:  beer brat, cheesy sauce
leftover from another meal:  zucchini, half an onion
bought:  red pepper, brussels sprouts

Last night for dinner I made a similar sort of concoction - rice, mushrooms, peas and tofurkey kielbasa with cheesy sauce, savory carrot salad.

pantry:  rice, salad dressing ingredients
freezer:  cheesy sauce, peas
leftover from fourth of july:  kielbasa, mushrooms
from the fridge:  carrots

Want to play the clean-out game with me?  Here's the list of what I have to work with.

freezer:

one portion tamale pie
veggie broth
two seitan beer brats
pecans
alphabet soup
chocolate wafer cookies
veggie burgers
chickpea cutlets
chick'n strips
2 bags marinara
white bread
wheat bread
ww hamburger buns
seeded burger buns
ww hotdog buns
ww rolls
biscuits
english muffins
mini bagels
pie crust
blueberry waffles
strawberry jalapeno corn muffins
blueberry muffins
gf orange poppyseed mini muffins
mini bran muffins
oatmeal raisin cookies
choco-choco chip-walnut cookies
bit of broccoli
peas
lima beans
shelled & unshelled edamame
corn
mixed berries
bananas
onion rings
salsa

pantry:

can split pea soup
can corn
can rogan josh curry sauce
can chickpeas
cellophane noodles
1/2 c quinoa
shake n' bake
ww orzo
4 ww lasagna noodles
spelt spaghetti
potato buds
panko
bulgur

I can figure out what to do with the cookies, muffins and soup (eat them!), any ideas for using the rest?  The breads in the freezer will make at least three pounds of bread crumbs.  Some ideas I have are:

chickpea cutlet parmesan (chickpea cutlets, marinara, pasta, shake n' bake?)
falafel and tabouleh (chickpeas and bulgur)
succotash (lima beans and corn)

I don't think realistically I can eat all this stuff in three weeks, but I'm gonna try!

Unrelated cute picture:  It rained a lot here yesterday; I got soaked walking home from the bus stop.  There is a pond in the courtyard of my apartment complex that is apparently full of frogs, and when it storms they go NUTS!  They were so loud that I had a hard time sleeping last night.  When I went in the hallway to take out the trash this little guy was glued to the wall.

I'm not sure how he found his way up to the second floor, and if I were a less squeamish person I might've returned him to the ground.  Here's hoping froggy found his way home.

Cucumber Dill Sauce

1 1/2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped (big chunks are fine, they're going right into a food processor)
1/4 cup silken tofu
2 T tahini
2 t garlic
2 t dry dill (or to taste - 1 teaspoon wasn't enough, but 2 seemed to do the trick)
salt and pepper to taste

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until as creamy as can be.

When dressing my gyro, I was at first conservative with the amount of sauce I put on. Then I tasted it and I put on more, and more, and more.

This was the best quick and easy meal I've made in a long time. It was a perfect end to the long holiday weekend.

seitan fajitas with red, yellow, and poblano peppers, red onions, and guacamole on homemade corn tortillas

this week i made a plank of seitan, and i mean a plank.  my experiences with making seitan have often resulted in firm interiors and spongier outsides.  so, inspired by tofu666's recent seitan excursions and less recent photo essay, plus a conglomeration of recipes, i first failed at making seitan from regular wheat flour.  it disintegrated in the second batch of water, which makes me wonder whether i either didn't knead the dough long enough at the beginning or my canister of "whole wheat flour" was actually something else.  so i went to the old standby of vital wheat gluten, and rolled the resulting dough into a giant pancake of sorts.  i put it into cold broth, simmered it for an hour, then let it cool all day in the pot while i was at work.  it worked deliciously!  so firm, pleasantly chewy, and it even makes a tasty nibble on its own.

today, however, it had a different calling:

i went off the real food daily recipe for seitan fajitas, though i made it for four mini servings, replaced some of the tamari with water, and added coriander and marmite.  while the seitan pieces marinated, i made a small batch of corn tortillas.  yum.  i don't think i can ever buy storebought corn tortillas again, though i will definitely have to try making flour ones as well sometime.  this was only the second time i've made them, but really, they're quite easy.  (while my girlfriend was on tour, her band was treated to a homemade mexican-themed vegan breakfast feast cooked by chloe from montreal-based aids wolf.  she made homemade everything, including tortillas!)  then i browned the seitan in the cast iron pan, threw in some onions and peppers and sauteed them a couple of minutes.  i poured the remaining marinade over everything and turned the heat off while they sizzled.  topped with some guacamole, they made for a very tasty lunch.

i haven't done a ton of cooking yet, because it's been pretty hot out, and we've been really busy looking for a new place to live.  i did, however, get a chance to try out the popular quinoa salad with black beans and sweet potatoes posted awhile back on the ppk.  i made it spicier and added avocado, and it was quick and easy!

my stomach hasn't been very happy with some of my food choices lately.  i think the raw really had cleaned me out even after just a week, and i have been feeling the effects of my poorer choices (like pizza luce and malaysian golden tofu).  so i've got to stop being lazy and put my foot down in this house about more fresh food!  there's a good-looking recipe for a raw creamy carrot soup that's been calling my name.  and more juice.  definitely more juice.

The grilled vegetable salad has marinated balsamic, basil, parsley bell peppers, asparagus, and onion, served with baby spinach with the balsamic reduction.

The seitan salad has a cashew dressing (raw) with lemon, mustard, garlic, dill, and white pepper, with celery.

So tonight's dinner came courtesy of Vegan Dad. I made his new lunch meat, and modified his sweet and sticky barbecue sauce. I reduced the amount of ketchup and water and added in some marsala and a few other odds and ends. The result? Delicious!!! I would definitely cook this again - YUM!

I made a side of delicious coleslaw to go with. This was from this recipezaar recipe that I veganized.

I used soy milk, veganaise and a buttermilk made from soy milk with apple cider vinegar. It was great!!!

When I was in high school, if I spent a Friday night alone I would get really depressed.  Now I find I'm perfectly content to spend an entire Friday night at home cooking, and that is what I did on Friday.  I knew Saturday I was going to have no free time, so I cooked and prepped everything Friday night.  I also made pesto pizza for dinner using farmers market basil and tomatoes and VWAV pizza crust from the freezer.

Upon taking the crust out of the freezer, I was reminded how awesome I am, because I had included this note to myself on how to bake it, so I wouldn't have to look it up again.

The pesto recipe and tofu ricotta were also from VWAV.  I put the red onion on sparingly, but afterwords wished I had put more on, because it was really yummy.

Janeen had invited me to brunch Saturday morning, so I got up and finished up the food to take to her place.  I made what I'm calling Monkey Rolls - banana-chocolate-walnut cinnamon rolls.  I made the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from the Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk zine, subbing mashed banana for the pumpkin and adding chocolate chips and chopped toasted walnuts to the filling.  I also subbed canola oil for the margarine in both the rolls and the filling, as Janeen is allergic to soy.  I was most nervous about that substitution, but they turned out great.

I had intentions of icing them with both vanilla and chocolate and almost skipped the chocolate part for lack of time, but I'm glad I went with both because I think the chocolate icing was the part that really took them over the top.

I also made what I envisioned to be baked black bean & sweet potato taquitos.  Friday night I made the fillings, which were Refried Black Beans from Yellow Rose Recipes, and a sweet potato mash with lime juice, cilantro and minced chipotles.  Saturday morning I made my first homemade wheat tortillas from this recipe.  I made 12 tortillas instead of the 8 the recipe calls for, to make them smaller.

They turned out really well for a first attempt, but they weren't as pliable as I had hoped.  I wrapped each one around some of the black beans and sweet potato, secured them with a toothpick, and baked for about 15 minutes.  Right around the time I was trying to finish photgraphing and pack up for Janeen's house, a crazy storm started rolling in and took all my light.  So I skeedaddled to Janeen's just in time to beat the rain and took the rest of the photos by flash, and candlelight because Janeen is romantic like that.

So the taquitos didn't wrap up as I had hoped, but they tasted really good.  I served them with a quick guacamole and homemade enchilada sauce.  I like the enchilada sauce you can buy at the store (Old El Paso?) but felt like trying homemade.  I figured it couldn't be too difficult.  I was skeptical about just how much a roux would do for an enchilada sauce, but it really did the trick.  The sauce had a silky mouthfeel that couldn't have been acheived by just mixing ingredients together.  The only change I made was to add 2 tsp of sugar.  I like a sweet sauce.

Janeen made some excellent potatoes, cooked with a bruschetta mix and mushrooms.  These were really good.

She also put together a pretty fruit plate.

Here's our candlelit spread.

We had planned a bike ride after brunch, but since it was storming we stayed in and ate like piggies.

Afterwards we went to watch bf's band play at an afternoon benefit show, then retired to his house for a bbq.  I came home in between to clean up, and by the time I got there this was the spread on the coffee table.  Normally we'll have out a bag or two of chips, but apparently that day we were partying like there were 20 of us even though there were only really 8.

And for further exhibit of "how we roll", here is the top shelf of the beer fridge.  Yes, there are two fridges and one is just for beer.

For the bbq I made Apricot BBQ Sauce from VCon.  I was skeptical about how good this could be with no vinegar and such a small amount of tomato, but this is really good.  Make it now while apricots are in season!

I used this sauce to baste FatFree Vegan's Barbecued Seitan Ribz.  So good.

I also made squash pickles.  You may recall that I first made them a while back, and wasn't quite happy with the seasoning.  This time I got it right.  Nobody else seems to like these as much as I do, but I do like them.  So if you like squash and pickles, give them a try.

Squash Pickles

2 yellow squash and 1 zucchini, or 4 yellow squash, sliced
1 c vinegar (1/2 c apple cider, 1/2 c white)
1 c sugar
heaping tsp kosher salt
2 c water or enough to cover squash
medium to large shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tsp pickling spice
1/3 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp celery seed

Put all ingredients in a non-reactive container and stir. Refrigerate overnight, stirring occasionally.

For crisper pickles, salt the squash slices and let sit in a colander for a half hour. Rinse before adding to other ingredients.

My plate, with some grilled asparagus.

That's it for now.  I have friends visiting this weekend and am concentrating on getting well before then.  And maybe going back to work, since that's how I get paid.

I have a new story up on Dinela.com called "An LA Carnivore's Guide to Veggie Dining." The biggest delight in writing the piece was the wonderful meal I experienced at Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana. Run by husband and wife team David and Molly Anderson, Madeleine serves fine, animal-free cuisine. Sound like an oxymoron? I was shocked by how tasty and filling the food was. David Anderson is a bit of a vegan genius. A veteran of five-star restaurants, he was the only student in his culinary school class to get an A in butchering, although he temporarily lost his voice from the stress.

My favorites were the artistically presented beet tartar, the grilled lemon rosemary seitan and the chocolate souffle. Don't ask me how he does the souffle without any eggs or milk. Like I said, he's a genius. If you're looking for something a little less fancy, he also makes comfort food, including a surprisingly delicious veggie version of the Big Mac for lunch. I brought the leftovers home to Victor, who is the biggest fan of Fogo de Chao's all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse that I know. He devoured the vegan cuisine and licked his fingers.

If you can't imagine driving to the Valley for a vegan meal, then wait six months. The Andersons are currently securing financing and looking for a space in West Hollywood to launch a new vegan restaurant by the end of the year. The new place will be "bigger, with a bar, more of a scene kind of place," says co-owner Molly Anderson. It will also have a new name.

The Andersons have no plans to close Madeleine, but they are considering making it a more casual restaurant to fit with its Valley setting. Whole Foods is opening up nearby, and Yoga Works is coming in across the street. So they want to capitalize on the post-yoga crowd. Right now, hungry yogis sporting Hard Tail and mats may feel out of place at a fancy restaurant with tablecloths.

As a fledgling yoga teacher who worries about the environment, I'm trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet. Madeleine makes that easy. When the food is this good, you don't miss the meat. We swear. -- Jenny

Madeleine Bistro, 18621 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana; 818-758-6971.

For lunch, I love eating sandwiches. It's so convenient to fix a quick sandwich in the morning, to have ready for lunch. But, I get tired of PB&J, and although I enjoy some of the vegan deli slices that are available (like Tofurkey brand slices), I get irritated that they are so expensive-- they're often more expensive than comparable meat slices. So, I decided to try to make my own seitan to use for sandwiches.

I found a recipe online for a vegan mock bologna, which involved mixing wheat gluten flour with a tofu-tomato-paste mixture (with other ingredients), and baking it. I was intrigued, and wanted to try the recipe, but I didn't have all of the ingredients. I ended up completely changing the recipe (although I still modeled the preparation method after the original recipe), and ended up with a Lime-Walnut Seitan (somewhat reminiscent of turkey, I think). I think it turned out great!

Lime-Walnut Seitan

• 1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
• 1/3 cup ground chickpea flour
• 5 oz. firm tofu
• 1 cup water
• 2 Tbsp. tahini
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 2 1/2 tsp. lime juice (I used bottled lime juice, but fresh would be good too)
• 1/8 tsp. cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. sage
• 1/4 tsp. oregano
• 1/2 tsp. Spike vegetable seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. garlic salt

Mix the flours together in a bowl and set aside. In a blender, puree the remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour, and mix well, kneading until it has a smooth texture. Cover with a towel and let it sit for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375. Knead the gluten again, and place in a baking dish. (I used a round casserole baking dish.) Press down so it fills all the sides of the dish. Mix the following ingredients, and pour over the gluten. (If you have extra liquid that won't fit in the casserole dish, keep it in the refrigerator to pour over the gluten as it absorbs the liquid while cooking.)

• 1 cup water
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 1/2 tsp. lime juice
• generous dashes of sage, dill, garlic powder, and cracked black pepper

Place the casserole dish in the oven, with a tray underneath to catch any liquid that spills over. Lower the temperature to 250 and bake for 3 1/2 hours. Throughout the cooking time, spoon some of the liquid back over the top of the seitan. Towards the end of the cooking time, I noticed that the top of the seitan roast was developing a nice dry texture, while the sides were gooey from being pressed to the sides of the casserole dish and immersed in liquid. So, for the last 45 minutes, I removed the seitan from the small casserole dish, placed it in a larger one, and raised the temperature to 350 to try to make the sides of the roast have the same texture as the top. I think this worked-- the outside has a nice texture, while the inside wasn't too dry.

Here's a slice of the seitan, lightly fried and served with channa masala and wild rice (I used Vegandad's recipe):

And here is the seitan in a sandwich (with vegan mayonnaise):

Although this recipe was time-consuming, I think it was worth it; now I have sandwich fillings for several days! And there are endless possibilities for how you could use this besides sandwiches-- in stir-fries, in salads, in soups...

It was so delicious the first time - I made it again. This time I did a taste-off using tofu on one half and a chicken seitan on the other. I paired it with brown and wild rice with collards. I am not sure which was better. They were both great! Again - not a bite left at the end of the meal. I would have licked the sauce off my plate if I had been alone =)

Seitan bacon. Mmmmmmm. And it looked easy.

Thirty minutes later I sat down to enjoy a yummy, yummy sandwich -- a real Montreal bagel, toasted, with seitan bacon, tomatoes, and a couple slices of Sheese. Very, very yummy. I'll be making that bac'n again. (Tomorrow in fact, since there's some left. :-) )

Seitan in Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

1 handful of beef-style seitan

2 tsp corn flour (US = corn starch)

2 tsp tamari

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

2 tbs peanut oil

1 tbs vegetarian oyster sauce

1 tbs water

1 green onion (US = scallion)

1 birds eye chilli

220g (~½lb) Hokkien noodles (prepared according to packet)

Combine corn flour, tamari and vinegar add the seitan and marinate for around 20 minutes. Heat the peanut oil in a wok till its almost smoking, add the seitan and brown. Remove the setain and drain excess oil and wipe the wok clean. Heat the wok again and add the water and oyster sauce until its boiling, return the seitan, add the green onion and chilli and sirfry for ~2 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for a further minute while stirring. Serves 1.

Beef-style Seitan

Ingredients

1 cup gluten flour

¼ cup nutritional yeast

2 tbs besan flour

1 tsp chicken-style stock powder

2 tsp beef-style stock powder

3 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp black pepper

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs tamari

1 tbs parisienne essence (brown caramel based food colouring)

water

Combine the dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients into a measuring cup and make up to 1 cup with water, then add to dry ingredients and mix to give a dough. Leave for about 10 minutes to firm.

Place foil into bamboo steamer trays. Pull off small pieces of the dough and place on foil. I aim for pieces around the size of the last joint of my thumb. I suggest substituting your thumb. Steam for 20 minutes, remove from steamer and allow them to cool. I only have two steamer trays, and this makes enough to fill four,  I do it in two batches.

*8 oz package of Seitan
*1 can quartered artichoke hearts - no salt added
*1/2 yellow onion
*1 whole gigantor jalapeno
*Handful of super chopped spinach leaves
*2 tablespoons of sun dried tomatoes - NO OIL!
*1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
*2 tablespoons canola oil
*2 tablespoons grape seed oil
*3 garlic cloves
*Pinch of salt - NO iodine
*Pinch of black pepper
*Finely Shredded Smoked Cheddar Sheese!
*toothpicks - soak in water for an hour so they don't burn!

Chop up the following finely:
-artichoke hearts
-spinach leaves
-sun dried tomatoes

-Add the finely chopped ingredients to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients excluding the grape seed oil. Mix well and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

-Slice the seitan into strips and place in a ziplock with the grape seed oil and let sit for a couple of hours in the fridge.

-Take the seitan strips and form a circle utilizing ur wet toothpicks!
-Add the other ingredients into the center and bake on 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Serve with ur favorite sides!

Enjoy<<<<<

Oh! My! God!!!! Another fantastic success from Real Food Daily. This was a lot of work, but worth every bit of effort. Homemade, breaded and fried chicken seitan. Tempeh Bacon. Toasted Bread. Red Onion, Tomato and Avocado. Veganaise..... I'm drooling just thinking about this sandwich. It was freaking fantastic!!! Let's get to the important part -the pics...

Breaded Chicken Seitan

Tempeh Bacon

The final sandwich

]]> http://vegtasticvoyage.wordpress.com/?p=184 Tue, 27 May 2008 21:41:03 +0000 vegtasticvoyage http://vegtasticvoyage.wordpress.com/?p=184 Running around with your SO's parents means lots of winging it at omni restaurants and packing lunches for longer trips. When playing ambassador of the lifestyle, I feel like I'm doing two things: explaining that it's easy and healthy while at the same time not sounding "born-again." This is not the extremist way of life some see it as, and I don't want to come off fanatical, even though I feel better physically, I don't get migraines anymore, and I don't feel so guilty about exploitation for survival. That's really exciting for me, and I want to get that across, but it's not a phase, it's not a fad diet, and it's not some radical life change—I've been on this path for a long time now, and that's hard to explain to someone who wasn't around when I was 12 years old and said, "No, I'm not eating steak anymore. I'll go fix myself a PB&J."

And Tom has his own respect for all life. He literally can't hurt a fly. If our cat doesn't eat it first, he'll catch it and take it outside. Imposed death and pain of any kind hits him hard, so of course he doesn't want a chicken to be confined, shock-tanked, and beheaded so he can have a tasty snack. He'll take the seitan instead. I haven't forced him to do any of this—that's not how we work.

The transition from meat-free to animal-free was a matter of swapping out a few ingredients, like Earth Balance for whatever half-and-half margarine and using egg replacer in cookies, then looking back and realizing "Today was a vegan day," then eventually "This week was a vegan week." It just happened. No more Morningstar Farms buffalo wings or hot dogs. No more Parmesan. Then we learned to make seitan and started experimenting with tempeh and tofu and nutritional yeast. Then, without thinking about it too much, two years have gone by (no exact date there) without asking any animals to suffer or die for our whipped cream (or our belts or shoes, and we've always used vegan shampoo and soap). 

So where'd we go? PF Chang's, meaning tofu curry for Tom and vegetables & rice for me, and Henry's Tavern, meaning tofu curry for Tom & tofu salad rolls for me. The salad rolls were questionable—shouldn't be, right? tofu, rice sticks, carrots, and lettuce in a rice wrapper--but the tofu was somehow breaded or battered. I noticed it after a few bites but kept eating. Even if there was dairy in there, you can't unmilk that cow, and if I can stomach it I'm not throwing it away (cheese or meat bits would be a different story). I think I'll e-mail them to find out for sure and to suggest that it's mentioned on the description on the menu. It was sort of odd. And it was mushy, all rolled up with the rest of it. Why bother breading something if it's not going to be crispy?

For our daytrips, we just grabbed Clif bars, pretzels, and Tofutti cream cheese & bagels. Tom's parents agreed that you really can't tell the difference between Tofutti and dairy cream cheese—it's pretty bland and not nutrition packed. I can't tell you what the draw is, but it works on a bagel.

Finally, Saturday night we took them to Vita. They tried the spicy tempeh sticks (we ordered a side of barbecue sauce to go alongside the peanut sauce). And Tom's dad got adventurous and got the seitan fajitas, which I don't have a photo of. You can imagine them, though, because they looked like fajitas. Guess who cleaned his plate. That's right, vegan sour cream and all. And finally, I have some photos for you.

 
Here's Tom's Mediterranean platter. The specks are just herbs and spices; it was a pretty standard hummus. I was shocked that he strayed from his vegan nachos, but there you have it. After chowing most of the spicy tempeh sticks, half of this came home with us.

 
And here's my fish & chips. Hey, that doesn't look like the plates Vita uses! That's right. I took a crappy picture, so here's a photo of a take-out order I got a couple of weeks ago.The tofu wasn't frozen & thawed, so it was fairly dense. It was good, though. And the fries reminded me of the kind you get at old hot dog joints, where they overstuff a paper bag and half are crispy and half are soft, but they all have a bit o' skin.

And what brings everyone together? Ice cream (well, sort of). This is Coconut Bliss: coconut milk, agave nectar, and vanilla (and espresso for the espresso flavor). I'd tried it at Vegfest and it blew my mind. It was at Whole Foods for $5.99/pint, so it's more expensive than some, but you can't eat more than maybe a quarter cup total, so one pint'll go quite a way. Everyone loved it. (How could they not?) I had just a smudge of the coconut flavor on my fingertip and I swear my cat licked my skin raw, like she couldn't believe I would give her such a tiny taste of this wondrous treat.

As most of my friends are quite content to eat hot dogs, burgers, and chicken wings all day long, I made quite a bit of food to take along and share.

First we have Joanna's Beer Brats (the March 16th entry, currently at the top).  The recipe says that she made 10, and for whatever reason I decided to make them really big, and ended up with 8.  These guys were HUGE.  I selected a few bun-sized dogs for the road trip, and put the rest in the freezer.  A few of them were so large I'll definitely have to chop them up small in order to use them in anything.  These were really tasty.  The texture is distinctively seitan-y, but the flavor as far as I can tell is dead on.  Very similar to Tofurkey'sBeer Brats which I really like, but about a million times cheaper.  Here they are posing with the beer from whence they came.  Next time I'll use a nicer beer, this is just what I had in the fridge.

I made a big batch of my favorite pasta salad, Wolfie's Fiesta Pasta Salad from La Dolce Vegan.  The dressing on this stuff is unreal.  The original recipe is a little heavy on the pasta and light on the veggies for my taste, so I added extra peppers, peas and blanched broccoli.  And I used mini bowties instead of macaroni, just because they're cute.

I also made a "fixings salad".  The recipe is from the Food Network site, but I can't seem to find it now.  I'll post a link later if it's still there.  All that's in it is lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, olive oil and red wine vinegar, to go on burgers and sandwiches.  I thought it was a really cute idea, and nice since we wouldn't have to cart all those things individually, but it didn't go over too well.  It could be my friends just aren't fixings kinds of people, or that the lettuce had wilted by the time we ate it (it tasted fine though), or that their burgers were mounded so high with mushrooms, bacon and cheese that there just wasn't room.  Either way, I liked it and may make it again sometime for a cookout.  Just don't mix it till right before you want to eat it!

Here we have VCON Chocolate-Chocolate Chip-Walnuts Cookies.  These got rave reviews.  They're delicious and stay soft for days, and the recipe makes a ton so I'm still working on leftovers and have a stash in the freezer.  I can see myself making many variations on these in the future.

I wanted to take something for breakfast other than a Luna bar, so before we left Saturday I made FatFree Vegan's Banana Coffee Cake.  I wanted to make it soy-free so soy-intolerant Janeen could partake, so I had to adapt the recipe.  My first instinct for soy yogurt replacement was mashed banana, but as the recipe already contained two bananas I was wary.  I asked Susan of FFV and she replied "you can never have enough banana", and I tend to agree.  Because I'm a little insane, I made two variations.

For the first I subbed mashed banana for the soy yogurt and added 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

The other variation was peanut butter, because peanut butter and banana is the best.  I subbed 1/2 cup pb for the soy yogurt, flax and water, and added an extra 1/4 cup rice milk to keep the wet mixture at the right consistency.  I also added 1/4 cup peanuts since my pb was creamy, but I would definitely prefer to use crunchy pb in the future, as the peanuts got a little soft once baked inside the cake.  You can see the layer of bananas nicely in this one.

I forgot to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the banana layer both times.  It would've been nice there in the middle, but the cakes were fine without.  My favorite was the peanut butter kind, although it was a bit more dense and crumbly.  I think everyone else gravitated towards the chocolate chip variation.  15 seconds in the microwave was the perfect fix to warm it back up after sitting overnight.

So yeah, I did all this the night before and the morning that we left.  I packed it all up to go in the cooler...

...and THEN we finally left.  The amount of food and drink (read:  beer) that we took for nine people was a little insane.  It filled up five coolers.  We got through most of it before the weekend was over though.

After the 2 1/2 hour drive, we were happy to find a nice spot in the shade.  Here is what I would look like if I regularly wore things like "hats" and "sunglasses".  And I even remembered to put sunscreen on the first day!

It was HOT that afternoon!  The forecast was for scattered thunderstorms and we brought a big tent just incase, but of course because we were prepared there wasn't a drop of rain in sight.

For my tailgate meal before the game I had one of the brats on a bun with sauerkraut and mustard, my pasta salad, and another pasta salad Janeen made.  Hers had artichokes, roasted tomatoes, olives and cilantro and was delicious, as always.  She's got me rethinking my stance on olives, just a little bit.  I also had too many chips, a couple beers, and probably a cookie or two.

Here's the view of Tropicana Field from our area.  This place is large and white and you can see it from very far away.  A lot of people don't like going to games here because it's enclosed and all artificial turf, but I like it just fine, mostly because it's climate controlled.

It was "70's Night" at the Saturday game, which involved handing out blue afro wigs to the first 10,000 fans and an after-game show by The Commodores, which we didn't end up staying for.  It also involved ridiculously photoshopped pictures of all the players.

The Rays (along with the rest of the world) are going green!  Any car with four or more people parks for free (which we did with two cars), and look at this cup our beers came in.

Although I don't think that sentence is gramatically correct...

We stayed at our friend Nate's parents' lovely house in Tampa.  They live on a lake, have a pool, and don't seem to mind if Nate's friends come in and trash their house while they're away on vacation.  We're good kiddies though, we cleaned up before we left.  Saturday night we watched BJ Penn win his UFC fight, and the party lasted long into the night.  I layed down in this hammock for a couple minutes before I realized I had better get to bed, lest I spend the whole night in the hammock.

Here's the view I had the next morning while I enjoyed my coffee cake.

My eats at the Sunday tailgate, along with the requisite chips and beer, was a veggie burger with grilled mushrooms and onions, and a marinated portobello, both topped with the fixings salad.

I also may have drank some champagne straight from the bottle with the aforementioned Janeen.  Well, we didn't have any cups and it was the classy thing to do.

There is a tank of live rays inside the stadium, so Sunday we went to see them first thing.  You can pet them, and you can even pay a few dollars to feed them, but none of us wanted our hands anywhere near there mouths.  Sea creatures and I don't get along in a phobia type of way, so petting their wings was quite enough of a thrill for me.  These guys were hard to catch in a good picture, they're fast!

We had some debate about whether they like being in the tank and having people pet them all day.  They zoom right up to the side of the tank and let you pet them with no problems, although they might just be hoping for food each time.

Courtesy of Adrian, a picture of me taking a picture of the rays.  Adrian's camera has some neat-o function that singles out colors or something.

Hope you enjoyed reliving my weekend through pictures.  Tonight it's back to exercise and healthy eating.

nel commento a questo post vi spiego come funziona, cosi' potete decidere, se vi interessa, di partecipare questa settimana, o di farne voi autonomamente in futuro altri.

mare

I'll follow this up with recipes containing Seitan at a future date.

Ingredients
2lbs Whole Wheat Flour
About 2 litres/3 pints of water
1 crushed garlic clove (optional)
1 medium onion, quartered
200ml tamari or other soy sauce
2 sticks of celery (optional)

Place the flour into a large bowl, and add some water a little at a time, enough to make a soft dough that you are able to knead.

Knead on a floury surface for 5 minutes, then put the dough back into the bowl.

Pop the bowl in the sink and cover the dough with water straight from the tap (not from the recipe). You need to leave this to rest for at least 15 minutes.

While it is soaking, pour the remaining water into a very large pan - you are looking to fill it around 1/3 full. Add the vegetables and tamari/soy sauce, and bring it to the boil. Reduce it so that it is simmering gently.

Return to the sink and pour the water from the dough. You now need to wash the dough. Alternating with warm and cold water from the tap, gently knead the dough and pour away the water. This takes around 15 to 30 minutes. Start off being ultra careful with the dough, try not to cause it to break apart. You may find it helpful to use a sieve at the early stages to catch any escaping lumps. The white liquid is starch, which you can save to thicken soups if you like.

As you continue to knead and rinse, the dough will become more and more stringy - this is the gluten left over after the washing. Continue to knead and rinse until the water is almost clear, and you have a glob of chewing gum like dough!

This is raw seitan - some recipes may call for this, but I am going to explain how to cook it further.

Slice the raw seitan dough into 3 pieces, and place them into the pan. Ensure that the water is simmering, but try not to let a single bubble break the surface. The slower and longer you cook seitan the more dense and 'meaty' it is.

Cook it for at least 1hr, then turn off the heat and allow it to cool in it's cooking liquid before using or storing. Always store it in it's liquid.

You may find that some flour works better than others - some may just fall apart during the washing process. I used Tesco Wholemeal and it worked perfectly.

Although making Seitan at home can be a little time consuming don't be put off - I made enough Seitan to use in four recipes. It really is worth it. The flour cost 85p a bag and I can make 3 batches out of this. Soy sauce is cheaper when bought in large containers in asian food stores by the way!

If you want to try your Seitan straight away there are plenty of recipes online, but a nice start is to try browning thin slices in a pan, then put them in a pitta bread with some salad, perhaps some vegan cheese, anything you like really. Delicious!

Onto the food...

Starting with Wednesday's lunch.  

I had a PB and J and a bowl of plain soy yogurt with a sliced banana, fresh blueberries, cinnamon, and flaxseed meal.  I ate carrots while preparing this meal.  

Wednesday-dinner:

I made spaghetti...sort of.  I used whole wheat linguine for my pasta, and cooked some seitan in a skillet (I chopped the seitan while cooking to resemble ground meat) with a touch of hot sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, a chopped plum tomato, oregano, thyme, and pepper.  I served it with lightly steamed broccoli and 1/2 an avocado on top!  YUMM!!! This was my first time eating seitan, and I loved it!  

Later for a snack, I had some Nature's Path peanut butter granola with a splash of plain soy milk.  

Thursday was another PB and J for lunch with carrots, a kiwi, and grapes.  I used the heel of the bread to finish off my TJ's sprouted wheat.

For the rest of my meals I basically had oatmeal for breakfasts, more PB&Js, and finished all of my leftovers (chili and other odds and ends) in preparation to go to Whole Foods!  I went to Whole Foods yesterday with my mom and bought soooo many good foods!  Again, I'm very excited!  Just to mention a few things, I bought frozen Acai, 4 loaves of bread (froze 3), tortillas, PB, AB, carob powder, dry beans, oatmeal, slivered almonds, blue corn chips, hemp granola, sugar in the raw, Annie's goddess, Annie's raspberry vinaigrette, fennel, belgian endive, fresh basil, a seedless watermelon, sweet potatoes, kale, jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes, onions, tofu, soy milk, rice milk, frozen waffles, vegan carob chips, cornmeal, spelt flour, nutritional yeast, arugula, ezekiel english muffins, vegan Worcestershire, tamari, split peas, coconut milk, dijon mustard, fresh corn, portabello mushrooms, and roasted red peppers.  Okay, so that was pretty much everything!  I got a red papaya, blueberries, bananas, bell peppers, and carrots at Sam's club the other day.  I can't wait to have some papaya.  I need to do some reading about it first though!  

Yesterday, for breakfast I had my usual oatmeal, but slightly different.  I put the rest of my Nature's Path PB granola on top and a drizzle of agave.  No walnuts this time.  I'm sorry to say, but I don't think oatmeal and granola go together.  The granola takes away from the creamy goodness of the oatmeal.  

Yesterday, for dinner I made a salad with arugula, basil, tomatoes, avocado, and endive with raspberry vinaigrette!  I also had a whole wheat Garden of Eatin Tortilla with ED&BV's amazing Roasted Red pepper and almond hummus and romaine lettuce!  Did I mention this hummus is amazing?!  My dad, who doesn't like hummus (or didn't think he did), thought it was great!  I followed the recipe on everything except I used no oil.  Instead I used a tbsp of Tahini.  Perfect hummus!  Very satisfying dinner.  I had a banana bread muffing for a snack afterwards while watching the Pens lose to the Detroit Red Wings.  The Pens need to step it up!  (No picture, sorry)

This morning, for breakfast I made ED&BV acai antioxidant smoothie.  This was amazing as well!  Dreena is a genius!  It's confirmed.  I used carob powder, not cocoa powder and topped it with a few fresh blueberries that quickly sunk to the bottom!  haha.  With my smoothie I had a bowl of plain soy yogurt with hemp granola and cinnamon.  Perfect breakfast, and I can say that I don't even miss my regular oatmeal.  Now, that's saying something!!  OH, NO!  My picture is blurry :( I'm just as upset as you probably are.  Haha!  

I'm off to the park with Brian to study while he does some fishing...I'm going to pack my lunch!  I cannot wait to enjoy this beautiful weather :)