We Eat Real Food #1

Lately, I have been getting a plethora of questions about why I have made the choice to go vegan. When it comes up, which can be anywhere from the cafeteria to dressing room at the mall, people look at me like I have four heads and reply, “well, what the heck do you eat? Lettuce?”

After about 9 billion of these comments in which I calmly and as humorously as possible explain the vast variety of options available, people look at me like I only have three heads and say something about how they would rather starve to death. A friend recently suggested I start carrying around a picture of a slaughtered animal in my wallet so when people ask, I can just slap it down on the table and continue on with my meal. While a little extreme and potentially awkward, I am beginning to see the value in its simplicity and may resort to it in the future.

We eat real food. Food just like you. Just without the torture and guilt thrown in (sorry, soapbox). Take for example these tasty little morsels of heaven from whole foods. When I get a craving for chocolate, I EAT CHOCOLATE. These cookies were soft and chewy and chocolaty in all the ways a chocolate chip cookie should be. In fact, these were so delicious; I ate four in one sitting. Yup. Even vegans can be gluttonous. And we eat so much more than lettuce. It just takes a bit of creativity and ingenuity.

So the next time someone you know sits down to eat a meal and is carefully perusing the menu for something suitable to their veggie lifestyle, take note that we eat real food too. And let them enjoy their meal.

Lindsey

Pancakes for Dinner!

After a long day of running, cleaning up bodily fluids that don’t belong to me and rounds of CPR all you want to do when you get home is shower and go to sleep. Unfortunately when I got home Saturday night, I was hungry so the bed was not my first stop. It was the kitchen.

It had been an exceptionally hard day and I was craving stress-relieving comfort food. I wanted macaroni and cheese, thick and gooey or a big fat plate of fries but all that was staring back to me from the fridge was a block of tempeh and a cucumber that had seen crisper days. What was a girl to do? Well, in my pre-veggie days whenever I couldn’t scrape a meal together the “Breakfast for dinner” always saved my butt. Why should this be any different? A quick Google search and I had found a vegan pancake recipe that I had all the ingredients for. 20 minutes later I had a delectable stack of sweet pancakes sitting in front of me and I was so satisfied.

I was a little skeptical about how the pancakes were going to turn out, namely whether they would have the loft or “fluff” of the old Bisquick standby, but I was delighted to find that they were slightly more dense than traditional pancakes, but in a good way. They were almost crepe like in their texture and the hint of almond extract I added gave them an extra special touch that put them over the top. They have become my new favorites and I will never go back to Bisquick again. Give them a shot this weekend. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 Cup Soymilk (I used unsweetened)
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Oil
1 1/3 cup All Purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Extract (I used a vanilla and almond combo, heavy on the vanilla)
1-2 Tbs water, to thin batter if needed

Mix it all together in a blender or food processor and get flipping! They seem to cook quicker than traditional cakes so mind the stove people. It can be refrigerated overnight and remixed in the morning for a quick breakfast or used immediately for those late night cravings.

Enjoy!

Lindsey

New Year, New Meat: Vegan "Beef" Stroganoff

Normally the New Years Eve meal is fancy and fun. You go out to a nice restaurant, eat with friends or lovers and reminisce about the totally crap or totally wonderful year that has just passed you by. It usually leads to an evening of adult beverages and a serious hangover to start the New Year off in top shape. But this year, I had none of those things.

I was working, and the weather was drab so I spent the evening at home and was in bed by 9:30 and sleeping soundly shortly thereafter. Perhaps what led me to this deep, peaceful sleep was the AMAZING vegan “beef” stroganoff I had before retiring.

I know, I know. You are thinking there is no possible way to 1) imitate beef in any way or 2) duplicate a sinfully delicious cream-based sauce to drown it all in. I was skeptical too, but it is doable my friends and it was everything beef stroganoff should be: creamy, toothsome, filling, and oh so satisfying. I even went back for seconds.

I found the recipe at a wonderful website called Vegan Yum Yum and you can get the recipe here. The recipe gave me the opportunity to try two new vegan products as well, which I will give you my humble opinion on.

The first is Tofutti brand “Sour Cream”. While I don’t know if it can quite hold up to the good ol’ dollop of daisy name, it does quite well for a plant-based impersonator. It is creamy and thick and well, sour. Just like sour cream should be. It melted down nicely to create the rich sauce that housed my meaty goodness.

The other item new to the kitchen was Seitan. Seitan is a meat alternative that is made from pressed wheat gluten. I went with the Uptons brand I saw at Whole Foods because I liked the logo guy’s cool mustache (see below). The recipe called for plain seitan but I thought the ground beef variety would add a nice touch to my “beef” wonder dish. When it first came out of the package, it looked like brains and I have to say I was a little concerned about how the whole thing would end up. There was no turning back though. I cut it into pieces and into the pan he went, mustache and all. By the time the mushrooms were added and the tofu sour cream started melting, I knew everything was going to be just fine. The seitan was chewy, hearty and tasted very much like beef. Imagine that.

All in all it was the perfect comfort food dish for after a long day and perfect proof that vegan eating doesn’t have to be boring salads and beans day in and day out.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Lindsey