Vegan Mofo 18.1: Love Letter to Baltimore

I have mentioned many times that I had walked to the grocery store or the library. Most of you are aware that I live in Baltimore City. I love how easy it is to walk to everything that I need on a daily basis because I don’t like to drive. Actually it isn’t the driving I don’t like it is the parallel parking. *ugh*

Today I walked to the library to pick up three books that I had reserved on-line. During my walk I started to take pictures of the beautiful fall leaves and then I shot a few pictures of houses. I love the architect in this part of town. We live on the north side of Baltimore and most of the houses are over 100 years and each is unique which I love. To those of you in Europe 100 year old houses aren’t that old. However here in the states most houses are not that old. Here are a few pictures I took that I hope the other architecture fans will enjoy.

This is the old Roland Park shopping mall that is reported to be the first mall  in the US, it dates back to the late 1800's. When I was a child there was a Baskin Robbins at the end and I would walk here with my grandmother for ice cream. I was heartbroken when the ice cream store moved out because it had so many lovely memories for me.

This is the library branch that was recently remodeled.

Conveniently right across the street is a Starbucks where I stopped for tea before walking home.

This is a neighborhood icon, the Eddies grocery store. Forty plus years ago my grandmother used to call and order her groceries and they would deliver them and carry the bags into the kitchen. This place was definitely ahead of its time. They also have the very nice prepared food. Many of my neighbors order their entire Thanksgiving dinner from Eddies. At lunch they do a booming sandwich and soup business.

Here is the church where I was baptized many decades ago.

I wanted to include some random house pictures from the walk to the library. I think it is a lovely old eclectic neighborhood.   I hope you enjoy the walk.

I hope you enjoyed the brief tour of the north side of Baltimore. The reason I wanted to write this post is that I think people have a big misperception of Baltimore. Television shows like "Homicide" and "The Wire" portray a city that I don’t know and I have lived here a long time. My Baltimore is very serene and calm, nothing like the city I see on TV.  I hope this gives you an idea of my day today.

Happy thoughts:

Today was a great day for me. Here are my happy thoughts:

• I had a nice walk to the library and got my step count over 8 miles by 2pm. Woo hoo!

• It was a lovely day to enjoy a nice mug of tea outside at Starbucks after the library. This gave me a few minutes to start browsing one of the books.

• I ran into a few neighbors on my walk who were out exercising. One lady was using Nordic poles and raved about them. Do any of you use them or have an opinion about them? If so please let me know I would love to hear what you think.

• I am getting very excited about the Hopkins Women’s Health conference on Saturday. If it is half as good as I expect I will be thrilled.

• Dan Sr. and Dan Jr. were able to get together for lunch today downtown. Since I know how much my Dan enjoys spending time with his son it makes me happy when they find time to get together.

It was a very good day. I found myself randomly smiling for no reason just because it was a beautiful day.

Signing out:

Dan mentioned going out for dinner tonight which means I need to make myself presentable.  Talk to you all again soon.  I hope your day was as nice as mine.  :-)

Vegan MoFo 17.2: Chanterelle Soup & Pineapple and Blackberry Salad

Tuesday:

Nothing like a rainy day help you get your reading time in. It was raining when we woke up and it rained until bedtime. It was one of those cold rains you feel in your joints. My right knee was screaming at me so I decided to spend the day relaxing as much as possible.

No surprise that we had our usual green smoothie with kale and banana for breakfast.

Lunch was leftover soup from the weekend with dehydrated red onions.

My newest obsession is frozen bananas. Nothing special just a frozen banana I wrap with wax paper and eat out of my hand. I like the texture but it is better if you let it thaw a couple minutes. I am not sure why it took me so long to try this given how much I like frozen grapes. However I think it is really good. I had a couple of those during the day for snacks. They are like the chocolate covered bananas only healthier.

I ended up taking it easy by reading and drinking green tea much of the day. Sometimes you need a good lazy day to regenerate. By the end of the day I was feeling much more like myself not to mention less stressed.

Dinner last night was a very easy affair. I wasn’t in the mood for cooking so I decided to make a quick salad and soup. Dan loves it when I make miso and mirin dressing so that was what went on the salad last night. It was baby spinach, fresh pineapple, blackberries, miso mirin dressing and sliced almonds. It was a good salad and took no time at all to make.

I had some fresh chanterelle mushrooms in the refrigerator so I decided to use those in the soup. Any mushroom would do but chanterelles were just what I had on hand. Here is what I did:

Chanterelle Mushroom Soup
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ red onion, peeled and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 stalk of celery, very thinly sliced
1/3 pound fresh chanterelle mushrooms cut into bite sized pieces
4 cups water
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon ginger powder
½ tablespoon white miso (I kept this down due to the sodium content)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
black pepper to taste
1 roasted red pepper, finely diced
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely minced

Directions:

Combine the onion, garlic, celery, mushrooms, water, turmeric, mustard and ginger. Cook until the veggies are tender. Now take some of the cooking liquid and dissolve the miso and nutritional yeast and add that to the pot. Turn off the heat and add the red pepper and parsley. Serve immediately. If you like your soup thicker you can add a little cornstarch slurry (start with 1 tablespoon) to give the soup a little thickness.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 99.41
Calories From Fat (10%) - 10.24

Total Fat - 0.83g
Saturated Fat - 0.12g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 149.08mg
Potassium - 502.59mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.9g
Fiber - 3.37g
Sugar - 0.73g
Protein - 3.46g

Comments:

I was trying to make a broth that had a “chicken-like flavor”. It is somewhat reminiscent of chicken but is definitely not the same it does taste good though. I added the roasted red pepper and parsley for nutrition. Dan wasn’t crazy about the bell pepper component but I liked it. To be fair Dan isn’t crazy about the texture of roasted peppers ever so that may be the issue. The next time I make something like this I might wilt in some fresh spinach at the end instead of the peppers since he likes that in soup. If you want to make this soup more substantial it would be great with some cooked wild rice.

Given our light dinner I am sure you aren’t surprised to hear that Dan “needed” strawberry banana soft serve again last night. I swear he could eat this stuff every single night, he really loves it. When we run low on frozen bananas it becomes a crisis at our house as you can imagine.

Happy thoughts:

• It was so nice to have sunshine all today (Wednesday). It was also great to not need Tylenol today for my knee. Have I said recently how unpleasant aging can be? ;-) However my friend Louis always reminds me that aging beats the alternative and he has a point. Being alive is good even if your knee hurts.

• I found four books on-line at the library that I put on hold. I am trying to use or local library more often rather than the one near Wegman’s. It has the added benefit of getting more steps in as well as not needing to drive which you know I love. The books are my favorite topics, cooking and health. They are being shipped to my local library branch now so with a little luck I can walk to the library tomorrow to pick them up.

• Dinner tonight included a very nice salad of cooked chanterelles, fresh parsley, tomatoes and walnuts. This turned out really well. I am excited to share it with you tomorrow. I was so good it may have to go on my Thanksgiving table. Yes, I liked it that much. ;-)

Signing Out:

I am trying to log out earlier these days to shift the sleep schedule at our house. If we are going to be at the gym at 6am we need to get into bed much earlier than is typical here. Something tells me it take us a few weeks be fully functional that early in the morning.

I hope all of you had a wonderful day. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo 17.1: Book Review: Serene Cuisine

First off the rain has stopped and the skies are blue with puffy little wisps of clouds. It is a pretty fall morning here. It is a great day to be alive. Our morning was a little hectic with an early morning phone call but things have been looking up ever since.

We opted to have our usual green smoothies for breakfast. I love starting the morning with raw leafy green veggies.

Book Review: Serene Cuisine

This book is not vegan, but is vegetarian. I picked it up from the library because I liked the title. Anything that promises serenity is something that will get my attention every time. The premise of the book is to use ancient holistic yoga principles in regard to diet.

The book is categorized as follows:

1. yoga and yogic food
2. spices
3. basics of yogic food
4. drinks
5. soups and salads
6. raita and chutney
7. vegetables and curries
8. rice
9. dessert
10. asana index

Some of the principles in the book I don’t agree with like using minimal amounts of spice or that yogurt is healthy. But overall the recipes are healthier than many I have seen. There is not an overuse of oil which you know I like.

The book includes a number of interesting drinks and salads that I will be putting my own spin on soon.

Overall I thought it was interesting book and one worth reading. As usual I recommend this be something you check out from the library before purchasing. I found it to be a very enjoyable read.

Soy Protein Isolates:

I mention this topic frequently but apparently need to explain the problems with consumping them more completely. When I got a request to talk more about this you know I was happy to write about it. Anytime anyone is interested in making better nutrition choices I am thrilled.

Soy protein isolates are an unnatural form of soy. They are not something that we could make easily at home. When something is isolated it has either undergone high temperature and/or chemical processing. This process is not something that Asian cultures have been using thorough out history it is a fairly new Western process. This isolated soy protein is now added to our food supply in many more products than you would expect. Textured vegetable protein (TVP) is a form of isolated soy protein. However you will also find processed soy in vegan dairy substitutes, faux meat substitutes, bread, granola bars, and many other processed and packaged foods.

IGF-1 is a hormone, made in the liver that stimulates growth. IGF-1 can be increased or decreased with exercise, good nutrition, and stress reduction to name a few things. The IGF signaling pathway plays a role in the growth of cancer so it makes sense to not stimulate that growth. The consumption of soy protein isolates have been shown to increase the production of IGF-1 in the body. Other foods that increase IGF-1 include dairy and meat. The problem is that this unnatural product (soy protein isolate) has become common place in the US food supply. Unless you are predominantly eating whole natural food (veggies, fruit, unprocessed whole grains and beans) there is a good chance you eat soy protein isolates daily.

Not to be a downer but everyone’s DNA mutates daily, which could result in cancer unless your immune system is able to destroy the mutation before it causes damage. My approach is to give my body (and my husband’s body) everything it needs to function as well as it possibly can. The idea of adding something that we know fuels cancer growth is not an option for us. Both Dan and I decided that we would rather remove (or dramatically reduce) things we know to be harmful. The only question is our mind is how much impact soy protein isolate has on fueling cancer growth. In the end it isn’t worth consuming to us. It is interesting to note that foods that are high in protein (meat, dairy and soy protein) all increase IGF-1. I don’t think that is a coincidence but that is only conjecture on my part. ;-)

Cooking Contest:

If you like raw foods stop by Brigid’s blog. She is having a raw food contest. Since most of us should eat more raw food why not see what you can come up with for the contest. I am hoping to have time to take part and look forward to seeing the recipes others submit.

Happy Thoughts:

• The rain has stopped and it is a nice sunny, windy and reasonably warm (upper 50’s low 60’s) fall day. Just the sort of day you want to sip a cup of hot tea while looking out the window, which I did earlier. ;-) I love to watch the leaves blow in the wind.

• All three felines were cooperative for their morning meds and are now sweetly sleeping. Is that anything more adorable than little sleeping animals? That is tough to beat in my opinion.

• Dan and I are trying to work out how and when we are going to exercise together. As you may have guessed joining our college gym is looking more likely. Indoor pool here I come. LOL

• We got some disturbing news this morning but it reminded us how fortunate we are to have made good financial choices earlier in life. I guess our finance degrees have been good for something.

• I feel like I am more focused on health at the moment, which is always good. I am looking forward to starting 2011 more healthy than  I began last year. One thing I have learned is that for us improving our nutrition has been a process. While we went from omni to vegan in one day making other changes took much longer. I feel as though my cooking continues to become more health giving over time. I am very happy that we have both learned to love eating this way. Dan was a tough sell initially but now he is completely on board.  It is much easier to do this together I think.

Signing out:

I have a few errands to take care of today and some things to accomplish before Dan gets home. I will be back later with two quick recipes from last night. My next experiment is slow cooker lasagna. Have any of you tried that yet? If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Talk to you later today.

Vegan MoFo 16.2: Fra Diavolo Flavored Tofu and Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle and Lime

Monday:

We woke up to a thick foggy morning but it was fairly warm at 50 degrees. Since we have a lot of leafy greens in the refrigerator we both had kale and banana smoothies this morning with ground flaxseeds, walnuts, cinnamon and ginger. I know you are shocked to see a green smoothie on my blog, LOL.

Thankfully there are lots of leftovers in the refrigerator for lunch. I was able to pack soup from Saturday and big serving of curried unfried rice for Dan to take to work.

My lunch was ½ portion of the curried unfried rice and some fat-free hummus from a dusting of paprika and pine nuts, raw parsnip, green bell pepper and an olive. I added the olive because I was craving a little salt.

I had a lot of things to do today to get caught up from last week which meant Monday was a bit busy and rushed for me. To keep things easy I decided to make the tofu and soup earlier in the day to have on hand at dinner time.

The tofu is based on a traditional Italian recipe that is typically made with chicken. Fra diavolo stands for brother devil and refers to the spiciness of the dish. It is traditionally made with olive oil which I omitted since I don’t cook with oil as you know. Here is what I did:

Tofu Fra Diavolo
Serves 2

Tofu Ingredients:

14 ounces extra firm organic tofu (make certain it doesn’t contain added soy protein which would mostly likely be isolated)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon hot crushed peppers (wet hots)
freshly ground black pepper

Salad Ingredients:

½ red onion, peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, or to taste
dried Italian seasoning, to taste (about ¼ teaspoon)
1 cucumber, cut into quarters and then sliced ¼ to ½ inch thick pieces
¼ cup fresh parsley minced, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees convection. Line a sheet pan with silpat or parchment.

Drain the liquid from the tofu and press it to remove the excess water. Cut the tofu into six slabs. I only choose 6 pieces because things in 3’s look better on a plate. Place the tofu on the sheet pan.

Mix the Dijon and hot crushed peppers and then place 1/6 of the sauce mixture on each slice. This is what the tofu looks like before it is baked.

Bake until you like the texture. Dan prefers his tofu to be more firm so I baked ours about 45 minutes. This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.

Once the tofu was room temperature I refrigerated it until dinner.

To make the salad sprinkle the sliced red onion with a little red wine vinegar and dried Italian seasoning and toss to coat. Add the remaining ingredients and toss. Cover the salad and refrigerate until it is time to eat. My salad marinated for at least 3 hours and the cucumbers were still crisp.

To serve place the salad on the base of the plate and top with the slices of cold baked tofu. Yes I served this cold as a salad and we liked the texture of the tofu better cold. Not to mention it made this a truly make ahead meal no reheating required. This would also be great to pack for lunch.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 237.01
Calories From Fat (44%) - 104.2

Total Fat - 12.5g
Saturated Fat - 1.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 125.69mg
Potassium - 707.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.53g
Fiber - 3.74g
Sugar - 3.31g
Protein - 22.12g

Comments:

I don’t typically serve baked tofu cold but I have to say the texture when it is made this way is really good. For some reason it is much more firm when cold which Dan appreciated. The flavor of the tofu is mildly spicy, but not terribly hot. I probably wouldn’t try to serve this to anyone that doesn’t like heat but I think it would work in many dishes. This is a very simple technique and results in a nice firm tofu which would be good on a salad on in a collard wrap. Don’t be surprised if you see that in the future. ;-)

To accompany the tofu and veggie salad I wanted to make a hot soup. I decided to do a test run of the soup I was planning for Thanksgiving and it is good that I did. While I liked the heat level as I made it below I know my mother would find this mind blowingly hot *shakes head* but she thinks black pepper is intense so consider the source. Here is what I did:

Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle in Adobo and Lime
Serves 3

Ingredients:

1 butter nut squash, cut in half seeds removed
1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
water or veg stock necessary to process (I probably used 3 or 4 cups)
1 or 2 chipotles in adobo, depending on how much you like heat (I used 2 but I like heat)
1 lime, zested and juiced
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds, or to taste
black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees convection. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash halves on a sheet pan lined with silpat or parchment. Bake until the squash is tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife. This should take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

Allow the squash to cool so that you can handle it. You now have two options. If the squash was organic and you are using a high speed blender, like a Vitamix you can place the squash and skin in the pot which is what I did. I did tear the squash into pieces with my hand to make it easier to process later. Alternately you can use a spoon and scoop the squash flesh from the skin and place that in the pot. Now add the other ingredients and cook until the onions and garlic are tender, about 20 minutes. Allow the veggies to cool a little and then process in your blender and return to the soup pot to heat, or refrigerate until needed. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your taste.

I served this with a few dehydrated red onions on top.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 98.39
Calories From Fat (3%) - 2.77

Total Fat - 0.33g
Saturated Fat - 0.07g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 17.55mg
Potassium - 638.24mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.22g
Fiber - 4.55g
Sugar - 5.38g
Protein - 2.51g

Comments:

We liked this soup quite a bit but I suspect that my parents would find the soup to be too “clean”. If I decide to serve this to my parents I will either add raw cashews to the base when I process it in the Vitamix or finish it with lime flavored cashew crème fraiche.

Why I no longer watch the Food Network:

A good friend of mine called me yesterday and wanted me to turn on the Food Network. Seriously I knew I shouldn’t watch long but it ended up staying on my TV for a few hours. Another friend of mine had mentioned that Giada’s recipes are healthy. Really? I can’t say I see that.

The recipe I saw Giada make yesterday was vegetarian (it would be vegan without the 1/2 cup of parm) and I wouldn’t eat this nutritional disaster unless someone had a gun to my head. I was horrified when she used ¾ of a cup of olive oil in a salad for 4 people. Needless to say I had to run the nutritional numbers on this recipe. I had to make a few assumptions like the amount of salt she used in the water to boil the pasta which looked like a tablespoon. Each serving of this recipe contained over 1,000 calories (50 from the parm), 46 grams of fat (3 from parm) and more sodium than you should have in an entire day and this was one side dish not a meal. OMG! I could not believe how bad this was.

This is a perfect example of what can go wrong with vegan food. Sure no animal was hurt in the making of this food (if you leave off the parm) but what about the impact on the humans that will be eating the food? When I first began eating vegan food I assumed that because there was no cholesterol and little saturated fat that vegan food had to be healthier than omni food. I no longer believe that is true. Each day many other vegans post recipes that are unhealthy. Have any of read the ingredient lists on vegan dairy or meat substitutes? Talk about a scary science projects meant for human consumption. Yuck! :-p

It is incredibly sad to see other people preparing and eating food that is harming their health and the health of their familes. When I was growing up my parents knew nothing about nutrition other than the misinformation that is taught in school and disseminated by the government. How did we as a country get so nutritionally messed up? *shakes head*  The most disturbing part is that people seem to be addicted to the unhealthy stuff.  *sigh*

Sorry for the rant but the nutritional statistics on the recipe from yesterday were so absurd that I had to talk about this. While I realize this is one of those subjects that everyone feels strongly about (as I clearly do) I also think it is important to bring it up. As wives and mothers (or fathers) we are responsible for the health of our respective families. Eating has a direct impact on your health and something that I feel is very important. While I know many people aren’t ready to eat as healthfully as we I hope you eat more like us than you do than like the recipe I linked to above. If you don’t please let me be delusional and continue to think you do. ;-)

Speaking of being messed up nutritionally this is another reason I am excited about going to see “Forks Over Knives” in a few weeks. I fully expect to love the flick. Maybe I need to tone down my expectations a little. I wouldn’t want to set myself up for disappointment.

Happy Thoughts:

With the steady rain we had today and my achy knee it is a bit tough to focus on happy thoughts at the moment. However I think that is probably the best time to think of them. ;-) Today I am grateful for:

• A relaxing day at home curled up on the sofa with a mug of green tea and a few books to keep me company.
• The fact that the rain is expected to end overnight which means I can get back to my normal routine tomorrow. I am looking forward to walking to the library to pick up a vegan cookbook I put on hold yesterday which will hopefully be available tomorrow.
• The college where Dan and I graduated is in our neighborhood, has a reasonable alumni gym membership rate. We are going to check it out soon, hopefully this week. Hello swimming in the winter. I will be a happy girl about that, LOL. Swimming has always been one of my favorite activities. If they also have indoor tennis courts I will in complete heaven.
• My three little felines are being so cooperative about taking their medications. It is nice to have them be uncharacteristically good. ;-)
• Dan bought me some beautiful jewelry that I need to share with you soon. I am not certain if it is part of my Christmas present which is why I haven’t taken pictures yet. Yes, I am very spoiled. ;-)
• I am really looked forward to the Johns HopkinsWomen’s Health Conference in Baltimore this weekend. Are any of you attending? Please let me know if you are so we can meet during one of the breaks or at lunch.
• Last I am grateful that we were able to get seats to the advanced screening of “ Forks Over Knives” on December 8 at the Johns Hopkins School of Health. I have wanted to see this since I first heard about it almost a year ago.

Signing out:

I am a very lucky lady and have a lot to be thankful for today. I hope all of you are equally fortunate in your lives. I need to go so that I can make Dan a batch of strawberry banana soft serve. It isn’t he wants to eat it, he needs the calories. Well that is what he told me. Enjoy your evening! Talk to you again tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo 16.1: Advance Screenings of “Forks Over Knives”

I came across this list of advance screenings of “Forks “Over Knives” this morning and signed up for two seats for us on December 8. As of 30 minutes ago there were still seats at the Baltimore screening. I wanted to post this link in case any of you are interested. 

I will be back later with a regular post.

Vegan MoFo 15.1: Farmers’ Market, Brunch and Shopping

Sunday:

It was a good morning at the market though a little cold. Our farmers’ market haul this morning: acorn squash, delicata squash, red potatoes, poblano peppers, red kale, leeks, Brussels sprouts, red onions, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, and lacinato kale.  We actually have a litte room in the overflow refrigerator. I must be slipping. LOL

Dan thought it would be fun to go out for brunch and Ian agreed. This morning our brunch, made by Ian et. al, included: guacamole (a personal favorite), roasted veggies (artichokes, sweet potatoes, beets, onions, red bell pepper, red potato, portabello and cauliflower), tofu salad with edamame and black beans, szcheuan green beans, cucumber and red onion salad with tarragon and marinated mushrooms.   There was much more vegan food than I expected. To be fair Ian knew we were coming to brunch but still we didn't expect so many options. This is one of the reasons we adore Ian so much, he is too good to us. ;-)

Then I got a little fresh fruit.

After that I went back for a second plate of the items above. The tofu salad was particularly good. It included tofu, edamame, black beans and green onions.

There was also tofu scramble with mushrooms, green onions, spinach and tomato. Dan and I split this plate and that was all we could eat. We were both stuffed. To wash down all this food we had two pots of green tea.

Next we decided to do a little shopping at Cross Keys. For those of you that aren’t local Cross Keys is a gated community it northwest Baltimore that also has a small shopping mall in addition to housing, restaurants, a hotel, and tennis center. There is also commercial space (I used to have an office there) and medical offices. I took a few pictures to give you an idea of the neighborhood.

My favorite store in Cross Keys is Williams Sonoma. I also love Talbots but cooking has to come first in terms of priority for me. I stop into Williams Sonoma when I am looking for gift giving ideas. I found an interesting battery operated cold smoker. You place the food you want to cook in a bowl, cover it was plastic wrap and insert the hose into the bowl and then turn on the smoker. What an ingenious little device.

I was also smitten with the carbonated water/soda makers. They have two electric countertop machines. One of these may go on my Christmas list. This is what happens when I shop kitchen gadgets for other people I find stuff for myself, LOL.

Lunch with my folks was a simple Southern Italian red sauce with peppers, seitan sausage and cauliflower over quinoa. I didn’t write anything down but it was a simple red sauce with red bell pepper, poblano pepper, Italian seitan sausage and cauliflower. I finished it with red wine vinegar, fresh parsley and served it over quinoa. Even my parents liked it which is always a surprise. They seem to have embraced my seitan sausage and I think that is because I never serve it whole it is always a component of the dish. This may be something to keep in mind for the omnivores in your life.

Dinner for Dan and I was leftover soup from Saturday.

Dessert for Dan was strawberry banana soft serve and I had a few tablespoons that were left in the blender.

Happy Thoughts:

Today was busy and rushed but it was also good. Here are my happy thoughts for today:

• Lunch for Dan was extremely easy to pack this morning since we had a plethora of leftovers. I love having leftovers in the refrigerator.
• I was productive today and was able to cross quite a few items off my to-do list. Crossing things off my list always makes me smile.
• The tofu fra diavolo experiment today was a success. I will post the recipe tomorrow.
• We (Dan and I) both liked the butternut squash with chipotle and lime soup that I made this after. I will also be posting that tomorrow.

Signing out:

Sorry for the short post today. I was busy trying to catch up on the all the things I had to let slide last week due to all the errands. Things should be getting back to normal very soon, hopefully tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a great Monday. I will talk to you again tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo 14.1: Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad with Black Olive Dressing and Masi in a Bottle

Saturday:

Breakfast was a green smoothie for both of us on Saturday. My smoothie contained: 1 frozen banana, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds, 6 walnut halves, 4 stalks of purple kale, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, water to process. Dan’s smoothie was the same except he got 2 frozen bananas, a handful of walnuts and a little stevia.

It still surprises me that we both like the kale and banana smoothies. Initially we were both a little taken back by the color but the taste is good and the nutrition excellent. In the end of the color really doesn’t matter to either of us.

I opted to make a huge pot of soup for the mid-day meal with my parents. Dan bought me a massive Le Creuset pot a few years ago that is 15 ½ quarts. Doesn’t everyone need to make almost 4 gallons of soup at once? LOL … It is perfect for making soup or marinara sauce when you want leftovers to freeze. I didn’t measure what went into this soup because I knew most people don’t have a pot big enough to make it. However I can tell you what I used. Dan was in the mood for something Tuscan flavored which means beans, fresh sage and tomato to me. This soup included the following: onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip, celery, thinly sliced green beans, thinly sliced leek, red cabbage, diced tomato, dried Italian seasoning, fresh sage, fresh shitake mushroom caps, red lentils, barley, tomato paste, red bell pepper, cauliflower, and hot crushed peppers (wet hots). I finished the soup with fresh parsley on all the servings and a drizzle of unfiltered extra virgin olive oil for my parents. Much to my surprise both my parents said that my soup was very good so I sent them home with a quart for later.

The salad we had with lunch was very simple. I make a variation of fennel and orange salad. As you know I love olives. Back in our less than healthy days I used to make a black olive dressing with parmesan. This is a much healthier vegan version of that dressing. Here is what I did:

Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad with Black Olive dressing
Serves 4

Salad Ingredients:

1 fennel bulb, thinly shaved on a mandoline
4 radishes, thinly shaved on a mandoline
a splash of red wine vinegar to season the fennel and radish
1 orange, zest finely grated then peel and section the segments (I do not supreme my oranges since reading in the oncologist’s waiting room that the membrane and pith contain micronutrients that halt cancer growth)
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely minced
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Dressing ingredients: (makes enough for 8 salads but any less won’t process properly in the blender)

8 kalamata olives
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water (or what is necessary to achieve the consistency you want)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons raw cashews

Directions:

Combine the ingredients in your high speed blender and process on high until smooth. Add as much water as necessary to achieve the texture/consistency you desire. Two tablespoons water was enough for me. If you plan to refrigerate the dressing it will thicken as it chills so you may want to make it a little thinner or thin it when you plan to use it.

Nutritional Information (assumes ¼ of the salad and 1/8th of dressing per serving):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 98.93
Calories From Fat (40%) - 39.15

Total Fat - 4.19g
Saturated Fat - 0.31g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 94.69mg
Potassium - 391.03mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.28g
Fiber - 4.32g
Sugar - 0.37g
Protein - 2.59g

Comments:

This is my spin on a classic Sicilian salad. The original contains red onion, which I replaced with radish. I omitted the olive oil and made a dressing with the olives rather than sprinkling them on top. If you like salty foods this would also be great with capers. I added the sliced almonds for crunch and the parsley for color. However the flavor combination is close to the original which has always been a favorite of mine.

After lunch Dan suggested going out for dinner. You know where we ended up. Yes, Ian made dinner and it was wonderful as always. We are so lucky to have a place in the neighborhood that will cater to us even though it isn’t a vegetarian restaurant. I always forget that not everyone has someone like Ian close by until I read other blogs that mention how difficult it is to eat out.

I was in the mood for a little vino last night and since they still had the Masi Pinot Grigio it meant I “had to” get a glass. As soon as I ordered the glass I decided that I “needed” the bottle but would take most of it home, which I did. We shared some with Aimee and Michael since they hadn’t had it before and it is always nice to share your toys with others. ;-)

We started by ordering a salad that was on special menu, hold the animal products. Ours was baby arugula lightly dressed with a lemon and toasted sesame vinaigrette topped with roasted beets and pineapple and it was delicious! When I asked Ian about it later he told me beet and pineapple was an old school flavor combination he thought from the 70’s. This is a good example of an oldie but a goody. I will be playing around with this flavor combination sometime soon. I think I would have enjoyed this with a few sesame seeds for crunch. Ian’s original contained turkey and goat cheese but ours we great without either. Maybe my version will include some almond feta. Hmmmm, too many ideas and not enough time to execute them all.

Since Dan loves pizza you know we had to have one of nice crispy whole wheat ones Ian makes. We took a few items from the puttanesca pizza and other items from the potato pizza and came up with a Dan and Alicia pizza. Our whole wheat pizza included: marinara sauce, capers, black olives, roasted red peppers, roasted red onion, fresh tomato slices and thinly sliced potato. Both Dan and I thought it was delicious. I have to say I am now convinced that pizza does not need cheese or faux cheese to be delicious. Seriously I never thought I would say that (being a former cheese-aholic) but I would rather have no cheese than fake cheese now. Who said that? ;-)

Those of you with a good memory probably remember that Dan is not fond of olives. I happen to think they are the best thing since sliced bread. I only had one slice of the personal pizza tonight. However I had most in not all of the oil cured olives which are my favorite. Can you say water retention? Of course the sodium will showed up on the scale this morning. Oh well, it was good going down.

Of course we weren’t finished eating. We decided to order the marinated mushroom appetizer as our last course. Since mushrooms are said to stop cancer cell growth why not eat mushrooms every chance you get? Not only are they good for you but these are seriously good. I really need to ask Ian what he includes in his mushrooms. They have a subtle but distinct umami that I can’t put my finger on. You know I will be asking so I can make my version of his recipe. ;-)

We also had two pots of green tea with dinner because you know we drink the stuff all the time. No doubt about it we got our quota of EGCG today.

Thanksgiving menu options:

I have been going back and forth on the menu for a few days. Here is what I am thinking of now:

• Butternut squash soup (possibly with chipotles in adobo) and topped with crispy dehydrated red onions and cashew crème fraiche
• Roasted vegetable salad with balsamic glaze and pine nuts (an oldie but a goodie)
• Seitan (either cutlets or a roulade) or a Portobello cap filled with bread stuffing (not both since it would be too much flour)
• Porcini or mixed wild mushroom gravy for the main dish and/or faux potatoes
• Cauliflower and millet faux mashed potatoes (possibly with caramelized garlic)
• Haricot vert with caramelized onion, and sliced almonds
• Brussels sprouts with clementines and poppy seeds
• Cranberry granita or Tofu Chocolate Mousse

What sounds better and/or healthier to you? Would you go with the seitan or the stuffed mushroom caps? Also between the granita and the mousse which one sounds more Thanksgiving appropriate? I think the granita sounds better but Dan always wants the chocolate mousse. I keep looking at the menu thinking that I need more “veggies”. However since I almost always over cook for national holidays I am trying to restrain myself.

Happy thoughts:

I have been enjoying the happy thoughts endings to the post. I hope it reminds you to think of the good things that are happening for you too. We all have things in our lives that would we rather not focus on but there is also a lot of good too if you just look for it. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• This morning there was a beautiful orange, pink and purple sunrise. I tried to photograph it but the none of the pictures did the sky color justice. Picture or not it was gorgeous and both Dan and I took the time to enjoy it.
• The farmers’ market was great this morning and I actually remembered boots and gloves today so I wasn’t a human popsicle today. ;-)
• The weather today was almost perfect. It started cold (in the 30’s) but warmed to the mid 60’s by mid-day. Glorious weather for the Mid-Atlantic in November.
• We had an extremely nice vegan brunch today which I will tell you about tomorrow. Ian and Dani (Ian’s sous chef) really out did themselves since they knew we were coming. We even got tofu scramble and vegan chai oatmeal pancakes. We were very impressed! To think he claims they can’t do vegan. *shakes head* We did find out today that Dani used to work for a vegetarian restaurant in Portland which probably explains a lot. ;-)
• Dan and I did more Christmas shopping today. Williams Sonoma is always good for an idea or two. Details on that soon as well.
• I was able to photograph a few Christmas decorations while we were out which I may have to try to replicate. Yes I will share what I discovered but it may take me a day or two.
• Last but certainly not least Mommy’s little grey furry angel (Masi) seems to be completely himself today. *huge sigh of relief*

Signing out:

Seriously am I having a wonderful day or what? So I didn’t sleep well, it has all uphill from there. I hope all of you are having a fabulous Sunday too. Talk to you again tomorrow.