Broccoli and Seitan Stir Fry

On Wednesday, my sweet meat eating hubby asked for Nutty Broccoli w/rice and Seitan! Score one for team vegan! Munchkin ate it too! It was very exciting! (as evidenced by the plethora of exclamations points!!)

I bought seitan, which was kind of strange because I normally make it myself, and it wasn't as good as what I make (maybe it was just that I wasn't used to it, but still, we like mine better...and it's cheaper to make it myself). Hubby and munchkin don't like their broccoli crunchy, they like it steamed to almost mush, so that's what I did. Then I added the seitan and the nutty broccoli sauce from How it all Vegan. I didn't measure things this time, I just used peanut butter, apple juice and soy sauce. I served it with organic brown rice cooked in organic veggie broth. It was delicious and healthy!

On a non-food note, let me take this moment to remind you to backup all the files on your computer. Buy an external hard drive, pay for a website to back it up for you, do something to back up your stuff. Our computer crashed 2 nights ago and we have a years worth of pictures (about 2,000 pics total) that aren't backed up anywhere! I was in a panic! Thankfully, our computer is now working and this weekend we're going to go buy an external hard drive.

Happy Eating (and computing)!

Artichokes, Capers and Sun-dried Tomatoes

My daughter, who is 3 1/2 has gymnastics on Tuesday evenings which leave dinner to hubby. Normally I try to have something really easy (like spaghetti and a jar of marinara), but tonight I went with Artichokes, capers and sun-dried tomatoes. The recipe is from How it all Vegan! and it was FANTASTIC!! Granted, darling hubby forgot the capers, but still, it was amazingly delicious! Munchkin and hubby wouldn't eat it though. They thought the artichokes were yucky. I think munchkin might have tried it if meat man hadn't told her she wasn't going to like it before she had a chance to try it. Grrrrr...anyway, it was a wonderful treat to have my sweet meat man fix me a nice vegan dinner. Maybe I'll start making him cook more often. :)

Oh, I don't have exact measurements for the recipe, but here are the basic ingredients.
Artichokes (1 can)
An onion
Garlic
Sun dried tomatoes
Lemon juice
Capers
Salt, pepper, basil and thyme

Saute the artichokes, then add onions and garlic, let it simmer for awhile, add tomatoes, lemon juice (just a little), capers and spices. Toss w/pasta. It calls for Rotini, but we used penne and it was good.

Happy Eating!

Nothing Food Related

I normally stick to writing about food, but today I'm going to venture into my life. I guess in some ways it has to do with veganism, but not really in the way that you'd think. I love being vegan and what I'm about to write shouldn't be used against veganism, it's just my opinion about my life...so don't get pissy with me. :)

When people talk about going vegan they mention all these changes that happen. They lose weight, they lose the aches and pains in their bodies, their mood improves...I don't think any of those things happened for me. I didn't go vegan for health reasons, but still would have enjoyed experiencing some of those positive benefits. I didn't. I'm still 30 pounds over weight, my knees still hurt when it's cold and my mental health is as rollercoasterish as ever. I want to spout the benefits of eating a healthy vegan diet, but it's difficult for me to do that when I haven't actually experienced them. I do have a sweet tooth and I eat a bit more junk than I should. You can be an unhealthy, junk food vegan. Just because you're vegan doesn't mean that you're going to be a picture of health and beauty. If you go vegan for health reasons I think more needs to be done than just cutting out animal products. You have to switch to a whole food diet. Eliminate processed foods and cut way back on the junk (like the chocolate brownies that I'm currently addicted to). I love being vegan and I'm not going to stop, I just don't think it's some magical cure for all of life's problems and it's sometime presented in a way that makes one think that it is.

OK, I'm done with my little rant now. Let me know what you think.

Nutty Broccoli

Last night was another new meal and it was AMAZING!! We had the nutty broccoli (from How it all Vegan!) with brown rice. Hubby and I both devoured it! I actually didn't make enough for us to both get full, but it was very very good, and it was simple! Steam the broccoli, cook the rice and mix peanut butter (or any nut butter), soy sauce, and apple juice together over medium heat. Next time I'm going to stir fry the broccoli with some onions, garlic (I looove garlic) and seitan then add the peanut sauce to the stir fry. I was going to post pictures, but I took one bite to try it and couldn't stop. Before I knew it my plate was empty...sorry! :)

If you don't have How it all Vegan! I suggest you go buy it. Right now. Go!

Happy Eating!

Mexican Casserole

I mentioned yesterday that this week was filled with brand new recipes for EVERY dinner! Tonight's new meal was Mexican Casserole. I've had them before but I was trying a new recipe which, surprise surprise, I didn't actually follow. The recipe was from Cooking Light and was actually vegetarian (not vegan, but still it's better than nothing). Here's what I did and what I'd change.

1 cup of brown rice (cook before using, but I started with 1 cup of uncooked rice)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 an onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
some jalapeno, diced
1 can of tomatoes (would use petite diced next time)
cheeze sauce
sour cream (Tofutti Better than Sour Cream)
Salsa

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cook the rice (I cooked it in 1 cup veggie broth, 1 cup water)
Saute onion, garlic and jalapeno (until translucent)
Add tomatoes to the pan with the onion, garlic and jalapeno
In a casserole dish spread cooked rice evenly over the bottom, dump the beans on top of the rice and spread out, then dump the tomato mixture on top of the beans. Top it all off with the cheeze sauce.
Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes until hot all the way through.
Serve with sour cream and salsa

Next time I think I'll use a 16 oz jar of salsa instead of the tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, and garlic. Then I could just throw it together without having to cut or saute things (yes I'm that lazy).

I hope all that made sense - My brain seems to be on vacation right now. :)

Happy Eating!

New Meals for the New Year

I got three new cookbooks this weekend! How it all Vegan (HIAV), The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen(TMVK) (meat man actually picked this one!), and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch (SBITK). Last night I tried a soup and a bread out of HIAV. I made the rustic tomato lentil soup and a Linzed version of the Harvest Herb Bread (I changed most of the herbs and omitted the raisins and nuts). Both were fantastic! Meat man didn't mind the soup (although he thinks lentils feel like peas so he won't eat them) and he really like the bread! It was a great first new meal for the new year. This week is full of new recipes! I'm going to try to make a point of blogging more often.

If you don't own How it all Vegan! go buy it! Right now. Go. Why are you still reading this? You should be going somewhere to buy this book. ;)

Happy Eating!

Vegan Advocacy

I've been vegan for almost 2 years. Animal Rights were the key component in my decision to go vegan, but as I've learned more about the health benefits of a vegan diet and I wonder why more people aren't vegan. I recently found out that a good family friend (who's my parents age) had a heart attack. He had to have open heart surgery and he's recovering nicely, but it made me wonder. If he had changed his diet, would he have had to go through that process? Could a change in diet have saved his wife, his children and his grandchildren the pain and fear that they have been through and are still going through? Could it have saved him the pain and trauma of having open heart surgery? I think so. There is incredible research presented in The China Study by T. Colin Campbell that shows how much healthier a whole food plant based diet is for the heart (and the rest of the body for that matter). I know for most vegans this isn't new information, and I'm thankful of that, I'm just wondering how do we get this message out to the world? Or at least to the people that we care about? What do you do to show people the healthiness of living a vegan lifestyle? How do you persuade (or attempt to persuade) people to start taking care of themselves? Something has to be done. People need to know that the things they think are good for them are actually killing them, but how do we do that?
Please let me know what suggestions you have. I'll be working on it too and I'll post what I come up with.