Monday, January 17, 2011

Superfoods Balls

First, sorry for not posting for so long.  I have been "meaning to" post for so long it feels a bit awkard to begin again.  But here I am.

It's a New Year and with it, a commitment to lose weight, eat healthier and be as vegan as possible.  In that vein I got a sub-lingual B12 supplement and a new multi-vitamin.  I feel better already and have noticed that physical cravings for animal products stopped almost as soon as I started taking the B12.

Over Christmas I made and gave for gifts these superfoods energy balls.  All the ingredients are on some superfoods list, many on most.  I find that when I have one of these for an afternoon snack, I'm sustained for the rest of the day.

Superfood Balls

1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup old oatmeal
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried blueberries
2 - 4 T almond butter
1/2 good quality vegan dark chocolate bar (optional, I used Camino)

Put nuts and oatmeal in food processor and process until nuts are finely ground.  Add fruit and seeds and process again until a fine meal is created.  Add nut butter 2 T at a time until mixture is moist enough to form into balls.  Form mixture into 2T size balls, pressing tightly.  Melt chocolate in a double broiler or microwave on low.  Dip half of each ball into chocolate.  Refrigerate and serve when chocolate is set.  Keep uneaten balls in refridgerator.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Blueberry Truffles

Sometimes it seems that people (myself included) think that being vegan is tantamount to giving up all the enjoyable, delicious foods that non-vegans eat.  Is it true that to be vegan, I have to be virtuous and deprived?
I struggle with the idea that to be vegan I have to sacrifice taste, enjoyment and indulgence.  This idea leads to an unhealthy swinging routine of eating all “good” foods (veggies, whole grains, beans) while my husband and son chomp on their meat and cheese and then sneaking behind my own back to binge on cheese. 
The problem for me is that I don’t want to be vegan because I don’t like animal foods.  In fact, I quite enjoy them.  I just have found that the more I learn about animals, including their emotional lives and the impact of their farming on the environment, the less I want to eat them or their products. 
So how do I stop these binges?  I think there are multiple reasons which I hope to reflect on in future posts.  One reason is indulgence, feeling “treated” and comforted by food.   To address this I have been trying to find vegan “treats” that leave me satisfied.
Enter blueberry truffles.  I created these for Thanksgiving dessert.  YUM.  They are amazingly delicious.  I love them.  I love the fact that a vegan indulgence can be so delicious.  When I was creating this recipe I looked at vegan and non-vegan truffles.  All call for chocolate, cream and the non-vegan ones, butter.  I think that the secret to making good truffles is a good quality, yummy chocolate, as it’s by far the main ingredient, so make sure to get one that you enjoy.  I initially used Green and Blacks, but realized it has milk, so in later trials used Camino, which does not.
Blueberry Truffles
¼ cup dried blueberries, divided
¼ cup soy creamer
5 oz chocolate
1 t Earth Balance “butter” (optional)
3 T almonds, finely ground
Soak 2 T dried blueberries in the soy creamer for 3 – 4 hours.  Puree mixture and warm to just above room temperature.  Gently melt the chocolate (most recipes recommend a double boiler, I don’t have one, so use a 30% setting on my microwave and stir about every 45 seconds).  Add the cream mixture, remaining blueberries and butter.  Stir until mixture reaches a smooth consistency.  Refrigerate for 1 – 2 hours.  Place ground almonds on a small plate.  Use a Tablespoon measure to scoop out the chocolate when it’s firm and shape balls with your hands.  Roll each ball in the ground almonds to coat.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Makes about 15 truffles. 

Monday, October 11, 2010

Vegan (Mostly) Thanksgiving

Lately I’ve been thinking about the difference between abundance and excess.  Thanksgiving seems to be a perfect holiday to write about these thoughts as the day is marked so thoroughly by both.

I want to live abundantly, with abundant joy and giving, grateful for all the many blessings in my life.  Fall is a wonderful time to celebrate the abundance that our Earth still provides.  I was astonished, for example, by the 15 pounds of potatoes, boxes of tomatoes and many other vegetables that my small community garden plot produced this year.  I am also constantly amazed at the abundance of generosity, kindness and love that the people in my life give so freely.

This is, in my mind, very different from the excess that so marks our culture.  Excess seems to be more about fear than celebration and hoarding than gratitude.  It’s about taking too much, more than my own need, whether in the form of overeating, overspending or other “over”ings.  I have noticed a lot of excess in my own life and am working to transform it. 

This Thanksgiving, as I sat down with my beloved family for a delicious meal, I reflected on the abundance in my life and remembered hearing somewhere once that the best prayer one can say is, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

And what did we eat?  The centerpiece of the meal was a beautiful lentil stuffed pumpkin with sides of roasted potatoes, roasted veggies, quinoa salad and, for those who wanted some, chicken.  It was important to me that the chicken be a small side dish and that the meal be centered on plant based foods and I think we succeeded, there was far more excitement about how good roasted Brussels sprouts are than about the chicken.  (In a future blog I’ll talk more about my journey in living with a meat eater, but for now, here is one of the recipes.)

Lentil Stuffed Squash

I wanted to create a loaf-like stuffing for the pumpkin, something that was delicious and substantial.  This stuffing is inspired by tangines, Moroccan stews.

  • 1 squash suitable for stuffing about 8 inches diameter (I used one that looked like a pumpkin, but I’m not entirely sure what kind it was)
  • 1/2 c French lentils
  • 1/2 c black lentils
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1/4 t cloves
  • 2 – 3 bay leaves
  • 1 t Ras El  Hanout
  • 1/4 t Marash Chiles
  • 1/2 stock cube
  • 8 dried apricots, diced
  • 2 thick slices Spelt bread
  • 2 T oil
  • 1 onion
  • 1 cup celery
  • 3-5 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup ground almonds

Combine lentils, spices, stock cube and apricots in a pot with 2 1/2 cups water, bring to a simmer for 20 minutes.  Toast bread slices and make bread crumbs in food processor.  Fry onions, garlic and celery in oil until softened and translucent.  Drain lentils and remove bay leaves.  Add about 2/3 of onion and lentil mixture and all the almonds to bread crumbs in the processor and puree.  Mix the remaining lentils and onions into the stuffing and stuff the pumpkin.  Put squash in casserole dish and add about 2 cm water to bottom of dish.  Cover with lid or tin foil.  Cook for 2 – 2 1/2 hours at 350, until sides of squash are easily pierced with a fork.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Two Yummy Salads

After months of waiting, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Volger is available from my library.  I’m not disappointed, he really seems to get veggie burgers.  For me homemade veggie burgers symbolize everything great about veganism and vegetarianism.  While meat burgers are often just a slab of meat, veggie burgers are made from an eclectic collection of ingredients, and can have an infinite variety of textures, flavours and ingredients.  Once you get away from the meat, there’s so much to work with!  Like most vegan cooking, creating delicious burgers inspires me to be creative, play with food and marvel at all the amazing ways plants can be prepared.

blog 003I was inspired reading through this book this afternoon and made a recipe that I had all the ingredients on hand for, “Seeded Edamame Burgers with Brown Rice and Apples.”  Now that’s a mouthful of a recipe name!  These delicious burgers had an Asian flavour, so I decided to make an Asian-influenced roasted corn salad to go with and was craving kale so made a massaged kale salad to boot.  All in all, a colourful, yummy meal! 

Here are my two salad recipes:

Asian Roasted Corn Salad

  • Kernels from 3 ears of corn
  • 1 Finely diced red pepper
  • 1 Finely diced carrot
  • 1 t Toasted sesame oil
  • 1 t Rice vinegar
  • 1 t Tamari soy sauce
  • 1/2 t Chinese 5 spice
  • 1/2 t Ground ginger
  • 1 Clove garlic, crushed

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix corn, peppers and carrot .  Whisk remaining ingredients in a small bowl.  Toss corn mixture with dressing.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  Roast for 30 – 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes until corn becomes slightly chewy.

Massaged Kale Salad

If you’ve never had a massaged kale salad, you’re in for a treat.  While raw kale is usually too tough to eat, when it’s massage with salt and oil the cell walls break down and make it tender.  I always feel light and energetic when eating it.  I’ve seen various versions in a number of vegan and raw cookbooks and this is my variation.  This version is a “Kitchen Sink” version, using whatever I had on hand, yummy!

  • 1/2 c Arame
  • 1 Bunch Black or Dinosaur Kale
  • 1 T Hemp oil
  • 1/2 t Sea salt
  • 1 T Lime juice
  • 1 T Balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 Avocado
  • 1/2 Carrot, grated
  • 1 small Kohlrabi bulb, grated
  • 1 c Sunflower sprouts

Put arame into a small bowl and pour boiling water over to cover.  Set aside.  Remove kale stems and slice in small strips.  Put kale, oil, salt, juice and vinegar in a salad bowl.  With clean hands massage the mixture for 3 –5 minutes until it becomes bright green and is reduced in volume by half.  Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Worth It?

Well, I’m finished with all those peaches.  I made some ginger peach muffins and froze the rest.  It took three nights of being up past midnight, peeling and chopping to get them all away for winter.  And I have to admit that at the end of the third night, I was starting to ask myself, “Is this really worth it?” 

10  months 008

Today I made sprouted grain bread.  As I was grinding my sprouted wheat, kneading the bread and cleaning up all the equipment, I asked myself that same question. 

While being vegan doesn’t mean that you have to make your own bread or process your own food, for me it is an extension of being an environmentalist and as such, it’s important to me to eat food that is whole, local and real.  But I’m also a normal person, a mom and soon to be going back to work.  So where do I draw the line?

I think that the most important questions to ask myself are, “Do I really want to and enjoy this?”  Life’s too short be a martyr in the kitchen, or anywhere else.  I personally enjoy baking as long as I have the time.

After that, I think I need to ask myself, “What is the alternative?”  In the case of the bread, I usually buy Silver Hills Organic Sprouted breads.  More and more often lately, I’ve been looking up the websites of the products that I buy a lot, trying to learn more about how they’re made and the impact they may have.

Silver Hills looks like a decent company and I don’t mind supporting them, but their website doesn’t say where the bread is made or where their ingredients are sourced from, something I’ve been thinking a lot more about.

When I baked bread today the flour was  from a town about 45 minutes south of my home as were the wheat kernels.  The other ingredients were from further afield, but all in all, making the bread myself seems to be more local and use less fossil fuels. 

The third thing I thought about was cost, and when I figured it all out, making my own bread costs about half of buying it in the store. 

So on balance, I think it is worth it.  Even more, I think it’s worth it to ask these questions, to pay attention to our food, how it’s made and where it comes from. 

If you’re interested in making your own whole grain bread, my bread bible is Peter Reinhart’s, Whole Grain Breads.  The method is a bit complicated at first, but the bread is so amazingly delicious that it’s worth the effort – I guess that’s a forth factor, taste!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Roasted Peach Ice “Cream”

I don’t eat ice cream too often, but when I do I love a rich, flavourful variety.  In transitioning to veganism, I have found that soy or other non-dairy products often have an icy or synthetic feel/taste to them.  For a while I thought I’d have to give up ice cream all together.  But then my wonderful husband came to the rescue and bought me the ice cream maker attachment that goes on my Kitchen Aide mixer.  It is a wonderfully simple tool that makes small batches of yummy, flavourful and healthy vegan ice cream. 
Fast forward to this weekend.  Yesterday I was unable to walk past the crates of fresh BC peaches at the farmer’s market.  After a slow wobbly ride home – I somehow managed to load 50 lbs of peaches onto my bike and live to tell the tale – I was faced with trying to figure out what to do with them all.  Last night I was up late peeling, slicing and freezing loads of peaches.   I look forward to peach smoothies throughout the winter!  But I also I wanted to do something a bit more creative with some of them.  I have an ancient copy of Stocking Up by Carol Stoner that my mom used when I was a kid (I just checked and it’s still available on Amazon!) and thumbed through it.  I loved the idea of roasted peach butter, but didn’t really like the recipe in the book and so altered that and used the ones that were bruised from my bunch, and then I made roasted peach ice cream with some of it, using the basic pattern in most of the recipes in The Vegan Scoop by Wheeler del Torro.
I didn’t plan to post this, but it was too delicious not to, so sorry if the quantities are a bit vague – I promise to get better at keeping track of these things. 
Roasted peach butter
·         Peeled chopped peaches (I filled my 9 X 13 Pyrex about 2 inches deep – for the ice cream you’d probably be safe using about four cups).
·         1 T agave nectar
·         1 T canola oil
·         ½ t cinnamon
Stir flavourings into the peaches and roast in a 350 degree oven for about a half an hour, until the peaches are caramelized looking and the juice is a bit syrupy. 
Put entire mixture into a food processor and puree until mostly an applesauce consistency but leaving some peach chunks.  Taste mixture and correct for sweetness and cinnamony-ness. 
Return mixture to oven and bake until you reach a desired thickness stirring every 15 minutes.  This took me about an hour and then I turned off the oven and left the mixture to continue to cook as the oven cooled.
Roasted peach ice “cream”
·         ¼ cup vanilla soy milk
·         2 T arrowroot powder
·         1 container Silk soy cream (473 ml)
·         1 cup roasted peach butter
·         2 T of raw sugar, or to taste
Mix arrowroot powder with soy milk and set aside.
Bring soy creamer, peach butter and sugar to a boil and remove from heat.
Stir in the arrowroot and milk mixture – you’ll notice it thicken almost immediately.
Refrigerate mixture until cooled (2 – 3 hours, I left it overnight)
Make ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions on your ice cream maker, freeze for a few hours and enjoy. 
My husband has almost eaten the entire batch already!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

A bit more about me...

So what do I want to write about in my blog.  I think that I need to start with where I’m at right now.  First and foremost, I want to eat in a way that is life affirming, for myself, animals and the planet.  I am currently striving to eat animal products no more than twice a week.  Using T. Colin Campbell’s guidelines, I hope to keep these quantities at below 10% of my daily intake.  While eventually I hope to be completely vegan, this seems more realistic for me right now.
When I talk about eating animal foods, I don’t differentiate between flesh and animal “products”.  If vegan literature has taught me anything, it is that eating dairy or eggs is no different from eating meat.  Animals die for both, but in eating animal “products” we are somehow divorced from this death, believing that we are somehow innocent of eating an actual dead animal.  In some ways I find it more honest to just eat the meat.
I do make every effort to ensure that the animals who I am consuming are treated humanely and live a life with little suffering.   Many websites and investigations will tell you that merely eating organic and free range tells us little about the quality of the animals’ lives.  So I dutifully go to the farmer’s market and buy from farmers who’ve been humane society certified.
But why eat anything that comes from animals at all?  While I do hope to eliminate them completely, I find this daunting and difficult.  And really, that’s the point of this blog.  There are several areas that I feel I need to become more comfortable in before I can be fully vegan. 
First, nutrition, while there are numerous people claiming that it’s easy to get all the nutrition one needs from a vegan diet, I believe that my intense cravings during pregnancy were a sign that I wasn’t.  I would like to better research and understand nutrition and how to get the most out of my diet. 
Secondly, my husband is not a vegan and has no intention of becoming one.  I have asked him to make a commitment to eating only bits of animals that were humanely raised and so agreed to cook these for him as part of that bargain.  This makes it difficult for me to never eat these myself.
Finally, I do find that there are times when my convictions go out the window and I find myself eating foods I wouldn’t normally eat.  It’s as though an inner rebel finds any dietary restriction too constraining and has to rebel.  I don’t know why, but I want to figure it out.  In the meantime, I find that permitting myself small amounts of animal foods prevents binges on foods that I really don’t want to eat, such as restaurant chicken wings (which I know come from factory farms).
So that’s where I’m at today.  This blog is my open journey to continue to improve my diet for the planet, the animals and my own well being.