What is that meat doing on my plate?

Someone recommended a Vietnamese restaurant in our town.  He said they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan dishes.  I looked them up on Yelp, and sure enough, most people seemed to love them.  There were warnings on Yelp that the wife/co-owner is a surly kind of a character. 

Well, we found the restaurant, and indeed the wife seated us, and she was a very serious, no-nonsense kind of a lady.   We found a section titled "Vegetarian", followed by "no meat".  That was the only explanation on the menu.  None of the dishes had a list of ingredients or any description whatsoever.
My husband ordered the vegetarian chow mein, and I ordered the vegetarian lo mein with soy.  I was really hoping it had lots of vegetables in it.

Our meals arrived, and my dish did have more vegetables than noodles in it, which I love.  However, there was a generous amount of what appeared to be some type of meat in the dish.  I picked one up and tasted it, and declared that it was indeed pork.  My husband picked one up, took it apart, smelled it, tasted it, and agreed that it was definitely pork. 

I thought maybe I left out the descriptive word "vegetarian" when I ordered, although my husband told me that I had  included that word.  I just pulled all the pieces of meat away from the rest of the dish and happily ate the remainder of the dish.  I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably eating some type of meat broth in the dish, but I could live with that. 

I excused myself for a trip to the restroom.  My husband said the woman who had served us came over to check on us.  She saw the pile of meat on my plate and asked my husband why I   didn't like the tofu.  It was tofu! 

I wish I could find out how they make that tofu.  It is vastly different from the tofu I serve at home.  Mine is in neat little cubes, and it is very obvious that what I serve at home is tofu.  We like the tofu we eat at home, but I would love to know how they make those irregular, shredded type pieces of tofu.

We are definitely going back, and I am going to make friends with this lady if it kills me.  I have an ulterior motive, but one more friend would be a beautiful thing anyway.



Husband's note:  I must confess that I looked over the "meat", and it smelled and even tasted like meat.  But the stern woman said it was tofu.  Best tasting tofu I've run across.  We'll go back and give it another try. 

I thought it was funny so before we left, I took a picture of the "meat."

What the kale?

Oh how I love kale.  I decided I am going to try to buy it every week.  It is relatively cheap, (last

week it was 99 cents per bunch, not on sale).  It also seems to be hardy enough to hold in the fridge for several days, although I usually try to use it soon.  The reason I try to use it soon is that I buy two bunches, (yes, for just two people), and with the attached stems, it takes up a lot of real estate in my fridge. 

Those two bunches of kale made enough sautéed kale for four huge servings, but would probably be enough for 6-8 regular size servings.  It takes awhile to prep it.  It has to be washed, de-stemmed, and torn into whatever size pieces you prefer.  It does not need to be spun or dried like lettuce would be, because a little bit of water on the kale actually aids in the cooking process.  My husband is an expert in prepping the kale.

I don't really have a recipe, but rather a technique that I use.  I slice 2-3 garlic cloves.  After prepping the kale, heat a very large, lidded skillet to medium high heat.  Add the garlic cloves and stir for about 30 seconds, along with 1/4 to 1 tsp. of red pepper flakes, (pepperoncini), according to your heat preference.  We probably use a little less than 1/2 tsp.  Immediately start adding kale to the skillet. 

After about a minute, start turning the kale over, to bring the garlic up so that it won't burn and also to push the kale on top, which hasn't wilted yet, to the bottom.  Keep doing this, adding kale as the kale in the pan starts to wilt.  It won't look like all of the kale will fit, but if you use a large enough skillet, it will indeed wilt down quite quickly.  Also, between flipping the kale over, I put a lid on the skillet and sometimes add about 1/8 cup of water to aid in wilting the kale. 


At some time during this process, add salt and pepper to taste.  My guess would be that I would use a little less than 1/2 tsp. of salt.  Remember that the kale is going to shrink so much, that it is easy to add too much salt.  More salt and pepper can  always be added at the end.

The ingredient I like best on the kale is a splash of red wine vinegar once it is done and the heat has been turned off.  My wild guess is that I probably start with about 1 Tbsp. of the vinegar, and then add more as I taste and adjust it.

We grew lots of kale in our garden and would pick it as baby kale.  That is even better, but the large
grocery store kale is fine.  Kale is wildly nutritious.  I am glad it became so popular, because otherwise I might have never discovered it. 

It's All About the Sides

In the past I have bemoaned the fact that we do not have many restaurants in our area which cater to plant based diets.  I would guess that many people are in the same situation.  We can't all live in Austin, New York City, or any of those other cities which are so hip and on the cutting edge.  That's okay, our little city is really great in other aspects. 

My husband and I have found that we do have some restaurants where we can order off the "sides" menu and put together a decent meal.  We needed lunch a couple of weeks ago and were in an area where there was absolutely nothing available, (so we thought) for plant based diners.  As we walked into a restaurant, I stated that we might just have to go off our eating plan for this meal. 

We have always said we would do that if we needed to do so, or even if we just had a hankering, (Okie lingo), for something not plant based.  It just happens we never seem to be hungry for non plant based foods.  It really is kind of a miracle this early in our journey.  

Anyway, back to the restaurant.  I was able to find braised rosemary white beans, rice pilaf, and  roasted vegetables.  It was delicious.  My husband ordered a veggie pita pizza with a side greek salad.  Was this 100% plant based?  My husband chose to include the mozzarella on his pizza, which meant his meal was actually vegetarian.  I don't know of anything in my meal that was not plant based, but one never knows when eating out.  We were both fine with our choices and enjoyed the meal very much.

Yesterday we once again needed a quick meal close to my work.  There is only one restaurant in the vicinity, and it is definitely not a plant based restaurant.  Ironically, this restaurant is across the street from a hospital and many doctors' offices.  The doctors and employees make up a great deal of their guests. 

In  my mind, I would think a menu with lots of healthy options would work well there.  Their menu includes chicken fried steak with cream gravy, fried chicken, fried fish, barbecue ribs.  I know some people may be thinking, "I've got to find out where that restaurant is located".  I know that stuff can be delicious, (was in my past), but it is certainly not healthy.  I was able to find a meal in the sides again, steamed vegetables, green beans, roasted red potatoes, and a side salad.  My husband had a salad and cup of soup.  It was very good, and I would return for a meal there again. 

Great cookbook

Before my plant based eating days, I had quite a collection of cookbooks, printed out recipes to try one day, and even had my own personal collection of recipes.  I found that collection to be very helpful to make out a weekly menu quickly. 

Since our eating style has changed, it has been a struggle to get enough recipes together that have been tried and true.  I have started my own collection of whole food, plant based recipes, but that collection is way too small for my needs. 

I have been checking out cookbooks from the library over the last few months and trying out new recipes.  I just have not been able to find any cookbooks that really thrill me.  I find a recipe here and there, but most of them just don't seem to cook like I cook.  I can't really describe the difference, but I know there is definitely a difference.  For instance, one of the cookbooks I recently read continually used onion powder and garlic powder.  Now I have both of those in my pantry and occasionally have an occasion when it is better to use the granulated than the fresh, but rarely.  For heaven's sake, try chopping an onion and mincing garlic once in a while, and I think the difference will be noticed. 

Then I checked out a cookbook called "Moosewood Restaurant Favorites".  I had heard of the
Moosewood series of cookbooks for years.  I had heard that they had healthy dishes.  The one I mentioned is not a vegetarian or vegan cookbook, but yet there are many vegetarian and vegan recipes in this book.   They also do a great job of explaining many vegan ingredients and how to use them.  There is more information about tofu in this book than I will ever need. 

As soon as the delivery services get all the Christmas presents delivered, I am going to purchase this cookbook.

Extra: Mollie Katzen wrote the first original self-published edition of the Moosewood cookbook in 1974.  Now the Moosewood Collective have a total of 13 cookbooks.  More at: www.moosewoodcooks.com

An oldie but now a goodie!

It has been quite an experience as I have begun to gather whole food, plant based recipes.  It has been a very hit-or-miss experience for me.  Sometimes the recipes need a little tweaking to fit our tastes, and sometimes we don't care for them at all.

I am finding that some of my old recipes can be adapted to fit our criteria.  This weekend I made a
recipe that only needed one very easy change to make it work.  I have an old recipe for fruit crisp which used butter.  I thought of two choices- to use "vegan butter" or coconut oil.  I wasn't too sure about using the vegan butter, because the water content is probably very different from the butter I would have previously used.  Even different brands of butter can have a wide margin  of difference in the amount of water in them, which can result in a very different outcome in baking. 

I chose to use coconut oil.  Since it is wintertime now, my coconut oil is solid.  If you haven't used coconut oil before, it has a very interesting characteristic.  If your home is somewhat warm in the summer, it becomes liquid.  If your home is a bit cool in the wintertime, it becomes a solid.  I ignored coconut oil for a long time, because this sometimes liquid/sometimes solid thing had me intimidated.  In fact, it's no big deal at all.  If you need to use it as a liquid and it is in a solid state, simply heat it up.  If it is in a liquid state and you need to use it as a solid, simply place it in the refrigerator or freezer for a bit.   No need for intimidation here. 

Since the coconut oil was already solid, I just measured out what I needed and cut it into the other topping ingredients.  Then I placed it in the refrigerator for a short time, just to insure it would be "clumpy".  This probably wasn't necessary.

Here is the recipe with the one simple change.  It was quite delicious.  I used apples and a few frozen cranberries, since I had some leftover from Thanksgiving.  I served it warm with some vanilla soy milk ice cream which my daughter had left us at Thanksgiving time, from Trader Joe's, (which is very delicious).  I wish we had a Trader Joe's here. 

FRUIT CRISP:
5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples, pears, peaches, or apricots
2 to 4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. dried ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup solid coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Place fruit in a 2 quart square baking dish.  Stir in the granulated sugar.

For topping, in a medium bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, ginger, and cinnamon.  Cut in the coconut oil to the size of small peas.  Stir in the nuts.  Sprinkle topping over apples.

Bake crisp in a 375 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden.  Serve warm with nut or soy milk ice cream.

The original recipe came from a very old Betty Crocker cookbook. 

Enjoy a little sweetness in your life every once in awhile!

Chocolate Banana Avocado Pie

We were ready for a meal away from home today.  About 90-95% of the time I am happy to eat at home.   Most of the time the meals we prepare there are tastier than the meals we can get away from home, plus we know the ingredients which went into those meals.  If we lived in a more "plant based eating" city, maybe eating out would be more fun. 

3807 S. Peoria Ave. Tulsa, OK

We visited our favorite plant based restaurant in Tulsa today, Café Samana.  We have no ties to this restaurant or any other restaurant.  I have been eating there off and on for several years, even before we changed to a plant based diet.  Most of their menu is vegetarian or vegan.  I think they have two entrees for meat eaters.  I love the atmosphere of this café.  The staff is very friendly, and they are very conscious of being earth friendly.  Quote from their website:  "Nearly all of our plates, bowls, glasses, vases, chairs and tables were bought second-hand to reduce our consumption of resources, and we limit our landfill contribution by recycling and composting."  I love that!

Anyway, I want to tell you about a fabulous dessert we had today.  We very rarely order dessert in a restaurant.  I'm not sure why, except probably to save the calories.  This café makes their own  desserts, and they change daily.  We had never tried any of their desserts, but today they were featuring chocolate banana avocado pie.  Well, I certainly could not pass that up.  We shared a piece of the pie, and it was delicious.   When the pie slice was delivered to our table, I was surprised that it was frozen. 

The avocado in the pie was not discernible.  It was a rich chocolate with a pronounced banana flavor.  I asked, and there were no dairy products in the pie.  My grandmother used to make frozen chocolate covered bananas for us when we were children.  I found a recipe for them and also made them for my children.  This pie tasted very much like those frozen chocolate bananas. 

I thought these were planted just for Easter!

We hunted Easter eggs at the same grandmother's house.  I was always amazed that she  
planted beautiful purple flowers over her entire yard every year just so that we could hunt Easter eggs in that beautiful setting.  It wasn't until many years later as an adult that I realized those beautiful flowers were actually the weed henbit, and she simply did not mow her lawn before Easter, which made the entire lawn a sea of purple.  I guess it doesn't matter how the magic happened, just that it did happen.



Jo Ann (R) and her sister Vicky during those fun, magical years.

That pie brought back some great food memories for me.  Now I need to find a recipe so I can duplicate that pie at home.

 

Veggies, veggies everywhere

Yesterday I made a huge amount of vegetable soup, mostly using leftover fresh vegetables from Thanksgiving.  I always buy extra groceries when I prepare for a holiday meal and/or overnight guests.  I would rather have food left over than have to make a trek to the grocery store during these times. 

That usually results in having some leftover fresh vegetables and pantry items to use up after the holiday is over and the guests have left town.  It is kind of a fun game to figure out what to do with the leftover, unused items.  If I end up throwing food away, (especially vegetables or fruit), because I let them spoil, I feel terrible. 

Yesterday I needed to use up two partially used heads of celery, way too many onions, two kinds of potatoes which were beginning to showing signs of sprouting, way too many carrots, 1/4 of a head of cabbage, and 1 1/2 bunches of parsley.  I made an "empty the fridge" vegetable soup.  There wasn't a recipe, just a throw it all in kind of thing.  I wasn't sure how tasty it would be, but it turned out really good. 

Most of these fresh vegetables were at least 1 1/2 weeks old.  Here are some tips on helping fresh vegetables to last a little longer:  I cut the very end of the stems of parsley and place them in a glass that is partially filled with water.  I want the stems in the water, and as few leaves in the water as possible.  Then I loosely put a plastic produce bag over the celery and glass and put a rubber band on the bottom of the glass/bag to secure it and keep the air out.  This usually keeps in the fridge for two to three weeks.





When I buy celery, I immediately take it out of the plastic sleeve and roll it up into aluminum foil and store it in the fridge.  My celery usually lasts up to one month this way.  When I first heard about this, I couldn't believe it would work, but I have been doing this for about five years.  Not long ago, I read that the reason this works is that the foil actually lets a very small amount of air get to the celery, which prolongs the life of the celery.  I don't know if that is true, but it sure works for me.

When I buy leaf lettuce, I immediately get the rubber band or twist tie off the lettuce.  That is the worse way to keep lettuce.  I then wrap the unwashed lettuce into some paper towels and then place into a plastic produce bag.  If I am going to use it fairly soon, I separate the leaves, wash them, spin them dry, then keep in a plastic container which is lined with paper towels.  I can usually get leaf lettuce to stay crisp at least two weeks using this strategy, if the lettuce is fresh when I get it.  It is also very nice to have the lettuce already washed, ready to grab for a weeknight meal.

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit

                                          Beans cooking as well as some skillet potatoes!
We eat a lot of beans, so I try to vary the kinds of beans I make.  I try to keep several different kinds of beans cooked and ready to heat in my freezer. 

We just tried out a new to us bean, adzuki beans.  They are smaller than most beans I prepare, which makes them quicker to cook.  They only take about 45 minutes to an hour to cook, after they have been soaked. 

They are a small, dark red, oval bean.  I think it is a really pretty bean, if there is such a thing.  

Before I bought them, I had read that they are easier to digest than most beans.  That really interested me a lot.  I would eat beans every day if I could, but they can "ahem" cause digestive distress if I eat them that often.  I am hoping this bean will make it possible for me to eat beans even more often.



Husband's note: Wikipedia reports the following nutritional information about adzuki beans. 1 cup of cooked beans provides 4.6 mg of Iron, 119.6 mg of magnesium, 1.223 g of potassium, 4.0 mg of zinc. 
The name adzuki is a transliteration of the native Japanese name.  Roughly translated as "small bean", its counterpart "large bean" being the soybean.

I tried hard to put in some bean jokes, but was sternly told not to do this. But I was told I could
post the needed pictures for the blog.

It's over!

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving.   We had a really nice time with our family on
Thanksgiving.  The Thanksgiving meal went well.  The menu was all plant based, with the exception of a rotisserie chicken that was picked up for my stepmother and a pumpkin pie which I had requested.  The rest of the family attending the meal are all plant based people. 

I enjoyed all of the menu items, (however, I did not have any interest in the chicken, so did not partake).  It just did not seem that different from past Thanksgivings, when in reality it was totally different from past Thanksgiving menus. 

Although I ate more than I should have, I didn't have that awful, bloated feeling after the meal.  I still had energy after the meal, even though I had been up since very early that morning.  Usually I can hardly stay awake after eating the Thanksgiving meal. 
I spoke with my stepmother a couple of days after Thanksgiving, and she was so surprised that the plant based food was so satisfying.  She said that she felt so good after the meal, unlike past holidays.  She is planning to look into a plant based diet.




I must say the pumpkin pie, (made with milk and eggs), was really good.  Maybe by next year I will be able to find a suitable plant based pumpkin pie recipe.  I was somewhat dreading this Thanksgiving so far as the food preparation, but with help from some of the other members of the family, it was not too hard at all.





The day after Thanksgiving, we baked a Tofurkey, stuffed with dressing, with gravy included.  We just did this to give it a try, but I have to say it was quite good.  I don't use much in the way of packaged foods such as that, but it was fun to experiment.   It is sure a good alternative for someone who doesn't want to go to the trouble of making everything from scratch. 




Note from the husband: I really liked Tofurkey.  Kitchen scientists have made a faux meat that not only looks like the real deal, to me it also tastes like it.  It is rolled into this loaf shape and unfortunately is likely highly processed and full of artificial fillers, but to my surprise, was delicious.