So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good night

Ahhh, the last night of Vegan MoFo. I wish I had more profound musings to impart, but, sadly, no. My last day was the same as any other day, oatmeal for breakfast, Morning Star Farms lasagna, and a new soup, Thai Kitchen garlic and vegetable instant rice noodle soup. Not too bad. May have to try other varieties.

Tomorrow will be back to the omnivore way. Maybe. I am concerned about eating meat after being off for the last month. Will I have gastro-intestinal issues? I will probably start slow, with milk products (yea, yogurt and cheese!) And add in some egg beaters. My hubby joked about getting a big steak, but that WILL make me sick. And I never really agreed with the honey thing. They are about as free range as you get...and they have to make the honey. I try to buy local honey from a co-op, since it is beneficial to people with allergies. And the local economy. I love our local farmers market. The produce is better than the store most of the time, and you get to meet the people that grow it.

I had my blood draw this am, but no word yet on the levels.....maybe tomorrow. And this weekend I am making sugar cookies for an order...Books for a book club. I don't have a cutter, so I have to make a template and cut them out individually. And I will start the Christmas cookies, too. Can you hear the gears of my Kitchen Aide warming up for the baking season? Maybe Danielle can teach me to post pictures so everyone can see how/what I am doing....

So long and good night, Veganland. It has been an adventure!

Single mom blues

Usually my weekends are pretty easy with my hubby watching our daughter while I do some housework, or grocery shop. But said hubby is in Chicago until next Thursday. I swear I am counting the days til he gets home....

I am running out of ideas for food as the month of MoFo comes to a close. Will I continue the meatless diet, or go back to my carnivore ways. I think it will be a mix of both. I will try to have more meatless days, but I really do want meat sometimes. I am glad for the opportunity to make new recipes, but I am ready to go back. And have my blood drawn for my cholesterol levels! I have a family history of heart disease and stroke and I know that of the 3 things that go into that (1. Diet, 2. Exercise, 3. Genetics), there is only one I can't control. So try to do what I can for the other 2....

Today I decided to make the Egg-less Egg Salad from the 30 Minute Vegan. I just can't make anything bad out of this cookbook. I LOVE that! I have bought books before and got rid of them after 3-4 bad recipes. Anyhoo, I like this dish, but have no one to share it with. I makes quite a bit. I would add more mustard than it calls for, but that is my only whine. I ate it with celery, tortilla chips, and by itself. Yum!

I also ran out of yogurt and had to make an emergency run to the store for more! That and a Diet Coke. A girl's got to have her vices, ya know?!

I will update when I get my Lipid panel back. Until then....Good night, Veganland.

Non-turkey day...

Thanksgiving computer access was limited, so I will recap the holiday today. We got up and out of the house by 10am and headed to my hubby's family farm in Blum, TX. (pop. 400) I had packed all of the food I might want and then some....Dinner was planned for 6 pm and finding an oven open to cook my Gardin Turkey Roll was easier than I thought. I mean, cooking dinner for 35-40 people takes a lot of oven space. I asked my sister in law to let me have some of her salad before the addition of Feta Cheese. She puts dried cranberries and walnuts and then a french vinaigrette. Yummy! I lucked out and scored some rolls at the last minute when I ran by the store on the way out of town. I was sure that they would be sold out! Man, my "turkey roll" was awesome! And my Apple pie? Nomnomnom.....I took that bad boy home today! I just have to not eat it in one sitting. On the way home, we grabbed some Subway. Jeepers, Sunchips have a lot of salt, they make my lips dried out.

Alright, today is day 26. And as an omnivore, I have found being a vegan not that hard. But I really hate reading all the labels and having to pass on stuff because of 1 ingredient. It is starting to wear me down. I am actually counting the days til I can go back to eating milk products. Hands down, cheese is better when it is real. Sorry, but its true. And I never agreed with the honey thing. But I have added some new foods to my list of favorites that are vegan. And I will continue to eat more veggie than meat.

Tomorrow, I will make one of my favorite things, Egg-less Egg Salad, from The 30 Minute Vegan. I can hardly wait.....

Thanksgiving Eve

It may not be a holiday, but it should. All the prep work involved, the traveling, the fighting for the last potato/package of rolls/can of condensed soup, and of course, let's not forget about the obligatory stress that everyone feels.....Yeah, I am thinking that all holidays be spread out over 3 days as to recover from the BIG day. I am feeling more harried, since I am taking my own food as well as making things to take. And the packing for the 2 days we will be gone. And the cleaning that has to be done before we leave so the pet sitter doesn't think we are slobs....(we all do it! Don't judge..) I will not feel better until my hubby gets back from Chicago next Thursday. I will be a single mom until then. Sometimes my 5 year old and I butt heads....Okay, more than sometimes...

On a positive note, I made my Dutch Apple Pie vegan! I substituted Earth Balance butter, and made an egg wash for the bottom graham cracker crust with ground flax seeds and water. That was weird. It kind of got the consistency of boogers. I hope it works, cuz I love my Apple Pie!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving Day, Veganland. Remember, it is not about stuffing our faces until we want to puke, it is about giving thanks for what we have. I watched a documentary in History Channel about the first T-day. It helped me focus on the true meaning, and not about Black Friday and consumerism. Do some research, get in touch with our history. It will fascinate you....

Let's "Wrap" it Up!

Today I finally made a veggie wrap that I have been fantasizing about for days. I got some EVOO tortilla wraps from the Tortilla Company, put hummus, avocado, red pepper, green onion, cucumber, and sprouts on it. Yum, but I think I put too many sprouts on, cuz it kind of seemed like grass some times. All in all, a positive experience. I will need to practice the wrapping thing more, though. Or I put too many veggies on it. Naaaa, you can't have to many veggies!

For dinner I pulled out a Morning Star Farms microwave meal, Sesame Chik'n. Very good, actually. I hope that this is new line of food continues to expand, since they currently have 3 meals to choose from (at my grocery), and 1 has cheese in it. In the past, Morning Star's meat substitutes have been edible, but not spectacular. I definitely give a thumbs up to this line of food.

On a different note, after I made my pumpkin muffins yesterday, a college friend of mine wanted me to send some to him (he is in NY, I am in TX). I have sent baked goods in the past to him (not vegan), so I asked if he was into vegan food, and he said that he was vegan until before doing his last Ironman, but needed more calories so he added dairy and eggs. Wow! When I knew him it was a different story! Kind of cool.....

Bumpkin pumpkin.

Sorry about the title, but my daughter helped me name today's blog. I started out with a boring cup of cereal, and was getting my potato ready for the oven, when I thought I would throw my pie pumpkin in with it while it baked. I let it cool and scraped the insides out, knowing I would have to puree it before using it. I usually just freeze it for later uses, but today I wanted to make some baked goods. So off to the internet to find a recipe. I found several, but settled on one from Food.com. I think this was stolen from ppk.com according to the reviews.

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (fresh or from a can)
• 1 tablespoon soy yogurt
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses

Change Measurements: US | Metric

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 37 mins

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Grease muffin tins with vegetable shortening or spray on oil.
3. Sift together dry ingredients (flour through cloves).
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (pumpkin through molasses).
5. Pour wet into dry and combine.
6. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way.
7. Bake for 27-30 minutes, till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This makes 6 large muffins, but I made 18 regular sized muffins. I did not have allspice, so I deleted it, as well as changing the molasses (did not have that either) to maple syrup. Then I baked for 15 minutes, and yummm!

Dinner was a variation of Tofu scramble from my only vegan cookbook, The 30 Minute Vegan. I used a few tiny jalapenos and some green pepper from my front porch. I also only had 12 ounces of tofu, instead of 16. With some red pepper, onion, garlic, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and chili powder, I scrambled it up for dinner. Pretty good for not adding all the spices (that I don't like) and never making it before. I will definitely make this again!

Tomorrow will be another day closer to T-day, are you ready? I will attempt to veganize my famous Dutch Apple Pie! I just don't know how to coat the graham cracker pie crust so it won't fall apart later. The recipe calls for an egg wash....this calls for more research! Off to the internet, again.....

Hi ho, hi ho, its off to work I go.

Today I had to work all day, so I packed a lunch for myself. Last night I talked about making my own wraps, and saving myself a headache trying to locate vegan ones on the fly. Well, I just had to do that for lunch today. I used red pepper, cucumber, hummus, avocado, and some green onion as I was out of red onion. My tortillas were a little on the small side, but they worked well. Yummy! So on the way home, I picked up some bigger ones. I can't wait to use them. I will be able to put more veggies in it, and add sprouts.

The family went to the In-laws for dinner (steak), so I was on my own. I revisited grits, with unsweetened soymilk, for a much better result. Must always remember that original is not unsweetened. It makes for some interesting enchiladas.....but that is another story.

I want to make tofu scramble for breakfast, but it makes a lot, so I asked hubby if that was cool to make in the morning. He said that would be good if it had eggs in it. "Umm, it's TOFU scramble, not egg scramble..." So I guess its a no go, unless I can reheat the leftovers....

Sorry for the poor amount of info tonight. I had a boring food day. Tomorrow may be the same, with baked potatoes for lunch, and no plan for dinner, yet. We will see. Later, Veganland.