In Other News, I Am Now Gluten-Free

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here! I don't have any recipes of my own to share, but I can talk a little bit about what I've been cooking. Since I've begun making menus ahead of time and buying groceries accordingly, the quality of the food I cook has skyrocketed. I spend all of my free time cooking, and I just can't get over how much I enjoy it. I'm still cooking primarily nothing but recipes out of Veganomicon, and I am beginning to think Isa and Terry must be goddesses, because there's no way that two humans could create that many perfect recipes. I have yet to be disappointed with a single recipe.

Probably one of my favorite meals I've made from that cookbook was the Greek tofu benedict. I seriously cannot describe how much I loved it. I chose to serve it on top of home fries, which was a very good decision (and it felt most Greek to me, considering I ate roasted potatoes two or three times a day, every day, in Greece). The dill-tahini sauce was fantastic, and almost reminiscent of sour cream (I think I put too much lemon juice in it though, so it was more acidic than it was supposed to be - very good though). I might have to make that meal again soon because it was way too fabulous.

Another meal I made that I had to take a picture of because it was pretty was the Walnut-Crusted Apple-Cranberry Salad Pie from Vegan Planet. Essentially a waldorf salad in a walnut/date crust without lettuce. Unfortunately, it didn't serve well, and instead of looking like cute little piece of salad pie, it was more like a weird mess of apples and date chunks. I'm not sure what I did wrong. It tasted good though! I used raisins instead of cranberries, in case you care.

As of April 27th, I am officially gluten-free. My Crohn's is having a flare, and I'm hoping to stop the inflammation naturally. I usually get flares several times a year and, compared with the flares of typical Crohn's patients, mine are pretty mild. I've never gotten diarrhea, and typically only have bleeding (along with severe fatigue). It usually goes away on its own after a while, but this time it hasn't. So after talking with my GI, TCM, and integrative medicine doctors, we're going to try to take care of this using only alternative treatments. My TCM doctor prescribed a new herbal tea formula for me (the tea tastes like poison but hopefully it works), and I might see her soon for acupuncture. I'm also going to add boswellia supplements, in addition to the turmeric I'm already taking. But I've decided on my own to try for at least a couple weeks to eat a gluten-free diet. Gluten is a very inflammatory food, so even if it doesn't cause me to stop bleeding, it's probably still a good food for me or anyone with IBD to avoid. 

These are some gluten-free chickpea cutlets I made. My favorite recipe out of Veganomicon has always been the chickpea cutlets, and when I decided to go gluten-free, the first thing I thought was "oh my god, no more chickpea cutlets!". Thankfully, there's other people who have had the same horrible realization as me and have already come up with a gluten-free version. I used this recipe, and it was great. Instead of using the chia/flax slurry, I used xanthan gum, which worked well.

Unrelated to food, health, or veganism —— On the April 30th, I went with a couple of friends to see MGMT perform in Portland. Totally going to brag about the fact that I've been to that theater three times and gotten front row every time. It's actually ridiculously easy to get front row there; you only have to show up like an hour or two early. But seriously, MGMT was incredible. I'd seen mixed reviews online about how well they perform live, but they were way better than I ever could have imagined. I think the only reason they might not be best live was because they seemed rather uncomfortable on stage; they didn't move at all (well, to be fair, Ben was sitting, so he couldn't), and I don't think they ever made eye contact with the audience. The setlist was perfect, with a great variety from both albums plus several new songs. Siberian Breaks was magical. Electric Feel was fantastic, and the audience went crazy. This was possibly one of my favorite concerts I've attended. Also, shout out to Andrew and Ben for being the two most beautiful people on the entire planet. Here's some crappy quality photos taken on my crappy quality phone (I know my friends took better pictures, but hey, I don't have Instagram, so I'll never see them!).

Single-Serving Tempeh Bacon + BLT Directions

I know it's not in season or anything, but I've been eating BLTs on a daily basis lately, ever since I figured out how to make this "bacon". It was inspired by the recipe for tempeh bacon in Vegan With a Vengeance,  but I changed it a bit as I'm incredibly impatient person and don't ever want to wait for an hour while my tempeh is marinating. Also I cut it down to a single serving and changed a few ingredients. You can omit the maple syrup if you want, but it does add a nice flavor.

Single-Serving Tempeh Bacon

• 1.75 oz/50g tempeh (should be about 1/3 of a package), sliced into thin strips (1/4" or thinner)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp Bragg's, soy sauce, or tamari
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ketchup
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup
• 2-3 drops of liquid smoke (be incredibly careful not to use too much!)

1) In a small bowl, combine apple cider vinegar, Bragg's, garlic, ketchup, maple syrup, and liquid smoke. Set aside.

2) Lightly grease a non-stick pan with oil or cooking spray. Place tempeh pieces in pan so they don't touch each other. 

3) Pour the liquid ingredients into the pan and heat over medium heat. When garlic begins to brown, flip tempeh pieces over to cook the other sides. Once both sides of the tempeh are a shade of brown, remove from heat and serve immediately.

Vegan BLT 

I think "recipes" for sandwiches are weird, especially for ones as simple as this. But I've seen BLT recipes in cookbooks before, so I guess recipes for them are commonly accepted. Basically, what you'll want to do, is toast two pieces of bread - I usually do this while my tempeh is cooking because I have what may be the world's slowest toaster. While your toast is toasting and tempeh is cooking, slice a few pieces of tomato, just to be ready. As soon as your toast is finished, apply a light layer of Vegenaise (or vegan mayo of choice, or margarine if you don't have any mayo) on the inside of both pieces. Add tomatoes, tempeh, and a handful of fresh spinach (you can use lettuce too, but I just love spinach). Close sandwich and eat.

Simple enough?

Thanksgiving!

Well I'm very happy to say I had a lovely Thanksgiving! I think this was one of the first Thanksgivings I can remember that we didn't spend with friends or family. I do love my extended family, but it was so much more relaxing to spend the day with just my parents and brother, who is visiting from college. It was especially nice to not have several genuinely-worried aunts fussing over me and inquiring about my protein intake. Of course, the whole protein thing happens to almost any vegan anytime their lifestyle is mentioned, no matter who they're with.

I witnessed lots of people on Tumblr and Facebook arguing about veganism today, mostly about turkeys. Basically the main idea of the arguments was that people who eat meat are doing their part to keep the world from this horrible turkey overpopulation. I guess they don't realize that, other than the very few people who only eat animals they hunted themselves, the animals they eat were raised to be killed. If people didn't eat turkeys and there was not such a high demand for turkeys, they would not raise so many turkeys in the first place and thus there would not be an overpopulation of turkeys. But it was also nice seeing so many sweet people standing up for the innocent animals.  

Not so fun fact: Each year over 45 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving alone in the U.S. That's about 34 times the human population in the state of Maine. For added perspective, about 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust. That's a lot of turkeys on a yearly basis (especially considering that  that 45 million is just one day out of the whole year).

Anyway, I need to take a break from talking about the mass murder of turkeys that everyone so proudly supports. I really am much more of the type of vegan who tries to inspire people to try this lifestyle through good food and cute pictures; however, days like Thanksgiving make me so overwhelmingly mad that I just have to rant about how horribly cruel meat is.

For supper, my family ate a fantastic (almost entirely vegan!) meal. I never got around to making a trip to Whole Foods to buy more vital wheat gluten, so we had to use a pre-made Tofurky, but that was fine with me because it was superb. I used this recipe for the cranberry sauce, since it doesn't use refined sugar; I might use less juice next time, as it was rather liquidy (incredibly good dish though). My dad made what may just be the world's best mashed potatoes, using the perfect amount of soy milk, Earth Balance, and French fried onions. My mom made a green bean dish that's a family recipe; we considered veganizing it but it called for too much cheese to really spend too much time working on a replacement, so instead we made a separate serving for me without cheese. I also made maple-glazed carrots, using a couple different recipes as guides. And lastly, for dessert I made the Sweet Potato Brazil Nut Crunch Pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, only I used pecans instead of Brazil nuts since my parents hate Brazil nuts; it was topped with a dollop of vegan Rad Whip from the same cookbook (the first time I made it a couple months ago it didn't turn out well at all, but this time it worked perfectly..!). Basically everything was perfect and I honestly don't even want to look at food again for days. 

I need to get some sleep now, so goodnight everyone, and happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful holiday! :-)

Homemade Tofurky with Gravy Recipe

I remember when I was really little and my mom would cook Tofurky every Thanksgiving. We hated it, but ate it dutifully, simply because at the time it was the only mainstream substitute for turkey. A couple years later we tried this brand that I can't remember the name of, but it looked like corn on the cob and was so chewy that it was basically impossible to eat (it didn't taste any better either). So we eventually stopped with the faux turkeys altogether. Last year though, we tried Tofurky again, and they must have changed their recipe or something, because it was fabulous. 

However, as I'm trying to cut processed foods out of my diet, I haven't been eating as many soy meats. I have begun to learn to make my own though, using vital wheat gluten. Vital wheat gluten is basically the protein found in flour and can be used just to add protein to breads or to make entire meat substitutes (such as this incredible pepperoni). It's sort of inconvenient though, because my local supermarket doesn't carry it (they used to but not anymore..?), and I have to buy it at Whole Foods Market. Obviously it's not gluten-free-friendly at all, although this product supposedly works as a GF substitute.

For this "turkey", I used this Seitan Roast recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen. I changed a few things: 3oz baby portabella mushrooms instead of 6oz shiitake (it was all I had) and 1 onion + 1 stalk celery instead of the leeks; I also added about 2/3 cup cooked wild rice into the stuffing. And for the roast I used dark kidney beans instead of pinto beans and carraway seeds instead of fennel. I baked it for about 1 hour and 20 minutes (do as Isa suggests and poke the roast with tongs before removing it from the oven to see if it's cooked enough).

I was nervous serving this at dinner, because I honestly had no idea whether it would be good or not. It far exceeded my expectations! My dad (an omnivore) was very impressed and kept commenting on how it was very realistic and had "skin" and everything (honestly I think that's a gross thought but if that's the sort of thing that impresses omnivores...then okay).  I'm really glad this worked out, and I will definitely be making another next week for Thanksgiving!

I sometimes put a chair or stool in the middle of the kitchen so my cats can watch as I cook, but not so closely that they shed their fur in the food or hurt themselves! It's still probably not sanitary at all, but they're so freaking cute that it's either I do that or I hold them while cooking.No matter how fantastic the roast recipe was, it didn't include a recipe for gravy. I found out later that she has a delicious-looking chickpea gravy recipe in the book Vegan With A Vengeance. I'll try it next time! However, for this gravy, I made up my own, and, other than the color being more yellow than I like, it was really pretty good. Do keep in mind that I have been a vegetarian my whole life though and have never eaten actual non-veg gravy.Basic Vegan Gravy

• 1 1/2 cups vegan chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 1 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• dash of black pepper

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until gravy is thick.

Seitan "Turkey" Roast and Stuffing Recipe

Waldorf Salad Recipe (I used regular spring mix salad instead of kale)