Taco Night

I'm so excited to be making tacos tomorrow night for dinner. Yes that's right, I'm making tacos ...vegan style.

I've always been a little apprehensive about 'fake meat'. The art of fake meat has been perfected to the point where I now think that it's too much like the real thing. I know that's probably really annoying, but there's something creepy about chicken made out of soy. Especially because it still has the same taste and texture. How do they do it?

But i have decided to forget all that and try something new. The company Yves has lots of vegan meat replacements. When I was at the grocery store the other day, i noticed they had 'Mexican taco meat' and i decided to buy it. Now i have a huge block of soy meat covered in spices just sitting in my freezer; hence the taco night.

Ive picked up some tortillas (although you could easily make these at home) and vegetables. I might even go all out and grate some soy mozzarella to top them off.

I like to add edamame beans and corn., as well as the usual fixings of onions, chopped lettuce and tomatoes.

Since the 'meat' is already seasoned all you have to do is heat it up in a pan. Quick and simple.

Serve with salad, tortilla chips and salsa, yam fries....whatever suits your fancy.

Wake Me Up Muesli

My friend Emily taught me how to make Muesli (essentially it's toasted granola). It taste really good and can be easily adapted to your individual tastes. Plus it's kind of nice to make your own cereal because a)it's cheaper and b) you actually know everything that goes into it!

Ingredients

• large oats
  
• raisins or dried cranberries
  
• nuts (walnuts or pecans)
• flax seeds
• sunflower seeds
• panella (or brown sugar)
• maple syrup or honey
• all spice
• ground cloves
• cinnamon

Heat up a large frying pan. Don't put any oil in the pan, but be sure to keep a eye on it; the oats will toast quickly.

Toast your oats a few cups at a time. Keep flipping them until they are lightly brown on both sides. It doesn't have to be perfect, so long as the general colour is light brown, it'll taste good. I usually do a whole bag of oats at a time. Why? Because making Muesli is a time consuming task.

Once you've toasted all your oats put them into a large mixing bowl. Chop up your raisins and nuts. Put as many or as little as you see fit.

Toss in your spices. I only use a little All spice and ground cloves, maybe 1tsp of each and about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. But again, it depends on how much you're making. So add a little and gradually increase the amount.

Add flax seeds and sunflower seeds. I like to go heavy on the flax, because it is high in omegas.

In a large pot, pour in your mixture and turn the heat on very low. Add about 1/4 sugar and your honey. If you use Maple syrup, it tends to be sweeter, so adjust your sugar accordingly. I personally don't like mine too sweet, so I use very little sugar and I use only enough honey to make some of the cereal begin to stick together. Once you've stirred it all together and the sugar has melted, take it off the heat and let it cool before putting it away.

Et voila! it's perfect just with milk (soy/almond/rice) or topped with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, etc. My mom likes to throw some on top of her yogurt in the morning. I love Muesli because I am always starving at breakfast and it keeps me full until lunchtime.

Grace's Pizza

Grace makes a wonderful vegan pizza. Yah! vegans can have Pizza!

Ingredients

• pizza crust or Greek pitas
• frozen spinach
• pesto sauce
• tomato/ pizza sauce
• roasted red peppers
• olives
• mushroom zucchini, broccoli

Directions

Cover the pizza crust with tomato sauce. Add a generous amount of pesto (yum). Add some of your defrosted chopped spinach, them go crazy with veggies. I like chopped broccoli, roasted red peppers, olives, mushrooms and zucchini. You can also top it off with some tofu (if you aren't sick of it yet!).

Stick it in the oven at 350 for about twenty minutes or until the crust is lightly brown and the veggies look cooked.

Of course you can add cheese if you are so inclined; feta would taste good.

Zinc Topper

If you're sick of munching on almonds or peanuts, why not try sunflower seeds? I like to toss Tamari sauce on the sunflower seeds then I bake them for about 10-15 minutes in the oven. It's quick and they taste really good. Usually, I'll make a whole bunch at once, that way I can throw some on a salad or eat them as a snack and still have leftovers. Plus they're high in zinc, which is always exciting!

Pitas filled with Couscous love!

I promise to be better at posting messages more frequently. The past two weeks have been insanely busy and hence the lack of posts.

Every Tuesday my sister comes over for vegan dinner. Sometimes I'm not terribly creative and I like I don't have a lot of time in between class and dinnertime, so I improvise. Here's what I'm planning to make this week.

Pitas filled with Couscous Love!

Ingredients

• couscous
• capers
• veggie stock (not necessary)
• tomatoes
• mushrooms
• onions
  
• whole wheat pitas

Directions

Couscous is one of those annoying grains that is difficult to cook because it is hard to measure out (or at least I think so!) I usually cook about 1/3 cup of couscous and gestimate on the veggie stock, but somewhere around 3/4 cup.

Put it on the stove and once it's boiled turn the heat down low, with the lid on. After it has cooked (it should only take a few minutes) throw in the chopped onions, tomatoes and mushrooms and capers. I would add a little more veggie stock and either keep it on the lowest heat or off the heat entirely. Continue stirring every few minutes.

Meanwhile place you pitas in the oven for a few minutes to heat them up or until they become slightly toasted.

Once it's all done, you can start to compile your pitas. I would add hummus inside the pitas just so it doesn't taste dry. But if you're terribly sick of hummus, tzatziki might taste good. Since it's a pita you can add anything; like chopped lettuce or alfalfa sprouts on top.

I would also serve this with a good salad. Maybe a spinach salad with oranges and cashews just to make sure you're getting enough iron and protein.

Enjoy!

and next time I will try to make something much more creative!

There is such thing as a Vegan Thanksgiving!

Tonight my wonderful family made an entirely vegan meal for our Thanksgiving Dinner. We had veggie lasagna with soy mozzarella, kale and mushrooms. Oven baked yams and steamed broccoli with ginger. We also had salad with soy-miso creamy dressing and pumpkin pie! It was wonderful. Now, I know it's not the typical cranberry sauce with turkey, but it's a good example of a filling and tasty meal that's totally animal product free.

Easy as PIE!

I love the cheesy titles.

Until this past Saturday, I’ had never made pie. It seems like such a daunting task, and I in all honesty I’m not a huge pie fan. It’s like eating jam inside a crust. But being Thanksgiving, I decided to make vegan pumpkin pie. Luckily, I was able to make two, because the first one didn’t work out so well! I forgot the molasses and the sugar….

Ingredients

• One can of pumpkin
• ½ cup of medium tofu
• 12oz of almond or rice milk (or soy)
• ½ cup of brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp cloves
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

For the Crust

If you’ve got time on your hands (and want to go all out) you can make your own crust. The ingredients are quite simple: pastry flour, salt, vegan margarine and cold water. Actually my sister makes her own quiche crust all the time and uses regular flour. Since the pie is full of sugar, don’t worry about making the crust sweet. But it does double the preparation time, so you might just want to buy a pre-made crust at the grocery store. I was able to find one without glucose at Whole Foods/Capers. But being Whole Foods it was about $4.50! So consider yourself warned.

**You can also grind up about ¼ cup of graham crackers and add them into the crust with the flour.

Directions

So at this point you’ve made your crust or bought a handy dandy one from the grocery store. If you’ve made your own (congrats) make sure you bake it for a bit before adding the filling.

Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl (pumpkin, almond milk, tofu and molasses). It helps if you chop up the tofu first, especially if you don’t have an electric mixer.

Beat it all together until the tofu is blended. It will never be perfect, so expect to see tiny white pieces but this recipe works better with medium tofu than silken.

Add in the dry ingredients, including all your spices. Stir well.

Pour the batter into your pie crust and place in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 350 degrees and leave it in the over for about 40-50 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and set it aside for one hour. Once it’s cooled, cover it with tin foil and place it in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. At this point you can leave it in the fridge until you serve the pie. The best thing about pumpkin pie is that it’s supposed to be mushy so it’s hard to mess up! My favourite kind of baking!

xx

PS: regarding the iron post, my Grandma says molasses is good with toast.

Pumping Iron

I was recently talking to a friend about iron deficiencies. We were trying to figure out some of the best ways to incorporate iron into our diets. Clearly we lead exciting lives since we are both enthralled by our vitamin intakes! Not getting enough iron can be a serious problem as I'm sure you're all aware. And if you're a woman, you're more at risk. I personally don't like to take supplements. I think if you're smart about what you eat, you should be able to get all your nutrients from food. Isn't that one of the main arguments about veganism? that we don't need to depend on other animals for our survival. I digress! The important question is, how can you get enough iron without taking supplements?

First of all, what does low iron do exactly? Well, according to my research it helps your immunity, helps carry oxygen to all the cells in your body and a variety of other essential tasks. I can definitely feel when I'm seriously lacking in iron. I get really tired, I bruise easily and those purple bags under my eyes seems to get more pronounced. Now I'm not sure that these symptoms are all due to low iron, but the point is, iron is something everyone should monitor because it IS important (whether your a vegan or not).

How do you get it? yes dark leafy greens are a good form of iron, but in order to fully absorb the iron provided by these vegetables, it's best to take it with a form a vitamin C. In other words, Vitamin C helps enhance the absorption of iron.

So what are some good vegetables that are also high in vitamin C?

• red and green bell peppers
• broccoli
• tomatoes
• potatoes
• spinach,
• mustard greens
• kale

And obviously citrus fruits and berries, papaya, cantaloupe and grapefruit are also good sources of Vitamin C.

But sometimes it's just too hard to plan a meal with enough protein, enough iron, enough vitamin c, enough calcium..... When i come home at 6pm the last thing i want to do is take an hour just cooking dinner.

So here's my Grandmother's Favourite Tip: molasses. Yes, it tastes gross and is deceitfully pleasant smelling, but it's very high in iron. Every few days, I eat two tablespoons of nasty molasses and I can be reassured that I'm getting some of my necessary iron. That's not to say you shouldn't add oranges to your spinach salad, or pineapple to your stir fry, but it does mean a little less worrying and planning. Two things i think everyone can appreciate.

There are lots of good website online with more information. This is one I like:
http://www.vegfamily.com/health/boost-iron-intake.htm

On a side note: I'm making vegan Pumpkin pie tonight, so provided it goes well, I will post the recipe tomorrow.

xxxx

Spaghetti Squash- Just in Time for Fall

My mom used to make this all the time when we were little! I remember thinking it was super exciting when we’d have Spaghetti Squash for dinner, but now I realize it’s just about the easiest meal in the world! Oh how young and foolish I was. But i do love this meal cause it reminds me of the Fall Season.

Anyways, when I was grocery shopping the other day I saw a special on Spaghetti squash. They were so cheap; I think that even if I haven’t known what they were I still would have bought one! And even though it looks like it would be hard and awkward to cook, it really is easy. Trust me; you’ll never want regular spaghetti ever again.

Ingredients:

One giant spaghetti Squash (it should be bright yellow if it’s ripe)

Can of diced tomatoes
Half of an Onion
Red pepper
Black Olives
Carrots
Eggplant
Basil

Directions:

Cut the squash in half and clean out the mushy inside.
Bake it in the oven at 350 until the inside is soft enough that you can scoop it all out. It’ll fall out in long stringy pieces, hence the name! I like it when it’s still a little hard cause then it has more of that pasta texture.

In a pot pour in the diced tomatoes at low heat.
After about three minutes, add your chopped up veggies. Start with carrots, red pepper, zucchini then eggplant (or if you have your own mix of vegetables, be sure to start with the hardest to the softest).

Throw in your chopped onion and chopped basil. Let the sauce simmer at a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring it every once in a while.

Put your spaghetti squash in a bowl and throw on the sauce. I also like to add black olives and if you want, you can add some parmesan cheese.

Et voila! I dare you to try to find an easier dinner. Plus it’s so hearty, which is nice considering the cold weather.

xx

Community Eats!

On one of my many frequent trips to Sprouts (a student run café at UBC) I notice a sign about Community Eats! In-between big bites of my delicious Apple Cinnamon Corn Cake (its better than it sounds) I frantically wrote down the information before heading off to class.

Here it is:

Community Eats! is a biweekly lunch served for free (FREE in Vancouver?? I had to double check that) at the café in the UBC SUB. It offers students a chance to get together and discuss food based issues; such as sustainability, health and organic farming. The best part is all the lunches are cooked with food that would otherwise be thrown out. For example, lots of it comes from produce stores that can’t sell bruised fruits and veggies. What a great idea! I love it. So for anyone on campus, these forums are held every other Friday 11:30-1:30pm.

For more information check out the website at:

http://www.ams.ubc.ca/clubs/nfc/communityeats.html

Homemade Naan Bread

I love these; they're really quick and taste good. I learned how to make them when i was in Ecuador. We'd make them whenever there was nothing left to eat except yesterday's dinner. Take my word for it, you can wrap any sort of leftovers in a naan and it'll taste ten times better!

Plus you can eat them with pretty much anything. Sometimes i'll make one big one and fill it with chopped spinach, tofu, hummus, tomatoes and black olives.


Ingredients

• Flour (white or Whole wheat)
• water
  
• salt
• seasoning for flavour (I like Mrs. Dash's Herb & Garlic, but to each his own)

Directions

Put roughly two cups of flour in a bowl. Throw in a bit of seasoning and salt.

Add only a little water at a time. I don't know the exact measurement cause it's all by trial and error, but start small and add more as needed (approx. 1/4 cup).

Mix the water and flour together with your hands, it should start to form a ball. Kneed the mix, make sure it's not sticky throughout. Check this by breaking the ball in half, if it all sticks to your fingers keep mixing in flour.

Sprinkle more seasoning to your tastes.

Divide the mix into a few balls (depending on how big or small you want them, but probably this will make two of a decent size).

Spread it out into a pancake shape using your fingers, trying to make it as even and thin as possible, but make sure there are no holes.

In a frying pan heat some olive oil, you want a decent size of olive oil, as you'll essentially be frying these. But to keep your heart happy, don't add too much, just enough to make sure the pan is covered.

Turn the heat down to about 6, place a naan into the pan and let it fry for a few minutes. Flip. Keep frying and flipping until both sides appear cooked and light brown. They should sort of bubble.

When I eat these with dip, i usually skip the salt in the mix and instead, I'll sprinkle a bit of coarse salt on at the end.

xx

The Easiest Brownies in the World

If you like all things chocolate (and who doesn't?) then you might want to try these super easy brownies. The best thing about these brownies is you'll probably already own most of these ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of carob chips (or dark chocolate chips)
  

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended.

Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle carob chips on top.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

And enjoy!!