“Cheese” Pizza
Vegan cheese substitutes are TERRIBLE. I don't think I can say enough bad things about them. A special place is reserved in hell for the people who created "vegan rella" mozarella cheese substitute.
I tried making pizza and the "vegan cheese" liquefied into the most horrid smelling, sticky grossness I've ever seen. I gave in and used a small amount of mozarella on the second go at making pizza: artichoke hearts, black olives, roma tomatoes, and roasted garlic. Very delicious. I felt guilty afterwards since the pizza would've been fine without any melty goodness.
Vegan Days 5 and 6
Yesterday, I had a good cycle on the Big Creek Greenway up to the YMCA and then swam 500 meters. A few guys were left at the office doing an upgrade last night, so they were entertained by stalking watching my work-out on Nokia SportsTracker. It's seriously my favorite app on my Nokia E71. Check out last night's ride here. Pretty cool technology. I liked the variety of including swimming, and it's something I'm going to do more often. Maybe even work up to the Peachtree Aquabike. It clashes with the 2010 AIDS Vaccine 200 though, and I want to do that one more. Anyone know other Aquabike events in Atlanta?
After my work-out, I tried yet another Cliff Bar flavor hoping to find one I could tolerate, and I did. The Chocolate Chip one is pretty good (and vegan, like all Cliff Bars).
The last few days I haven't been very creative in the kitchen. I had penne pasta with a cabernet sauce last night. Easy to make bachelor food.
Today's lunch was Amy's Veggie Loaf, which was delicious. I was expecting cardboard. It's not purely vegan because of inclusion of honey. Although, there are many honey-eating vegans. I'm just not going to be that dogmatic.
Vegan Day 4 – Sushi Time
Vegan Sushi is cheap! I picked up the ingredients I needed from BuHi farmer's market:
- Bamboo Sushi Mat - $1.99
- Nori (seaweed wraps) - $0.99
- 1 Sweet Potato - $0.49
- 1 Cucumber - $0.26
- 1 Avocado - $0.99
- 3lbs Sushi Rice - $2.99
- Rice Vinegar - $1.99
- Wasabi paste - $0.99
- Gigantic jar of sesame seeds - $3.49
Load up the Sushi rice into your rice maker, and put about 115% of the rice volume in water. Leave it alone and let it cook. Then nuke the sweet potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes and cut it into quarters, let it cool. Once the sweet potato is cool, cut it into strips. Cut up the cucumber into into strips. When the sushi rice is finished, spread it out on a baking sheet and let it cool to room temperature. After it's cool, mix the sushi rice with some rice vinegar and sugar (I used a 5 parts vinegar:1 part sugar ratio). Cut the avocado up into strips at this point.
Lay out a sheet of nori on top of your bamboo mat and pat down the rice into a thin layer. If you're making uramaki (with the rice on the outside) then flip the nori over. Load it up with your fillings, and roll it using the bamboo mat. From the pictures below, you can tell I need some work on my rolling skills. Still edible, and worked out great.
Vegan Day 3
Breakfast was another attempt at quinoa. I cooked it in chocolate rice milk and had it with bananas. It was good. I think next quinoa experiment will be savory, maybe a quinoa burrito. Lunch time I was out running errands like I usually am on weekends, so I decided to try my hand at finding vegan food on the road. Googling lead me to a list of fast food with vegan options. Taco Bell! The bean and rice burrito without cheese, no sour cream is vegan but it did a number on my stomach. Ow!
Dinner was the most intricate meal of day 3: Aloo Palak. Whaaaa? It's an Indian dish -- basically spinach and potatoes with lots of spices. Very good! Meals like this make me have faith that I'm actually going to make it the full 21 days.... I bought the Aloo Palak pre-packaged, but I think I'll try making it next time. Seems easy enough.
Incidentally, Newman-O's with a glass of rice milk make a perfect (occasional) vegan snack.
Vegan, Days 1 and 2
Yesterday was the first full day eating vegan. For breakfast, I had a mashed sweet potato with rice milk and turbinado sugar. Pretty good and filling. Lunch was the stew that I had made in the crock pot, which was delicious. Recipe below. I'll be making vegan shepherd's pie later this week with it. Dinner was boring and easy: 2 faux chicken sandwiches and some chocolate (r)ice cream.
Breakfast this morning was my first experience cooking quinoa. I used my rice maker: 1 cup of quinoa, 1 1/2 cups of water. Hopped it the shower and when I came out it was done. I added banana and agave nectar to it. This experiment made me realize that I do not like agave nectar. I'll try again later this week, the quinoa itself though was fine. Maybe I'll use some berries and turbinado sugar next time.
Steve's Vegan Stew
- 1 cup dry red lentils
- 1 cup dry black beans
- 1 cup garbanzo beans
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- Mirepoix - 2 carrots chopped, 2 celery sticks chopped, 1/2 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 Mexican zucchini, sliced
- 1-2 cups of fresh or canned corn
- 1 large sweet potato, cubed
- 2 boxes of vegetable stock
- 2 cans of tomatoes, diced
- 1 8oz can of tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- salt, pepper, italian seasoning
Throw all the ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Easy. Next time I'll use less beans.
Vegan Challenge, Day 0
I've been a vegetarian a couple times in my life, the longest lasting a little over a year. It's hard work, since the American way of life doesn't lend itself well to a single guy being able to prepare his own meals all the time.
After reading Richard Blais' 21-day experiment in veganism (yes, his was inspired by Oprah's earlier this year), I thought I might give it a whirl. Here's some information about what "veganism" is.
Since quitting smoking and starting cycling a few weeks ago, I think the net effect of both is slightly towards the negative -- in that yes, I am losing some weight but at a really slow pace. Maybe if I learned how to think outside the "bachelor box," which is actually very often out of a literal box, I would do better at losing weight. Most people lose some weight in the initial stages of veganism, so hopefully this will kickstart some weight loss and encourage me to stay eating well.
I don't intend to stay vegan, perhaps a "flexitarian" approach for me is ideal. I am not a PETA fanatic. I'm just a bachelor guy in his late 20's looking to eat a little bit healthier and maybe take a small stand against the American way of eating. We just eat too much damn meat! Over 10 billion animals are killed in the United States, and the damage we do to our environment, our animals, and our bodies in the process is just unacceptable.
So off we go.
I started off picking up some basic ingredients from my local farmer's market. I usually shop here anyway, just avoided the meats this time! I love farmer's markets. Usually the only white guy in there, but the produce is just amazing. Dozens of kinds of mangos, fruits that look like they're from outer space, many types of zucchini -- and it's all cheap. In the coming weeks I'll try to document what I'm eating and what it's like going without animal products.
Incidentally, my first experience so far was with 2 things. I had a Kashi meal for dinner -- the Tuscan Bake (lasagna w/ vegetables, no cheese), and it was decent for microwave meal. The second was with Rice Dream milk. It was good! I actually love the stuff now. I see myself sticking to rice milk even after the vegan experiment.
More to come later!