Secret Society Of Vegans’ Neighborhood

TotD #35: Saturday, July 5th

Singing Horse
52 minutes ago
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Did:

1. full-house cleaning, which made the house almost spotless and me achy everywhere.

2. grocery shopping. I bought so many things unexpectedly that I was worried I didn't have enough money to pay at the register and started thinking which item to cancel just in case.

3. too much bleaching and I breathed in quite a bit and felt like a sick dog.

4. uninstalling Babylon 6 because I really hate it now. It's become too expensive for me to feel comfortable supporting it.

Attempted:

1. to make a Japanese dessert but ended up buying and inhaling a packaged one.

2. to make a blueberry pie but ate all of the fresh blueberries in 5 minutes.

Failed:

1. to wipe out my whole Windows system and transition to Ubuntu completely.

2. to reorganize all of my books and other stuff in the bookshelves.

3. to venture into the green world and try out some new green leafy vegetables.

4. to continue the success of my diet. I had my dinner rather late.

Planned:

1. to make a new quiche.

2. to reformat my notebook and install only Ubuntu on it.

3. to push my diet forward.

4. to continue reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

5. to learn more about my digital SLR camera.

Today I shall mostly be making....

Fresh Houmous!

200g chickpeas ---> although the ones I purchased need to soak in water for at least five hours.

Juice from quarter of a lemon

Half garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tahini paste

Bung everything in a blender until its nice and smooth.

How simple is that?! It keeps for about five days too. Game on.

Oh, and my SSOV stuff came today...I shall be flaunting my fab new bag around town today!

x.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 113, Diet, Diet, Diet!

The title says it all... I know I said it many times before, but this time it's not a choice any more. I've indulged myself enough and it's time to have some real discipline. Summer is here, for God's sake!

Garlicky Amaranth

This is a very easy stirfry dish. Fresh garlic and fresh amaranth stirfried in canola oil. Peanut oil will be good too. Less than 3 minutes and it's all done. Garlic and amaranth are really made for each other.

Borlotti Bean Porridge

This is the first time I've made any Chinese porridge. The key is to mix the rice with some olive oil and salt very well before cooking. The porridge will turn out very smooth and creamy. I used 5-6 times the water that I normally use for cooking rice, but I accidentally used a little too much rice without realizing. So this porridge could have been a bit more watery. I loved it though, especially in this heat.

About me...

Larsnxd
6 days ago
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'What do you eat then?' 'Where do you get your calcuim from?' 'You'll lose weight, there wont be enough protein in your diet'.

Got to laugh really. As soon as you decide to do something a tad 'out of the norm' about yourself, certain people always seem to try their hardest to make you feel so stupid about your new image/diet/lifestyle changes.

OR

You can be blessed with a supportive family (with the odd silly remark about the new choice) a fantastic partner who encourages you, and a few very close friends that question you with a real interest, and not want to piss on your parade.

I'm pretty lucky. I get the odd comment about 'Why just not eat meat', or 'Vegetarians okay, but being vegan is a little over the top', or just plain 'Yummy...cheese...go on, try some!' but mainly I have very supportive friends and family.

When I first told my parents that I was going to stop eating meat, they weren't that happy about it. To be fair, they were pretty quick to come round to the idea. I was nervous about telling them both, as it can be taken so many different ways. 'I dont like the food you cook', 'You're not a good cook' etc, but to be honest, i've never really liked the texture of most meats. The fat, the gristle, yuck!

I started to read up alot about vegetarians and after being veggie for over a month and detoxing for 4 weeks, I felt a lot healthier. This also helped me compete in the London Triathlon, running 10K. I then started to read up more regarding animal welfair (farm animals, the pet trade, etc) and was disgusted with what I was reading.

I felt a bit of a hypocrite. I like animals, but i'm wearing them. I like animals but i'm contributing to the awful slaughter of these animals by drinking milk and eating cheese. I'd read 'Fast Food Nation' by Eric Schlosser a while back, it grossed me out, but I needed more. I brought 'Skinny Bitch' by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin as I thought it would ease me into the vegan lifestyle. It did, but it didn't really help with actually dealing with people. It has some fantastic facts, and its really great with regards to food, but how to deal with a friend taking the piss out of you because 'ha, you cant have these sweets and I can' wasn't really mentioned. I searched the web and found 'Vegan Freak' by Bob and Jenna Torres and in a word...wow. How to deal with friends, family, co-workers, what to look out for on labels, websites to go to, books to check out. I then brought a cook book - 'Vegan With A Vengence' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz which has cheap and easy recipies and also The Animal Free Shopper.

With that I gave my non animal friendly make up to my mum, sorted out my shampoo, conditioner, hair dyes, through out a lot of clothes and went to work on finding new places to shop. My fav place to buy (on the web!) is http://www.secretsocietyofvegans.co.uk/ssov/ as they have some real cool ideas clothing wise and I love my new Macbeths that I brought recently. I didnt used to buy a lot of leather shoes anyway, mainly cheap high heels and converse sneakers. Everytime I venture onto a new website, I find out a little bit more, another product that would be neat to purchase. I found a wicked magazine, called Herbivor, which also have a clothing range.

So I read the funniest things today http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2286171,00.html I had to chuckle. As IF being vegan is difficult?! Look at the label...simple! Okay, so restaurants are a little harder, buuut all you need to do is...ask! I went to The Hawk a few days ago for a friends birthday. They had nothing vegan on the menu, so I asked for rice and loads of veggies. Yummy! Not only healthy and filling (lots of baby potatos!) but I enjoyed it. Its nicer than having something smothered in sauce. Plus I only paid about £4.00 for it.

My boyfriend and I made a fab pizza too the other day. I had gone into Sainsburys to get a pizza base (I dont think I can cook all that well so didnt really want to try making a base myself) We get home and I start dicing all the veggies up. I open the bag and a horrible smell appears. Ew. Mouldy pizza base. One was not amused. So I ran a pizza base receipie off a website and decided to start cooking! V.Messy but thoroughly enjoyable and easy to make. On the pizza there was no cheese, but lots of veggies; peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn, artichokes, and some fake meat that I brought from Holland and Barretts, I think the name of it is 'Fry's and they were stir fry pieces. It was so yummy to make that we're making it again this weekend!

TotD #34: When Everything Seems To Go Wrong

..., try to say this out loud a dozen times or more. You will feel better afterwards.

IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!

Make it into a mantra. Whenever you feel there is no way out, there is nothing else you can do to help the situation, everything seems to go wrong, or you are too worried about something (or everything), this mantra will help. Let go and let God. Believe that good things will happen, and they will.

Vegan Coconut Bread With Bread Machine

Singing Horse
Jun 27, 2008
10 comments

Vegan Coconut Bread

This is the best bread I've made out of my bread machine. I must confess that I haven't used it that much. It's still a new bread machine. But this 50% whole wheat bread is so doughy and fluffy that we can hardly believe the result. So here's the bread machine recipe.

2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 Tbsp. water + 2 tsp. if the dough is too dry
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Use "sweet bread" cycle.

This bread will be great toasted and slathered with vegan margarine.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 112, Spring Detox Vegetable Stew, and More

Singing Horse
Jun 24, 2008
2 comments

Oh, where did I go? I don't know how I just don't seem to have enough time to blog more often nowadays. I gotta quit the fast lane, as soon as possible, for my sanity. The good news is that we will have our long vacation very soon, in August. I didn't cook much, but I did conjure up a new vegetable stew for myself. It's really effective for losing a few pounds since summer is more or less here.

Spring Detox Veggie Stew

Spring Detox Vegetable Stew

(makes 7-8 servings)

1 large yellow onion, cut into half moons
3 green bell peppers, julienned
8 garlic bulbs, pressed
2 Russet potatoes, cubed
4 Roma tomatoes, finely chopped and juice reserved
1/2 hot water
1 large zucchini, halved and then sliced thinly
2 bunches of asparagus, tips reserved and the rest cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup fresh edamame, rinsed
1/2 cup (tightly packed) fresh basil, torn into pieces
6-7 fresh sage leaves, torn into pieces

1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sauté onions, peppers and garlic for about 10 minutes until softened.
2. Add potatoes and cook covered for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and hot water. Mix well and cook covered for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add zucchini, asparagus and edamame and mix well. Cook for another 10 minutes on low-medium heat.
5. Add herbs, mix and heat through. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

I had this veggie stew in the beginning of a difficult diet. It helped quite a bit because it was very satisfying but pretty light. Of course, I haven't been all that disciplined. I wish I had just stayed with vegetables alone. But making Lolo's Easy Tarte aux Pommes is a great pleasure, before, during, and after the process. It was really easy to make, and it smelled good and tasted good. If you want a little treat for your weariness after a long day, make this and you will have a smile on the face when you dig your fork into it.

Easy Tarte aux Pommes

And I'm ashamed to report that I also made the vegan English muffins again. I ate them with a lot of vegan margarine and apricot preserves. This was obviously for a fattening diet.

Vegan English Muffins Again

Until then, you all take care! I hope I won't disappear for long again.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 111

Singing Horse
Jun 20, 2008
4 comments

Thomas Keller's Ratatouille

Yay! I finally got the time and courage to make the "official" ratatouille (recipe by Thomas Keller) in the movie Ratatouille. Boy, it was worth hours of roasting vegetables in heat. It was the most tasty ratatouille I've had so far! And it looked so darn pretty!

Ann Brettingen's Swedish Apple Cake

This is the vegan version of Ann Brettingen's Swedish apple cake. The recipe I used is adapted from Dorie Greenspan by Gretchen Noelle of "Canela & Comino". It was a very soothing and mild-flavored fruity cake. Perfect for the afternoon tea.

Chômeur Pudding

My sweet tooth kicked in hard, so I made chômeur pudding - a traditional dessert from Quebec, Canada. The recipe is from Andrée of PPK. This is how it looked right after baking. Obviously my six portions of the dough all melted together and turned into one beautiful cake.

Chômeur Pudding

The tempting warm pudding on the plate now. I loved it very much after I made it. But I guess for the sake of my diet, I'll have to wait a long time before I can make it again. It's a little too dangerous for me.

Lesson learned...

Okay, so I now know that green bowls isn't really the way to go when showcasing vegan mac and cheese. Lesson learned.
No matter what it looks like it tasted pretty good. So good in fact that it's calling to me from the fridge right now. I'm trying to ignore it.
Not too much else to report. It was nice and cool here today so I did some cooking. I caramelized some onions in hopes of making a home version of Amy's Cheeseless Pizza
I swear that I do eat more than pizza and stir-fry. Did you see that Mac and Cheese? I also made Brownies today too. Healthy, right? I'll put extra veggies on the pizza tomorrow.

A post and a picture?

Mushroom apple salad

This was yesterday's dinner. You can't see the mushrooms but trust me, they're there.
I tweaked a recipe I found on Vegweb. For some reason I've really been craving salads lately. This one was really good but would make a better fall-ish dinner or lunch. I used Shiitake mushrooms and cooked them in a little oil and added a couple minced cloves of garlic. The mushroom garlic apple combo was really good. Who knew?

On a some what related topic...
I was reading an article at Frisky about who guys would and would not date. One guy said that he would have a hard time dating a vegan girl because they all talk about is their poop. I've always been a little fascinated with poop. But, I really don't talk about it to too many people. Anyone really.
Really? This guy thinks that all vegan females sit around and discuss the last time we took a crap?
A little shout out to my Mom (who will never read this because she will probably never to use their computer) and a big thanks for the Detroit Red Wings "Stanley Cup Champions" t-shirt that I got in the mail yesterday. Best night shirt EVER.