Menu for Week of October 4

As promised on Friday, here is what I plan on cooking for the week. Some of it is from the past week, that I have yet to finish; but mostly it is new dishes. I had hoped that I could just import this from OneNote and then paste it up on the blog, but Blogger doesn’t work that way; apparently. So I am going to have to type it in below.

Before I give you my weekly menu, however, I want to tell you how it comes about. Usually on Wednesday I start to search through both my paper cookbooks, ebook cookbooks and my electronic Living Cookbook for recipes to make for the next week. I am basically looking for recipes that will work well together and will last well throughout the week. Some weeks I also look for specific ingredients, such as eggplant or kale. I try to get a good mix of vegetables over the course of a month. If anything, my diet is deficit in green leafy vegetables, and I haven’t quite found the way to remedy that situation, since I don’t eat a lot of salads. I guess I need to find more recipes that use them as a component.

Rotelle with Mixed Summer Vegetable Sauce TMV pg. 119 (however, I forgot to get the pasta at the store, so will have to use some orzo I cooked up this past week, may not make till weekend, have no more containers for the refrigerator)

Get Your Groove on Veggie Burgers (in the freezer, from Vegweb.com)

Mock BBQ Pork (from vrg.org)

Bok Choy, Edamame, Cashew and Orange Rice Vegan Express (using green beans in place of the edamame)

Spicy Sesame Broccoli Vegan Express (not making this week, have no more containers for the refrigerator)

Simple Vegetable Orzo (leftover)

Curried Orzo Salad (leftover, from PDQ Vegetarian)

I also have a few other things that will round out what I eat for the week, such as walnuts, brownies, fruit, rice and some sauces.

Simple Vegetable Orzo

Simple Vegetable Orzo is something I made up this week to use a as side dish. Between the vegetables and orzo, I get to kill two notional birds with one dish, servings of veggies and carbs. And since I eat things multiple times in one week, tonight is the second night I had this. The recipe leaves the seasonings up to you; so I used olive oil, Mrs. Dash Italian Medley blend and a generous sprinkling of nooch (nutritional yeast).

Along with the orzo I had some Burmese Tofu, done in the smaller and quicker way that Vegetation came up with on her blog. Its round, because the best dish I had to mold this was a small ramekin. The chick-fu was just sliced and then baked in the toaster oven. Didn’t need to do anything fancy to it. I’m really just using here for my protein for dinner.


Earlier this week I had it as the side dish for my all time favorite veggie burger (at least for the moment). Here it is on the side (with the same seasonings as above) of a Get Your Groove on Veggie Burger. I like it because it is lentil based, and as I am anemic, I need all the lentils I can get. I also like that you can add whatever veggies you like to it, so I use this as an opportunity to put some more mushrooms in my diet. Mushrooms are not one of my favorite things, but I do realize that they are a needed vegetable that I had to figure out how to eat. Since they are also in the orzo, I get a nice serving of them here.

Thus ends the first two days of VegaMofo. I will only be blogging on weekdays, so no posts this weekend. Hopefully, that will allow you all to catch up on the huge public RSS listing of participating blogs. I don’t know about you, but I am a bit overwhelmed. Correct that, extremely overwhelmed. All those blogs are turning my mind to mush. But I have also found some that I may continue to follow after this is over. Look for next week’s menu on Monday.

Vegan Mofo Day 1

It’s that time of year again. Time for a month of showing how great and varied vegan food can be.

Last year I just missed this and only read the blogs. This year, will be my first to participate and I am looking forward to showing people that great vegan food doesn’t have to have tofu or tempeh in it. Since I am soy intolerant most of what you see will be either seitan based or bean/lentil based. But that doesn’t mean that I am greatly limited. Sure there are some things I really can’t do, like “vegan fish”, but there are other dishes I can make. I even managed to find a cookbook lately that only had grain and bean recipes in it. Some of those will appear this month and in the future here.

I also plan to do some experiments with my new great find, peanut tofu. I know, doesn’t sound quite right. However, there is a commercial version and I would really like to make it at home, since it would give me a lot more options in dishes. I am buying my first batch of raw peanuts tomorrow and will have a tofu kit in the next week. Hopefully I can make it work.
There will be some things with the Burmese Tofu as well. It is such a simple dish and great for a quick dinner, so I don’t want to forget about it either.

I want to warn you that I eat a lot of leftovers, since I more or less cook for myself. Over the years I have figured out how to re package them, so I hopefully won’t bore you too much with them.

On Mondays I am hoping that I can show you the food plan for the week. The way I do it is in OneNote. I look at what is left over from the week before and also what is in the freezer. From there I look through all my recipes and figure out what to eat for the next week.
The last week of this will probably be devoted to quick and easy dinners; since that is the week I start an income tax preparation course. The class starts at 6, which means I have to eat a bit earlier than normal. And if I have picked up a short contract assignment by then, it will mean a real quick dinner on the fly. However, the class is very near a Chipotles, so I might just go there one night for dinner; especially if I am working.

So hope you enjoy what you see. If you have not been here before feel free to look around. I have some tutorials on Burmese Tofu and a list of soy protein free products that are vegan (to bad it isn’t longer). If you know of any product I may have missed, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

All for now. See you tomorrow.

Still Eating Leftovers

I’m still eating leftovers, so no food today. However, there is some housecleaning (as people would say) to do, so let me get on with that.

First, I received quite a surprise on my shopping trip earlier this week. Not only did I find the new So Delicious Coffee Creamer (website not yet updated to show product), but right next to it was sitting MimicCreme in the 16 oz size they have for coffee creamer use. After having it in my coffee for the last two days I can tell you that any hype you have heard is all true and you should run out and buy some immediately. I have even added some agave nectar and cocoa to some to make a chocolate creamer (I like chocolate in my coffee). And ironically the only reason they are now stocking MimicCreme is because this store no longer sells Silk soy milk products, due to their decision to stop using both local and organic soybeans (but not reflect the change on their boxes), so these creamers are their replacement.

Second, I have plans to start making my own peanut tofu. Unfortunately, I have only fnd one store (of the three that I frequent on an as needed basis) that carries raw peanuts. And none of the stores around here seem to carry granulated peanuts or peanut pieces (like what is needed to make Celine’s Peanut Milk). So I may have to look at using salted peanuts that I rinse thoroughly with water before using; however, I am not sure that is a great idea and would only be a fall back solution. I also plan on ordering a tofu kit sometime in the next week and am looking for directions on making silken tofu as well. With tofu, I can live without tempeh.

Thirdly, I am still drinking kefir, but do plan to stop my experiment. Currently I am using a starter (that is not vegan, but vegetarian) and have realized that I really do not have the space in my tiny kitchen nor the desire to have to drink this every day. I am not saying kefir is hard, just that it doesn’t work for me and my needs. Lately I have realized that this is something that I will have to drink for the rest of my life to occasionally eat soy products and that really doesn’t make sense to me. With the peanut tofu now, the only product I would want would be tempeh, and then only on occasion. Also the only other time I would eat a soy vegan product is at a restaurant. It just does not make sense to devote time and space to something; that though helpful, is a daily commitment. I am now looking at the possibilities of what I can use for occasional eating of soy products. More to follow on this. However, for those of you that are soy allergic I do suggest that you look into this and it may be a great help for you.

Fourthly (and last), starting next week is VeganMoFo 2009, which is a food blogging event that Isa at PPK Forums has put on for the last few years. I just missed last year and will be participating this time. The goal is to blog regularly in the month of October and show the world how good vegan food can be. I intend on showing that even those of us with food intolerances can still eat very healthy and wonderful vegan food. If you are not part of the PPK forums you can still participate by getting in touch with kittee and have your blog added to the list. Or you can just read and enjoy. And I hope you don’t mind leftovers, because you will see them here on a regular basis next month.

Thai Tossed Salad

I have been looking for different salads in all of my books and this has been one that sounded interesting, to say the least. Since I have never been to a Thai restaurant, I can’t say if this is authentic or close to what they serve; but it does have the flavors of Thailand.

This is another recipe from Vegan Express, actually two recipes; since the dressing is also from the book. The salad is really easy; just some broccoli, red bell pepper, cucumber and roma tomato. The recipe also calls for sliced mushrooms and some sprouts, but because I’m not fond of either of those, I just left them out. It is also supposed to have some pineapple as well, but for some reason I totally forgot to put that in until after I ate. The pineapple, though, would have added a definite sweetness that would have been quite nice.

And the recipe is quite easy. Just prep the veggies, toss together, place on top of lettuce and pour on the dressing. The dressing is the Coconut Peanut Sauce or Dressing, from the same book. And that is easy also. It just has jarred Satay Sauce, agave nectar, coconut milk, and some curry paste. It is quite easy to put together and tastes quite good. And it doesn’t thicken in the refrigerator. Wonder how it would work as a dressing on a rice or pasta salad?

And just to round out the meal, I had some Burmese Tofu that was simply baked in the toaster oven. It was very good with the Coconut Peanut Sauce or Dressing on it.

Broccoli Slaw with Craisins and Ginger

I’m using another recipe from PDQ Vegetarian tonight. This time it is a salad based on broccoli slaw that has raisins and candied ginger added to it. Or it is supposed to be raisins; I didn’t have any, so they got replaced with craisins instead. Don’t think it hurt the salad though. The dressing is just vegan mayo, rice wine vinegar and powdered ginger. And just in case you think that the ginger will overwhelm the salad, it is a nice accent, but not an overwhelming flavor. The ginger was also nice with the Dijon Beets (that I earlier wrote about here) and my favorite veggie burger. All in all it was a simple dinner for the end of summer.

Kefir Update and Curried Asian Vegetables

First off, time for the kefir update. Today was my last day of the second quart of the So Delicious Coconut Milk Kefir. I started drinking four ounces per day at the end of last week, without any problems. And since today was the last day, that meant it was time for my test. As part of lunch today, I had a single serving of Silk Live yogurt. This was around noon. As of right now (6:45) I feel fine and have no nausea; which was my major symptom of soy intolerance. Does this mean the kefir helped? Not sure, but it is interesting. And it does mean that I will continue this experiment. Now I just need to make my own kefir. So next on the things to do is to buy some of the starter from a store and also look into getting some of the grains as well. After drinking this for a month, I should see if I can eat tempeh. That would be a real challenge to see how well I tolerate soy.

For those you who want to try this, please heed this warning. I am not here to give medical advice and have no medical training. If you are soy intolerant or even soy allergic, this will be an attempt at your own risk. If you still want to try this experiment at home, please follow the suggestions below.

1. Start slowly. Only drink an ounce or two for the first few weeks. After that you can increase the amount taken daily, but do not attempt any soy until you have had at least two quarts of kefir.
   


2. After having two quarts of kefir, I would suggest that your first soy food be yogurt; simply because it also has probiotics in it and is the soy protein least likely to bother you in the first place. If you are soy allergic, please make sure you at this point, you have your auto injector or some Benadryl around, in case you have a reaction. Also do not do this alone and do it in your doctor’s office, if you can get them to come on board with this experiment.
   


3. If the yogurt goes well, and you are drinking from 4-8 ounces of kefir a day; I would not try tempeh or tofu till you are have gone through at least another two quarts.



4. This is not a cure all and results may differ. It will not work the same in everyone. You will not be able to eat all the soy protein you would like to do so. But it will allow you to eat tofu or tempeh when you have no other options and for those who are allergic, it may allow you to handle soy lechitan or soy sauce again. And that should make your lives much easier.

And now onto dinner. I wasn’t sure if I would even have dinner tonight, since I was unsure how I would be feeling. But, earlier in the day I made some of the quick Burmese Tofu developed by Vegetation (it does work with the chickpea flour as well), just in case. And in looking at my food plan for the week, Curried Asian Vegetables from PDQ Vegetarian seemed to be the simplest thing to have for dinner that would go well with the chick-fu. So it ended up being a nice, simple dinner that was not cold; since I am sick of cold salads and cold meals. The chick-fu is round, simply because that was the smallest container I had that could be used as a mold.