Bayit and Garden

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Healthy Vegan Eating: Quick Cooking

ב"ה

Are You New to Healthy Food?

I remember when I was new to vegetarianism. I didn't know how to handle the cooking. I had learned to cook with meat and chicken and now I was lost.

I have been vegetarian since 1977 and vegan since 1989. Outside of my family, most of the people I know and associate with now never knew me before I was vegan, much less before I was vegetarian. When new (kosher) restaurants open up in town, they find out pretty quickly that I'm a "go-to" person to check with if they want to find out if their vegan food tastes good to a vegan.
For the most part, I do my own cooking. But there are times that I'm really busy or really tired, so I have to have all sorts of recipes in my repertoire.

Quick and Easy Chili

When you're new to the world of vegetarianism or if you just want a quick, easy, meatless meal, you need a few ideas to get you started.

I usually do a lot of cooking since I'm the only vegan in the house and if I don't cook, I don't eat. So I keep a number of items on hand for those days that I just don't have the time or the energy to cook a full meal.

Canned beans fill almost an entire shelf in the basement. I use them very liberally. I also try to keep cans of tomato products (fire roasted tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, etc.). I also like to buy hot peppers when they are available in the organic section (I broil them and then freeze them so I can use them months later). Keep a collection of spices you like -- I like curry powder, coriander, fresh ginger and several other spices. Oil is also an important ingredient. I usually use olive oil, but canola, peanut, walnut and almond oil, or other high monounsaturated oils should be on your cabinet shelf. Nuts add healthy fats and crunchy textures. Vegetables, fresh or frozen, round out the important ingredients.

These recipes can save you time:

Serves: this makes about 4 generous servings
Print

Ingredients

large can of crushed tomatoes (the variety is up to you)
1/2 cup each of raw peanuts and almond
bell peppers of any color
onions/garlic/leeks/scallions
hot peppers to taste
mushrooms (your favorite variety)
two cans of your favorite beans (I usually use one can of black beans and one can of red kidney beans)
spices
Frozen vegetables

Instructions

Take a large can of crushed tomatoes (the variety is up to you) and pour it into a pot. I add 1/2 cup each of raw peanuts and almond and cook on a low flame about 1/2 hour. In the meantime, I saute veggies: bell peppers of any color, onions/garlic/leeks/scallions, hot peppers to taste, mushrooms (your favorite variety) until cooked through.
When the peanuts and almonds are cooked through, add two cans of your favorite beans (I usually use one can of black beans and one can of red kidney beans). Add spices you like (I use brown mustard, curry powder and chili powder). Add the sauteed vegetables. After stewing a bit, add frozen vegetables (broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, etc.). Stir it all together and stew until it's all cooked through.

Another Quick Recipe

Another quick recipe --

Ingredients

Oil for sauteeing (Olive Oil)
Fresh ginger
mustard
a small amount of sweetener
Curry Powder
Minced Garlic
other veggies you like (onions or other similar veggies)
Favorite Beans (canned or cooked dried)

Instructions

Put two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan, grate some fresh ginger and add a bit of mustard, a small amount of sweetener (I use stevia or agave nectar), curry powder. Add minced garlic and any other veggies you like (onions or other similar veggies), peppers, etc. When the veggies are cooked through, add a can of your favorite beans (I like black beans) and cover the pan. Cook on a low flame until all the ingredients are heated through.
You can eat this alone or add it to cooked pasta -- you can also use some pasta cooking liquid, mash the beans and add the liquid for a thinner sauce.
Experiment with these ingredients and others, to your taste. Beans and vegetables spiced correctly can make a very filling meal. Enjoy!

Compugraph Designs Printfection Store

In addition to our Cafe Press and Zazzle sites (see modules above), we also have a store on "Printfection" which includes cutting boards (good wedding or housewarming gifts), mugs and cups, tees, etc.

This canvas bag is only one of several Vegetarian themed items at our store:

Compugraphd Printfection site

(Click on the picture to go directly to this product's page)

Vegetable Themed Designs from Compugraph Designs Zazzle

Monday, March 3, 2014

Thinking of Going Veg? Start Here!

ב"ה

Let's Go Veg!

Ok. So you have heard all the reports about eating a vegan diet. You have heard that it's a healthier way of eating. You have heard that vegans are much less prone to degenerative diseases. You have heard that osteoporosis is almost unknown in societies where a vegan diet is the norm. You have heard about how animals that are raised in factory farms to be sold as meat or chickens who lay eggs and cows who give milk are kept in very cruel and cramped conditions. You have heard of all the ecological problems that are caused by the raising of animals for food. So, you finally decided that, to be your healthiest and to be a good citizen of the world, going vegan goes a long way.

But you are used to the standard American diet. That's the diet I call the "McDonald's Egg McMuffin for breakfast, Burger King Whopper for lunch and Kentucky Fried Chicken for supper" diet. Or you have been raised on the home cooked pot roast and potatoes (the old "meat and potatoes") standards. How do you shift over without feeling deprived?

My Vegetarian Odyssey

As of 2014, I've been a vegetarian now for over 35 years. And I've been a vegan for around 25 years. Needless to say, I developed some "tricks". I personally love to cook, but only when I'm in the mood. I also like to have some easy quick recipes to throw together.

First of all, I (like most vegetarians I have met) didn't become a vegetarian because I don't like meat. I happen to love meat. When I was a teenager, my family used to call me the chicken hawk (after the little guy in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons) because I loved chicken (dark meat) so much. When I was in high school, I got home from school late and didn't usually get home until 6-7 pm -- by which time, my younger siblings and my parents had already eaten. So I would take a bottom quarter of a chicken, throw it in the oven, and that was supper most of the time. I still haven't found anything that tastes like a broiled rib steak or pastrami or corn beef (believe me, I've tried!). And when I became vegan, there went ice cream and milk chocolate (another two of my favorite foods).

What do vegetarians eat?

Fortunately, there are so many vegan substitutes these days for non-vegan food. Having grown up in a kosher home (where meat and dairy are not mixed together), the first time I ever had a cheeseburger was after I became a vegetarian (soy burger and dairy cheese at that point). Now, I have cheeseburgers (soy burger, vegan soy cheese) with a couple of strips of soy bacon (pig products aren't kosher at all, so I never tasted bacon that wasn't of a soy origin). My milk is made from rice or soy or nuts. My meat is made from soy and wheat gluten. My cheese is made from soy. My butter is non-hydrogenated and made from soy and vegetable gums. I use pumpkin, flax seeds, apple sauce, and sometimes rice milk or mashed potatoes to substitute for eggs and/or shortening. Oh, and by the way, since I became vegetarian, I have lost about 80 pounds (granted, that is 30 years of weight loss, but, heck, a weight loss is a weight loss), my blood pressure (which in my 20s was high normal) dropped (to currently normal), my cholesterol dropped. I have a feeling if I hadn't become vegetarian and then vegan I probably would have had a stroke before I was 40.

I know a lot of people just want to stick with their comfort food, and that's ok. (If you have a recipe for a comfort food that you'd like to have me convert, feel free to write a request as a comment and I will try to incorporate your recipe into a future lens). Another good place to get recipes to adjust is women's magazines.

To "Veg" or not to "Veg"? That is the question

Now that you have decided to take the plunge, I will give you some advice on substituting. I have managed to make recipes that contain meat, chicken, dairy, etc. into vegan recipes. I'll start off by giving you an example.

Changing your Comfort Foods

Having a Vegetarian Substitute for your Comfort Foods goes a long way Towards Making the Changeover Successfully

When I was young, my mother used to make a casserole that I loved. It is similar to shepherd's pie. It had mashed potatoes on the bottom, then peas and carrots, then chopped meat, then it had egg noodles on top. I decided that this would be easy to make, so I started with the mashed potatoes on the bottom. My Mom used canned peas and carrots, I decided to use frozen peas (less salt and sugar) and fresh carrots. I diced up a couple of carrots into small cubes and added a bag of frozen peas (I try to use organically grown vegetables and fruit as much as I can). I'd kind of mix the peas and carrot together, then put them in the casserole dish on top of the mashed potatoes. Then I added a layer of fake chopped meat (Green Giant makes a good one. It's called "Harvest Burger" and it is fat free and comes frozen in a zip bag that you can reseal and put back in the freezer when you are done). I then added egg free noodles (DeBoles makes very good egg free noodles. They have a Jerusalem artichoke variety and a whole wheat variety. I prefer the whole wheat variety, but it's harder to find in the stores. I have also found a number of other substitutes Tofu noodles (low in calories) and mung bean "fettuccine" noodles.) on top of it all. I put the whole thing in a medium oven and bake it until all the ingredients are heated and the noodles are crispy (but not scorched).

In my travels, I have found rice,soy and nut "milk" (I use unsweetened almond milk). I use tofu instead of soft cheeses or for smooth desserts and creamy sauces and dressings. There are many soy based meats. Besides the "chopped meat" I used in the above recipe, I have found "beef" chunks, "chicken" chunks, "chicken" nuggets, etc. I also found that tempeh is a good substitute for chicken and fish chunks in salads and the like. (Tempeh is a soy based food that comes in slabs and you can find in most health food stores.) I have found soy "bacon", soy "cheese" (mozzarella and cheddar varieties are common). Soy or rice based "ice cream" is also very easy to find (there are many different versions, flavors, varieties, etc.)

Another recipe

Vegetarian "Tuna" Salad with Chick Peas

So, I guess you are interested in another quick recipe, right? Ok, how many of you out there like tuna salad? I use the same ingredients with chick peas instead of tuna. The chick peas are better if they are firm than in they are mushy (you can buy firmer chick peas in specialty kosher supermarkets, middle eastern stores, or health food stores or you can make your own firmer chick peas from dried chick peas). You mash up the chick peas with a fork.

Add whatever you like; I have put in diced celery, chopped or sliced olives, scallions, onion and/or garlic (raw or sauteed a bit), chopped greens (baby spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, etc.), diced pickles (I like dill pickles), mayonnaise (there are many vegan mayonnaise brands on the market) or olive oil, and many other ingredients. Try your own favorite ingredients. This salad tastes great on whole grain bread or toast (with or without a smear of your favorite mustard and/or a leaf of red leaf lettuce).

Compugraph Designs' Printfection Store

Vegetarian Themed products from Compugraph Designs on Zazzle

compugraphd
Vegetables Mug

compugraphd
Eat a Good Breakfast Neck Tie

compugraphd
Vegetarian Recipe Binder

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Fettuccine Alfredo Healthy Vegan Redux

ב"ה

Recipe Redux a la Vegan

I was an inveterate meat eater when I was young. When I was in high school, I often came home late and would make supper by tossing a bottom quarter of chicken in the over and bake a potato. Not exactly healthy (particularly since I ate a lot of candy and other junk during the day), was it?

Enter Recipe Redux

When I decided that it was time to start eating healthier vegetarian fare (in my ovo-lacto days), I started off with redoing the meat and chicken recipes I had grown up on. I did several different versions of my Mom's Shepherd's Pie, one with mashed potatoes on the bottom, then peas and carrots (I used to use frozen peas and I'd dice some carrots), then fake meat, then noodles on top (whole grain way back then -- I can't eat wheat anymore).

Fast Forward a number of years, I had a cookbook from vegan Chef [then] Brother Ron Pickarski (see below). He had a recipe for a stroganoff wherein the "sour cream" was made from cauliflower.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I decided I'd like to add more cauliflower to my diet. I always liove cauliflower and our local Shop-Rite started expanding their organic produce section and cauliflower is one of the items they usually have in the organic section.

I started creating cauliflower sauces (I have a couple versions up on line here on squidoo and on my vegan recipe blog).

Vegan "Fettucine Alfredo"

Thanks to Mung Bean Noodles (because I can't eat wheat), I can make an easy dish. The sauce is the hardest part (the noodles only have to be left in boiling water until they are soft

Serves: 4
Print

Ingredients

1 Head Cauliflower
1 bunch scallions
sliced up as high as you can go
4-7 cloves garlic
minced and left to sit for 30 minutes
mushrooms
mixed varieties (fresh
frozen or dehydrated)
chopped greens
2-4 Tablespoons tahini (or to taste)
your choice of spices
any other vegetables
steamed or sauteed
almond "milk" as needed
1 bag mung bean fetuccine noodles

Instructions

Steam the cauliflower (and any other vegetables you are steaming -- I often use sweet potato to add some sweetness to the sauce) until very soft. Let cool. While the cauliflower is steaming, sautee the other veggies (adding the garlic only after 30 minutes have passed).
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth, adding almond "milk" as needed to get the mixture moving.
When you remove the steamed veggies from their basket, take the steaming water and add enough water to cover the noodles -- boil the water, turn off the heat and add the noodles. Leave the noodles in the water until they are at your desired softness (I like a bit al dente). Strain the noodles and mix them with the sauce. Warm up if needed before serving.

"Creamy" Cauliflower Sauce

ב"ה

Low Fat, Low Calorie, High Antioxidant "Creamy" Cauliflower Sauce

If you like creamy sauces, but can't eat dairy or need to keep your saturated fat consumption low, cauliflower can't be beat. Cauliflower is white and, when steamed and pureed and added to other ingredients, cauliflower can be part of a very healthy creamy sauce, good for pasta (whole grain, bean-based or Shirataki -- tofu based), sandwiches (veggie burgers, for example) or even on other vegetables.

Recipe for Cauliflower Sauce

Ingredients

1 Head Cauliflower steamed
1-2 tablespoons Tahini
Almond "milk" or soy "yogurt" as needed for consistency
Sauteed Vegetables:
any combination of onions
shallots scallions
garlic -- mushrooms
something green (spinach kale
eg) -- etc.
Turmeric (3/4 teaspoon or to taste)
Coriander (3/4 teaspoon or to taste)
Cumin (1/4 teaspoon or to taste)
1 large can pitted black olives drained (optional)

Instructions

Saute the vegetables (in olive oil) and add the spices when they are almost cooked through. Cooking the veggies with the spices helps the spice mellow and blend with the other flavors. Take the cauliflower and put it in a food processor. Add Tahini and olives (if using) and the vegetables. Puree the mixture until it's well homogenized. That's it.
If you are using this for pasta, cook the pasta according to the package directions (the pasta pictured, has a lot of protein and is available below). Mix in liberal amounts of the sauce (it's healthy, so enjoy!)
You can also use this on sandwiches instead of mayo or on vegetables (like broccoli or asparagus, for example).

Use the Cauliflower Sauce as Salad Dressing

Over the summer, I eat more salads more often than I do in the winter. Lately, I make a salad with cucumbers, avocado, carrots, a nectarine or peach and a large can of black olives. I use either one large cucumber or 2 Kirby cucumbers, 1 avocado, 2-3 small carrots or 1-2 large carrots, 1 nectarine or peach. I dice the cucumber(s), avocado and nectarine or peach, cut the carrots lengthwise, then slice thinly, and, either take the olive as they are after draining, or, if I have the time, slice the olives (3 slices per small olive). Then, I put them in a bowl, spray olive oil on the veggies, and add balsamic vinegar (a splash or two) and a large spoonful or two of the cauliflower sauce. I mix this all together. The cauliflower sauce sort of gives the salad a creaminess without added fat.

Vegan Pumpkin Pudding

ב"ה

For Vegans --

I've been a vegan for a long time and I LOVE Pumpkin -- here is one of my recipes.

I had originally used this recipe (which I created on my own, but with input from other recipes) for pumpkin pie, but making a healthy vegan crust (as in without hydrogenated vegetable shortening or saturated fats) was problematic. The crust I used to put this in was created with a healthy nugget type cereal and frozen apple juice concentrate, pulsed together only until it holds together, spread it on the bottom of a pie pan and bake it for a few minutes, just until it's solid. Then pour the pudding in and bake until firm (as with the pudding).

Easy, Quick Vegan Pumpkin Pudding Recipe

This is a very quick recipe: Take out your food processor or blender. Take a can of Pumpkin Puree. You also need a container of Tofu, stevia to taste, pumpkin pie spice, and Vanilla Almond "milk". Take the Pumpkin Puree, the Tofu,1/2 to 1 cup of Almond "Milk", the stevia, and a teaspoon or two of pumpkin pie spice and put it all in the food processor. Process until it's well blended and smooth. (You can taste this before you bake it and adjust as needed)

Pour the mixture into a pan and bake it at 245 degrees for about an hour or until firm. Let the pudding cool and stir with a spoon and put in a container and into the refrigerator.

This also makes a good pie filling.

Do you like this recipe?

Let me know (in the comments section) if you try out this recipe and if you like it. Did you make any changes to the recipe that others might like?

Compugraph Designs' Printfection Store

In addition to our Cafe Press and Zazzle sites we also have a store on "Printfection" which includes cutting boards (good wedding or housewarming gifts), mugs and cups, tees, etc.