meatfree-blog

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How do you start off your day?

I love a bowl of Irish steel-cut oats (made with soy milk instead of water) with whole golden flax seeds, dried blueberries, and a spoonful of fruit preserves - I especially love apricot preserves!

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Juicer Pulp Ideas + recipes!

I just got a juicer, and it is beautiful. It's a Jack LaLanne one and it is so amazing! So, after making delicious juice, you've got a the leftover pulp that is separated. 

You can eat it: mix it into bread dough, cookies, stir it into your morning oatmeal, layer it in parfaits (my favorite way to eat it - think pineapple with cottage cheese [vegetarian] or carrot with soy vanilla yogurt and tell me you don't start drooling), make it into cakes - perfect example: carrot cakes - and many other delicious things! 

You can throw it away - in your plants! Mix it with soil in your house plants, in your back garden, or in your flowers! It is a great addition and is an all-natural fertilizer. You can also add the pulp to your composter as you would any other discarded fruit bits.

As mentioned before, my favorite way to eat it is in parfaits, or really with any kind of dairy (vegetarian) or in my vegan soy vanilla yogurts (vegan). Either way, I do like to add a bit of honey (honey that I get from a very small bee farm run by a cute little old man who makes about 20 jars a year) to the mixture (vegetarian). Good combos are cottage cheese with pineapple or berry pulp, vanilla yogurt mixed with carrot pulp, cream cheese mixed with any fruit or vegetable pulp as a spread for bagels, and for a pulp + dairy (yogurt or cottage cheese) + muesli + drizzle of honey + sliced fresh fruit (I like bananas or peaches) "parfait".

My favorite juicing combos include:

carrot + peach + ginger

pear + green apple + celery

beet + spinach* + carrot + ginger

*leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, lettuce, etc. do not make a lot of juice - a 5 oz clamshell pack of spinach makes about 2 tbsp of juice. To get the most juice from these leafy greens, put the pulp back down the shoot once and you may get another teaspoon of juice. Use the pulp from leafy greens in spinach puffs, casseroles, or a "meat" loaf (vegetarian and vegan vegetable protein loafs, of course). Can also be mixed into pasta sauce.

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Super Soup (Vegan)

Ingredients

water - enough to fill a quart-sized pot

1/2 kale leaf 

1/4 c Red quinoa, cooked according to directions

1 package glass noodles (also called bean thread noodles); can be substituted with buckwheat noodles.

1/2 tsp each: powdered garlic, powdered onion, powdered ginger, turmeric

3 tbsp [brown rice] miso [soy] paste 

1 1/2 tbsp liquid aminoes

1/3 block tofu (extra firm - not silken)

2 tsp coconut oil

2 tbsp dulse flakes

This delicious and aromatic soup is wonderful, antioxidant-packed and chock-full of super foods!

Firstly, fill your pot with water and bring to a boil. Remove the stem from the kale leaf and slice it into thin ribbons. Add to the water. Add the tofu - slice it into thin strips or small cubes. Add the powdered spices and turmeric and the liquid aminoes. Add the dulse flakes. When the water has reached a boil, add the quinoa and glass noodles and reduce to a simmer after 3 minutes. Add the coconut oil and the miso paste. 

Simmer for 15-20 minutes, making sure the germ rings have come off of the quinoa (they'll be little white rings and the quinoa will have "popped"). 

Voila! Your delicious soup is ready to be eaten, and your body is ready to enjoy the benefits!

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Vegan Egg Salad Sandwiches

Makes two sandwiches

1 block of silken extra firm tofu, pressed for about 30 minutes total

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp Veganaise (or other vegan mayonnaise-like spread)

1 tbsp relish, optional

4 slices of bread

Take 3/4 of your block of extra firm tofu, and set aside. With the other 1/4, mash it lightly with a fork while slowly adding the turmeric in increments until the yellow is evenly distributed (this will serve as the "yolk" in the dish). Add more turmeric if needed to get a 'truer' yellow.

Take your plain 3/4 tofu and mash lightly, adding the salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Add the Veganaise and relish (optional), and stir gently. Add the "yolk" to your "whites" and stir gently to combine.

Refrigerate for half an hour before spreading on toasted bread.

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Ingredients

2 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 yellow onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed 1 can pinto beans, undrained 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies, undrained 1 can mild chiles,...

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Vegan matcha cupcakes with raspberry frosting and chocolate shavings! 🍰 (Taken with instagram)

Recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Matcha from DavidsTea.

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What are you having for dinner tonight?

I'm having Vegan Spaghetti tacos!

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Whole wheat cinnamon rolls that are so soft and gooey you wouldn’t know they were vegan!

Recipe

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-audible swoon-

Apple Pie Samosa by Mr. Tender Branson on Flickr.

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Four words: Cookie. Butter. Ice Cream. BAM! You’re welcome. (That’s a link to the recipe, fyi!)

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Vegan Jambalaya

For this recipe, I used Field Roast's Italian Vegan Artisan Sausage Links, but of course you can use any other vegan sausage. I didn't measure out how much water/veggie broth I used, but I used 1 carton of vegetable broth, and when the rice sucked that all up I gave it a taste test and added 1 1/2 cups of water. It sucked that up as well and was cooked.

4 Field Roast Italian Vegan Sausage Links (1 package), sliced

1 red bell pepper, thinly chopped

1 orange bell pepper, thinly chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, thinly chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3/4 cup rice (I used Basmati)

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 box vegetable broth + a few cups of water.

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

Heat up the oil in your pot. Add the sausages. Cook for a few minutes, until they have a bit of a "char". Note: There's a difference between charring and burning. 

Add the chopped bell peppers and onion. Cook until a bit soft. Add some vegetable broth - enough to just to cover the bottom of the pot and it's contents. This will help cook the onion and bell pepper more without burning them. Stir in the tomato paste.

Add the tomatoes with green chilies. Stir. 

Add the rest of the vegetable broth, and sprinkle the rice in. Stir (to "distribute" the rice). Cook on medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Taste a bit of the rice. If it has even the slightest amount of crunch or hardness, add a cup of water and cook a few minutes more, stirring frequently. Continue if still crunchy/hard in 1 cup increments.

Turn off heat, stir, serve, enjoy!

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"Chicken" Alfredo Florentine (vegan)

For the chicken, you can use MorningStar Farm's Meal Starters Chik'n Strips, or even Gardein's Chick'n Strips - both are vegan!

1 serving of vegan chicken, (grilled - optional), cooked as directed

1/2 cup whole wheat "short" pasta, like fusilli, or penne

1/3 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 tomato, chopped

2 tbsp chopped basil

1/3 cup non-dairy milk (I use Silk Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk)

1 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp margarine (I use Smart Balance)

Cook the pasta according to the directions, with a pinch of salt; set aside.

Melt the margarine in a small pot; sprinkle the flour (and a bit of salt/pepper) over, stir until combined; add the non-dairy milk. 

Fold in the "chicken", the cooked pasta, spinach, basil, and the tomato.

Heat for a few minutes.

Serve, enjoy!

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These energy bars are all vegan, with many also being gluten-free!

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Is our produce really vegan?

Yesterday while shopping for produce at the grocery store, I happened upon a bag of apples. In fine print were the words, along the lines of, "protected with shellac". I know that shellac is a type of resin that is secreted from the tiny lac insect. In other words, our apples may be covered in bug poop. And not just the apples: pears and citrus fruits as well. How infuriating! To me, "just washing it off" isn't good enough. I almost feel like the apple has been tainted. 

http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-vegetables-wax.htm

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I planted a garden. I planted tomatoes, raspberries, basil, watermelon, cucumber, corn, and carrots. When purchasing my seeds and supplies at the store, I searched in the fertilizer section for an organic fertilizer. I found one! I found some great ones, actually. I found one specifically for tomatoes! I purchased it ecstatically. When I got home, I planted my seeds and my tomato plants. When reading the label of the tomato fertilizer to figure out measurements (in the store, I only read "Organic Tomato Magic"), I noticed in fine print, "Ingredients: Ground Bone Meal, Feather Meal, etc."

There I was thinking it was some sort of concentrated compost fertilizer. Nope. And it smells horrid. I've given it a go anyways, on one tomato plant. Sort of as an experiment. So help that tomato if he grows "bigger, juicier, and brighter all season".

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