vegoftheweek

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your vegan bouillon.

Rapunzel thought she had found the man of her dreams. Little did she know he was only after one thing. Well, actually he was after several things.

The prince wanted a vegan bouillon. He couldn’t stand the thought of purchasing those regular bouillons in the grocery store with “natural flavorings,” and other wild things he hadn’t heard of. It would be nice if it contained organic ingredients. And while he wasn’t a high blood pressure patient, no added salt is great for any prince trying to stay healthy, thus looking hot.

Of course, you’ll never hear that side of Rapunzel’s story because unfortunately, the witch, replaced it with one with beef stock.

I confess, I don’t use bouillon for a lot of recipes, normally just buying vegetable stock. But a seitan creation required it, thus causing me to search for one.

Rapunzel bouillon was a delight to find. At first I was hesitant to purchase the no salt added variety, but was in the mood to be healthier. And what a good choice. With so many other spices and herbs, you definitely won’t miss it.

It dissolves easily in liquid, but the particular recipe I used it for required I crumble it in the dry form and blend with a mixture. It was a pleasure “licking” my fingers afterwards, giving me an sign that I knew I would enjoy whatever was to come from this bouillon seasoning my dish.

Personally, I’ve found completely vegan bouillon to be a hard find in the past, even shopping at organic and natural food stores like Trader Joes or Whole Foods. Have you encountered a similar issue? Is there a brand of vegan or vegetable bouillon you trust and recommend?

Week Links:

This Vegetarian Just Couldn’t Eat Kangaroo(Uk Mirror)

Alicia Silverstone To Release Vegan Diet Book (Market Watch)

There are many things in life that baffle me, one being why there is meat stock in vegetable soup. I started off being very veggie militant and read labels quite religiously to ensure no hidden ingredients would make me accidentally break my vegetarian vow.

However, I turned veg as a teenager, which meant I wasn’t always at the store when my lunch or dinner was purchased. Mom tried her best, but let’s face it, when having to read all the other “chemical” ingredients in a conventional soup (otherwise known as preservatives) and not being a vegetarian herself, there were sometimes evenings when she would come home with what she thought I would be ecstatic with, but my reaction, after performing my religious label reading duties, was somewhat different.

Chicken stock, beef stock, natural flavorings of the unknown world be gone. Amy’s Kitchen Soups has allowed me to relax knowing “vegetable” soup, is only composed of vegetables. The Alphabet Soup, which also happens to be vegan, comes chocked full of vegetables-corn, carrots, potatoes, as well as a creamy non-dairy, tomato base that doesn’t require you add water.

The founders of Amy’s Kitchen created the vegetarian food line with the idea of wanting to provide healthy, meatless meals that didn’t require a lot of fuss because they were so busy with their daughter. You guessed it-the daughter’s name is Amy who now is a student at Standford University. Read more about Amy’s soup after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Inside The Oven: A Nori Wrap that just happens to be raw. Week Links: Kellie Pickler is a meatless country music star now.

So this package of nori sheets is sitting in my cabinet, already opened, meaning I’ve attempted to use it once. Whatever the reason or recipe was I can’t remember, which means it must have not been a good experience.

However, I’m a big fan of trying to clean the pantry from time to time, so I tried to make another creation with Nori. Speaking of cleaning the pantry, I read an article today on a method to save money by skipping a trip to the grocery store. You don’t starve yourself for a week-just eat whatever is left in the fridge, cabinets, and so forth. Sounds suspiciously like end of the semester times in college for me. Blah! But if it burns a bigger hole in your bank account or pocket because the money’s still sitting there on fire, I’d say go for it.

If you’ve ever tasted raw nori sheets (or even toasted) before, you’ve noticed it has a very dark leafy green vegetable taste to it. For me, the experience was kind of like a dried out fruit roll-up (flashback: grade school cafeteria, time to switch with your best friend), but only a vegetable roll-up instead.

But even the most overpowerful tasting vegetables can be complemented to accent, hide, or twist the flavor to a more pleasing one. Lighter fresh lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and roasted red peppers can all be ways to “sneak” in something a little less tastier.

And then there was Tahini Butter. Can’t believe I’d been secluding it only for falafel for so long.

Learn how to put together this wrap after the break…

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Farm Sanctuary Gala 2004

Dan Piraro is a cartoonist and comedian best known for his website, Bizarro.com, where he often incorporates his vegan and animal rights beliefs into his works.

His thoughts on hunting:
Well, I certainly think that if there are degrees of cruelty, and you can argue philosophically about that, I think that hunting is far less cruel than raising an animal uncomfortably in a cage with a lot of others (animals). It’s certainly kinder than factory farming to let an animal live its life in the wild, unmolested, until a bullet strikes it dead. I know that I would prefer a life like that rather than a life in prison until I was killed for someone’s food. I would prefer a free life until I was killed for someone’s food. To me there’s a huge moral dilemma. Hunting in our culture quite frankly is killing for fun, whether you eat it or not. If you pass a grocery store on your way to hunt, you’re killing for fun, not killing for necessity. I think killing for fun is certainly a no brainer. It’s sort of difficult to justify in my mind.
I went hunting with my dad (years ago). It’s interesting, my dad is a terrific person, not a vegetarian, but he’s a terrific person, still alive. He and I are very close. He had these very strict ideas about how animals should be treated and he taught them to me as a kid. You never kill anything that you’re not going to eat. And you never kill more than you can eat. He was very strict about that. He took me bird hunting and I remember one time when he caught me trying to shoot a sparrow in the backyard with a Bebe gun. He came down on me so hard. Took the gun away from me and gave me a big lecture, “You do not kill things just for fun.”
…It’s just wrong to kill things for fun. You can’t justify that. If I was an Eskimo, maybe, and there were no grocery stores. ..

An example of one of his cartoons that illustrates his beliefs:
It’s a laboratory with a scientist mixing stuff up. And behind him are cages of all sorts of animals. And the monkey says through the cage, “Hey, Einstein. How about working on a cure for insensitivity to other species.” To me that concept says it all, because that’s really what it’s about. It’s about something being not enough like us to care. We see this in society all over the place: There are people who think that foreigners are not enough like us to care what happens to them. Or people of another race are “not enough like me” to care what happens to them. It’s about the circle of compassion. I extend my circle of compassion to any sentient being. Anything that knows it’s alive, in my mind, has the same philosophical rights to an unmolested life as I do or you do. That cartoon to me kind of says that very thing.

On the vegan tattoos on his body:
(There’s) a little group of cartoon birds (on my arm) and then underneath that it says fly. And that to me is just the idea of letting animals be who they are. And then on my arm I have a banner that says vegan…And on my other arm I have a monkey’s head and he has a little banner that crosses and curls underneath his head that says “liberation,” which to me is just about the liberation of the slavery of animals.
My wife has a little small square battery cage with a chicken flying out of it. And then it says vegan next to that. And she has a full size spider monkey with a broken chain and it says, “liberation.” And she has a rooster with a bunch of baby chicks all around him with a banner across that says “unlucky.”
That tattoo is really interesting. In restaurants and bars, if a guy ever wants to start up a conversation with the pretty blond he says, “Oh, those are interesting tattoos. What does that “unlucky” mean?” And 45 minutes later, they’re sorry they ever asked. She launches into an entire story about what happens to male chicks in egg factories. The male chicks are all killed at birth because they’re not going to be egg layers.

Learn how Dan survives when wife Ashley Lou isn’t around to cook after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Inside The Oven: A trip back to fun houses, funnel cakes, and grotesque looking teddy bears. Week Links: Flexitarians-those part time vegetarians.

Around this time of year, there’s a week long festival in a Midwestern town I lived in for years. It’s the pretty standard carnival type atmosphere with games, rides, and several blocks of food booths containing your traditional fair food of pizza, bratwurst, haystacks, and all things not vegetarian. My most repulsive memories were that of seeing and smelling fried brain sandwiches-made from brains of pigs and cows…As they say on airplane flights: there’s a trash bag or can at your side. Please regurgitate and get back to reading this when you’re done.

Anyway, there were a few, but scarce veggie options if you were a lacto-ovo. I was still eating cheese at the time (but not anymore) and every year I looked forward to finding the cheese stick booth of choice, as there were several to choose from. Depending on the year, it could have been Future Farmers of America to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church where I chose to be a cheese stick patron.

Normally, I’m a pretty flexible and laid back kind of person. So, in the company of friends at the festival, I had no problem standing around for hours as they futilely attempted to win life size teddy bears that frankly so looked so bizarre, you’d wonder what child actually liked taking these to bed. However, when it came to getting my cheese sticks, all manners, cooperativeness, and “thinking of the other person,” were pushed aside. Once satisfied with the taste of warm, soft, stretchy mozzarella cheese dipped in marinara sauce, I couldn’t care less how many teddy bears my friends and family threw horseshoes for.

Fast forward a decade. No longer doing the cheese thing, I thought I’d never bite into the fried mozzarella festival goodness again. Until I began thumbing through recipes for regular mozzarella cheese sticks and thought to myself, “Let’s veganzie this.” Learn how I veganized fried mozzarella cheese sticks and get the recipe after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Inside The Oven: No, it’s what’s inside my breakfast collection this week. Week Links: Did you celebrate National Hug a Vegetarian Day? A KFC reason to move to Canada?

Every so often, I like to let readers take a peek at the most private and intimate parts of my life-yes, that’s right, my freezer, refrigerator, spice rack, and much more!

It’s just another way I hope to bring you some ideas for meals, snacks and hopefully, to break the monotony. This week it’s what I eat for breakfast. Staring from the far left:

Van’s Organic Blueberry Waffles:
Vegan. 5 grams of protein. 4 grams of fiber. These stats are starting to turn this into a personal’s ad. Looking for someone to smear vegan butter over it and drizzle hot organic maple syrup in every crevice. Whoa…almost too hot to publish.

Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Cooking Oats:
You should really take a trip to the Red Mill one day. It’s rife with wholesome, mostly organic items from gluten-free to cornmeal and flour to lentil soup to mixes for muffins and other sweets. The Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats are pleasurable for any meal and I’ve had “dinner oatmeal,” on several occasions.

Silk Coffee:
Silk Soy Products have really come a long way. It looks like “coffee,” is cropped in this pic. Think vegan Starbucks Frappuccino: a coffee flavored creamy drink sans dairy. I seriously think this should be used in a switch and swap test. As a former Frappuccino drinker, this brought back memories. Starbucks and other caffeine junkies will be too satisfied to realize the difference.

Nature’s Path Peanut Butter Granola:
I once saw cold cereal as a waste, sticking to protein bars or oatmeal. It seemed pointless to eat the empty sugary calories of most traditional cereals, then again, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the high fiber, oat and grain filled, “Mother’s Bran,” you normally think of you grandparents eating to assist with their…um…routine bodily functions.

That changed after I tried Nature’s Path Peanut Butter Granola cereal. My preferred soymilk of choice to let this granola swim is Silk Vanilla. Incidentally, this brand of cereal is the same that one of PETA’s cutest of 2008 likes, although he favors the hemp variety. My logic: One of PETA’s cutest likes Nature’s Path. I like Nature’s Path. Therefore, that automatically makes me one of the cutest too. Mathematicians, I know you have a formula that backs this up.

What else do I eat in the early morning hour? Learn how you can have Pina Colada for breakfast after the break…

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Inside The Oven: My top posts. Week Links: Ditto.

So most of you have seen the T-Mobile “Who’s In You Fave 5?” commercials. Perhaps you’ve even been scorned after learning your not as important to your grandma as she tells you after looking through her purse for her blood pressure medicine and discovering, “Ruth, Herbert, Bob’s Pharmacy, Pastor Mark, and 1-800-Dial-a-Happy-Story have left no room for your seven digits. Not to fear, because you can be in at least someone’s Fave 5: mine. By visiting my blog, you have created my Fave 5: the top five most popular posts I’ve made so far.

I’d thought it’d be nice to share it with you in case you’ve just climbed aboard or missed a couple of weeks. (Shame on you for doing so. Start feeding yourself already.) So take a look at my top five posts, play catch-up if you have to, or refresh your memory and tastebuds.

Meat and Greet: List of Vegetarian Meat-By far the most viewed. Everything you ever wanted to know about what’s out there in terms of fake meat from Fakin Bacon Tempeh to Boca Burgers. 

Vegan Nacho Cheese Dip. Ah…Those Festival and Sports Arena Memories-Because all the other vegan nacho cheeses don’t spread and melt to my liking.

The Quest For Uncle Eddie’s, The Best Vegan Cookies, Wherever They May Be-I think most of the Whole Foods have had their transition from Wild Oats complete by now, but you never know. A post born out of my frustration of not being able to find my favorite vegan cookies. A real transcript of the types of conversations I had with the employees is included.

Interview With Singer Missy Higgins: She really digs her monster wraps-Did you know this lady doesn’t believe in encores? But it’s a good thing. Let me explain. At one of her concerts I attended, she stated that she really didn’t believe in them because it’s not fair to have your audience standing around and clapping for an eternity in hopes of having your favorite band come back out and play a couple of songs after you’ve already clapped for them a dozen times and been standing on your feet forever. Good deal. So she will let you know when it really will be her last song. Oh, and she can’t eat anything with red peppers in it. She didn’t give the details. Many that was for the best.

Marinated Tempeh Recipe: 3rd Time Really Was A Charm-I gave tempeh the ultimatum. We had so many bad experiences in our relationship. Taste good or I’m moving on to commit with tofu. Tempeh stepped up now I still see it from time to time. Tofu doesn’t mind, as it’s quite open.

Even though this list represents the most popular posts, I’m sure it doesn’t include everyone’s favorites. What’s your favorite post or recipe? Any topic you’d like to see me cover more?

Week Links:

Haven’t I given you enough already?

Awhile back, I told you how I was rooting for my favorite protein bar to cross the finish line. But Amelia Kirchoff (right) and her daughter Jolanta Sonkin (left) have already won several races. Amelia beat cancer and both women have a successful macrobiotic food business that started in Amelia’s kitchen. And amazingly, the only real “horror” story, so far, is a burned cookie here and there.

On How Go Macro Got Started:
Amelia: It was really the fact that I got breast cancer. At the time, I was very concerned and Jola had an aunt that had lymphoma and it had been diagnosed as a terminal cancer. And she had been told she only had six months to live. She went on a macrobiotic diet and has been doing great. And it’s been at least 10 years now. So that was a great incentive for me. And I went on a macrobiotic diet at the time as well and later when I got better I started to make desserts-macrobiotic desserts because really there was nothing available.
Jola: My mom wasn’t just making them to start a business. It was my husband who suggested that, “These are so good, you guys should sell them.” It was so random. Who would have thought we’d be here with this company. I said, “Mom will you make a batch of these. I’m going to try to sell them to my local health food store. She made me a batch and we wrapped them in Saran Wrap. We printed up these labels-I just typed up labels and pasted them on the back and went to the local health food store in Downtown Chicago.

On The Challenges Of A Self Owned Business:
Amelia: I can’t think of any real horror stories, other than of course we have thrown out batches. And still do occasionally. Not every batch turns out well. I think Whole Foods told us our first packaging looked washed out. So that was a bit of a disappointment (laughs). But we got new packaging.
Jola: And there was the one issue of gluten-free (testing) and it forced us to invest in gluten-free testing products.
Amelia: We used one testing procedure and we had to change to a different one. We learn as we go along.
Jola: I think there’s been challenges along the way like any business…Everything that happens, really it’s been a positive thing for us because it’s forced us to improve.

What They’ve Eaten For The Week:
Amelia: Years ago, I always used to like Beef Stroganoff. And there was a recipe for something similar using tempeh and several different types of mushrooms. It was a vegan sour cream for the sauce. And some spices.
Jola: Seitan Pear Pie. But not a sweet pie. It was made with wild rice, dried cherries-the pears were on top. The seitan was mixed in with the wild rice and dried cherries. Some brown rice syrup-those are the main ingredients.

Learn what Amelia and Jolanta wouldn’t mind eating over and over again after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Inside The Oven: Marionberry fruit makes peanut butter fashionable. Week Links: More berry info for your reading buck.

Peanut butter and jelly has never really done it for me and I find a peanut butter sandwich on bread to be one of the most boring meals next to brown rice. However, it’s been enjoyable to make peanut butter sandwiches a little more hip and fashionable using a variety of other fruit spreads, such as raspberry. After choosing the fruit spread of choice, I dress it up even further to prepare it for the catwalk of my taste buds by using Wasa crackers or a whole wheat baguette vs. plain bread. And when I really want my peanut butter sandwich to make an impression, I use Marionberry spread.

I was introduced to Marionberry spread after a friend came back from a trip to Oregon. What exactly is a Marionberry? Although similarly sounding, it’s not the former mayor of Washington, D.C., but actually a combination of Chehalem and Olallie (commonly called “olallieberry”) berries that was concocted by G.F. Waldo with USDA-ARS in Corvallis, Oregon in 1956. It was tested extensively in the food nerd laboratory in Marion County, Oregon, hence the name. Learn more about Marionberry and how to even make your own spread after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Inside The Oven: What I Do With Truffle Oil. Week Links: What You Can Do With Truffle Oil.

There are several sections in the grocery store I like to hang around in even if I don’t plan on buying anything. And believe it or not, it’s not the produce section. Call it the food version of window shopping. One happens to be the vegan and organic personal supplies section, such as lotions, body washes, lip balm, you name it. Included in this section would be toothpaste, where I can find awesome flavors like licorice and orange mint. The second section is the snack aisle, go figure. Even a vegetarian who tries to be healthy can’t resist crunchy munchies. And there are cooler versions than your usual Lay’s potato chips, such as tamari flavored chips. There. That was good excuse. The last section is the oil and condiment department.

While some look at the oil section as fattening and just as sinful as the bakery goodies, I see oils as an opportunity to change a dish you’ve made regularly, try a new dish, or cater to your different cooking needs, such as olive for salads and medium heat sauteing or safflower for high heat big and bad real frying. There are oils that are especially delicious with dessert recipes, such as coconunt oil, flavored oils, such as garlic, and oils with a plethora of spices designed to accompany bread for dipping. I’ve added truffle oil to my collection of favorites.

Truffle oil gets around and has quite a reputation. I’d read about what it could do for whipped beans, green vegetables, potatoes, among other things. I tried it on all of the above, but found it to be most delightful over one of my favorite Amy’s frozen dinners. Learn what Amy’s dish I put truffle oil over and several other ways to use it after the break. Read the rest of this entry »