vegoftheweek

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… (more…)

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… (more…)

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. (more…)