Category Archives: Thoughts

Feb 17 2012
3 Comments
Main Dishes, Recipes, Snacks, Thoughts

Great big raw green dinner!

I am getting ready to go out of town and I wanted to make sure nothing in my kitchen spoiled. I had some weird foods: Spinach, kumquats, yellow zucchini and avocado. What am I supposed to do with that!? Because this was an experiment I didn’t take as many pictures as I would normally like but it was good I decided to share.

I decided to julienne the zucchini and mixed that with some sun dried tomato and mixed it with 1/3 of my avocado as a binding agent. I also added a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

I mooshed it into a mold and put it into the freezer while I did the next part. I chopped up the kumquats, a big bunch of mint leaves, and again mixed that with 1/3 of my avocado.

Next I took the rest of the herbs in my fridge (parsley, basil, and dill) and put the stems and leaves into my blender with a generous tablespoon of tahini, the remaining 1/3 of the avocado, juice from 2 lemons and 1 lime, and a little bit of almond milk until the flavor was balanced as a dressing. I blended it until it came out nice and creamy.

I covered a plate in spinach, put my chilled zucchini mixture onto that and then spooned the kumquat mint relish onto the sides. I added a quick drizzle of my tahini herb dressing and sat down to a healthy raw vegan dinner.

The mellow flavors of the zucchini and sun dried tomato were a good base for the tangy, sweet mint kumquat relish. The herb tahini dressing was really good but I think it brought too many flavors into the dish. The avocado brought the whole thing together as a common element in all the parts and the spinach helped me get it into my mouth. I think if I do this again, I might try adding some raw garlic to the zucchini and save the herb tahini dressing for plain spinach salads.

Experimenting is probably my favorite part of being vegan. I hope you get to experiment a little. The more you do it, the more things will ‘work out’ instead of being composted. Good luck!

 

This is Christie, signing off.

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Feb 16 2012
4 Comments
Snacks, Thoughts

Adventures in Fruit: Kumquat… PERVERT! Oh wait…

I decided to buy some kumquats (also cumquats) at my farmer’s market because, though I’m familiar with them and their silly name, I’ve never actually tried them.

The idea of putting an entire citrus fruit in my mouth took a little while to warm up to since I associate the zest of lemons and orange peel with bitter aromatic flavors. This is probably one of the strangest mouth adventures I’ve been on since it was almost nothing like I expected. The peel was sweet but still had the bite of a traditional citrus fruits and the flesh of the fruit was delightfully sour. That part was over quickly though since the fruit is very small and I went back to the creamy sweet flavor of the peel. I would love to chop some of these babies up with some mint, red onion, crushed red pepper and vinegar to serve over almond crusted tofu.

I did end up doing something awesome with this for dinner but that’s for another night.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Feb 09 2012
8 Comments
Recipes, Snacks, Thoughts

Beans, beans, the musical, magical fruit! … and hummus.

People often tell me that being vegan is too expensive or they can’t fit it in their budget. Being vegan can be really expensive if you eat a lot of prepared foods but cooking from scratch makes vegan meals cheaper and healthier. I’ve recently been converted to dry beans. These are the reasons why.


1. Dry beans are cheaper. A 1 pound bag of beans costs about as much as 1 can of beans and makes 3-4 cans volume of beans. I pay $0.79-$2.79 for a 1 pound bag and $0.89-$3.19 for a can. Jeepers H Crackers, that’s ridiculous! You can’t even get chicken that cheap. Check out my before (above) and after (below) pictures of some soaked chickpeas.


2. It saves space. A bag of dried beans take up less room in your kitchen than the 3-4 cans of beans you might otherwise purchase. They’re also lighter to carry around and won’t hurt if you drop the bag on your foot or head from a high shelf. (I’m a klutz… don’t judge me.) This is a pound of beans beside a can of beans.


3. It also saves space in landfills and energy costs for transportation. The empty plastic bag from beans versus 3-4 BPA-plastic lined tin cans with paper labels means less energy allocated to transporting and recycling and less space in garbage dumps.
4. There’s WAY more variety in the dried beans section of my supermarket than the canned beans section. I like variety.
5. Dried beans don’t contain preservatives or salt. You can also control what you add to the beans. I use distilled water but only because I’m not sure if my municipality uses hexafluorosilicic acid (an industrial waste derived from the production of aluminum metal and phosphoric acid) to fluoridate local tap water. I’d rather not add diluted industrial waste to my food. Yeah, I’m weird like that.
6. Dried beans taste better and aren’t as mooshy as canned. I find I have to add canned beans last in chili recipes because they fall apart when you stir them. Dried beans are firm enough to stand up to vigorous mixing and haven’t lost their flavor to the liquid they’re canned in.
7. There’s also more control with cooking. If I’m only going to be cooking for a couple of people and still want to use 3 different kinds of beans, that’s all I’ll have to prepare. No opened tins with plastic over them in my fridge potentially waiting to spoil and be wasted. 1 cup of dried beans translates to about 1 can.
8. Dried beans are incredibly easy to prepare. There’s no can opener and no sharp edges on the lid or can for you, your little ones or your family pet (who inevitably will get into your garbage pail…) to cut themselves on. I set them in a bowl in my kitchen sink the night before. I see the bowl when I put my dishes from breakfast in the sink the next morning. I am then reminded to fill the bowl with water, cover it and go to work. When I get home, my beans are ready to start cooking. What I’m saying is. if you can put water into a bowl, you can use dried beans.

So you might be wondering what I’m going to do with that HUGE bowl of chickpeas. This post is really about hummus. All you need is the following:
1 cup of dry chickpeas, soaked OR 1 can of drained chickpeas (save some of the liquid from soaking or the can)
juice from 1 lemon
3-8 garlic cloves
1 heaping tbsp tahini (optional but recommended)

I’m adding a generous handful of fresh basil and sundried tomato… for fun. You can add anything: roasted red peppers, olives, artichoke hearts, cucumber and dill… whatever.

Put it all in your blender or food processor and blend until you like the texture. If you need more liquid, add some of the liquor from the soaking or from the can. Voila! Hummus. I sprinkle mine with some smoked paprika powder and ate it with my own sesame ginger carrot crackers. Yeah, I make my own crackers.  Wanna learn how to make those too?  Some day… some day.

I wish you could taste how delicious this hummus is. The spicy basil and garlic are amazing with the mellow sundried tomato on the backdrop of creamy chickpeas and tahini. Let me know what combo you dream up for hummus and tell me how you like it. I want to make MOAR!

This is Christie, signing off.

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Jan 22 2012
6 Comments
Desserts, Snacks, Thoughts

Adventures in fruit, a portrait of durian today.

Durian is from Southeast Asia and is formidable in all of it’s aspects. It’s big (about the size of a soccer ball), has a thorny outer skin (ouch!) and distinctive odor.

Some people find the smell off-putting. I’m not one of those. I suspect it’s partly genetic. I find they smell like almonds though I’ve heard them described as smelling like turpentine, gym socks, and rotting onions. I suppose any one of those odors would keep me from eating fruit.

In terms of nutrition it’s certainly a treat. It’s rich in unsaturated fats, fiber, iron, vitamin C, potassium and the tryptophan – the amino acid required for the synthesis of serotonin. Tryptophan is necessary for the synthesis of serotonin – an important neurotransmitter. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid. That means your body can’t make it (like how it can make fat or carbon dioxide from sugar) and you have to include it in your diet.

The edible part of the fruit looks and tastes like creamy vanilla almond custard. I like to scoop out the flesh, separate the seeds and discard them, and put the good stuff into a container. I put it in the freezer and treat it like a pint of ice cream: having 2 or 3 bites whenever I get a bill or see bad news on TV.

Durian isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be expensive, difficult to find and to some, offensively smelly. However, if you’re one of the lucky souls who finds this fruit delectable, you might grow up to be a convert, like me.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Jan 16 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Thoughts

Potato… wonder-food fantastic!

Potatoes get a bit of a bad rap. With the Atkins fad, people think potato and they think carbs. There’s really nothing wrong with potatoes except how we prepare them. Oily hash browns, French fried, baked and smothered with butter, bacon, sour cream and cheese… that’s probably not good for you. Potatoes by themselves are rich in vitamin C, niacin, B6, and folate and are a good source of iron, fiber and balanced protein. There are also so many different varieties: buttery Yukon Gold, creamy Caribe, all Blue, whatever. They’re kind of amazing. These are banana fingerlings.

Tonight, I’m making some roasted garlic rosemary potatoes. I sliced about 8 cloves of garlic, a handful of fingerling potatoes, a sprinkling of rosemary and a generous splash of white wine (I’m a fat-phobe, olive oil works great too… maybe I need to de-Atkins my thinking) I roasted them at 325F/160C for 30-40 minutes, wrapped in foil, until they browned around the edges and are tender. Insert into face, enjoy.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Jan 13 2012
2 Comments
Thoughts

Cardiovascular health and veganism.

I took a hiatus to visit a family member who had a stroke earlier this week. I try not to be pushy about trying vegan food though admittedly it’s difficult at times. I’m pretty sure delicious looking/tasting food speaks for itself and is much more alluring than lectures about ripping guts out of conscious animals, feces contaminated spinach and lard in its various forms. I think everyone knows where I stand since we all had dinner together the evening I arrived.

I sat back and listened to everyone else talk. There was a lot of talk about nutrition, cholesterol levels and preventative medicine. People talked about skim milk versus 2%, avoiding mayonnaise and stress, and second opinions. I was thinking about the warning for risk of stroke on my old synthetic estrogen/progestin pills as soon as they brought up milk. People are very resistant to the idea of being vegan in general – it’s a demanding position if you’re not thrilled about new experiences. It’s also a tacit criticism of something people have been doing for years and either don’t think about or tell themselves is justified somehow. A lot of people looked at their dinners and at me and then told me “I don’t normally eat like this”, “should I be eating this?” and “I could eat better” as they heaped animal parts and animal reproductive secretions onto their plates.

I have an opinion in the matter of how diet can influence susceptibility to stroke, heart attack, and cancer. My opinion is informed by the best evidence available to me, not conjecture or speculation or some special I saw on a news channel one time. I hope you would choose to educate yourself on your opinions regardless of what they are and to ask lots of questions instead of making things up. If you have to tell people “this isn’t typical”, say “I can improve” or ask “should I be doing this?”, whether you’re talking about your exercise routine or your diet, just keep in mind that you’re not the only one who is affected by your choices. If you’ve got an iota of doubt (“should I be doing this?”) you should be reading more. Don’t adopt my opinion, make your own, and make sure you can back it up. I know I can.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Jan 09 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Thoughts

NEWSFLASH: I Love to Cook!

I have learned a lot about myself since changing my lifestyle. One of them is this: I love to cook. Food is so much a part of our lives, yet it amazes me how many of us take cooking for granted. Ingredients and what you put into your body are important. Just as important is how those foods are cooked or prepared.

Thanks in large part to Christie, I knew that going vegan would mean getting into the habit of cooking. Here is an exercise for anyone who is a carnivore or even a vegetarian: pick your top three favorite restaurants and look through the menu for items that are truly vegan. Now cross out any that are salads. You likely are left with zero options (excluding those that you can substitute or from which you can remove ingredients, such as cheese). Restaurants are no longer as fun to go to, and I have found myself eating a LOT of potatoes–none mashed nor baked.

Cooking more often has opened my eyes to many new things and has made me more creative. Adding balsamic or red wine vinegar can bring out flavors in simple dishes. Garlic does wonders. There is more than one way to cook broccoli or cauliflower or beans. Recipes don’t need to be followed to the letter.

I am at a place now where I lament not having time to cook, or not having certain ingredients around the house to play with. The act of cooking a vegan meal is just as satisfying as eating the meal itself. I have dabbled with the idea of learning new skills such as painting or music or sewing. Now, I am looking into taking a cooking class, specifically a chopping or knife class, which is a skill I know I will put to good and practical use. I even want to start baking, which is major for me. The best part? I see how my cooking skills are improving. Few things in life are better than the empirical knowledge that you are getting better at something.

I used to be a lazy cook. Making an omelette was as adventurous as I would get. I am so happy that I have embraced cooking. Anyone who is committed to being vegan or vegetarian should make time to cook. We all gotta eat, right? You won’t be sorry and it will help you stay true to your lifestyle.

Looking forward to sharing more recipes and cooking adventures with you! –Melissa

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Jan 07 2012
8 Comments
Thoughts

Isoflavones vs. Steroids. Vegetables vs. Animals.

“Doesn’t soy contain estrogen?” People ask me this question a lot, especially when I mention that I don’t eat dairy. I call this “the milk talk”.
I’ll apologize in advance – I’m a biochemist so that will color my explanation… or maybe make it so colorless that you fall asleep. Anyways, what people are talking about when they say soy has estrogen in it is that soy contains compounds called isoflavones and flavones. All plants have them. These compounds are ‘estrogen-like’. This is what isoflavones and flavones look like in a simple chemist’s line drawing (think: stick figures for molecules, they don’t actually look like that). You don’t need to know what any of this means, just note the similarities and differences between all 4 drawings in this post.

Isoflavones and flavones aren’t one specific compound: they’re a group of compounds with similar structures, not unlike the group called steroid hormones. Estrogen and testosterone are both steroids.
 
I hope you’ll notice that estrogen and testosterone are much more similar to one another than to the flavone or it’s isomer (OMG you just learned some organic chemistry!). You might also know that estrogen and testosterone have very different effects on the human body: one makes you grow muscles and chest hair and the other makes you grow breasts and smooth skin. If you surmise that flavones and isoflavones have different effects too, then you’re correct: there is interest from the scientific community in flavones and isoflavones as treatments for cancer (and heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis). Research suggests that various compounds in the group of known isoflavones and flavones are effective for treating and preventing the very cancers that estrogen and testosterone are known to promote.
Additional fun fact: withdrawal from estrogen causes PMS. Withdrawal from testosterone causes ‘roid rage. Withdrawal from isoflavones and flavones has no documented symptom.
So you might be asking yourself, “Why is she going on about estrogen?” or maybe even. “well, dairy milk doesn’t have any hormones in it. I buy organic.” Really? Are you sure about that?
Where do you think dairy comes from? Cows.
All cows: male, female, young, old? Female cows.
How do you get a lady cow to make milk: motivational posters? Nope, you impregnate them.Then their levels of estrogen skyrocket, but not just estrogen. Progesterone and eventually prolactin will also show up in a pregnant cow’s secretions: from urine to (you guessed it) milk.
But there isn’t very much hormone in dairy milk, right? The concentration doesn’t matter, you don’t need a lot.
Why? Steroids (and all hormones) operate in something scientists call “signal cascade”. I would describe it as chemical chain letters: each cell that gets the signal (1 hormone molecule), sends copies to all of it’s closest friends and a few not-so-close friends.
If you’re really thinking, you might ask yourself, “Doesn’t pasteurization destroy it?” Well, pasteurization occurs a no more than 72C/160F (Wikipedia). Dessicated estrol begins to break down at 245C/473F (according to my Merck manual). Just throwing that out there.
This is what I’m really getting at: if you’re worried about the estrogen-LIKE compounds in soy, why haven’t you considered the actual estrogen (and progesterone) secreted by the [recently] pregnant cow whose milk you’re drinking? Anyways, I prefer almond milk – fewer calories.
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Dec 16 2011
1 Comment
Thoughts

I’m hungry.

Before I get into the “meat” of this post, I want to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has read the blog. I started the blog as a diary of sorts, a way to keep myself honest, and to document my cooking adventures and recipes. I’m so excited that Christie and Brent are sharing their recipes and stories as well. Finally, I am pleasantly surprised and so grateful for all the encouragement and support that I have been getting from friends and strangers. THANK YOU!

One of the challenges of being vegetarian or vegan is ensuring that you get enough nutrients. Allow me to make a callback to my post on Twizzlers: there are a lot of yummy vegan options out there, and I could probably go a day eating nothing but Twizzlers, but it’s not good for me and I’m likely to pass out.

I use an app called MyFitnessPal (introduced to me by Christie, natch!) and I love it because you can track with your iPhone, iPod Touch, or online at http://www.myfitnesspal.com. As long as I stay honest, the app helps a LOT in keeping track of not only total calorie intake per day, but carbs, fat, and protein as well. I have found it really useful since changing up my diet. Mainly, I try and make sure I meet my protein quota. Small changes such as replacing white rice with brown rice or quinoa have helped a lot in that regard. As a bonus, it’s reduced my carb intake, which used to make up most of my daily diet.

There are still challenges, though. I realized today that I have only eaten breakfast once in the several days. Now, allow me to make a confession here: I have had a horrible week of turning veganese. In the past few days, I have had a hot dog, chicken, pork, pizza, cheese, and bacon. My reason or excuse is that I have been so busy with work and life this past week and haven’t had time to cook. I am generally able to have healthy snacks throughout the day; that didn’t happen this week. I needed and craved meals that were hot, fast, and convenient.

I clearly need a strategy for making sure I eat well and eat vegan no matter what the situation is. What staples should I have on hand? What are quick, easy, and single serving meals I can cook? What frozen or pre-packaged meals/snacks are good to keep at work when I don’t have time to get away from my desk? How can I change up my breakfast options? How should I change my grocery shopping habits? These are just some of the things I will need to figure out if I’m going to be successfully vegan.

The next few days will be really fun for me: I’ll be on vacation for five days. I expect that half my meals will be bought at a restaurant and the other half I will be able to cook. Will I be vegan throughout the vacation? I have no idea. I’m going to try! And I’m looking forward to sharing my dining and cooking experiences with you.

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Dec 05 2011
1 Comment
Thoughts

Culinary Adventures

When most people think about going vegan they think to themselves “WTF am I going to eat?” No pizza, no burgers, no burritos, no BLT, no cheesy fries, no milkshakes; it’s all off the menu. I had that sensation when I learned that I was allergic to gluten, the protein in wheat. No pasta, no bread, no cake, no cookies, nothing battered and fried. After I moped for a few weeks eating only cheese, cashews and dried cranberries (poor me, right?) I started to branch out. I started to discover foods I’d never tried before. I started cooking for myself. I learned substitutes. I started reading labels. I started thinking about exactly what it was I was putting in my body.

A friend of mine who also has Celiac’s disease said, “It’s impossible to have a food allergy and not be obsessed with food.” I agree with her.

When I realized that my conscience wouldn’t allow me to rationalize eating animals and their reproductive secretions, I was surprised by a pang of glee, knowing I would embark on another adventure and learn more foods I’d never tried. I realize my personality would have caused me to explore anyways, but eliminating a handful of commonplace foods (not unlike when I was forced to skip something as ubiquitous as wheat) meant I could explore the alternatives with gusto.

At my farmer’s market this weekend I got some strange fruits. The little yellow ones are called egg fruit (hopefully a reference to their size and shape) and the big green one is called black sapote or chocolate fruit. I’ve never tried either before. I’ll let you know how this little adventure goes. Let me know what new thing you try because you decided to enact “Meatless Monday” or just to have a vegetarian or vegan meal just for the fun of it.

This is Christie, signing off.

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