Sunday, February 17, 2008

Seitan Success

The seitan was a success. Shockingly easy to make (I love when that happens). We haven't made anything with it yet, though I had some in salad today. Dkat likes the taste and texture, so thumbs up.

I also made squash-oatmeal cookies. They're really supposed to be pumpkin-oatmeal cookies, but we only had two cans of pumpkin (which I've used) and the rest are squash. I left out the raisins because we didn't have any and left out the nuts because I forgot to put them in. I was going to use almond slivers instead of walnuts, only because I'm not a big "walnut" fan. The cookies are good in spite of everything, so they are going fast.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Miscellaneous

Dkat made an awesome vegan pizza this past week, completely of his own invention. It was soooo good! He made a pizza sauce with veggies, spices, and tofu. Last night, he used his sauce recipe as a pasta sauce and we brought it to a vegetarian potluck. We are talking about hosting some potlucks of our own sometime.

Yesterday, my office closed to attend a funeral (husband of a co-worker passed away early Wednesday). I've only just started telling people that I'm off dairy and egg. A bunch of us from work were sitting together at the reception held after the burial, and someone asked me what I'd had from the buffet. I had put together a sandwich of lettuce, tomato, cukes, and a bit of baked ziti that, thankfully, was just pasta and red sauce. I mentioned that I was off dairy and egg, so no cheese. Naturally, someone asked where I was getting my calcium. This is kind of funny to me, considering that there are populations all over the world wherein people do no consume dairy, and we're really the only species that not only consumes the milk of another species, but does so throughout our lifespan. But anyway, I told her fortified soy milk, vitamins, and green leafy vegetables.

Another co-worker told me that she'd never be able to give up cheese. I told her that I used to feel the same way, but I am finding I don't miss it. This same co-worker asked me if I skip over baked goods if I know they have egg or dairy in them. I told her not only that, but I will skip over baked goods unless I know for a fact they they don't have egg or dairy in them. She sort of shook her head as if she were talking to a major head case. Then, to top things off? About 20 minutes later, she came to our table with a tray of cookies, offering them to each person there. And she offered them to me. Hello, what were we just talking about? ::boggle::

Though I can't harsh on her too much, I guess. Even Dkat, though he knows I'm veganning and he's supportive, will sometimes forget--like when he was in the hospital, he told me he'd had egg for breakfast and asked if I was jealous. This comes from our egg ban in our home, due to our son's egg allergy. Me: "No, I'm not eating egg anymore, remember?" "Oh, yeah." Same thing last night. He asked me if I'd had one of the [non-vegan] cookies. Nope. Still veganning. "Oh, yeah."

In related news, I have a pot of seitan cooling on the stove. I'm kind of excited since it's pretty easy to make. Will report on the results.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Odd and Ends

Dkat had to spend a couple of nights in the hospital this week. When asked if he had any dietary preferences, he said that he eats mostly vegetarian at home, was interested in becoming vegan someday, but didn't expect to be able to eat vegan while in the hospital. The nurse told him, "Oh, we can do vegan!" They gave fruit and nothing else! After that, he didn't try for vegan or vegetarian again.

Yesterday, I made another dish from Vegan with a Vengeance, the Breakfast Veggie Chorizo. It's meant to be used as a filling for breakfast burritos, and features Textured Vegetable Protein. It turned out really good and Dkat loved it.

We had a family walk to our neighborhood food coop today and picked up a bunch of great vegan staples, like nutritional yeast, flax meal, sunflower seeds, agave syrup, wheat gluten flour (to make our own seitan--see p. 157 of Vegan with a Vengeance), and others I've already forgotten. My confidence in my cooking skills has definitely been boosted.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Awesome Pumpkin Loaf

Since we have cans of pumpkin, I wanted to bake something pumpkinny. I was originally thinking pie, but then I found the recipe for "The Best Pumpkin Muffins" in Vegan with a Vengeance. Besides looking yummy, it's a simple recipe with non-exotic ingredients.

One hitch was that the muffin tray I imagined we have is probably a muffin tray that my mom has, and we don't have any of those little paper/foil muffin cups. So I resorted to making two little muffin loaves instead, using our loaf pans. Also, we don't have molasses, so I substituted 2T tahini for the 2T molasses.

The result? So much awesome! Mm. They are so, so gone and my husband LOVED them. :)