Vegan MoFo 30th and Final Day: Chocolate and Persistance

A week ago, I blogged  about chocolate as food for thought--and specifically my son's belief that a dose of good vegan chocolate helps him think/get ideas.  Well, he used up what I had left of the chocolate my wonderful yoga instructor gave us, so I made some of my own over the Thanksgiving break.  I didn't measure out the ingredients, but the proportions were roughly equal parts Dutch cocoa, agave syrup, and coconut oil.  Because the cocoa is roasted, my version is not 100% raw, but still pretty close.  What I did was blend the ingredients in a bowl, pour the mixture into a chocolate mold that I have (it makes little heart-shaped candies), and pop the mold into the freezer.  The results were tasty but not beautiful, as the chocolates did not come out of the mold cleanly.  Clearly, I need to experiment more.  Also, I think I'll try a bit less agave next time.  You'll almost never hear me say (or see me write) that something is too sweet.  I'm the girl who wants the corner piece of cake because it has more frosting and who finds the cake itself a bit on the bland side much of the time.  But these were a bit too sweet even for me and my sweet tooth.  But not so much so that I don't still like them.  :)

So....  Last day of MoFo.  I'm proud of myself for having blogged something for all but one of the days this month.  Before signing up for MoFo, my use of this blog was sporadic at best, and now that I'm in the habit, I think I'll keep posting here fairly regularly (though probably not every day).  I'm inspired by many awesome vegan bloggers out there who post thoughtful essays and beautiful recipes.  I know I'm not in their league by a long shot, but they give me something to aspire to.  Thanks, guys!

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Me and my food issues

Being the only vegan at work, I find people tend to be curious about what I'm eating.  I'm learning not to go into defensive mode when this happens--not to assume that as soon as I answer the "what are you having" question, my interlocutor will respond with an "Ew, gross."  More often than not, people tell me that what I'm having looks really good. 

So why do I get defensive and expect a negative reaction?  Well, that can be traced back to my K-12 days.  When my mother used to pack me a cheese sandwich on whole wheat, with alfalfa sprouts or mung beans (obviously this was long before my vegan days).  Somehow, it would happen right after I had taken a big bite out of my sandwich, so my mouth was full and I couldn't answer.  "What's THAT?!"  ::sigh::  How I hated this.  Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew.  Swallow.  Answer.  Response, "EW!"  Gah, I still get upset thinking back on this.

Adding on to the self-consciousness I got that way was a separate self-consciousness that came along with my getting extremely overweight.  I hated to eat in public because I always felt as if people were watching the fat person eat....  Gawking.  Judging.  Sometimes they actually were (one of the things that sucked about being fat!), though a lot of the time, I was just being self-conscious.

So I have my "food" issues.  Enough for a life-time subscription.  And those negative feelings flood back into me when someone asks me what I'm eating.  But I am learning to set aside the assumption that the person plans to criticize or judge.  I am learning to relax, smile, and respond.  And I am relieved at the positive responses I get.  Which reminds me how important it is for vegans to be seen enjoying our delicious vegan foods.  We're the ambassadors.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 28: Food You Can't Seem to Keep in Stock

Is there a food that you can't seem to keep in stock in your house--no matter how frequently you buy it or how much you buy at a time?  For us, it's bananas!  I love them and definitely contribute to their erosion, but the family member who SLAMS them?  Our son.  Yup, the one who's seven.  I sometimes watch in amazement at the way this boy puts away food.  And the bananas--I just see them vanishing before my very eyes.  Do you have a food like that in your house?

Vegan MoFo Day 27: My Lazy Lunch

Lazy because it's just from items already cooked or available, waiting for me in the fridge.  My typical M.O.!  This time, it's cauliflower, collard greens, beets, olives, and brown rice.  After snapping the pic, I added nutritional yeast and soy sauce and blending it all into a mish-mash.

Vegan MoFo Day 26: Experiment Later and Pudding Meanwhile

When I'm feeling less lazy, I'll try my experimental squash pies I was planning on.  I did make the pudding that I'd planned to use as a filling, but...  well, I'm feeling lazy.  Too lazy to run almonds and dates through a food processor to form crusts for my little pies.  Yeah, I know, that's pretty lazy.  So I'm just eating the pudding as pudding.  Here's what I used:

1 15-oz can of pureed squash
1 can's worth of organic plain soy milk (filled the squash can after emptying out the squash because I wanted an equal volume of squash and soy milk)
.25 c. white chia seeds
.25 c. agave syrup
cinnamon, allspice, and ginger to taste
dash of vanilla
dash of salt

Mixed up in a blender and then poured into a container and let it set in the fridge for around 24 hours.  If I make this again, I'll probably double the agave--I just tend to like things a bit sweeter!  Anyway, it tastes pretty good.  No picture, because it's kind of pale and disappointing-looking.  ;)

Vegan MoFo Day 25: Pretty Food

One of the things that impresses me about many vegan food blogs is the beautiful presentation.  This is something I admire and, more often than not, fail at!  This is my attempt to pretty up my vanilla chia pudding.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 24: My Next Experiment

I've been thinking about trying another experiment.  I'll use muffin tins to make little pies.  Crust will be an almond/date blend, and filling will be a squash-chia pudding I make up.  It could be an incredible failure, but I want to find out.  Tomorrow, I think I will. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 23: Almond Date Bars

These are my version of Lara Bars.  I've seen lots of similar recipes, but I've tweaked the proportions a bit to my own liking.

2 cups sliced, unroasted almonds
2 cups dried, pitted dates
cinnamon (to taste)

optional: dried, unsweetened coconut

Add the almonds to your food processor first. Sprinkle on cinnamon—I usually just do a thin band of it, about an inch wide, all around the top of the almonds. If using coconut, follow the same procedure adding a “coconut” layer. Process the almonds into a coarse powder, and then add the dates. Process until well incorporated. Remove the mixture from the processor and knead into a dough. Press into a foil-lined bread pan, fold the foil over the top, and use a flat surface (such as the bottom of a second bread pan) into the top to press and form.

Remove from pan, open the foil, and cut into desired size and shape. I either form into bars and wrap in foil, or cut into squares and drop them into a container. They can be fridged or frozen.

If you're in a chocolatey mood, you can replace the cinnamon with two tablespoons of Dutched cocoa. Sprinkle in some ground cayenne pepper if you like a little background bite to the flavor. Usually if I do the chocolate option, I find I need to add a very small amount of water to the mixture when I'm processing it.  (Carob also works very well.)

Vegan MoFo Day 22: Chocolate as Food for Thought?

Last week, I blogged about the raw vegan chocolate my yoga instructor shared with me.  This past weekend, my son told me that the chocolate helps him think and get ideas.  When I mentioned this to my husband, he said that there might be something to it.  After all, after having had some of the chocolate Friday morning, our son had done exceedingly well on his math test.  So maybe there's something to it.  We'll try a small dose of raw vegan chocolage in the mornings and see if it continues to provied food for thought. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 21: Chili Recipe

I keep meaning to post my husband's vegan chili recipe--promised days and days ago!

Vegan Chili
2 large onions, chunked, boiled until translucent
5-6 large portobello mushrooms
5-6 large red peppers
1 lb (dry) kidney beans, precooked (yields)
1 lb (dry) barley
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
Approx. 1/2 cup chili powder (we use unsalted)

Cook all the above on low heat until the barley is soft.

Vegan MoFo Day 20: I like big salads and I will not lie!

Lunch!  Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, parsley, scallions, red peppers, artichoke hearts, green olives, beets, and balsamic vinegar.

Vegan MoFo 19: MacGyver Smoothie

As I was approaching my office building this morning, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I would blog about for MoFo today.  Then, as I was climbing the stairs to my floor, I realized with a panic that I had forgotten to pack my pre-run smoothie.  Last night, I made a double batch, so I'd have one for last night's speedwork run and another for my noon "easy" run today.  But when I packed up my lunch for today, I failed to pack my smoothie.  ::sob::

We have a little newsstand/convenience store in my building, so I devised a plan for a replacement smoothie.  I keep soymilk in our shared office fridge, and we have a blender in our kitchen.  So I thought I'd buy a banana and also a trail mix so I could mine some dates for the smoothie.  Then, a terrible thought as I approached the store:  it's Friday!  More often than not, they are out of bananas come Friday.  And sure enough:  As I entered the store, I saw there were no bananas.  My next thought was that maybe I could find a replacement ingredient that would allow me to MacGyver a smoothie.

The shelves and the drink case were not promising.  But then I thought of the frozen-dessert case.  FrozFruit!  Some flavors are vegan and some are not, so I hoped for the best and had a look.  Luckily, there were strawberry FrozFruits.  I checked the ingredients to be extra sure, and while it passed the "vegan" test, unfortunately it did contain HFCS.  But the only other possible option was strawberry Italian ice--and that didn't even contain any strawberry or other actual fruit.  So I decided to go with the less-than-optimal FrozFruit.  Next, I picked up a tropical trail mix. Not only did it have dates, but it also had dried, shredded coconut--a partial replacement to my usual coconut oil.

So I mined some dates, coconut flakes, a few pineapple pieces, and sunflower seeds from the trail mix.  I put them in a container and soaked them in my usual mix of soymilk and water (.5 cup of each).  I tucked that away in the fridge and allowed the FrozFruit to thaw for a little over an hour and then stashed it in the fridge to avoid total liquefication.

Smoothie-making time arrived about 2.5 hours later.  I assembled the ingredients in the blender, mixed them up, then added my usual four ice cubes and ground them in, as well.

The smoothie ended up tasting pretty good, though sweeter than what I'm used to.  I did find that I was getting a bit of an odd aftertaste/repeating-on-me effect for maybe 15 minutes after having the smoothie, but that didn't last, fortunately.  And my run went well, too.

That was more drama than I'd prefer to have surrounding my pre-run fuel, but the upside is that my smoothie for Sunday's long run is already made.  Plus, I had something to blog about today.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 18: Raw Vegan Yogi Chocolate

My wonderful yoga instructor, a vegan and Jivamukti teacher, does an annual Halloween class called Spooky Jivamukti.  I didn't get a chance to go this year, but he was kind enough to share with me the leftover raw vegan chocolate he'd made for the class.  He uses raw cacao, coconut oil, and agave.  Some of the chocolates also have acai or goji berries, and some have a bit of cayenne pepper.

My son is a big fan of these raw vegan chocolates, and as soon as I came through the door after yoga last night, his eagle eyes zoomed in on the foil-wrapped choccies in the mesh side pocket of my messenger bag.  He asked me what I'd brought home.  It took me a moment to realize he'd spotted the treats and guessed what they were.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 17: Veggie Mix = What's for Dinner

Steamed cabbage, carrots, celery, and onions + baked potato + brown rice + olives + artichoke hearts + nutritional yeast + soy sauce

Vegan MoFo Day 15: Chili = What's for Dinner

My husband's vegan chili recipe.  I'll post it later, when I'm not so hungry!

Vegan MoFo Day 14: Chia Pudding

I'm semi-addicted to vanilla chia pudding.  It's so quick and easy, it's nearly instant.  I mix .25 cup of white chia seeds with 2/3 cup plain organic soy milk, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a bit of sugar, and vanilla extract in a sealed container, give it a few swirls, and let it sit for half an hour.  Then, stir and enjoy.  My only problem is that no sooner have I eaten it than I want to make more.  :) 

Vegan MoFo Day 13: Artichoke Hearts!

My seven-year-old, an ardent fan of dill pickles, discovered just yesterday that he also loves marinated artichoke hearts.  Now it's "artichoke heart, please?"  Over and over again.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 12: Lentil Soup = What's for Dinner

My husband's own recipe for lentil soup.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day 11: Smoothie Fail

Since I'm off from work today, I was able to run whenver I felt like it--which today turned out to be around three this afternoon.  I couldn't make my usual pre-run smoothie because we're out of bananas.  We have several mangoes, though, so I thought subbing mango for banana in my smoothie would be a good use.
You know when you peel a mango, and it's got that beautiful shade of orange, along with a silky texture and sweet smell that tells you you're about to have one of the best foods in the world?  Well, this mango turned out to be almost the exact opposite of that.  I don't know if I'm just no good at judging mango ripeness from the "give" of its skin or whether this was just destined to be a disappointing mango, but it was a stringy, pastel yellow with little flavor.  Boo.

But I was not to be daunted.  I followed the same basic recipe I usually do, but used 1 cup sliced mango instead of the banana, then increased the number of dates from 3 to 4 and the amount of agave from .5 T to 1 T, hoping to compensate for the blandness of the mango.  It didn't work.  It just tasted kind of--like nothing.  I was originally planning to include of picture of it here, but it looked so pale and sad, I thought it would depress people.  ;)

In any event, my run was not disappointing, so all was not lost.  And if I can't get ahold of a banana for tomorrow's run, I'll use some of the frozen mixed berries I have in the freezer.

Edit:  I forgot to mention that I also left the carob out from the smoothie, as I figured it wouldn't be compatible with the mango.

Vegan MoFo Day 10: Compulsive Recipe Tagging!

I subscribe to a large array of vegan blogs via Google Reader, and whenever I see a recipe that looks good and whose ingredients and prep instructions are sufficiently non-intimidating, I tag the entry for later use.  At this point, I must have at least a recipe-book's worth of recipes tagged.  The crazy thing is I can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the recipes I've actually followed through on.  I clearly am more enamored with the idea of making all these great dishes than with putting the time and energy into actually making them.  However, I keep telling myself I WILL, at some point, get my kitchen groove on.

But meanwhile, I confess, I peruse the blogs and get a vicarious thrill from the vegan food pr0n.  I am especially partial to the cupcakes, brownies, and the raw desserts.  In that respect, it's probably for the best that my follow-through is so poor.  If I made and ate every beautiful vegan dessert that catches my eye and earns my "recipe" tag, I'd surely gain at least ten pounds! 

Anyone else out there in vegan blogland who is more of a food spectator?