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?

Vegan MoFo Day 9: Breakfast Club

My son and I have a morning "breakfast" ritual my husband dubbed "the breakfast club" (though I'm not sure whether he had the 1980s John Hughes "brat pack" movie classic in mind when he did).  We sit together at the kitchen table and have oatmeal, though ever since he saw Oliver Twist, my son insists on calling it "porridge."  He finds it reassuring to know that if he wants "more," he can have it.  As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I make the oatmeal with nutritional yeast, ground flax, cinnamon, and applesauce.

Even in the summer, when he could at least in theory sleep all day, my son wanted me to wake him up when I got up for work, lest he miss breakfast club.   

Vegan MoFo Day 8: Food as Fuel

Something rattling in my head right now is the idea of viewing food as fuel.  It's something that's inevitably come out of my training for distance runs/races, and I'm contemplating the difference in mindset from dieting/weight loss/calorie burn.  Thinking of food as fuel leads me to consider what purpose different foods serve and how my body actually uses them.  On the other hand, I'm still interested in dropping a bit of weight--a combination of "vanity" and "performance" motives.  Objectively, I'm already slim--my usual clothing sizes are 4/6, depending on the cut.  The "vanity" angle has me thinking my upper thighs still have something to give up.  My butt could be slightly smaller, etc.  The "performance" angle is simply that for each pound lost, I can at least theoretically shave two seconds off of each mile (at least as long as I don't drop into underweight, at which point losing more weight leads to weakness and slowness). Two seconds per mile per pound might not sound like a lot, but losing ten pounds = an almost nine-minute faster marathon time.

Sometimes when I'm creating my pre-run, during-run, and recovery drinks/foods, I have a nagging voice in the back of my mind wondering if I'm blowing through all of the calories I'm burning.  Because I want it all:  improved performance AND slimmer thighs.

Contemplating the fuel vs. calorie perspective, it occurs to me that when I focus on the "fuel" model, that can reinforce making the best, most nutritious choices throughout my day.  The balance I want to strike is, of course, to make nutritious choices that are also delicious and satisfying.  This is not to say I'd want to banish treats such as vegan cupcakes and cookies from my life, but that's not going to be my mainstay (not that it typically is, anyway).  There are times when I'm so focused on the nutrition AND calorie angles that part of my mind rebels and it's like BREAK GLASS! ADMINISTER VEGAN CHOCOLATE!  I think the trick is to satisfy the need for treats in a judicious way so I don't feel the need to rebel.  All of which reminds me that my veganning is always a work in progress.

Vegan MoFo Day 7: Brief Update on Accidental Experimental Gu

So, with my 15K today, I test drove the home-made Gu I accidentally made yesterday (instead of the intended Brendan Brazieresque Direct Fuel Bites).  I'd say they were semi-successful.  The makeshift Gu flutes I'd fashioned out of foil didn't work too badly, though I didn't completely avoid finger goop.

As my sports drink, I did the "basic" sports drink Brazier recommends if you're short on time--two parts juice to one part water, with salt to taste.  I wasn't so much short on time as feeling somewhat lazy.  (Only somewhat--I did do my smoothie and the aforementioned Gu.)  For my juice, I used organic grape juice, only because we happened to have some in the house.

I finished in just over 1:24.  I was a bit disappointed, because I was hoping for closer to 1:22.  However, it was, for me, a course PR as well as a distance PR, so I'm not despondent.  :)

Fortunately, I didn't have any "pain" issues during the race.  My IT band, which occasionally likes to flare up, completely behaved itself today.  Energy wise, I didn't do badly, but I wish I'd had more "kick" in my legs at the very end.  I can't help thinking I need to tweak my fuelling.  Meanwhile, I've generated a training schedule to prepare me for another 15K, five weeks from today.

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Failed Fuel Bites = Experimental Gu?

I've got a 15K race early tomorrow morning, so I'm getting my drinks and fuel ready today. I've made my smoothie and was attempting to make my slightly modified version of Brendan Brazier's Direct Fuel Bites. His recipe goes like this:

5 dates
2 T coconut oil
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
Sea salt to taste

You combine these in a food processor and then cut them into little rectangles that you can eat before and during exercise.  The dates and coconut oil both provide quick energy.

In practice, I find that if I use those proportions of date to coconut oil, the coconut oil creates a kind of mayonnaisey texture.  I usually do six dates to 1 T coconut oil.  I also leave out the zest because I'm too lazy to deal with zest!

This time, working from memory, I goofed and did 2 T of coconut oil to 6 dates.  Once I realized this, I added another six dates.  But then I also accidentally did more lemon juice than I was supposed to--2 T.  And I kept blending, hoping to get the consistency I usually do--which is kind of like caramel.  This time, no matter how much I blended, I got something frothier.  The consistency kind of reminds me of Gu (which I had for the first time during my first marathon last month!).  So I'm going to try a little experiment.  I'll try using this mixture as Gu.  Instead of trying to cut this into squares, I'll make some little Gu flutes out of foil and see how that goes.  Here's what the mixture looks like:

Vegan MoFo Day 5: Food Ruts vs. Habits

Do you find that most of the time you're happy eating pretty much the same things every day?  For longer than I can remember, my routine breakfast has been a bowl of oatmeal (1 cup, cooked), with 1 T ground flaxseed and .5 T nutritional yeast cooked into it and with cinnamon and applesauce added for flavor.  I'm perfectly happy eating this breakfast every day and feel no desire to switch up to something else.  (One exception is that if I have a race or long run early in the morning, I skip my oatmeal and go right to my smoothie [see yesterday's entry]).

I also fall into patterns for my lunch and snacks. I bring fruit and almonds to work with me to have as snacks and most days I've been having lentil soup for lunch.  But a few nights ago, when it was time to pack my lunch for the next day, I found myself staring into the fridge and thinking I was tired of the lentil soup.  Lucky for me, my husband had made chili, so I've been having that for lunch for the past couple of days.  At the same time, I felt like skipping my almonds and brought in a small baked potato instead.  Ooh, so much change!  How can I stand it?  ;)

So I don't know why I was feeling in a food rut for lunch when I've been having the same breakfast every day for longer than I was having lentil soup for lunch--but I suppose this isn't one of those logical things.  Anyone else gone through the same thing recently, with a food rut?

Vegan MoFo Day 4: Pre-run Smoothie

When I get home from work today, I am planning to do a five-mile tempo run on the ol' treadmill.  I typically use the treadmill for tempo and interval runs because I suck at judging my pace and do not have a Garmin watch.  Also, it's raining and yucky today, so I'd probably be using the 'mill anyway.

Before doing my run, I'll have a delicious smoothie.  Here's what I'll use:

1 banana
3 dates
1 T ground flaxseed
.5 T white chia seeds
1 T carob powder
1 T brown rice, cooked
.5 T coconut oil
.5 T agave syrup
.5 c organic soymilk
.5 c water
4 ice cubes (added after the previous ingredients are well blended)

I'll whip this up in my blender and then enjoy the deliciousness.  I started making these in the summer after reading an article about how drinking a slushie before a run helps fight off overheating during hot-weather runs.  I really cranked up the ice for those summer smoothies, using 8-10 cubes for a super-thick, icy drink.  Now, of course, overheating is not an issue (it's currently 43 degrees and raining--yuck!).  However, I've really come to enjoy having a nice thick smoothie before a run, so I still include some cubes.

Another variation I sometimes use is to include a tablespoon of either hemp protein powder or raw hemp.  Need to restock at the co-op!

Update:  Here's a close-up--taken via webcam.  :)

Vegan MoFo Day3: This Post Will Contain Some Whining

A little over ten years ago, my husband and I decided to move to Albany, NY.  We have no regrets.  Since moving here, we both lost large amounts of weight, kept the weight off, and, of course, became the parents of our awesome little boy.  We've lived in Philadelphia and Allentown during our time as a couple, and by far, Albany is our favorite place to live.  But there is something that we gripe about.

Albany has NO vegan restaurants.  None.  We had one for a little while--a little place called Food For Thought.  Sadly, it was not long for this world.  One thing that really kills me?  Philly is replete with vegan restaurants--somehow, when I wasn't looking, it became a bit of a vegan mecca.  And when we lived there?  We weren't vegan yet.

And having an egg-allergic child adds more complexity to our no-vegan-restaurants situation.  The allergist who tested my son determined that he is allergic to all parts of the egg and advised that he needs to avoid anything produced in a facility that handles egg.  Any restaurant that isn't vegan has to be presumed to be a facility that handles egg!  So while my husband or I can order a vegan dish in a non-vegan restaurant, that's not an option for our son.

One of the best things about a family trip we took to New York City earlier this year was....  VEGAN RESTAURANTS.  Many to choose from!  We could barely contain our excitement.

Once, my son exclaimed, "Albany!  You need to get a vegan restaurant!"  We couldn't agree more.  Even Syracuse has a couple of vegan restaurants, and they're not even as earthy-crunchy as we are.  Albany?  What gives?

One ray of light:  neighboring Troy, NY has X's to O's Vegan Bakery.  I cannot say enough about the yumminess of their treats.  Check out the site, even if you are not local, as they also ship their yummies.

So--I hope X's to O's ushers in a new era of vegan eateries in my area.  One can hope, anyway.  Meanwhile, I am planning to run the Philly marathon next year, and one of my side thoughts is:  "VEGAN RESTAURANTS!"

Vegan MoFo Day 2

I didn't mean to end my first "mofo" entry so abruptly.  Here I'll pick up where I left off....

When we got home from trick-or-treating, my husband weighed our little guy's "take" and then allowed him to replace it with an equal amount of parentally vetted, vegan candy.  Kiddo had one pound, nine ounces of trick-or-treat loot.  Well, minus the bag of potato chips he grabbed out of his bag right away.

On a related note, I received an e-mail message from his teacher last week, letting me know that two separate classmates were coming in with "birthday" treats that week, so that I'd have the chance to send in alternate treats for my son.  I asked him what he wanted, and he opted for the very delicious pumpkin oatmeal cookies from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance. He was even able to contribute to the process, as his class had visited a farm as part of a field trip earlier in the month, and everyone came home with a pumpkin.  The little pumpkin yielded 1.5 c puree, so I did the entire recipe x 1.5.  A couple of other modifications were:  I used applesauce instead of canola oil* and used some agave instead of the molasses, which I did not have.  I didn't sub for the whole amount, since agave is sweeter than molasses and I just wanted to account for some of the texture.  (I used 1.5 T instead of what would have been 3T for my 1.5x conversion.)  I also left out the nuts and raisins completely.  Although my son would possibly enjoy the nuts and raisins independently, he would definitely have picked them out of the cookie--I guess he doesn't like his cookies to have "things" in them ("things" one can pick out).

Anyway, the cookies came out delicious and made a ton.  I froze about 2/3 of them, and my little guy had one this morning. :)

*Page 222 of VwaV advises that 1/3 c of applesauce can sub for 1/2 c of oil.

Edit:  And here is the glorious Vegan MoFo blogroll.

Vegan MoFo Go

It's November 1st already?  Wasn't yesterday supposed to last longer?  We had a fun Halloween.  My son is seven, and our system is that he goes out trick-or-treating and, upon coming home, swaps out whatever he got in exchange for vegan candies we've purchased. 

Because he is allergic to egg, he has learned to be very, very cautious about any food that doesn't originate with us.  Poor guy freaked out a bit at the first house we stopped at, refusing the chocolate bars the woman there was handing out.  After calming him down and accepting lollipops instead, I reminded him about our swapping system (once we were on our way to walking to the next house).

Catch-Up: Alyza, Forks Over Knives, Vegan MoFo

I am almost two months late posting about this, but the producers of the Rising Star movie ended their Alyza Challenge early because the results were so overwhelming:  Alyza will be a vegan!

The fam and I attended the Forks Over Knives screening that was held at the Albany Vegetarian Network's Expo on October 2.  The film is very powerful and I hope it is widely seen when it is in general release, starting March 11, 2011.  Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Ann Crile Esselstyn, featured in the film, were speakers at the Expo and also were present at the screening.  I would have liked to have stayed for the Q & A at the end, but there are limits to a seven-year-old's patience, so we really had to book out of there once the film ended.

Finally, I've signed up to participate in Vegan MoFo 2010.

What Is VeganMoFo?

It’s that time of year again! Time to wear down your stove and your keyboard. Time to mow people down with your shopping cart. Time to answer the age old question: do lemon and chocolate taste good together? It’s time for VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month Of Food.

VeganMoFo was originally created on the Post Punk Kitchen, as an homage to NaNoWriMo. Because we do want to write novels, but sometimes cooking gets in the way. So why not combine them!

The idea is to write as much as you can all month, about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related – your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu – you get the idea, right? If not, browse around on some of our round-ups and you’ll catch on fast!

There aren’t strict guidelines for how often to write, but the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.

To take part, simply sign up with our convenient form right here!

Happy MoFoing!

I've been very lax/lazy about posting entries here, so I am planning to use Vegan MoFo as an inspiration to boost my frequency. I'll aim for at LEAST one post/weekday--weekends, too, if I'm really feeling inspired.

By coincidence, my husband is planning a host of food experiments, inspired by having read Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Mainly, he is interested in cutting way back on fats.... Olive oil went right down the drain yesterday.  Personally, I've not been big on adding oils to what I eat anyway, though I haven't been too worried about whole foods that contain fats:  i.e., nuts, olives, and avocadoes.  My big exception is coconut oil, which I use for a very targeted purpose:  fueling my runs.  I include it in my pre-run smoothies and in my sports drinks, gels, and direct fuel bites.  According to Brendan Brazier, coconut oil, though a saturated fat, metabolizes quite differently from other fats--namely, the liver immediately uses it for energy during exercise.

Also, I know Ginny Messina came out with quite a different take on olive oil recently--I will have to show this to the hubs and see what he thinks.

Gary Francione Podcast

Gary Francione has just released a podcast in which he very thoughtfully analyzes what has gone wrong with the Mercy For Animals campaign whose video I linked below (the "veal" exposé). MFA has followed up with an announcement that Costco has pledged to only sell "humane" veal. MFA is touting this as a huge step in the right direction. However, Francione points out that the counterproductive outcome is that people hear the veal at Costco is "humane" and feel more comfortable buying/consuming it. Ultimately, this will cause veal consumption to rise, and lost in the shuffle is the whole idea of going vegan--not eating, using, or wearing animals at all. Further, the veal producer whose calves were shown in the video has said that he was moving away from the small crates anyway. Francione explains that this move will ultimately save the veal producer money, with lower veterinary bills, while the calves that have slightly larger living space and co-housing with another calf will still living miserable, short lives that end in slaughter.

Francione also addresses that pervasive argument that since it's impossible to completely avoid animal use--i.e. if you use roads, computers, cars, telephones, and any number of other ubiquitous things that contain animal products--then you shouldn't even bother being vegan.  He draws a very compelling comparison to white privilege.  By the same logic, anyone who benefits from white privilege--especially white, male privilege, wouldn't need to bother fighting discrimination against people of color.  What springs to mind to me, whenever I hear these "don't even bother" arguments, is "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I'm still in the middle of the podcast, but I just wanted to write up something quick on this.  Francione has a new book coming out, scheduled for November 2010 release:  The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?

I definitely plan on reading this when it comes out.

Bob Barker narrates Mercy For Animals "Hidden Price of Veal" exposé

This video just makes my stomach clench. 

The Alyza Challenge

A film in development, Rising Star, might have a sympathetic lead character who is vegan or vegetarian.  The filmmaker, Marty Lang, is leaving that decision up to a vote.  I would love to see this character developed as a vegan.  All too often, when I've seen vegans depicted in pop culture, the character is judgmental and annoying, and the characters that we viewers are supposed to identify with mock the vegan character[s].  How I Met Your Mother, I am looking at YOU!  Oh, and I haven't seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but I have heard that the villains in the movie are evil vegans who are defeated when tricked into consuming half-and-half laden coffee.  Not cool, if that's true.  

I agree with the film's Sustainability Planner, Ali Berman, that this is a tremendous opportunity to create positive associations with being vegan.  Vote "vegan" and give Ali a chance to run with this!

Hogwashing

In one of my entries below, I proposed the name "humanewashing" as the happy-meat equivalent of greenwashing.  I just discovered that the Humane Myth site has its own term for this:  hogwashing.  I kind of love that.