A Vegan Thanksgiving

So, I will be blatantly honest. I am broke.

At the moment I am between jobs and struggling for money.

Luckily my parents are wonderful and extremely supportive of me.

So... my mother gave me some money for Thanksgiving. I couldn't find a celebration roast anywhere close (we spent the weekend near Galveston) but amazingly the grocery store in small town Texas City, Texas has a HUGE organic/vegan/health food section.

I decided not to cook anything difficult and went straight to the processed instant foods that looked "vegan enough." By this I mean none of the products contained any meat, eggs, dairy, honey, gelatin, or anything I knew used animal products, but some of the products had ingredients that may have been questionable. I didn't look up every single ingredient I simply decided that I would do my best.

Here is what I ended up with:

I looked up the Pork Stove Top stuffing and it lists it as vegetarian. I double checked the box and it looked like it was. If I'm wrong correct me.
The faux chicken rocked! It honestly tasted like chicken nuggets.

Now for the finished product:

The "chicken" looks a little burned but oh my was it juicy and delicious. The meat eater (who had steak) even tried it and loved it. He said he would eat it anytime.

As I reflected on my Thanksgiving I was extremely proud of myself. I had a huge delicious meal with plenty of leftovers and I honestly didn't feel like anything was missing.

When I read my friends and family's facebook status updates I started to think about the hundreds of thousands of Turkeys that are killed each year and I felt ashamed that I accepted that as the reality of the holiday. It began to upset me that everyone else still does accept it. I am still dealing with the emotions I am having toward the people I love who continue to eat meat, but that is something to be discussed in another post.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Love,
Jeffrey

I'm soooooooo sorry.

It has been TWO WEEKS since my last post.
I will make it up to you.

I have a ton of updates to post, but I simply haven't gotten around to it, so the next post will be about my Thanksgiving since it is the post I am most excited about. Then we will go backwards a little bit and I will post the rest.

Life is good.
I'm still vegan.
I've missed you.
I'm glad you're all still here and I'll never leave you again.

-Jeffrey :)

Hungry Hungry Hippo

I have this problem where I rush out of the house and don't eat breakfast.

Since I can't typically eat anything from a convenience store and don't want to spend 1.50 for one apple I don't eat until I get home.

Once I get home I take out leftovers and scarf them and ride my bike straight back to school.

When I do eat breakfast , which is typically oatmeal, I feel like I am am even hungrier by the time lunch rolls around. 

No matter what I do I am hungry ALL THE TIME!

I feel like because it takes almost no time to digest my food it doesn't keep me full for very long. I'm not gaining weight. In fact, I'm staying at a pretty healthy weight, but I think about food all the time and I eat way more than I used to.

I feel very healthy, but it is frustrating to always be hungry and thinking about food. Even my partner "the meat eater" has found this to be true and has expressed his frustration.

I want to eat something that will keep me full and satisfied for a while.

Most awesomely graphic and terrifying hungry hungry hippo illustration:

I feel like the pink one.

-Jeffrey

PS.
Upon rereading this update, maybe I need to stop complaining. :)

Baba Ganoush Recipe - Thanks to Gigi

My Environmental Philosophy class is doing an "Ethical Potluck" next class and one of the students had to do hers today because she won't be there.

It was delicious so I asked her for the recipe. I've had baba ganoush plenty of times but I've never made it myself. I am going to make this recipe ASAP!

Baba Ganoush Recipe
Eggplants - 3 Medium Size
Tahini Sauce
Lemon
Garlic - About 5 cloves
Olive Oil

Dip:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Drizzle eggplants with olive oil, bake in oven until soft (I usually guesstimate after 10 minutes.)
Take out insides and discard skin
Mix a few table spoons of tahini sauce (however much you want... just to taste)
Squeeze in about a half of a lemon
Soften 3 to 4 cloves of garlic in the microwave for about 10 seconds, press through a garlic press and add to mixture
Drizzle Olive oil on top

Chips:
Cut tortilla into chip sizes
Place on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil
Add alt and pepper to taste
Bake until golden brown

This recipe is courtesy of Gigi Kraynick

Oh, and here was her reasoning on the food being ethical:
She used the eggplants from her parents garden and bought the homemade tortillas from a stand. Sounds pretty good to me.

-Jeffrey

Feeling Better

I am feeling much better.

My stomach doesn't constantly hurt anymore and my headaches have gone away.

The biggest change I have seen is that my heartburn has gone away.
I have had terrible acid reflux since as long as I can remember. It caused ulcers and was very painful. I've taken vitamins, Aciphex, Prilosec, Tums, and chugged more than my share of Pepto. Nothing ever worked.
I have not noticed any acid reflux it a week or two.
This alone is a large enough benefit to me to remain vegan.

A list of the benefits I have found thus far:
After I eat meals I no longer want to immediately sleep
My acid reflux is GONE
I feel better knowing I am making at least one step toward reducing suffering
I feel healthier
I'm getting better at cooking vegan
I help my friends eat healthier when they eat with me
I save money because I can not eat out

I do think that I will remain vegan. I just do not see how I can return to my old style of meat with every meal. The period of discomfort while my body adjusted made me think that whatever it was my body was getting rid of was not good.
If I returned to eating meat I would have to consciously ignore what I now know about the conditions of the animals I am eating.

We'll see. I still have over a month to go. :)

-Jeffrey

A Vegan Halloween

So this was my first vegan Halloween.
Me and the meat eater took our daughter trick or treating in one of the rich neighborhoods.
We scored a ton of name brand candy.
As soon as we were back in the car we covertly took half of the candy out of the bag and placed it in a separate bag for her mothers sanity.
After dropping her back at home I poured the good candy out onto my table and stared at it.
I could have none of it.

I rationalized it all I could.
"Why should I give up chocolate for this?"
"It's one night."
"It was free. Wouldn't it be better to not let it go to waste?"

In the end I did not touch the candy.


The holidays will be tough this year. I still have to make it through Thanksgiving and then Christmas (assuming I'm sticking with this past the end of my project.)

One down, two to go.

This weeks Recipe Post!

Yes, I know I have been slacking. But I'm still here and I'm still vegan. :)

I have tried a bunch of recipes/concoctions since I last posted so here are my pictures and ratings.


Tofu Scramble!
I'm getting better at this. :)

This is another shot at the tofu scramble. This time I sauteed onions, garlic, a potato and a bell pepper and added even less turmeric (I think it's just to make it look yellow anyways) then I sprinkled tomatoes on top.
The upper right is some of the potatoes, onions and bell peppers seperate.
The top middle is a frozen vegan waffle I stuck in the toaster.
The upper left is tofurkey bacon. It tasted nothing like bacon, but I was a bacon addict so I gave it a shot. Honestly I would get it again just because I have a need for greasy bacon.
Rating: 2 stars

Vegan Sausage Biscuits

This was a smashing success.
The biscuits were out of a package, but the Smart Ground sausage was amazing.
My partner (the meat eater) really liked it too.
I think it is by far the best substitution meat I have ever had especially considering that I ate them with nothing else but a biscuit.
The white part is just potatoes and onions sauteed.
Rating: 4 stars

Vegan Nachos!

So, I was hungry and wanted a snack. I always seem to have brown rice around because it has become a staple in most of my meals.
I went to the store and found some tortilla chips that were vegan. I added refried beans and Daiya Vegan Cheese to the chips and melted them in the microwave.
They were amazing. I added some salsa to them as well, but honestly you don't have to because it is delicious without it.
Note: In my opinion you HAVE to melt the cheese because I do not like the flavor when the cheese is not melted.

Vegan Cookies!

I did not make these.
A wonderful girl brought them to a Halloween event and I grabbed all the the leftovers because they were so good. If you would like to find her she sells them.
Her business is called Blue Bakery.
Find them on Facebook here: Blue Bakery


Cabbage Soup

I have been making cabbage soup for a while, but I have always added sausage or ham to it and I used chicken stock.
I was a bit scared it would taste too bland but it was a hit for both me and my partner. He said he couldn't even taste a difference.
Here is my recipe:
I head of cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, sometimes potatoes, canned stewed tomatoes, olive oil, and vegetable stock.
I put some olive oil in the bottom of a stock pot and cook the celery, onions, carrots and potatoes until they get a bit softer, then I add veg. stock and the cored rinsed and dried cabbage (cut into 1 inch pieces) and fill with water until the cabbage is covered. Once it is boiling I turn it down to a simmer and simply simmer until the cabbage is tender.
I know my recipe is nowhere near precise. Sorry.
This meal is amazing, there's always leftovers, and it warms your heart.

Store Bought Quick Meal

This is vegan, but it was waaaaaaaay too spicy for my taste. It hurt.
I wouldn't buy it again. Maybe a different flavor will be better.

Vegan Fried Rice

So as I said I always seem to have leftover brown rice. This is the day after I made the sausage biscuits listed above so I had a little leftover Smart Ground Sausage. I want a quick easy meal so I put the Smart Ground in a pan and heated it up so I has sausage crumbles, then I added the rice and some soy sauce. It was awesome.
Two Thumbs Up!!!

Fall Style Dinner

So, my mother bought me an acorn squash because it was cheap and fall themed. I needed ot use it so I looked online and apparently you can cut it in half, take out the seeds, stick it in the microwave, cover it, and microwave it for 13 minutes.
I did. The outside came straight off, I sprinkled brown sugar on it and it tasked just like sweet potatoes. It was delicious.
The top right is spinach with potatoes and onions. I sauteed the potatoes and onions, drained a can of spinach and added it to the mix. It was really good.
Then the top left is a tomato cut up and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with basil (my moms old trick.)
The bottom left is some brown rice with vegan margarine (I know it's bad, but I haven't kicked that yet... and it's still vegan.)
Final note: This has been one of my favorite meals.)


And finally, the winning recipe is..................

Vegan Banana Bread

The recipe I used is here: Vegan Banana Bread
It was amazing, took regular ingredients I already had in my house, and 4 non-vegans loved it.
Not much more can be said about it.

Look forward to more recipes and dinner ideas coming soon.
If you know of any recipes, try one of mine, or have any notes please let me know!
I am always looking for advice/criticism wherever I can get it. :)

-Jeffrey