Aimless Veg

With my husband going vegan, and me being a supportive wife, I make vegan cookies. Ener-G egg replacer is where it’s at. It is so easy, and that scary 70’s golden box stays good for years. I’ll let you in on my little secret…mix the funny powder with the warm water using a hand held mixer, you know those blenders on a stick that are made to make milkshakes, or puree soups. It makes life so easy.

My husband will be the first to tell anyone that I am a very bad baker. My cookies are flat, either burnt or doughy. My muffins resemble hockey pucks. I could go on and on, but in the last 2 or 3 years my baking has gone steadily down hill.  A few weeks ago I made vegan banana bread, and it was a rectangular lump, it did not rise a bit. I was shocked, because the exact recipe rose a couple of years ago. I had an ‘eureka!’ moment and checked my baking powder, it had been expired for nearly a year! I must have bought that baking powder in my junior year of college. Now armed with new canister of baking powder, I am making a new loaf of banana bread, and it is rising beautifully!

I feel like I have not had a chance to really stop and relax all summer. I have had so much fun, camp was wonderful, my brother’s wedding was beautiful, my nephews are a blast. Work has kept me busy during the week, and my family and friends have kept me busy during the weekend, but I am exhausted. So SH and I made a decision to stay home this weekend (it was so hard, our wonderful friends invited us to drive up to Michigan for a hiking event, and our 3 year old nephew has called to talk to us and that made us really miss them…) So here are my big plans for the weekend… nothing! I got a bunch of books from the library and I have already finished one, and have a good start on my second novel. Our pantry is over full, so we plan to eat down our pantry, and then maybe I will be more motivated to organize it again. When we plan to eat down our extra food it brings back memories of when we first lived together, SH would make meals that we came to refer to as ‘Josh meals.’ A Josh meal consists of dishes that do not remotely go together, like tacos and macaroni and cheese, or falafel and baked beans. I hope everyone has as relaxing of a long a weekend as I have planned.

Avocados are my new obsession, similar to the asparagus obsession of the spring. I got avocados for 77 cents at the store! I wanted to make an avocado sandwich, so I sent SH to the store. He returned with a red onion, a tomato, avocados, fresh mozzarella, and  Italian bread from our local bakery. I layered the bread, mozzarella, avocado, onion, tomato, and romaine lettuce, topped by another slice of bread. It was wonderful, very fresh and yummy!

This recipe was given to me by my Aunt Patty, who is ‘fabulous”. I took her recipe and adapted it so I would not be in the kitchen all night making quesadillas.

3 yams

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon cooking oil

dash salt

cups of shredded Colby-jack cheese

1 jar tomato paste

2 Tablespoons water

1-2 jalapeno peppers

2 Tablespoons honey

flour tortillas

First peel the yam, dice into ¼ inch cubes (this is the most time consuming part), drizzle the oil on the yams, lightly sprinkle with salt. Roast in a 350 degree oven for approximately 20 min (or until cooked) stirring occasionally. While the yams are cooking, put the tomato paste, water honey and peppers (remove stem and seeds) into blender or food processor. Lightly oil a skillet, lay tortilla in skillet, spread a generous amount of tomato/jalapeno sauce on tortilla, layer as much cheese as you like, then on half the tortilla place a generous amount of yams, and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, heat until cheese melted, and tortilla is brown. Fold the tortilla in half and enjoy.

This has nothing to do with being a vegetarian, it just is about my life. After years of planning an Appalachian trail thru hike…SH and I decided that 2007 is not our year, if fact our dream of a thru hike is no longer. We stand to lose so much by thru-hiking, including losing 6 months with our families, waiting an additional 2+ years to move back to our home town, and the effects on our careers.  Ever since the decision, our home has been very depressed. Even though we know we made the right decision, it does not feel good. Now back to the veggie stuff…..

I love Seva, I love being able to order anything on the menu! Seva is the best meat-free restaurant I have ever eaten at. The menu is very eclectic, but everything is delicious. Who would have thought butternut squash enchiladas would make you swoon? We recently went to Seva with a bunch of meat-eaters to celebrate SH finishing his master’s degree, every person ordered something different, and everyone loved their meal. The adventurous had a goat cheese salad, or a Tempeh Rueben, while the less adventurous had nachos or ravioli. Even my meat and potatoes father LOVES Seva. I really enjoy taking meat-eaters to Seva, they are always surprised that vegetarian food can taste so good. If you are anywhere near Ann Arbor you need to go to Seva, the address is 314 East Liberty St. and the phone number is (734) 662-1111.

I never understood the true joy that is enchiladas until my great friend Kristie, introduced me to corn tortillas. I buy corn tortillas and any enchilada sauce. It is very easy to do if you make your enchiladas assembly-line style. I pour the sauce into a shallow bowl, soak the tortillas for about 30 seconds, then make a big pile of sauce soaked tortillas on a plate. Then I spoon the filling into the tortillas, roll up and place seam side down in a baking pan. I have played with the fillings quite a bit. I have had no luck with refried beans, because I can not successfully spread the beans on a sauce soaked tortilla. The simplest filling is just shredded cheese. The best filling I have found so far is 1 can of rinsed black beans, I can of corn, about half of a thinly sliced and chopped onion, and 3-4 cups of shredded cheese. Once all of your enchiladas are assembled in the pan, cover with tin foil and bake until the cheese is melted. I think they are best served with sour cream, shredded lettuce, and diced tomato.

With the heavy antibiotics, I am trying to eat as much yogurt as I can stomach to keep my GI tract happy. Most commercial yogurts contain gelatin, and as a vegetarian I choose not to eat gelatin. Stonyfield farms makes a wonderful gelatin-free yogurt, but the only flavors I can find are vanilla, plain and strawberry. I really hate vanilla yogurt so that is just out of the question. I like strawberry yogurt, but I can only handle so much. So I eat a lot of plain yogurt that I try to dress up. I am adding a little of the flavored yogurt drinks (which are over-flavored, and full of artificial things) to the plain yogurt to give me enough variety to stomach eating yogurt 2 or more times a day. If anyone know of a place to get a good variety of gelatin-free yogurt, please let me know.

The Doxycycline I am on are capsules, the kind of drug that is powdered and in a soft capsule. These capsules are traditionally made of gelatin, but now many capsules are available made from vegetable sources. My pharmacist was not able to tell me if the specific version of the drug that I am taking contains gelatin, but he did assure me I can NOT remove the drug from the capsule and take it strait, or mixed in a little food. I have researched this drug and found no information if it contains gelatin. I plan on contacting my pharmacy again tomorrow when a different pharmacist is on duty and ask again if the drug contains gelatin, and if I can take it without the capsule. I am upset that something that I have ethical objections to (gelatin) is in the drug that I need to take to remain healthy.  I came to the decision that I have no other option to remain healthy than to finish the course of antibiotics. I realize that not everyone would make the decision I made, but it is right for me. I still feel very bad each time I take an antibiotic knowing that I may be ingesting a dead animal.