Day 5: Oh, The Fallen

Eggs. It was the eggs that did it. Ok, maybe the peer pressure too. I stayed at my uncle's house last night, as I had to run several errands in the Philly area today. He took me out to breakfast this morning. At a diner. It was not a good plan.

Basically, the only things that were veganish on the menu were dry cereal (no milk), grapefruit, and I guess (dry) toast. Yummmy!

So I had a spinach omlete.

It didn't help that he was grilling me about why I would bother doing this vegan thing and why "now", "especially now when you have so many other things going on". Oy. Like when DON'T I have a million things going on?

I responded that it was about control. Getting my eating under control and seeing how this might impact my health. Several months ago I was diagnosed as borderline diabetic. The doc wanted me on meds right away. I said "no". I wanted to take three months to see if I could fix my bloodsugar with diet and exercise. Well. Those months came and went. I didn't go back for the follow-up to see how my nonexistant experiment worked because I didn't DO anything. Now I am. We'll see how it works in October when I will get my sugar checked again.

In the meantime, although I fell off the wagon at breakfast I was back on again at lunch. I had lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant the Sampan Inn in Havertown, PA. They serve a fantastic mock General Tso's Chicken with brown rice. Half came home with me for lunch tomorrow.

Dinner was an apply and puff pastry thing that I noshed at a bookstore. Puff pastry, believe it or not, is (most of the time) vegan. At least the Pepperidge Farm sheets are so I'm hoping that all mass marketed puff pastryness is as well. (Perhaps I am grasping at straws here.)

Anyway, go make yourself an apple or pear dumpling with some frozen puff pastry. This doesn't even really count as a recipe, but it's close.

Cut up an apple or pear (one for each "serving") and mix with vegan sugar and spices (cinnamon and nutmeg work well, but clove and/or allspice are also good), you may want to include raisins or dried cherries or nuts as well. Defrost your puff pastry and cut each "sheet" into six "squares". You can roll out the dough a bit if you think the squares need to be bigger. Place a scant handful of the filling in the center of each square and then bring the side together around the filling to form a "purse". Transfer to a baking sheet and bake as directed for the pastry. You can also sprinkle the tops of the purses with sugar before baking for more texture.

Day 4: Che Chuoi

BACON!

Oh yes, this morning I was tempted. My friend David came over for breakfast. Somehow he has managed to avoid Facebook and other social media madness and therefore did not know that I was going vegan, and so, he brought bacon. I was busy virtuously making Banana Pancakes with Walnuts and Flaxseeds.

I felt it was unfair to deny him his pork products, so he cooked bacon whilst I flapped the jacks.

I didn't eat any. (I didn't even think it was possible for me to NOT consume bacon if bacon was in the vicinity.) I admit there was a moment when he began cooking when the smell was almost intoxicating and then... it just faded into the background. By the time we sat down to eat I didn't even want any.

The real test of my resolve was the fact that there were leftover pieces which I simply bagged and tagged and stashed in the fridge to give to my Mum for lunch tomorrow.

Speaking of lunch, mine was leftover veggie chili from the other night and an avocado. Delicious.

But the real delight of the day was dinner. I'm staying at my uncle's house near Philadelphia since I have to visit some school tomorrow, and we dined at a Vietnamese restaurant near his home. I had vegetarian spring rolls, and a Faux Chicken with Lemongrass (the chicken was seitan, a.k.a. "wheatmeat") and it was positively delightful. Still, the best part of the dinner was dessert.

There was a Thai restaurant near where I used to work in New Jersey that served bananas in coconut milk. It was served hot and was sweet and decadent while still feeling like comfort food. The Vietnamese restaurant listed a dish with bananas in coconut milk and I decided to try it.

Amazing. Possibly better than the Thai dessert. It too was served hot but also included small tapioca pearls. The serving was just enough to satisfy without overwhelming and perfectly sweetened to elicit the same result.

Che Chuoi is the name of the dish. I encourage you to try it if you see it on a menu, or attempt to make your own. A little research yielded the following recipe. I've yet to test it so I can't vouch for its authenticity or taste but the basic components are there and it appeared to be a fairly simple preparation.

Che Chuoi (Vietnamese Dessert Soup with Sweet Banana and Coconut Milk).

Ingredients:
• 1 cups Coconut Milk
• 1 cups Water
• 1/4 cups Tapioca, Pearl, Dry
• 1/2 cups Sugar*
• 1 servings Coarse Sea Salt
• 1.5 servings Banana -medium
• 1 servings Sesame Seeds, Toasted
Instructions:Bring the coconut milk and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, stir in the tapioca pearls, sugar, and salt, and cook until tapioca pearls are translucent, about 30 minutes. Add banana or fresh corn kernels and cook for 10 minutes more.Divide among 4 bowls, garnish each with a sprinkle or 2 of sesame seeds, and serve hot, at room temperature, or chilled.

Day 3: A Success and a Cheat

L'Shana tovah! Tonight is Rosh Hashana. Although I'm not "really" Jewish (we suspect that one of my great great grandfathers was) I still like to celebrate the holidays. Heck, I'll celebrate any holiday I can find. For the past several years I've been making Honey Cake for Rosh Hashana and I wanted to make one this year as well.

Honey comes from bees. Bees are critters. A dilemma presented itself. Strict vegans will not eat honey because it is an "animal" product. However, there are other, less strict vegans who DO eat honey.

I'm giving myself a dispensation to make a traditional Honey Cake because it's Rosh Hashana, and because I already had the honey. Seems rather wasteful to just throw it out, right? So. My "compromise" for cheating and making something with honey was to try a recipe for Vegan Cottage Cheese.

Another of my "traditional" Jewish holiday dishes is bleenies, a.k.a. Latkes or potato pancakes. Although many people eat their latkes with sour cream or applesauce, my family has always served bleenies with cottage cheese. I LOVE bleenies with cottage cheese. Could I eat bleenies with my family and not eat any cottage cheese? Was that a possibility, even with a "replacement" cottage cheese option?

The recipe for Vegan Cottage Cheese is incredibly easy.

16 oz firm silken tofu

1/4 c Vegan Mayo

1 tsp salt

1tsp garlic powder

Mash it all up and chill, baby. It's GOT to be cold or it really doesn't work.

When I tasted a fork-full right after I mixed it up (before chilling it) I thought it was gross. The taste of the Nayonaise was overpowering, but I decided to give it a fair shake and let the flavors blend and the whole mixture chill.

Well. I was most pleasantly surprised when I tried it with the bleenies. It was good. It actually tasted very like cottage cheese. My folks even tried it and were impressed by it. I don't know that I would want to eat a big plate of it - I was never that big a cottage cheese fan, but as an accompaniment, it does the job well. And it does LOOK like cottage cheese, so that helps.

The recipe I used for the Honey Cake was from this site www.zabars.com. It's "Poppa's Rosh Hashana Honey Cake" and it's delicious. Veganize it by replacing the eggs with, well, egg replacer, what else? It occurred to me after I made this that I could have veganized the whole thing by replacing the honey with agave. Not sure how that would have changed the texture and taste but it's probably a viable option.

The smell of the cake baking was absolutely amazing. It filled the house with the aroma of spices and sweetness. Definitely hard to resist. But the result was definitely a keeper. Very moist and perfectly spiced. My mom thought it was a touch too sweet, and there is quite a bit of sweetener (honey, sugar and brown sugar) in the recipe but I thought it was perfect.

So, for the record the daily food log:

Breakfast was Kashi "U" cereal with a peach and Almond milk

Lunch: Veggie burger on a toasted bagel and some leftover Wild Rice Salad

Dinner: Bleenies, Fresh Raw Tomato, Vegan Cottage Cheese, "Semi-Vegan" Honey Cake

Snax: Kettle Corn

Day Two: Also Not So Tough

Breakfast was a bowl of Ezechiel cereal, a fresh peach and almond milk. There was a recent ruling that forbids plant based beverages from calling the beverage "milk". So no more "soy milk" or "rice milk" or "almond milk". The theory being that one cannot milk a plant. (What about Milkweed? Eh?) No matter, I shall still refer to my almond beverage as almond MILK. I'm a rebel.

Lunch was the leftover Middle Eastern food from the picnic this weekend. I had Baba Ganoush, pit bread and Kousharie. Yes, there are variable spellings for that and I don't know which one is correct so I'm just picking one. Kousharie is an Egyptian dish consisting of lentils, pasta, and rice topped with fried onions and a tomato sauce. I have it on good authority that the "real" Egyptian way to eat it is to mix some hot sauce in w/ the tomato sauce and dig in. It IS rather good that way. Sadly, I forgot to bring the hot sauce so I had it plain. It was still quite good.

Dinner will be Orange Veggie Chili with Brown Rice and a salad.

My Orange Veggie Chili is one of those what do you have on hand/what do you like dishes. I used

1/2 onion , chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

olive oil

1 can of whole tomatoes (I chopped them up in the can)

1 carrot, diced

1 orange pepper, diced

1 BIG handful of cilantro, chopped (I like cilantro, use it if you like, or don't)

2 T cumin

2 T hot pepper jelly

2 cans Cannelloni beans

a bit of water

Yep, just saute the onion and garlic in the oil, add the peppers and cook them for a bit, then dump all the rest in and simmer till it's hot and the veggies are cooked to the consistency that you like. Serve with rice or corn bread. Great the second or third or fourth day as well.

Spice it up with hot peppers, etc. as you like.

I'm about to have a "midnight" snack after I post this. Toasted Ezekial bread with Almond Butter and All-Fruit Jam and tea. Yum.

Day 1: Not So Tough

I started the morning with my best recipe for oatmeal. The Kickstart plan suggested an Apple Oatmeal - a pretty basic recipe using apple juice as the sweetener and liquid. Maybe I'll try that at another time. For today I made this. You should try it, it's amazingly good and really doesn't take any longer than making "instant" oatmeal in a microwave. Ok, I admit that I do have all the ingredients at the ready so I can throw this together in seconds but it really doesn't take long at all to make.

My Best Oatmeal Recipe (1 serving)

4T oatmeal

8T water

1 Date (you can use a plain whole, pitted date, or one of those date rolls w/ the almond and coconut - that's what I prefer using)

6-8 dried tart cherries

1-2 tsp pine nuts

2 Brazil Nuts chopped

1 whole apple

Mix everything except the apple in a small pan (I "chop" the date and brazil nuts with kitchen shears right into the pot). Mix and cook on medium until the oatmeal reaches the consistency you like. Before eating, cut the apple into slices or chucks and serve on top of the oatmeal. I like the contrast of the tart, juicy, cold apple with the hot cereal.

I don't add salt but, of course, you can if you want to. Same goes for cinnamon.

***

After breakfast I went to the Kipona Festival in Harrisburg. I was really sweating this because I knew there would be dozens of food vendors there. (Read as, "lots of meat".) I did well, and had a Vegetarian Eggroll and Vegetable Lo Mein. I did splurge and take home a huge bag of Kettle Corn but, hey, that's vegan, right?

For dinner I grilled a veggie burger and ate out on the patio. It IS Labor Day, after all.

On the whole, day one was a success.

The Day Before

For years I've flirted heavily with vegetarianism, and actually did it several times for extended periods. Tomorrow, I'm going to start a 21 day vegan experiment. In all honesty, I'm not sure I can do it. Admittedly, that is a completely lame thing to say. It's not as though anyone is going to shove meat down my throat. I can choose to not eat meat, right?

Or will my desire for bacon prove to be too much for my willpower?

I have the recipes and supplies in place. This should be easy. Right?

I'll be following the plan presented by the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart. Find it here if you'd like to join me http://www.21daykickstart.org/