Food for Thought Friday: As If You Need More to Read

Posted on October 7, 2011 by

vegan month of food 2011

With Vegan MoFo in full swing and most participants still posting on the regular, I know that the last thing you need right now is more food writing. Maybe you can come back here Thanksgiving weekend during one of those times when you’ve snuck away from your family for 45 minutes of peace and quiet and you can read these then. Or maybe you’re like me, a true glutton for punishment, and you just can’t keep yourself away. In that case…

the airy way

How has the first week of MoFo treated you guys? What were your favorites?

Posted in food for thought friday, links, vegan mofo | 2 Comments

Nuggets Comparison

Posted on October 5, 2011 by

vegan month of food 2011

Today, I was making vegan nuggets for Milo’s and my lunch, and I thought to myself: “I wonder how these bad boys stack up nutritionally against their packaged equivalents?” Since nuggets form a significant portion of my family’s diet and are part of our go-to lunch on busy weekdays, I wanted to see the numbers for myself.

Just for the sake of comparison, let’s look at the numbers for the other nuggets first, shall we?

Starting with 6-piece McDonald’s McNuggets:

276 calories; 17g fat; 42mg cholesterol; 600mg sodium; 16g carbohydrates; 14g protein.

No real surprises there. Is anyone who reads this blog taking their kids to McDonald’s? Doubtful. Let’s move on to the healthier options.

Next we have Morningstar Farms:

190 calories; 9g fat;  0mg cholesterol; 600mg sodium; 19g carbohydrates; 12mg protein.

The calories, fat, and cholesterol numbers here are much better than McDonald’s. However, did you happen to notice that their serving size is 4 nuggets? Don’t worry, I’ll be doing a comparison chart here in a second so that you can see how the numbers compare when the serving size is equivalent, and I’ll be comparing serving size by weight for maximum scientific whatever whatever.

The Morningstar Farms Chik’n Nuggets aren’t vegan, so let’s keep this train a-chuggin’ right along to Health is Wealth.

Health is Wealth Chicken Free Nuggets

Health is Wealth Chicken Free Nuggets are vegan! Hip hip hooray!

Let’s look at their nutritional info, shall we?

120 calories; 2g fat; 0mg cholesterol; 450g sodium; 14g carbohydrates; 14g protein.

Based on the nutritional facts alone, Health is Wealth Chicken Free Nuggets are the best option by far. They also have the fewest ingredients, many of which are organic. If you are buying a commercial nugget, this is the clear winner in every category.

But let’s move on to the real star of the show: homemade, in your mouth in under 30 minutes from start to finish, seitan nuggets:

seitan nuggets

I change up the seitan nuggets recipe all the time based on what ingredients I have in my house. That is one of the beautiful things about this recipe. Out of chickpea flour? Use more vital wheat gluten. Don’t have breadcrumbs or panko? No problem, just use all-purpose flour. Did you just find a package of french onion soup mix in the back of your pantry which you had completely forgotten about? Use half the packet to season the dry mix and the other half to season the breading mix! So versatile!

Here’s the current recipe I’ve been using for the last two weeks or so:

Nuggets
makes 28-36 or 4-6 servings

dry mix:

1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 T nutritional yeast
1/2 t salt
up to 1 T of dry seasoning

wet mix:

1 cup water
1 T oil
1 T soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids

breading:

2 T cornmeal or polenta
2 T unbleached all-purpose flour
2 T nutritional yeast
up to 1 t of dry seasoning
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula to stir until all the liquid is absorbed.

In a bowl, combine the breading ingredients.

Break off a small piece of the dough, form it into a nuggety shape, coat it in breading, and transfer it to the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough. You can save any remaining nugget breading for next time.

Bake for 18-20 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.

Using a serving size of 7 nuggets (90g), here is the nutritional info:

177 calories; 3.8g fat; 0g cholesterol; 436g sodium; 15.4g carbohydrates; 24.3g protein.

Let’s see a comparison chart! You know how much I love a good chart for comparing and contrasting. Or maybe you didn’t know that about me. You would if we lived together, or if we’d ever shopped for a car together, or if you’d ever stood in a grocery aisle with me while I picked a new snack to try.

The first thing I need to do is get the serving sizes equal on all of these so that it’s a fair comparison. The serving sizes are pretty similar as is, but for the sake of MAXIMUM FAIRNESS, I multiplied the Health is Wealth data by 1.125, the Morningstar Farms data by 1.1, and my data by 1.05. After doing that, all 4 serving sizes are within 1g of each other.

Yes, you’re reading that right: compared to chicken nuggets, my nuggets have 1.5 times the protein, 100 fewer calories, and 1/4 of the fat content. Holy moly!

Posted in recipes | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Daily Eats Wednesday: Holy Carb Explosion

Posted on October 5, 2011 by

vegan month of food 2011

This, the very first edition of Daily Eats Wednesday, features food that I ate last Friday.

It was a fairly normal day for us until 5 PM, when Matt’s parents got into town for a week visit.

Breakfast was a waffle and coffee. I’d made the waffles for breakfast the day before and frozen the leftovers. These are oatmeal, flax, and date waffles, my own recipe.

coffee and waffle

Remember how I was trying to reduce my caffeine intake? Well, thanks to all of your advice, I’ve decided that scaling back slowly was the best approach. Instead of 2 shots of full-strength espresso and 2 shots of decaf, I’ve scaled back to 2 shots of full-strength and 1 of decaf. So far, so good…

…except that I was craving the second cup of coffee by 9 A.M. Hrmm.

more coffee

For lunch, I had a small bowl of Mom’s Lentil Soup from Yellow Rose Recipes:

Mom's Lentil Soup from Yellow Rose Recipes

It was a nice little shot of protein and veg, but not enough calories. By 12:30, I was hungry, so I fixed a snack plate. This is 1/4 cup dry roasted wasabi edamame, 3 Trader Joe’s dark chocolate almonds, and a small apple with 1 tablespoon of almond butter.

snack plate

During naptime, I baked a loaf of bread. Look at this beauty!

px;” title=”fresh bread” src=”http://www.joannavaught.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/035-1024×768.jpg” alt=”fresh bread” width=”512″ height=”384″ />

No, I didn’t eat the whole thing, you guys. I just wanted to show you how lovely it was. After it had cooled, I cut off a tiny endpiece and ate it with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt & pepper at around 3 P.M.

slice of bread with oil and balsamic

At 5 P.M, my in-laws called to say that they had driven to the wrong hotel and still needed to drive to the right hotel across town, check in, and then they would come pick us up for dinner. My stomach was already growling, but I knew that I was probably an hour and a half from eating dinner. Another slice of bread to the rescue!

bread with Earth Balance

Finally, at around 6:30, we had dinner at Pizza Fino. A glass of Pinot Noir…

pinot noir

a small blurry breadstick…

tiny blurry breadstick

and finally the vegan fino roll. I love the Pizza Fino vegan fino roll; it might be my favorite pizza option in town. They make a creamy and tangy roasted red pepper and cashew base, which tastes so much better to me than vegan mozzarella limply half-melting on top of a slice of pizza. I get mine with roasted garlic, fresh basil, and the house-made vegetarian meatballs. Yum.

vegan fino roll

It was after this bounty of yumminess that I realized that I’d eaten about 3 times the amount of carbs I ordinarily eat in any given day. Oof.

Posted in daily eats wednesday | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Cannellini and Kale Soup with Baked Sweet Potatoes

Posted on October 3, 2011 by

vegan month of food 2011

When I was reading the newest issue of Martha Stewart Living1 this month, I stopped on this page and turned down the corner: Cannellini and Kale Soup. Vegan? Yes! There has been a noticeable increase in the percentage of Martha’s vegan recipes, and I guess we have her vegan daughter Alexis to thank for that.

soaked beans and magazine

soaked beans and magazine

There is nothing new about cannellini and kale soup: it’s a classic. Hell, I did a search on marthastewart.com, hoping that this recipe would be there so that you could have it, and while I didn’t find this version, I did find 78 results for similar recipes. What I liked about this iteration, however, is that the soup is blended before the kale is added, and then right at the end, you throw garlic chips on top. It’s easy for a weeknight and perfectly comforting and warming for a chilly fall night.

I did tweak the recipe just a bit. The recipe called for 2 onions, but my onions were large, and after chopping one of them, it became clear that 2 chopped onions would have yielded over 5 full cups of chopped onion, and at that point, the soup would have been Onion and Cannellini and Kale Soup. I also subbed fresh rosemary for the fresh thyme; rosemary grows in my front yard, and I know that Martha would definitely approve of using what you grow yourself over what you can buy at the store.

Because this issue is still on the newsstands, I won’t repost it here, but I highly recommend it you’re already a regular Martha reader: October 2011, page 174.

Cannellini and Kale soup with baked sweet potato

Cannellini and Kale soup with baked sweet potato

We ate ours with baked sweet potatoes, and that recipe I can share with you:

Baked Sweet Potato with Spiced Maple Butter

makes 1

1 medium to large sweet potato

2 tsp Spiced Maple Butter (recipe follows)

Preheat your oven to 400. Scrub your sweet potato, poke all over with a fork 4-6 times, then wrap in aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on size.

After taking it out of the oven, allow to cool until you’re able to touch the foil without a glove, about 10 minutes. Then open it up, cut the potato down the center, and mash the Spiced Maple Butter into the baked sweet potato flesh.

Multiply for however many sweet potatoes you’re making.

Spiced Maple Butter

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine

2 T pure maple syrup

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground allspice or cloves

pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until margarine has melted. Serve warm.

When this has cooled all the way, you can store it in the fridge for up to a month. We like it on pancakes and waffles, too!

1 You read that right. Furthermore: not just a reader; a faithful subscriber for 3 years. And my favorite thing to do on sick days is make a big pile of back issues and read them in bed. I find it soothing, what can I say.

Posted in recipe monday, recipes, vegan mofo | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Happy Vegan MoFo!

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

vegan month of food 2011

My first MoFo 2011 entry will be short and sweet, since Matt’s parents are in town and we have a busy day ahead of us, so I should get cracking. Or at least change out of my pajamas.

I just want to announce the winner of the Yellow Rose Recipes Vegan Parmesan Giveaway. I entered the number of comments into the True Random Number Service, and it spit out: 3!

Jessy is the winner!

Milo is happy for Jessy and this is how he shows it

Milo is happy for Jessy and this is how he shows it

Jessy, use the contact form to send me your address and I’ll get you some vegan parm post-haste!1

Milo is currently running around the house like a crazy person, because his grandparents are due any second, and they are going out to get his birthday-and-Christmas present: a new bike!

And it couldn’t be happening at a more perfect time, because next weekend, Milo will be participating in a tricycle race fundraiser for his preschool. Milo attends a cooperative preschool, and cooperative preschools use fundraising and parent volunteer hours to keep the tuition low so that students who might not ordinarily be able to afford preschool are able to attend.

If you can afford it, please consider donating to his fundraising effort. There are fundraisers for the school throughout the year, but this is the one that we have decided to throw our full weight behind, so I promise that I will not be harassing you on a regular basis. Just these 2 weeks! Thoughtful, right?

I’ll see you on Monday with a recipe! Have a happy MoFo weekend, pals.

1 Or, really, post-my in-laws returning home.

Posted in vegan mofo | 2 Comments

Food for Thought Friday: Hello Baked Goods

Posted on September 30, 2011 by

There is a strong chance that once a month, Food for Thought Friday will be taken over by recipes for sweet things. Every baked good that my friends pinned on Pinterest this week looked to me like the Greatest Thing I Had Ever Seen Ever in My Life. Be warned!

Posted in food for thought friday, links | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Getting Ready for MoFo

Posted on September 28, 2011 by

If you’ve noticed some changes around here, it’s because I’ve been working behind the scenes every day to get my blog where I want it to be in time for MoFo. You know how it is: you decide that you want a few things to work a little bit differently, or you see some cool feature on another blog and think: “Oh, that’s neat! I want that!” And the next thing you know, you’ve killed an entire lunch hour trying to figure out how to make it happen.

Hopefully, by the end of this week, things will be looking and performing the way that I want them to be!

In the meantime, I just wanted to share this with you:

Milo writes his name

Milo writes his name

Milo wrote his name for the first time last weekend!

I have been writing his name and encouraging him to try to copy the letters underneath, and he has been able to do “I” and “O” for awhile, but this was the first time he wrote his whole name. I’m a proud mama.

Since I’ve already boarded the train to Bragtown, USA, check out this face he drew at preschool last week:

a face, by Milo

a face, by Milo

I know that I’m biased, but that’s a pretty good face, right? Every time I pass the fridge since I hung it up, I admire it. The hair is my favorite part.

Two weeks ago, Milo started attending preschool two mornings a week, and I guess that I was expecting it to be a big step for him, or for him to come home and regale me with stories for hours, but he seriously could not be more blasé about the entire experience. When Matt picks him up, he walks in the door and heads straight to the table where I have his lunch waiting. “How was preschool?” I ask. “Good. Chickpeas!” He eats his chickpeas with his fingers. “What did you do?” I ask. He shrugs. “Did you have fun?..” I ask hopefully. “Yes,” he replies. And that’s it. I think I’m getting a glimpse into what the next several years hold for us.

Milo put on my sunglasses to brush his teeth

Milo put on my sunglasses to brush his teeth

I’m not too worried.

Posted in life, parenting, site | Tagged | 6 Comments

Introducing Food for Thought Friday

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I want to do for MoFo, and one change that I want to make around here is to start weekly features which will become permanent fixtures on the blog.

This is one of those features: Food for Thought Friday. Every Friday morning, I’ll be linking to 5 food-related blog posts I read that week so that you can have something interesting to read on Friday afternoon. They won’t always be their own posts—sometimes I will just tack them onto the bottom of whatever else I’m writing at the time.

food for thought friday

What are you doing this weekend? Milo and I going to participate in the Sunday Parkways Northeast this Sunday, the last one of the year. I will be rollerskating, so please cross your fingers for me that I don’t eat it repeatedly in front of strangers.

Posted in food for thought friday, links | 2 Comments

Fall Cleaning

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

Happy Equinox! The high is 82 here in Portland today. You know what I don’t associate with fall? Back sweat.

Portland always has a late summer, but mid-60s temperatures into July and mid-80s temperatures into late September have me all thrown off. The weather forecast says that our last warm day this year will be this Saturday, but Portland weather forecasts are about as reliable as your college boyfriend, so I won’t put away my strappy dresses yet, just in case.

I’ll tell you what, though: the warmer-than-usual weather hasn’t stopped me from making soup nearly every night. I will just be right here, sipping on a pumpkin spice latte and pretending that it’s fall until the weather gets on board. Fake it ’til you make it.

Starbucks knows what I'm talking about

Starbucks knows what I'm talking about

This month, instead of doing the kind of deep cleaning that I do in spring where I scrub every surface and clean behind and under every piece of furniture,1 I’m attempting to clean out my habits. I’m giving serious thought to my daily behaviors and rituals, asking myself: Is this worth my time? Is it necessary? Is there a better or more efficient way I could be doing this?

If you just read that and thought: “Oh holy hell, I need to do that so badly,” here are some activities which have been helpful for me:

  • Thinking about my morning ritual. Is there a task which I dread every day? Could I do it before going to bed the night before instead? Since Milo’s and my morning rituals are intertwined, I have been thinking about this for him, too.
  • Inbox zero: This is my goal for this weekend. I want to: reply to all the emails in my inbox which need a reply (some are more than a month old, yeeeeesh); put emails in folders if I’m worried about “losing” them; archive the rest.
  • Is that the best place for this? This week, as I go through my day, I have been asking myself this question about every item in my life which I interact with on a daily basis: my shoes; the mail; my kitchen tools; the laptop; the recycling bins; the shopping list; my cell phone; my keys.
  • Clean out the feed reader: Personally, I try to keep the number of blogs I’m reading to under 100. I find that if I’m reading any more than that, a lot of them begin to blend together. When I do a purge, I give the blogs which I’ve added recently a pass, but if I’ve been reading a blog for more than a year and there isn’t even one single stand-out entry which pops to mind when I think of that blog, I lose it. I’m not doing that person any favors by skimming or skipping what he writes.

Where I really need help is budgeting and bill organization. Almost all of our bills can be paid online, and I do a lot of paperless billing because I’m a hippie, but that makes is harder for me to remember to pay them! What I would love is freeware or a website where I could easily budget and which would send me email reminders about which bills are due when. I’m sure that this already exists and I just don’t know where to find it. Do you have something like that?

What change have you made recently to make your life easier?

Don’t forget to take a minute to answer the survey and automatically be entered into the Yellow Rose Recipes Vegan Parmesan Giveaway! Currently there are only 3 entries, which means that if you enter, you’d have a 25% chance of winning! You have to like those odds.

1 Haha, just kidding. Does anyone actually do this? I spring clean Joanna-style, but using a mop and moving the refrigerator are not involved.

Posted in life, portland | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Yellow Rose Recipes Vegan Parmesan Giveaway

Posted on September 20, 2011 by

If there is one recipe from Yellow Rose Recipes which I get feedback about more than any other, it’s the vegan parmesan recipe.

Fans of the vegan parmesan have told me that: it has made it easier for them to give up cheese; they never eat pasta without it now; there is always a canister of it in their fridge; they made a double batch and sent their daughter off to college with it; they have given some to omnivore friends and family who have preferred the taste of my vegan parmesan over the dairy variety sold at their grocery stores, and are now using mine exclusively.

I am always thrilled to get comments and emails like this because I know that for most people, eliminating animal products from your diet is a slow process which happens in steps, and every time you can replace a kitchen staple with a cruelty-free variety, you’re getting just that much closer to your goal.

So, I’ve been meaning to ask my readers some questions about what they would like to see around here, and thought that I would offer a 4 oz container of vegan parmesan, made by me, as an incentive for taking the 90 seconds to reply to a short survey.

Are you in? If so, reply to following questions in the comments before September 30. My first MoFo post on October 1 will announce the winner.

  • What is your favorite type of post: parenting, recipes, links, home/decorating, Portland, I love, lists, general life-y goodness?
  • Which of the new features are you most interested in or excited about: recipes on Monday, daily eats on Wednesday, Food for Thought Friday (food-related links for Friday afternoon reading)?
  • Is there anything I don’t do regularly or haven’t done in awhile which you would like to see more of?
  • What was your favorite entry I wrote in 2011? (Title or link are both fine.)

You have more than a week to enter, so if you want to think about it for a few days and come back, you can do so!

Posted in site, vegan mofo | Tagged , | 11 Comments