Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Happy 1 Year Vegan Anniversary to my family!

Wow! I can hardly believe we have been veganizing for one year today! My sweet hubby told me he would agree to one week of vegan eating - having visions of boring salads, steamed veggies, and unsatisfying menus- and here we are a year later. My wonderful husband has been my biggest cheerleader and gracious supporter of this journey and we are so happy we decided to make this lifestyle transition. My husband's migraines have been greatly reduced - he still struggles with them if he is bombarded by multiple triggers (dehydration, lack of sleep, and stress). We have learned that meat was a major culprit in his many years of migraine suffering - one of the main reasons behind our making the vegan switch. We thoroughly enjoy eating vegan fare and have learned to like an amazing new variety of foods.


I like to find ways to celebrate and make days extra special so of course I jumped on the opportunity to celebrate our vegan anniversary! I made a yummy breakfast for my kiddos - actually warmed up leftover french toast from Father's Day with chopped apples and caramel syrup.

My lunch was a delicious wrap - a tortilla spread with Lemon Bean dip (leftover from a few days back) and topped with crispy tempeh bacon, fresh spinach, tomatoes and green peppers - seriously delicious summer food!

We enjoyed our lunch on the deck - our weather was incredibly gorgeous today! Keith had a PBJ on homemade bread with some beautifully ripe strawberries and Braedon kind of grazed!

I made the boys a milkshake out of about 1/2 cup homemade vegan soy ice cream, 2 bananas, 1/2 a chocolate cupcake and 1 T peanut butter. They loved it! The leftover shake was poured into popsicle molds for another day!


Dinner was one of our favorites - veg egg rolls! I also made a veg/tofu dish served over sticky rice. It turned out very yummy. The picture doesn't look very exciting but the egg rolls were stuffed full with veggies so the color is covered!

A delightful day and a reminder of all we are blessed with! Here's to many more vegan years!
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3 comments:

  1. Just A MomJune 22, 2011 at 6:38 PM

    Congrats on your 1 year anniversary, that is so inspiring to read since I am still fairly new to being vegan. Those milkshakes so yummy and even more yummy into popsicles. Congrats again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amber Shea @Almost VeganJune 22, 2011 at 7:47 PM

    Congrats on your "veganniversary" - way to go!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Healthy on PurposeJune 23, 2011 at 7:48 AM

    Thanks, Ladies!

    ReplyDelete

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Crispy Herbed Potato Stack

Crispy Herbed Potato Stack
I was going to try a recipe for herbed scalloped potatoes and at last minute decided to do something fast and easy. I made up the recipe and it was yummola! I layered sliced russet potatoes in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper, basil, rosemary, paprika, and garlic powder. Then I baked them at 425 fr about 45 minutes. They were crisp and very flavorful!

My thrown-together salad today - after discovering I had no leftovers for lunch!

Tamale Fixings

Tamale Fixings
Plain pintos (for Keith), pintos, corn and onions; corn, jalepenos and Daiya; mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and chard

Making these was a bit time-consuming but kinda fun! They didn't turn out as good as I had hoped - the outer tamale part (not the filling) just wasn't as flavorful as tamales I have had in restaurants. I have another recipe I will try for the dough next time. Tamales are one of my favorite foods so I won't give up on this one!

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes
I modified one of my favorite pancake recipes to make it vegan and then I added blueberries. Turned out quite yummy. Soymilk sours and thickens well - very similar to buttermilk. I have been really impressed with it's ability to substitute for real buttermilk.

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

Egg replacement for 1 egg
1 1/4 cups soured soy milk (put 2 T vinegar into a 2 cup glass measuring cup. Add enough soy milk to equal 1 1/4 cups)
2 T canola oil
1 cup flour (I wouldn't recommend whole wheat or whole wheat pastry - it really takes away from the fluffiness of these pancakes)
1 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Blueberries, optional

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Heat griddle pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Sprinkle blueberries on pancakes after ladling onto griddle. Cook just until golden on both sides.

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein
Overall, this was fabulous! However, I don't think the seitan added much so I would just leave it out next time. The lo mein also needed about double the sauce so I would simply do that next time for added flavor. This was especially spicy and yummy with some Sriracha drizzled on top. I made our favorite veg egg rolls to go with this and it was truly a Chinese treat!!

Veggie Seitan Lo Mein

I really did my own thing for this recipe so I am just going to outline the instructions and include the sauce recipe. I heated oil in a large skillet and added 3 minced cloves of garlic and about 1 cup of half-moon cut onions (I was out of green onions but next time I would use green onions as I like them a lot in Chinese food) and about 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots. After about 5-6 minutes, I added about 1/4 lb of whole green beans. I cooked these veggies until tender. Meanwhile, I cooked a 16oz package of chow mein noodles. Once the veggie mixture was cooked, I poured the sauce on the veggies, heated through and tossed with the noodles. Next time I would double the amount of sauce and have adjusted amounts below to reflect double recipe.

Sauce (Source:Adaptable Feast)
3 T soy sauce
3 T rice wine (I used 3 T rice vinegar and 1 t sugar as I didn't have any rice wine)
3 t sugar
4 T black bean garlic sauce
Mix all ingredients and toss with above mixture.





Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth
Pretty yummy. I found that steaming the wontons worked much better than the recipe suggestion to boil them. The broth was very mild and a bit too mellow for us. Still pretty yummy though. I added extra veggies to the wontons and scallion to the broth. The seasoning in the wonton filling was quite tasty!

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth (Source: Vegan Yum Yum)

(As usual, I modified several things so it's not exactly the recipe in Vegan Yum Yum!)

1 cup chopped broccoli
3/4 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 T oil
1 t fresh ginger, minced
1 clove fresh minced garlic
1/2 t hot chili sauce (such as Sriracha)
1 t hot Chinese mustard
2 T plus 1 t soy sauce
4 cups water ( I think this might have been more flavorful had I used vegetable broth or faux chicken broth???)
6 slices fresh ginger
1 T mirin (I used a splash of cooking wine as I didn't have mirin)
1 1/2 t sugar
2 t rice vinegar
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup chopped scallions
16 wonton skins

For filling: Heat oil in skillet and add broccoli, ginger, garlic, carrot, onion and cook until veggies are crisp tender. Add chili sauce, mustard, 1 t soy sauce and stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make wontons, take one skin and place in diamond shape. Fill with 1-2 t filling. Fold in half to make a triangle and moisten edges with water and pinch sides to seal. Set triangle in front of you with point up and take the 2 side points and bring them together in front to cross. Set aside and prepare remaining wontons. When finished, place wontons in a steamer basket and steam over pot of boiling water until translucent.

Meanwhile, in a pot, combine remaining ingredients (except wontons) and simmer 10-15 min.

Place 3-4 wontons in bowl and ladle broth over wontons. Serve.