Veggie stir fry with Veat

So I'm working my way thru the faux-meat products. My friend Ian always gives me a hard time about why vegans and vegetarians have to mock up the very thing they're trying to avoid. Well from my viewpoint, I'm used to cooking with protein and faux-meats are another good way to get that protein. Plus, James needs all the plant-based protein he can get to heal his chemo ravenged body.

Tonight we tried Veat. This is a totally vegan product, and I used it in a stir fry. Usually, I'd just fry up some tofu chunks, but since we had the Veat in the freezer, into the pot it must go!

Other ingredients include carrots, celery, onions, garlic, ginger, broccoli, red bell peppers and red cabbage, topped with a little bit of tamari sauce over organic brown rice. Usually I tend to make enough for us both to take lunch the next day, and today at lunch, I noticed the cabbage had turned nearly the exact same blue as this bowl! Ah, the mysteries of food science at work...

Anyway, survey says: Okay. I cut the Veat chunks down to half their size before throwing them in the pan, but next time they will be even smaller due to their nearly unappealing texture. They're pretty fiberous and a bit chewy. Now isn't that a ringing endorsement?! But James had two bowls, so it couldn't have been all that bad. Maybe next time I'll stick to tofu, it's cheaper anyway!

What's this?

This is:
1. 6 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, a medium sized beet and a 1" piece of ginger, plus all the fiber that goes with eating those veggies raw.
2. a great snack when I get home from work and am hungry, yet it's too early for dinner.
3. A nutritious boost, full of vitamins.
4. All of the above!

We juice like this whenever we can - my other favorite concoction is pear, jicama, pineapple and ginger. Juicing is a great way to get all your fresh veggies in, with minimal prep & clean-up time.

Vegan Apricot-Banana Pancakes

When James and I were in the beginning stages of our relationship and I was spending more and more time cooking in his kitchen, I brought over 3 recipes on index cards. One was for rolled biscuits, one for cobbler, and the last was for banana pancakes. The banana pancakes were always a hit, in fact James loves anything with bananas in it - bread, cake, pancakes, muffins, ice cream... One snow day a couple years back, one of James' coworkers stopped by and I fed him some pancakes. He still raves about them to this day!

These actually took the vegan translation pretty well. I used Ener-G Egg Replacer, soy milk and Earth Balance vegan spread in place of eggs, milk and butter. Today for the first time ever, I chopped up some dried apricots and tossed those in the batter as well. Since James wont use syrup, jam or honey (no sugar) these are more than sweet enough to eat plain with a little vegan spread. (There is a tad amount of Xylitol added to sweeten the batter. Xylitol is a birch derived sugar substitute recommended by James' naturopath, Dr. Sodhi. It doesn't raise blood sugar and aids in digestion. I've found it more than acceptable to bake with, though only in moderation. Dr. Sodhi warns that it could lead to the runs!)

Verdict: Awesome pancakes, as usual. The apricots added an interesting tang, next time I'll use more or change it up a bit with other fruits. I may have used a bit too much melted spread in the batter, but that just left the cakes crispier on the outside and smoother in the middle. Still plenty tasty!

Almost Vegan Veggie Pot Pie

James got on a kick recently, I don't know why. But every time the subject of dinner came up, he mentioned pot pie. I was having a hard time doing the regular to vegan translations (would crust work with vegan butter?) but finally I tackled it, with modest success. And now, for your viewing pleasure, I present the Almost Vegan Veggie Pot Pie:

I started this project thinking I could make two tiny individual pot pies, but I started chopping veggies and before I knew it, had enough to fill a regular size pie plate. So I made enough crust for a top and bottom. The crust actually came out okay! I used organic unbleached flour and Earth Balance vegan spread. It was a little softer than a butter crust (must because it's missing all that fat!), but it tasted great, and with a brushing of soy milk, browned up just fine.

The filling is carrots, celery, potato, green beans, Quorn naked cutlets (hence, the "almost vegan". Quorn uses some rehydrated egg whites in their faux-chicken product, but it sure is tasty!) I built a gravy out of sauteed garlic, onions and shittake mushrooms, then added flour & soy milk to make a roux and bind all the ingredients together.

Verdict: I was quite pleased with my initial attempt at this. We ate the whole thing over 3 days! It was dinner, then lunch, then dinner again and perhaps was a bit too much food, considering how poorly we get thru our leftovers. Next time, I'll make individual pasties (higher crust to filling ratio, more portable) and add peas. Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing!

And first, the basics...

I've started this blog to showcase my highs (and some lows) in our newly vegan kitchen. Why newly vegan? In September, my fiance James was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer. Since then, our lives have changes in innumerable ways, but what I want to focus on here is what we eat. (If you'd like to check on James' progress, visit his blog. You'll find out for yourself what an amazing, strong and strong-willed warrior he is. The cancer doesn't stand a chance in his body!)

First off, James is primarily vegan but he does eat cold water fish. I want to stress that his decision to go vegan and my decision to go vegetarian are purely health-based. Sure, we get the extra benefit of living gently on this earth, not harming animals, etc, but that is not the primary reason why this change in our diet occured. (And occasionaly, there are minor exceptions to our vegan rules. Recently, we tried Quorn, a mock-chicken product that has a small amount of egg whites and a small amount of lactate in it. Not vegan, but good protein. And it tastes like chicken!)

Other dietary restrictions to keep in mind:
No sugar. (Cancer cells grow big and strong when they get sugars to munch on. We don't want that!)
No tomatoes or vinegar. (These both counteract ingredients in the Hoxsey Tonic - a plant-based tonic from the BioMedical Center in Tijuana, MX)
No alcohol. (See sugar. Also, James has a history of gout and this makes it far worse.)
No nightshade veggies, such as tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and very limited potatoes.
No peanuts or cashews.
No chocolate.
No citrus, with a minor exception for fresh lemon juice in moderation.

Things to keep in mind:
-We're also trying to eat as organic as possible. We do make exceptions, like for the 20# sack of juicing carrots at Costco and frozen fruit for our morning smoothie. Usually the decision comes down to availability vs. finances.
-The one and only time sugar is allowed is on chemo Thursdays. Since cancer cells are more active when they have sugar, it is actually recommended to have some sugar on chemo days so the cancer cells uptake more of the chemo, making it do it's job faster. Usually this translates into a couple vegan carob chip cookies during chemo and some soy frozen desert for a snack after dinner.
-Chemo patients needs lots of protein, as protein helps the body rebuild. And except for the fish, this is all plant-based protein mostly in the form of soy and legumes.

So after all of this, the first question you must ask is "oh my god, what DO you eat??" I hope to feature the highlights (and possibly some kitchen tragedies) here.

Enjoy!