Vegan week – Day 6

Finally got around to making some food from scratch. Red lentil soup is easy, healthy, vegan, and delicious. This one I put a lot cinnamon into and it was really nice and sweet, especially with carrots and broccoli stalks.

Wasn't hungry for breakfast this morning, but here's what I did eat today:

Vegan bread with almond hazelnut butter and an apple

Homemade lentil soup

I also had a small bag of chips, which I did not feel required photo documentation... So, kind of a boring food day, but tomorrow is the final hurrah – maybe I'll come up with something a bit little interesting. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just eat beans and rice again and call it good.

Vegan week – Day 5

I had the best intentions today of making lentil soup from scratch, but I got lost in doing other work this evening. By the time I realized I was hungry it was 9 p.m. and I didn't feel like taking more than seven minutes to make food so I had my last Mr. Noodles. It was very satisfying, not just because it was spicy and full of salt, but because it only took seven minutes. 

No matter how much I might love food, and no matter how much I might come to love vegan cuisine, I don't think I'll ever learn to love cooking. I just can't see it as worth my time. I was sitting there slurping the noodles, pondering the 27 or so other things that would undoubtedly have been better than standing at the stove, and realizing how much I admire, but just don't relate to those who love to prepare food. It just gets eaten in a 10th of the time it takes to make and then you have to do it all over again three times a day. It's exhausting just to think about.

Anyway, here's the rundown of today's vegan diet...

Breakfast:

Silver Hills sprouted bakery flax bread (no eggs or dairy) with Nuts To You almond hazelnut butter, and fruit.

Lunch:

Spinach and baby kale salad with carrot, celery, cucumber, avocado, hemp hearts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. 

Afternoon snack:

Steamed vanilla soy milk with a vegan brownie from Jumping Bean Coffee.

Dinner:

Mr. Noodles (veggie) again, with broccoli stems and Sriracha hot sauce.

Vegan week – Day 3

Another day without animal stuff on my menu. I'm not so much missing animal products as I am frustrated by the amount of foods (processed, anyway) that contain animal products. EVERYTHING is made from or with milk. So many things contain cheese powder or gelatin. I went to a cute little market this evening with a friend who made me dinner at her place, and I was going to get something for dessert but gave up and took salad because nothing sweet seems to be made just from plants... But the dinner was super tasty. Who knew lentils could be so satisfying? Maybe it was the garlic. Anyway, here's what I ate the rest of today...

Breakfast – same as yesterday:

Quick oats, almond milk, handful raw hemp hearts, handful frozen berries.

Lunch – same as Sunday:

Mr. Noodles (veggie) with fresh chopped broccoli, spinach, onion, Sriracha hot sauce.

Dinner – homemade Pakistani comfort food: 

Daal Chawal (lentils and rice) with garden salad. 

Besides the chips, the other snacks I had today were the rest of the Finnish liquorice (about a handful), and apples and oranges. I could get used to this increase in fruit and veg in my diet but, man, it's hard to avoid milk. Once I'm finished the vegan week I'm going to go for a nice big ol' cheesy pizza pie and a cup of extra creamy hot chocolate!

Awesome broccoli-cheese casserole

My friend Tina last week posted a recipe challenge for me on Facebook: Awesome Broccoli-Cheese Casserole. I made it tonight and it was pretty good. Maybe not awesome, but definitely pretty good. Super easy, too; just a matter of chopping up the broccoli (they were out of the frozen stuff at Sobey's so I bought fresh), dicing onions, grating cheese, and mixing up a bowl of mayo and egg. I also tossed on some garlic salt, as per Tina's suggestion. 

I would consider this as more a side dish than a main course, but as a side dish I would go as far as to say it is in fact, awesome.

The recipe can be found here, at Allrecipes.com

Red lentil soup

My neighbour, Mary, is a vegetarian, and the other day she very kindly showed me how to make some good, easy soup. Tonight, I tried it myself (with her supervision and a few tips, like how to properly hold a chef's knife while dicing onions). 

This is red lentil soup. You can pretty well add whatever vegetables and spices you want, but tonight I went with a simple mix of red pepper and cabbage. 

Tastes better than it looks!

I couldn't believe how quick it was to make, and tasty. The best part is, it's healthy, vegan, and still provides protein and a satisfying feeling of fullness, especially when paired with some artisan bread from the bakery.

Multigrain from Sobey's

So here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 large red pepper (diced in large chunks)
• 1 medium onion (diced in large chunks)
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic (thinly diced)
• 1 large chunk of chopped cabbage (to taste)
• any other vegetable you like (carrots, for example, would probably be good)
• 1 cup red lentils (which are actually orange)
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. chilli flakes

Steps:

Start with a pot on medium heat, with a good base layer of olive oil. When oil is hot, add the vegetables. 

Next, rinse the lentils twice to get rid of the "dust" that's on them. 

Once the veggies are somewhat soft, add the lentils and three cups of water. Immediately add the spices and salt. Stir and bring to a rolling boil. 

Once boiling, turn down to low and let simmer, stirring often. 

The soup is ready when the lentils have dissolved into a thick mush – about 15 minutes. 

Lacto-ovo Vegetarian

Gone 30 days now without meat. I had fish five or six times in the last month, including a grilled salmon dinner I made for my household and neighbours on Sunday night, which got good reviews.

Grilled maple barbecue salmon with roast potatoes, butternut squash and asparagus. 

Oh, and I also went out for dinner Monday night with a friend to The Yellow Belly and ordered a giant plate of muscles steamed in curried coconut milk, just to make sure I got one seafood meal in before I give that up, too. But as of tomorrow I'm going fully vegetarian, meaning I'm not going to eat any animal flesh (including fish or seafood). I'll continue to eat eggs and dairy products, however, making me officially a lacto-ovo vegetarian. This is generally considered the vegetarian standard; someone who eats mostly plants as well as some animal products but no animal flesh.

It was pretty easy to avoid meat this past month. Ridiculously easy, in fact. Avoiding fish may be more difficult. I really enjoy fish, and fish 'n chips are kind of a big thing here in St. John's. But for the sake of being a "real" vegetarian, I'm going to give that up too and see what happens. 

It's also been 10 days since I quit coffee cold turkey (even decaf) and I'm surprised to find I don't miss it. I'm glad to no longer have the daily increased sensation of stress, with sweaty armpits, increased heart rate, etc. that came with my daily two or three cups of java. I've been drinking a lot of decaf green tea, which has a whole whack of good things in it, like antioxidants, and I look forward to it every day. Maybe my pallet has changed, or maybe I'm just in denial, but for now, it's working to replace the coffee habit. 

Here's the recipe for the salmon dinner pictured above:

1. Marinate de-boned sockeye salmon filets in the following for at least half an hour: equal parts maple syrup, orange juice and soya sauce (about 1/4 cup each). 
2. Scrub and dice russet potatoes, peel and dice butternut squash.
3. Coat both potatoes and squash in olive oil and sprinkle with dill and salt and pepper. Bake at 350 F for about 60 min.
4. Wash and cut the bottom "wood" of the asparagus stalks (about half an inch – the white part), and lay flat on a cookie sheet. Coat in olive oil and sprinkle with celery salt. Bake at 350 F for about 30 min.    
5. Bake the salmon filets in oil-lined pan at 350 F for 15 min. (Important not to over-cook the fish, so it's not dried out! Fish should flake with a fork, but still be moist.)

Vegetarian meal ideas

Been three weeks without meat, and I feel fine. I've had fish three times in the last 21 days, and I might once more before switching fully to lacto-ovo vegetarianism. Maybe it's too early to tell if I'll need to take any supplements, but so far, so good. (The caffeine withdrawal is another matter, but I'm only on day three of that, so I'm expecting another few days at least of feeling lethargic and taking epic three-hour afternoon naps before I get over the hump.)

I think the secret to becoming vegetarian is having a real conviction for doing so. I had tried before, back in 2008, to cut meat from my diet, but it didn't stick because it was just an idea, a fad I wanted to try, and I didn't really like the idea of making any concerted effort to change my eating habits. But now I'm fully committed to improving my health, and everyone knows diet is one of the big three – along with sleep and exercise – in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I don't know that a vegetarian diet is necessarily the best for everyone, but I do know that focusing on cutting out meat for a certain amount of time forces a person to look carefully at what they're eating at every meal, and become more conscious of how to get all the required nutrients through different foods. It becomes clear very quickly that plants are the best source of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and even some macronutrients (fat, carbs and protein). 

I've been really lucky so far in this vegetarian experiment, since I've had friends, neighbours and housemates offer to make me some great meals. For example, this was dinner at a friend's on Friday night:

Marinated tofu with pesto spaghetti, sautéd beans and mushrooms and side salad. 

And on the weekend I went to another friend's for lunch:

Homemade guacamole sandwiches with old white cheddar cheese and cucumber on rye bread.

I still think cooking at home is the best way to go, but for the quick meals needed while running errands there are some surprisingly decent vegetarian fast-food options:

Burger King's veggie burger. 

Subway sandwich with cheese, all the veggies, and chipotle and bbq sauce. 

From my experience so far, I'd say the first step in cutting meat from your diet is simply to have a list of ideas for meals and snacks that don't include animal flesh and stock up on those things. For example,

Breakfast:

• eggs (scrambled, fried, etc. on toast or as a veggie omelette)
• toast with cheese and dijon
• toast with nut butter
• bagel with cream cheese
• smoothie (the NutriBullet makes great fresh fruit/veg options)
• oatmeal (add raisins and other fruit, flax seeds for extra nutrition)
• cereal 
• fruit salad

Lunch:

• sandwiches (avocado, cheese, cucumber, tomato, or nut butter and jam, etc.)
• salad with boiled egg
• tortilla with chopped veggies and humous
• soup (any variety of vegetables, barley, lentils, beans, etc.)

Dinner:

• Baked potato with sour cream, chives, cheese, etc.
• salad with boiled egg
• Teriyaki stir-fried veggies and rice
• Vegetable chili
• Spaghetti Alfredo with sautéd zucchini

Snacks:

• fresh fruit
• nuts, trail mix, dried fruit
• crackers and cheese
• smoothies
• chips and salsa (and/or guacamole)
• celery with but butter 
• carrots and humous
• air-popped popcorn (with butter)

Further reading:
Zen Habits: 20 Tips for Becoming Vegetarian
Scott Young: How To Become A Vegetarian
Vegetarian Society: Going Vegetarian

Alfredo spaghetti with zucchini

Made my first meal from scratch since starting this vegetarian project. No meat, no problem!

Found this online recipe last night for an easy Alfredo sauce and cooked up some zucchini (my favourite vegetable) to go on top. Wasn't bad, if I say so myself, with special thanks to my neighbour, Kate, who supervised to make sure I didn't go off track – did you know adding a bit of oil after cooking spaghetti will keep it from sticking together? I didn't. Now I do. And if you didn't, now so do you. Boom. 

Anyway, you basically just whisk everything together in a pot while it melts at medium heat, boil the pasta separately (bite a strand to see how soft you like it), and fry the chopped zucchini in a pan with butter (wait till it looks translucent before taking it off the heat) and presto, there's dinner for four. 

Actually, there was way too much sauce. But it'll be great for lunch today or a midnight snack for one of the housemates tonight. 

In case the above link doesn't work, here are the ingredients for the sauce:

• 1/4 pound (or 1/2 cup) butter
• 1 small (8 oz) package cream cheese
• 2 cups milk
• 6 oz (about a cup) grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. black pepper 
• 1 tsp. garlic powder 

Types of vegetarians

I'm almost two weeks into being vegetarian. I've not felt deprived of meat (except on Thursday night when my roommate made hamburgers and the smell drove me wild), and I've been conscious of eating more fruit and vegetables, because I've been using my NutriBullet to make fruit/veg smoothies almost daily. 

One small apple, one banana, handful kale, handful frozen blueberries, 

three big chunks honeydew, tablespoon chia seeds, and purified water. Tastes better than it looks!

So I feel pretty good about how I've been eating in the last two weeks. But I've also noticed I'm eating a pretty significant amount of dairy and eggs, which is maybe because I'm used to getting a certain amount of animal protein and fat in my diet... or maybe I'm just freaked out about the idea of cutting animal products altogether. And besides, an egg and cheese breakfast bagel is to die for.

Toasted, buttered bagel with scrambled egg, fried onion, mozzarella cheese and tomato. 

In terms of cooking, I've pretty much done nada – I haven't made a single real meal for myself since I started this vegetarian project (unless you count the smoothies or a few fried eggs on toast). I've been eating only two meals on most days because being injured and getting next to no exercise for the past two months means needing far fewer calories/not being as hungry. The real magic, though, in being able to avoid cooking for myself is in having friends and neighbours who are generous with their food offerings because a) I still can't spend a lot of time standing at the stove and b) they can be convinced to make me food in exchange for things like a ride because I have a car and they don't. See the bagel above. That was a bartered bagel. 

This was a tasty meat-free burrito I concocted at a Mexican-themed potluck at a friend's birthday event tonight. 

Flour tortilla with fried rice, grated cheddar, sour cream, cilantro, pickled
shredded cabbage and carrot, and bean/cheese sauce. Very yum. 

And this vegetarian chili, which another friend made during the week, was the main course at a dinner party he hosted. It was, hands down, the best chili (meat or vegetarian) I've ever had. 

12 types of vegetables and three minced Thai chilies. So good!

And, of course, there's always eating out, which is more costly, but frankly, a lot more fun. This was dinner Saturday night when I went out to eat with a friend at the local St. John's falafel joint.

Lentil soup and Arabian salad. (Technically vegan.)

There may be some disagreement among foodies and animal rights advocates, but I think it's probably generally accepted that there are four types of vegetarians:

1. First, there's the "flexitarian," the person who eats meat occasionally and is flexible about when and what type of meat, for reasons of health or animal welfare or a combination of both. I would argue most people these days probably fall into this category. I know some who choose to never eat pork or beef but will still consume fish or chicken, for example.
2. Second, there's the pescatarian, which is where I am currently on my vegetarian journey. I don't eat meat anymore (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, game, etc.) but I'm still eating fish and seafood when I can get it. There is a lot of debate about whether a pescatarian can be considered a true vegetarian, but here are five reasons a pescatarian diet may be the best for your health.
3. The fourth stage, which I would say is the first level of "true" vegetarianism, is the lacto-ovo vegetarian, which means someone who eats no meat, fish or seafood, but still consumes animal products such as dairy and eggs. Of course, there are also ovo-vegetarians and lacto-vegetarians – those who, perhaps for allergy or other reasons, eat dairy but not eggs or eggs but not dairy, (as well as no meat, fish, or seafood). 
4. Once you get past eating no meat and also cut out animal products like dairy or eggs, you've gotten into vegan territory. As well as not eating animal flesh, a "true" vegan will also include on the "do not consume" list any animal products, such as dairy (milk and milk products) or eggs, honey, leather or fur, and will not use products made with or from animal products or by-products (such as candies made from gelatin – an animal protein derived from the skin, bones or connective tissues of mammals – used to give food products and some cosmetics their particular consistency).

So what type of vegetarian are you?

The beauty of cooking

I'm trying to change my attitude towards cooking. This is what it looks like right now:

But I don't wanna pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees!

And this is what I want it to look like:

This little snack? Oh, it was just something to whip up while I was working on my doctoral thesis. 

Basically I detest and resent having to feed myself. Unless it involves simply pouring cereal into a bowl and adding milk, or dumping the contents of a can into a pot to heat up on the stove, I am loath to spend any amount of time chopping, pealing, braising, heating, baking, broiling, etc. just so I can not feel hungry for a few hours. The whole thing stinks, if you ask me. If I've ever tried to make a meal that involves more than microwaving something, it's most often ended up looking and tasting like cat food or worse. Hating something means avoiding it, which means not getting any good at it, which means it will always be scary and awful. Kind of like the way I can't do math. 

Which is not to say I don't enjoy food. Quite the opposite, actually. When I've been served any kind of homemade food, especially by a friend or family member who genuinely enjoyed the cooking process and fed me something nutritious and delicious, I have at times been close to tears in gratitude. I friggin' love food. I LOVE it. I think maybe it releases more endorphins in my brain than the average person. I get a food high sometimes. Do you ever get a food high? It's the opposite of a food coma, where instead of feeling like you're too groggy to do anything, you're so pumped you're ready to become the next American president, even if you're not American. Like when you finish lunch and suddenly realize you could easily get into medical school. Like people's jokes are funnier, the sun is shining brighter, and the world is a really great place. Maybe this is a sign of blood sugar problems... whatever the case, though, food makes me very, very happy.

But I hate cooking.

And I want to re-think my attitude. I want to learn how to cook properly, and learn to enjoy the process. I think going vegetarian has been a huge step for me towards being competent in the kitchen, simply because I've had to become more aware about what I've been eating in the last 10 days. (Not that I've done much more to feed myself than heat up a friend's leftover vegan chili, but at least I'm thinking about what I'm eating and why.)

Here are five (totally unresearched) reasons every adult should learn not just to how to cook, but how to cook well.

1. Cooking will make you popular. Who doesn't love being invited to a friend's for a dinner party? And unless you're under 21, ordering pizza and putting BYOB on the Facebook invite doesn't count. It's got to be something you actually made yourself with real ingredients you had to pick up at the grocery store or (for bonus points) the local famers' market. 

2. Cooking will make you sexy.

He knows it.

3. Cooking will make you healthier. It will force you to learn at least a little bit about nutrition, which will force you to become at least a little bit more mindful about what you're choosing to build your cells out of. The expression "you are what you eat" is literal. The stuff you put into yourself literally gets used to keep creating new "you" cells as the old ones die off. Mind blowing. Literally. 

4. Cooking will make you wealthier. It's probably common knowledge, but buying your own groceries to make your own meals costs less than eating out and paying someone else to cook for you.*

5. Cooking will take back the power from the food industry and put it back into your hands to shape your own life. Michael Pollan is a food journalist who wrote some really profound but entertaining books about food and why we eat it and where our food comes from. Here he talks about how we've been brainwashed by the food industry to think we're losers if we have time in our day to spend in the kitchen making dinner. According to his research, Pollan suggests home cooking has been in "freefall" since the 1960s when fast-food took over in North America, and here he tells us why we should stop watching all those TV shows about cooking and get ourselves into the kitchen to do it ourselves. (Maybe something to watch/listen to this while making your next meal?)

If you can't or don't want to watch the video (it's 20 min. long), here's the basic message: if you want to make a profound change in your diet, in your health, in your life overall, eat anything you want, just cook it yourself. 

Definitely some food for thought. 

*It's true, some fast-food might actually be cheaper than the groceries would be to make the equivalent meal, but the health benefits of making something in your own kitchen inevitably outweigh buying take-out (made with who knows what additives, preservatives, etc.) no matter how cheap and/or convenient it might be. 

the unexpected chef

Homemade vegetarian black bean chili with avocado lime salsa. That's what I made for dinner tonight. I'm not even joking. The girl who specializes in frozen pizza and microwaved dinners made this from scratch:

I think I was channelling Julia Child. Or maybe just Julie Powell, who channelled Julia Child. Anyway, I've been suddenly forced into thinking about what I'm eating every day since I saw a naturopathic doctor (ND) last Thursday, who decided I need to try an elimination diet. (I've had digestive issues since I was a teenager, ranging from heartburn, to IBS, to a number of others issues and, frankly, I'm sick of it. No pun intended.) I guess I've metaphorically been putting sugar in my gas tank for most of my life, and it's time to learn how to eat the right stuff... and therefore, how to cook.

Side note: The word elimination in my particular case means no alcohol, caffeine, sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs, corn or soy... for two weeks.

So far, so good. Surprisingly, I haven't had any cravings and haven't been hungry yet, and it's the end of day four. I've discovered the wonder of herbs and spices (like, for example, you can fry a chicken breast in olive oil with oregano, thyme, garlic salt and ginger powder and then sprinkle it with Montreal Chicken Seasoning and it's heaven in your mouth.) Coriander is a real thing. I don't know what, exactly, but it goes well in avocado lime salsa.

Breakfast, every day until last week, consisted of some kind of egg or cheese item with a cup of coffee (strong, with cream). Breakfast now means plain oatmeal with almond milk or a fruit smoothie with peanut butter (organic, no sugar or salt added.)

Now I'm chowing down on fruit like it's candy (watermelon, mandarin oranges, apples, cherries, and bananas are making me happy) and rice cakes are a nice staple. Okay no, actually, that's a lie; they taste like stale cardboard, but at least they offer something on which to put peanut butter or eggplant antipasto. So instead of coffee, I'm drinking about 2 Litres of water a day, plus roughly four cups of herbal tea. Peppermint is a nice morning pick-me-up, by the way.

I haven't been hungry or craved anything yet (not even chocolate!) -- It may be simple denial, but this super-restricted diet has, so far, been a fairly easy challenge, and I'm kind of enjoying learning to make real food.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy rice flour and make banana nut muffins. I'll just have to figure out how to compensate for not using eggs. I found this book at the library called Cooking For Isaiah: Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Recipes for Delicious Meals. All I can say is, "Thank-you, Isaiah, wherever you are, for having a finicky stomach, and, even more, to your mother for coming up with these recipes and publishing them!" There's life after bread and milk. Of course, should it turn out I don't have any sensitivities to either gluten or dairy, the first thing I'm going to do is chug a nice tall glass of two per cent and eat a big ol' piece of cheesy pizza pie.

But I will make the pizza myself, from scratch. Because I will know how to do that. Learning to cook: one small step for my digestive tract, one big step towards crossing off bucket list item #38.

The Burden of Cooking

Cooking is stressful and more trouble than it's worth. This morning I made scrambled eggs with toast, juice, sliced apple and coffee. Healthy and enjoyable, but would have been so much better if someone else had made it for me. By the time I spilled raw egg on my slippers, burnt the toast, and overcooked the eggs, I'd almost lost my appetite. Either I need to find a job that pays enough that I can afford to employ a personal chef, or I need to take cooking classes. You know you're not good with food when making a simple breakfast is a total headache.

I've heard The Joy of Cooking is a good place to start for the novice in the kitchen. Maybe I should invest in this and a few other cookbooks.

I'm also wondering about the whole vegetarian diet. I'm less likely to give myself food poisoning if I screw up and under-cook a mushroom burger than forget to store leftover chicken casserole properly. And no one likes salmonella first thing in the morning. Maybe that's the way to go. Kill to two stones with one bird: learn to cook and become a semi-vegan at the same time.

Living off hot dogs and Five Alive is so 2004. I need to learn to be a grown-up and make meals that consist of more than just one type of pasta or tepid soup from a can. The one benefit to not being a food snob is that avocado on toast and a glass of milk can make me very happy, but it's going to become a problem when I do decide to throw a dinner party for friends who will no longer be impressed by beer and pizza.