My New Favorite Quick and Easy Weeknight Supper Bowl

Quinoa Buy a package. I like the red Inca variety. Cook 4 servings according to directions, adding ½ to a whole vegetable bouillon cube to the pot. Add 1 cup of frozen peas to the mix when the quinoa is about 5 minutes from being done cooking.

Seitan Buy a package at your local health food store/co-op, Whole Foods, or Wegmans (or, if you’re truly hardcore, pick up a cookbook and make your own). Put seitan into a large bowl with 2 teaspoons olive oil, a few drops of tamari, freshly ground pepper to taste, a drizzling of agave nectar, and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Marinate while you prep the following.

Beans Buy a can of Goya pink beans and sauce. Pour can into a small saucepan and heat. You can also add a package of Badia Sazon for extra seasoning and a pleasantly neon orange color. You can find Goya and Badia products at any major grocery or Latin food market.

Asparagus Clean and snap the ends off of half a bunch of asparagus. Pat dry and line asparagus on foil or oven-safe platter. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and a generous amount of kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and 1 chopped garlic clove. Place in an oven preheated to around 450 degrees (I use a toaster oven on the broiler setting). Roast for around 5 minutes or until slightly browned and crisp.

At this point, your quinoa should be ready (it will take 15 to 25 minutes to cook). Dump into a large bowl or Tupperware container so you can use the same pot to cook the seitan in. Place all of the seitan mix in pot, cook over medium-high flame—stirring often—until browned.

Scoop about 1 cup of the quinoa and peas into another bowl. Top with ½ cup of beans, ½ of cooked seitan, and all the asparagus. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt—just a touch to brighten it since there is already plenty of salt in everything. I also splash some hot sauce atop the bowl. Eat. Save the leftover quinoa, beans, and seitan for a very satisfying, filling, and delicious lunch for the next day. Just add a salad to the mix for more veggies.

How easy was that?

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

Marion Nestle answers the question: Are veganism and vegetarianism healthier?

In a word: "Absolutely."

In more words: "They are probably healthier."

In her complete words.

As I said to my mother this weekend, no diet is perfect. Because humans are not perfect. And the world is imperfect. But certain diets are certainly more optimal than others. Very few sane people will reason that fruits and vegetables are bad for you. Eating them in abundance and in conjunction with whole grains, nuts, seeds, and some fun stuff every once in a while is, of course, healthful.

You can't go wrong eating lots of fresh, whole foods and minimizing the amount of food that comes in wrapping you have to open before you can eat it...you know, unless it's a banana or something.

Usually when people question the health of a plant-based diet, they are not concerned about health at all. They are concerned with tripping you up. Just like the person who questioned Brian's veganism and my vegetarianism even though they were on, I later found out, two cholesterol and blood pressure medication. In their thirties. And they hunted innocent animals too. 'Nuff said.

Baseball's Vegetarian Prince

From a New York Times article, "Meat Is Out at Fielder’s Plate," on Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers. Originally linked by Vegan.com. Emphasis is mine:

Fielder, 23, decided to make the switch over the winter after
reading how cattle and chickens were treated and “was totally grossed
out,” he said. His wife, Chanel, preferred a no-meat diet as it was, so
he embraced a new approach.

Fielder had been as carnivorous as your average puma — pushing 200 pounds
since he was 12, he scarfed down a 48-ounce porterhouse as a teenager and had
barely slowed down since. (He played last year with 270 pounds on his 5-foot-11
frame, not all of it muscle.) But he figured he could get his protein from beans and shakes instead of meat and fish, leading to conversations since the beginning of spring training that have grown quite tiresome...

"Yeah, I’m a vegetarian — but still, some things are just nasty,” Fielder
said. “I like salads. But sometimes, they get too creative. I like
regular food, just no meat in it.”

Muscles cannot tell the difference between the protein found in soy
burgers and poultry, [Leslie Bonci, the Brewer's nutritional
consultant] said, so eating one or the other should not affect something
even as timing-sensitive as hitting a baseball...

Less than 24 hours later, Fielder stood in the batter’s box against one of
baseball’s best young left-handers, Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia
Phillies. Fielder smoked two home runs in the Brewers’ 5-4 win. Less
filling, tasted great.

The article also makes mention of Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs, who is vegan. It's so great to see mainstream media coverage of vegetarian and vegan diets from people who don't fit the supposed veg mold--athletes, black men, Hispanic men, former Porterhouse steak devourers. I find articles like this inspiring. Although I have no problem walking right past the meat counter without looking (in fact, I try not to look), I do still look longingly at the cheese and pastry aisles. Knowing so many people easily eat, move, and live well without meat, eggs and dairy gives me motivation to keep at what has been the biggest and most exciting life changes I've ever made.

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

Random Fridays: Cruelty-Free Hair Products Round-Up

EDIT: Since I wrote this post, I found out that Deva Mist-er Right contains beeswax. So, not vegan. (4/28/08)

Co-owned by author of Curly Girl, Lorraine Massey, Deva Concepts' products are focused more on botanical ingredients rather than harsh chemicals. Their No-Poo cleanser was recommended to me by my stylist at Juju Salon in Philly (which I highly recommend for the organic, mostly vegan products they carry and they fact that, prior to my appointment, they always give Brian and me delicious vanilla rooibos tea from their next door neighbor, House of Tea, and ginger cookies ). I finally picked some of this nonlathering hair cleanser at Harmon's/Face Values, a Jersey health and beauty discount chain that I cannot go to unless I want to spend $30 or $40 on bottles of sweet-smelling stuff I slather onto some part of my body. Seriously, they are the best and pretty cheap, too. Cheap until you buy 10 more things than you originally planned. The next day I made the mistake of going back to purchase Deva Mist-er Right, which enlivens wet or dry curls and smells like key lime pie.

Though the Deva bottles state that the products aren't tested on animals and the ingredients list seemed relatively unspooky, there was no cruelty-free bunny logo. I sent an e-mail to their PR contact and she wrote back:

"No way never!" (PLEASE SEE NOTE ABOVE)

I also purchased Giovanni Frizz Be Gone Anti-Frizz Hair Texturizing Balm, which can finally replace my years-long use of John Frieda's Frizz Ease. So far, my curls are frizz-free and bouncy. Their products clearly state that they are free of cruelty and animal by-products.

For more information on beauty products and their ingredients list, please check out:

Go Cruelty Free

PETA’s Caring Consumer
Cosmetic Safety Database

For vegan shopping ideas, visit these blogs:
Swanky Veg

The Vegan Flower

Philly Businesses Listed in This Post:

Juju Salon and Organics

located at 716 S. 4th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) 238-6080

The House of Tea, Ltd.

located at 729 S. 4th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) or (888) 923-8327

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.

What's New Around Here

I signed up for Twitter. You can see my updates on the side.

We now have a blogroll. As it grows, we may break it down into categories but for now, this is just a collection of blogs I read regularly and find inspiring, helpful, entertaining, and well-written. Some are by friends (Eats Well with Others, Ladypoverty), some are based in Philly (Ladypoverty, The Urban Vegan, Straight from the Farm), others are based in San Francisco (Eats Well with Others), and all of the food-related ones are vegetarian or vegan.

We’re giving away one free copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. People are actually entering! You should too. All you have to do is leave a comment here. When you sign in to comment, make sure it links back to a Blogger page or your e-mail address.

Happy Earth Day 2008

One of the many green tips in the April 2008 Green Issue of Glamour was to give up meat once a week. I sent them the following letter applauding the tip but asking them to go one further—give up eating meat entirely:

I loved the Green Guide in the April 2008 issue. I especially loved the tip about giving up meat once a week to lessen the damage meat production causes to our environment. I’d like to go one way better, though—how about giving up meat entirely? It’s not only better for the environment; it’s the only truly humane way to treat the animals so many of us love (I think most people who live with a cat or dog would agree that there’s no “humane” way to kill their beloved Fido, right?). After a lifetime of meat-eating and saying, “Oh, I could never be a vegetarian!” I finally gave it up a year ago. It’s by far one of the most rewarding, healthful, and delicious choices I’ve made in my life. Rather than limiting my options, being a vegetarian has opened up my taste buds to a world of produce, grains, and flavors I never tried when I ate grilled chicken every night. More importantly, now that I no longer eat animals, I can look my dog and any cow, chicken, or pig in the face and know that I’m finally living out my conscience.

If you’re thinking of a way to commemorate Earth Day today, consider not eating meat today. Here are some links to site with recipes. Or pick up some of the following cookbooks at your local library or buy a used copy.

* The Post-Punk Kitchen, the website of Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, the authors of the awesome cookbooks Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. You can enter to win a copy of Vegan Cupcakes from us just by leaving a little old comment here.
* Vegan.com Top 10 Recipes of 2008: I found this link on Elaine Vigneault’s excellent blog, which is now a daily read for me.
* VegWeb.com

* All Recipes’ vegan and vegetarian recipes
* Vegan Chef

* Eat, Drink and Be Vegan Dreena Burton's blog and her latest cookbook, which I refer to frequently and with much success.
* The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Try making the German Apple Cake or Blueberry Coffee Cake and see if there are leftovers after just an hour. Colleen’s working on a new cookbook now and I’m going to be one of the recipe testers. I cannot wait to test and eat the sure to be delicious recipe she’ll send over.
* Compassionate Cooks is Colleen’s main site, where you can find both free and reasonably priced recipe packets, her excellent Food for Thought podcasts, and sign up for cooking classes
* Vegetarian Times I really knew I was a vegetarian when I canceled my years-long subscription to Cooking Light and signed up for Vegetarian Times. About 70–80% of their recipes are vegan. The rest are easily veganized. You can search for free recipes on the site too.
* Veg News More features than recipes but I got the recipe for a delicious chocolate chip banana bread in a back issue.
* Herbivore magazine will stop printing the magazine this year. That sucks. Issues usually feature a few recipes and you can order cookbooks at their store.

That should get you started on a very delicious and enjoyable animal-product free day. Enjoy!

Everyone Is a Little Vegan

My friend just came back from Canyon Ranch and was going on about how lovely it was, how good the food was, how restorative restorative yoga was. Just listening to her made me want to go so I checked out the web site and looked over the menu. They clearly label vegan items, like miso soup and smoothies, which is really great. However, I noticed that some clearly vegan items did not garner a vegan sign next to it. Apparently, bananas, berries, melons, rice, and potatoes are not vegan.

When many people think of vegan food, they often think of tofu or fake meat strips. They are vegan and I happen to like both. We often forget that the fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts we are eating are vegan too. It’s strange that the completely unadulterated foods—almost all of which are vegan—don’t get labeled as such. Why are they not immediately deemed vegan by your average meateater, then? When Brian and I bring fruit salad to a lunch, it doesn’t get labeled vegan so everyone gobbles it right up. When we bring out the cake that doesn’t contain eggs and butter, though, trepidation often kicks in because it’s V-E-G-A-N. But it’s no more vegan than the fruit.

What makes a diet without meat and other animal products seem daunting is the idea that we will have to eat food that isn’t “real”, is too different, isn’t good enough. I certainly used to think that way and still have some of that thinking to a degree (hello, cheese). Thing is, I always ate vegan food even when I was an omnivore. The banana in my cereal, the beans on my rice, the salad for lunch—all vegan. We’re all eating vegan food all the time. Thinking that it’s an entirely foreign diet is inaccurate and makes something already familiar and available in abundance seem unnecessarily weird and lacking.

Mutual Menu is giving away one copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. To enter to win and for more details, please leave one comment here.