vegan – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Joys

{made-with-love oatmeal}

Much of being a parent is really difficult. I’ve always said the good, the true joy of being a parent, outweighs all the negative that can and often does happen. This applies to my family completely. We’ve had struggles (key the amen choir) and some times it can be days before true JOY shows it’s pretty head.

My son turns 22 at the end of this month. Shocking-YES. My stepdaughter turned 25 a few days ago. It’s a big birthday month. I received my son’s birthday wish list yesterday and low and behold (cue the choir again) THIS meatless cookbook is on his list. If any of you reading have been following along for years this is the kid who insisted we put meat on his plate at the end of middle school. He was working out a lot, playing hard, and felt like our mostly plant-based diet was not filling him up. He was sick and tired of being raised vegetarian.

This outburst from him prompted me to look into sustainable meat which created a whole new food journey for our family. I started buying meat from local farmers and listened to one of my food heroes Barbara Kingsolver. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle she says that at one time the only option was to abstain from meat if you were conscientious about your food choices; now there are options so promoting and purchasing farmer-raised meat is good for us and good for the farmer and ultimately good for the environment. So I’m gently patting myself on the back that my son, even though I know he still enjoys meat once in while, is aware of other eating options. Bravo.

Groovy Girl, who really wishes I could come up with a new blog nickname for her, makes me feel joy often but in particular the other day when her braces-covered-teeth were sore she made the request for me to make my special oatmeal for her breakfast. It was the way she said it like she was 7 again and not 14. I rewarded her with a delicious bowl full and mini ones for my husband and I. Truth be told I don’t do anything that special but I do stir it as it cooks which makes it creamy and at the end I add what ever fruit we have and sprinkles of brown sugar and cinnamon. Made with love.

Groovy Girl (the name is too perfect and she’ll be G.G. until the day the blog ends-sorry babe) and I did FaceTime with oldest daughter on her birthday and that was a highlight of my week. She had been at the musical Groundhog Day in NYC so we talked to her as she walked to the train. NY looked magical with twinkling lights and all the activity around her. I can’t wait to be there this summer with her.

Anton, my former student, living with us as an adopted son now is doing really well. He has a job, has his IA driver’s license, and has made a friend. Right now he is outside helping Greg with some chores. Teaching him to be part of the family is probably the hardest hurdle as that’s not something he’s experienced in the same way many of us think about family dynamics; how we work together and communicate. It is a thrill still to have him here.

Cooking keeps me sane

Recently I’ve made some amazing recipes that I should share. It’s been a wild last couple of days. My brother visited last week. Inauguration. My husband’s performance of Rocky Horror opened on Friday night. And our son came back from school for the weekend to see last night’s show.

I’m much like my grandmother in that I cook for people when they come to my home although I was caught a little unprepared when my brother and his family hung out with us last Sunday morning. I didn’t let the same thing happen for this morning’s brunch. The show was very late last night so Tristan and Heather slept in which was perfect. It gave me the time to do some morning yoga and then prepare food without a rush. Heather’s vegan and my son follows suit when they are together. I found several new recipes that I was happy to try.

My initial inspiration came from this post, 30 Vegan Breakfast Recipes, by Sam at It doesn’t taste like chicken. Breakfast is one of our favorite meals and it was great to have so many wonderful choices all in one spot. There are several more on this list that I plan to try like the breakfast sandwich but for today’s breakfast I picked the biscuits and gravy and potato hash. I served those two with grits, grapes, sliced oranges, and fresh orange juice. I’m terrible about snapping pictures of my plated food; trust me that the food looked delicious.

{Source}

Simple Vegan Breakfast Hash-This recipe was very filled with flavor. Peeling the potatoes and cutting them into bite-sized chunks took some time but they roasted to such hot perfection that I was pulling the crusty parts right off the pan. Mine had a more prominent mixture of sweet potato!

{Minimalist Baker}

Best Damn Vegan Biscuits- I thought I’d get ahead of the game by preparing these last night before I went to bed. I must have been overtired as I mixed up the measurements for baking soda and baking powder. They baked up beautifully and it was lucky that I tried one hot out of the oven. They were H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E! Really heavy flavor of soda. So I redid the recipe this morning and they turned out just right. This is a very easy recipe to follow with minimal ingredients.

{Minimalist Baker}

If you’re going to have biscuits then you should probably whip up some vegan gravy. I’ve made vegetarian gravy many times but had no clue how to make a vegan recipe that would taste good. Again I turned to Dana’s recipe at the Minimalist Baker. Her gravy is packed full of mushrooms giving it a hearty quality. I even wonder if I could pass this recipe off on my husband instead of that jarred gravy he sometimes uses in a pinch. Give it a try: Vegan Breakfast Gravy

I didn’t get to march yesterday but was there in spirit. I did manage to slip in some reading; My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and Pax by Sara Pennypacker, both interesting stories of friendship.

I host book club on Monday night and I’ve made another great recipe for that: Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup, a very easy and flavorful recipe. I love soups and this one has a nice kick to it.

Happy Week! February is truly just around the corner. We are at the halfway mark for winter. One step closer to spring is what I think.

Menu for this holiday week…WOW!

I like planning and putting together meals that everyone will love through the holidays. Planning truly is half the fun.

I should be cleaning right now and instead I’m plotting and finding recipes. Tomorrow morning it will be the first meal we all have together since-well, we were all in Chicago for Thanksgiving! Still it will be special around our big table, ready to start the festivities off.

I’m going to make a french toast recipe in my slow cooker. I can get up early, pour it all in, and then go back to bed and read for a few hours until the eggs are set and the bread is crusty. Breakfast for Christmas morning is going to be an egg enchilada dish with some grits, fruit, and bacon (husband only).

{breakfast enchiladas}

At Mississippi Market in St Paul I located a MN farm-raised turkey and my husband picked it up today before he picked up our oldest daughter at the airport. Our turkey is now riding home with the two of them-hopefully doing a little un-thawing. I spent days and many phone calls trying to find an Iowa turkey but none were available. We have not had a turkey for years. I’ve been creative over the years making meatless or fish meals. While we were in Chicago over Thanksgiving though Groovy Girl mentioned that she didn’t remember EVER having had a “traditional” T.giving meal. She’s exceptional.

{squash and wild rice}

While I’m not one for tradition I thought it would be fun to give it a go for Christmas. I plan to brine the bird just like my mom and I used to do years ago. I’m not even a fan of turkey but we’ll see how this one turns out. I hope Groovy Girl will be happy with the results. That meal will be rounded out with cranberries, butternut squash/wild rice dish (if I change the honey for maple syrup it will be vegan), some roasted sweet potatoes (I just found this recipe in the **Thug Kitchen 101, roasted brussels sprouts with shaved parmesan (on the side), regular mashed potatoes and gravy, whole carrots roasted, maybe a small salad (it makes me happy). What a whole lot of love this will be. I plan on dinner lasting at least an hour. Groovy Son’s girlfriend is coming over after work so that is why so many vegan dishes are infused into our meal. I heartily laugh about the fact that she became a vegan as he complained for years about eating mainly vegetarian as a child until we added in sustainable local meat. I seriously love the universe. Our meals over the years did teach him to be a flexible, more versatile eater which is just a good thing for anyone.

So anxious was I about our amazing meal that I jumped ahead with the Christmas dinner paragraph. Backing up to Christmas Eve; also a tangle of recipes because I grew up with homemade oyster stew and champagne. I love oyster stew and champagne! I’ve never been a vegetarian that couldn’t eat a little fish along the way. My husband happens to be allergic to shellfish. I know. Almost a deal breaker. I started making clam chowder as a replacement. It does not hold the same appeal though. Clam chowder is like oyster stews’ half cousin, twice removed. So this year I’m making a small batch of BOTH! I found a recipe on Epicurious that takes it up a notch or two-no once removed and will see how it fares. Yes. Enough for all to have some of each except the husband. We’ll have baguettes and salad to go with this meal.

Are you hungry now? I am.

**I have this in my house b/c it is the girlfriend’s Christmas gift. I read a review somewhere about this book and wanted to check it out anyway and then it appeared on her wish list so win/win. It’s definitely cheeky and the recipes are appealing.

Weekend Cooking; Food for Thought

I cooked routine, easy meals this week. Leftovers, pasta with some of my frozen-from-last-summer pesto, and hamburgers nourished us this week. Over the last few years our family meals have taken new direction. Change is good. I would say we’ve always been on the cusp of healthy eating but not over the edge. Many people consider us to be over-the-edge though.

I’ve eaten a vegetarian diet since I was a teenager. Teenage boy was raised vegetarian. (Except for Gpa Dean who kept taking him to McD for chicken nuggets on their manly Saturday wash the truck days!!) My husband, who spent time as a young boy in both Sierra Leone and Malaysia has a versatile palate and he’s a runner. He swayed easily with my vegetarian cooking. Every once in awhile he would come home with a package of ground turkey, shape patties, and serve them for dinner. I just ate the side dishes.

As Teenage Boy became well, a teenager, and more active he begged for meat. I’d read Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, where she talks about making responsible meat choices. Every foodie should read her book. After some local research I found a Gentleman Farmer who sells straight to the consumer for a reasonable price. Now I can purchase meat from him because he has the same ideas about animals that I do and I’ve introduced meat back in to our diet over the last three years. My veg friends are shocked and a little disgusted but I’ve enjoyed the journey. I like the idea of helping the farmer practice sustainable, healthy food production. It’s all about supply and demand.

We still eat vegetarian at home most of the time and when we venture out for food I always eat vegetarian. I want restaurants to think about what they serve and how whole groups of us are left out when only two veg menu items are offered, usually one of the items is a cheese quesadilla; not very healthy and I’m a cheese snob. Lucky for us we have a dairy that practices sustainable and wholesome farming where we can purchase hormone-free milk and local cheeses. Trust me there is plenty of eye-rolling going on at our table as I sweetly question wait staff on vegetarian eating options. Nachos with cheese SAUCE always riles me up and confuses the poor wait person.

Teenage Boy is now tackling our sugar habit. He is an athlete and has decided to cut out refined sugars. We don’t eat a ton of sugar at our house but I like to bake and Teenage Boy loves to have cookies or bars on hand to eat. He is super thin and needs multiple food choices throughout the day. We are soda free but the kids drink healthy-ish real juice. Cereals are another area where sugar is an issue but we do have a special way of serving cereal that deserves an entire post all its own. The search is on for baking recipes that use natural sweeteners other than refined sugar. I need to read more to understand my options. Obviously we all know sugar isn’t good for us but what kind of treats can I make that my kids will still think of as edible and not tree bark?

Sidebars:

1. I browsed through this book, Chloe’s Kitchen, online yesterday and am completely enticed. While we are not vegan I think this cookbook offers some great variations on everyday recipes. Why not throw it into our already jumbled randomness of food ideas? Has anybody experimented with this book?

2. I started watching The Future of Food on Netflix instant while Groovy Girl was in gymnastics class. I plan to finish watching today. Genetically modified foods scare me and we need to be wary of their existence on our grocery shelves. I discovered this list of food documentaries on Lettuce Eat Kale. I’ve watched a few of them (I highly recommend King Corn) but should probably watch all. I always feel disgusted and angry after watching but more involved as well. Sick but smarter…

3. I get this Rodale newsletter through email and found this must-read article about the over-used word, natural. It’s crazy that we’ve watched this word transformed from a positive into a meaningless word. Tragic. Someday I hope it will come back from the dark side. The bottom line is if you see the word natural on products-it’s not because food manufacturer’s have watered-down the meaning of the word-ON PURPOSE-to make more money.

With all that…
Stay positive.
What changes can you make if the future of food is important to you?

This post is connected to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to see more food-related posts.