August Updates- New Vegan Recipes

It's been a rough 24 hours. Frank and I lost a dear friend yesterday. Halim was an amazing person and a great friend to us. When we first came to Malaysia Haza and Halim showed us around their village in Kedah as well as other parts of Malaysia. We've spent two Hari Raya's (Eid) with them and consider them family. Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to him. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I can't imagine how one could lose a spouse and be able to continue on in this world. Amazing how strong Haza is.

I wasn't even sure I was going to post anything today, I didn't last week. I've been busy searching for our next adventure (aka new job) because soon our contract will expire. I'd like it to renew, but the way the govt is moving in this country we would know only after everyone has picked up and left. So, I'm not taking chances and have been looking around for a few interesting locations to go. However, I decided to post a few pics from the last two weeks anyways because I got some inquiries about a recipe I made and posted on FB. Apparently it was a hit and I'll start off with that one first.

Sorry for the short blog this week, hopefully some of these pics will inspire.

Golden Nuggets
I was watching Mary's Test Kitchen: The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner episode and she was making a new kind of soy milk. I got a bit inspired because I am always trying to make my homemade soy milk taste less like soy beans and more like anything else but that. And when I make soy milk I always have the leftover okara that I don't know what to do with. I tried making Mary's okara fish cakes, but even when it's vegan I can't stand the taste of seafood. In China when I would eat veggies sometimes they were in the same bowl as other meats. The taste never bothered me unless it was seafood. So, I looked at this okara stuff and was like the heck man! Now, the first few times okara came out, it was from the raw soy beans. Once I put them in the oven (after they were strained from the soy mixture) they ended up tasting fine (no weird beany flavor). I baked them for maybe 10 minutes- at least long enough to remove the excess moisture. This time the soy milk recipe called for the beans to boiled first, which left the okara cooked and without beany aftertaste-isms. So, now I have a lot of this not too bad tasting okara stuff and still didn't know what to do with it... UNTIL! Mary's recipe from Miyoko. Dudes, I kid you not this was the best! The patties themselves were fun to make, ingredients may be hard to find but any substitution would really work (like instead of okara just use some chopped veggies), and the flavor wasn't half bad. Now the recipe is a lot, so I halved it. I highly recommend this recipe. I think these will now be made weekly. Not only can I freeze them and pop them in the oven when I want something to eat, Frank suggested I made them into bigger patties to have as a chik burger! Awesome!

Nacho Mac N Cheese
A recipe from Vegan Junk Food on nacho cheese sauce, I've been making like crazy. However, I've modified it. Paprika is hard to find but apparently not Mexican spice, thus a swap was made. And the cheese sauce is waaaaaaaaaaaay to liquidy for my taste so I added 3 tbsp of tapioca starch and cooked it down until it was thick. This went great with my mac n cheese. I added some chopped onions, garlic, chives, and I think I threw in some flax seed flour for the added health benefits, oh, as well as broccoli and potatoes in some dishes.








Homemade Tomato Soup
Raw. Vegan. Not Gross had this recipe: Oven Roasted Tomato Soup and it looked so good I had to make it. Like all tomato soups I make there's a hint of tomato sauce taste-like-thing, which made me think mac noodles would be good in this. But I ate it as is and it was yummmmmmy!

Salads
I've used my nacho sauce on some salads this week. Added beans and potatoes, others I used a frozen veggie pattie I made a few weeks ago. Alls yum.

Chickpea Salad
In the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen I found a recipe that calls for the two things I have a lot of: chickpeas and tahini. This recipe was amazing! Frank said it tasted like peanuts... can't please everyone. Now it does call for parsley and I don't have that, so I used whatever seasoning looked green (chives, Italian spices, etc).
Chickpeas with Parsley-Tahini SauceThis addictive appetizer—rather like an un-mashed hummus—is terrific with pita bread, crackers, or served in butter lettuce or radicchio leaves. Ready in just about five minutes using canned chickpeas, you simply can’t beat its convenience when unexpected guests drop by.

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 (19-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sesame tahini
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped Juice of ½ large lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pita bread, crackers, or whole butter lettuce and/or radicchio leaves (optional)

In a medium bowl, toss the chickpeas, parsley, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until well combined. Serve at room temperature, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour and serve chilled, accompanied by the pita bread, crackers, or lettuce leaves, if desired.

 Advance Preparation The mixture can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to two days.

PER SERVING

Calories 186 · Protein 9g · Total Fat 6g ·
Saturated Fat 1g · Cholesterol 0mg · Carbohydrate 26g .
Dietary Fiber 1g · Sodium 11mg

Groats!
You all know my groats obsession. I had to order more. Stay tuned!

Shake it Off!

Berries were in season THUS a berry delicious shake!

Dates with Almond Butter

I kept hearing people eat almond butter with dates and thought strange ('_')". I had made some almond butter with some maple syrup and thought to give it a try. Almost gave myself a tummy ache with all the dates  I ate!  (o=_=o)'

Out to eat!

Our vegetarian spot is still closed. So we subbed it with other foods. 

Japanese onigiri and friends

Indian Vegetarian Banana Leaf

Chinese Malay

At School!

There were a lot of parties last week. Some schools had what I would like to call a cookie day. So every kid brought some cookies in and the entire school just shared each others cookies. They also wore their finest new clothing and had some lunch to go with their party. I posted only one pic of the cookies below because they were adorable! Another school had a food party that I was privy to. All the food is below though I didn't eat it all.  

In Malaysia mysterious green desserts are a cultural necessity 

 

Coconut Matcha Ice Cream
I forgot to post pics of the coconut matcha ice cream I made myself, however I got the pics of the one I made my teachers. Take coconut milk, vanilla extra, probably a cup of powdered sugar, and 2 tbsp of matcha powder. Whisk it with an electric mixer until taste and consistency is desirable and freeze. If you remember, every two hours or so mix it up. However, when you use coconut milk the fat helps keep the ice cream texture creamy (so the mixing may or may not be necessary). I think the students like it more than my teachers. I wasn't trying to make it too strong even thought I like it strong.

Well, that's been the last two weeks. I'll try to get more pics and recipe up for the next few weeks, but it's getting close to the time we might have to leave Malaysia. Hoping for the best. 

Take care. 

Chased by Chickens! Welcome to Malaysia.

On Monday morning I went for a jog and decided to take another route I used to take with Frank. As I was coming up on some houses there is a house that has exceptionally strange feathered friends (not just the usual chickens or even turkeys at other houses). They have pheasants and these strange dwarf chickens (I forgot the name of them). They look like cartoon chickens in a sense their bodies are small and roundish, have small necks, but are covered in adult feathers and stuff. So, it's like a grown chicken but shrunken slightly. Anyways, on my run I came across one, who was slightly away from his house. He started running with me, like a lot of them do when we come around, but usually away from us due to fear. This one was running for with me for a while, I thought he was running towards his house, but after a few seconds and passing his house I dawned on me that we might be running partners (or I was being chased). He was very vocal about something and kept a 5 foot distance from me (we were side by side). I couldn't tell if he was for or against this jog! I started sprinting slightly because, well, I wasn't sure what was happening! I was both laughing and a bit concerned too. He stopped as I got to the street and did a final yell "gggggoolgoglalgaaaadoooo!" Which either meant "great run!" or "that's right human! run from the greatest chicken samurai of all!"  As a vegan I felt almost betrayed, "I don't even eat you!" I've decided to keep my usual route to just around the neighborhood... we have cats, not fierce samurai chickens. 

gggggoolgoglalgaaaadoooo!

Besides the chicken chase I've been on YouTube a lot. Listening to NutrionalFacts.org as well as watching the usual social media stuff happening. I won't talk too much about it, this blog is not for controversy, but yes a lion named Cecil was killed, along with thousands of other named and nameless animals this week.  Good things and bad things came from this senseless killing. The bad of course was that an animal died that people care about dearly and was important to all. Vegans also became quite vocal about their opinions on how could one life mean so much (Cecils) but no other animal (let along humans sometimes) get this kind of attention? It's weird, hypocritical, and almost socially unacceptable that some were so concerned about this one life and don't say anything else when other animals suffer or do anything daily to help prevent needless suffering.... That was one side of this. So, what could be good about this, well... a lot of large protected animals are losing their fight to survive in this world. However, long ago hunting like this was something of a norm but now so many are against this and fighting for these animals. If we all fought loudly for all animals; indited, arrested, posted on social media, and basically made a huge stink about this like we did Cecil, it may discourage a lot more from doing this kind of behavior. I want to help---aiming my pointer finger at China and will slowly point back to Africa towards that group of elephants, tigers, and hundreds of other endangered animals hanging out minding there own business. Just saying.... point point.... there.

All right. Exercise picked up this week. A lot more running and a few classes of home zumba along with actual zumba. Good news is that more zumba classes will happen because the gym in which it was originally held is now fully renovated and ready to be opened! So at least two or three zumba classes a week and hopefully an aerobics class or two. This week I lost two pounds, even though I was concerned I ate a lot of carbs-- however, I ran more and tried to eat a lot of fresh veggies! This week was a fun week for food.

Breakfast Pancake Surprise!

I did make my groats a couple of times this week. However, I wanted some more oats and bran in me so I made my usual pancakes BUT I added peanut butter and jelly. The jelly I made myself. There are a lot of different ways to make jelly, but I used fresh strawberries cooked in pot with a little bit of agave. When it was a liquid I added some chia seeds for a natural thickening agent. It was all nom noms!

Sambal Heaven!

Hazza gave me some more sambal, but I didn't have tofu. I added potatoes, onions, and tomatoes to it and made brown rice with a tbsp of glutinous rice. This helped the rice to be more sticky. So sambal again is, well, what I think it is, blended peppers or tomatoes (not sure exactly) with sugar, oil, onions, and stuff. Like a spicy sauce-a bit oily too. I don't think it's the most healthy thing to eat but it does produce the most happiness! 

Vegetarian Corner!

Our little place is going to going through a renovation for two or three weeks!!! :( Nooooo!!!!! So this was the last meal for a while. Vegan zhongzi and the usual noms. Zhongzi's tend to come out during Dragon Boat season, however I wasn't sure what was going on and why we saw them. Again, they are cooked rice in a banana leave with other ingredients in them. Mine was mushrooms.






Nacho Cheese!!!!! Say what what?!
A link with BuzzFeedYellow yielded me to a website on how to make nacho cheese: Vegan Junk Food  The nacho cheese ended up being a bit watery so I did what I would do with my moxerella cheese, and placed it in a sauce pan with 2 tsbp of tapioca starch and cooked it down until it was thicker. I didn't have paprika but I had Mexican spice and it really made the house smell like Taco Bell. Frank said it even tasted like Taco Bell cheese!!! However, I'm unsure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Eating this is definitely a good thing. Cashews, spices, water, garlic, and tapioca starch are a lot more healthy for you instead of synthesized questionable cheese sauce like ingredients. I was not at all feeling guilty while eating this.
Seitan and Zucchini covered in Nacho Sauce of Dreams
I baked up some of my seitan and zucchini. Added beans and onions to my nacho sauce and was very happy.
Nacho Cheese Wrap Salad Magic!
I made a salad with the nacho cheese. Added cooked zucchini and onions. After consuming a few bites I realized it wasn't too awesome so I added a wrap to it and then all awesome magic broke loose!!! Tap Tap!

















Sweet Potato Roti
Oh this one was a good one!! From Veganlovlie Sweet Potato Flatbread (Roti) was awesome and easy and inspiring. 1 cup cooked and mashed (without skin) sweet potato with one cup all purpose flour; roll, shape, form, and pan cook. Bammmmmma!!! Deliciousness!

Seitan Sweet Potato Roti
I used up my last piece of seitan, added veggies, nacho cheese, and threw (could you imagine me throwing it....just thought how intense that would be) into my sweet potato roti.
















Leftovers
I can't remember the dish (on the right) that Hazza made for me. It's coconut and tomatoes in a curry like salsa. It taste like it sounds both coconuty and tomatoy.... so pairing it with leftover rice and my roti was odd but not a bad odd. If there is such a thing.








Falafels!
Well not exactly. I grilled some veggies (until the stupid grill broke and then ovened the rest) and made falafels from a mix. It's ingredients weren't bad at all, very natural stuff. However it was super dry and I ovened them instead of deep fried. Maybe that was the issue. Anyways used my last two tortillas and added some tahini sauce and BAAAAM! It was yummy. It's nice to taste some different flavors from time to time. Ever since becoming a vegan I've tried more new and interesting flavors I haven't run into before. So interesting.

Raspberry-Strawberry-Banana Coconut Smoothie

Just another healthy snack filled with chia seeds before we went for a walk. Nice to have raspberries... even if they are fricken $6!! Ridiculous!

Well, this week was a looong one! But now it's time to have some fun. In August I have no food plans though I was thinking of trying to make some Malaysian staples into a vegan version.... but I have food in the house I need to use up.... that reminds me... I need to figure out what to do with my quinoa! Maybe a breakfast food? Unsure yet. It's a weird taste.

Take care and love the animals around you. 

Cookie Parties! And other fun this week.

Welcome back!
Schools opened again on Wednesday and everything seemed mostly normal except a lot of schools held their own Hari Raya parties. One in particular (I attended) had all of their students dress in their finest (and brand new) Hari Raya clothes as well as each student brought a box of cookies to share with their school. The teachers also know how to get down with their bad selves and brought food to share as well. I only ate a few things (that were vegan of course). None of the cookies I could trust and even some of the curries. I ate a peanut curry (which is pretty yummy and popular here in Malaysia) with some sticky rice and a veggie curry another teacher made which I discovered wasn't all vegan--no biggie. There was one dessert that was a gluten green jell (looked like tadpoles) swimming in coconut milk. That stuff was yummy!

two tables full of cookies

adult food and durian-blah >o<

Oh how cute!

As for food this week I had a bit of a sweet tooth attack and made a few vegan desserts. Granted all those cookies and cakes I was surrounded by I didn't get an opportunity to consume. I tended to eat a few of the same things this week with the occasional exceptions below. However, I sometimes ate them for both lunch/dinner or breakfast/lunch etc.  So, I won't divide them up today.

My Usual Quiche plus Greenery
I took my quiche that I make weekly (cause it's delectable) and added a salad to it. This week's quiche that's currently in the oven is entirely comprised of spinach, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes. I limited the amount to just four veggies. The one here has everything that was in my fridge (broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, garden veggies, onions, and who knows what). It wasn't even flat when I placed it in the oven, it was gigantic and bulging! So, this weeks quiche will be slimmer looking. I actually was listening to an article from one of my new favorite YouTube channels NutritionFacts.org about how spinach and garlic are pretty powerful foods. I suggest looking at his stuff online.







Japanese Nom Nom!
We visited our local Japanese spot and I noticed something on the menu that caught my eye! They had a green symbol like this veg 斋 (though there are a variety of versions of this symbol) right next to a dish. This means vegetarian. The symbol so happened to be on a curry item! Woohoooo! It came with a potato salad I gave to Frank and got a few seaweed/nori rolls for some added a nutrition (nori/seaweed is full of vitamins and stuff and stuff). Sooooo yummy and diverse from my usual order--however I think I'll switch back to my other items next time. But it's nice to try something new.

Thrown Together Dinner
I didn't feel like eating but decided I should have something. Knowing I had some salad that needed to be eaten, I placed that in a bowl with some beans, tomatoes, and onions. Mixed a garlicky vinaigrette together, toasted my last flaxseed bun, and there it was: A thrown together dinner. My vinaigrette was overwhelmingly vinegary, however all and all it was a fine dinner.

Zucchini Noodles in Cauliflower Curry
I wanted to make a curry with cauliflower and peas that I've seen in Indian restaurants, so I did. I also added the rest of Haza's curry I had in the fridge to the pot. This particular time I added some zucchini noodles I had leftover in the fridge. The noodles made things a bit bland. In general though the curry wasn't very strong but still good. There's a lot of recipes online on how to make this particular curry, but I just did what I wanted because I used to make curry often and felt confident in my curry making ability.

Coconut Chai Ice Cream

This wasn't horrible (because my ice creams of the past have been). This was a light flavor, not too sweet, and I am hopeful not too full of fat because I used the light canned of coconut milk stuff. However, the recipe that I got from Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. called for seeped chai tea. When you add water to a cream to make ice cream unfortunately ice crystals will form. This was the only disappointment I had. No matter what, you tend to crunch into them. In the future I will heat the coconut cream with the chai tea (no water) directly to absorb the flavor so I can avoid water in the mixture.
Chickpea Blondies
I found a recipe a while ago on how to make Chickpea Blondies and a ton of other chickpea recipes. This was totally yummy mostly because I melted a dark chocolate bar on top of it as it came out of the oven and sprinkled some sea salt on top of that! (sorry I don't have the link to this recipe). It's a bit healthy because I didn't make it too sweet and added flaxseed to it-of course.

Chocolate Nibs Cookies
That's right... NIBBBS....! Why? Because I wanted to try them out. The recipe I got from Mary's Test Kitchen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK3-w5CGVEU whom she subsequently got from another person. I like her version of the cookie because she adds less sugar to it then whats called for. I also added flaxseeds to mine... because. These weren't bad cookies at all! Perfect texture actually except the chocolate nibs were pretty strong. I had put a tiny bit of chocolate in it, but apparently not enough. I used them to make an ice cream sandwich below.
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
This recipe was all over my Facebook. So I had to try it out! Granted I made two chocolate cakes in the last week I couldn't eat so I had to go for it. The frosting in the recipe I may have messed up on because it's grainy.... so powdered sugar instead of regular sugar. The cake is also yummy though some ended up cooked and other ended up a bit fudgy (no harm there right). It's a good recipe I highly suggest it. Make sure you cook them for 25-30 minutes, as recommended (I didn't because that was for the cake and mine were cupcakes--I'd say just keep an eye out for them). http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/

And now for a taste of things to come: Vegan Kombat!!
My seitan and spinach quiche are done! This week is looking nom noms!

This week weight loss was nothing, I guess this month is slow. However, I've gotten back into running and ran about 22 minutes this week with 3 hours of home zumba and an hour walk. Not a lot but hopefully next week it'll pick up.

Thanks again see you next week!

Hari Raya Celebration Time! And carrots don't make good hot dogs!

Hello! It's taken me about two weeks to put up a blog. Understandable because I was recovering from my unexplained-out-of-no-where back issues. Anyways, I'm doing better and Happy Hari Raya or the Eid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Fitr In Malaysia and a few other countries it's called Hari Raya. To make this very complicated celebration into a very short explanation it's when the Ramadan fasting stops and everyone celebrates by visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors houses with treats and food. Last year Frank and I visited almost 10 houses with our friends Hazza and Halim. The food usually consists of noodles, curries, veggies, meats, cookies, and cakes-mostly traditional Malay food. Every house is different though and last year we ate a lot of everything, especially fruit. This year was only two houses and one of them was Hazza's house. She cooked some amazing dishes. I had a vegan curry made just for me and she sent me home with a vegan sambal (tomato/pepper sauce) dish I cooked up with tofu.
 

Vegan Sambal

Hari Raya

I know, you're thinking about those cookies I was telling you about, aren't you? Well, there are literally dozens of various flavor cookies that come out for Hari Raya. However, none of them would be familiar to foreigners unless they grew up in an area that sold cookies maybe from Europe. These are super small and dry. I have a feeling their shelf life is as long as a mission to Pluto. However, last year I wanted to get in on the action and made my teachers GIANT American cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal, etc). This year I kept the theme American flavored alive (gingerbread, eggnog, and biscotti's-though that's not a flavor....) but much smaller. I received a standing ovation once again. I also made a chocolate cake from scratch for Hazza's house. Unfortunately, these cookies/cakes were not vegan--so I have no idea how they tasted and I don't feel right to post their recipes--seems anti-this-type-of-blog-and-stuff. They were vegetarian though.

Now onto food for the last two weeks. I've had some repeats of food and I've also forgotten to take a few pictures of other foods. However, I think I have enough for this blog to recommend a few things. 

First, iherbs.com delivers things of amazingness! There are so many YouTube videos out there about vegan seitan, tahini, margarine, etc..... So I ordered a few things. In the picture above you can see buckwheat (which are seeds and apparently- to my surprise- not the flour version), tahini, vegan margarine (made by milking coconuts and then churning the coconut milk), vegan bullion, vegan marshmallows, chocolate nibs, and vital wheat gluten for making seitan! 

Breakfast:

Buckwheat aka groats! I am groats!!

Okay, so I didn't get the buckwheat flour I was anticipating for but instead I got the entire buckwheat seed. That's okay!! That's what YouTube is about. I was searching for a good recipe and ended up coming to a lot of the hippie-esk raw vegans who make all of their recipes utterly complicated videos=blah! Snore! However, I found a new and wonderful vlog to follow. Laura Miller is one of those hilarious humans that make food not seem horrid. Her show is called Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. and she had a nice recipe for buckwheat that involved a bit of soaking, a bit of roasting, and a bit of flavor. It's actually a lot of fun and easy to make. So many people are concerned now with what's in their cereal in the mornings. For me I stopped eating cereal decades ago (originally due to the high amount of sugar and carbs). However, with this recipe I've been eating "cereal" more often. I looked up buckwheat/groats. It has a lot of nutrition and other good stuff in it, so something natural and healthy for breakfast= thumbs up! Here's the link to make some groats for breakfast:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNcfhR9SZew

Lunch

Fried (I mean baked) Zucchini!

Man, I have a lot of pictures to go through. Okay, I made some more zucchini noodles but decided to take the middles and make something scandalous! Here's a similar recipe I used from the Sweetest Vegan Tasha Edwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX3gmV-LINo I had a tomato and added tahini, onions, garlic, and tomato paste to a pan and hoped for the best for the sauce... it was fine. Phew!

Zucchini Noodles
Like last week I made some zucchini noodles, I think I added tofu this time.
Vegan burgers
Just like last week I made a ton of vegan burgers. Half I put in the freezer for later use.
Out to lunch
Vegetarian restaurant, Secret Recipes Cashew Salad, and Blackwood I ordered Portabello Mushroom Steak and fries. Good stuff!

The Not-Yummy Carrot Dog
I should have known. The Edgy Veg put a video up on how to make a veggie dog out of carrot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3xb6_7s92g Maybe my ingredients were off or not right but it tasted icky and I made a heck of a lot! So I forced myself to eat them because I hate to waste food.

Dinner

Homemade Pickles!

I used to make pickles all the time in Guangzhou. I actually got really good at it. I made them spicy, sweet, and salty. I was inspired by Elton Brown in his Good Eats Episodes. It's incredibly easy to make and takes about a day or two for them to be ready. I've used cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, onions, and even boiled eggs at one time (which Frank surprisingly likes). I made cucumber pickles to go with my burgers this time though. They turned out awesome and it was a way to get rid of the giant cucumber in my fridge that I would have otherwise not eaten. I don't really like them unless they're cooked or pickled. 

Chickpea Curry Cause!
I wanted curry, I had chickpeas, so I made chickpea curry.... cause I wanted to! Tomatoes, a can of chickpeas, onion, garlic, and a packet of pre-mix curry powder. Done! Oh,  had leftovers which was why the picture says both dinner and breakfast. Breakfast of champions!















Seitan!
Pronounced sa-tan! Yes, like that guy. This however is something more of a miracle! Seitan is a miracle yet a ninja like kind of food. It can be disguised to be so many delicious things! If anyone has ever eaten "fake" meat, there are a few kinds out there. Some are made from soy, other kinds of bean, or vital wheat gluten. This is obviously not a gluten free product and the gluten itself is what makes seitan's texture so unique and desirable. Once made (which is really like science fun) it can be molded into meat shaped products: buffalo wings, chic nuggets, meat-loaf, etc. The texture is chewy and the flavor can be manipulated. I only wanted to make this because it was sooooo cool and science-ish!!! I like how things become other things once science comes into play. The Edgy Veg had a turkey version you can watch to see how she took the vital wheat gluten and made it into an edible turkey-like thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJO71ZRNOBU However, the recipe I followed most closely came from Mary's Test Kitchen:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlODaKhgla8 She steamed her seitan (most recipes call to boil it for hours in a broth) so it looked like the easiest and less wasteful way of making it. After I made it and chopped it up and pan fried it for a few minutes with my zucchini noodles it was rather tasty. The next day however I REALLY pan fried it and put it on a salad-holy crap- was that tasty!

Snacks

The Usual Suspects

So I made some fruit smoothies again with some added chia seeds and anything else around I threw it in (bricks, dishes, jewelry-whatever was laying around). I also had lots and lots of nuts. 

Vegan Marshmallows and Chocolate Nibs

Lastly, chocolate nibs and vegan marshmallows. Whatever I thought chocolate nibs were weren't what I thought they were..... were. They are like little pieces of bitter. That's all. Crunchy chunks of bitter. So, I YouTubed. I come to find they are the essence of chocolate before sugar basically. So, I had an epiphany. Marshmallows are sugary pillows of magic. So I opened a marshmallow and put some of the nibs on the sticky portion and consumed. I have found my new favorite snack of 2015! I have also thrown said nibs into my groats. Tasty stuff man. If you find these, get these, they are packed with nutrients and can be added to anything really... except maybe apple sauce, quiche's... okay anything related to baking or chocolate. 

Due to my back being out last week I wasn't able to run or go to Zumba. Now that I'm feeling better but exceptionally cautious I've gotten in a few hours of Zumba at home and some walking. Zumba is closed due to Hari Raya, but as soon as it opens I think I'll be ready to go at it again. I'm overly cautious because this particular portion of my back I've hurt severely before where I couldn't even walk without immense pain. This time it went away within a week (rather than almost a year). So, I'm optimistic and cautious. Granted, the lack of exercise did inhibit some weight loss. Only about a pound was lost these last two weeks. Hoping to catch up. So I guess within a month of this vegan diet thing I've lost about 5lbs. No calorie counting, no sugar, a lot less oil, and just a ton of veggies and new varieties of food. However, I think it's also opened up even more social and environmental issues to me. I was always vegetarian for ethical reasons, now I wish I was just always vegan. The vegan community is exceptionally vocal about the ethics of animals and I'm proud of them no matter how quirky, rude, or compassionate they are. There's a lot of strangeness on YouTube with vegans and vegan haters and vegans being haters. However, the bottom line is compassion not selective compassion, health v. industry, sustainability over greed, and kindness over evil. Always strive to be a better being and be there for others, especially the ones that cannot defend themselves. 

So far, one month in, all is good. See ya next time!