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!