Growing Your Own Herbs/Vegetables: Part 1

There are numerous great reasons to start growing your own produce, and with a little planning and research, it is easy to start up your own garden on a small budget, even with little to no space in your apartment/house. Many fresh herbs, for example, can be grown indoors next to a sunny window.

Many cities also now offer community garden plots as well if you are low on space/want to grow larger produce. Iowa City has information about it’s community garden on it’s government website, the plots offer tons of space (10 feet by 50 feet) and cost only $20-25 a year! So take advantage of the early spring and get growing!

Get into Veganism: Post Punk Kitchen

Cherry Chocolate Chunk Mini Loaves

I have found the mecca of Vegan-centered cooking sites: Post Punk Kitchen!

Post Punk Kitchen was started by a New Yorker named Isa Chandra Moskowitz who started out creating short vegan cooking shows. Less than ten years later PPK is  one of the top vegan cooking sites with several orginal cookbooks under the brand’s belt.

The site is well designed and updated often with new ideas and recipes for the vegan lifestyle. The sites features everything from baked goods (like the popular chocolate chunk mini loaves (shown above), to flavorful dinners, like Tamale Shepherd’s Pie.

The recipes might be beyond beginning cooks, but they offer a great variety of tasty meals you have never heard about. Which is great when you are in the mood to try something new, and on a restrictive diet.

Cookbook available at Post Punk Kitchen

They also have great gift ideas in their online shop and recipe books! check them out here

FOOD MATTERS DOCUMENTARY REIVEW

“This documentary examines the current state of America’s food supply, and suggests that the over-industrialization of food production is making the nation sicker by the moment. The documentary analyzes the proliferation of chemical additives in “natural” foods, looks at the relationship between the lack of nutrients in the American diet and the nation’s rising health care costs, and offers tips for system detoxification.” ~ Carly Wray, Rovi

I could not sum up this documentary (available on Netflix Instant) any better. Basically, this documentary gives viewers a harsh perspective on the idea “you are what you eat” in pointing out the general lack of nutritional education of the public as well as the medical system.

The interviewed experts dole out a typical argument that people need to move away from meats (as it’s protein value is overshadowed by the body’s difficulty  to break down and digest it) and focus on more raw vegetables. But the the documentary takes an interesting turn when it makes a case of how many minor ailments could be cured with optimal nutrition and vitamin supplements.

The major conflict in this idea is that the medical industry seems to ignore nutrition and vitamins in both the training of medical professionals and advice to patients. But this revelation in the film also reveals a lot of bias from the experts interviewed. Some had revealed that they had be burned by the medical community in their research being denied, studies stating that vitamins are dangerous and so on.

All in all, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Food Matters is not the word to live by, but rather food for thought.

GREG BLACK ON IMPROVING NUTRITION ON CAMPUS

View slideshow here

UI College of Public Health and Residence Dining Halls collaborate in recent UChoose initiative

Greg Black, Director University Dining, has been working on creating a healthier meal for students since returning from a 1994 convention on healthy eating at Harvard. Since then he has been working with the UI on healthy delicious options for students. This includes a larger amount of vegetarian options along with implimenting a new university initative called Uchoose that was announced just last year.

PINTEREST FOR ‘LAZY VEGAN FOOD’

Love pinterest?

Hate busy nights where you just do not have the energy to make vegan food?

No problem!

Even though I want to support eating fresh, home-cooked meals as often as possible, and feel my best when I eat less processed food, I tend to fall short of my aspirations during busy weeks. That is why it is still important to have a great go to pinterest user to follow when you have too many dishes in the sink to properly cook anything.

 

Vegan Chocolate, Snacks, and Frozen food are my my favorite boards from the user, follow them here!

 

Interview with eric creach: local vegan and store manager of New Pioneer Co-op

 

Transcript of audio:

 

Jules: As a Vegan of 11 years and the store manager of New Pioneer Co-op, I recently called up eric creach for his advice on adopting a meat-free lifestyle in Iowa City, here’s what he had to say…

 

Jules: What is your opinion on some on the fence or debatable non-vegan foods? Like honey for example?

 

eric: I have often described my choice this way: if it can fly, swim, or run away from me I don’t eat it. And I personally don’t consume honey because if I try to take bee’s honey they would sting me.

 

Jules: What about some foods like conventional sugar that are known to be processed using bone char?

 

eric: Oh yes, well, less than 20% of sugar producers use that process anymore. If I use sugar at all I use evaporated cane juice.

 

Jules: So I recently turned vegan, what advice would you give to people that have adopted this lifestyle?

 

eric: I feel everyone needs to eat more green, leafy vegetables.  But I challenge vegans to…to… look less towards the process. We can get our protiens from nuts and seeds to a certain extent. Try everything and learn.

 

Jules: What would you say is your favorite restaurant that you can still eat at in Iowa City?

 

eric: Thai Flavors, on Burlington, they make som tom, which is a meat alternative, som tom was used to fool the emporeors of china,  the buddist monks found great ways to make mock chicken.

 

Jules:  Well that’s really all the questions that I have for you, I really appreciate it!

 

eric: Sure, If anything else comes up shoot me an email, I will send you an email back.

 

COMFORT FOODS: VEGAN STYLE

Sometimes the toughest part of following a vegan diet is most things that were once your comfort foods are now a no-no.

Yes, you should always be striving to eat healthy foods that are low in fat, sugar, and sodium, but we all have those days (especially in the winter) that you just want to veg out with some old favorite foods, here are some alternatives that will help you curb meat, cheese, and chocolate cravings…

 

Meat-free Boca Tacos

I made these recently but would suggest adding onions and bell peppers into the skillet while cooking the ‘crumbles’ to add some extra flavor.

 

Vegan mac and cheese

This reciepe is pretty expensive and complicated, but if you are really craving mac and cheese, it’s worth the work.

 

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Believe me, vegan baked goodies are alot better than you would think!

 

 

LET’S PLAY “IS IT VEGAN?!”

There are some sneaky foods besides meat, cheese, dairy, and eggs that go into foods you eat every day that are non-kosher when it comes to following a vegan diet.

Some of them, although a bummer, are clear as to why they are tainted with animal by products. Others, well, are up for debate in my eyes.

I am going to dicuss some of these items below in an upcoming expert panel audio piece featuring some top vegan/vegetarian chefs for some clarification to what they consider “vegan” because my judgement on this stuff is usually based off of my willpower…

 

Wine and beer – Some wines and beers are made using a product called isinglass or bone char which is from fish. Although there is no animal ingredient in the final beverage, alot of vegans dont want any kind of animal products used in the processing of what they consume. This pitfall is difficult to notice and avoid when picking out drinks since most alcohol doesnt provide any ingredient information, so do your research beforehand.

Soy cheese – Soy cheese may sound like a no-brainer safe bet, but think again. Many varieties contain casein, which is a milk protein that helps the cheese melt.

Gel-cap medications – gel-cap anything in your medicine cabinet is made out of mostly gelatin. Good news is that you can often find gelitan-free forms of your medications, just ask your pharmacist!

AND THE MOST DEPRESSING ‘NOT SO VEGAN’ FOOD GOES TO…

Normally-processed sugar– This is considered non-vegan by many because it uses the same animal by products of beer (isinglass or bone char) processing. But as you guessed, cutting out the average cane sugar used in about everything greatly slimms down the vegan-foods still left on your list.

Top Chef Texas Recap–How to adapt great reciepes to vegan-friendly meals

How to adapt great reciepes to vegan-friendly meals

A review of the latest episode of Top Chef Texas where Chefs adapt their cooking skills in difficult and new environments and how you can adapt their meat dishes into vegetarian friendly meals.

Tonight on Top Chef: Texas four of the remaining chefs (Lyndsey, Beverly, Sarah, and Paul) competed in some crazy ‘Olympic Games’ themed challenges that showed how well they could adapt to unconventional cooking environments. The chefs were left with motion sickness after the first challenge which called for them to create a meal during their ride up a mountain in a gondola. And despite her insecure crying, Lyndsey came out on top in the this challenge with salmon over red quinoa “risotto” with chorizo and horseradish vinaigrette dish.

The second challenge forced the chefs to work for their ingredients, which were frozen inside huge blocks of ice. Paul’s strength came in handy as he broke his ingredients out the ice light-years before the ladies, and it paid off when he won the challege with his corn soup with onion, red chili and peaches.

Competition eventually boiled down to Beverly and Sarah in the last challenge that included a pointless gauntlent of cross country skiing and shooting ranges before they could get to the kitchen. I was really betting on Beverly to come out on top with my favorite dish of the night, a seafood “stew” with couscous. But apparently the judges don’t get as excited about couscous as I do, because they ruled in favor of Sarah’s braised rabbit leg and heart with cherries, hazelnuts & sauerkraut purée…really? REALLY?

Sadly, none of the dishes prepared in this episode was sans meat or seafood, but I am going to take this opprotunity to dive into the issue I run into alot: reworking meat-heavy recipies to fit a vegetarian/vegan diet. Subscribing to a vegetarian/vegan diet  shouldn’t stop you from taking inspiration from Top Chef’s creative meals into your own kitchen. Let me know show you how….

My first piece of advice is to try to find a similar veggie-based substitute to replace the meat originally featured in the recipe. Just keep in mind that it is very important to do some research beforehand into how to prepare meatless subsitutes like tofu and tempeh because it will usually differ greatly from the meat prep for the original recipe. At the bottom of this post I made a small list of options when replacing meat with the help of vegproductsguide.com

Another option to consider: The chefs in this episode have a lot of flavorful side dishes to their meat that you could just simply cut the meat out. Now, if you watch this show it might seem like I am advocating anorexic-sized meals since they serve such small portions, but just take those sides and double it, maybe adding in some pasta or rice. Voila!

Meat Substitution List

Substitute Bacon with soy-based bacon strips 

Substitute ground beef/burgers with either soy-based Boca products or black bean burgers, which dont really taste like beef, but are alot tastier than their bland soy counterparts in my opinion.

Substitute Chicken with soy-based chik’n strips, nuggets, patties, etc.

Substitute Turkey with tofu or sliced soy deli cuts

Substitute Seafood with tofu or “Vegecyber Frozen Gourmet” products, these are harder to find locally but offers the flavor that tofu lacks.

Substitute pork with “Cedar Lake Chops”

Subsitute ribs with “Garden Burger BBQ Riblets ”

Substitute Eggs with tofu ‘scrambler’ products

Food Sense documentary and ‘superfoods’ you’ll love

The documentary Food Sense (available on netflix instant) forces it’s audience to take a hard look at what we eat and how it is digested. The filmmakers push a raw food diet in order to get the most of your food. Why? a common theory is that by cooking your food thouroughly one ruins all the natural vitamins found in the raw compounds of fruits and veggies. It also points out some valuable ‘superfoods’ to add into your diet daily. here are some of those foods and why they pack such a nutritional punch.

Blueberries– these fruits are one of the most antioxident-rich foods you can find. although low in vitamins, blueberries contain a large amount of phytonutrients. what are these compounds and why are they important? according to superfoodsrx.com: “Research has shown that phytonutrients help the body cells communicate with each other more efficiently, prevent mutations at the cellular level, prevent the proliferation of cancer cells.”

 

Mushrooms- this common pizza-topper is packed with B vitamins to help maintain a healthy metabolism. On top of that mushrooms are low in carbohydrates, calories, and sodium but high in protien and fiber. There is not much the mushroom is missing when it comes to healthy veggies, except for flavor.

 

Avocados- This versatile fruit can add a great flavor to many boring dishes, and is full of the fats your body actually benefits from by boosting your ‘good cholesterol’ levels. It is also high in antioxidants and vitamins that help boost your immune system.