Horchata

Here’s a simple, refreshing recipe to help beat the heat. Horchata is a sort of chilled and spiced rice milk. It’s almost always served at taquerias, where it’s one of the three most common flavors of aguas frescas. It’s made with different seeds or nuts, and just about every recipe has a different ratio, so play with it, and see how you like it. Apparently, in many areas of Mexico, sweet melon seeds are used, in Puerto Rico, sesame seeds are used, and in Spain, tigernuts are used. I’m only familiar with almond horchata, but that’s probably just because they are more widely available here…I mean, I’ve never even seen a tigernut. This horchata will be a bit thicker than normal to allow for adding ice which will melt and dilute the flavor–and sweet, but just sweet enough so it’s refreshing, although you can make it a bit thinner and sweeter than you want the finished product to be.

Horchata
by Christina Terriquez

1 cup organic long grain brown rice, rinsed
1 cup organic blanched raw almonds or raw pumpkin seeds
6 cups spring or filtered water, or more
1 whole cinnamon stick
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract, alcohol-free variety
2–4 tablespoons organic agave nectar, or other sweetener, or more to taste
ice or water, if desired

Directions
Combine the rice and almonds 2 cups water and let soak 4 hours or overnight.

Pour into a blender. Add cinnamon stick and vanilla bean now, if using. Process until the rice is finely pulverized. Add the remaining water, agave nectar and vanilla extract. Strain through double or triple layered cheesecloth. Sweeten to taste.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and/or pour over ice. Serve chilled.

Variations
Add 1 whole organic cinnamon stick before soaking or 1 teaspoon ground organic cinnamon after
straining.

In different regions of Spain, Central America and South America, various seeds and nuts are used. Experiment with substituting sesame seeds, melon seeds or sunflower seeds for the almonds.

Try a 1/4–1/2 teaspoon fresh organic lime zest.

Basmati rice, white basmati, or white long grain rice may also be used.

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Favorite Websites – VegFamily eMagazine

One of my favorite e-magazines is the VegFamily Magazine. Amazingly it is still free. Due to very little info available for parents in 1999, Erin Pavlina started a forum to discuss vegan parenting. Over time it developed into a very valuable monthly e-magazine.

In 2007 Cynthia Mosher took over as publisher and editor and set herself the task of reaching more parents and establishing more resources, information, and features of benefit to vegan families. Today the e-magazine is the largest on-line publication solely devoted to vegan family living.

Some of the contributors and staff include Cathe Olson : Author of “Simply Natural Baby Food” and “The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook“, Dina Aronson : MS RD, Marty Davey : Masters in Food and Nutrition, Jill Nusinow : Culinary educator, cookbook author, and speaker, Tammie Ortlieb : Masters in Developmental Psychology and Ginger Carlson : Author of “Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children” .

I find VegFamily a very comprehensive resource for raising healthy vegan children, from pregnancy to adulthood, and it includes recipes, book and product reviews, a forum, “Ask the Dietician”, interviews with top Vegans and hundreds of excellent articles .The July 2008 Issue includes “Vegetarian to Vegan: 101 Reasons Not to Feed Dairy Products (or Milk Formula) to Your Children” and “Recession-Proof Your Diet – Go Vegan” plus many other great articles and tasty recipes. If you haven’t paid a visit before I am sure you will find it worthwhile to do so now.

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Stuck in Small Town America as a Vegan

For those of you who know me you probably know I try to eat as healthy as possible. I’m a stickler to organic produce and whole grains. I avoid trans-fat, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and all of that junk.

I’m in the process of moving to Canada. Well, I ended up not eating as healthy during my trip from Seattle to Pennsylvania.

My wife and I broke down on the Indiana toll road. The car randomly overheated so we pulled over. It was probably in the high 80s or 90 and really humid. We had our dog and two cats in the back seat. It was very scary because they started overheating. Luckily, the tow truck arrived not too much later.

We were towed to Michigan City, Indiana on Sunday, where we stayed until Thursday waiting for the car to be fixed. It took so long because we drive a Volkswagen diesel and had to have parts shipped in.

Anyway, if you’ve never been there, I highly recommend never going to Michigan City. It’s very vegan-unfriendly. It mostly consists of a huge highway and big box stores. When walking to get food I had to walk on the shoulder and sometimes on the highway.

Nonetheless, we made it as vegans. My goal is for vegans in similar situations to use this a guide to surviving in vegan-unfriendly America.

Papa John’s

A Papa John’s pizza, without cheese of course, is vegan! Check out the Papa John’s FAQ to see for yourself. Also, Papa John’s now offers whole wheat pizza. No, it wasn’t the best pizza ever but my wife and I were excited to have someone deliver something vegan to us the first night we were in Michigan City.

Note: avoid the dipping sauces. One isn’t vegan and one has hydrogenated oil.

Subway

Subway’s Italian bread is vegan. The wheat bread contains honey, which is extremely lame. Check out the Subway FAQ.

I’m well aware none of the vegetables were organic, but at least that was another easy vegan meal when stranded in the middle of nowhere.

So, in a pinch, a Subway veggie sub on Italian (hold the cheese) is vegan.

Fa

I’d never heard of Meijer before walking by one in Michigan City. Meijer is a huge everything store. Think Wal-Mart, but less evil.

Anyway, Meijer had a huge produce department and, surprisingly, a decent selection of organic fruit and veggies. My wife and I bought a bunch of organic veggies and had a huge, healthy salad one night. We were craving real food.

In summary

In summary, those three places are your friends if you’re ever stuck in Michigan City, Indiana. Learn to appreciate them for the time being because those are really your only options.

We’re excited to finally be in Pennsylvania. I’m relaxing in the mountains as I write this post.

I’m glad to be back on the East Coast!

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It’s Farmers Market Season!

It’s my favorite time of year! The park is full of people, little shops, and lots of local food. I love summertime!

Yesterday, we headed to downtown Salt Lake, and shopped for some fresh veggies. We got lots of yummy goods- summer squash, green beans, tomatoes, beets, basil, and yummy local mushrooms..

The mushrooms on the top are “Hen of the Valley” and the ones on the bottom are baby Shiitake. The lady at the stand said the Hen of the Valley tastes great in a risotto, so that is what we made last night. Mushroom and Pine Nut Risotto, and steamed green beans and beets.

The flavor of the mushroom was very delicate, not overpowering at all, and it had a very meat-like texture to it. The beets were sooo sweet, it was my favorite part of the meal, and the green beans were OK.. but I wish I would have roasted them instead. I have some left over though, so I will next time.

I want to have at least one local meal a week, if not more. Now that there are fresh veggies in season, it will be a lot easier to. Yay for summer!

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Marvellous Mushrooms

Spinach and Radicchio Salad with Mushrooms and Cashews
From Epicurious Printed in Bon Appétit Oct 2001

2 tbsps fresh lemon juice
2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
2 tsps country-style Dijon mustard
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 6oz bag / bunch fresh baby spinach
1 head radicchio, torn into bite-size pieces
8 ozs / 3 cups button mushrooms, sliced
2 green onions, minced
1/2 cup chopped roasted cashews

Whisk first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Combine spinach and all remaining ingredients in large bowl. Add dressing to taste; toss to coat. Divide salad among 6 plates. 6 servings.

Shiitake Mushroom Gravy
From the Vegetarian Times
Serve this luscious, low-fat mushroom gravy over cornmeal cakes or mashed potatoes.

8 small to medium dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed well
2 1/4 cups boiling water
2 cups mushroom soaking liquid
2 1/2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups / 6 1/2ozs thickly sliced button mushrooms
3 tbsps all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Place shiitake mushrooms in medium bowl, and add boiling water. Cover with small plate. Set aside 30 minutes. Drain mushrooms, reserving soaking liquid. Remove and discard stems from shiitake mushrooms. Slice mushrooms into strips, and set aside. Place mushroom soaking liquid into measuring cup, adding water if necessary, to make 2 cups. Add soy sauce to mushroom liquid. Set aside until ready to use. In medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, about 9 minutes. Add sugar, thyme, button mushrooms and reserved shiitakes, and cook, stirring occasionally, until button mushrooms are tender, about 4 minutes. Add flour, and cook, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in reserved mushroom liquid, and cook, stirring continuously, until thickened, 5 minutes. Stir in parsley, and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Ginger-Sesame-Glazed Portobello Steaks
From the VegetarianTimes
An aromatic marinade adds complexity to these mushrooms, which resemble flank steak when sliced at an angle.

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsps minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 cup tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
1 tbsps light brown sugar
3 tbsps white wine
4 large portobello caps
1 tbsp peanut oil

In small bowl, combine garlic, ginger and tahini. Stir in tamari, sesame oil, sugar and wine until well blended. Put mushroom caps in shallow bowl. Add tamari mixture, turning to coat mushrooms and let stand 15 to 30 minutes, turning once. In large skillet, heat peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms (reserve marinade) and cook, turning once, until browned and slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Cut each mushroom on a slight angle into 1/4-inch-thick slices. In small saucepan, heat reserved marinade. To serve, spoon hot mashed potatoes on serving plates. Fan out mushroom slices over potatoes and lightly drizzle with marinade. 4 Servings

Resource thevegandiet.blogspot.com

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Black Bean Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

Wow… I am one busy mama! I enrolled in summer school.. and it feels like I am going more than full time, sometimes! I guess I am averaging one post a month.. so, I apologize to my readers! It’s not that I haven’t been cooking.. I have.. I just keep forgetting to take a photo and post it!

Anyway.. Tonight I made the Black Bean burgers from Veganomicon… and I loved them! Really, these are so easy, tasty, and perfect for a summer time meal. I highly recommend them

On the side, I made some baked sweet potato fries, which are always a treat (and so good for you!).

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57 Health Benefits of Going Vegan

Fiona at NursingDegree.net pointed me to an article posted on the site entitled 57 Health Benefits of Going Vegan.

Vegans are frequently misunderstood as fringe eaters with an unnatural passion for animal rights. While many vegans do feel passionately about animals, its time for others to see that a vegan diet and lifestyle go way beyond animal rights. Following a healthy, balanced vegan diet ensures a host of health benefits as well as prevention of some of the major diseases striking people in North America. Find out from the list below how eating vegan can help you in your search for better health.

Some of the topics discussed are nutrition, disease prevention, physical benefits, and the American diet.

I’m very excited to see veganism being discussed on nursing website. I don’t meet very many vegetarian or vegan nurses, although one of my good friends is a vegan nurse. It would be wonderful to have more nurses understand the benefits of a vegan diet. Their direct relationships with patients gives them the opportunity to really make a difference and turn more people onto veganism.

I highly suggest you read the article on Nursing Degree.

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Vegetarian Chinese Chicken

I randomly stumbled across this recipe and it sounded interesting. It certainly didn’t taste like chicken, but maybe Chinese chicken is just a fun thing to call it. It was tasty at any rate! It was chewy with a nice bite of soy sauce and can be eaten burrito style if you wish!

Just look at the simple ingredients!

1/2 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced thin and squeezed dry
1/2 cup bamboo shoots strips, squeezed dry
2 pkgs of dried tofu skin sheets
1/2 cup soy sauce
dash sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar

READ THE WHOLE RECIPE HERE

Ingredients

Getting ready to roll it up

Dinner is prepared!

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