Recipe Wednesday!

So here is a concoction I whipped up last night for my husband and I. It is a vegan dish. Basically, we buy all the ingredients that we like (+we always have our pantry staples that I mentioned in my second post). For a long time I did the whole, find a recipe, buy the ingredients, make-it thing. But I kept forgetting an ingredient and it tasted bad, or my husband will never want it again. He likes to keep things fresh and always try new flavors. We used to eat eggplant with red sauce a lot, but of course, he's sick of it now. So I've been playing around with new sauces and gravies. And now I will share with you!

Italian Flavored Falafel, Fried Eggplant, and Quinoa Pasta with "Cheese" Sauce

What you need:
1 can chickpeas
1/2 cup of Italian Breadcrumbs (I processed 2 slices of bread with oregano)
1 medium eggplant 
2 servings of Quinoa Pasta (1/2 a box usually)
1 tbsp ground flax
1/4 cup warm water
4 tbsp coconut oil

Sauce:
Mozzarella Daiya Cheese www.daiyafoods.com/
1/4 cup Almond Milk
3 tbsp Earth Balance Vegan Butter
3 tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Vegetable Broth
Salt & Pepper

How to Prepare Eggplant (for any dish)

1. Start first by skinning and then cutting up the eggplant into whatever size you would like in your  mouth :) Place the eggplant onto paper towels. I know, not the most eco-friendly but one time I did it on a towel and the eggplant tasted like my detergent :-/
2. Salt the eggplant, and use another paper towel and your hand to squish out all of the water. And yes that is an infamous Rachel Ray trash bowl in the middle picture, so perfect for dumping into my compost pile after I'm done cooking!
3. Your paper towel should look like the picture on the right, all covered in eggplant juice. Now let the eggplant sit for about 10 minutes.
*This allows your eggplant to cook faster and taste better. If you've had problems cooking eggplant before, it could be that it was too full of water.

Now before we prepare our falafel mixture...

How to Make a Flax Egg (to be used as a binder for falafel, veggie burgers, or veggie scrambles)

1. Heat up 1/4 cup of water in the microwave & mix in 1 tbsp of ground flax. If you are making a lot of falafel (or any other dish), just double your flax egg.

2. Stir it up with a fork and set it aside for 10 minutes.

* Now's a good time to get your Quinoa Pasta cooking according to the package instructions!

Now for the rest of the Falafel:
Open your can of chick peas, drain, and rinse.
Process your chick peas with the breadcrumbs, or process them and then transfer to a bowl and hand mix with the bread crumbs. (You can add whatever spices you want to. Maybe throw in chopped onion or parsley, etc. Make this falafel yours!) Make sure that flax egg has sat for a good 7-10 minutes, and then mix it into your chick pea breadcrumb mixture with your hands. Taste it! Add salt and pepper if you need to. It should already taste pretty good in this form before you fry it!

Left pic is before I added the flax egg binder, right picture is after.

The flax egg makes it so much easier to roll your mixture up into balls and transfer them and also having them stick together while frying.

Heat up 2 tbsp coconut oil. When it is heated, carefully transfer your lil balls into the pan!

Flip me!! Don't forget to heat both sides throughout, then remove from the pan. Add two more tbsp of coconut oil, and begin frying the eggplant until crispy brown.

Okay so now for this sauce! 

Everything you need for this sauce + any other sauce. Only thing not pictured is the Daiya vegan cheese. (I forgot to get it in the pic!)

1. In a small sauce pan, melt the earth balance vegan butter. Once it is melted, whisk in the brown rice flour until it is completely mixed.

2. Add the almond milk and again, mix completely. Then let it sit for 3-4 minutes and thicken. This is your roux (pronounced ROO). The roux is very important and can be a base for ANY sauce that you want to make. From here, you can literally add whatever you want to the mix. 

3. Continue by adding the vegetable broth, whisk it in. Then add the Daiya. Add salt and pepper to taste. Voila! Yummy cheese sauce. 

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE: 

If you just want to make gravy, to the roux add: extra vegetable broth, and extra 2 tbsp of vegan butter and 1 tbsp extra of rice flour, & lots of salt and pepper to taste. No cheese. Perfect for mashed potatoes.

You can also add pureed cauliflower with a little white wine for another sauce variation. For a yellow "cheese" sauce, puree a cooked potato and carrots, then add to your sauce.

Drain your pasta and mix it thoroughly with the cheese sauce. Plate the pasta with the eggplant on top of it and the falafel on the side or on top, depending on your preference. I ended up slathering the cheese sauce all over everything because it was so good.

My Husband licked his plate clean. Nough' said.

Where's the protein?

In the falafel, since it was made from protein rich chickpeas, about 12g. Chickpeas have iron too!

Quinoa Pasta has about 4g protein per serving. 

I love me some good carbs:
Eggplant: very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin K, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber. 
Daiya Cheese: about 7g

So obviously, you don't have to follow my recipe exactly! That's the point. I'm just trying to share the things that I do to create fun combinations. I won't lie, my husband's boredom with the same food has actually made cooking very fun for me. I'm always trying to make new things, always trying to please his taste buds. I had so much fun whipping this dinner up! I got to be creative, use what I already had on hand, and it was a challenge to make a new sauce that I've never made before. I'm looking forward to sharing new combinations that I come up with in the kitchen! 

Namaste <3

the yogi seeks freedom, liberation

How can we become free?

-> through Self-Realization <-

Once we begin to watch our thoughts and become a Self observing the Self, we start to witness our own psychology in action. Wouldn't knowing your possible reaction to a situation, emotion, or action help to aid you in peacefully experiencing what comes your way? This is self-realization. When you know thyself, and know your own tendencies, you can predict your own behavior, and choose a different route. Sometimes, you don't want to choose a different path though, and that's okay. Acknowledging that you know your reaction, or just acknowledging that you have a choice, is empowering. It may begin with something like anger. There might be a sore subject for you, a past lover, a bad memory, or since this is a blog about veganism, maybe meat eating really ticks you off.  For example:
At first, your reaction to meat eating might always make you angry. "Don't they know that animals suffer!!" or "Why can't every one see that it's evil?!" Although these are heroic ideals, they are not every one's ideals. You will exude large amounts of energy with this anger. So maybe for a while, your reaction is anger. But perhaps after some time you realize: I have a choice here. I don't have to be angry. Or maybe you see that you have a choice, and you can't imagine not being upset, in which case I applaud your passion. Is it bothering your day though? Your state of mind?

"Don't let the action of another disturb your inner peace." -The Dalai Lama

Deciding to not eat meat changes your entire life style. Often, you become a brand new person, you are happier, lighter (mentally & physically) and you just want to go shout it on the mountain tops. Instead of insisting on converting every person that you meet, try the good karma cleanse :)

Be Grateful

Just be you! Be happy that YOU have made an important decision. Be thankful that powerful, life changing information has entered your life and that you have decided to take action about it. Be grateful that you have the resources that you need to alter your life style for the better. Be thankful for your beautiful mind. Be thankful for YOUR inner truth. Smile, you are on your right path.

Act With Love

Let's admit it, not every one likes to hear great news. Especially if your great news counters their entire lifestyle. Acting with Love means setting a good example for others. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Everyone is fighting their own battle, and the lifestyle that they may perceive you as 'talking down' about, might be all they've ever known. Eventually, the people that need to, or the people that are curious, will ask you, "what is it that you do that makes you so happy?" or, "how do you have so much energy?" or even, "how are you so healthy(/skinny)?" THEN you will get to say, "I AM a vegan." or "I AM a vegetarian." Until then, don't necessarily keep it to yourself, but don't parade around town. If you really want to teach others and love others, be humble. Others are always more receptive to a humble teacher. 

Check Your Motives

Are you being vegan or vegetarian to flaunt it? Are you in it to prove something? Are you protesting treatment of animals, or are you just trying to piss off your family? Being stubborn is okay when you are fixing your own meals, but if someone else cooks for you every night, being stubborn is rude. If you are really serious, take meal preparation into your own hands or offer to cook or help prepare an alternative. Are you going vegan to lose weight? Are you going vegan to be different? Please do your research. Veganism is not a diet, it is a lifestyle. You don't need to go vegan to be different, you are already unique. If becoming vegan enhances your life, then do it :)

Watch Your Attitude

Meat eating is still the norm. Most people don't know any better. You have to learn to accept it. Just because you are vegan, doesn't mean you get to critique other people's meals or give them a nutrition lesson. They will be extremely turned off by this. People don't like unsolicited advice. Like I said earlier, the one's that need you will find you. Trust me on this one. You will want it to be your family, and hey maybe eventually it will be, but in the beginning, it is more likely to be perfect strangers that wonder why you're glowing. A bad attitude will totally ruin that glow, by the way. Don't turn your nose up to anyone. Every one experiences exactly what they need to at any given moment, and if you accept this, then some people need to experience meat eating. It's an interesting outlook, but just as you didn't decide what city to be born in or grow up in, or choose your name, or your gender, most people don't view whether to eat meat or not as a choice. I know, I know, it really is. Just be gentle and caring. Just because someone eats meat doesn't mean they don't deserve your love.

Forgive

If you mess up, forgive yourself. Did you know that the person we forgive the least is ourselves? Not someone that hurt our feelings, not an ex lover, not our parents, ourselves. Do you think you'll be forgiving someone else if you can't even forgive yourself? Most likely not. If you eat some cheese (or pepperoni) pizza because it was right there tempting you - forgive yourself. Don't purge or go run ten miles. Just observe your feelings. If you feel bad about it, then duh, don't do it again silly! Once you can forgive yourself, then forgive others. A famous man named Jesus Christ once said "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." Maybe it's just me but I think those are very wise words ;) Most people don't know exactly where their food comes from. Is it okay to you? Maybe not. But in that moment, they are doing their personal best, and it's okay for them. Forgive. Love. 

During Yoga, your moving meditation brings stillness to the mind and with lots of practice, will bring revelations to your mat. While on the mat, covered in sweat, being still, using your body, you will begin to have all kinds of epiphanies. Thoughts become clear. Confusion happens less. You won't be so shocked or startled by other people's actions any more. Calmness and peace will flood your mind. Acceptance instead of stubbornness. Love instead of apathy. 

& Remember:

Namaste

Tomorrow I will be posting a delicious recipe that I came up with last night! Check back! <3

what we eat (in pictures)

This is an elaboration on my post from last week! Enjoy!

Breakfast:

Fresh Juice! 3-4 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 2 apples, 2 large oranges (or more depending on the size of the orange), 1/4 of a pineapple. All Organic! Which, by the way here is a guide:

With our juice of course we had to have some vegan French Toast:

I mentioned in my previous post how I make french toast on the weekends. I cut vegan bread into strips and dip them in a batter made from (1 cup) almond milk, (3 tbsp) corn starch, (6 tbsp) tapioca flour and (2 tsp) cinnamon. Topped with pecans, bananas, and kiwi. I like to fry the pecans for 1-2 minutes, just in the same pan that I fry the french toast. We use brown sugar syrup (with NO high fructose corn syrup of course) I fry everything in coconut oil. 

Our usual daily breakfast isn't french toast, although we do juice every day. For breakfast on work days, I usually have a banana with fresh ground peanut butter, and Matt has organic raisin bran with almond milk.

Lunch:

For lunch we had one of my favorite mixes: brown rice, black beans, steamed kale (chopped), toasted sunflower seeds, salt and pepper! Yum! Protein & iron packed. I always make sure I have a starch (rice) at lunch time.

Dinner:

This is a homemade veggie burger (from the OhSheGlows blog, link in previous post).

I always keep these in the freezer for quick dinners. The top plate was for my husband, on bread with avocado and homemade french fries (fried in vegetable oil). Bottom plate is mine, I wasn't in the mood for bread so I made my veggie burger into a crumble and had it over spinach salad (also with fries :) YUM! My husband loves this veggie burger and we eat them probably once a week or every other week.

So why are we vegan? We love the environment, we want to help preserve water, and most of all, we love animals. All animals. We know that pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys, fish, etc, are extremely smart, emotional creatures. They shouldn't be mistreated for my plate. 

If you currently eat meat, just consider this:

If you saw the living conditions that the animal on your plate lived in for years,

if you saw the pain and fear in it's eyes when it was brought to the slaughterhouse,

if you witnessed it's murder, gutting, and preparation for consumption,

by the time it got to your plate, you would NOT eat it. You would be disgusted. You would completely lose your appetite.

The divine light in me honors and acknowledges the divine light in you.

Namaste

what we eat :)

"People fuss about the imaginary lack of protein/iron/etc in vegan diets. I'm more worried about the lack of empathy & compassion in theirs." 

Just want to share what Matt & I eat on the day to day. Being a vegetarian is healthy and amazing. I hope you are inspired!

Pantry Staples
Ground Flax (For smoothies and also for making Flax-eggs which can be used as a binder, see veggie burger recipe below, or bind a scramble of veggies together)
Tapioca flour or rice flour
Corn starch 
Oats

Corn meal
Earth Balance vegan butter (tastes just like real butter)

Miso Mayo
Sirracha Sauce!!
Tamari Sauce or soy sauce

Coconut Oil (I cook EVERYTHING in coconut oil)

What is the tapioca flour/rice flour and corn starch for?
Breakfast! & frying things. On the weekends I make french toast. 1 cup almond milk whisked with 3 tablespoons of corn starch. Then add 6 tablespoons of tapioca or rice flour. This is a great batter for frying many different things! I fry avocados, eggplant, zucchini, etc. For french toast, just add in some cinnamon and nutmeg and dip in strips of bread and fry. Cover in pecans, I like to fry them in the pan for a minute first :) PS. make sure you have pure maple syrup or a syrup that has no high fructose corn syrup. Avoid HFCS like the plague.
*Bread tip: Matt likes a brand called Rudi's and interestingly enough, I like a brand called Udi's lol. I can't have gluten so that's why I eat Udi's. Ezekial is also a badass brand. When recipes call for bread crumbs, I just process a few slices of bread. Easy. Most breads at the grocery store...Mrs Bairds, Natures Own, even the healthy looking ones, etc, have GMO wheat gluten & Soy Lecithin. Gross, no thanks. Always check ingredients for soy. They add that shit to everything. I swear, they are trying to give people breast cancer. Soy es no bueno.

I wouldn't be able to make a lot of our food (very well at least) without a food processor (mine is a simple Cuisinart processor from target, like $30). Eating clean, pure food does require some kitchen gadgets. We have a badass juicer (A Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain, $150 on amazon). We juice every single day. Every morning, I juice 2 oranges, 2 stalks of celery, 6 carrots, 2 apples, and occasionally throw in some kale or pineapple. All organic of course. Get that GMO crap away from me. Here is a link to a lovely study about GMO's and why they are the devil. http://www.naturalnews.com/037249_GMO_study_cancer_tumors_organ_damage.html I love NaturalNews.com!

My favorite Recipes from vegetarian/vegan blogs:
http://ohsheglows.com/2011/07/13/our-perfect-veggie-burger/
This veggie burger is FANTASTIC. I make anywhere from 8-16 at a time and freeze them. They are so yummy and perfect for nights when you don't have time to cook but want something yummy, plus, store bought frozen veggie burgers are all kinds of nasty and usually have soy. ick. Bring them to a cookout so that you'll have something to eat (I do this all the time). You can also put the entire mixture into a pan and cover it with some organic ketchup and bake it and it makes a delicious "meat" loaf! This blog has tons of really great recipes that are all worth trying! Yum!

*I make my own french fries too, organic potatoes cut into strips and then fried in vegetable oil. I keep the oil for about a month and reuse it throughout before freezing it and dumping it. 

http://rabbitfoodformybunnyteeth.com/thai-chickpeas-over-steamed-kale/
This recipe is also good and pretty quick. She uses the microwave for one part of it...I didn't use the microwave because I'm not lazy. Kale is delicious! I love it steamed or also just cooked in a pan with some olive oil. Yum! This website is alright, I like some recipes, but not all. She cooks with tofu a lot, we don't eat tofu at all. *She also pre juices and saves juice for future dates, this is a huge juicing No-No. You have to drink juice the day you make it.

The key to not getting bored with vegetarian meals is variations. Different types of beans paired with different grains, quinoa salad, quinoa pasta (rice pasta is alright...) Beans+Rice equals a complete protein. Quinoa is a complete protein. Lentils are a really healthy protein as well. I like to add steamed or sometimes raw veggies to my bean/rice combos. You just choose what you like, and make your own "slaw". Gobble it up!

Our typical day:

Breakfast

Fresh Juice (recipe above, yields 2 tall glasses of juice)

Matt eats organic raisin bran from whole foods with almond milk

I eat oatmeal made with almond milk and add cinnamon or strawberries

Mid morning snack

Banana

Almonds and Peanuts

or a Kind bar

lil half Peanut butter sandwich (fresh ground peanut butter of course!)

Lunch

Toasted bread with basil spread (I buy this premade from WF) and also Miso Mayo (yummy stuff). Tomato slices, avocado slices (I put one half an avocado on my sandwich and the other half on Matt's). Spinach leaves or lettuce, and then finish off with mozzerella cheese or in my case Daiya cheese (really good vegan cheese brand). We like Kettle brand potato chips, usually jalapeno or regular Kettle potato chips as a side. Matt can't have lunch or dinner without being followed by sweets, so we always have cookies too. They are not vegan lol. My mom makes tons of whole food ingredient cookies about once a month and then we freeze them and bring two for after lunch. 

Afternoon Snack

We carry a lunch box cooler with us everywhere full of Kind bars (www.kindsnacks.com), almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, etc. We snack on this if we get hungry before dinner.

Dinner

Rice and beans with veggies and spices, we love salt and pepper. Toss bean sprouts or some other kind of sprouted grain into your mix for even more vitamins and good stuff. I roast veggies or stir fry them in different sauces, homemade peanut sauce, tamari sauce, or I just make a creamy sauce with almond milk once I'm done cooking the veggies. You just add some almond milk, vegetable stock, some earth balance, some rice flour and whisk until it's a consistency you like, adding salt and pepper as needed (I add this to pasta a lot). You can also make delicious sauce from pureeing cauliflower. Or from pureeing cooked carrots and potatoes. Yum lol I'm getting hungry typing all of this out! You can also process garbanzo beans into a mash, add spices you like, roll them into balls or into lil rolls and fry them and make your own falafel! 

I usually serve either dinner or lunch with a salad. Spinach is our favorite. We mix in almonds, apples or pears, and always use Bragg's Healthy vinegarette (It is apple cider vinegar and olive oil) Another great homemade dressing is just olive oil and lemon juice.

Just remember to mix things up, change up your ingredients, experiment! Check out that website OhSheGlows for badass recipes. She has really good recipes that you can premake, like a breakfast casserole, and eat it every day. She also has really amazing recipes for holidays. 

Our Smoothie Recipe (For the nights when you get home too late to cook dinner, like 8 or 9, OR for breakfast in place of fresh juice) Yields two smoothies. Cut this recipe in half if you are goin solo! 

1 cup almond milk

3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast or another kind of protein powder that you like

1 cup strawberries OR 1/2 cup Peanut Butter

2 bananas

Teaspoon of Chia Seeds or ground Flax

This gives you either a strawberry banana smoothie or peanut butter banana smoothie depending on what you are in the mood for! 

So, there is a brand called Match Meat that makes meat alternatives as well. They literally look just like animal meat. They are vegan and have more protein than animal meat. Maybe you can try some of those with some meals to ease into the lifestyle! http://matchmeats.com/wp1/

Things to Consider:

Your body goes through withdrawal when you quit meat, just like if you quit a drug. Really ease into it. Start by making sure your meat intake is only once a day. Then, switch to only every other day. When you're ready, try only once a week. When your cravings dissipate, discontinue all eating of meat. You really will see a difference in your energy levels. My husband was amazed. Soon after quitting eating meat, he didn't need caffeine anymore to start his day and he quit drinking coffee as well. No more groggy mornings, no more cloudy thoughts. It brings clarity at so many different levels! Your mind, body, and spirit will thank you.

Thanks for reading! Hope this helps anyone interested in making the switch to vegetarianism! It's easier than you think! 

herro!

Hello out there. I'm Mary. I am a visual artist (www.marymecca.com), a yogi, and an ethical vegetarian (aka conscious eater). I am a Pisces, and I am married to a Pisces (Matt). We have a yellow lab named Pippin (also a Pisces, lol) and a red corn snake named Ramona (she is a rescue, birth date unknown, but I would guess that she's a Libra because she's cool like that.) Anyways, I am always cooking fresh whole foods and taking pictures of it, and hardly ever sharing the pictures or the recipes. My husband is also a vegetarian and a picky eater (as in, he doesn't like to eat the same things over and over, he gets bored)...so I am always inventing combinations and concoctions! I am going to start posting them here, along with some of my favorite recipes! We eat gluten free and also soy free, so it's always interesting. We are not fans of fake meat or anything that comes in a box. I am that girl at Whole Foods or Sprouts standing in the aisle reading all the labels :) Guess I'm a picky eater too :P. We juice every single day and we love kind bars. I am a yoga teacher and artist and I run Nerv Gallery + Studios in Dallas, TX. Matt is the product manager for my brother's phone charging company, KwikBoost. Anyways, happy eating! Namaste!