Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Easy Peasy Baked Seitan

For a lot of veggies out there, meat and dairy analogues are a godsend. When I first started on this veg journey I definitely missed old childhood favorites like chicken nuggets and corn dogs. Sad, but very true. Thankfully, there are a ton of veg friendly companies out there making really yummy mock-meat products. There is a downside to all of this though. Primal cravings aside, this stuff is often overly processed and ridiculously expensive.  I can't justify buying a tiny $5 plastic wrapped hunk of wheat meat when I can make over 2 pounds of the stuff for the same price. Better yet, I can season and shape it however I see fit.

The recipe below was adapted from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap. I can't describe how much I love this cookbook. All of the recipes are super inexpensive and she provides genius cash saving tips. Definitely worth the price of purchase!

Easy Peasy Baked Seitan

Ingredients:

1/2 c cooked white beans
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tb. oil of your choice
1 1/4 c veg stock
2 c vital wheat gluten
1/2 c nutritional yeast
1/2 of a small onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
salt & pepper to taste


  1. Preheat oven to 350f. 
  2. Dump everything except for the vital wheat gluten & nutritional yeast into a blender, and process 'til smooth.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the vital wheat gluten & nutritional yeast together.
  4. Stir wet ingredients into the dry mixture until a spongy dough forms.
  5. Knead for 3-5 minutes and shape into an oval loaf.
  6. Place the loaf on an oiled sheet of foil, making sure to cover the entire loaf. 
  7. Stick the loaf in a baking pan and fill with an inch of water. 
  8. Put it in the oven for about an hour and a half, until it firms up.
That's it. Super simple. Super cheap. Super yummy!

I like to slice the finished seitan and use it to fill tacos and sandwiches. It can also be rolled into wheat-balls for pasta, or into a log for "pepperoni". My partner and I usually only use half of the loaf per week, so I always make sure to freeze the remainder to use later.




Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Crazy World of Dr. Bronner and his MAGIC Soap

I wouldn't consider myself a film buff, but I do love movies in all shapes and styles. A few weekends ago I found myself staring at my daunting Netflix queue not know what to watch. I settled with Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox and found myself inspired by what I saw. I was familiar with Dr. Bronner's castile soap growing up in Encinitas, Ca., a paradise for all things eco-friendly, but didn't know much about the infamous soap maker and counter-culture icon. The film chronicles the life of the eccentric Doctor who went from losing both parents and a wife in the holocaust, to becoming a mental patient on the LAM, to setting up a revolutionary eco-friendly soap making business in Escondido, Ca. at the height of the hippy movement.




Before all of the eco-hype of the green movement, this little old german dude was making sustainable, eco-friendly, organic castile soaps. Not only does the company deliver an awesome product, the head honchos cap their salaries at 5 times the lowest worker's wage, and donate most of the proceeds to local charities like the Boys and Girls Club. This isn't your average soap either, this stuff is concentrated, lathers like nobody's business, and can literally be used for almost all of your cleaning needs.





I must admit, I live for this stuff and use it for everything! I dig the fact that I can use one product, and one package, for almost all of my cleaning and personal care needs. I love the act of cleaning but I was always hesitant to use multiple commercial cleansers who smell harsh and are so unnatural. I use the peppermint soap diluted in water to clean my floors and counters. I love the way it leaves everything smelling fresh and clean afterwards. I recently made up a batch of natural laundry detergent using it as a base and love it. Not only is it cost effective, more importantly, I know exactly what is in it. It feels good knowing that I am reducing the amount of toxic products and wasteful packaging I contribute to the landfill.




On the personal care front, I mostly use the soap as an invigorating body and face wash to wake me up at 4am before work and the soap ROCKS as a shave gel. My partner uses it to wash his hair, but I find it a little too drying for my curls. I have even tried it as a toothpaste when I ran out a few days ago, and oh my, never again! It left the worst soap taste in my mouth throughout the day. Don't even bother trying that!




Dr. Bronner's Castile soaps also come in bar form which i would recommend when traveling or camping to save valuable space since it replaces many other personal care products (laundry detergent, shampoo, shave gel, ect...). I definitely recommend everyone try it out!


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Why I'm Meat Free

My life was forever changed the day I read DFW's Consider the Lobster. If you are unfamiliar with DFW, I urge you to check him out.  While earning my B.A. in Anthropogy at San Diego State I took an advanced writing course which revolved around a selection of readings dealing with the themes of (personal) choice and (civic) duty. It was an intellectually stimulating class drawing debate from the works of influential and sometimes controversial writers such as Malcolm Gladwell and Peter Singer. It was this particular article that would have the most impact on my future. The article revolves around DFW's time spent at the Maine Lobster Festival writing a piece for Gourmet magazine. The piece is not only an entertaining read, it also sheds light on the plight of a creature who may or may not be capable of feeling pain, and us, the humans who barbarically & ritualistically kill it for our palate pleasure.




Before I read Consider the Lobster, I never really thought that much about what I was eating or what degree of suffering resulted in what ended up on my plate. I realized that apart from a childhood spent with avid hunters and ranchers, I was completely removed from being a active participant in the "food chain". Like the majority of urbanites, I would go to the grocery store and pick up what ever piece of saran wrapped, bloody bits were on sale. I didn't question what was in my hot dog or why the turkey I ate on thanksgiving didn't look like the homogenous sliced rounds on my sandwich. I saw chicken breast, thigh, wing, but not the actual living breathing bird. It was just chicken, not a chicken.




The second realization came a week later when my professor showed us the first 20 minutes of the German film Our Daily Bread. The film is a mixture of styles, part art house, part documentary, which focuses it's lens on the abysmal inner workings of European factory farms. It is a breathtaking film, but afterwards, the sterile looking spaces and debeaking of baby chicks haunted me. I raced home, and for whatever reason, I ended up on the PETA website watching Meet Your Meat. I was horrified by the cruelty that I saw before me and, through tears and disgust, I made the conscious decision to do everything I could to not participate in that system.




I started small, the thought of becoming a vegetarian was daunting. I still craved the taste of meat so I figured I would switch to organic, free-range poultry and eggs, and big game like elk and buffalo. I convinced myself that those were more humane options compared to the traditional factory farmed animals. However, the more I read the more I realized that there is a ton of labeling discrepancies out there, especially in terms like free range and even organic. From there I cut out meat completely, and went the lacto-ovo route, eating only eggs and dairy. Here we are now, three years later, and I have taken the plunge and finally gone meat, egg, and dairy free. The only thing keeping me from being completely vegan is the local honey I use for my allergies and the occasional sardine.




My theory on diet and meat's place in it changes as I gain more knowledge and experience. I understand that it is unrealistic for the majority of Americans to forego something so culturally embedded in us, and I don't judge my friends and family members who do eat meat. I just hope that people better acquaint themselves with what they consume, where it comes from, and what health implications come with it. The information is out there and it is up to us, the consumer, to make informed decisions about we put into their bodies. Remember that YOU are your best advocate! My best advice would be to listen to you body and your heart and go from there.

Hello World!

Let me preface this with stating that this is my first blog post ever, so please be patient as I acclimate myself to the inner workings of the blogosphere :)

I have been an avid blog reader for quite some time, but never had a real urge to share my thoughts and desires with a mass audience. However, the past 4 years have brought about a great change in self-realization that I feel needs to be expressed and curated.

My intention of writing this blog is to chronicle my own progress and thoughts in an open and neutral environment. I'm not interested in having a certain number of hits or comments, but anyone with an open heart and mind is more than welcomed to read and share aspects of their own journey with me.

Thank you for reading and feel free to drop me a line!