Munchie Monday: Plant-Based Sausage and Bacon!

For years we have occasionally purchased plant-based sausages and one time we bought some fakin bakin which was really really nasty.  That has all changed now!

Julie Hasson has written a book called Vegan Diner.  She also has a website.  I have watched her on YouTube for years off and on.  On Thursday I learned about the book and ordered it.  On Friday it arrived.  Yesterday and today I have made two things:  the country sausages and the smokey soy curls.  They are both delicious!

The sausages ready to steam

The sausage uses vital wheat gluten plus chick pea flour which I made in the Vitamix.  You add spices then shape and steam for 30 minutes.  Delicious!

The sausages here are ready to eat. 

The bacon is made with Soy Curls from Butler Foods.  They are fabulous for all kinds of things.

Here are the Soy Curls ready to "fry" in the cast iron pan.

Here is the bacon ready to eat with maple glaze.

Both of these items are so good it is tempting to just gobble them up.  I will see what the blood sugar and scales tell me tomorrow about how likely that is to happen...

Food Friday: Plantain Tortillas

Recently I have been trying harder to eat whole-food plant-based things.  Sister C told us about some plantain tortillas her daughter makes for a grandson who has many food allergies.  I had to go out and do a few errands (going to the post office to pay the overage on a missionary letter, go to AAA, and since AAA is right next to Winco....) so I picked up three plantains.  Knowing nothing about them, I did not know if they were ripe or not.  I still don't but I made these tortillas when we got home after make a grilled cheese sandwich for Dear One who almost certainly would not be interested in the tortillas.

This is the recipe which Sister C's daughter sent us.

1 pound plantains, peeled and chopped

1/3 cup avocado oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Put all ingredients in a Vitamix or food processor and grind on low for a minute or two then raise the speed to high.  You want a VERY smooth dough apparently. I think it was a total of two minutes when I shut off the Vitamix.

plantain dough ready to go

Using a 3 Tablespoon portion scoop, I made 6 piles on each of two cookie sheets with Silpat mats on them.  I spread them out to about 6 inches across then cooked them in a 400 degree F. oven for 10 minutes, then 15 more minutes (this was the first pan because I wanted to get going on eating them). 

By the time the 15 minutes was ready to go, I put the second pan in the oven.  After that 15 minutes, I took the first pan out of the oven.  Sadly, I did not set the timer again and answered the phone which was Sister J.  We had a wonderful talk.  When I remembered the second pan of tortillas, well, can I say they were over-cooked?

Cooked just about right

By this time I was ready to eat.  The over-cooked one that was the most colorful I decided to try.  Amazingly, it was not too bad.  I would not give it to Dear One, but I did not mind it at all.  I had a second one with refried black beans and pepper jack cheese on it.  It was so good that I had another one.  And another.  

A snick over-cooked but still tasty

Don't think blood sugar or scales will be thanking me in the morning, but they were not bad.  At all.

So I asked Dear One if he wanted a plantain tortilla with refried beans and cheese on it.  He shook his head.  Well, I do NOT like to take no for an answer so I put one on a plate, shredded pepper jack cheese on it, put it in the microwave for 30 seconds then handed it to him on the couch.  He wanted to know what it was so I told him...pepper jack cheese.  When I got back to the living room, the plate was empty!!!  I asked about it and he said it was not bad.  High praise indeed!

Munchie Monday: Sweet Potato and White Bean Burger

Over the weekend I saw a recipe for Sweet Potato and White Bean Burgers and thought I would see if I could improve it...without trying it first.  I am always trying to make a good veggie burger; good meaning: tastes good, has good texture,  mostly fat-free, and holds together.

Well, this one was about three-quarters good.  It did not hold together.  Dear One said it was okay.  High praise, indeed.  

This is the way I made these burgers.  For some reason I did not save the original recipe.  That recipe had corn in it, some more spices, and they were fried, something we are trying to avoid.  I am sure they was taste even better fried in a cast-iron skillet with your favorite cooking oil.

Sweet Potato and White Bean Burgers
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Makes 12 burgers

2 medium sweet potato, roasted and peeled

2 15-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 teaspoon granulated  garlic 

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2/3 cup nutritional yeast

1  cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup bread crumbs

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

Salt

Black pepper

Place sweet potatoes and beans in a large bowl.  Mash with a potato masher until well mashed but not totally mush.  Add onion, parsley, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and seasonings.  Mix very well then add in the bread crumbs to make a good consistency.

Using a 1/2 cup portion scoop, dip out the mixture and place on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet then flatten to about 3-3 1/2 inches across.  Bake 30-40 minutes.  Let cool a bit  then remove from pan.  Eat plain or in a bun with all the fixings.  These are really good.  In my opinion.  Some people in the family used Frank's Red Hot sauce on his.

Munchie Monday: Homemade Seitan (fake meat)

Some of the fake meats that vegetarians buy at the grocery store are pretty good. I have tried multiple times to make a homemade version. Until now I have been unsuccessful for one reason or another.  This time I made a homemade seitan in the oven which did work!

What I made is based on Lachesis' Seitan O' Greatness  recipe.  There are many different websites with this recipe.  My variation is below:

Dry ingredients:
3 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup chick pea flour (also called Besan flour or garbanzo flour)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 Tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon garlic

Wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1 4-ounce can tomato paste
1 Tablespoon tamari
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce      

Preheat oven to  325 degrees F.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl mix the liquid ingredients whisking until smooth.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until the ingredients are well combined.  Knead for a minute or two with your hands.

Divide in half and form into logs on foil.  Wrap well and twist the ends of the foil to make a very tight smooth wrap.

The original recipe calls for baking for 90 minutes.  Since I had to leave after 75 minutes, I just shut off the oven and let it finish cooking without opening the oven door.

When cooked,  remove from oven and let cool before storing covered in the refrigerator.



This turned out to be pretty spicy.  Dear One tried about a quarter teaspoon of it and put the rest down.  No problem. I had other ideas.

A couple days later I removed a chunk and grated it on a box grater until I had about 2 cups of gratings.  Since we only had lasagna noodles in the pantry, I smashed them up into small pieces and boiled them for about 10 minutes in heavily salted water.  When the pasta was cooked, I put the seitan into a pot of prepared pasta sauce  and let it heat up.  Pouring it over the pasta I mixed it in well then served it with grated quasi-parmesan cheese (the green can...).

Dear One  ate a reasonable serving.  He did comment that it was pretty spicy and refused a second serving. 

We also had omelet with fake meat inside.  Dear One thought I was pulling a fast one on him but he ate it anyway....

Food Friday: Breakfast Salad

Yesterday I woke feeling like salad.  So I made one.  For breakfast.  It was a large salad (Dr. Michael Greger's  Daily Dozen App calls for a large salad every day.) No,  actually it was a gigantic salad.

This is what was in it:

2 handfuls of chopped romaine lettuce
1 very large handful baby arugula
1 medium head of raw broccoli chopped, including stem
1/4 small red onion finely sliced
1/3 cup chopped cooked red beets (don't I feel virtuous about eating those!!!)
1/2 cup cooked garbanzo beans
Some Vidalia Viniagrette salad dressing

I forgot the ground flaxseed meal I planned to put on top.

I tossed all this together and managed to eat it all.  I woke up this morning 3 pounds lighter!!  That may have had something to do with the fact that I ate one medium/large baked-in-the-microwave russett potato and one Tofurky kielbasa link (seasoned with a little General Tso's sauce) for my other meal for the day.  Plus a good bit of water.

This was Day One of my 10-day goal of eating totally plant-based foods.  We will see if I can get beyond the first day.  Not as easy as one might expect.

The idea for the 10-Day plant-based eating came this time from Dr. McDougall's webpage.   If you go to this page and look at the column on the right you will see 10-Day Meal Plan.  It is the same thing he uses in his very expensive residential program.  Click on that plan and download a PDF of his recipes.  They mostly seem reasonable to me, though because they are different from our "usual" I will probably have trouble selling them to the local family.  Oh well. I can become healthier....

Breakfast Salad!  Yummy.