Regrowing Romaine Lettuce

I recently watched a video on YouTube and the presenter cut up a romaine lettuce and mentioned that if you wished you could regrow the lettuce. A few days later I was cutting up several heads of romaine lettuce and thought about regrowing them, so I googled and found another YouTube video with a short and easy how to guide. And it is really easy. Take the cut off end of the romaine lettuce and put it in a little water, perhaps half an inch of water, change and/or replenish the water daily. After one day a little growth had taken place, after a week they had grown to five or six inches in height. After two weeks it is recommended that they be planted in soil to finish growing because at that point they need more nourishment that just the water alone can provide. My mom likes iceberg lettuce so she took the cut off end and placed it in water, and it too started to grow. Below are four pictures taken over the course of one week.

My Bowl Runneth Over With An Amazing United Nations of Goodness

Before I eat I say grace and I think of all of the people involved in the production of the food in front of me. I think of all of the places that my food has come from. Bananas and pineapple from South America, blueberries from Mexico, strawberries from California. Kale and spinach I assume from California, tomatoes from I don't where, melon from Texas. 

I then think of the people who planted the seeds, nurtured the crops, harvested the food, packed the food, shipped the food, warehoused the food, distributed and sold the food. Pondering upon this I realize that the simple bowl of food in front of me that I am going to eat to nourish my body is there because of hundreds of people and it humbles me. I lift all of these, unknown to me, people in prayer.

Next time you sit down to a meal, just think for a few minutes about how each and every item you are about to eat arrived at your table, it is truly amazing!

Peace be with you, 

Bean

Peanut Butter Bread - Oh Boy

As I was idly scrolling through Yahoo this morning a story about making bread without yeast popped up, Peanut Butter Bread. I am a bit of peanut butter addict, my favorite is Smuckers Natural peanut butter, but pretty much any natural nut butter hits the spot

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Although this specific recipe is not vegan, I used plant milk as a replacement for the mammary gland secretions of cows. This recipe claims to be taken from a cookbook published in 1932, and so the story goes, this was a popular bread during the Great Depression, who knows. But what I do know is it sounds good, the picture of the finished product looked fabulous, and I am going to make a few loaves to give to our children and their families. And the comments on the Yahoo story, and the recipe page were all pretty much rave reviews. 

Ingredients:

 2 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. sugar

4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 1/3 c. milk (I used Soy milk)

1/2 c. peanut butter (I added about 3/4 c and used a store brand creamy pb)

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix together dry ingredients.

Mix in the milk, then the peanut butter.

Scrape into greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour.

ENJOY!

The possibilities are maybe not endless for tweaks to this recipe but use your imagination. Because the recipe has very basic ingredients and is not a sweet bread like banana bread and the peanut butter flavor is subtle you could certainly make it sweeter by adding chocolate chips, or raisins, dates, currants, or use crunchy peanut butter, or any nut butter you like, shredded apple or mashed banana, whatever strikes your fancy and whatever you have on hand. But made just as above I think it is a pleasant bread and would make a nice side to soup or stew type meal.

Peace be with you,

Bean

Enough With The Doom And Gloom MAN!

Hey, why don't we all simply enjoy this new reality. For most of us we will have  two to three weeks downtime,  how awesome is that? What are you going to do with all of your new found time? I am looking at it like a wonderful retreat from the world. Sleeping more, reading more, walking more, meditating more, practicing yoga more, staying home way, way more, and it is really nice. 

What can we learn? I suspect many people will learn that being home more, finding ways to occupy our time at home, spending more time together with our immediate family, is actually an amazingly good thing. If we spend multiple weeks unscheduled we might really resist going back to our overly scheduled lives. We might find we don't want to always be on the go, always at the store, always running errands, we might find that true contentment is doing less and enjoying life more. 

So, live in the moment during these strange times, enjoy each moment, embrace each day, have fun with your loved ones, rekindle your inner spark, get in touch with your self, and count this time as an amazing gift and blessing to your mind, body and spirit.

Stay safe my friends, stay well, and wash your hands :)

Peace,

Bean

Being Vegan in a Non- Vegan Family - Yes You Can Make It Work

I am the only vegan in my family, my husband is the complete opposite and potatoes in french fry form are the only vegetable he eats on a regular basis. My adult children and their partners eat a standard American diet, although one son is vegetarian. My grandchildren eat a standard American diet.

On Sundays we always come together as a family and my husband and I prepare a meal for everyone. I would love to be able to say that the meal is vegan but it is not the case. So compromise is the name of the game. Yesterday my husband made ribs for everyone, I made vegan side dishes, it worked well. My vegan side dishes were curried potatoes with basmati rice, chocolate chip-banana muffins, fresh pineapple, and vegan Waldorf salad. Everyone enjoyed the side dishes, the grandchildren ended up eating vegan because they don't like ribs. I always make a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as an alternate choice for children who might not want the "grown up" food.

I made the curried potatoes, Waldorf salad and muffins using recipes from my Happy Healthy Vegan cook book.  The curried potatoes served with rice are a meal in my opinion. To make them dice potatoes, put them in a skillet with water, they don't have to be covered, let them cook until tender, then add fresh green beans, let cook until tender, add cut up tomatoes, by now the water should be almost boiled off. Season with curry powder, I used garam masala, and red pepper flakes. I added salt. Serve over basmati rice. Very tasty!

The Waldorf salad is lovely, the usual ingredients are in it, apples, grapes, celery, walnuts, raisins, cut up orange, use all of these or whatever you have on hand. Rather than using a mayo for the dressing take a quarter cup of orange juice and five or six dates and put in the blender, pour the pureed mixture over the fruit and stir. A very tasty, refreshing salad.

As a vegan it would be lovely if my entire family joined me, but everyone has to choose their own path in life. 

Pachinko

Last week while at our local library branch I noticed a book on the new fiction shelf called Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee. The cover art initially caught my eye and I picked the book up and read the inside cover to get an idea of the story. Deciding that it might be something I would enjoy reading I checked the book out and I am glad I did. It is a family saga beginning in 1902 Korea and continuing through present day. I like the pace of the story, it doesn't linger, but is isn't rushed. It is interesting to me as it is set in a culture I am not familiar with yet the struggles the characters go through are familiar to all people. 

Why Are So Few Alarmed By This?

I read this article,see here, in The Guardian yesterday, I found it alarming. And, I feel despair that no real action is being taken to reduce greenhouse emissions to slow down the global warming which has accelerated at an alarming pace since the 1950's see here.

Mainstream media have reacted with alarm, concern, apathy, depending on their political slant. And comments by readers on the news released yesterday make one despair. The evidence is blindingly obvious that human activity is drastically increasing the rate of warming. So what are we going to do about it?

No one wants to live without the conveniences of modern life, we enjoy good health, a stable food supply, good medical care, homes, freedom, and many more things that make life pleasant, comfortable, secure. But we have to come up with ways to still have these things but without the ongoing spewing of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere, it is a time for extreme innovation, investment into green energies, and we as individuals need to support the innovation and help to make it the new normal. One thing for sure, we cannot continue as we are or we will face dire consequences. I am in my mid-fifties, in a selfish way I don't have much to lose I have already lived a full life, but what about my children and grandchildren, and future great-grandchildren. I am willing to make and embrace changes for their future. 

If the earth is in a warming trend we cannot stop that, but if human activity is skewing the warming trend to an extreme global warming, we can do something about that. This is an important clarification, as the often heard argument is that the climate has always changed it is just the way it is and we can't do anything about it. I don't disagree, science shows us that the climate has always changed, but not at the rapid pace it is changing now, it has never heated or cooled at the rate it is now. As Greta Thunberg says, "if your house is on fire you panic, you do something", why aren't we all pulling together and doing something?