Thirded Bread

 I mentioned in my last post that I was going to make Thirded bread, and I did. I really liked it, there is a lot of molasses in the recipe and it gives the bread a wonderful flavor and color. There are only a handful of ingredients in the recipe, water, yeast, molasses, wheat bread flour, rye flour, and coarsely ground cornmeal. 

Here is the dough once everything is mixed together, it is a clumpy, sticky clod.

Here is a picture of the dough after ten or so minutes of kneading and one hour rise time.

Below the dough is rising in the bread pan, after a one hour rise it is ready to bake.

After nearly one hour of baking the loaf is done. Henry and Patrick were excited to try some of the bread, unfortunately they did not appreciate the strong molasses overtones.

A really enjoy the heel of the loaf, the best part in my humble opinion, I put a little bit of vegan spread on it and I really, really enjoyed my afternoon snack.

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. 

Garden Bounty - Sure Wish We Had Planted More Veggies - and Thoughts on Self-Sufficiency

Enjoying the bounty of our garden and it is wonderful. The tomatoes are ripening nicely, each day I pick more, I may well end up canning some as the plants are loaded with fruit. The cucumber and zucchini plants, one of each, are keeping me well supplied. And the pepper plants just give and give and give, I love peppers, so the bounty is appreciated.
















I have a crock of cucumbers on the kitchen counter, they are well on their way to being dill pickles. I made a brine, then added a few garlic cloves and some fresh dill, popped in the cucumbers and covered the crock with a piece of cheese cloth and now they are left to ferment for one week. On Saturday I will move the pickles into a couple of jars along with some brine and then store in the refrigerator. Refrigeration halts the fermentation process. Fingers crossed they turn out nicely and have remained crisp. My next batch of pickles will be sweet, but I will probably use zucchini instead of cucumber, a nice sweet pickle is a fabulous addition to any sandwich, or so my taste buds think.

My only regret, I wish we had planted more. We haven't really done a garden properly for several years, this year we did it right but on a very small scale. I have kept up on the weeding, watered when needed, and generally tended my plants. It was much less daunting having only a small garden, but I know next year I will add kale, onions, rutabaga, radishes, and do more than one each of cucumber and zucchini.   But, I still want to keep it small scale. Gone are the days of planting fifty tomato plants, lots of potatoes, a large patch of corn, rows and rows of green beans and peas, and anything else I could fit in. I can't believe I used to keep up all the weeding on three huge gardens, and canned, froze, or stored all of the garden bounty. I would have a hundred plus pints of green beans canned, eighty plus quarts of tomatoes canned, corn, some canned, some frozen, peas always frozen. Potatoes and onions and other root veggies stored in mesh sacks in the basement. And with our four children home it all got eaten. Then I would can jars of grape jelly and make strawberry jam using our grapes and strawberries. And lots of applesauce from the fruit of our apple trees. One year I made some fabulous brandied pears. It was a satisfying way to live, but a lot of work.

I feel pulled back to my old ways, I am back to baking all of our bread, and although vegan, I miss having laying hens, and sometimes feel tempted to have another flock. But the cruelty of the hatcheries is beyond belief, and the poor little chicks are a day old and sent out in the mail, it is all rather horrendous. My motives are different now, I am trying to create less waste, so baking our own bread avoids bringing plastic bread packaging into the house. Baking cookies and other goodies for the grand children and family also avoids bringing packaging into the house. I was able to purchase thirty pounds of blueberries at a very good price, and they came in cardboard packaging, win win for me. I froze half of them for eating, and the other half Dave is going to use to make blueberry wine.  I like doing things myself, so does my husband, so a certain level of self-sufficiency is satisfying.

But in regards to self-sufficiency, it is a nice dream, but it is not really doable. Sure I can bake my own bread, but I don't grow and mill the grain for the flour, I don't know how to make yeast, I have to buy sugar and other dry goods. I can't make my own canning jars and lids for them, there are always things that we use that we cannot supply for ourselves, and I am okay with that, it is the way the world works. I think the main goal of those who desire self-sufficiency is to do for one's self as much as possible and to be good stewards of the earth and the resources provided to us. Some want isolation and separation from society as a primary reason. I would say my husband and I are quiet people, we keep ourselves to ourselves and the friends we hang with are our adult children and their partners and our fabulous grandchildren, that is our circle, and we love it.

The other benefits we reap from our way of living are enjoyment, feeling in touch with the seasons,  with nature and with the cycle of life. We find it brings great satisfaction to our mind, body, and spirit.

On another topic, today is a Triple Birthday in our family, my husband is 61, our son Ben is 28, and our grandson Peter is 5 - how cool that three generations in our family share a birthday. Tonight Dave and I will celebrate alone, and on Saturday we are having a family party, as on the 10th our daughter-in-law Taylor is 26, she is Ben's wife, and our son-in-law Brad, Amber's husband, is 34 on the 14th.  August is a crazy birthday month, our oldest grandson Henry will be 11 on the 26th, and my mom will be 80 on the 27th.  Our newest grandson, is due to arrive on September 7, but if he comes early he too could add to the August craziness!

Vegan Eats - YUMMY - and Current Projects

Lately I have been eating this for breakfast: spouted lentils, mixed with a handful of spinach leaves, a cup mixed berries, a tablespoon of hemp seed, and a sprinkle of raw oats. It is very satisfying, and delicious. With it I enjoy a cup of black coffee with a tablespoon of raw cacao stirred in, just lovely. This breakfast starts my day with 14 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber, 916 mg of potassium, 33% of my daily iron needs, a bit of calcium, almost all of vitamin C needs, and a nice hit of vitamin A.  All good! Some days I have overnight oats with berries and flax seed and spinach, again a very satisfying breakfast.

lentils and mung beans in various stages of sprouting

Later in the morning I have a kale, berry, banana smoothie with 2 tablespoons of Dr. Shultze Super Food, this gives me a great dose of daily vitamins and minerals.




Lunch is a salad of kale, red cabbage, bok choy, a tomato, some summer zucchini or cucumber, a bit of yellow or red bell pepper, sprouted mung beans, a pinch of raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds, kimchee, and a bit of date/dijon mustard dressing. It is so yummy, nutritious, and filling. I make the dressing, it is a cup of water, 12 dates, 6 tablespoons of dijon mustard and a sweet onion, blitz in the blender then store in the fridge, this lasts me all week.

Date/Dijon Mustard dressing

Delicious mega-salad!

In the afternoon I have an apple for a snack.

Dinner is a salad of collard greens, spinach, tomato, cucumber or summer zucchini, 2 teaspoons of spirulina, 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, kimchee and some date/dijon dressing, and with it a piece of toasted sprouted rye bread made by a German bakery, Delba. For dessert I usually have a couple of dried figs, they are wonderful.

So good and so nutritious.

A curiously strong, very dense rye bread, lovely toasted with a slice of tomato.

Sometimes I don't have a salad, but instead have a large bowl of fresh fruit, melon, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple and top it with flax seed or hemp seed, a very refreshing meal on a hot summer day.

Fresh fruit topped with hemp seed.

Throughout the day I drink water, and occasionally herbal tea, green tea, and hibiscus tea are my favorites.

Spirulina is essentially algae, it is dried and comes in a very fine powder, it is a very dark bluish green, it makes my salad look super dark green, and while I eat it my lips and teeth turn green, so I usually only eat it at home, it doesn't stain though. Spirulina adds a really nice flavor to a salad, some people add it to smoothies, personally I find it dominates the smoothie but not in a pleasant way. Spirulina is tagged as a super food, it is extremely nutritious, high in iron, and protein, it is considered the most nutritious of all foods.

One of our favorite places to go out to eat, which we do very infrequently, is Pizza Hut, they have a wonderful salad bar that we both enjoy and it meets my needs as a vegan and Dave's needs a non-vegan. Another place that I find affordable and vegan friendly is Subway, I get the veggie delite sub as a chopped salad, and if I wish I can have avocado added. I usually eat one avocado a week, eaten over two days, it is a good source of fiber and healthy fat, but a little goes a long way.

Our salad creations on a recent trip to Pizza Hut

We have gone out to eat at restaurants specializing in vegan food, but I am always disappointed, the food tends to be very expensive, even though it is a sparse serving of veggies and a bit of legume or grain, and always coated in oil and heavy (salty) seasoning. I don't add salt to anything I eat, so I am rather sensitive to it when it is added to foods I eat, it really stands out.


I am working on three projects at this time, foxy baby quilt and a crochet blanket for our soon to born 10th grandchild, and a London Double Decker bus print nap quilt to replace the very well worn one currently in use.

Around the House

Here we are, the final day of May! So far a cool, wet spring. The peonies are beginning to open, the trees are fully in leaf, summer is almost here even though the temperatures don't feel like it.

This morning while out walking I turned a corner and was wowed by the sunrise, the sun was just a large orange-pink-red circle, it was truly beautiful, my picture does not do it justice.

This is not a good picture, because it was really beautiful and rather stunning in reality.

Also on my walk I came across a strange creature, something I have not seen before, and I do not know what it is, if you have any ideas let me know. It was about eight inches long, appeared to have many teeny-tiny legs, and moved rather like a worm. It was in the road heading into grass, not too far from a pond and a wetland, it looks as if it is more at home in a wet or damp environment.

What on earth is this creature?

This week I learned about sprouted grains, the health benefits of eating them and how to sprout them. Armed with my new information I went to my favorite health food shop and picked up three whole grains, rye, wheat, and spelt, and a fine mesh strainer lid for my mason jars. I started the sprouting process on Wednesday, and this morning the sprouts have started to emerge. I will store the fully sprouted grains in the refrigerator to retard further growth, and enjoy some with each of my meals. Sprouted grains are good to add to salads, cooked foods, and to my morning oats. The benefits of eating sprouted grain are many, there are numerous YouTube videos to watch if you wish to learn more.

I attempted to make Vegan Yogurt this week with unsweetened soy milk and probiotics, using a recipe I found online. The yogurt thickened up somewhat, more like a buttermilk consistency, but it was so tangy, and I mean tangy, that I ended up throwing it away. I am going to look for another recipe to try. As the saying goes, try, try, and try again :)

The other week my grandsons brought over a dragon fruit, a fruit I have no experience with. We googled to find out how to eat it. I must say it was rather odd, the pulp inside is an unappetizing gray color with little seeds, rather like a kiwi in texture and taste, but the color is so off putting. The outside of the fruit is beautiful, a ruby pink fading to a yellowish green, it is so shocking to cut it open and be faced with a very bland gray pulp. I think I can honestly say I have had dragon fruit and doubt I will ever choose to eat it again.

Last weekend Dave and I went shopping for glider for our front porch, we had a porch swing for many years, but it eventually fell victim to the weather and was no longer safe to use. I missed the porch swing, but decided a glider would work better on the porch as it would not need a frame to hang from, the frame takes up a lot of room.  We went to several stores and eventually picked out this glider, we really like it and it fits well on the porch.

We decided to really limit the amount of plastic we bring into our home, we now take our own bags to any store that we visit, and I choose glass containers over plastic when there is a choice. But to avoid bringing any plastic into our home seems to be an impossibility, so many items are in plastic and I can understand why, it is a versatile material, lightweight, not easily broken, but when we are done with it what do we do with it?  Due to years of not using our own bags we have tons of plastic grocery bags in our home and I was feeling frustrated about what to do with them and then I discovered PLARN, lol.
Plarn is yarn created out of strips of plastic bags, there are many tutorials online to see how to turn your bags into plarn. Once the balls of plarn are rolled you simply crochet with the stuff, I am going to make a tote bag. I think this is an excellent way to up-cycle our plastic bags. The tote will be useful, practical, and long lasting, and those plastic bags get to live a second life, a much, much longer life of usefulness. I will post an update on this new to me project, wish me luck with my plarn adventure.

I really like that I am fifty-five years old and every week learn or experience something new to me for the first time. What new things have you experienced or learned recently?

Peace be with you,

Bean

Vegan Eats - YUMMY




 I really enjoy being Vegan, I enjoy the foods I eat, lots of veggies and fresh fruit, legumes and grains. It is a varied and enjoyable way to eat, truly indulging in the fruits (and veggies) of the earth. The goodness of the fresh food nourishes my body.

I recently started reading a book By Will Tuttle, Ph.D, The World Peace Diet, it explores eating for spiritual health and social harmony, and promotes veganism as the way to achieve this. The book is empowering, profound, may I even say, life changing. The intended audience is everyone and it will certainly make you think about where your food comes from and how it affects your mind, body and spirit. The book has excellent reviews, I borrowed this copy from the library, but plan to purchase a used copy for myself.

Veganism became a reality in November of 1944, when Donald Watson and his wife Dorothy coined the term Veganism. Donald founded the Vegan Society in England, and  he wrote, published, and distributed the newsletters by himself for several years.
Donald lived a life of "clean eating" before such a term was thought of, he didn't drink, didn't smoke, ate a whole food plant based vegan diet, and was an avid Fells walker. Donald lived to be 95 and never took any medication in his life. Here is a link to his obituary issued by the Vegan Society Donald Watson - Founder of the Vegan Movement it is worth a click.
The newsletter gives a brief biography of Donald, and includes photographs of him and some quotes on veganism. A simple man, who lived a simple life, never looking for fame, riches, or notoriety, yet he created a movement that is now known world wide and every day more and more people choose to go vegan.  RIP Donald Watson.

I am the only vegan in my family, so meat is cooked and served in our home, I wish it was not so. I do my best to promote veganism and produce side dishes and deserts that are vegan and do my best to encourage healthy eating. During January I only made vegan meals for our big family Sunday dinner, our daughter Amber, her husband Brad and the five boys all joined in and humored me and enjoyed the meals. I did vegan meatloaf one Sunday, and a vegan Mexican fiesta, another, and cannot remember what other meals I prepared. Our other children for the most part simply avoided the meals, I was disappointed that they would not even give it a try.


I recently watched a YouTube video called  Hot Diggity Carrot Dogs by Jane and Ann Esselstyn, I cannot begin to tell you just how perfectly a cooked carrot mimics a hot dog, weird, right? I cooked my carrot, for the bun I lightly toasted seven grain sprouted bread which I then covered in spicy mustard, popped my carrot dog on the folded toast and topped it off with vegan coleslaw. IT WAS AMAZINGLY GOOD!
The vegan coleslaw is easy to make, I found a recipe online to make mayo using extra firm silken tofu, it is quite nice and only 8 calories per serving, so win win all around. I used the mayo to make the slaw dressing and mixed it with purple (red?) cabbage.
There are so many healthy vegan recipes online, I am sure Donald Watson would be mightily happy to know that veganism has become very mainstream.

Here are some pictures of various vegan dishes I have made for the family and myself:



Vegan Truffles, my grandchildren renamed them Chocolate Balls! Warning, these disappear quickly,

Vegan Waldorf Salad, the dressing is made by whizzing up orange juice and dates in the blender, it is a very refreshing side.

Fresh Fruit Salad, a big hit with the grandchildren.

A healthy afternoon snack for the grands children

Vegan Coleslaw, made with homemade vegan mayo as the base for the dressing.

Tofu Scramble, this is such a nice quick meal with a piece of whole grain toast.

A Vegan Slaw Dog, the "hot dog" is a cooked carrot.

Apple Bars, and Banana Zucchini Oat muffins



Meal Prep Made Easy

My lunch and dinner each day is a combination of steamed veggies with a legume. To keep meal preparation easy I have all my veggies ready to go in individual containers in the kitchen refrigerator.

I store additional veggies in the refrigerator in the garage and as I empty a pot of veggies I simply grab more from the garage, cut up and refill the pot and put in the kitchen refrigerator. This prevents me from having to cut up tons of veggies all at one time.

A little floral interlude, I couldn't resist this potted tulip when I went grocery shopping on Saturday, it is a cheerful reminder that soon it will be spring.

In my pantry I keep a good supply of Old Fashioned Oats, some veggie broth, an extra container of almond milk, and a lot of canned tomatoes. I keep a variety of canned beans on hand, gabanzo, pinto, and black beans being my favorites. 

I store lentils, quinoa, wild rice, and brown rice in re-purposed peanut butter jars, they make wonderful storage containers. And, I keep a selection of favorite herbal teas in store, ginger, hibiscus, green tea, passion flower, and red raspberry zinger being my go to favorites.

Nutritional yeast is a meal time staple, it adds excellent flavor, and is a good source of B12. I buy it in bulk at the 3 Rivers Food CoOp.

I like to snack on raw veggies and always have a supply of celery and carrots ready to go, I add half a cucumber and a fresh bell pepper, it is such a refreshing, filling snack.

I like to steam my veggies, I keep this large pan on the stove, the steamer basket holds all my veggies and it takes about ten minutes to cook everything. I put the longer to cook veg in first, like brussel sprouts, rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, sweet potato, top with kale or collard greens and purple cabbage, then add sliced mushrooms, and broccoli, cauliflower, spinach. This works really well.

 I cook up a batch of lentils a couple times a week in my rice cooker, I eat a half a cup with a half cup of canned tomatoes at each meal.  I heat the lentils and tomatoes in the microwave while my veg steam, then add a couple heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Once the veg are done I dump them on top and enjoy my amazing bowl of vegan goodness, or as my mom calls it, my bowl of weeds!

These are the veggies I prepared for lunch today, I love the vibrancy of the colors. I about finished off the broccoli, so grabbed another head from the garage and cut it up to replenish my stock.

Now off to eat lunch and enjoy a refreshing mug of ginger tea after.

Enjoy your day,

Bean