Day 37: Amy's Frozen Meals

    Normally every day when I make dinner I will make a bit extra to take for lunch the next day. This guarantees that I will be able to have a satisfying vegan lunch, rather than just packing the usual Pb&j sandwich. Unfortunately the other night I was out and about so I didn't have enough time to make my lunch for today. So instead I picked up a frozen vegan meal. Until recently I didn't know they were any decent frozen vegan meals available until I saw a few raving reviews on Amy's frozen prepackaged meals.

     Today I picked up Amy's organic black bean and vegetable enchilada for my lunch and it was way more than I hoped for. Back when I use to eat meat and dairy I use to take those little frozen Lean Cuisine meals to work, which were absolutely atrocious so I wasn't expecting much to say the least. After warming it up it looked like any other prepackage meal, but I was pleasantly surprised when I took a bite and found it tasted ten times better than it looked.

    Amy's is one of the best frozen meal options for vegetarians and vegans alike. While they do have some products with  animal products in it, they are prominently marked so you are sure to know what you are eating. Amy's is definitely a great brand for frozen vegan meals, but like any frozen meal be careful to not eat them too often for most have high quantities of sodium for the purpose of preserving there product.

For more information on Amy's products check out there website at www.amys.com.

   

Day 36: Kale Chips

    The cool thing about the library I got to is they have a freebie box where everyone can put there unwanted books or magazines, and every once and a while I find something good. Today I got lucky and picked up the "Competitor" which is a popular running magazine. Inside this particular issue they included a vegan recipe for kale chips, which I was excited to try.

    Tonight for dinner I took the left over pizza ingredients I had in the fridge and made a mini pizza on whole wheat pita bread. Along with my pizza I had made a side of kale chips, seasoned with just a little bit of olive oil and salt. Kale is one of those many super veggies that is high in antioxidants as well as various vitamins such as beta carotine, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and calcium.

    The kale tasted a little to much to me like brussels sprouts, but then again I didn't buy the right type of kale for the recipe either. I intrigued by the consistency, for I have never had salad chips before. I definitely would make it again, but I tweaked the recipe a little bit so it should turn out even better next time.

Kale Chips


1/3 cup of Olive Oil
Tuscan or Lacinato Kale, with the stems removed
Sea salt

Step 1: Rinse the kale before removing chunks of the leaf from the stem. Place the kale leaves on a baking sheet and brush both sides of it with olive oil. Then lightly sprinkle with sea salt.

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and let it cook for about 20 minutes until crisp.

Day 35: The Honey Debate

     This morning I had toast with earth balance "butter" and a little bit of honey, along with a side of fresh strawberries. I know that honey is normally an issue of debate for most vegans so I decided to do some research on it.

     Many vegans will not eat honey because they believe that honey bees are being mistreated and in some cases I guess they are. The two articles I read were "Why Honey is Not Vegan" by Noah Lewis and "Is Honey Vegan?" by Keith Akers.

Some of the key arguments against honey in the article "Why Honey is Not Vegan" are the following:

* When harvesting honey farmers are not just taking the excess honey but all of the it, which the bees normally use as food supply. In its place farmers feed them sugar syrup or corn syrup.

* It is also not environmentally friendly for farmers will move the bee hives in truck loads all around the country to follow the more plentiful nectar in order to increase honey production and profit.

* Many bees dye in the process of harvesting the honey. Also since 10 to 20 percent of hives are lost over the winter some bee keepers have the practice of killing off their hives before winter for economical purposes.

   While all these views are valid I also read another article "Is Honey Vegan?" which summarized "Why Honey is Vegan" by Dr. Michael Greger in Satya in September 2005. In that article Dr. Greger said vegans should rethink their position on honey.

The reasons he stated were:

1) Abstaining from honey because of the concern for insects is not consistent since other activities and products consumed by vegans kills more insects than beekeeping.  
 
       - An example of this would be that there are many rental bees are used to pollinate all the vegetable crops we eat and have a worse off life than honey bees. Rental bees spend the majority of there lives sealed in the back of trucks, while being shipped across the country on a diet of high fructose corn syrup.

2) He also compared how while some honey bees are killed in the process they aren't even necessarily directly killed by humans. They could have been swashed in the process, but we are normally not actively trying to kill them. On the other hand factory farmed egg-laying chickens are being killed by humans when they no longer are able to produce.

3) Once again in comparison factory farmed chickens live in horrible conditions while honey bees live a relatively natural life.

    After reading both positions I came to the conclusion that I would not buy commercialized honey from my nearby grocery store. Instead I would purchase it from bee keepers at farmers markets or people I know. The honey I used in my breakfast was actually from my own brother's bee hive and he has never mistreated them so don't see what would be the problem with using that particular honey? I understand why vegans wouldn't want to consume honey from companies who kill them off in the winter and such, but what is wrong with a local beekeeper's honey?

    For those of you who are die hard vegans, but love the consistency of honey, there are also substitutes products out there that mimics honey.

Day 34: Fourth of July Barbecue

     One of the hardest things about being vegan is going to friend's and family's houses to eat; whether it be a potluck or family dinner. Today I was faced with the challenge of eating vegan food at fourth of July barbecue. Since it was at the beach everyone was bringing hamburgers, s'mores, and so on. Being a potluck I decided to make the Greek Salad with Tofu (instead of feta cheese) which I had made on Day 10, as well as my own veggi burger so that I may have hamburgers with every one else. I also learned that when attending these social events it is always good to call ahead and ask the hostess what you can bring, even if it isn't a potluck, so you can guarantee you will have something to eat.

    I was pretty lucky at this event for they were only a few things I couldn't eat. Along with the salad and veggie burger I brought there was also tons of watermelon, and pretzels so I had more than enough to eat. I was a little disappointed though that some of my friends wouldn't even try my Greek salad for it had tofu in it. Next time I will try to avoid telling them it is "vegan" and if there is tofu in it for texture reasons I will not tell them (unless they have a soy allergy of course)  for people tend to avoid food with those labels.One of my friends even said "we need to get some real food". I can't stand when people say that. I mean what isn't real about a Greek salad filled with olives, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and tofu? Does only things with meat and cheese qualify as "real food"? But in the end I just decided if they didn't try any than there is just more for me.

Day 33: Soy Ice Cream with Vegan Cookies

     For dessert this evening my boyfriend and I decided to try a new flavor of soy ice cream. We picked up the only other option besides black cherry at Trader Joe's, which was vanilla soy. Since vanilla always seems kind of bland on its own we also picked up some vegan chocolate chips cookies and chocolate syrup.

     The ice cream tasted even better than the vanilla bean ice cream I use to get, and with the warmed up cookies and chocolate is was to die for.

Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream


2 scoops of soy vanilla ice cream
Chocolate syrup (preferably without high fructose corn syrup)
2 vegan chocolate chip cookies

    Step 1:  Warm up the cookies in the microwave for about 30 seconds until soft.

    Step 2: Place one cookie at the bottom of the bowl before adding two scoops of ice cream on top.

    Step 3: Put the last cookie on the side of the dish and then generously add chocolate syrup on top.

Pretty much self explanatory....

Day 32: Stuffed Bell Peppers

     For lunch today I attempted to recreate the delicious stuffed bell peppers I had at Bob Marley's on Day 22 with a side of green beans. I played the recipe by ear, adding and subtracting a few ingredients.

    While the bell peppers were delicious they still needed to be cooked a little more thoroughly so I slightly altered my recipe for you guys. Let me know what you think.

Stuffed Bell Peppers


2 green bell peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Black beans
Rice
Minced mushrooms
Minced onion
Spinach
Tomato sauce

    Step 1: Cook the rice and beans. In another pan warm up the olive oil with the garlic before adding the onions. Caramelize the onions and add the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have shrunk add the spinach and cook until warm.

    Step 2: Cut the top off of the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds. Mix the rice and bean mixture with other mixture before stuffing the peppers. Top the bell peppers with tomato sauce.

    Step 3: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cook for 15 minutes until the bell peppers are soft.

(Serves: 2)

Day 31: Vitamins and Omega-3

   Every day since I started this challenge I have been taking a multivitamin to cover all my bases, and flax seed oil which is a good source of omega-3.

     A lot of people take fish oil to get their omega-3 if they don’t eat a lot of fish on a regular basis, but unfortunately it has a fishy after taste. Most people think you can only get efficient quantities of omega-3 from fish, but that is not the case for those fish get their omega-3 from the food they ingest. 

    

     Being vegan fish oil is out of the question and have found the after taste to be appalling. Instead I decided to take flax seed which you can take in a capsule form like fish oil. It also comes in the form of whole seeds, ground seeds, and oil depending on your particular need. If you chose some other form besides the capsules you can mix it in with your food or even use it as an egg replacer with a little bit of water.

For more information check out "The Benefits of Flax Seed"