Vitamin D, finally....

I was very bad in going back to have my blood drawn to have my vitamin D level checked. I was supposed to go back in mid-December, but didn't go until last week. The good news is, my levels are much improved. So vegans, it can absolutely work to do high-dose liquid vitamin-D2 supplementation for a low level and have it come up to normal. No need to take sheep secretions (or D2 that's in a gelatin capsule)! My doctor did recommend that I continue with the daily type of supplement that I'm on, which for me is a total of about 2000 IU/day of D2 (my compliance is not as good as it should be, so I err on the side of taking a bit more than I might otherwise need to, since I don't end up taking it every day). Here's to preventing osteoperosis!

See here, here and here for my earlier posts on Vitamin D, in case you don't know what the heck I'm talking about. :-)

more mac & cheese, because I clearly like it.

Okay, last post from blogging hibernation.

I just tried Amy's Vegan Rice Mac & Cheese. It was good, no question. It was not as good as I remember their original mac & cheese, but I think that had more to do with the rice pasta rather than the sauce. It's quite rich and not something I would want to eat everyday, but I'd have it again. Here's the kicker though:

It has more fat, more calories, more sodium and less protein than any of Amy's other mac & cheeses. In fact, save for the sodium, even Stouffer's Mac & Cheese beats it out in terms of nutrition (and the sodium difference between the two is only 90mg, with Amy's at 730 and Stouffer's at 820).

This is a treat. Have it with a salad and it's a meal in a pinch, but as much as I like having the convenience of a good vegan mac & cheese I can pick up at the grocery store, it scares me about the future of vegan health.

Thoughts on a trip to the store

Taking a break from the not-blogging for a moment...

When the Whole Foods in Milford, CT first opened this fall, I was kind of disappointed. Sure, it's a Whole Foods, and has nice produce and many of the basic vegan products a little cheaper than some of the small natural foods stores, but it really wasn't worth the trip to Milford, unless I was going to the area for something else anyways. Like um, Trader Joe's, which is awesome at what it does. And my mom sends me gift certificates to TJs for pretty much every holiday, so, free food!

The last two times I've been to WF though (in conjunction with bringing a pair of pants to Banana Republic for alterations and picking them up- I was in the parking lot anyways, so I might as well shop there), I've been pleasantly surprised. Their vegan offerings have increased dramatically. They now have just about every major vegan processed product out there, which is awesome for those times when you're busy and don't have a lot of time to cook- and I'm grateful for that.

Then I realized that it's kind of sad, too. One of the things that's pretty awesome about being a vegan is that for years, I've had to cook real food for myself for the most part. These days, I don't have to eat very differently from the Standard American Diet- we have it all in vegan form, now. So I'm left to wonder, is this good or bad? Don't get me wrong, most vegan processed food is healthier than its non-vegan counterparts, and I'm glad that those vegan offerings are out there for everyone (heck, I saw an older couple looking through the cold-bakery case, and picking out a vegan carrot cake- and I don't think they even realized it was vegan, and I'm sure they won't know by taste, and that's awesome), but while it might be great for the cause, it can make us pretty lazy, too.

Before I started changing my eating habits in the ways that led me to be a vegetarian, then a vegan, I was a lot more overweight that I am now, my skin looked awful, and I had a host of other issues to go along with all that. Last semester was horribly stressful, and I started gaining weight again, in part to the majorly processed foods diet I was eating and a lot of poor choices. At any rate, I've been working at that for a bit now, and I'm starting to eschew some of those processed foods again.

I did pick up a couple of the new Amy's vegan Mac & Cheese frozen meals and a Twilight bar. Most of my purchases ended up coming from the produce department, though I am feeling guilty for buying grapes in February. Then I went over to Trader Joe's and picked up a bunch of tofu, tempeh and chickpeas (I could have gotten all those at Whole Foods, of course, but I had a TJ's gift certificate). True, those are also processed foods, but I need to be making a lot more effort to get my diet to focus on fresh foods and lightly processed ones. But for an occasional treat, trying out Amy's vegan Mac & Cheese is still a-okay.

I'm so sorry for the total lack of posts. This blog will probably remain dormant until late spring or so, when I'm done with school. I may take pictures on and off on the rare days when I make something different and photogenic, but I'll be saving them up. See you in the spring!

Food-Driven: Tue: Deliveries only. Wed to Fri schedule

Food-Driven: Tue: Deliveries only. Wed to Fri schedule

Follow the link and vote for vegan cupcake day!

I've never actually been to the cupcake truck because whenever I've seen it out and about I'm usually in a hurry to get to class, but I would definitely seek it out if I knew that there would be delicious vegan cupcakes on a particular day!

(Personally, I voted for everyday... but I'll take any day it's in the downtown or med school area).

Really good but inexact...

Raw snack: slice an onion (red or a sweet one). Marinate overnight in Bragg's or nama shoyu (or soy sauce if you don't care about being raw). Dehydrate. This is where I get really inexact, as I don't have a dehydrator, so I don't know real time or temp- I just shove them in my gas oven in the off position, where it's a consistent 100F. I left them in for a whole 36 hours- overnight wasn't nearly long enough, and then I forgot about them until the next day. I really like them like this (they're still pliable, I'm thinking you might want a slightly higher temp, shorter time though in a dehydrator). Store in the fridge.

I use parentheses far too often.

I have a morbid fascination with advice columns. I read several Dear Abby-style columns on a regular basis. My fascination is probably along the lines of why I became a therapist in the first place, but I digress. I saw the question below in yesterday's Ask Amy column:

Dear Amy: How do I tactfully agree with someone when she complains about being overweight?

I have a friend who had lost a lot of weight before I ever met her, but she is still probably a good 50 pounds overweight. She used to work out but now can't find the time.

My problem is that sometimes she makes comments about how she is fat.

It's the kind of comment that someone would normally respond with, "You're crazy! You are not fat!" but I can't say that because it would obviously be a lie.

What should I say to this?

Friend of a Fat Friend

Probably half a dozen people who know me could have written that question. Well, not exactly (50 lbs would be a bit much. I'm a really short person), but something similar. The answer in the column is fine, but I think it lacks something. There are two kinds of people why say they're fat. Ones who actually are, and ones who aren't. I don't speak for the ones who aren't, that's a whole other issue. Ones who are however- they're not usually looking to be lied to. I don't think any of them want you to say what the writer above thinks. It's a defense mechanism: "I'm going to point out the obvious before you, because if I say it, you can't hurt me." It's the subconscious subtext.

All overweight people are overweight because they consume more calories than they expend, but people get there for all sorts of different reasons. In the American culture, there's a stigma that people who are overweight are immoral people (gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins) who have no control over themselves. It may be true that they are out of control; it may be true that they were once out of control. They may have also been "overweight" as infants and had no control over the beginnings of the problem. They may have been abused (physically, sexually, emotionally), they may have been teased, they may be uneducated about food, they may be a lot of different things. They may have a lot in their lives that they feel really embarrassed and ashamed about, and because they're fat, people sometimes feel entitled to make judgements about them. When they say they're fat, they probably not looking for you tell them otherwise, but they're probably not looking for you to tell them to lose weight. It's not your moral duty to make people feel even more badly about themselves. Someone who's saying they're fat (unless perhaps they're a fat activist) probably already feels badly enough about themselves.

I can't speak for everyone of course; there are people with issues who are looking for you to say, yes, you are fat. Most don't really want to hear that either- like I said, it's a defense mechanism. It gives the person saying it a false sense of control that no one else can hurt them if they bring up the while elephant in the room first, so to speak.

What can you do? Like the answer in the column, you want to gauge your response by what you're getting back- if they're in total self defeatist mode, changing the subject might be a very good idea, for the time being. Saying, "yeah, you could stand to lose 50 lbs," may be gutsy and "feel real," but probably won't be all that helpful in the moment. Offering to be a gym buddy or to go for a daily walk with them might be a better response.

But you know what I think people are looking for? (I'm totally projecting here). I think people just want to hear that they're still good and worthwhile people. That thin doesn't always equal attractive and fat doesn't necessarily equal unattractive. That you like being their friend for the person they are, not for what they do or don't look like. Now this might be a little different for someone who is a staunch fat activist, but for someone who's not, they're probably looking for a little reassurance. If it's not in you to give that, change the subject, but don't kick people while they're down. Someone who is saying that is probably coming for a place of insecurity, in the context mentioned above. (Someone who is saying, "hey, I'm fat and I want to make some changes," is a different story, of course). Remember that morality thing I mentioned above? I think there's also something in religious sayings about "Judge not, lest ye be judged." We all have our issues. Some just aren't as obvious as others.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog.

It's almost time for the holidays!

But yeah, I'm sure you already knew that.

Today Slate reprinted their Guide to Vegetarian Turkey. I don't know; I think that the Field Roast Celebration Roast really deserved a better score- I like it a lot more than Tofurkey (though I have nothing against Tofurkey). I haven't had the opportunity to the the Gardein version (though new that I have a Whole Foods nearby, I should see if they have it).

Although I'm having a Celebration Roast this year, remember that you don't have to do a mock turkey for Thanksgiving. Some of the best Thanksgivings I've had involved pasta for the main dish (but with all the traditional sides, because come on, when else is it socially acceptable to eat mashed potatoes and stuffing and green bean casserole and pie all in one meal?). There's lot of other flavors of fall out there to try, so here's a few that I've done in the past:

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes and Spicy Green Beans

Roasted Lemony Brussels Sprouts with Couscous

Sesame Tofu

Pasta and Veggies and Roasted Chickpeas

Cannelli Bean Amaranth Soup

Pad Thai

Apple-Gingler Autumn Roll with Sweet and Smokey Tofu

Pumpkin-Spinach Risotto

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Pears and Nuts

Baked Apples with Barley-Chorizo Pilaf

Pasta with Black Grapes, Fennel and Vegan Sausage

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Roasted Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

Pumpkin-Ginger-Edamame Risotto

And here's a picture of my more "traditional" meal from last year:

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Tempeh Piccata with Warm Wheat Berry Salad

This one is actually from a few months ago, but I never got around to posting it.

The Tempeh Piccata is basically the Candle Café recipe, but using steamed tempeh instead of seitan (because it's what I had. I've made it with seitan before, both options are really good). I can't remember what exactly is in the Wheat Berry Salad, but I think it's cooked wheat berries, rainbow swiss chard and balsamic reduction. There might be some onion in there too, but I don't remember. That will teach me to post pictures so late!

Vegan Swap!

I joined up in the Vegan Care Package Swap over at Cooking For A Vegan Lover's blog. I was paired with Pixiepine, who sent me an awesome package. Unfortunately, I can't find my camera so I could only take the pic with my iPhone, but if you click through, I have notes on the picture. Included are a Kiss My Face bar of soap, Raw Cacao Nibs, Vega Smoothie infusion, a granola plank, a chocolate bar (one for eating and one for baking!), sugar cookies, Sweet Thai Delight tea, Gummi Bears, and... a Lush conditioning bar!!!!!!!

I was a slacker and didn't send mine until today, but I hope she'll like the one I sent as much I like the one she sent!