I almost forgot...

Happy World Vegan Day, everybody!

Take Your Cookie to Work Day

Especially take them if they are Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles from

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats. Man, they are good. I have no self control when it comes to sweet baked goods, so if I want to make cookies, I have to bring them somewhere that I can unload them. I am glad my coworkers don't seem to mind!

Yes, it is the last day of VeganMoFo. I have been terrible this year. All I can say is that hopefully this is my last year of school for a very long time, so maybe next October I will have more time for blogging. Happy end of VeganMoFo, everyone!

Top Chef... veg*n episode revealed!

If you haven't seen the episode yet, don't worry, I won't spoil you on who won or who made what, but I will talk about the show in general and what the challenge was, so choose now if you want to keep reading.

The episode is called... "Meat Natalie."

It starts out with a Quickfire Challenge that is not vegan, and we'll just say that the contestants are totally blindsided by the Elimination Challenge. This episode might have been filmed before Natalie Portman went back to being completely vegan, as the challenge is vegetarian, not vegan. However, it appears that most of the dishes are vegan... even things that are "creamed" may not have actually had cream in them. It may very well have happened that they decided not to use the word "vegan" on the show, but still were actually cooking vegan. I did hear the word "butter" uttered (ooh, a rhyme!), but again, who knows if it was actually butter.

There is an episode of Top Chef Masters called "Dietary Restrictions" that aired over the summer that unfolded in similar fashion with the celebrity judge being Zooey Deschanel, so I guess we'll have to rely on that episode for total vegan goodness for now!

The episode was somewhat disappointing, especially compared to the Top Chef Masters one. While it's awesome to see all the vegan dishes, it's mostly just piles of vegetables. They look really pretty and the judges seem to like many of them, but it's really a whole bunch of side dishes. No tofu, no tempeh, barely any beans, no seitan and hardly any grains, even. Someone even uses *leeks* to stand in as their protein. I like leeks a lot, but I don't think that really works.

The best part about this episode? That it airs during Veganmofo, of course!

Top Chef... vegan episode?

I just watched last night's Top Chef... and saw that their special guest next week is Natalie Portman, who recently returned to veganism. The teaser says something to the effect of "there's one catch..." but doesn't tell us. Is this finally going to be an all-vegan episode? I am totally excited with the anticipation!

Rice A Roni

... the San Fransico treat!

I used to love those commercials.

I used this recipe as my starting point, but I added in some other grains: wild rice, millet, kasha and Israeli couscous, as well as some (already cooked) chickpeas. I'm not going to post my recipe, as I need to revise when to add some of the grains for optimal cooking, and I felt like there wasn't enough seasoning. I guess I'd probably end up turning it into more of a pilaf next time, but definitely not a bad dish.

And you know, Veganmofo!

Not more on Vitamin D...

Last update for a while, I promise.

Getting liquid vitamin D2 for high dose therapy is not easy. Most pharmacies do not stock vitamin D liquid as a matter of course, so you'll have to have them order it (or you can probably order it on the internet, but keep reading). Liquid vitamin D is usually only used in very small doses; 2 drops, to be exact (which would be 400 IUs). Remember, I need to take 50,000 IU at once.

If you take a look at the bottle, there are 8000 IU/milliliter. To get 50,000, you need to take 6.25 mL. It comes in a glass bottle with a dropper.

That is reason #1 you'll want to get it from your pharmacy instead of online- the pharmacist will give you a syringe to draw it up (you can then mix it in a little water or juice- it's very sweet but otherwise flavorless- actually, so sweet it's kind of revolting. I vote for a lightly sweetened juice).

Reason #2... it's expensive. According to my pharmacy slip, the generic brand is about $68/bottle. One bottle will get you somewhere around 9 doses at the 50,000 level. It's not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's a lot. So, here's the deal: Liquid Vitamin D is technically an over the counter product; but at this high dose, it actually requires a prescription. If you can get your medical provider to write a prescription for you (they may not know that this dose needs one, since it's gonna say in their drug look-up it's OTC- I know, I have the same one they're all using), it can be put through your insurance as a prescription medication, if you have insurance, and if that insurance covers medication and it's an approved medication (this dose seems to be commonly covered).

So there you have it. I'll follow up again in a few months to say if it's working.

Please note, I don't provide this information because I want you to run out and start taking a dose like this. High dose vitamin D therapy can be very dangerous unless you're actually severely depleted. Check with your medical provider first!

Another Lovely Day

To be perfectly honest, this week is not going to be pretty. I have a bunch of really stupid but required trainings to do to for my internship, so I don't think I'm going to have time to post most days this week, though I will do what I can. Maybe I can make it up next weekend, which hopefully will not be so busy.

Yesterday, I had the really good kind of busy- the go-into-New-York-and-see-a-show kind of busy, which is always often, and something I have not taken advantage of very much since I've been in New Haven. Of course, ticket prices are kind of a drawback, but I was able to get a really cheap ticket to Next to Normal. Totally worth it, even if it means squeezing writing two papers into one weekend day.

Before the show, a little shopping was in order. The only place I really wanted to go was Lush, as I wanted some bath bombs and bars. I love me some bubbles in the bath, and it's not easy to find an all vegan variety!

I got some solid perfume and a chocolate face mask, too. I love this place.

Dinner was at a Vietnamese place that one of my friends really likes. The vegan pickings were slim, but I was happy with my tofu and greens. I love that it's plated sort of like that awful thing from KFC that uses two pieces of fried chicken instead of bread to hold cheese and bacon. This is so much more civilized.

Of course, my dining companions' meals were not civilized, nor was the whole pretending they were screaming before dipping them in the boiling water (they had a seafood Shabu Shabu, which had some whole shrimp and prawns- eyes and everything...) I had to actually ask them to stop. I usually don't make any fuss over omni friend's meals, but that was a little bit too much to take. I still couldn't look down at that end of the table, even after they toned down the "playing" with their food.

After the show, we happened to go out an exit which was by the backstage exit, so I hung around like a total fangirl for autographs.

Alice Ripley signed my program! Yay!

Alice Ripley is a totally nice and gracious and charming star, and she posed for a picture with me even though I didn't ask and her handlers had said no posed pictures. Awesomeness!

I love having a day like this... I just wish I had vegan friends to share that with. I would so much rather go to a vegan (or even vegetarian) restaurant before the show, but it can be a pretty hard sell, especially where I haven't been to any in that area before and can say "oh, this is totally awesome, and you'll love it." I have very few vegan friends in "real life," and of the few I have, I can't imagine going to a Broadway show and then standing outside in the freezing cold to wait for autographs would top any of their lists of things they'd enjoy doing. Total bummer.

Braised Leeks and Seitan Stroganoff

This was just so good, I am going to make another batch of seitan even though I don't have time just so I can make it again. Really, really good.

I started with this recipe (and got the idea for the leeks from here). I braised the leeks with balsamic vinegar, which was really nice. I left out the mushrooms (of course!) and added green beans and peas. From the gravy, I left out the mustard and tamari (just didn't need it, it was so good), and I also added a sprig of chopped rosemary, which I think really made the dish. A great meal for a cold day!

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

It is October 15. Guess what it was doing this evening in New Haven, CT? If you guessed snowing, you'd be right.

Now, I'm not sure how out of the ordinary in the grand scheme of things that is; I'm sure it's snowed this early in the season long before the industrial revolution, but it's the kind of thing that makes you think.

I'm tired, and I don't want to preach. I know that there are people out there who scoff at vegan diets as being helpful in the climate change issue, because many of the foods we eat have to be trucked or shipped in or is genetically modified. This is true. For the most part, it doesn't have to be.

I think the best advice out there for vegans and non-vegans alike is to be aware of what you eat. Awareness is a funny thing. It might help you eat less. It might help you eat better for you. It might help you eat better for animals. It also might help you eat better for the planet.

And veganmofo!

Vitamin D update

It took a bit to get all of my Vitamin D lab work back (it seems to not be something labs deal with frequently), but it seems that indeed, the way to treat is with large doses of Vitamin D- 50,000 IU of D2 once a week for eight weeks.

The kicker? The large dose Vitamin D comes in gelatin-filled capsules. D'oh! The good news is, there is a liquid form, but it's hard to find. You may have to ask our pharmacy to order it, which is what I'm doing.

Earlier: more than you wanted to know about Vitamin D.