Saturday, February 04, 2006

Today I vegan...

Today I vegan my day with a shot of espresso in my favorite
Juventus cup, which I won in a Christmas party prize draw (what luck that the cups had my team on it!). It's the small things that give me pleasure. I vegan my day with spicy scrambled tofu (yellowed using Tumeric), home-fried potatoes just like mom use to make, fresh gorgeous ripe avocado, D's sourdough, pomegranate smoothie, and a soy vanilla macchiato (courtesy or our shiny custom made Saeco machine). I love brunch!

Today I also vegan my day with my favorite t-shirt from Vegan Essentials that reads "Vegetarianism wish you were here!" and there's a sillhouette of a couple of palm trees and a pig on that sanctuary paradise.

Today I vegan a search in the tva.ca directory and found two new vegan delightful blogs that I've added to my "notable blogs" in the sidebar. They are: Post Punk Kitchen and Bunnyfoot.

Today I vegan giving into my Tuna-Free Salad Sandwich craving. When I went to fluville in January (see my archives if you're really that concerned), I had a strange Tuna salad sandwich craving that disturbed me. I recalled being sick as a child and my mother giving me a tuna salad sandwich (my favorite comfort food as a child) that made me feel almost instantly better. Anywho...I consulted my trusty Vegan Planet (I highly recommend this cookbook by Robin Robertson. I've made numerous recipes from it and none have failed or let me down in anyway. Do I need footnotes in my blogs? If i can figure out how to footnote properly, I will). Vegan Planet's Tuna-Free Salad Sandwich is unbelievable delicious and tasty like the real flavored thing (It's the taste of the sea) without the cruel suffering or mercury (Note to newly pregnant friend G: mercury free! If you get that craving make this recipe!).

Tuna-Free Salad Sandwich (I've made it so many times I'm writing it from memory)

1 can of chickpeas (or you can soak your own -- you need about 15oz)
1/2 cup of blanched almonds (I've also used raw almonds and it works fine. I've also recently
discovered soaked sunflower seeds in my ventures into Raw
cuisine and I suspect this would work well too, but I haven't actually
tried it)

Pulse these two in a food processor until roughly chopped.

Add:

1 tbls of lemon juice
1 tsp of kelp powder (granules) *this is the key ingrediant to give it that flavor

Blend until well combined.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in:

I/3 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup of Vegenaise (or your own favorite vegan mayo -- you can make your own too with silken tofu)
1 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard
1 scallion minced (personally, I haven't tried it this way because I'm allergic to scallion)

salt and pepper to taste

Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors blend. Enjoy!

I can't refrigerate for the 30 minutes because I can't wait and it tastes just as good.


***

Where I've Been Surfing

The Meatrix

If you've seen The Matrix you should see
the Meatrix.
Educational and entertaining.


Generally, I don't endorse car culture but I came across this honda civic add where a choir is used to make the noises of a car on the road and all the sounds that entails. You can check it out
at: http://www.honda.co.uk/civic and watch the video and even watch the making of.
I'm not entirely sure what this says about the human/machine relationship, symbiotic? Maybe J.G. Ballard said it all in Crash

***

In other news...

Thursday

After a 12 hour fast, had some bloodwork done to satisfy my doctor's desire to make sure my B12 is where it should be. Felt pretty weird since I usually snack about every two hours. All I could think about in the doctor's waiting room was the LARABAR in my bag, waiting for me to tear into it. I don't remember eating it that's how hungry I was.

After sufficient lunch (Soba noodles with a nutty sauce stir fry) and digestive time I ran in who-High Park for the first time this year! It was so nice to be back. There were a lot of dogs and their walkers, but I managed okay (I have a big dog phobia). I stuck close to another runner just ahead and tried to look the other way as I passed a Shephard. Progress.

The run felt great. Not sure how far I went. It's just good to run outside again. The weather has been so mild the outdoor run is unavoidable. I'm trying to stretch the life of my running shoes that I'm pretty certain have expired. I inserted some nice gel insoles and that give a little cushioning, but if anyone has any other tips or advice please let me know.

New screenplay idea is developing. I'm very excited about this. Hopefully, it's going somewhere. Help me with this one Universe.

Friday

Downward Dog Day. Few people turned out for my favorite class which meant more hands on correction and adjustments from both the instructor and her teaching assistant. The teaching assistant was great and really attentive. Usually they just adjust, but this one asked questions about where I was feeling the stretch (pain!) and it was much more interactive.
Overall, I didn't have a good class for some reason (water retention?), but I still enjoyed it and did benefit from it.

Time for that Tuna-Free sandwich before the 3rd period of the Blues game starts.

7 comments:

redjane Stephanie Belding said...

Thanks for the info on the other blogs- I've heard of them but not sen them. Where does one get kelp powder?I want to try the recipe since tuna was a staple for us too in my household. What a great brunch! Man oh man! Decadent mornings....my blog is down; no new posts are coming up . Neither are the comments, so I'm all over support at Blogger...glad to know the screenplay is coming; can't wait to hear more!

Wandering Coyote said...

That brunch sounds like a lot of food, sp. I don't think I could eat all that in one sitting!

I certainly admire your dedication to veganism. I remember a time when you couldn't go without cheese.

Anonymous said...

Hi! My first post, but I have been an avid reader! Plus I am such a brunch fan that I had to comment. Your brunch sounds so amazing...pomegranate juice!! And scrambled tofu is one of my all-time favourite vegan recipes. If you like omelettes, I suggest trying the recipe in Garden of Vegan - it tastes almost exactly like an egg omelette and it's not terribly difficult. P.s., I went to the Sunday morning yoga class three or four weeks ago and debated going to the meditation the following week, but I didn't make it. Maybe one day...

sp said...

red jane: wandering coyote told me that my blog was inaccessible as well so maybe there's been all around problems. Hope things are settled soon.

wandering: It does seem like a lot of food doesn't it? Yes, cheese was the last thing I gave up. Living with two other vegans helped push me back to reconnect with my vegan ways and I know now it's for good. Then I saw a wonderful speaker at the Veg Food Fair here in whoville, Farmer Brown, who use to be a dairy farmer, but now he works for Farm Sanctuary. He's a pretty remarkable person and told it as it is. D. gave up milk the next day.

Julia: Welcome! So glad you made it. Can you forward the recipe? That'd be great.

sp said...

Oh yes, Kelp powder can be found in most natural food stores. In whoville I've seen it at Qi, Essence of Life and Evergreen. It's in a little shaker bottle like Spike.

Anonymous said...

I got some dulse powder, it's amazing. Ah, brunch... I remember getting up before 12 a long time ago. The good life, my mornings. Can't wait to get back to T.O. and Sp for some workouts in the morning. Thanks for the recipe.

Anonymous said...

I'm not anonymous, but can't sign in properly. I'm kitties42the floor!