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| Spring radishes from the garden |
We are on our way to eating a more vegan life style. After two years of not eating hoofed animals - with just a few exceptions - we finally let go of eating our feathered friends earlier this year. I wasn't sure how we were going to let the poultry go - it being such an integral part of our "clean eating" lifestyle - until my husband and I did a 3 week vegan food cleanse with Julie Vance at Yoga Niche . The cleanse was amazing. After three weeks of enjoying delicious non animal foods and recipes, losing six stubborn pounds, and with more energy and clarity than I've ever had before - I knew there was no going back.
From May on - it's been a mostly vegan diet - with the occasional seafood sprinkled throughout. After cooking with meat for so long, it definitely takes an investment of time, energy, focus and money* to consciously create a new way of eating that is varied, yummy, and well balanced nutritionally too.
*another advantage to going vegan is the money you save by not buying meat and dairy products. I have to verify the numbers, but I think we're saving $100 to $200 a month on groceries.
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| beans from our yard steamed and tossed with lemon (from my dad's yard) zest and juice |
Luckily, I like to cook, and love trying new recipes, especially when I create and have the time to plan, shop, and prepare. On-line research led me to a few vegan cookbooks recommended by vegan strength trainers, and I ordered some of those, along with Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. I could easily have ended the upfront financial investment there, but having had such a great experience on the cleanse, I signed up for Julie's 6 Month Nutrition Program - with the goal of ensuring a mindful transition into this new way of eating - while honoring my values of learning and partnering.
So far, so great! I'm in the second month of the "tailored" program. And I LOVE it. I meet with Julie every two weeks, and have "homework" in-between our meetings. Each in-between period has me focusing on a new aspect of nutrition. For example, the first two weeks - I focused on greens and was mindful of incorporating more greens into our diet. The next two weeks it was all about grains - and along with eating quinoa and brown rice, I tried out new recipes I found using whole grain teff and spelt.
MAKING SEITAN
This period's focus is protein. And I have decided to make seitan (say - tahn) - a high protein, low fat product derived from the protein portion of wheat. (Luckily, as far as I can tell, we have no issues with gluten in our household. So bring it! ) Now, if you are in a pinch, you can buy already made seitan - often "flavored" as chicken or beef - and throw that into a dish. But in the spirit of eating less processed foods, and since the basic recipe looked so darn easy to make, I decided to give it a go.
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| kneaded and ready to be simmered |
It was ridiculously easy. I made it on Sunday while I made a lentil salad for dinner that night. Just mix vital wheat gluten flour with some liquids, knead, and simmer. I made a basic seitan with not a whole lot of herbs or flavoring in it. (Apparently you can season and flavor it to "taste" like chicken, or beef, or Italian sausage - basically whatever you and your taste buds can imagine.) You can also bake it and prepare it in ways other than simmering. So many options!
Using my homemade seitan, I made a seitan, mushroom, spinach dish out of Veganomicon on Tuesday night. Wow. I don't know if it was the seitan, the extra garlic and spices, the white wine, or the scraping of the brown bits I did "off recipe" - but this dish was delicious!
I see lots of exploration and fun ahead as I try out new ways of making and using this great source of protein. And since it's lunch time, and I've gotten a little hungry writing this post, I'm off to enjoy this dish again - this time over a bowl of warm nut like tasting spelt. Yum!