breakfast: Special K (vegan variety) with soymilk; coffee

lunch: banana; everything bagel with sun-dried tomato Tofutti cream cheese; Vienna Fingers (ingredients listed here). I’m not sure how to address “natural flavor.” Anyone? I also don’t know why some things get the Kosher Dairy certification without seeming like they include dairy. Is it just easier to get it, or does that mean the “natural flavor” has dairy?

lab meeting snack: various pieces of gelatin-free fruit candy

dinner: sauteed spinach with garlic and olive oil. Udon noodles with peanut sauce and a bit of Sriracha sauce. Whiskey on the rocks.
The peanut sauce was just sauteed onions, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, with about 3/4 c peanut butter, 1/4 c sesame oil, 1 T soy sauce, 1-2 tsp vegetarian oyster sauce, and a bunch of water (like a cup or more).

breakfast: Cheerios with banana and soymilk; coffee

lunch: leftover cilantro cabbage salad; carrot with a bit of hummus; leftover biscuit with gravy; 2 slices Tofurky “oven roast” turkey; sliced apple

snack: ABC lemon poppyseed cookie!

dinner: corn tortillas and tortilla chips (made by deep-frying sections of corn tortilla in canola oil and sea salt, which pops when you add it to hot oil; maybe you are supposed to add the salt after) with guacamole, refried beans (Goya chipotle flavor; no lard!), Goya green salsa, and leftover cilantro cabbage salad

drink/snacks during treehaus show-and-tell: Budweiser; popcorn (popped with salt and canola oil)

breakfast: Cheerios or Special K with strawberries (I can’t remember what the heck a vegan eats!) with soymilk

lunch: brat buns with Tofurky “oven roasted” slices, roasted red pepper, and roasted beets; leftover cilantro cabbage salad; olives

snack: orange (it was very awkward to try to dispose of the seeds while on the subway. one of those oranges with like 3 seeds per section); Mamba

dinner: half an avocado with sea salt; biscuits with tempeh + bean gravy (both recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance); Yellow Tail Shiraz. The biscuits were very basic and tasty, definitely not on the healthy side of biscuits, and sort of tasted like cookies. The recipe for the tempeh bits that went into the gravy was good (basically broken up tempeh cooked in just enough water that it absorbs, followed by cooking with tasty flavors), but the end gravy result was really weird… pureed beans as the base, with no roux. More of a sauce/spread than gravy, I say!

breakfast: granola with almonds; Whole Soy & Co. peach soy yogurt (I’m trying not to buy Silk because, in addition to recently starting to use non-organic soybeans, they wrote Stacey a very misleading email about whether or not they were starting to use non-organic soybeans:

Thank you for contacting WhiteWave Foods. We appreciate the opportunity to address your comments.

In 2008 Silk® partnered with Conservation International to create Silk’s Soybean Sourcing and Production Program, which reinforces our values and commitment to sourcing soybeans that are produced in a sustainable, socially responsible and ethical manner. We are very proud of this work, and are continuing our work with Conservation International on future initiatives.

Here are a few of the highlights from Silk’s Sourcing Program:
• Currently, we source all of our beans from North America. If the product is from Silk, the soybeans are from North America.
• Silk is not sourcing beans from China. In the past, we have sourced a small portion of beans from China. Silk stopped contracting for soybeans from China at the end of 2006.
• We only partner with suppliers that can produce beans that pass our robust quality testing and evaluation protocols.
• All Silk soybeans – non-genetically modified organism (GMO) and organic – are currently sourced domestically.
• Our non-GMO beans are put through robust quality testing and evaluation protocols.
• We have comprehensive testing protocols in place to detect GMOs, pesticide residue and other potential contaminants – all of which are above and beyond regulatory requirements.
• Organic soybeans purchased by Silk are certified organic by independent agencies accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in compliance with the organic standards set by the National Organic Program (NOP).

For further information, we encourage you to visit our Web site: (http://www.silksoymilk.com/SourcingProgram.aspx). We appreciate your ongoing support, and remain committed to consistently providing consumers with high-quality, great-tasting soymilk.

Sincerely,
redacted
Consumer Response Representative

Stacey and I sort of argued about this; I thought it sounded like a sincere email in which they were saying all their soybeans are organic and non-GMOs, but Stacey thought they sneakily failed to address the North American, non-domestic soybeans, and that they might have used the phrase “Silk soybeans” to mean only the beans that they grow themselves (rather than those they outsource). I had trouble believing that anyone would be so evasive.

I just saw this at the store, so I guess Stacey was right:

lunch: hummus and creamy lemon pecan spread with pita; half a Field Roast sausage; olives; peanut butter cookie

snack: two brat buns

dinner: PURPLE MEAL

brat bun (vegan) with Field Roast smoked apple sage sausage and beet-horseradish spread; roasted beets with onion, garlic, and olive oil; olives; cilantro cole slaw (click for the recipe); Yellow tail Shiraz (“vegan friendly” according to their website); raspberry Mamba

breakfast: Special K (vegan variety; may vary per region) with soymilk; soy latte

snack: peanut butter cookie dough and cookies (mix 1/2 c earth balance, 1/2 c peanut butter, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/4 c granulated sugar, 1/4 c agave, 1 tsp vanilla. Add 3/8 c soymilk whisked with 1 T corn starch as egg replacer. Then add mixed dry ingredients: 1.25 c flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Bake 350F for about 8 minutes.)

I don’t really know if this recipe is any good so I’m going to wait to add it to the recipe database, since after making the dough I realized that there is not a baking sheet in my sublet apartment, and the makeshift aluminum foil/broiler-drip-pan solution sucked. They were too cooked on the bottom and still doughy on the top.

dinner: leftover black bean sweet potato enchiladas; leftover kale salad; leftover pasta with olive/tempeh sauce; yuelski (a variant on the greinski… click for the recipe)

dessert: more peanut butter cookies

breakfast: Cheerios with soymilk; coffee; second half of Nana’s chocolate chip cookie

lunch: leftover pasta with tempeh/olive sauce

snack: Alternative Baking Company cookie of the season, peanut butter chocolate chip (AT LEAST IT WASN’T LEMON POPPYSEED); a couple spoonfuls of Purely Decadent Dulce de Leche soy ice cream

dinner: black bean and sweet potato enchiladas (click for the recipe);

entree

• two large sweet potatoes or similar kind of potato (mine had a darker skin than typical sweet potatoes and were yellow/white on the inside instead of orange/red.. I don’t know what variety of potato they were), peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1-2 T olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 chipotle pepper from canned chipotle in adobo, chopped small. Ingredients in case you want to try to make chipotle in adobo yourself: chipotle peppers, tomato puree, paprika, sugar, salt, onions, soybean oil, distilled vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, oregano.
• 1+ T adobo sauce from the canned chipotles (more if you want it to be spicier)
• 1 can (15.5oz) black beans
• 2 cups salsa
• handful of cherry tomatoes, halved if small and quartered if big. Any form of diced tomato would work.
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 onion chopped very small (preferably red)
• flour tortillas (about 8 large)
• chopped cilantro (1/4 c or so)
• one lime

Roast the sweet potato chunks in a bit of the olive oil at 400F for about 25 minutes, until tender.

In a saucepan, briefly saute the garlic and chopped chipotle in about a T of oil. Once fragrant, add the adobo sauce, beans, 1/2 c salsa, tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Saute for about 5 minutes.

Lay each tortilla on a flat surface and add a couple big spoonfuls of the filling (it’s okay if it seems like less filling than you’d want in a wrap… you eat this more like a casserole and the extra tortilla is tasty). Roll into a narrow cylinder.

Add about 3/4 c salsa to the bottom of a lightly oiled 9 x 13″ baking pan. Add the enchiladas side-by-side. Top with the remaining 3/4 c salsa along with the onion.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, until it is browning and bubbling. Check halfway through to see if it looks dry, and if it does, add more salsa to the top. After removing from oven, sprinkle cilantro and squeeze the juice of the lime on top.

kale salad (a simpler version of the one I made two days ago. 1 bunch raw, washed, chopped kale marinated in 2 T olive oil and 1 T Bragg’s, with sunflower seeds and 1.5T nutritional yeast. This time I tried “massaging” (kneading) the kale to help soften it. A girl at Rooting DC suggested doing this. She said it would eventually start oozing green juice, but all I got was a little green stain on my hands. I massaged it after it was chopped, washed, and dry. I’m going to try massaging the leaves whole to see if it has a bigger effect, and I’m going to try massaging it with a bit of water);

greinski (click for the recipe)

breakfast: Cheerios with soymilk; coffee

lunch: whole avocado; sliced apple; peanut butter and jelly on flatbread

snack: half a Nana’s chocolate chip cookie (fruit-sweetened; better than I thought it would be. sort of tastes like a healthy muffin.)

dinner: pasta with sauce (canned whole tomatoes; red onion; garlic; Kalamata olives; tempeh seasoned with Rapunzel broth, lemon, cayenne, and a bit of liquid smoke; salt and pepper); spinach sauteed with garlic, salt, and olive oil; Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA (vegan according to Barnivore)

dessert: Purely Decadent Dulce de Leche soy ice cream

breakfast: Cheerios with soymilk; coffee

lunch: leftover kale salad with fresh avocado and added sunflower seeds and cashews; peanut butter and jelly on flatbread

snack: banana; a couple apple slices drenched in fresh lemon juice

dinner: vegetable leek dumplings with soysauce (bought frozen from H Mart, and boiled for a couple minutes in Rapunzel broth);
seaweed salad (reconstitute about 1/3 c dried wakame in cold water (takes several minutes). Drain. In bowl, mix 1T miso, 1T rice vinegar, 1T sesame oil, 1T black sesame seeds. Combine this mixture thoroughly with the drained seaweed, sliced avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, apple chunks covered in lemon juice, and chopped scallions.);
scallion pancake stir fry (like last time: pancakes prepared with batter from mix, with long/thin-cut scallions added before the first flip; after pancakes are done, fry red onion, garlic, and thin carrot strips with red pepper flakes and hot pepper oil, then add chopped pancakes with any leftover scallions, plus some vegetarian oyster sauce. fresh lemon added at end.);

Żywiec beer (may or may not be vegan; “awaiting info” according to veggiewines.co.uk)

breakfast: Special K with strawberries and soymilk; orange juice; coffee

lunch: leftover macaroni and “cheese;” romaine lettuce with Annie’s Goddess dressing, sunflower seeds, cashews, cherry tomatoes, and carrot chunks

snack: Mamba; flour tortilla with peanut butter

dinner: Boca burger with avocado, roasted red pepper (out of a jar, pretty good), and ketchup on homemade multigrain bun with pecans (click for the recipe); enoki mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, garlic, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper; lettuce and cherry tomatoes with lemon; green tea with agave

bread

• 1 packet yeast (I believe this is slightly over 2 tsp)
• 1/4 c very warm water (just getting uncomfortable to touch)
• splash of maple syrup (any sweetener would do)
• 4 c white flour
• 2 c whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds (or however much you want)
• 1/8 c flax seeds (“)
• 1/8 c sesame seeds (“)
• 1 c crushed pecans (I just crushed them in my hands)
• 1/4 c granulated sugar (any sweetener would do)
• 1/4 c olive oil
• water (about 2 cups)

Combine yeast with warm water and stir to dissolve.  Let sit for a couple minutes, and add the splash of sugar (to help the yeast grow… does this really work?). Let sit a few more minutes (you should see it start to froth up).

Mix flour, salt, seeds, nuts, and sugar in a bowl.  Add the yeast mixture, oil, and water, and knead.  Add enough water so that you can knead all the flour into the dough without the dough sticking to your hands (a little bit of sticking is okay after this first mixing).  After it is fully mixed, if it is sticky, add a bit more flour; if it seems dry or if you can’t knead all the flour in, add more water.  Once mixed, spread a thin layer of olive oil on the surface of the dough, cover with a damp towel, and let rise (at room temperature or slightly warmer).

After rising (as long as you want… about 45 minutes is good), punch the dough down and knead (about 10 minutes?  Less if you knead like you need it).  If it sticks to your hands, sprinkle whole wheat flour on the kneading surface and knead it in (repeat until it is no longer sticky).  After kneading thoroughly, separate the dough into whatever loaves or rolls you are baking.  Let rise like this for another 15 minutes or so (it will rise more in the oven).

Bake at 425 until the outside is browning and the loaves make a hollow sound when you hit them.  The rolls I made took about 25 minutes, the loaf 30 minutes.

breakfast: peach Silk soy yogurt; granola with almonds; orange juice; coffee

lunch: pita; hummus; lettuce with lemon; cherry tomato; leftover sun-dried tomato tapenade; leftover roasted veggies

snack: vegan blueberry muffin from Whole Foods

dinner: vegan macaroni and cheese (from Veganomicon’s “Mac Daddy” recipe, with added roasted red pepper; they don’t give permission to post their recipes); bok choy and beet greens sauteed with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, sunflower seeds, and cashews; Stroh’s

dessert: leftover apple-banana sauce (how did this not go bad yet?)

breakfast: Cheerios with soymilk; coffee

lunch: leftover miso soup; leftover udon; leftover spicy corn

snack: Alternative Baking Company Luscious Lemon Poppyseed cookie (I strive to keep this flavor in business)

dinner: whole wheat pita; Sabra artichoke and spinach hummus; sun-dried tomato tapenade (slice 10 sundried tomatoes into strips, then food process along with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, fresh parsley, salt, pepper, juice of half a lemon); romaine lettuce; cherry tomatoes; carrot sticks; roasted vegetables (peeled and sliced beets; unpeeled carrot chunks; coarsely chopped onion and garlic; peeled and chunked special yellow yam from H Mart… has anyone else seen this variety?; salt; pepper; olive oil; covered and baked at 400F for 35 minutes); Dogfish Head Burton Baton (vegan according to Barnivore)

dessert: half a Tofutti peanut butter ice cream sandwich; orange juice

brunch: leftover noodles; leftover tofu; leftover bok choy and asparagus; spoonful of leftover lychee coconut ice cream; half a banana; espresso

snack: Tofutti peanut butter ice cream sandwich; ruffled potato chips

I realized today that I must have had one Tofutti peanut butter ice cream sandwich at some point that I did not record (based on how many are left in the box).

dinner: burritos (flour tortillas; Goya refried pinto beans with chipotle.. no lard!; guacamole; lime; salsa; vegan Parmesan; romaine; corn cooked with garlic, onion, salt, pepper, Earth Balance, green salsa, and Sriracha); romaine lettuce with Annie’s lemon and chive dressing (looks suspiciously like it has a cream base); Gulden Draak (vegan according to Barnivore)

orange juice

breakfast: coffee; everything bagel with Tofutti (what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than eating your true love?)

snack: rice crackers wrapped in seaweed

dinner (thank you H Mart): black sesame crusted tofu (click for the recipe);

udon with sesame-peanut-ginger sauce (click for the recipe);

miso soup (click for the recipe);

bok choy and asparagus sauteed with garlic, cipolline onions, sesame oil, cayenne, dash of soy sauce, salt and pepper;
Korean scallion pancake stir fry (pancake batter prepared from great mix available at H Mart, fried with scallions, then chopped up and fried AGAIN with more scallions)

dessert: homemade lychee-coconut sorbet (click for the recipe)

brunch: lemon cornmeal pancakes (click for the recipe) with apple-banana sauce (2 apples and 2 bananas chopped and cooked in saucepan with maple syrup, Earth Balance, lemon, and water, until it sort of resembles a sauce); Boca burger sausage (basically chunks of frozen Boca burger deep fried in canola oil with red pepper flakes and liquid smoke); orange juice; coffee

breakfast

• 1 c flour
• 3/4 c corn meal
• 3 T sugar
• 2 T baking powder
• 3 T Earth Balance, plus more for frying
• 1 T corn starch
• 1.5 c soymilk
• juice of 2 lemons
• zest of 2 lemons

Mix flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder together in a large bowl. Cut in Earth Balance (either with a knife or fork, or just by kneading it in with your hands). Prepare replacement for egg by whisking the corn starch with a splash of soy milk. Add this corn starch/soy milk mixture, the rest of the soy milk, and the lemon juice plus zest to the dry ingredients. Mix, leaving some clumps.

Heat a stick-free or well seasoned pan on medium-high heat. Once hot (dribbled water should sizzle), add 1/8-1/4 tsp Earth Balance. It should melt and sizzle quickly. Before it has spread out very far, scoop about 1/3c batter into the middle of the melting Earth Balance. Flip pancakes once most of the bubbles that form on top have popped.

dinner at Sushi Seki: tofu appetizer (three big chunks of fried tofu with three different sauces); spinach with sesame sauce; vegetable tempura entree (without the non-vegan sauce that is served with it); rice with soy sauce and ginger; avocado roll; Sapporo (“NO!! You can’t brew beer with fish.” -Sapporo); Wakatake Onikoroshi sake (may or may not be vegan)

Not much is vegan at Sushi Seki, as there is bonito in the broth that is used in the miso soup, all the noodle dishes, and some of the vegetable and tofu dishes. However, they were extremely knowledgeable and thorough about what actually was vegan, and it was all very good.

I mentioned this before, but miso soup is often cooked with a bonito or other fish base. Also agedofu and greens are often cooked with fish sauce or fish-based broth.

apple cinnamon lollipop