banana oat bar; leftover coffee with soy milk and agave

pita with grandma’s hummus, fava bean puree, pitted black olives, spinach; texas sweet orange

samples at central market: puffy veggie chips, mesquite bbq chips, honey Os, dark chocolate covered sandwich cookies; small jonathan apple

white bean, sun dried tomato and kale soup; rosemary garlic bread (links to both recipes in a previous post); pitted black olives; grapefruit

fresh ginger tea and, finally, an alternative baking company luscious lemon poppyseed cookie! i had been searching all over for one and finally whole foods restocked, although i could only have gotten there a couple days after the restocking and there were already only 2 lemon flavored ones left. anyways, this cookie was everything i had anticipated, so dense and delicious and lemony. i just need to figure out how to bake it for myself. based on the ingredient list, they are made with: unbleached all-purpose flour, unrefined cane sugar, earth balance (or equivalent), “fruit juice and natural grain dextrins” (??), water, tapioca and potato starches (isn’t that what’s in ener-g egg replacer?), vanilla, lemon, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. pretty much your basic cookie ingredients, right? so what makes them so good???? is it those mysterious dextrins and if so how can i get some?

looking back, i realized that i have had an awesome food day today…

gingerbread muffins from freezer with earth balance

lunch at backstory cafe (a little off the beaten path but a must if you’re visiting hyde park during the relatively few hours they’re open): carrot cumin soup with these amazing croutons. simple salad.

couple of pieces of bread i snatched from colloquium reception on my way to and fro in the music building today

catered dinner from cedar’s at departmental party. choosing food for music dept events always presents a bit of a conundrum in terms of my veganism (we have ‘wine and cheese’ events every two weeks that i’m partially responsible for buying the food for, you can see how my hands are a bit tied), but especially so at this scale–i pushed for catering from cedar’s and i chose the menu, but i had to include chicken pitas along with a lot of other great vegan options. anyway, we had veggie hummus pitas, falafel, hummus, baba ganoush and salad along with non-vegan baklavah and chocolate cake.

also about a billion different kinds of wine

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).

gingerbread muffin from freezer with earth balance. oj.

sandwich with tomato, horseradish hummus, clover sprouts. bag of lightly salted potato chips.

gingerbread muffin

chocolate

saltines

leftover gallo pinto, sauteed kale with timari

a friend’s homemade hummus and pita

some roasted vegetables which were highly anticipated (they took forever in the oven) but unfortunately cooked with chicken broth, which i realized after i had already eaten a couple bites. no bigs, my friend wasn’t used to vegetarianism and it didn’t occur to anyone to mention it to me. she felt super bad!

lots of 3 buck chuck shiraz–i got a really awesome one this time

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)

homemade cinnamon raisin bread, toasted with peanut butter; grapefruit; a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter and strawberry conserve

grandma’s hummus, fava bean puree, black olives, spinach on a multigrain tortilla; texas sweet orange

small jonathan apple; spelt zucchini muffin

leftover white bean/sun dried tomato/kale soup with rosemary garlic bread (see yesterday’s post for links to both recipes); last half of a lemon poppyseed cookie

banana oat bar; chocolate pecan red tea. the banana oat bar was made from a recipe on a flyer at central market, originally from ‘eat for health,’ a cookbook for the eat to live program: vegan, and no foods that are processed in any way, including sugars and oils. it’s marketed as a weight-loss program which i don’t really like and i haven’t actually looked at the books, but i do like ideas for healthy un-oily baked stuff that i can eat for breakfast, so maybe i will sometime. the bars are a mix of oats, chopped dates, mashed bananas, coconut, and walnuts, nothing else. they turned out delicious.

peanut butter chocolate pretzels from whole foods bulk section

gingerbread muffin with earth balance. oj.

dr braegers veggie burger on english muffin with tomato and bbq. last of the root fries with nut/seed sauce

pinto gallo (see post from a long time ago) but i sort of forgot some things because i was blabbing to my housemate the whole time i made it. i might reseason it when i eat the leftovers. steamed kale with tamari.

dark chocolate

gingerbread muffin with earth balance

a ton of saltines, i don’t know why

chamomile tea

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: large soy latte from Starbucks (I felt I deserved it because I only slept for 4 hours last night- traveling back from RI to DC, then straight to work.  I know this is not a good excuse).

lunch: 1/2 a Chipotle garden blend burrito (Katherine, they are now serving the garden blend at a location in NYC- not that this is a great vegan option compared to all of your other options there).

snacks: pretzel rods and pumpkin seeds

dinner: Okra stew (Click for the recipe).

(thanks Catherine and Crispen!) with brown rice and a black bean, beet and bok choy salad (Click for the recipe).

toasted whole wheat cinnamon-raisin bread with peanut butter; grapefruit

mini everything bagel toasted with grandma’s hummus, fava bean puree, and spinach; grapefruit; lemon poppyseed cookies

soup based on this soup and bread based on this bread; lemon poppyseed cookie; dried mango

more rosemary garlic bread, pitted black olives

fresh ginger tea

tj’s honey-os with soymilk. oj.

6-inch subway sandwich with veggies, oregano, a tiny bit of sweet honey sauce. mini bag of lay’s potato chips

apple with peanut butter

greasy chinese takeout from wok ‘n’ roll, a place in hyde park which sadly doesn’t live up to its amazing name. mu shu vegetable with no egg split between two people.

ciao bella coconut sorbet and flax ginger muffins that i arrived at through some random but important internet research i was doing this afternoon. did you all know that joaquin phoenix is vegan?

lime tea

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

whole wheat cinnamon-raisin bread from freezer, toasted, with peanut butter

multigrain tortilla with grandma’s hummus (see previous posts: best hummus in the world) and spinach; texas sweet orange

spelt zucchini muffin; small jonathan apple

split pea soup with beer bread, both made previously and stored in freezer; dried mango

i made more lemon poppyseed cookies in an attempt to satiate the craving which is constantly being intensified by my continued failed efforts to find an alternative baking company luscious lemon poppyseed cookie anywhere in austin! the two stores that i know to sell them have been out of that flavor for weeks; the last time i checked (today, at both stores) one was completely out of any flavor, and one had only like 4 cookies left total, so i’m hoping they will restock! in the meantime, these cookies which come from a slightly altered random internet recipe did a pretty good job of keeping the craving at bay, if not competely satisfying it. recipe here.

ezekiel raisin toast with tofutti cream cheese. oj.

greens with nut/seed sauce (see previous post), root fries, quinoa

banana

veggie burger on english muffin with bbq and tomato. root fries with nut/seed sauce.

tofutti cutie

tiny bit of 3 buck chuck shiraz

another tofutti cutie, last one