STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Suasoria · Chanel

RE: going vegan for two weeks

Hermes

Suasoria wrote:

Woo-hoo Elle! Does that explain the TVP Sloppy Joe's?

what is TVP?

Elle · Hermes

Suasoria wrote:

Woo-hoo Elle! Does that explain the TVP Sloppy Joe's?

Yes, though my husband was a willing test subject in that instance

. It also explains the hunks of seitan and tempeh in my fridge and the bag of nutritional yeast in the pantry, non of which I've worked with before. Hopefully it goes okay!

Elle · Hermes

D wrote:

Suasoria wrote:

Woo-hoo Elle! Does that explain the TVP Sloppy Joe's?

what is TVP?

It stands for Texturized Vegetable Protein - it comes in dried crumbles, and reconstitutes in saucy dishes or with hot broth. I believe that's what the 'meat' bits are in vegetarian chilli, fwiw. I'm still learning to work with it myself. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it.

Hermes

Elle wrote:

D wrote:

Suasoria wrote:

Woo-hoo Elle! Does that explain the TVP Sloppy Joe's?

what is TVP?

It stands for Texturized Vegetable Protein - it comes in dried crumbles, and reconstitutes in saucy dishes or with hot broth. I believe that's what the 'meat' bits are in vegetarian chilli, fwiw. I'm still learning to work with it myself. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it.

Thanks for sharing. Please share your usage of the TVP, seitan and tempeh whenever you get a chance please, so I can broaden my eating horizons smile

greendiamond · Marc Jacobs

I've got an easy TVP recipe for Californail Bowls (instead of California rolls)

Add water to TVP and let stand while preparing brown rice.
Cut favorite california roll vegetables (I love avocado and red peppers with green onion)
Throw rice, TVP, and veggies in a bowl.
Cut a seaweed sushi rapper into confetti, mix into bowl of goodies.
Add a little soy and some wasabi and enjoy!

It is very filling and is good warm or cold. It's a favorite lunch of mine. The TVP blends in with the brown rice, so you can sneak it past skeptics of TVP.

Suasoria · Chanel

I'll probably throw some tempeh and seitan dishes on the menu thread next week.

sydney · Kate Spade

D, How is the experiment going?

relrel · Marc Jacobs

Elle wrote:

It also explains the hunks of seitan and tempeh in my fridge and the bag of nutritional yeast in the pantry, non of which I've worked with before. Hopefully it goes okay!

The BF and I used to eat a lot of nutrional yeast. I found that the absolute best way to eat it was as a sprinkle on top of mashed potatoes. I'm betting that it would be even better with the mashed potatoes and cauliflower you mentioned before. Nutrional yeast has an interesting texture (and flavor!) sometimes so I've found that it only works on certain foods. I also liked it on top of brocoli.

Elle · Hermes

Good to know! I was thinking it might work as a sub for parmesan in many cases? I just made broiled tofu last night (brushed with a soy/hoisin sauce) for the first time, and I was thinking tofu parmesan would be pretty easy (brushing the pieces with tomato sauce and then breading in breadcrums/herbs/nutritional yeast) cooked the same way? My store has medium flakes (which look like flaked fish food, sorta) and small grind (which looks like granulated garlic). Which do you think would be best/most versatile?

I may also venture into making my own seitan, since it's really expensive to buy an supposedly freezes well. I just got How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman from the library and it's so awesome I may just have to buy it. Lots of simple recipes (including homemade seitan) and instructions for working with lots of this less-mainstream stuff, and a ton of recipes in the huge book are vegan.

Today is day 3 for me. Doing well! For some reason, I'm having many fewer urges to 'cheat' than I normally do when I try to watch my diet. I can definitely see how you'd lose weight this way!

Today for lunch I'm having leftovers - seared cabbage, lentils, ww couscous and broiled tofu. Tonight for dinner I may either BBQ some tempeh or seitan and have a baked potato and some broccoli, or I may try a chickpea 'cutlet' recipe I've been meaning to attempt. Must study for a test though, so it will depend on how efficient I am ...

D, what have you been eating?

Suasoria · Chanel

I'd go with the fine grind of NY - easier to blend into other ingredients.

Try it sprinkled on popcorn, too.

Hermes

sydney - so far so good! Although I did accidentally pour some milk on my oatmeal not thinking - fortunately, I was able to pour most of it out (I hadn't mixed it in.) I'm not going to consider a trace of skim milk as a deal breaker, so beyond that, I've been sticking to plan smile

Elle, I've been eating pretty much what's I've posted in the food section. I also picked up some butternut and spaghetti squash. AND I just received the following cookbooks (from amazon), so I'm going to peruse those to see what I can come up with as well:

~ The New Moosewood Cookbook
~ The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without
~ The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest
(all by Mollie Katzen)

nightshade · Nine West

Your grocery stores must be much better stocked than ours. I pity the vegans living in our small community.

DH and I are meat-eaters, but we have found as we got older than we eat less overall food and much less meat than we did when we were younger. We have always liked vegetables and fruit and eat a lot of them with each meal and just a small portion of meat. We are both slim and healthy. Most of our friends are more or less the same, although we have one couple in our circle who are vegetarians and every so often vegans. We generally cook something as a main course that is vegetarian or vegan as the case may be, and then have something extra as a meat for the rest of us. Because we all know each other very well, there's nothing awkward about it socially, but I have seen that when new acquaintances come into play, the questions/assumptions can be a little uncomfortable. When our vegan friends invite us to their place for dinner, I will say the food is terrible, which is no change from what it was before they became vegetarian/vegan -- they are simply dreadful cooks. But we love them anyway.

Good luck with your diet...it sounds like you have lots of great vegetable and fruit choices available to you!

Hermes

nightshade wrote:

Your grocery stores must be much better stocked than ours. I pity the vegans living in our small community.

DH and I are meat-eaters, but we have found as we got older than we eat less overall food and much less meat than we did when we were younger. We have always liked vegetables and fruit and eat a lot of them with each meal and just a small portion of meat. We are both slim and healthy. Most of our friends are more or less the same, although we have one couple in our circle who are vegetarians and every so often vegans. We generally cook something as a main course that is vegetarian or vegan as the case may be, and then have something extra as a meat for the rest of us. Because we all know each other very well, there's nothing awkward about it socially, but I have seen that when new acquaintances come into play, the questions/assumptions can be a little uncomfortable. When our vegan friends invite us to their place for dinner, I will say the food is terrible, which is no change from what it was before they became vegetarian/vegan -- they are simply dreadful cooks. But we love them anyway.

Good luck with your diet...it sounds like you have lots of great vegetable and fruit choices available to you!

your grocery stores don't carry fresh and canned vegetables? fruit and squash? how about potatos? chips and salsa? where do you live?

Hermes

BTW - I sucessfully completed my 2 weeks (with the exception of the skim milk splash...)

How's it going for you Elle?

Kelly · Hermes

Well, I can definitely see where nightshade is coming from - especially in the smaller grocery stores near me, there is usually a pretty set selection of vegetables and fruit. It's there, of course, but there's not a large variety and if I could only shop in that section, or was trying to get most of my meals out of that section, I could get bored really fast. If I lived in a smaller community that only had those smaller stores with smaller produce sections, it would be hard being a vegan, I think!

Hermes

ttara123 wrote:

Well, I can definitely see where nightshade is coming from - especially in the smaller grocery stores near me, there is usually a pretty set selection of vegetables and fruit. It's there, of course, but there's not a large variety and if I could only shop in that section, or was trying to get most of my meals out of that section, I could get bored really fast. If I lived in a smaller community that only had those smaller stores with smaller produce sections, it would be hard being a vegan, I think!

being vegan doesn't depend on purchases only from the produce section. there's a gazillion things to eat and make recipes with that don't have animal product. canned stuff is easy for me, as is soup, stirfry, pasta, etc. it's really not hard at all. heck, I even had deep fried mushrooms and onion rings at what used to be my favorite burger place. it's all about choices, and as Elle said everything you eat is a decision.

Elle · Hermes

I'm doing really well, too. It's been much, much easier than I anticipated it would be. My only slip was at a restaurant, where they snuck some mayo into my mushroom burger and I didn't notice until it gooshed out the side when I was about three-quarters done doh

.

I tried some seitan last night, and it was really good! I just baked it in a little hoisin sauce, but I think it would be really yummy skewered, doused in teriyaki and grilled.

I can see where nightshade is coming from too - I have access to an incredible selection of affordable organic produce year round, but that wasn't the case in the other two cities I've lived in. That's not to say I don't have to go to a 'special' store to get things like seitan or soy cream cheese now because I do, but the access to the sheer number of options is staggering here. It makes it easier to be vegan, but I don't think you'd have to do anything exceptionally creative to go vegan elsewhere. Maybe you make more use of canned or frozen veggies and make your own seitan at home, but whatever works, right?

While I don't plan to be vegan full-time (after tomorrow anyway) I do think it's helped me see just how much you can eat without relying on animal products at all. I still plan to approach the way I cook at home that way, with animal products being used in small amounts instead of having meals based around them. My husband is even quasi-on board with that plan

. Thanks to you for the inspiration, D!

PS - I lost 2 pounds in my 10-ish days of vegaism, fwiw.

nightshade · Nine West

We have lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, not all of them organic though. It's the more exotic ingredients I meant, like seitan.

Elle · Hermes

nightshade wrote:

We have lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, not all of them organic though. It's the more exotic ingredients I meant, like seitan.

I get mine at New Seasons, which is a regional chain similar to Whole Foods or Wild Oats. Fred Meyer (Kroger) also sells it in their health food section, around here. Luckily though it's not hard to make yourself at home - only a few ingredients, and even if you had to order them online it would probably still be cheaper than buying it pre-made. It cost me $4 for a littel package w/ 2 servings in it

.

But really? I think you can do without most 'substitute' items like seitan, tempeh, soy cheese, stuff like that. There's plenty of other good things to eat and places to get protein from

.