Buddha's Hand

 

Fascinating new produce spotted at QFC. According to Wikipedia it doesn't actually have a lot of edible uses, but is more for offerings at temples. It is edible though and can be used for it's rind and zest in the same way you would use a lemon. I haven't decided if I am going to shell out the $13 for it. Also I'm not sure that this really belongs on the green blog as it was probably shipped from far away. Our QFC is renovating and clearly is trying to shed it's ghetto image by upgrading what's available and diversifying the product line, Buddha's Hand is clearly a part of this.

Lentils - A Top Comfort Food

On these dismal winter days, I find myself craving comfort foods. I find a big bowl of lentils to be just as comforting as classics like mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. Lentils as comfort food is actually something I picked up when studying in Italy. They were easy and available in the market in the piazza in front of our apartment. I would set a pot on nearly every evening and frequently my roomates would each volunteer a veggie to add and we'd all sit down to a big bowl of soup together. Buon Appetito!

I made some lentils in the slow cooker this past week and made them using a variation of a recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. One of my favorite cookbooks and actually one of Charlie's first Christmas presents to me (in 1997, if you can believe that!). Her recipe is a great method of using random leftovers, calling for lentils, rice and pasta to be topped with a buttery mint sauce. I didn't have any rice, my mint plant is frozen, and I was still craving brown butter after this dinner party we went to where we had an amazing chard and brown butter pasta. So I thought I'd do lentils over pasta with a brown butter sauce. DELICIOUS. The recipe is below the picture.



Whole Wheat Farfalle with Lentils and Brown Butter
Serves 2
4 Tb butter* (half a stick)
4 oz (1.5 Cups) Dry Farfalle (sub penne or rotini if you like)
1 - 1.5 Cups cooked lentils (I cooked mine with onion, so you could saute some onion to add)
salt and pepper

Melt the butter on low in a small sauce pan. Fill a big pot with water and set it to boil. Measure your lentils into a microwave safe bowl. Check your butter, if it's all melted, be sure to start stirring it every few minutes. The easiest way is to just pick up the pot and swirl it around a bit. You will need to keep an eye on the butter. Add dry pasta to boiling water for ten minutes. Microwave your lentils for 3-5 minutes, depending on your microwave, you want them to be a little hotter than you would eat them at because they will cool off a bit while you are getting everything ready. Drain your pasta and divide it into two bowls. The butter should be browned by the time your pasta is done. Top pasta with reheated lentils and then finish with the brown butter. If you used salted butter or broth with your lentils, you probably won't need any more salt, but if not add salt and pepper to the top. Enjoy!

*Unfortunately I don't think soy butter will brown, but we found some good organic butter at costco for a good price, though admittedly, the labeling is not nearly as specific about how the cows are treated as the organic eggs are about the hens. Or you could just use soy butter and not brown it.

My POS Green Phone

Earlier this year, I purchased Motorola's first effort at a green phone. Motorola has made the claim that the "Renew" is the world's first. I must say that green phones have a looooong way to go, if they are going to ever corner the market. It's made from recycled water bottles, which is cool, but it was also billed as carbon free. At first I thought this was because of the way the phone operates itself and its method of not using much energy, which I'll get to in a second, but the truth is the phone is really carbon free because of offset point trading or some silliness.

Meanwhile I am dealing with the crappiest phone OS of all time, thinking that was just the way they had to do it to preserve the battery enough to be carbon neutral. !!!!


Here's my list of complaints about my phone:

No picture capability - NO JOKE. I actually had to send my friend a text last week saying, sorry my phone is rejecting your message because it can't handle pictures. Can you send the image to Charlie's phone? Also - no pictures, means no camera. Oh and PS to T-mobile, thanks for charging me the 25 cent image message fee anyway.

Texting is like DOS programming and not intuitive at all

Key locking They keys lock automatically after less than a second, so that if you are having a quick text exchange with someone, you actually have to unlock your keys before each time you text back. Even though you received a message right after sending your last text.

And that's it - because that is all my phone does! It mostly snoozes.

The one and only cool thing about my phone is that Emma Pillsbury used it to update Will on what was happening at sectionals on the Glee Fall Finale. Yes, that is the Motorola Renew in her hand.

Bland Chili to Avoid

I just ate, or rather forced down, some Amy's Organic Chili, which not even salt could help. Unfortunately I bought a few cans of this, so maybe some spice mix or chipotle tabasco can help this out next time I need a quick lunch. Maybe. For now, I would recommend the Nally's Totally Vegetarian Chili over this one.

Eat this

Not that

Surprising Green Headlines - Green Sex

I popped open SeattlePI.com this morning and the story with top billing was not something I had considered or ever expected to see, which just goes to show you that being green is going to involve multiple layers of your life. The headline was Green Sex with a funny picture of a silhouette of a couple in a tent. Enjoy the article here: http://www.seattlepi.com/environment/404743_redbook290729.html

Office Sustainability Hero

A shout out to Kimberly Scrivner for being so impressive on the green front. Kim has actually sewn re-usable napkins for our office. She made them out of old sheets and personally takes them home to wash each week. I've also spotted Kim bringing her own dishes to take out places around the office. Kudos to Kim!

Winter...

Despite the things I like about this season, like snow shoeing, and... I can't think of anything else right now, I find that I just can't escape the blahs. It's like everything takes ten times as much effort because I am fighting the natural urge to hibernate just by moving. What is worse is that after feeling like I never really woke up all day, I can't seem to sleep the night through either. Please send advice on escaping this feeling.

Sunday Updates - More Root Vegetables and a Snow Day

I finally added pictures to some of the older posts so this will seem like a real cooking blog. Here's some of what I've been cooking over the weekend.

Here's breakfast from this morning:


It's an arugala, sun-dried tomato, "bacon", and egg sandwich. Delicious, however I am still finding that light life smart "bacon" to be a bit disappointing. It's not nearly as good as the other faux meats we've eaten and it really can be like eating soy jerky. This is served along side the roasted root vegetables we are enjoying at most meals. Our CSA box is generally full of roots right now, so i keep just making the roasted root dish to have on hand to supplement all of our meals. They are good as a side, in burritos, in a hash, in soup, in anything really.

Here's how to make roasted root vegetables, adapted from a pasta and company recipe. I had the pleasure of working there in the last year of the 20th Century.

5-7 roots - i like to really mix this up, the particular mix featured in this blog so far is a combination of 1 red potato, 2 white satin carrots, 1 parsnip, 1 turnip, 1 celery root and 1 yam. Other roots you can use include any type of yam, potato, beet, or carrot, rutabaga, or even winter squash.
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves (optional)
3 Tb EV olive oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning (optional)
1 Tb brown sugar (optional)
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Chop the roots and onion into chunks, put in a large oven proof rectangle, and minced garlic, herbs, sugar, salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and toss together. Cook for at least 40 minutes.

Yesterday we went on a lovely snowshoeing adventure. Our first of the year and quite possibly one of the best we've done. Snowshoeing has got to be the greenest winter sport especially since we carpool to the mountain :)

Here's a pic of the veggie sandwiches we took with us for our picnic at the grand junction lodge. We took two kinds and each had a half. The first was avocado, tomato, salad mix and provolone. The other was hummus, tomato, and salad mix. Both were delicious.

 

Here's what I recommend for a warm up bevie - Silk Nog with Spiced Rum, best if you heat up the nog. The Silk Nog is so good, Charlie and I actually argue over who gets to finish that last little bit in the carton.

More uses for TVP
As I mentioned, I have a mountain of TVP and a fridge stocked with roasted root vegetables and black beans. I decided to make a hash (pictured) with the trio the other morning and this may be the most filling thing I have eaten since going veg. TVP is a miracle that way. I did not get hungry for over 5 hours despite going on a 3 mile run. I'll keep reporting on uses for the TVP, because despite eating it at 4 meals for two people, we still have plenty more of the stuff.

 

Pileated Woodpecker! And a Veggie Birding Dilemma

 

Yay! The Pileated Woodpecker is back! They are the most amazing birds. The biggest woodpecker in the Pacific Northwest, they actually have a specialized elevated brain casing so that they can use their beak as a chisel. Pileateds are natural carpenters and add to the ecosystem by creating nest cavities for other birds, including owls, during their search for bugs in bark.

Because Charlie and I are big bird nerds, we bought this specialized feeder for it. It's a suet feeder with a long tail prop so he can cling comfortably to the feeder. That is a specialized squirrel baffle on top because the larger tail prop makes this an easy feeder for squirrels to jump on and they will actually destroy the feeder over time. We had seen the pileated struggling to get food off our smaller suet feeder earlier in the fall. He would cling to the post of our deck and jump to the feeder and back. Not only did he not get much in the way of food, he vented his frustration on our deck posts. The pileated was the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker! We were a bit worried he would cause our deck to need replacement posts. So now we have the new feeder and no deck post problems.


While I am on the topic of bird feeding, I faced an interesting dilemma at Wild Birds Unlimited this last week. They are now offering a veggie cake "suet." The suet most birds get at the feeders is rendered beef fat filled with seeds, nuts and berries. It's a great resource for birds in winter and when they are prepping to nest. The veggie cake is made with hydrogenated soy bean oil. I inquired about the veggie suet and discovered that they are carrying it for vegetarian birders, but that they aren't sure about it overall - there are concerns about hydrogenated oil and its impacts on the birds and reports that birds don't seem as interested in it.

I have to say I was completely flummoxed by this. I love birds, helping to improve their habitat is a big motivator for me trying to be a greener person. I am very concerned that many bird species will become extinct in my life time. So I really didn't know what to do in this situation. Which suet to buy? I want to commit to vegetarian life beyond my diet, especially as I seriously doubt that suet comes from organic or certified humane facilities. But I want my backyard to still be filled with happy birds and to help them thrive in difficult conditions. For now, I opted to buy normal suet, after all I can't feed my (indoor) cats soy products. But I expect this will be a topic I revisit.

TVP AKA WTF?

The Vegetarian Times starter kit recommended TVP, or texturized vegetable protein, as an excellent low cost protein source easy to slip in to recipes you would have used ground beef in. Intrigued, I picked some up from the bulk food bins at Fred Meyer to add to some spaghetti sauce some night when I didn't feel like doing anything elaborate.

I didn't find much on the internet that I thought was super helpful other than add water at a 1:1 ratio and that TVP is frequently used in veggie burgers and other faux meat products.

 
Here's what I discovered: TVP quadruples in size when you add water. It's like I dumped one of Alice's potions on the stuff. I thought I was making a good amount to go into a jar of pasta sauce, but I made enough to go into 10 jars of pasta sauce.  That is some of my extra TVP pictured. The good news is that what the Vegetarian Times said is true. It is a great low cost protein reminiscent of ground meat. And you feel full after you eat it! The trick is to get your portions right and it definitely needs a flavorful sauce.

I haven't tried this the right way yet, but here's what I think I will do next time:

Ingredients for 4 servings
3/4 Cup TVP
3/4 Cup warm water
1 - 16 oz jar of marinara sauce
8 oz dried wholewheat spaghetti
1 Tb olive oil
salt and pepper

Add TVP to warm water, add a shake of salt, and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
Set pasta water to boil.
Saute rehydrated TVP  in olive oil, add another shake of salt and a grind of pepper.
Add the pasta to the boiling water
Add the jar of sauce to the saute pan with the TVP, simmer until pasta is ready.
Top pasta with sauce and enjoy.
This picture shows what it should look like with a good ratio of TVP to sauce, this was my second attempt and much tastier than the first.
 

We ate this with a salad I would definitely recommend: mixed baby green salad topped with sun dried tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and a truffle oil balsamic mix.

 

Protein

It makes you full.

I have been having a slight problem since going veg that I don't feel quite as full after I eat, which I think is probably just an adjustment. But since my biggest fear is regressing to the bread vegan I was in college (basically all I ate was bagels, odwalla juice and soy ice cream - a pint a day, I kid you not), where I was really not getting proper nutrition. Though we can't blame veganism for that, I was a poor university student responsible for foraging my own food. Still I want to be sure that I get lots of good vegetables (which i am much better about in general now), whole grains, and complete proteins in my diet this time around. Which frankly should be a lot easier since the vegetarian market has expanded so much in the last ten years.

Here's are some of the things I've tried so far:

Morning Star Farms Sausage Patties - These are the bomb. I actually started eating these long before becoming a vegetarian because they are really super tasty and satisfying, plus low fat and high protein. Best place to buy: Costco ($9 for equivalent of 3 boxes) or Fred Meyer (frequently has sales for 3/$10). Uses: By itself for breakfast or a snack.

Tofu - a classic. Totally versatile and tasty in everything. Best places to buy: Uwajimaya has an amazing selection and you can get the kind that is baked in soy sauce or the fried in a bulk packages for under $3. Uwajimaya is also selling tofu puree like soymilk to use as a dairy replacement ($3). I also like Safeway organic firm ($2). Uses: Great in stir fry, curry, and scrambled or try making faux ricotta or cream sauces.

Morning Star Farms Meal Starters "Chicken" - quite tasty, good texture. This is fairly authentic, a bit sweeter than chicken, but not in an unsavory way. We tossed this with sun dried tomatoes and ate it over pasta. Best place to buy: Fred Meyer (frequently has sales for 3/$10). Uses: in anything you would use chicken. I plan to add it to ramen, make quesadillas and curry.

Tempeh - also a classic. I love the texture of tempeh. We had this in a black bean/yam burrito. I think it needs a little salt, but I will definitely buy it again. Best place to buy: I got the Turtle Farms Organic Five Grain at Fred Meyer for $2, which is a great deal. Uses: like tofu, but firmer. I've seen recipes for using it like bacon or pastrami. I'll report back on that.

Light Life Smart Bacon - this is not bacon. It is edible, but best if you are not even trying to make any remote comparison to bacon. Especially if you like bacon and are sad to give it up. I would not buy this again. It's okay tasting, but really expensive compared to these other options and I'll say it again: it's just not bacon. Fred Meyer: $5. We made a "B".L.T. with it using arugala, so it was still pretty good.

Beans - an outstanding supporting cast member. I've been making them in the slow cooker so I don't have to deal with cans. You just toss in a cup or two of dried beans, 2 cups of water per cup of bean and turn it on high, 3-4 hours later you have cooked beans that you can use for the week. You could also do this on low for 6-8 hours. Just freeze what you don't get to that week. This is cheaper, you get more, and use less packaging. Lentils and peas cook faster, so halve the cooking time for them. Best place to buy: any bulk food section or on the rice and bean aisle. Uses: too many too count. I put beans in salads, soups, with eggs, or even sauteed vegetables. Serve with rice to complete the protein.

Quinoa - this fast cooking grain is a complete protein. Use instead of couscous or rice. Find it in your bulk foods section.

Green Gifts?

 An evening of xmas shopping at Northgate presented some new food for thought.    Should I try to get green gifts for people and if so what is a green gift? I suppose we could have gone for experience gifts, but that adds up with so many people on the list. Walking up and down the mall, we didn't see a lot of options. Please send advice!

We did pick up some books for the nephews that had some greenish messages and a recycled paper journal for my cousin who is off to London in January.

We got Charlie's mom's gift which is probably not green, but since Audrey Tautou is their new spokesperson, we'll let that slide. On a side note, I realized that my shoes have worn out and a quick perusal of the Nordstrom shoe department has left me thinking that there are not a lot of veg shoe options. Does anyone know of any?



And on yet another side note, this is the veggie option on The Ram's happy hour menu. It's pretty tasty and filling, with a lot of good vegetables. And only $4!

Kudos to Stacia's Pizza

We were introduced to Stacia's Pizza soy cheese option on Sunday, which I thought was pretty exciting. But what's cooler is that they have a huge veggie pizza menu in addition to the standard olive and mushroom bit you see at other pizza places. Check it out!

Organic Eggs - A Suprising Difference

As part of my veggie effort, I made the switch to organic free roaming eggs. I honestly only expected this to make me feel like a better person; I had no idea there would be such a surprising difference between the two.

But there is.

The shells of the organic eggs are so strong I actually have to make a big effort to crack them open. They require a solid wrist flick and whack to make even the slightest crack. It reminds me of that scene in Sabrina, where Audrey Hepburn is getting lectured by the French Chef about how to properly crack an egg. The eggs I used to buy would crack open at a mere glance. Clearly, the organic eggs are coming from way healthier hens.



Here's how we ate them -


Baked Huevos Rancheros
Serves 2
1/2-3/4 Cup of black beans
1/4 Cup salsa
1/2-3/4 Cup Roasted Roots
2 eggs
dash of chipotle tabasco (optional)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar (optional)
sliced avocado (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Put black beans, roasted root vegetables, salsa, and chipotle tabasco in an oven safe casserole pan or ramekin (i used a small pyrex rectangle). Crack two eggs on top and put in the oven for 15 minutes. Add shredded cheddar to top, cook another 5 minutes, slice up some avocadofor garnish. Serve with bread or tortillas.

 

P.S. I keep a lot of already cooked stuff in the fridge to make life easier. I highly recommend cooking up a bag of beans in the slow cooker each week - it's way cheaper than buying canned and keeps the recycling bin emptier. I'll post instructions soon along with the roasted root vegetable recipe.

 

My Veggie Thanksgiving

I decided to stop eating land animals about a week before Thanksgiving this year, largely thanks to a series of articles in the New York Times about Jonathan Safran Foer's new book Eating Animals. It was something that had been flitting about in my mind for awhile, but ultimately was a spur of the moment decision - I ate turkey sausage for breakfast that morning and by nightfall was buying tofu at the QFC, and that was that.

So far, so good. Charlie has been really supportive and I ran a better than expected time in the Seattle Half that weekend, so immediate good results on the health frontier.



Because of the unexpected change, I opted to bring a Tofurky to my aunt's house for "Turkey Day". I had never tried much in the way of the faux meats, but I was pretty impressed. We picked up the Tofurky Feast - which includes gravy, dumplings, and jerky. Plus the Tofurky is stuffed with a wildrice stuffing.


I cooked it in a slow cooker so I wouldn't be competing for oven space and followed the suggested recipe on the box by adding chunks of potato and carrot with olive oil, soy sauce and fresh sage from the garden. The result was delicious. Charlie and I happily enjoyed the leftovers and my uncle could not tell the difference with the gravy (so much that he put it on his own turkey).