Vegetarian Italian Sausage and Tomato Pasta

I love cooking food that I can make in huge quantities because it'll last for a couple of days.  This really helps me on work days when I prefer to pack lunch instead of eating out.  This  past weekend, I was in the mood to make some sort of pasta.  The last time I made pasta was when I made Filipino spaghetti (which I didn't blog about because I somewhat overcooked the noodles...I swear I will get it right the next time and blog about it) so I wanted to make something different this time.  I was originally going to make a tomato and basil pasta but I found a recipe for Italian sausage and tomato pasta and I just couldn't resist.

I love Tofurky's Italian sausage with sun dried tomato and basil, which I purchased at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket, and I thought it would be perfect in this recipe.  It's super flavorful and I think, by far, the best vegetarian Italian sausage available on Guam.  The sausages are about the same size as hot dog franks, but I didn't ground it up like the original recipe called for.  Instead, I just sliced them up which was much easier to do.  Prepping the pasta sauce was relatively easy since I used a can of already diced tomatoes instead of dicing the tomatoes myself.  Efficiency is the name of the game!
The original recipe called for 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, but I went with 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil.  To be honest, I really don't know the difference between the two.  I did a little research and it looks as though the two are interchangeable.  I did read some blogs on this topic and some say that basil is their herb of choice while others are Team Oregano.  I'm totally neutral between the two and my tastebuds aren't refined enough to tell the difference so I just went with half and half.
The pasta turned out super delicious.  The Parmesan cheese really helped balance out the strong flavor of the sausage and it helped make the pasta sauce thicker.  It makes me pretty happy to know that I don't have to suffer from bland food just because I'm vegetarian.  I can't wait to make other types of pastas!  If I can replicate Capricciosa's pastas then I would be one super happy vegetarian.

Two Ingredient Juice Recipe

Sometimes I feel dead-beat tired or just plain lazy after work, which I'm sure everyone feels every now and then.  On these days, I follow a quick juice recipe so I can maximize my relaxation time.  This recipe requires just two ingredients: watermelon and kale and it's enough for four 16 oz. servings.  It's a great fruit to juice since it's mostly made of water and there's not a lot of preparation involved.  The juice taste isn't as sweet as the other juice recipes I've posted so it's perfect if you're also looking for a juice mix that's somewhat mild.  I call this the two-ingredient juice recipe because you can substitute the watermelon for other fruits that are mostly made up of water: honeydew, cantaloupe, and even pineapple.  I've tried all of these fruits with kale and the juice always tastes like the fruit I used in the recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can relate to Cookie Monster and his extreme love for cookies.  I love all kinds of cookies, but I have to say my favorite is the classic chocolate chip cookie.  When I was little, I made sure my mom always stocked our house with Chips Ahoy. When Chips Ahoy introduced their Chewy version and I followed its microwave suggestion, I marked the day I bit into that warm, chewy cookie as a milestone in my life.

I wanted to share my love of chocolate chip cookies with my friends this past Christmas, so I baked vegan chocolate chip cookies and gave them as Christmas gifts.  They're pretty easy to make.  The hardest part of the whole process was waiting for the cookies to be ready to taste.  Three items that are critical for this vegan recipe are Earth Balance Natural Butter Spread, Ener-G Egg Replacer, and Sunspire Vegan Carob Chips.  All work great as substitutes so there's no need to worry about sacrificing taste.  Carob chips serve as chocolate chip substitutes and are made from the Carob tree.  It's not too sweet and can actually act as a dark chocolate substitute.  I purchased all of them at Simply Food. 

Garlic Sautéed Spinach

I've been on a roll lately with easy to make recipes and this one is no exception.  I guess I've been in somewhat of a "lazy" mode and this dish matched my level of productivity.  Luckily, it tasted good even though there wasn't much need of an effort on preparation.  What I discovered was that adding a little vegan butter and a squeeze of lemon at the end made all the difference to the dish.  (Thank you Barefoot Contessa!)  Now I don't need to go to a Chinese restaurant to get garlic sautéed vegetables.

Cheesy Hash Brown Bake

It's true that delicious food doesn't have to be associated with complicated ingredients or recipe instructions.  This Cheesy Hash Brown Bake is a perfect example.  I only used 3 main ingredients - vegetarian chili, shredded hash brown potatoes, and vegan mozzarella cheese.  The only additional ingredients were salt and pepper.  The original recipe called for cilantro, but I didn't think it would taste great with the ingredients.  In the end, it turned out to be a spicy delicious comfort food.  It was supposed to be lunch for my boyfriend and I tomorrow, but I really couldn't resist eating a chunk out of the bake.  I'm sure my boyfriend wouldn't notice if his lunch wasn't the normal serving amount ;).

For my vegetarian chili, I used Health Valley's Spicy Tomato Vegetarian Chili because I was craving something spicy.  It tasted pretty good, but I am still on the look out for vegetarian chili with the least amount of sodium.  I purchased this at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  For my vegan cheese, I used Daiya Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, which I posted about here.  They taste great by themselves, but I really prefer them in melted form.  They also make great cheddar cheese so you can definitely use that if you prefer it over mozzarella.

Icing on the Cake

I received a funny yet definitely helpful present from my co-worker this year - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Baking.  I'll always be the first to admit that I'm no Iron Chef, so this book was perfect for a beginner cook like me.  Everything is simplified and there's a great section in the book about egg and dairy product substitutions.
The first recipes I tried from this book were the recipes for vegan mocha cake and vegan vanilla bean frosting.  I think my mocha cake turned into a chocolate cake which was a bit disappointing, but the frosting made up for it twice over.  It was the first time I ever used extract from a vanilla bean pod and it made all the difference in the world.  I was a little wary at how such a small amount of extract (scraping a vanilla bean pod can get a little sticky) would make the frosting taste better, but now I'm a convert.  This frosting was so good because it wasn't too sweet.  When I was younger, I was always excited to eat the icing off a cake and get as much sugar as I can into my system, but at some point in my life, I became pretty sick of super sweet icing.  So, I was pretty surprised when I found myself actually eating the spare icing I made for this cake.

For my shortening, I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening which I found at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket .  I chose this because it was non-hydrogenated, and in this post, I explain why non-hydrogenated products are better than regular hydrogenated products.  For my vegan margarine, I just used my trusty Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread, which is available at both Simply Food and Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  It makes vegetarian life so much easier when products are easily available on-island!

Vegan 7-Layer Taco Dip

For New Year's Eve, I decided to make a dip instead of an actual dish since I was going to spend most of my time drinking wine.  I normally spend New Year's Eve with my family at home so I was safe to drink since I wasn't going to be driving anywhere.  I actually made this dip before for my work's Christmas luncheon, but this time, I was able to make it vegan.  So, even though this taco dip had sour cream and cream cheese (both vegan), I pigged out on it guilt-free.  You could eat this dip by itself, but it tasted so much better with baked chips.

I was very lucky to find vegan versions of sour cream and cream cheese at Simply Food.  I tasted each one before placing it in the dip and they both tasted like their regular dairy counterparts.  They're both made by the brand Tofutti and it looks as though this is the only brand available on Guam.  I'm not complaining though because both the sour cream and cream cheese tasted good.  The cream cheese was actually softer than regular cream cheese, but that was a good thing for me because it made mixing a whole lot easier.
Another great thing about these two products are that they're both non-hydrogenated (not injected with hydrogen gas).  What this means is they have significantly less cholesterol and saturated oils than their hydrogenated versions.  Here's a link I found that explains how hydrogenated food products endanger your health.  

The original recipe I found on the Internet uses tomato salsa as one of the layers, but I nixed that and went with chopped fresh roma tomatoes.  This made the dip have less sodium, and who doesn't love fresh ingredients?  In fact, I think I'll be adding more tomatoes the next time I make this dip.
When I finished adding all the layers, I warmed the dip in the oven just until the cheese started to melt.  Daiya's Shredded Cheddar Cheese melted perfectly in the oven, but it also tastes great just by itself.  If you're like me and prefer your dip warm, I suggest putting in the oven at 400F for about 10 minutes.  A word of caution though: Warming up the dip in the oven will probably cause it to become a little watery because of the fresh tomatoes.
My New Year's Eve was a blast since I was able to spend it with my family eating dip, drinking Moscato, and lighting up lots of sparklers.  Happy New Year Everyone!

Cheers to the New Year

This is the first blog post of the year and I'm so excited!  Last year's highlights revolved around making lifestyle-altering choices and I think this year is going to revolve around upholding them.  Wish me luck!

2012's first post is going to be about tinola (ginger stew with vegetables), which, in my family, is served as a main course.  It's normally cooked with chicken as its meat, but in this case, I used Quorn's Naked Chik'n Cutlets as my chicken substitute.  In the box, there's 4 cutlets and I only used 2 of them since I was only cooking for my boyfriend and I.  I've only started using this chicken substitute since October, but I find it does really well in soup/stew dishes since it soaks up the flavor of the dish.

Tinola is known to be a ginger stew but the ginger flavor isn't overpowering at all because the dish has green papaya and spinach as its vegetables.  Come to think of it, tinola can be called the "Filipino chicken soup for the soul."  You could eat it by itself, but I grew up eating it with hot white rice.  Like with most Filipino dishes, the instructions on how to eat a dish usually ends with placing the food on top of hot white rice. 

 This dish was extra-exciting for me to make because I was able to use green papaya fresh out of my backyard.  My mom has grown several papaya trees and lucky for me, they're just beginning to bear fruit.  What was unlucky for me was that the papaya I wanted was much too high for me to easily grab.  I think I spent a good 15 minutes swinging a pole my mom uses to grab fruit high up in a tree and praying the papaya doesn't land on me.  I hope no one caught that on video because it wasn't exactly the most graceful sight.  In the end, I was pretty pleased with the papaya I selected since it tasted so delicious in the dish.  

I've noticed that whenever I replace the meat in a Filipino dish with a meat substitute, the dish automatically becomes a vegan meal.  It's a great discovery for me because I am really trying my best to transition over into the vegan world.  This is definitely something I need to work on this year and hopefully by 2013's first blog post, I'll be able to proudly say that I am vegan. 

           

Breakfast of Champions

My department at work decided to have a breakfast party to celebrate the birthdays of 2 of my co-workers.  I decided to make vegan chocolate chip pancakes because everyone loves pancakes and how can I go wrong with adding some chocolate chips to it?  Luckily for me, I was able to find a pancake mix that was dairy-free.

Cherrybrook Kitchen Original Pancake mix was the only pancake mix that I could find that was vegan.  This brand was created by a woman who had to learn how to make allergen-free food because she's allergic to so many types of food.  I was excited to find this because I wasn't sure if there really was such thing as vegan pancakes, especially since all I saw at first glance were boxes of buttermilk pancake mix.  I'm not sure if Simply Food has this, but I did find this particular brand in Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  For vegan chocolate chips, I used Sunspire vegan carob chips, which I also found at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  I've baked with these chips before, so I know they'd be the perfect compliment to my pancakes.

Making these pancakes made me realize how long it's been since I've actually eaten pancakes at all.  I think the last time I ate them was at Denny's when I ordered the Grand Slam.  I'm so happy to find a healthier alternative to Denny's pancakes.  I actually think these pancakes taste better and are fluffier than Denny's pancakes.  

 In order to make these, just follow the instructions on the back of the box.  I followed the instructions to make 7 pancakes.  After making the batter, I added 1/4 cup of vegan carob chips and slowly stirred it in.  Then, I poured the pancake batter on a hot pan, 1/4 cup at a time.  Honestly, I didn't think these pancakes were actually going to make it to my work's breakfast party since my family was eyeing them while I was cooking.  Luckily, I made a second batch for my family (and myself) to enjoy  and my first batch safely made it to the party.  

        

Baked and Breaded Vegetarian Chicken

As Christmas Day is fast approaching, I've been scrambling to get all my Christmas shopping and errands done.  This means quick meals are a must for me, especially during the weekend.  This morning, we decided to have an early lunch so my boyfriend and I can start crossing off our Christmas to-do list as soon as possible.

I thought it would be the perfect time to break out my can of Worthington's FriChik, which is a fried chicken substitute.  However, instead of frying it, I wanted to bake it.  I decided to bread it too just for kicks.  I found a really easy recipe online to follow for baked breaded chicken and since I was pressed for time, I thought I'd give it a try.  I breaded it with FryStar bread crumbs, which is a brand my sister-in-law always uses when she makes her breaded concoctions.  I'm pretty sure you can buy this at any grocery store that sells Asian products on Guam.

"These are easy to prep" is a complete understatement.  What I did was dip and coat each FriChik in Italian dressing and then covered it with bread crumbs.  I then baked them for 30 minutes on top of foil sprayed lightly with Pam.  As you can see, I only baked 5 pieces because that's all that came in the can I purchased.  This isn't enough for just my boyfriend and I, so I also baked some garlic bread, which I placed right next to the FriChik in the oven.

Our meal turned out just the right portion and taste - not too heavy but enough to last us a couple of hours until our next meal.  The baked and breaded FriChik came out juicy, but not as crunchy as I would have liked it to have been.  When I used to eat fried chicken, I ate it with ketchup, and I was happy to find that the FriChik also paired well with it.  Everything was devoured in 15 minutes tops, and then we were off to brave the crowds.  

Vegan Nilaga

I've been craving nilaga (literally means "boiled") since I turned vegetarian.  It's a soup dish that my mom makes on days where she needed to cook something quick and easy.  I love this dish because of the vegetables used - potatoes, cabbage, and bok choy.  I just needed to find a good substitute for the cubes of beef my mom normally uses in her dish.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find beef substitutes that weren't in the form of ground beef or burger patties.  The best thing I could find was meatless meatballs.

Nate's Zesty Italian Meatless Meatballs worked pretty well with this recipe.  I ended up boiling the meatballs a little longer than I should so I changed the recipe to shorten the amount of boiling time.  I bought the meatballs over at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket, but I do want to check out Simply Food to see what beef substitutes they have available over there. 

When I was first reading an original beef nilaga recipe, I realized that it called for fish sauce.  I was a little disheartened at first because I was stumped on how to replace fish sauce.  However, several food forums recommended using 2 parts soy sauce and 1 part lime juice as a substitute so I gave that a try for this dish. 

The end results?  Delicious nilaga.  I think I should actually call this dish nilagang meatballs (boiled meatballs) since that's the meat I used.  My family (including my mom!) thought that the dish tasted just like beef nilaga, so I considered this recipe a success.         

Thanksgiving 2011 - Gobble it up!

This year, I decided to make a vegetarian/vegan Thanksgiving meal so my boyfriend and I can enjoy the gluttony that is Thanksgiving without having to stray from our vegetarian lifestyle.  I made vegan potato salad, vegetarian turk'y roast, and vegan bibingka (rice cake) for dessert.  It was the first time I made any of these dishes, so I was pretty happy when all of them turned out pretty good.
The potato salad was easy enough to prepare and make.  The night before Thanksgiving, I prepped the potatoes by peeling and cubing them and then placing them in a large bowl with cold water.  After that, I placed the bowl in the refrigerator and left it there overnight.  This removes the starchiness from the potatoes, which is a tip I learned from Alton Brown's show "Good Eats."  I love that show because Alton explains the how and why of cooking.  Definitely helpful for an amateur cook like me.  For the vegan mayonnaise called for in this recipe, I used Original Vegenaise, which is a really great substitute for real mayonnaise.  It has the same texture as the real thing, but it's non-dairy and cholesterol-free.  It also tastes like the real thing, so there's no love lost for mayonnaise.  My boyfriend and I liked the way the potato salad tasted since it was light enough on our stomachs, but my family wasn't too fond of it because they were used to my mom's way of making it, which is thick enough to serve as an actual meal.  It's tough competing with my mom's cooking.  

For the turkey, I went with Quorn's Turk'y Roast after reading reviews that said it's the best turkey substitute available.  I purchased this at Simply Food a couple of weeks ago when they had a 15% sale off all their groceries and frozen food items.  When you open it, you'll find that it's a small log that should be enough for 2-3 people.  The box has instructions on the side on how to prepare it and I just followed those instructions to the T.  I did have to make my own turkey dry rub which was easy enough to make.  I loved how it only needed to be in the oven for an hour!  I actually made this right before feasting time so that we could eat it when it was nice and hot.  I also added some veggies in there just so the turk'y roast wouldn't feel so lonely.  My boyfriend and I ate majority of the turk'y, but my family did try it as well and we all agreed it tasted like turkey.  It tasted so much like turkey I wished I had made some gravy just to give it more juiciness. 

The vegan bibingka was the real winner for the day.  I took the recipe from Filipino Cooking Abroad by Eleanor Laquian and Irene Sobrevinas.  It's actually my sister's ancient-looking cookbook, but she was nice enough to lend it to me.  The only things I had to substitute in the recipe were the grated cheese, butter, and eggs.  For the cheese and butter, I used Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds and Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread, which I've blogged about before here.  I went with Ener-G Egg Replacer (which I purchased at Simply Food as well) as my egg substitute.  It's made using potato and tapioca starch, and so easy to use because you just mix it with 2 tablespoons of hot water and viola, you made an egg!  It's only used for baking though, so don't use it to make scrambled eggs.       

The bibingka turned out really good and was a hit with the Filipino fam-bam.  In fact, my dad got into a semi-argument with me because he really thought I used real cheese and eggs.  I even showed him the Daiya cheese and Ener-G egg replacer packages, but he still wasn't convinced.  I took this as a compliment.
So Thanksgiving 2011 was a success.  After eating all that food, I surprisingly made my way to bed and proceeded to sleep the afternoon away.

Vegetarian-izing (or Vegan-izing) Filipino Food - Dish #1

When I was growing up, my mom was the one who cooked the food for our family.  On days when she wanted to make something quick and easy, she'd cook giniling (also known as picadillo) using ground beef, potatoes and green peas.  If there was any extra giniling left in the morning, she'd use it to make tortang carne (beef omelette) for breakfast.  This was one of my favorite breakfasts when I was little.
Flash forward to the present, and, as a vegetarian striving to reach vegan status, I wondered if I could re-create Filipino dishes so that they're vegetarian or vegan.  First thing I did was look for a Filipino cookbook, which my sister was happy to lend to me.  It's a super old book titled Filipino Cooking Abroad by Eleanor Laquian and Irene Sobrevinas.  I wasn't even born yet when this book was published! (FYI - It was published in 1977.) It's a wonderful read though because it has great sections on the history of Filipino food and descriptions of food based on region.
So the first Filipino dish I thought I could vegetarian-ize was tortang carne.  I used the tortang carne recipe from the cookbook and substituted the ground beef with Worthington Vegetarian Burger and the eggs using a vegan omelette recipe I found on FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog.  I could have easily made this dish vegan using vegan ground beef, but I wanted to try the Worthington product just to see how it will taste.  Simply Food has a whole section dedicated to Worthington products.

When it comes out of the can, I highly recommend breaking the beef down using a fork.  Once you do this, you'll notice it really looks like ground beef.  Although the can says I can just heat it and serve, I treated it as if it was uncooked ground beef and thus did not change anything in the original recipe.   

After I was done prepping the carne, I put it in the fridge to cool.  While it was cooling, I started working on the egg substitute for the dish.  The vegan omelette recipe called for tahini which I have only heard of in hummus recipes.  I've never actually used this ingredient before.  In fact, my boyfriend and I were at the spices section of Micronesia Mall Pay-Less for what seemed like an eternity looking for some McCormick spice labeled "tahini" because I thought it was some type of grounded spice.  Little did I know it was in the organic section and it's actually a kind of paste!  Every time I cook, I learn something new.  

I went with Joyva Sesame Tahini because it looked like it had a decent amount of tahini that would last me a long time. When you open it up, make sure to stir it well before using.  Making the vegan egg mixture was quite easy and by the time I was done, the giniling was already done cooling.  I poured the vegan egg mixture in with the giniling, stirred, turned on my stove, and started cooking.

  

I recommend making the torta the size of your spatula so that it's easier for you to flip when the bottom side is nice and brown.  Because the original recipe called for large sized tortas (I'm assuming they had big spatulas), I'm not sure how many servings my method makes.  I do know that you can always store the left over giniling-egg mixture in the fridge until you're ready to cook more tortas, which was is what I did.

When my family tried them, they thought it tasted pretty good.  In fact, my dad couldn't even believe I didn't use eggs as an ingredient.  I recommend eating tortang carne with a scoop of hot rice and a side of ketchup, just like how my momma taught me.         

  

Nothing Wacky About This Cake

My co-worker passed along to me a recipe for a vegan chocolate cake with the oddest name: Wacky Cake.  After I made it though and tasted it, I really think it's wrongfully named because there's nothing wacky or odd about it.  When I pulled it out of the oven, it smelled so good I couldn't wait to try it.  I know I should have let the cake cooled longer, but my usual impatient self wanted a slice of it immediately, as you can probably tell from the picture above.  The cake was super moist and fluffy and my family enjoyed it immensely even though it had no frosting.

Another reason why I loved it was because it was so cheap and easy to make.  I didn't need to buy any special ingredients or break out my stand mixer at all.  I'll gladly make anything that doesn't require me to wash many dishes or run around the island looking for ingredients I'll probably be only using once.

The next time I make this, I'm going to add cherries or strawberries before putting it in the oven and half-way through the baking time.  I think it'll make the cake look so pretty and taste even better too.  Yummy!

Sweets on a Sunday Afternoon

I spent my Sunday afternoon the same way most Filipinos were: by watching the boxing fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.  I knew that the fight was going to be the last one shown, and so I spent my time waiting by eating some gelato.
This time, I chose Organic Nectars Cashewtopia Gelato, which I bought at Simply Food, and decided to try it because its packaging was plainer than the first vegan ice cream I tried.  I feel it's only fair to try foods that aren't in pretty packages because it just might be holding the best tasting food.  You'll never know unless you try.
In this particular case, I did discover one of the best vanilla gelatos I've ever tasted.  I can't believe it was that good!  It even has the same creamy texture as non-vegan ice cream, so I think this one beats the first vegan ice cream I tried.This gelato is organic, vegan, low-glycemic, and non dairy kosher.  I love how it meets eating restrictions from around the world.

To wash the ice cream down, I drank a juice that's literally called Green Juice by Reboot Your Life.  It was refreshing and tasted great thanks to the pairing of apples and ginger for sweetness.  With this particular juice, I used collard greens for the first time and learned that it didn't degrade the flavor of the juice at all.  I plan on rotating it with kale and swiss chard whenever I can.    

Little Cakes for a Big Birthday

For my boyfriend's birthday, I decided to surprise him with orange chocolate vegan cupcakes, which I found the recipe for on Vegetarian Times website.  I've made many cupcakes before, but this was the first time I was going to make a vegan version.  I was pretty surprised to see that avocado was the replacement for eggs and butter was a no-show in the recipe.  What really made me decide to try this recipe was that the glaze was made using soft tofu, which I would have never figured out by myself.     

Having the ability to grow your own tropical fruits is one of the best things about living on Guam.  Unfortunately, my family's avocado trees were bare and so I had to buy avocados at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  If I had my way, I would have just plucked an avocado from our tree since they taste exceptionally better and are much larger than what's available at the grocery store.
The part that somewhat stumped me in the recipe was the instruction to purée the avocados in a blender until smooth.  For a small-time cook like me, I needed to know "How smooth was smooth?"  I just took a guess at it and luckily, the cupcakes turned out great.
The glaze frosting actually turned out better than I expected.  In fact, I think it's the best frosting I ever made in my short frosting making history.  It stayed on the cupcake like it's supposed to and tasted fantastic.  When I was shopping for the glaze ingredients, I couldn't find any vegan chocolate chips.  Instead, the best thing I could find was Dagoba Organic Chocolate Dark Chocolate Chocodrops, which I found at Simply Food.  By definition, dark chocolate has less milk than regular milk chocolate, and this one had a 73% cacao content.  Dagoba is also known as a certified Fair Trade chocolate company, so you can rest assure the chocolate wasn't made using slave labor.  

When I finished baking the cupcakes and dipping its tops in the glaze, I couldn't resist trying them and ended up eating 2 cupcakes.  Thank goodness I baked 24!  When I finally surprised my boyfriend with the cupcakes and told him what the ingredients were, he said he couldn't imagine those were ingredients because the cupcakes still tasted and looked like sweet non-vegan cupcakes.  I took this as an extremely positive review and will be looking for ways to make other types of cupcakes.  I picture red velvet vegan cupcakes in the near future...  

    

Linguine Alfredo Using Tofu

I had some left over soft tofu in my refrigerator and was stumped on what dishes I could make with it that weren't soups or desserts.  A visit to Google and several clicks later, I discovered lots of main course recipes that called for soft tofu.  I settled on linguine alfredo because the recipe was easy to follow and I was curious to know how this dish would taste.  I thought, as I take baby steps towards veganism, I would have to say goodbye to white sauce pastas since they contain dairy.  I hope this recipe proves me wrong.  

I've never tried whole wheat pasta before and chose Jovial Foods Einkorn pasta because it had the most vitamins and minerals than the other options available at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  (Plus, saying "Einkorn" out loud sounded really cool.)  It tasted great, but one con about it is that it dries up and hardens after 4-5 hours.  I recommend using only what you plan on consuming immediately.        

I think the dish turned out good but needed a little bit more saltiness.  I plan on adding some soy bacon in this dish the next time I make it.  Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with this recipe and am glad to know that I don't have to quit white sauce just because I'm trying to be vegan.

How I satisfied my fried rice craving

Fried rice is really a wonderful dish but is definitely a no-no in my health book.  I realized there must be some way to satisfy my craving without compromising my new lifestyle.  I brainstormed a bit and hoped couscous would do the trick.  

I love couscous.  It's so versatile, very easy to make, and a box can last me a couple of dishes.  With this dish, I decided to cook couscous with carrots, mushrooms, and beans.  I normally buy Near East couscous, but replaced it this time with Fantastic World Foods Organic Whole Wheat Couscous, which I found at Micronesia Mall Pay-Less Supermarket.  I'm happy to report it tastes the same as the Near East version.    

I took this opportunity to also try Quorn's Naked Chick'n Cutlet and fry it for a little bit using Pam cooking spray.

It turned out a little dry, but I'm guessing it's due to the frying.  Next time, I'm going to grill it or microwave it (both acceptable cooking methods) and see if it makes it juicier.  The texture was awesome though.  Cutting through it was like cutting through a real chicken breast.  In fact, my boyfriend couldn't believe it wasn't made using real chicken.

As I hoped, chick'n and couscous with carrots, mushrooms, and beans successfully quelled my fried rice craving.  If my taste buds decide to picket together and demand fried rice again, I'll be repeating this dish but with a different mix of vegetables.  You know, just to keep things interesting.  

The Power of Juicing

I received fantastic news today.  My friend and her partner have been juicing fruits and vegetables for a couple weeks now and at a recent doctor's visit, her partner's doctor had to do a double-take at her results because he was amazed at how great her blood work was!  Prior to juicing, she did not have good health statistics but I'm ecstatic to hear they're improving.  Their daily juicing regiment consists of drinking juice just once a day and look at the results!  Stories like these inspire me to continue leading a juicing lifestyle.

Before I try or buy anything, I always like to ask my friends if they've tried it too and what their opinions were of it.  I normally read online reviews as well, but I become more convinced to say pass or OK on something if  my friends or family provide me their input.  I hope by sharing my experiences and results, juicing becomes more real and more doable to you.

Once I started juicing, I noticed that my energy levels sky-rocketed and no longer needed caffeine to get me through the day.  In fact, I gave up coffee and tea and donated my Infusion stamp card to my friend.  When I come home from work, I have enough energy to work out, tidy up my place, and do other things I normally won't do unless I take a power nap.  Waking up in the morning no longer involves the "10 more minutes please" conversation I have with my alarm.

My friends have commented on the improvement of my skin.  When I broke out before, I used to blame stress as the source of my blemishes.  Although pimples can be attributed to many factors, I now realize that not getting a daily serving of fruits and vegetables was one of the reasons I was breaking out.  In a more alarming situation, the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead follows a man who had a rare skin disorder that made his skin react at the slightest touch as if a thousand mosquitoes attacked him.  After incorporating juices into his diet, he no longer has to take medications for this disease.

Lastly, juicing has made me lose weight.  To be quite honest, I was not looking into losing any more weight than I already have, but it's a known result of juicing.  Even though I replaced my breakfast and most dinners with juices, my body does not feel malnourished or lacking.  I become hungry every 3-4 hours which I feel are the normal hunger cycles a body should experience.  And yes, I do eat snacks as long as they are not fried and contain no meat.  

Drinking juices from fruits and vegetables does not have to be an episode of Fear Factor. (In fact, I always see Fear Factor contestants being forced to eat animal parts and not plant parts.)  Juices can taste pretty good if you find the right balance of fruits and vegetables.  Here are two very easy and very tasty juice recipes from Reboot Your Life I like to follow:

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice (picture shown above)

Serves 2 (each serving is 16 oz)

6 carrots

4 apples

2" ginger

Apple Honeydew Kale Swiss Chard

Serves 2 (each serving is 16 oz)

4 apples

1 honeydew

1 bunch swiss chard

1 bunch kale