This is an article about how to start getting Healthy, local food put into schools. Enough Said.
I don’t know if anyone out there knows just how bad school food is. Even as a elementary student, I knew the food at school sucked. Cardboard Pizza, Rubber ‘Chicken’ Nuggets….
Still, now that I’m in High School, I see kids getting Chips and Sugar Water (excuse me, ‘Flavored’ Water), or Curly Fries and Chocolate Milk for lunch. Gross? yes. Unhealthy? Yes. Contributing to our nations growing obesity problem? Yes.
Sure, there are athletes who eat really healthy because that’s what their coach said, or some kid who still has their mom pack their lunch, but still, that’s less then 20 out of 2000. I think schools have a responsibility to students to teach healthy eating habits from day one. Seeing as how schools are charged with 2076 lunch hours for students over 12 years. 2076 meals can have a profund impact.
The biggest obstacle I’ve encountered when confronting this problem is that healthy, nutritious food is ‘too expensive’. Is it?
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/school-food
One of my new favorite food icons here is the US is Jamie Oliver, out to start a food revolution?
Quite honestly, I’m a big fan. Mostly because I’m still stuck looking at this junk that the USDA calls food. Gross.
But anyway, what do you think? Do you have kids? Do they ever eat school food?
I have a story for everyone. Ok, So yesterday in my English class we were writing an in-class-essay and my teacher was going to bring in Donuts for us to eat during our essay. Because, of course they were not going to be vegan Doughnuts, so I decided to make some of my own and bring them in. :) So I made the ‘Baked Chocolate-Glazed Donuts’ from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holecher. They were really easy to make, and baked pretty fast, but they were kind of a mix between a chocolate muffin and a cake donut. I then made icing and glazed them while doing Pre-Calculus homework and then put Autumn sprinkles on them. After all the icing had soaked in, they were pretty good; but I didn’t think they were the best ever.Also, today my friend came over who eats with me a lot and is really interested in my Veganism. She had never had Tofu before and so me and my other friend (who eats Tofu all the time) made some for her. All we did was fry it real quick in some bottled sauce I had in my fridge. It was pretty basic tofu. She said it was pretty good, but I was happy that she finally had tofu, and it was no longer that ‘strange white bean curd’ that is really disgusting because all I’ve done is eat it raw. (Which is what I hear almost every day about Tofu).
So, the next day I took my donuts to school and I have never had that many people tell me that they didn’t believe that my donuts were vegan. Why? Because they tasted like something. That was so exciting! My locker partner stole some and handed them out and a couple people I didn’t even know came up to me and said that I made really good Donuts! Crazyyyy. So next time I’m going to bring in some cream filled fried donuts and then see what everyone thinks about vegan food. Yes!
See? Heart shaped rice! Tonight I got pretty fancy because this was the first time I’ve cooked anything in a while. (look what school does to poor children like me..) But anywho…
pressed and then I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to get the shape…
This was my Wednesday night creation. Here’s the sauce I made up:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups pureed tomatoes (i used diced tomatoes and pureed them in a food processor)
1/4+ Annie's Naturals BBQ Hot Chipotle Sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4ish cup unsweetened coconut milk
add
1 14oz block firm tofu, cubed or sliced ( but soft works too. All I had was soft and it worked just fine)
Heat a large skillet to medium heat. Add tofu and cook for approximately 5 minutes while you prepare the sauce.
To prepare the sauce; Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Puree in a food processor/blender some more if you would like a creamier sauce.
Add sauce and stir, making sure the tofu is well coated. ( Be aware, this recipe makes extra sauce, so don’t try to pour it all on there just yet.)
Cook for 10-15 more minutes, or until tofu is starting to brown/the sauce is boiling/ or its at the done-ness you prefer
I recently got ‘The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes’ by Kris Holechek, and have been in a baking stupor ever since.
The book has cookies, breads, muffins, cakes, easy bake oven recipes/ single serving recipes, and some other yeasted recipes. Everything is really fast and easy to make ( although I tend to start modifying things and end up with a more complicated but just as delicious recipe)
The first two days I made 3 loaves of banana bread. Yep, 3 loaves. But I didn’t get a picture because they were usually gone by the time I found my camera. they were kind of small loaves, but that's perfect, because then I can make a bigger variety of things.
Next, Corn bread. Which I don’t have a picture of either. Darn. However, it was really delicious sweet cornbread.
Then, finally…*drum roll* ‘Randy’s Upside Down Sticky Muffins’ Which are those rolls with gooey pecan syrup on the bottom in muffins form. 
These muffins were so good I used one as motivation to break my personal record at a Cross Country Meet. I wouldn’t eat it unless I did. and guess what? I did! So i managed to sneak my muffin on to the bus and eat it on the way home. Delicious.
Today, Its my version(I pretty much completely changed the recipe) of the Peary Berry Muffins.
Here is how I did it.
Apple-Pearamon Muffins
2 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. maple syrup or agave nectar
1 teaspoon baking power ( 2 for low altitude)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. cinnamon or regular applesauce
1 cup almond/soy/rice milk
2 medium pears, peeled and shredded
1 c. apple, peeled, cored, and shredded.
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400. Grease or line about 16 muffin cups.
Combine Dry Ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients and fruit. Mix until just combined. Scoop into muffin cups until 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Make sure to check these after they get out of the oven to make sure the bottoms of the muffins are baked through.
A lunchbox, no brown bags.Yep, its that time of year again, as I’m sure all the parents out there know. So this means another year of packing lunches with 1000000000000 times more nutritional content and flavor then those bland USDA school pizzas. Yum!
But first, I recently celebrated a birthday, and here is some pictures of a deliciously vegan dinner.
“Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake’ with Butter cream frosting from “vegan cupcakes take over the world” (I’ve had these for two years strait, they are amazing!")
Eggplant Moussakka with Pine nut Cream from Veganomicon
Cucumber Sandwiches ( Cucumber Slices, and Tofutti Cream Cheese)
Grapes
and a Pink Drink Umbrella…whoop!
It was all really good, and leftovers have made great lunches this week!
and the artichoke/mushroom/seitan pizza!
Do you think veganism and Environmentalism go hand in hand? Do you know any vegans that aren't concerned about the environment?
A big part of my reasons for being vegan is the effect meat has on the environment. To name just a few..
In Agricide by Dr. Michael W. Fox he states “An estimated eighty-five percent of all US agricultural land is used in production of animal foods, which in turn is linked with deforestation, destruction of wildlife species,extinction of species, loss of soil productivity though mineral depletion and erosion, water pollution and depletion, overgrazing, and desertification.”
The problem I see here is that we are so focused on global warming, that we don’t stop to notice the tool we are taking on our land and oceans. There is not only air pollution, but “water pollution, land contamination, soil erosion, wildlife loss, desertification, rain forest destruction” {Lyman, Howard. Mad Cowboy. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1998. 124-125. Print.}
You wouldn’t think cows cause all those horrible things right? But actually, a lot of land is burned and cleared just to make room for ranchers
It is a 16:1 ratio for pounds of grain to pounds of meat. There would be a lot more food in the world if no one ate meat. Also, think of all the extra energy (not clean energy either) and is needed to grow all that grain. There is the tractors, the planes and spray the pesticides, and all the harvesting and processing energy. The pesticides from the grain (because who grows grains for cattle organic? not many people) create pollution in our waterways and air. It causes algae blooms and red tides.
Check this out
http://www.madcowboy.com/01_FactsENV.000.html
If you can, check out Howard Lymans book Mad Cowboy. Its one of the most well written books ive ever written. If you think vegans are just animal lovers, he will point out the other impacts meat has on our planet and you can see for yourself. Again, I highly recommend this.
but anyway, back to my original question. Should vegans also be environmentalists? Are they environmentalists by nature?
Right now, me and my almost vegan mom are out ona quest to find a good vegan cheese. Colorado Springs isn’t the most vegan friendly town…(like there is basically nothing, i’ve never even met a vegan here) But our local Whole Foods and Sunflower Market has a few things
Our first cheese we bought was
This. It wasn’t all that good. It is ok toasted over veggies or stirred in Chili Mac, but besides that? Nope.
Next was
and this is way better than the other stuff. It dosent melt all that well, but it kind of tastes like goat cheese slices…thats how i would describe it. I’m planning to try all the other flavors and the cream cheese as well. Do you guys have any suggestions about your favorite vegan cheese?
Also: From now on I’m going to do (drumroll) Monster Question Mondays! (I don’t know..trying to get my alliteration in here)
for this week..
What is the usual reply to when someone says to your being vegan, “I could never be a vegan!”?
Here’s the food highlights from my trip to Seattle.
A eggplant/hummus/pepper sandwich on Italian bread with beet salad.
The sandwich was really good but the guy told me the beet salad was vegan but it had honey in it…lame. It was so good to eat that after a long morning of traveling.
Giant snicker doodle (who ever came up with that name?). It was AMAZING. It was massive.
I noticed that it had tofu in it. Time for a experiment! I’m guessing that was what made it so moist.
Banana Chip Muffin. Fo sho. That thing was muffin heaven. My new goal is to recreate this thing. (except mabye in a smaller size)
BEFORE AFTER
We bought this yummy papya in Pike Place Market along with some peaches and baked goods and ate that for breakfast. Best breakfast ever.
I’m going to post our night at a vegan restaurant in another post. So read that one too!
Dehydrating is tricky. A dehydrator makes it easy, but its easy to burn your carrots in a oven. For small things likes peas or corn, spread it out on a baking sheet so that you only have one layer of food. If they are overlapping or touching to much they will dry unevenly. For most foods the range in which you dry it in is between 125 F and 145 F. Thankfully, meats, eggs, and dairy products are the hardest to dry, so if your new to drying, that's a plus.
After you pack it, make sure it is sealed very tightly so that moisture does not cause it to rehydrate and spoil.
Avoid mixing foods with non-complementing flavors, like peaches and garlic together, because they might aquire the others flavor during the drying.
To save fuel at camp, cook things at home and then dry them so all you have to do is rehydrate.
If you have fresh vegetables, blanch them before hand. (To blanch, steam the vegetables by putting in a basket above a pot of boiling water and cook until just tender, or you can also add the vegetables to boiling water very quickly and then remove, and plunge in ice water. Both work) You do this because otherwise the enzymes in the veggies will cause them to spoil. Dry at 130 F.
fresh, canned, and frozen vegetables and fruits are all good for canning
Dry fruits at 135 F. To slow the browning of fruits soak for 5 minutes in a mixture of 1/4c. lemon juice and 1 quart water.
Also, we made granola bars to eat at breakfast.
Anderson Lake Granola Bars
2 c. of you favorite granola
2 c. quick oats
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup soy butter (these things are not low calorie)
1/2 c maple syrup
1/2 c chunky peanut butter
1/4 c. ground flax seeds
1/2 cup milk free chocolate chips
At Home:
Heat Oven to 350 F
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl, breaking up any clumps. In saucepan, melt soy butter, then stir in peanut butter and maple syrup and heat until melted, stirring often. Stir wet into dry and mix well. Oil a 9x13in baking pan and spread the mix evenly in the pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Right after you remove from the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and then spread evenly over the bars as they melt. After you let the chocolate cool for about 10 minutes cut the bars but don’t remove from the pan. This will help keep the bars together later. After the bars are cooled, then remove from pan and store.
Day 2:
Breakfast:
2 packets instant oatmeal each with dates, walnuts, and a sprinkle of sugar.
(All of these were packed in one gallon bag, with the dates, walnuts, and sugar in snack size bags)
Lunch:
Backpackers Snack Attack Bars from Lipsmackin’ Backpackin’ by Tim and Christine Conners. + GORP
However, if we hadn’t made those, Peanut butter-trail mix wraps are always a good option.
Dinner:
Vegetable Soup
1 16 oz package frozen mixed vegetables (the kind with corn and peas and such)
2 4oz cans of whole or sliced mushrooms (don't get button mushrooms, they will shrink down to nothing when you dehydrate them)
1 16 oz bag of frozen peas
1 package Ramen noodles (oriental style is vegan, but you don't have to add the seasoning)
2 packages Knorr vegetable mix
1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 1/2 cups water per serving
At home:
If you have a dehydrator, use it to dry your vegetables, but otherwise… Dry the vegetables at 130 degrees for several hours (check them every hour or so, but it will take a while, just be patient). Break up Ramen noodles and add to a large bowl. ADd Knorr packets. When vegetables are finished, add to bowl and mix thoroughly. Add 1 1/2 per person to a bag and make sure to note how many servings you have.
On the trail:
Boil 2 1/2 cups water x # of people/servings and then add soup mix and cook until vegetables are tender (10-20 minutes?)
(to be continued)
Backpacking food is a troublesome thing. This time however, I did it right. Hers the menu we took (this is for 2 people)
How I'm going to lay this out is a 'at home' step and 'on the trail' step for anyone who actually wants to use it backpacking
Also, here is our cooking gear
1 small pot
1 kettle? I'm not really sure how to describe that one...
Plus a small stove
Day 1: This was our hike up, all we needed for this night was dinner.
We ate vegan 'Mac and cheese'. It was surprisingly good. I would definitely eat that at home.
Here is the recipe.
'Cheese Sauce'
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unbleached flour
a dash garlic powder ( i might even leave it out altogether)
1/8 teaspoon dried yellow mustard powder
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoon soy margarine
1/2 box macaroni or Penne pasta (that's what we used)
1/4 c dried TVP ( i got mine from the bulk section)
1/4 c. boiling water
At Home:
Mix nutritional yeast, salt, flour, garlic powder, mustard powder, and soy margarine together in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a fork until the margarine in blended in well. Add to sandwich size plastic bag and store for later.
Add TVP and pasta to separate bags and store for later.
On The Trail:
Boil Water. Add TVP to larger pot. Add 2 fl.oz (1/4 c) of water to the TVP and let sit to rehydrate (about 5-10 minutes)
Add about 5 1/3 fl.oz. (2/3 c.) boiling water to the cheese powder and close bag. Mix by squishing the mixture around in the bag.
Cook pasta according to package directions in kettle and then drain water (the reason i use this one is so that you can easily drain the water off without spilling any pasta. I used the hot water to fill up a Nalgene and put it, very tightly closed, in the bottom of my sleeping bag. To make it warm. It was amazing. but anyway...)
Add the pasta to the pot with the now rehydrated TVP. Cut the corner off the cheese sauce bag and squeeze into the pot. Mix well and eat!
(to be continued)
I’ll be off on a backpacking trip this weekend, so tasty vegan backpacking food soon to come!
Today I hiked the Manitou Incline with some friends. The Incline is a giant staircase that used to be a trolley track, that is now just like a giant staircase. Its only a mile long but it goes up 2000+ feet. Its pretty intense. Also a really really good workout. I believe Apollo Ohno used to train here when he was residing at the Olympic Center in Colorado Springs. But anyway, its really cool. After hanging around a while in town, I came home and packed or an epic backpacking trip this weekend (more to follow!) and went to a yoga class. By the end, I was…exhausted. Did I mention famished? So, this is the recipe creation to follow.
The Incline Tofu Wrap
Makes 2 wraps. Time: Less than 30 minutes.
1 block tofu- pressed and cu bed
3 stalks Swiss chard- sliced and chopped
2 radishes-sliced
1 clove garlic, finely diced or pressed (more if you are a big fan of garlic like me, or..haha you dont have anyone to kiss in the next hour or so…)
1 green onion, sliced thinly (don't be afraid to use the whole thing here)
Your favorite balsamic vinegar ( I used a vinegar from a specialty Olive Oil and vinegar shop in Manitou, it was a Piniapple Vinegar)
1/2-2 tbsp soy sauce
your favorite hot sauce to taste
garlic powder or more fresh, pressed garlic.
4-5 slices of cucumber
1 –2 large tortillas.
1-2 slices Tofutti Mozzarella flavor vegan cheese
To Make:
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute garlic for 15 seconds, but make sure not to burn! Add the green onion, followed by the Swiss chard, and the radishes. As it cookes, make sure to stir it around.
Heat a separate skillet over medium heat, and if using fresh garlic, add and sauté, otherwise add tofu and cook for 2-4 minutes. Sprinkle the tofu with about 1tbsp of vinegar and cook for a minute or so more, until the tofu has soaked up and cooked off some of the vinegar. Add soy sauce to your liking, don’t be afraid if you use alot, it will cook off. Add hot sauce to taste. If using, sprinkle about a 1/8 to 1/3 tsp of garlic powder on the tofu and make sure to mix the tofu around.
While your tofu is cooking, spread the tortillas separately. Add 2-3 slices of cucumber to each tortilla. As your first skillet finishes cooking, divide the mixture into two and put half of each tortilla. When your tofu finishes cooking, add half of the cubes to each wrap. Put 1/2 or a full slice of cheese on both and add more hot sauce to your liking. Wrap and enjoy!
(Note to unexperienced cooks, plan out what you are going to chop at what time before/as you cook, so you don’t end up going “Oh s---! I need the swiss chard! Where is it? Where did my knife go! Is my dog eating my cucumber?!ARRRGGGGHHH!”. I would do things in this order,
This is not as important in recipes like this, but in soups where timing is important, when you don't want to burn your garlic, and other things like deserts and pastries, make sure you have everything before you start and it will make you life so much easier. I promise :] )
yeah. eat that soybean curd.
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Today at breakfast I was looking though a WIRED magazine that was sitting on our kitchen table, and I came across the most anti-vegan article I could ever think of existing. Take a look.
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The other is like Turducken on crack. mmm….yummy. You just have to read that one.
Officially, I have to say I am turned off to this magazine. (Yes, turned off, that’s how much I really dislike this one) Of course, they do give a mention to ‘Vat grown meat’ later in the article. Does it make up even a little bit? You decide.
Well. I made some soup today, but I don't have a picture :( My bad. It wasn't that pretty anyway. BUT... Here is kind of what I did.
3/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Vegi soup Mix or dry Lentils
3/4 c. brown rice
3/4 c. frozen corn
3/4 c. frozen edamame
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/4 c. fresh cilantro
1/2 c or to taste roasted diced green chilies
1/2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 1/4 c. vegetable broth
1/2 c. water
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 c. snow peas
TO MAKE:
Add broth and water to a medium-large stockpot. Bring to a boil. Add Soup Mix,Brown Rice, salt, olive oil and black pepper. Set Timer for 60:00. Turn heat down to medium-low and simmer.
In a separate skillet, sauté onion and garlic until golden and add to pot. Also add Cilantro and green chili at the same time.
When it has been summering for 40:00 add snow peas and stir. If the soup needs more liquid, add water 1 cup at a time until the rice mixture is covered.
When it has been simmering for 50:00 add frozen corn and edemame and stir. Once again, add more water if needed.
Cook for another 10 minutes or until mixture is soft.
I would trust your gut when making this recipe. It’s not that exact yet. Just a kitchen creation with what I had. Use whatever veggies you have. Use different spices. Just use a lentil/rice broth base and your set.
![IMG_0601[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBWcmkZRv54p4GbjGcwv_cd7ol75Hyaw9frQnaUD99jcbDkw1jcgJaboq5PUGAkZJzvrZNBI1BQafWHwHXUU4wOS93CpnNts2pD3nJT-2RTX9w24XtgRKaD5abs9UPOybAoV-L4o9IA8/s1600-h/IMG_0601%5B1%5D%5B7%5D.jpg "IMG_0601[1]")
The green chili i used in this recipe was a small Ziploc bag full that were had in our freezer from when we buy roasted green chilies every year . These were spicy chilies, so use mild ones if you don’t like spicy things.
![IMG_0602[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-JUrb-X63h_dkCljQ1ijIGRQ6alKkCt0FEWVqVVPLzo-2dZZvJnoHlxVJ3WFANyEP0lOlY2BeHbIWjt8qYXxRcZSM6-a0963ACgZuJvXrGhQjNtiz1ERwF3pf5dD_qqXq_ECLbEnsNY/s1600-h/IMG_0602%5B1%5D%5B18%5D.jpg "IMG_0602[1]")
