It’s six days until our trip to Disney World.  I’ve put in a hold on our mail, bought an automatic pet bowl for Molly and planned as much as I can tolerate.  We don’t have any dining reservations because neither of us what to commit to a particular park each day.  We may regret this, but we’ll learn from whatever happens.  We did get the dining plan added to our tickets, so we don’t have to fret over shelling out so much money for meals while there.  I’m anxious to say the least.  It’s also been almost ten years since I last flew on a plane.

I got the neck pain again from the bed bowing down the center.  Our tempur-pedic mattress is fabulous, but our Ikea bedframe has trouble supporting it (the same way our platform bed before it did).  We have propped up the center beam with a crate and a bunch of phone books, but the top book became crimped, so the bed bowed again.  It’s fixed now using old shelves, but the damage was done on my neck.  I resorted to a chiropractor on 12/29.  He “cracked” neck and back stuff, which initially hurt.  Took x-rays and put me on a machine that made my back muscles spazm.  The next day I ached, but by Friday I felt so much better!  Friday he showed me my x-ray results and my spine is a zig-zag, my neck is inverted as if I had been in a car accident (he said), but I can’t think of anything recent that would have caused that.  I’ll be going a lot for a while to fix all this, which I expect to fix many of the other problems I’ve been having.  My head congestion has improved already after two visits.  Unfortunately it all drained down my throat last night though.

Between this and the dental work I still need done, it’s going to be an expensive year.  Too bad my health insurance doesn’t cover more of it.  It almost makes me regret the Disney trip, but that can’t be helped now, so I shall just relax and have fun!

I was so excited after we booked the trip, but for the past weeks or so I haven’t been as excited.  I blame this on not feeling 100%.  Today I am thinking my “sicky” feeling may be entirely the weather.  This morning I felt like crap while it was foggy, rainy and grey.  Around lunchtime the sun came out and the weather cleared up and I actually feel a bit better.  hmmm

We went to Kim’s Korean last week with one of our restaurant.com coupons and had soups that made me feel better.  They told us that they are getting many more vegetarians lately and they are going to expand the menu to feature a vegetarian section!  I couldn’t help, but wonder whether or not my raving about their food and vegetarian-friendliness around the internet helped that? *ponder ponder*  I keep meaning to tell them about how I tell everyone online about them, but can’t think of how to mention it.

I’m trying to think of what recipes we’ve made at home, but I can’t think of anything new.  We made a vindaloo in the slow cooker I have made before and I honestly cannot remember past that.  I really haven’t been feeling well.

Well that’s all for today, sorry for not updating more often!

Since I got a Zune I have been subscribing to every Disney World related podcast I can find.  I read about vegetarian options at the restaurants, tips for what shows and events to check out and such.  I don’t have anything much to say about the trip yet, but I figured I could compile some of my info here and if anyone has tips please comment.

Here are tips I’ve heard so far:

• we need to get our first time pins, I forget where to get those.
• I am told there is a passport you can buy to have stamped in the different “countries” in Epcot.

That’s it so far.

2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups reconstituted vegetarian ‘beef’ bullion

I used Better than Bouillon no beef base for the whole amount instead.

It flavor was just like my Mom’s stew I grew up on!  It was wonderful!

Turk’y Leftovers!

Quorn brand vegetarian Turk’y roast really looks & tastes like turkey. I think it tastes better cold that warm

Mobile post sent by katiberz using Utterli.  Replies. ]]> http://gameluv.com/veg/2008/11/27/vegetarian-thanksgiving-meal/feed/ http://gameluv.com/veg/2008/11/17/fake-lunch-meats/ http://gameluv.com/veg/2008/11/17/fake-lunch-meats/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:52:25 +0000 shangxiang http://gameluv.com/veg/?p=97 When we went on our mini trip to Slade, KY we took food along.  We brought Trader Joe’s wheat tortilla wraps, mayo, Lightlife Smart deli turkey & bologna both of which we were thrilled with.  The texture & taste of the bologna  is authentic in the folds of a sandwich, Shawn felt the same about the turkey.  Last grocery trip I bought Yves’ Salami and I’m very sorry I did now.  I had a wrap yesterday with it and it tastes nothing like salami other than having a tiny spiciness to it.  I plan to just throw the rest away, it’s that bad.  It crumbled in the wrap, unlike the Lightlife slices.

Yves’ Lettuce wraps are amazing (almost exact to PF Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps), so it makes me sad the salami is so bad.

In other news, I loved fried chicken when I ate meat.  It still smells pretty good to me and I know it is only that fried batter that smells so good.  I want to find faux chicken that can be fried up to satisfy the want.

I love egg nog, but it’s so bad.  It’s thickness can be a little gross and I picture people drinking raw egg like body builders in the movies.  The calories are horrible too, depending on the brand it can have 400+ calories a cup.

We bought Vitasoy brand Holiday Nog the other day, and I have to say, it will substitute the real stuff just fine for me!  It’s sweet, and more the consitancy of soy milk than egg nog.  The calories are around 60 per 1/2 cup so I don’t feel as bad having it.  I hear they make a chocolate peppermint flavor too.  I should buy that too!

It’s discouraging, but I’m trying to use it as fuel to get past this, rather than thinking it’s impossible. I just have a hard time figuring out what I should do. I have gathered that I should do cardio 3 days and strength 3 days, but what? Please comment suggestions & links!

I guess I didn’t really have much else to say about it. I’m just feeling frustrated by trying to get fit. Also it will be interesting to see how holiday eating goes as vegetarians. I never cared too much for turkey anyway, I’d have preferred chicken with all the sides instead. So how are things like Tofurky stuffed turkey thing or the fake turkey log thing I saw in the fake meat freezer section? Any recommendations on how to make this easier for the cooks who are worrying about fitting our diets in?

Shawn & I went to Slade, KY for a couple nights. We stayed in a cabin with a hot tub, hiked to Natural Bridge and enjoyed the autumn leaves in scenic views.
On route down I finally tried tofu scramble at Alfalfa in Lexington, KY.
Tomorrow = back to work.

I don’t tell people they can’t eat meat. It’s their choice the same as my own.  That said, I’d really appreciate it if people thought about it a sec.  Look at a menu like TGI Friday’s as if you were vegetarian and notice how everything in that menu has meat, even all the salads.  I find it sad and bizarre.

Shawn’s sister is getting married soon and thought of us in regards to the reception.  She asked about vegetarian meals for the two of us, which is being accommodated.  The thing that makes me so mad about it is that Americans (at least) feel the need to have meat in every bite they eat.  Why does the reception hall have to make two servings of mashed potatoes without bacon.  I’d bet that the reception party wouldn’t care one way or another, so just don’t use the bacon.  Do you really need bacon in mashed potatoes in the first place?  I didn’t like that even when I ate meat. I like and liked plain, smooth, creamy mashed potatoes without skins in it or meat or anything except maybe garlic.  So they’re preparing that and two servings of green beans without meat plus some Alfredo pasta thing.

For my work holiday party we are going to a Montgomery Inn, which is a BBQ rib joint basically.  So I’ve been emailing the girl planning this asking her to find out about vegetarian meals for us because even vegetables have to have meat in them, dont’cha know?

The food pyramid tells us that veggies, fruits and grains should be the big portion and meat and dairy the small portion, but go to any restaurant, just about, and they appear to never have learned this.  THAT’S WHY WE ARE ALL FAT!  Farmers grow more crops for animal feed than people food and global warming will kill us all.

I guess I really shouldn’t post angry.

I don’t say stop eating meat, if you do eat meat, just eat it the way you should.  You do not need meat in every bite of food you eat.

I don’t think my hands will ever be strong enough to channel lightning and send brainless clone soldiers flying, but they may be on the up-and-up. I went to an Orthopaedic Consultant yesterday and he believes the return in pain and numbness in my left hand is due to a new problem, not the stuff that’s been bugging me for years.

According to his brief diagnosis my hand isn’t sticking to the restful position it needs to be in when I’m asleep and it’s not letting the nerves (particularly the carpal tunnel area) relax before I force them into action for another day. I believe it too. I’ve developed a subconscious sleeping position that resembles a dead bug; all curled up with limbs rigidly folded in on myself. I don’t know why or how that became comfortable but after visiting this guy a year ago I managed to force myself to at least sleep with my arms outstretched.

Now it’s time for another round of psychological reinforcement and a new hand brace. I struggled through the first night with it on and things feel better already. Still weak and a bit painful but much better. Today, before work, I’m totally going to play a game. This’ll be the first time in almost two weeks that I’ll sit down, intent on playing a game without worrying (too much) about my hands. If that hand brace is helping it’ll definitely have some work to do tonight!

On the Luv posting front, my PC is being horribly loud with this new power supply and I have yet to go find some way to quiet it down. I’m using the laptop right now and every day I consider ditching my PC altogether. If this laptop weren’t rescued from the grave by my tinkering Father, had a better screen, and a bigger hard drive I’d be posting my PC on craigslist right now. Hopefully in another week I’ll be back up to speed. For now I’d like to thank Maxx and Shang Xiang for keeping things going on GameLuv and FoodLuv.

Shawn & I stopped in there last Saturday, early in the evening to avoid any possible crowd.  At first we sat in a corner near the front, but ended up moving due to a very loud speaker.

We were happy to see they had Korean items on the menu, dol sot bibimbap & bulgogi as well as kimchi soup.  I didn’t choose that route because we would go to Kim’s Korean for Korean food.  Dancing Wasabi has 3 vegetarian sushi rolls 1. vegetable roll 2. cucumber roll 3. avocado & cucumber roll.  We ordered the vegetable roll and two appetizers, agedashi tofu & veggie tempura.  The agedashi tofu does not come with bonito (fish) flakes, but I double checked just in case.

It was the most interesting version of this we have had yet!  The tofu was in triangles laid out, point up, on a bed of shredded cabbage and carrot.  Ponzo sauce was drizzled around over the tofu and veggie bed.  To one side there was a small pile of the shredded veggies with some sort of seasoning like a salad.  There were also tiny tomatos (smaller than cherry or grape tomatoes that I’ve seen in groceries) cut in half and laid on and around the salad pile.  The tofu crust was thin, crispy and tasty, possibly seasoned.  It was delicious and very attractive.

The veggie tempura was asparagus spears, carrot sticks, sweet potato sticks and one onion ring.  The sticks were all placed in a teepee form and the onion ring around the top to stand it up.  The sauce that came with it was fairly bland so we ended up dipping in our wasabi soy sauce.  The tempura had thin rice puff noodles all around it, that I am unsure if you are meant to eat, but we ate it anyway.  I like the crispy snap when you eat those!  The vegetable sushi roll was 8 pieces, pretty normal size.  There was oshinko, cucmber and avocado in side with the rice on the outside.  The bill was $18.64 before tip, which seemed about average.

I didn’t remember to take any photos until we’d eaten everything.  If we’re over that way and want food, I could eat there again.  It’s a bit of a distance to make a special trip, but that agedashi tofu was good!

Ingredients:

1 12oz. package of fake beef crumbles

small or medium onion, chopped

1 large carrot chopped

1-2 stalks of celery, chopped

rubbed sage

paprika

salt & pepper

2-3 cups mashed potatoes, or 1 pkg of Bob Evans pre-made

cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. saute onion until translucent, I sprinkle paprika as I do this. Not sure how much, until it has a nice brown color
3. while doing that blanch celery & carrots and set aside
4. add fake beef crumbles to onions and basically just heat that up.  Sprinkle with rubbed sage to your heart’s content. I really sprinkle a lot of the sage and paprika, really.
5. add carrot & celery and heat that up with it
6. salt & pepper to taste
7. pour all this in a pan (I have a pyrex casserole type thingy, see photo)
8. cover with mashed potatoes
9. sprinkle with shredded cheddar or lay slices across (I used Cabot sharp cheddar in slices)
10. sprinkle more paprika for color (I forgot to that time)
11. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so.  Basically you’re just trying to get it hot & melt the cheese since it’s all cooked prior

Sorry I am a bit vague, but you can get more ideas searching for shepherds pie on allrecipes.

Other people even put tomatoes in their’s, which sounds gross to me, but that’s what is great about this recipe; you can throw whatever you want in it and go!

With drinks more about formulas than flavor these days it’s not hard to give up (or dramatically cut back) on the classic carbonated soda once you really look and think about what you’re drinking. But I’m stubborn and still want a flavorful drink to offset the tasteless and thirst-quenching water that I drink every day. Whole Foods has a tasty line of sodas and Hansen’s brands do the trick, but nothing tastes as amazing as these Walgreens Gourmet Sodas from the mysterious Deerfield Trading Company.

Mysterious only because I can’t find much info about them and they produce an extensive line of drinks exclusively for the nationwide drug store chain. Conspiracy theories aside, this line of surprisingly chemical-free drinks tastes incredible and are reasonably priced around $1.20 a bottle. Flavors include Vanilla Cream Soda, Juicy Orange Cream, Strawberry Cream, Black Cherry, Root Beer and Diet Root Beer, and each comes in a recyclable 16 ounce glass bottle. Tasty and plastic-free to boot! The best part of all these drinks, the one “claim to fame” that each label calls out is that there’s no High Fructose Corn Syrup inside.

Besides some food coloring and Sodium Benzoate (the questionable preservative) the ingredients list is short and simple. Most of the drinks include carbonated water, sugar, natural and artificial flavor (they don’t get any more specific here), and citric acid which gives them all about 240 calories per bottle. The diet root beer uses Sucralose to replace the sugar and calories so I won’t be trying that one.

The taste of each is exceptionally sweet with only a light bubbly carbonated feel. The Vanilla Cream Soda really hits you, the Orange Cream tastes of a creamcicle, and the Strawberry Cream is almost overpoweringly sweet. I haven’t had the Root Beer yet but the clear winner is the Black Cherry. I’ve tried for days to think of how to explain it’s sweet syrupy flavor. At first sip it’s almost like cherry cough syrup; powerfully flavored as if to mask a gross medicine taste. Then it’s like super concentrated Dr. Pepper without the carbonated bite. It’s like Walgreens was determined to show the world that high fructose corn syrup isn’t required in order to get a super sweet flavor. In the famous words of President Bush, Mission Accomplished!

Hit up your closest Walgreens (I’m sure there’s about ten of them within a mile of your home) and give these flavorful drinks a shot!

Anyways, not only are they attractively colored and shaped like Chinese takeout boxes, the food cooks right inside. Minimal packaging and simple instructions mean you tear open the noodle and sauce packets, dump them back into the takeout box, close it up, and nuke it for two minutes. Then, eat.

Several flavors are available including Peanut Satay, Pad Thai, Kung Pao, and new Green Curry and Tom Yum. I’ve only had the Satay and Pad Thai so far, both of which fall somewhere between just edible and stupendous. There’s plenty of flavor but neither seemed especially delectable. It’s far and away better than a pack of chemical-filled ramen noodles and for $1.99 there’s precious little else you’re going to find that’s as easy to fix and still Vegan.

The ingredients are mostly wholesome but somehow they’ve managed to pack in an insane amount of calories. I don’t have the box with me and can’t find much info online but each box will plump you up an extra 400 - 600 calories. Filling, affordable, and healthy hardly ever coincide and in the case of these noodle boxes you’ll get plenty of filling food at a decent price. They’re definitely worth trying but if the middling flavor and the calories are a bigger factor in your food equation you may want to look elsewhere.

We were watching a Japanese tv series called Great Horror Family.  The dvd set was $3 at big lots, talk about luck!  I saw today that they have it on Netflix, so go rent it!  I’m sad it’s over, but the ending was good.

I also am teaching myself to crochet by doing an afgan/blanket thingy.  I didn’t take heed of the warnings about gauge so it may not be quite the right size.  I shall learn from it!

That’s all, just wanted to post that I have real posts planned, and we aren’t dead.

Shawn & I were lucky, we were only without power for 24 hours, but many still have no power.  Now the problem is everything else!  We are low on gas and stations either are out of gas or don’t have power.  The stations with both have lines that block traffic all around it.  Traffic lights are out and people don’t understand the 4-way stop.  (Average Cincinnatian “That means I just GO right???”)

Yesterday we were both already off work, which was a slight relief.  We still had no power when we woke up, so we went to find food.  A Frisch’s Big Boy was open (barely) so we have some breakfast.  We returned home and thought a Electric co. truck was near the power lines, but when they left we decided we had to take frozen stuff to a working freezer.  We headed to Shawn’s sister’s put our food in the freezer and charged phones and Nintendo DS’s.  We got back home around 3pm and had power, but no food.  Then Shawn’s sister called to say their power went back out.  I haven’t heard back about that, our food may be bad by now.

So now we have bread, a little peanut butter, potato chips, heat & serve Indian packets and a few other things to make do with.  Everyone take it easy and be careful out there!  Things will be normal again soon!

I like scones, or rather, I like Panera’s orange scones and I’ve always wanted to make some at home. Flipping through the musty pages of Rose Elliot’s Complete Vegetarian Cookbook I came upon a recipe for Easy Whole-Wheat Scones that calls for few ingredients and offers a Vegan alternative. Perfect! When my mother forced a bowl of blueberries on me, it cemented the deal. It was time to bake!

1 1/2 cups 100% whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons vegan margarine
2 tablespoons evaporated cane sugar sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 to 1 cup blueberries (or whatever you wanna put inside)

1 Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2 Sift flour with baking powder into a mixing bowl, then add the butter and rub in with fingertips. Mix in the sugar. Add the soy milk and mix to a soft but not sticky dough. I added the blueberries at this point and further kneaded them (gently) into the dough.
3 Knead lightly on a floured surface and press out to about 1/2 inch depth.
4 Cut out scones at least 2-inches wide and place on a floured baking sheet.
5 Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown or just barely squishy on the sides.

That’s all there is to it! Within an hour you too can have about a dozen of these tasty little Vegan scones and cover them with more margarine or jam or whatever you like to put on ‘em. They’re definitely not the size or consistency of Panera’s scones but they make for a nice and quick change of pace for breakfast.

Skyline’s vegetarian is a bean and rice mixture that can be eaten in possibly any way regular chili can at the restaurant.  Since it has rice in it, maybe on spaghetti or potato would be too starchy?  I got the deluxe burrito without sour cream and Shawn got the regular burrito.  Although the texture, beans and rice rather than meaty type, is different, the seasoning is just like Skyline.  It satisfied something on a subconscious level!  I do wish they had a fake meat version, but this will definately do!

The next step is to attempt our own at home.  I didn’t want to resort to the Cincinnati chili seasoning packets because they are filled with ingredients I can’t identify without googling them.  I printed 3 recipes yesterday from the internet, if we have a good one, I will post about it.