WWVD?

So on Saturday 7.0 I'm at a dinner thing, the kitchen is accommodating my vegan meal request (very nice considering the only options presented were steak, chicken or vegetarian), but they send out the first course salad with crumbled cheese on top. 

Does a vegan 

A) send the salad back and request a new one with no cheese?

B) eat around the cheese?

C) just eat the salad as is?

This is where I struggle. If I send the salad back it is wasted. It's not that big a deal to eat around the cheese, but then the cheese gets wasted. Eating the cheese goes against the whole vegan thing. 

What Would Vegans Do?  

(iphone pics...no flash...crappy quality, I know)

I ended up going with Option B. That's my cheese on the saucer at the top of the pic above my vegan meal of vegetables, potatoes and marinara sauce...not particularly inspiring but I was grateful to have it. So filling that I was ready to hit up KFC for a veggie burger on the ride home.

I know there are some hard core vegans out there, those who refuse to eat something that has made contact with an animal product, or was prepared with a cooking utensil that has come in contact with an animal product. But what about the average vegan? Is it better to waste the food that has already been prepared or to just eat it?

I'm trying hard not to waste food on this Kind journey. I found a loving home for my massive Costco bag of bacon bits and bricks of extra sharp American cheddar. The ice cream in my freezer is being consumed (oh, the sacrifices I make). My ridiculously handsome Galahad is slowly helping us clear out our meat, as is our equally handsome Curious George, but he only gets a little bit because of his frequently runny bum. And I do meal plans now to anticipate what kind of produce we will need in the immediate future and therefore limit wasting perishables.

But when something non-vegan ends up on your plate, what is the kind course of action to take? 

Tough call. Kinda like trying to figure out which is sexier...

serious Wesley Crusher:

or smoldering Wesley Crusher:

I might just have to stare at them both for a while to figure it all out.

Fawlty Towers & the Millenium Falcon

I should have planned ahead better. Or insisted that Rob the husband learn to cook. This week has been a pain in the ass in terms of eating kindly.

Last night was closing night for our annual school play, Fawlty Towers (don't mention the war), and production week means my house is filthy, my laundry gets neglected, and I rely on quick grab & go meals to make it through the day. Those quick grab & go meals have never been a problem in the past, as a Starbucks run was usually enough to get by on....can't go wrong with muffins, greek yoghurt, and a sandwich. Except that now my quick grab and go options are seriously limited. Why oh why isn't there a Karmavore in Surrey??

I haven't seen much of my house during daylight hours this week, and my digestive system hasn't seen too many whole grains or vegetables either.

Monday 7.0 was set construction day, so I was back and forth between the theatre and the school. Luckily I had some leftover quinoa pasta from last week to hold me over while the crew feasted on delicious cheesy pizza and wings, so I was off to a decent start for this crazy week. When I returned to school later that afternoon, however, it was a different story.

There, in the staff room, in all its sugary, chocolaty, creamy goodness, was the Millenium Falcon.

Did I cave? Hells yes. Just like I did with the cheerleading bake sale last month.

One might wonder how a Millenium Falcon cake ends up on the table of a high school staff room. A co-worker got married in January and was kind enough to bring in the top tier of her wedding cake to share with the staff. In my defense I didn't go for it immediately. I thought about it for a good 90 seconds or so before digging in.

And was it ever worth it. The chocolate cake wasn't too rich, the creamy icing was beautifully distributed throughout, and the fondant was chewy, sugary, delightful awesomeness. And I didn't just have a bite. I ate a slice. And then I took another slice to bring home for Rob...which I nibbled on over the course of the evening, since I was at school until 9pm that night finishing the program for the play.

I actually dreamed about this cake 2 nights ago, no lie. I woke up before I got to eat it.

To top off my Monday of righteous eating, I grabbed a can of Pringles for the ride home from Walmart (where I had to stop for last minute props) later that night. At least they were vegan.

Yah, Monday was pretty bad.

The rest of the week got a bit better...

Tuesday 7.0: Dress rehearsal day...9am-midnight at the theatre with 35 high schoolers and no leftovers. I got by on a can of Amy's Butternut Squash soup and a falafel.

Wednesday 7.0: Opening night! Red Square Bakery energy bars, a whole whack of taco chips and salsa, and some Thai soup. Meh, It was Ash Wednesday.

Thursday 7.0: Cast and crew lunch at Boston Pizza! Definitely tempted by cheese here...omg cheese looked so good...missed...cheese...so...much. But I didn't cave....I had yam fries, greek salad (no feta) and a no-cheese pizza with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and olives. Was it as good as the real deal? Um, no. But it got me through lunch all right.

Friday 7.0: Closing night! I had lunch at the same Chinese restaurant that made the delicious Asian mushrooms I had at my staff dinner during parent-teacher interviews. Some bok choi, pea shoots and chow mein noodles (probably had egg in them...ah well) rounded out the meal. A decent veggie intake I suppose.

I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to some Kind Diet recipes now that the play is over and I get my life back. I have some gorgeous collard greens sitting in my Fridgesmart waiting to become Sicilian (The Kind Diet p. 176).

As chaotic and exhausting as the week was, this

was worth all the crappy eating :) The absolute best part about teaching is working with kids who are passionate about something and seeing all their hard work pay off. Fawlty Towers had an amazing run and was brilliantly received by all who saw it, and I am so proud to have been a part of that.

...so proud that I celebrated last night by finishing the Banana Split Haggen Dazs that had been sitting in my freezer for a couple of months. BUT I don't consider that a cave...it was already in the freezer before we embarked on this vegan odyssey and eating it was a necessary sacrifice to make room for more frozen vegan desserts :)

And even though I endured my second official cave at the mercy of the Millenium Falcon, I'm looking forward to getting back on track for next week.

Except next week my cheerleaders are having a St. Patrick's Day bake sale.

Oh buddah.

200 Hot Dogs

I bought 200 hot dogs this weekend. And cooked them. And served them. And brought home leftovers.

I'm going to vegan hell.

Seriously though, when you're supervising a Kids' Cheer Camp and making lunch for 50 elementary school students, a dozen cheerleaders, and 17 Fawlty Towers cast members, what else are you going to serve that is cheap and efficient and crowd pleasing?

I'm still going to vegan hell, aren't I?

I guess that wouldn't be too bad if it meant I'd get to hang out with Jason Sudeikis dressed in red on red.

On Friday 6.0 Rob the husband was telling me about how awesome the KFC veggie burger is. His vegetarian father thought he'd eaten chicken the first time he had it. So because we were out and about and starving on Friday night we stopped at KFC for the veggie burger (I got mine without mayo) and it was really impressive. If I didn't know it wasn't chicken, I'd totally think it was chicken.

It seems a bit odd to patronize a KFC if we are trying to lead kinder lives, but it's also important to show the big chains that we support their veggie options. They won't serve them if we won't buy them. And KFC got it right, totally, because this veggie burger is really really delicious. And of course the fries aren't too bad either :) *silent cheer for vegan fries*

We then went to Costco where I bought, among other cheer camp lunch necessities, over 200 hot dogs.

KFC and hotdogs at Costco...I'm surprised I didn't get struck down right there.

I ended up not actually eating the hot dogs on Saturday 6.0, just cooking and serving them, but it felt so extremely weird to be making them in such large quantities. And it turned out they were all INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED which meant I got to get nice & personal with the hotdogs as I unwrapped them. Joy.

I didn't eat lunch that day. Just sayin'.

I ended up bringing a huge bag of leftover hotdogs home to our very handsome dog, who was willing and able to take a few off our hands, and will be working on that over the next few days. 

Because I had avoided lunch, I was starving when I got home that evening. Rob and I were both eager to repeat the Rustic Pasta (p. 147) we had earlier in the week, so I made it again, but this time with quinoa macaroni. 

Once again, the flavours were amazing, but we both preferred the Tuesday 6.0 version with angel hair. Definitely a long noodle dish for me.

And today, Sunday 6.0, I got to enjoy a lovely late breakfast prepared by my dashing husband...vegan chorizo with hash browns (mixed with Leftover! Black Soybean and Butternut Squash Stew from earlier this week).

I love when Rob cooks. He always gets so into it because he's totally anal when it comes to these things, and then he ends up apologizing when the result doesn't turn out perfectly. He needs things to go according to plan. The chorizo burning slightly was not part of the plan. But it was still very very yum.

He also made breakfast the day before...definitely on a roll. I was running out the door to leave for Cheer Camp and he had some Morningstar (not totally vegan...boo) breakfast patties in the oven. I certainly wasn't going to be passing up breakfast a la Rob, especially because he had made cherry almond smoothies, something he's totally mastered. He also made my toast super cute by putting 3 raspberries on top of the jam, which actually really worked well. 

Super cute indeed. 

Tonight we needed a break from all the pasta we had eaten over the week, and Alicia's Magical Healing Soup (p. 251) was the perfect fix. It's a great way to use up any veggies you have in the house and you can season it with as much or as little ginger juice and shoyu as you want. It's ridiculously easy! The flavour of the broth is really subtle and it allows the flavours of each of the veggies to shine through when you eat them. I thought Rob wouldn't be a fan because he likes more intense flavours, but he really enjoyed it. 

Alicia claims that when she's not feeling right, this soup heals her, for real. Sounds a bit kum-ba-ya, I know, but after eating it I can see why she would claim that. It just tastes really...healthy. The flavours are soft and subtle, and I mean, how much healthier can you get than eating veggies?

Rob's rating:
Alicia's Soup - 4 happy tongues

This soup is WINNING. Like Charlie Sheen.

Or not.

Introducing the Happy Tongue Rating System

In an effort to involve Rob the Husband more in my blogging endeavors, I am pleased to announce the Happy Tongue rating system, inspired by our ridiculously handsome Galahad...

Starting this week (Week the Sixth), Rob will rate each dish anywhere from 0-5 Happy Tongues...
0 - vomit inducing
1 - barely edible
2 - meh
3 - hmmm....pretty good...pretty good...yup, that was pretty good
4 - daaayum...definitely looking forward to making this again and soon...and my wife is hot.
5 - earth shatteringly-mind blowingly-can't shovel it into my mouth fast enough-holy crap I hear the cherubim singing-Bono/Natalie Portman/Chuck Norris roundhouse kick hybrid level of awesomeness-amazing

Rob doesn't really know what cherubim are, but whatever.

I started Week the Sixth with sushi on Monday. I was planning to go home and cook dinner after play practice that day, but instead went for sushi with cd and elvirus. Is it bad blog etiquette to include inside jokes in a blog? Whatever...awkward laptop.

Sushi is a pretty easy option if you're trying to eat vegan. I do miss the California rolls, but avocado & yam rolls are a decent substitute. And I'm thrilled that my favourite green salad from Yoko seems to be vegan...the ginger dressing is phenomenal.

Tuesday 6.0: Rustic Pasta (p. 147) / Cornbread (p. 163)

This pasta was beyond delicious.

I used shallots instead of onions to make the base for it, and it was super flavourful. Most restaurant pastas have cheese in them, but this one definitely didn't require parmesan or any other cheese to enhance the flavour or make up for anything lacking in the recipe. I made it with Rob's favourite type of pasta, angel hair, and the cabbage in it was insane. I'd never thought to put cabbage in pasta, but it works brilliantly.

I paired the pasta with cornbread muffins, and these are just always good...sweet, crunchy on the outside, crumbly, and best straight out of the oven.

Rob's rating: 
Rustic pasta - 4.5 Happy Tongues
Cornbread - 4 Happy Tongues

Wednesday 6.0: Black Soybean and *Kabocha* Squash Stew (but I used butternut squash) (p. 164) / Braised Daikon in Mirin and Shoyu (p. 271) / Pumpkin Bread (p. 202)

This stew took FOREVER to make.

The beans had to cook for 90 minutes and then longer with the other ingredients. But it was still quite simple. I was surprised to find it was pretty sweet, and I assume that sweetness came from the squash. A really hearty, tasty winter dish, and perfect with brown basmati rice.

I lost my daikon virginity with this meal. I had never cooked with or eaten daikon before this, but Alicia  raves about daikon in her book and on her site, so I decided to give it a try.

This cooked for a long time and didn't absorb all the liquid like the recipe said it would, but it was still delicious. It's a really yummy alternative to the conventional veggies I'm used to. Because it cooked with kombu seaweed, this version has a slight ocean-y taste. Rob compared it to an oshinko roll. My daikon didn't turn a pretty pink like in the book, but the pretty yellow worked for me.

I have weird thumb wrinkles.

I still don't think I can say I know what daikon really tastes like because it's marinated and cooked like crazy in this recipe, but I am convinced to give it another go for sure.

The pumpkin bread was a bit of a flop for me, to be honest. All my fault, not Alicia's. My loaf pans were too small and I overfilled them with batter.

Even though it looks quite good, the insides did not bake properly. They were still runny, so in an attempt to salvage the recipe I cut the (properly baked) top off of the loaves and put the rest back in the oven. Didn't really work.

Oh well. We picked away at the top layer, and it was quite good. I might end up cutting up the rest and trying to crisp it up in the oven a couple of pieces at a time. We do have two pans to get through.

Even if I didn't overfill the pans and it came our perfectly, I still likely wouldn't be repeating this recipe. It's EXPENSIVE. I used an entire $12 container of maple sugar and even that wasn't enough! I don't mind splurging on kinder and healthier alternatives for creating these amazing kind dishes, but this pumpkin bread just didn't excite me enough to warrant making it again. Not to worry for me because there are many many other kind and delicious desserts.

Rob's Rating:
Black Soybean and *Butternut* Squash Stew - 3 Happy Tongues
Braised Daikon in Mirin and Shoyu - 4 Happy Tongues
Pumpkin Bread (the top layer that baked up properly anyway) - 3 Happy Tongues


Thursday 6.0: Crispy Tofu Slices with Orange Dipping Sauce (p. 158) / Hot Rice with Cold Lemon, Basil, and Tomato (p. 151) / Baby Bok Choy drizzled with Ume Vinaigrette (p. 265)


Rob was really looking forward to the crispy tofu...I didn't buy baked tofu so I just baked some on my own and used that to proceed with the recipe. Fun to make and eat but there was wayyyyyy too much leftover orange dipping sauce.

Alicia recommended adding this rice dish and bok choy to the tofu to make a complete meal, so I took her up on that. She is awesome for creating meal plans to go with the recipes.

You know what else is awesome? This delicious rice dish:

This is TOTALLY yummy. For real.
This recipe didn't stand out to me in the book and I probably wouldn't have been inspired to try it any time soon if Alicia didn't recommend it to go with the Crispy Tofu. I would have never considered grouping tomatoes and rice together, but it works beautifully. I used leftover rice from yesterday's meal, so this was a practically effortless dish with simple, light, refreshing flavours.

As per Alicia's suggestion I finished off the plate with some baby bok choy and we were good to go! I love the salty ume vinaigrette with the bok choy. Yay greens! Rob is less enthused, but that's ok.

Cuz you gotta have the greens. 

Rob's Rating: 
Crispy Tofu - 3.5 Happy Tongues
Hot Rice with Cold Lemon, Basil, and Tomato - 3 Happy Tongues (a travesty!)
Baby Bok Choy with Ume Vinaigrette - 3 Happy Tongues


Now, in honor of Rob the husband's first official ratings post, I present to you Chuck Norris approving of something.

Ima guess he's liking the vegan food.

Nice Shoes!!

Could my timing be any better?

It's meant to be. Seriously, it's meant to be.

I started thinking that maybe flirting with the kind life should extend beyond what I put in my body to what I put on it. It didn't make sense to avoid eating animals if I was still going to be wearing them.

So searching for vegan-friendly shoe stores in Vancouver, I came across Nice Shoes.

Vancouver's first cruelty-free footwear shop. Opening March 1. Like, this week March 1. Like, Tuesday. Like, tomorrow.

First the Oprah thing, and now this.

Oh Motivation, I don't know how you do it. You are a clever lad, and for that I am grateful.

Week the Fifth: "Tuna" Salad and a Changing Palette

Well, it kinda rhymes.

Week the Fifth is coming to a close, and I'm feeling swell. Really, really swell. Now, I'm not sure how much of this is in my head and how much is a genuine consequence of flirting with the kind lifestyle, but I feel light and springy and content and just really chill. Like this was just a logical, natural step into the next phase of my life.

And I had to buy new jeans. That part is not in my head. A subtle but pleasant side effect of avoiding nasty foods.

Some Kind Diet recipe highlights this week:

Monday 5.0: Tuna Salad Sandwich (Kinda) (p. 246) / Kim's Red Radish Tabbouleh (p. 226)

I am thrilled to have discovered this "Tuna" salad. It's made with tempeh and the veggies go really well with it, but if you're going to eat it on bread as a sandwich it's a good idea to chop up the veggies more thoroughly than I did. So delicious in spite of the plentiful onions (they're marinated like crazy in the ume plum vinegar, and I couldn't taste them at all...that's a good thing).

The tabbouleh was all right. Perhaps I would have been more impressed with it on its own, but pairing it with the "tuna" salad (which I totally loved) resulted in a recipe that was good, but didn't rock my sox. Rob put raisins in it a few days later to jazz it up, which helped, but I'm still impartial.

One of my students is trying out the vegan thing with her mom for the week, so she brought me a vegan chocolate cupcake.

This. Was. Amazing.

I guess my job does have its perks. I loved the icing because it didn't taste too sugary like the frosting I made for my mom's birthday cupcakes, and I've been hounding my student for the recipe ever since. Would threatening her with a day of cafeteria duty for every day she forgets the recipe be an abuse of my position? Screw it, let's just bring back the switch...much more effective.

Tuesday 5.0: Polenta Casserole with Seitan (p. 223) revisited!

And this time I made it right!! This dish takes me back...it was the first Kind Diet recipe I officially tackled when we started this journey over a month ago, and it turned out pretty runny then because I used prepared polenta rather than cornmeal. But this time it came out great (even though I left out the asparagus because I didn't have any on hand).

It actually maintained its shape. Oh joy! I proceeded to do a Happy Dance and was about half way through my Happy Dance when Rob the husband informed me that the polenta tasted pretty boring to him. I love that he's honest like that and will tell me when the food is boring and when my ass looks big in those pants. It's incentive to find a way to jazz up the food and buy a new pair of pants. I actually thought it tasted pretty good, but my perspective could have been clouded by my elation over the consistency of the casserole.

Wednesday 5.0 was Leftover! Polenta Casserole and Caesar Salad (p. 175). I was just happy to see the casserole standing up, and I still really enjoyed it. Rob can just sprinkle some Mrs. Dash on it or douse it in barbeque sauce and he'll be fine. And once again, Caesar salad = love.

I spent Wednesday night baking baking baking, since I am on a secret mission to convert the world to the Kind Life and I figure there's no better way to start than with cookies. Our school had an Open House on Thursday 5.0 and I brought Oatmeal Cookies (p. 186) for the kids helping in my areas...drama and cheerleading. And I got this recipe down.

I like to undercook them to keep them chewy, I use almonds instead of walnuts, I use dates and raisins instead of dried plums, and I like to re-shape them right out of the oven by pushing the edges of each cookie together to make it more round so the edges don't get crispy. I also made a batch this time with vegan chocolate chips and they were inhaled by the kids as soon as I put them out . These cookies are definitely winners. The maple sugar gets a little pricey when you're making large batches to feed hungry high schoolers, but it is definitely worth it. So crazy delicious.

On Friday 5.0 Rob and I ate at our first vegetarian restaurant since starting the vegan experiment...The Foundation. Quirky and affordable and very delicious...and the chairs were straight from Babcia's kitchen in the 60's. I had a veggie curry dish and Rob had the Foundation Burger (with a side of the most amazing rice pudding) and a salad with this amazing mango drizzle. I told him to make sure his choices were vegan, as we were in a vegan-friendly restaurant so we could take advantage of more creative vegan options, but he didn't bother asking them to hold the cheese on the salad, so goat cheese it was. He couldn't finish it all and wanted to focus on his burger, so I ended up helping out with the salad in spite of the cheese.

Here's the weird thing. I love goat cheese. I should have been secretly happy that I was being "forced" to cheat and eat the goat cheese so we didn't waste Rob's salad, which would have been a greater tragedy than my dabbling in dairy. And I was secretly happy at first. I mean, I rolled my eyes and sighed when I "reluctantly" reached over to drag the salad my way, but inside I was like, "YESSSS!!! CHEESE!!!!" But my inner jubilation was shortlived. The cheese left this pasty, ferment-y, mlechy aftertaste in my mouth that I found was getting in the way of the salad itself. I used to LOVE that pasty ferment-y, mlechy aftertaste! But now it was just annoying and unnecessary, and I found myself picking around the cheese more and more. Was my palette evolving, moving away from considering dairy as something pleasant? Kind of like society's evolution away from mullets and America's sweetheart Lindsay Lohan?

So it would appear.

There were lots more things on the menu here I wanted to try, so we will be back to The Foundation. I think I would enjoy this place more during a summer afternoon though, as it was not particularly cozy inside...kinda chilly & drafty, actually, and it has a more casual summer lunch vibe to it.

Finished up Weekend 5.0 with veggie tacos at Me & Julio's for M's birthday, poutine at Karmavore (more to come on this AMAZING vegan store...so so so happy it exists) and Whole Foods buffet dinner.

And I was thrilled to come home and see that the amazingly talented, beautiful Natalie Portman won Best Actress :)

Now if that's not incentive enough to go vegan, I don't know what is.

Purging the Meat

I did have a more clever title in mind (ok..."Beating the Meat" really isn't that clever), but then I thought that might be a tad misleading and attract traffic from people obviously looking for another kind of blog. Anyhoo...

This week I figured it was finally safe to begin the process of emptying my freezer of meat.

This stuff was taking up valuable freezer space, and I had discovered after almost a month of Kind Diet-ing that a future without meat in my life wasn't just doable; it was incredibly appealing.

After my Petunia Piglet epiphany last week I've become comfortable with a vegetarian label; I started out intent on avoiding labels and expectations, but I'm definitely ready to tattoo VEGETARIAN across my forehead now. Vegan...maybe someday. I'll just cross out the ETARI when that time comes.

VEGETARIAN.

We still had a lot of meat in the house, though, and we weren't interested in eating it. We weren't even interested in a "last hurrah" steak or lamb or bison or salmon or reindeer or ptarmigan or chipmunk dinner or anything. But we did have one family member who we knew would definitely be willing to take on the task of consuming a whole crapload of beef tenderloin.

My handsome mister :)

Galahad was certainly willing to take one for the team. I proceeded to fry up some chopped tenderloin pieces I had frozen for stirfries. Considering this was my first time cooking with meat in almost a month, I have no profound or particularly insightful observations to make other than cow flesh sizzling in its own bloody juices just doesn't thrill me like it used to. And believe me, it used to. Not too long ago either.

Rob the husband was even less impressed. He walked into the kitchen and said, "I don't like that smell. Smells like death." A bit harsh, but he was never a big fan of meat to begin with.

But Galahad was thrilled.

I also boiled up some of the meat to mix in with his dinner over the next couple of days, so he will definitely be a happy happy lad. And yes, the possibility of transitioning our pets to a vegan diet is in the back of my mind, but for now that's a bit much to tackle.

I'm really happy that the meat in the freezer is on its way out, and will be put to good use and appreciated by my exceptionally handsome boy.

The Haagen Dazs, on the other hand, I might just have to tackle myself.

Oh darn, oh darn.