Merlyn's Musings~: vegetarian

Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts

Seitan isn't Satan :)

Hey ho~

It's a very cold and snowy day! The winter storm "Nemo" blew through and we are snuggling!

Yes, this is a candid shot.
Barney was also snuggling :)

Time to do some yummy do comfort food!

But just because I'm eating Vegetarian doesn't mean I have to give up delicious recipes that I've loved and made forever throughout the years!

I'm just replacing some ingredients and getting creative!

Like "Merlyn's Vegetarian Reubans!"

Leave out the Corned Beef. I made some grilled sandwiches of the following supplies:

Rye/ Pumpernickle Bread (Monk's bread has no high fructose corn syrup)
1000 Island Lite dressing
Chedder Cheese (thin sliced)
Seitan (Tofurky slices)
Saurkraut
Mozzerella cheese (thin sliced)

Grilled and delicious. I didn't miss the meat AT ALL.

Or this one tonight. I had a hankering for Lasagna or Eggplant Parmagiana....
So I sliced up an Eggplant, and some chedder cheese...

added a package of this ....that tastes like ground beef!

I had some sauce already made in the fridge....
so made a few more layers....with more cheese, eggplant and sauce.

Baked it for an hour at 350.

YUUUUMMMMY!!
I loved it even better than with beef!

Bonus!

Nobody died :)

And Monty couldn't tell the difference either :)

Look hard. Can you see him?

Food Glorious Food!

Has food lost it's flavor to you?

Do you find yourself eating a lot of takeout (because you are busy), or prepared stuff, a lot of pastas and breads (cuz they are easy?)

Do you sometimes think, "Oh God. What am I gonna make for dinner tonight? UGH?"

Well, I have to tell you a secret.
I felt that way too. And now?
I've changed my eating habits TOTALLY and something amazing is happening.

I've gone totally to a fruit and veggie, whole grain based diet.
Just a small amount of local small farm dairy only.
No meat for me. At least not for now. I'm still open to fish or seafood occasionally but so far, I'm keeping it on the DL.
I've even cut WAY back on my drinking.
Result?

1) I am back to cooking again! I am loving food and life is amazing again!

2) Food is tasting AWESOME.

3) I'm not craving fast foods AT ALL, nor sodas, nor sugar.

4) I can't keep most of my rings on!

5) I'm losing weight (bonus) and my face is thinning out

6) I have ENERGY.

7) NO MORE HEARTBURN

8) I'm sleeping for 6-8hour shots at a time (WAY better than the 3 hour stretches from before)

9) My skin looks FABULOUS. Really glowing!

And food, glorious food is fun again! To eat, to fix, to enjoy!

Some foods I'm really currently enjoying?

Kale!!
Egads I love it. I saute it with a little EVOO and soy sauce. DELISH.

Yogurt, fresh fruit and some Grape Nuts sprinkled on top with a bit of drizzled honey.
This can be a dessert with you really want something sweet!
OH YUM.

JUICE. Oh man, the juices are awesome!!

And for Super Bowl I made this:

Merlyn's Bloomin' Garlic Onion Bread.

You need:

1 Garlic Tuscan Crusty uncut Loaf
Monteray Jack cheese
Butter
Scallions
Poppy Seeds

Score it but don't cut it all the way through.
Put a thin slice of cheese in each scored pocket

Melt the butter and slice small the scallions and add the poppy seeds

Then drizzle it on the bread

Wrap in foil and bake it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 10 minutes

OMG. It was SOOOOOO Good.

It was as decadent as anything I've ever eaten.

I wouldn't say it was actually "healthy" but it was a FABULOUS vegetarian offering for Super Bowl!

I'm also thoroughly enjoying things like:

Buffalo Tofu Bites, Meatless Reubans...Crock pots of beans, soups, stir frys of awesomeness...

Signed,
Having fun, eating fabulous well, and getting healthy!

Merlyn!

On Becoming a Foodie.....

I have the spark I needed. I am a bit of a foodie of late. It is a pleasure to cook, and eat simply.

To cook again.

So here is my most recent Journey.....in pics for fun!

With the awesome "Juicy Tour" I got in touch with my Quest for good flavors...
Juice, Fresh Fruits and Veggies...
Led me to an analyzing of my current eating habits.

I dropped meat out of my diet for more than 3 weeks now.

Which led to me coming home and cleaning out my cupboards after the trip and honing down my staples into what is good, what is crap and what is essential.

Got rid of stuff that has the EVIL "High Fructose Corn Syrup" in it. (That poison is in EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING. Quick, go check YOUR ketchup.)
While these items may be tasty....
THEY ARE NOT REAL FOOD.
And contains an additive MADE TO MAKE YOU FAT.

Here are a few I won't be buying again anytime soon....

AND DRUMROLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Here is my cleaned out, finished and Awe Inspiring Food Pantry!

It makes me want to COOK!

I unbagged and jarred all my beans and grains.

Yummydos....Pickles and Jams...

Wiped clean and ready to roll....

Handy at fingertip and eye level

Wanna see my fridge?
It's a thing of yummy beauty right now :)
I thought you might like to know what I'm eating.

Because we all know that if you are a vegetarian, that you are starving to death, right?

I am blessed. I am not starving.
It is said that each one of our body cells has a shelf life of 30 days before it sheds into a new cell. So in actuality we could all be a TOTALLY BRAND NEW PERSON in like 30-60days.

LITERALLY.

So put in good stuff!!

I bought some ready carrot/orange juice and some Green Goddess Juice until my new appliance comes...

We don't drink milk. The Almond Breeze plain is great for cereal though.

As you can see here....Monty hasn't gone total vegetarian and we don't expect him to. (Yah, the Alpo's not for me :)
Monty's more of an "Omnivore" anyways. Some of his all time favorite things from birth to now are snap peas and asparagus tips and green beans..

He's deprived as you can see from this picture :)

I can't wait till my new and improved Cuisinart Juicer comes this week!
Until then, mmmmmm.....fresh fruit.

Here is my adaptation for NOT buying mass produced agri-business eggs and milk.
First:
Tofutti Cream Cheese! Really good. + 0 Guilt.

And here, we went shopping at our local farm store.
Wake Robin Farm started as an CSA of which we were members. Here at Wake Robin, Meg & Bruce keep a small herd of 10 cows for milk production of the sane and humane kind. They sell their yogurt and artisan cheeses. Really delicious!Their dream was to have a running, productive small dairy farm.

This is a pic from their parking lot when we were there today....
The high today was 9 degrees. It's colder now.

Harry and I are lactose intolerant. I was personally raised on goat's milk till I was 3.
We don't drink ANY milk. We can tolerate yogurt and cheese after all these years though.
And we LOVE cheese.
But sometimes....cheese does not love us :)

We believe in supporting the little local guy. The food is delicious and you know it helps you, the family, the community and the animals herded are treated with kindness and good stewardship.

I use the plain yogurt instead of sour cream and with fruit and for dressings...
The vanilla is awesome with granola and fruit.

All in all a goodly haul...got some homemade musli and local honey too...

And eggs from my friend Betsy's personal flock of chickens.
I grew up on fresh eggs. It's nice to have them again.
Aren't they beautiful?

This is not a new obsession for me.
Just a renewed one of old.

Wanna see what I mean?
I've been down this road a lot before.

Here are my two favorite cookbooks in the world. Can you tell I have loved and lived by them over the last 37 years?
Laurel's Kitchen I lived by when I was Vegetarian before. I love the stories in it as well as the good plain no nonsense organic cooking in it.

Taped together,...broken spine....still good.

This Fanny Farmer Cookbook is disintegrating.
My father got if for me as a paperback cookbook, purchased with cigar bands from a club he belonged to.
I was about 12. This book is 40 years old and my good old Pop has been gone for 18 years now.