We are three weeks into our whole foods plant based vegan diet experiment. I hesitate to just call it veganism, because I feel like there are a lot of unhealthy vegan animal substitutes out there and we are avoiding those as well. We have eliminated all animal products from our diets (though I accidentally ate a chocolate stick then later read the label and realized it had casein in it, and Ryan ate part of a meatball that our toddler left on her plate).
We decided to change our diets partly for health reasons, but also partly (ok, mostly) out of boredom. We have two small children, one of whom requires approximately 120% of our time and attention throughout all of her waking hours. Because of this, we no longer have many hobbies, and our social lives are somewhat limited. But we still need to eat, and we still need to cook in order to eat, so incorporating dietary changes is one adventure/hobby that we can do at this point in our lives.
In January, I gave up all processed sugary products. No cakes, cookies, ice cream, or brownies. No candy. Only limited squares of dark chocolate - because that has important health benefits. Really. Keeping the dark chocolate was strictly a health consideration.
In February, I started watching food related documentaries. Ryan and I started eating down all the animal products currently in the fridge/freezer. This was quite a lot, because I had been doing once-a-month cooking, so we had a months' worth of freezer meals, most of which were heavily cheese based.
In March, we did not buy any animal products and began focusing on incorporating more vegetables in our meals. It wasn't that difficult for us. We already had a lot of vegetarian and vegan meals on rotation in our diets. Although I like both chicken and turkey, I personally haven't eaten red meat in over twenty years, and I hate both pork and ham. We did buy and consume bacon occasionally, but not often. We did use a lot of eggs (I had recently learned how to make really good quiche, which of course we can't have now), and we ate a lot of cheese. A lot. More cheese than anyone should consume. And we ate far too much ice cream as well, like multiple pints of Ben & Jerry's every month (Chocolate Therapy for me).
After the last animal product was consumed, our first vegan meal was Cauliflower Pizza Bites. We chose it because we happened to buy a cauliflower and didn't know what to do with it. Unfortunately, they weren't very good - probably because we substituted salsa for the hot sauce and didn't have oregano. We'll try the recipe again some other time, with the required ingredients.
I pureed the rest of the cauliflower up with some tofu and tomato sauce and made a couple of pasta bakes. Those were pretty good (two of them went in the freezer for later).
The next new recipe we tried was Vegetarian Haggis (substituting Earth Balance for the butter). Ordinarily, this wasn't something we would have tried. However, a friend (who happened to be vegan) was visiting from Scotland, and she offered to bring ingredients and let us try her local cuisine (and yes, I phrased this like she's Scottish, when in fact she's a US ex-pat who had recently moved to Scotland from Germany). I was more than surprised - I was shocked at how good this was. I had expected it to be something we would politely eat and discreetly dispose of the leftovers. Instead we all ended up practically licking the bowls and Ryan had to fight the baby for the last bite. The toddler, of course, wouldn't touch it, but our seven month old loves everything.
I made some vegan lasagna that turned out pretty well. Rowan helped, and she very carefully left black olives off the part she claimed as hers (and demonstrated her amazing vocal skills when Ryan accidentally served her the wrong portion). I didn't really follow a recipe, it was mostly just a bunch of veggies and the jars of tomato sauce that were in the freezer from my last major cooking episode. We ended up with three pans of lasagna, including one of our larger baking dishes so we can serve one when friends come over.
I also made vegan chocolate chip cookies (twice!) from my new favorite recipe site, ohsheglows.com. On the second batch, I only used 1/8 tsp of cinnamon, and I think they were better. Ryan probably disagrees, but we have different opinions on cinnamon.
Another new thing we tried, a food I am still dreaming about (though fortunately there is a casserole in the freezer for later): Enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. We went to Market on the Move, where you can get 60lbs of produce for $10. They had tomatillos. We aren't too happy with tomatillos, because we did dedicate far too much garden space to them for two years, only to get one tiny fruit. But we decided that since we got a large amount from the Market, we would forgive the species as a whole and use them up. I made the sauce with roasted tomatillos, jalapeno, garlic, and a little bit of salt (as usual, the baby loved it and practically attacked us for the spoon; the toddler wouldn't touch it). The enchiladas were roasted bell peppers, roasted butternut squash (also from Market on the Move), mushrooms, black beans, and onions. Delicious.
Tonight I made mac and cheese, which turned out pretty good. Next time I'll use less of the nutritional yeast. That stuff smells awful. I'm thinking of cutting it down to 4 tablespoons. Incidentally, once again, the baby loved it and ate as much as we were willing to give her, while the toddler declared that it smelled funny and refused to try it.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
It's been awhile...
We haven't been posting to the blog. This doesn't mean we've stopped working on our ridiculous number of projects. We've still been documenting everything with the intention of posting again. However, our time has become greatly limited.
Since the last post, I started a business that takes up a lot of my time. But that's not the main thing: in an awesome bit of DIY, we created life. That's right, we used our skills, talents, and expertise and created a human being. After a successful forty week incubation period, we produced another beautiful daughter. We will not be sharing pictures or instructions for this process - I'm sure you can all find a how-to primer online, or in a middle/high school textbook.
So here's a list of things we will eventually be posting about, in no particular order:
1) Thrift store to office furniture remodel
2) Halloween costumes: Macaw, Dinosaur Cape, Purple Beetle (yes, that's what my toddler picked)
3) Hallway renovations (that only took three months)
4) Garden updates
5) Playroom renovations, including awesome updated furniture
6) Ryan's carbon fiber bike light
7) Fancy fabric & epoxy light switch plates
8) Perfecting coconut oil chocolates
9) Once a month cooking
10) Building a king size storage bed
11) Some crochet projects (I wrote a pattern!)
12) Building the Arizona room (technically, this was from before our posting hiatus)
13) Probably some other stuff
And the most ambitious of all...the Great Kitchen Remodel of 2014 (which is a work in very slow progress).
Since the last post, I started a business that takes up a lot of my time. But that's not the main thing: in an awesome bit of DIY, we created life. That's right, we used our skills, talents, and expertise and created a human being. After a successful forty week incubation period, we produced another beautiful daughter. We will not be sharing pictures or instructions for this process - I'm sure you can all find a how-to primer online, or in a middle/high school textbook.
So here's a list of things we will eventually be posting about, in no particular order:
1) Thrift store to office furniture remodel
2) Halloween costumes: Macaw, Dinosaur Cape, Purple Beetle (yes, that's what my toddler picked)
3) Hallway renovations (that only took three months)
4) Garden updates
5) Playroom renovations, including awesome updated furniture
6) Ryan's carbon fiber bike light
7) Fancy fabric & epoxy light switch plates
8) Perfecting coconut oil chocolates
9) Once a month cooking
10) Building a king size storage bed
11) Some crochet projects (I wrote a pattern!)
12) Building the Arizona room (technically, this was from before our posting hiatus)
13) Probably some other stuff
And the most ambitious of all...the Great Kitchen Remodel of 2014 (which is a work in very slow progress).
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Peach update
We were able to counter-ripen all but about 20 peaches. The ones we could save were either consumed (by themselves or as ingredients in frozen rum drinks) or peeled and frozen for later use. Meanwhile, all the other peaches on the tree have been ripening, so we've actually eaten or frozen far more than just the 82 survivors of the 2012 Peach Tree Suicide.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Disaster in the garden
There was a bit of disaster in the garden. And by disaster, I actually mean tragedy of epic proportions. Remember how beautiful our peach tree was? How gloriously full of fruit? Well, evidently, it was too full. The largest, heaviest branch snapped. And, because it was also a selfish branch that did not want to end up in the compost barrel alone, it took the second largest branch with it.
The two branches together held 102 not-yet-ripe peaches.
The two branches together held 102 not-yet-ripe peaches.
And thus, we learned the importance of culling fruit before it becomes too much for a small tree to bear.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Garden, two months later
In March I wrote a post describing this year's garden. Since then we've had some successes and some tragic losses. Here's the update:
1. Cassie: She's actually producing!!!!! There were a lot of flowers that actually set, and we haven't lost any of them yet - as opposed to last year when there were tons of flowers, they all appeared to set, and then over a two week period, all dropped off. Last year's harvest was one sad and slightly deformed pomegranate. Two of the three watermelons planted from seed in her base are still alive, but small.
2. Jill: I don't know what's going on with her. Some of her branches have lost all their leaves, but there is no evidence of leaf cutter ants. The leaf cutters stripped half of Wendy the first year we had her, and since then we have vigilantly patrolled the yard with poison and torches.
3. Peachy: She's great, she's covered in small peaches. The basil at her base is dead, possibly drowned. Her strawberries produced about four fruits, all of which were consumed by our toddler, so I don't know how they tasted. It looks like one of them is about to put out a few more flowers, so we may get more strawberries, but I doubt it. This heat burns them.
4. Quinto: She's heavily laden. Actually, no, one grafted section is heavily laden. The others have leaves, but didn't flower this year. I don't know if any of the species are fall fruits or if we'll just get nothing from them. The dwarf annas are almost ripe. We've eaten about four half apples, because there were bird attacks, and we certainly weren't going to waste the non-pecked parts. The damage to the apples all occurred while we were on vacation. We haven't had any new losses since Ryan hung his 'Shiny Flashy Bird Frightener Thingees' all over the place.
1. Cassie: She's actually producing!!!!! There were a lot of flowers that actually set, and we haven't lost any of them yet - as opposed to last year when there were tons of flowers, they all appeared to set, and then over a two week period, all dropped off. Last year's harvest was one sad and slightly deformed pomegranate. Two of the three watermelons planted from seed in her base are still alive, but small.
2. Jill: I don't know what's going on with her. Some of her branches have lost all their leaves, but there is no evidence of leaf cutter ants. The leaf cutters stripped half of Wendy the first year we had her, and since then we have vigilantly patrolled the yard with poison and torches.
3. Peachy: She's great, she's covered in small peaches. The basil at her base is dead, possibly drowned. Her strawberries produced about four fruits, all of which were consumed by our toddler, so I don't know how they tasted. It looks like one of them is about to put out a few more flowers, so we may get more strawberries, but I doubt it. This heat burns them.
4. Quinto: She's heavily laden. Actually, no, one grafted section is heavily laden. The others have leaves, but didn't flower this year. I don't know if any of the species are fall fruits or if we'll just get nothing from them. The dwarf annas are almost ripe. We've eaten about four half apples, because there were bird attacks, and we certainly weren't going to waste the non-pecked parts. The damage to the apples all occurred while we were on vacation. We haven't had any new losses since Ryan hung his 'Shiny Flashy Bird Frightener Thingees' all over the place.
5. Wendy: Covered in pomegranates and CD reflectors. Even if we lose some to the birds, I don't care. Last year she produced so many that we literally just finished them last week. They keep really well in the refrigerator drawer. So well, in fact, that it is possible to completely forget that they're there until your toddler opens the drawer, brings you one, and you have to think for a minute to figure out why she's carrying around a pomegranate in the middle of May. Not that I've had that experience. I'd post a picture, but for some reason when I sent Ryan to take updated garden pics, he failed to get Wendy.
6. The Moving Herb Garden: It now consists of Rosemary. That's it. The dill went to seed, the cilantro and oregano just up and died. The peppermint, that's a tragic story. I recently discovered Watermelon Mojitos, which are fabulous refreshing drinks and an excellent use for garden peppermint. However, when you go away for a week and ask your father-in-law to water the garden, it's entirely possible that if you don't point out the pot of peppermint in the shade of the tomatillo, he won't notice and you'll come back dreaming of Watermelon Mojitos (and the juice waiting in the freezer leftover from your last batch) only to discover that the peppermint leaves are dead and gone. Well, not gone, but not good for anything but peppermint tea. Ryan thinks it might come back, but I'm not so sure. ETA: Also, toddlers love to eat dried peppermint leaves. So much that if you take them away, they'll scream.
7. Potato Bags: Another tragedy. Maybe we planted too late in the season. I just know that this happened:
8. Paulo's Circle: Holy crap, summer squash really produce. So far we've had a couple of loaves of zucchini bread, Zucchini Quinoa Rice Enchilada Casserole, some kind of weird zucchini stew with pickles in it (Ryan made that one), and grilled zucchini. Plus we've given some away, and we have more in the fridge and we'll be harvesting more tomorrow. The most recent picture is two weeks old - they've grown in the interim. Note that we used bush varieties this year. We didn't want to lose too much of the yard to vining squash like we did last year.
9. East Plot: This is another one that's really taken off. We have Early Girl, Black Cherry, and Sungold Tomatoes. On the center-left is a pretty large basil. On the center-right is a nasturtium which we planted as aphid deterrent, but later found out that it is also edible. In the front you can see two rows of carrots. We planted a third row, but it never came up. I don't know how to tell when carrots are ready, so I don't really know what to do with them now.
10. Central Plot: This is a mad jungle of tomatillos, which have taken over everything and produced exactly nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I don't think we'll be planting tomatillos again next year. There's also a basil and nasturtium in there that are doing pretty well, and two pepper plants (my last garden update says three, but I can only find two. The other one must have been eaten by the tomatillos) that are being overwhelmed.
11. West Plot: This has been a nice surprise - the Romas actually produced. We've tried them a couple of times and have never had any luck. Perhaps the difference this year is that this particular plant was a freebie, and we killed our only Roma seedling after we acquired it. I can only assume that this Roma is now afraid, knows that we are ruthless tomato plant killers, and will keep producing fruits in the hopes of staving off its own death and destruction.
Note the absence of spinach: it is now too hot. We'll have another crop this fall, but for now, it's gone (which sucks because we have so much basil and I have an awesome recipe for spinach-basil pesto orzo).
11. West Plot: This has been a nice surprise - the Romas actually produced. We've tried them a couple of times and have never had any luck. Perhaps the difference this year is that this particular plant was a freebie, and we killed our only Roma seedling after we acquired it. I can only assume that this Roma is now afraid, knows that we are ruthless tomato plant killers, and will keep producing fruits in the hopes of staving off its own death and destruction.
Note the absence of spinach: it is now too hot. We'll have another crop this fall, but for now, it's gone (which sucks because we have so much basil and I have an awesome recipe for spinach-basil pesto orzo).
Monday, May 28, 2012
Shiny Flashy Bird Frightener Thingees
OK, so we have a lot of things growing in our garden/yard that produce fruits of some sort or another, including tomatoes, strawberries, a peach tree, several pomegranates, and an apple tree that we planted last fall. The apple is five different apples all grafted together, and one of them was apparently a spring bloomer, and has a fair number of apples on it. We have lots of tomatoes and peaches as well.
Turns out, humans are not the only critters that like to eat fruit! I know, right? I'll wait patiently while you compose yourself. We lost several of our Early Girl tomatoes and five or six apples to the depredations of those dastardly flying free-loaders known as birds. Apparently the feral cats are now utterly without redeeming qualities and are now only good at crapping in my yard and pissing on my doors. They'll get their turn on the vengeance rotisserie at another date.
After some research I determined that birds are afraid of two general categories of things: things that might eat them and things that they think might eat them. Surprisingly enough, they are apparently convinced that light might eat them, as they are apparently afraid of shiny flashy things (except ravens and crows, those curious crafty buggers).
Where to get shiny flashy things... where to get shiny flashy things... ah what's this I see before me? Is that a giant box of CDs that Sara and I no longer want and not even Bookman's will take? Sure looks to be. Wait a minute... CDs are shiny on at least one side, and some are so hideous on the other that surely it will frighten even crows and ravens (those crafty buggers).
I have made several versions of shiny flashy bird frightener thingees (pat.pend and copyright) of increasing complexity and pleasing geometry. The first was just a CD tied to a branch. I chose the shiny-on-both-sides versions to increase effectiveness. I figured the wind would blow them about and they would spin and shine and flash. I did not include a picture here because it's pretty easy to imagine, unless you're a bird, in which case it would simply be a picture of <fly away fly away> and not very illuminating.
Second, I tried the basic tetrahedron, which is four identical equilateral triangles. I dredged up my ancient geometry skills and used a compass and ruler to divide the perimeter of a CD into six equal pieces, and then chose three as the place where I would drill holes to attach them together. But wait, you ask: a CD is a circle, not a triangle! Correct. The point where I drill the holes is equivalent to the line where the two triangles meet, and the vertices are imaginary (not mathematically, just physically).
Third, I tried an icosahedron (D&D fans know what this is), or a 20-sided polyhedron composed of 20 identical equilateral triangles. This was overly ambitious, so I knocked it back to an octahedron, which was very cool. I have not calculated how big an icosahedron would be made of CDs would be, but impractically-gigantical-for-a-garden-shiny-flashy-bird-frightener-thingee springs to mind.
Last, I tried to make an off-set hexahedron. Basically, the idea was to make two tetrahedrons and place them together so there were six sides, but instead of lining up the axes of the base triangles, I was going to twist them 60 degrees. Turns out that's not really practical for a few reasons, but basically, I would have been better making a cube and hanging it from one point. So, I made the regular hexahedron, and it works well as a shiny flashy thingee but it's not that aesthetically pleasing.
Turns out, humans are not the only critters that like to eat fruit! I know, right? I'll wait patiently while you compose yourself. We lost several of our Early Girl tomatoes and five or six apples to the depredations of those dastardly flying free-loaders known as birds. Apparently the feral cats are now utterly without redeeming qualities and are now only good at crapping in my yard and pissing on my doors. They'll get their turn on the vengeance rotisserie at another date.
After some research I determined that birds are afraid of two general categories of things: things that might eat them and things that they think might eat them. Surprisingly enough, they are apparently convinced that light might eat them, as they are apparently afraid of shiny flashy things (except ravens and crows, those curious crafty buggers).
Where to get shiny flashy things... where to get shiny flashy things... ah what's this I see before me? Is that a giant box of CDs that Sara and I no longer want and not even Bookman's will take? Sure looks to be. Wait a minute... CDs are shiny on at least one side, and some are so hideous on the other that surely it will frighten even crows and ravens (those crafty buggers).
I have made several versions of shiny flashy bird frightener thingees (pat.pend and copyright) of increasing complexity and pleasing geometry. The first was just a CD tied to a branch. I chose the shiny-on-both-sides versions to increase effectiveness. I figured the wind would blow them about and they would spin and shine and flash. I did not include a picture here because it's pretty easy to imagine, unless you're a bird, in which case it would simply be a picture of <fly away fly away> and not very illuminating.
Second, I tried the basic tetrahedron, which is four identical equilateral triangles. I dredged up my ancient geometry skills and used a compass and ruler to divide the perimeter of a CD into six equal pieces, and then chose three as the place where I would drill holes to attach them together. But wait, you ask: a CD is a circle, not a triangle! Correct. The point where I drill the holes is equivalent to the line where the two triangles meet, and the vertices are imaginary (not mathematically, just physically).
Last, I tried to make an off-set hexahedron. Basically, the idea was to make two tetrahedrons and place them together so there were six sides, but instead of lining up the axes of the base triangles, I was going to twist them 60 degrees. Turns out that's not really practical for a few reasons, but basically, I would have been better making a cube and hanging it from one point. So, I made the regular hexahedron, and it works well as a shiny flashy thingee but it's not that aesthetically pleasing.
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