Around the world in 10 days

OK, we didn’t actually go around the world--but we did go half way round. Yes, as you can see, we have returned from the Voyage of the Damned (so named as so many things seemed to be going wrong before we went we wondered if we would actually get there at all) but clearly we did and we returned back to our own nest where we are snuggling down and sleeping off the jet lag.

It was truly wonderful to see everyone. We hadn’t seen family and friends  for several years and so it was lovely to catch up with so many people. I had 3 main worries about going (if you don’t count the bit where I cringe at the thought of spending money. That’s not so much a worry as being a cheap-ass.)

Worry One: Being hungry. We are vegan and I am wheat free and Louisiana is about meat and meat and more meat. It was a very unfriendly place for plant eating people the last time we were there. Plus now the no wheat issue can make choosing food a bit trickier.

Worry Two: My back would hurt. I have some back issues stemming from a twice broken coccyx that  won’t allow me to sit down for too long comfortably and this trip was all about the travel--sitting on an aeroplane for nearly 10 hours as well as numerous car journeys. We flew into New Orleans and needed to get all the way to Monroe. That’s a lot of travel time.

Worry Three: That my allergies would be out of control due to aggressive Louisiana pollen and pet hair. Yes--being severely allergic to animal dander and having EVERY friend and family member be pet owners is a bit awkward to say the least.

It turned out that only one of the three worries really came true. Louisiana has become a much friendlier state about other people’s food choices/needs. There were many varieties of non meat foods out there including some soy yoghurt and gluten free pretzels! I was never hungry. We ate at several restaurants and there was always something to eat. We had lovely grilled courgette and asparagus with a marinated grilled Portobello mushroom the first night we arrived and it only got better from there. In Alexandria, I highly recommend the wee restaurant on Jackson Street called Little Greek.  http://www.littlegreekrestaurant.com/ We ate there twice and both times the wonderful owner made us something special. The first time he whipped up these lemon garlic potatoes with brown rice and the next time he outdid himself by making us a special gluten free pizza with tomatoes, olives, onions, peppers, mushrooms and spinach and topped it with what he called “tofu cheese” which was a bag of soy shreds. I normally don’t go for the fake stuff but this was hands down--the BEST pizza I have ever eaten. And then he used leftover gluten free dough and an apple to make us a little baked apple in cinnamon pastry topped with powdered sugar for pudding!!! What a nice man!!! If we lived there I’d eat there all the time so if you live in Alexandria--go to the Little Greek and meet the nicest people who will cook you amazing food.

Worry two had been my back, but I was able to get up and stretch on the plane and my back was relaxed and loose and pain free until the flight home--and by then I didn’t care as I was going back to my own bed. It was so pain free that I was able to exercise many times taking advantage of the mini-gym in 2 of our hotels. I ran on the treadmill several days and even beat my record for press ups (push ups to my American peeps)--I did 40. Granted they were “girl” press ups--but hey, I did 40. Can you do 40? I think not.

Sadly the one problem that plagued me from beginning to end in varying degrees was allergies. Even Spiderman was suffering from the pollen so I know it was bad. But being a sensitive little flower I was affected by pet hair. My mum and step dad tried so hard and were 90% successful in keeping themselves pet hair free and keeping me from being sick. I love them so much for the amount of energy and money they spent from renting a car so I could breathe freely as well as coughing up money for a hotel room when my allergies couldn’t take the tiny caravan we had planned to borrow. It was fine until we brought out the sheets and blankets. Damn you allergies!!! I didn’t have as much success in Monroe and spent most of the visit with Spiderman’s family trying not to claw my face off or rub my eyes until they bled. I spent a good deal of time being pretty doped up from high levels of anti-histamine. This is precisely how I slept through the Bob Dylan concert all those years ago.  I was taking high levels of anti-histamines and people were smoking dope all around us and I just drifted off to sleep with my head on Spiderman’s shoulder and Bob Dylan looked really small on the stage and the speaker pulsed  like a giant beating heart. Thankfully, there was no dope smoking this visit so with just the anti-histamine to contend with I managed (barely) to stay awake and try to contribute to the conversation.  Despite my allergies, it was good to see everyone.

But there were a few things that I learned.

1. I am still not a petrol head. I am spoiled to the life we lead here with no car and excellent public transportation. I was shocked at how you really did have to drive EVERYWHERE. I feel like with the plane flight and all the driving (well, riding) in cars we did I am personally responsible for the destruction of the ozone layer. Polar bears are dying out there because of me, I just know it.

2. We are loved by so many people. We had family drive quite long distances (all the way from Texas!) to come and have lunch with us. Lots of people really wanted to see us and went out of their way to do so and I felt loved and supported by all. Some friends are the sort that you can pick up right where you left off 10 years ago and we were blessed to have dinner with our dear friend LeCrete who is as mad as a hatter in the best possible way. 

3. I adore Lebanese Iced Tea. I have never been a tea drinker. In the South it’s all about the sweetened iced tea but in England, it’s all about a steaming cuppa with a bickie. I don’t like either but I have discovered Lebanese Iced tea and I am working to replicate the recipe at home. It was sweetened tea, lemonade and rosewater with pine nuts floating on top and so delicious and refreshing I can think of nothing else I’d like to drink in the world ever again. 

4. There is such a thing as a Squirrel Cook Off. Have a favourite squirrel recipe? Then bring it along to the Squirrel Cook Off and you might when a prize. We saw a leaflet advertising this and it was funniest (and grossest) thing I think we saw the whole visit. Thank you Louisiana.

5. There’s no place like home. Or as it says in the book The Best Nest:

I love my house

I love my nest

In all the world

My nest is best.

I was glad to go and see everyone, but returning to a place where I can walk instead of drive, where I can recycle, where I can breathe clearly means everything. Louisiana was once our home but it felt very like a place to visit--it does not belong to us anymore--and I am so glad that we belong to England and England belongs to us.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard (guaranteed chemical free)

I used to be a DQ addict. I loved me a Blizzard. Was it ice cream? Was it cookies? Oh it’s both all blended up in a paper cup! But now that we are vegan and more health conscious I wouldn’t touch a DQ Blizzard with a barge pole.

Let’s first take a look at the ingredients in the Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard, shall we?
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: Unenriched Wheat Flour, Sugar, Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Soybean Oil, Mono- and Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor[Milk], Colored with Annatto, Calcium Disodium EDTA added as a preservative, Vitamin A Palmitate added), Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin [Emulsifier], Vanilla), Powdered Sugar (Sugar, Corn Starch), Butter (Cream, Salt), Pasteurized Eggs, Brown Sugar, Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt.
Dairy Queen Vanilla Soft Serve: Milkfat and nonfat milk, sugar, corn syrup, whey, mono and diglycerides, artificial flavor, guar gum, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, and vitamin A palmitate.
Fudge: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sweetened Condensed Skim Milk (Skim Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup), Partially Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Water, Fructose, Cocoa processed with Alkali, Cocoa, Sodium Alginate (Algin, Dextrin, Sodium Phosphate), Salt, Mono & Diglycerides (Vegetable), Potassium Sorbate (a preservative), Soy Lecithin, Disodium Phosphate, Artificial & Natural Flavors
720 calories 28g fat (14 of that saturated) 370mg sodium 78g sugar Yup you read that correctly.
I got this idea for making a DQ style healthy blizzard from the blog Oh She Glows. Here recipes rock my socks. Here’s a link to her blog where you see how she makes this delicious healthy treat. http://ohsheglows.com/2011/03/18/chocolate-chip-cooke-dough-blizzard 

The next time you get over ripe bananas then peel, chop into bits and freeze. 3 frozen bananas makes enough for 2 servings of ice cream. When you’ve got bananas frozen and ready to go then make your cookie dough.

Cookie Dough Balls

Yield: 1 cup packed cookie dough

• 1/2 cup unsalted cashews
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I make it gluten free with buckwheat flour)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1.5 tbsp natural cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3-4 tbsp pure maple syrup (or a bit more if dough is too dry)
• 2 TB-1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions: In a food processor, add the cashews and oats and process until it forms a fine crumble. Now add in the salt, sugar, and flour and process for a few seconds more. Add in the maple syrup and vanilla and process until combined. It will be sticky, but this is normal! Add in your chocolate chips and stir by hand or process. Form into 16 balls. Store in fridge.

Now make the ice cream. Throw your 3 frozen bananas in your food processor with a few splashes milk (we use Oat milk)

Puree until ice cream consistency. Then add 6 cookie dough balls that you’ve crumbled up and pulse to combine.

Then spoon into bowls (or parfait glasses if you want to be posh) and serve with one cookie dough ball on top for garnish.

It’s easy being green

A green smoothie is the way we start our day. It is a great way to get your 5 a day in one go so anything else you eat is bonus. We use our super powdered Vita-Mix blender to blend it silky smooth.

Here is what we do:

Pour in some cherry juice (cherries are very good for stiff and sore joints)

Throw in an apple, an orange and a banana. So far so good right?

Then add a couple of spoonfuls of hemp and flax  to add protein, fibre, calcium, iron and omega 3 and 6

Next a tsp of cinnamon (helps to balance blood sugar levels)

Then curly kale up to the top of the blender.

Whoa there. Did you say KALE? I did my friend. That is what makes it green. But I swear you can’t taste the kale. But why KALE? Because it is a super food mon ami. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein and rich in calcium.

Then you whiz all that up to make sure the kale is well blended and smooth so it looks like this:

Then we add some frozen fruit. This bit differs as to what we find on sale. This week it is:

 frozen strawberries

frozen pineapple

Ice

And blend again until it is cool and frosty.

Here’s our morning drink—it’s a bit of a greeny-brown in colour but so flavourful in taste. And good for you as well. Bottom’s up!

Excuses, excuses

OK, I’ve not been doing terribly well on the Vegan MOFO front. I’ve been hella busy at work and exhausted and forgetful and cranky and tearful (I forgot I had a lunch time club, went home to have a nap and then cried when all the kids told me they turned up to Poetry Club and I was not there) and my doctor thinks I am menopausal. Grand. I was taking pictures of all our lovely food but never managed (until today) to get it off the camera and onto the memory stick.  I’ve just been too shattered at night to bother. We’ve been listening to 2 episodes a night of a radio programme we like (That Mitchell and Webb Sound) and last night we were listening and I said, “Shall we listen to the second episode?” and Spiderman gave me the *look* and said, “That was the second episode. You've been asleep for a half an hour.” Oh dear.

So my apologies. Here are some special food posts to make up for being so shite.

Beans and Rice

Another of those wacky PSAs from Saturday morning. If you thought the other sounded like School House Rock wait until you hear this one. This one is purely vegan.

Remember this?

All those who grew up in the 70s should recall these Public Service Announcements that aired on ABC between Saturday morning cartoons. This was one of my favourites--I made this many times, happily singing the song as I did. This is practically vegan if you sub soy yogurt for dairy. I never could get the grape to stay on top, however. Enjoy.

Magical Loaf Studio

This is what I did with the chickpeas that I cooked from scratch in the last post: 

Many people think (and rightly so) that the nut roast or lentil loaf is the staple of a vegan diet. I used to enjoy buying one that came in a packet and all you did was add cold water and it was amazingly good. We had it for every Christmas since we arrived in the UK. However, since my hysterectomy I have had to give up gluten and the 5^th ingredient in the packet nut roast is wheat rusk. *SOB* so clearly that is out for this year. But never fear, Vegan Lunch Box is here! This blog has something called the Magical Loaf Studio where you choose a protein, a nut or seed, a carb, some vegetables, a binder and some seasonings and click the button and PRESTO! It spits out a recipe. This is the one we ate last night. Chickpea Cashew Roast. This was hella good and tasted just like thanksgiving stuffing--but not the kind your Uncle makes with way too much sage--the good kind.

Here’s the link if you want to have a go yourself making one. It really is addictive and there are endless combinations. Have a go--you know you wanna.

http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html

Chickpea Cashew Roast

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews
2 TB olive oil
One onion, diced
One large garlic clove, minced
One large carrot, peeled and grated
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans, partly mashed
1 cup uncooked quick oatmeal or oat bran
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable broth, as needed
1 heaping TB flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried sage
2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Grind the cashews into a coarse meal using a food processor or spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice. Serve with potatoes, vegetables, and vegetarian gravy, if desired.

Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.

There were a few minor changes I made. I cut back on the oil.  I did half a carrot and half a red pepper because I felt like it. Instead of oatmeal I used millet flakes to make it totally gluten free.  I also cooked it in my pie pan and cooked it for 30 minutes at 190C/375F. This way I could cook broccoli as well. I cooked the Roast for 10 minutes, added the broccoli in a pan small enough to fit on the same oven rack as I only have one in my oven and cooked for a further 20. Check out that 20 minutes broccoli--all brown and crispy and yumilicious.

I served it with a drizzle of this recipe for Tahini Tamari Sauce (without the parsley but with added sriracha hot sauce for a bit of zing) http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/07/tahini-sauces.html

It was a little crumbly as I cut it after 10 minutes because I was an impatient greedy guts. But the second slice was much firmer. Plus we had half the roast left over and so lunch is sorted tomorrow!