To Honor Animals

To all the humble beasts there be,
To all the birds on land and sea,
Great Spirit sweet protection give,
That free and happy they may live.

And to our hearts the rapture bring
Of love for every living thing;
Make of us all one kin, and bless
Our ways with Your own gentleness.

--Love the Animals: Meditations and Prayers (edited a little from Ginny Messina at this blog: http://www.theveganrd.com/2009/11/a-thanksgiving-prayer-for-the-animals.html

Our Vegan Thanksgiving 2010

So What Do Vegans Eat For Thanksgiving?

There are so many choices. I can give you my Thanksgiving Menu 2010 for my family and we are not deprived by any means just because we don't have Turkey -

Stuffed Butternut Squash with Wild Rice Mixture of Wild Rice, Walnuts, Apples, Raisins, Onions, Mushrooms and Veg Broth and a hint of Orange Juice
Carrots with ginger and a dash of Orange Juice
Green beans with garlic and lemon
Brussel Sprouts
Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Gravy - Will work on a homemade gravy with mushrooms, onions, some unsweetened soy milk and spices and some corn starch to thicken and some soy sauce to darken (Will buy a Vegan Gravy mix if that doesn't work.)
Yams
Salad
Black and Green Olives and Pickles
Dinner Rolls
Pie for dessert or Fruit Cocktail

So a person doesn't have to eat all of this stuff, just nice to have a variety of things to choose from. Plus you could just take a little of this and that. I think we will have plenty of leftovers! There will be 5 of us, so nice to have leftovers.

Vegan BLT with Vegan Cheese

 

Vegan BLT

Ingredients:

Fakin' Bakin" which are smoked Tempeh Strips - Fry up about 4 of them (or fry them all and save some for the next day or to put in a salad, too.)

Some cut up grape tomatoes - tricky as they can get you pretty messy as you are slicing them, but they taste good

Iceberg and Red leaf lettuce pieces

Vegan Mozzarella Cheese

Alvarado Street Sprouted Whole Wheat Bread - 3 toasted pieces

To make: Toast 3 pieces of bread, put some olive oil on each. Then layer one piece of toast with the Fakin' Bakin'. Then put some slices of the Vegan Mozzarella over that. Cover with a piece of toast and microwave in some paper towels for about 40 seconds to a minute. Then take it out of microwave and put some lettuce and cherry tomatoes on the top of the fake bacon and vegan cheese sandwich and top that with the third slice. Cut it in 4 sections and most of the tomatoes fall out, so just put them in the middle of the plate and eat them with the sandwich. LOL Enjoy!

Easy Vegan Pizza

 

Vegan Pizza Recipe

Use a greased cookie sheet and follow pizza directions for baking on pizza crust package:
List of order to put on this Already made pizza crust ("Pilsbury" brand is the one used here),
Contadina Pizza Sauce spread on pizza dough and sprinkled with some italian seasonings and garlic powder,
Fried Tofu about 10 ounces(which was Extra firm Tofu that was crumbled and fried in a non-stick pan with some curry powder, turmeric and seasoning salt and pepper),
Baby Portabella Mushroom Slices,
Black Olive Slices,
Baby Spinach Slices,
Marinated Artichoke hearts cut up
and top it with Onion Slices.

It took about 17 minutes for this pizza to cook because of all the ingredients, but oven temperatures vary and the amount of ingredients you put on the pizza will determine time needing to be cooked, so keep an eye on yours. And then, Enjoy! Smile.

Today's Highlighted Vegan Meal - Mock Tuna Fish

Today's Meals

Breakfast: Mock Tuna Fish Recipe - Teriyaki Tofu Crumbles with a little lemon and Veganaise mixed in with it on toast (Tastes like a Tuna Fish sandwich - a little bit anyhow.)
Snack: Saltine crackers with some hummus
Lunch: Vegan Hot Dog Sandwich on Eziekiel Toast with Veganaise, Catchup and Mustard
Snack: A few Pretzels
Dinner: Pasta Curly Q noodles with marinara basil sauce and some stewed tomatoes and zucchini pieces. I added some of the teriyaki tofu crumbles to it for protein, but I think veggie ground round with some mushrooms and onions would have tasted better. I perhaps can buy that tomorrow and just add it to the big pot.
Snack: Apple and Adam's Peanut Butter

Teriyaki Tofu Crumbles Recipe and Hummus Recipe

Today's Meals
Breakfast - Two Flax Oil Type Waffles with a little peanut butter and Banana no sugar syrup and a Banana
Snack - Apple slices and peanut butter
Lunch - Salad with Tomatoes and Teriyaki Tofu
Snack - Some saltine crackers with Hummus
Dinner - Last of the stir-fry veggie leftovers over rice with some of the teriyaki tofu (Glad I am done - 3 days is enough!)
Snack - Tangelo

How to make the Teriyaki Tofu Crumbles: Freeze a container of tofu. Then thaw it out. Open it and rinse it off. Then place in colander. Take a paper towel and put it over the tofu and push down the tofu till most of the water is out of it. Then put the tofu in a bowl and crumble it up. Add some teriyaki sauce about 3 tablespoons. Stir it up. Fry it in a little oil in a non-stick pan till browned. Use the medium setting on the burner so you don't burn it. Then you can use this fried teriyaki tofu in many dishes.

Hummus Recipe: This is just a fast version. Take a can of organic garbanzo beans. Put in food processor with 2 tablespoons olive oil and about a tablespoon of lemon. Add some salt and pepper and blend. If you want to, add some garlic powder to the mix, but it really isn't necessary especially if you don't want garlic breath, LOL. Use this with saltine crackers or you can dip veggies in it. If you want it spicier, add more spices to it.

Herb Salad with Tofurky and Tomatoes

 

Todays Meals -
Breakfast: Shredded Wheat with Rice Milk
Snack: Watermelon
Lunch: Herb Salad already made salad mix with Tofurky luncheon veggie meat slices cut up and tomatoes with olive oil and Balsamic vinegar dressing, some saltine crackers and another Rice Dream Bar (and okay that is enough of those for a bit, smile)
Dinner: Leftovers from last night of the stir-fry
Snack: Cantaloupe or an apple with Peanut butter

Main Meal Recipe - Stir-Fry with Tangelos

 

Today's Meals
Breakfast - Late riser as it was Saturday morning. :-) So no breakfast today.
Lunch: Roasted veggies from last night mixed with a little organic salsa, two veggie hot dogs
Snack: 1/2 cantalope
Dinner: Stir-Fry Veggies with Tangelos - Recipe ingredients: Take some Frozen Veggies of Green sugar sanp peas, brocolli, cauliflower, soy beans and Morningstar Chicken Strips (Not real chicken - a soy product). Fry them up in some oil and spices. At the end of the stir-fry add a few tangelo pieces. Serve over rice with some soy sauce.
Healthy Dessert: Rice Dream Mint Ice Cream Sandwich sold at Purity Market :-)

Today's Vegan Meals

This is my first post. I thought I would give people an idea of a vegan diet by posting some daily meals. Not sure how long I will do this, but just thought it would be interesting and something to do when bored. :-) Plus if I run out of food ideas, maybe I can just refer back to this blog.

Breakfast: Oatmeal Toast, Veganaise and 5 Tofurky Slices
Lunch: Roasted potatoes, eggplant, sweet potatoes with spices, Tangelo and Raisins
Dinner: Vegan hot dog sandwich with veganaise
Snacks: Banana, Apple and Adams Peanut Butter
One Multi-vitamin
Did not take my calcium supplement due to the recent controversy about heart disease and calcium. So I need to read up more on that one!