Lunch!

It may come as no surprise that I love lunch. It’s such an awesome meal of the day, one that I think most people don’t pay enough attention to. It’s really funny how everyone focuses so much on dinner, but not lunch or breakfast, and end up eating out or binging. It’s sad, because breakfast and lunch (especially lunch!) are just awesome. Breakfast is perfect for things like pancakes, breakfast burritos, oatmeal (!!!), fruit, and the best food ever, potatoes. Lunch opens up all new opportunities! Hate breakfast food? Make dinner food! In the mood for breakfast food? You can do that too!

I know it’s weird to ramble on about food, but I was thinking about how much better a day can be when you have a really good lunch to look forward to and eat. Lately I’ve been craving salads – salads with oil and vinegar, salads with croutons, but especially salads with Cashew Tamari Dressing, which unfortunately is a local staple of Austin (if you do live in Austin though, check Fresh Plus in Hyde Park or Whole Foods downtown!). I love the flavor of it – it’s basically oils with cashew, and it’s sweet and savory. Combine that with the slightly bitter flavor of spring lettuce and grapefruit juice, and you’ve got a winning combination.

I love vegetables. Most of you already know, but I’m a vegetarian for environmental reasons. The production of beef especially pollutes the atmosphere and takes valuable grains and food away from the poor. It’s also full of saturated fats and the government subsidizes it, so that’s why you can get a burger at McDonald’s for a buck. Not to mention most meat production is cruel to the animals. Because of these reasons, I don’t eat any types of meat or beef byproducts (milk, butter) with the exception of cheese. Furthermore, every single nutrition finding that scientists make always points back to the same exact thing: vegetables are really good for you. I don’t like to talk about it because people tend to get very touchy about it, but understand I’m not pushing my beliefs or feelings on any of you. I encourage you to eat what you want and what you like, and respect others to do the same.

Food is so important to who we are and how we feel, and I feel so much better now that I’m eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. When I first went vegetarian, it was really hard to know what to pick and what to buy, and it took awhile to stop eating spaghetti and macaroni and cheese only and start eating more vegetables. Despite loving vegetables, it’s not something you really think of a lot of the time.

Other foods that are awesome for lunch: pesto sandwiches/pasta, frozen veggies and freshly baked bread, hardboiled eggs, potato anything, bananas, apples, pickles. My favorite lunches are when I throw a variety of small snacks in my lunchbox – nuts, a banana, a pickle, a slice of bread, an egg. Then I can snack as I get hungry and not overeat! It’s awesome.

What is your favorite lunch? What’s your favorite meal of the day? What sorts of things do you enjoy eating most of all? How do you perceive food in general?

Bread

Sorry everyone! No giveaway today, because I wanted to post and I don’t have it ready yet. Actually, I’ve been in Boston, Massachusetts all week on business! Boston is beautiful but I’m glad to be home with my kitties and Chris and much warmer weather! We had a cold snap and it’s been in the 20s (and it was in the 20s and 30s in Boston), but in the past few days the weather has warmed and it’s been in the 40s and even the 50s! Much better.

I’ve been fighting a cold as well so I haven’t done much in the way of anything. Aside from Boston, Chris and I have been baking a lot of bread, cakes, and pizzas, which is just perfect. I’ve never really appreciated baking before now, but I can’t seem to stop. Today’s recipe is Peppery Cheese Bread.

Recipes that make two loaves instead of one are my favorite, because of two things.

1. Thing the first: If you’re going to spend 2-3 hours baking bread (don’t be scared! while it does take that long technically, it’s only about half an hour to an hour of work total for most breads – mostly you’ll just be sitting around), you may as well churn out two loaves.
2. Thing the second: I love bread. Chris uses it for sandwiches and I use it for toast in the morning, lightly buttered. We go through roughly two small loaves a week anyway.

One thing to note is that I don’t have a breadmaker. Too expensive, takes up too much room, and there’s something very nice about mixing everything together by hand. I do often use a breadhook on a mixer, so I am cheating a bit on the kneading part, but it’s still a fun, soothing, almost meditative experience. Combine that with some wine and family and you have just about the perfect combination.

Do you bake? What sorts of things do you bake?

As an added bonus, here is a picture of me makin’ some bread before a party.

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

Not only am I stylish, but I’m also certifiably insane.

Why am I certifiably insane? Well, because I’m hosting my first Thanksgiving this year when I hardly know how to cook and I want to make everything gluten-free. And turkey-free. Because 3 out of 4 of the people I’ve invited so far are vegetarian, plus me so 4 out of 5 vegetarians. Take that, meat-eaters! Anyway, this year I decided to stay at school and see if I can spend some extra time with my friends here before they go away next semester. I have a kitchen and apparently most people in my house are going home for Thanksgiving and the rest are going to host families. So that means it’s all about whoever I want to invite over! Woo hoo!

Sadly, the house itself isn’t going to be very exciting or festive, but I’m going to see how I can do with the food. I want to try Becky’s pie recipe (which is YUM) with gluten-free pie crust mix. Also, today standing in line at the cashier at Whole Foods I noticed the current issue of Vegetarian Magazine was featuring Thanksgiving meals. When I looked through it and saw that they were also labeled for “vegan” or “gluten-free” I bought it. I don’t care so much about vegan foods but I am super happy to have the gluten-free label. I’m very excited to look through the magazine and figure out what from that to cook!

I’ve also been going through Gluten-Free Girl and Chef recipes for main dishes. It’s my favorite place to find gluten-free recipes, despite the writers’ meat-eating ways. But there’s still something. And a story. It’s a gateway to somewhere else. Although I don’t have to just look there. I’m so excited about Thanksgiving I’ll probably look at lots of recipes and lots of food blogs before the big day, dreaming of great food and good company and laughter rather than working on my papers and projects and reviews before then.

Because Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy, to appreciate, and to greedily look forward to.

All my classes on Wednesday are canceled and I only have pilates on Tuesdays, so I have lots of time to prepare and be anxious and excited. What are you planning for Thanksgiving? Have you ever done the cooking for everyone? Are you looking forward to it?

Recipe: Vegan Caramel-Pumpkin Pie

Yesterday I had a dinner party! It was the first time I’d ever hosted anything like that and it was really scary. I wanted everything to be just perfect, especially because the guest list included my parents and Chris’ mum! I originally planned to make a pumpkin cake, but I decided instead to try my hand at a pumpkin pie, which I like moderately, but which Chris likes immensely (it was his birthday on Thursday so I took his feelings into consideration ).

I ended up actually making my own pumpkin pie recipe using several different recipes (which is 20x times better than the recipe on the back of the canned pumpkin), which I’m going to share with you all! Keep in mind this is a 100% vegan pie, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Preparation + cooking time is about two hours, but you need (and I repeat NEED) to let it set overnight. So make it the night before your party! I didn’t do this and so my pie was kind of goopy but it was still delicious. Without further ado, here is Becky’s Vegan Caramel-Pumpkin Pie!

Ingredients

Caramel:

1. 2/3 cup Sugar – use Beet Sugar to be extra vegan
2. 2 tablespoons water
3. 2 tablespoons margarine
4. 1/4 cup Silk French Vanilla Creamer

Pie filling:

1. 1 can 100% pure pumpkin
2. 1 package firm tofu
3. 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
4. 1/4 cup sugar – use Beet Sugar to be extra vegan
5. 3 teaspoons Pumpkin Spice (you can find it in the spice aisle)

Also, you will need 1 9″ Vegan Pie Crust. You can make your own, but you’d be surprised – your local grocery store probably has frozen pie crusts that happen to be vegan. Chris and I were convinced we’d have to buy a graham cracker crust, but as it turns out all the frozen pie crusts were vegan. Who’d've thought, huh?

Okay, here we go.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Now, make the caramel. Put the sugar and the water in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high, and boil. The sugar will turn brown after awhile but go slowly! and WATCH THE PAN and stir when it starts turning color at all. Do not walk away from it, or chances are you’ll burn the caramel. After it turns brown and there are no more lumps of sugar, take it off the heat.

Stir in one tablespoon of margarine until it is gone, and then stir in the other tablespoon of margarine. Add the soy creamer, and your caramel will harden. Do not be alarmed! Turn the heat back to medium and stir until the caramel dissolves (turn the heat up if necessary but watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn). Turn off the heat and set aside, but stir occasionally.

Second, make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, combine the package of tofu and can of pumpkin. Use a hand mixer to mix it thoroughly. Mix in the brown sugar, sugar, and pumpkin spice. It will be an alarming shade or orange but don’t worry about this either.

Slowly whisk in the caramel mixture you made earlier a bit at a time. By now you will want to eat it straight up but you must resist! Carefully pour the mixture into your pie crust and place in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake for 50 minutes. Then, carefully place it in the refrigerator to set until the next day. Voila! Delicious pumpkin pie.

Serving size: 1 piece. Calories: about a million per serving.

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