What This Vegan Eats

I've been keeping meals really quick and simple these days and haven't been making enough use of the camera. That being said, here are a few "boring", "bland" and positively "unhealthy" dishes I've made over the past little while to keep me protein deficient, anemic, and basically fighting for my very life:

Vegetable-lentil soup with mushrooms. Seasoned with dill and Indian chili powder.

Homemade whole wheat crust topped with liberal drizzles of sriracha sauce, fennel seed, roasted slices of sweet potato, onion, red bell pepper, chopped portobello mushrooms, pickled hot banana peppers, fresh pineapple, slices of tomato, crushed garlic, a sprinkle of chipotle powder and a pinch of dried parsley.

Udon noodles stir-fried with portobello mushrooms, red bell peppers, onions, crushed garlic, organic tamari, sesame oil and a bit of fresh cilantro.

Gardein strips with homemade BBQ dipping sauce. A salad of raw carrots, red bell peppers, shredded broccoli & cabbage, cooked peas and a sweet onion/lime dressing.

Grated raw beet & carrot salad with a drizzle of lime dressing. Baked whole wheat wrap stuffed with roasted green bell peppers, black beans, cilantro, cheddar Daiya, crushed garlic, dried chipotle and a bit of salsa. Rice topped with extra spicy salsa.

And because there can never be enough pizza in my life:

Stage 1: Take a whole wheat pita and spread it with roasted garlic tomato sauce seasoned with fennel seed, basil, crushed garlic and spices. Top with cooked breaded Gardein chunks and sautéed mushrooms.

Stage2: Add pickled hot banana and chopped fresh red & green bell peppers.

Stage 3: Top with mozzarella Daiya shreds and bake in preheated oven until Daiya has melted, then devour.

What Vegans Eat

I've spent the last two weeks with my eyes glued to vegan cookbooks and recipe cards with old favourites scrawled across them. I have a house guest for the next few weeks and intend to indulge myself in a hell of a lot of cooking. It should be interesting, since my guest is someone who is open to exploring a wide variety of cuisines, yet who has several food dislikes and intolerances. So spices are in, while too much garlic is out. Carbs are a must, while brassica plants (e.g. . broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, et al.) are out. Oh, and absolutely no eggplant or (sob!!) hummus. Since my guest neither ordinarily consumes a lot of soy products or raw fruits and vegetables, those will also have to be handled carefully. Rather than overwhelm him with too many raw things, I'll shuffle them in gradually. Where soy is concerned, I'm happy to minimize its use. I'm not much of a soy consumer, myself, so aside from a few substitutes here and there, I hope to have meals revolve around whole grains, legumes, nuts/seeds (along with a wide variety of vegetables and fruit).

Here are a few of the dishes I've come across while exploring various vegan food blogs lately that I think may very well find themselves shuffled into meal plans for this stay:

This 4 Ingredient White Bean Nacho Dip from the I Eat Trees blog is definitely going on my list of things to try. I am a fan of snacking and having a tasty, nutritious and high fibre dip to go along with some organic tortilla chips or multigrain crackers sounds like a smart thing to do. I am also a fan of the tapas, mezze or smorgasbord methods of feeding guests, offering up many different items for sampling, so if it's a hit, this dip may find itself on the table more than once, since we're bound to enjoy at least a couple of Mexican-themed meals. Some of the salsa recipes on the VegWeb.com site would surely end up on the table, such as this Garden Fresh Salsa and this Mango Salsa. So would this Roasted Vegetable Salsa from Chez Cayenne. I'll also take any opportunity to sneak in my favourite Spicy Sweet Potato and Bean Burritos!

The last time my house-guest visited, we accidentally discovered a small Indian grocer just beside a pet food store I'd needed to visit. The variety of both basic ingredients -- grains, legumes, spices and other seasonings -- and prepared foods was incredible, considering my city's major supermarkets' relatively meagre offerings. I hope to return there to pick up some odds and ends. I also hope to make some Indian-inspired food, keeping things as simple as I can. This recipe for Indian-Style Potatoes and Spinach from the Vegan Dad blog is one I intend to try out. I'm also considering trying out his Seitan Vindaloo if I can manage to make a good batch of seitan and have it turn out well and I am very much looking forward to making these Indian Lentil and Rice Pancakes. There's a recipe for Chana Masala in Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker which I also intend to make alongside some of these others. I am open to suggestions for other dishes, of course -- particularly more authentic Indian recipes.

Pizza will also be on the menu once I get my busted oven fixed. Daiya isn't sold in these parts, and decent cheese subs are limited to the ridiculously overpriced Sheese at one of the local health food stores (at $9 or so a small block, it's barely doable without a fair amount of indignation for anything other than a treat -- definitely not to cover a pizza) and to the one flavour of Earth Island's Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative (mozzarella) carried in local stores. The beauty of it is that cheese substitutes really aren't necessary for vegan pizza. For instance, I'd consider trying out Robin Robertson's new and improved Tuscan White Bean Pizza. Or maybe I'll take the time to try out Bryanna Clark Grogan's instructions for how to make the world's most incredible vegan pizza dough and make a few pies following her tips. Of maybe a variation of Vegan Dad's Stromboli is in order, given my guest's -- and that dish's -- Philly origins.

Whatever happens, the one thing for sure is that regardless of the stereotype perpetuated that veganism leaves us with limited food choices, the truth is that I have an unlimited number of recipes from which to choose, all covering an unbelievably wide range of ethnic cuisines, whether authentic or just explored for inspiration. If anything, meal-planning for the next few weeks will be more problematic due to my second-guessing. Here's to churning out one delicious meal after another and keeping a camera handy to capture some of it over the coming weeks!

PETA and HSUS Tag-Team to Take on Pizza Industry? Hardly!

The trade website Pizza Marketplace ran a piece yesterday about how supposed "animal rights" groups PETA and HSUS are tag-teaming to take on the pizza industry. According to the site, both organizations "are 'crashing' Papa John's and Domino's shareholder meetings". What they mean by this is that HSUS has recently used its supporters' dollars to become a shareholder in Domino's Pizza and that PETA has done the same with Papa John's. PETA has, of course, been doing this sort of thing for years. I remember back in 2003, for instance, when it proudly announced its having become "part owner" of Tyson Foods, Inc., the world's second largest processor and marketer of the flesh of chickens, cows and pigs.

Why on earth would two organizations that promote themselves as advocates for animals and let others misrepresent them as "animal rights" organizations choose to profit from animal exploitation? Both PETA and HSUS claim that these actions were taken to give them each an official say in the decisions each pizza company makes (via shareholders' meetings) with regards to the animal flesh and secretions it uses to garnish the products from which it profits -- the animal flesh and secretion covered products from which supposed animal advocacy organizations PETA and HSUS also now profit. So will PETA and HSUS try to convince these companies to stop exploiting animals? Nope. Will PETA and HSUS maybe opt for the token gesture of trying to convince these companies to incorporate some animal-free substitutes for the dairy cheese and animal flesh they use on their pizzas? Nope. A half-hearted attempt to get them to use less animal flesh or secretions? Nope. According to Pizza Marketplace :

The Humane Society of The United States' Kristine Middleton said she would address what she said is [Domino]’s practice of using pork from suppliers that confine breeding pigs in gestation crates.

So HSUS bought stock in -- and is profiting from -- a company that uses the flesh and secretions of cows, the flesh of pigs and chickens and the flesh of fish. And why? To talk to Domino's about using gestation crates? As Gary L. Francione stated in his 2007 interview with Eric "Happy Meat" Marcus, enlarging or getting rid of gestation crates is like offering someone a "string band on the way to the gas chamber". Furthermore, aside from the fact that it does nothing to address animal use, it would only serve to make people feel more comfortable about eating pig's flesh on their pizza. This is how HSUS justifies profiting from the use and exploitation of non-human animals. As for PETA, the self-described "animal rights" group:

Stephanie Corrigan from PETA said the group would like to work with Papa John's on the company's dairy standards. "We're looking at the dairy farms they're using and encourage pizza companies to make sure their suppliers implement the most basic animal welfare standards," she said.

While PETA is profiting from the use and exploitation of animals, it wants to try to ensure that the companies exploiting the animals in question at the very, very least offer those animals "the most basic animal welfare standards". How charitable of them! While this is going on, the people over at the industry-front Center for Consumer Freedom (via its HumaneWatch site) are having a really good laugh, chortling that "PETA has been doing this for years [and that] [t]hey never got more than about 3 percent of support from any shareholders." I wonder, on the other hand, what percentage of the world's third largest pizza delivery company's profits PETA will get; with Papa John's over $1B in revenue in 2007, I'm guessing that it could be a nice chunk of change.

Of course, one does have to take what spews out of the Center for Consumer Freedom with a grain of salt, since they do also insist that in seeking to regulate various companies' use of animals and in choosing to profit directly from the use and exploitation of non-human animals, that somehow, HSUS has a "vegan agenda". It seems to me, however, that if HSUS actually had anything even vaguely resembling a "vegan agenda" that it would actually spend some of its millions seriously advocating for veganism. It doesn't. Furthermore, as long as HSUS can trick its financial supporters into allowing it to sell them indulgences while profiting from the actual hands-on exploitation of animals -- its bread and Earth Balance, why on earth would it have any interest whatsoever in actually advocating for the actual end of animal exploitation? Why on earth would it seek to educate consumers about not providing demand for animal exploitation, if doing so would ultimately affect its own profit margins?

I love pizza with the sort of ferocity that most people reserve for chocolate or reality TV shows. Thankfully, my pizza fix comes animal-free quite easily now. Between the vegan cheese and meat substitutes available on the market right now, the frozen vegan pizzas and the hundreds of other plant-based ingredients available to use as toppings, there's no need for a single animal to be enslaved and then slaughtered for anyone to indulge themselves in a slice.

Of course, you won't be hearing about that from HSUS or PETA, now, will you?