More Okayu

Sorry no new posts.  Mark left for Thailand and I have had the flu, so all I’ve been eating–when I can eat at all–is toast with jam and more okayu.  Today it’s okayu with mushrooms and spinach!  Hope everyone else is faring well in their challenges!

Food Poisoning Friday and the Weekend

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that despite my intending support for this vegan food challenge, we had another un-vegan night on Friday.  Eating out is always a bit of a challenge for us.  There is one truly vegan place we found in Wellington that is awesome, and we usually have good luck with a lot of the Asian places in town, but we can get pretty tired of the same old, same old…so there are days we just loosen up on the strict vegan thing and eat vegetarian instead.  We got some Indian curries to take away (which, I’m certain had a lot of butter and cream in them) and enjoyed a night of not-cooking, which is always a treat after a long week.  Unfortunately, we felt a little punished for it the next day (Saturday), as both of us experienced some upset tummies.  I went through my little spell in the afternoon, feeling quite nauseous and ill, but bounced back fairly quickly after downing some digestive enzymes.  Mark, on the other hand, went through his later that night and it was downright severe.  He was praying to the porcelain god until 7am this morning, poor baby.  We were supposed to go to a vegan potluck this afternoon but we canceled as neither of us got much sleep.

The rest of the weekend was pretty boring food-wise.  Saturday I nibbled on toast throughout the day (because of my upset tummy) and dinner was some noodles with broccoli (made hastily after a night out) which Mark promptly threw up.  Today (Sunday),  was another lazy cooking day due to little sleep from the night before (Mark was sick and I was up worrying and taking care of him), so we had Okayu, which is a Japanese porridge of rice and water.  My mother always made me Okayu when I was sick, and I still crave it when I am feeling unwell.  My mother always flavored it with miso and seaweed stock, which I do as well, and for a little more flavor and nutrients, I tear up some nori seaweed into it as well.  We both ate this at about 5pm, then had some more rice in Ochazuke form a little later.  This is another Japanese dish where you pour green tea over your rice and flavor it with a salty Ochazuke seasoning, often made from wakame seaweed and various other ingredients.  I happened to have some shiso-wakame seasoning so we sprinkled that on our rice and dropped a pickled umeboshi plum in the middle.  Comfort food–Japanese style.

 

Black Bean Burritos

Today we had vegan black bean burritos for dinner–an old favorite .  I miss that gooey, melted cheesiness of traditional burritos, though, so I tried something a little different today.  I made up a batch of the cheesy vegan sauce I use for the Mac & Cheese dish, poured it over the beans once I dished them onto the tortilla, and EUREKA–it worked!!!  Creamy, cheesy goodness in my burrito.  Mark was not as big of a fan saying that he prefers his burritos more “fresh” tasting.  He thought the cream sauce made it a bit too heavy.  I, on the other hand, adore the oozy, gooey, pungent creaminess of the cheese sauce–it was a step closer to the burritos I would have back home.  I think this cheese sauce would be fabulous in vegan enchiladas too.

The bean filling was made with black beans, onion, garlic, and chopped carrots tossed with cumin, chili, coriander, paprika, and salt.  We made some guacamole, chopped some tomatoes, sprinkled on some cilantro, and poured on some chipotle salsa.  The best vegan burritos I have ever made!  Thanks to the “cheese” sauce.

Not so vegan — Japanese food night

Breakfast today– another BIG cup of coffee (have been getting up at 6am to get into work by 7:30 this week), two pieces of toast with the cashew-sundried tomato spread, thinly sliced tomatoes, salt, pepper, and dill. 

Lunch– vegan pizza leftovers and same old snacky-snacks.

Dinner —  My vegetarian take on Oyakodon.  First of all–no, this ain’t vegan.  This recipe calls for eggs–and like I said, Mark and I do eat eggs.  We don’t buy them every week, and when we do buy them, we are careful of where we buy them from.  We discussed eggs in depth and we both decided we feel fairly comfortable eating them as our number one concern is suffering and chickens do not suffer if you take their eggs from them.  They don’t really care.  But that said, the egg industry is cruel and even eggs labeled “free range” are deceptive.   They want you to imagine free range chickens are all happy and frolicking through rolling green hills when the reality is quite different.  Free range chickens are often still de-beaked.  They may not be in cages but they may be stuffed to the gills in warehouses where a tiny door at one end of the building serves as the required “access” to the outdoors (hence earning them their free range label).  Not all free range farms are like this, of course, so it just pays to do a little research to see what the free range farms are like.  The best thing to look for, I’ve read, are “pasture-raised” eggs.

Our eggs come from mainly Pasture Poultry--a small local farm, and very rarely, we sometimes buy Woodland Eggs–another New Zealand farm that looks good, but we aren’t completely convinced. One time we got a dozen eggs from one of Mark’s family member’s pet chickens!  I met those chickens personally, and they are happy, healthy chickens–resulting in guiltless eggs!

 

Anyways, Oyakodon is a traditionally made with chicken and eggs.  Oyako is a Japanese word for the Parent-child relationship (hence chicken and eggs!).  We make this with tofu, thinly sliced onion, and spring onions.  It is also NOT traditionally made with peas and if any of my Japanese relatives saw this they might be horrified–but I thought it would taste fine and besides, I love peas.  The sauce is made with seaweed stock, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and xylitol (or sugar).

Vegan Pizza

Breakfast today–a big ol’ coffee with rice milk and my daily 2 pieces of toast with avocado and vegemite.

Lunch is always leftovers.  We always make dinner enough for four so that there is always some left for lunch.  It is a great way to save money and it alleviates having to make a mad dash somewhere to buy something before work (as a teacher, I can’t really leave the school during the day either).  Trying to eat vegan can make your options limited as well, so our system has worked really well for us.  So anyway, lunch was left over Mac & Cheese, hummus with crackers, mandarins and Dandelion tea.

Dinner–Vegan Pizzas!  We had a packet of free pizza bases to use.  I scored them when I complained to a bread company about a packet of pizza bases we bought last week that had molded a week before its expiration date.  I was hoping they would simply replace the moldy pizza bases we couldn’t eat, but instead, they sent me an ENORMOUS box FILLED with bread!!  Garlic bread, Turkish bread, three varieties of pizza bases…  Just astonishing.  But pretty awesome.  The moral of this story–it pays to be a complaining American.  Hehe.

This vegan pizza was made with a sauce of tomato paste and cashew/sundried-tomato spread, topped with mushrooms, courgettes, roasted garlic, caramelised red onion, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and Sheese.  We’ve also made these with a pesto spread.  I found that it is best to bake them in the onion before you grate the Sheese on top as the Sheese does not melt very well and gets kinda crispy in the oven, but does go rather soft and gooey on a warm pizza.

Cashew Sundried Tomato Spread

1/2 c (or so) of cashews

4 T. water

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

salt

4 sundried tomatoes

–whiz it all up in a food processor until it is the smoothness and consistency you want.  The amounts are all approximate as I never measure.  I just keep stopping and tasting and stirring until it is the way I want it.  This spread is yummy on toast in the morning and also can be added to tomato-based pasta sauces to make them creamy.

Mac & Cheeze

Breakfast today–two pieces of toast with vegemite and avocado, salt and pepper.

Lunch was leftover tofu curry, mandarins, crackers with hummus, and dark chocolate.

Dinner– Mac & “Cheeze” (recipe here)

And a bean salad with cannellini beans, avocado, and tomato and a white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and dill dressing.

The Vegan-for-a-month Community Challenge!

Subtitle:  An Awfully Long First Post About Why I Gave Up Hot Dogs

My sister Colette and her partner Drew are the originators of the Vegan for a month Community Challenge.  I am starting this blog to show my support and solidarity for her and all the other members of the challenge who have taken it upon themselves to try–at least for a month–to adopt a more ethical, compassionate, and sustainable diet.  The guidelines for the challenge (as outlined by Colette and Drew) are to participate according to one of four options:

1.To eat an entirely vegan diet from June 19 thru July 14th and encourage folks who aren’t ready for it to buy local instead.

2. To eat a vegetarian diet and encourage folks who aren’t ready to buy local.  To try and source dairy from sustainable, humane sources.

3. To eat only local, humanely, and responsibly raised food for this month.

4. To commit to options 1, 2, or 3, not for a month but for even a day or one week.

This challenge, in their words, ” isn’t meant to judge anyone for what they eat, but to give folks options to take on a change that suits where they are at. To try it on for a little bit to see what’s feasible and what is not. In addition, it will enlighten us to what it’s like to live in a culture that supports a more ethical diet.”

For those who are interested in joining them, please visit the Community Challenge Facebook page.  Also check out my sister and Drew’s blog Drew and Colette’s Foodie Adventure.

I find myself excited by this challenge my sister and friends have taken on because my partner Mark and I decided nearly 6 months ago to adopt a vegan diet ourselves.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be…but it isn’t always easy, either.  To be frank, I am not a true vegan.  I continue to think about and question the meaning of my choices all the time.  But we have pretty much cut meat and dairy out of our daily diet–and though there are foods I definitely miss (pizza!  blue cheese! cheese! aaaand….cheese!), I don’t feel deprived at all.  For those of you willing to patiently read through as I launch into the full story of WHY I decided to eat mostly vegan–please read on.  Otherwise, skip to the food photos.  My goal isn’t to preach or persuade…but simply to share a personal story that is still evolving.

For Mark and myself, the idea to become “vegan-ish” was born and explored over a period of a few months.   It was a gradual process of discussing food ethics, factory farming, animal welfare and listening to a few fascinating podcast interviews of notable vegan and vegetarian activists that led us to this decision.  One particular interview hit home for me when a scholar of philosophy (whose name escapes me now) described his own turning point in changing his approach to food.  My memory of the exact words of his story is faulty, but he spoke of a philosophy class he attended where his professor asked the class if they were in support of animal testing regardless of the suffering it caused.  He said he was the only one in the class who raised his hand saying it was justifiable and necessary.

“Would you still feel the same way if there was an alternative?” The professor asked.

He answered, “Ohhh, well then, of course not.  If one was able to find a good alternative, than of course not.”

The professor then proceeded to ask the class what they thought about eating animals.

The class had a very different reaction, and the philosopher, once an avid meat eater, again raised his hand and said, “Of course, it’s okay.  Of course!” –listing a number of reasons for why it was natural and justifiable for people to kill and eat animals.

“But what if there is an alternative?” The professor asked.

Hmmmm….  It was a simple anecdote–a brief lead-in to the rest of the interview– but for some reason it stuck in my head.

Personally, I love eating meat.  I have a very humble, unpretentious (downright lowbrow) love of meat in that a filet mignon is no more delicious and wonderful than a corn dog at the state fair.  It’s all yum to me.  Yes, people who know me well are aware that I have a undeniable weakness for hot dogs and although I can’t say I have developed a taste for organs and guts in other ways, my life abroad in Asia has introduced me to chicken skin grilled on skewers, deep-fried cartilage, and intestine-soup–all of which are quite tasty.

At the same time, I have become increasingly conflicted in regards to what I know of the meat and dairy industry–the suffering of the animals, the hormones and antibiotics pumped into their bodies (and then into ours), the impact on the environment, y’all know the score.  I declared I was anti-factory farming yet willingly put the blinders on in order to eat the foods I loved and, really, still love.  I also clung to the idea that animals really aren’t the same as humans.  I thought that people who got overly sentimental about animal suffering were anthropomorphizing their behavior–projecting human emotions and perceptions upon animals when I felt that their more limited consciousness could never lead to an equal experience and awareness of suffering or fear.

I am not so sure of that anymore.   Is it moral to treat those with less intelligence or consciousness with less kindness, compassion, and respect?  We would all be outraged by the idea of torturing babies or the severely mentally handicapped.  But then again…they are still PEOPLE, we can argue.   But what about our pets?  How would we feel about puppies and kittens having their toes chopped off and their mouths burned (like baby chicks?)  Apparently the animal abuse laws that protect our beloved pets from torture don’t apply to farmed cows, sheep, pigs, or chickens…  I wouldn’t doubt that, for most of us, witnessing what goes on in a slaughterhouse would make us all feel a little sick.

Despite all of this, I still felt it was natural for us to consume meat.  Our bodies are made for it–we have teeth and digestive systems designed for it.  I don’t agree that it is inherently wrong to eat animals and I don’t think I ever will.  But I cringe at what animals must go through in order to serve our demand for their meat.  I can’t deal with the idea of treating living beings as objects.  I realised that it wasn’t the killing or eating that bothered me at all, it was the suffering.  And again that professor’s words echoed in my head—that though it may be natural for humans to eat other animals, I do have an alternative.

Knowing all of this, though, is it enough to make that leap into giving it all up?  A life without pizza?  Without bacon for Sunday brunch?  Without the heavenly taste of butter?  I still feel conflicted by the emotional and cultural ties we have to food.  Food is an incredibly source of joy.  The suffering experienced by a baby calf denied its mother’s milk can be transformed into the happiness of a child eating her first ice cream.  Food is the foundation for so many of our social gatherings.  It is another way of learning about another culture and way of life.  Could I go to Brazil and refuse to partake in a Brazilian barbecue?  Could I return to Japan and NOT eat sushi?   The idea of becoming vegan sometimes felt very isolating.

And then, there are even more questions that arise around the idea of suffering.  I believe it is impossible to live in this world WITHOUT being a party to suffering in some form.  So how do you choose your battles if you are already resigned to not winning them all, if any?  How do you judge one form of suffering is worse than another and worthy of your attention?  When Mark and I started to eat a vegan diet, we found ourselves being challenged by some friends as being possibly hypocritical.  “Do you still wear leather?  Do you buy fair trade?  Do you donate to starving children in Africa?  Do you drive a CAR?”  It’s as though taking one step to try and be more ethical opens you up to be cross-examined for a whole host of other less-than-ethical aspects of your life and why you aren’t doing anything about those. It’s like donating to one charity and being asked why you haven’t donated to 5o others.

But I don’t mind these discussions–I enjoy them.  I ask myself these questions too.  I don’t judge what other people eat (unless it is Balut, and only because I just.can’t.deal with that) as there are SO many ways to try to do good in the world and in your life, and becoming vegan is only one small choice.  I feel lucky to be in a position where I can make that choice–and that my love for a variety of foods has made this so much easier.

I have also made peace with the fact that I’m not 100% vegan.  I don’t really identify myself as such, and don’t feel the need to.  I eat pasture-raised eggs sometimes.  I also eat fish and seafood every once in a while.  If I go to dinner at someone’s house and I am served a pile of roast beef on my plate, I will eat it and thank them for their kindness.  But overall, Mark and I have drastically reduced our consumption and it’s been fine.  The food we eat is delicious, and I will share what we eat over the course of this month in our own ongoing vegan food adventure.