From: VegNews Magazine
Frankie’s Barbecue Sauce from VegNews Magazine

Servings/Yield: about 3 cups

–
2 tablespoons corn oil
½ cup onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
2 ½ cups tomato sauce
½ cup water, divided
1 cup agave
2 tablespoons molasses
½ cup mustard
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 ½ teaspoons dried parsley
1 tablespoon soy sauce or Bragg’s
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
Method

1. In a medium pan over high heat, add oil. Saute onion and garlic until onions are translucent. Add tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of water, agave, molasses, mustard, salt, allspice, red pepper flakes, and parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for about an hour.

2. Add second 1/4 cup of water, soy sauce, lemon juice, and liquid smoke. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Allow to cool slightly and serve generously over Frankie’s Pigless Spare Ribs!!

PopVegOnline NOTE: MAKE A DOUBLE BATCH… you’re going to want MORE of this!!

Oh – and Subscribe to VegNews Magazine… if you don’t already! It is AWESOME!!

From: VegNews Magazine
Frankie’s Pigless Spare Ribs (Barbecue Sauce is next)

Servings/Yield 4 to 6

–
1 ½ cups Onion , Chopped
1 ½ teaspoons non-hydrogenated nondairy butter
⅓ cup nutritional yeast
½ cup Tahini
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups seitan, roughly chopped and divided
2 cups barbecue sauce, See recipe
Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and lightly oil baking sheet. In a medium pan, saute onions in margarine until soft. In a medium bowl, combine nutritional yeast, tahini, paprika, and salt. Add onions and margarine and combine well.

2. In a food processor, combine half of the seasoning mixture and 2 cups of seitan and blend together, adding seitan gradually. Set aside and repeat with the other half of the seasoning mixture and seitan.

3. Form mixture into 1-inch thick patties, and place in rows on prepared baking sheet. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Pour 2 cups of barbecue sauce over patties, and increase heat to 375 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes or until well done. Serve with extra barbecue sauce on the side. (POPVEGONLINE NOTE: 20 minutes follow up is probably not enough… was great, but could be more well done than what we made today).

That’s it! Oh, and if you don’t already subscribe to VegNews Magazine – what are you waiting for???

Here’s a link to what looks like a SIMPLE, FAST, and great Vegan Coleslaw.

I’m going to make it tonight… with Pigless Spare Ribs and Barbeque Sauce from VegNews Magazine.

Here’s the Coleslaw

And later, if they’re as great as I think they will be, I’ll post the Pigless Spare Ribs.

Should I make FRIES with it? Or just potatoes? Hmm… decisions.

Here’s a link to something I admit I haven’t yet made… but it’s on my list!!

Southwest Sweet Potato Salad.

Some interesting uniquenesses… instead of potatoes, sweet potatoes! Instead of boiling, roasting! It’s a great article… though it’s not in “normal” recipe format… so you’ll have to figure out the details.

Let me know if you make it – and what you think!

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!!

Lazy Smurf has done some serious experimenting with Green Chile Pot Pies … and so much more. I haven’t made them, YET, but they’re on the list!

WHOOO HOO!! Sorry… I get excited about new vegan food!!

CHECK OUT THE LINK

The Twitterverse is alive and well this morning. A few referrals came in after announcing the last post.

Here are a few that look promising:

“Chicken Pot Pie” from Vegan Dad! Looks amazing!!

American POT PIE day (Several vegan options!!)

Savory Vegan Pot Pie

Delicious Family Friendly Vegan Tempeh and Eggplant Pot Pie

This is a fantastic, relatively easy and fast vegan meal. It’s quite good, and quite healthy. The authors say you can use any combo of veggies for filling. We made it just like this – and LOVED it.

From the book: The Vegan Table – BUY THE BOOK!!
Tempeh and Eggplant Pot Pie(s)

Servings/Yield

4 servings
Four to Six Pots
2 cups diced eggplant, (
1 package tempeh (8 oz), cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons oil or water, for sauteing
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 stalks celery , chopped
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons capers, Rinsed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 can or jar tomato sauce, 15 oz
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or hot sauce, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder, look for aluminum-free
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup nondairy milk
⅓ cup canola oil or non-dairy nonhydrogenated butter, melted
Method

FROM THE BOOK… The Vegan Table. One that should be ON YOUR BOOKSHELF. ‘Cause it’s all kinds of amazing.

Here we go.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 C, or gas mark 7). Coat 4 or 6 individual ramekins with oil, and set aside. You can also use a 9 inch square pan or a rectangular pan.

POPVEGONLINE Note: we used a 9×9 square, worked fantastic… but would like “larger” ramekins to try next time.

To make filling, steam eggplant and tempeh for 10 to 15 minutes, until eggplant is soft and translucent. At the same time, add water or oil to a large-size saute pan and cook onion and celery until soft. Add fennel seeds, capers, and vinegar, and saute for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, red-pepper flakes, and cooked tempeh and eggplant. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, prepare biscuit dough. Place flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir together. Pour in nondairy milk and butter or oil, and mix just until dry ingredients are evenly moistened. The dough should be lumpy and sticky, not smooth like cake batter.

Remove saute pan from heat, and season filling with salt and pepper, to taste.

Divide filling evenly among prepared ramekins. Drop dough by small spoonfuls on top of each ramekin. Carefully spread dough with back of spoon so it evenly covers filling. Bake pot pies until crust is golden, about 15 minutes.

So… I went to the pet store today to get some wet food from Natural Balance… because in just a couple of days, I’ve noticed an improvement in my dogs using the dry food.

While I was perusing the aisle, holding a few cans of the food, the rep from Nutro walked up to me and asked, “So, you have a vegetarian dog?” Of course I gave her the story… that you can read here… that I’m trying it out on them. “Do they have allergies?” she asked. “No, I just think it’s better for them,” I told her. She continued “but they need animal parts to be a complete dog. There are 28 enzymes they need to be a fully functioning dog, they only get 11 from a vegetarian diet.” Hmm. Sounds like classroom talk. I told her I’m working with my vet, watching them very closely, and we’ll monitor. Plus, it’s a super premium dog food (expensive… and good).

She kept talking. Asking me why I was vegetarian (vegan). I told her about the book – The China Study … and the overwhelming evidence linking diet to disease.

What she said next overwhelmed me, “I could never be a vegetarian because I’m a diabetic.”

Flabbergasted, I had to quickly decide… do I talk more or just nod MM HMMM and walk on. I opted to talk. I told her about the evidence that shows how a vegan diet can reverse diabetes. I told her about doctors who prescribed vegan diets for patients. I told her about my numbers improving so much. She stared, glassy eyed, into space.

What she said next… floored me. “Well, I’ve only got 10 years left,” she said. “What?” I replied. “Life expectancy is 75, and I’ll be 75 in ten years. So, what’s the point?” she explained. First of all, that’s an unreal statement. Second of all, it’s just silly.

Then, the truth came out.

“I really just like the taste of my meat,” she came clean.

Health be damned, I want me some rib eye. Stat.

I felt sorry for her.

But at least I know where she gets her protein.

This is a link to a great video where Bobby Flay was featured on CBS and talks about Eggplant. The recipe he makes has cheese in it, but looks (to me) like it would be amazing without (therefore, vegan).

Thought it was great – and wanted to share!

BOBBY FLAY VIDEO

So… when I decided to do the vegan thing, there were three main concerns:

- my health
- planet health
- animal welfare

Number one, perhaps selfishly, was my health. So at the same time I went vegan, I also dropped Diet Coke.

And I was a big Diet Coke drinker. Every day. double super big ass gulp. Or whatever they call the 64 oz version. Of course, some of that was ice. A pretty good amount. But still. And normally I only had one… but there were some days when I had more than one.

And that’s too much.

Because it’s really just a big cup o’ chemicals. Not in sync with my whole foods outlook.

My routine had been ingrained, I was up every day… brush teeth, exercise (if it was an ex day), breakfast… stop by 7-eleven for a giant-ass diet coke. Even knew all the people there on a first name basis.. Very friendly… and kind of fun and social. People knew me as the Diet Coke guy.

I remember going in to 7-Eleven for a water… and “announcing” that I wasn’t going to be coming in for diet coke… the clerk said “sure, I know… look, we’ve got your cigarettes, your diet coke, your beer… we’ve got all the good stuff people need.” Or something like that. The beer, maybe. But I’ve never been a smoker… and the diet coke just had to go.

Why? Well, the studies on aspartame are frightening. The formaldehyde conversion is scary, too (if it’s on the shelf too long). And just the whole concept of consuming something that was canned or bottled or created in such a scientific way… just didn’t fit with me. And I didn’t want to “need” anything like that.

It was amazingly easy to quit. Even though I did it after a trip to Europe and had jet lag. Maybe that’s why it was easier? Maybe I wrote off the fatigue as jet lag… and by the time I was over that, I was over caffeine withdrawal? Who knows.

But the strange thing is… I was in the car a couple of weeks ago. Decided to stop and get a small Diet Coke. I don’t know why, just sounded good. Todd agreed. So we did. At McDonald’s… home of the best Diet Coke.

We got ‘em… took a sip simultaneously… and looked at each other as if we’d ingested peacock poop.

It was nasty. We decided it was a “bad mix” … between the soda and the syrup. Happens sometimes.

So a week later, we tried it again. This time, from 7-Eleven.

It was even worse.

It’s uncanny to me that something that was so delicious, delightful, and even comforting to me… could become quite gross in just a few months.

I’m glad to say I didn’t replace it with coffee or tea, though a couple of times a month I will have a cup of hot tea (usually decaf, but if I’m feeling racy, I’ll have the high-test).

It’s helped me as I consider other food options. Because so much of what we eat… well, isn’t food. Take McDonald’s, for instance. You’ve seen SuperSize Me… I assume. So I won’t belabor the point. Parts from thousands of cows in a single Big Mac. Scary. But it’s a point well made, and taken to heart. Even though I haven’t eaten cows since 1996.

But I digress. I just don’t want something that processed, that far from the original FOOD it once was, in my body. Packaged “easy bake” foods at the store. Fifty ingredients on the labels. Too many. Tooooooo many.

And the ingredients in a can of diet coke? Waaaay too many. And for ALL THOSE CHEMICALS to add up to ZERO CALORIES – what’s the point?

Or wtf?

Wish I learned earlier, but glad I learned.