VeganMoFo Day 20 - White Bean and Garlic Stew

Over the weekend it got COLD, and instead of salad for lunch I decided to make a quickie White Bean and Garlic stew that I found on Susan V's Fat Free Vegan blog. Here it is with the changes I made in red:

White Bean and Garlic Stew

2 15-ounce cans cannellini or great northern beans (about 3 cups),(I had small white beans in the pantry) rinsed and drained
1 head garlic (the whole bulb--15-20 cloves)(We love garlic so I used 2 heads)
2 tablespoons water
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped(I used a small bag of organic baby carrots, left whole)
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes (I always use unsalted tomato products)
2 bay leaves (Skipped this - I don't like the taste)
1 cup water (Not enough - I used 4 cups)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)(Skipped this, obviously, on my low salt diet)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice (Skipped this, too)

Break the garlic bulb into cloves and peel off the skin. If you'd like, chop one of the cloves, but leave the others whole. If some of the cloves are very large, you may cut them in half lengthwise.

Spray a large, non-stick pan lightly with olive oil (Used water). Add the onion and sauté until it turns a rich, medium-brown, about 5 minutes (Took more like 15 before it gave any hint of color or translucence). Add the garlic and carrots and sauté for 1 more minute.

Add the beans, tomatoes, bay leaves, and water. Cover the pot and simmer for about an hour, adding water if it gets too thick.

Stir in the salt and pepper. If you're serving the stew right away, add all the parsley and the lemon juice. If you're serving it later or at room temperature, add the parsley and lemon juice right before serving.

Serve over brown rice. (Served as-is)

Makes 6 servings. Each contains: 246 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3%
calories from fat); 15g Protein; 47g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol;
385mg Sodium; 15g Fiber (Of course, these are different for my version)


I took a photo but my camera's messing up. It does look just like Susan's on her blog, and her pics are always much nicer than mine:


Susan Voisin's Photo

As soon as I figure out why the computer isn't recognizing my camera and fix it (I hope) I'll also pop my photo up there for comparison.

ETA 10/22/2009
It took a few days and me tearing out quite few handfulls of hair, but I finally got the pic of my version of the stew uploaded.



As tasty as it was good-looking!

VeganMoFo Day 16 - Mindful Eating

After everything that went wrong yesterday, at least I did one thing right - I was mindful of everything I ate. I ate with peace, without killing, without violence. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a nice essay on Mindful Eating. Enjoy.

VeganMoFo Day 15 - It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To

So I lied yesterday. There will be no recipe today as all I'm making for my birthday dinner is a pot of spaghetti with a jar or no salt added spaghetti sauce. At least I'm making some Italian bread to go with it to jazz it up a bit. No cake, not even a cupcake or bran muffin.

Bad day yesterday. By the end of the day I was sitting here with high blood pressure and chest pains again and debating whether or not to go to the ER (thanks to that crooked contractor, my idiot husband, and a $1500 check) but as the evening wore on the pains subsided. Today started off with the blood pressure high but some meditation and a Richard Simmons DVD workout helped bring it down to normal levels again. Thank goodness no chest pains, and to keep it that way that's why no dietary cheats today. No biggie - I never had a cake for my childhood birthdays, either, because my doc always had me on a low calorie diet. I didn't have my first birthday cake until I was out of nursing school working full time and my co-workers threw a party for me during our lunch break. It may have been my 21st birthday. Maybe next year, but I doubt it.


ETA:
Great! I grabbed a jar of sauce and it opened with a loud POP instead of a soft "pip" noise and the sauce is almost solid. Luckily I had another jar of that scarce no-salt added, vegan elixir and . . .

. . . the same thing happened. A loud POP and possibly a hiss this time. That jar went into the garbage, too. So I opened a can of tomato puree, dumped that into the frying veggies (onions, red & green peppers, mushrooms, garlic - lots and lots of garlic) then added a can of tomato paste for more intense flavor, then dumped it all in with the cooked pasta. Right now I don't give a crap what it tastes like - I just want to get this meal over with. Because of the rain my husband phoned to say he's been delayed, that the trains are about a half hour behind. What next??

VeganMoFo Day 14 - Rice Diet Video

Kitty Rosati, the co-owner and co-director of the Rice House in Durham, NC, has released a video to YouTube. Because the embedding has been disabled for that video (Who knows why) you'll have to click on THIS LINK to see it. Just remember that when she talks about people "on the program" she's referring to those who are attending the Rice Diet program in person, eating at the most restricted level of foods, what's known as "detox" in the at-home version. The daily calorie level on that phase is usually under 1000 cal a day.

I do still follow the McDougall food plan, but even Dr. McDougall himself recommended the Rice Diet for those of us who have a tough time losing weight on his food plan, mainly because the Rice Diet is so restricted in variety of foods and especially calories. I like reading the web site and message boards to look for salt-free vegan recipes. I could never eat that little ever day - many days only 1000 calories! Look around the forums - you'll see so many tales of people who came and left the food plan and very few who are sticking it out. There are more tales of not losing weight on that food plan than there are on the McDougall forums. Can you say "Starvation Mode" everybody?

I promise tomorrow I'll post at least one recipe and probably a picture, too. Sorry I haven't been a good VeganMoFo blogger.

VeganMoFo Day 13 - Sorry Again

Sorry, but no recipe again today as I've been too busy pulling my hair out dealing with a demented old lady (age 91 and has Alzheimer's) and the contractor she hired. She chased him off her property, even though *she* is the one who hired him 10 days ago when she saw him in the church parking lot with his truck - without telling us and for a job that was already done in May. This guy phones me, as it turned out a half hour before he even got to her house, to tell me she needs a whole new foundation (Huh? He's supposed to be laying tar in her driveway in the space between her driveway and the house because he said she complained that the water seeps into the house when it rains), then after he gets there she threatens to call the police on him because he won't leave her property and he tells me she won't let him do the job. I told him since *she* is the one who hired him and *she* is the homeowner (We had a fight with him over the weekend and even stopped payment on checks she gave him last Thursday), if she doesn't want him to do the work to just leave and not do it. He insisted my husband call him ASAP. When I called her back 10 minutes later she tells me he did put the tar down even before he called me. She stopped him when he tried do something to the foundation itself. She still has no memory of meeting him in church, hiring him, or even him being at her house last week putting down the driveway sealant (for the third time in 18 months. He's the third guy she hired on her own to do this job because she doesn't like having puddles in the driveway.) and her giving him 2 checks.

Isn't Alzheimer's Disease wonderful - NOT!

When my husband finally got out of his meeting at work and phoned the guy himself, he first denied calling me at all, then admitted he called once, then finally twice, but denied telling me she needed a new foundation, says he completed the job with no problem and only waved to the old lady, didn't even talk to her (Gee, then why did he call me from her kitchen phone and I heard her screaming at him to get out of her house in the background and he then handed the phone to her so I can talk to her to try calm her down?).

Now my husband has to meet this guy in a (well lit) drug store parking lot after work to pay him, instead of the guy mailing us the bill and us paying him back by mail, like they decided on when they spoke Saturday night. Our son (age 25 and a towering 6'1") is going with him, just to make sure things go quickly and legitimately and they get out of there as fast as possible.

And my cardiologist told me to avoid stressful situations. I don't even want to know what my blood pressure is about now.

When my guys get back from their rendezvous later we'll have rice and veggies for dinner with some cut up seitan.

As for last night's breast of tofu, the texture didn't feel much different from when I pressed it with my cast iron pans, so next time I'll let it press a bit longer. That rice flour coating does taste delicious, so texture didn't matter much.

VeganMoFo Day 12 - New Toy

A few weeks ago I was making a tofu dish and was doing my usual pressing of the 'fu with paper towels, shallow plates, and a cast iron skillet. As usual, I had to keep returning to the kitchen because the "CLANG" as the pan slipped off the tofu and landed on the floor could be heard clear across the apartment. On that particular day my husband was home and was getting annoyed at the interruptions to his television watching (We both love grade Z horror and sci-movies and I don't begrudge him his brain candy on days off work - he deserves them) and asked if there's a better way to do the task.

"Well, yeah!" I replied, "but it's gonna cost ya about $40 with shipping," and I showed him the TofuXpress web site.

I've drooled over this handy dandy gadget the first time it was mentioned on the PPK during the summer but could never justify the cost. Come on! The shipping cost almost as much as the item itself!

He told me to go ahead and order it, that it'll be worth the price to not have to hear that cast iron pan fall onto the floor any more. So I did, and it arrived last week. Unfortunately, I had no tofu meals scheduled for last week. But luckily I did have one for today, Bryanna Clark Grogan's Breast of Tofu. Bryanna had done a blog post on this gadget a few weeks ago so I figured she probably used it for this recipe, so what better thing to try it out on, right?

Just like all those graphics above, after about an hour and a half there was as much liquid pressed out, volume-wise, as there was tofu. Cool! I sliced up the 'fu then whipped up the marinade and started to pour it into the same container the tofu was pressed in and realized it's not going to work - the marinade will fit but not the tofu slices. So, off the concoction went into the same Corningware I usually use when marinating tofu.

Tonight for dinner I'll do the breading as written in the recipe but bake instead of grill my 'fu. I already have a pot of veggie soup on (just a few spoons of Bryanna's non-chicken broth powder, a sautéed onion and garlic, and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables simmered for a few hours), and I'll toss some potatoes in to bake, make up a batch of stuffing and open a can of cranberry sauce. If I'm really energetic I might even toss a loaf of bread into the bread machine.

Another Oops

I tried to edit the last message but Blogger won't let me.

The "Oops" is because I remembered that I did make something sweet in the recent past - about a week or so ago I made banana bread when I had loads of brown bananas. Mmmm, banana bread. I again have loads of rapidly browning bananas so guess what I'm gonna make tomorrow. Maybe I'll even sneak to the store and buy some chocolate chips to pop in it, too.

VeganMoFo Day 9 part 2 - Need Sweets, STAT!

I haven't had one sweet thing, with the exception of fresh fruit, for a month tomorrow, and with all the frustrating events of the past week or so I NEED to eat something gooey. All I have in the house is more fresh fruit, not even one teensy chocolate chip, so I whipped out my copy of Vegan With A Vengeance and put together an apple/pear cobbler.



I didn't have enough fruit to fill the called for 9x13" pan so used one of my smaller Corningware casserole dishes. Instead of oil I used Wonderslim fat replacer (it's been discontinued but my remaining jar is still unexpired) instead of oil in the cobbler "crumb" part. I know I should have reduced the amount of topping because I used a dish half the size, but who's going to complain? Certainly not my husband or myself! :)

If you click on the name of the book above it'll take you to the Amazon page where you can click the "Look inside the book" feature, do a search for "cobbler" and get the recipe, if you don't already own VwaV. And if you don't own it, why not? That book revolutionized my vegan cooking! As long as you're on Amazon looking in the book, click to buy it. Even if you're a McDougaller you can easily change most of the recipes around to make them McD-legal.

It's a good thing my husband doesn't want me to "strain" myself doing the dinner dishes (even though I wash dishes and do other housework all day long) - this Corningware is gonna be a bitch to clean because I forgot to spray it with a non-stick spray first. Oops.

VeganMoFo Day 9 - More Tears

We found out yesterday that after the health insurance pays their share, we'll still owe the hospital over $4,000 for our share of the cost of cardiac rehab. For what - 40 minutes of exercise while the nurses sit on the phone or take turns running to the cafeteria for cupcakes and coffee?!? I have a treadmill and exercise bike at home, and I've already been taking my own blood pressure multiple times a day for years now, so why are we paying them $388 for a 45 minute exercise session? There's no other therapy, no counseling with a pharmacist, dietician, cardiologist or therapist - only exercise, something I can do in my own home and DID do before the heart thing. My husband and I will talk it over together this weekend and if we can't figure out how to beg, borrow or steal $4,000 by Monday I'm just not going back. Of course, I've been in a depressed, pissy mood since we got that notice in the mail yesterday. It's been one bitch of a week - no thyroid med increase, jury duty summons, asthma problems from a moldy library book that forced me to take my rescue meds three nights already, a reprimand from one of the rehab nurses to mind my own business when I called her over to help one guy who was turning blue, and now this. I'm ready to ditch it all - the healthy eating, the exercise, the doctors - and just live life to the fullest and hope I do die early, cuz at least I'll die happy with at least a few pennies in my pocket.

Because we were already running on financial fumes even before my expensive hospitalization (Over $75,000 for the 2 day stay, many charges denied by our insurance) we try make every cent count. In the past, any leftovers from dinner would become my lunches during the week. Now, because my guys don't have to eat low sodium but I do, many of the leftovers I can't touch, so our refrigerator is filling up rapidly with their leavings. Instead of our traditional Friday pizza today I'm insisting we eat leftovers - ALL of us. I still have some rice and veggies and that lentil stew that are salt-free so that's mine, and the boys have leftover spaghetti and Poorman's Meal.



When I made this in the past I used Julie's seitan sausages



or veggie dogs and and a jar of regular spaghetti sauce. I tried it recently with the no salt added/low salt tomato sauce and the guys hated the way it tasted, so this week I made it the way they liked it and I ate that lentil stew on Wednesday.

Hopefully we'll get rid of all the leftovers by Monday and I can post a different recipe for VeganMoFo. I feel like such a poser this year, adding nothing new to the thread. :(

VenanMoFo Day 8 - Hypothyroid

Most likely I've been hypo since childhood. I was born fat, was a round baby, toddler, youth and adult. I found out a few years ago that my thyroid was officially low over 20 years ago but the medical practice that I go to doesn't believe in treating anyone if their TSH is still below 10, and mine was 8 (normal range then was 0.3 to 5.5; the upper limit is a wee bit lower now on the lab slips, but the endocrinology associations want it reduced further still to 3.3). Neither of the docs in that practice believed that a sluggish thyroid contributed to my low pulse rate, high blood pressure, high cholesterol (well, high for a vegan, that is) or excess weight of over 150 pounds above the "healthy" range. Three years ago it hit 7 again and it took a student doctor showing my doc his endocrinology text book before my doc would write a script for the lowest dose of Synthroid possible. In the past 3 years my dosage has been up and down, my TSH has been up and down, and for a three month period last year I was even off all thyroid meds because of what I feel was a lab error (Somehow they had me going from 6 to 0.01 in 6 weeks with no change in dosage). This past summer I was finally switched to natural dessicated thyroid replacement and my dose was increased twice in three months and I was finally feeling human again.

Then my heart thing happened.

And my primary care doc got scared that the thyroid med may have contributed to it and immediately cut my dose in half. I asked the cardiologist about this and he said that's ridiculous, that having a sluggish thyroid may have contributed to it, not a well-controlled one, but my doc won't budge. My TSH is now back up to 5.8 but he refuses to increase the dosage back to where it was before, even though my blood pressure is again creeping up, my pulse is again dropping down into the 30's at rest, I can barely stay awake, everything aches, and my rosacea is making my face look like a hormonal teenager's. He said if my TSH is still down in 2 months when I have the lab repeated he'll increase it.

Of course, I'm still recuperating from the heart thing, going to cardiac rehab three times a week and leaving the place looking as if I just walked out a sauna. The nurses are getting upset because my blood pressure is higher than it was when I first started coming three weeks ago and it should be lower. They also noticed that I'm getting tired out much sooner and not putting as much effort into the workout as I was a few weeks ago. I explained to them about the thyroid. I have a feeling that one of them is going to make a phone call to my doc and give him hell, or tell the cardiologist what's happening and have him phone my primary care doc and have the dosage increased.

What has all this to do with VeganMoFo? I'm just too pooped to cook elaborate meals, or even most everyday fare, lately. My fatigue is causing me to nap at least 3 mornings a week after rehab and every day in the afternoon. I'm falling asleep while watching Jeopardy at 7pm, too, then waking up multiple times during the night, sometimes waking at 3am and can't get back to sleep before the 4:45am alarm.

Yesterday's stew was great - dump everything into a pot and let it simmer all afternoon. Today my guys are getting spaghetti and I'll eat some leftover stew, as I'm in no mood to make pasta sauce from scratch (none of the lower salt brands in the stores here come without oil or cheese in it). I'm not even making the bread for it - my husband will grab a loaf on the way home from work.

I know I just saw the doc Monday, but maybe I'll phone him later when he has hours and beg him again to increase the dosage. I can't keep this up for another 2 months!