Ganymeder

Normally, I prefer to use ordinary, everyday ingredients in my cooking. You know what I’m talking about. The type of ingredient that you can get at virtually any grocery store, whether it’s in Los Angeles or the most out of the way town you can find. Things like flour, spinach, apples… heck, even vegan soy milk can be found in almost any store nowadays. They sell it in Target! But one of the few products I try to always keep on hand, even if I have to drive out of my way to get it, is Nutritional Yeast. Why? Well, there are several reasons.

First and foremost, it’s yummy. I am completely serious. I know the name sounds unappetizing, but that’s not the point.

Nutritional Yeast usually comes in bags or a plastic container that you can buy at your local health food store, co op, or even order online. You can sprinkle it on salads or add it to dishes like soups and sauces for additional flavor. Sometimes I like to sprinkle it on dishes just because it makes the presentation pretty. It looks like golden colored flakes or powder.

That’s important. Nutritional yeast comes as pretty golden flakes or a fine golden powder. It is NOT the granular yeast you get to make your bread rise. If you get that stuff and use it as a condiment, you’ll be very disappointed.

Nutritional Yeast lives up to it’s name because it’s very, you guessed it, nutritional. Mainly, it contains a ton of B vitamins, as well as being cholesterol and fat free. And tasty. Did I mention tasty?

The flavor has been described as both nutty or cheesy. I think it has a hint of both. It’s used in a lot of vegan cheesy-ish type recipes for soups, sauces, and even faux cheeses. Honestly though, if you really want to know what it tastes like, you’ll just have to taste it. You can usually get a small bag of nutritional yeast for a few dollars.

Now, I’m not telling you to rush out, buy a bag of nutritional yeast, and just eat it straight. But as a condiment? Heaven! I find it combines nicely with vegan margarine on mashed potatoes or popcorn, but I’ve also loved it on salads, soups, and even in brown gravy!

Among vegetarians and vegans, Nutritional Yeast is a staple for the simple reason that it’s an easy and versatile source of B12. I’m not going to go into incredible detail about why vegans need to make sure they have an adequate source of B12. Just trust me. It’s important. It’s not difficult either since many cereals, soy milks, and other staples are already routinely fortified with B12. As I said before though, Nutritional Yeast has other benefits.

On the B12 note though, let me mention one more thing. Not all Nutritional Yeasts are created alike. The Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula Nutritional Yeast contains B12, but some of the other ones do not. Some stores even carry (for some unimaginable reason) Nutritional Yeasts that contain non vegan ingredients such as whey and other dairy products. So it pays to read the label.

So let’s sum up. Nutritional Yeast. It’s nutritious. It’s a great source of B vitamins - especially B12. It’s versatile, yummy, and last but not necessarily least, it’s pretty.

What are you waiting for?

When I first went vegan, I was asked several times what we’d do around the holidays - as if eating flesh, eggs, and dairy were prerequisites for a happy holiday!

I offer as an example our Christmas feast for this year (2008).

We had Celebration Roast with brown gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, and brussell sprouts with mustard sauce. Everything was incredibly easy to make and find.

I had been toying with the idea of making a vegan mushroom strudel, but then I saw the Celebration Roast at my local conventional grocery store. I was dying to try it! I’d heard rave reviews about it on the Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast.

The Celebration Roast was absolutely delicious! The flavor was divine - something of a roasted vegetable flavor. The gravy complimented it nicely. Since the gravy had no fat, my Mother in law (who is on a restricted diet) was even able to eat some. The carrots and brussell sprouts were steamed, and the mustard sauce was something I’ve improvised before. I make the sauce similar to white gravy, but use mustard and lemon juice and less margarine. I used soy milk instead of cow’s milk.

For dessert I made a pecan pie, but since I don’t care for pecans I also made brownie a la mode for myself. The brownie recipe is super easy (I made both desserts last night). I heated the brownie for about 30 seconds in the microwave and topped it with So Delicious vanilla ice cream and sprinkled it with slave free cocoa.

It was yummy.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this and maybe will try some of these recipes in the future. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an enjoyable meal that was so easy to prepare. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

I wasn’t going to post anything specific to the holidays this year, but this craft was too cute to pass up. Christopher’s second grade class did this as a Holiday project, so I can’t take credit for the idea. I did “veganize” the ingredients though.

What you will need:

1 quart soymilk or orange juice container (or a single serving one)

scissors

white frosting

graham crackers

assorted colorful candies

You can get the basic idea from the photo. Cut the container to the appropriate size. You’ll be using the slanty top for the roof of your “house.”

Frosting is to be used as the mortar of the house. You can either put it on the back of the individual pieces of graham cracker and candies or you can just spread it over the house. We did a little of both.

Break off the graham crackers to the appropriate size and mortar into place on the container. Our soynog container had a round hole for the top to screw on. We used that as the chimney. The more colorful the candies, the more colorfully you can decorate the “house.”  We used jellybeans, hard peppermint candies, smarties, and lollipops.

Have fun with your creation!

*Please make sure all the ingredients are vegan: meaning no animal products such as milk, cheese, whey, eggs, or honey. Also, please do not use any slave chocolate or slave cocoa products. The ingredients for the project are easily found in almost any grocery store if you just read the ingredients.

While in the Nanowrimo chat, another poster recommended I read Little Brother by Corey Doctorow. I’d heard of his work before through the “I should be writing” podcast by Mur Lafferty, so I was curious. My fellow chatter described the book as a modern day 1984. I think they were pretty close.

While not quite as extreme as the society envisioned by Orwell, the book raised questions about our not too distant future. Technology is more advanced, but not so much that it’s unbelievable. High school kids still deal with peer pressure, cut classes, and play games both online and off. A terrorist attack happens and suddenly the heroes of the story, high school kids, are caught in the middle.

In November I had promised myself I wouldn’t start any new books. I wanted to use all my free time for my Novelling and nano related activities. Once I downloaded the book, I put it on my palm and thought (mistakenly) “I’ll just take a quick look at the intro.” BIG mistake. The story grips you from the very first paragraph. I couldn’t put it down. Every time I had a spare minute, I wanted to find out what was happening in the book. Marcus, the hero of the story, has to decide what to do when the Republic (the United States), through fear, becomes the oppressor. The book deals with really tough issues, but mostly the book is about freedom. Freedom from tyranny. Freedom of information. Freedom of expression.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book, apart from the plot, was the information given about Creative Commons and various Independent bookstores around the country. The book was an adventure story, information portal, and future warning all wrapped up in one. You can even get the book for free in various formats, though after reading it I’m sure you’ll want to buy a print copy both for yourself and to support the author. You can also purchase it as a DRM free audiobook.

No matter what format you prefer, start Little Brother as soon as possible. You won’t be able to put it down!

I know it’s December so I should probably be writing about the upcoming holidays, lessons learned, New Year’s resolutions, and so on. But I’m not going to. So there.

It struck me that Nanowrimo and Vegan cooking have a lot in common. It might not be immediately obvious, but there are definite similarities. In Nanowrimo you have an extremely limited amount of time to do an enormous amount of writing, and in veganism you cook with only plant based foods.

While veganism might initially seem limiting to someone on the typical omnivorous diet, it really isn’t. You have an incredible selection of things to choose from the plant kingdom - hundreds and thousands of fruits, vegetables, legumes as well as tasty condiments. By freeing yourself from habitually drowning things in dairy and animal products, you force yourself to think outside the box. Why use bacon, cheese and sour cream on a baked potato when you can top it with salsa and cilantro instead? Why drown your pasta with a heavy cream sauce when you can make a tasty basil walnut pesto?

Nanowrimo also seems limiting due to the short time period, but because you have so little time to write you give yourself permission to write whatever you want. Just make sure you meet your daily word goals. The deadline allows you to free yourself from your inner editor. You become creative in ways you normally wouldn’t allow yourself. Plot bunnies such as flying saucers abducting Victorian ladies don’t seem so far fetched during the November novelling craze.

What’s my point? Well, perhaps everyone should learn to think outside the box by limiting themselves. When you’re less limited, you tend to fall back on familiar patterns and not bother thinking of something new. You never know what you’ll come up with unless you try. So my suggestion this holiday season is… try. Try something new and different, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

During the holidays, people love to keep up family traditions and share them with those they love. Too often, though, we seem to get caught up in the tradition instead of what the holiday is actually about. Everyone knows that, but sometimes it’s easy to forget. If a tradition gets in the way of family and friends, then it’s time to come up with something new.

Ever since I was a little girl, my family ate a great big turkey on Thanksgiving, and we exchanged gifts on Christmas. When I went vegan in my late twenties, people would ask me questions like “What are you going to do for Thanksgiving? Christmas?” When I answered that I would be making Dish X for the holidays, I would get mixed reactions of shock and amazement. All too often I would hear comments about how it wasn’t Thanksgiving without a turkey. As if the important thing was sitting down at a table around a dead bird and picking the carcass.

We’ve tried different strategies for the holidays, and we try to be considerate of the people we’re spending them with. So sometimes we’ll invite someone over to our house for a Vegan Thanksgiving dinner, and sometimes we’ll eat alone and then go out afterwards. But no matter what we do, we always have a good time. We started a new tradition several years ago for Thanksgiving where we would sponsor a rescued turkey from Farm Sanctuary. On the fateful Thursday, we would have his or her photo on our table as the centerpiece. We would pile all the delicious vegan dishes around it, from Roasted Root Veggies with a Phyllo dough crust and balsamic maple sauce to the sweet potato pie and (vegan) Cornish pasties. We’d eat until we were stuffed and sleepy and almost always left the dishes for later.

Another holiday tradition that we’ve enjoyed involves the “Thankful Turkey.” We create a poster of a turkey without the tail feathers. Then, at mealtimes throughout the month of November, we’d each write something we’re thankful for on a paper feather and tape it to his tail. By Thanksgiving day, he’d be covered in colorful feathers. We’ve always enjoyed watching his tail grow.

This year, we were especially fortunate to be invited by my inlaws to have a completely vegan Thanksgiving at their new home. My mother in law is an omnivore, but she looked up recipes, consulted, and cooked a fabulous feast that we all enjoyed. Afterwards, she shared the recipe for the Seiten turkey and gravy that she found, and she raved about how it was so simple and easy. I brought the apple pie and soy vanilla ice cream for dessert. Everyone left the table pleasantly stuffed, and a good time was had by all.

For Christmas we have the usual tradition, but when it comes to gift giving, well - we try. The truth is that we’re rotten at giving people gifts. Even when I think that I’m getting someone the perfect thing, it almost always turns out to be wrong in some way. Enter our life saver - the gift card! Easy to mail, easy to pick out, easy to spend. I know it’s not as flashy or personal as something wrapped in a shiny box with a big bow, but what are you going to do? Some may argue it’s lazy, but I say that if you can’t pick a good present for someone after thirty something years, then go for it. Who wouldn’t like to go on a free spending spree?

Again, the tradition of giving gifts is not what the holiday is about. But we try to keep up the traditions that make everyone happy. Still, if someone asks for you to not buy a gift, I humbly suggest you listen to them. Respect their word. If you really feel the need, you can bring them something tasty you baked. If you’re strapped for cash, you can always give them a gift certificate for your time. Maybe something along the lines of “Good for one brownie baking session.”

I think it’s important to remember that traditions are about bringing people together and making them happy. If a tradition is divisive or stressful, it’s time to try something new. Above all, enjoy yourselves by doing something nice for someone else this holiday season, even if it’s just telling someone “Happy Holiday!”

Late nights, early mornings, caffeine binges, and brownie overload. Sadly, the end of Nanowrimo is upon us.

What I’ve learned from Nanowrimo this year.

(This only reflects my opinion, though others might have similar outlooks)

1. Nanowrimo is not just for adults and teens, but for much younger children as well. I had heard of the Young Writer’s Program for Nanowrimo, but I had thought it applied only to teens. YWP is for 13 year olds and younger who want to try to write a novel in a month. The biggest difference is that the site is more protected and the participants set their own word goals for the month. My seven year old surprised me by asking to do Nanowrimo this year. He was able to go to his own YWP webpage and watch his progress bar progress through the entire month, and he finished his 1,000 word novel on Saturday (11/22) - over a week early!

2. Packing more into your schedule actually increases productivity. At least, it seems that way for me. I should probably say I remembered this or rediscovered it, because I believe Chris Baty said basically the same thing in his wonderful book “No Plot! No Problem!” I wasn’t really sure I could do a nano this year. I had more going on in my personal schedule, and I wasn’t sure I could make the time for it. Amazingly, the less free time you actually have, the more constructive you are with how you use it. I found myself writing during 10 minute breaks between housework. I would write when I’d wake up a little later or earlier than usual. I carried my notebook and eee pc around with me so I could write when I had to wait somewhere or if I got a sudden burst of brilliance. Instead of having less energy and feeling overwhelmed, I had fresh bursts of energy and inspiration that carried over into other parts of my life. I’ve gotten more done during this month of November than I usually get done in two months around the house.

3. Clearing out all the temporal clutter in your schedule really pays off. This is something I already knew, but it’s worth stating again. No new books. No web surfing. No compulsive email checking. It’s amazing how much time and mental energy that frees up. It’s really quite liberating to put all the unnecessary stuff on hold and just say, “I’ll get back to you in a month.”

4. You find inspiration in every little thing, when you’re looking for a good story idea. I found myself constantly thinking along the lines of what would be good material for my nano. A Super hero using her veganism for the forces of good? Sure! Caffeine addiction in main characters? Sure! It’s funny AND relevant since my novel was written primarily on soda, tea, and several batches of brownies.

5. Time is strangely warped when in writing mode. If you have tons of inspiration and the ideas are just flowing, you find tons of time to just write, write, write like crazy. When you aren’t sure what to do or where you’re story is going, suddenly everything else needs to get done first before you can possibly sit down and spare a minute to write. But, this leads me to…

6. Even when you’re stuck, if you just write whatever pops into your head, you’ll get past whatever perceived difficulties arise.

7. Deadlines are essential. No matter how many dishes need to get done (point #5) or difficult parts you come across (point #6), if you have a deadline, you MAKE yourself cross it.

8. Apparently, when taking a break from writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (or less), writing on a blog is a stress reliever. Who knew that writing nonfiction could be a way to relax from writing fiction?

9. Reaching your word count early is less satisfying when you haven’t reached the actual end of your story. Conversely…

10. The end of your story approaches more rapidly when you’ve already reached your overall word count goal.

11. When you’ve reached the end of your novel, you experience total bliss. Let me just state that again. Just to be clear. TOTAL. BLISS.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to reward myself for my literary achievement in high speed novelling by having a nice meal, starting a new book, and watching Stargate Atlantis.

Okay, first things first.In the interest of not neglecting my obligatory mini activism for the month, you may print out your free flyers here. The Thanksgiving one is very simple. You print out both sides and then cut the paper in half. When you see it, you’ll understand. You should get 2 flyers out of each sheet of paper. They have enough simple vegan recipes to make a nice Thanksgiving meal.

If it’s in your budget, for $20 you can “Adopt a Turkey” at Farm Sanctuary. The money helps the sanctuary care for the animals. The sponsored turkeys get a nice Thanksgiving meal before they are taken to their new adopted homes.

***Now on to NaNoWriMo!

To be honest, I had no intention of doing this for 2008. I had decided in the past month that I just had too much on my plate to squeeze it in. I had no definite plot ideas like I did last year, and I was not feeling particularly motivated. However, after reading about the people who squeezed it in despite working on doctorate thesis and working another job, I felt a little guilty and so I decided to go for it.

It’s fun. I just didn’t feel like I had a right to make time for myself when I had other things to work on. But you know what? Everyone needs some time to themselves. Plus, I remember that last year I actually felt more productive overall when my time was constrained working on Nano.

Oh, wait… You don’t know what Nano is? I’m sorry, let me rewind a bit. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. For the month of November, you challenge yourself to write a complete 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Start at Midnight the beginning of the first day and finish by Midnight of the last day of November. The novel cannot be something you’ve worked on previously. It has to be from scratch and have a beginning, middle, and (hopefully) an end. Other than that, the sky’s the limit. Want to write about aliens kidnapping Queen Elizabeth and replacing her with Herbert Hoover? That’s fine! As long as it’s begun on November 1st and (hopefully) the plot is resolved with at least 50,000 words by the 30th, you’re gold.

The Office of Letters and Light created free programs such as National Novel Writing Month to help spark a lifelong love of writing in children and adults around the world. If you would like to sponsor my Novel, the proceeds would go to this wonderful organization. Please go here to sponsor my Novel.

I’ve stocked up on sugar and caffeine, soda and chips, and fingerless gloves. I even have my Typewriter Snoopy to inspire me. Never underestimate the power of large amounts of caffeine and a writing mascot. Once this blog is posted, I’ll be off participating in the literary abandon of high speed novelling!

I usually try to update this webpage weekly, but holiday season is the exception. This post will probably stay up for the month for 2 reasons. Reason One is to highlight the Thanksgiving flyers so more people will be able to download them. Hopefully, at least a few will use the recipes and save a turkey’s life. Reason Two is that I’m devoting my extra time to increasing my word count for NaNoWriMo instead of posting here. The two issues of this post are relevant for the whole month anyway. If I can either figure it out or ask hubby to do it, I might add word count widgets to the page (just in case anyone other than myself is interested). If not, you can always check my word count at my Nano page here.

Happy Thanksgiving, and see you in December!

***

For past posts concerning last year’s Nano novelling experience, please check out:

Nanowrimo 2007 Next Month!

Nanowrimo 2007 Winner!

Writer’s Cafe (the program) and other technical writing tools.

It’s that time of year again. Time to put up cobwebs instead of sweeping them away. Time to stay up late watching scary movies instead of going to bed at a sensible hour. And, of course, time to Trick or Treat!

Now, speaking as a rabid raving Halloween lover, I have to tell you that I’ve given this quite a bit of thought. At first, you might think that it’s nearly impossible for vegan kids to get (let’s face it) butt loads of candy and treats that they can actually consume - Not to mention what the beleaguered vegan can give to greedy little Trick or Treaters that come a knockin’ October 31st. But never fear, it’s not really hard. It just requires a little foresight and planning.

For one thing, if you want to try to avoid the whole “getting non vegan treats” from well meaning omni friends and family, you can always have a party in your home. That way you control the games and the types of treats the kids are given. One year we had a costume party for my son’s birthday, and it ran along the same lines as Halloween. For starters, I put out a large box full of dress up items like funny hats and plastic googley eyed glasses (which was a big hit)! To get their goody bags, they had to go on a scavenger hunt with lots of clues sending them all over the house.

It’s not expensive to create vegan goody bags filled with vegan jelly beans, assorted non chocolate candies and a few inexpensive toys. At party stores you can usually buy bags of toys to give away such as spider rings, bouncy balls, marbles, and mini card games. If you’re feeling especially generous, you could maybe buy a slave free chocolate bar (such as Newman’s Dark Orange Chocolate) for each child. Another time tested idea is to have your little ones Trick or Treat for a charity like UNICEF. Again, as long as they get goodies at home from you, they shouldn’t be disappointed.

The party idea might work for younger children, but once those vegan tykes are old enough to go to school I’m fairly confident they’re going to be besieged with treats that you wouldn’t want in your home. How do you deal with this tactfully? Do you make a point of returning the candy? That’s really up to you. Personally, I’d at least explain why the child can not have the intended treats, if possible before hand so as to avoid any hurt feelings.

Let’s just cut to the chase and say that, despite your best efforts, you’re child comes home with a bag full of non vegan candy and slave chocolate. What do you do? How do you handle this without the child being disappointed? I assure you, I’ve given this quite a bit of thought.

From my own experience and also that of some other vegan parents, the ol’ switcheroo seems to work nicely. Basically, your child brings home their “goodies” but you offer (give) them in exchange a much better bag of vegan ethical goodies that no kid in their right mind would refuse. The trick is to make YOUR goody bag much more appealing than anything they would bring home. So far this year, my son’s exchange-bag-o-goodies includes 3 of his favorite candy bars, some snack bars, a mini notebook (a guaranteed favorite as he loves to draw constantly), and a monster hand puppet. I plan on getting a few more things here and there over the next few weeks; Maybe some little bags of chips and some vegan jelly beans. I might even throw in a pack of Chaotic cards and a Tech Deck (he collects them). Whatever your child is interested in or collects that isn’t too pricey would be a good choice. And, of course, I will let him keep any vegan candies he does happen to collect. The exchange only applies to the non vegan ones.

So enjoy your Halloween without taking a “holiday” from your ethics. And, of course, have a BOO-tiful Holiday!

***

Below are some links for Fair Trade vegan chocolates and jelly beans:

http://veganstore.com/sjaaks-organic…age_1/810.html

http://veganstore.com/vegansweets-je…age_1/842.html

**In the interest of full disclosure, the past Halloweens my son was vegetarian but not vegan. So he was able to “keep” a greater percentage of the candies he was given. This Halloween will be his first completely Vegan Halloween. I asked him about the exchange bag though,and he’s very excited about it! Also, the other vegan parents I’ve communicated with tell me this method works well for their own children.

**Also, please check out the Free Pamphlets page I posted (always found on the right column underneath the page search engine) for some literature to give out before the Holiday. Thanks!

As a little girl, I never was fond of beans. I’m not talking about regular ol’ string beans, but BEANS beans if you know what I mean. You don’t? Well then, I guess I’ll have to explain. The little roundish beans of infinite variety - everything from black beans and pinto beans all the way to (gasp) LIMA BEANS. Honestly, I don’t even remember if I’d ever had Lima Beans as a little girl, but that didn’t stop me from hating them anyway just out of principle.

So, you can imagine the enthusiasm with which I greeted my husband’s offer to make Dilled Puree’d Lima Beans one Thanksgiving several years ago.

Yes, I’m sure you can.

But I was wrong! So wrong I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong I was… They’re something like the consistency of mashed potatoes, all “buttery” and creamy richness. I loved them, so if I, of all people, loved them I’m sure you will too.

Dilled Puree’d Lima Beans

You will need:

Lima Beans (obviously)

nondairy margarine (such as Earth balance or Smart Balance light with Flax oil)

dried dill

lemon juice

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Cook lima beans according to package directions. When done,drain and put in food processor.

Add remaining ingredients in the following order : margarine, dill, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I’m not going to give you hard and fast amounts because its really up to your taste, and I never got the recipe from hubby so I just winged it anyway. But I usually use 2-4 Tab of margarine, 1-2 Tab dill, a few squirts of juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

Puree’ til the consistency of thick mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!