Vegan Grilled Cheese

I woke up this morning craving a grilled cheese. A vegan grilled cheese, of course. But when I started to take out the bread and cheese it suddenly seemed very plain, so I took a few extra minutes to indulge creativity. It was worth it. :)

2 pieces of Ezekiel bread

splash of olive oil

1 mushroom, chopped

1 leaf of kale, chopped

2 shoots of chive, finely chopped

dash of parsley garlic salt

dash of Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle (sweet basil, Turkish oregano, thyme, and garlic)

dash of black pepper

between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar

Earth Balance butter

vegan french onion dip

Daiya mozzarella cheese

Lightly toast Ezekial bread to thaw and set aside.

Place the listed ingredients from the splash of olive oil to the agave nectar in a frying pan and saute until mushrooms cooked and kale sufficiently wilted. Remove from pan and set aside.

Lightly butter one side of each slice of toast and put a thin layer of the vegan french onion dip (or substitute with Vegenaise sprinkled with toasted onion) on the other side. Place in the pan used for the sauteed veggies (don't wash it out in between- added flavor to the toast) butter side down. Sprinkle desired amount of Daiya cheese on each piece of toast on top of the french onion dip. Put the sauteed mushrooms and kale on one piece of toast. (This would also be good with a couple slices of tomato and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds added here!)

After a few minutes (for the cheese to start to set), flip the non-veggie toast side on top of the veggie toast side. Let cook a few minutes per side until cheese starts to melt. Turn off pan and let it sit for a minute before slicing.

I served mine with a little cup of left over Rustic Three Squash Soup (recipe here: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/10/three-squash-soup-easy-vegan-recipe.html) topped with another finely chopped shoot of chive and the little odds and ends that fell out of the grilled cheese into the pan while flipping it. Yummy! :)

Vegetable Coconut Curry

*makes 1 large or two small servings*

1/2 cup almond coconut milk, I used Blue Diamond 60 cal
1 Vidalia onion, thinly sliced and diced
2 mushrooms, cubed
1 tsp hot sauce, I used some leftover from Aladdin's Restaurant
1/2 cup almond coconut milk
1/4 tsp Sweet Curry powder, I used Penzey's Spices brand
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 stalks celery, sliced in diagonal strips
approximately 15 baby carrots, quartered into long slices
1 Tb all purpose flour
1 small to medium collard green leaf, destemmed, rolled, and sliced into thin diagonal strips
sesame seeds to sprinkle as garnish

Put 1/2 cup of almond coconut milk in a frying pan and turn it up to medium heat.
Dice the onion and mix it into the milk.

Add mushrooms and hot sauce.

Cook (bubbly mini boil) until onions are translucent, then turn down to low-medium heat.
Add the other 1/2 cup of almond coconut milk, curry, ginger, and salt.
Mix in celery and carrots and cook until tender. Not mushy, but not super crunchy. Red bell peppers would be good here, too, but I didn't have any on hand.

Stir in flour.
Cut collard green leaf, add that to the pan, and turn off the heat.

This would probably be good served over rice, but I served mine over a massaged kale salad.
Check this out! :) This is how the kale and dressing looked before massage:

and this was one minute later!:

I used a modified version of the creamy citrus tahini at this link:
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/03/mediterranean-couscous-salad-tahini.html
for the dressing. I make enough for a week and have been aiming to have a massaged kale salad every day. Yummy! :)

Okay, now back to studying cardiology meds...

LISTEN TO ME.

There is something major going on in the US and possibly soon in Europe and Northern Africa. It is called fracking and natural gas companies pump a ton of chemicals way down in the ground into shale formations and it turns into gas and they pump it up and use it. So far, so good. 

But (you knew that was coming) only between 40%-60% of those chemicals come back up and the rest get into drinking water and people can light water coming from their FAUCETS on FIRE. Fun, eh? Not great for your health, though. 

In addition, the companies doing this are under absolutely NO REGULATION. So they don't have to tell anyone what they are using or how they are disposing of it. Which is a problem in and of itself, because even the stuff that does come back up, they are dumping into rivers or trying to get to evaporate by misting it in sunlight, leading to farmland which should have "clean, country air" having pollution levels worse than Los Angeles on a typical day. 

Eat meat? The cattle out west are drinking this water from polluted streams and wells before being butchered. 

Fitness buff? Athletes drinking a lot of water in these areas have been HOSPITALIZED with arsenic poisoning and asked if they think their spouse is trying to kill them. 

The streams that become polluted lose all of their fish because the chemicals DISSOLVE their gills.

Also commonly occurring is irreversible nerve damage, loss of taste and smell, brain damage, damage to developing embryos, and CANCER. 

People are offered a fairly low amount of money for natural gas companies to use their land and if they refuse, the companies have the right to just TAKE the land anyway!

Oh yeah, and the wells have blown up leveling a mile around it. And earthquakes have also been occurring due to the underground trauma.

Where is this happening? All across the country. Currently it is in 34 states including California, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana (side note here: over 2 million people volunteered here with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, well all of that are was covered in a sediment sludge that was comprised of years of these waste chemicals that had been thrown out to sea, but came back for a visit. Volunteers were exposed to this and could quite possibly even now suffer from the side effects on their health.), Michigan, OHIO, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York… 

This is INSANE. Our water is an amazing thing, something that other planets don't have, so they can't support life. WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR WATER. Once it is polluted, the damage is often irreversible. The cases that can be corrected end up costing 100 times more than if safety measures had originally been in place. 

WATCH the movie "GASLAND."

Something must be done.

Phenomenal Vegan Alfredo! :)

Okay, so this is a very dangerous discovery. Proceed at your own risk. ;)
I found this recipe:
http://veganizzm.com/post/4409367066/creamy-vegan-fettucini-alfredo-with-zucchini-carrot
and made it a few times, tweaking here and there and generally just experimenting and came up with this:

1 medium clove of garlic, quartered
roughly 1 teaspoon of olive oil
3/4 cup nuts, half raw cashews, half walnuts
2 Tb nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tb lemon juice
1 ts sea salt
1/2 cup of almond mylk, more or less

- Put the quartered garlic clove in a small ovenproof dish (I used a creme brulee dish) and drizzle it with just enough olive oil to coat the cloves. (As you've probably noticed, I'm not a big oil fan so this is really splurging for me!) Put in convection oven for about 5-10 minutes or until soft.
- Meanwhile, put the nuts, nutritional yeast flakes, lemon juice, and salt in the blender and blend them roughly together until nuts form a grainy consistency.
- Add in the garlic and oil from the oven and some almond mylk.
- Blend to desired consistency, adding more almond mylk as needed. (This thickens in the refrigerator, so if you find later that it is too thick you can even just add more almond mylk to the container and stir until smooth.)

For pasta you can use traditional fettucini or other "normal" noodles or grate some vegetables you have on hand into long strips and put in a frying pan with some water, salt, and other seasonings (I usually like to use an Italian seasoning blend with basil, oregano, thyme, etc., but lately I've been enjoying a rosemary/garlic blend, too.) and cook until soft. Then toss with alfredo sauce and top with black pepper. For vegetables, I've used the original blog's idea of zucchini and carrots, which was quite good. I also tried a batch with yellow squash and another batch with sweet potato, thickly sliced mushrooms, chopped (deseeded) tomato, chopped (destalked) kale, and thinly sliced celery. Those batches were good, too.

I've been trying to come up with a good vegan alfredo for a while. (The bane of being a vegan Italian and living with non-vegan parents is watching them eat one of my favorite dishes (fettucini alfredo) and not knowing of any way to make anything that would taste like it!) But this is as close as I've come! The cashews make it creamy and the walnuts/lemon juice/nutritional yeast flakes mixture give it a slight parmesan flavor. The roasted garlic is a necessity for it to ring true to my memories of what I had growing up (like I said, we ARE Italian! Garlic goes in everything!) and the almond mylk ties it all together.

TRY THIS!!!! But if you find yourself making it everyday, you can't say you weren't warned! (Refer to disclaimer at beginning.)  :)

Divorce.

Yep, you heard right. The "D" word.
Today I decided that I had enough.
This has been long in the making, but three things in the last 24 hours just topped it off.
I want to divorce myself. (Not sure how that's going to work.)

I want to be completely rid of my old nature.
To remove everything in my life that is hindering my run towards Christ.
To become the servant of God that He intended instead of being caught up in the here, now, and what's going to "make me happy" (but never does).
I want to be committed and compassionate.
Focussed and disciplined.
Pursuing things that actually matter.
To be available for God to use.
To learn to listen to and live by the Spirit.
To be able to help others.
To bring glory to God in all that I say, do, think, and feel.
To be a mirror that when others see me, they are directed to Christ because rather than see me, they see His reflection.
Not to be tied to stuff, but to live with open hands.
Not to fear rejection or pain, but to love all with an open heart.
Not to cling to the ignorance that may shroud tradition and not to recklessly reject what may be correct, but to grow closer and closer to God each day as I learn with an open mind.

If you think of me, prayers are appreciated. Divorce is hard. And it will probably be a long process.
I'm going to have to figure out what all belongs to who (old nature or new). And what is worth fighting for.
Some of it's already been decided, like the impatience, the anger, the nasty remarks and comebacks, the bitterness, the unforgiveness, the discontent, the harsh tones of voice, the pride, and the hostile attitude all has to move out with old nature. I try to pack them up, but they can be like pesky cats escaping their crates.
Some of it is a bit of a gray zone. Like being vegan. And being so intrigued with art.
And every once in a while I see glimpses of those things that are definitely not of me but of the Spirit and that reminds me again how important it is that old nature move out as soon as possible so that the Spirit has more room to grow those traits in me.

How? I'm still not sure, but I've got to try.

Cheezy Kale Hummus Dip

I served this dip warm and it reminded me of the non-vegan Spinach-Artichoke Dip that I so often crave when browsing menus at restaurants but know that if I order it, I'm going to feel crummy later.

Covet no more! I can make a yummy (and HEALTHY!) substitute! :)

This was originally inspired from: http://cleancuisineandmore.com/garlicky-kale-hummus/

Then I played with it. :)

4 cups of kale (about four leaves worth), destalked and sliced into fine strips

1/4 cup of water

1/4 cup of raw cashews or walnuts (or raw pumpkin seeds), soaked

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 can of garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly with hot water (this will make it smoother)

1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 cup of almond mylk

a couple blops of dijon mustard to taste

3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes

1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar

1. Boil about 2 inches of water in a pan on the stove. Place kale in a steamer basket (I had to do mine in two batches due to the steamer's size) and cover. Steam for about 10 minutes or VERY soft.

2. Blend water, nuts/pumpkin seeds (I use mainly pumpkin seeds with just a couple nuts), and garlic together until reasonably smooth.

3. Add all of the other ingredients to the blender and process until smooth.

4. Now, you can either eat it at this point (how my mom prefers it) or proceed to my personal level of heavenly bliss in the next step!

5. Place roughly half of the mixture in a custard ramekin (like for crème brûlée) and put in oven (I used our small toaster/convection oven) for 15 minutes at 350ºF. Enjoy! :)

Variation 1:
Add in 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of quinoa and blend.
Variation 2:
Put a couple spoonfuls of mixture after step 4 in a bowl with a dill pickle cut into slivers and another leaf of chopped kale and microwave for 30 seconds. Then stir and pour over a plate of raw zucchini pasta (grated or spiralized zucchini).

Make-believe World

Heard while guarding:
"Hey guys! Pretend I'm normal again!"

While in this case, it was kids playing, don't we often hear adults saying the same thing? They may use different words and have a far different meaning, but it's still there. We live in make believe worlds of our own making much more than we realize, I think.

"Problem"

I have a problem. 

I love stories.

No, seriously. I really love stories.

Mainly stories about people's lives.

About what they've done. 

Or heard. 

Or said. 

Or wish they hadn't.

Or about what they dream of doing one day.

Just ask the people I work with! It's quite common for me out of the blue to say, "Tell me a
story." To which I usually get a very blank stare and a tentative, "What… kind… of story??"
(This is when it gets exciting- they haven't walked away yet!)
And I over enthusiastically reply, "Anything! Just a story!" 

That approach works when you're with people.
But it becomes harder when you are sitting by yourself at a table in a dark kitchen.
And to make matters worse the clock on the wall just keeps saying, "tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk"
over and over to mock how much time you are wasting wishing for a story.

So I've found a semi-solution. 

Right after blocking out the priggish clock. 

I read blogs. (Completely. Like all the entries.)

Totally random blogs from people I have never met and never will meet.

I argue with them.

And laugh with them.

And get choked up with them.

And then I remember my problem.

I have a test tomorrow.

Field of Dreams

Life is just a field of dreams 

that I'm running past.

Chasing purpose day by day-

nothing seems to last.

Will I be a vapor?

Or even a memory?

Does it even matter?

Is this all futility?

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

And I said

Oh, oh, oh.

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

Just nonsense

Oh, oh, oh.

Laying in this field of dreams,

people racing past.

Missing every moment just

focussed on the next.

Always seeking more and more.

They'll never be content.

Bitter from years of keeping score

and then they end up dead.

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

And I said

Oh, oh, oh.

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

Just nonsense

Oh, oh, oh.

Choosing from my field of dreams

this one seemed the best.

Let it be all consuming-

fill my emptiness.

And though I give it everything

it soon loses all appeal.

Just when I thought I'd found it all,

now the search begins anew.

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

And I said

Oh, oh, oh.

And I said to myself

A, a, a.

Just nonsense

Oh, oh, oh.

Just a field of hollow dreams.

Still my chasm looms within.

Work and money don't satisfy-

futile chasing of the wind.

Life can soon be meaningless

each day becomes a test

The only way to make it count

is in another's life invest.

And He said to me,

"This is my Way.

and in it

you must follow.

You have joined a mission of

love today:

so the world

My Son may know."

A life beyond a field of dreams.