Vegan Pasta with Pesto and Tofu!

Hello, friends.
Okay, this one is short, sweet, easy, and fast. Not a lot to it, but it's realllyyyyy good!
Ingredients
- Packet of pasta
- Olive oil
- Pound of tofu
- Tofutti sour cream or cream cheese (optional)
- Pesto

First things first, grab some pasta and a pot.
Fill pot 2/3 full of water and boil. When boiling add pasta. Wait 5-6 minutes, test pasta, and when it is to your liking drain the water and put pasta in a bowl.
Put a frying pan on the burner add olive oil (and garlic if you want) and put on a medium heat flame. Let it sit for a minute, then add tofu. Cook the tofu a bit, stirring is, then add pesto and a few spoonfuls of tofutti sour cream or cream cheese. Mix pesto and tofu until it is completely and evenly spread. Turn off burner, add tofu and sauce to pasta, and eat! Super easy; even I can do it!
Pictures! Pictures! Look at the pictures!

Vegan Jelly Donut Cupcakes!

(From Veganomicon, by Isa Moskowitz & Terry Romero, www.theppk.com )

Makes 12 cupcakes

Time: about 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soy or rice milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• ¾ cup + two tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• About 1/3 cup raspberry jam or preserves
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour the soymilk, vinegar, and cornstarch into a measuring cup and set aside.
3. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners (or use reusable, bear shaped ones).
4. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients to pour your wet ingredients into.
5. Stir the soymilk mixture with a fork to dissolve the cornstarch, then pour into the flour mixture.
6. Add the oil, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
7. Fill the cupcake liners about three quarters of the way full with batter, then place a heaping teaspoon of jam onto the center of the top of each.
8. Bake for 21 to 23 minutes until the tops are firm.
9. Let cool completely, then dust with confectioners’ sugar.
10. Enjoy!

Veganism 102

Some clarifying notes before I tell y'all why I eat vegan.

Red-40, contrary to popular belief, is not and never has been derived from beetles, but rather petroleum, it is therefore vegan. This is fortunate because as most vegans know many vegan candies contain red-40.

Some vegans also refrain from consuming honey, but not all. I personally keep bees. Yay Bees!

Beet sugar is also unbleached so often if something doesn't specify cane sugar it will use beet sugar, but if you are uncertain then you'll have to decide for yourself.

One more unexpected non-vegan food is wine, sorry to all you drinkers out there, but most wines use a settling process in the kegs which involves milk solids. I have verified this with a woman I know who owns a winery. There are some vegan wines but you have to find them.

Also...

Protein can be found in Soy as mentioned by Cutie, but it is also in legumes and whole grains, also the issue surrounding soy and estrogen is controversial since soy contains phytoestrogen which is different from estrogen and there's debate over whether of not it is actually detrimental. I suggest if you are a female consume what you fear to be excessive soy to look into it personally and not trust hear say. I'm personally not sure where I stand but I also am a male and don't really need a stance.

B-12 can also be found in fortified cereals, energy bars, and some nutritional yeasts (which I find to be a vegan godsend and definitely encourage people vegan and not to look into), I also recently saw a "b-12 shot" which was made by five hour energy so if you're into that, which I personally am not, then that is something to look into. This is really the only nutrient which can not be found in plants and must be supplemented into the diet.

Calcium can also be found in seaweeds, nuts, seeds,molasses, beans, quinoa (an excellent source), amaranth, collard greens, okra, rutabaga, broccoli, kale, oranges, and fortified orange juice, as well as many other sources.

Now on to the good part.

I would like to preface my "why I'm vegan" acknowledging that I am in fact not a vegan. In addition to raising bees I also raise a small flock of chickens and will eat their eggs, you'll see why...

Basho: I eat (primarily) vegan for many reasons but the primary reasoning is that I believe a diet similar to that found in most developed nations is unsustainable to the health of the planet and the greater human race. Factory farming contributes more to climate change than all of the worlds transportation combined. I also realize that it would be inappropriate to assume that everyone in the world in its current state could live on a vegan diet and I would not wish that, but I believe that people as a whole have developed an unhealthy relationship with their food, and certainly most people living in developed nations should not have too much trouble eating vegan since many people do it successfully. I am not opposed to truly sustainable animal farming, but I believe that is so rare in this country and many others that for me I'd prefer to simply avoid it all together. Oh, and I think it's more fun.

Veganism 101

So, you want to be a vegan?
Let's back up a second; what on earth is a vegan?
Vegan (noun) - a vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet.
This means no dairy, meat, eggs, gelatin, animal originated glycerides, and certain kinds of white sugar*. 
Why become a vegan?
This is an excellent question with many, many answers; I encourage all vegans who contribute to leave your own answers to this question here.
Cutie : I became a vegan, because I don't think it makes sense that humans at this point in technological and agricultural development should still be killing and/or taking products from animals. This only applies to those who have access to the proper resources to become a healthy vegan. Not everywhere in the world is so fortunate as the United States to have this option open to them, and if it's not possible, it's not possible and this argument is inapplicable. For where I am located, and for what resources I have available to me it does not make sense for me to take from other living creatures. I seek to stop unnecessary taking from animals, suffering in animals, and abuse of them. 


Basho: I eat (primarily) vegan for many reasons but the primary reasoning is that I believe a diet similar to that found in most developed nations is unsustainable to the health of the planet and the greater human race. Factory farming contributes more to climate change than all of the worlds transportation combined. I also realize that it would be inappropriate to assume that everyone in the world in its current state could live on a vegan diet and I would not wish that, but I believe that people as a whole have developed an unhealthy relationship with their food, and certainly most people living in developed nations should not have too much trouble eating vegan since many people do it successfully. I am not opposed to truly sustainable animal farming, but I believe that is so rare in this country and many others that for me I'd prefer to simply avoid it all together. Oh, and I think it's more fun.


Ali -  if I can afford (mentally/physically/financially) to stay away from animal products, then I will. I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 4 years on-and-off before switching to veganism, partly because I really didn't know it was a 'thing' not to consume dairy or eggs. As dumb as it sounds, I didn't realize animals could suffer if they weren't being killed for their meat. It was actually the book Animal Liberation by Peter Singer that ultimately made me stop consuming animal products. I think that one day I might keep a small flock of chickens and use their eggs, or have some kind of milk-producing animal to love and eat grass in my backyard. But until then, I won't eat/wear/use animal products because I want to take full moral responsibility.


Okay, okay, so how can you be a vegan AND be healthy?
As a vegan you remove a lot of things from your diet, and have to be very careful about finding ways to obtain them. Malnutrition is a serious problem, and becoming a vegan without being properly educated is quite dangerous. 
Protein - this is a very important part of your diet that you need to find ways of getting as a vegan. The most common forms of protein are meat and dairy as a non-vegan, and finding alternative sources can be a challenge at times. One of the most popular and useful forms of vegan protein is tofu. Tofu will assume any flavor that you cook it with, so it is a great source of protein that doesn't have to get old, because you can constantly apply different flavors to it. This is a great source of protein that is usually quite plentiful in most grocery stores. A problem that may arise from tofu is that it contains estrogen. This is potentially dangerous to females eating tofu; it is irrelevant for males. This means that for female vegans you should try not to have an overabundance of tofu; once a day or once every few days is okay, but definitely not every meal. Beans and nuts are also excellent sources of protein. Beans with rice are complementary foods, and eating them together helps better absorption of the nutrients from booth. Nutritionists often debate over whether or not this is true, so some sources may say otherwise.


Iron - Vegan iron sources can be found in the form of leafy, green vegetables, like spinach or bok choy, or can be acquired in the form of supplements.


Vitamin B12 - This is something that cannot be acquired from any non-animal based food aside from B12 enriched drinks like soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk. You can also take B12 in supplements**. B12 is vital to your body, and cannot function without it.


Calcium - Like B12 calcium is hard to find outside of dairy. It can be found in specially fortified soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk, or you can get calcium supplements**.


For more sources and information containing the above go to Veganism 102.






* In the final processing stages of sugar animal bones may be used as the active carbon source to further bleach the sugar to become white. Basically they burn animal bones to make white sugar white. You may avoid this by buying brown sugar, raw sugar, or certified vegan sugar. Sugar in products, such as chocolate or a power bar, will not be white sugar, however. The extra purification process will not be wasted upon sugar that is going into a product and will not be visible.


** Important note about supplements : they often contain gelatin! Make sure to check the ingredients label every time you buy any kind of supplement and make sure it is not animal based at all. 

Welcome!

Hello all,

I wanted to start this blog to compile a number of healthy, cheap, and vegan recipes.
I feel this will be useful considering I will be leaving for college soon, and as many of my friends are teenagers without much money it seems to be a good idea to have a cost efficient recipe book.

Furthermore, I would like to also have sections devoted to important nutritional facts for vegans or anyone considering becoming a vegan.

Anybody who is interested in becoming a contributor to this blog is more than welcome; I'm not exactly sure how blogspot works in this sense, but I think I have to invite each individual to be a part of the blog. If anyone is interested in being a contributor they just need to ask. Leave a comment on this post with your email/blogspot account email and I will invite you, most likely, the day you leave it.

In order to preserve some order to the blog I implore each contributor to try to follow a set list of labels for each post. In the beginning there won't be any, so you can make up your own; however, try to make them as inclusive as possible. Don't try to stretch labels over things, but try to make broad labels that can apply to many different things.

Thanks, everyone. Also be sure to check out http://projectsbyshelley.blogspot.com/ for other vegan recipes. You may also add to this site, I think; I just want this blog to be specifically focused on cost effectiveness and nutrition.

Love,

Cutie