Tofu Scramble With Cheezy Sauce

For dinner last night I made a tofu scramble with a whole lot of veggies.  Michelle suggested we make a cheezy sauce from the Veganomicon (one of our favorite cook books) to put over the top.  It was delicious.

This high protein meal included tofu, carrots, broccoli, peas, russet potatoes, a green pepper, and diced onions.  I started with frying the potatoes, carrots and onions in about a tablespoon of olive oil until the potatoes were tender.  Then I threw in all of the other veggies and crumbled a block of tofu into the pan and cooked everything until it’s heated through.

You’ll have to buy the Veganomicon for the whole cheezy sauce recipe. It involved some vegetable broth, flour (we used rice flour), a tiny bit of oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, tarragon, yellow mustard, and some turmeric.  It is really good and thickens up like a nacho cheese.

Here is the end result:

It was so good, I added a little ketchup to mine which really add to the flavor in my opinion.  Michelle lucked out and got to take the leftovers to work today.

A Changing of Perspective

My perspective on working out has been changing quite a bit as of late.  I have officially had 10 personal training sessions.  With only 2 more sessions left I am kinda sad that I will not be working out with Beth one on one anymore.  I am optimistic that I will be able to continue working out at least 3 days a week and I might even do one of her boot camps that she offers.  What Beth has taught me over these past 5 weeks will stay with me forever.

At the beginning of this whole getting healthy journey of mine (back in August of 2009) I was pretty convinced that I should be going to the gym and just doing as much cardio as possible.  Everything I read said that I should be counting my calories coming in, then burn as many calories as possible at the gym to create a calorie deficit and subsequently loose weight.  While I did this for a couple of weeks and it seemed effective I quickly grew tired of it.

I was too focused on loosing the weight, on changing my external appearance and I eventually stopped making progress and started gaining weight back.  Since the beginning of January I have been going doing full body workouts with every visit to the gym.  My workouts have been dominated by body weight and free weight resistance exercises with a typical warm up of running on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes.  The goal here is to build muscle, strengthen my core, and get my body moving.

The changes I have seen in my body since January 3rd (my first workout of the new year) have been so inspiring and motivating.  I have begun to see definition where there wasn’t any before and the weight is coming off again!  One of the advantages of working out like this is that as I build more muscle my body will automatically burn more calories throughout the day.  The more muscle mass that I have the higher my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is the amount of daily energy expended while at rest.  How cool is that.  Essentially the more muscle I have the more calories I burn while sitting on my but watching a movie.  Plus, after a full body resistance workout (which is what I have been doing) your BMR is elevated for the following couple of hours compared to a cardio workout where it is only elevated for the next 45 minutes or so.

All of this means that if I continue to do these types of workout and continue to build muscle that my body will continue to burn calories at a higher rate.  If I can just control what I am eating and focus on healthful whole foods most of the time the weight will keep coming off and I will continue on the path of being a healthy vegan.

Coconut Crusted Tofu

I had a moment of inspiration last night.  After peering into our fridge last night I discovered some Tofu and I decided to us it.  Now, I have the tendency to season with the same herbs and spices so that everything sort of tastes the same, well not last night.  I made Coconut Crusted Tofu and it was amazing.

You wanna know how I made it don’t ya?  Well it is surprisingly easy and pretty darn healthy.

The ingredients you will need:

• 1 block of extra firm or super firm tofu
• some non-dairy milk or creamer
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place a cooling rack inside of a cookie sheet (you can see it in the photo above) and spray with some cooking oil.

Drain the tofu as much as possible, if you like you can freeze the tofu and then drain it, this gives it a nice texture and make it easier to drain.  Cut the tofu into strips.  Pour the milk or creamer in a shallow bowl (I used coconut milk creamer and it worked great).  Mix the breadcrumbs and shredded coconut and place into a different shallow bowl.

Now place as many of the tofu strips into the milk or creamer as possible, just let them hang out in there.  Take one out and dredge it in the breadcrumbs and coconut.  Make sure the tofu gets nice and covered.  Place the tofu onto the cooling rack which should be sitting nicely inside your cookie sheet.  Repeat until you have run out of tofu.  If you are starting to run out of milk or the breadcrumbs & coconut mixture you can always add a little more to the bowl.  After placing all of the tofu on the cooling rack I sprinkled some salt and pepper on top which really brought out some of the flavors.

Cook at 400 for about 35 - 40 minutes, flipping half way through.  Take them out when the tofu appears to be crispy and slightly brown.

It was awesome, we had it over quinoa with two sides; raw massaged kale and some roasted beets, turnips, sweet potatoes, and apples from Boston Organics.

Boston Organics Dogma Box

I posted this photo a couple of days ago letting everyone know that we got our first box of organic produce from Boston Organics and boy are we happy with it so far.  Let me tell you a little about the type of box that we are recieving, it’s called the Dogma Box.

According to Boston Organic’s website the Dogma Box “includes produce sourced as close to Boston as possible.  This is our only box that includes produce restricted geographically!  We source produce close to home and move furhter out until we can provide at least 8 unique items.”  Buying local and seasonal vegetables is an excellent way to reduce your toll on the environment.  One of the reasons that we like to shop at Whole Foods is that they label where all of their produce is from and we can then decide to purchase those items that have traveled the smallest distance.  The further a product travels to the grocery store the more gas and oil has been used to get to my plate.  Part of being Vegan for me is reducing my impact on the environment and buying local helps me do that.  In addition to all of this produce being local it is also all certified organic.

Currently here in the Boston area we are in the depths of winter so being able to get this organic seasonal produce is pretty amazing.  We have been very interested in joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to get fruit and veggies during the spring and summer from a local farm. Unfortunately CSAs typically have a very large upfront cost, one that we always planned to save up for during the year, but never actually did.  Boston Organics has solved that problem for us, the Dogma Box is $29 per week and we pay on a weekly basis.  Plus, we are still supporting local farmers.  Currently we have the box scheduled to come to my office every other week, if we end up eating all of the veggies in a week we’ll switch it to every week.

This week’s box had a bounty of delicious winter produce:

• 1 Huge Butternut Squash from MA
• 1 lbs of Carrots from MA
• 1 lbs of Red Beets from MA
• 1 lbs of Watermelon Radishes from MA
• 1 lbs Purple Top/Scarlet Turnips from MA
• Some Sprouts from MA
• 1 lbs of Red Onions from NY
• 1.5 lbs of Sweet Potatoes from NH
• 2 lbs of Apples from VT

I used some of the red onions and carrots in last nights dinner, I had 2 apples with lunch today and I am excited to figure out how to use the rest of it.  Tonight I am gonna try to make a Butternut Squash Risotto.

One of the exiting things about this particular box from Boston Organics is that it will always be changing a little bit and we will get to taste the seasons as the come and go.  According to their website “in the summer time you’ll get a bountiful harvest of everything from lettuce to swiss chard, sweet corn to salad tomatoes.  As autumn takes hold the box contents start to include more root vegetables, winter squash and apples, and over the winter you’ll see storage crops like carrots, potatoes or onions.  Once spring has sprung, the growing season gets going again and the local box greens up with lots of early season produce.”  It is going to be a lot of fun to experiment with all of the different veggies we get.

Excitement!

I am so excited about some things going on in my life right now and I would like to share them with you.

After having officially finished three personal training with nine more to go I am so happy with it.  I am proud of myself for keeping up with it and I am so thankful Michelle decided to give this gift to me.  Obviously I can’t expect my body to look different after only one week of working out hard.  But I can feel a difference in my body and that is great motivation to keep going.

For 2011 I have made the decision to really focus on the kinds of foods I consuming.  Too often I choose the easy way out of preparing a meal by going out to eat or having a frozen vegan pizza.  While it is possible to have healthy meals out I have the ability to create wonderfully healthy meals at home for much less money.  Timing has always been the issue for me, “if I only had enough time” I keep telling myself, well enough of that.  One of the things we are doing to help us eat more veggies and whole foods is getting local organic fruit and veggies delivered to my office every other Tuesday.  A local company called Boston Organics will be delivering them and I will take them home and I will have to cook them or they will go bad, so it is sort of a way of forcing me into cooking more at home.  My first box should be delivered today and I am super excited.  I will let you know tomorrow what was delivered.

The last thing that I am excited about is something Michelle and I are doing in February.  In the most recent edition of VegNews, a vegan magazine, there is an interview with Kris Carr.  Kris made a documentary a couple of years ago called Crazy Sexy Cancer, has released several books and currently runs the website CrazySexyLife.com.  She is an amazing individual who has learned first hand about the healing power of foods and nutrition.  Anyway, because of that interview we checked out her website and it turns out she is hosting a retreat in Stockbridge, MA which happens to be about two hours from us. It’s called Crazy Sexy Life: An Adventure in Health, Spiritual Wealth, and Happiness.  We will be learning about nutrition, meditation, how to lower stress, and we will be eating some amazing wholesome vegan food while we are there.  It is a whole weekend!  We really can’t wait.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading.

2011 Has Begun

I have already started this new year off with a bang.  While I may of drank too much and eaten too much over this past holiday season I am making some very important steps to getting back on track.  On the first Monday of 2011 I had an appointment with a personal trainer, my first of 12.  These 12 appointments are a gift from my wonderful wife Michelle.  For the next 6 weeks I will be getting my butt whipped into better shape 2 times a week, and I will go by myself for a 3rd day that week.

Last night we did a light warm up on the treadmill and then moved quickly onto the free weight and body weight exercises.  Bent over rows for back strength, bench press, push ups, sit ups, and squats were all on the roster, among others.  To be honest I was a little surprised that I was not stronger.  After doing a few of each of the exercises it became clear how out of shape I am.  Beth, my new awesome personal trainer, was very encouraging though.  She said that most people would be surprised how out of shape they are and that I will get stronger fast.

With one personal training session done I woke up less sore this morning than I expected.  My triceps were killing me but the rest of the muscles we worked were not so bad.  As the day has gone on that has changed, my muscles are now sore even when doing simple tasks like opening a door or scratching my head.  I like the feeling though, (for the most part) it reminds me that I did some work and that it’s good for me.

True Bistro

Michelle and I had a chance to get brunch at a brand new vegan place in Teele Square, Somerville this past weekend.  It’s called True Bistro and it’s safe to say that we finally have decent upscale vegan dining in the Boston area, thank god.

The decor is simple, but elegant.  Black and white are the primary colors that will greet you as you walk in.  We were there around noon on a Saturday and at first we thought they were closed because all of the lights were off, but there are huge windows that let in so much light they didn’t need to be on.  When we first arrived it was pretty slow but it very quickly filled up and there were soon people waiting to be seated.  The wait staff was super friendly and polite.  Overall it has the feel of a really nice dining experience, to be honest I felt a little under dressed in a t shirt.  They have a vegan beer and wine list that we will surely try when we go back but we didn’t on this visit.

We happened to be there for brunch and while I immediately spotted burgers Michelle pointed out the amazing looking breakfast options.  They were also offering Mimosas and Bloody Mary’s but I just went for orange juice.  After much contemplation I decided to go with one of their tofu scrambles which included house made seitan sausage, grilled onions, bell pepper, and Daiya mozzarella cheese.  On the side was a salad and hash browns.  Everything was amazing.  I don’t know what kind of tofu they used but it had a creamy texture that melded well with the onions and pepper.  The seitan sausage was really tasty as well, it was in pretty big slices and had a distinct flavor.  The side salad wasn’t particularly special but it helped mix it up and the potatoes were great, brought back memories of hash browns at a diner but with (a lot) less grease.

I decided to get dessert as well which was coffee cake.  It too was delicious, dense, crumbly and topped with a cinnamon sugar.

Overall everything was very impressive and we will definitely be back on multiple occasions.  It’s so nice to know that this place is here now, a nice upscale vegan place with good food and drinks.  It is even assessable by the T.  They are located in Teele Square in Somerville, MA which is just a short walk from Davis Square on the Red Line.  So there is nothing stopping you, just go.

The Stats:

1153 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02144

617-627-9000

www.TrueBistroBoston.com

Cardiac Screening

Yesterday my work offered free screenings to check cardiac health so I signed up.  They took my blood pressure, pricked my finger, tested my blood glucose, HDL, and total cholesterol.  I already knew my BMI was too high but that came in at 35.9, pretty squarely in the obese category, according to the person helping me I need to get to 169 pounds to be normal, seems pretty daunting.

Unfortunately they couldn’t test my LDL which is the bad cholesterol, I’ll be making an appointment with my doctor to do that.  My total cholesterol was 148mg/dL which is in the desirable category (anything below 200 is desirable).  My HDL, the good stuff, was 59mg/dL which is 1 point away from the good category which is anything above 60.  Finally my Blood Glucose was 84mg/dL which is in the normal category.  

My blood pressure was kind of surprising to me.  She took it once with a fancy machine and it came up as 154/80 which puts me in Stage 1 Hypertension.  She seemed a bit surprised by it for some reason and decided to check it again manually, it wasn’t much better, 146/86.  Sometimes I get bored in the pharmacy and I use the machine there and it’s always a little high, say the pre-hypertension range and I just assumed that once I lost more weight it would go down.  So that kind of scared me a little bit.  

At the end she put all of these numbers into some formula and came up with the fact that my risk of getting cardiovascular disease in the next ten years if I keep doing what I am doing is 1.6%

What to do now, well I want to raise my HDL and get my LDL checked out and of course lower my Blood Pressure and BMI.  Luckily it seems I should be able to feed 3 birds with one stone.  According to the paperwork the lady gave me I will be able to lower my BMI and Blood Pressure in addition to raising my HDL by exercising more.

I have been really slacking of lately.  I just can’t seem to get motivated, but I will keep trying.  I will get back into the gym and get these numbers fixed, or at least more correct than they are now.

A Vegan Friendly Mom

My Mom is visiting us this weekend from Maryland and we are so excited to have her. There are a lot of stories of people who choose to go vegan only to be met with disapproval from their family.  Well, not my Mom.  Literally 4 days after I became vegan over 3 years ago she was going to be visiting for the weekend.  Every visit from my mom comes bundled with some kind of food, usually baked goods.  Cookies, brownies, muffins, and banana bread are often found in her luggage.  So it was with some trepidation that I called her before her first visit after going vegan to let her know that she shouldn’t bake us anything with milk, eggs, or butter and that it was my choice.  I knew that she put love into all of that baking that she did for us and I was taking that option away from her.  I was worried that she would be insulted, upset and take it the wrong way.

She showed up that weekend with a portion of her suitcase dedicated to completely vegan baked goods from recipes that she found online.  The cookies were a bit crumbly and the banana bread was a bit dense, but the taste was spot on.  I was so proud and felt (and still feel) so blessed that my mom has completely embraced my vegan lifestyle and has actually incorporated it into her life more than I ever thought she would.

We have gifted her a couple of vegan cookbooks, including one of our favorites The Joy of Vegan Baking, and she has been baking exclusively vegan for a while now.  She bakes vegan for her coworkers, her family, and surprises them nearly every time with how good vegan baking can be.

When I meet new vegan folks the topic of family acceptance almost always comes up in conversation.  I inevitably tell this story (sorry if you’ve heard it before).  My dad works for the USDA’s Animal Welfare Information Center (no, he is not vegan … yet).  He ends up working with a lot of animal rights groups including one of the biggest, the infamous PETA.  When my dad’s office and PETA had a meeting he suggested that my mom make a selection of vegan desserts to go along with the vegan catering that was going to be provided.  Well she did and the folks from PETA were so impressed with her baking that they sent her a vegan cookbook as a thank you gift.  Can you feel the pride coming through my typing?  Well have faith, it’s there.

When I decided to go vegan it was because I knew that I would be making a difference.  It is hard for me to express how proud I am that, because I went vegan several years ago, my mom is now helping skeptics realize how good vegan food can be.  My mom is helping me spread the vegan message!  Because I made the choice to go vegan my mom baked vegan desserts for PETA, that is crazy.

We are so thrilled to have her visiting and are excited to take her to some fun vegan places and cook some great food for her while she is here.

My High Raw Experiment Has Ended

I decided to end my month of raw food yesterday, only halfway trough the month.  It’s a little bit disappointing but I am comfortable with my decision for a couple of reasons.

First, let me explain why I have decided to end this experiment.  There was a serious lack of preparation on my part, but this is not really a surprise to me.  I like to improvise in the kitchen when I am preparing dinner.  I am not really a planner.  I go in the kitchen, see what’s available and start throwing things together, usually they come out pretty good.  This is true not just in my kitchen but in the rest of my life as well, perhaps it is not a great attribute but I kinda like it.  In addition, I am still trying to find a good balance between preparing my meals at home and the convenience and novelty of going out to eat.  When we have had a stressful day or a long week, it is really nice to be able to order good Indian food or a sushi from down the street and not feel guilty that I am eating cooked food.  I was hoping that I would be able to sustain eating mostly raw foods for an entire month, but maybe I should stick to doing it every once in a while for a week, if I can plan an entire weeks meals that is.

It was fun for half a month and I have learned a lot, including some things about myself.  I already knew that I had some serious addictions to certain foods but eating raw helped focus those things.  During the 15 or so days I had some serious cravings for bread, sugary sweet things, and processed vegan things like seitan.

With those things considered even though I will stop eating raw for the rest of the month I will be changing my diet.  During the week I will be avoiding bread, processed food, and anything with processed sugar in it.  When the weekend rolls around I will just eat whatever the heck I want.  I may be setting myself up for failure by not limiting myself on the weekend, but this seems like something I can do, it’s within my grasp.  I will continue to incorporate a lot of raw foods, probably in the form of green smoothies for breakfasts and lunches during the week.

So, I’m done with High Raw for now.  Sorry for ending it early for all of you that were following along, don’t be too hard on me.