VM’s Seitan Spice Mix

Seitan is becoming a popular food at our house. We use it to make Seitan Schwarmas almost exclusively and everybody in this house loves them. I love them not because they taste so fantastic but because they are totally frakking easy to make.

Honestly, with a log of Seitan in the fridge, my schwarmas take maybe 10 minutes to get from fridge to table. The Seitan is easy to make, too. Check out my other post.

The big thing, though, is finding alternative spice mixes. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original mix, but every cook likes to adapt a tried and true recipe to reflect their own quirky tastes and what they have on hand. I’m no different.

VM’s Seitan Spice Mix

Dry Ingredients
1 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp mustard powder (Keen’s or Coleman’s)
1 tsp chili powder

Wet Ingredients
3/4 cup, -1 TBSP, water
1 TBSP liquid smoke
4 TBSP BBQ sauce
1 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (found amongst Chinese foods at grocer)

Do you have a spice mix you’ve tried and loved? If you alter this mix, what did you change? Come back and tell us your thoughts!

Mega Bean Crockpot Soup

It never was a very warm summer. In fact, it was rather cool and rainy in Ontario this year. But, now that school has begun and a cold spell has settled upon us – due to the new weather reality, more tropical storms and hurricanes coming earlier every year – well, this is perfect weather for a good hearty bean soup.

Mega Bean Crockpot Soup

Inspired by the 9 Bean soup at Natural Moms Recipes, I concocted a beany soup that made the entire family hungry all day long. “Is that soup for lunch?” “Can’t we eat at 4pm? I’m so hungry!” “Mom, what is that delicious smell!” Nothing is more satisfying than hearing THAT come out of your 5 year old’s mouth!

So, without further fanfare, I bring you:

Mega Bean Crockpot Soup

1/3 cup each of the following beans: white kidney, pinto, black, navy, great northern, chickpeas and black-eyed peas*
1/3 cup each of red and green lentils*
6 cups water
3 carrots, diced
3 stalk celery, diced
1 lg onion, diced
3 bay leaves
1 TBSP mustard powder

1 lg can diced tomatoes
2 cups warm water
2 cubes of veggie bullion
1 tsp black pepper
1 TBSP sea salt

Soak beans overnight.

Put the beans into a crockpot with all of the ingredients in the first section. Let cook on high for 5 hours or 8 hours on low.

Add ingredients from second section into crock, dissolving the bullion in 2 cups warm water, replace lid and let flavours bloom an additional 20 minutes. (While you make a salad, set the table, prepare some bread or toast…)

Makes 12 servings.

*note: you can use any mix of beans you have on hand. I just happened to have all of these. Just make sure you have 3 (to a maximum of 4) cups of dried beans soaking for the soup.

Wanna Win A Basket Of Food?

As you may have noticed over on the left there, I have a couple of blogs. On one of those, The Clever Mom, I’m having a contest to win a reusable grocery bin filled with a selection of food items.

The prize basket was generously provided by Loblaws who want to spread the word that they’ve reduced the prices of many of their grocery items. With the cost of shipping driving up the costs of food, this is a welcome move.

They’ve also begun a program called “Grown Close To Home” that is bringing local produce into their supermarkets. It’s about time the big stores started adding local produce. This is a win-win for everyone, in my opinion.

I’ve always been a fan of Loblaws for their President’s Choice premium house brand and their good quality yellow label brand – though I’ve started noticing the yellow label receding a little, I still think the products are pretty decent quality and good value.

So, if you want a chance to win the basket (I’m more excited about that basket, frankly, than the food inside!) go over to The Clever Mom now and post a comment listing your favourite kid snack (with recipe, s’il vous plait, and without nuts). Contest closes 9pm Friday, September 5.

Food Pron: Fresh Tomatoes

Picked this morning from my Granny's garden.

All Hail Seitan?

With a name like Seitan, I just had to try the recipe. So, I followed the Seitan O’Greatness recipe and created my first homemade log of un-meat.

Interesting!

Before it was completely cool, my husband and kids started cutting pieces off. I was afraid they’d eat up so much that we wouldn’t have any for other meals. But we did. We had lots! This stuff goes a l o o o o n n n g way.

What is it? At it’s most basic, seitan is gluten, water, oil and spices either boiled or baked. It has a chewy, meat-like texture and the spice mixtures often mimic that of sausages and deli meats to make really good un-meat pepperonis and salamis. The stuff is pure protein.

Have you ever eaten seitan? What did you think? Do you make it regularly? What are your spice combos?

A Moving Breakfast

I found the most fantastically delicious breakfast recipe anywhere, ever! And it’s totally fiberlicious! And it tastes like dessert!

Poking around for cool kid crafty/project sites, I found a really nice zine called Root & Sprout. In their archives I came across a super simple recipe for Apple Oatmeal that I had to try. And try it I did! And it was like heaven on my tongue.

It was so delicious, in fact, it tasted exactly like apple crumble, something I could eat an entire pan of if left unsupervised.

The article where the recipe resides is about easing toddler constipation. We already eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning, so that effect for my family will be limited. The addition of the apple is a good move, though. We usually put raisins in our oatmeal right now, and rarely my 5 yo insists on chocolate chips. But you can’t go wrong slipping an extra serving of fruit into your diet.

I can’t overstate how delicious this oatmeal is. You know that instant apple oatmeal that is so sweet and yummy. This is better. And it only has natural sugars in it. Unless you are like me and need a little brown crack sugar over the top. Which totally makes this tasty identical to apple crumble.

Hot Apples and Oatmeal
by Lis Garrett

• 1 apple, chopped into bite sized chunks
• 1/4 Cup quick cooking/instant/minute oats
• 1/2 Cup apple juice
• Optional: sprinkle of brown sugar

Mix ingredients in a pot on medium heat until the apples become soft, approximately 5 minutes. Optional: serve with a sprinkling of brown sugar, though it is not necessary to add any further sweetening to this recipe beyond the apples and juice.

Moan at your desired volume while eating and exclaim to your husband that he must be crazy to not eat apples because this apple oatmeal is better than morning sex.

This recipe is totally kid friendly. Both my 5 yo and my 1 yo (today was his first birthday!) gobbled this up greedily.

Dooce Thinking About Nixing Meat

Dearest Heather Armstrong, that fantastic and inspirational blogger also known as Dooce, has been contemplating making some lifestyle changes and, inspired by Oprah’s recent 21-day fast (which includes abstaining from all meat by/products, amongst other foodstuffs), has challenged herself to living vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free and alcohol-free for 21 days. She has written a very thoughtful post about why she is doing this that I really enjoyed.

Heather has written a lot about her problems with constipation, which it seems her daughter has inherited. I’m hoping the intense focus on whole plant foods will finally give her relief from her problems. I know that when I started having problems late in my pregnancy and after the baby arrived, when extensive pelvic floor damage made constipation a very dangerous prospect, dietary changes completely altered what was going on in my gut.

I’ve written an article on helping kids adapt to new foods that moms like Heather may find helpful. And, we try to post recipes here that my kids seem to really like.

What vegetarian/vegan recipes do your kids love? What can moms like Dooce do to make the transition to vegetarian family meals easier?

Sick Vegan Kids In The News

Another vegan family has become news after their pre-teen daughter was found to have Rickets and degenerative bone disease. Parentdish, a group blog under the AOL umbrella, has posted their story and it’s getting a lot of knee-jerk comments.

Truly this is a horrible story, but I have to think that the sick girl’s problems have more to do with her parents misinformed parenting than with veganism per se. I suspect these parents understood nutritional needs of humans as much as do suburban Canadian and Americans who hit the drive through on the way home from work to nourish their families on deliberately nutrient void foods.

Many vegans and vegetarians eat a healthy, balanced, whole foods diet. That diet contains all the nutrients required to healthfully sustain a human at any stage of their development.

Are you a vegetarian parent? Do you feel you provide your family with a balanced diet? What types of foods do your offer your children?

Helping Kids Change Their Eating Habits

I know what it is like for a kid to suddenly decide they don’t like eating vegetables or they will not ever eat the crusts on bread. It is pretty universal for parents to have difficulty feeding their kids from time to time. It’s a normal development glitch and it is often related to a child’s growing independence.

It can be really daunting for a parent to change an entire families food choices.

It can be done, though. Our family has had a lot of success converting 90% of our meals (making up 99% of our food intake at home) to vegetarian and vegan.

Since I already cooked fairly eclectic meals, I was fairly certain that my eldest son would not really notice the absence of meat at the table. We already had a few vegetarian meals in rotation at that point and would visit vegetarian restaurants or simply choose vegetarian options often enough for it to be normal. The thing was concerned about was increasing his vegetable intake.

He was always a carb and meat eater. Except for broccoli, all other veggies were rejected from every meal. Pizzas were stripped of anything of health value and he would flat out refuse burritos, suspecting me of sneaking “green stuff” (guacamole) into them.

One thing whenever had a problem with was brown breads, pastas and rice. He simply grew up eating them, never knowing there was a different option. I’m not sure if he really notices if there is a difference if we have rice, bread and pasta out.

It’s this “brown norm” that makes me believe that children will happily eat what is offered to them, if what is being offered is what your family eats regularly.

We have recently seen this in action with salads.

Salads were never a regular part of meals at our house. I was a bit too lazy to make them. I don’t know why, because even plain lettuce with a bit of dressing is better than nothing. It’s no wonder, then, when I started introducing a little salad with some of our meals that my son refused to touch them. He not only refused, he acted as if the food might burn him or like we were forcing him to eat a tarantula!

After a few attempts, I gave up. That was a mistake.

I started up with the salads when we make our great vegetarian food change. At first my son would only eat a single piece of lettuce. But, I kept at it. I didn’t pester him. I would just ask that he try the salad. Eventually he was eating a few pieces of lettuce.

Dressings, multiple, have been my friend. When he was feeling secure enough to eat the veggies on his salad, but not adventurous enough to do it without help, he would make a big deal of “experimenting”, his word, with the different tastes of the dressings. A piece of roughage he wasn’t terribly fond of could be made palatable, even enjoyable, with a liberal application of dressing.

Eventually, he didn’t need quite so much dressing. He was eating more lettuce and volunteering to eat vegetables.

I never made separate meals for him, either. I try hard to create meals that are satisfying to everyone in the family. I make foods that are full of flavour and, hopefully, full of nutrition, too. If my son doesn’t happen to like what is being served, he is welcome to take one bite to confirm he doesn’t like it and then he is free to go food free. That’s the natural consequence to not being willing to eat a meal in my home.

We always eat as a family. On those days when I try to eat while sitting at our kitchen computer and multitask, with my son sitting near me at the kitchen table, he eats less and is more picky. Kids thrive on attention and they need to connect with parents and each other. Sitting together for a meal satisfies that need. I’m showing my son respect when we sit together. We can talk and laugh and connect emotionally. There have even been studies that show children who eat meals as a family are less likely to engage is risky behaviour later in life.

Another trick to getting kids to eat a meal or type of food is to get them involved in choosing the meal or parts of it and have them help prepare it.

My son, at 5, can operate the microwave with supervision. He is in charge of heating of veggie side dishes, if we are having things like corn from frozen. He also retrieves ingredients from the fridge while I cook and he has a stool he stands on beside me so that he can watch me prepare things.

I make a big list of all the meals I have ingredients for, lunch and dinner, and put it on the fridge. My son can then look at the list, choose something off of it and strike it off after we make it. This gives him power over what he gets to eat. Sometimes we must compromise and choose something that is not a big favorite, but he helps choose, just the same.

I have found that since I’ve started doing all of these, he is much more willing to eat that which he shunned not so long ago.

Here is a quick and dirty summary of how to help your kids change their eating habits:

• Keep offering rejected foods.
• Don’t act like the new food is special or strange.
• Don’t pester kids to eat.
• Establish a rule for testing foods such as the one bite rule.
• Don’t make separate meals for kids and adults.
• Eat as a family.
• Get kids to help.
• Give kids choices.

The Best Brown Bread Ever!

I have an Irish Granny who is an extraordinary home cook and baker. Growing up (and still today), I spent a lot of time with her and it was in her kitchen (where my family always ended up hanging out) that I learned the basics of how to cook.

She makes this brown Irish soda bread that is fantastic. Over the years, her simple recipe has morphed into one of the most delicious fibre dense breads you can imagine, featuring up to 7 separate grain/grain parts/seeds.

This recipe is not that one. I’ve been trying for years to get her to commit to specific measurable units that can be passed from one human to another in a coherent way but she keeps whining about “blah blah blah just put a fistful of this in blah blah blah then a few coffee cups of that, but don’t use a mug, it has to be an old cup…”. Do you get the picture?

This, however, is the closest thing I’ve come across/adapted that has the same taste, consistency and fibre content that my Granny’s bread does.

This recipe is fast, easy and delicious. My 5 year old son will mix up all the dry ingredients for me and happily eat slice after slice with some margarine or jam. The baby also loves this bread. We even eat a few slices for breakfast, or with tomatoes, cheese and pickles for lunch.

I highly recommend adding this bread to your usual eats. You will see it in my future photos as I always make it to accompany soup. It will give you a big fibre boost, providing both soluble and insoluble fibre. The only downside: it’s not vegan. If you are vegan and want to try the recipe with plant based analogues for the egg and dairy, please let me know your recipe and thoughts on the results.

Best Brown Bread

1 3/4 C whole wheat flour *
3/4 C oats **
2 TBSP wheat germ
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP brown sugar ***
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup + 2 TBSP soured milk or buttermilk ****

Measure and mix all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients into dry and mix. Pour into an oiled and floured loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

*I recommend a coarse whole wheat flour like NoName yellow label.
** One minute oats are what I use, but steel cut or rolled would be fine.
***You could use Splenda Baker’s Blend or reduce this to 1 tsp if you are diabetic.
**** Sour milk by adding a TBSP or two of lemon juice or vinegar to the milk and let it stand while you measure the other ingredients.