Tag Archives for " vegan "

Fresh Pasta Sauce Recipe Using Tomatoes

My main reason for creating this recipe is I have a lot of tomatoes from my garden. When I researching canning and freezing, my laziness genes kicked in and I thought there must be an easier way! I also didn’t want to peel or seed the tomatoes. The problem now is I can’t go back to using store bought canned tomatoes! Video below as well.

Serves about 2 people, possible leftovers. Use more tomatoes if you want to make a batch of sauce for another day. Adjust the quantities of veggies or use other things that you like!

Ingredients:

-8 large ripe tomatoes. I used ‘Scotia’ tomatoes but romas work well as they have less liquid. The exact number doesn’t really matter and depends on if you want leftovers. (I used ‘Scotia’ tomatoes from my garden, you can use roma which are more ‘fleshy’ with less liquid.)
-1 large yellow onion, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
-1 red pepper, chopped
-3 cloves of garlic (use less/none if desired), pressed. I use garlic press.
-1 zucchini, sliced
-1 cup of chopped lacinato kale. I cut up small with scissors leaving the spine out (exact amount doesn’t matter)
-1 tbsp or more of Italian spices (I use dried oregano, basil – you can use fresh if you want)
-1 tsp hot pepper flakes, optional (if you like it hot/spicy)

Instructions:

Tomatoes – Cut up the tomatoes into chunks. You can blend them a little in a Vitamix or food processor while still leaving some chunks. Pour the mixture through a strainer with a large bowl underneath to catch the liquid. The first time I made this I poured in some extra liquid as it boiled off. The second time I didn’t add any liquid to the sauce.

Fry up the onions, garlic, peppers, kale, zucchini (or whatever veggies you prefer) with a little water in a non-stick skillet. I cover to speed up the cooking process. When veggies are fairly soft dump in the tomatoes and stir and leave the cover off. As the mixture cooks the tomatoes will break down and release some liquid. Cook on high heat until most of the liquid boils off and the sauce gets thick (as you like it), stirring on occasion to keep from burning. Make sure the liquid doesn’t all boil off or veggies may dry out and burn. When the sauce is thick as you like it, add in the spices and hot pepper flakes. I then add in my cooked pasta (fettuccine as of late) and mix before serving. Enjoy!

Indian Pakora No Oil Vegan

I made pakora today so good! I followed this recipe (click here), used my silpat sheets but just baked without oil. Leave out the salt if you like. I pressed 2 cloves of fresh garlic. I baked for a few minutes extra as there was no oil to crisp them up as much. Watch carefully so they don’t burn. I dipped in some tomato sauce mixed with a little garam masala and cumin/turmeric.

Why Go Vegan?

After the recent WHO declaration that red and processed meats cause cancer, people say to me: “Humans have been eating meat for thousands of years. So why can’t I have a burger once in awhile?” Well, other than that being an ‘appeal to tradition’ fallacy, I’m not that interested in what humans have done in the past. I’m interested in what is the healthiest diet for humans while minimizing the impact to animals and environment. And the diet that covers all three happens to be a 100% plant-based diet (vegan).

Okinawans live very long lives. They eat 96% plants and 4% animal products. “So hey Will, why are you oblivious to or ignoring this fact and why are you against eating animals? You know like say 5% of your diet.”

Well there are few reasons. In this video below by Dr. Greger there are people who live even longer than Okinawans. The Adventist vegetarians in California eat 100% plant-based. So going that final few yards to 100% seems to be worth it not just for health and other reasons as well.

Our biology doesn’t seem suited to eating animals. We have more amylase enzyme for digesting starches, weaker stomach acid for digesting flesh, longer intestines and more. The fact that we get so sick from eating animals makes perfect sense to me. Instinctively we don’t look at animals as prey that we want to hunt down and eat with our bare hands. Instead we go to the supermarket and get a shrink-wrapped product, take it home and cover it with barbecue sauce (from plants by the way). See this chart I recently posted: http://www.werone.co/images/05_Humans_Are_Frugivores_750.jpg

With 7+ billion people (and growing), eating even this smaller percentage of animals that would still be billions of animals (land and sea) every year being killed. Most land animals live horrible lives in confinement and then are killed after a few short months. Many sea animals are swept up in the nets and are pulled out of the water to suffocate. I’m happy knowing animals don’t have to suffer for my dinner plate.

Raising even this many animals requires insane amount of forests to be clearcut (for grass fed), water usage, waste and methane production. Lots of other animals are killed as they are seen as ‘competition’ eg. wolves, bears, coyotes, etc. More facts about animal agriculture can be found at www.cowspiracy.com/facts

On a practical note, it’s hard for most people to practice moderation. If you’re only going to eat a few percent of your daily calories from animals why not go 100%? I love the food I eat now and have no desire whatsoever to eat animals. I’m not depriving myself of anything. I think it’s easier to go 100% than say 95% as you keep all your unhealthy habits from being removed for good and it’s easy to let this expand to 10% and more.

I find it really interesting that when people find out that something is this unhealthy (like the red/processed meat causes cancer finding) to eat they just want to cut back, as opposed to say cutting our cigarettes and avoiding asbestos. Would those people let their kids have a few cigarettes and day and only spend a couple hours in an asbestos-laden school building? But for some reason it’s okay to do this with cancer-causing foods (not to mention heart disease and diabetes inducing as well). Those addictions and habits are strong!

So believe me when I say that I’ve given this a tremendous amount of thought on many levels. It all seems so clear and logical to me. I hope one day you will all agree with me.

Rice Pudding OMG!

I usually make a batch of brown rice for my rice and beans but I had an inspiration to make some rice pudding. So I did some Googling and found this recipe by Dreena Burton. So below is my personal take on what I did for my pudding. As you know I like simple, quick recipes – well this one definitely is easy!

Ingredients
2 cups of cooked brown rice (I make batches and have lots leftover)
1 cup low fat organic soy milk (unsweetened if possible) – you can use almond or rice as well
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar (optional depending on sweetness of your chosen milk or use a ripe banana)
*Many things can be done here – pinch of nutmeg, cacao, fruit like blueberries, etc.

Instructions
Blend 1.5 cups of rice (left 1/2 cup for later) with other ingredients and blend in Vitamix on high for 20 seconds or until it looks like everything is blended. If really thick after blending add more milk. Pour mixture into a pot, add the remaining 1/2 cup of rice (for texture) and cook on medium heat until thick.

As you might know I wing a lot of things so feel free to try some other options, depending on your tastes and how sweet you like your pudding. Depending on the sweetness of your non-dairy milk you can also add a ripe banana, cacao, etc.

Two ideas to try are subbing my banana milk for the other milk, and also added cacao to make a banana chocolate pudding.

This pudding is amazing warm and tastes great cold as well, and can be for breakfast, snack or dessert.