Sustainable Living Goals (In & Out of the Kitchen)

Goals for 2012:

• All dry food (beans, rice, etc) purchased in bulk to eliminate unnecessary packaging. 
• At least 90% of laundry washed and dried at home with homemade detergent.
• Use remaining plastic zip top bags and transition to reusable baggies and/or food storage containers. 
• Transition remaining toiletry products (hair gel, make up, mouth wash) to natural, vegan, and cruelty free alternatives. 
• Completely eliminate plastic shopping bags -- no exceptions!
• Start simple recycling system at home (plastic, glass, paper, aluminum)
• Call companies and unsubscribe from all junk mail. 

Goals for 2013:

• Establish "apartment style" composting system.
• Contact HOA about solar alternatives for electricity. 
• New car must be electric or electric hybrid. 
• Either participate in a community garden or find a way to grow herbs/small veggies in window boxes. 
• Switch to toilet paper made of recycled paper and phase out paper towels completely.
• Purchase soymilk and tofu maker to make these items at home. 

Ribs & Slaw Sandwich

This meal was delicious! French rolls with cole slaw and BBQ "ribs" (made with homemade BBQ sauce!) paired perfectly with roasted brussels sprouts.

I started by making vegan "ribs". The recipe comes from here. The ribs are made from vital wheat gluten, which bakes up into dense and chewy seitan. They didn't look too pretty to begin with, but after I paired them with BBQ sauce they were amazing.

They have a very meaty texture, and the vegan "beef" bullion I used gave them a nice flavor even before the BBQ sauce.

Mmm! My recipe for the BBQ sauce is below.

BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

• 0.5 cup ketchup
• 0.25 cup vinegar
• 0.25 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
• 0.5 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp liquid smoke

1. Combine all ingredients in a covered sauce pan. 
2. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until thick and bubbling. 

Next up was the slaw. I only recently discovered that I LOVE cole slaw. 

Slaw

Ingredients:

• 8 cups shredded cabbage
• 2/3 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 0.5 tsp salt

1. Combine all ingredients except for the cabbage, mixing well. 
2. Toss in the cabbage, coating evenly. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. 

As you can see, I used a mixture of green and red cabbage. Sometimes I'll mix in some shredded carrot, too. As a side for my ribs & slaw sandwich, I picked up some fresh brussels sprouts at the farmer's market. 

Isn't it neat how they grow on a stalk? I didn't realize this until recently. I washed them, sliced them in half, and tossed them with oil, salt, and pepper. A few minutes in a 425 degree oven and they were roasted perfectly! This is my favorite way to eat brussels sprouts. 

Everything came together wonderfully, and I'm looking forward to a leftover sandwich tomorrow. The ribs aren't difficult, and I think they are an easy way to try seitan (much better than boiling, which is easy to mess up -- this recipe seems foolproof). 

 

Muffins

I used an adaptation of this recipe as my "go to" muffin recipe for the past year or so. I never bothered to add the crumb topping, partly from laziness and partly because I like for my muffins to remain relatively healthy.

I decided, however, that adding a sugar + butter crunchy topping wouldn't be so bad if I cut some of the fat and sugar recipe from the muffin itself. The result was fantastic! While the muffin wasn't overly sugary, the sweet and crunchy topping made up for it. "My" recipe is only a slight adaptation of the one above, but I'll post it here as well. It's also doubled, which makes about 18 muffins for me.

Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 tsp "Ener-G" egg replacer + 2 tbsp water (this is the binder, but you could replace it will 2 tbsp apple sauce, or a mashed banana)
• 3 cups flour
• Slightly less than 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp ground flax seed
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup oil 
• about 2/3 cup soy or rice milk (see below)
• 1 cup of berries

(crunchy topping)

• 0.25 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp vegan margarine
• 2 tbsp flour

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease/line the muffin pan.
2. In a measuring cup, wisk together the Ener-G powder and the water. 
3. Add the oil to the measuring cup, then add in enough milk to equal 2 cups. 
4. Mix together the contents of the measuring cup with the sugar, flour, flax seed, baking powder, and salt. 
5. Fold the berries into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the muffin pan.
7. Mix the crunchy topping ingredients in a small bowl until there are no large lumps. 
8. Sprinkle the crunchy topping on top of the muffins. 
9. Bake 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Garlic Zoom Review

I was graciously given a gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond for Christmas, which I immediately spent. In fact, I already knew what I wanted! After breaking my second garlic press in less than 12 months (granted, one was inexpensive - but the other was really well made), I knew I had to find another way to chop the ridiculous amount of garlic I use.

Enter, the "Garlic Zoom"!

This nifty device rolls along the counter and minces garlic. I wasn't convinced it would work, but after breaking so many garlic presses in my life, I had to give it a try. Just load the garlic in top...

Roll it across the counter top a few times, and that's it. I like that you have control over how finely minced the garlic is (unlike a traditional garlic press). It's fast and kind of fun :)

Above is the "top" door open, but it's also hinged in the middle so that the blade can easily pop out to make scraping out all of the garlic-y goodness possible. There is no more waste or mess than with a traditional garlic press (in fact, I think this is easier to clean!)

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Fast
• Easy to clean
• Variable mince size

Cons:

• Possible blade dulling after use?
• Only minces 2-3 cloves at a time

Overall I'm very happy with this little gadget. True, it really only has one purpose in the kitchen. But when you eat as much garlic as we do, that's something I can live with!

Stained Glass Cookies

These cookies were so delicious, I made them twice this Christmas. The first time I added more flour than in my recipe below, which made the outer sugar cookie more dense. I definitely recommend resisting the temptation to add more flour to the soft dough to make it more sturdy for cutting cookies -- while this made it easier for Zoee to help cut out the first batch, the more buttery, tender cookie is definitely worth the extra patience with the soft dough. The tofu acts as a binder, but is light enough to keep the cookies crisp.

After having no trick-or-treaters, I saved all of the red and green jolly ranchers from our candy horde specifically for this recipe. However, I've been told that other hard candies -- life savers, for example -- work just as well. Usually I mix candies together (which looks like stained glass), but since I only had red and green, I decided to stick with just one color.

Stained Glass Cookies

Ingredients:

• 0.5 cup vegan butter (Earth Balance margarine, for example)
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 2 heaping tbsp soft/silken tofu
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.25 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.25 tsp salt
• equivalent of 10 "jolly rancher" hard candies

1. Unwrap the candies and place them in a ziplock bag. Wrap the bag in a kitchen towel and use a hammer or meat tenderizer to crush the candy into small pieces. 
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, tofu, and vanilla together for at least 3 minutes. 
4. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into the butter/sugar mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. 
5. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface, to the desired thickness of your cookie (I prefer a crunchier 0.25 inch).
6. Using different sized cookie cutters, carefully cut out cookies and move to a baking sheet. 
7. Fill the inner part of the cookie with a generous portion of the crushed candies. (When the candy melts and spreads, it can become thin)
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool and the candy harden before you remove from the baking sheet.