Breakfast for a Quiet Morning: Scrambled Tofu

Today I woke up and felt like something other than my usual toast and smoothie for breakfast, but wasn’t in the mood for anything bready, like pancakes.  Luckily, I just bought tofu!

For those of you who have never had scrambled tofu, it is a wonderful, versatile, delicious breakfast necessity.  For this particular version, I seasoned the tofu with red pepper flakes, garlic powder, chili powder, and salt, then added some salsa.

Then I chopped up some red bell pepper, tomato, spinach, and shallots, and tossed the whole thing into a pan to saute over medium high heat.  You want to be pretty aggressive with the heat here, to get the moisture out of the tofu.

Once the tofu was heated through, I put it in a bowl, garnished it with some more spinach and some tortilla chips for crunch, tossed in some guacamole, and within 20 minutes of getting up I was ready to eat!

Scrambled tofu, raspberry-banana smoothie, and coffee...mmm.

The great thing about this dish is you can add almost anything you want!  If I have it, I add some Daiya cheese and vegan sour cream, and sometimes I put it in a tortilla for a breakfast wrap.  This is also a great way to use up leftover taco salad fixings.

Sunday Supper: Production Week Edition

Tonight’s Supper: Hummus and veggie plate
Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: Blacklisted, Neko Case

Today was the final performance of our spring play, always a bittersweet day.  After a long week of tech and performances, and after spending most of today at our matinee, I was definitely not in the mood to cook, so I rummaged around in my fridge and put together the perfect dinner for a lazy Sunday: hummus with carrots, broccoli, spinach, tortilla, and dilly beans (which were surprisingly tasty with the hummus).

And, for dessert, a very yummy vegan cake that some of my student actors made me to thank me for, in their words, “putting up with us.”  I know, I have the best students ever, right?

Sometimes you just need a lazy supper, but I promise to have something fun and exciting up next week!

Mid-week Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oreos inside

Full disclosure--I made these cookies (and wrote this post) over the weekend, and just didn’t get around to posting it until today.

Pictures are on instagram, under the hashtag #islandvegan--follow me on instagram @hiltheimpaler

These are the perfect dessert if you, like me, are a total cookie and oreo junkie!  And they’re pretty easy, too.

First, prepare the cookie dough using your favorite recipe.  I like this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen.  I also used vegan white chocolate chips in place of regular vegan chocolate chips.  I suggest doubling the cookie dough recipe, as wrapping the dough around the oreos means the recipe will make far fewer cookies than usual.

Then, assemble the cookies.  Carefully wrap the dough around the oreos.  This is easier if the dough is a little thicker than you’d usually have it for cookies, so you may want to add a bit more flour than usual.  Make sure the oreo is entirely encased in the cookie dough.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until they’re as done as you like them.  Personally, I like my cookies to be just the other side of raw, but I know that’s not for everyone. 

Enjoy, and try not to eat them all at one sitting!

The Stress Fracture Diaries, part 1: Things I’ve Learned

About 3 weeks ago, after having severe pain in my foot for a week, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my first metatarsal.  Prescription: Absolutely no running for at least 4 weeks, possibly as many as 12.  As one of my friends said when I told her, “Wow.  For you, that must be like someone telling me I couldn’t eat ice cream for 12 weeks.”

Exactly.

I then proceeded to sulk for 3 weeks.  If someone asked me to describe myself in three words, “runner” would definitely be in there.  I’m a teacher; I’m a vegan; I’m a runner.  But if I can’t run, what am I?  It didn’t help that just a few days after being diagnosed, my foot pretty much stopped hurting, so if was even more annoying to stay off it.  However, I forced myself to baby my foot and do my gentle yoga and core exercises, and I moped around until my follow-up appointment, where I got good news--I can start doing some low-impact cross training and if I have 2 more weeks pain free, we’ll look at it again and I’ll most likely get the green light to (slowly) start running again!  Now, with a light at the end of the tunnel, I’ve turned introspective and am reflecting on what I’ve learned over the last few weeks.

1. I love running even more than I thought I did.  I always knew that running was an important part of my life, but I didn’t realize just how much I depended on it as a release valve until suddenly I couldn’t do it anymore.
2. Abruptly going from running on trails to running the same mileage on concrete is a seriously bad idea.  Seriously.  Don’t do it.  Your body will rebel.
3. Showering feels pointless when you’re not sweaty.  I stand in there every morning and I’m like, “Why am I even in here?”
4. I really don’t like using the elliptical.  I’ve used it twice since getting the go-ahead for cross-training, and I hate it.  It’s loud; it’s boring; and it smells funny.
5. Related to the above: I really, really hate training indoors.  Is there anything more boring than getting on the machine, moving, but not going anywhere?
6. I am really, really, really (insert several more “really”s) lucky to have a body that’s healthy, not prone to injury, and generally able and willing to do what I ask of it.  This is the first time I’ve ever had a serious injury and been sidelined for any length of time, and it’s made me realize just how fortunate I am that that’s the case.

So all you runners out there, what’s your best/worst injury story?  And how do you cope with being laid up for an extended period of time?

Sunday Supper: Vegan Shepherd's Pie

Tonight’s Supper: Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: Spotify’s “Decades Dance Party” playlist (don’t judge me!)

As always, there are more pictures on instagram under the hashtag #sundaysupper

I was introduced to vegetarian shepherd’s pie by my partner, many years ago.  He always makes his with store bought vegan ground beef substitute, but here on the island, that can be hard to find.  Often I use lentils instead, and those work well, but this week they didn’t have any lentils at the store and I really wanted shepherd’s pie, so I had to get creative.  Thinking over and discarding several thoughts (chickpeas? black beans?), I finally settled on mushrooms as having the proper amount of toothiness, plus the ability to absorb the flavors of the seasonings.

I started, as usual, by boiling the potatoes until they were soft, then mashing them with soymilk, earth balance vegan margarine, and salt.  I always leave the skin on my mashed potatoes, but you could take it off if you wanted.

Then I chopped the mushrooms, leaving them fairly large to add some texture to the finished product.  I sauteed them with salt, black pepper, thyme, parsley, and dill.

Once those were done, I was ready to layer the pie.  First, 1/2 the mashed potatoes; then the mushrooms; then the creamed corn; and last the rest of the potatoes.  Normally I would top it with some Daiya cheddar cheese, but I ate the last of what I had a few days ago, so no more cheese for me until my next mainland trip!
Pop it in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so, and you’re done!


Note on mushrooms: The mushrooms worked very well as a meat substitute, but the end result was a bit potato heavy, so you might want to adjust your amounts depending on how much potato you want.  I will probably use more mushrooms next time I make this.


Ingredients: 4 large russet potatoes; 2 cups mushrooms, coarsely chopped (see note on mushrooms, above); 1 can creamed corn; salt, black pepper, thyme, parsley, and dill, to taste (for mushrooms); vegan cheese for topping (optional)
1. Boil potatoes until they are soft enough to mash.  Should take about 10 minutes, once the water starts boiling.
2. Drain the potatoes.  Mash with a little bit of soy milk, butter substitute, and salt to taste.
3. Saute the mushrooms with olive oil, salt, black pepper, thyme, parsley, and dill, until the mushrooms are tender and have started to exude moisture.
4. Layer the shepherd’s pie in a medium sized casserole dish: 1/2 the potatoes, then the mushrooms, then the creamed corn, then the rest of the potatoes.  Top with vegan cheese, if desired.
5. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until vegan cheese is melted and pie is heated through.

Health and Beauty Recipe Review: Shine Inducing Banana Hair Mask

Recipe: Shine-Enhancing Banana Hair Mask from the July/August 2013 edition of Vegetarian Times

The Adventure: My hair has a tendency toward dullness, so I was psyched to try the supposedly “shine-enhancing” hair mask.  I was doubly psyched because it provided a use for over-ripe bananas (I like my bananas just barely this side of green, so it’s hard for me to keep up with them).  So, Saturday morning, I mash up my banana, add some coconut oil, smear it all over my hair, and, lacking a shower cap, tuck it under a plastic bag that I then secure at the back of my head.  Then I went about my business for a half an hour.  When the time is up, I scrape as much of the hair mask off my head as I can, then hop in the shower and shampoo my hair.  After shampooing, I take a look at the ends and discover that I still have about half a banana in my hair.  Hmm, I think, maybe the vinegar rinse will get rid of it.  Rinse with vinegar, take another look.  No change.  Well, I think, irritated but not yet panicked, conditioner makes my hair slippery.  Maybe if I condition it’ll work out easier.  Condition, re-shampoo, check.  Some change but not nearly enough--I now have maybe 1/4 of a banana in my hair.

At this point the hot water begins to run out. 

Maybe it just needs more time under the water, I think, and go about washing my body under the lukewarm water.  By the time I finish and look at my hair again, the water is completely cold, and I still have a huge amount of banana in my hair.  Not to worry, though--I’m distracted from my discomfort by mentally composing my angry letter to the editors of VT.  Finally, I can’t take the cold water anymore and decide that maybe brushing my hair will get rid of what’s left.  Of course, then I’ll have a brush full of banana, but at least a brush can be replaced, unlike my head.  So I get out of the shower, stand in front of my mirror, and spend the next 30 minutes using a combination of brush and fingers to pick bits of banana out of my hair.

Did it work?: My hair is not noticeably shinier, although it does smell like a pina colada.

Verdict: If you live with a monkey or other critter that might enjoy picking banana bits out of your hair, go for it.  Otherwise, I recommend taking a pass.  My problems might have been due to user error, but I followed the directions to the letter, and frankly if a possible outcome of user error is having a head full of banana for the rest of the day, the recipe should have a warning to that effect.

Overall grade: F

Sunday Supper

Sundays are usually my quietest day of the week, and hence the day when I experiment with cooking new and fun suppers.  Check out more pictures on instagram under the hashtag #sundaysupper (and be sure to follow me, hiltheimpaler)!

Tonight’s Supper: Fried rice with Chicken (Not) Breasts
Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: Old 97’s Alive and Wired

A few months ago, my mom bought me a bunch of vegan meat substitutes, including these “chicken breasts.”  Unfortunately, on the first try we discovered that they were roughly the taste and consistency of styrofoam.  However, since I still had a bag and a half of them left, I embarked on a mission to find ways to make them edible.  Through trial and error, I discovered that chopping them very small and marinating the heck out of them made them pretty palatable.  Then today I realized at 2:30 that I had no tofu for my fried rice tonight...and the grocery store closes at 2 on Sundays.  Which led to tonight’s supper adventure: trying out the chicken (not) breasts in a fried rice!  The full recipe can be found below, if you’re not interested in my photos and narration.

I started by boiling the “chicken,” per the package instructions.

While that was boiling, I made the marinade.  Yes, that is Domino brand brown sugar, which means this recipe is not fully, 100% vegan.  I’m sorry.  I live on an island.  I’m doing the best I can.

After finally getting the top off the lime juice container (seriously, never ever buy lime juice in anything besides a glass jar with a screw top) and getting lime juice all over my kitchen in the process, I managed to mix the marinade.

Once the “chicken” was done and had a little time to cool, I diced it up as small as possible.  Seriously, you have to make this stuff really really small for it to taste good.  Then I mixed it with the marinade and let it sit for about half an hour.

Next I browned it in my wok until it started to get just a bit crispy.  Then I added the rice to the wok, seasoned it with soy sauce, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, ginger, and chili powder, added some carrots, broccoli, and green pepper, fried it until it was heated through, and voila!  Supper!


Recipe
For “meat”:
Protein of choice--I used Chicken (Not) Breasts, but you could use tofu, seitan, probably even tempeh would work
Marinade:
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. ketchup
2 tbsp. Sriracha
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup cold water

For rice:
2 cups cold, pre-cooked rice (if you don’t use cold rice, it will get mushy)
1/8 cup soy sauce (I like my food really salty, you could definitely cut back depending on your taste, or omit the extra soy sauce entirely)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder

If needed, prepare meat substitute according to package directions.  Then, whisk marinade ingredients together.  Dice protein and coat with marinade. Let marinate for about 30 minutes.  Brown protein until it’s nice and crispy on the outside.  Add rice, vegetables, and rice seasonings, then fry until ingredients are combined and heated through.  Enjoy!

Welcome to The Island Vegan!

Hello and welcome to The Island Vegan!  After being vegan for about three years, I recently moved to a small island off the coast of Maine.  This blog is a chronicle of my adventures with living, teaching, and being vegan in a very small, very isolated community.

What this blog is: A place where you’ll find recipes, product and restaurant reviews, suggestions for how to manage vegan cooking when you can’t lay your hands on various vegan ingredients, and occasional rants about how vegan recipe authors always seem to assume that everyone can always get nutritional yeast and raw cashews any time they want.  More generally, a place where I’ll talk about the ups and downs of life on an island.

What this blog isn’t: This is not a vegan 101 blog.  If you want to know about why people go vegan, what the deal is with B12, or where we get our protein, there are lots of great resources elsewhere on the internet.

Who should read this blog:
Vegans who don’t have easy access to a natural food store, Asian market, or other place to get fancy vegan ingredients
Omnivores trying to figure out what the heck to feed your vegan friends
New vegans who are still a little intimidated by the idea of cashew cheese
Lazy vegans (which is to say, all of us at one time or another)
Anyone who loves food adventures

Stay tuned for further developments!