Sprouted Bean Experiment Concluded!

The other day I started some beans sprouting and this is what happened:


4 days ago I soaked a cup of white beans for 24 hrs. Then I put them in a jar with a draining lid and set them up to sprout. Three days and many rinsings later they were starting to show little tails!



















I rinsed them one last time and then cooked them in broth until they were soft and all the liquid was gone. I had to keep adding water. It was just like cooking regular beans, no different.

My conclusion about sprouted beans? I will continue to do it. They were delicious. I appreciate that when germinated they are much easier to digest. They take just as long to cook and I didn't really taste any difference. I think from now on I will soak for one day and germinate for one day, shortening it from a four to a two day process. We have beans about twice a week, with a two day soak I won't have to have multiple jars germinating just to keep us in beans. My kitchen isn't that big and I don't feel like branching out right now. Master bathroom with the skylight, I'm talking to you.

Last night's dinner was delicious. I made whole wheat tortillas, I made a wonderful salsa from tomato, onion, corn, garlic and lime juice.
















I cooked up some brown and wild rice, steamed about 2 cups of spinach leaves in broth with minced onion and made cashew sour cream.

Burrito night.














Roll your own :)



Today for lunch I sauteed some collard greens and minced onion in a 1/2 cup juice from the salsa. When the collard is thoroughly wilted and the onions are translucent I added a tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder and stirred it in until all dissolved. I added another 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer until the liquid was almost gone.

I served it over wild and brown rice with a scoop of "refried" sprouted beans.














When I say "refried" I mean re-heated with a little bit of water.


Today's smoothie was different.
2 Banana
1 big handful dried mint
1/4 cup Dried Kelp
3 tbs flax seed
Plenty of water














MMM-mm-Minty! It smelled just like summer time. I brought a bunch from the old house and planted it here. I sure hope it grows big. I'd like to plant more around the house but I need this bush to grow so I can make more bushes.

The Condiment Chronicles: MOSTLY RAW Vegan Sandwich Spread Dressing Cruelty Free Mayonnaise, No Soy, NO Egg, No Dairy!

I have been working hard. Late nights in the lab. I have been trying to make a raw vegan mayonnaise sauce. I think I have done it.

I call it mostly raw because of the flax seed oil and the miso.

(MOSTLY) Raw Vegan Mayo

1/3 cup brazil nuts
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 tbs each:
Nutritional yeast
White Miso
Sesame
2 tbs each:
ACV
Flaxseed oil

Blend until very smooth and creamy, add water if needed to aid in blending.

It's yellow, it's runny, it's got brown flecks in it. It's the closest to mayo that I have tasted.

My New Dryer and More Egg Free Challenge!

Energy saving, green, good for the environment vegan and freegan
















It's solar powered and really quiet. It dries 4 loads in about 3 hours on a sunny day so it saves time. It's a space saver, that's for sure, what with being outside and all. Downside? It's not gonna work in the rain.


This is the heavy duty area where I dry over sized stuff like rugs













Hey, as long as I don't have to WASH them by hand, I don't care, are you with me?

When is that belt coming? I don't know.

I got the free package of Teese that I "won" by sending a recipe to Compassion over Killing.
Um, what's the word? I don't like it very much. It tastes like plastic and doesn't melt at all. I put it under the broiler, no melt. But, it was free and I don't want to complain, so Thanks, Noelle, you are awesome! I hope you like the egg free breakfast recipe! The rest of you click and go, commit to 30 days of egg free! You can save the lives of chickens and reduce your cholesterol, too!

How do you like the blue?

Todays smoothie was cantaloupe seed milk, cantaloupe and raw nettles. I used the very tops of the plants, the tenderest parts that haven't even made leaves yet and blended them with the milk and some cantaloupe meat.















Tasted just like cantaloupe.


The man is home, he has strained his back and needs to rest it for a day or so. He should be able to go to work tomorrow.

I got my packet from eggindustry.com. They sent me a couple of pamphlets, a go veg magazine, a couple of stickers and a "vegetarian starter kit" which is a magazine type deal with hints, tips and reasons to go veg, along with some nutritional facts. I suggest you go sign up for it, even if you are a vegan, you can still show your support, encourage others to go egg free for a month and Noelle from Compassion Over Killing is Very Nice and sent me a personal email thanking me for sending in my eggless breakfast recipe which was Vegan Benedict.

Yay! for community and sticking together and spreading the word that not only is eating eggs cruel, it's totally unnecessary for good eating and that complete nutrition is possible and delicious without eggs.

Ok, then.

Today I made a recipe that came out of one of the vegetarian starter kit. It was for eggplant manicotti (no irony intended). I changed the recipe of course. It's in the oven now















Thinly sliced eggplant with a filling made from nettles and onions and some seitan sausage, baked in a cheese sauce. I didn't use any nuts but there are sunflower seeds in it.
howI will let you know how it comes out and post the recipe later :)


The topsy turvy tomato plant has two small tomatoes on it.


















Squeeee!!!















Can you see them?

















Does anyone know what these plants are called?















Or these















How about...












I'm wondering if any of them are edible. The last one, lacy with white flowers smells like carrot or parsely when crushed.


I know what these are and cannot wait to see and smell them...














I cut some large leaves off of the nettle plants and I'm steaming them for the tea to make my home made shampoo/body wash. The man uses it. I'm tryna wean him off the commercial stuff. I will have to find the recipe and I will post that here later today or tomorrow.

How do you like the blue? I was tired of the dark color and wanted to lighten it up a bit.

Remembering Linda by Abstaining from Eggs for 30 Days

"The egg industry's busiest time of year is the Easter season. After the holiday passes, "sales go down, but the hens keep on laying eggs," says the American Egg Board. In an effort to boost post-holiday sales, egg producers across the country celebrate May as "National Egg Month." Compassion Over Killing is asking you to put an animal-friendly spin on this month-long industry-declared holiday by pledging to Crack the Cruelty and choose egg-free foods for at least 30 days!"

I was raised on a chicken farm and I know that chickens don't like being confined. That they like to be petted. That they will fall asleep in your arms if you hold them.

My first pet was a chicken and I was forced to eat her. No lie.
Please help me to remember "Linda" my pet chicken, by not eating eggs for this month.

It's a small sacrifice for you, but a matter of life or death for the animals.

Here comes Easter. Again.

Then you should read this. Yet another egg farm, is caught being terribly cruel to chickens in a hidden camera sting

Reprinted from http://www.sunjournal.com

State executes search warrant at Turner egg farm

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

TURNER — State agriculture officials are executing a search warrant at Quality Egg of New England on the Plains Road, the former DeCoster Egg Farm, searching for evidence of animal cruelty.

A representative of Mercy for Animals, a national animal protection organization, was hired by Quality Egg and secretly videotaped conditions of the farm from Dec. 16 through Feb. 1. Mercy for Animals filed a formal complaint against the farm with the Animal Welfare Program of the Maine Department of Agriculture on March 19, seeking civil and criminal charges against the farm and its workers.

According to the complaint, Mercy for Animals representatives documented "an ongoing pattern of cruelty to animals, including:

• Supervisors and other workers kicking live hens into manure pits;
• An ill, live hen hung by her leg on a feeding trough without apparent veterinary care or humane euthanasia;
• At least 150 hens stuck on the wires of their cages or trapped under parts of cages, unable to access food or water, or to protect themselves from their cage mates;
• Holes in the flooring of dilapidated cages, many large enough for live hens to fall through into the manure pits below;
• Inhumanely unclean conditions, including extremely decomposed corpses and rotting eggs in cages with live hens producing eggs for human consumption, and hens living with feces caked on them.
• Live hens with their body parts stuck in caging, including at least one live hen's face, pressed against moving conveyor belts.

Quality Egg, originally founded as AJ DeCoster Egg Farms in 1961, was reorganized in 1997 as a limited liability company. The largest producer of eggs in New England, the company's Web site publishes a pledge to strive for "safe quality production at all times," including "meeting the demanding quality standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture at all times."

According to Maine law, egg-laying hens fall under the protection of Maine's animal cruelty laws. Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson has been assigned to handle this case.

According Mercy for Animals' undercover investigation, on Dec. 17, "I saw a hen in a top battery cage who was stuck under her front cage wall. ...I tried to push her gently, but she wouldn't move and appeared wedged in between cage wires."

Pointing out the problem to a supervisor, the undercover worker reports that the supervisor "grabbed the hen by a leg and yanked her free forcefully. As he did so, the hen cried out and flapped her wings. She was briefly caught at her cage door" before the supervisor yanked the bird again, spun her around one time by her neck and dropped her on the ground, nudging her with his foot toward the manure pit. "Halfway under a bottom-level egg belt, she popped back onto the floor, flapping her wings, thrashing and bouncing back and forth," according to the worker.

The search warrant, filed in Lewiston District Court, is impounded until State Police file an inventory of their search.

Norma Worley, of the state's Animal Welfare Department, along with three state animal agents and four state troopers, assigned to provide security for the Department of Ag, were at the farm Wednesday afternoon, according to a Sun Journal reporter and photographer at the scene.

It appeared investigators were also removing plastic trash bags from buildings at the farm.

Bob LeClair, a safety compliance officer at the farm, said he could not comment on the situation but a prepared statement from Quality Egg would be made available soon.

There is video, too.

Holidays all seem to center around a corpse in one way or another. I hope you have a happy Easter. I hope that your Easter doesn't involve being cruel to your fellow beings, including chickens, rabbits, lambs and pigs.

VEGAN BRINNER! Breakfast for Dinner Cruelty-Free Style: Banana French Toast w Grilled Sweet Potatoes, Bananas and Vegan Sausage

Oh, look a recipe for EGG FREE FRENCH TOAST!!!

I made the McDougall Banana French Toast but adapted it a bit, of course!










They were a HUGE hit! Even the boy ate some and complained that there weren't more.


















Here they are soaking in a pan. I let them set in the mixture all day because I used my own bread and it's pretty heavy.
My griddle is not so non-stick so I used some olive oil cooking spray.

I sliced bananas and sweet potatoes and threw them on the grill, too.
















I baked some hash browns. These are the boy's portion. He likes his plain and with the peels off













I made a larger pan of hashed potatoes and onions, with peels, for the grown ups, baked the same way.


I have an indoor grill.














This place is whacky, I tell you.














Banana, sweet potato and vegan sausage.


The recipe.

I made a loaf of bread but I put an extra tbs of sugar and a tsp of cinnamon in and deleted any oat or flax I may have used in a loaf of sandwich bread. I also put a tbs of vital wheat gluten because I have heard that it will make a lighter loaf of bread (it says it on the package) but I haven't noticed any difference.
Let the bread cool completely and slice in 1/2" slices.

Mix in blender:
1 lrg ripe banana
1/2 cup oat milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Blend until creamy. It should be about the consistency of eggnog and the next time I want eggnog, I am going here :)

Place bread slices in pan and pour mixture over the top. Cover and let rest until you are ready to cook them.

Cook on lightly oiled or non-stick griddle until brown. Turn and brown the other side and eat, eat, eat!

For baked hash browns grate one potato per person. Rinse the grated potato and mix with 1/2 - 1 tsp of olive oil per potato and bake on baking sheet for 30 minutes at 375 F.

Grilled bananas and sweet potatoes, simply slice them and toss them on the grill until the bananas are brown and the sweet potatoes are tender.

Slice your vegan sausage and grill it until it is brown and crispy.

Serve it all hot!

Like every recipe I have made from the McDougall book, it's fabulous. I am so happy to have a low fat, vegan, recipe for French toast that doesn't call for any eggs, because eggs are slavery, exploitation and murder!

Vegan Benedict AND some Roundish Bread I baked this morning in my New Silicone Baking Pans

This morning for Sunday breakfast/brunch I decided to make this easy dish:
Vegan Benedict
















I got this recipe from the McDougall* quick and easy cookbook that I bought at Goodwill for $3.99. I love that store.
















I changed it slightly.














VEGAN Hollandaise Sauce

1/4 cup peanuts. The peanuts I used were soaked then dehydrated.
1 cup water
blend the peanuts and water until smooth pour into a saucepan and add
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp nutritional yeast
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tbs cornstarch mixed with 2 tbs cold water
Mix it all together with a whisk and heat slowly, stirring constantly until thickened. About 5 minutes on med heat.

The sandwiches

Toast six slices of bread
Plate the bread, two slices per plate and put a thick slice of tomato and avocado on each slice of toast.
Pour the hot hollandaise sauce on top of the sandwiches and serve immediately.















Serves three.

Fabulous Sunday brunch style breakfast. Wow. I mean, really, really good. The hollandaise was very convincing.

Those McDougalls are aces in my book. But they use honey. But I can get around that. I love cook books and this one is a real keeper. *


I baked a loaf of bread.














I made a double batch cuz I was gonna put it in two pans. But it fit in one pan. My mistake. Or not. It looks good, actually.














Next time I will split the dough and see how it works.




Footnotes:

* I guess I should link that to Amazon somehow so if you buy it through my site I will get paid but I'm not sure how. You can click through the green cloud type thing to get to Amazon and I will get paid that way. Cheers.

If you think it's humane to eat eggs...

Before you eat another egg, watch this video about a chain grocery store on the east coast.

Wegman's Cruelty

They are certified humane, don't forget.