heathy – VeggHead BeerCyclist

Ⓥeganism Science

Posted on September 22, 2015September 25, 2015 by jeffreylatty

Earlier this year, I turned 30. Earlier this morning (9.19.15), I threw out my back from standing up from a sitting position. My back pain is horrific. I can still ride a bicycle. So, all is (mostly) well.

Yesterday, I tried another from scratch Vegan Burger sandwich. It was not perfect. It has been quite a few days since this blog draft started. And when you smell it… Today is Monday Monday Monday, Monday (as in Monday September 21, 2015.) I freaking love Mondays. As far as my knowledge goes, it’s not a holiday. I usually am off of work on Mondays and that has been my go-to day for 5-10 years. Even back in the day working for the Sicilians, we were closed on Mondays! Every holiday on a Monday puts more assholes in the streets, in my yard, and I’m usually wishing assholes weren’t such assholes, but once an asshole-always an asshole. And it usually sucks to have to share the roads with them.

My back still kills. I’m trying to spin it off. Today was mostly hard gravel and overall super strenuous. I feel I need a good baseball bat to the back. And I mean a real baseball bat, wooden not aluminum. I rode on gravel because it is awesome, because it’s usually low traffic roads and three because I roll well somehow some way. I am guilty of riding road tires on the heaviest, densest and brutal gravel. (Now yesterday) It was busy with dogs, tractors and vehicles. It (I am the king of Procrastinate Island) reminded me of a summer Monday holiday with people just wanting to drive all dangerously and fast. I found a Gravel Matrices in the middle of corn (GMO) country where there aren’t stop signs not even yield signs at the Gravel Matrix intersections.

I am in no way scared of dogs, but on a bicycle around free dogs (which is great) has me severely stressed and anxious of being bit, getting hit by a car and/or falling. And swimming through gravel on my 32 road tires at 30-34 km/h (20+ mph) trying to go faster than the dog while the dog constantly switches sides like he’s hunting dinner and myself constantly looking back while passing through a gravel intersection was just about the worst combination of events I can think of. Gratefully, no one was injured.

And then the same thing happened just three minutes later with a giant John Deere tractor. This dude seemingly was gonna run me over until I (I often ride with music in my ears) finally noticed this bone crushing machine directly behind me and I immediately pulled over and stopped. I gave him a good stare, but felt he did nothing wrong really, hence no middle finger. And there were cars driving on all of this gravel like it was a party. One was a mailman, but I’ve never seen so much gravel traffic.

Bean Concoction ingredients:

Garlic, diced
Ginger, diced
Lentil/Split Pea, cooked
Red and Pinto Beans, cooked
Noodles
SeaSalt/Pepper/Sugar
Soy Sauce
Celery, sliced
Carrots, whole baby carrots
Onion, diced
Spinach, baby
Hot Pepper, diced
Corn
Salsa
Grilled Eggplant, diced
Oil

To-Do List:

Heat Oil and sauté Garlic and Ginger before adding Onion, Celery & Carrots.
I cooked everything else together and Beans were not pre cooked.

I enjoyed a plate and then the next day decided to try Vegan Burgers from scratch. I named them Herbivores Outsmart Carnivore. Other than the consistency, they were amazing.

Herbivores Outsmarts Carnivore ingredients:

Bean Concoction, NutriNinja pureed
Tofu, soft
Nutritional Yeast & Chipotle Powder
BalsamicVinegar/Sriracha
Mashed Potatoes, instant (experimental)
Buns, gourmet & grilled
Eggplant, grilled and sliced
Tomato, garden fresh (if possible) and grilled
Portabello Mushroom Cap, sliced & grilled
Daiya, mmmmmm
Potato/Radish/Carrot, grilled for the side (if applicable)
Spinach, leafy and baby

Spin Class:

Pureed the Bean Concoction and combined Tofu, Nutritional Yeast, Chipotle Powder, BalsamicVinegar/Sriracha and Instant Mashed Potatoes in hoping to solidify the mixture.
I grilled the Bun, Eggplant, Portabello and Tomato before hand on a cast iron skillet.
Then I grilled the Potato, Radish and Carrot on the cast iron skillet.
I formed patties out of the mixture and put them on a pan lined with parchment paper and baked.
Instead of flipping, I broiled the top. The patties were’t as solid as I would’ve liked. I broiled Daiya on inside of Buns on top of Spinach and on top of patties with Mushroom and Eggplant on top.
I made this a Dubbel sandwich combining two patties and enjoyed with a Saison Dolores from Almanac out of San Fran.
It was very good and the consistency of the patty could be stronger, but very edible!

And this is where my insanity comes out to play.

I am absolutely addicted to potatoes and Colcannon. I had left over Herbivore Outsmarts Carnivore which on its own is basically superfood and added to it to basically make spontaneous Ⓥ Superfood.

Ⓥ Superfood ingredients:

Herbivore Outsmarts Carnivore mixture
Roasted potatoes, mashed
Salsa
SeaSalt/BrownSugar
Instant Mashed Potatoes, still experimenting as a thickening agent

This is pretty self explanatory as I don’t attend to teach anyone how to cook, just sharing my ideas and trying to take away your sanity 🙂 It was very good and very powerful!

Ⓥ Superfood Upgraded ingredients:

Ⓥ Superfood, powerfully
Water, mmmmm
Rice, brown and white (real Rice)
Radish, sliced
Garlic/Ginger/Onion, minced
Oil
Spinach, leafy and babyish
Daiya

Superman approved processes:

I’m guilty of insanity and having too much fun sometimes. This was very enjoyable.
I brought water to a small boil and simmered the rice for quite sometime infusing that rice with flavor and SUPERNESS!
I sautéed Garlic/Ginger/Onion in Oil obtaining color before adding Radishes and Spinach.
I plated the Superfood Rice and put sautéed gravy sauce (?) over top and broiled with some Daiya.

I’m truly not sure if I can ever surpass this entire process, but it kept me not hungry and entertained for a few days. And parents tell their children not to play with their food. I say PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD & HAVE FUN WITH IT! Recipes are guidelines. Do not follow them to a T. Take some pics, have a beer and ride your bicycle. Be safe, be healthy and blog off:)

(Apologies, I’m not ordering you to do anything, just recommending.)

Damnit, I almost forgot to share this Dubbel Boca idea…

Tom Relly ingredients:

Tomato, garden & deseeded and diced (save the guts!)
Garlic/Ginger/Onion/Oregano, minced & lightly toasted
Oil/Sriracha/BalsamicVinegar
Celery Seed
Eggplant, grilled & diced
Bun or Bread, grilled heavily and super diced

Mix

Dubbel Boca ingredients:

Boca, vegan & baked or pan-fried
Bun, gourmet and grilled on inside
Tom Relly, mmmmm
Mustard
Chipotle Powder
Daiya, mmmmmm

Brain Surgery:

Have your Tom Relly, ready. If everything else is grilled and ready before hand, life is easier to construct your edibles to be destroyed by you plant eating herbivorous monsters! I created a massive thunderstorm above theⓋ Boca patties. There was heavy winds, loud thunder and not a drop of rain until right before the climax of the evil storm squirted out flavorful Organic Mustard followed by the precise light mist of smoky Chipotle Powders and then vanishing into muggy humid Illinois air (sound effect (of your choice)), these ridiculous sentences are gone.
I grilled another Potato for the side. I constructed the Dubbel Boca onto the bottom (already grilled (on the inside)) Bun creating a tight seal of Chipotle Mustardation between the Boca’s. I then piled Tom Relly (it’s short for Tomato Relish, ok…)
I put as much Daiya possible on top of this erected edible Ⓥ tower of power and BROILED
Serve as hot as your (my) evil soul for inflicting cruel evil torturing pain on this plant based food before I devour it like I hate plants.

Happy Tuesday, y’all.

Mexican Breakfast Ⓥiesta

Posted on September 4, 2015September 4, 2015 by jeffreylatty

I’m going to attempt to blog this blog in one day, today! Do you think that I can do it!?

It’s Friday and it’s going on 0830. It is also September 4th, 2015, incase you didn’t know.

I took this whole week off of work. I needed to get some things done and I wanted to do some serious riding. I requested these days off in early August when I thought for sure it would be a nice low 20 C degree days, but good ol’ Illinois has been in the 30s C ALL WEEK. Which in our ridiculous style of USA measurements, it has been in the 90s F ALL WEEK. There, in my mind, is nothing more simplistic than zero degrees being freezing.

I might be one of the few Americans who rides kilometers and gets their weather in Celsius. Celsiuses? Celsius’s? Celsius’? Google has helped me vastly in the transition. Anyways, I haven’t been getting a lot done and it’s a little too hot for massive riding, so I’ve been cooking more this week. I’ve been enjoying good beers too 😉

I did ride a Strava Gran Fondo on Tuesday with temps in the 30s. I ran into a few really awesome roads, being exactly what I needed. It was a very mixed surface ride. The ride diversing from Road, soft gravel, hard ocean-like gravel, dirt, loose dirt, grass into small rocks. Truly being a large variety of riding surfaces.

I’m doing an organized metric century in a few weeks. It’s my very first organized ride and I’m actually somewhat training for it. I will never be a just road cyclist. Where is the fun?

I do have 200+ kms already for the month of September, so I’ve been riding a decent amount.

Gran Fondo #ProveIt Strava

I started this Breakfast around 9:45 and went about it at a casual pace. And eating the breakfast for lunch around noon was still amazing and well worth it! And for the first time ever, I had a Ⓥegan Trifecta of Tofu, Tempeh and Soyrizo.

Mexican Breakfast Ⓥiesta ingredients:

Lentils, cooked
Split peas, cooked
Brown (REAL) Rice, not instant-cooked
Corn Kernels, canned or frozen-slightly warmed (especially if frozen)
Blackeyed Peas, canned or dry-cooked
Celery, dicely sliced
Onion, julienne sliced
Habanero, diced
Garlic, diced
Tomato, diced
Carrot, sliced
Cilantro, chopped
Kale, I used NONGMO frozen 🙂
Potatoes, stringy hash brown-style (I used already prepared frozen)
Lime, just the juiciness
Tofu, strained
Soyrizo
Tempeh, sliced & grilled
DAIYA, mmmmm
Rye Bread, Grilled and cut at a 45 degree angle 30 or 60 degree cuts are acceptable
SeaSalt/Pepper/Sugar/OnionP/GarlicP/BayLeaves
BalsamicVinegar/Honey/VeggieBroth/Oil

The Decent with a Tailwind:

I first prepared the Lentils, Split Peas and Rice. I cooked them together for around 25 minutes and seasoned with Sugar, Sea Salt, Pepper, Onion and Garlic Powder and a couple of Bay Leaves. I added the canned Corn and Blackeyed Peas for a few minutes before straining and setting aside. REMOVING BAY LEAVES. I’ll never forget that nightmare that I had of eating Bay Leaves…
I used a machine to dice the Garlic and Habanero together. Habanero on the hands is asking for discomforts…
Sautéed the Garlic and Habanero in Oil before adding Celery, Onion, Carrot and then covering sautéing for a few minutes.
Saute Soyrizo with everything. Add Lime Juice, SeaSalt/Pepper & Balsamic Vinegar and stir.
Add Beans/Rice/Corn, HashBrowns, Kale, Tofu, Cilantro, Tomato, Honey and cover and simmer for a good 15-20 minutes
Add VeggieBroth (not a lot, but a decent amount), stir and Add Daiya on top. I baked in pan for 10-15 before Broiling
Garnish with Tempeh and Toast, and Cilantro (if you live life on the EDGE)

I made enough to eat a heaping serving for lunch and for dinner. Simply, yet complex, BUT Ⓥegan greatness all the same. Food and Cooking is fun and should never be taken seriously unless it is your job. Recreational Cheffing is a hobby that everyone should partake and enjoy. Whatever your level of cooking, it’s fun, others enjoy, it’s HEALTHIER and it provides excellent photo criteria. And when you throw in a good Beer or glass of Wine and progressively make it an art, it’s a Lifestyle. A FEEL-GOOD lifestyle.

Just be careful when using Hot Peppers and Drink responsibly. It is easy to get carried away with confidence while chopping Romain after one too many Beers. Still better me than any animal:)

Happy Friday!

Comeback Kid

BreakⓋast Tofu Scramble

Posted on August 6, 2015August 7, 2015 by jeffreylatty

Hoppy IPA Day! I trekked via Trek CrossRip Elite (Darth Vader) to a bar that I have not been to since age 20, yesterday, to try a super local brewery’s brews. The brewery is Radium City Brewing out of Ottawa, Illinois. The beer that I tried and the only beer the bar had left was Passing Time IPA an American IPA with citrusy hoppy goodness at 6.9%. It was very good. I gave it 4.25 bottle caps on Untappd. And because this is a very hoppy day and I’m off of work, I made breakⓋast this morning! It was absolutely delicious, hence, me blogging all over your face. And I wanna share some pictures. I love taking pictures and my photographic eye has seemed to evolve to another level over the past year. I made two different Scramble batches in the last week. The first being a Seitan Tofu Scramble and this one without Seitan, but including Eggplant, Cashews and Zucchini. Both Scrambles were basically made the same way and both delicious. That’s the nice thing about scrambles, stir-fry, soup or anything along those lines, throw in them whatever you want or have on hand. Slightly before the first batch, I made Cauliflower Mashed. And then after taking a few days trying to learn how to spell “cauliflower”, practicing manually writing and typing “cauliflower’ and after many failures and shed tears of disappointment, I decided to give up and just eat the Cauliflower Mashed inside a baked potato. Just like my spelling, I need to master the Cauliflower Mashed and not rely on auto-correct. It would be cool if there was an auto-correct-chef. But, then like the occasional craziness of auto-correcting texts, I’d screw up baking a cake and it would wind up sauerkraut infused cake or something crazy. I’ve only made from-scratch carrot cake twice, but I hate baking. I can handle bread. I also used already made Pita Bread and made BreakⓋast Pitas with the first batch. Homemade Pita Bread is still by far better than store bought even if it was made there at the store. It was whole wheat and still very good.

Seitan ingredients: -Vital Wheat Gluten -Vegetable Stock -Tomato Sauce/Paste -SeaSalt/Pepper/GarlicP/OnionP -Sunflower Seeds, shelled and slightly crushed -Rosemary, dried and slightly crushed -Fennel Seeds, wholly moly -Carrot and Onion, rough chopped -Bay Leaves and Thyme -Non-dairy Cheese Cloth 😉

Hail Seitan: -The first thing done was bring a pot of Broth, Carrot, Onion, Thyme, CRP, Thyme and Bay Leaves to a slow boil. Simmer.

-I mixed the Fennel Seeds, Rosemary, Seeds, SeaSalt/Pepper/GarlicP/OnionP, Vegetable Stock and a little Sugar and Cayenne together in a big bowl. I put the very very very Vital Wheat Gluten in a separate, yet bigger, bowl. I then poured the liquid greatness with the gluten hand kneading slowly but efficiently until a loaf is formed. I wet the non-dairy cheese cloth with water and then spray the loaf with non-stick spray and roll it up.

-Put into a lasagna pan and pour half of simmering Broth onto raw Seitan roll keeping Bay Leaves and veggies in broth and not on top of non-dairy cheese cloth.

-Bake for 2-2.25 hours flipping over halfway and adding remaining broth, if needed.

-Once complete, unwrap Seitan from non-dairy cheese cloth like the plastic surgeon did for Joker in the first Batman movie from 1989 with Jack Nicolson and Michael Keaton. Just don’t smash a mirror or continue to give Batman hell. Wrap the not so funny, but seriously delicious Seitan in foil and refrigerate. Use how you’d like.

Cauliflower Mashed ingredients:

-Cauliflower, organic & chopped, roasted

-Corn, roasted -Onion, diced & roasted

-Carrot, finely diced & not a lot

-Potatoes, diced & roasted -Cashews, roasted -Tomato GUTS, leftover from Pico Ⓥ Queso -Seitan, diced -Cilantro, chopped -Scallions, finely sliced Garlic, minced roasted slightly -SeaSalt/Pepper/ChipotleP/Cayenne/GarlicP/OnionP -Almond Milk -“Cheese”, I used Go Veggie dairy-free Mexican style -Corn Starch

Steps: -I roasted Veggies and simmered Almond Milk. I added seasoning and then roasted Veggies. I then added “Cheese” and Corn Starch, as much as needed, for correct consistency. I enjoyed it chunky and not fully mashed, but I would go about it a little differently. I would keep it oil-free, though. -For the Cauliflower Mashed Stuffed Potato, I roasted a couple of Potatoes on parchment paper face down. I then cleaned out most Potato flesh and threw in with Cauliflower Mashed and put in the empty lifeless Potatoes and broiled with a little “Cheese” on top.

Scramble ingredients: -Tofu, firm -Raw Cashews -Garlic, minced -Onion, chopped or sliced -Various Peppers, I used green, yellow, orange and red small sliced -Potatoes, diced and niced (made-up word;) -Eggplant, diced -Kale, frozen chopped or freshly chopped -Kalamata and Manzanilla Olives, finely diced and Juice/Brine -Sport Peppers, finely diced and Juice/Brine -Portabello Mushrooms, sliced -SeaSalt/Pepper/Fennel Seeds -Balsamic Vinegar -Avocado, sliced thick -Large Tortilla shells, soft -Daiya 🙂 -Canola Oil -Lemon, juiced

The BreakⓋast Adventure: -I heated some Canola Oil in a pan and basically added everything as I prepared it. And grilled the Avocado slices on my cast iron skillet. The order of operations after heated oil go; Cashews, Potato, Garlic, Eggplant, Onion, SeaSalt/Pepper/Fennel Seeds, Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Olive Juice and Sport Peppers Juice, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Kale, finely diced Olives and Sport Peppers, Tofu and Daiya. -I steamed the Tortilla shells and stuffed them with the scramble greatness. I put directly on pan with parchment paper, Tortilla folds down, and baked for 12-60 minutes.

Definitely closer to 12 than 60 minutes. I then threw them on the cast iron skillet and gave them a nice mark. I cut in half, put on plate with more scramble topped with grilled Avocado and took a picture before destroying the Vegan greatness.

I was at work one night devising breakⓋast ideas and googled Vegan meat replacements. The internet is never 100% correct, but it was telling me that there was Vegan Morning Star “Bacon” and “Sausage Links” at the local Hy-Vee. I was super excited until I physically looked on the packages in the Health Department (my home) at Hy-Vee and noticed they were not Vegan. I was disappointed, but thought of these kickass ways to eat Vegan BreakⓋast and saved some money. I first was introduced to the Tofu Scramble from Vegan Zombie. Check ’em out!