Meatless Mondays for March Meat Out

A week from Tuesday, it will be March...

If you're coming here from the always-growing online vegan community, you probably already know that March is a great month for living compassionately.  Not only is it (in most places) the beginning of spring - the rebirth of nature, herself - but March is also Meat Out Month!

As such, I am launching my very own Meatless Mondays!

I've always had an "open door" policy to my kitchen.  If you're hankering for some yumminess, help yourself! I love to cook for family, friends, and even just random people - especially the veg-curious! - and I love to have people over to my house.  So, this year, every Monday in March, I will host a different person or couple in my home, where we will eat a delicious home-made meatless meal, and enjoy fabulous conversations about whatever strikes us as entertaining: the latest Oscar buzz, what's wrong or right with Edmonton, how much we'll miss winter, vegan substitutes for your favourite foods, new exercise programs, the latest plot developments of your favourite sitcom, etc.  (If lost for something to talk about, I'm sure Jito, my orange tabby cat, will bite somebody's toes and then entertain us by chasing his red laser around the apartment. :-D )

So far, March 7 has been claimed, but that leaves three more Mondays - March 14, 21 and 28 - to fill!  If you're in Edmonton, or surrounding area, email me at jodi_carlson@hotmail.com and I'll book you in!  I'll work with you on dietary preferences (aversions to bean, soy, omnisubs (omnivore substitutes), etc.) and allergies, but in the meantime, I've compiled a short list of a few things to spark your interest:

Roasted Vegetables & Rice Pilaf
Savoury Shepherd's Pie with Mushroom Gravy & Yorkshire Puddings
Baked Mac and Cheeze
Mediterranean Chickpea Wraps
Red and White Cauliflower Bake
Vegetarian Lasagna (with Daiya cheeze!)
Lentil Loaf

These recipes will eventually make it onto this blog, don't worry!  And, this list is nowhere near extensive...

If you're outside of Edmonton, but still interested in being a part of March Meat Out, please drop me a line. (I love hearing from people!) If you're in the city during March but not a Monday, we can probably still arrange something; or if you're in Edmonton and Mondays and/or March don't work for you, the same thing goes!

I'm offering these meals out of friendship, kindness and compassion for the world; however, food has a monetary value.  If you are one of my guests and you were completely satisfied with your meal, I would appreciate a tip to offset the cost of food and the time and energy I put into making it for you.  I won't bring this up at any other time than right now, and the price is only what you can afford.  Keep in mind, though, that if we were to go out for a meal, it would probably cost us between $15-30/each.  At a restaurant, the chairs would probably be more comfortable, so do only pay what you think it is worth!

Vegan Community - or Some People I've Been Meaning To Thank!

The meal above is brought to you by just a few of the many vegans I admire.  Two of the new vegans I admire, in fact!

Veganism is one of those things that really needed the internet to grow to the popularity that it is today.  I can't imagine how lonely it must have been to be a vegan in the 80s, or even the 90s without all the wonderful vegan blogs, recipe sharing sites and general support a vegan finds over the internet these days.  Of course, I owe my veganism to the people who paved the way before all that support, so I know it was possible: Thank you Sarah Kramer, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and your tables, and Bob and Jenna Torres, whose vegan freak podcasts were the guns pointing at my conscious telling me I needed to change my life.

Of course, with a blog like Cheatin' Vegan, you know I'm not always perfect.  None of us really are, as Melisser Elliott points out in her book, The Vegan Girl's Guide To Life.  Every week, it seems, there is something added to the - in the words of Bob Torres - NOT VEGAN list.  The biggest thing we can ever do, though, is be as cruelty-free as possible.  This year, writing about my veganism, I feel the pressure mounting to cheat less.  And this weekend, I succeeded.  Rather than saying, "it's the weekend, let me eat honey!" I cooked myself a vegan feast! 

And now to dish out the compliments of inspiration for that:

The Lentil Loaf (on the right) comes from a fabulous vegan blog I've been following since its beginning this January: The Chubby Vegan.  He highlights many fabulous recipes, and always has lovely pictures to match!

This is the first recipe from that blog that I've tried, but its success has encouraged me to try many more!

Now, I was talking with my sister this afternoon and she mentioned trying new recipes out this evening as well.  (We're a family filled with awesome cooks!)  Like the rest of my family (and possibly the rest of the sane world), she likes to follow new recipes EXACTLY as they are written.  I, on the other hand, RARELY follow recipes exactly as they are written - new or family favourites I have memorized.  In my culinary past, this has resulted in very few screw-ups (corn on pizza was a good idea, but I should have spread it out more evenly so as to avoid the nickname of "Conehead Pizza" for months afterwards.), so I continue to live dangerously.  For example, I used mustard in the Chubby Vegan's lentil loaf rather than the ketchup suggested.  When I used to make Meat Loaf for the fam, I always used mustard powder, so I figured it would be a better combination for me.  Mmmmmm, it was!  But, thus, my loaf looks different from the wonderful pics on his blog.  Also, I was impatient - those pieces of loaf were still warm, steamy, and falling all over the place...especially into my tummy - YUM!

On the bottom, you see some lovely orbs of cooked dough smothered in a greyish substance.  This image probably makes you wonder WTF just a little bit...

I first heard about Melisser Elliot last November, while shopping in a bookstore in Saskatoon.  I adore viewing the vegan section in EVERY bookstore I visit, and I stumbled upon her new book, The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.  It was magical!  Living on a TIGHT TIGHT budget, though, I couldn't buy it that weekend... I put a request on it from my local library as soon as I got home, though.  Two months later, it arrived on the library shelves and I was sent an email IMMEDIATELY.  It was one of the most exciting days so far this year...

I'll review her book in the next few days, but for now, I'll tell you this recipe for Vegan Biscuits and White Gravy come from it.  And they are delicious...although, I would recommend following one important part to the gavy recipe: use unsweetened "milk."  My vanilla flavoured almond milk just didn't quite reach that savoury taste one wants their gravy to have...

Check out Melisser Elliot's blog "The Urban Housewife" for more info on her book, and her lovely life as a vegan.  Just one more hero for me to have!

The carrots, of course, come from my omnivorous days... A time some people like to refer to as "pre-gan" days.  I like the new term, almost as much as I like carrots....yum!

The Best Part of the Super Bowl ... and it never aired on the tv ...

So, there was this big sporting event today.  As I once explained to a friend, "I could never be bothered to remember sports stats or even register things like that in my head, but I am obsessive about Canadian artists and I'll tell you all about them!"  Now, I've also picked up vegan stats to obsess over!

For any one else who "doesn't really follow sports," but enjoys the REAL highlights of the game - the commercials - here's a great link for you.  Check it out!


Banned PETA Super Bowl Commercial


I love PETA!  So outrageous, so revolutionary, so all about the cruelty-free propaganda!  And, yeah, I've been waiting a long time for the Brocolli Farmers of America to put out something like this - it's about time we get some REAL facts in our advertising... :-D

The Talk

I found this on the PETA website, along with many other videos I'll be sharing in the next few days. At first, I thought this was going to go in one specific direction...but then it went on to cover a completely different topic that needs exposure as well. Well done, Peta! Well done!

Grandma Carlson Day

Last summer, my paternal grandmother passed away. She was diagnosed with Frontal Lobe Dimentia several years ago. If, like many other people, you have watched a parent or grandparent suffer with this disease, you may understand the peace involved with her passing, more than the sadness. Of course, we are all sad to have lost such an amazing woman, but there is relief in knowing that her suffering is over. She has now returned to a God that she loved very much.

As for me, I feel like true bonding can now occur between the two of us. In a sense, we were from different worlds - her a teacher, farmer and mother; me a writer, vegan and spinster - but, in the same sense, we are also the same person.

In preparation for her funeral, I researched her life. This woman kept immaculate records on everything that happened in her life, and to her family. She was the geneologist in our family, and I am trained in history. This fact is one of the reasons her children have allowed me to look through her records, and why I am the first grandchild to ask to see them. She surrounded her life with animals, much like I do. She also wrote articles for the local papers, which is something I did in my youth. Heavily involved in 4-H, both her and I. And knitting, too! But, she never did learn to crochet...and I have little interest in learning how to quilt - as much as I adore the beautiful quilts I have that were made by her. The greatest thing we have in common, though, is our SWEET TOOTH and our love for baking...

As I type this, I am enjoying a cup of coffee in one of her "Souptime" mugs she always drank her coffee from. It is the fifteenth hour in Saskatchewan, her home, and that means it is "Coffee Time" at Grandma's! Every day, as a child, we would rush across our yard to Grandma's house, where we knew she had either the crunchiest chocolate chip cookies we could ever love OR one of her famous chocolate cakes - either sour cream or zucchinni. With that memory flooding back to me today, I made my favourite of those three: Chocolate Zucchini Cake, minus the chocolate chips ('cause I can't keep those in my house!) and veganized from her original recipe. I'm sure that all of my cousins reading this our drooling at this point...and perhaps a bit concerned about sharing this family secret?!? No. I don't think they'll be concerned about that. Grandma was always the first to share her recipes in community cookbooks and at family reunions. And so, it continues, my similarities to her...

Janet Carlson's Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Vegan Style

1/2 cup soft margarine (I use Earth Balance shortening or Buttery Sticks)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I substitute 1/4 cup of this with applesauce, if you are looking for something less fattening; either way it is still GOOD)
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce (which is replacing 3 eggs)
1/2 cup sour "milk" (like non-vegan bakers, I just add a tsp of vinegar to whichever milk I have in my fridge, either soy (best for baking) or almond, my favourite)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
6 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional, unless my father is coming over)

Cream together margarine, oil and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla and "milk." Beat well. Sift in flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until well combined. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes.

Below, I have included (almost) step-by-step photos of creating the cake this afternoon:

Mixing together Earth Balance shortening with sugar.  It looks like fluffy snow!

After adding the oil, but before the applesauce, vanilla and milk...

I always sift flour when I bake vegan...and cocoa, too.  Sifting flour gives your baking more of the fluffiness that you lose when you take out the egg whites.  This handy little sifter came from Ikea years ago, and cleans up really well!  It has a hand pump, which makes sifting ten times faster!

I put all of my dry ingredients into the sifter.  A good rule of thumb is to put the sifter on a plate to do this step.  If not, you lose precious flour before you get the sifter over the bowl!

A close up of the marvelous spices being added to the cake...and the levening agents

and flour, underneath it all.

 After mixing in all of the dry ingredients, but before adding the juicy shredded zucchini, this looks more like brownie batter than cake batter.  I would know as I am a PRO-BROWNIE-BAKER!

The juicy shredded zucchini.  I grew up harvesting zucchini from our family garden in late August, shredded it at that time and freezing it in 2-cup containers for this recipe specifically!  As an adult, I'll buy one or two of these squashes - always extra large - in the fall and run them through my food processor...and freeze them in 2-cup containers, for this recipe specifically!  What else can you do with zucchini..I mean, except stir-frys and the like...

I got to the pan part and realized that I don't have a metal 9X13 pan! :-(  I normally use my 9X13 pyrex pan, but Grandma never used Pyrex for this cake...so I had to use metal today, too!  Luckily, I have two 9x9 brownie pans that worked nicely...

This is the second pan!

Halfway through the cooking - I rotate.  Some people might cringe at the thought of looking at your cake halfway through.  Sadly, I've burned more cakes due to faulty ovens than had cakes fall.  I always rotate! 

First pan done!

Um...I guess the batter wasn't evenly divided between the two pans.  The other one took another ten minutes to finish...

The finger-touching test!  If it bounces back, the cake is done! 

Well, in theory.  I always preferred the toothpick trick instead (stick a toothpick in, if it comes out clean, the cake is done).  Sadly, I do not have toothpicks!

Okay, I was in a hurry to have a piece, that's why it's crumbling...

This is the quintessential picture of Grandma Carlson - coffee (served black, always!) and a sweet!

I love you, Grandma!

Even more than I love this cake! :-D

Now that's steep competition!