Vegan Diet Guy

Fast Tube by Casper

Unless it’s every night that another U.S. celebrity talks about going vegan, it sure was a coincidence I happened to see Mike Tyson on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” yesterday.

When I visited the States last November, I caught Janet Jackson on Leno discussing her “on again off again” vegan diet and favorite vegan restaurants, and then Craig Ferguson poking fun at World Vegan Day.

This time around–jet-lagged after being back just 3 days–I was just about to sleep when the late night host announced Tyson would be his next guest. Tyson adopted a vegan diet last May, and (although any reason for giving up meat is a good one) I was curious if the boxer would be discussing what triggered his decision.

Struggling to stay awake through endless commercials, Tyson finally came on to plug “The Hangover Part 2”.  Fortunately for me, within a minute, the conversation turned to his vegan diet.  Looking remarkably fit, Tyson mentioned that he had lost 130-140 pounds since becoming vegan.

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I had been overbuying bananas on sale lately and realized there’s no way we were going to eat them all, unless I got busy baking.

Problem is, since watching Robert Lustig’s video “The Bitter Truth” calling sugar a poison, I can hardly bring myself to use sugar, even when baking sweets. The other day, I prepared my favorite (PPK’s) banana bread recipe minus sugar for the first time, and honestly thought it could have done with a few chocolate chips. So, when a recipe calls for chocolate chips–even semi-sweet ones–like this one for banana blondies, it wasn’t a difficult choice to leave the sugar out of the blondie dough.

Until recently, I had routinely cut the amount of sugar in recipes by half, or even two-thirds, in addition to reducing processed fat like oil and margarine to a minimum. As time went on, I found the taste was often still too sweet, but I didn’t reduce sugar further for fear of ruining the original recipe or winding up with something friends or house guests would find inedible! (more…)

It’s been a little difficult for me to go back to writing about a vegan diet and new vegan recipes given events of March 11 and the ongoing crisis just 150 miles away in Japan’s Tohoku (northeast) region.

We grieve for those who lost loved ones and property, now staying in evacuation shelters and perhaps unable to return to their homes. Indeed, thousands have had their towns decimated, or made uninhabitable due to radiation. Countless farm animals and pets were swept away, and many roam in the perimeter of the reactors, without food.

Trivial by comparison are the psychological effects of those indirectly affected, and others who now realize they are living near active earthquake zones, coastlines, or more than 50 nuclear power plants in Japan: (more…)

While many of us took our own mother’s cooking for granted while growing up, eating over a friend’s house provided our first taste of exotic foods, even those from just across state lines.

My best friend’s mother from West Virginia served navy bean soup on top of a piece of buttermilk cornbread topped by a pat of butter. Thirty years passed before it occurred to me to bake cornbread instead of having my usual whole wheat pasta or brown rice with soup. And who needs buttermilk when you can make a vegan buttermilk using soymilk and vinegar or lemon juice?

After trying several recipes, Post Punk Kitchen’s still reigns as my favorite, although I replace white flour with whole wheat pastry flour and reduce oil and sweetener, too.  This time, I ran short of whole wheat flour and partially substituted with Bob’s Gluten Free all-purpose baking flour. Though a little chewier than usual, it came nice and crispy, especially after cooling and re-toasting. (more…)

Attended a meet up with Tokyo Vegan and Animal Rescue Kansai (ARK) meetup groups last night. Perhaps half of the attendees may have been vegetarians (of some ilk) and the rest were dragged along (one professed he enjoyed hunting, and had recently taken dogs hunting!). Hopefully some non-vegans are influenced to learn more and are moved toward veganism by talking to others or by appreciating the vegan buffet.

However, it always amazes me how few of those who attend vegan-related meetup events are vegans (I met 2 other vegans out of 100+ people). The reasons cited for being less than a total vegetarian are always the same: it’s too difficult to maintain a vegan diet. It takes too long to prepare vegan meals, and you can’t find vegan-safe foods outside the home, so why bother?

Almost everyone says if they had a private chef they would eat vegan. Lazy as it may sound to some, it is certainly true that most people prefer to eat healthy food, as long as it tastes good. Availability and convenience is another issue. One solution is to support vegan restaurants more, and to let non-vegan restaurants know we need more vegan options. Any other ideas?

I was about to make our favorite pasta puttanesca the other night when it occurred to me that capers and olives aren’t exactly what you call fresh vegetables. I found string beans and celery in the refrigerator, made a quick trip to the store for bell peppers, eggplant, and zucchini. And–in no time–my quicky puttanesca pasta had morphed into ciambotta (Italian vegetable stew) pasta.

Many people use potatoes as starch in their ciambotta recipe, but I prefer mine over pasta, and I found a perfect match waiting in the pantry: whole wheat organic chioccole (large curvy tube pasta with ridges). Next, an online search proved I’m certainly not the first one to use capers and olives in their ciambotta.  OK, I’m not original, but there’s safety in numbers!

As great as this dish was the first time, the following day I mixed the leftovers with Teese mozzarella (photo) and baked in a casserole pan for  a bubbly-crispy and totally comforting late winter lunch. (more…)

I had been saving FatFreeVegan’s “Impossible Vegan Pumpkin Pie” recipe to make for over a year, but always seem to find other more pressing uses for the Japanese squash (kabocha) I buy. Pumpkins are so versatile, able to be used in anything from soup or curry to baked items and pasta dough or even ravioli filling.

The best thing about this pie is that you don’t need to prepare any crust, which of course saves both time and calories. In fact, I just learned the reason it’s called “Impossible” is because you can grab a piece of pie in your hands without making a mess. And here I thought it was enough of a feat to make the pie vegan and crust-free, but it’s also gluten-free and fat-free!

The only place I deviated from FFV’s recipe was to reduce the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/4 cup. It still tastes plenty sweet to me, but you may want to go with the original amount if you prefer it that way. You could also add additional sweetness with a dab of non-dairy whipped topping.

No need to wait for Thanksgiving with such an easy and delicious recipe!

Ethical vegans may object to those who adopt a vegan diet vegan for health reasons alone and other incremental measures toward veganism espoused by popular media.

Rather than expecting carnivores to give up their Western diet habits overnight, “Veganist”, the latest book by Kathy Freston, health and wellness expert and author of “Quantum Wellness”, encourages people to “lean into” the vegan lifestyle.

According to Freston, who became vegan 7 years ago, “Taking small, manageable steps toward the changes we want to achieve has a more profound effect than trying to radically alter any one behavior.” As an example, she cites how she first gave up dairy products, then gradually became vegan by giving up eating one animal at-a-time.

Freston goes on to discuss the benefits of vegan eating including effortless weight loss, reversal of disease, environmental responsibility, and spiritual awakening. “These are just a few of the ten profound changes that can be achieved through a gentle switch in food choices.”

For those who discovered vegan diets as adults and took months or years to completely give up eating animal products, it makes sense that the greatest potential for change is in our daily actions: (more…)

I always try to keep a batch of these protein bars in the freezer to give me a little boost following my workouts. They remind me of Clark Bars, although the last time I had one of those was decades ago. I suspect if I tasted a Clark Bar now, I’d prefer these. Without a doubt, they’re much more nutritious, too!

The recipe is from Bob’s Red Mill, and uses Bob’s 5-Grain cereal. While Bob’s doesn’t call these vegan (unfortunately, many of their recipes aren’t), they can easily be veganized by replacing honey with maple syrup. They take less than 30 minutes to make, and are really handy for eating after a workout or for a convenient and nutritious low-calorie snack. (more…)

You often see high profile vegan coaches and chefs coming clean about how they have fallen off the wagon: If they’re raw vegans, they may have eaten something cooked, while those on a vegan diet may have eaten something containing animal products.

Adopting a vegan diet made me extremely conscious of what I eat, so eating non nutrient-rich plant-based foods, or even healthy ones to excess–is also falling off the wagon for me.

After using an online meal planning system for a few months to ensure I was getting enough nutrition from plant foods alone, I became much more aware of the size of the portions I should be eating, too.

For example, in the past, I would eat much of a 1lb bag of nuts (chips, popcorn, etc.) by the handful–out of stress or while distracted–without realizing that a “proper” serving size was a single handful, or around 2 oz. (56g). Not long ago, I thought people who weighed their meals were a little whacky, but  now I use my kitchen scale often to keep me on track. At least I don’t carry it around with me, or I’d really be off my trolley.

Recently, I stumbled upon “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” by Brian Wansink, PhD, which described an experiment demonstrating how movie-goers ate more popcorn if served in a bigger bag, regardless of whether it tasted good or not. (more…)