Vegan Diet Guy

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…)

When I moved here 20 years ago, Japan was a culinary wasteland for reasonably priced high-quality western fare. About the best thing going was Sizzler, or the short-lived Kenny Roger’s Roasters. So, when the first Roy’s Restaurant opened up in Tokyo’s suburbs–just 10 minutes walk from my home–it was a huge treat.

For the first time ever, Tokyoites could enjoy American-style weekend brunches, which were around ¥2500 ($25), or ¥3500 ($35) with unlimited beer, wine or sparkling wine. The service was impeccable–like when you left the table to use the bathroom and the waitstaff re-folded your napkin before you returned, the generous refills on french bread with whipped butter, and refills on drinks (you could switch between guava, grapefruit, or orange juices), including espressos and capuccinos (long before Starbucks made them ubiquitous). It was a rare bargain for luxury dining.

After brunching at Roy’s regularly for a few months, I realized I was putting on weight, and began to limit my visits to special occasions–of which I devised as many as possible. When I visited Hawaii several years ago, I also went out of the way to try Roy’s restaurants on Oahu and Maui, too. Who can forget their trademark oozing chocolate lava cake? Since then, while Roy’s has expanded across the mainland U.S. (even to my home state of Maryland), its restaurants have grown and contracted in Tokyo, where only 1 remains.

Although I have not dined at Roy’s in many years, it was not because I had become vegan, but because their menu rarely changed. (more…)

Everyone (at least everyone who’s seen a tub of Quaker Oats) knows oatmeal is good for your heart. Now, if only everyone understood the most effective way to reduce cholesterol and dramatically improve your health is–plain and simple–by eliminating animal products from your diet.

In Honolulu airport recently, I glimpsed a large sign outside Starbucks with a photo of a bowl of oatmeal. Later, an article in January’s Entrepreneur Magazine confirmed the trend: While Starbucks in U.S. has offered oatmeal since 2008, more quick-serve restaurants–including, of all places, McDonalds–plan to offer healthier options, such as fiber rich and whole-grain oatmeal, to meet calorie and labeling requirements of federal healthcare reform.

Although eating oatmeal for breakfast is a far cry from everyone adopting a vegan diet, influential restaurant chains offering oatmeal (hopefully not laden with dairy products, sugar or chemical preservatives) can only help to make people more aware of health benefits of plant-based foods. (more…)

Who can recall the carefree days of youth, when you never thought about counting calories or high-cholesterol?

With my Southern Italian roots, rich sauces like Alfredo or Carbonara sauce were not something on the menu at home, but I always looked forward to having them when visiting Little Italy.

Having learned cooking from my mother, I steered clear of preparing foods containing large amounts of cream, butter and eggs, long before becoming vegan. Thanks to the wonder of nutritional yeast (and pioneers like JoAnn Stepaniak), it’s easy to prepare a rich creamy Alfredo-style sauce that’s healthy, too! (more…)

Tokyo is a city famous for its convenience, but unfortunately not so for vegan eating.

Maintaining a healthy vegan diet in Japan and other countries where veganism has not caught on often means having to make everything from scratch, from breakfast cereals, breads, egg-replacers, non-dairy milks and mock meats, to vegan mayonaise, cheeses and ice creams.

On my latest trip to the States, I went out of my way to sample a number of vegan ready to eat and convenience foods. Since meeting Tal Ronnen last year, I was intrigued by the Gardein plant-based products he is developing–which according to some vegans–feel too much like eating meat. (more…)