Lentil Soup with Soy Chorizo, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives over Cauliflower

Lentil Soup with Soy Chorizo, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives over Cauliflower    

Dinner today made up for any shortcomings of lunch.

We tested a meatless soy chorizo sausage. The idea was to cook cauliflower in one pan, and lentil soup in another. Take the soy chorizo sausage and chop it into chunks and put them into the lentil soup. The final step was then to put cauliflower into the bowl, ladle the sausage filled lentil soup over the cauliflower, and top it all with a dollop of sour cream, some vegan cheese and chopped chives.

Things didn’t quite work out the way we planned. Not sure we knew enough about cooking the chorizo product because it came in a plastic casing. The first thing I did was to cut it into sausage chunks. Then my wife noted that the plastic casing was supposed to be removed before cooking. So, we picked up each chunk and removed the plastic outer casing. As a part of that process, the chorizo chunks turned into like ground chorizo because it literally fell apart once the casing was no longer holding the material in a sausage shape. The chorizo “sausage” was not “packed” and did not hold together like regular sausage.

I grew up on a farm in the Midwest; or more specifically, central Illinois and moved west in 1986. Over the years, our taste in food has grown accustomed to Southwest flavors and we love them. Both my wife and I grew up learning from our families, that when faced with a challenge or adversity you always Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome! The chorizo smelled good and so we just added the “ground” chorizo to the hot lentil soup. This chorizo gave the soup some really special flavor and when eaten it provided a slow heat which crept up throughout the meal but went away directly after one stopped eating.

We put the steamy soft cauliflower into the bowl, ladled the chorizo lentil soup over the cauliflower, and topped it all with a dollop of sour cream, some vegan cheese and chopped chives. It was heavenly. I hope if you make it, you enjoy it just as much!  When we make this again, after January, we’ll eliminate the sour cream because that’s not vegan and not allowed on our modified vegan diet. Anyone have ideas what to use as a good tasting sour cream substitute?  Infinityman@cox.net

Pea Protein Soy Milk Shake with Pomegranate

Breakfast - Pea Protein Soy Milk Shake with Pomegranate seeds

Modified Vegan Diet - week 1

So what have we planned for our "modified" Vegan Diet?

Some background for those who are new and have not been following our story - My wife and I will be starting a modified Vegan diet in January and will be eating this way for 90 days. We’re working closely with a Dietician. The Dietician has given us some non-standard Vegetarian/Vegan eating guidelines which are:

No wheat, no nuts, no sugar-free pudding, no Jell-O, no animal products (dairy, meat), no oils (except a little spray Canolo), a salad a day with fat free dressing, no milk or other dairy products, no creamer for coffee, lots of fiber (beans), sea salt instead of regular salt, low sodium, gluten-free, ground golden flax seed powder spread over each dinner meal, a daily protein shake, no potato, no rice.

Here's a preview of week1 - Jan 1-5. Breakfast is simple and will always be a protein shake. Likewise, lunch is simple and will be a salad. Dinner is variable and what we're planning is shown with one caveat' which is: The dinners shown are what's on the plan, however, since we have new gadgets and meatless products and my wife is generally the one who must prepare these meals; the final decision about what the dishes are at each meal is up to her. That means, there may be some changes to what is show and planned. Will post updates as things progress.

Gluten-Free Bread Taste Test

Just received via the post today. A carb-zero, gluten-free bread. It is made primarily out of oats. Now I toasted a piece. My review is: If one were to take outmeal, then dry it out, paint it on a wall like plaster, let it dry, then chip it off and put it into a bag to eat - THAT is what you would have here. I won't be ordering this again although the idea is good.

The brand I like most is called UDI'S gluten-free bread. It really tastes GOOD, is comparable in carbs and calories to this carb-zero stuff and toasts very well. http://udisglutenfree.com/

Vegan Meal Prepartion and Experiments

My wife and I will be starting a modified Vegan diet in January and will be eating this way for 90 days as a trial. We’re working closely with a Dietician to plan the diet. We want to ensure we eat healthy and get the proper nutrition and also because the Dietician has given us some non-standard Vegetarian/Vegan eating guidelines which are:  

No wheat, no nuts, no sugar-free pudding, no Jell-O, no animal products (dairy, meat), no oils at all, no plain yogurt, a salad a day with fat free dressing, no milk or other dairy products, no creamer for coffee, lots of fiber (beans), sea salt instead of regular salt, low sodium, gluten-free, ground golden flax seed powder spread over each dinner meal, a daily protein shake, no potato, no rice.

Prior to starting our modified Vegan lifestyle this coming January, my wife and I are doing a lot of research into things like:

1)      How do we replace the drink mixes we currently use that contain Aspartame and NutraSweet with drink mixes containing only Stevia?  Our Dietician instructions include stopping drinking drink mixes with Aspartame or NutraSweet.

2)      What does Almond and/or Soy milk taste like? Can we use them for cooking and a 1:1 direct replacement for regular cow’s milk?

3)      We stopped eating pasta altogether months ago due to the impact on my blood-sugar. Now, since this new diet is so challenging, we want to re-introduce it to our diet as an option (as long as my glucose levels remain unaffected) and so we must choose gluten-free pasta.

4)      We will need to find some replacement for regular wheat-based flour since we’re not supposed to eat wheat and also must eat gluten free while not impacting my glucose levels.

 We have a lot of questions and so off to the local grocery store we went to see what we could discover. Some of the questions we have are:  What does Tofu taste like? How does it cook? How will meatless products taste? How do we cook completely meatless meals for 90 days and still make it palatable and enjoyable for our family? What kind of Vegan or Vegetarian products are at the grocery store? We’ve never really had any need to look specifically for products in this category.

While at the store, we found a wide variety of Vegan/Vegetarian products that are all new to us and so like a kid with a science project, we’re learning and experimenting and we picked up a few things to try:

·         Tofu in two varieties – silken and firm.

·         A carton of refrigerated Almond milk and Soy milk.

·         Meatless veggie burgers. I got three different types regular, portabella and garden.

·         Meatless breakfast sausages

·         Meatless luncheon slices called Tofurky. Got the peppered and plain types,

·         Meatless chicken nuggets

·         Meatless Orange Chicken Chinese cuisine meal.

We also saw products we will try in the future such as meatless bacon, Vegan cheeses, and margarine. The store didn’t have all of these items in one place and so we literally went through each aisle looking specifically for products marked Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten or Sugar-Free. It was time consuming and I’m certain there is more to discover in future visits.  Will let you know what we find.

After we got home, the first thing I tried was the meatless chicken nuggets. My daughter and I heated them in the microwave and they were awesome! Truly! The texture and the taste were just perfect. I could eat these anytime. I could only have four of them because they are high in carbs but those four were just excellent.

I never did get to try the Portabella meatless burgers. My daughter heated those up and liked them so much she finished them over a two day period of time and before I could even get my hands on one. Will purchase and try those again in the future.

The next thing was to attempt an entire meatless main meal; and so last night I cooked our first Vegan meal. It consisted of firm Tofu cut into bite-sized chunks and then heated in skillet with a little Canola oil spray and Tamari (a Soy Sauce substitute our Dietician recommended). Once the Tofu was cooked the way I wanted it, I added mixed vegetables that had been steamed in a bag in the microwave. In another pan I browned some meatless burgers (the flame-grilled variety).  In another pan, I cooked some gluten-free spinach pasta.

When plated, I first poured a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. On top of this went a spiral of the green pasta. On one side of the pasta went the browned Tofu and vegetable medley and on the other side went two golden brown meatless burgers.

The meal was simply awesome. We came away satisfied and saying: “We can DO THIS for 90 days! This is completely doable and enjoyable!”   I’m getting excited to do this now. Will post the diet plan as soon as it’s available.