Happy Thanksgiving!

VeganWhatFo?

Sorry for the absence, folks. I had a wee cold, and I was too busy sneezing, hacking, and whining to post pictures of the questionably-nutritious, questionably-food stuff that I was eating.

But I did manage to make the lovely gem above for Thanksgiving. And a pumpkin pie. And gravy (no recipe).

I'm pretty sure this is a keeper for Thanksgivings to come. It's pretty, easy to make, tastes great, reheats well, and makes a wonderful leftover sandwich. A hit on many levels.

The recipe is from 500 Vegan Recipes. I've been of two minds about this cookbook. I've tried some lovely recipes from it, but I've also had a few stinkers. But the recipe for Seitan en Croute has firmly pushed me towards "recommend".

My other favorites from 500 Vegan Recipes have been the butterbean dip (start with half the required scallions and taste before adding the rest), peanut butter muffins, and cheater mac and cheese. The baking recipes make use of a lot of alternative flours, which I like. For instance, the peanut butter muffins are made partially with pulverized dry oatmeal. And there are lots of recipes for grains that I've been trying to get to know, like bulgur.

Unfortunately, a few of the ingredient measurements are off, like the amount of chia seed in the Brazil nut bleu cheese. And a few of the recipes just didn't work for me. But overall, I recommend this book, especially if you are interested in baking or exploring new-to-you ingredients.

Announcement: Tiffin winner

According to the random number generator, the winner of the tiffin is Seglare, who is MOFOing from Copenhagen! Seglare, email me your address at scratchsniff1 (at) gmail.com.

Recipe Thursday: Tot Salad

I used to think I didn't like salad. In the U.S., we mostly eat Sad Salads™. You know, a few much-too-large pieces of iceberg lettuce, a tomato slice, and a cucumber slice. If you're lucky, there might be a few carrot shavings. These salads are solely vehicles for loads and loads of dressing. Why else would you eat them?

But salad doesn't have to be like that. Salad can be flavorful. It can be crunchy, tangy, salty, sweet. Salad can be the best part of the meal.

Here is a salad worth eating.

Tot salad
several cups of baby lettuce leaves
1 cup green beans (fresh or frozen)
1 cup tater tots
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon oil
salt and pepper

Cook the tater tots according to the directions on the package. If using fresh green beans, trim them and cook them in boiling water for 4 minutes, or until bright green. Shock them in ice water to stop the cooking. Alternatively, remove frozen green beans from the freezer several hours in advance to thaw.

Combine the agave nectar, mustard, and oil. Stir vigorously to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the salad. This makes one large meal salad or two side salads.

Boxed Soups

Leftovers and home-cooked foods are great, but sometimes you need to rely on Mama Grocery Store to provide something to round out your lunch.

I think boxed soups are great to keep around for lunches. Boxed soups, for whatever reason, tend to taste better than canned ones. And they don't require a can opener, which is a bonus for work or school meals. I often rely on them to boost the vegetable count in my lunches between grocery trips.

Due to BPA in can linings, there's been a recent explosion in boxed soups. And a surprising number of the new soups are vegan. I've been keeping a score sheet for every boxed soup I try. Here are my favorites.

Pacific Natural Foods Cashew Carrot Ginger My soup rating system is 1-4 soup spoons. When I tried this soup for the first time, it made me wish that it went to 5, at least. It's creamy, flavorful, and doesn't need any doctoring. This is the soup I'd serve to anyone who thought vegans eat twigs and berries.

Dr. McDougall Roasted Red Pepper Tomato This is my other hands-down favorite. This brand is marketed as healthy convenience food. (You can read about Dr. McDougall's diet here.) They're a little harder to find than the Pacific Natural brand. Locally, I buy them at Whole Foods or Fiesta supermarkets. You can also get them in bulk from Amazon. The Roasted Red Pepper Tomato soup is the perfect balance of tomato-y acid and red pepper sweetness, and there are nice chunks of tomatoes, too.

Honorable mentions: Imagine Foods Potato Leek, Imagine Foods Corn and Lemongrass, and Pacific Natural Foods Thai Sweet Potato.

The Fig and Colavita soups also pictured above are so new, I haven't had a chance to try them.

Diabetes Blog Day: 6 Things

It's Diabetes Blog Day, one of many events during World Diabetes Month. Today's topic, blogged by diabetes bloggers across the Internet is 6 Things You Want People to Know About Diabetes

1. Being perfect isn't possible. But it's what we often expect of ourselves when we have diabetes. And despite knowing all of that, there's a lot of guilt that comes with each little failure.

2. Fear is a really poor motivator. Don't tell me about your grandmother who lost her leg/eyesight/kidney function thinking that it will convince me to take better care of myself. First of all, I take damn good care of myself as is. Second of all, while the DCCT tells us that good glucose control can reduce some complications by 42% to 76%, NOTHING reduces complications by 100%. I could do everything right and still end up with complications. So keep your fear to yourself.

3. Speaking of good control, in his book Think Like a Pancreas, diabetes expert Gary Scheiner defines very good control as having blood glucose levels in range 70% of the time. Fair control is having the numbers in range 50-70% of the time. Imagine that you made soup using the same ingredients every day, but it only tasted OK 70% of the time. And, your 70% success rated you a master chef.

4. No one knows what causes type 1 diabetes. We know that islet cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the body's immune system. But the why and how are still under investigation. Wheat, viruses, low vitamin D, cow's milk, lack of breast feeding, and aliens are all possibilities, but scientists are far from certain. Chances are, it's more complex than we think.

5. When you think I'm sick, I'm not. When you see me testing my blood glucose or taking insulin, everything is OK. That's what I do to be healthy. Just like you brush your teeth or eat food.

6. And when you don't think I'm sick, I am. Contradictory, I know. Just because I look OK at any given time, it doesn't mean I'm feeling OK. The signs of low/high blood glucose are often easy to miss from the outside.

Packing Drinks for Lunch

This is my favorite drink to pack in my lunches. It's peanut- and walnut-flavored soy milk. And it makes my lunch feel luxurious. I buy this from New Oriental Market, but most Asian markets will have a few kinds of flavored soy milks. I like this one because it's not too packed with sugar and it tastes like nuts!

Water is of course healthy, affordable, and easy to find. But there's no reason to limit yourself to just water with your lunch. Packing a more interesting drink can make your lunch feel special, which means you are more likely to actually eat it.

Other beverage options:
tea (hot or iced)
coffee (hot or iced)
plant milks
hot cocoa
fruit juice
apple cider
kombucha
lemonade
tonic with a squeeze of lemon or lime
smoothie
coconut keffir
tomato juice
bouillon
miso
horchata
sparkling water

cafe au lait

I don't own a thermos, so I pack homemade drinks in a clean mason jar and reheat or refrigerate at work.

Hot Cocoa in a Jar
1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder
sweetener to taste
a pinch of salt
1 cup plant milk
flavoring (optional)

Pour a few tablespoons of milk in your jar. If you're using a crystalized sweetener like white sugar, microwave the jar for about 40 seconds. If you're using a liquid sweetener or sugar-free sweetener, you don't need to heat the milk. Add the cocoa powder, sweetener, and salt, and stir until everything is combined. It can take a lot of stirring to incorporate all the cocoa powder.

Add the rest of the milk and the flavoring if you're using it. Flavoring can either be an extract such as vanilla or mint extract (a few drops) or a syrup (1 to 2 tablespoons). If you're using a syrup, you'll want to reduce or eliminate other sweeteners. Cinnamon or cayenne pepper are great additions, as well. Stir everything together.

When you're ready to drink, shake with the lid on, and then microwave uncovered for 1-2 minutes.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Microwaves. Not everyone has access to one at lunch, and some people just don't like them.*

Lots of foods taste great at room temperature. Many sandwiches, fruit, raw vegetables, crackers, salads, and nuts are all traditionally served room temperature. Other foods are often served cold, like summer soups, yogurt, smoothies, dips, and pasta and grain salads. And finally, there are foods that are usually served hot that just happen to taste pretty good at room temperature or cold, particularly pizza and pureed soups like tomato soup.

I know that I often don't feel satisfied until I've eaten something warm. If you have an electrical outlet available, you might consider getting an electric kettle. Electric kettles are pretty popular in England, but you don't see them as often in the U.S. They heat water very quickly with little energy use. With hot water, you can have tea, hot cocoa couscous, bulgur, and quick cooking noodles (like angel hair pasta). Even just a cup of tea following a cold meal is enough to make a difference for me.

Alternatively, think spicy. If you're feeling one kind of heat, you might not notice the lack of another kind.

If you're on the go or there's no electricity, you might consider getting a thermos or a food jar to keep things hot. Heat the thermos with boiling water, drain, and then add whatever hot dish you want. Chances are it will still be hot, or at least warm, at lunchtime.

Or think raw. Raw foods aren't meant to be heated in the first place. So revel in fresh fruits, vegetables, and sprouted grains and beans.

As far as keeping things cold, an ice pack should do. But really, most vegan foods should be fine at room temperature for a few hours, with the exception of rice and yogurt.

100 Lunch Foods That Don't Require Heating

1. tomato soup

2. pbj

3. pretzels

4. frozen fruit (it will defrost by lunchtime)

5. nuts

6. popcorn

7. fruit leather

8. leftover pizza

9. sesame noodles

10. steamed vegetables (w/vinaigrette or plain)

11. crackers

12. cole slaw

13. granola bar

14. yogurt

15. plant milk

16. bean dip (homemade or commercial)

17. fruit salad

18. fava bean puree w/a drizzle of olive oil

19. pesto pasta

20. pickles

21. lemonade

22. avocado

23. trail mix

24. ants on a log

25. TLT

26. potato salad

27. tortilla and refried bean spirals w/salsa

28. nicoise salad

29. avocado and tomato sandwich

30. hummus and pita w/tomatoes

31. bagel with cream cheese or hummus

32. olives

33. any of the salads in my first list

34. iced tea

35. cinnamon toast

36. apple spread with peanut butter (core an apple, slice into wedges, apply peanut butter, reassemble apple)

37. veggies and dip (w/crackers!)

38. cereal (with or without milk)

39. tapioca pudding

40. chickpea salad sandwich

41. vegan sausage on a bun w/mustard

42. salsa and chips

43. crock cheese w/crackers and vegetables

44. tomato salad

45. roasted chickpeas

46. lettuce wraps

47. garlic bread

48. applesauce

49. seaweed salad

50. soy crisps

51. tapenade spread on French bread

52. juice

53. rice pudding

54. fruit cup

55. chia pudding

56. Waldorf salad

57. fruit and nut balls

58. cucumber sandwiches

59. apple chips

60. gazpacho

61. nori chips

62. vegan lunchmeat sandwich w/all the fixings

63. dried fruit

64. pan bagnat

65. fruit-and-nut bar

66. packaged Indian meals

67. creamed spinach

68. edamame (throw in frozen, they'll defrost by lunch)

69. Texas caviar

70. tofu satay w/peanut sauce

71. granola

72. massaged kale salad

73. marinated mushrooms

74. panzanella

75. no-cook oatmeal

76. three bean salad

77. equal parts tahini and agave nectar spread on a tortilla, rolled up, and sliced into spirals

78. broccoli slaw

79. brown rice w/peanut sauce (or curry sauce)

80. tofu (baked, fried, or aburaage) w/dipping sauce

81. cold baked sweet potato

82. marinated cucumbers

83. sushi rice with toppings

84. shredded carrots tossed with peanuts and raisins

85. banana chips

86. carrot sticks w/peanut butter

87. A roll sliced in half, spread with pesto, and filled with tomato slices

88. muffins (there's a great, filling peanut butter-oatmeal muffin in 500 Vegan Recipes)

89. seitan sub sandwich

90. applesauce

91. broccoli w/marinara for dipping

92. peanut butter and cracker sandwiches

93. dried figs stuffed with almonds

94. melon

95. guacamole (covered tightly with plastic) and chips

96. a soft pretzel w/mustard

97. ratatouille

98. cold roasted vegetables

99. baby spinach and mushrooms w/agave-mustard dressing

100. tabbouleh

*I think microwaves are perfectly safe to use if you microwave in appropriate materials (preferably glass. Old yogurt and margarine containers are not appropriate.). And they use less energy than most other heating methods. For the lazy, don't store any food you plan to reheat in a container you wouldn't put in the microwave. When you're hungry, you're more likely to throw caution to the wind. For the more prepared, cost-conscious, and waste-conscious, keep a bowl and plate at work so you can transfer food to a microwave-safe material.