Mad About Udon

This past weekend I travelled to New England to hike the Presidential Range of mountains in New Hampshire. This was my first trip into the States this hiking season. Usually I go to Adirondacks in New York but something drew me to New Hampshire. I went with 8 other hikers from the Alpine Club of Canada. The drive through Vermont was lovely, tarnished only by the uproarious admission by my car-mates that they had (all!) smuggled fruits and veggies across the border. What. The. Hell.

Hiking burns about 500 cal/hour, and for long stretches on the trail, it’s important to pack lots of food and pack it well. I made a dozen sandwiches consising of baked tofu (marinated in soy & ginger salad dressing), soy cheese, and sweet thai chilli sauce on a bun.

I also packed 12 granola bars (seen above) and 8 apples (which I legitimately purchased in Vermont, unlike my obnoxiously felonious comrades).

Aside from tofu sandwiches, apples, and granola bars, there is a lot that the active vegan can pack for a hike. Unless you’re trying to create a calorie deficit (which is often the case), you may need to pack up to 5,000 calories/day. Packable fruits and veggies include oranges, carrots, peppers, avocados, broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes. For long hikes, you can dehydrate certain fruits like pineapple, bananas, mangoes, apples, strawberries, and kiwis.

Additionally, Luna Bars, some Clif Bars, and random brands of granola bars are vegan, so check the labels. I find it’s easier to pack a dozen identical sandwiches because it saves money and stress, and packs well, but other ideas include: peanut butter or hummus on a pita, crackers, dry cereal, trail mix (although I personally think that hikers eat waaaay to much trail mix), raisins, wild rice, vegan cookies, fruit leather, or just any type of homemade sandwich using your favourite vegan protein.

Our group dinner the first night was fortuitously vegan—pasta and sauce. I co-ordinated dinner the second night, which was 6 different kinds of store bought curry (all vegetarian, two vegan), brown basmati rice, and naan. Unfortch I forgot to take a pic but here is a salad that another hiker made that night for the group:

The hikes were great—the storms lifted just in time on Saturday morning for us to scale Mt Madison and Mt Adams, and hike along the rocky ridge of Mt Jefferson. On Sunday we hiked a small mountain just to stretch our muscles back into shape. It was very challenging overall (I’m still sore!) but good practice for my Rockies trip in August. The views were incredible.

Happy Hiking!

-Maureen

Mmmm… falafel. I once penned an editorial for the campus newspaper that began “I nearly choked on my falafel when…”, seriously. And did you know that Pythagoras urged his followers not to eat falafel? I learned this in Intermediary Metabolism last semester. It’s because because traditional recipes contained fava beans, which contains divicine, which catalyse the transformation of oxygen to superoxide radical (bad!!) which are normally detoxified by glutathione peroxidase. People with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (essential to make glutathione peroxidase) deficiencies (~25% of the population) are unable to undergo this metabolic detoxification reaction and so face kidney failure, especially if they consume lots of fava beans!

That would be one of the 3,000,000 annoyingly meaningless facts I “learned” in university.

So… what were we talking about again? Oh yeah… falafels!

Falafels

2 cups canned chickpeas
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 tsp dried mint
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup medium-firm tofu
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

The recipe indicates that all of these ingredients are to be blended until well-mixed. Unfortunatly, in addition to not having a tea strainer, my new apartment doesn’t have a blender. I did my best (somewhat pathetically) using an electric mixer, and it actually did mix pretty well… eventually.

Roll by hand into balls…..

…and then “saute balls in oil until browned on all sides”. Now, may I asked the question, how does one brown a sphere on all sides? If one browns a sphere on all sides in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it makes a sound? What is the sound of one falafel frying?

Anyway, so fry on medium high heat, in whatever way you are able, to get all sides brown. I went for Falafel Rectangular Cylinders:

I enjoyed these falafels all week in whole wheat pitas with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus, bean sprouts, BBQ sauce, and mustard.

Finally I’d just like to share the lovely breakfast I had this morning: baked marinated tofu, alfalfa sprouts and cilantro on dill-potato bread.

-Maureen

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend. I spent the last two days rollerblading, jogging, hiking, and of course, cooking! It needs to stay 22 degrees (Celcius) forever. Unfortunately, in Ottawa we have 8 months of bitter, frigid cold, 2 months of scorching heat, and 2 or 3 weeks of random (but sometimes pleasantly moderate) weather in between seasons.

On Friday night I went out for drinks and dinner with my friend Mike at the Auld Dubliner in the Byward Market. It was almost warm enough to sit on the patio, but ultimately, no dice. Anyway I had lots of fun and was very impressed by their menu as I had a number of options. I ultimately had a grilled veggie wrap with veggies and spiced wild rice. It was nothing I couldn`t make at home, but very satisfying for pub food: and for only $10!! And we each had a couple beers of course.

Either Thursday or Friday night I was desperate for some vanilla chai tea, but alas, my new apartment does not have a loose-leaf tea strainer. In despair, I improved with a length of cheesecloth:

Looks like a giant fluffy moth eh? The tea was weak but it worked!

Happy Memorial day to all our southern friends in the States! Enjoy your long weekend.

-Maureen

On Victoria Day Monday, Alison and I had the pleasure of eating lunch at the Granola Girl Cafe Project. Due to the length of Part I, I’ll cut to the chase: the food and ambiance were divine! I had the Olive “Cheese” Sandwich, served with in-house ketchup. Since my primary criteria for defining a food item as “edible” or “tasty” is the degree to which it is smothered in ketchup, this sandwich got a thumbs up! The homemade bread literally melted in my mouth, which is a quality I never knew bread could possess!

I also indulged in a vegan chocolate bar–Butterfyngers to be precise. It’s been so long since I’ve had a chocolate bar. YUM!

And finally, I bought some PB & J granola to take home, and ate it with some warm almond milk (thanks for the suggestion, Sara!). It was also supremely satisfying.

Spread the word! Granola girl rocks!

-Maureen (Photos by Aly)

Aly asked what other people use as a mayo substitute. I like to mix BBQ sauce and mustard to give a tangy punch that every sandwich begs for. Truth is, I’d never tasted mustard once in my life until it was accidentally given to me at Subway with BBQ sauce, and I was hooked.

I also love hummus as a condiment so I’ll share my favourite recipe for this garbanzo goodness.

Chunky Olive Hummus:

• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 15-oz cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 2/3 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped, pitted black olives
• 1/4 cup olives (any form, but pitted, to blend)

Crush garlic. Mix garlic, chickpeas, lemon juice, water, oil, salt, pepper, and non-chopped olives, and blend in a blender or food processor until desired consistency (I like chunky). You may have to add more liquid. Don’t worry about adding too much, because runny hummus can be dried out by leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight.

Stir in tahini and chopped olives.

Hummus is expensive in stores, and people are generally too busy or lazy to make it themselves… so this makes a great gift! Nothing says “I appreciate your existence” like a homemade batch of creamy, delicious hummus. (For variety, substitute pesto, sundried tomatoes, or roasted red peppers for olives).

This hummus tastes great on whole wheat bread with baked tofu, sprouts, BBQ sauce, and mustard.

-Maureen

Here is my first attempt at a tempeh, lettuce and tomato (TLT) sandwich:

My TLT was based on the FFVK’s TLT Sandwich. I did not use the liquid smoke, as I had none, included caramelized onions and used 1 T of hummus instead of vegan mayo. (I recently purchased some vegan mayo, but have been hesitant to use it due to a few unpleasant encounters with it in the past. What is your favourite vegan mayo substitute? The Vegan Feast Kitchen has a recipe for a vegan BLT with homemade mayo.) My tempeh did not mimic the taste of bacon, but was pretty dang good nonetheless!

- Aly

PS I am so excited for the Ottawa Farmer’s Market!

Okay, so I do have pics from my Valentine’s Day baked goods but my camera is being weird, so I’m posting a random mix of pictures from the last little while.

There are the gogi berries that Alison is always raving about. I guess they look kinda like almonds, but are chewy like dried cranberries.

Roasted-red pepper hummus. I’m not home right now but I’ll edit the recipe in later.

My second dinner of the night at Alison’s house. A mini carrot muffin and an oh-so-delicious sandwich. Unfortch, I can’t remember what was in it. Alison, help? The bread was gluten-free (GF) so it was pretty dense. GF foodies have my sympathy, for real. I had to go GF for a couple months in high school and I went crazy missing the soft texture of wheat bread and the convenience of all things wheat. (Random story: my sister eats GF and once a couple years ago my mom actually prepared several dishes free of wheat, rye, oats, barley, meat, eggs, & dairy!)

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I heart Herb and Spice, but I’m sick of getting ripped off by their baked tofu slices ($0.55 each!) so I decided to prepare my own. I bought a lb bulk from H&S for $1.89, sliced it into 1/2 in slices, brushed each (top & bottom) with sesame oil, then grilled it on my George Foreman. Et voila!

1 lb makes about 8 or 9 thick slices, which would have cost me $5 at Herb & Spice. A savings of $3 a week! (Yes, I do eat that much tofu…). Although, I inevitably end up buying some random bulk stuff while there to pick up the tofu so I’m actually not saving anything.

Happy Reading Week!

-Maureen