Vegan Substitute for Bone Broth

My posting has suffered due to illness.  I won't go into all of it, other than to say that I never fully recovered from a cold in March, and then was basically sidelined for two weeks recently, feeling awful, only meeting the barest of obligations.  But I am finally on the mend again (tired of being sick all the time - what an awful fall and winter I have had!)

I keep hearing about bone broth and how good it is for you.  The trouble is - we're vegetarians.  A while back, I found this recipe for a "Gut-Healing Broth".  The woman who wrote the post brings up some good points:

• Nutrients and electrolytes in bone broth can be found in vegan-friendly sources
• The body makes its own collagen 
• Our bodies can’t even digest collagen whole; rather, we simply absorb the nutrients from our food which provides our bodies with the building blocks it needs to naturally create collagen
• Eating collagen does not equal having more collagen
• Healing the stomach lining can be done in other ways
• The calcium, potassium and other minerals found in bone broth are more than easy to find in plant-based foods plus they contain much, much more goodness

I made this broth.  It had lots of ingredients.  It used coconut aminos instead of tamari or soy sauce, which was interesting (I found the coconut aminos at Whole Foods).  I added Himalayan salt to it (it needed it!).  It had a very strong taste.  I made a big batch and froze a lot of it, parceling out small doses each day of the small Ziploc bagful that I didn't freeze.  I haven't thawed any out since, but will this week.  I just saw an interesting talk on "leaky gut" which inspired me to be more cognizant of this.  

Ingredients all prepped and ready to go

Cooking, after which the brother would be strained.

To Portland We Shall Go!

Soon to see these two:

And to have some gloriously fun times as well!

Health Update (Healthy Eating)

So, I have been sick for 2 1/2 weeks.  It started just before I began my healthy living stuff I mentioned in my previous posts.  It just seemed to get worse and worse with each day.  Finally the doctor gave me antibiotics last week.  I also am getting over laryngitis.  I was too exhausted to do much, but during this time the sprouts grew, Paul and I are eating more salads (with sprouts!), and I also tried a healing drink.

But I am finally on the mend.  I still cannot sing due to the recovering laryngitis.  So I doubt I will be able to sing at all for Easter.  This bums me out more than I can say.  Maybe I'll post on those emotions another time.  Today though, I went to ballet class!  So that was a bright spot. (Separate post on that to come.)

Photos:

Pea Shoot Sprouts Growing Nicely

Healthy Healing Drink:

Coconut milk, Manuka honey, fresh ginger, turmeric

I had peeled the ginger and turmeric that went into the drink pictured

Note: the AC vinegar in the back was not part of the drink!

Microgreen Kit

Continuing on my healthy living theme, I recently purchased a Microgreen growing kit from the Window Garden company.  We bought the tray, some pea shoot sprouting seeds, and a "Veg Ledge" that fits on the window with suction cups.

Here's the kit, unboxed

The kit itself came with tray, soil disc, a water spritzer, and sample pack of seeds.  I bought an extra box of seeds with the pea shoots* - that came with three envelopes of seeds and extra soil discs.  

Seeds planted, tray suction-cupped to the window

In about 10-12 days, I shall be eating sprouts!!

*P. S. Although the packet says "Use Entire Packet", I didn't.  It seemed like too much seed.  I used half.  I suppose I will spend more money that way - buying new soil discs, but I want to easily harvest these sprouts.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Kleen Owt!! (Healthy Start/CIRS)

Yesterday I watched a webinar (free!) presented by Dr. Axe.  I was interested in the whole "leaky gut" business because my doctor diagnosed me with Hashimoto's and CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) last year.  I had an understanding of how the gut plays into this, but needed reinforcement because I am easily tempted to cheat.  To my credit, I have been working assiduously for the past month to avoid it.  I'm doing very well.  The only hang up is the small amount of gluten contained in the Communion hosts each Sunday (I have read that they do make reduced gluten hosts, apparently low enough that some celiacs could potentially consider using them? But don't go by me on that!! Ask your doctor!)  My doctor felt that for me, a non-celiac, the weekly host would not be a problem.  But I may gently probe around at church, see if they do offer them.  

For those who are not familiar with CIRS, here's a nice general definition from a website:
"CIRS is the illness that occurs when someone who is genetically vulnerable to bio-toxins is exposed and reacts with chronic and systemic inflammation. It turns out 25% of the population carries the genetics responsible for this condition."

I found the webinar talk to be inspiring, just the push I needed.  I wanted to have a small renewal, have plans to make an immune-building soup, plus this yummy other soup I made previously.  But my fridge was woefully in need of a cleaning and purging.  I did this, there was some "Eeew" involved in the back of the vegetable drawer, got the shelves wiped down (need to do the door shelves still).  Here it is, emptied out, waiting for new groceries:  

Groceries are bought, waiting to be utilized.  I started today baking a large butternut squash for tonight's soup.  Tomorrow I'll do the immune-building soup.  I also want to make a soup I posted about previously (here).  It was so yummy, and made enough to freeze, which I did.  Last week I thawed it out for dinner - still yummy!!

I see my doctor at the end of the month.  I hope my month of gluten-free strictness and this new motivation to improve diet even more will pay off.  

Doctor Zhivago Inspired Edwardian Outfit

For Book Club this quarter, we read Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.  It is a long book, but good for cold winter days.  The novel is set in the years 1903-1940's, but the majority of the book takes place in 1903-1920's.  I was inspired to put together an Edwardian ensemble with a Russian flair.  I also channeled my inner geology geek putting together a little box of minerals as a prop (see this post for that).

I'll post from the inside-out:

• Undergarments - If I had more time I would have finished my Edwardian Corset Cover that I had started so long ago.  So I just wore my older Edwardian undergarments.  I did make one tweak though - I had gotten my Erté Titanic Overbust corset from Period Corsets back in 2012.  It came with two sets of lacings for the back: one for the top-down and one from the bottom-up, meeting in the middle.  This makes it difficult though if one wants to lace themselves in.  Since I like to wear my corset during the week before an event to get acclimated to it, it is difficult when no one is home to help, as a two-laces corset requires (for the most part).  So I contacted a representative from Period Corsets, and she very kindly sent me a single long lace, which I re-laced my corset with.

• Blouse - I purchased an Edwardian reproduction blouse from Cotton Lane on Amazon.  It's very pretty.  I ordered a larger size (I have football-player-shoulders), then took in the sides.

• Skirt - Oh dear...this was a problem.  I used Rocking Horse Farm pattern #903 (Caution: Do Not Use This Pattern!  Ever!!) that was simply horrible.  The pattern lines for my size did not match up properly, I had to tape together the size small in order to see what they actually intended.  Even with that there was this odd extra fabric on the bottom front that was completely illogical.  There were no dots on the waistband pattern piece - needed for matching to the waistline of the skirt.  There was also a pleat marking missing.  The cut lines for it were on the pattern, and the markings were drawn on the suggested (tiny) pattern layout picture, but not on the pattern itself.  I spent a lot of hours trying to redraw, adjust, improvise.  The result was okay - from the outside.  On the inside there were problems.  It looked okay, but I was very frustrated with the lost time and aggravation of using a terrible pattern.  I will have to write a review on GBACG (Greater Bay Area Costuming Guild).  They have a Pattern Review section.  I so wish someone had reviewed this before and saved me the hassle of working with a dreadful pattern.   

• Boots - The darling, lovely Manhattan Button Boots from American Duchess!  I love these.  Customer service here was also very helpful with the sizing.  My foot is long but narrow, and their shoes tend to run a bit large.  They gave me good advice on sizing and the boots fit perfectly.  Button hook needed! 

• Hat - I bought a faux fur hat on sale from Fabulous Furs.  All of their products are faux.  This hat is very warm.  

• Coat - my coat is a modern-day coat, but I was happy to be able to match the faux fur of the hat with that on the coat.  

Book Club was lots of fun.  The ladies liked my outfit, and even chuckled at my very bad, well-intentioned Russian accent.  I only said a few sentences in my fake-ey accent!  Hello in actual Russian, and then some key phrases I put together watching YouTube videos, and here's a funny way if you need a fake accent in a pinch: Go to Google Translate.  Type in the sentence you want in the first box, making sure you select English as the language to detect.  Once your sentence is complete, change the language in that same box to the language you want to hear, and click on the audio clickable at the bottom of that box.  You'll hear the English words, but with an accent of the language you changed the "Detect Language" to.  It doesn't work with all languages, but did pretty well for Russian.

Disorganized Sewing/Robert's Room

I have two sewing projects on deck.  The trouble is that right now my home is not completely conducive to successful sewing.  Yesterday I wanted to get started tracing an Edwardian-era hobble skirt, and cutting bias strips to finally finish a quilt I started many, many years back. Step one was clearing off the dining room table - a Herculean task.  But it was done, wiped down, and worked commenced.  I was able to trace the skirt pattern yesterday.

The bias strips however, ran into a snag.  We have been, over the past, oh, six months or so, been doing some work on Robert's old room.  You see, Robert now lives in Portland, so the room is to be a guest room (and Robert's room when he comes to visit) and also a sewing room for me.  I've never had a sewing room before, and I long to have one.  But his closet was in need of repair (walls cracking, not insulated, cold), including a "secret passageway" that Tyler wants put in that leads from his closet to Robert's.  Fun, and has sort of a Narnia aspect to it (Mr. Tumnus?!).  So far the closet is insulated and has most of its wallboard.  All that remains is some electrical and the passageway door.  But we also needed to replace the ceiling in the room itself.  Right now the old ceiling is out, and 70% of the wallboard is up on the ceiling.  A paint job and new baseboards will follow (pre-stained oak this time, so all that needs to be done is the cutting and fitting).  But my sewing stuff is scattered to the four winds, including my iron.  Hence, the difficulty going forward with the bias strips.  So once I get all of my projects to the sewing stage, I will not have an optimal sewing space yet to do them.  Not really much different from when my sewing machine was in the dining room.

No one seems to know where the iron went.  To be honest, it is quite old, and I am tempted just to buy another.

My skirt project is for Book Club.  We are reading Doctor Zhivago.  I want to wear an Edwardian skirt and blouse ensemble, and I have my eye on an awesome faux fur Russian hat.  More on that in a future post.

Rocking Horse Farm #903 

Edwardian Hobble Skirt

My quilt - circa 1988

Healthy Soup

Yesterday I made a big pot of "Weight Loss Vegetable Soup".  It was really yummy, and naturally gluten-free.  I left out broccoli simply because I forgot to buy some, and I made it with veggie broth instead of beef broth to make it vegan.  I only used four cups of veggie broth (contents of one aseptic container).  I added some Himalayan salt to taste along with the other spices (it needed a little).  I did freeze some, since it made a lot.  But have been subsisting on it as I fight off the start of a cold (along with Chinese herbs and Dr. Dunner's Sambu-Guard).  I really enjoyed the cooking, even all the chopping.  It just felt nice to create something live-giving and healthy.

Robert's Grand Adventure (Sad Goodbyes/Vegan Restaurants)

Last week we brought Robert to Portland, Oregon to begin the next phase of his education. Although he has a Bachelor's degree, and has been working in his field (Live Sound), he wants to further his education by attending a fast-track Engineering program in Portland, where he can have a second Bachelor's degree and a Master's in Engineering in three years. (Note: he had gotten some of the prerequisites out of the way earlier this year, making this program a possibility.)

We flew top Portland with him, and helped set up the apartment (Loads of IKEA - "some assembly required!" - ugh.  But it looks really nice, and is an economical way to start up an apartment from scratch).  The apartment is cozy and clean, very nice.  While there, we were so busy that the only amusement we really had was our fantastic dining out experiences, and fun beer and cider drinking.  Plus a visit to the famous Powell's Books - a city block building with multiple levels, and books, books, books...

The dining in Portland is amazing.  Robert and Sierra are strict vegans, and Portland is extremely vegan-friendly.  Every meal we had was wonderful; in particular, the lovely Italian meal we had at Portobello Vegan Trattoria.  Here's their dinner menu.

Photos!

IKEA dining table and chairs, with cat

Robert and Sierra on the (you guessed it!) IKEA couch, 

cat in foreground

Loki, he loves carpet.  Freya was too shy to come out.

And then Robert, who has had long hair forever, surprised us by sending this photo.  

I had finally gotten used to the long hair.

Apparently after we left he went and got a haircut (they took off 12 inches).  

However, I think he looks exceedingly handsome!

Vegan Muffies

So, this Easter I wanted to make a lamb cake again.  But Robert is vegan, so I thought I'd try a vegan lamb cake.  Long story short: the lamb cake didn't work out so well, but the muffies I made with the extra batter were pretty good.  I found the batter recipe here.

Adventures in Coffee (Vegan Mocha)

For Christmas, I gave Paul a new coffee maker that mounts under the cabinet.  The kids gave him a coffee grinder.  This has been fun.  The beans smell so delicious right after grinding.  I decided to experiment with a vegan mocha recipe.  I got it from Oh She Glows.  (The recipe below makes a lot - I did 1/3 of this recipe for one serving.) 
Ingredients:

• 1 cup freshly brewed coffee (decaf, if preferred)
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup (or sweetener of choice)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• dash of fine grain sea salt

1. Whisk together the coffee and coconut milk in a medium-sized pot. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low.

2. Sift in the cocoa powder, whisking quickly to incorporate until no clumps remain. Whisk in maple syrup to taste and a dash of sea salt.

3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Serve immediately with vegan marshmallows and/or sugar-rimmed glasses or mugs. Store any leftovers in a glass jar in the fridge.

This was pretty good!  I did adjust the sweetener a bit, since I like my coffee drinks sweet.  

The new coffee maker

The grinder

Ingredients for the vegan mocha

Non-dairy topping that is not all chemical-ey

I think I'll go make some more right now!

Vegan Caesar Salad

Now that Robert and Sierra are strict vegans, I have been looking into this more, both recipes and lifestyle change for myself.  I think that reducing dairy products is a good idea, and I totally get the animal cruelty aspect, (not going into that here though).  Our recent holiday meals have had a lot of vegan components - very tasty too.  I read about a vegan Caesar salad dressing on a youtube channel (link).  I tried it out, and it's really good.  The garlic really comes out strong in the dressing, so don't go nuts, maybe start with one clove, add more to taste!  

I did as the video suggested, adding tempeh.  

For mine I marinated, then baked the tempeh in barbecue sauce.  Yum!

Several people have asked for the recipe.  I transcribed it from the link.  Thanks to Sarah from holistichabits for this!

Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing

½ cup Brazil Nuts (or can use half Brazil nuts and half cashews), soaked overnight or for at least 8 hours

¾ cup water

2 tbsp hemp seeds

1 small Lemon (or 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar)

3 tbsp capers

1-2 cloves Garlic

1/8 tsp dry mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

1 small soaked pitted date (optional)

Place all in blender and puree until smooth. Note: garlic is very strong in this recipe, so start with one clove, add more to taste.