A Greener Life

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. My day job has been going through some changes and I’ve been focused on that, plus I have a 2.5 year old! Sleeping and cooking generally take up whatever time is left. However, I’ve made a commitment that will, at least for the month of November, populate this blog with a lot more posts. I’ve joined the Vegan Month of Food–or better yet, Vegan MoFo!

What does this mean? It’s means a bunch of new entries about vegan stuff. Let me be clear in saying that I do NOT believe that it’s necessary to be vegan to be “green,” but for me it does play a part and well, this is my blog.

So get ready! If there’s anything anyone is interested in learning about, lemme know. I’m @agreenerlifeorg on Twitter.

Being vegan for us is first about healthy eating, second about animal rights. We do believe that animals are treated inhumanely, for the most part, before they are slaughtered and made into products for us to consume, but we know that’s not always the case. Also, the ethics of meat-eating is pretty gray in my opinion, so it’s not always an open-and-shut matter.

This all being overly-said, I digress. The first reason we’re vegan is for health reasons. We are of the belief that one can simply consume more nutrients thanks to a vegan diet. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

And as any person who likes to eat knows, it’s good to get a variety of types of food in your diet to feel satisfied. Even though Myk and I don’t eat meat, dairy, or eggs, we definitely feel satisfied that we are experiencing a full array of delicious, satisfying foods. Among many other things, we’ve made delicious golden tofu, stir-fried colorful veggies, tempeh and greens, quinoa and chickpeas, black beans with a cornbread crust, and let us never, ever forget the soups.

Because soup is, if not the backbone, definitely an important rib in the vegan skeleton, I’ll share this awesome recipe for Green Soup which my dear husband invented.

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1c. frozen okra, chopped
• 1 small bunch asparagus
• 1/c. water
• 2c. broccoli florets, chopped
• 1 1/2c. green beans (frozen okay)
• 1/2c. frozen corn
• 2c. frozen spinach
• 1 avocado, cubed (optional)
• 4c. unsweetened plain non-dairy milk
• Splash of olive oil
• 5 tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 2 scant tbsp of Vegi-Zest or Veggie Base by Vogue (available @ Whole Foods)
• 2-3 tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos, or to taste
• 1/2c. pepitas

Sauté garlic in a splash of olive oil in a stock pot. Before it turns brown (maybe 1 minute), add water, okra, and asparagus.  Boil/simmer over high heat with the water until the water is nearly boiled away, the okra is bright green, and the asparagus is tender (but not yet mushy..that will come later). Okra is kinda slimey, so this helps it break down a bit.

Turn down the heat to medium.  Add the splash of olive oil and the other frozen veggies (and optional avocado–leave this out for a lower-fat version). Slowly add the milk and bring the soup back to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes until things start to look nice and soupy.

Now, I’ve never used an immersion blender, but I imagine now would be a fine time to use one, if you’re so inclined. In other words, if you don’t like your soup chunky, you better blend this stuff up. We are totally fine with chunky green soup, but I can definitely see the appeal of blending.

Add the yeast and the Bragg’s, stir to incorporate. Sprinkle a few pepitas on each bowl of soup. You’re done! Enjoy your green soup!

Image courtesy of (Dr.) George Hatcher.

Here at A Greener Life we’re committed to greenifying (I know that’s not a word…) every aspect of life.  That’s why we’re going to share with you, from time-to-time, our exploits with cooking and baking…of the vegan variety.

Why vegan? Why not vegetarian? Well, part of this is business and part of this is personal. I’ll focus on the personal for the purpose of this site, but there are many environmental reasons to go vegan.  There is also the ethical point of view, which I’ll just steer clear of on here, but if you want to see a more artistic campaign for going vegan, just go check out the work of Sue Coe.

So on to the personal–my daughter is one of those unfortunate people that is allergic to a lot of stuff. Tons of nuts, dairy, eggs…that’s her!  And basically, since she doesn’t eat meat either (we’re admirers of the food learnings of Dr. Joel Fuhrman), my husband and I cook all her meals (unless we find the rare restaurant that has things she can eat…like Chipotle).  I have never been much of a cook in my life until this point, but for the benefit of my daughter I decided to just suck it up and cook and bake most of our food. I thought I would hate it but…I actually find it really relaxing. Also, it’s incredibly satisfying watching her scarf down some braised tofu that I made for her.

I will be able to post recipes occasionally, but I will likely point you in the direction of where I got the original recipe. Here’s my flaw as a cook: I can’t really get too creative because I don’t know what I’m doing. I enjoy following directions and I am learning about food, but for the most part I’m still a novice cook and have to play by the rules.

Look forward to some vegan goodies on A Greener Life!