Halloween House Tournament and the Lucky Wizard's Pot Luck Feast

My roommate took a little trip earlier this year to a place called Hogsmeade, relocated from the UK to Orlando, Florida so the wizards stateside could take a real-life gander at the world of Hogwarts. When she returned, she brought with her two very special items: a wand for her and a wand for me. Thus, was our fall obsession born. It started as a Halloween costume (she, a Gryffindor student and I, a Ravenclaw), but as our ideas progressed, so did our plans. And the Halloween House Tournament was born.

The Tournament, which took place on October 29th, involved sorting our guests into their respective Houses, a series of games and activities in which our guests could earn House points, and - of course - the Lucky Wizard's Pot Luck Feast, hosted by representatives from Honeyduke's and The Leaky Cauldron.

Provided by the Prefects (that was us) was a wide selection of sweets and savories that delighted both the eyes and the taste buds. There was a Triumphantly Tasty Vegetarian Lasagna for the main course, accompanied by an offering of Honeyduke's Delectable Desserts (including Quidditch Sticks, Transfigured Beasties, Licorice Wands, Garlic Pumpkin Seeds, Cauldron Cakes, and Pumpkin Pasties).

Triumphantly Tasty Vegetarian Lasagna
(serves 10, or 20 grazing servings)

8 oz whole wheat lasagna noodles (9 noodles)
1 tsp salt, divided
2 cups low fat ricotta cheese
2 cups part skim shredded mozzarella
2 eggplants
10 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 lb baby spinach, chopped
1 28 ounce can crushed plum tomatoes
1 large jar marinara sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup basil, chopped fine
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a large baking dish (9x13) with olive oil spray. Coat two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until they're not quite completely tender. There should still be a little stiffness to the noodles when you take them off heat. Drain the noodles, fill the pot with cold water, and put the noodles back in. Set aside.
Slice an eggplant in pinky width slices, lay the slices out on the cookie sheets, spray them with olive oil, sprinkle salt over the slices, and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
Combine crushed tomatoes and marinara in a large bowl, mash with a potato masher until the mixture is combined, but still chunky. Add basil and 1/2 tsp salt and stir. Set aside.
Coat a large, deep skillet with olive oil spray and turn the burner onto medium high heat. Add 1/3 cup water for each bag of spinach and heat until the spinach is pleasantly shriveled. Add the mushrooms, and continue heating until the mushrooms have shrunk and softened. Set heat to low.
Now, spread a thin layer of sauce along the bottom of the baking dish. Take three cool noodles and lay them side by side along the bottom of the bottom of the baking dish. Spread a layer of ricotta along each noodle. Lay 1/3 of roasted, sliced eggplant over the noodles. Spoon sauce over eggplant. Spoon 1/3 of spinach/mushroom mixture over the sauce and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle 1/3 of mozzarella cheese over the layer. Lay out another layer: 3 noodles, ricotta, 1/3 eggplant, 1/3 sauce, 1/3 spinach/mushroom mix, 1/3 mozzarella. And the last layer: 3 noodles, ricotta, last third eggplant, last third sauce, last third spinach/mushroom, last third mozzarella.
Bake on top rack of the oven for 1 hour. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Pasties
(makes 35 pasties)

1 pie pumpkin, baked and mashed
2 eggs worth of egg whites, beaten to a froth
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
12 fl oz evaporated milk
1 8 oz roll Athens Phyllo
Earth Balance butter substitute
cinnamon-sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a small casserole dish with baking spray. Prepare 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Cut the pie pumpkin in half, removing stem. Scoop out seeds and save them for later. Scoop out strings and toss them. Put the two halves of the sliced pumpkin on the cookie sheet and bake for 1.5 hours.
Remove from oven and cool for at least 20 minutes. Scoop out the meat of the pumpkin and put it into a food processor (or put it in a bowl and use a fork or a potato masher on it until smooth.
Set oven to 425 F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg whites with a fork until frothy. Add sugar, salt, and all spices. Stir to combine fully. Add evaporated milk. Stir to combine. Pour into the prepared casserole dish and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

When the filling is cool, take out 1 roll of phyllo dough. Take two large spoonfuls of Earth Balance and put them into a microwave safe bowl; heat for 1 minute til melted.
Take a paper towel, wet it, wring it out, and then unroll the phyllo dough and lay the damp paper towel over the sheets (this will keep it from drying out on you).
Carefully separate a few sheets from the pile and lay them on top of the damp paper towel. Cut the sheets into 5 inch squares. Brush one 5 inch square with the melted butter using a pastry brush (brush carefully, lightly, from the center out and then dab the edges). Layer another square on top of it and repeat the buttering process. You will want 4 sheets layered. Butter the last sheet, then scoop 1 tbsp of the pumpkin filling into the center of the square. Roll from the top down over the scoop, then fold the sides in, place folded-side down on the cookie sheet. Brush a little melted butter over the top of the finished pastie, sprinkle a teensy bit of cinnamon-sugar over the top.
Repeat.
When you finish 1 cookie sheet, bake for 15 minutes at 350 F.
You should finish the roll of dough at the same time as you finish the filling with no leftovers. Enjoy!!

Snacks:

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans were a combination of Jelly Bellys and Jelly Belly's "Weird and Wacky Flavor Box" (including the flavors: pencil shavings, mulch, and baby wipes).

Cauldron cakes in the books were referenced as chocolate cakes with a "yellowish filling". My answer to this? Betty Crocker's Sugar-Free Extra Moist Devils Food Cake Mix, made as directed. Next, we cut out a small circle in the center of each cake and filled it with JELLO Sugar Free Fat Free Vanilla pudding. 

Replace the removed circle of cake, ice over the top to make a uniform surface, and decorate. :) 

Easy peasy.

Our Honeyduke's Treat Table consisted of - from left to right - Licorice Wands (red vines), Transfigured Beasties (gummy worms and bugs), Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (mentioned above), Special Wizard's Treat Mix (wasabi peas, raw almonds, raisins, and cranberries), and Quidditch Sticks (crushed almond pocky sticks). 

This is 20 servings of our Leaky Cauldron inspired Home-Brewed Butterbeer. Ingredients for 20 servings: 2.5 cups almond milk, 2.5 cups butterscotch schnapps, 20 tbsp light smart butter, 15 cups of cream soda. We placed all ingredients in a massive pot on the stove and heated until the butter was all melted and then a little longer, until a level of foam began to form on top. Then the contents were ladled through a funnel into these containers until we were ready to serve. It was a big hit. :)

Our Potions Lab consisted of a set of test tubes and some optional "brewing potions" that our guests could use to concoct their own mixtures. We used a variety of different colored smart waters as well as some other ingredients with a teensy bit of food coloring in them. 

Decorations:

These potions were based on potions found in the Harry Potter books.
The actual "potions" in the bottles were a well-contrived blend of water and food coloring.

This Transfiguration Board was made from a black foam board, paint, and silver markers. Oh, and my roommates incredible artistic skills. The imagery was taken from a book I have on alchemy and mysticism, as well as latin translation sites, and spell names from the HP books.

We took turns drawing on balloons to make some flying owls and ghosts for our guests to interact with. 

The Gray Lady

The Bloody Baron

The Fat Friar

The Tournament Game:

Janet and I wrote (and she designed) these awesome "spell" cards,
which our guests could use to cast spells on each other to earn
House Points! Look how pretty they are!

The Sorting:

Each of our guests underwent a Sorting, completed by donning the Sorting Hat I made, drawing their House Badge from the cauldron, and having their House name crowed by all assembled.

A good time was had by all! And - if you're wondering - the winners of the Halloween House Tournament? 

HUFFLEPUFF!
Yep. They went home with shiny new Golden Snitches. :)

VAM Interview: Perry

Perry Freeze is a native Oregonian living in LA, who has been working as a filmmaker since 1999. He's the only person I know who drives a biodiesel car, and is a self-proclaimed "eco-geek" (which means he's very interested in technology and sustainability). He is also the only person I know who can make Ethiopian food from scratch - incredible, addictive Ethiopian food. Mmm. Hugs, Perry.

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Q When did you become a vegetarian?
A I became a vegetarian three days before Thanksgiving in 1999, which also happened to be three months after I moved out on my own for the first time.

Q Were you thinking about going vegetarian before that?
A No, actually. It was really all of a sudden.

Q Was there some significance to it coming about right before Thanksgiving?
A No. That was just a mistake. I was living in a dorm and food was being provided, but there was a different selection of things than there had been back at home and there was also an emphasis on healthy eating and green living.

It was the first time I had ever really been responsible for my own meals. I had never had to plan a meal before that time. I ate what was available; I had had other things on my mind besides food when I was growing up. Like girls.

But when I was growing up, when things like chicken were being prepared at my house, the bones always freaked me out. The closest I got to touching meat was making hamburger patties and that was like playing with play dough. You didn't think about where it came from. I ate chicken nuggets and pepperoni pizza and I didn't think of them as animal products; just food. Every once in a while, my family would make a big tray of chicken and I would observe it, but... It was this white meat with tendons and muscles and bones sticking out of it... I watched my family tearing it apart with their teeth or peeling the skin off, but I saw it as a dead animal, not something I would ever want to put in my mouth. The concept of being a vegetarian wasn't in me at that time. I had always been a choosy eater, but I hadn't really connected all of the dots for myself.

So I didn't have a lot of interest in carcasses or foods I associated with being dead things, but I was eating plenty of meat, even - I think - making fun of my vegetarian friends. I knew a lot of vegetarians; I grew up in Oregon. There were a lot of cool, hippy families out there. But the concept that I could decide not to eat meat didn't enter my head. With regards to my friends who were vegetarians, I thought "They're not eating pizza anymore. They can't go out to restaurants."

I can pretty much drill it down to when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to eat at the cafeteria three days before that first Thanksgiving away from home. Inside, they had meat on the bone - hot dishes like chicken breast, etc - and a salad bar. Outside, they had grilled stuff like hamburgers. And I had this thought: that I was 100% okay with eating a hamburger but that I didn't want to eat the chicken because it was a dead animal. And then I thought, "What is a hamburger?" A hamburger was a cow that had been killed and then processed. If I didn't feel okay with eating a dead chicken because it was a carcass, why would I feel okay about eating a dead cow? I realized that I had been conning myself.

It's hard for me to say I don't like animal cruelty, because that's a go-to answer for a lot of vegetarians. I'm a vegetarian because I couldn't approach a living animal and turn it into food. I would rather let the animal live and eat a salad. If I couldn't take part in the act of making an animal into my food, then I couldn't take part in the result either.

So that Thanksgiving, in 1999, my friend invited me to his house for Thanksgiving. And I had just decided I was a vegetarian, so I asked if that would still be okay if I went. His mom was a surfer mom and made this really awesome vegetarian friendly meal, so I had a great experience.

Q What's the most common misunderstanding you face about being a vegetarian?
A Um... it's pretty commonly spread. Some people think vegetarian means you don't eat any animal by-products (i.e. milk, eggs, etc). People will ask how I get my protein; they seem to think that eating meat is the only way you get protein.

Q What is our strategy for maintaining a vegetarian diet?
A Fall in love with a good cook.
Also, trying and becoming curious about vegetarian cultures. Experimenting with your food. Learning to cook.
It was such a deeply personal decision for me; I would rather not eat than eat meat at a barbecue.
Be aware of meal plans. It's so easy for meat eaters to be focused on meat, they overlook how tasty their vegetables can be. Don't get hung up on not having meat. Think about other possibilities.

Q What is your favorite meal?
A Toast. [grin] Okay. The reason toast is so cool is this: you have this product called 'bread' and you don't do much to it. You heat it. And then it becomes something else - something with a different name. Toast. And it has a special tool that only exists to help transition bread into toast.

[Gloria intercut: I totally love that we became vegetarians separately. One of my favorite moments with us was when we first started seeing each other, I made fettucini alfredo with red, yellow, and green peppers. And he was blown away-
Perry: I don't know that I had had any bell peppers before that...
Gloria: -that vegetarian food could been sweet and flavorful and mixed in with things. Many of our first years together were like that.]

The thing about having a "favorite" is that you don't want to have the same thing every day. I like so many different kinds of foods. I really like foods from other cultures that basically still baffle me. That I just wouldn't know how to begin to make. Like Indian food is so rick and has so many different flavors... if American food looked like Indian food, it would be one flavor and that flavor would be 'cat food' because that's kind of what it looks like.

Q What is your favorite dish to prepare?
A It takes me a long time to decide what to cook some times and then I end up wandering around the grocery store and just picking things out.
I learned to cook Ethiopian food and I like to prepare those because they're complex stews and they have a a lot of steps and might take hours or days to make. And because now I sort of own it - it's like what I do. And I have to make sure it's just right because I introduce people to it by cooking it, so they're deciding if they like Ethiopian cuisine based on my preparation.

Q What is your favorite recipe?
A Salads to me really opened up when I became a vegetarian. Before, I thought of a salad as iceberg lettuce with a box of year old croutons and a bucket of ranch dressing. Like if it was cereal, the milk would be the ranch and the lettuce would be the cereal. I discovered that salad is a very general term for lots of kinds of foods. Explore different kinds of salads; make them with couscous or add fruit. Adding fruit to salad kind of blew my mind. I think everyone should try salads with fruit in them; they're really interesting.

Q What is your favorite cookbook?
A Vegetarian, by consultant editor Nicola Graimes.

Q What is your favorite restaurant?
A Native Foods. 
Real Food Daily. A lot of people like that place.
Those are hardcore vegetarian places, but there are lots of places you can get great food that is vegetarian.

Q What culinary tools do you use most in your kitchen?
A Plate. Toaster. Butter knife. Coffee cup. [laugh] I just do it all by hand. I use a knife, cutting board, and a pot of hot water.

Q Do you have any advice or thoughts you'd share with someone considering becoming a vegetarian?
A I would really have to know why they were becoming a vegetarian. I'd say 'see if you can make it a year'. And be aware and deal with immediately anything you think you might have a craving for. I've heard so many failure stories because people see the one thing they love that has meat in it and then suddenly start eating meat every meal again. Whatever your reason for becoming vegetarian - being healthy, just for a change, animal cruelty, global warming - you need to think about that reason and really connect it to that food you think you're not going to be able to give up.
Vegetarian isn't a genre of food. It's a lifestyle. When I see meat now, it's just a carcass. It doesn't even register to me as food. When we go to the store, we never go to the meat section because it's like the kitty litter section. I don't have a cat, so why would I go there?
I'd much rather have all the things I've gained from being vegetarian than anything I lost from the time I ate meat. 

VAM Interview: Gloria

Gloria Lamb is an art director for variety television and live events. She spent her formative years in upstate New York and has lived in Los Angeles for the last ten years. An accomplished artist, she also enjoys fire-spinning and makes fabulous tamales. She's generous with her time and talents and is, simply, 'glamborous'.

___________________________________

Q When did you become a vegetarian?

A I became a vegetarian the week I turned thirteen, but technically I gave up poultry for the year before that. Not intentionally. I just looked back and noticed 'hey, I haven't been eating poultry for the last year.' Every meal at home I was responsible for helping with and many I was just responsible for, so it wasn't hard to be in control of what I ate. When I decided I was going to be vegetarian - when I was thirteen - I told my mother and she laughed at me and told me I wouldn't last a week. She made me go to the library and do research on it and had me go to the doctor to make sure I would get enough nutrients for the time I stayed with it.

Q Do you think she told you that so that you would stick with it.

A No. But it's one of those things... if you tell a thirteen year old they can't do something, you should expect they're going to do their best to prove you wrong.

She also told me that if I was going to do it, that I had to be responsible for telling her what I was going to need and what she needed to get for me [at the grocery store]. She wasn't going to figure it out for me.

Q When you cooked for other people after that, were you cooking meat.

A I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure that I was. Then, over time, I was finally like, 'No. I can't do this anymore.' So I stopped.

Q Why did you become a vegetarian?

A I would say that first I have to talk about how it even became something acceptable. In upstate New York, where I lived then, it was pretty much unheard of for people to be vegetarian. When I was eleven, my cousin came to visit us from Arizona and he was a vegetarian. And that was when the seed was planted, I think; the inception, you might say.

Also, I had a friend in Girl Scouts with me [from age 11-15] and she was a vegetarian and her food always looked amazing. It was more colorful than mine and it smelled better and I always wanted what was on her plate and so that was the second influence, I think.

And the third, well... In science class in 8th grade - Earth Sciences - we had someone come and speak to us - a guest speaker - who had worked in the Amazon and she talked to us about how they were cutting down the rainforests to raise cattle. And the bigger ideas were about climate change and how that was affecting global warming, but that really struck me. I mean, animal cruelty, yes, but that we were cutting down trees and hurting the environment so that we could get more meat...

A lot of people become vegetarian because they hate the taste of meat, but - you know - I liked my steak rare, I loved pork chops, I'd eaten alligator. I liked the taste of meat. I just didn't want it when I thought about what that meant.

Q Have you had meat since you became a vegetarian?

A Definitely, yes. Not intentionally.

There were a lot of traditional meals in my household that included meat. Like my mother would always put bacon in her beans and I felt like it would be inconsiderate if I didn't eat it. And she started cutting the bacon into bigger pieces so I could find them and pick them out, but after a while, I just couldn't do that anymore either.

Also, I have always been a little anemic, so my doctor told me I could either take iron supplements or eat meat. When I was younger, I thought iron supplements were nasty - they tasted awful - so for five years I would eat tuna from a can once a month [to keep my iron levels up]. Because, at that point, canned tuna didn't seem like an animal to me anymore. It was just processed stuff in a can. But then there reached a point where that wasn't cool anymore, so I stopped. I took the iron supplements for a while, but I hate taking iron supplements. Then I found out that beets could actually give me all the iron I needed. I didn't like those before, but I started learning to like them. Now I think they're great.

Q What other veggies can people eat to get iron?

A Spinach. Asparagus. Broccoli. Green vegetables in general. Not so much beans, but leafy greens. I think that's something that people don't totally know. They're always asking, "Where are you going to get your iron or your protein?" And I say, "Those things are in everything!"

Q What is the most common misunderstanding/misconception you face about being a vegetarian?

A I think it's going to vary based on the vegetarian. And that's part of the problem. There are a lot of different kinds of vegetarians and there are a lot of people who are really defensive about their meat-eating. They think I'm going to be mad at them for eating meat and I'm not. I think, maybe, they aren't totally aware of what they're putting in their bodies, but some people just don't want to know or want to think about it and I can respect that.

Also, like I said before, people wondering where I get my protein from. The amount of protein we need is actually a lot less than the average American eats.

Q Well, the amount of everything we need is less than the average American eats...

A Yeah. Oh, and something else, there's obviously other reasons to be a vegetarian than "I don't like meat." Some people are totally torn about animal cruelty and climate change. And there's also this lack of understanding about eating false meats. They say, "Why do you eat fake meat if you don't like real meat?" But, like I said before, I liked meat. Except for poultry, which I noticed I just wasn't eating. I think poultry is boring. 

But veggie burgers and BOCA burgers... those didn't exist when I first became a vegetarian. Not the way they exist now. At that time, the closest you got to a veggie burger was a portobello mushroom on a bun. I remember the first time I had a BOCA burger, I had to ask the waiter if he'd brought me a hamburger. Then I asked the manager and the chef. I told them, "I'm sorry, I haven't had this before. I haven't had meat in a decade. But are you sure?"

Q What is your strategy for maintaining a vegetarian diet.

A I enjoy cooking. And that's, I think, the best thing a vegetarian can do - enjoy cooking. 

You're never going to be totally satisfied eating out. When I go to a restaurant and I'm ordering soup, I ask what stock they use - usually waiters don't know and will have to check. And spanish rice. Neither of those are usually vegetarian in a restaurant. I'm usually overwhelmed when I go to a restaurant where I can eat everything, because I'm used to having it narrowed down for me to about three to five items. 

It's funny. When I look at a menu, I look at it like a list of ingredients, not a list of items. You might look at a menu and see a steak dinner with a side of spinach, but there's no spinach anywhere else on the menu. So I'll ask for spinach. Most of the time, they'll work with you. 

You can't find anything to eat a seafood restaurant or a barbecue restaurant or most cajun places. Steakhouses, on the other hand, are actually great for vegetarians as long as you don't mind sitting around a bunch of people eating huge mounds of meat. Steakhouses have awesome vegetable side dishes that most meat-eaters overlook because they're so focused on their meat. You have to make sure they aren't cooked with pork or something, but you can usually find a lot of variety.

I actually worked at a steakhouse in high school. And I got really good at recommending steaks. I would listen to other people enough that I could really discuss it without sounding canned. I knew I would make more money at a steakhouse than I would at a diner or something and that was more important at the time. 

Q You didn't find selling meat went against your ideals of being a vegetarian?

A Of course I did. But I was also sixteen and I had to get out of the house. Working there made me more than I would have made babysitting. And there was a smoking section where I served businessmen while they drank and smoked - and there I was this cute little sixteen year old. I made some pretty great tips. 

Q What's your favorite dish to prepare?

A That's hard. I love food. I guess, usually anything I've liked, recreated, and made better. I love making vegetarian mexican food. I use lots of fresh vegetables in mine. And I love making fresh guacamole. 

Basically, I like to take a bunch of vegetables - by the way, this is not the only way to eat - and then steam them or saute or grill or fry or blanch, put them in pasta, on pizza, in a burrito... you can make them into anything. Asian, mexican, italian. I'm really good with spices. Also, you can never go wrong with garlic.

Q What is your favorite meal you've had?

A I don't think I enjoy eating as much if I haven't prepared it. And watching people eat what I've cooked. Usually, if I have something prepared for me that I really enjoy, I like to try to make it myself and make it better. 

One thing. I generally don't like couscous. However, when I was at a fancy awards dinner -  actually that entire meal was amazing - there was this couscous with this green sauce all wrapped in a leek. and the sauce and the flavors were amazing. I still really don't like couscous, but that was an exception. I also had mac and cheese with black truffles. I really need to start incorporating truffle oil into my cooking. That's the really nice thing about upscale dining; I love to tell them, "I'm vegetarian, I like these things, make me something fantastic." I think chefs like that because they don't like to cook the same things all the time. They like to stretch. They like to try new things.

Q What is your favorite recipe?

A My tortilla soup. The apple-beet soup I make. Perry's apple-beet salad. All of Perry's ethiopian food. 

Q What's your favorite cookbook?

A I have a few that I reference. I usually read a bunch of different recipes for the same dish and then make up my own based on those. I love cookbooks with pictures, because the colors and the images inspire me to try new things. Epicurious is great. And I don't exclude recipes with meat in them because you can always substitute. A couple of the cookbooks I like are: Tamales 101, by Alice Guadalupe Tapp; and Vegetarian, by Fiona Biggs. 

Q What's your favorite restaurant?

A It's hard to say I love a particular restaurant, because anything I like at one I can just learn to make at home and then I won't go back. I like to try new places.

Q Any particular genre?

A Italian and thai and indian, most often. I like to have a variety when I eat and it's easier to get that when you go out rather than when you cook at home.

Q So you love to cook. Any ingredients you love or hate?

A I don't like tofu at all. I don't eat it. It's a consistency thing. And rice. I think rice is boring, except spanish rice when I make it at home. I could eat broccoli three meals a day, though. I love mini trees. I would eat those mini green trees every day.

Q What culinary tools do you use most often?

A Wooden spoon. Flat, heat-resistant spatula. Large saute pan.

Q Do you have any advice or thoughts you'd share with someone who was considering becoming a vegetarian?

A I actually just did this. I had a friend who was looking to become a vegetarian and she didn't know where to start and she said she couldn't just do it cold turkey [laugh]. I told her: 

1. Start by only eating cooked meats at home. 

2. If you don't already love cooking, learn to love it. 

3. Learn to love your produce section, if not your local farmer's market. 

4. Eat with other vegetarians. Just because it's fun. It's always fun to eat in groups, but especially with other vegetarians. 

5. Start out avoiding false meats. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but you should start planning your meals not around a "meat". 

6. Think about the things you're craving when you think you're craving meat. Like if you get a yen for barbecue wings, you might actually be missing the taste of barbecue sauce dipped in ranch dressing. You probably miss the condiments and the flavors. Come up with substitutions. One thing I really missed in the beginning was shrimp cocktails, because I missed the cocktail sauce. So I would boil cauliflower to roughly the same consistency of shrimp and dip that in cocktail sauce. It was pretty good. 

7. If you don't already like thai, indian, and ethiopian foods, you should learn to like them. Just because they're awesome. 

Oh, and read some books. 

VAM Questionnaire: Tiene

Tiene is a 6th grade teacher working in South LA. She graduated with a BS in Biology and MA in education.

________________

Q When did you become a vegetarian?

A I became a vegetarian in September 2006... 4 years ago.

Q Why did you become a vegetarian?

A I became vegetarian to try to reduce the amount of suffering on earth and also to reduce my carbon footprint.

Q What is the most common misunderstanding you face about being vegetarian?

A The most common misunderstanding I faced was that I wasn't going to get all the nutrients and protein that I needed to survive.

Q What is your strategy for maintaining a vegetarian diet?

A My strategy is to eat a variety of veggies and to make sure I have some dairy products in my diet everyday. I try to ensure that I have one protein-rich product in every meal.

Q What is your favorite meal?

A My mom makes a lot of great vegetarian dishes. My favorite dish from her is a tofu and tomato stir-fry.

Q What is your favorite dish to prepare?

A My favorite dish to prepare is a vegetarian burrito with beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, salsa, and avocado!

Q What is your favorite cookbook?

A I don't really use cookbooks; I watch my mom cook and try to recreate what she does!

Q What is your favorite restaurant?

A Happy Veggie in Redondo Beach, Vegetarian Haven in Toronto (Canada), Sipz Fusion Cafe in San Diego

Q Which culinary tools do you use most in your kitchen?

A Cutting board, knife, chopsticks? Nothing fancy.

Q Do you have any advice/thoughts you'd share with people who are considering becoming vegetarian?

A It's not that bad! You just have to monitor your food intake to make sure you have enough protein and vitamins. There's a ton of great vegetarian restaurants in SoCal to help introduce you to how great vegetarian food can taste!

Tofu Croutons

Ever wonder how to add protein to a tasty salad? You could add beans, which is easy, and also a good source of B12. But if you want something a little different and still-protein packed, these tofu croutons are a taste and unique way to sneak protein into your veggie or non-veggie diet. :)


Tofu Croutons


1 14-oz package of extra-firm tofu
~1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt (more to taste)
1/2 cup water

Unwrap the tofu, drain, and pat off any excess moisture. Place the tofu in a freezer bag or wrap well in plastic, then freeze the sealed tofu for at least a day.

When you're ready to cook, thaw the tofu by unwrapping it and nuking it in a microwave-safe bowl, on high, for about 10 minutes (checking every 2 to 3 minutes to make sure the tofu doesn’t cook). Once thoroughly defrosted, gently squeeze out any excess moisture and cut into crouton-sized cubes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a shallow bowl, add the bread crumbs and spices, mixing well. In a separate bowl, pour 1/2 cup of water.

Dip each piece of tofu first into the water, shake off excess water, and then coat with the seasoned bread crumbs.

Put the breaded tofu cubes on a parchment-paper covered cookie sheet and baked 40 to 50 minutes (check every 5 minutes after 30 minutes), until crispy and crunchy.


Go on! Have a peace!

VAM Interview: Martha (Part 2)

Here is the second part of my vegetarian interview with Martha Theus. Enjoy!!

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Q Do you have a favorite cookbook?

A Mine? I still use mine. I use it every week cause I always look back and think ‘how did I do that again?’ I’m actually coming out with a new one in the month of october so ill make changes to that and update it. I don't really have one other than that. I think because I was not raised on cookbooks at all. If I’m searching something new to do -

like the other day I made this unbelievable double chocolate layer cake - it was just unbelievable. the frosting. everything. and I don't cook with the eggs so its an art in itself trying to bake and it was so moist - it was almost like a brownie consistency but it was a cake.

Q How did you keep it moist?

A Put a little extra oil. I use grapeseed oil. And this recipe had hardly any water at all. And this one, I also used vinegar if you can believe that. The two worked together to make this amazing texture. So I was trying to find out how to do a raspberry glaze for the top of my cake and I just looked it up online. I don't really use cookbooks that much. Also one of my favorite ways to get new recipes is to go out with my meat eating friends. I mean, when you go to most restaurants (with the exception of some) there’s usually not a lot of choice and it’s pretty boring. I always look at what they (my meat eating friends) get and I’m like, ‘Wow. I could totally convert that. Now that would be really good.’

Q Are there any cookbooks that you do use?

A There are some really great sources like Happy Cow and TryVeg.com. To be honest, we don't really eat like most vegetarians eat so I use a lot of spices and a lot of flavor. There’s not too many southern vegetarian cookbooks. I can’t do bland. Here’s where I think our approach is different. Again, it’s 100% based in a spiritual belief. So let’s put that aside. Secondarily, we do enjoy the environmental benefits and the health benefits but i find a lot of vegetarian approaches - which is totally cool - is that their cooking is purely based in health. And when you go purely, purely, purely based in health a lot of times - unless you’re really creative - it’s pretty bland. There’s not a lot going on. So we have a fusion of both. Like I work with raw foods a lot, I’ll make raw salad dressing, and we’ll have a big huge salad. Then I might have a little bit of my fried “chicken”, I might have a little mac and cheese, I might have something a little more “southern” - a little more flavorful. So... most of the cookbooks I’ve gotten, I haven’t been super impressed. Every now and then, I’ll look at one, but I don’t have one go-to bible. Every once in a while I’ll go online and find a recipe and think, ‘yeah, that looks good’, but for the most part that’s been hit or miss.

Q Do you have any culinary tools you can’t live without?

A Every day I use my Cuisinart. I have a really cool one that dices and shreds and does everything. Since we work with a lot of raw vegetables, my Cuisinart whips them up in no time. And I just use a knife. That’s about it. Sometimes I use an iron skillet, because that helps to add natural iron to your food. But I keep it really, really simple, except for my Cuisinart. And my blender.

Q So you raised your kids vegetarian. Did they ever want meat or wonder why?

A Well, we always explained to them why. And I was a vegetarian before my daughter was even conceived - she’s the oldest - so literally from inception all the way through - you know, she’s 24 now and my son just turned 23. Before they even went to school, we kept it really simple. You know, ‘animals are our friends and we don’t eat our friends’. You know? It’s a real simple philosophy.

As they got older in school, they always brought their lunch, and they knew what they could eat from the lunch table there. And when they went to high school... there was just never an issue. We’ve just been so blessed. They were like, ‘we were born and raised this way; we understand the philosophy’. My son played division 1 basketball, it’s 6’6”, 200 lbs; he’s been a vegetarian his entire life. He’s shredded and everything. My daughter played rugby. They never missed out on anything. You know? They would say, “It’s just something we do. We don’t eat animals. Next?”

Q That would be really interesting. To never make the change, to just never have eaten meat.

A I know, huh? I honestly don’t even know how that would feel because obviously my husband and I both made the change. And I talk to my kids and every now and then - like when I come up with a new recipe - I’ll tell my daughter “oh my god, this taste just like fried white fish” (I used to love fried white fish) and I’m all excited and she say, “as if I know what that tastes like”. And I’m like, “oh, right, I forgot”, so then I’ll have to talk to my husband and be like “is this it?” They never had barbecue, they never had chicken. I mean, they love the way I cook, but I’ll say ‘you don’t understand, this tastes exactly like fried chicken’ and they just don’t.

Q And are they both masters of the kitchen?

A They really are. Kind of because they had to be when they both went off to college. I had to teach them how to cook before they went. My daughter is, of course, an amazing cook, but a lot of people are surprised that my son is. He’s such a good cook. When he went off to college, he took a copy of my cookbook and his roommates - he lived with other basketball players - would actually go and buy the products we would use and ask him to cook it. Like they’d say ‘if we buy it, will you cook it?’ One of those, we buy it - you fry it - type of things. I was like, ‘oh my gosh’, I mean literally these guys were like ‘please cook this stuff, this is awesome’. I think if you kind of cook what they’re used to - cause these are young, black guys from the inner city, right? So he would make our version of fried chicken and fried rice and they were like ‘I just feel so much better after eating it’. Because usually you eat the crap that young men eat and then you pass out for a couple hours and you don't feel too good. I tell people we don’t feel that way after we eat our food; i mean, we feel full, but we don’t feel bad. So that was quite a testament. He basically took his skills to college and showed them there was another way to do things.

Q So talking about family. Obviously, your kids had a lot of support growing up vegetarian. How were your family?

A Yeah, it really wasn’t such a big deal because I was grown, I was out of school; I was already twenty-two, you know. My mom kind of approached it with a little confusion, you know: ‘well, whatever you want to do’. I’m very headstrong anyway. She knew better than to try to get on my case about it. We’re very decisive people; once we make up our minds, that’s it. At that point in my life, I was living with my mom, but it was more like we were roommates.

Q Do you use any supplements, or do you get all your vitamins and minerals from your food?

A We use supplements as well. And we always have. Even before [I became a vegetarian], I would take vitamins every day. We found some good quality vegan vitamins on the market, which again you can get from any Whole Foods or GNC. They all have something. Vegetarians don’t get B12 from their food, so we make sure our multi-vitamins have B12 in them. And instead of fish oil for Omega 3s, we use flaxseed oil. That’s pretty much it.

Q Have you ever had an ‘oops’ moment?

A I have, actually. I used to travel a lot for work and I remember getting into Chicago really late and I was starving and I hadn’t had a chance to do a scan of the city (I usually go on google and look up good veggie places where I’m going). So, of all places, I ended up going to a Taco Bell and I ordered just a plain bean and rice burrito. And I’d been a vegetarian probably for fifteen years at that point. It was pouring down rain. And I bit into it and it was the most rancid thing I had ever tasted. And they were just closing so I didn’t have a chance to go back - literally, I was the last customer. I just remember, it felt like - I don’t want to say it but it really did taste like pee or something - and I looked into it and it was a chicken burrito. Remember, I’d been a vegetarian for fifteen years. I didn’t swallow it. But I can’t even tell you how it tasted; it was like eating dead flesh. Dead, rotting flesh. I was shocked; I couldn’t believe how rancid it was and I thought, ‘and this is what people eat every day?’ I had forgotten. So my taste buds, physiologically... getting the animals out of your system changes everything about your taste buds.  And it was instant. One bite, I was like ‘oh my god’. So that’s the one time I knowingly did it. I guess if someone slipped an egg into a cake, or something, I wouldn’t notice it. But that was the most intense experience.

Q You travelled a lot. How did you find your experiences finding vegetarian food on your trips?

A I used to work for Lockheed Corporation and I would have to go around to our different divisions. I’ve been to Europe three times and people would say, “How can you be a vegetarian in Europe?” And this was pre-internet. But I had a book called the European Vegetarian Guide and it teaches you how to say “I am a vegetarian, I don’t eat...” and then whatever it is you don’t eat in about seventeen different languages. And in each country, it lists the vegetarian restaurants. So one time I had to travel to Switzerland and I ate at the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe (I remember it was in Zurich and it was super expensive but I don’t remember the name). I was like, “How cool is this?” It was four-hundred years old and had always been vegetarian. When I was in Amsterdam, they had a lot of different Indonesian restaurants. The most amazing vegetarian and vegan food is Indonesian food - it’s right up there with Indian food, in my opinion. So every place I went. In Paris, I sought out some of the Greek food and Mediterranean food. So, like I said, I never skipped a beat. I got to travel and try all kinds of different cuisine. It was so cool. And it made me realize that our culture is more meat-oriented than any other place I’ve travelled.

Domestically, depending on how long the trip is, sometimes we’ll pack something to bring with us on the plane or in the car, but usually we can find something. You know, sometimes you have to go to a Subway and I’ll bring some vegan “turkey” to put on my sandwich. You figure it out.

Q So you’re living this life that’s all about harmony and low karmic impact - I guess you could call it a spiritually green lifestyle. Is there anything else you do other than eat vegetarian?

A What we do is recycle virtually everything. We have also become a totally non-caustic household we get all of our cleaning products from a company called Melaleuca every month, those are all completely environmentally safe and biodegradable. Because our food is already environmentally safe, we started thinking, “What else can we do?” So we try to buy all recycled everything and, like I said, all environmentally safe cleaning products. And our food, we try to buy all local, organic food - either from Whole Foods or from our local farmer’s market. Also, if you buy local, you’re buying fresh, so there’s no reason not to.

Q What kind of advice or thoughts would you share with someone who was thinking about becoming a vegetarian?

A The first thing I would do is say: don’t be too drastic. Maybe pick your top five recipes you enjoy eating - because when you think about meat-eaters, they eat the same thing over and over anyway. Most people do. They have their top maybe 20 things that they eat all the time. So I’d say: pick your top five. Go online, go on my site or one of the other hundreds of sites out there, and learn how to convert your favorite recipes to vegetarian options. You’ll see how you’re really not missing anything. And then just incorporate it more and more from there. Because it amazes me that I know people who have become vegetarian and literally, overnight, it’s like there’s nothing to eat. Okay, as a meat eater you ate chicken, fish, beef, and pork. You ate four things. What about everything else? There’s thousands of things you can eat! Let’s remove or replace those four things. You can still have all the other foods that you ate. When you think about it that way, you just have to open your mind to the idea that you only have to replace four things in your diet. If you want to go with mock meats, there’s probably thirty kinds of mock meats on the market that you can get in any shape or flavor that you want. If you don’t want to go with mock meats, then decide where you want to get your protein and vitamins from. Just get rid of those four things and you won’t have to skip a beat.

And one thing, just as a closing thought. Really understand how such a simple choice can really make a huge impact - not just on the microcosm (which is us) but also to the macrocosm (which is the world). A very, very simple choice has a huge domino effect. And stepping away from meat just one day a week - just one day a week - would save over a billion animals lives. We eat 10 billion animals a year, in the United States alone. So if everyone in the United States went vegetarian one day a week, that’s over a billion lives that would be saved, billions upon billions of water as far as our natural resources, millions upon millions of gallons of gas that are used to transport these animals around the farm, to slaughterhouses, and that meat to shipping facilities, etc. Just one day a week - I really don’t know anyone who can’t do that. And it would make a huge difference in our environment. Methane gas from these factory farms has now exceeded auto emissions when it comes to the #1 source of global warming. So, you can go to a site called Meatless Monday to get ideas and thoughts on how to do this. Let’s just try that; you don’t have to convert, don’t have to be spiritual, doesn’t have to be complicated. One day a week. Say ‘I’m a member of this planet; I can do that so that future generations don’t have as much to worry about; I can do this just one day a week.’