I did a pantry raid this morning.
Hunkered down and crawled through my stores to find my stash of grains and legumes. I figured it would be pretty telling of what kind of constitution I have by revealing the contents of my kitchen, and I can tell that I have good intentions, but little gas to back it up. Shameful. What the larder coughed up was not impressive, but I have to look at the silver lining- I usually have more here, but I must have eaten more of these foods, because I am almost totally out of everything. What I found was this:
A bag of mixed colored split peas (disco legumes!)
Tons of wild rice
Brown Jasmine rice
Basmati rice
Organic old fashioned oats
Oat groats (a household favorite)
Barley
Millet, believe it or not
Kidney beans
Polenta
As I churn the nutritional information in my head, I remember why I don’t keep a fuller complement of vegetarian-based fare in the house. I would definitely eat anything that comes out of the ground, gladly, but the carbohydrate content has me concerned. As someone with a weakening pancreas, I am torn between wanting the fiber and digestible elements of legumes, but the combination creates too long a hang time (AKA Glycemic Index) for my liking- Come morning, my blood sugar is above 100, and in order to balance that out, I must stop eating by 6:30 in the evening at the very latest. Again, I will have to rearrange my eating to allow for school. As if eating vegetarian was not enough of a challenge, my organs are being picky. Time to get stared at in schol for packing a lunch box (sigh).
This morning, I will head out to the store for tofu, seitan, TSP (textured soy protein) and other things at the market. Not without arming myself with nutritional information first, I will will make decisions on which foods have the lowest GI, best protein and best taste, in that order. I figure if Gordon Ramsay can pull off all three non-meat “meat” entrees and fool cooks on Hell’s Kitchen, I can probably make food taste as good. I am no stranger to using veggie ground round substitute for thins such as chili and bolognese sauce. None of it gives me the willies- I think part of America’s aversion to these foods are purely ingorance based. If they knew how many pounds a year of TSP they actually consumed in fast and convenience foods, they’d be shocked, if not angry at being duped. The smaller picture is this: There is a reason why that dried out piece of gray matter on a bun is so cheap, and it isn’t because its made from 100% grass fed, free range beef.
Off to the exercise portion of the day, then!
Back from the daily dog walk and the market. Trying to heed a friend’s warning about doing too much soy, I tried to diversify my shopping. I realize that I have seen tons of obese vegetarians (no pun intended), and I suspect that an extra cheese pizza with mushrooms may be part of the culprit. Not giving in to pasta, bread and other empty calories of the short-chain carbohydrate family, I tried to get foods that were moderate in carbs, yet higher in protein and fiber. I can drool over all the Indian fare I want to, but damn if I have yet to see a Sari parade by the house without lovehandles underneath (living in the tech corridor affords me the luxury of seeing gorgeously dressed Indian women and men on evening strolls all summer long, brilliant colored silks flowing in their wake. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.). So, lowfat dairy, a little soy, some wheat protein and a whole lotta egg whites are going to sustain me for a while. I did splurge on quite possibly the worst idea of this whole experimental process, though. I grabbed one of every protein powder supplement drink mix packets available at New Seasons Market. I had no idea you could squeeze that much protein from a sweet potato or a grain of rice, but some fool did it and I am gonna taste every one of them. Brian finds this totally amusing, knowing the agony I could be in if any of this goes horribly awry.
My market haul for the day:
Kasha (roasted buckwheat)
Falafel mix (Gotta love it!)
Red Quinoa
Tofu Spaghetti (you heard me)
Boca Burgers- grilled type
Garbanzos
Black beans
Refried vegetarian beans
Refried salsa beans, no fat
Textured Vegetable Protein
Red lentils
Silken, extra firm and smoked tofu
Seitan
Omega 3 brown eggs
Plain nonfat yogurt
Various veggies and fruits
Part of my current class is about grains and legumes, so I will indulge in them later this evening, if not tomorrow, since I will pack a few containers at school. I’m packing last night’s barley salad with curry, oranges, raisins and pearl onions, which was pretty fun to eat. I believe that the saying is true, that people taste with their eyes first, then their wallets, I mean, their mouths. A good portion of this challenge is about making an appealing dish not only for myself (I will eat about anything, actually), but for a customer. What looks disgusting to one of my classmates looks like a plate of Manna from heaven to a vegetarian. Gotta keep that in mind.
Food for today:
Organic rolled oats
2 ounces of 2% milk
1 scoop of whey protein powder
A cup of awesome coffee
A 3 ounce slab of grilled, marinated tofu
1/2 cup of fresh shredded cabbage and carrots, no dressing
1 whole wheat blueberry muffin (it was killer)
Leftover Curried Barley Salad
Half cup plain yogurt
One shredded carrot
At school, as best I can recall during the food orgy:
Falafel, Hummus, Baba ganoush
Some curried chick peas and half a Chapati
2 small Spanakopitas (killer!)
One half a corn tortilla
A bit of vegetable enchilada
A spoonful of Dal lentils
You need to share what you come up with for the seitian, I have been unsuccessful in making something decent out of it. Give me tempeh any day.
Okay, so lets start by saying that it really sucks ass on its own. Whoever created it must have been desperate, as evidenced by other scary-as-hell products like hemp, pea or rice protein found in the supplement aisle at New Seasons.
I sliced some thin today, dry rubbed it in bbq spice and sauteed it with a ton of veggies for lunch. It really tamed down that Hippie Armpit taste. I think if I try to marinate it in a wet rub, it may fare better. A little acid, some aromatics, a little sugar- it might balance up in a dry cooking situation.
Might try doing the unthinkable and braising it to see what evil occurs when I totally go against the manufacturer’s instructions. What kind of nutcase would I be if I played along with all the rules?