My Vegan Burger

When I first began to prepare raw vegan dishes I searched out appealing raw vegan recipes. I spent some money on cookbooks. Later I discovered internet and YouTube chefs. Today I prepared to make some raw veggie patties. I whipped out one of the cookbooks and i checked some chefs i liked on the internet. One of the recipes I made few weeks ago but I didn’t like the bitter after taste of the white onion. An experienced cook suggested I soak them. This time I soaked them for a few days. (Not on purpose. It just happened. 😄) I was walking through the house thinking and decided to try green onions. The bitterness is much milder. And then💡. I know the flavors I like so why don’t I make my on recipe. If the other cooks did, why can’t I? So I did.

I cannot give you a measured recipe because this was a taste it till you like it exercise. I may make a larger batch and record my measurements. The ingredients are mushrooms chopped small, carrots chopped, green onions, ground flax seed, soaked chopped coarsely sunflower seeds, chopped seedless jalapeno, liquid smoke, Kirkland salt-free seasoning, a pinch of sea salt,and water. I mixed all the ingredients and let the mixture sit awhile so the flavors could meld and the flaxseed and water could do their thing. I made the patties and put them in the dehydrator. One hour at 145 degrees and then 4 hours at 115 degrees. Flip them and dehydrate for another 4 hours. I tasted them this morning. I like. I am pleased.

My Mushroom Sunflower Seed Veggie Patties

Bacon! Glorious Bacon!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that everything is better with bacon. I miss the flavor of bacon. Early in our raw vegan journey I tried an eggplant bacon recipe. I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was the recipe or if I expected too much from the eggplant. I may not have seasoned the eggplant properly. In any case, I walked away with no bacon tasting eggplant. Here we are four years later and I decided to try it again. I found another recipe from #TheRawChef. He has videos on YouTube. It sounded good so I gave it a try. Don’t laugh at my cuts. I tried to show you the best of them. The mandoline and I are still working on our slicing consistency. 🙂 I adjusted the recipe a tiny bit. I added liquid smoke to give a smokier flavor. The smoked paprika did well but I wanted more. I also adjusted the maple syrup. I didn’t want it too sweet. First I put very little in the marinade but it was bitter from the paprika; regular and smoked. That had to be balanced so added a little several times until I was satisfied with the taste. What can I say. The chef knew what he was doing. I put the eggplant slices in the marinade for an overnight stay. I then dehydrated them according to instructions. The results were satisfactory. They are a little spicy but I am okay with that. I have bacon. Oh glorious bacon. I put some slices on my veggie burger and it was a good lunch. Now for those of you who are purest and can’t understand why this is important, that’s okay. I am a southern girl who grew up with bacon. I don’t want the pig but I like the flavor in certain sandwiches and meals. If you desire the taste of bacon, try The Raw Chef’s recipe. He has several others I would like to try.

Vegan – Raw Vegan Again

I wrote this post in February 2021. I was trying very hard to get back to raw veganism but I failed. I didn’t realize how fatigued and depressed I had become in that last year. So my next post will be my beginning again. I must fight through all of this. Our mental and physical health depend on it.

It has been a few months since we have done a completely raw eating plan. It was mainly because of my fatigue amd the ease of eating vegan but not completely raw. Have been preparing foods to eat that need to be dehydrated to get ahead of the game. The plan is to wean ourselves from processed vegan foods and return to clean. The next step is majority meals raw without nuts until detoxification has had ample time to accomplish its job.

I had wanted to make a recipe that would be a great snack. It was called a raspberry buckwheat crumble. I didn’t have raspberries so I used dried cranberries instead. Success.

There has been much talk about juicing during detoxification. I made some juice and my juicer died. I purchased a new one. I decided to try the Caynel masticating juicer. I discovered I could make juice with pulp and without pulp. I made graepfuit juice. Great job. I then made nut milk with it. Almond milk to be specific. I didnt have to strain it and I had dry pulp to be used in a veggie burger recipe. All that’s left is to try the sorbet/ice cream maker.

Today breakfast was raw and dinner was raw. But every meal was vegan.

Blame It On The Pandemic

Why not? I haven’t posted in quite awhile and I blame it on the pandemic. More specifically the side effects of the quarantine. I am a full time caregiver for my husband so my travels outside the home were already limited. I didn’t think it would matter that we were quarantined. I was so wrong. I suffered from the isolation depression that most other people experienced. I probably didn’t realize it as soon as others did. I woke up an realized I just did’t want to do anything that was not absolutely necessary for our survival. I felt myself getting irritable for no obvious reason. Added to that stress my husband was hospitalized from Christmas through New Years. The stress of not being able to see your loved one in the hospital is real. I was blessed with some very compassionate and helpful nurses and physician assistants. The doctors were fine but I delt with the nurses and PAs.

The last stressor experienced in this year+ was searching for a new home. Thankfully our daughters and their spouses relieved that pressure. Now I’m back to more normal stress:Unpacking and caring for my husband.

Many of my friends reported weight gain and bad eating habits were also the results of this pandemic. I just didn’t have the energy to prepare all of our meals the way raw vegans should. I succumbed to vegan processed meat substitutes and I found vegan restaurants that had curb-side pickup. I must tell you that I knew this was not good for us but I just couldn’t get it together. Today I took the first step toward getting back to more raw vegan meals. That is another post. 🙂 Hopefully in a few months I can report that we are eating healthier without processed vegan meat substitutes and have eliminated vegan fast food.

If you have experienced any of these things give yourself a break and take one step at a time to return to a new normal.

BLESSED LIVING!