Sprout it Out

In my attempts to add more raw food to our family's diet, I stuck out my chartreuse thumb and tried my hand at sprouting. It was surprisingly simple and rewarding. And tasty.

First, we stopped by Rainbow Foods for some alfalfa seeds.


Here's how to sprout:
In a clean mason jar, put 2 tblsp of seeds and about 2 cups of water. Place a piece of cheesecloth or as shown here, fine plastic mesh over the jar and secure with an elastic band. You can even use the ring of the canning lid to hold it, if you have it around. Another mesh material that could work well is the plastic canvas grid found in craft stores for needlework, if you cut it to fit in the canning lid ring. Let the seeds soak for at least 6 hours, or up to 12 if you have the time.



Drain the water by inverting the jar and giving it a gentle shake. Keep the jar inverted so the water drains completely, either in a bowl or a dish drainer.



Twice a day, fill the jar with water and let it drain immediately. Keep doing this for five days.



After a few days you will see little tails growing out of the seeds!



At the end of five days, the sprouts are ready to harvest. Give them a quick rinse with water


and let them dry thoroughly before storing in the fridge. Ours lasted for about a week before we finally ate them all.


They were a crunchy addition to salads and Mango Summer Rolls.

Frosty Day Feast

On Saturday night, it was so freakin' cold, that I made a childhood fave for Kyle and I - "Beef" and Red Noodles. It's one of my comfort foods. In a large sauté pan with a lid, I cooked some onions and celery with a little oil, then added a box of whole wheat macaroni, 1 1/2 cups TVP, 1 can of tomato soup, 2 soup cans worth of water, 1 19-oz can of tomato juice, 4 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp tamari, and chili powder - then let it all cook. It was a yummy dish to warm us up!


Despite getting to bed at the usual Saturday night time, I didn’t take advantage of the whole time change thing. I was up at 6:15 today with Kyle while he got ready for work (as he says, "to pour soymilk on his cereal"). Normally, I go back to bed right after he leaves. But for some reason, I wasn’t tired enough to go back to bed. Weird thing is, it was ‘really’ 7:30 or so…and it’s not like pre-fall-back I was up at that time either. But I thought I would have time to have a nap today…ha. Who was I kidding? I had to make food for my friend Sam’s Halloween Party at night. But I only had 2 things to make, and as I discovered, had lots of extra steps.

I first made the Fresh Mango Summer Rolls from VWAV (although there's nothing summery about the weather right now). I’d made them before for a party, but this time, I made some Seitan first and cut it into matchsticks to use instead of bean sprouts. I thought the brown and yellow was a little more fall-ish.


Instead of the recommended sauce that went along with the recipe, I made a batch of the peanut sauce on page 165 (I think it’s from the Cold Udon Noodles recipe), and used half of that for serving (I’m saving the other half to mix with pasta mid-week). It tastes way better.


I also made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from VCTOTW, but I noted that I should drain my homemade, puréed pumpkin first. Also, I can’t find vegan icing sugar here, so I tried the homemade version. The icing was really gritty, but still tasted great. I used festive Halloween paper liners, and had bought one of those cupcake display racks over the weekend to wow the guests at the party. Only thing was, the rack stores 13 cupcakes. I think that is the oddest design, because I only have one muffin tin that makes 12, and as a girl living by herself, would not dare make 2 batches just for the extra cupcake at the top. And I get the whole ‘baker’s dozen’ thing, but I wish they made the thing to just hold 12 cuppers. Oh well. I don’t have a pic, but at the party, we stuck an apple with a tealight inside on top, and that seemed to impress everyone more than the cupcakes did :(


So I was in the kitchen all day. But I wouldn’t dare guilt-trip Sam for that, as it was my parents who so *politely* suggested that she have a party (which translated into them inviting themselves). At the end of the night, she realized that she didn’t serve one of the dips that she bought, and then said that she should bring the to my parents’ house to serve at a party before the expiry date. I thought that was pretty good, and I’m really liking how everyone is too distracted by coaxing each other into parties, that they don’t realize that my turn is way overdue :)