Grow your own sprouts -- it's easy!

Sprouts got a bad reputation during the recent ecoli outbreak in Europe (see my previous post, "e-coli Outbreak"). It seems that sprouts are a food that can easily be contaminated with ecoli because they have a lot of surface area and are rinsed in water frequently, and that water may have been contaminated by animal waste. So even though the sprouts are innocent, being plants, they can carry ecoli bacteria (which comes from animals) on their surface. It's difficult to wash off ecoli; you only need one microscopic bacteria to survive in order to sicken someone.

Don't give up on these protein-rich, crisp and crunchy vegetables! You can easily grow your own sprouts with just a jar and a packet of seeds. Try it in the winter when nothing else is growing for the ultimate satisfaction, but it will work any time of year.

I use mung bean seeds because I like the big, hearty sprouts they produce. I ordered my sprouting seeds from a catalog -- I just added it on to my garden seed order to avoid paying extra shipping. It was $1.95 for a 4 oz. bag, which will make about 6 - 8 batches of sprouts. I think you'll pay about that much for a single container of sprouts at the supermarket, so your investment will pay off at 6 to 1! It doesn't cost anything to sprout the seeds, you just need any old recycled glass jar.

Day 1: Put 1 or 1.5 tbsp of seeds in the jar and cover with cold water. Soak overnight.


Day 2 - 4: Dump out the soaking water. Twice a day, rinse the sprouts in cold water and dump out the water. The seeds should stay damp and not dry out completely. Some directions say to use a wet paper towel or cheesecloth over the opening of the jar, but I never have.



Each day, more of the green seed coverings come off and get dumped out with the rinse water.


Day 5: Yummy sprouts waiting to adorn your salad! Refrigerate in a bag when they're ready to eat.

A confession

I didn't want to go vegan. There, I confessed. You see, I had been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 22 years and it was easy. I was comfortable. I was complacent. I had convinced myself that I was doing enough for the animals and I had all the usual justifications (excuses, really) for my actions. Q: What about eggs? A: It doesn't kill the animal. Q: What about leather? A: It's a bi-product of the meat industry and I wouldn't wear fur or anything killed JUST for its skin. These answers sound AWFUL to me now. It's difficult just to write it down!

I like to listen to podcasts while doing routine chores like weeding the garden. Looking on itunes for some new ones to try during the summer of '09, I stumbled across Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "Vegetarian Food for Thought" podcast. I assumed it would be about vegetarian cooking, so I downloaded a couple of episodes. I quickly realized that although there were some great cooking and baking ideas included, the theme of the podcast is really vegan advocacy. But the episodes were engaging, and I was soon hooked. I downloaded the entire backlog of episodes and started hearing what I didn't want to know. I fought it for a while, but once my eyes were opened I realized that I couldn't go on eating dairy and eggs or wearing leather and live with myself. It took me a little longer to decide on honey, but after reading a book on beekeeping (in favor of it, actually) my eyes were opened and I said goodbye to honey and all my Burt's Bees lip balms as well. Then wool. Then silk. Pearls. The dominoes fell one by one.

When I became a vegetarian in 1988, I did it instantly. I had an epiphany -- that there's no moral difference between a dog or a cat and a cow or a chicken -- and the next moment I was vegetarian. But the vegan switch took longer, I'm sorry to say. I did NOT want to give up cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. I thought that without yogurt I might get yeast infections, and I was worried about calcium. I had to do some nutritional research, and I had to figure out how it would work in my marriage and my house, and my cooking. I had to think about how hard it would be to eat at restaurants, and what adjustments my friends and family would have to make. I needed to find out if I would be able to find decent shoes and belts and I had to figure out what to do with the leather stuff I already had. I took the final steps at the beginning of 2010, so it took about 6 months from the time I had the first idea that I might have to make a change until it was a done deal.

I am happy to say that all my concerns were unfounded. I have plenty of cute vegan shoes and belts and purses. I can eat out, and bake delicious treats, and I no longer crave cheese or yogurt. I figured out that if I take B12 and eat lots of healthful vegetables and a wide variety of leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, that I'm covered nutritionally. I have not had a yeast infection, but if it had turned out to be an issue, there are soy yogurts that have active cultures, and there is acidophilus in tablet form. I gave up drinking cola to preserve my bones, and I get my calcium from plants. My family and friends adjusted, and are into the challenge of finding and creating great vegan meals. I'm the go-to girl for advice on a vegan diet at work as well. I was able to easily replace my household cleaning products and personal-care products and cosmetics with vegan products that work as well or better and are easier on the environment. Bonus! The internet is a great resource and made the whole transition easy and fun.

Most importantly, I have the inner peace of knowing that I am walking the walk. I don't have to make excuses or justify myself to myself. There is no cognitive dissonance between what I know to be right and what I am eating or wearing or using. It's a good place to be.

A Good Day for the Garden

I turned off the radio after a time this morning because I couldn't take the constant alarmist heat warnings. "It's HOT, you're all going to DIE!"
Yeah, it's warm today for the Northeast. So what? Take breaks and drink water. Don't be stupid. I hate it just as much when the announcers go crazy because it's going to snow. We live in upstate New York. We know about snow. Calm down.

Whatever you may think of this hot humid weather we're having, it's absolutely fabulous for the vegetable garden. It's early for eggplant and red peppers and large tomatoes, hooray! If all goes well, I'll be able to fill the freezer and eat well all summer.

I planted the pole beans too thickly and it's like a treasure hunt to harvest them! But at least I'll have plenty of beans and the critters didn't win this year. I'm not complaining.

I picked up an intriguing book on water bath canning last week and I'm determined to try at least one recipe at some point this summer. I'm thinking salsa or tomatoes or sauce, since they are high in acid and I'm less likely to mess up. Plus, those things are typically made later in the summer when having large boiling pots of water in the kitchen all morning won't be so silly.

I have the usual glut of summer squash. We grilled some the other night with a garlic marinade. I chopped some up into 1/2" pieces and sauteed it with onion and garlic and salsa and pinto beans and put it into whole wheat wraps another night. Oh, and the ubiquitous zucchini bread, of course.

I love summer!

Two good dining experiences

There are no vegan restaurants close to where I live. I am used to going out to eat with omnis and finding the one thing on the menu that can be "veganized" or asking the chef to prepare something and explaining the rules to the server. Fortunately, I enjoy cooking and we don't eat out that often. When my husband and I eat out, we will frequently visit one of the fine ethnic restaurants nearby so that it's easier for me to choose vegan fare.
Last night, on our way to a jazz concert at Skidmore College, we did just that. We ate at an Indian restaurant in Saratoga Springs called Karavalli. It has a pleasant atmosphere and is conveniently located in the downtown area with parking lots nearby and lots of places in the city within walking distance. There is a section of the menu that is labeled "vegetarian" AND a section labeled "vegan!" We shared a veggie appetizer and then I had excellent chana masala. None of the dessert choices was vegan, but I was full of delicious flavorful food by that time anyway. The bill came to $60 for the two of us, with an appetizer, two entrees (he ordered the priciest one, I think), one dessert, and coffee. We don't drink alcohol, so we stuck to Saratoga sparkling water.

An even cooler dining experience happened last week when my friend and I traveled to Massachusetts to visit the sculpture gardens at the Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen, and the bridge of flowers in Shelburne Falls. This was an outing planned purely for pleasure, to celebrate the successful completion of another school year. We had lunch at the Cafe Evolution in Florence, MA, and I can only say that I wish this incredible restaurant was in my town! Completely vegan, Cafe evolution has a casual, coffee-house-like atmosphere with small tables, a counter, and some big comfy chairs and couches. The seating area is fairly large with nice windows and some plants. I have to say that after more than 20 years as a vegetarian, and now a vegan, I was a little overwhelmed by being able to choose ANYTHING from the menu, and it took me a few minutes to decide. I'm used to scanning quickly for the one or two items that might be acceptable, then waiting for the waitress to come so I can ask questions! It was a little disorienting to have so many choices. My friend and I both settled on a special called "Bowl of Beauty" which was a generously sized bowl lined with yummy fresh greens, then tasty brown rice, topped with a medley of roasted veggies, chickpeas and lentils in a thick stew-like sauce. It was very flavorful with a little bit of heat to it -- just right! Although we were both full afterward, we couldn't resist the glass case of delicious-looking baked goods. While I can find things to eat at most omni restaurants, I can almost NEVER eat the desserts. The novelty of this was too much to resist, and I had a decadent chocolate/peanut butter rice crispy bar. My friend has less of a sweet tooth than I do, and she had a muffin and bought some gluten-free cookies to take home to her husband.
If you're in Western Mass, please check out Cafe Evolution. It's too far away for me to patronize often, so I hope it remains successful and I can visit again!

It's working!

The little "cages" I made to keep the critters from chewing on the pole beans worked! Looking forward to having lots of rattlesnake and purple violetto beans to eat and freeze.