To meat, or not to meat...

Vegetarians are all around us!  Lots of us know at least one person who has chosen a lifestyle that does not include eating meat.  So, what exactly is vegetarianism, and what does a vegetarian eat?  Well, at its most basic, a vegetarian diet consists of fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds.  The main sources of vegetarian protein are beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, seeds, tempeh, chick peas, and peas, although many other types of grains and vegetables also have small amounts of protein in them.  A vegetarian who follows a vegan lifestyle will limit her food choices to these plant-based foods.  Many, if not most vegetarians also enjoy eggs and dairy products along with the plant-based choices, which increases the vegetarian's variety of food choices, particularly their sources of protein, as milk and eggs are both good protein foods.

If your lifestyle includes what most people consider a healthy diet, you are probably already eating many vegetarian foods, since most salads, vegetable side dishes, fruits, and even desserts, do not contain meat.  It would be difficult to combine vegetarianism with a low-carb or even Paleo lifestyle, since the primary sources of vegetarian protein - beans, lentils, chick peas, and other legumes - are high in carbohydrates.  Still, there is nothing wrong with enjoying a vegetarian meal once in a while.  It can be liberating and even delicious!!!  Snack on fruits and trail mixes, have a smoothie and some hummus, order a vegetarian omelet... the options really are endless if you use your imagination.  And besides, we probably could all use more fruits and vegetables in our lives!

POPCORN TOFU:

Tofu is so misunderstood!  You really can make it yummy, delicious, and fun to eat.  Here is a way that you can eat crispy nuggets of yummy goodness that will also give you some valuable protein.

Tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Holy Trinity of spices: salt, pepper, granulated garlic, chili powder (mild)
Corn starch
Oil for frying

Coat the cubes of tofu with the Holy Trinity of spices.  Get the oil ready by putting about 1/8 inch of oil in the bottom of a frying pan or "skillet", and heating it to medium heat.  You can also use a deep fryer.  When the oil is ready, coat the tofu with corn starch.  Use enough corn starch so the pieces don't stick together, several tablespoons.  Put the tofu cubes in the oil carefully, one at a time so they don't stick together in clumps.  You want individual popcorn tofu's.  Fry on all sides until they are crispy, and then remove them from the oil onto a rack or paper towels to drain off the excess oil.  Serve with wing sauce for dipping!

WING SAUCE:

The original recipe is one stick of margarine and one bottle of Red Devil hot sauce.  If you only need a small amount, you can break this down to a couple tablespoons of butter/margarine and 3 - 4 tablespoons of hot sauce.  Heat it in a pan so the margarine is melted, and mix in the hot sauce.

Who Has Time to Blog?????

Seriously, everyone I know is so busy we're trying to find time just to get enough sleep, it takes time to blog!!

Anyways, let's forget about all that for a little while and think about banana bread instead.  I think I first tried banana bread in the bread basket of this seafood restaurant my family used to go to when we were little kids.  Each basket had an assortment of rolls and breads, including one slice of banana bread.  Luckily, they always brought multiple baskets to our table during that window of time between ordering your food and the food actually arriving at the table, so we didn't have to fight over that one slice...  I didn't know what the banana bread was, I just knew that it was sweet and yummy!

Eventually I learned that you can make banana bread at home, WOW!!!  I've always heard that overripe bananas make the best banana bread, the ones that are turning brown.  Every now and then, we don't eat all the bananas fast enough and there's 2 or 3 bananas starting to turn brown.  It seems like the only logical thing to do is make banana bread.  Today my colleague told me that she used to intentionally not eat her bananas so her mom would have to make banana bread at the end of the week.  Good thinking!

This week I had like 6 brown bananas!  So I made 2 loaves, one with nuts and one without.  This recipe comes from the classic Joy of Cooking and it is enough for one loaf.  I made the banana bread slightly healthier by substituting whole wheat flour for 1/2 the flour and it still tasted really good.  You don't need a mixer to make this, it comes out perfectly delicious by using a wire whip (or even a fork) to mix the batter.

BANANA BREAD:

Dry Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour (or 50/50 whole wheat and all purpose)
2 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar

Wet Ingredients:
1/3 cup shortening (vegetable oil)
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 eggs
1 and 1/4 cup ripe banana

(1/2 cup nuts) (walnuts are best)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  You'll need 2 bowls to make banana bread; one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients.  Put all the dry ingredients in one bowl and mix them together.  Then put all the wet ingredients in another bowl and mix them together using a wire whip so the bananas get mashed as you mix.  You can use a fork if you don't have a wire whip, or you can also use an electric mixer.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix it all together really good.  Add the chopped nuts last and stir them in.

Grease a loaf pan with either oil or butter, then sprinkle some flour into the pan.  This step helps the banana bread get out of the pan after it cooks.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it at 350 degrees for an hour.  To test it, you stick a long toothpick, metal or bamboo skewer down into the middle of the loaf - when you pull it out it should be clean.  If it still has bits of batter stuck to it, bake it for a few more minutes until the skewer comes out clean.  Yummy!!!  Your house will smell so good!!!