Yesterday, on Day 11 of the Vegan Challenge, I ate:

– 1 apple

– 1/4 cup almonds and a thick slice gingerbread

– Salad with romaine lettuce, spinach, quinoa/bean/veggie mixture, radishes, cucumber, tomato, green pepper, carrots, 1 slice Yves deli “turkey”, some raisins, and asparagus

– 1 almond butter ball, 1 calzone, snow peas with hummus, and 2 figs with almond butter

– A taste of the yummy chili that the sisterroommate made

– Air-popped popcorn with salt and spritz of oil, plus a glass of red wine.

Tofurky and Yves Product Reviews

Curiosity compelled me to try out the Yves processed “turkey”, just like it compelled me to try out the processed Tofurky franks. Both of them don’t taste too bad. They taste fairly similar to the real thing (by which I mean, they taste fairly processed, surprise surprise!). The franks are useful if you’re at a BBQ and the deli “meat” is useful if you have a hankering for a deli-style sandwich. I wouldn’t call them healthy, but I do like that they have so many added nutrients, particularly plenty of vitamin B12.

These two items would fall under the “glorified pretend-healthy jazzed-up food products” category, because really they’re just processed food with nutrients added like so many other items on the shelves, but part of Living in the Real World is that we’re going to eat non-real food sometimes. And, admittedly, there isn’t anything really unhealthy in the ingredient lists of either product. They  are like the Switzerland of the food products: they aren’t going to have a huge impact on your health in either extreme of positive or negative.

Nutritional Yeast Cheese Sauce Recipe

I asked one of the co-authors of The Veganomicon if I could post their Cheezy Sauce recipe so that you all know exactly what the hell it is that I’m talking about, and Isa kindly gave me her permission! Here it is:

Ingredients

2 cups water

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic

Pinch of dried thyme

1/4 tsp salt

Several pinches freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp turmeric

3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

Directions

1. Combine the water and flour in a measuring cup and whisk with a fork until dissolved (a couple lumps are okay).

2. Preheat a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Place the oil and garlic in the pan and gently cook for about 2 minutes, stirring often and being careful not to burn the garlic.

3. Add the thyme, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 15 seconds. Add the water/flour mixture, turmeric, and nutritional yeast, and raise the heat to medium. Use a whisk to stir constantly. The mixture should start bubbling and thickening in about 3 minutes; if it doesn’t, turn the heat a bit higher.

4. Once the mixture is bubbling and thickening, stir and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the lemon juice and mustard. The mixture should resemble a thick, melty cheese. Turn off the heat, and cover the pan to keep it warm until ready to use. The top might thicken a bit while it sits, but you can just stir it and it will be fine. Serve warm (on nachos, pastas, in calzones, or as a dip). Makes about 3 cups.