Isn't All Wine Vegan?

Sorry to say its
not vegan :(

First you take the grapes and you crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, then you take the juice and  you pour it, you pour it… well maybe a little more high tech then this but this is how I thought wine was made. Basically fruit with yeast to ferment the sugars into wine. But sadly no, this is not true. One of the things I have just learned is that some alcohols, including wine, may contain things like, fish, eggs and even milk. Crazy as it sounds, but this is true.

How you may ask? Well it has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’. Fining is the process of filtering out tiny molecules such as proteins, tartrates, tannins and phenolics in young wines. Which in the beginning look murky and cloudy. These are save to drink, but wine companies like a clear clean looking wine so they use this process to clean them up.

Some of the most common fining agents are casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). These fining agents are not ingredients in the wine, they are just processing aids and are filtered out through the removing of the haze molecules. For the vegans out there who are mainly concerned about consuming the animal products, these are safe because it has all been removed. But this is now a problem for ethical vegans out there, just because there are no traces of the animal products doesn’t mean that they were not used in the process of making it.

There is hope though! There are new ways of filing wine that a lot of winemakers are using today. Carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, and vegetable plaques are all suitable alternatives and are vegan friendly. Also in a move towards more natural wines, some wine makers are moving to not fining their wines at all, and leaving them to self-clarify and self-stabilize.

Captain Morgan is vegan!

So how do I find out if my wine is vegan or not? There is a great website called Barnivore that lists both vegan and non vegan wine and also beer and liquor. Another website that focuses on just wine is www.vegans.frommars.org/wine, it has a lot of foreign wines if that is what you tend to drink.

I have listed below some of the most common alcohols and whether they are vegan or not. Some wines I am pretty sad about because I really enjoyed them, but on the plus side I now get to experiment with different types of wine! Yummm!

The information I listed is off of the Barnivore website, if you have a favourite drink that you are curious about you can look it up on there or email the company and ask. Barnivore has a great template for you to use in an email, as well as a polite email response. Good luck with your findings!

Sadly not Guinness 

Naked Grape – no

Sawmill Creek – no

Jackson Triggs – no

Apothic wine – no

Martini Brand – no

Silent Sam Vodka – no

Skinny Girl – Pina Colada – no

Skinny Girl – White Peach Margarita – no

Skinny Girl – Cranberry Cosmo – no

Smirnoff Espresso – no

Smirnoff root beer – no

Grandville Island, anything Casked – no

Richards Honey Brown – no

Guinness beer - no

Absolute vodka – yes

Appleton – yes

Amerito – yes

Bacardi – yes

Say yes to Absolut 

Beefeater – yes

Bombay Gin – yes

Canadian Club Whiskey – yes

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum – yes

Alexander’s – yes

Coors and light – yes

Miller – yes

Molson – yes

Corona – yes

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Vegan Sloppy Joes

Holy moly! These were so good! I had Chelsea and her boyfriend Taylor over the other night for supper to taste test one of my new recipes (now that I look back that was a mistake because I could be eating leftovers right now).As I am typing this I am wishing I made more so I could have one for lunch, silly me, I guess next time I will have to!  When I thought about making these I knew my sister would love them, she is vegan like me, so she appreciates the veganizing of traditional favourites. They were a huge hit with everyone including the meat loving men!

I honestly feel that this is something that anyone would love! Don’t tell them what’s in it because they might have some preconceived notions about lentils. Just let them try it before you tell them and I know they will be hooked on my new take on a Sloppy Joe!  

While I was making these I was snacking on my favourite blue corn tortilla chips and Bush’s vegetarian baked beans. I literally cannot keep these in the house because I eat the whole can by myself as soon as I get home. Not the healthiest snack, but something that I treat myself to on occasion. So as I was devouring my snack I realized that these would taste pretty good in the Sloppy Joes, so I used all of my will power and saved half of a can to throw in. I found that the sweetness of the brown sugar really complimented the spiciness of the chili powder. If you don’t have these at home, or dont like them, no worries because they would have tasted just as great without them!

Side note about Bush’s Baked Beans, all of their products are gluten free, do not contain any dairy, casein. And their vegetarian style does not contain any animal or animal by products! Yay! For more info go to their website.

 

I also thought I would bring to your attention a little nutritional information about my Sloppy Joes. I was thinking about this when I was eating them last night. They were not as heavy as I remember and that was because I had switched out the meat for lentils. So I naturally had to do a nutritional comparison between canned lentils and cooked ground beef, and this is what I found.

All the information is approximate depending on the brand and type of product you are using.

Canned Lentils – 250g

160 calories

1 gram fat

6 grams fiber

12 grams protein

Pan Cooked Ground Beef – 250g

445 calories

18 grams fat

0 grams fiber

66 grams protein

As you can see the calories are over double in the ground beef and 18 times more in fat. Plus the kicker as always, there is no fiber in meat which we all know is good for proper digestion. I know you are saying ‘but there is 66 grams of protein in the hamburger’ and to that I say, 'do you really need that much?' In my opinion no you don’t, at least not in one cup of anything. For more information on daily intake of protein for vegans please check out this awesome video by FreeLee.

Vegan Sloppy Joes Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, sliced

1 small pkg of cremini mushrooms, diced

2 red peppers, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp oregano

1 can organic lentils, rinsed

S&P to taste

Optional - ½ -1 can of Bush's Vegetarian baked beans

Directions:

In a frying pan or pot over medium heat, add ¼ cup of the liquid from the tomatoes. Add one onion, peppers, ½ pkg of mushrooms, sauté for 7-10 minutes. Make sure you stir continuously adding more liquid if needed. Add tomatoes and spices and cook for . Pour mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Using the same frying pan or pot, add some water and cook the garlic and the rest of the onions and mushrooms until soft. Add the blended mixture and lentils, reduce heat to medium and let simmer until it becomes thick, around 15 minutes.

I didn’t use all of my sauce because my frying pan wasn’t big enough, but that just made it so I could add more sauce to my plate to dip it in!

Serve on any type of bread with a salad and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Vegan Pizza Pops and Vegan Pesto Pizza

I wonder if you are getting tired of my pizza posts? I am certainly not tired of making the pizza and eating it, hence all of the recipes I have posted!

This time I made a homemade pizza pocket, or a calzone, depending on how you want to see it. AND I made a mini pesto pizza. Two for one today folks!

When you really think about it, you can do a lot with pizza dough, and by simply changing up the toppings, shape or size of what you are making, it changes the whole meal. Especially when it come to kids. What kid wouldn’t love decorating his own pizza with the toppings they love, maybe even making it have a face. Its simple changes to the meals you and your family love that make the difference between the same old, same old into something new and delicious.

For those of you who read my Homemade Pizza post, this is the same dough recipe.

Pizza Dough – 2 Pizza Pockets and 2 mini Pizzas
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp ground flax
2 ¼ tsp quick-rising yeast
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. date honey *recipe below

In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, yeast and salt. Mix well.
Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. 
Pour mix over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball. 
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins. 
Grease inside of another bowl with olive oil and place dough inside. 
Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size (about 20mins).
Divide the dough between the number of pizza pockets or mini pizzas you would like (max 4)
Roll out dough over lightly floured surface into a circle. 
Put on toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 mins.
**While the dough is rising I cut up the vegetables to have ready.

For the toppings I used:
1/3 sm can tomato sauce
½ red pepper, diced
3 mushrooms, sliced
½  zucchini, sliced
½ cup shredded Daiya mozzarella 

Date Honey - makes ½ cup
5 dates
¼ cup water
Blend in high speed blender until smooth, store the rest in the fridge.

 

Mini Pesto Pizza

Pesto Sauce

½ cup of cashews or sunflower seeds, soaked for at least 4 hours

1 lemon, juiced

1 clove garlic

1 large handful of spinach

5 sprigs of basil, de stemmed

Lightly chop up the spinach and basil, and throw all of the ingredients into a high speed blender. Set on medium high and blend until smooth.

Toppings

3 mushrooms, sliced

½ zucchini, sliced

Top with fresh spinach

Thanks for reading,
Xoxo -N

Portobello Mushroom Burger

Have you ever tried to make vegan/vegetarian burgers? There are so many recipes out there that call for different ingredients, everything from quinoa, sweet potato, black beans ect. If you are adventurous you will try some of these recipes out and pray to the vegan gods that they turn out. If not then you will have a stir fry with the mixture instead. I have made a couple and they haven’t been that bad, nothing life changing but not a waste of ingredients. I know I haven’t tried all of the recipes out there, so there is still hope for finding that perfect vegan burger. But what happens when you are craving a BBQ burger but you don’t feel like making something up. Well Portobello Mushrooms to the rescue!

I have only ever cooked these in the oven like a pizza, but I know other people have tried this method before and it was successful for them, so why not me! I had two in my fridge and they were getting old so I wanted to use them up quick before they got moldy. I didn’t have any pizza sauce so I couldn’t make pizzas, so why not try something new like BBQing them like burgers. Devon was feeling a little adventurous and said he would give them a shot, seeing as I had two to eat up.

Result? Super delicious and very satisfactory. I had been craving something BBQ’d for a while because the weather had got so nice and I could smell other people BBQing in our neighborhood, thankfully this totally hit the spot. They only took 15 mins on the grill to prepare, so while those are cooking I cut up all of the veggies I wanted on the burger and BAM supper was ready with not a lot of mess or prep work to clean up.

 

Scrape out the insides of the mushroom and lightly coat with coconut oil. Season with salt, pepper, and Montreal Steak Spice. Cook hollow side down for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes on the other side. For the last 10 minutes, fill with Daiya cheese and let it melt! I put down tin foil on the BBQ to avoid cross contamination and the mushroom cooked just fine.

Top with your favorite toppings like tomato, lettuce, avocado, mustard, ketchup on a bun or in a lettuce wrap! Eat while hot and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Creamy Vegan Potato Salad

I haven’t had potato salad in forever! It used to be one of my favourites growing up, but because it is made with mayo I haven’t been able to eat it since turning vegan. Now with the discovery of Vegenaise I am able to make homemade potato salad and enjoy one of my favourites again.

I have been wanting to make this for a while, but I wasn’t ever in the mood to whip it up. With this lovely summer weather and bbq season upon us, it was time to try out this new recipe and see how it held up to my memories of ‘regular’ potato salad. Other than cooking and letting the potatoes cool it was really easy to make, and it turned out great! Devon, Ashley and Chelsea all thought it was delicious, except Devon thinks the potatoes should have been cut smaller.

 

This recipe isn’t just for people who are vegan, it is also great for people who have egg allergies. If you have an allergy to eggs and haven’t heard of Vegenaise I strongly suggest you go down to your local health food store and pick up a jar. They have many variations of mayo, such as Soy Free, Grapeseed oil, Reduced Fat, and Organic. All of their Veganaise products are Vegan, Gluten Free, Non GMO, Dairy Free, and Kosher, which is nice because its able to reach a number of people with food allergies. 

Ingredients - 4-6 people

2 golden potatoes

3 stalks of celery

2 green onions

Dressing

2 tbsp fresh/dried parsley

2 tbsp fresh/dried dill

1/2 cup Vegenaise

2 tbsp mustard

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 lemon juiced

1 tsp of maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

Mix the dressing together and let sit in the fridge while potatoes are cooking. Cube your potatoes and cook until they are fork tender. You want to avoid over cooking them because they will turn to mush when you mix the salad together. Let them cool completely. Mix the dressing, celery and onion together. Stir until completely covered and refrigerate until cold.

Other recipes I have used Vegenaise in
* Killar Vegan Ranch Dressing
* Chick*n Salad Wraps 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Killar Vegan Ranch Dressing

If you know my sister Chelsea at all, you will know that one of her favourite things to eat is ranch. She was one of those kids that would put it on everything from mashed potatoes, rice, corn, even meat. So when she cut out dairy from her diet she was heartbroken that she wouldn’t be able to eat ranch anymore, what was she going to put on all of her food?

Well being the wonderful sister that I am I decided to make her vegan ranch dressing for her 22nd birthday this past weekend. I love the idea of making gifts for people, especially food, because people love food and they usually aren’t expecting it so it’s a total surprise! And boy was Chelsea surprised! The look on her face was priceless, it was like I told her that she could go live in a village with elephants (another thing she loves).

However it had to pass the taste test, I had the scales tipped in my favor because she hasn’t had it in a while but I was still a little nervous that it might not measure up. Luckily I was wrong! She and (unfortunately) her boyfriend Taylor loved it, to the point that Chelsea had to tell him to stop eating it!

This was a super simple dressing to make and I find that the longer it sits the more the flavours are developed. I would strongly suggest using fresh herbs when available, but dried would work too! This will last in your fridge for around 2 weeks ish, use your judgment on the freshness of the dressing, basically if it smells weird don’t eat it.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup vegan mayonnaise, I use Vegenaise Soy Free

1/4 cup rice milk

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley, minced

2 tbsp fresh chopped dill, minced

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preparation:

Put all ingredients to a bowl and stir until well combined. If you have a food processor you can use that, but it’s not necessary. Now you can enjoy a rich and creamy dressing on all of your fresh veggies and salads!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Vegan Chili Mushroom Bites

 One of the questions I get asked a lot is “what do you eat at parties, or family get togethers?” Most of the party food out there is either meat or dairy based and sometimes both! So often when I go to parties it is usually slim pickins for me, hence why I am always bringing food with me everywhere I go.

This weekend was my sister in law Brittany’s, 21^st birthday and she had TGIF at her house to celebrate. TGIF is Devon’s families way of staying in touch with each other throughout the weeks. Almost every Friday we all get together at someone’s house for appetizers and drinks and catch up with each other. I usually bring some sort of dip like hummus for me to eat and share with people but this week I tried something new. I’ve been really itching to make these and I was super excited to give them a shot.

Every stuffed mushroom recipe I have come across uses some sort of cheese mixture in them. Which got me thinking, what about stuffing them with other things rather than cheese?!?! I mean it’s not like cheese is the only thing that would taste good stuffed in mushrooms, so what would? CHILI would! And of course I would be using my famous sweet potato chili. Now that I had the main ingredients figured out, what would a good garnish? How about a little Daiya cheese and jalapeno? Devons family haven’t had a lot of exposure to Daiya so why not top off these tasty bites with a little, plus why not add some heat with a bit of jalapeno? Yum! These sounded so good, I knew that they would be a huge hit with the family.

When I make my chili I try to freeze half of the pot in single serving portions. This not only helps me not eat the whole pot of chili but also saves me some time on nights that I don't feel like cooking. I just so happened to have two bags of chili in my freezer, the perfect portion for my chili bites. This averaged about 4 cups of chili, which filled up 3 small pkgs of mushrooms.

These heavenly bites turned out awesome, the whole family loved them and the only thing I would change is the fact that I didn’t make more!

Ingredients

4 cups – appox – sweet potato quinoa chili

3 small pkg of mushrooms, destemmed

2 jalapenos, sliced

½ cup Daiya Cheese

Stuff the mushrooms with the chili, top with jalapeno and cheese. Bake in a 350 degrees oven for 15 mins and serve!