Vegetarian food preps

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Any other vegetarians out there? What different items are you storing? Any special food storage recipes? or tips?

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), March 20, 1999

Answers

Libby
You are in much better shape that us "meat lovers". You just need to follow all the basic food storages minus the meat=protein inclusions. Everything else would apply.

Go to the bottom of the main page (top level), scroll to the bottom, and find the category FOOD. You'll find more than you want to know.

Mr. K
***typical steak and potatoe guy***

-- Mr. Kennedy (here@home.com), March 21, 1999.

We're not exactly vegans but we have gotten very impressed with Soy.

Here is a quick rundown on some of the reasons. It is the only vegetable that has all the needed amino acids built in, to produce the same protein as meat. It has many benefits meat does not have with very few of the bad things that come from meat. Low calories, complete protein, fiber, no colestoral, no fat. It fights cancer, heat disease and other health problems. It is the only known vegetable that contains a particular chemical that has been shown to reverse the damage of heart disease and other maladys. Soy milk and cheese does not have the lactose that I believe some are very alergic to.

Soy can be modified to substitute for milk, cheese and meat. The most common product is Tofu. Used as a meat substitute, it takes on the flavor of whatever it is added to. We made Sloppy Joe mix the other night and it was absolutely delicious. Sixteen ounces of Soy a day provides all the protein needed by an average adult.

There are several good Soy web sites such as:

http://www.soyfoods.com

They have a *very* thourough and interesting newsletter that is put out each month. It has a three year archive and I downloaded every issue. They're facinating.

Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), March 21, 1999.


Floyd, thanks so much for the soyfoods link. I'll have to tell you a story about my experience with soy milk. I'm a vegetarian, but even though I'd never tried soy milk, I was sure I wouldn't like it, so I continued to drink regular milk. Then came Monsanto's new horrible practice of putting rBGH (carcinogenic growth hormone) in milk, and they even sued small dairies who wouldn't agree to add this new pollutant. That did it! I wasn't about to drink that stuff, and I never touched another drop of milk.

But I was feeling very sorry for myself, for I liked milk on cereal. I buy a lot of food at the health food store, and my friend there said I should try it, that it was good. So I bought one box of vanilla, and one of plain and took it home. I figured if I could hack it until I finished those two small boxes, I'd be used to it. I fixed my cereal, and feeling like a very self-sacrificing, martyr, I took a bite. I couldn't believe it. It was good! I liked it much better than that stuff in the plastic jug they call milk. I was hooked. Talk about being a dunce with an attitude; look what I'd been missing.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), March 21, 1999.


Libby, My wife and I are vegetarians. We found a company that was listed in the yellow pages under grain mills. They have a large selection of foods in bulk. They mainly sell to bakeries and companies that repackage into smaller packages. However they also sell to the public.

We bought many 25 pound bags of different beans. The following we bought for sprouting and it is a much cheaper way to go for sprouting then to buy sprouting seeds....dried peas, (they tatse just like fresh peas out of the garden) baby lima beans, lentils, garbanzo beans, and wheat.

In fact the wheat we also sprout and let grow into grass and then we put it in the blender with our morning drink. Our morning drink consist of fresly squeezed oranges, a banana, pear, peach, green kamut (wheat grass powder), and a hand full of the sprouted wheat grass. It's delicious.

In the evening we make a carrot and apple drink with a handful of parsley in our juicer. We both are over 60 and have perfect health and have not seen a doctor for over 20 years. In fact, we have no doctor and no health insurance and take no medicine of any kind!!! Life is great when you take care of your body! We have told many friends, but it goes in one ear and out the other. Stupid people!!!

-- Old Sailor (old@sailor.com), March 21, 1999.


Libby, see also Lumen Foods at soybean.com (as opposed to soybeanS.com). We've been ordering from them for 10 years, very reliable.

Vegetarian food storage is a little more difficult for me since I got hit with Type II diabetes last fall. Head's up: Type II (adult-onset) diabetes is the new epidemic! Eight million have it in this country, eight million more have it and don't know it. Often hits between age 50-60, so you aging boomers watch out; that's a large percentage of the over-50 population. Surprisingly, a diabetic's diet is very healthy and, if you plan it right, provides more food than you're used to--and you'll lose weight! Basically, it has to be well-balanced between starch, veg and protein, with half a cup (usually) of fruit to round it out. (Canned in light syrup is fine.) And no chocs, doughnuts, sugared coffee, gummy bears, or other sweet things (big sigh). (I HATE artificial sweeteners.)

Being a vegetarian really DOES make Y2K food storage easier (and cheaper). However, you MUST stash a B12 supplement to make up for that lost along with the meat. And since we weed-eaters consume more beans and bean products than others, we need to think about growing epazote, the herb used by Mexicans to keep down the anti-social effects (just throw a leaf or two into the pot). It grows very easily--and I noticed yesterday mine is already trying to come back.

Just for laughs, I bought some freeze-dried tofu from our local health foods supermarket. I can't wait to bring THAT out on some really depressing day! Oh--try your local oriental and Indian foods markets for exotics to perk up a jaded appetite. (Kombu, a Japanese dried kelp-type seaweed, is particularly good and full of minerals.) But check expiration dates.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 21, 1999.



Libby (others) ... Didn't have time to read all replies so hope this is not redundant. The most concentrated food source is NUTS. Besides having some of the fats you may not get in vegetables, the fats in nuts are the High Density type , which are good for lowering colesterol, and will convert to high energy plus heat . Is it any wonder squirrls and other rodents will chew for hours to get through the shells ?? Eagle ...... Circling... Waiting !

-- Harold Walker (e999eagle@freewwweb.com), March 21, 1999.

Talk about nuts....We have a motorhome and bought nuts in a platic container a couple of summers ago. We did not eat them all and were going to eat them the following summer after leaving them in the motorhome all winter in the cold. They had gone ransit! Perhaps nuts are not a good food storage item.

-- old sailor (old@sailor.com), March 21, 1999.

What do you do if you cant tolerate soy? C

-- (hidiyeah@aol.com), March 21, 1999.

Just had a thought, maybe I could by some of that Loma Linda Vegeburger and give to my neighbors when they knock on my door...they won't be back, one way to get rid of them!

-- Ateitonce (Ateitonce@ateit.com), March 21, 1999.

If you're allegic to soy, you might want to try seitan (pronounced "SAY-tan"), which is made from wheat gluten. I don't know that much about making it (maybe do a search on the Net) but you can buy it in jars or refrigerated at some health food supermarkets. Possibly oriental foodstores too. Other than that, if you're a vegetarian you're pretty much stuck with other beans and dairy products for protein.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 21, 1999.


You can also get quantities of TVP (texturized vegetable protein) Not sure of the shelf life but I think it's pretty long. It comes in several flavors for variety. Can't remember the URL. I'll look and let you know. For protein, my family is depending on the rice and beans combo to get us thru. Plus the TVP. Beyond that, we have the usual- wheat, lentils,pinto beans, pasta, sprouting seeds (a must- have for fresh vitamins- try the sprouting peas), lots of canned veggies(good for 2 or more years),soybeans(gotta have a pressure cooker, garbanzo beans. Plenty of variety. And it's what we eat now so there shouldn't be any big surpises.

-- (rick@ina.com), March 22, 1999.

Er, Rick, hate to tell you but TVP is made from soybeans. Lumen Foods claims their soy meat replacer, although it looks like TVP, is much better tasting, has a better "mouth feel" and is less "flatugenic" (their word). Their Y2K line shelf ilfe is about five years, as I recall.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 22, 1999.

I'd be interested in finding out where one gets that Mexican herb (Epazote), and what climates it will grow in.

I've used TVP very successfully in cooking, especially chilli. Used the large beef flavored chunks, and after it sat a day or so, it was great. Most people would not be able to tell that those chunks of "meat" were fake... :)

I'm a mostly-vegetarian. I only eat meat occasionally, and only the organic type. If I eat meat once a week, that's alot. More like once every couple of weeks.

My cholesterol has gone down quite a bit since I gave up eating meat so much, and my health has gotten BETTER.

To save fuel for cooking, make a fireless cooker. I made one with a cardboard box, lined with foam, add 1" thick newspaper pad on top and bottom, and cover with mylar. Use the 1" newspaper and foam for a lid, and weigh it down. Get your food boiling, and put into the box. Even after 4 hours, it was at near-boiling temps (no thermometer, but it was really hot). Great way to cook foods that need a long cooking time, like beans, etc.

Hope this helps.

-- Bill (billclo@hotmail.com), March 22, 1999.


We vegetarians have an edge for Y2K, because so much of our food preparation involves utilizing real y2K staples like beans and rice and tvp.

My (by now reundant)advice is to concentrate on things to add to beans, legumes, seeds, grains to give them great and varied flavor. Things like:

-- dried shiitake mushrooms -- sun-dried tomatoes -- canned Thai coconut milk and Thai lemon grass soup -- wasabi (Japanese horseradish sauce used with sushi) sometimes can be purchased from Asian specialty stores in powder form or in a tube, even! -- I'm storing zillions of vegetarian buillion cubes to throw into the stock when I cook grains and make soups -- dried spicy peppers, if you like "hot stuff" -- in the canned foods dept., OLIVES and ARTICHOKE HEARTS can be added to so many foods to give them more elegance and flavor; from pizza to risotto to casseroles -- food supplements like MILK WHEY, SOY PROTEIN POWDER, SPIRULINA, and NORI are examples of things that can be sprinkled into soup stocks, casseroles and shakes to boost the nutritional power of any meal -- Dr. Bragg's Amino Acids liquid, found in most health food stores, is great to use in soups and sauces, again with nutrition benefits

Good Luck. Be creative.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), March 22, 1999.


Dried beans are like little rocks, take a lot of cooking and then hard to digest. They are a hibernating bean, really. Much better all around to soak them overnight, drain off the water next morning but keep them damp, and eat them for supper. They will cook in just a few minutes. And have MANY MORE NUTRIENTS. In the sprouting process, the various vitamins, etc. increase dramatically. And -also great- the proteins and complex starches (This is what gives us gas!) are broken down by Nature into amino acids and simple sugars. Saving our digestive systems a lot of work. You can let them sprout more than one day if you want. They will be more of a plant and less of a bean as each day passes. I forget when the peak nutrition is. 2nd day?

-- Shivani Arjuna (odnsmall@aol.com), March 23, 1999.


Epazote--seeds available at Richter's

www.richters.com

great Canadian herb company. Got lots of seeds from them last year, good stuff, excellent prices, superb catalogue descriptions, comprehensive collection of herb (decorative and medicinal) books.

Beans--please don't pour off soaking water--it contains vitamins and other nutrients. Rinse beans before soaking, sure, but use that soaking water for cooking. Also--very important--don't add salt until beans are soft, they take a lot longer to cook that way. And didja store enough dehydrated onions for flavoring? Anyone who needs wild onions is free to come and dig them up from my front yard. . . You can also grow onion and garlic chives for flavoring, less trouble to grow and more disease- and pest-free than onions and garlic, easy to dry.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 23, 1999.


I'm not a vegetarian but for y2k I decided I couldn't afford to buy a large supply of meat so am storing beans and grain and just a small amount of canned meat. Beans don't agree with me so I am relying mainly on grain..for any of you vegetarians who also eat dairy products, you might like my plan. For breakfasts, I plan to use Oat Bran cooked with powdered milk added.(and a little sweetener) I like it with an equal amount of the dry powder & bran with appropriate amount of water. For supper, I plan to eat quick grits mixed with parmasean. Sam's has a good price on the four pound cans of parmasean. This will give me my protein. I will have other grains and beans but those are my mainstay. White corn bread mix can be used to make bread even without eggs..Either mix with water and put spoonfuls on top of cooking veggies..the steam will cook it to make a sort of corn bread dumpling.. or mix with water and fry like pancakes in oil. I also will be relying heavily on sprouts and some veggies and fruit I am dehydrating. Any other fruit,veggies or meat I can find, catch, scrounge or barter for will be a bonus. I am also laying in a supply of condiments,sauces, flavorings, honey, sugar, syrup, etc And, for good measure, I've bought a year's supply of the vitamins I consider most important.

-- Ruth Johnson (arzachena@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

Hi i was wondering where would be a good web site to by soy meat in fines you know when they make some kind of soy meat veggie jerkie for instants and there is left over shavings.Thats whati am looking for but lumen foods stopped selling that stuff :-( well if you know of a good cheap place let me know!!! email me

p.s. old sailor i make a drink like you do but,i use kinda brused cut up frozen banana's with water and ground cinnamon and ground cloves i my blender and it tasts pretty good:-)

-- charan bettencourt (charanbettencourt@hotmail.com), May 04, 2002.


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