Going Veggie

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Amaris, Jan 16, 2013.

  1. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    Spaghetti IS like spaghetti :D It's in thin strings inside.
     
  2. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2003
    Location:
    Sweden, where the chefs roam
    Well I feel sheepish.
     
  3. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    :: pinches Emher ::

    Or maybe.. mutton?

    OH NOES THIS IS THE VEGGIE THREAD!!

    Okay, Tofutten.
     
  4. SmoothieX

    SmoothieX Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2004
    Location:
    Massachusetts
    You're in luck, I'm making lamb tonight.
     
  5. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    You shouldn't, it's really nice! After it's cooked (I usually bake it, easy and healthy), the meat of the squash comes out naturally as "noodles."

    Here's a good picture I found online:

    [​IMG]

    It's a delicious, if improbable, vegetable, which people often prepare just like spaghetti or other noodle dishes:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2003
    Location:
    Sweden, where the chefs roam
    Ah, so it IS actually squash! Neat! Now I just gotta find squash ^^;;

    Making corn soup with some sweet chili in it right now. Would probably be called a chowder in the US though, since this is gonna be thick.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2013
  7. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2003
    Location:
    Sweden, where the chefs roam
    Oh yeah, this definitely qualifies as chowder. Thick and filling! (that's what she said)

    May not be the most pretty thing to look at....

    [​IMG]

    ...but very good. Recipe is as follows:


    Corn chowder with Sweet Chili

    1 onion
    2 cloves of garlic
    ½ red chili
    About 2 tablespoons of butter
    2 potatoes
    600 grams och corn (or about two cans)
    1 deciliter of liquid vegetable bouillon
    ½ deciliter of sweet chili sauce
    salt and pepper
    5 deciliters of water
    200 grams of Philadelphia cream cheese.


    Peel and chop the onion and garlic. De-seed and chop the chili. Fry in the butter for a few minutes. Peel and cut the potatoes into small bits, then put them and the corn in the pot. Add the bouillon. Let simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

    Run the soup through a mixer or use a staff mixer until it is smooth. Stir in the sweet chili sauce, the water and the cream cheese. then heat the soup again and taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy :)



    And no, it is not the most healthy thing in the world. But it's so filling it doesn't really matter.
     
  8. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    So do they know that it is "soy crumbles", whatever they are? Or did they think they were eating ground beef?
     
  9. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    My mom knew, and she liked it. We've been trying to find ways to get my dad to eat healthier. He's big on snack cakes, fruit pies, bologna sandwiches, chips, pop, movie theater style buttered popcorn for his lunch, and for dinner he likes heavy foods, like fried pork chops, mashed potatoes with beef gravy, buttered corn on the cob, and green beans cooked up with lard. He's from Kentucky, and that's the kind of food he grew up on, and while he says he wants to eat healthier, he hasn't actually made the change to do so over the past couple of years.

    In fact, this is what he gets for lunch every day (more or less):

    3 cans of diet cola (I successfully made him switch to diet about 3 years ago)
    3 ham and cheese sandwiches on wheat (I also successfully made him switch to whole wheat. He much prefers white bread).
    1 personal size bag of potato chips
    2 Snack cakes (usually oatmeal creme pies or swiss rolls)
    1 Banana

    That's 5 days a week for a 12 hour day. If it's an 8 hour day, remove one sandwich and one cola.

    It's also rather annoying because he is in good health for his age (he's 53). Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and don't want him getting sick, but he has eaten this kind of food for 50+ years and he has nothing bad to show for it. All of his tests have come back in the clear (he's a bit of a hypochondriac). If I were to eat this food every day of my life, I'd likely be dead!

    Still, it's catching up with him. Mom, on the other hand, eats what I recommend, though sometimes she can be picky, which I understand. When I cook, I only use lean meat, and low sodium veggies (I buy canned), and when I can, I prefer buying fresh veggies, which I have been doing much more as of late.

    I now grill pork chops instead of fry them, and I use a bit of olive oil, and a smattering of instant coffee grounds (decaf) to give that fried "look", and they never know the difference.

    As I said, mom's used to it now, and she likes what I cook. Dad's a little tougher to budge. Me? I'm happy with some beans, lettuce, a couple slices of tomato, some cucumber, and a few shakes of the garlic seasoning (no salt).

    Still, when I do the meatless dinners, it really is nice to eat the same meals with the family.
     
  10. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    I think it's quite hilarious to substitute like that and I suspect anything with heavy tomato based sauce in it or seasonings would be easy to slip under the radar. Your dad's diet sounds expensive!! Well those snack cakes and sodas would really add up here, even if you bought them in bulk. It's frustrating because if you wanted to spend that much every day on lunch you could eat excellent food I assume. Would he eat home baked cakes? They could have secret fiber added, sugar and fats cut etc.. and probably be cheaper.
     
  11. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    Jesus. That diet would kill me. I don't think I eat as many calories in three days as your dad does in one lunch!

    Another sneaky substitute is pureed cauliflower as a thickener in soups and sauces in place of cream.
     
  12. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    That's a cool idea tsq! I've never used cream in any soup but I bet pureed cauliflower would be a nice edition to a minestrone etc..
     
  13. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    ^It works really well! Another tasty way to eat it is to puree with some cottage cheese and fresh green herbs like parsly, salt, and pepper. Delish!
     
  14. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2003
    Location:
    Sweden, where the chefs roam
    Damn, J.! :eek: I'd be dead within a week if I ate all that for lunch. But not before my gallbladder and kidneys died. Okay, maybe I wouldn't be dead but I would not be feeling well.

    As for the wheat bread...I've actually trained myself to not like regular white, wheat bread. After eating breading with lots of grains and whole wheat and the like, regular just seems so...fat and sticky somehow. For a guy who's had a few slices of white toast for his breakfast every day since forever, this is kind of a big deal.
     
  15. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2001
    At the risk of stating the obvious, let me take the opportunity to point out that "whole wheat" and "whole grain" are not the same thing. What's usually labeled as whole wheat bread really isn't that much better for you than white bread. Whole grain or multi-grain is the way to go.
     
  16. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2003
    Location:
    Sweden, where the chefs roam
    In my case I'll defend myself with the fact that I don't know all the English words for things.
     
  17. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2011
    Location:
    Lost in the EU expanse with a nice cup of tea
    A small amount of rice (about a palmful) also makes a really good thickener.
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2013
  18. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2008
    Location:
    Rural North Carolina
    It is a genetic trait. My brother has that effect, so I never eat asparagus.
    Being poor on a farm, when meat was in short supply, Mom used the soy protein (as it was called then) in most dishes calling for ground beef. I use it occasionally these days, but I prefer ground turkey @ $1.49/lb. it is very inexpensive. A year or so I found Mexican-seasoned Soy Protein Ground Beef Substitute on close-out, so I bought a case of it. The kids/grandkids loved it in my Mexican lasagna, enchiladas, tacos, etc.
    Mom would not eat anything but soft white bread, either. I tried the WhiteWheat bread without telling her. A couple years later I told her what I'd done. Now she eats whole wheat "brown bread" with no problem... actually she prefers it.:techman:
     
  19. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    Really, just because it makes your pee smell funny? It doesn't seem a good enough reason not to eat a delicious and healthful veggie like asparagus!

    The really interesting thing about the asparagus urine odor effect is that there are actually different types of people, all genetically determined, as you said. First, asparagus only affects the odor of urine for some people, but added to that is that only some people are capable of smelling the effect! So, you may not have the effect at all, nor be able to smell it, you may be able to smell it, but not have it, you may have it, but not be able to smell it, or you may be able to smell it, and have it.
     
  20. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    I eat a lot of asparagus and I don't care what it does to my pee :D

    (as far as I can tell, nothing)