Vegan Adventrures: Seitan Schnitzel Sandwich

Experimenting with new foods and with my own perceptions can often be fun.

I'm not quite the adventurous type - but I have my moments.

If you add that desire for new flavors to the fact that meat started to gross me out (not all the time, but I lack the desire that I used to have for it, in general) you'll see that it's a good time for a new type of sandwich.

So, long story short: this happened:

Whole wheat bun, vegan cream cheese spread, lettuce, tomato, mustard, seitan patty - crumbed and deep-fried.

It wasn't bad, it was good even.

Since the menu read "cheese" I was expecting a sheet of cheese substitute, but it actually was cream cheese or somewhat like a more liquid cottage cheese.

The seitan is unlike your ordinary chicken schnitzel. I guess that when you add the right spices and throw in that breadcrumb batter - most things will (and do) taste good.

To me that was in some way superior to actual chicken: there are no bones, no cartilage, no blood, fat or red dots, no dark meat and so on.

There are no dead animals being eaten thus less suffering, pollution, all that jazz. Your typical reasons for veganism. 

I'm not preaching, not as long as I'm eating corned beef sandwiches and writing blog posts about it - but it's a good alternative and a good option in general, and for the equivalent of about $7US.

Not bad.

The place is called Buddha Burgers, you might want to give them a shot.

Beef & Turkey Pastrami Sandwich

I've dedicated two whole posts to Ruben's sandwiches, not to mention at least a handful of random images.

They make great sandwiches, simple yet delicious, juicy, tender, with the option to enlarge the sandwich into monstrosity with is always great.

This post is a bit special, keep that in mind.

If you're not a regular reader (or a follower on Instagram) you might not be aware that I'm trying to go low on meat consumption, maintaining mostly a vegetarian and vegan diet.

This is hard to gather from the meat stacked sandwiches, but there are other meals, some less photogenic, still delicious though.

As promised - this post is different.

I want to tell you mostly about the guilt that comes along with this change in nutrition.

Once you realize how horrible the meat industry is - it's hard to turn back to the ways of old. Sort of like waking up from the matrix.

Meat doesn't look as good once you flip that switch in your head. It looks more like dead animals.

This is why every relapse to meat needs to be worth it.

You can't just eat meat products if they're not amazing, I can't that is. If I go our and eat something dead - I need its death to have a meaning. You can't just kill a cow and a turkey for a mediocre sandwich, it makes no sense.

If you eat meat once a week or twice a month, that meat needs to be meaningful, flavorful and it seriously needs to be good enough to justify its consumption.

Now, you all now that not every meal is a party in your mouth, not every steak gives you a foodgasm and not every sandwich features the pastrami of a lifetime.

This makes things even harder.

The sandwich in the photo above was okay. I can't say it was mediocre but I also can't say that I didn't feel bad for wasting my "meat ticket" on it.

It disappointing me in a whole new way. A way that is rather new to me and as such stings even more.

This sandwich was the the unjustified death of two animals. I don't need that on my conscience.

If I'm going to eat meat every now and then - I need it to be great. I need it to be so good that I won't mind all the horrible stuff that comes with the territory of meat eating.

I wish I had some magical conclusion I could share, a notion about vegetarianism or veganism, it's just a different way of thinking, even for a borderline enthusiast such as myself.

Consciousness is unpleasant, that's what you can walk away with, that and a picture of a beef and turkey sandwich, with mustard, horseradish sauce, tomato and lettuce.

Don't be fooled by this post; it's not that easy to turn a life around, the next post is going to be about a corned beef sandwich, an amazing one, luckily.

Vegetarian Lunch: just baking stuff

It's Saturday and I'm awfully hungry. That's the essence of this post. I need a snack, to stay on the healthy side (if you've followed my previous posts you'll know what I need to balance the other stuff I eat).

My solution? Baked goods: Broccoli, zucchinis, mushrooms, vegetarian hotdogs, just a drizzle of sunflower oil, some freshly ground black pepper. That's it.

I was going to make a tahini sauce and experiment with adding some ginger and coconut flakes to it, but I succumbed to my hunger - the smells just overpowered me.
I ate the veggies and dogs with a bit of mustard, sriracha and sweet chilli sauce. It was delicious.

Later I think I'm gonna try making a new variation on a lasagna, should be interesting - I'll even  keep you posted if it turns out good.

Vegetarian cocktail wiener sandwich

A short post about a sandwich that is easy to make, delicious, colorful and full of awesome. As always, you can use this as a recipe and name your sandwich after me or just use the instructions as inspiration.
This time I actually have no name for it, although I thought of naming it after some country combining the colors of the sauces (i.e. Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Camroon, Republic of the Congo, Grenada, Guinea, Lithuania, Mali, Senegal).

The ingredients are:

• A rustic style grain baguette.
• Sriracha.
• Wasabi sauce (Sandwich Pal).
• Yellow mustard.
• Vegetarian cocktail wieners.

You don't have to be a genius to make this sandwich, just apply the sauces to your liking, add your wieners and that's about it!
Notice that I baked mine, I prefer the taste. The wieners get a different taste after a good sear, even though it's not meat they're still just somehow better after being heated.

Close your bread and you are ready to go.
I could have added vegetables, but there were none to be found in my fridge at that point. It was a late and on a weekend and I ate them previously, but forget about my excuses, throw in some tomatoes, lettuce, even some pickles (not just cucumbers, ginger would make a great addition), or even a slice of cheese.

Stir fried vegetables on white rice

Check out this yummy goodness:

What you see is white rice, but above that rice is a pile of amazing flavors, string at me, waiting to be eaten, and all I do is take pictures while I drool.

Zucchinis, mushrooms, shavings of ginger, carrots, bits of red bell peppers, stir fried with freshly ground black pepper and whole cloves of garlic, with some mustard grains and grainy mustard, and then stir fried further with date syrup for that extra sweetness and a touch caramel flavor \ color.

I sometimes add various curry pastes to the mix, every paste has a different flavor and behaves differently upon frying so it's always interesting to experiment taste and explore.

This is a great side dish but is also good enough for a vegetarian main course (also vegan if you use the right ingredients).