Homemade mustard and condiments

There is nothing better than homemade condiments. I know, I know, many of you are going, "Awww, she now wants us to slave in the kitchen and make our own condiments.Surely, she doesn't know what tight routines we all have"

Well, I for one do understand that when you have no time to even cook a normal meal, making your condiments would be like a herculean task. But, having said that, I secretly also am of the opinion that people often end up not having time not because they actually don't have time but because they mismanage time. I am a physician with tough working hours.The one day that i get as an "off"day, I make my week's worth of condiments and ready mixes and what not .All because , first off , I am vegan. It gets quite embarrassing constantly asking every chef at every restaurant if they include any non vegan recipes and yada yada yad. I find it less cumbersome to pack a whole day's meals(lunch+snack+drink+extra snack) along early in the morning before I leave home, just so that I can peacefully eat my wholesome tasty homemade vegan meals whenever I get hungry,instead of having to deal with stares and irate chefs .

So yeah, I made homemade mustard. Will make a batch of homemade garlic vegenaise too . Coming to think of it, Homemade condiments are better . Why? Just go read the labels of your salad dressing. You won't believe how many unknown ingredients there are in there. Things that you never knew went into(or needed to go into) a thousand island dressing if you made it at home.
So, well, if these ingredients don't figure in the original homemade recipes how come they are in the store bought ones?
That is because when you design for a condiment to sit on a store shelf for months on end till a customer buys it, you design the recipe in such away so that it stays stable and presentable while it sits there on the shelf and also you don't want it to spoil while it sits there on the shelf like that.

What do the companies do for that?
They add a lot of preservatives, some conditioners and stabilizers to keep the salad dressing from splitting, some other stuff to maintain the constant acidity, again so that it won't split up and such and also to prevent bacteria and other gunk growing in it. So, in short, you are buying yourself a bottle of chemicals in lieu of a salad dressing.
Most store bought condiments also taste very chemically to me. I wonder how some people actually crave these chemical tasting stuff. I guess they are just plain hungry and when you are hungry you will eat anything and everything feels tasty.Yeah?Maybe they never ever tasted a fresher and original version of a salad dressing at all !
Another advantage of  homemade condiments is that they cost a fraction of what you would spend if you bought it at the store. You can also be assured that it is fresh, coz , duh, you know that yourself when you actually made it .
Homemade condiments are preservative free too.
How long did it take me to make Homemade mustard? well, It prolly took me a good 20min  from scratch to finish and this batch will last me at least a month or more. 20 min is not as long ,especially given how many people spend 20 min just fooling around on the Internet or chatting or gossiping on the phone or idly playing video games and what not. With those 20 minutes, you can make yourself a month's worth of creamy tangy homemade vegan mustard. How about that?


Recipes not being posted here due to plagiarism concerns.If you need the recipe place a request for the recipe in the comments section and I will get around to it.
EVERYTHING THAT I COOK ARE RECIPES THAT I MYSELF DESIGN OR DEVICE..Hence, I am holding on to those recipes for a FUTURE VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK.

HumanS are NOT carnivores. Information about veganism.

I turned vegan in july 2008, Have successfully managed to stay vegan though I was really skeptical about my capacities at resisting cheese and eggs since I was a major cheese addict. Most other people cannot give up certain foods not because of the simple reason that they like them but because many of these said foods contain or release certain substances in the body which have an action on the brain similar to opiates. Thus these substances have the propensity to make people want to crave them and want to eat them over and over. Examples of such foods are eggs, cheese and red meat. Due to such addictions people might be too unwilling to even try veganism.
They start making excuses about how
EXCUSE 1/We are all carnivores --
Well, we are scavengers , we are not carnivores coz we don't have large jaws that can bit through a large animal and eat raw meat. We are not carnivores since naturally we have no capicity to hunt with our bare hands without instruments. Lions, Tigers , crocodiles and sharks are true carnivores since they can prefectly hunt their prey without any outside help of instruments and such. We on the other hand pick up pieces of dead animals from supermarket shelves and then call ourselves carnivores
EXCUSE 2/Oh what about our protein needs -
First of all animal protein has no inherent fiber in it. Our digestive systems are very very long much similar to plant eating herbivores. When an intestine is meters long , the food only passes very slowly.This only foods containing undigestible fiber can have enough bulk to pass along these long herbivorous intestines. So, our intestines are not designed to consume and properly digest animal proteins.
Also, Our daily protein intake must only be 20% of our daily calorific diet. An average weighing human who does moderate work will prolly require just 1600-2000 kcalories of energy and 20% of that is around 400 kcal of energy be derived from proteins(any protein-not just animal protein) Each gram of protein approximately yeilds around 4.5kcal of energy .So , our daily protein intake must only be around 90g . Please remember that a combination of lentils in a single serving of a very small portion of 90-100g is what our body needs in terms of protein requirement.
In contrast, a large steak by itself is fiberless protein with marbled fat and this protein by itself is 200-400g per serving and thus giving us more calories and proteins than a human being required.
I explain all this coz people use the "oh but what about our protein requirement if i become vegan" clause each time I talk about veganism.
Also, if you eat a nice bowl of lentils which weigh around 100 grams , you fulfil your daily requirement of protein and feel full at the same time.
If you, on the other hand eat a single small piece of meatweighing 100g , you don't feel full at all. If you eat more meat enough to make you feel full , you are overstuffing yourself with protein you don't need. Why do you think this happens? coz meat is not our natural diet.Our bodies are designed to not stop eating till we are full. Lentils thus work for us. We can eat as much as want till we feel full and yet we won't overeat in terms of calorific intake. . Also, this meat sits and rots in our colon as it has no fiber and give rise to coloncancer in the long run in heavy meat eaters. There has been an increased incidence of colon cancer off late due to the easier availability of meat off supermarket shelves and thus increased consumption of meat.
Also, there is something calling NITROGEN BALANCE in our body. Proteins are nitrogen containing molecules . when meat is consumed at more than 100 g per day(which on a average all meat eating people do if they eat two meals with meat in it) , it tips off the nitrogen balance and your kidneys work overtime to work off and bring this nitrogen balance to normal. To explain this further, people who were purely on a animal protein diet and nothing else especially Atkins etc, within a couple of weeks the urine started smelling really WEIRD in the words of the subjects themselves. This is the kidney trying to expel all toxins to bring back the nitrogen balance within normal limits. Thus regular meat eating puts pressure on yoru kidneys and can actually lead to kidney stones . You can clearly note how your urine and fecal matters starts smelling less offensive if you have been on a meat free diet for more than two weeks. Try it out and let me know
EXCUSE 3/Oh how can we get calcium without milk-
You need first understand that milk is the breast secretions of a pregnant cow. A cow has to get pregnant and give birth to a calf before being able to start producing milk. I am sure you get the point when i say that obviously nature hasn't designed any animal where it depends on another animal's pregnancy state for its own calcium needs. There were no farms during the time of early man. yeah? There was absolutely no way man could ensure that wild buffaloes would first get pregnant and then let themselves get milked or some such. All these foods are acquired tastes and altered food patterns. A cow's milk is designed for the rapid growth of a calf and not for calcium needs of an adult human being. Moreover the calcium that is present in cow's milk is present in combination with other substances that make it not easily absorbable in our intestines.
There are better and easier sources of calcium in our plant sources. Easily available are spinach, broccoli, millets etc. oranges have good amount of calcium too. And also the calcium from plant sources is more easily absorbed too.
EXCUSE 4/We are on top of the FOOD CHAIN , this is how nature works yada yada, so veganism doesn't make sense
Well, first off, A food chain is a chain, It doesn't make sense talking about top and bottom of a chain. Anyways, I already explained how , if we are left in the wild with no instruments, we are prefectly incapable of hunting down a cow or even a pig with our bare hands. I mean a cow is larger than us and a pig is heavier than us and both of them run faster than us. Have you see a lion hunt a deer? A lion is not only heavier than the deer, it runs as fast as a deer and has large heavy paws and very very long carnivorous canines. The kind of small tiny canines we have,those are not even useful to crack open an almond nutshell. Really. Our bodies much like other monkeys is suited for gathering fruit and gathering mushrooms, gathering stuff and eating them up.Yes agriculture allowed us to give back to nature by planting and growing our own foods rather than just constantly gather things from plants and never propogate them. But even prior to agriculture, we were only gatherers coz we are perfectly incapable of hunting. Our bodies are not designed to hunt at all. If still in doubt, go watch some animal planet where a lion or a cheetah or a shark or a crocodile or even a wild dog hunts for its food. Can we do that? NO, NOT WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS. so, yeah, WE ARE NOT CARNIVORES, we are plain humble scavengers .
EXCUSE 4/Oh veganism or vegetarianism is an eating disorder
whoa, where did this come from. It looks like people are so used to what they have been eating since they were born that they somehow have come to view that eating pattern as normal and therefore view anything different as an eating disorder primarily as a way of IMMATURE EGO DEFENCE. you know, something like, fear of the unfamiliar. If you were born in a meat eating family, you most likely were fed meat all through childhood and therefore that is where emotional childhood attachments lie. That is what feel normal to you.But please remember that just because that is what you are used to doesn't make it normal food.
A cow always only eats plant matter but off late, the factory farmers decided to save up money and therefore have started feeding these animals ground up body parts of their own species after butchering out the saleable parts. So, now we have a whole bunch of cows in farms that are eating other cow remains. People start eating anything when they get hungry, that doesn't mean it is normal. So yes, if you are eating meat and that is what your great grandmother ate doesn't mean that meat is normal.
So yeah a horse or a cow only naturally eats grass . Will you call that an eating disorder too? NO, right? Well, we are gatherer herbivores too. We are not natural meat eaters. So infact, eating meat is the actual eating disorder where humans have taken to eating anything to survive in areas where plants don't grow year round.
Do you remember that episode in Sienfeld where kramer feeds the horse canned meat? Well, the horse ate it and kept farting all the time. You know why? The same reason most meat eaters fart horribly smelly stuff. Neither of our intestines are naturally designed to digest animal protein.
Also, vegan and vegetarians are less likely to get obese or get diabetes or cardiac disease. Why? Because they are eating what their bodies can take. Meat eaters on the other hand are pressurizing their bodies and testing the limits each day. No wonder the body gives up and starts showing signs of stress aka Diabetes, kidney stones or cardiac disease.

excuse 5/Oh vegan food tastes like crap
dude, the reason why it tastes like crap is because you didn't make it right. The reason why you didn't make it right is coz you never ate good vegan food in your life. You know how recipes are handed down from parents to children. Btw, If you undercooked and underseasoned meat I am sure it tastes even crappier than badly made vegan food . The solution to this is to first start understanding and accepting that vegan food is our natural food . Meat is the abnormal food. This positivity will then allow you to buy and try out all vegan foods(which there are a lot many and many of them are actually cheap products too if you start thinking clear. potatoes are vegan , yeah? yeah, Tomatoes are vegan, yeah? yeah. Olives are vegan , yeah? yeah. nuts are vegan , yeah? yeah. ) Infact most meat dishes depend on plant ingredients to make them tasty. you know how a few herbs and some lemon and pepper makes meat palatable? well, you essentially had to use vegan ingredients to make your meat more edible. That says a lot , doesn;t it? it says that our bodies are naturally inclined to find vegan smells and tastes edible . yeah?
So, yes, with some lil googling you will easily find recipes with vegan dishes and recipes. Even otherwise, all it takes is, buy anything that you find vegan, come home, experiment and do not be afraid to try. You will be baffled at how much more variety there is in vegan food than in meat.
Try it , be objective, be ready to take up a challenge and have an open mind. Do your body a favor and love your fellow animals and become vegan today. Trust me, your body will thank you.

p.s: yeah for the close minded stubborn person who told me, " Never eat anything your great grandmother ate"
Dude, your grandmother never ate this much processed food, no pocky, no cheerios no nothing. Cereals and pocky are modern day inventions much past your greatgrandmother.How come you are chomping them down like there is no tommorow? Also, if your greatgrandmother had never eaten what her great grandmother never ate and if in turn her great grandmother had never eaten what her great grandmother had never eaten, we humans would never had gotten around to eating meat in the first place.
So stop being stubborn, stop being afraid to give up things you are Addicted to and try . When there is proof that meat is not good, not for us, not for the animals, we must be humble enough to admit our mistake and give it up.
Trust me, I thought that i would never ever able to give up cheese but you know what, it is easy, The first two weeks are the toughest , after that our body goes back to our natural mode and you start realizing how much cow's milk and cheese smell weird in some ways.
I know this guy who went vegetarian for his girl friend for six months and finally when he broke up with her after six months and tried eating meat again, he kinda puked coz the bad smell and lack of texture was hard to ignore after months of crunchy good smelling food.. True story.

sphagetti and Vegan 'meat' balls

Funny how I call them meat balls. I have never eaten meat . My mom is vegetarian and she never made meat dishes at home. So, yeah, i never tasted meat ever . Like they say it tougher for meat eaters to become vegan coz they crave meat. Meat and chicken due stimulate the production of opiate like substances in the body when ingested and thus cause an addictive craving for meat. After all meat doesnt smell good and has no fiber and is not a natural diet of primates at all. So how then are so many people addicted to it? Well, the aforementioned reason of opiate simulative action.
Anyways, I like the look of a plate of sphagetti and meat balls. Look very inviting since it is usually served as a hearty portion and thus promises sateity of hunger .
sphagetti is my favorite pasta. All pastas are essentially made of the same durham wheat semolina meal, yet, just a different shape can alter our eating experience. Well, sphagetti is my fav for some reason. Perhaps the fact that i can lift up a bunch of thick strands and stuff myself silly is why i like sphagetti.
No recipes or pictures due plagiarism concerns . I am saving recipes for my future vegan cookbook.
If you need this recipe, post a request in the comments section and i will get around to it.
Chao

Fried potato cravings

It is just the skipped meals I guess. The potato cravings are just my body's way of asking for some good ole starch . Potato is commonly accused of being fattenning. It hardly is if eaten in moderate amounts. What potato is rich in is complex carbohydrates. it is not refined fiberless pure sugar. So, it is not fat at all. The only problem with the way people cook potato. Mashed potato is full of unnecessary cream and butter. French fries are dripping in oil and salt . that is the culprit.
Infact raw potato is rich in vit c and B vitamins. Believe it or not, A nice mildly boiled potato still retains many of its water soluble vitamins especially if boiled with the skin and then the skin is peeled off after boiling.
Yeah, anyways, though I usually eat boiled potatoes , these past three days, since i have been too busy with work leading to skipped or delayed meal times, I have ended up craving fried potatoes. yeah, I did make five batches of them in the past two days. A batch in my book would be a single medium sized potato semi deep fried . The reason my body started craving them would perhaps be because i was using up a lot of my brain to study and such leading to the brain needing instant energy aka carbs. Carbs are good for ya. Good carbs are good for you. So anyways, as much craving that I had for plain salty fried potatoes, by the fourth batch I started feeling the need to add in fresh chopped tomatoes. This combo made the meal more tasty and tangy too and healthy ofcourse. Gotta go now.

Energy Saving Cooking tips

I actually initially wrote this blog entry for my Ecology Blog. I then figured that it is only sensible to repost the cooking tips blog on my Cookblog as well.
So, here goes

well, someone reached my blog asking the question of
"whether a microwave saves more energy than a stovetop.?"
They reached my other blog entry where I talk about
'How A Microwave is better than both an Oven and a stovetop'.

I didn't compare the merits of Microwave over the stovetop in that blog entry as much as I did as to how a microwave is better than an oven.

Well, the thing is, a microwave works on a principle of using microwaves to shake the particles in your food and thus heat up your food.
Stove top uses electricity to heat up a coil (if it is a coil stove top) and then that heats the vessel in which you are cooking and thus heat enegry is transferred to your food through the vessel and then it cooks.

At the end of the day both of them do use electricity unless you are using a gas based stove top in which case, combustion of gases produces heat and that then heats a vessel and then the food.Well,
energy cosumption depends on
1/cooking methods,
2/the time you use to cook foods and
3/the vessels you use too.

So comparing just the methods of cooking without telling you about cooking utensils and cooking methods will be like telling you only half the truth.


COOKING UTENSILS--Use good conductors as cooking utensils. Copper is the best vessel to cook in . Copper heats up quickly, heats up evenly and so yeah, good. But then, If you are cooking acidic foods like tomato and what not, There is a possibility for the vessel reacting with the food. Stainless steel is great for cooking also. Iron is a good conductor also, also actually good if the iron keeps getting added to your food, especially to prevent iron deficiency anemia .Anyways, Using a good conductor vessel on a stove top prevents wastage of heat.

Speaking of which,
A gas based stove is better than a coil stove.
Why?
1/Better heat control,
2/lesser wastage of heat,
3/quick heating and quick cooling down preventing wastage again.

Which is the most efficient for heating up foods?
Definitely the microwave, coz it uses a different principle to make the food hot and it doesn't waste heat due to that very reason.Better than the stovetop coz when heating on a stovetop you have to stir and ofcourse you cannot stir up your apple or carrot cake, can you?

But having said that, If you are using a coil stove or a microwave,Please take note of the various details on the back of your equipment. When you know the volts and the watts, you can calculate the the electricity units that this appliance will consume per minute .

Which is where the duration of cooking plays a major role in which appliance is energy efficient!

You see, crock pot recipes use up hours and hours of cooking and well, end up wasting shocking amounts of energy. Here again, You could very well use a pressure cooker to get the same texture you could get out of four hours of slow cooking.A pressure cooker would make lentils in 15 minutes while a crockpot will in four hours. So yeah, choosing the right cooking utensil is also a key factor in determining which appliance will save energy.

Please note thatdifferent micowave ovens have different wattages sometimes.
Why use a large watted microwave when all you are doing is heat a cup of coffee? yeah?I shall write another blog entry where I teach you how you can calculate the power consumed by your appliance .

For now, I hope this kinda helps whoever wanted to know if a microwave is better than a stovetop.My answer,"a low wattage microwave cooks faster than a stovetop and by the virtue of the fact that the shorter time of use of appliance pretty much saves energy". yes. Please send in more queries if you want to know more