A Swedish-Vegan takes on the Super Bowl

(SCENE – 7pm Stockholm Time on Sunday, January 20th)

WOOOO!!!!

It’s the AFC/NFC Championship games today – and BOTH of our families favorite teams are in it!!!  We root for 2 out of the final 4 teams left playing!!!  This is going to be the best Super Bowl EVER!!!!

(SCENE – 7am Stockholm Time on Monday, January 21^st)

Uhhhhhhhh – I hate football

(SCENE – Mid-Day on January 23^rd)

Jonathan:  OK Lis, I think I’m ready to start preparing for a Super Bowl Party.  It’s basically a holiday in the US and most of the time we don’t have a team in the game.  We need to get our heads right and make America proud.  The game’s in New Orleans this year, so on top of the normal pizza and wings, let’s get nuts and make some jambalya with sausage and shrimp too – they have a ton of that stuff out here.

Lisa:  I want to go vegan

Jonathan: ……………..

Lisa:  You know the game starts a little after midnight for us right?  I don’t think anyone is stopping over for a Super Bowl party….

Jonathan: …………….

(SCENE – one week later)

Jonathan:  ok Lis, sorry I went into shock for the past week, but I’ve snapped out of it.  I think we can still save this

[detail plan to lisa]

Lisa: WOW!!! I have the smartest, most creative, most supportive husband in the WORLD!!!  And he parties like a champion!!! The SUPER BOWL IS SAVED!!!

The Plan: 

PROBLEM #1 – Game with teams we don’t care about and scars still fresh from two weeks ago.

SWEDISH/VEGAN SOLUTION– GAMBLE.  Online gambling is safe, legal and easily accessible here.  There is a reason that the NFL is the most popular league in the WORLD.  So let’s set up an account, and see how we feel about how long the national anthem will go.

PROBLEM #2 – All the “traditional” Super Bowl party foods use non-vegan friendly foods. 

SWEDISH/VEGAN SOLUTION – Substitute. 

• We make a really tasty jambalaya using our normal recipe – but instead of sausage/turkey/shrimp, we increase the spices a bit and put in some fried up potatoes.  (should have added beans).  Fantastic. 
• We also had some okra that we were going to cook, but instead of using egg to hold the breading, we used flax.  Nothing we’re going to seek out to make again, but probably just as tasty as it would have been.
• Pizza has been a specialty at the Ferland’s for awhile now.  Now we had to do that without using cheese or any meat toppings.  Lis was able to find a milk-less cheese at an organic store (I didn’t ask too many questions about HOW they actually made it), and then we cut up a bunch of onions, peppers, mushrooms, eggplant and spinach.  Made a bunch of veggie pizza.  AND we added semolina flour – so we got some protein.  Couldn’t tell the difference.
• The “meat on a bone” thing isn’t as subltle of non-vegan as cheese and stuff, so wings / ribs weren’t really an option.  BUT – a coworker of mine gave a great “Swedish-style” ribs recipe a while ago, and we had heard that “seitan” (spelling??) was actually a pretty good meat substitute.  I wasn’t (and still am not) sure exactly what it was, but I roasted it in the marinade of soy sauce, maple syrup and balsamic for about 30 minutes – came out crispy and full of flavor.  Not to shabby at all.  Next time, might try with Franks hot sauce instead….
• Burgers are always a fun football option.  This wasn’t the best substitute, but we basically made our own veggie patties using eggplant and mushrooms.  Not bad, but this is definitely one we will need for adjust for next time. (the homemade sweet potato and regular fries were pretty solid though)
• Chips - These would have worked, but instead we followed Laura's advice and made some zucchini chips.  Might as well go healthy AND tasty. 
• Beer.  Wait, this is vegan.  GOOD TO GO.

Vegan pizza ... so good

PROBLEM #3 – No Super Bowl party.

SWEDISH/VEGAN SOLUTION – Last year, with the Pats in the game and us still adjusting to the time change, I decided to go to bed really early (6pm or so), then wake up and watch the game live.  As previously mentioned, I didn’t really care about this game as much AND last year kind of sandwiched me into moderate behavior.  With it being technically Monday morning and at best I was going to get 2hrs of sleep, I wasn’t able to really drink any beers.  And with it being early enough that I MIGHT be able to get 2 hrs of sleep, I couldn’t really drink much coffee. 

This year, I flipped that.  Instead, I had a few beers as we were hanging out with Calvin and skipped my afternoon fika.  This ensured that I was ready to sleep as early as necessary.  So by 830, I was in bed, and asleep by 9pm with my alarm set for 4am.  When that went off, I had the coffee ready to go.  Two pots of French Press later, and I had drank too much for my 12^th consecutive Super Bowl.

We had actually used most of our recipes earlier in the weekend (staring on Friday), only leaving the seitan for this morning.  Because of the syrup in the marinade, they actually went really well with the vegan pancakes we had (with almond milk instead of regular and ½ a banana instead of the egg). 

Waking up at 4 allowed me to watch the whole game, with commercials, without skipping much of anything (as opposed to our normal breakfast football that I fast forward through a bunch).  I did skip the halftime show, but figured that Lis and Calvin would watch that when they woke up. 

OVERALL - We had gambling, over-imbibing, and variations on our favorite game-day foods.  So yeah, I’d say our Swedish/Vegan Super Bowl went pretty darn well.

Next year, we just need the Pats and/or Falcons do to their part….