Vegan Times

If you are friends with us on Facebook, you may have noticed an increase in vegan-food posts, recipes and comments.  Well, you can blame our Netflix account, because after watching the documentary, Vegucated, I turned my back on meat, eggs and dairy for good and asked Jon to join me in solidarity.  Since Jon is the main cook in our house, if he is not on board, I need to become more food independent (maybe not a bad idea), learn how to cook (also not a bad idea), and start making informed decisions about what food I put in my body (really not a bad idea).  After all of these "not bad ideas" were floated around our household, Jon agreed to try out a vegan lifestyle with me for 6 weeks -- taking a "break" in Rome -- to give it a good 'ole college effort and see what would be involved in making this lifestyle change.  There are tons of online resources available so with some research, we were able to figure things out pretty easily.

Here are the results thus far:

Week 1:  Figuring everything out

Predominating thoughts: What foods should I be eating to maintain all of my vitamins, minerals and nutrients? How much extra effort will this require? How will I survive? Will I be hungry all of the time?   The basic rules are that I can eat as many vegetables and fruits as I want. Let the veg/fruit binging begin!

End result: Quinoa, whole wheat everything, brown rice, bulgur, tofu, and soy/almond/rice milk have now been added to our kitchen.  Finding substitutes wasn't as hard as I had originally feared.  Our egg-less, milk-less pancakes are more delicious and easier than ever.  Vegan chocolate muffins - to DIE for!  The Oreo crumb topping wins everyone over. (Oreos are vegan, boom!)

Physically: Feeling less tired/able to wake up early in the day, eating a lot more vegetables at dinner, feeling "lighter."  I'm not sure how that's possible since my intake of carbs has tripled.

Challenges: None, surprisingly...

Week 2: Getting into the swing of things

Predominating thoughts: Now that we've tracked down tons of delicious recipes and identified the vegan-friendly products in Swedish grocery stores, how can we tackle re-creating some of our favorite non-vegan foods?  What are our new favorites? Will we ever eat pizza again? I love pizza...

End result:  We found seitan, dairy-free cheese, and tempeh so now we can tackle more meat-like dishes. Jon made the most delicious vegan pizza -- I could taste the flavor of eggplant.  When was the last time you tasted eggplant's true flavor??  I never had before. Banana french toast was a near-miss -- too banana-y -- need to refine. Adding semolina flour into pancakes, muffins, pizza dough etc, helps add the much needed protein.  Calvin is LOVING all of my vegan creations.  Maybe he was vegan all along?  This whole vegan thing isn't as tough as I had thought.  I'm loving how much more knowledgeable I am about my diet. By paying attention to the nutritional value of all of our foods, we are actually eating much healthier than ever. Imagine that...

Physically: My tastebuds are ALIVE - I can taste the nuances in all of my food and the spices we are using are delicious.  I don't ever feel "over-full" after eating -- just the right amount of full. Feeling great and energetic.

Challenges: Getting over how gross seitan looks

water, water, water

Week 3: Cruise Control Mode

Predominating thoughts: Things I thought I couldn't possibly live without, I barely miss... milk, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.

End result:  Jon insisted on bringing in mussels once a week.  He maintains they will be necessary for my iron intake -- we've learned a lot about heme vs. non-heme iron and bodily uptake.  Since I'm anemic on a good day, it makes sense to pull in an eco-friendly food that is rich in iron.  Mussels are as close to plants as animals can be and while I'm not thrilled, I am heeding his advice.  I've been putting flaxseed in my morning smoothies to help with B12 and Omega 3.  I've also been eating dried rasins and apricots throughout the day as healthy snacks.

Physically: Still feeling great and energetic throughout the day!

Challenges: I did have some cheat moments this week - 2 Kit Kat bars (bad I know!) and a small bowl of ice cream Sunday night.

Week 4: Exploring new recipes

Predominating thoughts: I'm not a fan of tempeh -- too nutty for my taste.

End result:

Physically:

Challenges:

Cafe Lagom

This many strollers in front gives you a good indication of its popularity

There is a super sweet cafe behind our house that is an old farmhouse, Cafe Långagen, that is about a 10 minute walk from our front door.  It is one of the best cafes on our island and has a great playground in the back for kids.  Calvin loves playing in its sandbox and the food is top notch and reasonably priced.  You can enjoy a gourmet lunch outside, watching your kid play on the slide and relaxing with your dog at your feet.  What's not to love?

However, there is one aspect

The Swedish Chef Diaries -- Oven baked "lightly" salted cod

Anyone who knows us for 5 minutes knows that Jon is the one in charge of the kitchen.  He is the chef in the household and without his enthusiasm to try new recipes, I would be eating an alternating rotation of rice and butter and spaghetti day in and day out.  Jon was working late one night and I was left with the agonizing decision of eating a handful of Calvin's Cheerios or trying my hand at a new Swedish recipe that Jon had lined up that night.  Sighing, I reluctantly put down the cereal box and picked up the casserole dish.  Might as well give it a try.

I'm not a fan of fish but I can bring myself to eat it if it doesn't taste too fishy.  You know what I mean.  Dress it up like something else and my brain can pretend its not fish long enough to swallow it.  Living in Stockholm, surrounded by SEA, I've tried to overcome this culinary reflex.  Imagine my surprise when I see the menu for the night is brined cod.  So... I'm going to deliberately make my fish super salty and briny and really really fishy?? Ummm...ok...

The recipe also features a shrimp salad thingy to put over top your super salty brine-y fish.  (MUST HAVE MORE IODINE!) Unfortunately, the recipe was more vague than I wanted since I really needed my hand held.  The recipe itself gets a D- since it deceivingly says its "lightly" salted (its not),  serves 10 people (who feeds 10 people?) AND doesn't give any sort of total cooking time reference (1 hr, 2 hrs? I need to know how long I'm going to be in the kitchen!!)  I had to cut the recipe in half and it took about an hour.

I had to come up with a creative side item and since we were low on extra ingredients around the house, I grabbed some carrots, apples, olive oil and lemon juice and made a cold, raw salad thingy on the side.  The tastiest part of the whole dish was the shrimp, boiled eggs and brown butter topping.  You could easily just make that part of the recipe and serve it on crackers or some tasty bread and save yourself an hour.

Here is a picture of my plate -- not quite the same as the one on the blog but we ate real food that night and didn't have to order in pizza.  A pathetic success.

Jon -- shrimp topping - 4
          brined cod - 2
Lisa -- shrimp topping - 3
           brined cod - 1.5 -- barely edible

http://blogs.sweden.se/food/2011/08/23/oven-baked-lightly-salted-cod/

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Cod on Bacon with Mushroom and Potato Puree

After a week without and seafood, I decided to dive back in with a FANCY lookin dish that caught my eye on the official Sweden blog. This one sounded / looked complicated, but was actually pretty simple. Its basically easy mashed potatoes, easy baked fish and a somewhat complicated sauce. By “somewhat complicated”, I mean you sauté bacon, onions and mushrooms then put in some stock and red wine. Let that simmer for 20 minutes and BAMMO, taste explosion.

I added some sautéed spinach to it to get a little green in there, but all in all it was very simple to put together. The picture on the blog looked well put together, so I insisted that I bring out the plates put together, rather than the usual “family style” we normally do.

Overall, I think this might be our big winner so far. Fancy enough to look impressive, but simple enough to pull together quickly / easily. And tasty – that’s the important part obviously

Jon – 5 BORKS

Lisa – 5 BORKS

DOUBLE 5!!!!! FIRST PERFECT SCORE !!!!!

http://blogs.sweden.se/food/2012/01/12/cod-on-bacon-with-mushrooms-and-potato-puree/

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Dill Chicken with Leeks and Potatoes

As I mentioned last time, Sam got lucky with chicken breasts on sale during her visit. I don’t think that chicken was a major staple protein of the Vikings, and I couldn’t really find anything that jumped out at me from the Swedish blog or the Annesfood blog. This is when I had to expand my search to “Scandinavian” recipes. It worked like a charm – like going from “Georgian” recipes to Southern. All of a sudden there were TV shows, tons of cookbooks and a bunch of options.

I found one that seemed pretty good on the website for a PBS show – New Scandinavian Cooking. When they said that “you can’t use too much dill”, I figured it was my kind of recipe (no measuring).

This one was actually really easy – just a lot of dill and cutting up everything. Drop it all into the casserole dishes and coming back in 30 minutes.

Overall it as good – I might not be a HUGE fan of dill, but considering chicken is on sale once every 10 weeks, I don’t think it will overwhelm us.

Jon – 3 BORKS

Lisa – 4 BORKS

Samantha – 4,5 BORKS

http://www.newscancook.com/recipes/dill-chicken-with-leeks-and-potatoes/

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Swedish Pork Chops

We don’t eat pork chops too often, but figured we would give them a try when I saw them in the weekly flyer yesterday. As with almost every meal now, I just type “Swedish XYZ” into Google and see what pops up. This recipe was on food.com, but referenced the New Scandinavian show that I had found, so I figured it was worth a try.

The recipe called for Roquefort cheese, and considering I can’t find basic things in the store, there was little to no chance of me finding that. While I gave a valiant effort, I eventually just bought the feta that was on sale as well. The only other change was that we added mushrooms to the onion mixture – I think that ‘shrooms go with every Swedish dish.

Overall the recipe was pretty simple and the roasted potatoes we made on the side came out pretty solid. Feta makes everything better. When asked for her review after dinner, Lis went on a 10 minute mini-tirade against pork chops (too fatty, not enough meat, etc), before giving the meal a 4 out of 5. Imagine if she liked the meat!

Oh, and in case Lis brings it up – yes, I almost burnt the house down during this recipe. We got a phone call half way through from our potential landlord and I had to do some negotiations. I admit, I lost a littttttle bit of leverage when the smoke detector went off during my dissertation on why we would take good care of their home. But danger made the pork really come alive!

Score:

Jonathan – 2,5 /5 Borks (nothing bad, but nothing really special about it)

Lisa – 4/5 (wants to retry with a tenderloin)

http://www.food.com/recipe/swedish-cutlets-or-pork-chops-375678

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Swedish Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (and lingonberry jam)

Samantha was the first brave soul to visit us out here, coming in all the way from LA. I knew that there was only one option to greet her at the door when she arrived after a long day in the air. The original Swedish dish - MEATBALLS

Evidently the grocers were taking care of Sam (not a fan of seafood) and had chicken breast and ground beef for sale during the week. First time I had seen either of those options discounted, so we wanted to take full advantage. After some quick research I found a traditional Swedish recipe at the Annesfood blog (link below) and went to work.

I’ve made meatballs pretty often – usually using recipes from my mom or the Giovanello’s family secret. This recipe was a lot different with much “sweeter” spices used (probably not the correct word). Instead of basil and oregano, it called for cinnamon and allspice (among others). One problem we’ve run into so far is that our spice rack is still in route – so we haven’t bought too many temporary replacements. We have pepper, salt, paprika and an Italian mix. After checking out the spices and potential substitutes, I figured that I could just buy cinnamon and it would give a pretty good replication of the taste.

I decided to traditionally fry the meatballs, and they were just finishing up as Sam walked in the door. I quickly transitioned to the gravy (using greek yogurt instead of cream), and the mashed potatoes. Gravy – solid. Potatoes – oddly shiny….not sure why, probably bought the wrong type of potatoes?

Overall, we had a few substitutions and some things that didn’t exactly as planned, but I think it was a pretty solid “welcome to swwwweeeeeden”

Overall Score (out of 5)–

Jon – 4 BORKS

Lisa – 3,5 BORKS (the potatoes really hurt the overall score)

Samantha – 5 BORKS!!!

http://annesfood.blogspot.se/2006/12/swedish-meatballs-oven-baked.html

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Swedish Pancakes

Swedes LOVE their pancakes – but they aren’t the bisquick and aunt jemima kind. At the ericsson cafeteria, every Thursday is “pancake and pea soup” day – which is evidently very traditional.

In the spirit of going local, we substituted these pancakes for our normal betty crocker recipe the other day. Not going to lie, not the best Swedish recipe we’ve made yet. The recipe created a very liquid-y batter that made a much more “crepe-like” pancake. They did not look appetizing, but were kind of tasty. We ate them all (obviously), but will probably go back to our good ole ‘merican style pancakes going forward.

Or next time we will have to make some pea soup on the side….

Jon – 2 Bork

Lisa – 3,5 Borks

http://annesfood.blogspot.se/2007/02/swedish-pancakes.html

The Swedish Chef Diaries – Mussel and Cabbage Soup

My Monday morning routine is now focused on picking up the new weekly flyers to see what is on sale. This was the first week of our new “Swedish-cooking motivation” and I got pretty pumped up when I found mussels advertised on sale for something like $2 a pound. I found the mussel soup recipe on the official Swedish blog (link below) and was ready to do this on Saturday night. It was a pretty easy recipe, mostly mussels, cabbage, white wine and cream – which I grabbed Friday afternoon. When I was at the store, I put in my order for one kilo, and then when I increased it to two, I gained the respect of the fish monger who was impressed with my eye for value.

I started cooking everything as soon as the big guy fell asleep, and told lisa to get ready for a feast. She came in as I had begun to sauté the cabbage, laughed at me and then began to eat it raw. Evidently, while I can pick out shellfish like a viking, I am not so good with my non-nutritious greens. So I had spent 5 minutes sautéing iceberg lettuce….not the best start when it was one of 4 major incredients.

Further “adjusting” the recipe, instead of using cream we used some of the greek yogurt we have been feeding Calvin lately (this substitution worked better to no surprise).

This was a very quick recipe, only taking 15 minutes or so to make, so we were chowing down in no time. The clams (UPDATE - NOT CLAMS, MUSSELS - evidently we aren't used to shellfish yet) were huge (almost too big - couldn't fit on a spoon) and fresh. While the lettuce didn’t make the cut, and it wasn’t very “soup” like, it was a tasty broth that went great with some French bread we brought.

The best part of this was that the “soup” was great as leftovers – the next day I heated it up again and added a little bit of flour to thicken it up. We then put it over some pasta and we were good to go all over again.

Although I think that Lis and I were both pretty much done with it after 4 days of mussels, it is definitely one that I would do again.

Overall Score (out of 5)–

Jon – 4 BORKS

Lisa – 3,5 BORKS

http://blogs.sweden.se/food/2012/03/09/mussel-soup-with-shredded-cabbage/

The Swedish Chef Diaries

Considering we are in a small “flat” in the middle of a city where we still wear our winter hats in April, I came to grips with the fact that I will not be grilling up a storm anytime soon. This is a big change from the A where we would grill almost every night and I was making my way through the Weber Grilling Cookbook (their skirt steak is where it’s at)

But, like most of the lessons we learned so far, adaptation is key for us out here. So instead of lamenting my lack of brisket, ribs, bbq wings and grilled pizza, I am branching out. While I wouldn’t have my mac and cheese side dishes, I decided to look local and focus on more traditional foods from around here. I found a few good Swedish cooking blogs (below), and then branched out to “Scandinavian Cooking”, which yielded some pretty solid results.

http://blogs.sweden.se/food/author/swedishrecipeoftheday/

http://annesfood.blogspot.se/

http://www.newscancook.com/

The goal now is “when in rome” style, and I am going to try out as many Swedish dishes as Lisa can handle (we will break her of her salmon ambivalence yet). I will mostly be covering how I messed up the dishes (knowing how I roll), and will provide links to the online recipes (so you can know how you are actually supposed to do it). The major driver of what we make will be what is on sale – food is really expensive and we are really cheap. So if it is salmon for $2,50 a lb, or elk steaks (any price really), we’ll let the market direct our recipes.

And just so I remember what to cook when guests come in town, we’ll be giving a rating to each recipe – from both Lisa and I (and anyone else that happens to be in town)

Enjoy!

(and if you find any good Scandinavian recipes, send em our way!)

I miss you Vortex...

Went to lunch today with my coworkers and they decided to go to O’Leary’s, the chain of ”Boston Sports Bar” themed restaurants that became infamous to me when they refused to stay open for the Super Bowl.

We’ve been over here 6+ weeks now, and so it’s been awhile since I’ve had a good burger. I figured it wasn’t that hard to make a decent burger, and that this would be my best bet here in Sweden.

(not actually mine, but not too far off - just add more mayo and make the bacon not as good)

I have never been so wrong in my life

Just gross…more mayo than meat…the worst bacon I’ve ever tasted…just completely unappetizing

If, sight unseen, I ever order a burger out here again, I should get slapped in the face

I miss you Vortex, I miss you bad