Kim & Mike's Homemade Ketchup

We went through several tries to develop this near perfect ketchup recipe which is much healthier for you than store bought because there's no added bulk sugar, plus it tastes really good. The sweetness comes from our own home made date syrup. 

Kim & Mike's Homemade Ketchup

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients:

1 15 oz. can of organic, diced tomatoes, drained
1 Tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. paprika
dash of black pepper
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. date syrup (recipe below)
1 6 oz. can organic tomato paste

Directions:

Add all the ingredients to a small food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator. Keeps in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

Date Syrup

Ingredients:

1 cup (packed) pitted dates (we love Barhi or Medjool)
1 cup filtered water

Blend ingredients until smooth, store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator or freeze.

Vegan Roasted Garlic Cashew Aioli

This is a great recipe to use as a mayonnaise substitute.  It's rich, creamy and has a wonderful tangy flavor that is a perfect addition to your favorite sandwich or as a dip for veggies with less water added, and it makes a tasty salad dressing with more water added.

We always have roasted garlic on hand for various recipes such as this one and it's easy to roast a lot at one time especially if you can buy bags of peeled garlic.  We buy peeled garlic cloves in a bag at Costco and roast a baking sheet full of them at once.  Here's how we do it: line a baking pan with parchment paper, spread garlic out in a single layer, seal the parchment paper over the top and along edges, roast in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for about 15 minutes or until garlic starts to turn brown and becomes soft. Roasted garlic keeps in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Using a high speed blender such as a Vitamix will make this even creamier but a regular blender or food processor will work well too, though you'll probably need to blend for longer.

Makes about 2 cups

INGREDIENTS
1 heaped cup raw cashews
12 roasted garlic cloves
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/3 cup soft silken tofu
1/4-1/2 cup water, more/less as needed
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

DIRECTIONS
Blend cashews with roasted garlic, vinegar, juice, mustard and tofu until mixture begins to form a paste. Blend in water to achieve desired consistency. Blend in salt to taste. This will thicken somewhat as it spends time in the refrigerator.


For a fabulous variation add 1-2 teaspoons of chipotle powder or 1/2 teaspoon of canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, or to taste. Chipotle peppers are HOT so go easy on this unless you really like it spicy!

Creamy Cilantro Cashew Dressing

We've been experimenting with a creamy cilantro dressing recipe ever since we tasted the wonderful green dressing they serve at our local vegan restaurant, the fabulous Shine Cafe.  It's been a fun and tasty challenge and though we've never really duplicated the dressing they serve, we've come up with a recipe that's pretty tasty.

This has cashews in it (plus you can add avocado if you want) so it's really satisfying and we use it on salads, over veggies (almost like gravy) and when it's thicker we dip raw veggies and toasted whole wheat pita triangles into it. We love it and we hope you'll like it too.

Creamy Cilantro Cashew Dressing

Ingredients:

1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
2 handfuls raw cashews (2 oz. total)
2 fresh peeled garlic cloves, or 4 cloves roasted garlic
1 package (12 ounces) shelf stable soft silken tofu (we like non-GMO Mori-Nu)
3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. fresh lime or lemon juice (lime's better for this but you can substitute lemon)
1 to 1-1/2 tsp. salt (optional, to taste)
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1/4-1/2 cup water

Directions:
Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Adjust the amount of water you add to get the consistency you want (more water for salad dressing, less water for a dip).

Makes about a quart depending on how much water you add.

Variations (try adding one or more of these):

1 peeled deseeded avocado
1 small jalapeño pepper deseeded, inside ribs removed
1/4-1/2 tsp. chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (rinsed)
1/2-1 tsp. dried chipotle pepper powder before blending.
If you're into really spicy, by all means add more chipotle pepper.

VEGAN GYPSIES 2012

Current Goal July 14, 2012:

Hi all, we are Kim Davis and Mike Stangeland. This is our lifelong, we call it Vegan Gypsies because we have been traveling the US and Mexico continuously since early 2004 in a 5th wheel and diesel truck and we became low fat vegans March 20, 2012 which has been one of the most important and positive lifestyle changes we've ever undertaken.  The present goal of this log is to pass on the experiences we've encountered during the transition to veganism from the viewpoint of an older couple (Mike 66, Kim 54) on a very limited income, trying to make it on the expensive left coast of the US and trying to eat, as close as we can afford, an all organic, non-GMO, whole foods diet. We've sort of settled in Morro Bay California for the time being and may be back traveling next year.

Current History:


We've been vegetarians for 4 years but included dairy and fish in the diet and could never reach our health goals even through we ate what we thought was a 'good' diet and exercised every day usually climbing steep hills for 1 to 4 hours to get in our aerobic time. We read about the new movie "Forks Over Knives" in early March, watched it on Netflix March 19th and became very strict low fat vegans the next day. It's a very powerful movie that every person on the planet should watch. 


The diet we've adopted is a low fat, whole foods, plant based diet which includes NO meat, dairy, eggs or animal products of any kind and no vegetable oils.  When you follow this diet any excess weight should drop off effortlessly as long as you avoid added fats and processed foods.

Since March 20th Mike's lost 15 pounds and Kim's lost 10 pounds with no other change to our lifestyle than the new diet.  Mike's blood pressure is normal now for the first time in 20 years, he has been able to reduce his diabetes medicine to 1/3 of the original dose and we can't wait to see the results of his blood work in a couple of weeks! He should be able to discontinue all medications within a few months which will be an enormous boost to our budget.

We eat lots of green, orange, yellow, red and blue fruits and vegetables and make sure we're eating whole grains such as whole wheat breads, pasta and brown rice, plus beans and lentils and minimally processed soy products such as edamame, tofu and tempeh.

We avoid processed "pseudo-meat" products that contain textured vegetable protein, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate or other concentrated soy protein additives.  Many times processed soy "cheese" and "meat" actually contain whey protein from cow's milk, or casein protein (also from cow's milk) so you have to read the ingredients label carefully if you decide to eat those kinds of foods. Products with soy isolate have been found to be carcinogenic and should be shunned, and casein has been proven to be one of the most health damaging foods humans can eat, "Got Milk" is like saying "Got Poison".  We also try to avoid products made with GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) soy and corn, otherwise known as 'frankenfoods', (more on this horrible planet wide disaster later).

As we ramble along we'll probably include a lot of recipes with photos, maybe a few films of dish preparation, and recommendations for good value vegan products. We'll probably create list of great vegan websites, stories, books, lectures, organizations, and anything else that compliments the goal. 

We've both dabbled in the arts and music over the years so will probably go off subject with image series as mini-installations, observational essays, and even images and stories from the past that are brought back by current experiences. We've been naturalists for 20 years and have studied birds, plants, and now butterflies all over America and Mexico so will often include stories and images from this side of our life.