The battle for the kitchen!

Here's a post I wrote a couple months back and never posted. I've seriously been neglecting the blog, in case you haven't noticed.

Shortly after we found out Stephanie was pregnant she began having cravings. She tried the vegan thing for about a week of that time, but shortly after, started eating meat and dairy once again (not all the time - but here and there). She knows she doesn't need this stuff to be healthy and grow a healthy child (we've known and heard of quite a few people who have remained vegan all through their pregnancy with great results). Still, when she feels like crap already, she really just wants to eat what she can to make her feel better, and often that's a piece of chicken or some mac' n cheese. I even tried making vegan mac 'n cheese one night, and we both thought it was really good. Still her craving was for Kraft :) and she had to have it (she waited until the next day). Basically, most of the things I cook for dinner haven't sounded very good to her, and we've been cooking separate meals most nights.
Honestly, this has been pretty hard for me to deal with. It's been a huge hassle for both of us, and I've given up questioning it, and have finally just accepted that this is the way it is. She works until 7:30 or 8 pm many nights so on those nights I try to cook dinner before she gets home.

Since I wrote this a few months ago, things have gotten a little better. We've started trying to find more common ground in our menu, and we're just getting used to getting in each other's way in the kitchen. We're bracing ourselves for how having a child will make things even more complicated. Of course, because of nursing we hopefully won't have to deal with that for another year or so.

some permanency would be nice

Lately life has been very busy. It makes sense now that I think about it, because I currently have the heaviest class load of any year I've taught, and next semester will be even heavier. Did I mention we recently bought a house that needs a lot of work and we also have a child on the way for April?
I've taught more hours in the past, but never had three different classes to prepare for, one of which I have never taught in the past. I am so thankful for the job I have, really enjoy it, and know that jobs like this are hard to come by in Michigan. God has been good. Still, I find myself longing for something better. And when I say better I mean-- permanent. In my four years of teaching I've never done the same thing two years in a row, and I've never had a completely full time job (though I certainly work 60 hours per week). Having my own classroom this year has been amazing, but I hope some day soon I can take the next step to being a real teacher :) by landing a job where I can teach the same thing 2 years in a row and benefit from having some lesson plans and experience! Some day it will come, I'm sure.

Chicago Diner

Stephanie and I recently went to Chicago for the wedding of our good friends Sara and Jack. Congratulations guys!! It was a great wedding for sure, but lately one of the highlights of my Chicago trips has been hitting up a little establishment called the Chicago Diner. Their motto is 'meat-free since '83', and the menu is almost entirely vegan. The great thing about this place is they have pretty traditional American -style diner food, but they've veganized it all without sacrificing any of the deliciousness. I may be vegan, but I still crave a nice meaty sandwich now and then, so this place always hits the spot. This time, I ordered the reuben with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. Stephanie ordered the dagwood with some spicy corn chowder. Dang it was good. Oh, I almost forgot, for desert we shared a slice of chocolate "cheese" cake that was rich as can be and out of this world.
Even if you aren't vegan, I highly recommend this place if you're ever in Chicago.

Big shock - we hit traffic everywhere we went! Some day we'll wisen up and take the train.

surprise!

The doctors have discovered something growing inside my wife's belly. We are quite thrilled.

vegan food reviews

Between working on the house non-stop and working at school, life has been pretty busy for us the past 6 weeks. The cooking in our kitchen has really dropped off, unfortunately. There have been a few good meals here and there, but there have also been quite a few packaged meals. While I usually share good foods I've cooked on the blog, this time I thought I'd share some of the store bought vegan fare we've been munching on.


Amy's Quarter Pound Veggie Burgers- These are amazing! They are our new favorite veggie burgers. They are not so full of veggies like a garden burger, yet they are not trying too hard to meat like a Boca burger. So I suppose they are the perfect balance in my view. I highly recommend them. At over 5 bucks for a 4 pack, we try to make these a rare treat in our kitchen.


Smart Dog - veggie protein links - These are a great substitute for a hot dog, and WAY healthier. Once you dress it up with some ketchup, mustard, and relish or onions, it's very hard to tell any difference between these and a hot dog. My only complaint is that the texture gets really weird (mostly the skin) if you cook it wrong. It's been hit or miss for me.

Hormel Veggie Chili (99% fat free) - I think these were about a dollar per can at Meijer so I got a few. I'm not a big fan of canned Chili, but these do fine for a quick meal or snack. They are just as good as any canned Chili as far as I'm concerned. Textured vegetable protein (TVP) gives them a meaty consistency. Can't say I'd recommend them to most people.

Almond Breeze Chocolate Drink - This is a pretty delicious tasting chocolate milk. I love it, and I don't really see why anyone would go back to the dairy stuff after trying this. Do yourself a favor and pick some up. Shake well!


So Delicious Frozen Desert - I've found that different flavors are either great or not so good, so I'll speak to the three flavors I've tried. Mint marble fudge gets a 'D'. Stay away from it if you know what's good for you. I'll give neopolitan a 'B+'. It was very good, but I've had better. Oddly enough my favorite flavor has been creamy vanilla. I'm giving it an 'A'. Definitely give it a shot.

And I almost forgot these -- Newman-O's -- like Oreo's except healthier (a little) and vegan.

Home Improvement project number one!

We've been in our new house now for about three weeks, and we are still living out of the downstairs. Picture enough furniture and boxes for a good size house crammed into a one bedroom apartment and that pretty much sums it up. Let's just say we are going nuts and ready to get these floors done with! Here's a little photo journal of the project as we near the finish
line.
You may remember we started with carpet, ripped it up the day before move in, and found painted floors. There were 2-3 coats of paint, and some varnish to deal with so we could get down to the wood.

Steph's brother and I got a drum sander and started the job of removing the paint. Then Steph and I went crazy on it for a good 12 hour day the following week.
Between this last picture and the one that follows I couldn't find my camera, but basically I put in about 60 hours last week (and others chipped in here and there) to sand with three different types of sanders trying to get up all the gunk. After the sanding was done I flipped out for a few hours realizing there was still quite a bit of paint in hundreds of cracks and crevices. I was going to have to pick away at it with various sharp objects, and some chemical "green" stripper. I spent a couple days on that before I gave up and realized I could put up with the imperfections and messy "rustic" look.


This weekend I finally began to stain the floor. We like the dark wood look, so this was something we knew we had to do. A couple good friends recommended trying to do some touch up on paint spots after the stain was applied. They also warned me that I'd need a pre-stain wood conditioner and I'm so glad they did. Soft woods like this can turn out pretty crappy if you try to stain them w/o that. After the stain, I spent 3 or 4 hours with various wood fillers and wood pencil-crayon-thingies to touch up some of the most obvious spots, and I think it really helped.Monday night I finally started laying down polyurethane. We did an oil based stain and a water-based polyurethane, and I think it worked well. Today I buffed and finished the third coat, and now we just wait. It can take about 72 hours before the floors can handle furniture.

Overall this project has been a major headache, but I'd do it again. The wife and I are far from perfectionists, and didn't want to fork over a few thousand for a professional job. There's still quite a bit of paint in the cracks and dents, there are some parts were you can see marks from the sander, and there are little bits of grit and dust in certain parts of the finish. Still, we're pleased with the results and happy we got rid of the carpet. In a couple days here we'll really be able to move in; and it's about dang time.

A whole lot happening!

The past couple weeks have been crazy (mostly the past week I suppose). A couple weeks ago I took advantage of a 50 dollar price drop and sprung for the Xbox 360 I've been drooling over for a year. I briefly considered the PS3 after the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, but in the end I think I made the best choice. Yes, I realize the picture of me with my new baby is frightening, and yes - I am topless. It was over 85 degrees and humid, gimme a break!
Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play with my new toy because last week Friday we closed on our house! We're finally all moved in and now it's a huge mess. We haven't moved anything into the upstairs yet, and won't until I (with some help from Steph and her brother) refinish the floors upstairs. We ripped up carpet and the wood up there is painted, so it might take a week or so to get all that done. I'm excited to post more about the history of the house, the neighborhood, and all of our home improvements; but for now you should check out this little blurb on our new neighborhood - Eastown!

house pictures

We've got a tentative closing time of this Friday at 2 pm. We're thrilled, of course. Here are some pictures of the vacant house. The owner left us some nice surprises- A t.v. in the kitchen (which Steph hates), mounted kitchen radio w/ cd, some area rugs, porch chairs, a few tools, work bench, and a bunch of other stuff. Not bad. Here are some pictures!
For those of you reading this on Facebook, you might have to click on "view original post" above to see the pictures. That'll send you straight to the real blog.

The latest from our vegan kitchen

We got the Real Food Daily cookbook a few weeks ago and now we finally own more than one vegan cookbook. Dozens of vegan meals and goodies continue to flow from the Vanderzee kitchen. The following are a few I happened to have the camera around for.

This was a delicious tempeh meat loaf (that crumbled apart completely) with mashed potatoes and the best gravy I've EVER had (golden gravy from RFD).

Potato and kale enchiladas from Veganomicon with black beans -- don't worry it's Tofutti sour cream :)

Steph made a Falafel sandwich for lunch one day and said this tzatziki sauce was to die for. I had some leftovers later and agreed.

My own creation - mix a reuben sandwich with a smart dog and you get a reuben dog. Canned sauerkraut, and fresh rye bread from the Wealthy Street Bakery. Not bad. We also made the tempeh reubens from RFD a few days later and they were amazing. They were topped off with the homemade tofu ricotta and homemade thousand island dressing. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of those.

One of the only vegan feasts we've cooked for Steph's parents. These seitan enchiladas, black beans, and Spanish rice all got the meat-loving in-law seal of approval.

Giant Bombcast

Several months ago Jeff Gerstmann lost his job at the popular gaming website, Gamespot, under some very shady circumstances. Fortunately for gamers, he took some of his colleagues with him and started a new website and podcast that is much better, and much less in the pockets of game publishers. It's called Giant Bomb, and I've really been loving it the past few weeks. My favorite part is their podcast, called the Giant Bombcast, which is basically four or five "gaming experts" sitting around talking video games for an hour or two. It doesn't get much better than that.
In other gaming news - The Xbox 360 Pro is going down 5o dollars in price (to 299.99) very soon. See this for proof. I told Stephanie the good news, and she didn't seem quite as excited as I am. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Lola (and U.S.A.)

We've had our adorable little mutt for about 9 months now and we're not sure exactly how old she is. When we first got her, they told us she was about 3 months old, which would put her birthday around early July. I decided she certainly must have been born on the 4th of July because she has such undying love for America and all that it embodies. Here's to you Lola!

Coming up for air . . . and a house!

Yesterday I got home from work at 2:30 and the storm blew in about that time. After a few loud cracks of thunder I panicked and started to batten down the hatches (close the windows). While I was surfing the net, wasting time in the wonders of cyberspace, I heard a loud slamming door and the screen went blank. The power was out and I was submerged into a world of darkness. In some ways being without power can be a good thing. I was forced to light a candle, sit by the window and study Spanish (something I desperately need to do before my July 12 test). I suppose its nice to be reminded that we can survive without power, and it forces me to find other ways to waste/spend time. As for now, I'm cozied in at Kava House using he internet; feels like coming up for air.
A lot of this time has also been spent dreaming about or new house! We made an offer on one we really loved on Tuesday and later that night we heard that they had accepted our offer. Last night we had the inspection and it all went well. We should be closing sometime in the next few weeks. The place is a 100 year old 4 bedroom house in the East Town neighborhood of Grand Rapids, and we love it. It's one block from the main drag of East Town (Lake Drive) which is full of cool businesses and also major bus route. We talked to the owner for a while last night and he filled us in on some of the great neighbors and history of the house. It was really nice and we were grateful for his time and kindness. Obviously I'll be posting a lot more on this in the near future. 507 Norwood, here we come!

Ahh to be irresponsible again . . .

Yesterday one of my favorite video game franchises saw it's latest release out of the starting gates. Metal Gear Solid 4 is now out for the Playstation 3, which is double bad news for me because 1- I don't have a PS3 and, 2 - I've pretty much made up my mind to go with the Xbox 36o when I do finally catch up to the next generation. I've been absorbing the reviews today (a couple perfect 10's found their way into the mix), drooling, and dreaming of what could be if only I was more financially irresponsible. I suppose I will play it some day, but it could be a couple years.


Speaking of financially responsibility, the wife and I have officially begun house hunting. We met with a mortgage lender this week and next week we'll go look at some houses with an agent.

vegan airport dining

When flying back to Seattle, I was nervous about trying to eat vegan for several reasons. One of them was how I was going to manage my eating during 6-8 hours of travel. This may not seem like a big deal, but I've always been the type of person who picks up a "snack" wherever I can get it. My metabolism is still cranking away and I find that I get hungry pretty quick. Usually this has meant grabbing something from McDonald's (those McGriddles are my weakness) or some Panda Express Chinese or something. I packed enough food to hold me over, but that dang airport food is always so tempting. Fortunately this time, I was able to indulge my grumbling belly with something other than my apple, PBJ, pretzels, and fruit and nut mix. Before I left I found this blog post, and I just happened to be flying in to Minneapolis, so I was in luck. From what I hear vegans in other airports usually have a much harder time.
Here's how I fared at the French Meadow Cafe and Bakery.
1- On the way out I chowed on a bowl of black bean chili with a couple slices of bread. It was pretty good, but not spectacular.
2- On the way home I had an almost 3 hour lay over, so I splurged on a Grilled, Marinated Tempeh Reuben, and it was fabulous. It even inspired me to grab a loaf of rye bread from the bakery to try my own version in the next week.
3. And for dessert, vegan carrot cake - delicious.
I'll be trying to connect in Minneapolis whenever possible from now on :)

the almost summertime update

SEATTLE This past weekend I had a great time visiting friends and family in the Seattle area. It was only a three day venture, but it was time well spent. As our friend Jeremy was getting married, much of the time was spent on wedding stuff. Derek Wright stayed with me at my parents' house and let me tag along with him and his rental car - a nice little convertible. A couple highlights were a fabulous rehearsal dinner at Salty's, a day hike on Rattlesnake Ledge with my pops, hanging out with my parents and grandma, a get-together at Dustin and Jenae's new place, and of course the wedding. Here are some pictures from the trip:


SUMMER At this point I have three finals to give and then I'm done with school completely. After Friday, I'll finish up a little bit of grading, clean up my crap, and then I'm free for the summer. For those of you who haven't heard I got a job at a different school for next year. It is a much bigger Christian school and I did my student teaching there, which means I already have a lot of good connections with some good people. It is sad to leave my current school as I like it a lot, but I'm currently only 35% FTE and am looking forward to the boost up to 81% next year. That's the main reason for the change. This summer I'll continue to work at the bakery part-time, and I'm hoping to find something else to help make money and give me less free time to spend money. Painting is one very good option. Jehova Jireh! Because of the new job, the month of August (especially the second half) will find me pretty busy to be sure - planning, decorating, organizing, etc. before the storm hits (school starts).

A parade of vegan food (photos)

Well, here they are, as promised. 2 days ago I just re-discovered the close-up setting on Steph's camera, so most of these photo's pretty much suck because they were taken before that :) Oh well, the meals were delicious. Many of them are already repeat visitors at our table, and all of them will be in the future.

Spaghetti and bean balls

Chili Cornbread Crusted Tofu "Po Boy"

Frying up some seitan for one of our favorites . . .

. . . the BBQ seitan and coleslaw sammich (these bbq strips cook well on the grill too)

Snobby Joe (sloppy joe style lentils - very good)

All the above dishes are from the Veganomicon. As you can see we haven't ventured very far from the "sammiches" section as of late, probably because I can get free (and great quality) bread from the bakery where I work part time.

Veganism part 3

Well, I'm still going strong on the whole vegan thing. I've certainly taken it farther than I ever thought I would, but there is rarely a week where I don't slip in a little animal product somewhere (chicken tamales in Chicago, a sip of cheesy broccoli soup at the bakery, a cinnamon roll, etc.) It's not real hard when I'm at home, but the ways of the world outside my walls can make it a challenge. I can say I am officially sick of the vegan hummus sandwich, and the weekly vegan cookies on our bakery's menu. So lately I'm starting to explore off the menu options - a vegan pizza was last week's experiment, and it was quite good.

When I say I've taken this thing farther than I thought I would, I mean that the following quote from my first blog post on this topic no longer applies -

"I don't want to become an inconvenience to others, especially when I am a guest and am served food."

While I'm still uncomfortable refusing food that is served to me, it doesn't mean I haven't done it, and won't do it again. Two weeks ago I took my first stand as a vegan. My aunt and uncle will often have a bunch of us Vanderzee cousins over for pizza on Sunday afternoons after church. The last time I was invited I decided I wasn't going to eat any pizza, so I packed myself a chili corn bread crusted tofu sandwich (deelish). I was nervous about explaing this to people, but realized that if I didn't want to use animal products I needed to start telling others that, and then explaining why. My excuses like - "Well, they already ordered the pizza so I might as well. . ." or "They made this food just for me" were no longer holding up. If I start saying no thanks to food, others will start to think about their own consumption and in the end less animal products will be consumed (even if it is just me). Also, it got some good discussion started with one of my cousins who is thinking about becoming a vegetarian. If I reluctantly chose to just eat the dang pizza, I would have missed out on some good discussion and more people would continue on their way with possible negative misconceptions about those crazy vegans. Now it's just, "that crazy cousin" ;)
Last thing - I started this whole experiment because I was struck hard by the realities of factory farming in meat, eggs, and dairy. In the light of my views on Christian stewardship I was greatly saddened by the environmental toll as well as the things animals suffer all so we can have some food we don't even need. I was under the impression that it was healthy to eat animal products, but I could get what I needed okay from a vegan diet as well. As I continue to do research, however, I'm starting to find that much to my surprise a plant-based diet is actually much healthier, and animal protein has even been linked to the high heart disease and cancer rates in the U.S. Yikes! This book, the China Study, lays it all out there scientifically and it's pretty incredible. I was very skeptical at first, but I'm coming around. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that as another step on this journey, and more to come on that when I finish the book.
Also, I'm excited to post some pictures of the vegan wonders that have graced our kitchen. I'll do that this week.

We're not in Seattle anymore

For the most part Grand Rapids is pretty familiar to me, and even though I grew up in a markedly different place, I'm not often struck by the glaring differences of this world called West Michigan. There have been a few moments, though. I'll share some.
- A Columbian friend asked me why there are so many churches in the U.S. I had to explain to him that this is the Mecca of all things "reformed", and there's a very healthy portion of other church denominations too. It's not a U.S. thing - it's a Grand Rapids thing.
- My bakery/coffee shop is closed on Sundays - would a place like this survive in Seattle? There are a whole lot of things that are closed on Sundays, and everything closes earlier around here.

Today's little venture, however, definitely takes the cake. I was up early buying some groceries so I could make some Baja Tempeh Tacos for our potluck tonight. I had a bunch of stuff, including a 12 pack of Labatt Blue (the tempeh marinade calls for a pilsner beer). As I put my beer on the conveyor, the words of the clerk magically transported me back to Colonial New England. "You can't buy beer on Sundays before noon."
I was flabbergasted, "really?!"
"Really. Michigan state law."
Many of you may think I'm being overly dramatic here - after all, Pennsylvania won't let you buy any alcohol anytime on Sundays, and in Michigan you can at least buy beer and liquor in a regular grocery store as opposed to state run liquor stores. Still, I couldn't help but feel oppressed. I hung my head in despair and left the store. In my mind my Sunday morning drunken binge was turning into a Sunday afternoon drunken binge. All of a sudden I had several hours to kill with nothing to do but . . .
go to church!! Wow, I guess these laws really work!

Does your pastor love America as much as you?

First off, credit for this title goes to some random blog I ran across here. Last week Wednesday (April 16) I watched parts of the debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and I was pretty disgusted by the moderators' questions. At least half an hour was dedicated to tabloid garbage like verbal gaffs and sketchy associations that we've already seen pulled through the mud for the last several weeks. This could be because America loves this stuff and wants to see these candidates asked the "hard questions" (stupid questions if you ask me). Another theory, which seems just as likely, is that with so many debates between these two we've kind of run out of things to talk about. Several months ago these candidates as well as the American people were having trouble telling much of a difference between the two democratic senators. Now we've had several debates that attempt to draw lines of distinction between the two, with some success, but mostly a whole lot of irrelevant nonsense.
The most ridiculous question I heard asked was one asked to Senator Obama - "Do you think Rev. Jeremiah Wright loves America as much as you do?" First off, who knows and who can judge? Second, who cares?! Ahh, politics. Gotta love it.

Veganism part 2

As I continue to consume food I find myself struggling to define my diet to onlookers. My parents were in town last week and we went out for dinner at a newer local restaurant called the Green Well (a great place if you're in G.R.). I tried hard to find something on the menu that was vegan, or could be made that way, and it actually worked out quite well. I got a veggie burrito without the sour cream and it was spectacular- one of the best burritos I've ever had. I'm sure my family noticed my attempt to stay away from the animal products, and I probably was more careful because I know they were watching.

The next day my sister and I were having breakfast. My mom had ordered an egg soufflé from my bakery the day before and she had left in the fridge after they went back to Seattle. I stuck it in the microwave and then took a couple bites, then handed some to my sister. She commented on the fact that there were pieces of bacon in it, obviously wondering where my vegan conviction had run off to. I said something to the effect of, "and eggs too . . . so what?" I explained my conviction using the following comparison. As a way of being a good steward of resources I try to minimize the amount of driving I do. In the same way, I've been trying to minimize the amount of animal products I consume in order to be a more faithful "caretaker" of this world. Just as I'm not going to completely give up driving, I also won't completely stop eating dairy, meat, etc. In retrospect, however, I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with this comparison.

I guess the point of all this is - I find myself wanting to let others know that there's something different about my diet but have trouble doing that when I'm only selectively eating vegan. Part of my reason for wanting this recognition is purely selfish: I want to be different, unique, and yes I can be honest- fashionable. Let's not forget that eating vegan is definitely fashionable, cool, edgy, "alternative", and all that stuff. There are some pure motives here to, however. I want to eat more sustainably, live out my values a little better, and it is important for me that others see that this is possible and compelling. I suppose being under the microscope of my immediate family this past week as increased my desire to define myself as vegan, not just someone who tries to eat vegan sometimes. We'll see where that takes me.