By Alicia on June 2, 2011
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for stumbling upon my little blog and checking it out. This is The Lady and Seitan Blog dedicated to my favorite silver fox, Paula Deen – well my second favorite silver fox, Anderson Cooper still holds a special place in my heart but he doesn’t cook for a living so I had to go with Paula. My goal every week is to dive head first into the world of Paula Deen from her popular cooking shows to her bestselling cookbooks all in the hopes of bringing you veganized, slimmed down versions of Paula’s creations complete with nutrition analysis of the original and veganized recipe. So put up your feet, take a look around and make yourself comfortable – it’s time to start cooking!
Posted in Uncategorized |
By Alicia on May 2, 2013
Red beans and rice might sound pretty benign on the scale of healthy to heart attack but Paula adds her signature style to the dish with the very first ingredient – bacon fat. In her defense she does offer the substitute of lard. Oh wait…did that just make it worse? Probably. Aside from the first major offender on the ingredient list the recipe seemed like a great one to add to my arsenal of healthy dishes for the new me and so I decided to give it a try. The recipe as is makes a ton of beans, I love beans as much as the next vegan but just in case you don’t have any plans to try to pack away a pound of kidney beans in your belly you can easily half this recipe or make the whole thing and freeze half. It freezes incredibly well. The andouille sausage recipe can be found in Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations
and Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food
if you don’t have either of these books then what are you doing reading this go out and buy them! But in the meantime you can substitute soy chorizo or this sweet sausage recipe for the andouille sausage. This veganized version is lower in calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium not only that but it is higher in protein, fiber, calcium and iron!
Original Recipe Nutrient Analysis:
Per Serving: 518 Cal (28% from Fat, 16% from Protein, 56% from Carb); 21 g Protein; 16 g Tot Fat; 6 g Sat Fat; 7 g Mono Fat; 73 g Carb; 16 g Fiber; 3 g Sugar; 122 mg Calcium; 7 mg Iron; 701 mg Sodium; 25 mg Cholesterol
Veganized Recipe Nutrient Analysis:
Per Serving: 482 Cal (8% from Fat, 27% from Protein, 65% from Carb); 33 g Protein; 4 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 81 g Carb; 20 g Fiber; 3 g Sugar; 162 mg Calcium; 8 mg Iron; 486 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol
Continue reading “Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage”
Posted in Entrees |
By Alicia on April 2, 2013
As usual, I’ve been a horrible blogger the last month. But, in my defense, my life has been crazy! But crazy in a good way. I passed my RD exam which means I am officially a registered dietitian aka a big nutrition know-it-all 
Sorry for the emoticon, it was either that or an “lol”. But all that studying for the test left me with very little time for blogging or writing of any sort, or really having a life of any sort. Once I passed the exam I fell into a post-exam-i’vebeeninschoolfor5years-i’m exhausted stupor in which all I could do is wander around aimlessly drinking green juice and murmuring random nutrition facts.
Even with all the crazy I did stay committed to my goal of making 40 days and 40 night of positive healthy changes in my life including joining a gym and a dance school. I didn’t think gym’s were for me but, as it turns out, I need a place to go to really motivate me to consistently work out and incorporating dance has added so much fun and is shaping my body in all new ways. Can you believe I’m taking ballet classes at 32? (Yes, yes, I know I don’t look a day over 31 1/2). I started juicing (then stopped) but have continued to enjoy green smoothies and green juice nearly everyday, started properly hydrating my body again and got back to eating great whole foods everyday. Despite my education-induced stupor I was able to get some cooking done and so you’ll see the fruits of my exploration on both this blog and the Vegan Guinea Pig blog. Welcome to spring! It’s going to be an awesome season everyone. Now let’s get cooking.
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By Alicia on February 15, 2013
I have been observing Lent for most of my adult life. The last two years I took off – the first year because I was pregnant the second year because I had a newborn so let’s just say last year I gave up sleep for Lent. This year on Fat Tuesday, as I ate my gumbo and pondered over what the next 40 days and 40 nights would bring I realized that I’m pretty low on vices these days. I do have a special love for sweets that I’ve picked up while nursing and who could resist?! It’s not often in life you can eat cupcakes and cookies and still lose weight – oh how I love the additional 600+ calories a day nursing burns! I just made a sizeable order of girl scout cookies from a vegan friends daughter (yep, there are vegan girl scout cookies) which is just one more reason I couldn’t give up sugar of Lent. Then I thought of my theme for this year of “Journey”. There is no time like the present to really focus in on what this new journey means and apply it every single day. Everyday until Easter Sunday I will be doing something new to increase my health and well-being physically and spiritually and I’ll keep you posted on my journey through this blog and on facebook and I hope you’ll keep me posted on yours! The recipes over the next month and a half will reflect this journey so I have some serious recipe modification to do to get Paula Deen’s recipes up to snuff of a healthier me. I’ve only broken Lent once before in life, so I take it pretty seriously, and I’m counting on you guys to keep my accountable as well. As a terribly ironic story the only time I broke Lent was my senior year in college when I went vegan for Lent, after 2 weeks I declared it impossible and gave up – 4 months later I was a vegetarian and 4 years later I was a vegan and have been ever since
My intent is for every day to build off the one before creating positive change upon positive change! So here we go:
Day 1 – 60 minutes of yoga and eat vegetable at every meal. I woke up late on the first day and had no time for breakfast. So I warmed up some Chinese take-out from the night before and loaded in extra vegetables. For a snack I had a big steaming bowl of Pho. For lunch a garlicky cabbage from Whole Foods and a bit more Chinese take out and for dinner a hodge podge of things including BBQ Tofu with lots of bell pepper and onions with a side of broccoli. During dinner I also thumbed through a couple green smoothie/green juice books I just got in the mail so it looks like some green drinks will be making their way into my tummy in the near future too.
Day 2 - I kept it simply by adding the challenge to drink between 8-10 cups of water a day. It seems like a small task but I’ve found myself on some days getting ready for bed and being riddled with thirst. Then I think back on the day and realize I’ve only had 2-3 cups of water that day max and no real other fluid either. Every day builds off the next so I also kept up with my Day 1 goal. Although, I feel it’s time to start setting an amount of time I want to dedicate to exercise every week. 7-days a week just isn’t practical so I’ll think on it some more and decide next week.
Day 3 - I’m in the middle of day three and I think today I’ve decided to focus on my spiritual health. This morning I woke up super frazzled while my daughter woke up super happy and loving life. Waving down perfect strangers to say hello, talking up a storm and running around with pure glee. I decided that I need a little bit of that bliss in my life so instead of focusing on all the grown-up things in life that can drag you down I’ve decided to add meditation as part of my weekly exercise plan. There is exercise for the mind and exercise for the body and now I’ll have both covered.
I don’t know what the next month has in store for me but I know I want to incorporate more green drinks/smoothies into my diet, go gluten free and soy free for a couple days, and continue to expand my definition of health and wellness. Look out for recipes that go along with all of these themes and more on both this blog and the Vegan Guinea Pig Blog. Have a great weekend!
Posted in Uncategorized |
By Alicia on February 13, 2013
Ham was the very first meat that I ever gave up, way back in the ‘80s (yep, I’m old). I haven’t the faintest clue what it taste like anymore but something about the brown sugar glaze in this recipe let’s me know that the veganized version is the real deal. As a base I modified my Sweet Seitan sausage recipe from Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food into one big log that is steamed, then baked and topped with this fantastically sweet and tangy brown sugar glaze. When the Sweet Seitan bakes cracks in the top open up and invite the glaze in so every bite is perfection. The original recipe calls for 10 lbs of ham and serves 10 people. 1 pound of ham per person doesn’t just seem like overkill it is just downright frightening. The original recipe nutrition analysis is based on what Paula claims a serving size is – at 824 calories a serving and 38 grams of fat the words “portion control” don’t even begin to describe what is needed here. The veganized version is a mere 201 calories per serving, has 21 grams of protein and is low in sodium.
Original Nutrition Analysis:
Per Serving: 824 Cal (43% from Fat, 47% from Protein, 9% from Carb); 95 g Protein; 38 g Tot Fat; 13 g Sat Fat; 19 g Mono Fat; 19 g Carb; 0 g Fiber; 16 g Sugar; 51 mg Calcium; 5 mg Iron; 4903 mg Sodium; 186 mg Cholesterol
Veganized Nutrition Analysis:
Per Serving: 201 Cal (12% from Fat, 38% from Protein, 50% from Carb); 21 g Protein; 3 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 27 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; 13 g Sugar; 68 mg Calcium; 2 mg Iron; 275 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol
Continue reading “Brown Sugar Glazed “Ham””
Posted in Entrees |
By Alicia on February 11, 2013
This is a recipe from straight from Quick & Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food. It’s delicious on it’s own, baked or pan-fried for breakfast, lunch or dinner or sliced thin to make sandwiches. When veganinzing recipes I tend to use it anywhere that ham is being used. So far, on The Lady and Seitan blog sweet seitan is used for: Brown Sugar Glazed Ham.
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup soy flour
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke
Combine the vital wheat gluten, soy flour, nutritional yeast, paprika, and allspice in a medium bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the garlic, water, Liquid Aminos, ketchup, olive oil, pineapple juice, agave nectar, and liquid smoke in a small bowl. Add this wet mixture to the flour mixture and mix well, forming a dough.
Divide the dough into four balls, then roll each ball into a 6-inch log. Place each sausage on a separate piece of aluminum foil and wrap tightly. Twist the ends of the foil to seal. (If you don’t wrap the sausages tightly enough in the foil they will burst out during cooking.)
Place sausages into a steamer and steam for 40 minutes. Remove them from the steamer and allow to cool, still in foil. Remove foil and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Original Recipe found in Quick & Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia C. Simpson, (c) 2013 All rights reserved
Posted in Entrees |
