The Vegan Magic Box

Hey everyone, Mosno here,
Yesterday I received one of the coolest packages I have received this year! :)
I like to call it The Vegan Magic Box, but in actuality it is called "The Vegan Starter Kit" by Vegan Cuts.
This box ladies and gentlemen, blew my mind. It was JAM PACKED with so much awesome stuff. Food, material, coupons, and even some CANDY.

In this box I found so much hope and inspiration for my journey, it was like the Vegan universe was sending you a big care package saying "Thank you and welcome to our world". Did you know that there is Vegan Gelatin-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Gummy Candy? Are you Serious? that is AMAZING.
I don't care if I sound like a 5 year old, I LOVE Gummy Candy, so this is a HUGE win for Team Vegan hahaha!

One random, but cool object in there was a Glass straw, that is actually genius, if we all had our own glass straws, then that is less plastic to be used for straws, there for less waist, there for help the environment. Its all about these little big steps.

Also in there is the "Vegucated" award winning documentary DVD, which I am excited to see. Also there are some natural energy bars, and a nice collection of snacks.
Its awesome, it really is .. I recommend it for New Vegans because it will be like opening a gift on Christmas day, and I would recommend it to Pro Vegans because it will just put a big smile on your face, just like it did to me :D <-- see?

All of this for just $25! TOTALLY worth it, if you were to buy all these awesome things on their own, it would cost easily $50 if not more, so I say go for it, you will not regret it :)

I hope your having a lovely day.
I'll blog you later

Much Love
Mosno

Lentle Broccoli Dish

Hey everyone, Mosno Here,
 Sorry this isn't a vLog, but I was hungry hahaha.

This is a quick dish that I put together for my dinner this evening, this can be easily customized which ever way you like, but this how I did it :)

#1: Put some olive oil in a pan
#2: Put in some Broccoli and stirred it a bit
#3: Added a little bit of Soy Sauce to the Broccoli and stirred some more
#4: Added a can of pre-cooked Lentils with Vegetables
#5: Added Spices (Garlic Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper, & Paprika)
#6: Added a few Green Olives (because I freakin love olives)
#7: Stirred and I let it simmer for a bit (While I made some tea)
*I tend to like to have something crunchy next to my meal, so I'm also having a Rice Cake.

That's it.
It was actually pretty quick to make, took me less than 20 minutes and is tastes really good :)
I hope you enjoyed it.

I'll blog you later
Mosno

Day 7 : Journal - One Week Strong.

Hey everyone, Mosno here,
 Today I have been a Vegan for a WHOLE WEEK, wow, and I must say, I'm loving it.
I have transformed, I must say, I am a little scared at how quickly I have converted, with in 7 days, I have cooked TWICE, bought a blender, and started making my own smoothies.
I was taking with my buddy Joe (the other contributor to this Blog) this afternoon, I told him at how I'm seeing things differently, I'm finding Vegan and healthy options, almost any where I go now..and I'm always saying "Was this here before? where the hell has this been? I don't remember them selling this?".
But I tell you its beautiful.

Today was the 2nd Vegan Living Program meeting at the Mobtown Ballroom, they brought in a terrific speaker, her name is Dr. Ruby Lathon (www.RubyLathon.com), who is a holistic nutrition-iest. She really knows her stuff, she gave us advice and even took questions from the audience, I really learned a few things today, so thank you Erin & Brenda for bringing this information to us.
Check out her site for more cool information.

Tonight Joe & I had a gig at Teavolve as The Katie Bowers Band one of my favorite places in Baltimore, the staff and owners are kind and friendly people. We wanted to get a little snack and some tea before our show.
We looked at the menu they gave us, with Vegan eyes, and BAM they had a delicious platter with Hummos, Roasted Red Peppers, Olives, Pita bread and Feta. We asked if we could get it without the Feta cheese, and they said "Absolutely, its on the side any ways", then we ordered organic tea, the one that I liked tonight was the Silver Needle White Tea, and they even have Agave as a sweetener option on the side.
What!!? Needless to say, it was delicious, and we had us a nice Vegan Snack before we hit the stage and rocked the night :)

Alright, now I'm about to have a little snack, some almonds & dates, with a cup of Vanilla Almond Milk as I unwind before bed.
Today was an awesome celebratory day!
I'm ready for Week Two..Bring it! :)

Have a great weekend every one.
I'll blog you soon.

Much Love
Mosno

Amazingly Awesome Lettuce Wraps

I've been meaning to try these for a long time but I always chicken out! (No pun intended) But I finally tried it and it was so good I'm sorry I waited. Carrots, onions, water chestnuts, baby corn, bok choy... All sautéed in ginger and garlic and sauce made from soy sauce, white wine vinegar, peanut butter and some Sriracha. 

I didn't follow an exact recipe so all I can say is trust your instincts and go for it!

Day 6 : Journal - 1st Vegan Drink

Hey everyone, Mosno here,
Today, I was FULL of energy, for no amn reason hahaha. I woke up, earlier than usual, and just kept wanting to just..move, felt great. For my lunch I had some of the leftover of the Seitan dish I made (see the dishes section), and now I made my 1st smoothie.

You know your meant to be Vegan when you go from relying on fast food to cooking AND making your own drinks, in 6 days! And LOVE it!

Today I made the investment in buying one of those one serve blenders,  I figure juices & smoothies should be consumed right away, so no need for a huge one.

Today' experimental smoothie had:
-A handful of Dates (about 4 or 5)
-A handful of frozen Strawberries
-What I could cut up of a mango
-Added Vanilla Almond Milk
-Blend & Enjoy

I have to say, this is pretty awesome, except the cutting up the mango part,  that was annoying hahaha.
The mixture of the Vanilla Almond Milk & the Dates add a very awesome sweetness, I didn't need to add Agave or anything, I'm enjoying it as I type this up ight now :)

I hope this was helpful
I'll blog you soon

Much Love
Mosno :)

Seitan & Side Dish : vLog

Today I got a bit zealous and decided to make use a new ingredient for me "Seitan" AND to make a side-dish for it as well. The result was beyond what I expected. I LOVED it..and my housemates liked it as well, so its not just me tooting my own horn :)

The Ingredients for the dish:
-Baked Seitan
-Canned diced tomatoes

The lemon sauce:
-Lemon juice
-All purpose spice
-Paprika
-Garlic Powder
-Crushed Red Peppers

The side dish:
-Small golden potatoes
-Broccoli
-Vegan cream cheese


Here is the vLog of how I made it.
Enjoy :)




Much Love
Mosno

Day 5 : Journal - Customize Your Vegan-ness

Hello there, Mosno here,
I just want to start by saying the vegan community here is Baltimore is amazing, they have a wealth of information, and they share it unconditionally.  This is beautiful,  but it can also be a problem if not used with care :)

One of the 1st things you learn when becoming a vegan for the first time, is that you will end up cooking and preparing most of your meals. I'm on day 5 right now, but from Day 1, the group email was buzzing with recipes for all sorts of delicious dishes. This is great, if your a person who cooks.

I did not cook pre-vegan pledge, so when all these recipes come flying at me, I get over whelmed. I'll be honest, it scared me a little, but I wanted to figure out a way to make it work. So I decided to customize this new life style to make it easier for me to adapt.

First thing I did, created a "label" in my gmail email, "labels" are like "folders". Any time I get a vegan recipe, I just move it into that folder.
This serves two purposes:
1. I get to accumulate some recipes for future use
2. It keeps it out of my field of vision, there for not reminding me that I can't cook, yet!

Second thing I did, started a Vegan folder in my Evernote account.
Evernote is great, its free, works on phones, tables, and their website. I use it all the time to take notes for ideas and lyrics for my music and personal life. And I have access to my notes at anytime, from any of my devices,  as long as they are connected to WiFi of course.

In this vegan folder, I started writting different notes, starting with observations and advice from the Saturday lecture/demo, to ideas of simple dishes I can make.
This is helping A LOT, you see, I was an assembler, I made sandwiches and heated things for my meals, so I started there, replacing the food choices with Vegan options to keep the process fairly similar,  for now.

The more I'm learning, the more I'm finding it comfortable to add more elements into dish ideas. Today I'm finding that my overwhelm-ness is slowly being replaced by excitement.  Simply because I shifted my thought from "having to learn to make fried chicken tofu" to instead "learning to veganize a dish I already know".

So to my new, non-cooking Vegans, take a deep breath, organize yourselves,  and start small. Take your favorite dish and use Vegan ingredients,  I believe that will make a world of difference.

Oh and have a fun Playlist or a favorite album playing in the background as you cook, it will help you un-stress, put you in a good mood,  and there for implanting the experience as a positive memory in your brain, encouraging you to do it again.
Trust me, it worked for me.
Never underestimate the power of music my peeps :)

I hope this was helpful
I'll blog you soon.

Much love,
Mosno

Vegan Tech

Hey everyone, Mosno here,
 I am a techie, I love gadgets and I love finding new and exciting ways to use them usefully and/or creatively.
Since I started in VLP I've read the emails being sent out and did some digging, and I have found some very helpful Phone Apps for this Vegan journey I'm taking, so lets get to it.

Here are 3 free Apps for Vegans:
Is It Vegan? (Android & iPhone)
This app takes getting used to, it allows you to search the name of a product (or even scan its bar-code) and it tells you if the product is Vegan or not..but its not THAT precise, so in a way it can tell you if its Vegan or Vegan-iesh .. still helpful though :)

HealthyOut Healthy Meal (Android & iPhone)
This one is cool, you have different ways of searching for places to eat (including Vegan), it can tell you not only the name of the restaurant, but the actual Dishes they make, which is super helpful.

Vegan Yum Yum (Android & iPhone)
Based on the popular VYY Blog, this app is great to look up Vegan recipes to try out. I'm sure this will be very handy to us newbies to the cooking field :)

If you want more apps, here is an article I found that lists 11 Must Have Apps for Vegans, but not all of them are free :)

I hope enjoyed the post.
I'll blog you soon.

Much Love
Mosno

My 1st Vegan Dish: vLog

Hey everyone, Mosno here, I have officially made my 1st ever Vegan Dish, and I created this vLog of my attempt in my new series "Vegan Musez vLog". I hope you enjoy it :) 

The Ingredients for "Tofu w/ Curry Sauce":
-Firm Tofu (1 block)
-Curry Sauce (1 bag)
-Olive Oil
-All Purpose Seasoning

Let me know what you think.
Much Love
Mosno

   

Day 3 : Journal

Mosno here,
I just wanted to share what was in my head, today is my 3rd day as Vegan, and the reality of the change is starting to settle in a bit. I woke up today for work, got dressed, and then thought "oh crap, I don't have lunch to take to work with me today" *sad trumpet sound*. I do have tofu & seiton, but they are in the freezer, which doesn't do me any good at this point.

Never the less, by the power of Vegan, I had found a solution.
First thing I did was pack a snack to take to work with me, the snacks are:
A couple of Apple Cinnamon rice cakes
A hand full of dates
An apple
I had bought all 3 from my local giant yesterday on my 1st Vegan shooping adventure.

There is tea at work, so I'll just snack and have tea for the next few hours until I get home. Luckily I also bought some ready made soups by Wolfgang, one is a potato soup and the other lentils I believe. Also from Giant.
At least that way when I get home I would be able to heat up a meal in a few mintues.

This is an adjustment for sure, but as demonstrated,  there are quick ways to make it work, until I get a handle on the cooking aspect of things.

I must confess,  I am a little worried about that side of things, I'm not a "cooker", and have NO idea how to make "portions" to last me for more than a couple of days :)
I'll be making a lot of phone calls the first few weeks for sure.

I think we should orgnize a Cook Out, in which people like myself would get together with people who know what their doing, we would all get ingredients and recipes for a meal we want to make and do a hands on cooking then we all sit together and enjoy the food we just learned to make.
I think that would be beneficial to those who also know how to cook, but aren't familiar with Vegan recipes.

What do you think peeps?

I hope my Baltimore folks are dry & warm on this Snow Day :)
Blog you soon
Much Love
Mosno

I didn't make this (but I will...)

Went to dinner with some friends last night at City Cafe in Mount Vernon (Baltimore). They had a wonderful vegan option, a roasted chile pepper stuffed with quinoa, butternut squash, and some other tastiness. Served with some hot red pepper paste to make it as hot as you'd like!

It was absolutely delicious and totally do-able at home, easy-peasy. Can't wait to try my own version!

It's so great when a restaurant has explicit vegan and vegetarian options. It makes my life so much easier, and they are usually some of the best dishes on the menu (I can't count how many times I've caught meat-atarians at the table looking longingly over their steak at my veg entree :)

My thanks to Mos for the new inspiration to be vegan. I am doing some food shopping today, and I think it's going to be fun to keep it all vegan. 

Lets Date!

Being a Sudanese I have weakness towards Dates, I LOVE that fruit, and I was like a kid in a candy store once I found that my local Giant sells dates! the nice big lumpy ones too.
I am a sweet tooth as I mentioned in an earlier post, so one of my favorite things to do is "make up" desserts.
Well this one is a traditional Morrocon desert, but I TOTALLY Veganized it, YESS!



The Ingredients:
-Dates (Caramel Naturel or your favorite kind)
-Almond/Soy Milk
Since I want this to be sweet, I use Vanilla Almond Milk.

The Steps:
1. You heat up some milk (1 or 2 cups depends on what you like)
2. Take out the pits of the dates (you can also cut them into little pieces if you like)
3. Place cut up dates into a mug or two
4. Pour the hot milk into the Date filled mugs
5. Let it sit for a few minutes, then put in the fridge
6. Enjoy it later on that day

I found this to be easy, and delicious. Its good to make these in the morning, and then have them cool in the fridge for a nice snack or dessert later that night.

Let me know what you think?
Much Love
Mosno

Hello World! & Apple Chips!

I'm Joe, a friend of Mosno's, and while I'm not pledging to be completely vegan for six weeks (like Mosno), I am going to try to be as vegan as possible. I've been a vegetarian for about 4 years and I'm close to vegan now, but I'll be looking for ways to cut out the cheese, eggs, butter, etc. that I do use.

I think the hardest part for me is going to be challenging my assumptions. (Is pasta vegan? Of course... Unless it's made with eggs! Doh!) These gotchas are going to be tough. I had a bagel this morning without even thinking about it, but I was relieved to find out that most bagels are vegan (link below :)

I got this recipe for these apple chips from our first workshop/meeting/tasting/course. They were so great they are almost gone already!

1. Slice an apple. Thin for crispy, thick for chewy. 

2. Bake: 1 hour at 200 degrees. 

3. Flip!

4. Bake: another hour at 200 degrees. 

5. Turn off oven, but leave the slices in for half an hour more to finish crisping up. 

These were very good as-is but I may try sprinkling a pinch of salt for a little flavor kick. 

See ya, check back for more veg-adventures! And send your support to Mos on his hero's journey the next six weeks!

~joetime

Are bagels vegan? http://www.isitvegan.com/2012/04/12/are-bagels-vegan/

It has begun

Hello everyone,
This is Mosno Al-Moseeki, singer/songwriter, tech enthusiast, and a Vegan virgin :)
I'm embarking on a new journey and I'm pretty excited about it, I have taken the 6 Week Vegan Pledge via the wonderful people of The Vegan Living Program.
Every Saturday we would all meet up at the Mobtown Ballroom, and they teach us something new (its open to the public so feel free to join us if your in the Baltimore area)

This blog is basically my public documentation of my journey, it will not only be me, I have other artist friends who will be contributing to the blog with their experience and/or advice :)

Yesterday was a lot of food demonstrations, and food testing, which was pretty awesome. I have learned some very interesting things, which will come in VERY handy.

First thing I learned is that there are different kinds of Tofu, or more correctly, different "textures". They range from Soft to Extra Firm. And that freezing them before using them helps even more with the texture.
Being the sweet tooth that I am I picked up on the fact that "Soft Tofu" can be used to make deserts! YESS!!! so I can't wait to find out what I will find when I jump into that sweet sweet rabbit whole.

Second thing I learned is Seitan, pronounced (Say-Ton). This, will most likely be my best friend.
It is wheat based protein source, so its not gluten free, sorry my GF friends. But the texture is freakin amazing. it has a more "meaty" texture then Tofu, & I already had a couple of different dishes with it yesterday, and I'm totally in love with it :)

Here is where my BIG challenge comes.
I don't cook, eeeek!
So in the beginning, I will most likely be doing a lot of "assembly" type foods, but I will eventually be brave enough to use the oven.
Wish me luck :)

What ever journey your embarking on, I wish you luck
Come visit the blog every week to see what new Vegan Adventures I will embark on :D
See you again soon
Much Love
Mosno