Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sheep's Wool in Your O.J.

One tidbit I forgot to mention about Christmas Day that was a bit shocking and quite odd... my mom offered me some orange juice when I woke up. I am not typically one to drink juice, but it sounded like a good way to sweeten the morning a bit while opening presents. I picked up the jug of juice, H.E.B. brand, fortified with calcium. Sounded fine, right. Well, I read further and saw that it was fortified with Vitamin D3. I remembered vaguely from reading Becoming Vegan back when I first went vegan that there were two sources of Vitamin D, one plant-derived and one animal-derived. I couldn't quite remember which was which so I did a quick google search and sure enough, Vitamin D3 is sourced from sheep's wool (bleh!). My mom was shocked, how can juice not be vegan? Crazier things have happened I suppose. So no O.J. for me....

Sorry for the random story. I go back to work tomorrow, which I am pretty sad about. So this morning after a run (trying to start my New Year's resolutions a bit early :-), I made myself my favorite Sunday breakfast; french toast. I have stuck to one recipe since going vegan, but figured in the spirit of the new year I should branch out a bit. Take a guess where I got this one from....

That's right! My copy of My Sweet Vegan, which I really can't put down, I'm having so much fun just drooling over the photos. This one uses nutritional yeast, and I thought it turned out delicious. I wish I'd had some thicker bread, but thankfully since I was instructed to toast the bread before dipping it in the batter, it didn't come out soggy. To make up for the lack of O.J. from Christmas, I had clementine wedges on the side.

Dinners the past few nights have focused on new recipes as well. On Friday night, my parents and sister came over and I decided to test out two new V-con recipes on them: the pumpkin baked ziti with caramelized onions and sage crumb topping that so many people have raved about and the roasted fennel and hazelnut salad with shallot dressing. Along with the leftovers, last night we also tried the mustard crusted seitan from Yellow Rose Recipes.

All three of these dishes got a thumbs up from everyone. One thing I would change about the ziti... next time I would use about half the breadcrumbs called for. Not sure if it was because I was lazy and used store-bought breadcrumbs, but there were just so many of them and they seemed to overwhelm the flavor of the pumpkin/cashew ricotta filling. The salad was a huge hit, my parents loved the fennel and hopefully now they will introduce a new veggie to their repertoire! The toasted hazelnuts and the dried cranberries along with the shallot dressing were a perfect compliment. And the seitan was a yummy new discovery as well (I also used her recipe for seitan, which was a bit moister than other recipes I've made). If you love mustard, you need to try this easy way to fix seitan cutlets.

So now I guess I need to go think about some resolutions for the New Year. Plus I need to make a grocery list so I can make a few goodies to bring along to the two New Year's parties we'll be attending....

16 comments:

Sheree' said...

That is one of the grossest things I have heard of yet. I can't believe it is not safe to drink OJ any longer! Thank you so much for the tip. I too am not a juice drinker. I prefer the whole fruit, but in the off chance I am happy to know what I am on the lookout for. I love french toast. I just finished making some french bread so it looks like french toast is in the future. I like my bread a bit thicker. I also love the tip about toasting the bread first. Thumbs up! Happy New Year!!!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I love how you arranged the orange pieces on the side of the plate :o).

It is sad that nowadays they even have to add non-vegan things to foods that should be vegan such as orange juice... what's next, whey-injected apples?!

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

i am currently thumbing thru my copies of Yellow Rose Recipes and My Sweet Vegan, i don't even know where to begin! so much yum!

everything looks amazing here, i stopped drinking juice i don't juice for myself. figure it's better to have the fiber anyway...looks like you just stumbled on another reason! ;)

Anonymous said...

Yay, I'm so glad that you enjoyed the french toast! It certainly looks delicious the way you arranged it, too. :)

Cakespy said...

That juice thing blows me away! Even not being vegan, that kind of disturbs me.

Hey, at least Clementines are still safe though, and the seitan looks AMAZING.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

What a strange thing to put in orange juice! I am constantly amazed at what is added to foodstuff! What will they think of adding next?
Happy New Year!
Love
Holler
xxx

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

i wish you were kidding about the juice. YUCK!
the french toast looks perfect. i still haven't made french toast as a vegan.

Ruby Red said...

french toast... what a great choice for a sunday breakfast! i am getting my sweet vegan soon, and now you've enlightened me that it has a french toast recipe! yay! i was imagining that the cookbook was full of desserts only.

i am totally jealous of your dinner. i too was looking at the fennel & hazelnut salad and the pumpkin ziti for holiday dinner ideas... i have yet to make them, but yours look delicious! seriously, seitan makes it a perfect meal!

MeloMeals said...

It's so gross that juice has animal ingredients in it. It is just so unnecessary.

kaivegan said...

That's bizarre!

Let's just make it clear that we are talking about pasteurized orange juice, right?

Fresh-squeezed orange juice (even store-bought, organic) still seem perfectly fine to me:)

Jessica said...

Strange! Why can't the meat and animal products stay, well, in the meat and animal products!

I'm a vegetarain (about 15+yrs) not a vegan. All my life I hated meat. Found you via a search for like minded bloggers!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Ooh, I need to make that french toast, but I have no bread! haha.
I hope my copy of Yellow Rose recipes comes soon; yum yum!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the OJ tip. i will look at that.

vko said...

shocking isn't it what animal product they try to sneak into seemingly naturally vegan things...apparently another thing to look out for is the term "Natural Flavors"- that can encompass animal products like beaver balls secretion (castoreum- added to foods & juices to give a more berry finish to berry flavored products)...disgusting, oh & Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit contains crushed beetles...yum.

I love me some french toast!!

Ashasarala said...

Wool in oj? I'm not surprised that you found an animal product in there, but derived from wool? That's gross.

I'm so happy you told us about D3. I had no idea there was any difference. I typically buy the pure, organic stuff but it's good to be aware!

the little one said...

Thanks for the heads up on D3! Whenever I think I've finally rooted out all the hidden animal ingredients, I learn of a new one. Geesh!