The Art of Living Apie-ly : Convenience Food.

The last few days have been rough.

I'm exhausted. Not sure if it's the time change, maybe the change in weather? Because of the increased sunshine I have been walking more and driving less. Maybe that's it? Most likely I am stressed. I am TERRIBLE at recognizing I am stressed. I work in Mental Health. It's rewarding and interesting. It can also be mentally draining and emotionally taxing.

Regardless of the reason. I'm too tired to cook. I lack motivation and inspiration. Looking at my kitchen is annoying me. My big comfy bed looks far better. Despite this, I still wanna eat something healthy and vegan as much as possible.

Enter take-out and convenience food.

Sunday night I got a pizza for dinner. A whole pizza just for me. And I ate nearly the entire thing (it was a small pizza mind you). In Ontario, there are three chains that offer Daiya on pizza. Daiya is diary free cheese. Does it taste like cheese? IMO, it's bland. Cheese has a lot of fat and salt. It also has "umami", which means "pleasant and savoury" according to Wikipedia. All this equals flavour. Daiya doesn't quite achieve this. I have never met a vegan cheese that did. Maybe one day I will be surprised.

Regardless, the presence of Daiya at these big pizza chains means that when I get together with friends and they say "Hey! Let's order a pizza!" I don't have to say "Umm.... what will I eat?" I can simply ask that we order from: Panago, Pizza Nova or Mama's Pizza and get my own little dairy free pizza.

Sunday, I went with Panago. I find their pizza's more inventive and interesting than other chains. The one I got had a pesto sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, spinach, caramelized onions, artichoke hearts...there was so much flavour that for once, I didn't miss the cheese. I will definitely get it again.

http://www.panago.com/

Yesterday, I grabbed Rawlicious. This restaurant offers vegan, raw, and organic food. It's also within walking distance of my apartment. It's checks all the right nutritional buttons. The Toronto Star recently wrote about it in "The Dish".

http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/02/12/the-dish-does-raw-vegan-fare-from-rawlicious-stand-up-to-its-healthy-appearance.html

I got the "cannelloni" (nut cheese wrapped in shaved cucumber) and a falafel salad. I had the first for dinner last night and the second for lunch today. Both were delicious, nutritious and fresh. I've never had a bad meal at Rawlicious. The food is high quality, which does make it pricey. These two meals costed $36.39. The salad also wasn't as filling as I thought it would be. I ate a snack around 3pm.

http://rawlicious.ca/canada/

Lastly, I wanna talk about Field Roast, Field Roast is a product that USED to be available in Canada. It's been banned. Field Roast is a company that produces a protein alternative for vegetarians and vegans. It's base is wheat gluten. Wheat Gluten is used to make seitan. People cook and use seitan the same way they would use tofu, tempeh or soy (i.e. veggie burgers, stir fries, etc.). The reason people like is that it is not soy based. Some people worry about eating too much soy because of GMO's, pesticides, risk of breast cancer etc. (I do not worry about these things)

You can actually make seitan at home easily and cheaply. I'll blog about it sometime. However,Field Roast expertly made. It's delicious. And packs a ton of protein per serving. I used to buy tons of it. It was very convenient to fry up a "sausage" or some "roast" and pair with some veggies to make a healthy dinner. Alas, no more.

Last year, around September 2014, Canada stopped allowing shipments of Field Roast from the States, where it is made and still sold. Why? Essentially the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) wants Field Roast to test it's products on animals. As a vegan company, they refused to do so. The CFIA is demanding this because Field Roast is packaged to look like meat. Therefore, it must meet certain requirements to be comparable to meet. The testing will insure this. Essentially, they want proof that the protein content is what Field Roast is claiming it is. And the only way the CFIA can think to do is to test the product on animals.

Come on. There is NO other way this can be validated? I refused to believe this.

There is another product made in the UK that isn't sold in Canada. I suspect for the same reasons.

http://www.quorn.com/

The protein alternative market is growing and growing. All I can say is that Canada better get with the times. Or they will be missing out on some big business.

There is a petition to get Field Roast back in Canada. Please consider signing it.

https://www.change.org/p/rona-ambrose-tell-canadian-authorities-to-stop-picking-on-vegetarian-food-manufacturers