This morning we were up at 5am to drop our daughter off at school. This may seem odd as that’s quite early and it’s a Sunday, but Ally is going to her first DECA competition, which is being held up in Glenwood Springs. She’ll have fun and it should be a great life experience, as Glenwood Springs opens up many of its businesses to DECA members who help run the town’s hotels, restaurants, etc.
On the way back I suggested to Cheryl that we stop at IHOP for an early breakfast. We had oatmeal with brown sugar, some whole wheat toast and a side of crispy hash browns. It was pretty good, although I prefer our home made oatmeal with the fruit and nuts in it. IHOP’s hash browns are pretty hard to beat though!
I didn’t get much sleep last night and with the early morning it was no surprise that I nodded off on the couch shortly after returning home. That nap kind complicated my plans for making homemade vegan pizza, as I still need to go shopping and take Harley for a walk. The good news is that I can always record the Broncos game on the DVR and start watching it later.
Last night I stayed up kind of late reading Farm Sanctuary by Gene Baur. However, it was worth it as I learned something very interesting. After World War II, the American marketing machine really started to promote dairy products like never before. The campaigns were successful andwith increasing demand the dairy industry needed to increase production.
Like all mammals, cows produce milk after giving birth, so the dairy farmers needed to keep the female cows pregnant every year to keep the milk flowing. When the mothers gave birth to female calves that was a good thing as that meant a larger herd for milk production. However, when the mothers gave birth to male calves that was seen as an economic loss for the dairy farmers as they obviously can’t produce milk and would require feeding. Because farmers artificially inseminate the female cows and the bull dairy cows were not thought to be good eating, that left farmers with a problem.
The solution was to slaughter the baby male calves as their meat was thought to be tender and thus the American veal industry was born. The male calves are separated at birth from their mom’s (as are female calves) so the mom’s milk can go our stores and not to her babies. By the way, much of this information is from the veal industry’s web site, which doesn’t really pull any punches about what they do.
The Calves are denied access to pasture and exercise and often prohibited from any movement at all in order to produce the pale-colored flesh people want to cook and eat. Calves confined in veal crates, usually just 2-feet-wide, leaving them unable to turn around, stretch their limbs, or even lie down comfortably.
Calves confined in crates experience “chronic stress” so they require approximately five times more medication than calves living in more spacious conditions and they are heavily dosed with antibiotics. The overuse of antibiotics in the factory farming industry poses a direct threat to our human population.
Now I see that when we consume milk and dairy products we are directly supporting the veal industry as well as the mistreatment of all dairy cows.
According to Milk Sucks web site, with genetic manipulation and innovative milking technologies, dairy cows now commonly produce 100 pounds of milk a day— 10 times more than they would produce normally. Growth hormones and harsh milking schedules cause dairy cows’ udders to become painful and so heavy that they sometimes drag on the ground. Cows— like all mammals— make milk to feed their own babies— not humans.
It just isn’t normal for adults or children over 2 years of age to consume milk and milk has been implicated in a huge host of health concerns including acne, ovarian and breast cancer, colon and prostate cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Okay, time to lighten things up. For lunch I had a “Tofurkey” and non-dairy “cheddar cheese” with mustard on a whole wheat sandwich. The Tofurkey is a vegan sliced deli type food made principally from wheat gluten and tofu. I was a bit apprehensive, as the Tofurkey looked darker than regular turkey so being a bit leery I put plenty of mustard on both sides of the bread. The result? If I had not known, I would have not known the difference between this and a regular processed turkey lunch meat and cheese sandwich. So thumbs up on this important new find if you like lots of mustard like I do! 
I ran to Vitamin Cottage to pick up all the ingredients for my first attempt at whole wheat vegan pizza. The recipe called for whole wheat flour, regular flour, active yeast, organic pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella flavored rice shreds, 4 cloves of garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, red pepper flakes. Sounds pretty good huh!
However, as I later discovered it will NOT qualify as vegan as the shredded mozzarella flavored rice shreds I bought has casein in it. I looked it up and casein is a milk protein. I’ll have to be more careful next time. That is frustrating as there are good vegan cheese like products out there, but finding them is a bit harder than it appears. I’ll check Whole Foods next time.
Daiya dairy-free vegan cheese that tastes, shreds, melts and stretches like dairy based cheese.
The top rated cheese like product is called Daiya. Daiya is a dairy-free vegan cheese that tastes, shreds, melts and stretches like dairy based cheese. It is not made with casein, the protein found in dairy products or soy, common to many other non-dairy cheese alternatives. Daiya does not contain any common allergens, animal products or cholesterol.
For some reason Daiya isn’t available in stores yet, but it is available from the Vegan Essentials online store. That kinda sucks as that makes it more expensive to buy as you have to buy a “cold bag” to go with it and being in Colorado we have to pay for 2nd day air too. Also, when you get it you need to use it within 7 days. However, Daiya is supposed to be indistinguishable from regular cheese, so I think it will be worth trying out. Also, they say you can freeze and thaw it one time without harming the cheese like food so you could buy 5 lb bags, put them into smaller bags and freeze them individually.
Mark rolling out the whole wheat dough
Back to making pizza! This is more time consuming that I imagined as you have to wait an hour after kneading the dough and another 45 minutes after that. However, I’m sure it will be worth the wait. Good thing I recorded the Broncos game on the DVR as it will be over before we eat.
Dinner’s Ready! The pizza turned out very good, although next time I will leave out the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes proved to be stronger than I guessed. I put a generous pinch of the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes into the pizza sauce as it was a bit bland. However, that pinch turned out to be way too much, as my face is still sweating from the cayenne pepper 20 minutes after finishing eating. Next time I will spice it properly with oregano and basil and leave out the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes altogether.
However, everything else was very good and the crust was excellent. However, next time I will double the sugar in the recipe below to sweeten up the crust a bit more.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
- In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
- Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, vegan cheese, vegetables.
- Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.
The finished product, a yummy slice of pizza!
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