Courico Tacos with Grilled Pineapple Salsa

Awhile ago we made this vegan version of Courico Tacos, which is a Portuguese version of chorizo sausage. The recipe suggests using soy curls, but we used seitan instead. Seitan is made from vital wheat gluten which is comprised of the pure protein of wheat. No, this isn't good to eat if you have gluten allergies, though I suspect this gluten allergy thing has become a bit out of hand. Many of us are having allergy issues because of all the REFINED grains we are eating, not necessarily whole grains, which is now becoming the norm in processed foods, the irony of all ironies!

It is really easy to grill pineapple. Cut it in strips, lightly brush with oil, and grill on both sides like so:

As you can see here, we use a cast-iron grill pan with the grooves. You can see it grills nicely, eh?

We got this recipe from the phenomenal Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a brilliant self-taught vegan chef.

Food Rule#2: Eat to 80% of Your Capacity

12:50 PM

I am back from City Hall which took over 4 hours. Since I only had a glass of juice for breakfast, by 10 A.M. I was pretty hungry, and so popped a couple of homemade pumpkin-oatmeal cookies into my mouth. I didn't have any other food with me, but I managed to last until lunch time. Though I couldn't help but notice several people next to me who had Cokes, Diet Cokes (which is way worse than regular Coke) and Cheetos for their snacks, neither of which I would call food; Michael Pollan says "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants," the byline on the title of his remarkable book In Defense of Food.

Pollan's rule of eating food corresponds with my Food Rule #1: Eat foods that are dense in nutrients. It should go without saying that if you eat actual food, as opposed to processed food like Coke and Cheetos, then you are most likely getting some quality nutrients in your system. Doing otherwise is like putting the wrong kind of gas in your car, but you would never do that, would you? After all, you don't want your car to break down. And yet for many of us, it seems okay to go ahead and break down our bodies/minds by eating non-food daily. How did this happen? Ignorance is bliss...and tasty!

FOOD DIARY

For lunch I ate:

Meal:

a bbq-seitan sandwich with banana peppers on a toasted Kaiser roll.

crispy potato wedges with ketchup

water

"What the hell is seitan?" you might be asking. That's a good question. You can buy it at the store, or make your own. My wife made a seitan-loaf yesterday from the cookbook, Vegan Diner. Comfort food, basically.

And no, I am not a vegan. But I don't eat CAFO meat, either. And after seeing the movie, Earthlings, I don't think I could ever eat it again. Seeing this movie is like taking the red pill in The Matrix. You just don't want to know... After about ten minutes in, I was so horrified I had to turn it off. I still have chills of the images.

I was thinking after the lunch I would eat some of the peanut butter and chocolate muffins sitting there on top of the fridge, but my body/mind is really telling me the bbq-sandwich was quite enough, thank you.

Which brings me to Food Rule #2: Eat to 80% of your capacity. This rule is suggested in The Three Pillars of Zen. Also mentioned from this book is that Zen Buddhists are basically vegans. They've been eating this way for a long, long time.

Eat Bright,

Veggie Daddy