vegan fish sauce

in preparation for making ndole i am starting with fish sauce. i want to expose my family to food from different countries, but being vegan and now needing to cut my husband's intake of animal products by 25% according to his PCM for cholesterol... well, there's going to be a lot of adaptations. my goal is to try to stay as true to a recipe's flavors as i can. that will sometimes mean going out pretty far to bring it back in. fish sauce is generally associated with asian foods, not african - but ndole is a coastal recipe of Cameroonian decent. my first thought was for garum, which is greek in origin - so much closer to africa. but - every vegan garum recipe was simply fish sauce. so, that's where we are. in the end i took 3 different recipes and blended them to this (hindsight being what it is, i really should have looked into Cameroonian spices instead, but too late now):

4c water
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2t black salt (it has a sulfuric quality i thought would be better for this application)
2T bragg's (it's what i had, tamari was from the og recipes)
1/4c seaweed
1 sprig of fresh oregano

bring to a boil and simmer until you end up with 2 cups

that's it. part 1 of ndole and poulet p.g. for african food. part 2 will be making chicken seitan or whatever faux chicken i settle on.


an obligatory photo for the grandparents of my kitchen non helper. it was snack time, not cook time. 🤷 it's not going to help later tonight that she fell asleep in class today for 30 minutes. 🤦 we are trying taekwondo with her again today, maybe that will help tire her out. or maybe it will be lots of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood tonight.

and a video from tkd today... hopefully i'll figure out videos on here shortly.

meal plan week 10/27

i'm finally back to meal planning. these last few weeks have been a disaster between looking at houses and doing what i thought was catch up on school work and is really just staying ahead. so. far. ahead. i'll probably be done with this class in 2 weeks and the semester won't end until the middle of december.

anywho.

meal plan (with links!)

S: potato vindaloo (9.25 pps), baingan bharta (3.5 pps), basmati rice (3 p for 1/2c), naan (about 3 pps, check brand)

M: ndole, poulet d.g. - both veganized and the lighter version for the ndole given in addition, so recipe points are very different (yes, i know, and i feel like a jerk for the gentrification of these dishes... if someone has already vegan african dishes, i'd love some!). i may or may not point out these recipes, it depends on how well they are liked.

T: i'm possible burger (3 pps), all the fixings, fries. these are boy approved. his favorite vegan burger and he will eat them without any complaint. DH has been wary because of the beets, but i'm going to make him try one this time. swear - you'd never know there was very red dirt in there. beets taste like dirt. yeah, i said it.

W: pizza. amy's pizza is 7/8 pps depending on which WW you use.

T: kimchi fried rice sans egg and with vegan kimchi (vegan, your only points are for rice), baked tofu (pps will vary on your recipe)

F: leftovers

S: burritos (beans 3p 1/2c, rice 3p 1/2c, tortillas vary by brand)

...maybe i should tell you what my previous weeks meals were so there are pictures 🤔

in other personal news, starting in on prepping the house for moving and sale. and by starting i mean it's list making time and outside chores time. there's a short window where it's not too hot and not too cold to get everything done before the plants start to go dormant for the winter. that time is now. lots of drying herbs and picking the last of what we planted at the beginning going on. the dehydrator is running almost non stop for the herbs. i've never had so much basil in my life. oregano isn't far behind. i think we'll be doing more than just spicy salts to give away, i've been looking into different salt blends - but i'm pretty sure it's just going to end up being a lot of what we grew.

Introduction: Dumping Facebook and New Goals

   facebook is all but deleted. since my dad loves the videos i've posted of my daughter, i'm not going to do a full delete, i'll just ditch my account at the end of this week. i'm already being more productive with finishing up school and getting things done in general. getting over sick isn't helping, but i'm almost done with strep too. The initial point of this blog was to do vegan weight watchers, which i will probably still do. once a week. it'll be good for me to track myself in an open forum. i did get the app lifesum in the interim between starting this blog 3 years ago and now, so i'm not sure which i'll end up doing.

  otherwise, expect posts that actually show what i'm doing with my family. so part weight watchers blog, part personal blog - but the personal side will be more activity based. i hope everyone feels free to comment and i will reply regularly.

  anyone else listen to the podcast "Awful Neutral?" i think my daughter is channeling Gertrude here.