Side quest: Vegan Comida - Hummus & Soyrizo Quesadilla

Just like collecting pets in WoW or selling Happy Masks as Link, I have a personal IRL (in real life) side quest: Plant-Based Whole Food Mexican meals. 

My first accomplishment (foodie husband approved!) is the spicy hummus-soyrizo quesadilla. The idea came from the blog Love My Vegan Life, who has an excellent recipe. I made a few, spicy, time saving modifications. 

Reference- http://www.lovemyveganlife.com/2012/07/best-vegan-quesadillas.html?m=1 

Ingredients:

Thick corn tortillas

Red pepper hummus

Vegan soyrizo

Diced red tomatoes w/ green chillies 

Chopped Green Onions

Vegan Butter

Directions:

Butter each side of 2 tortillas. On a warmed skillet or griddle, brown one side of each tortilla for just about a minute (till lightly brown). Remove both from heat. Spread the hummus onto a cooked side of one tortilla. Layer the soyrizo, tomatoes, chillies and onions on top. Place the cooked side of the other tortilla onto the quesadilla half. Lower the heat and cook the fully assembled quesadilla on each side until desired brownness is obtained. Enjoy!

P.S. Make it a quick dinner by generously assembling the quesadilla and serving it with vegans refried beans dressed with cilantro. 

If anything will make you vegan...

As a scientist, I can't say this will work for everyone as I only have myself as evidence. 

BUT...

I was vegan and loving it for a few months prior to my wedding in October. Afterward, I "went down" to vegetarian, and kept the dairy minimal. Then, the dreaded time for every college student, finals week! Once returning to a SAD (Standard American Diet and puny acronym) way of eating for the past few weeks, I now want nothing more than to get back on my vegan track! Cheese, my Achilles heel, now just makes me feel like a big slug and meat makes me sleepy. I sincerely miss the satisfied, energized fullness after a delightful vegan meal! 

Also, I am not a fan of food staying inside of me the way (nor as long as) animal products do. If anything made my bowels work like a fine tuned conveyer belt, it's vegan nutrition. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition (ref. 2) reports that the average vegetarian digestion takes between 27 and 54 hours, while non-veggies take 31 and 96 hours. The median for vegetarians is 40.5 hours while for non-vegetarians it's 63.5. That's a whole day longer! (Which I find gross.)

In 2005, reports Door to Door Organics(ref. 1), Americans ate 12 oz of meat per day. That's just under twice as much as the highest USDA recommended amount! This means that your body is having to process twice the amount of protein it needs and when that protein is meat, it can take days to be completely digested. So hypothetically, if you eat 6 more ounces a day of meat than what your body needs (12 oz is average consumption and 6 oz is average requirement) then in just one week you're carrying around 2.5 extra pounds of meat that your body is taking days to digest and move through you since you don't actually need it. So by simply eating less animal protein and switching to plant protein, you could theoretically lose 2.5 pounds in a week! 

Sugars, salt and fats are another story... ;-)

References:

1. https://blog.doortodoororganics.com/michigan/2012/08/do-you-eat-too-much-protein-infographic/

2. http://www.livestrong.com/article/441273-how-long-does-it-take-a-meat-diet-to-digest-compared-to-a-vegetarian-one/#page=3

Leftover Physics

A little thermodynamics lesson, which everyone probably knows without even realizing it!: "Cold" is just atoms moving slower than "hot". Temperature is essentially just the rate of movement of the atoms making up whatever is hot or cold. This is why refrigeration works. It slows the rate of bacteria growth on your food. Similarly, locking your food in airtight containers keeps new airborne bacteria from affecting your scrumptious vegan stuffing. 

So, how long will that stuffing and those awesome rye rolls be good for? 

3-4 days seems to be the most agreed upon by sources such as How Stuff Works and the Mayo Clinic. The colder and more air restricted the food is the longer it can last. In the physics field of thermodynamics, the Third Law of Thermodynamics states that when the temperature of a body (system) is absolute zero (the coldest temperature ever possible) the entropy (disorder of the system) is, also, at zero. Essentially, the colder a body is the less it's atoms move around. The less movement means the longer it will stay preserved as a tasty treat. 

References:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/dinner-food-facts/leave-leftovers-in-the-fridge.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-safety/AN01095

A Proud of Myself Moment

A friend made my hubs and I this delicious little fall treat: croissants rolled in sugar and pumpkin pie spice stuffed with pumpkin and cream cheese. While scrumptious, boy, was it not healthy! On my vegan mission, I've made the wonderful discovery that truly healthy food can be crazy tasty! Some juice I make for my hubs, which are still packed with leafy greens and other veggies, are too sweet for him to finish and he's the king of sweets! So, my momentary pride comes from this vegan version I crafted myself!:

Pumpkin-Pear Turn-Overs

Ingredients
Philsbury Criossants
Organic canned pumpkin (BPA Free!)
Bartlet Pears
brown sugar

white sugar 
pumpkin spice
cinnamon

Directions

-Preheat the oven to 350. 
-Blend the pumpkin, pears (I didn't peel the pears) and a hearty amount of brown sugar and pumpkin spice, to taste. 

-In a shallow large bowl or plate, mix brown sugar, white sugar and pumpkin spice. 

-Unroll croissants. 

-Add about one tablespoon of mix to center of croissant. 

-Fold sides of dough over the mix to form either a square or kite shape. Pinch sides of the turn-over to keep mix safely tucked away. 

-Move each turn-over to the sugar plate and cover both sides. Sprinkle cinnamon on the top if each sugared turn-over. 

-Place on cookie sheet (either non-stick or sprayed) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Check about every 5-10 minutes. 

-Enjoy!

Hello! ^-^

So physics is the science of the nature and properties of matter and energy. Phood Fysics is a blog of the nature and properties of good food and how it fuels life. 

Hi! I'm Katy ^-^. I'm a nerdy, happy (becoming) vegan working towards a B.S. in Physics. I live and breath science. Physics is every where and it's everything. Upon my husband's urging, I'm starting this blog combining my two loves: food and physics. Hope you enjoy!