Need protein? Popeye has the answer.

I read a fantastical assertion that vegetables have more protein than a burger. It wasn’t a reliable source, but it got me thinking and I did some research. Obviously it’s not so hard to get a healthy diet of protein, but is a vegetable diet really that much different than a meat diet for protein intake? Maybe there are some new perspectives to present to those hard-case protein lovers out there.

Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine (PCRM) are a reputable group of doctors who have such publications as the Power Plate for overal diet and the Protein Myth to educate the public.  They were my first stop. The Protein Myth site provides the two most important piece of information: it’s not that hard to get a good diet of protein and protein overload is dangerous for a variety of reasons. Given this understanding of our nutritional needs, we should understand that protein-loading is intrinsically problematic.

But the purpose here is to compare protein content for meat vs vegetable products. The PCRM site and many others list only protein for a certain serving, like 15.2g of protein for 1 cup of black beans. That allows for serving-size comparisons, but it would be interesting to see what this great protein deficiency is. To find a good answer to this question, I turned to nutritiondata.com, a relatively reliable and unbiased site with a lot of great information.

protein content for selected foods - click for larger view

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Mace & Chai-Spiced Crumb Cake (and Mini-Muffin Variation)

I made this recipe twice – the first time as a full cake for our Cherry Blossom Yoga vegan holiday potluck, the second time (after a little recipe tweaking) as mini-muffins for the Breakfast Yoga Club in The Woodlands. Both came out delicious, but I think after the recipe tweaking it’s now a supreme recipe! The original recipe was veganized from Food & Wine, plus I added in a Chai-spice upgrade. 😉 This recipe makes 1 10-inch crumb cake or 42-46 mini-muffins. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Spiced Cake
2 TBSP ground flaxseed in 4 TBSP warm water
1/2 C almond or hemp milk + 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 C + 2 TBSP AP (sifted) or Cake flour
1 C turbinado/sucanat sugar (or 1/2 C granulated + 1/2 C brown sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp mace
1/2 tsp each Cardamom, Cloves
1/4 tsp each Ginger, Allspice, Black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C canola oil

Crumb Topping
3/4 C AP flour
1/4 + 1/8 C turbinado/sucanat sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 C canola oil

Directions:

1. Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, combine ground flax and water; set aside. In a small measuring cup, mix together the milk and apple cider vinegar; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and spices.
3. Add in canola oil, ground flax combo, milk mixture, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine; set aside.
4. Make the crumb topping: Whisk together all the dry ingredients. Pour in canola oil, and massage together with your fingers until it becomes crumb-like.
5. Spoon the batter (it’ll be a little thicker, not so much pourable as scoopable – like a really soft cookie dough) to a greased/floured 10′ springform pan or lined mini-muffin tin (about half-full each mini-muffin). Top with crumb topping.
6. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 min (for the full cake) or 12-14 min (for mini-muffins).

Happy baking!

On this day in History: Chai Granola

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