Home made Longanisa- ish Food

My great grandmother, Rosenda Gonzales, of Bacolor Pamapanga made so much longanisa to sell when my grandfather was in college in the USA, that my Auntie Mody said it could have wrapped the world a few times. Longanisa is the Filipino sausage of memory.

I can't eat it while I'm eating a low fat vegan food plan.

Today I went on an internet search for "vegan longanisa" and was rewarded with several videos and recipes. I watched one recipe and then set out to make my own.

It was really easy...too easy. Goodbye Morningstar, hello home made!

Set your oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 block firm lite tofu (I'm counting fat grams)
1/2 shitake mushrooms chopped finely. (I used about half a packed of shrooms).
1 T Bragg's aminos
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
3 T Potato Flour (a Bob's Red Mill product)
1 package Hain Fat Free Brown Gravy
1 t ground pepper
1 T brown sugar
PAM baking spray

Start with the tofu, mash it into smithereens. Add in the mushrooms and all the other ingredients one by one mixing very well. You want something that looks like a homogeneous mess.

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Grab a handful of the mix and patty-cake it into a nice little disc. Line them up nicely on the cookie tin. Give the top surfaces a quick spray with the Pam. Put it in the oven for about 35-45 minutes. Flip them over half way through, to brown the other side.

Oh Yum! I had it with a PERFECT condiment. CJ Bibijo Hot and Spicy Korean Barbecue Sauce. Here's the link http://www.cjfoods.com/ I had mine with brown rice.

A highly delicious and virtuous low fat vegan meal.

Two Weeks of this...

Well, I fell off my plan and climbed back on. In between there were fried clams and fried chicken, and all sorts of sweet things. There was ice cream and quesadillas, and lots of guacamole and chicken adobo. All during it, my baseline blood sugar started to climb. It came down a bit on days I walked, but the good low levels I was so please with were gone.

Then I read about someone I knew who had a stroke, and someone else who had a heart attack and I realized, I only have one shot at this life. Then again, I looked at my youngest and was immediately reminded of how old I was when I had here, and what kind of longevity I needed to stick around until she was middle aged like me.

It was sobering. So I put away all the delicious food of the past, and embarked once again on this Low Fat Vegan Journey. I bought Dr. John McDougall's latest book," The Starch Solution" to reinforce myself. I read it through, and I know it all by now.

I knew exactly what to do.

Of all the ways of eating, there will be one that sticks well to an individual. For me, the hardest thing to give up are carbohydrates. I don't like eating masses of meat. It starts to bother me - as much as I love fried chicken and steak.

So I began again. Within four days, my blood sugar had settle down and was dropping. And it is a beautiful morning number once again. And I am enjoying what I eat. I really am.

I made a wonderful batch of bean soup.

Wish me luck, because I'm on a roll...again!