The Lazy Seafood Eating Vegan

Lazy Seafood Eating Vegan

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our infused food journey. Let me give you a little background on myself. I’ve been vegan since 2016. I initially decided to go vegan and not vegetarian because I'm very lactose intolerant. Can you say bubble guts, with a side of indigestion?? I heard about a documentary that was going around titled “What the Health”. After watching it, a lot of things have just clicked for me. I thought it would be hard but nope. It was way easier than I thought. One day I was enjoying meat and the next, I was running the other way. Now at that time I had just got engaged and knew that food was going to be an issue for the near future. My fiance was an islander, and I’m from Texas. At some point we were definitely going to have to visit each other's families. I knew I was going to have to find something I’d be able to eat anywhere. So, I decided to keep seafood in my back pocket for rainy days. This decision has made my life so much easier. Although I haven’t followed through with the initial plan to eventually remove seafood from my diet as well. I have found ways to bring both my worlds together quite harmoniously, if I may say so. No longer engaged but still a seafood eating vegan. I consider myself a seafood vegan because I don't eat seafood enough to be considered a pescatarian. 

When I began my vegan journey rice bowls were my best friend. I had a rice and potato bowl for breakfast. Rice, avocado, beans, and tomatoes for lunch. Then I’d pan-fry tuna and add it to what I had left from lunch. I did eventually find recipes that were to my liking. When those ran out, I started researching substitutes for animal products in other recipes. Like, my favorite dessert Banana Pudding. Or baking cornbread without eggs. Although you can make chili without meat. You can’t have chili without cornbread. When I couldn’t replace the meat product with a substitute I’m used to cooking, I just replace it with seafood. I've tried to eat a veggie burrito, but I need more. Shrimp burritos are my favorite. I had one restaurant in Phoenix called Fillibertos, that I loved. Although there are a lot of locations in Phoenix. I only went to a select few. For the first two years of living in Phoenix, I only went to one near my job. Before I moved away I found another one near downtown Phoenix. 

Phoenix is also where I began Half Baked Frozen Treats. Being vegan I had to get rid of a lot of my favorite snacks. One of which is gummy bears. Unfortunately, the gelatin used in making gummies has meat by-product. I couldn’t for the life of me, get rid of gummies. However the feeling I would get in my mouth after eating them didn’t give me comfort. So, I decided to try to make my own. I researched vegan gummy recipes all over the internet. I kept getting the same answer, ‘agar agar’. I went out to find it at my closest Asian market. When I got home I went right to it. My first attempt stuck to the mold. My second attempt broke apart in my mouth. My third attempt did basically the same as the second. My fourth attempt had the texture of an old fashioned fruit roll up. The one you get out of the produce section in the grocery store. It packed the flavor as well. It tasted so good that I got an idea. What if I combined this flavor with lemonade? I went back out to get the ingredients for lemonade. As well as more ingredients to get that flavor. The first Half Baked Switcha flavor was ‘black cherry’. Once I combined it, I was blown away by the taste. My ass couldn’t leave well enough alone. I thought, "What if I infused it?" I had previously seen a video on making green dragon, and figured it wasn’t hard. I could use that to infuse the lemonade, right? Wrong! It was so disgusting it reminded me of liquor. I wanted this in place of liquor because I don't like the taste of it. My fiance at the time always wanted me to join in when he drank so this was going to be my substitute. I found a way to change the recipe. The green dragon didn't affect the lemonade any more. 

Once I perfected making the syrup for my lemonade, I began thinking of using the other flavors I planned to use for the gummies. Which led to ‘Peach Pineapple Express’. From that was the birth of my first infused meal recipe. Which also taught me that I need to keep track of how much I ingest. Not only did I infuse the food, but I also had a drink on the side. I called the drink a suicide, so you can come to your own conclusions. The drink was a literal suicide of all the different lemonade flavors I had made for my first few customers. That was truly an experience. I guess I should tell you about it.

I loved teriyaki chicken before going vegan. So much so that during my last pregnancy, if Yoshinoya had a real rewards program. I’d probably have a free meal once a week for life. I don’t care for tofu due to its origins. So I made teriyaki shrimp instead using a teriyaki sauce recipe I found online. (link below along with Teriyaki Shrimp Recipe). I saw an opportunity to use my peach pineapple express syrup to make a meal. The few teriyaki recipes I found had pineapple juice as an ingredient in the sauce so I figured why not. It was the best and the worst decision I ever made. The plate was so good, and the suicide complimented it so well. I had to stop and remind myself that everything was infused. If it was so good, why was it the best and worst decision I ever made, you ask? It’s because I made that shrimp teriyaki on a Thursday. On Tuesday I figured out why I couldn’t stay awake anytime I smoked. This went on the entire weekend. Just imagine waking up to wake and bake only to go right back to sleep before you even finish the blunt. Just know I will never do that again. However, at one point I completely forgot about that weekend or lack thereof. I wanted to plan an infused event. I wanted everything there to be edible. I had a little birdie on my shoulder that reminded me without even knowing of my prior incident. She told me I was crazy. Maybe, who knows. I think my kids would agree. I don’t think so. I have since changed my decision on infusing everything. I’ll just infuse toppings, sauces, and desserts. That way everyone has the option on how much to partake.  

If you want to partake when Half Baked Frozen Treats host their first infused event please sign up for updates. (Events)

Throughout this journey we will bring you along with us, through videos, photos, and blog post (here). We will provide any recipes available in our recipe book. The original recipes link will be available to any recipe recreations made by us. I do not use exact measurements when I'm seasoning. So keep in mind to taste your food as you go. Any Half Baked Concentrate/syrup used in our recipes are available for order.

Here’s a recipe for homemade teriyaki sauce if you prefer to make it from scratch.

Below is the version with Half Baked syrup. 

https://www.ourhappymess.com/pineapple-teriyaki-sauce/#recipe

Peach Pineapple Express Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients

• ½ cup low sodium soy sauce

• ¼ cup pineapple juice from the can if using canned pineapple

• ¼ cup of Half Baked Peach Pineapple Express syrup

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• 2 teaspoon fresh ginger minced

• 2 garlic cloves minced

• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 2 tablespoons cold water

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

  Instructions

1. In a small saucepan, combine the soy sauce, pineapple juice, Half Baked Peach Pineapple Express syrup, brown sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the water and cornstarch. Whisk the mixture into the simmering soy sauce mixture and let it thicken. Remove from heat. Cool and store or use in a dish.

Here’s the recipe for our Lazy Teriyaki Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1lb peeled, deveined shrimp

• 1 12.5oz Taylor Farms Teriyaki Vegetable Stir Fry Kit

• 1 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce

• ¼ cup Peach Pineapple syrup

• ¼ cup onions (small diced)

• 1 tbsp minced garlic

• 2 tbsp oil

Instructions

1. In a  large non-stick skillet or Wok heat oil 

2. Cook onion 1-2 minutes or until slightly translucent and garlic and sweat the onion and garlic. 

3. Add stir fry vegetables to the skillet or wok. Let cook half way then add shrimp

4. Cook shrimp and vegetables until shrimp has begun to turn pink. 

5. Add the sauce from the stir-fry kit, the teriyaki sauce, and the peach pineapple syrup and toss everything.

6. Let cook until the shrimp has reached the proper shade of pink.

7. Plate on a bed of white rice or yakisoba noodles.

Below is an image of the first time I made this paired with our iced tea. I have since changed the recipe to make it easy on myself and to add vegetables to it. I tried my hand at making my sauce from scratch. But, I quickly found that with all the work you have to do to be vegan I might as well make things easier where I can.