Food Glorious Food!

Food: it's a tricky subject. Not just because vegans never get tired of hearing the, often incredulous and high-pitched, question 'But what do you eat????' but also because - to be honest - this vegan eats way too much of it.

Waaaaay.

Toooo.

Much.


I will confess: I am a foodaholic. I just love it, and it loves me. It must do because even the merest caress of a cupcake and it's with me forever. At my side, on my hips, for all eternity. And so this year I am taking myself in hand and am going to eat more healthily: not just healthy for the animals, but healthy for me too!

Under the gentle guidance of my friend, C, (you know who you are!) I am refocusing my diet to eat more whole foods and fewer processed things. I really need to drop about 40 or 50lbs so I see a whole heap more beans and vegetables in my future and am kicking the cookies and cupcakes to the curb. Yikes, that's the plan anyhow! :)

So, here was my start yesterday - my delish brunch at my favorite hangout in all the world: The Green Bean.






It's their signature 'Greens, Beans and (brown) Rice' and not only did I feel virtuous in choosing it, I also radiated health and energy all day. Well, perhaps I am making that last part up for dramatic effect, but I honestly certainly enjoyed it! See:





Yeah, it's clear I really had to force that down, right!?!?


Get healthy, get happy and stay vegan, friends! :)

Vegan Mofo: The Highlight of the Year!

OK, so this is not strictly about food but it is about a food festival - the 14th Annual Boston Veg Food Festival, to be specific!

It's coming up at the end of this month and this year it's extended to 2 days! Saturday Oct 31st and Sunday November 1st will see me - and My Beloved - in Boston living the life. The vegan life! Because, although the organizers plump for the term 'vegetarian', the festival is vegan to the core. Dr Michael Greger will be there, as will Dr Caldwell Esselstyn and Lauren Ulm along with Zoe Weil, Emilie Hardman, stand-up comedians Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin, Stella Zhou and Dr Paulette Chandler.

Past favorites of mine have included Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Sarah Kramer, T. Colin Campbell and Hannah Kaminsky, so you see it is a star-studded event!

Betweeen the munching and the sampling and the learning and the meeting of new folks...oh and the munching - did I mention that?????...it is going to be an awesome weekend so, if you are near Boston, why not drop in and say 'Hi!'? For the New England area, it is the vegan highlight of the year!

Stay well and stay vegan friends! :)

Vegan MoFo: Autumn-scented fun with pears

Great vegan food doesn't necessarily have to be complicated or time-consuming to prepare. It can be as elegant and sophisticated or as down-home and comforting as you like. Witness a dessert I made a few weeks ago during an unseasonably cold snap - a very simple but satisfying pears poached in white wine with cinnamon and nutmeg, served with a scoop of Tofutti vanilla ice cream.



Warm pears, autumn-scented, with the fresh creaminess of vanilla....easy, delicious, vegan.

Need I say more?

Eat well and stay vegan, friends! :)

Vegan Mo-Fo: What do they mean 'restrictive'?????

So here's Day #2 of Vegan MoFo - the month-long celebration of all things vegan and foodish! Despite having a fragrant and delightfully spiced Thai red curry (eggplant and potato with mushroom) simmering on the stove tonight, I have no cool photos to go with it so instead I'm going to set the stage for the coming food-fest with a photo to warm the heart of any commited herbivore. Just take a look at the bounty I brought home from a recent grocery shopping trip!



Before I became vegan, I didn't know the names of some of these fine specimens! Now they are all good friends....And to think that they say a vegan diet is 'restrictive'!!!!! Pah!

Eat well and stay vegan, friends! :)

The most marvelous two years.....

Today I am celebrating is my 2-year vegan-niversary! No, I'll not blow my own trumpet, but it's hard not to have a frisson of pleasure at reaching this milestone. I'm sure as the years roll by it will become less of a source of pride, but right now I am dang pleased!

It's been a great 2 years, the best of my life so far. My eyes have been opened to reality and it's been an education, a source of intense sadness and grief at learning of our egregious and unconscionable treatment of non-human animals and of our profit from their suffering. My world view has changed completely, irreversably, and permanently: I no longer look at people through the same lens, but struggle to see past the inherent selfishness and greed that underpins our willingness to contribute to and look away from animal abuse and exploitation. Each day, a hundred jagged reminders, a thousand reproaches and still no change in sight.

But is has also been a source of tremendous joy and pleasure. I have feasted with the animals, not upon them.





I have met new people along the way, teachers who have guided me and mentors whose patience and friendship has helped me through the trauma of awakening.



I'm now part of a community so much more vibrant, creative and compassionate than I ever dreamed of. It is almost a full-time job keeping up with volunteer activities and online activism - and I love it! It's been my privilege to witness dramatic changes close to home: my mother has adopted a vegan diet; my husband's proved himself more willing to adapt, open-minded, accepting, and loving than I had any right to expect. Thank you, Geoff.



Always a 'foodie', I am no longer conflicted about my choices of ingredients and, through a renewed interest in cooking and nutrition, enjoy every single meal, every last bite. My skills have grown (as has my waistline, or - at least - it has not shrunk!) as I've rediscovered an almost childlike joy at the alchemy which is baking. From co-workers to friends to family, I try to ensure that everyone around me feels the benefits directly, and I suspect they are quite happy!




And of my non-human companions, I have reached a depth of closeness with them that is born of no longer feeling guilt at the arbitrary distinction of 'pet' vs 'food'. In recognising the moral personhood of all animals, I can now look at 'my' dogs and see them for who they truly are - extraordinary souls with their own agendas, interests, joys and pleasures. And I am able to love them just that little bit more too!

I don't yet know how this next year will unfold. More reading, talking, thinking, grieving and more activism. More understanding, more anguish and more joy - this is certain. And I am profoundly grateful for it all.

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Just another reason to avoid ALL animal 'foods'

Not that it bothers me as a vegan but, for millions of folks who adhere to a specific diet for religious reasons, a new and shocking practice has been unearthed in the UK. The Foods Standards Agency has discovered that food manufacturers have taken to increasng their profits by injecting beef and pork proteins into chicken meat. These 'hydrolysed animal proteins' allow the chicken flesh to retain extra water (which is also injected into it) which in turn adds extra weight thereby making it more profitable.

Food manufacturers behaving in a deceitful and scurrilous manner? Who'd have thought?!?!?!?


I came across the article - somewhat buried, I might add - in The Telegraph today and am cross posting it here. My comments are below.....

*************

Beef and pork proteins being injected into restaurant chicken meals
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST 05 Jun 2009


"The proteins have been used by food manufacturers as a method of bulking up chicken meat with water. The bovine and porcine protein powders allow the chicken to hold far more water, and gives unscrupulous manufacturers the opportunity to sell their meat at a higher price to wholesalers.

The practice was only detected by the FSA's new scientific techniques and restaurants and takeaway outlets would not have known that their meals contained traces of pork and beef.
The FSA report said: "Use of these proteins does not make chicken products unsafe, but it is important that people are given accurate information about their food."

Britain's two million Muslims, Jews and Hindus, who are forbidden from eating either pork or beef, could have unwittingly eaten the products.

Bharti Tailor, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain said: "The findings in this report are shocking and potentially very distressing for the Hindu community."

Manufacturers can legally add water to chicken, but must declare it as an ingredient if it goes above five per cent of the content. Water pumped into chicken above that level will usually leak out unless it is kept in with the help of so-called hydrolysed proteins.

The FSA has issued a new warning: "If you choose not to eat pork or beef you may wish to avoid chicken that contains hydrolysed proteins.

"If you are eating food from a restaurant or takeaway, you should ask if the chicken contains hydrolysed animal proteins.

"Restaurants and catering establishments will have this information available to them as it will be on the ingredients list of the products they buy."

The pork and beef proteins are only used in miniscule amounts and were discovered when the FSA tested a small sample of products using a new DNA technique.

It tested five protein powders from three companies. All five contained a material identified as bovine collagen and tests uncovered the presence of porcine material in two of the powders.

Tests also found traces of beef were found to be in one of three chicken breasts."

*************

The part I love most is this:

If you are eating food from a restaurant or takeaway, you should ask if the chicken contains hydrolysed animal proteins.

Yes, I can absolutely see customers asking the 17-year old server in McDonalds if the chicken sandwich contains pork!

Oh and....

"If you choose not to eat pork or beef you may wish to avoid chicken that contains hydrolysed proteins.

Or maybe it would just be so much easier to choose to avoid ALL dead animals at dinnertime??

Call me crazy.....

Stay vegan, friends!

Cold Comfort Farm

As a vegan, I am often asked about my diet and although most people can grasp the idea of not eating the bodies of animals - aka 'meat' - many have a harder time conceptualising a diet free of eggs and milk...oh, and especially cheese. Thanks to extremely successful marketing, eggs and milk are seen as healthful, desirable, 'perfect' foods despite the fact that the exact opposite is, in fact, true.

Similarly, most people do not want to know where their milk and eggs come from, the process which brings them from an animal's body to their plate. The perceived innocuousness of the humble egg is an especially tough one to crack, as it were. The ubiquity of eggs in even apparently unrelated products, combined with the erroneous perception that the 'cage free' label on a carton actually means something in respect of the conditions of production, combined with intrinsic self-centeredness, add up to a situation wherein people succeed in brushing aside the misery and suffering inherent and inevitable in mass egg production. And it is comforting to those fortunate enough to live in rural areas to argue the 'small, family farms, humane conditions' angle, so beloved of my New England neighbours.

However it is a false comfort. A cold comfort. Because it seeks to deny the common-sensical truth that these local farms, family farms, simply cannot provide eggs, cost effectively, on the scale currently demanded. It is logically impossible.

And this is why the majority - the vast majority - of eggs come from massive industrialised battery operations, where tens of thousands of hens are packed into sheds and each one lives out her miserable, foreshortened life in a barren wire cage along with perhaps 7 or 8 cage mates.

That's eight or nine souls in a cage roughly the size of a file cabinet drawer. Eight or nine pairs of eyes looking out into the ammonia-sodden darkness. In fear and panic. Eight or nine bodies with skin rubbed raw from the wire, beaks seared off, sharing space with the dead or dying around them. Until their time for release comes and each cage is finally opened and each spent, broken hen is shipped to slaughter, since her egg production has declined.

Until now, it's been possible to imagine this only from our human perspective. From watching brutal and devastating video of these confined feed operations. Always looking in with the freedom of an external position. But, thanks to web developer and activist Mark Middleton, new perspective is available which puts the viewer squarely in the center of the action - in the place of the hen.

I came across this project - The Virtual Battery Cage - via Animal Voices and recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in knowing where the eggs for their weekend brunch omelette come from. It's a powerful tool in helping us to see life from the perspective of the others. Those who are unfortunate enough to call a battery cage their home. Whose lives and cries are unheeded and whose deaths are mandated by pure economics.

Please check out The Virtual Battery Cage and then decide if that omelette truly is worth it to you.

Stay Vegan, Friends.

I'm not a junkitarian, but still....

I am learning a lot by following Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live plan. There's tons of nutritional advice of course, but I'm also learning about how my other diet compares. I'm beginning to realise that although I cooked pretty much everything from scratch and am definitely not a junkitarian, I was still eating a remarkable amount of processed foods, without even really noticing.

I see now how much bread I usually eat. How much pasta. The vegan cheese in quesadillas and grilled paninis, white flour in the cakes and cookies I bake and write about here. The Gimme Lean sausages and white bread french toast on weekend mornings. And I am quite shocked. In an earlier post Sara was kind in pointing out that the biggest change has already been made - moving from omni to vegan - and that giving up a few processed foods would be easy in comparison. And for the most part she's right, of course. But I do miss the breads - especially the artisanal loaves we usually get from this tiny little independent place where they bake the bread in a wood-fired beehive oven and fetch the loaves out on long wooden spades - and the few convenience foods I used to enjoy.

And I guess the difference here is motivation. When I turned my back on animal products I did so because I could not bear to be a part of the suffering, to support the unconscionable cruelty that pervades the animal exploitation industries.

It was completely for the animals.

Eliminating processed foods from my diet is for me and - although I am motivated to improve my own health and drop the weight - the compulsion is just not as strong.

The ETL food is great - a huge variety of beautiful, colorful fresh fruit and vegetables, some brown rice and a little bread (1 slice in 5 days) and I am enjoying what I do eat. The broccoli and red pepper soup is a standout - I could have eaten the whole panful! And the stew from last night (Day 4) actually had me going back to the stove just to recheck and make absolutely sure nothing was left.

It's just that I am missing what I do not eat. And I am also feeling a bit lost without the comfort of our routine. Fridays, for instance, My Beloved and I frequently go for a pizza (cheese-free for me) and a movie. That will not happen tonight and I am totally clueless as to how to make a Friday evening special without using food. Everything I think of revolves around going out for a meal or winding down from the week over a pint or two in our local brew-pub.

I wonder how many of you can empathise and what you found would help?

Stay Vegan, Friends!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T - thinking what it means to me

Last week something happened at work that's been playing on my mind. A flippant comment I made sparked a mild rebuke from a coworker along the lines that since they respect my position (as a vegan) I ought to respect theirs as a meat-eater. It was the old 'it's-my-choice-we-are-all-different' kind of argument with which we're all familiar but which I had not yet faced directly.

In the interests of politeness and good coworker relations, I smiled and let it go even though there were a few choice things I could have said. However, an additional but unconnected incident at the end of the week, has brought the comment back to the forefront of my mind. I have an account on one of the many popular social networking sites and discovered a comment written on my wall. It reads as follows:

I just realized the irony of you talking about the meat menu at School St [our Valentine's destination], and then me saying I was making Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner like I wasn't nearly so bad as to have a meat filled diet. Gee, thats terrible Amanda, a completely overrun meat menu? Hey, I am making ham and cheese wrapped chicken soaking in butter.....

At first I thought 'what the heck?' Then I started to feel annoyed by the snarkiness of this posting. And then I started to think a bit more deeply about this perceived 'respect' that my coworkers have for my veganism. Now, I am not tarring everyone with the same brush but I am now wondering how deep this respect goes.

Because, you see, when someone makes the effort to post on my wall about 'making ham and cheese wrapped chicken soaking in butter' I guess they think they've come up with a novel and untried way of irritating me. I guess they think it's all pretty clever...

But it's really not.

Because when they see a neat way of playing 'Poke the Vegan', this is what I see: a pig, a chicken, a dairy cow and a veal calf.

I see sentient creatures who are tortured and killed just to satisfy something as fleeting and transitory as our taste for their flesh.

So now that you've savored your meal, let's take a moment to deconstruct what you ate....here's your chicken:


(photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary)

and here's the ham wrapped around the chicken:


(photo courtesy of Slaughterhouse Cam)

Still hungry? OK, well here's the provenence of that cheese and butter the chef in question so relished:


(photo courtesy of Animal Angels)

This is a 'spent' dairy cow - a mother whose body was used up providing for offspring she never got to raise just so we could have her milk made into butter and cheese. Oh, here she is again:


(photo courtesy of Animal Angels)

Taking a break? Not exactly. Her bones have given out due to the calcium loss she's suffered from having spent her foreshortened life being impregnated over and over again in order to remain productive milk-wise.

Oh and lastly, let's not forget the unwanted by-product of that process - the veal calf:


(photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary)

He'll spend his brief life tethered in a stall unable even to turn around, deliberately rendered anemic to keep his flesh pale, before being sent for slaughter at the tender age of between 16 and 20 weeks of age. Just a baby....

Hmmm....the components of a truly satisfying meal, no?

So, to come full circle, when we talk about respect, this is why I cannot and will not respect your position as a meat-eater.

Because the suffering your position causes, supports financially and perpetuates socially is unnecessary and unconscionable. What happens to the animals that we call food is horrifying beyond belief and it is all for nothing: for something as ephemeral as a morsel of taste; for the 'convenience' of a lunch-stop at a burger joint; for a 'Chicken Cordon Bleu'...

Is a vegan diet the new "non-diet"?

I came across the following article in Canada's The Globe and Mail and was intrigued. The article discusses the publication of a study from the George Washington University, the University of Toronto and the PCRM in which diabetics were monitored for 18 months while they followed either a conventional diet or a vegan diet. Unsurprisingly, those following the vegan diet demonstrated better results - better weight loss, reduced blood sugar levels, reduced LDL and decreased need for diabetic meds - plus they found it easier to maintain.

The thing is, these kinds of results are not exactly news....well, not within the vegan community anyway. It is fairly well known and all just so much common sense - nix the cholesterol and saturated fat from your diet, eat freely but lower on the food chain and you'll improve your health! And on a personal level, my own mother has managed much of this too - after years of conventional 'diabetes management', she switched to a completely vegan diet and has succeeded in reducing her insulin dependence dramatically and seriously improving her health.

I guess the interesting thing about it is that the article hints at the importance of 'lifestyle' changes as opposed to simple 'diet' changes. It mentions that vegan meals may initially take a little more preparation - which echoes my last post - but that this was not found to be a problem once participants became accustomed to new ways of cooking. In fact, as the author points out the small extra effort in food prep was ultimately less onerous than the alternative - calorie counting and dietary restriction.

Anyways, for those interested in reading further, here's the article in its entirety:

Is a vegan diet the new "non-diet"?

The question isn't if a diet works, but if it's sustainable. Any number of diets can lower blood sugar, reduce cholesterol or promote weight loss over its initial three months. But the real winner is the one that can accomplish these tasks over the long term.

Enter the vegan diet - a low-fat eating plan that shuns all animal foods including meat, poultry, dairy and eggs. Such a diet has been shown to improve blood sugar in people with diabetes, lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, promote weight loss and even help reverse heart disease.

A study published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association has concluded that a vegan diet - no calorie counting or measuring foods required - is easier to stick to than you might think.

In the study, researchers from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the George Washington University and the University of Toronto assigned 99 people with Type 2 diabetes to follow either a low-fat vegan diet or a conventional diabetes diet for 18 months.

The conventional diabetes diet, based on guidelines from the American Diabetes Association, controlled calories, carbohydrates and monounsaturated fat (e.g. olive oil, canola oil, avocado) according to each participant's need to lose weight and lower blood cholesterol. The diet was low in saturated (animal) fat and cholesterol.

The low-fat vegan diet avoided animal products and fatty foods and favoured foods low on the glycemic index such as sweet potatoes, legumes and green vegetables. (Low-GI foods are digested more slowly and, as a result, don't produce large spikes in blood sugar.) There were no restrictions on calories, carbohydrate intake or portion size. In fact, the vegan diet followers consumed more of their daily calories - 75 per cent worth - from carbohydrate-rich foods than did folks on the diabetes diet.

Each group met with a registered dietitian for one hour to establish a meal plan and then attended weekly meetings for nutrition and cooking lessons for 22 weeks. This was followed by optional biweekly nutrition sessions for a year.

The vegan diet dramatically cut consumption of cholesterol, fat and saturated fat and increased fibre intake compared to the conventional diabetes diet.

People on the vegan diet lost weight, lowered their blood sugar and LDL cholesterol, and reduced the need for diabetes medication. Among people whose diabetes medications remained unchanged, those following a vegan diet achieved better blood-sugar control as indicated by bigger improvement in a blood test that measures hemoglobin A1c.

The fact that people assigned to the vegan diet ate as much as they wanted, increased their daily carbohydrate intake and still experienced favourable blood-sugar and weight-loss results may seem surprising. Researchers believe that a low-fat, plant-based diet improves how the body uses insulin. And because vegan diets are low in fat and high in fibre, they're typically lower in calories, which can facilitate weight loss and result in better blood-sugar control.

Sounds good so far, provided you can follow such a plan for the long term. According to this study, you can. While the vegan diet initially required a little more effort in meal preparation, this complaint was no longer heard at 18 months. In contrast, those following the standard diabetic diet reported more discomfort with restrictions such as watching calories and limiting portions of carbohydrate and fat.

While neither diet triggered increased cravings for fatty foods, the vegan diet followers were less likely to crave such foods after 22 weeks on their diet.

Other studies have also reported the acceptability of a vegetarian diet.

In a study of 250 young women who had tried both calorie-controlled weight-loss diets and vegetarian diets, most abandoned their calorie-restricted diet after four months but were able to stick with a vegetarian diet for two years.

A vegetarian diet has the advantages of being lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, and higher in fibre and low-GI carbohydrates, but it does require planning (and supplementation) to ensure you meet daily requirements for protein, vitamin B12, calcium, vitamin D and iodine.

If you've considered going vegetarian, but don't want to give up all animal foods, consider moving toward a plant-based diet - one that emphasizes grains, vegetables and legumes rather than meat, poultry and dairy. When you do eat meat or poultry, eat a smaller portion.

Start by replacing animal foods with meatless protein sources at three meals a week and build from there. Vegetarian protein foods include fortified soy beverages, tofu, soy burgers, tofu dogs, veggie ground round, tempeh, legumes and lentils.

Other types of vegetarian diets limit - but don't exclude - all animal foods. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products along with plant-based foods.

While these diets may not lower your blood sugar or cholesterol to the same extent as a vegan diet, if planned properly they still have the advantage of being lower in saturated fat and higher in fibre.

One final note: If you have diabetes, consult your dietitian or doctor before making any changes to your diet. Do not stop taking your diabetes medication without checking with your doctor.

Leslie Beck
LeslieBeck.com

Stay vegan, friends! :)

I (heart) Leftovers...

A casual conversation at work today started me thinking about time. Not in a profound 'What Is The Nature of Time?' or 'Are We Living a Post-Temporal Reality?' kind of way, but ruminating more along the lines of how chronically busy people are and how they seem to have little time to actually cook.

And, unpopular as this observation may prove to be, it seems to me that time is not really the issue - motivation is. Let me explain....

My friend at work was saying she was pushed for time to actually cook from scratch but was uncomfortable relying on frozen/canned/packet foods. She is a busy person, works full-time and hard, has a life and myriad responsibilities and is probably pretty typical in this regard. Anyways, she'd noticed my lunch (leftovers from last night's dinner) and made flattering comments on how good it looked. And so I launched into the talk about how cooking fresh food does not necessarily have to be more time consuming than eating convenience foods.

But it quickly became apparent to me that actually this is not necessarily so.

And thinking about it all a little more, I realised that I am fighting a losing battle trying to convince someone in this argument. It will *always* be quicker to stop at McDonald's on the way home or throw an oven-ready pizza in the microwave than to put together a home-cooked dinner - whether vegan or otherwise. But as the light dawned, it also hit me that the question needs to be reframed. It should be positioned not as 'Do I have time to cook something for dinner tonight?' but rather as 'Do I have time to be sick later in life?'.

Because every vegetable I chop, every leaf of spinach I wash, every bean I rinse is an investment not only *of time* at that moment but an investment *in time* for my own future.

And that is motivation for me.

Oh, and food like this too....

Nava Atlas' Seitan and Polenta Skillet with Fresh Greens.

It starts with these:

1 tube polenta, sliced and quartered
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 lb seitan, cut into strips (actually I used a couple of fauxsages instead)
4-6 stalks of bok choy, sliced
5-6 oz baby spinach
4 scallions, sliced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes

And it's simpicity itself!

1. Saute the polenta wedges in a little of the olive oil and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining oil and soy sauce and saute the seitan for about 5 mins. Add in the bok choy, spinach and scallions.
3. Cover and cook until the greens are nicely wilted.
4. Spinkle the vinegar over the greens mix and fold in the cooked polenta and sun-dried tomatoes.
5. Season with salt and pepper if you like and serve.

Like this:



I added a few small red garlicky potatoes and the meal was complete. Plus there was enough for the now somewhat celebrated 'leftovers'.....

Bon appetit!
....and stay vegan, friends!

Phenomenal Soup

A couple of days ago, My Beloved talked me into making a soup. It was against my better judgement as - that night - I really wanted some vegan 'junk food' and this soup seemed altogether too healthy to even contemplate.

However, I am awfully glad that I listened to him (for once!) as this was just about the most perfect soup ever! It is from Jo Stepaniak's classic Vegan Vittles** and is the Potato, Tomato and Cheez Chowder, with two slight deviations: no tomato, and a small substitution.....

Ingredients:

2 cups diced potato (peeled)
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery
6 cups vegetable broth (stock)
2 cups soymilk
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cashew butter
(originally the recipe called for 1/2 cup of tahini, which I did not have so substituted the two nut butters instead)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced

Here's what you do:

1. Combine the potatoes, onion, celery and vegetable broth (stock) in a large pan and bring to the boil.
2. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 15 mins.
3. Combine the soymilk, flour, peanut butter, cashew butter, nutritional yeast, roasted red peppers, lemon juice, onion powder, salt, garlic and dry mustard in a blender. Process until smooth.
4. Pour this mix into the pot with the potatoes, celery etc and stir over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes. It'll be ready when it's smooth and thickened.
5. Stir in the parsley and serve.

The pic does not do it justice, but lemme tell ya, it was creamy, savoury, velvety and so more-ish that we both ended up with 2 bowls each and then I had the remainder for lunch the following day. It was awesome!

With food as good as this, it is really easy to...

Stay Vegan, Friends!

** If you try this recipe and like it, please do think about buying the book. It's understated but really quite the find!

Avocados do not have rectums....

....whaaaaa???

Yes, that was the Quote of the Day at yesterday's Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. My Beloved and I managed to get there right on time and boy was it ever worth getting up early on a Saturday morning! The day started with a talk by Sarah Kramer on travelling as a vegan and she is so entertaining - funny, erudite, snappy, with a terrific presence and a good heaping measure of plain old common sense. She is exactly the sort of person you wish was your next door neighbour, your BFF or your older sister.





No papparazzi, sweetie!!!



But no, the above quote is not attributable to Sarah!

Next up was a legend in the vegan community: T. Colin Campbell. I was so honored to hear him speak and he did not disappoint. The room was packed - and I mean that there were people ranged along all of the walls (several layers deep), others sitting on laps, the gangways were packed with those who chose the floor and still others were crushed in the doorways, just to catch a glimpse. Professor Campbell was the first speaker that day to receive a standing ovation, so that pretty much tells you how thrilled the audience was. His presentation focused largely on how The China Study came about, his work with malnourished children in the Philippines and was very by its nature fairly dense with medical and scientific data. My Beloved loved it and is now interested in reading The China Study, so I'll have to procure a copy for him......



But, no once more, the above quote is not attributable to him either!!

Following Professor Campbell's talk, we were hooked. We stayed for all of the others throughout the afternoon and were alternately charmed by Karen Dawn, greatly entertained and enlightened by Dr. Michael Greger and delighted in Hannah Kaminsky.






Apologies for the terrible pix, but I truly could not get closer. And besides which, I was just so thrilled to have the chance to listen to these folks, I kind of forgot about camera angles....

Karen Dawn is very Californian and incredibly media-savvy. She is a true professional and you can just feel the passion oozing out of her. Highly energized and energizing, it is a privilege to spend time with her. Michael Greger is one of life's born teachers: the kind of peson you dream of having as your professor at university, but sadly never do! He's incredibly well informed and 100% up to date on his material, has all of the facts at his fingertips, knows the research inside out and has the charisma of the showman. His presentation was very audience-focused, with a lot of very dense information imparted in thoroughly entertaining ways. I would drive a fair few hours to hear him speak again!

Sadly, I have no photos of Hannah. Her spot was right at the close of the festival but still the room was packed. She presents as someone who is perhaps somewhat under-confident, but I think that's completely due to her tender age. There is no doubt that she was intimidated by appearing before so many people but I sense that she will grow into the role nicely and prove to be a wonderfully engaging and attractive advocate for veganism. I am excited to see how life develops for her.....

OK, I have tons more to say but it is cold here in my study and I am longing to curl up under the duvet(s) and read through some of the literature I picked up at the festival. So, you'll have to wait for Part Deux tomorrow, when I will indeed reveal who said: 'Avocados do not have rectums!'

Until then, gentle readers, stay vegan. Friends!
:)

Is raw where it's at for you?

I'm a big fan of Happy Cow - no, not Happy Meat - Happy Cow, the online resource for locating vegetarian and vegan restaurants and stores worldwide. I have used it several times to find somewhere to eat and have resolved always to post reviews of culinary experiences to help build out their database.

So, with that in mind, I've just submitted my review of Grezzo, a raw vegan restaurant in Boston that I visited last weekend with My Beloved and our good friends C and D. This is what I had to say:

Last weekend, I visited Grezzo with friends from out of town. This was my intro to raw food and it was great in many ways. We mainly opted for the sampler menu - many courses, small portions - and were delighted by how much food apppeared. The quality seemed excellent (although, ofc ourse, I have nothing to guage it against!) and the staff were superbly knowledgable, friendly and helpful. The plates looked like mini works of art and often it seemed a shame to eat them.

On this occasion, the chef's taster menu included soups - Mushroom Tea, Thai Hot and Spicy Coconut - appetizers - Grezzo Sliders, Pickled Asparagus Salad, Gnocchi carbonara - salads, and entrees - Tomato Ravioli, Land and Sea, and Lobster Mushroom Fettucini.

The ravioli was nice but way too simple to be a good menu choice. The Land and Sea was a complex dish, artfully presented and delicious, and my husband - initially the most skeptical of our group - particularly liked his entree: the lobster mushroom fettucini which was finished with a saffron 'cream' sauce.

The desserts were wonderful and really, if we have the chance to go again, I think I'll be tempted to skip straight to them! I had the choc brownie sundae with home-made gelato and ultimately had to share with everyone - it was soooo good! The rest of the party opted for the Mexican Chocolate Torte which was good, but heavy on the hot pepper!

Of the experience in general, my husband made an intriguing observation: with raw food, there is little smell. Since smelling the food is part and parcel of enjoying its taste, I guess this was the only thing that counted against it. Of course that's not a critique of Grezzo as much as of the genre of food.

The venue itself is ridiculously small: 'cozy' is an desperate understatement. The few tables really are crowded together and the plush overstuffed dining chairs are a luxury the space cannot really afford.

Overall, it was an excellent intro to raw food and, if you are interesting in dipping your toes in that particular pond, Grezzo is a great place to do it!

Although we definitely all enjoyed the food, the chance to meet with our friends and spend a chunk of time catching up was certainly the best part! Given the circumstances, I think I would have enjoyed a veggie burger and fries on Boston Common just as much, as long as the company was the same! And I am relieved that I have not developed a sudden urge to 'go raw' in the same way as I was overcome with the need to go vegan almost a year ago. My Beloved, too, is breathing a hefty sign of relief, especially as we have just purchased that 'sales-tax free stove'.....

Raw food is fine - delicious, nutritious and all that jazz. Don't let anyone kid you that it's all grated carrots and sprouts - that is a tremendous dis-service to the whole ethic. But I do think that it's also somewhat contrived - 'ravioli' and 'fettucini' dishes without pasta? Hmmm...I know that raw foodists will disagree and that the same skeptical criticism is levelled against faux meats/meat analogs/mock meats/whatever you want to call them. And I eat those things happily, given the chance! But I remain unpersuaded by the whole raw deal. Perhaps it is because the basis of my veganism is ethical and springs from a horror of the atrocities committed against farmed animals and a refusal to partake in or support the industry. It does not spring from health concerns and so the additional nutrition benefits derived from raw veganism just don't cause too big a blip on my radar.

But if raw is where it's at for you, more power to you. And if so, visit Grezzo - the staff really is wonderful and you will be very well looked after.

Main thing is - whether cooked or uncooked - stay vegan, friends!

Wha Guru for me!

I wish, I wish I had a photo of the actual chewie bar I discovered yesterday at my local coop, but sadly it was gone in an instant. So here's the manufacturer's official image of this heavenly little treat:



With several varieties in the line and an excellent price point (I think I paid 89cents), Wha Guru Chews are my new favourite snacky friend! Although they don't have a 'certified vegan' stamp, the one I tried (Almond and Ginger) containes only Brown Rice Syrup, Evaporated Cane Juice, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds, High Oleic Safflower Oil, Crystallized Ginger Pieces, Almond Butter, Wheat Germ, Ginger Root Powder, Sea Salt, Soy Lecithin, Natural Lemon Flavor.

But I tell ya - I was blown away by how wonderful it was. I just wish the 1.13oz bars were bigger!

Try them!

Amd stay vegan, friends!

Veganize Boston

--given my thwarted attempts to locate a fine dining restaurant in which to entertain friends from out of town (California, in fact) who perhaps don't want yet another cheeseless pizza or burrito, veganizing Boston seems like a very good idea.

In the face of multiple attempts to find a suitable eaterie, even My Beloved threw up his hands and exclaimed "But where's the **regular** vegan food????"

As a pre-vegan, that says it all.

Go vegan, Boston!

Old Dogs and New Tricks

I have to admit that I am more frequently more cynical than I would aspire to be. Some might even say that I am not sufficiently charitable in spirit.

And they might be onto something.

However, I am excited and somewhat humbled to confess that I have learned something these past few weeks. That people can change. That you can, in fact, teach a 'venerable pooch disparate exploits'...if you catch my drift.

As faithful visitors to Cackleberry will recall, my Dear Mama has been visiting for a while. She arrived warily anticipating the culinary equivalent of Colditz - a dietary regimen of gnarly carrot sticks and toxically-green wheatgrass juice on one side and thwarted attempts to escape to a steakhouse on the other. (And no, before you wheatgrass devotees get on my case - there is nothing intrinsically wrong with grass juices or carrot sticks, but they're not really my bag either.) This delusion did not persist long, however, as - and the breadth of my rear will attest to this - I much prefer carrot cake (covered with a thick coating of vegan cream cheese frosting) to carrot sticks and sugar cane juice (from 'The Islands') to wheatgrass....

So it quickly became apparent to her that she was not about to starve on the cornucopia of new foods that awaited her. In fact, she was able to do what Erik Marcus suggests (in his current series of Oprah-related podcasts) and 'crowd out' the animal-based foods she has consumed all her life. Gone were the filets of tortured chickens, the steaks of 'spent' dairy cows and in their place were hills of beans, thick slabs of tofu, home-made seitan, toothsome tempeh, vibrant vegetables, mountainous plates of salads and the occasional egg-free, dairy-free, cruelty- and guilt-free dessert.

Together we investigated erstwhile unknowns like quinoa, low-glycemic load pasta (she's diabetic), TVP and other meat analogs of all kinds, nutritional yeast, collard greens, cashew butter, tapenade, israeli couscous, avocado, torn fresh herbs straight out of the garden in salads, oven-roasted garlic, home-blended hummus and, of course, some 'commercial' products too - Earth Balance and Braggs Aminos being perhaps two of the absolute favourites.

And so, it was a proud moment for me when I arrived home yesterday at dinnertime to find that My Dear Mama had taken it upon herself to recreate one of my childhood favourites: spaghetti bolognaise. Absent from this dish was the standard ground cow flesh with its accompanying heart-clogging fat and heart-rending cruelty and in its place was TVP. Also present were carrots, peas, onions, celery, green peppers, tomatoes, corn and a host of herbs. I had stopped on the way home to pick up a bottle of wine and so we sat aimiably in the garden, me virtually *inhaling* the pasta sauce, and celebrated Mum's newfound dexterity in the vegan kitchen.

Not a bad way to spend a Monday evening...






Cheers and Stay Vegan, Friends!

One Chapter Ends and Another Begins...

Today was my final day at work. On Thursday I start my new job, so today entailed a lot of leaving. It took me pretty much the entire morning to do so in fact. And some of yesterday too.

There is always a get-together. A small celebration of someone's time with the organization, so I half-expected a few words and a glass of something slightly less caffeinated than my usual beverage of choice at work....

....a full-blown vegan extravaganza, however, I did **not** see coming.

Yes, you read that right!

The folks at my (now former) company catered a full vegan meal and it was lovely. Just lovely.

I hope they won't mind me sharing some of the pix....

This is my former boss, smiling so happily. I miss you already, Tom!



And see how wide people grin when there's great cruelty-free food on the table!



This is some of the spread, sadly I didn't get any close-ups as I was in a state of overwhelmed confusion at the whole thing and not quite in my right mind.





It's an odd fact that you really only learn how truly good people can be at certain, defining moments. Yesterday was one of those moments. Everyone at my organization is busy and overstretched, but still they took time to do something for me. Some people cooked at home and brought food in, others special-ordered 2 vegan cakes (I am usually the baker, and I would have made my own cake if I'd thought about it!!!), and still others brought a heart appetite and made it a really fun and relaxing lunch. And I am feeling humbled and grateful and sad to be leaving and excited to begin the next chapter of my life....all at once.

And perhaps becoming vegan has helped me in that regard too. I feel it's made me humbler, more open to seeing the compassion in others, quicker to offer kindness and more able to accept it from others.

And I really like that.

Tom, Rachel, Suzette, Chris, Jennifer, Tim, Humera, Katie, Angela, Bhavin...everyone...I will miss you all!



Stay Vegan, Friends!

New and Streamlined Kitchen!

OK, I am a cookaholic. I admit it. I've always enjoyed preparing food, but now that I can do so with a clean vegan conscience there is almost no stopping me. I am baking for My Beloved and myself, for coworkers at both of my current places of work, for our friends, for our doglets...for anyone who sits still long enough to have a vegan pastry stuffed into their hot little hands!

So, given the above, it is with immense pleasure that I can announce a slight kitchen reorganisation. We had a butcher's block - which now seems hideously inappropriate in a vegan kitchen - which we replaced with some wonderful open shelves, thereby increasing storage at the same time as gaining a little extra floor space. See here:



Top shelf entertainment includes:



And my favourite shelf is the one bearing my precious new cookbook collection:



Now doesn't this just look so wonderfully organised?!?!



But of course, it's no good if it's all for show so in the next post I'll show you what I made this weekend...

Watch this space and Stay Vegan, Friends!

By Popular Demand...

Last night, for the first time in more than a decade, I ate a.....sausage roll!

Yes, it was a whim that came upon me out of precisely nowhere, but both My beloved and I decided to run with it and see where the craving took us. And this was the destination:



I'll post the recipe as soon as I figured it out properly, but in essence all I did was to take a pack of GimmeLean (sausage-style) and blitz it in the food processor with some 'additions'. I divided the pack into two and to the first half I added freshly roasted garlic and grated Sheese 'blue cheese' and to the other grated onion and sun-dried tomatoes.

Then I mounded the mixture on a piece of pre-made vegan flaky pastry, rolled it into a tube form, scored the tops, brushed with a 
little oil and baked until crispy and the filling was hot inside.




My Beloved made some kalamata olive mashed potatoes and I added some gently simmered savory puy lentils and we ate with gusto!

Stay Vegan, Friends!