my year of living veganously

Ginger people

Oh, my.

I've never considered myself a ginger person outside of the ginger snap realm.

When slices of ginger come with my vegan sushi, I push them to the side. Ginger tea, no. So when my husband came home with a "treat" of Ginger Chews last week, I wasn't thrilled.

I tried one.

I went the next day to buy a bigger box of them.

Sweet, hot, soft ginger candy.

A feast of vegetable love

Oh, my. A feast of vegetable love awaits you.

[photo from here]

My bread of choice

Ezekiel bread uses freshly sprouted, certified organically grown live grains. Full of fiber, nutty tasting, fabulousness.

The ingredients: Organic Sprouted Wheat, Organic Sprouted Barley, Organic Sprouted Millet, Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Lentils, Organic Sprouted Soybeans, Organic Spelt, Filtered Water, Fresh Yeast, Sea Salt.

You can find it in the frozen foods section of your local supermarket or health food store. I made some fresh hummus (Note: I am addicted to chick peas) last night and am enjoying it on toasted Ezekiel bread today. Perfect for your, um, Super Bowl Party? Isn't that today?

Real oats

This post and its fantastic recipes reminded me of how much I love steel-cut oats. It is hard to go back to rolled (like, well, impossible), once you've experienced these. And good for you, too. Be virtuous. Eat some.

Four weeks vegan...

Well, well, well. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, I've been living veganously for a month. What have I learned in the past four weeks?

• I don't miss dairy. And for those times I want it--because of habit--I can use alternatives, like soy creamer and purely decadent soy ice cream.
• I once left a cheese stick in my pocket overnight and was amazed at the gelatinous, waxy object it became. Perhaps it was doing the same thing inside me for all those years?
• I feel better. Lighter. As if I'm processing the foods I'm eating more efficiently.
• I definitely have more energy.
• I am a more intentional eater. I stop myself from mindlessly reaching for something to snack on by checking to see if it's vegan.
• I love trying out vegan recipes.
• Traveling-while-vegan is actually easy. It just takes some planning and voicing preferences when choosing restaurants. At a recent client dinner, I asked the person choosing the site to choose a restaurant with at least one vegan option, even if a salad. I took apples, the most amazing easy-to-peel clementines, and raw almonds with me on the trip so I would always have a vegan snack handy during the week, and could eat them for breakfast and/or lunch if the work options weren't vegan. I could have bought them once I got to my destination, but business trips are always so busy and I couldn't rely on finding them. I wanted to be sure I had options. It was such a treat to sit in bed at night reading Coetzee's Disgrace and eating clementines.
• Ahem. I've also learned that it is just as possible to eat a junk food diet while vegan as it is while non vegan. I could eat vegan cookies and cakes all day long if I wanted to, and so another set of choices arises--within a vegan diet, opting for raw, fresh veggies and fruits over processed foods is my next area of focus. Perhaps I've gotten Purely Decadent Pomegranate Chip and Peanut Chews out of my system.
• For the next month of living veganously, I'm going to eat raw until dinner and see how that goes...

Sometimes easy is good

Sometimes making it easy to eat vegan is as close as chop, chop, chop. Every night when I prepare veggies and fruit for dinner, I keep my handy-dandy covered, divided Rubbermaid container at the ready and stock it full.

So when I reach in the fridge the next day for a snack, well, imagine my sheer, unrelenting delight when I find it there, full of raw, vegan goodness. It makes me feel virtuous.

And that's a very good thing. Otherwise, I'd be left to gnaw Peanut Chews until the cows come home, and that's just not right.

Crunchy goodness

I'm undeterred by my older daughter's pronouncement about my new favorite vegan snack, Ryvita Pumpkin Seeds and Oats crispbread: "It looks like the snacks I feed the horses."

Lucky horses. Salty, crunchy goodness.

And for dessert? The Fruit Crunch version.

Vegan restaurant alert - Portland, Oregon

As I see them, I'll collect and post what look like great vegan restaurants to try when I'm traveling. Here's one for Portland, Oregon - will have to check it out this summer when I'm there!

Get Sconed posted today about a meal at Nutshell: "all vegan, sorta upscale, vegetable-focused restaurant in Portland...(there are no fake meats, tofu or tempeh on the menu)" and linked to this review: "Plate-licking-good is how I would describe Nutshell. Or maybe it’s, can’t-get-it-out-of-my-mind."

Am putting it on my list.

[photo from here]

Anatomy of a Snow-Day Dinner

Snow day. Two kids home from school. Dog with an itch. Two cats with slightly irritating meows after hearing them for eight hours straight. Black beans. Perfect storm.

"This is a good day for Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce, Raw Fennel with Orange Zest Salad, and Vegan Skillet Corn Bread," I thought to myself as I sipped my morning tea with soy creamer. Or maybe I was thinking about how to hide in the upstairs bathroom for a few hours without anyone noticing so I could read the ending of Ian McEwan's The Child in Time.

I started by soaking dried black beans.

Vegan skillet corn bread from Veganomicon (big surprise). With skillet sauteed white corn thrown in. Earth Balance "butter." Black beans cooked with a large white onion halved in the pot, then discarded. A HOT HOT HOT sauce made from chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, which I first saw here and wanted just because I loved the can. Rice from my beloved cooker.

Is it possible to make a delicious corn bread that is vegan? Um, yes. Yes, it is.

And a simple raw fennel salad that was so cool and crisp, a welcome antidote to the HEAT of the chipotle sauce on the beans.

Fennel Salad

Bulb of fennel, sliced thin
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 teaspoon fresh orange zest

If I had some, I would have added a little chopped fresh parsley. And some orange slices. But I ate those slices before they got a chance to join their friends, the Fennels.

A nice snowy evening's dinner. I obviously need an apron and a nice strand of pearls if I'm going to keep this up.

Butter is so....90's

The modern dilemma: What to spread on my sprouted toast in the mornings? Earth Balance. A great substitute for butter not only on toast, but in baking. Go forth and balance.

• No Hydrogenated Oil
• Non-GMO Ingredients
• No Trans-Fatty Acids
• All Natural (NO PRESERVATIVES)
• No Artificial Flavor
• Lactose Free
• Gluten Free
• 100% Vegan