Bay Area Vegetarians

If you’re vegan, you might worry that attending a traditional wedding in the Midwest would create an eating challenge for you.  You would pack your trail mix and energy bars, and practice your answers to the never-ending questions:  “Have you tried the roast beef?” “Why aren’t you eating?”  “Oh, can’t you just relax this one day?  There’s a chicken dish—that’s vegetarian!”

Well, you might actually be able to relax.  I was lucky enough to attend one of those traditional Midwestern weddings yesterday, and I didn’t bring so much as a single peanut. Read the rest of this entry »

This month’s recipes are dedicated to the most amazing Cindy and Tom of Granite Falls, WA.  They made the following recipes while I was visiting last week.  Incredibly gracious and generous hosts, I mention them here for BAV because they often host meat-eaters and use food as veg-conversion tools.

Cindy and Tom set the standard for effective advocacy.  They are positive and fun, active and glowing with health, and oh my can they cook.  They make it hard for meat-eaters to not like veganism!  They spend a lot of time and money feeding their non-veg acquaintances mouth-watering meals, and they’re just as generous when a hungry activist comes knocking.

When I first got to their house, they made fresh veg BLT’s and orange creamsicle drinks.  The BLT’s you can imagine—just use vegan mayo and your favorite faux bacon.  The drink deserves a recipe, and I have it here, but keep in mind these measurements are only guidelines.  Please taste and adjust to your own taste buds.

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Recently I had the honor of making dinner for the #1 top fundraiser for Team Vegan, Nancy, and 5 of her close friends. First prize was a gourmet vegan dinner for 6, including dishes! Nancy raised $3,025 to create more vegetarians, so it was an honor (and a blast) to cook for her.

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Whole grains. Nonfat. Cheap. Easy to make. Any recipe with those adjectives is bound to also be…boring. Right? Wrong. Healthy recipes can be boring, no doubt about it, but they don’t have to be. If you have any recipes that you force yourself to make and eat because they’re good for you, rip them up and use them to make a piñata (which might taste better than the recipe).

When we eat or serve boring food, we’re doing more harm than good. If our friends eat our boring vegan food they get nervous about the whole vegan thing and become more resistant to hearing about animal suffering. Who wants to go from BBQ burgers and chocolate cake to unseasoned brown rice and carob bars? That’s a terrifying idea to a carnivore and he’ll resist the message in order to protect himself from bad food.

Give a carnivore a delicious vegan meal, though, and watch those mental brick walls crumble.

Below are two super-easy recipes that fit the bill.

Mushroom Barley Soup
Curried Red Lentil and Cauliflower Salad

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February 17th is National PTA Founders Day. When I first saw it I thought it was National PETA Founders Day and I got really excited! Oh well. I’m sure the PTA people were (are?) great in their own way.

February is National Wedding Month, National Time Management Month, National Cherry Pie Month and International Boost Self Esteem Month!

What does that all add up to? Soup!

Soup is always satisfying. It’s healthy—and love is hard without health. It’s excellent for time management—throw a bunch of yummy stuff in a pot, catch up on e-mail while it’s simmering, serve and enjoy. It’s also hard to mess up so if you’re a nervous cook, a pot of soup can give you that confidence boost.

Most people are thinking of complicated, gourmet meals this month for Valentine’s Day. All the restaurants have special dinners for $100 a pop and the cooking blogs are posting dishes that take three days to make. I believe all that stress, shopping, and prepping leads to couples fighting, not couples loving, and filling up on rich exotic ingredients will most likely just make you want to go to sleep so your body can digest in peace.

About this time last year I was busy cooking fussy meals for a local hunk. They did OK—I mean, he didn’t run away or anything–but it was a pot of simple minestrone that finally made him mine (and cherry pie).

Here are two rich and delicious soups that are easy as pie, great on cold winter nights, yet slightly “special” for a romantic evening, and the pie, too.

Lemon Corn Soup
Mushroom Soup
Cherry Pie

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Listen to your body. Viva La Pasta! *

I can’t believe I still hear people saying things like, “I’d like to go vegetarian, but how do you do it without eating a lot of carbs?” Or, “I’ve been vegan for five years and I’ve managed to completely avoid pasta in all that time. Yay for me!”

No cheering for you, buddy. A sad pat on the back with a wet noodle instead.

The Atkins myth has long been busted and we all need to move on to healthy eating, like this month’s featured recipes:

Sesame Ginger Sauce Pasta and Veggies
Mushroom Stroganoff Sauce

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In the South, it’s a tradition to eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good fortune. Some people believe you need to eat one bean for each day of the year, so you don’t have any bad-luck days. They used to be cooked with ham, but now that veganism is taking over the world, there are many vegan versions out there.

If you like faux meats, add vegan “ham” to your shopping list, chop it up, and throw it into the peas when they’re done cooking. If you’re eating McDougall, cook some brown rice and just eat beans, rice and collards. You can eat buckets of those three things and still lose weight and cure your heart disease.

o Black-eyed peas

o Collard Greens
o BBQ tempeh
o Cornbread

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Vegan holiday food is actually some of the easiest and tastiest food you can make (or buy). Below are recipes for mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, glazed brussel sprouts and pumpkin pie. Cranberry sauce, green beans, salads, sweet potatoes…all the other favorites are already vegan, or so close you won’t need a recipe (Annie’s Goddess dressing instead of the tired old ranch dressing, green beans cooked in veg stock instead of chicken stock, etc).

The main dish is the big question. Tofurky? A big stuffed squash? Thanksgiving Loaf? That’s up to you and your personal tastes. If you’re celebrating with a crowd, try to arrange one of each centerpiece foods (Tofurky, stuffed squash). Have a taste test and then you’ll know what you like in the future.

Mashed Potatoes

Cashew Gravy
Cornbread and Pecan Stuffing
Glazed Brussel Sprouts
Pumpkin Patch “Cheesecake”

Also included is a list for even more holiday resources.

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Summer produce is delicious, but summer weather makes it too hot to cook anything and too hot to appreciate our healthy vegan appetites. Now that we’re finally getting some cooler weather we can fire up the oven and enjoy the comfort food.

Tempeh Pot Roast is a bit time-consuming, but worth it. I often hear from people who don’t enjoy eating tempeh. That is usually because they are eating under-cooked tempeh and this recipe takes care of that.

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Tis the season for red and green! And yellow and purple and orange tomatoes. Tomatoes are being sliced and slurped all over the country right now, and in the Bay Area we’re particularly lucky to have an amazing crop of heirloom tomatoes to die for. I’ve been eating them every single day and can’t get enough. Below are a few of my favorite ways to enjoy them this year (it changes every year).

1. The perfect fresh tomato recipe
2. Tomato and “mozzarella” salad

3. Panzanella
4. Penne pasta with fresh tomato sauce
5. Grilled “cheese” sandwich
6. 5 minute tostadas
7. Frito Pie

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