Three recipes for Vegan MoFo

First of all I want to thank Jenn for this Farm Sanctuary video. This is a little difficult to watch at the beginning but hang in there because at the mid-point you meet actual healthy, happy turkeys with adorable personalities.



I watch things like this because it helps me remember WHY I don't eat animals.  Sometimes meat looks and smells good and it's easy to forget the suffering behind the plate.  I personally don't ever want to forget!  I try not to get too "preachy" about animal rights because I don't want to turn people away.  My basic motto in all things is "Do the best you can."  It doesn't have to be perfect.  You don't have to go vegan tomorrow - just eat fewer animals.  You don't have to eat sprouts and tofu - just eat less junk and processed foods.  Every small step has a huge impact when viewed through the lens of time.

As promised, I've been cooking.  This cake was DIVINE!  It was made with spelt flour instead of white flour and maple syrup and agave nectar instead of sugar.  And of course no eggs or dairy to muck up your arteries!

Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Glaze

from Get It Ripe by Jae Steele

Curried Garbanzo Salad

Curried Garbanzo Salad

1 can Garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup leftover cooked grain (I used Israeli couscous, but brown rice or quinoa would be good)

1 tomato, chopped

1 carrot, diced

1 cup cooked spinach, chopped (could substitute fresh parsley or cilantro)

2 T vegan mayonnaise

1 tsp mustard

1 T honey

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp curry powder

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Mix beans, grains and veggies in a bowl.  Mix remaining ingredients together in a small bowl to make a dressing.  Pour dressing over bean mixture and toss to combine.  Chill before serving.

Rose-Scented Wheat with Almonds & Pomegranates

Rose-Scented Wheat

This sounds a bit strange but is absolutely sublime!  Rose water can be food in any grocery store here in Israel and in Middle-Eastern shops the world over.  A little goes a long way!

1 1/2 cups dry wheat kernels (can use Kamut in North America.  Here it's called חיטה)

3 cups water

Rinse wheat thoroughly.  Add to a pot with water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover pot and cook 40-60 minutes until soft.  Let cool somewhat before mixing with:

Seeds of 1 whole pomegranate

4 dates, chopped

1 cup slivered almonds, toasted for a few minutes until lightly toasted

1/2 cup grape juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

1-2 tsp rose water

Toss all together and serve immediately or chill for later serving.  Delish!

Should Eating Be Fun?

Vegan German Chocolate Cupcakes from

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Last week I published a new ad to local email lists.  I personally thought the ad was a brilliant bit of copy-writing.  In the ad I used my delicious wit to describe my view of a healthy food as more than just the sum of it's calories, points, and macro-nutrients, but rather one that gives us pleasure on many levels.  I said that sometimes even mom's apple pie might be the healthiest thing in the world if it's made for you with love and enjoyed by you with happiness and free of guilt.

The ad totally tanked.  I didn't get even one click.

It got me thinking about how often I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle:

• I tell clients to stop dieting and start learning to eat and they tell me I'm nuts.

• I say "Here are the keys to diet jail, free yourselves!"and they toss the keys back and lock themselves back in.

• I tell new clients, let's ADD IN healthy foods before we even think about taking away the unhealthy ones.  They say "That's too easy, that will never work." and don't even give it a try.

• I teach simple, doable sustainable changes, but some folks want the hardest strictest meal plan they can cling to until their white knuckles get numb and they fall into the sugar bowl.

Sigh...

OK, so if you don't want to listen to me, here are the words of a few of my clients who are un-dieting their way to permanent, sustainable weight loss:

"Dear Emily, 
I don't know where to begin.  You have taught me to listen to my body.  You have guided me towards healthful habits and smarter choices.  I feel as if I have a renewed lease on life.  I feel great and I am full of energy.  And it is fun to learn how to put different ingredients together to create a meal. I have to admit I never understood how food effects the body.  I guess I didn't want to know.  But it really does - you are what you eat!  Saying thank you isn't enough but I'm saying it anyway.  Words cannot express how much you have helped me and how you helped me to help myself.  I am so grateful for your wisdom, knowledge and kindness."                   -Anne G.


"Working with you, Emily, has been about the positive things, not deprivation.  I enjoy fresh healthy food more since meeting you and I feel better.  I see that this endlessly rich palette of food and the new recipes you have provided add freshness and excitement.  Most importantly, I reclaimed myself as a priority though this lesson about food which is really about so much more.  My life is better for having met you."  - Susan M.


(Both of those ladies have lost significant amounts of weight by the way).

Food is Fun.  Eating is a Pleasure.  There is no reason why losing weight and keeping it off should mean 100% abstention from your favorite foods for ever and ever.  Who can do that?  I certainly won't!

Cinnamon-Sesame Oats & Chai with Rice Milk

But healthy food is also fun and eating in moderation and for hunger, rather than for emotional reasons, is an even greater pleasure.  Getting appropriate physical exercise is one of the greatest pleasures of all!

BBQ Lentils & Eggplant and yes, that's a piece of challah and yes I ate it

from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes

Please don't think it's all or nothing - It's balance.

Please believe that you can make the simple changes that will greatly improve the quality of your life. - You can.

Please make peace with food. - It's not the enemy.

Please make peace with yourself. - It's not worth all this struggle and pain.

Macaroni with Garlic, Peas, Chickpeas, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Rosemary

No recipe there, just saute all in olive oil and toss together.  (It's gold because of the sunset)

For the love of Schmukinuck

My friend Christy wrote me that lovely comment about what a great mom I am cooking my kids all this home-made food, and well, I've got to come clean:  When I excitedly announced to my family that I had joined Vegan MoFo....

...they GROANED.  Collectively.

And just last week in fact, before this Vegan MoFo business even began, my husband whined pathetically that I don't cook enough "Dude Food".

So although it might look all Happy Healthy Homemaker from the outside, I've got the same problems as the rest of you.  I perhaps, am just really good at ignoring them.

No but seriously, "how to get the kids/partner to eat healthy foods" is a question that comes up a lot with coaching clients.  So let's talk it through.

Many of you have already heard this story, but my mother says that my first word was Pop-Tart and my love of junk food and all things processed and packaged just grew from there.  Do you guys remember something called "Space Food Sticks"?

Mercy me, these things were a 1960's Space-crazed version of giant tootsie rolls to fuel us young astronauts through our busy days of moon rock collecting.  I actually became so addicted to them that my mom had to stage an intervention.  I am NOT kidding.  She had the entire family corroborate the lie that the company that made Space Food Sticks (Pillsbury) had gone out of business.  And because I always did the grocery shopping with her, she had to constantly invent growing subterfuge to keep me from wandering down that aisle and uncovering her deception.  I eventually did and have yet to forgive.

My mom was a gourmet cook and ahead of her time whole-foods wise (Pop tarts and space food sticks notwithstanding). I of course hated everything she made and invented a name for healthy veg-filled meals:  Schmuckinuck. Yes for real, and if any of my childhood friends are reading you are surely cracking up right now.  For about 15 years I subsisted on scrambled eggs, grilled cheese and tuna fish sandwiches with the crusts cut off.   The daily Schmuckinuck that appeared on our dinner table along with those objectionable bread crusts, rarely passed my lips.  When at age 16 I announced I would no longer be part of the animal cruelty machine and was from here on out Vegetarian, my mother chuckled and said "OK, good luck with that."  The only vegetables I ate were tomatoes, corn and potatoes. PB and J became my new stand-by although my discrimination of bread crusts continued.  Yet through all my pickiness and food-stage-weirdness, my mom kept cooking the healthy stuff and I got pretty used to seeing it there on the table.  Now I understand this was Brain Washing.

So what's the point of all this?  I just want to encourage you to keep cooking healthy meals despite your kids' grumbling.  They'll survive and may end up coming around eventually and be Schmuckinuck lovers just like me!  But if you NEVER introduce them to healthy food, then they don't stand a chance as adults.  I'd say that like 90% of my clients never ate veggies, not as kids and not as adults.  And now they're sick and overweight with 40 years of food habits to change.  Think of yourself as Jaimie Oliver and step forth boldly and with humor, involving the kids in your healthy kitchen experiments.  Tell them your afraid of Brussels Sprouts too but you'll try them if they will and then make edible green sprout snowmen and bite their heads off.

At the same time, keep up a steady stream of grilled cheese, PB and J, and tuna fish sandwiches with the crusts cut off.  You have to make some concessions to prevent all out rebellion.  Case in point:  Yesterday was my husband's birthday and I made him a Flan.  Eggs, butter, milk, sugar.  I am not veganizing it because I don't want to be divorced.  Or murdered.

Vegans, avert your eyes!

Birthday Flan (NOT Vegan)

But I'm also made this:

Egg-less Egg Salad (with the crusts cut off for old times sake)

THIS is Vegan!

Egg-less Egg Salad
1 container firm tofu, drained and crumbled with your hands
2-3 T vegan mayonnaise
1 T mustard
1 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
Mix it all up.  Easier than egg salad and just as tasty!

Ocean Friendly Sushi

These little darlings are filled with Raw Food Goddess, Alissa Cohen's Mock Salmon Pate.  The recipe is all over the web, including her own website (here), so I'll go ahead and post it for ya!

Mock Salmon Pate
2 cups walnuts
1 stalks celery
1 large red bell pepper
1 large scallion
1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

I like this pate on top of a salad, or spread on crackers too, but here I rolled it up in the nori sheets with grated carrot and cucumber.  That's it, no rice needed!  It is super yum!

The best part though is my chopsticks:

They say "Be Happy" and I am happy that I didn't kill any fishies for these sushi!

Today I also made Tuscan White Bean Soup and Caramelized Onion Foccacia.

Tuscan White Bean Soup

1 T olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups cooked white beans (this is 1 cup dry, soaked, rinsed and pre-cooked)

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced

3 leaves fresh sage, minced

5-6 cups water or vegetable broth

salt and pepper to taste

Saute veggies in oil.  Add beans and broth and cook 30-40 minutes until all is soft and as it should be.  Serve sprinkled with more fresh herbs if desired.  You can also puree half of the soup to make it creamier.

 Caramelized Onion Foccacia (yes I know I have no idea how to spell foccacia)

1 1/2 Tbsp dry yeast

1/2 cup wrist-warm water

1 T sugar

Mix together and set aside 5-10 minutes until foamy.

4 cups flour of choice (I used half white bread flour and half whole spelt flour)

1 tsp salt

2 T olive oil

1 cup wrist-warm water

Mix together with foamy yeast mixture.  Knead 10 minutes until a soft, somewhat sticky dough forms.  Put dough in an oil-coated bowl, cover with a clean towel and set in a warm spot to rise 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.  Punch down and proceed as follows:

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

fresh Rosemary

Black olives, chopped (optional)

sun dried tomatoes, chopped (optional)

Olive oil for sauteeing and sprinkling over foccacia

Kosher salt or big sea salt crystals

Saute veggies and herbs.  Pat dough out into a large rectangle (or circle) and prick with a fork all over.  Brush with olive oil.  Top with veggies and herbs.  Sprinkle with salt crystals and bake in a preheated 180C oven for 20 minutes or until turning golden.

I wish you could smell my house right now!  Ahhhhhh.....  someone's been in the kitchen up to yummy things!

How cute is he?  Not that I'm at all biased.

Vegan Mo Fo Day One

And so it begins...

First the food:  Today I made Banana Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  I had planned to frost them with Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting (whoa, yum!) from the same cookbook, but they got devoured by my family of vulture-people before frosting could happen.  Yes, they are so amazingly delicious that no frosting is needed!  But doesn't that frosting sound amazing?  I guess I'll have to make some more cupcakes just so I can frost them, hm.

These are so not muffins.  They are light, fluffy, sweet and moist, but save the fact there is no cholesterol, they DO contain white sugar and white flour, so in this case, Vegan does not equal Healthy.  At any rate, it is so easy to make perfect cookies, cakes and muffins without eggs and dairy, that I have no idea why anyone ever uses them at all?  These just had the mashed banana, flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, vanilla, rice milk and oil.  Perfect and so super easy!

For dinner tonight we had Vegetable Biryani from Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes.

This is essentially onions, garlic, ginger, curry and other spices sauteed in olive oil.  Then red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini, raisins chickpeas, Basmati rice and coconut milk.  Fast, easy, super comfort food indeed!


Both cookbooks are available in my amazon store to the right of this post or at the "Shop"link above.  I recommend them both and use them often.

Next I wanted to share this quote from trainer Bob Harper of Biggest Loser fame.  He went from vegetarian to vegan last summer and here's what he had to say about the switch:

"This week, celebrity trainer Bob Harper told VegNews that he has gone vegan, cutting all animal products out of his diet, and shared that the switch to a cruelty-free diet has improved his health. “I enjoy living a plant-based diet because it makes me feel clear headed and strong, not to mention my genetically high cholesterol dropped more than 100 points. That was all the motivation I needed,” says Harper. Famous for helping Americans slim down on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, Harper has been a longtime vegetarian, often promoting meat-free recipes. In addition to helping stars get fit and contestants shed pounds, the 44-year-old vegan trainer also teaches exercise classes through Crunch gym and has his own series of workout videos titled Bob Harper’s Inside Out Method.

Source

Vegan Mo-Fo T-minus ONE

As I sit here eating this really yummy plate of leftover Rosemary-Garlic Roast Potato Wedges....

And contemplating this large stack of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks...

I am really excited to begin Vegan Mo Fo tomorrow! (That's Vegan Month of Food. Details here).

I realized however that part of the fun is actually posting recipes, yet I cannot/ will not / whatever / post copy-righted recipes from someone else's published cookbook.  So...  I set up an amazon store with my favorite cookbooks (and some other interesting books too) right here on the blog.  If I make a recipe from a cookbook, I promise I will tell you where it comes from and you can buy the cookbook yourself.

Lots of the things I make are my own creations, or adaptations of other people's recipes, so those of course I will post the full recipe.

In the meantime, I'm going to sit down with my list of recipes...

and start plugging things into my meal planning template.  I have some really exciting and delicious things planned.  For Christy, yes, Holy Land Enchiladas will be made.  For the lovely commenter who challenged me to make Vegan Shakshuka (Middle Eastern-style Huevos Rancheros), I am afraid this is beyond my cooking abilities.  I mean, how would I simulate sunny side up eggs?  My son said "Just make regular shakshuka and tell everyone it's vegan."  Perhaps the boy needs a brush-up course in Integrity?

So far, so fun!  See you all with food tomorrow!

I jumped on the bandwagon

The Vegan Mo Fo Bandwagon that is!




Every year I spend November with my laptop melting my thighs, drooling over hundreds of vegan recipes.  This year I noticed a new International contingent among the 456 bloggers thus far signed up:  Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore...and those are just the "S" countries!  But what is this?  NO ISRAEL???


Obviously we cannot let that happen, now can we?


So, for the month of November, this Israeli blogger will be cooking, baking, sautee-ing, and pureeing.  And blogging about it afterwards.  No tofu in the Holy Land will be safe!


Now that I have committed, I see a long, hard weekend in front of me, butt planted on the sofa, pile of vegan cookbooks towering all around.  Sigh....  such a burden for you my readers!


Anything you'd like to see me make?  Got a vegan recipe you've been wondering about?  Or a favorite recipe you've been wanting to veganize?  I am open to suggestion, so just shoot me a line.


Let's give this pretty girl the month of November off!

More on Vegan MoFo and a gigantic, International blogroll of vegan bloggers, can be found here.