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.

The Day After

Thanks everyone on facebook, email, twitter and here, for the words of congratulations and support!  So, the question on everyone's lips is:  "What's Next?"  Everyone's lips.  OK, maybe not "everyone" really cares about what I eat.  My mom does though.  Hi Mom!

First let me take a look back, evaluate and then explain how I'll go forward:

I announced the start of the 100-Day Vegan Challenge here. 

My first day (and a great recipe for Vegan Cheezy Potato Skins) is here. 

That was November 15, 2009.

My Objectives for underaking this challenge were as follows:
1.  The Animals
2.  The Enviornment
3.  My Physical Health
4.  My Spiritual Health
5.  Sharing this information with a wider audience.
6.  Allow my clients, potential clients, and the world at large to get to know me and what I'm like.
7.  Give my mom the chance to see that I am, indeed, eating my vegetables.

1.  Animals
According to vegweb.com, a vegetarian spares the life of at least 50 animals a year.  That seems low to me the way I see people packing in the animal products, but even if it is low, it still adds up to 500 animals in 10 years and 1000 in 20.  Right?  (Bad math skills)  I'm just really happy not to be a part of the whole sordid animal agriculture machine.  Very happy.

2.  Environment
Again, according to the same source as above:

"Becoming vegetarian is one of the most important and effective actions you can take to ease the strain on our Earth’s limited resources, protect the planet from pollution, prevent global warming, and save countless species from extinction.



According to Dr. David Brubaker, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future, “The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disastrous.”

Did you realize that it takes 16 lbs of grain to raise ONE lb of meat.  The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth. About 20 % of the world's population, or 1.4 billion people, many of them currently starving to death, could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone.  Farmed fish must be fed  FIVE LBS of wild-caught fish to produce to one lb of farmed fish flesh to eat.  That's whack Jack.
 
3. Health
Even the American Dietetic Association, those bad boys of Agri-Biz Funding, finally admit that vegans generally live longer, healthier lives, with lower rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and with overall lower body fat and obesity. You can read all about that here. 

As for me, in 100 days, without changing anything else, without eating less quantity-wise or exercising more, I lost 4 lbs.  My skin has definitely cleared, my energy is the same as it was before, my muscles are the same as they were before, and I'm sure you don't really want to hear it, but I'm pooing like a champ.  I used to have a tendency towards constipation, but now I wake up, poo in like 30 seconds and then usually go again later in the day.  Every day.  It's amazing!

Wait, here we are talking about poo and I'm giving an appetizing picture break for those of you who hate reading books without pictures.  This was today's lunch:

Jae Steele's Red Lentil Hummus with rice cakes and veggies.  Yum!

4.  Spirituality
As I mentioned in one earlier post, I find there is a spiritual shift that happens when we eat lower on the food chain.  I don't know if it's just because we feel this sense of harmony with our values, or if there really is something to the idea that eating the flesh, breast milk or menstrual output of an animal who lived a stressful, difficult life and then died a horrifying death, brings the animal's stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline into our own bodies.  But I do believe that even the way our food is prepared can affect our mood and well-being, so why not the nature of the food itself?

Furthermore, when you eat lots of plant matter, you just feel lighter.  You can take that feeling as purely physical, but I also experience it as a spiritual lightness.  I have learned a lot about the energetics of food from Karen Knowler, the Raw Food Coach.  If this interests you at all, check out her work.

5.  Audience, Influence and Impact
You're here, you're reading.  I look at my visitor stats and am awed at the people who come read from all over the world.  If anything I write ever influences someone in a good way, well that's pretty awesome.

6.  Personal transparency
I have no way of measuring this one really but I do get new clients who will say "I love what you wrote on your blog." and I think some of my older clients appreciate especially seeing "behind the curtain" that hey, I'm a normal human just like everyone else.

7.  Keep in touch with Mom (and Dad)
Mom, what can I say?  You were right.  Vegetables ARE delicious and good for me.  I am ever grateful for the healthy food you provided for us day in and day out and for your patience in seeing me through my grilled-cheese sandwiches with the crusts cut off multi-year phase.  When I told my parents I wanted to be a vegetarian, I was about 16 years old and the only vegetables I ate were tomatoes, corn, potatoes and oddly enough, lima beans.  But they let me do it and have supported me literally through thick and thin.  Thanks to you both!

Ahem!  You guys still there? 

So basically the answer to "what's next?" is really... more of the same.  I like living like this.  I feel good.  I love the food.  I will probably be less strict with it when we eat out.  I'd like to be able to go out to something other than Japanese, Hummus and Falafel.  I'm going to play it a little looser outside of the house, but other than, on with the show! 

Good, interesting things are coming.  I hope you'll hang around for more.
xo,
emily

Day 100 I Did It!

Wow.  This is it.  My last day of the 100-Day vegan challenge.  Tomorrow I will wrap things up with my conclusions, but today I did just want to mention that this blog WILL continue.  So will my veganism actually, more or less.  I've really had a wonderful time blogging and sharing this with all of you.  Thanks so much for reading!

So here we go.  Today broke down as follows:

A Super Festive Last Day of Challenge bowl of CHOCOLATE Banana-Whipped Oats topped with dried cranberries and pecans.

Whoa.  Seriously amazing. 

Now the client I had right after breakfast today (you know who you are) understands what I was so Happy Vegan about.

Lunch was Taboulleh left over from the weekend with the Chickpeas in Saffron leftover from last week.

Dinner was Mujaderra, Persian Rice and Lentils, and Salad

and a congratulatory glass of ouzo.  OPA!

Now, here's my pride and joy showing off his Zombie Piratey Purim finest

Scary, huh?

Tune in tomorrow to find out where this vegan story is going to go next....

Day 96 The Reigning Queen of Social Procrastination

So today I was like the Queen of Social Media, which as far as I can tell is synonymous with being the Queen of Procrastination.  But at the end of today's social media blitz I think I'm going to get a free nutrition book to review, so that'll be cool.  That wasn't exactly THE reason I wanted an Israeli publishing house to follow me on twitter, but hey it's a start, right?

I started the day with this refreshing quencher:

Based on the Lemon Cucumber Spa Hydrator from most excellent book The Balanced Plate by Renee Loux, I give you my version:

Refreshing Cucumber-Lemon Smoothie
1 banana
2 cucumbers, peeled
1 lemon, pared
 2 dates
dash sea salt
handful of fresh mint leaves
2 cups water

Renee writes:  "Fresh lemon juice and cucmber blend into pure hydration for beautiful cells and skin.  Lemon is juicy with electrolytes to rehydrate the body, especially after a good workout.  Just a pinch of sea salt lifts the flavor and actually allows your cells to drink deeply."

OK, sign me up.  It tastes good too.

Then I had these mussels:

Did I freak you out?  Did you really think I'd eat mussels?  Ick.

Those are dates filled with my homemade hazel-nut almond butter and they were so so so amazingly good!

Lunch was Whole Wheat Couscous with Chick Peas and Vegetables in Saffron Broth.

******

Remember the pigeons who laid eggs and raised babies under my watchful, mothering eye?  Well, the horny parents were itching to get busy again so they kicked their young upstairs to my neighbor's laundry balconey.  Then this did this:

Pigeons II: The Next Generation

You don't need to say it you know,  because here is Cocoa, as the representative of all of my family and friends, rolling her eyes and saying

"I told you so."

(She also asked me to convey that the table scraps around here have been awful since I became a vegan and if there is a meat-eater out there who'd like to adopt her, she'd really appreciate that).

Day 94 It's Hot in Topeka

And in Kfar Saba.  It's only February and I've got my sweat on just sitting here.  It's times like this when I look around at myself, living here in Israel, and think "What the @#$% were you thinking????!!!"

Oh well.  I'm here now.  Israeli citizen and all.  Therefore, the show must go on.

I went for a run this morning at 8:30am.  Clearly this is no longer early enough as it was hot enough to melt my jog bra to my chest.  Then I came home and drank this:

Banana, Orange, Strawberries, Flax-Pumpkin Mix & Water

Refreshing!

For lunch I had this pretty baby:

Veggie Burger, Pesto, Tomato Slices & Avocado on Whole Grain + Side Salad of Baby Greens

Yum

Then I decided to make Nut Butter.  Aside from the heat, Israel has another fault.  Yes, just one ;-)

No Trader Joe's.

This is a crime really.  And because there is no Trader Joe's, there is no TJ's Almond Butter for $5.00/big jar.  Yes, we have almond butter here and no doubt it's fresh and straight from our very own almond trees.   However, the price is steeeep and the container very small.

I had tried to make my own almond butter before.  My juicer, for pete's sake, claims it will make creamy, smooth almond butter, but it lies.  I was met, several times, with expensive, almond butter failure.

Then I found the answer here.  It turns out that I was on the right track, but just quit too early each time.  The trick is just to keep the food processor running and don't give up too soon.  I shall walk you through it.

Put 4 oz (100g) raw almonds and 4 oz (100g) raw hazelnuts in the oven at 160C for 13-15 minutes, stirring once mid-way.  (Yes, you can use all almond, but I didn't have enough and lurve me hazelnuts very much).

When they are roasted, put them in a clean dishtowel and rub the skins off the hazelnuts.  You can skip this step if you're using all almonds or another nut.

Then cool for about 5 minutes and place in the food processor.

Now, start processing the nuts on medium-high, stopping every minute or two to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  It will take about 10-15 minutes of processing but trust that it WILL happen.  At first it will look grainy and you will want to throw your machine at me, but keep going.  Suddenly you will notice it has become creamy and then emulsified and finally smooth.

I wish there was smell-o-vision at this point!

Insaenly Divine Smelling!!!

So it looks like I will survive without Trader Joe's after all.  It also seems like the weather is cooling down a bit now.  Everything is going to be alright.

Day 91 Recipe Catch Up

In no special order, here are some pics of the really delish things I've eaten recently.  And no, I did NOT eat all of these things in the same day:

Peering into a fruit-filled blender

Breakfast of Champions.  Berry-Banana Smoothie + Raw Brownie

Salad Sandwich w/Vegan Cheeze Spread

Vegan Cheese, Pesto Tapenade (recipe below), Hummus, Tuna (not vegan and not for moi)

Salad with Roasted Fennel & Roast Onion Dressing (recipe below)

Apple Crisp (recipe below)

Apple Crisp Yum

Chocolate Cupcake with Hazelnut Mocha Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

RECIPES

Pesto Tapenade

2 cups basil, packed

1 1/2 cups walnuts

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt

fresh pepper

2 strips lemon peel

1/3 cup olive oil

Grind it up in the Food Processor.  It should be thicker than the kind you put on pasta.  This one is great to spread on bread, which caused me to overeat bread.

Roast Fennel Salad (inspired by Veganomicon)

2 bulbs fennel, quartered

1 T olive oil

1 onion, quartered

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grilled veggies in the oven 30-40 mins at 200C until browned and softened.  Set aside.

3 cups salad greens

handful toasted chopped almonds

handful dried cranberries

Dressing
the oven-grilled onion from above

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

2 T agave nectar

leaves from 3 stalks fresh thyme

salt and pepper to taste

Process all in food processor until smooth.

Mix fennel with salad ingredients and dressing.

Apple Crisp

4 apples, peeled and sliced

1 T sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup frozen cherries (I didn't have so I used dried cranberries)

1 cup oats

1/4 cup whole wheat or spelt flour

2 T brown sugar

1 tsp almond extract (optional)

dash salt

1/4 cup sunflower or corn oil

Toss apples with cinnamon and sugar.  Place in a lightly greased deep dish pie plate.  Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle on top of apples.  Bake 40 minutes at 180C.

We were invited out for dinner on Friday night and our fab hosts cooked an almost entirely vegan meal for us!  Everything was super-duper delish.  People are so amazing.  Thanks so much J & J for a wonderful meal.  (and for letting me borrow Veganomicon)!

Day 89 Vegan Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

Ugh, I'm gassy today.  Yeah, yeah that's gross and nobody cares.  I basically had chickpeas in some way shape or form at every single meal today.  That's all I'm gonna say about that.

I haven't cooked anything interesting aside from 100 ways with chickpeas, so instead I give you this website with a cool video for an uber simple chocolate-raspberry vegan mousse and lots of other great stuff:

PCRM Health Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes Food for Life TV: Interactive Wecasts for Anyone Who Wants a Healthier Diet

But before you eat dessert, try this awesomely wonderful Vegan Green Bean Casserole from FatFreeVegan.  It's so so good:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/11/best-vegan-green-bean-casserole.html

Polka-dotted me.  Not gassy.

Day 86 Pick Up Sticks

Naw, no sticks.  I was just making a rhyme.

Lunch today was leftover Veg Stir-Fry with Brown Rice and a Spinach Salad.

Isn't that pretty?

Snack was Raw Brownies:

After that we all went to the gym and I cranked out a 5K on the Dreadmill.

Dinner was as follows:

Puree of White Bean Soup
1 onion, minced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
2 cups cooked white beans
1 large can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp Hawaij for soup
1 tsp salt
lots of black pepper
as much cayenne pepper as you want (I use chipotle pepper which is smoked jalapeno)

Saute onions and garlic in oil.  Add remaining ingredients.  Cook 20 mins.  Cool a bit, then puree, either everything or half, depending on your texture preference.  Re-heat and serve.

and...

Pizza with Vegan Cheeze!

The recipe for the crust is here.

Then I topped it with tomato sauce and sauteed onions and peppers and...

Vegan Cheeze Sauce

1/2 cup cooked white beans

1/2 cup cashews soaked in 3/4 cup water

1 T tahina

1 T ground flax

3 T Nutritional Yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2-3 T sun-dried tomato pesto or pimentos or roasted red peppers

Blend it all in the blender or food processor.  Chill until ready to use.  Blop in blobs on cooked pizza.

Truthfully, I don't even crave cheese anymore, which is unbelievable really, but seriously true.  This pizza would have been just as good without it.  I will have to think of clever use for the leftover sauce...

PS:  I made 2 pies.  One was standard cheese pizza for the kids to split.  The second was 3/4 onions, peppers and bulgarit cheese for my big boy.  The last 1/4 I left vegan for me.  That's how it works out.  Peace.

Day 85 The Homestretch Begins

I have 15 days left of this challenge. Although the end of the challenge, will not be the end of my veganism,  I none-the-less want to have the greatest, most vegan-y 15 days I've had yet! 

But today kinda sucked.  I didn't really eat anything special or blog worthy.  But I will sit with some cookbooks tonight and plan out the next 15 days.  I promise good recipes and yummy new eats and insights.

Today I made whipped banana oats with a little twist.  I added 1 tsp almond extract and toasted, chopped almonds. 

It was DIVINE - tasted like marzipan!

I made some twig tea for a snack.  I also put a slice of ginger root in the bottom of my glass:

Kukicha Twig Tea is a great remedy for sugar cravings.  It is also low in caffeine, good for digestion (ditto the fresh ginger), lowers cholesterol, and one article I just read claimed it has 6 times more calcium than cow's milk.  Cool.  (PS: I strained it before I drank it)

Lunch was a salad.  Snack was apples, oranges and some nuts.  Dinner was just veggie stir-fry over brown rice.

We went away for the weekend up to the North of Israel.  You know, one of the reasons I moved here was to get away from the snow and cold.  Somehow I got convinced to go back to it this weekend.  However, there was a silver lining:  The best part of traveling, is that as in many families, where my job as Mom and Wife is to cook all the meals IN the house, my husband's job as Dad and MAN is to cook all the meals outside.  He stood out in the snow and bbq'ed me a vegan roast veggie feast!  It was yummy.

The rest of my weekend pictures are on Facebook.

Day 81 Swedish Smorgasbord

Have a mentioned yet how much I adore strawberry season in Israel?  I've never had yummier strawberries in my entire life.  This morning my better half and I shared these beauties:

Strawberries, Bananas, Orange and Flax.

Then there was a rainbow:

Tonight was Bookclub.  We read the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this month, so our feast was Swedish-inspired.  Despite the fact that I'm the only wild and crazy vegan in the bunch, these grand ladies continually amaze me with their willingness to prepare and enjoy some seriously delicious vegan food!

I made Yellow Split Pea Soup with Sweet Potatoes.  OK, so the authentic Swedish version called for pork and I substituted sweet potatoes somewhat randomly, but it was really good.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

drop of olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

500g yellow split peas

cinnamon

smoked paprika

salt and pepper

8 cups water

Saute onions, sweet potatoes and garlic.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 40 mins or until everything is soft.

It was difficult to refrain from adding Hawaij, as you all know how I feel it is the one spice necessary in almost every dish.  But the world might not be ready for a Yemenite-Swedish food trend, so I held back.

Our lovely hostess Tzippi prepared the following delicacies:

Four Mushroom Medley and Cucumber Salad

Lentil Radish Salad

Beets

Vegan Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Jam

Tzippi, you're a rock star!!!! Thank you so much!

Oh and Oran made a delicious vegan semolina pudding but by then I was 2-sheets to the Aquavit wind and the camera was long forgotten.

Lovely evening with some very lovely ladies, xo to all of you!

Day 78 Expats have feelings too

Tonight there was a Tu B'Shvat party at my son's school.  (For those who don't know what Tu B'Shvat is, the simple answer is that it's a Holiday something like Arbor Day in the US).  My husband wasn't available to join us, so my boy and I went alone. 

So, I'm such an emotional sap that I still get choked up at every school gathering, and sporting or civic event ESPECIALLY if the Israeli National Anthem is sung.  Tonight I blubbered my way through HaTikvah and then everyone began singing Israeli songs having to do with the Holiday.  Songs, I have never heard before in my life.  OK, no problem, I sat and listened enviously to this entire auditorium of people who all grew up here and share this common cultural heritage.  I consoled myself with the fact that while they may have been raised on some fine, catchy tunes, these native Israelis did NOT have Gilligan's Island.

After the songfest, we retreated with our kids to the classrooms for an activity.   First, we had to do a freakin' word search.  In Hebrew.  Shit.  And then, even worse, three pages of Idioms and Expressions that the parents were suppossed to explain to their kids.  In Hebrew.  Figures of Speech.  Aint nothing harder, folks.  So I sat there with my 3rd grader, beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead, as I tried to puzzle out the answers.  At one point I caught the eye of another parent, a recent immigrant from Ethiopia, who looked just as lost as me.  I seriously doubt they say "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" in Ethiopia. They don't even have apples in Ethiopia.  That Dad had even less hope of completing the activity than I did.

It's not any fun being dumber than a 3rd grader.

Oh, but what is this?  Did the teacher just say that now we will be doing a Cooking Activity?  THAT I can do!!

Here's little Jamie Oliver Jr cutting some fruit:

Dude has the Knife Skills of a Pro.  Wonder who taught him??

When the mother sitting next to us remarked at how exceptionally beautiful our fruit salad was, my little hero puffed up his chest with pride, smiled at me brightly and declared in his perfect unaccented Hebrew, "That's because my mom teaches people how to make healthy food."

Speechless...