GF Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

Today was a day of discovery for me. I rifled through my entire Pinterest account and re-pinned my own pins into categories called "Veganize This." I made four- Breakfast, Lunch/Dinner, Dessert and Snacks. While doing this I found a great resource for some fun vegan recipes. I got lost in it!

http://foodgawker.com/tag/vegan/page/2/#1

Of all the things I can cook, my Achilles' heel was always eggplant. I'm not sure why but I always messed it up. Today I tried again and the results turned out pretty good!

I did a little research and discovered that peeling eggplant helps smooth out the texture, and soaking it in salt water for a few minutes gets it pliable. I did this before I started.

Funny thing is that I went to all these extra lengths to make this recipe gluten-free, even though I was pretty sure he would hate the texture. Autistic kids almost always have texture issues and my son is no exception. He is very picky and didn't care for this, but ironically my middle son who inquired and subsequently scoffed the eggplant LOVED it. Kids... What are you gonna do?

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium eggplant (peeled, sliced 1/4 inch thick, soaked in salt water and patted dry)

2 slices Udi's gluten-free bread (you can use regular bread too)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup shredded or sliced vegan cheese

3 cups pasta sauce (I know it's not very foodie but my very favorite sauce of all time is Prego)

2 Tbsp Vegan Parmesan

1 box quinoa pasta, any type

Place the eggplant on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Broil until the eggplant is browned on both sides.

Toast the Udi's bread and pulse it in a food processor with the Italian seasoning. Place in a shallow bowl.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Set the oven to bake at 350 degrees. Boil the water and cook the quinoa pasta.

Dip each slice of eggplant into the almond milk and dredge them one by one into the bread crumb mixture. Return them to the baking sheet and sprinkle them with shredded vegan cheese (or top each one with thinly-sliced vegan block cheese). Pour pasta sauce evenly over the top of the eggplant and bake until the pasta is al dente, drained and rinsed, and cheese is melted.

To serve, plate the pasta and top with the eggplant, then scoop the sauce over the top. Generously sprinkle with vegan Parmesan or nutritional yeast.

How Vegan Treats Restored My Trip to PA

I made a revelation this week, about food. But let me spin you a yarn first. 

As all of you reading this (yes, all three of you!) know, this trip to Pennsylvania has been full of mishaps. The one thing that was very important for me to do while I was here was visit Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA. 

It was over an hour away from where we were staying, but a last-minute photo shoot in Atlantic City made it possible for us to not only take a (very temporary) break from the chaos, but to go on an adventure. Bethlehem wasn't exactly on the way there, but the fun, road-trip vibe of our journey made me even more excited for the visit. We finally found Vegan Treats, in all of its adorable glory, and as Lars pulled the door to let me in, the extension of his arm came to a screeching halt.

Vegan Treats was closed on Mondays. It was Monday.

Did I burst into tears? Yes. Not just because the delicious pastries were calling to me, but because I just had no stress capacity left. Lars was a mix of annoyed and empathetic. This trip was crazy for both of us. We drove to Atlantic City, stopping at WaWa for a surprise selection of vegan foods on-the-go: pita with hummus, carrots and celery with peanut butter dip, fresh fruit and an incredible sun-dried tomato and fruit pasta. Who would have thought WaWa?

The next day we ventured back toward Northeastern Pennsylvania and finally made our long-awaited stop.

Vegan Treats isn't the easiest to find unless you're local- it's got a colorful storefront quietly tucked away on a quaint street with lots of free parking- something I'm definitely not used to seeing. The inside resembles a cross between a gourmet New York City cake shop and a 1950's soda fountain, with cheeky nods to punk rock and an entire wall plastered with sparkling reviews by everyone from the local college newspaper to national publications like VegNews. The staff was friendly (an adorable redhead named Lauren helped us) and the selection… nothing short of overwhelming. They even had a complete row of gluten-free desserts that stretched across the entirety of the display case. 

We tried the gluten-free mango cheesecake with walnut crust and a chocolate cheesecake topped with a pretzel. Presentation alone had every vegan bakery in Minneapolis beat by a landslide, not to mention, they were both better-tasting than most dairy-based cheesecakes. We sampled the vanilla bean soft serve ice cream and Lars and I both agreed it was the best we had ever had- vegan or not. We took home a gluten-free butterscotch cookie, a double chocolate cookie, a chocolate-glazed donut… and a cute souvenir scarf too.

Later that night, we dove into our remaining treats. Sometimes referred to as "The Donut Police" (only by me), Lars inspected and reluctantly tasted the donut he purchased. A moment after the first bite, he rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

"How is it?" I asked. 

He looked at me and said, "Angela… this donut tastes exactly like the ones from Rewe in Germany."

This is a compliment most high. You see, Lars' family comes from Weinheim, a west German town near Alzey. Americans love our desserts sickly-sweet, but Germans concentrate on a buttery finish, the highest quality chocolate and flour that is so fine it feels silky. We Americans just don't make donuts like they do. On his last trip to visit his aunt Gertrud, Lars smuggled back a donut for me (well it was actually a half a donut… I think he may have not been able to resist). Even two days old, from a German gas station and exposed to a couple of x-ray machines, it was like nothing I ever tasted before. After trying it for myself, the chocolate-glazed donut from Vegan Treats did indeed taste like a two-hundred year-old recipe in rural Europe, except it had been made that morning and had no layovers.

As much as we had fallen in love with Vegan Treats, I made the assumption that perhaps Bethlehem wasn't a hub of vegan culinary arts. It made me wonder, with such a high population of vegans and so many restaurants catering to vegans in Minneapolis, why didn't the stuff from Minneapolis taste better? The answer lies in how hard Vegan Treats had to work to establish itself. If you're in an area of the country where vegans will patronize your food business whether it's good or not, you get lazy. You can always rest comfortably on the notion that because it is a specialized type of food, customers' expectations are unrealistic if they don't like how it tastes. By stark contrast, if you live in a community where you need to impress vegans AND non-vegans in order to keep your doors open (except on Mondays! Write that down! Learn from my mistake!), your vegan desserts better be able to take business from the dairy-fueled ice cream shop a half a block away. To pull this off is a feat in and of itself, but to gain national acclaim and become a vegan landmark, you must be truly exceptional. Vegan Treats accomplishes this while making it look effortless.

If you're a vegan foodie who has felt like you had to settle for the mediocre or just create desserts at home, Vegan Treats will change your expectations of what a restaurant free of animal products can offer you. This place convinced me there are no excuses for great food. Vegan or not, if the food a restaurant serves you doesn't taste good, they're not trying hard enough.

The Vegan Traveler

Well, we are 5 days into our trip to PA. I have learned so much about myself:

1. When you carry a bag onto a plane because it has valuable things inside it and you don't want it lost, and there's a crazy-looking lady clutching her bag and refusing to part with it, DO WHAT THAT CRAZY LADY DOES. The airline didn't lose her bag. The airline DID lose ours. (Thankfully, we got it back)

2. I am a sucker for egg sandwiches. I think I made a good decision slowly transitioning to a vegan diet, because it's allowing me to try some things and determine if they will be my go-to foods and letting me enjoy some stuff while in PA that I can't get in Minneapolis. Again, saying goodbye to meat has been no problem. But I've been eating egg and cheese sammies almost every morning. As soon as I get back, I am going to find the most incredible vegan breakfast sammy and eat it like it's going out of style.

In regard to the traveling vegan, or vegan on the go, I've actually been finding some great stuff that is in mainstream restaurants. Are they super healthy? Probably not. It's fast food, after all! But adhering to vegan guidelines at a couple places wasn't too tough. 

My biggest successes have been at coffee chains like Starbucks. They don't bat an eyelash when you ask for soy milk (although they will charge you extra), their mochas are vegan if made with soy and no whip, and while their baked items are not to be blindly trusted (I have read that their molasses cookies, bagels and Sesame Noodle Box are all vegan-friendly), they've got lots of little items right by the register that are pre-packaged and have the ingredients clearly labeled. Some of these include granola bars, mixed nuts, fruit twists (a sort of licorice/fruit leather hybrid) and fresh fruit cups.

Sandwich shops are also great places for vegans to eat. The ingredients are typically a la carte so you control what does into your food, and they have a lot of variety in terms of dressings. The first place I went when we got to Pennsylvania was Quizno's. I got one of their veggie sandwiches with no cheese or mayo and I felt completely satiated. 

This isn't so much a fast food option, but I had to throw in that I just recently learned one of my favorite foods is vegan: tempura. If you're a sushi fan you have probably tried it, and every Japanese restaurant I know has fried veggie tempura in addition to their animal-ingredient counterparts. I never liked fish so when I would go out for sushi I got a plate of tempura. I was bummed that I would be missing out on this because I assumed that the fry batter contained egg like American fry batter does. I was wrong! It's just rice flour, salt and club soda. While learning this information I unfortunately learned that the sauce you dip your tempura INTO sometimes contains fish sauce, and this whole time, I may have been consuming fish juice. Ick. Eating tempura plain is amazing, otherwise you can use soy sauce, or order a cup of miso and mix the soy sauce and miso soup together to create a similar dip to the original.

Finally, my favorite option: Mexican food. You can replace cheese with guacamole, load it up with veggies, and replace animal proteins with beans (just make sure they aren't cooked in lard or with bacon). While some fast food relies on meat or cheese to make it taste good, Mexican food is easily accessible via fast food, its easy to modify to fit a vegan diet, and the seasonings and fresh ingredients leave you knowing you made the right choices, both in the way it tastes and in your burden-free conscience. 

Moroccan Stew, Peach Almond Milk Smoothies, and Vegan GF "Overnight" Treats!

The trip to PA has been quite a roller coaster. Our luggage was lost (all of our camera equipment was inside), and the blog I wrote to distract myself was eaten by Blogger. I dug around and found an odd, fragmented autosave, so I will fill in the bits it decided not to include! Don't worry- the airline found our luggage safe and sound in New Mexico- only about 2,000 miles away from where it was supposed to go!

I have made a revelation- I'm addicted to the kitchen. I thought our 100+ degree heat wave was over, but a week before we left for PA, Mother Nature had another hot flash. Like any sane, logical person, I went into the kitchen and started cooking hot vegan food. You know, to distract from the weather.

This is an adapted version of a recipe where meat takes center stage. The original is called Moroccan Beef Pot Roast with Honey Glaze. I got it from a foodie publication made by a Twin Cities-based grocery chain called Lunds Holdings, Inc., which owns both Lunds and Byerly's stores. Maybe it's because Minnesotans love food, but to my knowledge you don't see a lot of areas of the country with "luxury" grocery stores. The only other place I know of (besides the Whole Foods chain) is AJ's in Scottsdale, Arizona. Inexplicably, AJ's entryway features a light mist which sprays out into nothing about every 30 seconds. I presume this is to refresh their customers' make-up, cool their skin from recent plastic surgery, or simply to justify the cost of a $3 green pepper. To quote Lars, "While the rest of the country is going to efforts to be 'green,' AJ's sprays water into the air in the middle of the desert to say, 'F$%& you, we're rich." Lunds and Byerly's, however, have a distinctly more accessible feel (in Minnesota, friendliness is the most important pillar of any successful business). 

The original version of this recipe takes 3-4 hours and the meat alone costs around 25 dollars. The vegan version costs around 12 bucks, takes under an hour (including prep time), and I never missed the meat! Did I mention it also feeds about 6 people? Its a winner all around!

I didn't get a good picture of it with the mushrooms on top, but you can use any meat substitute you'd like to top this dish, if you choose. I think mock duck would be amazing but I didn't have any on hand. I did however, have some mushrooms. The original recipe glazes a pot roast with honey, mint and lemon- to re-create this I broiled the mushrooms after brushing them with a blend of brown sugar, mint leaves and lemon juice. It tasted lovely! The key to veganizing any dish that involves water is to substitute the water with vegetable broth. When meat is being cooked in a stew, it flavors the water and becomes a broth. I used Swanson's Organic Vegetable Broth, but I am sure there are many other good kinds.

*Side note: butternut squash can be a pain to peel and cut when they're raw, so you have two options: either cheat and buy a bag of them pre-cut, or do what I did and heat the squash on a baking sheet for 30 minutes on at 350 degrees. When its cool, it should be soft enough to peel, seed and cut. Even with this time-consuming step, I had this dish done in an hour. 

Moroccan Stew over Couscous

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups chopped onions

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1 Tbsp sweet paprika

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup cilantro stems, finely chopped (save leaves for garnish)

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup canned tomatoes, chopped

2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more to taste)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (freshly cooked or canned)

4 carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks

3 cups butternut squash, cut into 2-inch chunks (or cheat with a couple of bags of pre-cut ones if you are short on time)

2 cups instant couscous (I used Odem Israeli Couscous- unlike typical couscous, its a big fat pearl pasta instead of a cornmeal consistency, but you can use any couscous you like)

If you're using a whole, uncut butternut squash, preheat your oven to 350 and follow the instructions above. You can get started on the rest of the recipe once your oven is preheated- this should time correctly and you'll be adding the softened squash pieces at just the right time. 

In a stock pot, heat olive oil and sautee the onions and garlic. When they're soft, season them with the spices, stir and cook until fragrant. Add the broth, tomatoes and lemon juice and bring it to a gentle boil until the flavors are incorporated. 

Start the couscous (just follow the directions on the bag- the units are usually 1 cup couscous to 1 1/4 cup water, covered and simmered for 8-10 minutes). 

Add chickpeas, carrots and butternut squash, and simmer until the vegetables are fork-tender, about 10 minutes- while this is cooking if you want to add a protein/meat substitute you can whip up the glaze, set your oven to broil and throw it in until your stew is done. 

To serve, heap a spoonful of the cooked couscous into a deep bowl. Then ladle the stew over the couscous. Top with cilantro leaves and serve.

The kitchen got HOT, so I blasted the fan and made us all smoothies out of some fresh peaches I needed to use before we left for our trip. Its so easy to make a great vegan smoothie and the combinations are endless. Fresh fruit and ice are great, as are simple frozen fruit. You can use any variety of non-dairy yogurt or milk. This one was made with three peaches, almond milk, ice and vanilla bean, thrown into a bullet blender for a few seconds and poured into kid-sized cups. As you can see below, it was a hit.

My middle son has always loved to help in the kitchen. We have a very small work area in our house, and once he started to spend quite a bit of time in there, my older son felt compelled to stand in there with us. Then the baby was born and it started to get pretty crowded, so we started a "no kids in the kitchen rule." However, since the big kids were going to be staying with their dad and stepmom while Lars, the baby and I went to PA, I wanted to do a small special family activity. We decided to make gluten-free, vegan, no-bake treats.

Oddly enough, everyone lost interest after the measuring was done, and immediately after putting them in the fridge I heard the call of "Are the treats done yet?" Haha!

The original recipe called for oats, which you could and should definitely use (if you're using oats use only 3 cups of them as opposed to the 6 cups of GF Rice Krispies). Because of the trip coming up, I had to do some improvising with the ingredients I had on hand. If you're gluten-free, Bob's Red Mill does make gluten-free oats (according to my ex-husband who works for Whole Foods, oats ARE gluten-free in and of themselves; they're just typically grown in close proximity to wheat fields and there is a high likelihood of contamination due to wind). It could have been the vegan ingredients or the fact that I used Krispies instead of oats, but the batter looked soupy. I thought for sure this would be my first vegan fail, but after chilling them overnight, the treats got cohesive and tasted great. 

No-Bake Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate "Overnight Treats"

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder (we used some vegan hot chocolate mix- SUCCESS!)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups quick-cooking oats OR 6 cups Gluten-Free Rice Krispies (they are brown rice as opposed to the traditional white)

Combine all of the ingredients except the peanut butter, oats/GF Krispies into a sauce pan. Bring to a gentle boil, then stir for one minute. Remove the pan from eat and stir in the peanut butter until it's smooth. Then add the oats or Krispies. 

Let the mixture sit about 10 minutes to thicken. If you're cooking with the oats it will have a firmer consistency- if you're using Krispies, don't panic if the batter is a bit thin.

On a wax-paper lined baking sheet, form round, cookie-sized treats about an inch apart (remember, you're not baking them, so they won't expand! They can cuddle close to one another as long as they're not touching). Place them in the fridge for at least an hour but preferably overnight. 

Pleasing Everybody.

We are going on a trip soon, we are a bit broke and thus don't have a ton of food in the house. However we happened to inherit some fresh veggies, and I wanted to use them up before we left.

The big kids got gluten-free noodles, Lars and I got durum wheat noodles and I whipped up this veggie mix in a pan with some olive oil, garlic and Italian seasoning.

Then, I dished mine up and dressed it with Vegan Parmesan (if you're from the Midwest, your grandma called the original version "Shake Cheese," and she may have put it on hot dish, casserole, "bake" or any number of other lets-mix-it-all-and-stick-it-in-the-oven Midwestern specialties). I mused up everybody else's with a gluten-free roasted red pepper Alfredo sauce. Everyone was happy, nobody was deprived of what they loved and it wasn't too much of a hassle... Or every expensive.

You can see Lars' version to the right (with the garlic cheese bread I made him from a fancy hot dog bun, butter, sliced muenster and garlic salt). Mine is on the left.

Easiest Summer Salad Ever.

When I was pregnant with my youngest, I went to a Latin bistro in my neighborhood called Conga. They had an amazing menu but I happened to order their Avocado and Mango salad. It was served on a bed of iceberg lettuce which I was unimpressed with but the rest of the salad was so good I started asking Lars to make it for me.

"Is there anything I need to know about cutting a mango?" he asked me.

"No, I don't think so," I said.

He came back 20 minutes later with the salad and said "You told me there was nothing to know about cutting up a mango. That was the worst fruit-cutting experience of my life.

Oops!

If you've never cut a mango before I would recommend looking it up on youTube. Your first time, you will fail. The second time the salad might be ugly but tasty and you'll waste about a dollar's worth of mango. But I DID call this the world's easiest summer salad so you might want to cheat and buy it precut at a grocery. I promise, once you cut everything up, you're golden.

I had two mangoes that I got from a friend a week ago. They we're getting soft and I knew I had to eat them right away. I cubed it and then cut up an avocado (um, also hard to cut if you've never done it... Maybe this isn't the easiest salad ever after all... Oops again).

The salad has everything you could ever want- its fresh, tropical, sweet, savory, a little sour, a little salty and if you're feeling adventurous, a little spicy too.

Mango-Avocado Salad

2 mangoes
1 avocado
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon like juice
Sprinkle of sea salt
Sprinkle of cayenne pepper (optional)

In a medium-sized bowl, mix olive oil and lime juice. Cube mango and avocado and carefully combine in the bowl, coating the fruits with the olive oil-lime mixture. Sprinkle with sea salt. Sprinkle with cayenne. Almost instant deliciousness.

I served mine in this attractive purple monster bowl to entice the children. I had a bit left over (without cayenne pepper added) so I blended it up in my bullet smoothie maker with a tiny bit of water (just enough to make it move in the blade) and mixed it in a bowl with a multigrain baby cereal. The baby LOVED this. We introduced him to avocado a couple weeks ago (after doing some research- we think of avocados as nuts because of their taste but they're actually a fruit, they're fine to feed to babies and make a great first food because they're loaded with good fats). He can't get enough of them now.

A Yummy Day!

This is my first day on the Blogger app for iPhone! I'm not sure how well my photos will upload but if it works this will be convenient for me! I'm tethered to my phone! I made three fun dishes today but I'm posting them separately because I'm not sure the Blogger app will embed the images in the right places (I think it will just post the pics at the end of the blog- we will find out!)

It was another hot day, but I had a small bag of pre-cut butternut squash (cutting squash is quite a pain), two mangoes that looked like they were on their way out, and a bunch of hungry tummies.

I've been craving a recipe brought to me by our beloved old friend Laurel: curried squash with lentils and toasted walnuts. This recipe is gluten-free and vegan. I love recipes that have no fake meats- I love mock duck and chik patties but they're expensive and aren't the best for you. The walnuts in this recipe give it a hearty savory meatiness that I love and it's just so pretty to look at. Despite being full of autum-friendly ingredients I couldn't go another day without this.

Butternut Squash with Lentils and Toasted Walnuts:

1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup walnuts (the original calls for only 1/2 cup but I LOVE walnuts)
1/3 cup lentils
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
Lime juice to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the squash into 1/2 inch pieces (or cheat and buy a precut bag like I did). Chop the shallot and mix the two together in a bowl with olive oil, curry powder and some salt and pepper. Lay it in a single sheet on a baking pan and throw it in for about 15 minutes.

While that's cooking, boil the lentils in water until they're tender (about 20 minutes). Drain the water and set aside to combine later.

Open the oven and pour the walnuts over the mixture. Cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Combine the lentils and squash mixture, then toss with cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper. Easy!

*You can also lightly sautée the shallot with some garlic before mixing it with the squash- Laurel recommended this to me and thinks it adds a little something. Also, I think next time I might sprinkle some cinnamon into this dish to add some spice.

Old Memories Come Floodin' Back!

The last couple of days has been pretty crazy. We are getting ready for our trip to Philly, it's my oldest son's birthday today (he is 8! WOW!) and I had another day where I woke up and went to my day job and went straight to a make-up gig. My cauliflower spoiled (so no buffalo cauliflower for me until life slows down and I remember to pick some up). 

I managed to whip up this avocado-quinoa-chickpea and baby tomato salad the other day. I took a picture of it on my phone, uploaded it to Instagram, and the original photo that I took that I planned to upload to this blog got eaten by my phone. It is gone, never to be found again. Anyhoo, you can see that it is delish. The kids destroyed it. Even the baby. It was even better the next day- I was wary because I thought for sure the avocado would oxidize and make the taste turn south, but the mustard-agave dressing kept it perfectly green. You can find the original recipe here.

Onto some other not-so-terrific subject matter. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was a vegetarian for most of my life. In a Midwestern home this seems like it is the most rebellious thing a person can do. I remember when I was a kid, my mother would make chili (by the way, I am most definitely Midwestern but I was born in Texas... so when mom made chili it was the real deal, not the stuff that is typically made up here). I was about 13 when I discovered (or maybe they had just come out with??) TVP crumbles that resembled ground beef. I went into the fridge and my mom had made me some chili with the label Vegetarian Chili, only "Vegetarian" was in quotations. Then there was a huge tub the rest of the family's chili was in, and it said, "Actually GOOD Chili." I thought this was really funny and my mom had this really unique sense of humor for her generation. I really think she was a bit ahead of her time in this way. But from time to time it would get annoying or exhausting for my mom to cook meals for me. I ended up learning to cook because she finally threw her hands up and told me I was responsible for making my own dinners. The first meals I made for myself were from a cookbook I stole from Home Economics class- it had complete regional meals for every major area of the United States. I would omit the meat ingredients or substitute them- to this day I've only ever owned two vegetarian cookbooks. I just bought Number Two a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I was shopping with Lars the other day and we were picking out a couple items for dinner. I had really loved these artisan yogurts called Noosa, and got him hooked on them (even though he made fun of me at first for being so into yogurt). He said, "I'm going to pick up one of those yogurts you like... I am going to buy them all the time and eat them right in front of you once you transition to vegan!" He was kidding of course, and it was all in good fun. But growing up, the mere mention of being vegetarian incited interrogation about my motives, people trying to start arguments with me about why we need meat or or some other animal product, and "look at me, I'm eating dead animal" tauntings. None of these were ever provoked, but they were almost always by adults and I was just a kid. I am not sure why I got so much of this, but it would stop pretty abruptly once I told them I didn't care about their food choices and it was just a personal decision I thought was best for me. Sometimes I would get an argument here or there after that from someone trying to get me to "sell" them on why my beliefs were legitimate. Maybe that's why as an adult, it's really important to me to keep things positive if I am going to have a blog, and not criticize others' choices or ways of doing things differently. I live in the same area of the country but views have changed, I live in a very liberal, accepting city and more and more people are changing their diets for one reason or another, whether it be chemical-free, gluten-free or some level of vegetarianism. I guess it snapped me back into reality when Lars made that joke that sometimes people ACTUALLY do that with sincerity and think that if your reasoning isn't good enough for THEM, then your diet (or life choice, or anything else) isn't good enough for YOU. If you're considering making a leap into some part of life that is more fulfilling or comfortable for you, and its not hurting anyone else or is truly who you are, by all means, do what is best for yourself and don't let negative people discourage you.

One more thing: VegFest was today and I missed it, BUT- I had the best cake (BEST CAKE- not just best VEGAN cake) of my life the other day! My other friend Jennifer (FYI, I have a lot of friends named Jennifer- this one is Jennifer P and she owns an amazing feminist adult store called Smitten Kitten and happens to also be one of my favorite makeup clients because she is adventurous and will let me play with color on her) had me over the day after her birthday and her partner Ryan had made a completely vegan chocolate cake with cashew butter frosting. It was perfect with a cup of coffee and thanks to them I tried hemp milk for the first time. I'm going to try to steal the recipe from him so stay tuned. Why did I not take a picture of this Best Cake Ever?? Hindsight is 20/20, right?

XOXO
Angela

Notable Differences

While the transition isn't fully there and won't be for a while, I had an experience yesterday that really woke me up. A few experiences actually, but this one was really a sign that I am on the right path trying to make these changes in my diet.

Lars is a photographer, and I'm a make-up artist slash production assistant. We booked a huge shoot at a beautiful Victorian mansion about an hour out of the city. I woke up early yesterday morning to go to my esthetician job and work a 7:30a-1:30p shift, then once I got home we immediately left to drop off the baby with a sitter, which was further away than we thought. Neither of us had eaten (I had run to a coffee shop and gotten a huge coffee with a shot of white chocolate so I could get through the day) and we were running over an hour behind schedule (the wardrobe stylist, four models and hairstylist were already there and waiting for us), so we decided to stop at a fast-food place. I got a hamburger and fries and a huge soda to split with Lars, and we got a strawberry ice cream parfait. Before we even got to the shoot site, I felt sick. Then when we arrived there was a huge craft service spread- water, soda, carrots and dip, potato chips, donuts, fresh cherries, Zebra cakes... We were in such a hurry that I ate a bunch of stuff quickly and without much thought. I just didn't know when I was going to eat again, so I took advantage of the 5 minutes I had to get as much in my mouth as I could. The photo shoot lasted until midnight. On our way home we stopped at the only place that was open- Taco Bell.

This morning, in short, was a nightmare. It was clear I hadn't been taking care of my body the night before. I don't drink (not even socially) but I have before and I know what a hangover feels like. This felt EXACTLY like a hangover. I knew I was dehydrated, but I'm also hypoglycemic. I was grocery shopping with my kids this morning when I had a major sugar crash. When this happens, the first sign is that I get nauseated, then I usually get a pounding headache. I have to pee constantly. Sometimes my vision gets blurry or my balance will get funky for a couple seconds. It's a scary feeling, and sometimes it takes a while for it to go away. You'd think that would keep me on top of managing it properly, but my life is really busy and sometimes I "just don't have time" to eat something. I was alerted to the fact that I NEED to MAKE TIME. Managing hypoglycemia is relatively easy- it requires balancing carbohydrates (to keep your blood sugar up) and protein (to keep you from burning through all the sugar too quickly). But I always find out too late that I didn't do it and get angry at myself.

So today's foods were a lot different- I had some carrot and orange juice with a veggie egg sandwich for breakfast, a spinach-fruit-walnut salad with creamy balsamic for lunch and Kalbi tofu and veggies over rice for dinner with fruit for dessert (I also snacked throughout the day on an orange, had a bubble tea and took three bites of Lars' ice cream he was eating). I cannot tell you the difference I felt from today versus yesterday. Even though I was nursing this bizarre donut hangover, my body felt like it was ridding itself of the gross stuff I had put in the day before. While I know there are a lot of heavily-processed vegan foods I would like to strike a balance between stuff I know is good for me and some yummy comfort foods.

I get made fun of a lot because I cook constantly and I consider myself a foodie, but I also love a couple of really cheap guilty pleasures: macaroni and cheese, Beefaroni, and bagels with a schmear of cream cheese. I know that Amy's makes a great Macaroni and Soy Cheeze and Better Than Cream Cheese really is... well, you know. The Beefaroni is going to be a challenge. I looked at TVP "beef" crumbles and the one I found has egg and dairy, and seitan, mock duck and other beef alternatives typically have a pretty strong taste.

I'm excited to try a lot of great new versions of things I already love. I just had a California Pizza Kitchen pizza that had fire-roasted vegetables, and want to make a vegan version. Also a friend texted me and told me about buffalo cauliflower with vegan bleu cheese. So excited for that! I make a Moroccan beef stew that I will be veganizing ( I have literally been fantasizing about the veg version of this), and finally, my most ambitious experiment- duplicating my aunt Cheryl's corn bake with all vegan-ingredients. It could go really well- or really bad. I can't wait to find out.

Heat Wave!

Minneapolis had a pretty intense heat wave this past week. I live in a 106 year-old house. It was bought by an investment company who flipped it- and it was a good flip- but despite having a new roof, new electric, new appliances, and being spoiled with a completely turn-key house that we practically bought for a song, they did not install central air conditioning. We bought two window units, but a friend of ours lives in an old apartment that faces the sun all day long, and two special-needs pets. We knew we could live with one air conditioner and give her one. We pulled it off last year during a heat wave of similar temperatures (Awesome side note: I was 9 months pregnant when this happened, and we decided to ward off the heat by going to the lake, wherein I was approached by a local news anchor and interviewed about how ridiculously hot it was... I never did see the news story, haha).

The worst part of life for me during extra-hot temperatures was that I couldn't cook. We all holed up in the bedroom where the AC unit was, lived off of cold sandwiches and quickly-melting ice water. For the first couple days I thought I could tough it out- I got up at 7am before the sun was fully ablaze and did the dishes, and I got away with making chocolate chip cookies the first 100 degree day. The next day I made green chile enchiladas and corn bake. When all was said and done, my thermostat read 87 degrees. It was miserable.

Two nights ago there was a lovely storm that dropped the temperature about 10 degrees, and tonight was the first where I could cook. Maybe I'm rubbing off on Lars or he's just playing along, but he said he felt like "eating something healthy for dinner." I got a free jar of Kalbi marinade (Kalbi is a Korean barbecue sauce that has a song sesame taste) from a local upscale grocery called Kowalski's, so I decided to put it to use.

The best part of using marinade in a vegan dish is that you don't have to waste it! That was the worst thing for me while preparing meat- having to throw away a ton of this beautifully-seasoned sauce because it was contaminated with mystery bacteria. I marinated the tofu for a couple hours and while I was fry-crisping it, I just poured the remaining marinade onto some freshly-steamed vegetables. I served it all on top of some jasmine rice I cooked in a vegetable broth and garnished with some peanuts and green onions.

Lars loved it (the kids had a version with no sauce or tofu because it contained soy sauce which is made with wheat). For dessert Lars made a beautiful fresh-fruit spread.

 I am going to be trying a variety of meat substitutes but I was a vegetarian for so long that even when I started eating meat, I didn't feel that a main dish had to have meat to be complete. At my old job I would bring in my own lunch and more than one co-worker had asked if I was a vegetarian because there was no meat in the food (maybe this is a Midwestern thing). I really won't miss meat too badly and there are lots of "meaty" things I love- mushrooms, tofu and mock duck- but dairy will be a challenge. I was talking with my vegan friend Jennifer and I gathered that the trick to being a successful vegan is to become intimate friends with cashew butter, coconut milk and avocados, since they all have a rich flavor that provides good-for-you fats and are so hearty you won't be pining for dairy.

Getting Started!

Hello World,

My name is Angela and I am a mom, make-up artist, meat-eater and meal-maker from Minneapolis. I am embarking on a new adventure very soon, to see if I can be vegan AND a foodie.

A little background on me: I was a vegetarian pretty much from age 4 until I was about 20 years old. I told my parents I didn't want to eat meat immediately after my mom brought home a bucket of KFC and asked if I wanted "a leg or a wing." I realized it was an actual animal, not just a food product with the same NAME as an animal. We grew up with lots of pets, my father was fond of animals, when I was a teenager I was active in learning everything I could about animal rights organizations and vegetarianism. I was vegan from about age 18-20 but I was a college student, I was broke and I was single, so most of my meals were French bread and olive oil. Then I got pregnant with my first son, and all I wanted was meat. 

I've gone back and forth between being strictly vegetarian and omnivorous ever since then. 

My reasons for wanting to try my hand at doing veganism the RIGHT way this time (not living off of French bread, my palette has matured, thank you) are not just that I want to be compassionate to animals. I do love critters, and I know that we as humans treat them really crappy. However, even if that isn't your bag, I think there are a million other reasons to cut meat and animal products out of your diet:

- The Environment: Our planet is also being treated really crappy. Lots of different and powerful influences will tell you there are steps you can take without really trying, like buying their reusable bags that you inevitably forget in your car when you go to the grocery, or buying corn-based fuel which is taxing on soil. The bottom line is that meat and animal products take up a lot of resources- they require plants to grow, they create a lot of waste, and they have lots of parts that are not usable. Going directly to the plant source instead of an animal one cuts out a lot of waste. 

- Health: Growing up I was always told that I needed three servings of dairy a day. I didn't really question it until I started learning more about nutrition. Milk turns a 200-pound calf into a 2-ton cow in about a year. It's not good for humans. It makes us fat. It's got lots of hormones in it that can do really bad things to us. It's also highly-addictive, it's wasteful (it takes 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese) and most people can't digest it properly because it isn't meant for us to consume. This is coming from someone who is definitely a cheese-lover. In fact, just before I started this blog I ate a turkey and cheddar sandwich. 

- The Gross-Out Factor: Even though I can push out of my mind that I'm eating an animal most of the time, handling raw meat gives me a lot of anxiety because there is a higher probability of surface contamination than any other food. Also, knowing when meat and dairy expire is tough, and if you guess wrong, you can get really sick. Rotting fruits and vegetables are pretty easy to spot.

I'm trying to go about this whole experience in a practical and respectful way. My biggest pet peeve is preachy content, so I will try not to do that. My friend Jennifer is what I call a "happy vegan:" she has a blog of her own called Midwest Vaygun that really focuses on yummy food instead of propaganda, and I definitely want to do that too. Also, while I am accustomed to special diets because I have an autistic son who is on a gluten-free diet, I am a mama of a family of five, and will be doing this vegan thing alone. Daddy loves chicken and ice cream, the kids love cheese and hot dogs. I don't want to push them into something they don't want to do, but I DO hope that this will help us all expand our horizons and eat healthier in the long run. Since Lars and I have been together we have each gained about 20 pounds of "in-love chub." We affectionately refer to our bellies as our "cheeseburgers" or our "extras," I love cooking for him and he loves to eat rich foods. He's a picky eater and I don't want him to hate my food, but I do want us both to be healthy and happy with our own bodies. My focus won't be on weight-loss, but if it happens, that's great! I've got 15 more pounds of baby weight to lose and I am not the best about exercise! 

We have a trip to Philadelphia coming up (Lars' hometown) in a few weeks, and as you may know, Philly is home to some pretty great food that I don't want to miss out on. It's also Lars' birthday on the 26th and we will be having his birthday party at his favorite restaurant, The Amber, and I'd like to have a bite of their wonderful Lamb Pasanda before I commit to swearing off meat and dairy. I think August 1st is a great starting point, and it will only be a couple of days after we get back to Minneapolis.

I don't think it will be hard because I have a couple of great weapons in my arsenal: I have a great friend with a vegan food blog, I just bought Vegan Cooking for Carnivores (I'm so excited to try some of the recipes), I have signature dishes I make that could easily be veganized, and because of my son's special diet I have become pretty good at reading food labels and ingredient substitutions. 

I will be posting before August 1st because I want to get into the groove of writing, and I want to try a couple things before I get started and report their results. 

XOXO,

Angela