What's for dinner? How about Red Lobster biscuits and the best Kale salad ever?

Make the world's best raw kale salad with vegan cheddar "Red Lobster" style buscuits to win friends and make your tummy/your waistline/the environment/animals/me happpy.Happy Meatless Monday party people!

Another excuse to eat dessert for breakfast!

So a couple weeks ago, I gained 10 lbs in 5 days. This quickly sent me into panic mode that all my late night cupcaking was finally catching up to me. I made a pact to eat in the best way I know how, and that's raw fooding. Just like when I tried vegetarianism and veganism, I decided to give it a go for one week to see how it went. Now I never committed to full raw- I just have no idea how to do that. Essentially, when you are a raw foodist you don't eat food cooked over 104c to preserve the living status of the food. This shit is hard, but I'm getting there.. After doing this for one week, I have a few observations.
1) Raw fooding makes your body feel amazing. Like "my cells have all banded together and are having a rave" kind of amazing.
2) It's astounding how fast your body can burn through $40 in nuts.
3) Simple vegetables really can taste delicious on their own, but you have to get rid of the other crap that's killing your taste buds.
4) A big salad for dinner actually can be the most filling and yummy part of your day.
5)If you're a sugar junkie like me, you won't actually perish from sugar cravings. In fact, I barely had any!

I realize this dessert isn't made with oranges. And I'm not the world's best dad. Deal with it.

So here is the tastiest thing I've made in the past couple days. It tastes amazing and you can have it for breakfast! Since the beauty of this is it's simplicity, I'm going to force you to cook without measuring. It's awesome and you can do it!

Raw Orange Yum

One orange peeled and cut up

2 handfuls pecans

1 lrg handful dates

salt

ginger

nutmeg

cinnamon

Process all ingredients except oranges in a food processor until crumbly. Peel and cut orange, put it in a bowl and top with fruit/nut mixture. Best enjoyed in sock monkey pajama pants while contemplating the complexities of life.





Foodie adventures in Brockville take 2

Getting out of town! Stay cool Kingston.

There's nothing like the thrill of the open road to get your blood pumping, hey? What kind of adventure awaits this time? Some people travel to all kinds of exciting destinations on their long weekends, but not me-I go to Brockville (or Brockvegas as it's sometimes called ha!) Anyone who's been to Brockville is aware that this ain't no vegan utopia. It's rural Ontario at it's finest/most stereotypical. Mandy and Rob's house is, however like my very own vegan food laboratory. They are always ready to cook with a freakishly well stocked fridge. Any fruit or vegetable you could want and they've got it! I've been told this is solely for my cooking purposes-they sure know how to make a girl feel loved. They even get treats just for me like dark chocolate almond milk and alcohol (lots). For the long weekend we had lofty plans for fun, frolic and food. Let's start with food! I need three things to cook a great meal: A cute apron, good music and a drink in my hand. Check check and see below. Double check. Who says vegans say goodbye to delicious boozy fun? We had exactly that with strawberries and creme daiquiris out of crystal glasses. It made me feel both classy and sloppy at the same time, which doesn't tend to happen very often.

Cheers!

To make your own "As healthy as alcohol gets Daiquiris", combine 3/4 cup of cashews covered with water and blended  with 3 1/2 shots of Rum in a blender. Then add strawberries, raspberries, pineapple (or whatever fruit you like), 10 dates, 2 tbs agave syrup, 2 Tbs Salba and lots of ice. Blend and try to drink slowly enough that you actually taste it-so AWESOME.
Since I've been told that my fajitas are the bomb, that's what we choose for dinner. Pictured here is our tasty supper, which I was *thisclose* to messing up with overzealous seasoning. Note to self: drinks after dinner. On the plus side, the more you drink the better things taste!

So our fajitas consisted of spinach tortillas, daiya cheese, mesquite portobellos in white wine, Mexican spiced veggies, salsa, avocado, cashew sour creme and of course hot sauce. You know it's good when you're practically wearing dinner as a mask and don't care. Mmmm. Speaking of masks, here I am indulging in my fifth favorite hobby, mustaches. 

My son says this picture "isn't funny, it's too weird". Whatever,
like it's the first time I've heard that one.

For dessert, summer means raw! Hoo-ey do I love me some raw sweets! Since their fruit selection was way more bountiful than mine ever is, I went crazy with our raw pie filling and had banana, pineapple, strawberry, raspberry, mango and peach. Yes! The top was made with dates, cashews, a pinch of salt and some agave in a food processor. I'm not going to write out a recipe both because I'm too lazy and because you essentially just mix those things until it tastes nice and has the consistency you desire. Tada!

The leftovers didn't make it until daylight. Just so you know, it tastes amazing with vegan vanilla ice cream.
Not like I'd know from having six servings or anything.

Rob and Mandy even have a fire pit! For roasting stuff and warmth! I love the country!

Fire pit excitement! Veggie dogs abound.

After a couple hours of staring at the fire, we started thinking up ways to get into trouble. We were going to go toilet papering, but realized it wouldn't be an environmentally friendly prank and therefore would bring shame to my blog. We settled for letting our designated driver take us into town to see what kind of fun we could find. Turns out the answer is "not much". We spent a good amount of time trying get a picture under this airplane so it looked like an overhead attack.

Overhead attack simulation=Fail.

Then we found some cool graffiti in the park-this is what rebellion looks like in Brockville. Someone said this picture makes us look like hookers. I disagree.

Losers maybe.

So after an embarrassingly early bed time, we woke up ready for round two! This time it was breakfast nachos! This may be pretty much the best idea ever. We mixed our fajita leftovers with ground round, coconut oil and salsa. We then piled it on top of nacho chips, topped with daiya cheese and broiled to melty deliciousness. To serve-more avocado and pickled jalapenos. We paired it with Mexican spiced potatoes with onions and strawberries with sweet cashew creme. Perfect!

I get to eat this! Squeeeee!

I left Brockville yet again with a happy heart and wishing I was wearing stretchy pants.

In conclusion, life is what you make it! Go near or go far but just go.....

How I'm messing up my children today.

Today is Mini's third birthday! Another day, another opportunity to mess up my kids by being a weirdo. Preparations for her birthday went as follows:

-Make avocado chocolate frosting for birthday cake
-Make hummus in the Vitamix
-Wrap birthday presents in discarded packaging paper (also known as trash to other people LOL!)
Last year I told everyone to skip gifts and instead give her something from around the that house they no longer used. At least I didn't do that, but for the record it turned into a huge success. Because I promised more things you could actually make, here's the recipe (ish) for avocado chocolate frosting which would also be a bad ass pudding.

Avocado chocolate frosting

-Two very ripe avocados

-1 tbs or more cocoa powder

-a handful of dates

-a few tbs of water. More or less to get the consistancy you desire

-1 tbs of coconut oil (This will make it set firm once you refrigerate, I didn't have any today and it was just fine)

 Combine all ingredients in a vitamix. If you don't have a vitamix, blend for three hours :D. I know this sounds weird, but is really delicious and you'd never guess it's got a vegetable base. At least I didn't top it with breastmilk ice cream.

Healthy vegan eating = Not a given

I'm trying desperately to find this blog that I was reading yesterday but the internets aren't giving it up! In it, she challenged readers to take a hard look at their diets, and truly up their game for February. She was talking about a nutritional upgrade. Being vegan doesn't necessarily mean healthy. I can't tell you how many times times someone has told me that they used to be vegan/vegetarian but had to start eating meat because they got sick/didn't feel well/weren't healthy. Many times, this lies in the fact that whole nutrition isn't a given, and one can still find vegan options in most mainstream places that are devoid of anything good for you. The following things are vegan: French fries, potato chips, Oreos, pretty much all sodas, sour peaches, watermelons, cherry blasters, lots of dark chocolate, etc etc. The first time I went vegetarian as I teenager, add diet coke and you have just covered all my food groups. I am completely guilty of non nutritive eating still-I have a sweet tooth that rages inside me like a cracked out junkie. I'm constantly making sweets or thinking about making something sweet. I do try to give them away where possible and only eat things I make myself, but still. I keep making better choices as I learn how-and see my kids picking up both my positive and negative eating habits. Bean very much likes the analog products -fake meats, burgers, hot dogs and cheeses. Many new vegetarians use these products often for convenience and to continue cooking foods you and your family are familiar with. Over time, we generally learn new cooking techniques and rely less on these products which are both expensive and processed. For Bean's birthday this month, we had tacos made of fake everything. Turns out they made me feel awful. So I'm going to do it, February I'm getting serious. Whole foods, less packaging and eating foods with ingredients I can pronounce!

Where are you at in your food journey? Do you think you're where you'd like to be to look and feel your best? Where do you start? Where would you put yourself on a scale of one to ten? (One being: fast food frequently, soda, chips and packaged sweets are almost always on your grocery list. Five being: Pretty good. Indulge frequently and don't really pay much attention to labels/nutritional stuff. Ten is: Completely whole foods. You eat while levitating.)


My friend Tricia is a high raw vegan, which means she eats very little food that is cooked. This preserves it's nutritional integrity, and much to my surprise is really delish! I'll post more on raw eating at another time, maybe Tricia can even stop by some time soon. She calls eating raw a nutritional upgrade, and I think that's perfect. Every time you take steps to change your diet for the better-be it learn a new technique, choose to learn more about whats in your food, or try a new X-you've just upgraded baby! February for me means change and challenge! What does it mean for you?

What the Kale?

This post was supposed to be a chronicle of the most amazing veg themed road trip of all time, but instead I'm following through on a promise to my awesome cousin Leslie. (Recipe at bottom as promised :)

Carol J Adams wrote a book titled "Living Among Meat Eaters" that revolutionized the way I functioned in a very non vegetarian culture. It came to me at a time when I desperately wanted to change my life to align with my values, but couldn't wrap my head around how on earth to function in social situations-they all focus on food! This book was invaluable, but I'll gush more about Carol J Adams in another post as we happened to meet her on our epic trip. So to make a point here, the book she wrote had lots of great tips for decreasing the awkwardness of social situations. Things like: don't discuss why you don't eat meat when people are currently eating a piece of meat. Along the way, I've come up with my own unofficial rules-most of which pertain to the kinds of food I serve omnis. There are a few on the no fly list. For people not used to vegan cuisine-no tempeh, tofu, leafy greens and for the love of god no nutritional yeast. This summer, during a big family reunion I broke one of my own rules. I was introduced earlier this year to the most amazing, fantastical, flavor bursting Kale salad. Kale? What the hell is that? Kale is a dark leafy green (you know that crap they always tell you to eat more of but you never do?) that is bursting with nutritive properties. Most of the time when I eat leafy greens, I saute it with my old buddies garlic, lemon, sesame oil and soy sauce to mask the healthy taste-so I was sure that I would hate this salad. Moral of the story is don't be afraid to try new things! This is about as healthy as it gets, and I could eat it for every meal! I'll probably talk more about why raw fooding is awesome at a later date-we're currently still getting acquinted. I can't claim this recipe as my own, but after countless interwebular searches I can't find the origin. So you can credit "random poster X" on www.vegweb.com if you feel the need to thank someone!

Rawsome Kale Salad

2 Bunches of organic Kale

1 Ripe Avacado

1/2 Red Onion Chopped

1 Apple Chopped

2 Tsp Minced Ginger

2 Tsp Minced Garlic

2 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice

2 Tsp Soy Sauce/Tamari/Braggs Liquid Aminos

1/2 Cup Raw Cashews, roughly chopped

To prepare Kale, wash well and use a pairing knife to cut the leaves away from the tough stem. This often leaves them in nicely sized pieces, but if they are larger than bite sized-feel free to take care of that. Cut your avocado and scoop the fruit(meat, green part, flesh, whatever you want to call it) into the bowl with your kale. At this point you want to love up your kale and avocado, and you're going to do this by giving the kale a nice deep tissue massage. Get your hands in there and make sure the avocado gets into all the nooks and crannies of the greens. In a separate bowl, mix the ginger, garlic, oil, lemon and soy sauce together. You can now add that to your loved up salad, and love it up just a little bit more to coat everything. At this point, add all your other chopped ingredients. Mix and serve. Voila! Now you can sit back and let the compliment start a comin!