East Meets West Veg

If you think going vegan or giving up dairy means that you have to give up chocolate covered strawberries, or even desserts in general, you are so wrong! You can quickly, easily make inexpensive, dairy-free chocolate covered fruit at home in just a few minutes. You don't have to be a cook to make these and you can have the kids help out too.

I am participating in Vegan MoFo (Month of Food) this month! Woohoo! I am so excited! It basically means trying to post as much as possible for the month. The smart folks at Vegan MoFo realize that it can be kind of hard to keep coming up with fresh ideas for posts every day so they have given us MoFo bloggers some great ideas to inspire our writing.

A lot of MoFoers are posting according to daily themes. Some of the daily themes resonate with me, others I will skip. Take Mac-and-Cheese Monday; as a lifetime hater of mac-and-cheese, I think that I really have nothing to offer here. TV Tuesday, however, is something I can? work with. Though I do not watch much TV as of late, I think this is still manageable. I will just *sigh* have to make myself watch TV and consider it to be something like homework or a job. (I grew up watching WAY too much TV and it is one of my guilty pleasures that I rarely feel I can justify doing nowadays.)

I absolutely love my mom and would not trade her for anything in the world. But I sometimes wish I had an extra mom, a vegan mom who has been vegetarian/vegan since the 1970's and knows all the typical 70's recipes by heart. I totally love all of my cookbooks, but I will admit that I scour thrift stores and amazon.com for the vintage vegetarian cookbooks because it seems like those recipes have already been printed and people just don't want to print them again. Maybe it's because I'm kind of obsessed with the 1960's and 70's? Maybe I'm just dreaming of a vegan mentor or something.

At any rate, when I caught an episode of Jazzy Vegetarian and host was making a vegan meatloaf, twice baked potatoes, broccoli, and a dreamy banana pie, I totally felt like my dream was coming true a little bit. So, for my first TV Tuesday I thought I'd recreate Jazzy Vegetarian's Dreamy Banana Pie.

I ran into a little snag though. I forgot that I had to be somewhere until the last minute and I knew there was not enough time to make my pie (even though it doesn't take that long), so I decided to use a non-dairy graham cracker pie crust I had on hand for emergencies (because yes, needing a pie stat can be an emergency sometimes). The graham cracker pie crust was not bad, but I really think that the crust in the recipe would have been much better tasting and healthier. Parts of the graham cracker crust got a little soggy. This did not stop me from having a second piece though and it definitely did not seem to bother my husband. The crust in the recipe is gluten free as long as you use gluten-free oats.

This recipe and all of the recipes from this episode:
http://www.jazzyvegetarian.com/products-group-121.html

In my last post, I shared that Buddy Jr. is making a lot of progress on the housetraining front. Well, Buddy Jr. is making progress on another front as well. He is getting more used to my Vitamix. (For those of you who don't know, this is like a loud, super powerful, high-speed blender, food processor and so much more) This is really important because the only time he pooped in the house was after I used the Vitamix the first time after his arrival and I wondered if the loud noise literally 'scared the crap out of him.' I kind of think he just had to go, but I was still very cautious the next time I used the Vitamix and he seemed just fine. Now he doesn't even lift his head when I run it. He just keeps on snoozing. This is really good because after a stressful night of squirrels grinding walnut shells in the attic and Buddy Jr. waking me up to go outside (all this adds up to little sleep), I needed a naturally healthy, energizing, and detoxifying breakfast in a hurry. I just used what I had on hand, but it had such a light, refreshing taste that I fell in love with it. I will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients:
1 sprig mint
1 heaping handfull of baby kale
1/2 cucumber (peeled if not organic)
1/2 large avocado or 1 small avocado
1/4 pineapple (with it's juice)
1 orange
1 cup coconut milk (or other nondairy milk)
1/2 cup tart cherry juice (or your favorite juice)

Method:
Blend away! Enjoy! Garnish with fresh mint leaves if so desired.

Throughout my life, there have been many times I eliminated or tried to minimize my processed sugar intake and I've been mostly successful. I find that it makes my body feel better and my mind feel like I am doing something good. However, last fall was a different story.

In late 2012, my dad died unexpectedly and I was deep in grief in a way I never imagined I could be. It seemed to me like an adult shouldn't be so devastated by her dad dying, even if he was young and it was unexpected (though not from unnatural causes). I hardly felt like eating. All I wanted to do was sleep and cry. It's weird that I am willing to admit this because I always try to hide my crying from people and act as if I am fine. I guess admitting it is different than actually breaking down in front of someone. After the initial shock wore off, the whole thing really debilitated me. If I ate something - anything, I considered that a success. And I felt strangely drawn back to my sometimes friend, sometimes foe - sugar. I was craving sugar all the time. I tell people that I was on a vegan ice cream and french fries diet for a while.

So, it's been a few months now. . . They say that grief gets better in time and I honestly did not see how that was possible a few months ago. I wanted to believe it, but I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can tell you that it HAS gotten better. It is still difficult. I still cry almost every day. I still miss my dad. I still think of him all the time. I still think of how things could have been different. But things are getting better. I am awake for more than 8 hours a day! Yay! Little by little, I am starting to enjoy things again. I see a little glimmer of hope on the horizon.

But the nasty sugar addiction I picked up along the way is still hanging on. And I can remember how good it feels to be free from that addiction! I'm not eliminating sugar right now, but I am trying to reduce my dependence on it. As I found myself jonesing for cookies the other day (after indulging myself several days in a row), I decided it was time to try out a healthy alternative. So, working with what I had in the house, I came up with something that combined the sweetness (fruit) I was looking for with a rich taste (from the avocado & coconut milk). Now I know it's not hot out of the oven, but it did help me boost my willpower and I was able to skip the cookies that night!


Ingredients:
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 ripe banana
1/2 large avocado or 1 small avocado
3/4 cup coconut, almond or other non-dairy milk
1/2 cup tart cherry juice - actual juice, not the concentrated kind (or any juice you like)

Method:
Put it all together and blend, adding more juice or non-dairy milk if required for your blender. Enjoy! 

A few years ago, my husband's cousin was left to spend her college's winter break all alone in Denver because her boyfriend went to India to see his family. Being the caring guy that he is, he decided to buy her a plane ticket to Detroit to spend the holidays with us! Hooray! Since we had a guest from out of town, my days of sitting at home watching the ball drop with Dick Clark were over (well, not so over, I did it again the next year)!

We didn't want to go to the annual New Year's Eve party with my relatives because they lived too far away and we wanted to enjoy food we actually liked and could eat instead of their usual ring bologna, stinky fish, and crackers and cheese. So we found that a local Vegetarian group was having a New Year's potluck and decided to take a risk - not knowing anyone who would be there! We had a fabulous time! Everyone was so welcoming and interesting - and the food! The food was out of this world - especially the chocolate pie. We thought we died and went to heaven as the chocolatey goodness melted in our mouths! We went back for seconds but there was none left. Word spreads fast!

After some investigation, we finally found the piemaker and told her how much we loved her creation. She laughed and told us that she is not a cook and that she'd have to tell her sister that people were complimenting something she made. She told us that the recipe was so easy that someone who doesn't cook can make it and we committed the recipe to memory on the spot. I have since made my ever so slight variation to the recipe. Don't worry, it's still simple and delicious!

I often make this when there is a potluck or party where I have to bring something and it's been a big hit. I have made the addition of the fresh fruit on top. It's certainly not necessary, but I find that strawberries or raspberries taste great with chocolate. People often ask for the recipe and I've searched for this recipe online so that I could send them a link, but I never found it exactly. The woman I met at the party did not know where it came from. It had been just passed around to her. So, I decided to put it up so that others could enjoy it and I can stop sending individual emails of the recipe! Enjoy!

I was never really a big ice cream person.  I liked ice cream from time to time, but I don't remember having many cravings for it really.  However, when I became vegan I probably actually started liking ice cream more.  There were so many delicious flavors to try and it seemed to taste better when made with coconut milk, rice milk or soy milk.  Perhaps I was just excited to find out that despite what I had previously believed, there was an easy and delicious substitution. 

But, again, sadly I had to try to eliminate the packaged vegan ice cream from my diet when I decided to attempt to cut out sugar. :-(  That's probably when I really began wanting ice cream, knowing that I couldn't have it.  Much to my surprise, however, I found an ice cream I could eat at a local raw restaurant and I fell in love.  Now, if only I could recreate it (or something like it) at home. . . then one day, hurray! I found a recipe on the Whole Foods Market website.  I know that this is slightly different than the one at the local raw restaurant, but it is so delicious, I can have it in an instant (even when they are closed!) and it's cheap to make.  Plus, it puts those over ripe bananas to good use.

Whole Foods put a nice how-to video on youtube too. :-) When I watched this video, I thought that the 'nice cream' seemed a little too liquidy for my liking, so I put less non-dairy milk and an extra frozen banana (what would I do with that one lonely, left out banana anyway!?)
Since I made this, I have been craving it EVERY DAY - seriously.  I even ran into a psychic yesterday and she said she saw ice cream all around me.  She said, in fact, that she saw me dipped in ice cream.  I almost burst out laughing.  I had been thinking about this ice cream just before she said it.

So here's the recipe.  Feel free to play around with it.  Try almond milk, coconut milk for a super rich treat or any other non-dairy milk.  And, my advice is to add the non-dairy milk a little at a time to get your desired consistency.


Recipe:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2739