The Veggie Hating Vegan
Gearing up for tomorrow’s March Against Monstanto! We have a right to know what’s in our food and a right to make our own, healthy choices. Are you participating in a march in your area?
If you love Horchata as much as I do, you must try Rice Dream Horchata! I stumbled across this while perusing the non-dairy milk at my local health food store, and it is delicious (and vegan)! This morning, I added a pinch of cinnamon to my glass - perfect!
Happy Meatless Monday! What’s on your menu?
Vegan Chickpea Piccata Over Cauliflower and Potato Mash
This vegan spin on the classic dish Chicken Piccata has quickly become one of my favorite meals to make (and eat)! Excluding the cauliflower for the cauliflower mash, I tend to have all of the necessary ingredients on hand - making this an excellent weeknight dinner!
I’ll have to admit that I can’t recall ever having chicken piccata, so I have no frame of reference to compare this to the omnivore version - but this dish is so very tasty! The flavors in the sauce combine perfectly and taste delicious on top of some creamy cauliflower mash.
Cauliflower mash has also become one of my favorite go-to dishes; I don’t think I’ll ever make boring old mashed potatoes again! I usually make the mash with cauliflower only, but last night I added 4 cups of peeled, chopped, and boiled potatoes because I was serving one additional person, and a head of cauliflower typically only makes enough mash to serve two.
HERE is the recipe for the chickpea piccata (I highly recomend it!), and THIS is the recipe for the cauliflower mash that I use as a reference. I modify this recipe, using vegan butter instead of coconut oil (I tried it with the coconut oil and didn’t care for it) and, as I mentioned, last night I added 4 cups of peeled, cubed, and boiled potatoes. It’s yummy with or without the potatoes, and definitely creamier without. If you add potatoes, you’ll most likely need to add a splash or two of non-dairy milk until you reach the desired consistency.
Lots o’ Vegan Mother’s Day Treats
I opted for all homemade gifts this Mother’s Day. Most of the mothers in my life don’t have a need for material gifts, and I felt baking desserts they love would be more thoughtful and meaningful.
While I’m still working on mastering the art of presentation, everything tasted much better than it looks! ;-)
What I Made:
No Bake Coconut Pie for my grandma - I 86’ed the bananas in this recipe, and added sweetened coconut shreds on top instead. Yum!
Sweet Potato Pie for my other grandma - I ran out of time and didn’t get to make the whipped coconut cream topping, but it is good either way!
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes for my mom - These turned out so tasty, if I do say so myself! I was a little worried, as my last attempt at vegan cupcakes didn’t go over so well, but I was very pleased with these! I even thought the the vanilla buttercream frosting was delicious.
Homemade, All Natural Chocolate Syrup for my step-mom, who loves Hershey’s syrup and has a big glass of chocolate milk every morning. I figured that, if she likes this all-natural syrup, she can stop consuming all that high fructose corn syrup that is in the Hershey’s version. ;) I tasted a lot of this as I was making it, and absolutely loved it! While it’s been a while since I’ve had Hershey’s syrup, I couldn’t tell the difference! Great recipe.
I was a little worried about making homemade pie crusts. While at the store buying the ingredients for all of these desserts, I threw a couple ready-made graham cracker crusts (they were egg and dairy free!) in my cart as back-ups. By the end of my shopping trip I decided to put them back and believe I could pull this off - and I did! I used the pie crust recipe from the sweet potato pie recipe for both pies, and I loved it! It was simple, pretty healthy, and very tasty!
This was a pretty ambitious endeavor, as I had a very busy week and attempted to bake all of this in less than 24 hours. Although I wound up in the kitchen until 2:00 AM on Mother’s Day morning, it was all worth it!
A Lion, Tiger, and Bear rescued together from abusive drug dealer are inseparable and live together in peace at a farm sanctuary in Georgia. Precious! Farm sanctuaries do such amazing things!
Vote with your dollars, vote with your fork!
If you don’t know why Monsanto food is dangerous for your health
Please start paying attention.
Global demonstrations May 25thFUCK YOU IM POOR.
I’m on a tight budget as well. Rather than displaying hostility, feel free to ask questions about how you can eat healthy on a budget. You may be surprised what you learn. Being on a tight budget doesn’t mean you can’t eat healthy - a lot of it is “re-learning” how to shop.
Buying whole foods is actually cheaper than buying processed and boxed foods such as the ones listed. For example - It is must cheaper to buy dried beans in bulk than to buy canned beans. A number of other items such as flour, oats (for oatmeal), rice, nuts, spices and even cereal can be bought in bulk at much lower prices than their packaged alternatives. Most health food stores sell all of these items, and more, in bulk.
There are a number of resources online for learning to eat healthy on a budget, if you seek them out. Bloggers here on tumblr are typically more than willing to answer questions and offer advice as well.
ALEC wants to make it a crime to document patterns of animal abuse. This isn’t just about animal activists: these “ag-gag” bills put journalists and whistleblowers at risk. And this isn’t just about animal rights: targeting and criminalizing whistleblowers puts your food safety at risk.
Please sign to tell ALEC to back off and stop criminalizing those who are trying to stop animal cruelty and ensure food safety!
Vote with your dollars, vote with your fork!
Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation and book signing of “Foodopoly” by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. It was an incredibly inspiring experience!
I have been following Food & Water Watch for some time, signing their petitions and following their progress on actions against GMO foods, fracking, etc. Recently, I saw Wenonah Hauter participate in a debate on my favorite news program, Democracy Now! (watch the debate HERE).
Prior to the signing, Wenonah spent some time talking to our small group (there were only about 7 other attendees, as this event was held in the small town I work in) about legislation around agriculture. She gave us an overview of how this legislation has evolved over the years, beginning in The Great Depression with the first Farm Bill through present day with the “Monsanto Protection Act.” It was fascinating to learn about how interrelated this is with economics, environmental issues, animal welfare, etc - All the issues that, since becoming vegan, have come to the forefront of my awareness.
It was also interesting to meet others who share this passion. Two of the attendees, a couple, were farmers - the girl was an organic dairy farmer who is a supplier to Organic Valley and her boyfriend (husband?) was a “grower” of beef cows who is in the process of applying for USDA Organic certification. Three of the attendees were from a local book club that solely reads books about environmental sustainability. The other two were a couple who have become passionate about these issues, it seems, since learning about the so-called “Monstanto Protection Act.”
Obviously we all attended this event for different reasons, the biggest contrast being between me and the cow farmers. It’s interesting that, even from those seemingly drastically different motives, we have a shared passion and common goal. After all, moving toward a more humane treatment (I say “more” humane because there is still no such thing as “humane slaughter”) is heavily dependent upon legislation around agriculture and the demands of the large corporations that control 60+ percent of the food industry in the US. I am realistic in that I know the whole country is not going vegan anytime soon so, although I will never return to eating animals or animal products, I feel an obligation to improve the conditions in which animals raised for food are treated in our society.
I took a lot away from this experience. I’ve been wanting to dive in and get involved in a cause like this one for some time, and this event afforded me just that opportunity. I will be attending a Food & Water Watch meeting at the end of this month, and will be getting active in their local efforts here in my state. I have also always wanted to join a book club, but was hesitant because I didn’t want to wind up having to read “Twilight” and “50 Shades of Grey.” How exciting to have found a book club solely dedicated to reading books about environmental sustainability! It was so very inspiring to meet Wenonah, one of the most respected food activists in the country, and have the opportunity to discuss these issues with her. This was just the boost I needed to move forward with pursuing my passion for activism!
Found out if there is a Foodopoly event in your area by clicking HERE.
