Quick Fix for a Sweet Tooth

When the system's in balance, I have no need for sweets, but it's still out of whack from my week-ful of bloody marys and vodka tonics and bread in many guises. From these indulgences I was feelin' fluffy -- about 3-5 lbs. was my guess before I stepped on the scale. The truth is I picked up only a couple of pounds and lost one of them the first day back. I don't really watch my weight too much since being vegan, but it is a good indicator of general health and balance. If I am eating enough dark green leafies, beans and whole grains, and drinking enough water, my weight magically, effortlessly, returns to my comfortable number. This is one of my favorite parts of the vegan lifestyle.

While my diet has improved exponentially since our return, I am still running wild playing catch up, so am not devoting enough time and planning to our meals. I'm not in balance just yet, hence the uncharacteristic sweets craving. Here's how I handled it in a jiffy -- a couple of spoonfuls of vanilla soy yogurt with a banana and a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa. This was very good and did the trick, but I was unfortunately mindlessly wolfing it down while I was wrangling a pile of bills to pay. Since I had not stirred the cocoa into the moist yogurt, it became airborne and I actually inhaled a pile of it, coating the insides of my lungs with cocoa which elicited a coughing fit for a few minutes. I'm a mess. Maybe it's time to take up meditation again!

Besides my breathing mishap, I do wholeheartedly recommend this bowlful of wholesome, sweet yum to stave off a craving! BTW, That's my favorite bowl. It reminds me of when the kids were tiny, which seems like just yesterday -- those cheeks!

Food As Fuel

It's repair season in our 10-year-old home (how did those years fly by so quickly?) so I have been busy sanding and spackling, applying joint compound and sanding again. This is not my favorite thing to do because wall dust is all pervasive and feels poisonous to breathe. Yes, I wear a facemask, but it still gets through. When the dusty mess is mostly cleaned up and it's time to paint, I can enjoy the process.  I'm loving the ceiling paint that goes on pink and dries white, by the way. It is easy to lose track of a wet edge up there.

The other day I was painting the kitchen ceiling after repairing a calamity (don't ask . . .) and in between the third and fourth coats hunger struck. This pile of fresh greens topped with cold leftover parsnip puree from dinner the night before,* pine nuts, sunflower seeds and a drizzle of Goddess dressing sustained me through the end of the project. All hail the noble leftover!

When the job was all finished, I rewarded myself with a little soft-serve:

Doesn't it look pretty in the old blue bowl? I made this by putting a small handful of frozen berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries) and about one and a half frozen bananas in a blender with a small handful of blanched almonds for fattiness. The blender really didn't want to move, so I also added a tiny splash of almond milk and that got things moving. This tasted quite decadent but not too sweet. It was energizing without imparting that "blah" ice cream feeling. Perfect!

*Parsnip puree:  have you tried this? just boil 'em and whirl them up with a little "butter"salt and pepper in the food processor -- amazing!

Bunco!

I hosted our bunco group in my basement pub the other night. It was a wonderful opportunity to flex my "vegan ambassador" muscles. Though I personally enjoy "freaky" vegan food as much as the next vegan, it's nice to show folks that vegan food does not necessarily need to be so very different from the food they are used to. Featured here are Alicia's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet, fresh dipping veggies with my avocado aioli, crostini with "butter" and olive tapenade and with artichoke spread. Here are my easy recipes:

Artichoke Crostini
Ingredients:
1 can artichoke hearts in water
5 Tbsp. Vegenaise
5 drops umeboshi vinegar
salt and pepper
1 baguette, sliced thinly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spread the bread slices on a cookie sheet. Toast the bread until lightly browned, turn the slices over and  toast the other side. Meanwhile, drain the artichoke hearts and press in a colander with a bowl and something heavy on top for several minutes to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Combine all remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until desired consistency is achieved. Top each toast with a spoonful of artichoke spread. I then garnished with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.
Variation: Butter each toast and top with olive tapenade. I bought mine at Costco. The butter is a nice compliment to the oily/vinegary tapenade. 

Avocado Aioli
3 avocados
6 Tbsp. Vegenaise
Juice of 1 lime
salt
Process all ingredients in a food processor.


I have featured this aioli several times on "A Midlife Vegan", and each time it is different. It's that kind of a recipe -- hard to mess up.  The proportions don't matter so much. This version was more avocado-centric than others. The lime is crucial.

It was so fun to get together with the girls and I love feeding friends healthy, kind food. After rolling the dice, I didn't personally win any money, but everyone loved my food so I still felt like a winner!

Random Ramblings Which Began as a Quickie

I have fodder for a nice long post whenever time permits, but for now I'll put out a short one. This morning is the first time I have a couple of hours to take my nine-year-old pup, Emma (the sweet honey-colored one) to the vet to get a lump checked and to get a bath and nails done, etc. Emma's my first dog, she's dear to my heart, and I'm a little worried about the lump. Send good vibes our way if you've got any to spare.

For my quickie today, I just want to comment on chocolate.

When I chose a vegan life almost a year ago, a thought that haunted me that I had to wilfully suppress on a number of occasions was that Nutella would be a thing of the past (dairy). So the other day when I came across Justin (that's what I will call him) I fell in love. Justin is essentially vegan nutella, but less sweet. Perfect! Sugar doesn't float my boat so much anymore anyway. I sampled Justin in tiny, pea-sized bits straight from the jar and was very satisfied. So next, I put a big honkin' spoonful on top of my oatmeal. I did not like it. Too much. Also, Justin is not as appealing to me melted. Who'd have thunk it?

Teasing my next post, I hosted bunco last night at my home. It was a perfect chance for me to create some vegan masterpieces that would also appeal to my omnivore friends. I believe all the creations were hits.  Appropriate photos and recipes will be included in the post, as promised ladies. As expected, the star of the show was Alicia's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet. I made them in a mini size, however, since they are so rich. I did not try them last night, knowing what chocolate does to me post-2:00 p.m. or so (no sleep). So at 6:30 a.m. this morning as I was rousing my kids for school, after staying up until midnight putting the food away, I sampled my wares. Verdict: very good, but I was loving the peanut butter portion. My body is off chocolate! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the taste of it, but there was an aversion or something. I did not feel ill, I was just missing that rock-star feeling I get from whole, pure foods. I'll leave the rest of the chocolate to the others. I don't feel sad about the chocolate chapter of my life (mostly) closing. I'll still treat myself with pea-sized bits of Justin.

I realize my quickie is turning out not to be (I think I am subconsciously sabotaging my trip to the vet) so, while I'm on a roll, let me add one more random thing: As I was typing this post, this album by Mumford and Sons popped up in my Amazon Associates box as a popular item. I just want to say I am surprised to see it, since I thought we were the only ones who knew about these guys. It's a great album, and "Little Lion Man" is the best, though rife with expletives. I don't feel they are gratuitous, though, as the song is very emotionally powerful, in an Irish bent (thought I believe they are British?) The bad words add to the song. Just don't play it around your kids. Maybe everyone already knows about Mumford & Sons, I don't know. I'm only a sheltered 40-something Georgia girl. But it's a good album.

Okay -- thanks for bearing with me. It's time to get responsible and get my puppy to the vet. Stay tuned for my Bunco food!

My Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Okay guys, I'm baking again! This is out of my comfort zone, since measuring has never been something I enjoy -- I normally just throw food into a dish until it tastes good -- but baking requires measuring, and I love to learn, so I might as well learn how to bake! I didn't use nuts in my cookies, because of my son's allergy to nuts (just breathing them could be dangerous) but you could add nuts in place of some of the chocolate chips if you like. These cookies were about as jam-packed with chocolate chips as they could be -- I had to push the ones that were falling out back into the cookies again before I popped them into the oven. I regret using the organic cane sugar, though I did not use much. I had bought it at the beginning of my vegan journey before I discovered that many cane sugars are not vegan because animal bones are used in their filtering (I hope this organic sugar wasn't filtered that way!) You could replace the sugar with a sweetener of your choice. I will be reinventing these cookies soon using agave instead of sugar -- I will just have to play around with the solid-to-liquid ratio. One thing I do love about these cookies is the date sugar. Date sugar is truly only crushed dates. It adds such a subtle, earthy sweetness, and goes really well with the in-your-face chocolate flavor. Here's my recipe:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 c. oats
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c. date sugar
1/4 c. granulated unbleached organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (I used large grain kosher)
2 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. safflower oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. silk chocolate soymilk (or plant milk of your choice)
1/2 c. Ghirardelli non-dairy chocolate chips

Cookies before baking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients except chocolate chips in one bowl, combine wet ingredients in another bowl, then mix the two together. Fold in the chocolate chips. On parchment-lined baking sheets, scoop about a tablespoon of the mixture for each cookie, spacing about an inch and a half apart. These cookies will not melt or spread, so squash them flat a little bit before baking. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Let sit on the baking sheet for two minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
Makes 24-28 cookies, depending on size.


Though I rarely eat sweets anymore (my system doesn't handle them very well) my husband definitely does, and he enjoyed these vegan cookies, which were much more wholesome than what he would otherwise be eating. I enjoyed them too, though I purposely limited the quantity and was mindful of not eating them too late in the day, lest they contribute to a sleepless night. The kids prefer their white sugar cookies, so they didn't touch these little treasures. I wonder if I could invent a fabulous plain white vegan  "sugar" cookie they would like?  Hmmm, stay tuned . . .