Worcester's Vegan Eats

This is the Tofu I use..

2012-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

LOVE it! Organic. Made locally. Non-GMO. Three things that make me smile! No wait, four. Made by people, not machines! Oh and it's very easy to drain it, since it has far less water than regular tofu & is quite firm. I use it all the time for almost every tofu meal we have. Upon occasion, I will have to use another brand that is also non-GMO & organic, this is cause the people at Bridge Tofu need a little break!

Sorry the website got blasted by the flash. :) You can check them out here.

XOXO Heather :)

Cheeeeeeeesey Goodness!

2012-01-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

I was looking at recipe blogs today. Someone had posted a Vegan Stroganoff & mentioned they used vegan sour cream in it & it got me thinking. "Hmmm I have some vegan sour cream that needs using up." So I took some coconut oil, fired up the cast iron pan & added some chopped onions to it. Then pepper, sea salt, onion powder, turmeric, garlic powder, and a wee bit of curry. Once the onions were softened & golden, I added some water to cool the pan off a bit & start making a sauce. Once the pan was cool enough (cool too touch it) I added the sour cream a bit more salt & some nutritional yeast. Almost the whole container of sour cream. A couple of big spoonfuls was missing. Mixed all the spices, sour cream, water etc together. Then I let it cool somewhat, while the rice was cooking in the pan. Once the rice was done, I mixed some of it with the sauce. (had to save some plain for the dog's dinner & some my son's asked to have with vegan butter) I used about 3 cups of cooked rice to the sauce. Then I let it cool down. Next I took brocolli, carrots, kale, mushrooms & lightly steamed them. Just till the kale was wilted & the brocolli got really green. Pulled it off the heat & out of the steamer & mixed the whole shooting match into the rice & cheeeeeeesey goodness. Last thing I added some daiya, the mozzarella version to the top & melted it under the broiler, but the microwave would work just as well. I'm learning to be sneaky to get my hubby to steer clear of the vegetarian meals & eat more vegan ones. We're getting there with him moving into veganism. The Milk Documentary dot com was a big huge help with him even considering it!

Now I'm off.. gonna go steal a little of this yumminess for my own bowl.

XOXO Heather :)

Inspiration Hath Struck Again!

2012-01-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

I watched the below video on how to make Vegan Eggless Salad this morning. It made me very hungry. I had some tofu & all the ingredients noted in my fridge. So I went to town.

I created my version. I just added one tiny additional ingredient, turmeric. Just a wee pinch, that's all. Oh and a sun dried tomato & some lettuce. YUM! I also used home made bread, since we're gluten free in this house. It was so good, nice to have a sandwich again, now & then.

This was so delish! I can def see myself making it again & again. And again!
Do you like eggless salad? Ever tried it? if not you def should give it a go. It was super quick, which is always always a plus here!

XOXO Heather :)

Inspired By A Zombie..

2012-01-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

For my lunch/brunch this morning/afternoon meal, I was inspired by the Vegan Zombie. He made a tofu omelet. You can see his video below. Looks so yummy! He makes his Zomelet batter much the way I make tofu ricotta or tofu dips. Hmm.. maybe next time.

I decided on something a bit easier. Scrambled Tofu & Steamed Veggies.

What can I say? I like easy when it comes to food. Simple. Quick. Into my belly. I am always always always hungry these days.(5 mos preggers) Nothing seems to fill me up for very long. I'm always toting along a fruit-veg smoothie or fruit when I head out. Drives me a little bonkers too. Always hungry.

I took some veggies I had in my fridge, spiced & steamed them in my cast iron skillet. Spinach, chopped organic tomatoes, black beans, sliced baby bella mushrooms. I used a small bit of spices to spice the veggies up. Pink Himalayan salt, nutritional yeast, black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Then just placed them altogether in the cast iron pan with a little coconut oil. Once it got going, I added some water & covered it & turned the heat off. Once the spinach was wilted I took it all out, placed into a bowl with a wee bit o' Daiya cheese. I use the mozzarella as that's my fav & what we had on hand. Covered the bowl with a plate & let the Daiya melt & the flavours mingle.

Next, I used organic tofu, broke it into tiny pieces with a fork. Then spiced it with a wee bit of the following spices: pink Himalayan salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder and gluten free vegan soy sauce. Put it into my coconut oil coated cast iron pan & cooked it for 2-3 minutes just to mostly warm it up. I added in the veggies & daiya & mixed the whole thing up in a semi-warm pan and turned it out onto my plate. Course in the middle here.. between all the cooking. I had to do the scrambled tofu thing twice. My sons came in smelled what was going on & wanted their own scrambled tofu. So I gave away my tofu & then whipped up some more for me. Funny how you can ask these boys, if they're hungry & they will say: "Naaah, not right now, I'm busy with the Legos." Then the minute they smell yummy stuff.. here they come a running! Typical?? ;)

Well anyways, we're all full right now. Off to the blender I head.. gotta whip up a smoothie, especially if I'm gonna get out of here today for a bit & enjoy the snow & sunshine!

XOXO Heather :)

YUMMY X 4 Billion!

2011-12-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Last week as a family, we went to EVO in Worcester. Kids got their usual fav, the gluten free-vegan pizzas that they adore & are always so happy with. One had olives & sauce. One had daiya cheese & sauce & olives. The kids only real complaint, they wanted MORE pizza! Oh and they also had tons to drink & tons of fries to devour, so don't let them fool ya, they had plenty to munch on! Hubby ordered two meals, cause let's face it, he's a pig. ;) He got the quesedillas & vegan black bean burger. He said he was gonna share the quesedillas, and he was nice to let us all try it. YUM! I chose the Stone Baked Avocado Tuscany. It was so delish! I wanted to eat it all over again, the very next day! I decided I should try to recreate it. Sorry EVO, I was lazy today & tried to make something similar. I was so hungry & I'm pregnant. I hope that is enough of a reason to be lazy & not come visit. Lazy lazy lazy..

Anyways, that's the finished meal in the photo of above. I skipped making the aged balsamic reduction (yes we have no balsamic vinegar) that they served with the meal & I also skipped using the fire roasted tomatoes. What can I say? I didn't feel like lighting the bonfire & I don't happen to have a stone oven. I used sun dried tomatoes instead. I found that I used the wrong tomatoes, when I checked their website & the menu to see the name of the salad I had. It's called the Stone Baked Avocado Tuscany. It is divine! I know it's not raw, but I am lenient with myself right now, that I'm not trying to actively do raw & lose weight. Plus I'm pregnant & baby wanted it! ;) It was really yummy! I even managed to save some of the tofu so I can make some more in another day or so. Well.. that's if the tofu kids don't steal it from me. I saw them eyeing it up.

My marinade:

A pinch of the following spices (you can use more, I'm using the less is more philosophy. Pregnancy, remember?)

Pink Himalayan Salt
Dried Mustard Powder
Black Pepper
Onion Powder
(you can add some fresh onion instead, none for me thanks)
Garlic Powder
(you can use fresh garlic if you like--again my tongue says it's too strong)
A splash of ACV, that's apple cider vinegar
Splash of Gluten free vegan soy sauce.
A splash of Wegman's Basting oil.
(easy to recreate this: Grapeseed oil, parsley, garlic and thyme)
Water, since I splashed too much ACV in the marinade bowl.

Then MIX MIX MIX the marinade & cut the tofu into thick slices. I put the slices into a glass baking dish & poured the marinade over the top & let it sit in the fridge for an hour. OK I didn't wait the whole hour. I was HUNGRY! You might like it to marinade a bit longer. So let it sit in the marinade a while and let it soak the flavour up so it will taste yummy. Mine was bland. I'm OK with bland right now. Then next you can bake the tofu or put it into a cast iron pan. I used stainless steel today & steamed off the spinach & spices (salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder) & tomatoes, first. Next I took the tofu & cooked it in the pan with some of the marinade. Added the veggies back in & turned it out onto my plate. Then I ate the whole thing. Oh my YUM!! It is not exactly the same as EVOs version. Not even close actually. Theirs is far better. I will be back to get it again. I loved it. I guess this is what they call a pregnancy craving?

Mmm now to figure out what to have for dessert tonight. Wish I had some plantains. I miss them. Hmmm google time.

XOXO Heather :)

Happy Hanukkah!

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

What do you get with grated onion, grated potato, a little sea salt, a little pepper, onion powder, coconut milk, Gluten free flour, garlic powder & coconut oil?

You get heaven on your breakfast plate! Better known as Potato Latkes.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah, and we are here at home learning all about this lovely Holiday. When I first learned about it, I was enthralled. In love. Smitten. What a great story of Hanukkah! I was almost ready to convert! I even gave it some serious thought. I worked for a family that celebrated both Christmas & Hanukkah and learned how to cook some Jewish foods while there. The kids I nannied loved that & I also loved learning about them & making it more comfortable for them having me as their primary caretaker. Since that time I've spent time learning about other cultures & other religions. it's a fascinating subject for me. From Pagans to Kwanzaa I've learned a lot. I try to teach my children all about the world, different folks' ideas and incorporate it into a worldly way of being for my homeschoolers. Accept everyone, love everyone, anything less is unacceptable to me. We live in a melting pot. So stop the world & melt with me! ;)

It's really an easy dish to make & so yummy. A great side dish to practically any meal, you don't have to wait till Hanukkah! All I did was grate three red bliss potatoes, some onion & I mixed with a splash of coconut milk, a small handful of gluten free flour. (Most of my ingredients are organic. I'm anti-GMO) I used Bob's Redmill, but you can use wheat flour, if you prefer. I then seasoned it to taste with Himalayan Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder. Mixed the whole shooting match up in my bowl & let it sit for a few minutes. So easy! Then I turned the stove on, heated coconut oil in my pan. I use stainless steel, no teflon here! Now it was time to fry fry fry! I fry on one side, let them brown pretty good & flip. I like mine a little on the crunchy side.

I thought it was pretty inspired to cook them in coconut oil. Not sure if it's Kosher, but it was tasty. I didn't notice any coconut taste, but then I'm used to coconut oil by now & I really appreciate all the benefits that coconut oil has for me. We used Tofutti better than cream cheese & ketchup to dip them in. Traditionally I believe apple sauce & sour cream is used. I'm more interested in shredding my apples, and adding some walnuts & agave nectar to it for a snack later. Cause that is another of my fav snacks to have this time of year.

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate this lovely holiday!

XOXO Heather :)

Why Does it Have to be so Difficult?

2011-12-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

Finding Vegan Friends. Why is it so hard?

Now that I'm vegan, I've felt myself cut off from folks. Even cut off from some of my family. I meet new folks all the time, and when the V word is mentioned it's either "Oh you guys must be really healthy then." Or Silence. Sadly the silence comes from mostly folks who are my age group & with kids.

However, I felt a real sense of triumph the other day, when a family member gave me a newspaper clipping about veganism. I said Oh thank you! "Bill Clinton is in this article, he's really very lucky, he saved his own life going vegan." It was met with a "hmph" from her hubby. I wanted to say: "Well he was essentially dying, stopped eating meat & now is healthy & thinner, so what the blank do you attribute it to?" Luck? Lipo? But I remained neutral, peaceful & quiet. Maybe he will think about it tho. I mean they asked where to get vegan stuff for my kids to eat, so I didn't have to tote their lunch & all snacks, not that I mind doing that. I know some of our food is pricier, actually the pricier stuff is usually the gluten free vegan stuff. But you have to do what you have to do. Celiac is no laughing matter, sadly. I tried to laugh at it the other day & had a piece of regular vegan pizza on Friday with the kids. Didn't feel very good till Sunday rolled around. I kid thee not. "Stupid blasted wheat." You can quote me on that. "Wheat GRRRRR!!"

But back to my venting about finding vegan friends with children. When is that going to happen? When is it going to happen in my town? The 5th of never sounds about right. So very frustrating! So very limiting. So very trying. So very lonely. I mean my kids are 6 & 8 and have never slept over anywhere, not even their grandparents, cause I'm afraid of them getting into other people's food & its not even the meat (cause they hate meat & won't touch it anyhow) I worry about so much, it's mainly the food coloring junk folks have & the junky food that is vegetarian at the least, or soda or gum that folks unwittingly give the kids. (How many times am I going to be asked to meet for lunch & playtime at McDonald's anyways?)

We meet people all the time, and we see kids all the time. They enjoy seeing other kids & playing with them, but I'm so closed off to making plans with folks for other activities at their homes or other places I just freeze up. I become shy around the parents & just quietly say hello & don't get comfortable around them. Cause getting comfy often leads to heartache. What is going to happen when the V word is mentioned? Are they going to be nice? Are they going to be mean? What are they going to say in front of my kids? Will it hurt our veganism happy go luckyness, we have going on now? I worry about this all the time. My kids adore being vegan & I don't want stupid not thinking folks saying stuff that will negatively impact my children & their love of all creatures great & small.

My son said the V word all on his own the other day, to his gym teacher. She was nice about it, actually. I was so happy about that. She was asking what he was going to have for lunch. I was keeping mum. Letting him do the talking. She didn't say much, but she didn't say anything negative & she lives here in town. WHEW! I was sweating bullets. My other son turned himself around in the elevator. But when she didn't say anything bad, he turned around & smiled. I smiled at her too. Then I said, oh he probably wants to have Pizza. It's a favorite in our house. Vegans eat the same things as you do, folks. We just use a few different ingredients, that's all.

It's so very trying. So very limiting. So very lonely. All my good vegan friends I have met online & most of them live far away from me. I'm going to have to do something drastic soon, like create a Facebook group or Meetup group or something. There has to be some area folks who eat like us, or similar anyways. It's that or I begin trekking to Boston or Western Ma. on a regular basis to meet folks there. They even have a raw vegan meetup groups in both of those areas. Connecticut does too.

OK I have vented. I feel better now. {SIGH}

XOXO Heather :)

Happy Tofu Beast Day!

2011-11-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

In my family we don't celebrate Thanksgiving any longer, having learned about the horrible treatment the Natives received during the times when the Puritans arrived here in New England. We're also vegan now, so we don't celebrate with a turkey either.

We celebrate ThanksLiving, or Tofu Beast Day. We still have a big dinner. We still sit around and watch TV. I just no longer think about the Pilgrims & thank them for coming to this new land. I am grateful for my life here. But I am also sad about the Native Folks who died here due to them coming. So I think of today as a remembrance day in the Native's honor.

To kick off this years Tofu day, yesterday we adopted 25 Baby turkey's from Farm Sanctuary. We couldn't come to a decision whether to adopt a boy or a girl turkey, so we picked out the babies instead. So sweet!

We also ordered up a cute colouring zine to keep us busy while waiting for Thanksliving to arrive. I think this zine is great for any time of the year. Kids LOVE coloring in it!

Here is the tofu beasty all wrapped up tightly and cooking away! You can also see the sweet potato casserole cooking along with it. Those are Dandies marshmallows on there! Yes they make everything VEGAN now!

While waiting for the beasty to cook, I got to look at this cute face wondering when it would be done. Apparently my kids were HUNGRY!

I cooked myself out making all kinds of yummies for this day.

This is my gluten free version of Green Bean Casserole. Sorry no crunchy onions, so far I have yet to see gluten free versions of them.

Three count em' THREE kinds of pie. Chocolate Cheezecake below:

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheezecake Pie:

And three, Gluten Free Vegan Open Faced Apple Pie :

And the beasty finally done.

Sorry forgot to shoot a pic of it whole & uncut. Kids really liked it. It reminded them of the "mock chix legs" they have at The Loving Hut. So they were psyched. I just made it like I used to with the turkey back in the day. I put sweet potato, carrots, and red bliss potatoes (all organic) underneath the beast while it roasted & was basted. Yes I also made some homemade gluten free bread stuffing & two kinds of mushroom gravy. One was button mushroom which we mixed with the green beans (shown above) and some on the bread, the other kind of gravy was for putting on the beasty. Everything went over very well. Even the canberry. I LOVE canberry & had to have the tradition continue on. Eventually we will appreciate homemade cranberry sauce! I hope anyways, I still LOVE the canberry tho!

Until next post..

XOXO Heather :)

The Sugar Mama Vegan Cookie Swap!

2011-11-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Presenting: The Sugar Mama Vegan Cookie Swap! Get your apron out because the competition will be fierce! Are you ready?

Free! / Ugly sweaters & holiday attire encouraged!
Featuring photos with Santaaaa!!! by Worcester Photo Studios

Kick-Ass Prizes for:
Most delicious vegan cookie
Most attractive vegan cookie / cookie display
Most awesome ugly sweater or holiday attire

Feel free to bring any vegan drinks/food to share. Note: If you don’t have time to bake/enter the swap but want to attend the partay, you can’t participate in the actual cookie swap, but alternatively could bring a vegan food/drink item to share, participate in ugly sweater/holiday attire contest and have your photo taken with santar. Do it.

If you plan to enter, please post a comment below!
___________________________________________
The Rules of the Cookie Exchange

All cookie ingredients must be vegan. No exceptions. This means no eggs, milk, dairy, honey, gelatin, etc.

Please bring 6 dozen total cookies. Why 6 dozen? It sounds like a lot, but to make the event work, people can taste 1 of your cookies at the party and take a couple of your cookies home. (For example, if we have 15 entrants that each make 6 dozen cookies everyone will be able to taste one of your cookies at the party and bring 2 of your cookies home, and it leaves a few extra cookies for you as testers.)

All entries must be cookie-like. They should be homemade or from a vegan bakery. Stray way from cookie mixes and anything with wet toppings that don’t dry. We don’t want 30 plain chocolate chip entries, be creative!

Arrange cookie entry on a platter and bring another large container to carry away your cookies.

Label your cookies! And Bring a copy of your recipe with ingredients.

Our advice: Make your cookies the night before, so you’re not rushing and cookies have time to cool/dry.

Where: 90 May St., Worcester, MA 01602

Please head on over to VegWorcester for more info! I love those veggy folks!

Or check out the facebook event page & let folks know you're coming!

XOXO Heather :)

Recipe time..

2011-11-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Nothing like being pregnant to let you know JUST HOW HUNGRY a person can get. OK sorry for all those caps. Oh man, when & if you ever get prego, you'll know what I mean. Yipes I am hungry all the dang time. But that's OK, I'm eating all manner of healthy eats, so it's all good. Seriously I'm hungry right now! Which is mainly why it's taking me so long to get this blog post posted. I keep stopping to eat or drink.

One thing I made recently for my kiddos, well mostly the kiddos. I did have a bite or two or three. ;) Was a cranberry-orange juice cheesecake pie. I used a tiny bit of agave nectar in the batter & when I served it I put on a dusting of powdered sugar, so it was tangy & sweet at the same time. Oh my yummy! I also made them a squash pureed soup. Just used a vegan bouillon cube, some other spices & blenderized squash. DEELISH. However, making it as a bisque type soup, with coconut & curry would also be delish. I'm considering making some more!

Without any further rambling, here is the cranberry orange cheezecake pie in all it's pre-bitten glory!

I used 2 containers of tofutti, 1/2 C fresh squeezed OJ, 1/2 a bag of cranberries, which I put into the blender, with a little water & blenderized em till they were puree. After this I simmered the cranberries & OJ with a tiny bit of agave nectar in a saucepan on the stove. I also added some thickener to the cranberry-OJ mix while it was simmering. I used 2 TSP of tapioca. I strained the seeds with a strainer. Poured the hot mixture into a glass bowl to cool. Once cooled I added the room temp tofutti. A bit more agave. I'd suggest maybe a 1/4 of a cup of agave, I know I used far less than this tho. More like 2 Tablespoons of agave for my pie. We're not big on sweet here, at least I'm not. Then I made the crust. I use raw coconut flour mixed with ground flax seeds, and rice flour. I then added a bit of agave to it & then melted butter to evenly coat & make the crust. (A quarter of a cup of each flour, 1/2 C of melted butter, and 1 tsp of agave.)pressed the dough into the pan, poured the batter over the top & put it in the oven on bake for 375*F for 10 minutes. Then turned it down to 350*F for the last 30 minutes or until set. I like to keep my pies looking the same colour, so I used some tin-foil over the top of the pie while it cooked. After this we let it cool on the counter, and then put it in the fridge. We like our cheezecake cool when eating it. Don't forget the Dusting of powdered sugar cane! Nom nom nom! It was so great. This was the very last thing my stove cooked in fact. Just after this, I put on the broiler to toast some toast, the next morning & heard three sounds that reminded me of popping corn going crazy. It was the fuses for the oven. Now the oven won't even turn on. Guessing it's curtains. Not all is lost tho, a friend is going to take it & turn it in for the metal weight for us. Now to just measure & pick out a new stove!

Oh and yeah, the pie went over very very well! You can tell by looking at his face:

Another new thing popped up this week. This will be the baby's first toy. It's from Haba my fav baby toy company, see Maukilo for more of their cute toys.

Another new thing this week. I finally did it. I made some biz cards for this blog.

My main reason for doing this is for helping out others. It's because I keep bumping into open-minded folks who say, "Ohhhh you're really healthy then, eating a vegan diet." My Midwife after seeing my low blood pressure, perfect blood test results, the weight loss I've had & my cholesterol levels being so low. Also my register attendant at the grocery store, and various other folks I bump into. I want to do some promoting & maybe put the bug in these folks' ears to try vegan or at least more vegan things to their diet. Eating a vegan diet is the best. The number one thing you can do for your health. Ever. I am not the only one who is saying this. Please check out the movie titled "A Delicate Balance." Or if you have time read The China Study. For a synopsis of the China Study you could also watch FOK, Forks Over Knives. I have heard that folks who have Netflix can see it there for free. I however watched it on Amazon, it was $3.99 to see it. It's life changing, folks. It's so important!

Now back to the treadmill, gotta burn all that energy!

Until next post. Get out there & SAY:" I'm Vegan for the animals. I'm Vegan for my health! And I'm vegan for the earth." to any & everyone you meet!

xoxo Heather :)

Hello!!

2011-11-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Man, first I must say sorry for not posting in so long. Been loads busy. Lots of new changes going on around here. Change number one, we're getting a new family member come spring! WEEE! Now I need a Vegan Baby on Board sign for my car! ;)

Here is the wee little he or she.

Ooh I think the wee one will need this to wear out of the hospital!

available here on cafepress.

Next change, kids are taking a gym class & some other classes, so we're out & about much more often. Homeschooling is insanely FUN! But busy busy busy.

What's new in my vegan foodie world? I am still mainly doing the raw veganism thing. I find that with pregnancy I need a little bit of a break eating so darn much fruit & veg, so I added rice & beans back in and some lightly steamed or stir-fried veggies from time to time.

I went to START on the Street back in September & met Katie & Jay from VeganDirtyFoods & fell in love. Both with them & their company! Such nice people. So I should high five them over the net' & thank them for making practically everything they create gluten free & vegan! HIGH FIVE! Love you guys! Kids LOVE their every single thing they make!

I also made these Lasagna rolls for the kids recently. OH they were so great! We skipped the match meat, since it's not GF. But they were so great & he was so fun to watch. When I found the link on FB my kids heard it & came running over to watch & learn, then we prepped the lunch together. I love that about youtube recipes & getting the boys involved in making their own food. One difference we did with the recipe, my son LOVES the new daiya, the pepperjack cheese version & insisted on having it on his lasagna rolls! OH so YUMMY!

Also I made my own vegan yarn, sorta. I bought it on etsy & spun it with a drop spindle all by my oneness. I don't know if I told you this here, or maybe it was on my arty blog.

It's super fun & since it's banana fiber from actual bananas--no animals were harmed ever! I have been lusting after this etsy item ever since:

You can find it here in this etsy shop. Be sure to still read "ingredients" not everything is vegan here. Isn't it great tho? I can see a scarf or a necklace being made from it.

Last fun new change, we have internet, heat, hot water, lights and electricity again! We had a power outage that lasted about 7 days. We do lose power here often. We are in the sticks, so when it goes out, folks hear two hours--we hear 6 hours--at least.
So we made a game plan, got a generator, all kinds of backup necessities and have packed them all away (for now) in the garage. I shudder to think when it will go out again. UGH! We had the temps in the house around 55*F the whole time. It would have been warmer in here, but our rescued frog's tank needed heat too. I'm just thankful for hubby's quick generator purchase, and that she made it through the cold spell OK.

Hope you out there are staying warm & missed the recent Nor'easter & power outages. So sad the limbs that came down in the yard. But all the maple trees have made it OK. The pines are old hats at this weather & laughed it off. Sadly our lovely organic apple trees are pretty much gone. One more down & then we will get some more to plant here come spring. I am planning on using all the pieces from them that we can. I will compost the leaves, save the twigs for the summer campfires, and use the wood for my neighbor's fire pit & woodstove. I am also thinking of taking a slice of stump to make a little stump table in memory of them. One of the apple trees has quite the girth. Incredible it's so wide. Ya'd think was a sequoia not an apple tree. ;)
Will have to find out how old it is too.

So anything new with you?

XOXO --Heather :)

Note to self..

2011-09-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Eating a vegetarian diet was an easy switch for me. Eating a vegan diet was also a no brainer. It was continue along a path you never felt was right for you. Or move on to another way of being & feel better while doing it. The choice was simple. I chose the path not taken & have been enjoying myself immensely. The feeling better came from both the spiritual & the healthy point of views. Then came the gluten free change. BOY was that a hard one. Wasn't it? It sure was! I still salivate in the grocery store when I smell fresh French bread & probably always will.

Now I've made another "drastic" but not so drastic change to my life. I've become for the most part raw vegan. Occasionally I'll have a salad with peanut butter Thai sauce on it, or swipe a taste of my kid's mac n cheese, so I can make sure it's not too hot for them. Sure. That's why I do it. ;) I've eaten out in places that serve a wimpy salad & I'll have something stir fried & cooked instead, iceburg lettuce just doesn't thrill anyone, people. Or I will have a bite of some awesome food at The Belmont Vegetarian. CAUSE OMG if you haven't tried his food, yet & are a diehard meateater--it will tempt you right onto the turnip truck with the rest of us. Trust me! Just GO!

{Raw Spinnach, Dehydrated Tomatoes, Sea Salt & spices}

OK but back to the being raw vegan thing. I've been at this for a while. It is getting easier, and easier, as time goes on. It helps especially finding folks who also are into it, really into it. It would help me even more if I found some local peeps to hang with & learn from. But that's another post, for another time. It's really not that hard of a 'diet' or way of life. It really isn't. It's not like I'm being force fed horrible gross things that are essentially swept up from the slaughterhouse floor, so why then is it such a thing with me? WHY am I having a bite here & there. I'm not really hungry, ever. It's not like I'm counting calories, stepping on a scale, or limiting food amounts--like other previous diets I tried. So why the head games @self?? Why? WHY?? I expect the answer is rhetorical, and it depends on the person. Some say I'm not eating enough calories. I'm afraid to eat too many for one. Some say to eat more bananas. Some say to drink all your calories & since they are in the form of a smoothie--it's easier to digest & thus you lose weight faster. I don't wanna lose too fast tho. I worry about that often.

{Coconut Water, Watermelon, Grapefruit, Bananas & Peaches}

But looking at all this great food from breakfast today, there really isn't a reason, an argument, that it's something I will give up on. It will get harder tho come winter to find good, tasty, interesting fresh organic fruit. It is Massachusetts afterall. Not much grows in the snow around here. But I am a Massachusetts native. I am a diehard cold weather loving girl. I am not a quitter. I am a toughie. I am a stubborn old goat, like my Grandfather before me. I can get this done. I can. I will.
I will be a raw vegan 100%. I can do it!

--Heather :)

How I wish I was in Toronto!

2011-09-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

OK so the weather by way of Hurricane Irene messed up last weekend plans to head to the farmer's market in Worcester. Maybe this weekend! We've got a Birthday for my 8 year old to be. ME the mother of an 8 year old? Not possible! Wow! I'm shocked he is this old. He's been vegan since he was about 3 years old. Since he began life as a vegan for the very first year, spose you could say he's been vegan even longer. It wasn't until he began eating meats & processed foods that we had issues with behaviour etc with him.

{Shown below are the both of us, when he was a newborn.}

{The celebrating starts now! Yay! Happy Birthday!}

{Above is my 8 year old to be in a more recent shot.}

In addition to the Birthday fun, I wish I could run up to Toronto this weekend & see the premiere of Vegucated! Looks like an awesome movie. Wish it was a reality TV show on NBC or something here in the states.

Above is a photo of some apples I picked up called Pink Pearl Apples. I found them at the Living Earth in Worcester. They remind me of say a green Granny smith apple crossed with a mac. They are really yummy! Kids love em' too. And... lastly.. if YOU don't teach your kids to love fresh fruits & veggies, then who will?

{Shown above my 5 year old munching on a veggy salad.}

I bribe my kids with promises of Gluten free vegan pizza served at EVO if they eat their fruits & veggies. WHATEVER works! Sometimes I let them get a buccaneer candy bar if they've been especially good about it. Most veggies I don't have to even bribe them with now, they willingly eat them. Trick is to make something for yourself & don't share it with them.. odds are they will wanna try it.

Hope you have a great day! Enjoy the veggies!

XOXO Heather :)

Main Street Worcester

2011-08-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

Has a Farmer's Market! Woot! I'm going to try to make it this weekend, weather depending, of course. My husband just bought a whole bunch of veggies of a lady who sells there, while he was at the Belmont Vegetarian picking up our Gluten free & vegan Lasanga & mac n cheese. She charged him $5 for a ton of veggies. Really inexpensive organic veggies. First time for everything, I guess! So we will get them from her again. AND pay a little more. I've had a garden & know how difficult it is. Anyways, hubby is picking up the yummies to keep our kidlings happy this weekend. EASY food is needed especially during a storm warning. My boys used to LOVE getting the mac n cheese at Belmont Veg, but we've since gone gluten free for them too, so we've been skipping it.

Believe me, I know.. I know.. they have been very very sad. Even at times mad at me about this.

I'm celiac and know of at least another celiac in my family, so the likelihood is my kids will be too. So we're getting them used to it now, so they won't be SHOCKED into the no french bread later on. Once in a while we let them have something small with wheat, if we cannot find it otherwise. IE: Smart deli's vegan pepperoni. OY why did we ever start them on that?

Yeah. Sigh. I know it's not fair that some foods bother us. We're just sensitive & we know it bothers us. Most folks are probably, maybe bothered by it too & just don't know it. So pity them. We try to find other foods that won't bother us & boy what a journey it's been.

FUN! For the most part.

Let's just say when I break out the purple beet smoothies, they always say NO THANK YOU, Mom!

That's OK. All the more for me!

--Heather :)

Vacation Time!

2011-08-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for no recent updates. I'm on vacation. Back closer to the fall.

Have fun, Heather :)

We Vegans would NEVER do that!

2011-06-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Or wear THAT! Or eat THAT! Or have that as a PET!

{Photo: Bumblebee pal in my garden}

We're all different vegans & since there are so many different types of people out there, chances are you're going to run into someone who is vegan, but has different vegan beliefs, than you have. There is no one hard fast 'vegan' ideal that works for everyone. I'm sorry to say this, but there isn't. What works for me, might not work for you.

{Photo: Our Painted Lady Butterflies}

OK I don't know if I've brought this topic up before here, but we've had the topic come up a few times in my Etsyveg Street Team's google groups. It's one that is equally time honored and tiresome. T.I.R.E.S.O.M.E. Did I mention it was tiresome? Without any (pomp & circumstance) further ado it's called "Vegan Snobbery".

{Photo: Painted lady close up}

OK folks number one: No one can fully be 100% animal product free. Either you have pets rescued or otherwise. An old recycled car that happens to have leather. Pearls given to you by hubby for a Wedding Anniversary, a Silk dress from a High School Prom, Shells you saved as a kid on Cape Cod with your Dearly Departed Grandfather or whatever else mementos you just can't do without cause of the memories, or for passing down to your 'daughter to be' someday. We cannot be 100% animal product free. OK? Got it? It's true. Now knowing this fact, please take it easy out there on folks. No one likes a preachy Vegan or anyone being preachy about any subject, even, IMO, the preachy subjects. wink We want to ease folks into using less animal products. To step slowly down the rosy vegan path to awareness and blissful peacefulness with animals becoming our friends, not our food sources. We all would LOVE LOVE LOVE it, if folks used the least amount of animal products, as possible too. BUT folks have to do as much, as they can do & that's all you can hope for. Even if folks only go halfway, halfway is still better than nothing at all. A quarter the way is better than never even trying. So folks using less animal products & eating veg parttime is so wonderful! We should be applauding folks! Yelling THANK YOU from the rooftops! Being happy that the word VEGAN is on the public TV & Mainstream news media. Yes, even I was upset that the lady talking to Isa on NPR earlier this year, was listed as a nutritionist 'expert' and had no idea what she was talking about in regards to B12 sources. OK, but folks, even experts have to eat dinner, so expect to do your own research & come to your own conclusions about things, before assuming that an 'expert' is right about a vitamin & our need for supplementing with a 'man-made' capsule. OK cause it's not needed. You can get nutrition directly from the source, IE: Seaweed. Certain vegan vitamin companies go directly to the source & bottle it up for your 'ease' & their income level.

{Photo: Painted Lady Crysalids that I raised with my sons}

Oh boy, did you see that train track? I went right off it!

Getting back on topic tho, we need to be kinder, gentler, compassionate vegans & be accepting of all kinds. The more the merrier & the more friendly & welcoming we make VEGANISM, the more likely the numbers will grow & grow & grow. Flowers take water, nutrients & warm loving sun to grow. So we in turn need give off the warmth & be welcoming to all the veggies out there. "You get more bees with honey, than vinegar." Is that how the phrase goes?

Oh and yes, this advice is also written here as a 'gentle' reminder for me, as well.

Peace & <3 Heather :)
All Photos Coprighted by 3 AM Art Productions

Peanut Butter Warm Salad

2011-05-18T15:11:00.001-07:00

Today it was rainy, cold, grey out. Did I mention rainy? That it has looked like Seattle around here for at least the last four days? Tired of that, yes I am. Anyways, I couldn't get my raw mojo on today & had a warm salad. I took some peanut butter, salt, water, coconut oil, chilli pepper, turmeric, curry, and cumin. Since this is raw veggies & lighter fare, I just season to taste. Once it was liquid, and mixed well I tossed in some veggies. Grated Carrots, chopped peas, and juliened cabbage.

It was delish! Very filling & likely a little higher on fat content than I really want in my food, but YUMMY! Oh and warming so it was a nice change & comforting on this miserable day.

--Heather :)

FOK!

2011-05-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

"Someone has to stand up and say that the answer isn't another pill, the answer is spinach." Bill Maher.

Thank you, Bill. You always say the right thing, that I'm thinking. Well almost always. ;)

Anyways, FOK is coming out, any day here in the *BOSTON area. I cannot wait! Such an important messge to get out there. I understand the vegans who do veganism for the animal reasons, and since we humans are animals we have to remember we're doing it for us too. It's not just not eating them, that we shouldn't do, it's feeding ourselves a good, healthy, proper diet & getting better that way as a society too. I think this Vegan can of worms is gonna go mainstream & just fill up with folks as the years go on. At least that's my hope for the movement. No matter HOW you get here. Just get here.

All my best, Heather :)

*i Live closer to Worcester, wish this was showing there instead!

I Less Than Three Kale Chips!

2011-04-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

SO much so, I got a t-shirt. I felt a little bit like I was buying a concert t-shirt. Well, I made hubby buy it. He was closer to the table at Vegfest where they were selling them & I was watching wee ones play with the Vegetable Circus.

Vegfest? Did you go? NO? You missed it? You better not have! ;) Well if you did, you can see below all the coolness that you missed.

This is my families' second time going & I found out it's only the second one they have had. So glad to know I've made it to all of them. We will be there next year too! We had a great time. I hope we bring a sitter next time tho. It would be nice to sit & hear the speakers. Sorry I missed out on that. All in all it was a wonderful time! My kids especially had a wonderful time. They really enjoy meeting & seeing other veg kids their age or other ages. It's important for them & for them to stay vegan & wanna stay vegan. Going to public school was a traumatic experience for my son. I won't get into it, but they didn't care about our lifestyle or decisions. So he likes meeting new people who are vegkids & seeing others who know what a Green Smoothie is. ;) It helps, it really does. He's all on the vegan bandwagon & excited about it again. *Not that he fell off, he just needs a reminder that we're not the only ones & it's good to be healthy!

Veg out!

XOXO Heather :)

Holy Mother of..

2011-04-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just wow. Unbelievable. The second ferment really was the best ferment, so far. Incredible results. I'm in love with my Kombucha. It had a baby last time, that was rather thin & didn't look all that good. Well it looked OK, just not what I expected. Then I got a heater & it thickened up considerably. In fact while it was in the tank, I thought it was the mother (donated by a friend) that was in fact on top, but I was wrong. Way wrong.

{Shown below: The Donated Mother}

{This is the baby it produced}

{This shows the layers a bit of the baby Kombucha}

{This is both of them chilling together, waiting for more tea}

{Kombucha Baby growing in another tank}

Yes I couldn't get enough & since I had some huge strands (glops?) of culture growing (well it was dorment) inside my Katalyst Kombucha bottle I decided to make it some tea & let it ferment another mother. So now it's chilling & creating another baby. From my readings it looks like another couple weeks & then TEA TIME! But I will not be babysitting this one. I'm sending it over to my sister's house. I'm hoping she will shoot & send me pics of it when it is ready to decant & make her some kombucha. She's noticed a difference in certain body parts of mine (weight loss, better skin, ( I had horrible skin) shinier hair, happier outlook etc) and decided she's going to give Kombucha a shot too. One convert in the family down, several 1000 to go.

Thanks for stopping by, Heather :)

P.S: While I'm happy to answer questions in the comments section. I think the best person to ask questions of, is the Kombucha Mama.

THIS is why I blog..

2011-04-12T19:39:00.001-07:00

Today I have a short 18 minute video for you to listen to. I couldn't have said it better than this lady, so I will leave her to it. I have read many of the studies that she's read & talking about here. What I read was dry & boring, but just as infuriating, people, it's far easier to listen to her.

Listen to her & get pissed off with me. Our food supply is poisoned.

Sorry to be the messenger of such bad. But we can all start eating healthier & fighting back. Sign those petitions, write those letters & stop buying the junk that is killing our brothers & sisters. *Because money is the only power we have & not giving it to them is the only way to affect positive, permanent change.

All my best, Heather :)

Raw Vegan Sushi 4 Lunch!

2011-04-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

With Kelp & Nori as the wrap, aka the bread. Then I placed Sliced Peppers, Organic Avocado, Pink Himalayan Salt, Shredded Organic Beets, and Shredded Organic Carrots, and Slices of Organic Kale onto the wrap, wrapped it up & crunch crunch.

I'm having some pink organic rose tea with maple syrup to drink. Later on I'll have a fruit salad or maybe a smoothie, but I was having a salty craving & the thing that keeps me from vegan junkfood & bad salt is having something like this for lunch. Then I stay on track & behave. Except for the weeeee little bite I had of Jokerz candy bar earlier.

MMMMMMMM that was delish!

--Heather :)

All Photos taken my me.

Vegan Myths Debunked (The Video)

2011-04-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

I know I posted this before, but I just found it as a video. Figured I'd post it again & share the love! Love this song. I'm going to sing it in the grocery store the next time someone asks me where I get my protein. The kids & I pretty much have it memorized as of now. The other day, my 6 year old told the shop clerk: "Thank you, but we don't need your plastic bags. They are made with dead animals." Nice to hear him say that, even in an inappropriate situation. IE: We were using our recycled bags anyways & the shopkeeper hadn't even asked if we wanted plastic or paper. BTW paper is just as bad as plastic is for the environment, so just say NO!

Anyways, just sing along with me. It's still stuck in my head! Love it! I must credit, my friend, Jessi for sharing the song with me in the first place.

--Heather :)

Veg Fest!

2011-04-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

You can get your own flyer, here. But here are the details really quickly:

April 17th 12- 5PM @ Worcester State University.

WICKED COOL Vegan Peeps who will be there include, but not limited to:

Bruce Friedrich VP of PETA. Bruce will be giving a talk on ethical veganism.

Terry Hope Romero who wrote: Veganomicon. Terry will be giving a cooking demo & also signing her new book. I'm going to bring my Cupcakes take over the world & hope she will sign that one too! :) CUPCAKES!

Will Potter: Green is the New Red. He will be speaking & doing a book signing afterwards.

Tracy McQuirter : By Any Greens Necessary. She will also give a talk & then sign her new book. WHAT better time to pick up these books, and get them signed, than at Vegfest??!!

More information is here on the Veg Worcester site. Looks like some bands will be playing as well & of course free food samples & lots of other fun goings on. I will also be there, bringing the kids & the hubs. I will not be giving a talk or signing any books tho, how sad for me. ;) I will be there hoping to bump into cool veg peeps & learn more vegan stuff & check out some vegan yummies. Altho at this point you couldn't drag me from veganism, if you tried.

--Heather :)

B12 Is from Bacteria!

2011-04-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

I don't need you to worry about my health, cause I'm a vegan. I'm also a geek. I research everything & have copious amounts of Jeopardy, 'I'm just waiting for your call", knowledge. B12 doesn't come from meat, sure it's in there, thanks to bacteria, of course. But the best sources come directly from the source, BACTERIA. Our soil is so depleted & our fruits & veggies are so clean, we need to look for other sources. Take a supplement or drink Kombucha or Spirulina.

I do a combo of Kombucha & Spirulina. I also lick the dirt upon occasion. MMMM the dirt is sooo tasty! Yum! Makes excellent smoothies, too.

--Heather :)

(Haha, JK. Sorry so ranty. Happy April 1st!)

I LOVE Sun Tea!

2011-03-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

This is one of the simplest, but most wonderful things you can do with tea. Stick some yummy tea into a glass jar with some water & find a sunny location & just leave it.

Mmmmm! Sun tea how I love thee!

--Heather :)

BAKE SALE: To Benefit Worcester's Veg Fest!

2011-03-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

LOCATION:Worcester
WHO:VegWorcester
DATE:Wednesday April 6, 2011
TIME:9pm – 1am
VENUE:Trivia Night @ Moynihans Pub
ADDRESS: 877 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610
FEATURES:VegFest fundraiser! All goodies will be vegan!
PROCEEDS:proceeds will benefit the Worcester Vegfest.
FOR MORE INFO: manda [at] vegworcester [dot] com

Need I say more ? Oh, OK I'll say it. Vegan COOOOOOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--Heather :)

Vegan Myths Debunked

2011-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ever get a song in your head & it won't let you go? For days & days & days? Well I'm here to help you with that & pass the song along, to your head. I know, I'm far too kind.

Maybe then it will leave my head alone. ;) Altho maybe just one more listen! I really like it, it's a catchy tune!

Here it is: CLICK ME!

Then you can come back & thank me! Sing it with me kids, Plants, plants, plants, oh and bacteria!

Have a great day! --Heather :)

SCOBY-Wan at the One week mark

2011-03-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

In the photo below, you can see the bubbles/new baby SCOBY forming at the top of my tea potion. Also lower down (second arrow) you can see some strands coming up from the mid-to-bottom area of the tea potion, that is from the mother, SCOBY, I assume. Right now it's hard to tell, but of course, I cannot help but take a looksee & peek at it. I did not touch or move the tank tho. I've been told & told again, leave it be. If you click through the photo, it will take you into my flickr account, where you can make the photo larger, if you wish to see it closer.

I found another Kombucha Master & picked her brain a little, as well. She brews her SCOBY's for 30 days! She likes the tangy zip & extra bubbles. Her blog is here, with more directions on the how to, if you're interested. A lot of people have said it seems yucky to them, but IMO, it's not any different than baking bread with yeast & flour. This is just yeast & tea, IMO. I know there are bacterias too, but this is good, beneficial bacterias & the way I feel when drinking it & after is much too good of a feeling to just up & stop, cause someone thinks it's icky.

So far I feel a feeling of happiness when drinking it. I'm still drinking the professionally bottled versions as of right now. I have tried two brands. GT's Synergy with pressed raspberry juice & pressed ginger juice. I also have tried High Country Kombucha in Goji Berry Flavour. I like both brands, so far. I do like the GT's stuff as it's tastier, but the Goji Berry flavour seems like it would be nifty for soups or something else, so I tried that with one bottle, we shall see later today if it worked or if I need to do this with my Kombucha when it is decanted.

Also when or soon after drinking the Kombucha, my eyes seem to see things brighter. Just initial thoughts & feelings after drinking it. I am also drinking a lot more water during this time too, as you're sposed to, anyways. Oh and I noticed my skin seems a little bit clearer too, so far. That is likely due to more water & the kombucha working together, but whatever.. I like it!

--Heather :)

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over Worcester!!

2011-03-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

Terry Hope Romero is coming to Worcester's Veg Fest!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I couldn't believe it either! So excited!

--Heather :)

Welcome SCOBY-Wan

2011-03-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

One of my dear sweet friends, donated a baby SCOBY to me! I'm so excited, I just had to show you the nice digs we found for it, and the reaaaaaaally reallllly high place we had to put it, due to having kids, Taz & Taz JR. When brewing a SCOBY you don't want any interference, or jostling, so we put it up way high. Plus this house is chilly. An Ice Maiden, if you will. ;) We have a lot of trees here large old-growth trees. The kind we love! You could wear a long sleeved sweater & I have in the house on a 80*F day. So I wanted it where the heat would rise & be a touch warmer. {Fingers Crossed}

This is up close. I named him Scoby-Wan Kenobi---due to the Star Wars furor here.

This is his hiding area. YES that is a Snowflake and no, I don't put it away with the other Christmas decorations. I like snow! Well, some parts of the year I like it. Like in December & January. Then I'm ready for sun!

Anyways, I'm not the Kombucha Goddess, so I will give you NO directions on this, or how to, at all. I suggest you go to KombuchaKamp & learn there yourself! Or check out this cool video here:

So neat!! I followed all the directions & blessed my SCOBY! I hope I did it all right.

Now I just have to keep my fingers & toes crossed till it's ready to check the first time. I'll probably have a looksee in about 12 days. Maybe sooner. I dunno. I'm still reading about it & I'm also very eager, but don't wanna ruin things.

--Heather :)

Raw Veggy Burgers

2011-03-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

I mixed these up the other day, with worries that it would be gross. Or not tasty at all. I'm strange. I tend to like the sameness of flavours & hardly like changing at all. Going vegan was easy tho, as I could just sub in all kinds of things that were "normal" and eat things that I was already comfortable with. Raw however, was another step off the path for me. I'm still hard pressed to stay away from GF Pasta when I make it for the kids with Daiya cheese. Till I found out that nutritional yeast was OK to have. Now that I know that, bring on the raw veggies & salads! I HEART Nutritional Yeast, oh yes!

So I grated a couple carrots, a zucchini, a piece off a clove of garlic, 1/2 an onion, some fresh grated pepper & a dash of pink Himalayan salt. Mixed it with flax seeds & water for mixing the flax seeds & turned it into burger shaped patties. Next I put them into my dehydrator, Vlad and plugged him in & dashed away from it & hid in the corner for a few hours. I was worried. Would it be gross? Would it be icky? I mean how does one eat onions & garlic, something I lived for using fresh in all my soups, raw? RAW ONIONS? Would my breath be frightening for weeks on end afterwards???

Well lo and behold, after about 2 hours in the dehydrator, they were great! No one was more excited, than I was. Kids were looking forward towards Birthday cake later, so nothing could phase them from that train. {and that story is for another blogpost}

I rolled it up inside a Bok Choy Leaf, with some raw nori flakes, tomato, nutritional yeast dressing, (Nutritional yeast & water & pink H Salt) some pieces of kale, and some romaine pieces as well. I found it delightful, another one to add to my 'just raw' regimen.

Now to dream up what to do with the rest of them I made.

Thanks for stopping by, Heather :)

Cruelty Free Baking Soda!

2011-03-10T09:51:00.001-08:00

This is what Cruelty Free Baking Soda looks like. Just got my order from these nifty folks here. This is what $25 of Cruelty Free Vegan Baking Soda looks like when it shows up at your house on a Thursday. I took the bubble wrap out, to reuse it later, as I've got to get to the PO with some packages myself, plus it's easier to see it sans the green bubble wrap.

Now you're probably going, WTH can this girl be doing with all this baking soda!!!!??? Well, I'll tell ya. No I'm not launching a Vegan baking biz, altho I'd love to. I use it for "No POo" Yes, that's right, I haven't shampooed my hair in months. I use Baking soda & water to degrease. Rinse it. Then I use a mixture of water, vinegar, and a drop or two of either Lavender or Peppermint EO to degrease some more & give it shine. My hair looks good, if I say so myself!

With Regular Shampoo:

With Cruelty Free "No Poo"

Time of year difference, maybe with my hair coloring or light differences. But these were both taken in my bathroom for argument's sake. I don't know. But my hair looks & feels nice & soft & it's shiny too. I also can skip washing it so much now & just take a quick shower instead of the full no poo regimen, if I want to. So I use less 'stuff' than I used to & showers are a little bit shorter so there is the water conservation going on as well. Here is a list of more baking soda uses.

Happy 'No pooing!' See here for ideas on how to being your own no poo regimen.

--Heather :)

For more eco-animal-friendly goodness: The Authoress of the 'No poo' article, Becky has a Shop here.

Nooch, it's not just for pasta anymore..

2011-03-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today I was tired of Italian dressing. I made a slurry of nooch (nutritional yeast) water & Pink Himalayan Salt. Mixed it around & poured it on my salad. Instant FAV!

Holy moly yum! Am I the last to know how good this is? I also poured some over Kale & it is in the dehydrator now. I've been stalking that dehydrator ever since.

You might remember him, my dehydrator:

His name is Vlad. After the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler. I named him this, not cause I'm morbid or cruel, but because he sucks the life out of fruits & veggies. Also I couldn't come up with anything better. I also name ALL of my fav appliances, you should see what I name my cars!

Anyways lunch was yummy & salad was good again. Now I'm out of nooch tho.

{SIGH} It's always something. We fruitheads are always running out of something, if it's not bananas it's something else.

Thanks for stopping by. I've gotta go shopping.

XOXO Heather :)

Ladies and Gentlemen..

2011-03-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

Start your engines! Whoops. Sorry. Wrong blog. ;)

What I meant to say is the Worcester Veg Fest is coming up! April 17th from 12PM-5PM.

Some of this years speakers are here on this site. Looks like the VP of PETA & Will Potter, so far are on deck to speak.

Are you going? Hope to see you there!

--Heather :)

In the Twilight you will find Mahalo..

2011-02-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

And it is sweet! No complaints from the kids, at all! And I mean that in all caps. I found them to be very sweet. I haven't had anything this sweet in quite a while. Really good, very very yummy. I usually have dark dark chocolate & so this is really nice having rice milk chocolate. I could get used to this being my chocolate, but I think my raw diet needs to go on a bit longer. Then we will reward with another bar. Maybe then I'll try Jokerz.

--Heather :)

To my gluten free readers: These say right on the package, that they are made in a factory that isn't gluten free. I took the chance & had a small piece. Usually I can get away with doing that.

Fair Trade is the way to go

2011-02-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, they are a bit more expensive, so are just the regular organic ones. But creating a need in the market, will eventually lower the cost some. Plus, can we afford not to be eating them? I for one don't want to find out. My little eco-geeko heart wants to stay healthy, as long as possible & FAR away from medical doctors, as one can get. I also think that helping the little guy, the guy who cares about the planet, and puts back only good into it, is the only way this planet can heal itself & care for us properly. Not only is vegan better, and raw vegan a little bit better than that to be eating, but going organic is the way to a peaceful future for us all on this little blue & green ball.

If you think I'm crazy or whatnot, I suggest you see this movie. Afterwards.. let me know what you think. I think small is beautiful & the way to the future.
--Heather :)

Raw Spinach Soup

2011-02-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

This is so easy to make. I just used a handful of spinach, a whole cored tomato, a dash of pink himalayan salt, one whole carrot, 1 cup filtered well water & my dehydrated tomato {photo below} slices. I chopped all the ingredients up, except the spinach, to place in the blender. Spinach I put in last & just placed it in through the removable opening in the top of the blender. I didn't heat mine, but it's easy enough to heat it in a pan or just place it in a crock or bowl & leave on a warm oven for a few minutes so it's not so cold. Another trick I've used is to take the veggies out of the fridge, if they are in there and leave them on the counter till at room temperature, before blending them.

The dehydrated tomatoes are so easy to make also. Slice em up thinly & place in a dehydrator for a couple hours. I flip them after about one hour & then let them dry for another. Temperature I used was 105*F. They are dry, but still soft & juicy. Some of the smaller pieces were crunchier. I like them both ways.

Thanks for stopping by, Heather :)

Raw Vegan Moreo

2011-02-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

Just made this idea up this morning. I made raw vegan cacao crepes in my dehydrator & also cashew sweet cream cheese or it could be considered frosting, I gather. Took two crepes, some frosting & put them together on a plate. I also added some pineapple slices to my snack. {not shown here} It was soooooooooooo gooooooooood! Way better than other unmock moreos. ;)

The cacao crepes are way easy. Just mix ground up cacao nuts or nibs & apple sauce, sugar (I used maple syrup, since I cannot find agave nectar in a glass bottle locally) of some kind to taste & place on the dehydrator tray. One hour & flip and then another hour. Cashew cream was 1 cup of cashews, 3/4 C of filtered well water, & maple syrup to taste, vanilla, and ground up rootbeer tea. You could substitute cinnamon or some chai tea spices, if you like.

Nom nom nom! It hit the spot!

--Heather :)

Agave Nectar Lollipops..

2011-02-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

I see a lot of hits on this particular recipe, over on my arty blog. I blogged some veg recipes there, previously to having my brain storm & 'it is time to make a vegan blog' thought process. So I'm reposting it here, so it's available for folks to find. This is not a raw recipe, but could be made with raw agave nectar if you like.

XOXO Heather :)

Recipe: 1/3C Hot water.
1/3 C Agave Nectar
1 C Raw sugarcane sugar granules.

Place into pot & stir to mix & then leave alone & let it cook. IE: No more stirring.
Turn on Med-High cook till it reaches 300 Degrees on a Candy Thermometer.
Take off of heat & pour into *hard* candy molds. Make sure to spray the molds, so the candy will come out.

When it cools. Voila, you will have lollipops! Enjoy!

{re-posted from here}

Oh Oprah..

2011-02-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

I had such high, high hopes for your show. I found it to be a soundly disappointing show. Being vegan saves lives & they forget that we're saving lives of creatures who deserve, just as much as we do, to live & enjoy these lives. We're doing a public service & you just belittled that fact. Time and time and time again, people just make it a small, tiny issue. They don't like pain or uncomfortable situations, so they refuse to think about them. Just sweep it under the rug. They don't like thinking about the cow, the fish, the chicken, the Thanksgiving Turkey, and the (spelling error alert) Faux Gross.

For your viewing pleasure, a real show about real people going vegan. Thanks PETA!

--Heather :)

Food is Energy for the Body & Soul..

2011-01-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

Many years ago, I worked for my Aunty as a nanny/ lowly T-shirt shop grunt for her booming T-shirt biz. One day after lunch I felt tired, pukey and gross. I had eaten what I thought was a wonderful, healthy lunch. Some fruit, a "low fat" turkey, lettuce & tomato melty cheese sandwich & some iced tea.

All I wanted to do after, was find a quiet corner somewheres & take a nap. I told her about this when we were chatting by the T-shirt dryer. She said something to the effect of food being nutrition & energy for the body, so it can get to work. Probably trying to spur me on & make her money well spent at probably overpaying & having family work for her VS someone paid minimum wage & expendible. (love you, Aunty!)

I didn't think about it (vegan) then, but I did pause and think, maybe I should have eaten something else. Maybe something else would have made me feel better. Well, now we all know that this is true. Food is nutrition for the body & it's also for the soul too. If we eat crappy food, we will feel crappy & treat others crappy too. Yes I'm sure I've been tired, hormonally unbalanced & surly. Oh yes! Sorry if I snapped at ya or I was rude.

In my blender:

Avocado, lemon, chlorella, spirulina, beets, ginger, nutiva hemp smoothie powder, herbs, pineapple, ginger, apple, banana, water, coconut oil, cacao nuts, & dates, figs & maple syrup--just a dollop.

In my pudding dish:

Grind up cacao nuts or nibs in your coffee grinder. Next add it into your blender along with a little water, pink Himalayan salt, coconut oil & then banana, maple syrup and maybe a little bit of organic coconut shreds.. when it chills it becomes this amazing chocolate pudding. NOM!

These days I'm feeling clearer, lighter, friendlier and also happier. I'm much more nutritionally balanced, as well. I'm shutting the door on the lack of nutrition in my diet days, with every nutritional mouthful.

--Heather :)

My son drinking a green smoothie..

2011-01-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

He says it's good. I only added; one 1/2 lemon de-seeded, of course, coconut oil, sprirulina, chlorella, cacao nuts, ripe banana, pineapple, apple, spinach, water for mixing it in the blender, ginger, & lastly avocado. He loved it! He certainly enjoys NOT getting ill in the wintertime too & make sure to remind him that it's the yucky spirulina & chlorella stuff with all the vitamins that helps him remain well & booger free! The spicy ginger, apple, banana, and sweet tasting coconut oil is pretty much all that you taste when drinking this.

Try it! It's yummy! --Heather :)

2011-01-30T11:30:00.000-08:00

Weeee Mock Munchkins..

2011-01-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

Made from raw ingredients, well sans the sprinkles. I don't know how they create sprinkles. These sprinkles are vegan & gluten free tho. Also only spinach, tumeric & beet powder is used to create the colours for them. They are also tinier than sprinkles I've seen. So cute!

I made the "munchkins" from cacao nuts. I ground up 1/4 C of them in my coffee grinder, mixed them with a dollop or two of maple sugar, 2 TBS C of coconut oil. Then I ground up some raw walnuts, about a handful of them. Mixed the whole shooting match together rolled them into balls and then into the sprinkles, and in the case of mine, the shredded coconut. Firm them up in the fridge.

The kids liked them! Which I like, since they're getting nutrition and don't even know it. I do suggest taking them out of them out of the fridge a little bit, before eating. This way they will be a little softer to the touch. Of course, it's winter right now, so we wanted them warmer. You could also put them into the dehydrator. I haven't tried it, perhaps you would need to do it without the sprinkles, as they might melt.

Maybe I'll try that next!

Thanks for stopping by! XOXO Heather :)

Kicking off the New Year, with a RAWWWR!

2011-01-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone, hope you made a joyous noise to welcome in the New Year!

Happy 2011!

I'm not one for New Years Resolutions and all that. I did one anyways. Well sorta. I mean I've been eating this way for a few months, off and on, so no, not really. But I decided I would get it into gear for the New Year. So no more gluten free pasta, or baked goods, at least for a little while anyways. I doubt I can keep this raw thing up forever, but I am going to give it a whirl. We started small by adding smoothies to our diet. We've had them before, so nothing new. I also have chia seed pudding from time to time, and or add it to the baked goods for the kids. I also added a few more things we hadn't tried before, like cacao nuts, and some coconut oil.

{My kids are regular vegans still. Altho they do eat some raw vegan items, they eat a bunch of things I don't, or can't eat so this isn't much of a stretch for me to do this minor change. My husband is vegan in the house & vegetarian, or vegan while at work, depending on what he can find & the day.}

I also decided more salads were going on the menu. Below is my dinner salad from this evening, with marinated raw artichokes. I marinated them in homemade Italian dressing overnight in the fridge. Dressing looked like creamy Italian until it 'thawed' out some at room temperature, hence the creamy look in the photo.

I decided I'd try to make some recipes in my newest Vegan book. I purchased Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials and began thumbing through it.

Couple things caught my eye. Cacao pudding made with avocado, which I have read about elsewhere too. She also had a raw food dehydrator crepe. I decided to try to make that too. Somewhere along the lines, It turned into a cookie or crispy crepe, vs soft. Not bad tho, not at all. Especially when you're looking for a little bit of a crunch.

The crepe is shown below with my fresh pineapple & avocado & cacao pudding.

All in all I'm doing baby steps with this change. Yesterday I made tumeric & nutritional yeast gluten free pasta & had a small amount. The rest of the day, I had a smoothie, tea, water, fruit etc. Small steps, because it was hard enough going gluten free, vegan. Raw vegan is even further from the realm of normalcy for me.

My Avocado & Cacao Pudding Recipe:

6-8 cacao nuts (you can use nibs, or powder) ground up in a coffee grinder.
1/4 Cup coconut oil
1 Hass Avocado, peeled & pitted.
Water as needed for blending
1/4 C shredded, dehydrated coconut

(I'm new to this raw thing, so I used a wee splash of almond milk too. I don't happen to have any raw almonds or cashews currently to make a nut milk. Baby steps!)

Maple syrup to taste---I mixed a splash in with the blender ingredients & then added a little bit more after the fast & manually mixed it. I also used a wee bit of vanilla extract, as tribute to my baking days. This & the maple syrup are not raw, but the maple syrup is used in raw recipes all the time. Raw Agave could be subbed in. I plan on buying some vanilla beans & making my own vanilla like I used to, pre-kids.

Blend the whole shooting match in the blender & pour over fresh fruit. Alternatively you can stick this into the fridge for an hour or so, or the freezer even & use it as ice cream. It's nom nom nom even when it's very chilled.

The crepe is very easy.

Raw Vegan Crepe Recipe:

1 organic apple, de-seeded & sliced
Water for the blender
flax seeds
shredded coconut
maple syrup---just a tiny bit & some almond milk.

Blend this concoction till it's a mushy mess in your blender & pour into your dehydrator tray. Smear it onto the plastic sheet very thinly 2 hours at 115*F. Then flip them over two hours more at 115 degrees. Of course a little less time if you want it softer. It was nice with the pudding on it tho. I took some of the pudding & frosted it right onto the crepe. YUM!

Delish! Happy New RAWWW! Heather :)

Please note: These are not Ani's recipes. I make all recipes my own with little changes & such, it's not on purpose. Usually it's because I don't have all the items & my crafty nature requires me to make it with what I have on hand or it's just my crafty nature. You can use the oven if you don't have a dehydrator & just prop the door open at 200*F. Just watch it so it doesn't brown too much---this is taken right from Ani's book.

DO you wear a Vegan Badge?

2010-11-26T13:38:00.001-08:00

I wear one at all times! I have it pinned to my purse! It's a hot pink badge & it says: Vegan Vixen! Some of my veggy pals even make their own badges & other vegan items over on Etsy.com So I posted this treasury here so you could see them. I'm not much for big box shopping any longer, I tend to do a lot of online shopping tho. Especially if I can help a little guy out, or buy from someone who is politically or at least enviromentaly/eco/vegan minded, like I am. So I SKIP the places that don't listen to me & head over to someone local, or someone who eats & respects nature the same way I do. It's the little things. Etsy.com happens to be one of those places I can easily find other vegans & vegetarians to buy from. Check their blogs to find more fun items & great folks to purchase from. Every single purchase we make, should make a difference in some way. The more we "Speak" with our money, the better our world will become.

Etsyveg

Vegan Etsy

Etsy for Animals

Treasury is here!

Go Vegan! XOXO Heather :)

Happy Thanksliving!

2010-11-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

"The standard diet of a meat-eater is blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions, hen periods and bee vomit. And once a year during a certain holiday in November, meat-eaters use the hollowed out rectum of a dead bird as a pressure cooker for stuffing. And people think vegans are weird because we eat tofu?"

--- John Robbins

Happy Thanksliving everyone!! XOXO Heather :)

Dearest Green Tea,

2010-11-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

You had me at Anti-cancer properties..

To go even further with this & give me more reasons to drink you (brewed strong, not weak, whole pieces of fresh, organic green tea) I have also found out in addition to keeping me from cancer, you also help keep me cold/flu free during the winters. I simply adore you & feel as tho we will never part! Will I ever love another as much? Will I ever gaze upon another as longingly as I do you? I do doubt it, except this Matcha tea (a derivative of green tea) turns my head upon occasion and there is also another Chlorella and then there is Spirulina, and even Seaweed. Tho they taste nary as lovely as you my dearest Green tea, I shall upon occasion stray, but never fear, I shall always return & be yours for evermore.

Signed, truly madly deeply yours, Heather ;)

Question: What is your fav drink or smoothie additive for high nutrition & keeping illness at bay? Please DO tell! I love having more options! Any recipes to share?

I drink dandelion root tea, and I eat cacao beans or use them in my smoothies & raw cookie dough. I also drink the spirulina & chlorella in water or package them into vegan capsules. Hubby was sposed to buy me matcha or macha green tea last night, and mistakenly found: Special Gun Powder green tea instead, so I looked up the benefits online & lo and behold we have another awesome awesome anti-cancer fighting tea to drink or add to my smoothies. Sometimes mistakes are bliss! Have you had any good mistakes lately? --H :)

Vegan & Gluten Free Bagels!

2010-11-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

My Recipe: Gluten Free Vegan Bagels, makes four.

3/4 C Ground Flax Seeds
3/4 C water or enough water to make flax seeds into a flax seed egg. Look for egg like consistency. Not too watery, not too stiff.

1.Make the flax seed egg first & let it sit and come to room temperature.

1 C of brown rice flour (possibly a bit less or more, depending on humidity in the air. Plan on a little extra)

1 TSP Maple Syrup or Agave
1 TSP Olive Oil or Coconut oil & more for pan
1 TSP B Soda

Mix all the liquid ingredients into the flax seed eggs. Then begin adding the dry ingredients to liquid ones. The consistency you want is bread dough. You can put this into a mixer & mix it, altho it was really easy to do it by hand. Once ingredients are mixed turn them out onto a floured bread board & knead a little. Cut pieces off and shape them by hand into bagels, rolls, etc. Place onto olive oil (or other vegetable oil) greased tin-foil & bake at 325*F for about 20-25 minutes. I flipped mine 1/2 way through the baking time to get a little golden on both sides.

Cool on a baking rack or better yet, grab a serrated knife, while they are still warm & slather on your bagel condiment of choice & eat!! Salute!

Additional ideas: You can definitely deep fry these, as the dough sticks together really good. So I imagine it would be just fine for this. I also have a donut pan & could have used that, but was reminded that non-stick products may be a health hazard & figured the olive or coconut oil would be a better idea. You can also turn these into vegan, gluten free donuts really easily. Just melt some chocolate & pour over them & add some vegan sprinkles. Or add some cacao powder to the tofutti cream cheese with a little bit of sweetener.. MMMMMMM can you say: Gone in a flash?

--Heather :)

Quote of the Day!

2010-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

A veteran USDA meat inspector from Texas describes what he has seen: "Cattle dragged and choked... knocking 'em four, five, ten times. Every now and then when they're stunned they come back to life, and they're up there agonizing. They're supposed to be re-stunned but sometimes they aren't and they'll go through the skinning process alive. I've worked in four large [slaughterhouses] and a bunch of small ones. They're all the same. If people were to see this, they'd probably feel really bad about it. But in a packing house everybody gets so used to it that it doesn't mean anything." ~Slaughterhouse 1997

Sorry for my lack of blogging of late. I'll be back soon!!

XOXO Heather :)

The Urban Housewife

2010-11-08T10:16:00.001-08:00

If you're in the area...

The Urban Housewife is going to be at Allston's Piece of Pie on November 17th 2010 from 7-9 PM. So be there or be square tofu!

Or see her site, and find out where she will be in your neck of the woods.

--Heather :)

When someone asks why Vegan...

2010-11-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

For the umpteenth time, instead of hitting them in face with a BOOK, say this;

I use my Veganism for all of the above reasons. Any reason out there, Environmental, Spiritual, digestive, natural, normal, lifestyle.. etc. Any and all reasons, that is what keeps me on the right track. Well, besides the fact that meat protein is cheap & unreliable, and now is extremely gross for me to even consider ingesting. Colon cancer is widespread, due to meat eating. I'm not willing to go through that kind of surgery, so I'm hoping to eliminate my chances of it. Apples willingly?? fall from the trees.. these are given to me freely from the trees. Apples & other veggies do not scream when harvested or eaten. Spirulina is a perfect food with almost all the nutrition one needs. Not eating the apples & not planting the seeds for more trees does more of a disservice. Why do you think that apple seeds are poisonous? It's so you don't eat them & you toss them on the ground or into a hole in the ground with other vegetable matter so more trees grow. The planet is very very smart, one only has to look at it & learn from it, to know what one needs to do to go on. Instead of killing insects in my kitchen, I purchased a venus flytrap. Problem solved. I get it, that some plants have more powers than just being plants. But the others are gifts from nature to us. You are welcome to believe whatever you wish, as am I. I believe folks need to take steps towards vegetarianism, true vegetarianism. One only needs to know the laws of supply & demand to figure out how to go about doing that.

If we DEMAND it. They will supply it, that is if they want the almighty dollar. To me it makes sense, to make the dollar work for us.

--Heather :)
(the BOOK mention is a figure of speech. American slang. Just for the record.)

SUGAR Is the Devil!

2010-11-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

And food colouring is his right hand minion.
Guess that makes corn syrup or corn sugar the left hand minion. ;)

I'm talking about Halloween candy, of course. I'm talking about its effects on my children, you know those small people who sit in the rear of the car & comment honestly about your driving skills, lack therof, or the "ARE WE THERE YET?", questions for the umpteenth time.

Yeah, little people who's job it is to be smarter or at least think they are, than you are, and to carry your genes forth, after you pass on & keep them going into the gene pool. Yes them. Folks we are supposed to love & care for & make sure they are healthier, smarter, stronger, and live longer than us.

Why then, do we have Halloween candy & junky food colouring laced cereals, snacks and all manner of sugary, frosting coated crap to feed them??? WHY DOG, why?

Just boggles the mind, don't it? Since I've done loads of research it has come to my attention that food colouring is cancer causing, sugar is ADHD inducing, and corn syrup is crazy mad cow nuts! I cannot believe it or faux sugars (also cancer causing) are available on the market to purchase. Shouldn't someone BAN this stuff?

Ok, so knowing all of that above, WHY is it then I decided to let my sugar monster have a piece last night? Was it plain old stupidity? Or fear of missing out on some righteous tradition? Or was it just a moment of weakness & hope that my son could at least have one piece & move on from the experience with his eyes opened a bit further?

Once the candy started to digest, about 15 (?) minutes after eating it. I noticed a COMPLETE mood change. He goes from this cute, cheeky little monkey...

To this:

He races around wily nily, he is rude, irritating, throws toys, uncontrollable, snotty & says all manner of things he shouldn't. Things he wouldn't say, or do when he's not "high" on crappy sugar. I've tested him on maple syrup, agave nectar, and even molasses. He's completely normal on all of those "sugary" items. Of course, we go easy on these items, as well. We limit the amounts, we watch what we put into our foods & wait for the bad tempers, the bratty whining to begin and it doesn't. He's fine with other sugars or even orange juice, apple sauce or dates used to sweeten items.

My kids are both active so to an outsider the difference in moods may seem small, trivial or even slight. But, it's not, it's a HUGE difference in mood & behaviour. He can race around here at home, and be totally fun loving, & happy. But with bad sugar he's rude & acts like a terror! I would never knowingly thrust him upon the public when he or his brother are like this. Sadly tho, before I knew they were sugar mood sensitive they did go into public & we had fits, crying jags, moodiness, temper tantrums, and toys were thrown. Sorry to all those people who witnessed their awful tantrums. It was a hard time, prior to learning that we cannot ingest certain items. Every single time when they came down, they were sad, sullen, depressed and full of: "I'm SOOOOO SORRRRY Mommmmmmy!" And I punished them with time outs, because of it. I punished them for things that were not their fault.

I am so glad that time is over and after Halloween this year. I'm happy to say we won't be going that route again. I will continue my mantra of bad sugar is bad for you & should be banned! HERE eat this maple syrup lollipop instead!!

--Heather :)

Plastic makes it possible?

2010-10-27T03:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to buy some organic produce. As a I'm tying to be a good citizen, I brought along my recycled, reusable bags. I handed them to the cashier, who smirked and handed them off to the bagger. He then said under his breath to the bagger:

"I'm all for saving the planet, but seriously can we do it in another way?"

Something also was said about the bags being a pain to work with. I get that. I do. I have offered help many times to other baggers so they aren't doing it alone. Cause it's new, it's different and those little white plastic ones are SO much easier to use. After hearing the cashier's comments, I just kept mum. I didn't have my handy dandy You Tube movie upon my person at the moment, laptop was in repose here at the house, having a minute or several to itself.

Here for your viewing is the movie.

So, in response to that cashier, no, we cannot do it another way. Saving the only planet we have should be of utmost importance. I don't drive my car if I don't need to anymore. I don't take long, winding roads home so I can enjoy the scenery anymore. I get out and walk for miles instead & enjoy it that way. I'm changing my life & trying to get it more in tune with nature, with the planet & the way the planet was designed to be used.

I've changed my diet, my life. I don't buy brand new all the time anymore. I used to have a mantra of "I only buy brand new shoes, because it will upset your feet to wear shoes that other folks have worn before." This is just not true, the shoes will conform to the wearer. Instead of buying a new purse last winter, I bought an old sweater & made a bag in the colour I was looking for.

Change might be hard or unpleasant at first, but there are ways of changing that are indeed fun. We have to at least try. If it was up to me, we'd do a lot more changes faster & folks would have to do it all overnight. So do the little baby steps, and be happy that you don't have to work within my plan.

My plan would be:

1. No more driving, at all that is unnecessary.
2. Work from home, telecommute.
3. No more new car purchasing, only used.
4. Vegan diet for everyone.
5. Organic Product only for all
6. All Aeroplanes grounded
7. Installation of solar & fans all over the world, coal plants shut down.
8. No more sales of ANY plastic items ever again.
9. No more brand new anything made from plastic, used only.
10. Farm Flax, linen, cotton organically & make all clothes from this.
11. Compost ALL table scraps.
12. No more steel cans. (unless BPA free)
13. Eco Engines created to put into cars already on the roads.
14. Solar Power all homes, laptops & other "power using machines."

--I'll stop my list now. This is enough to get started on, I think.

--Heather :)

What is that EYE spy with my little EYE?

2010-10-23T22:59:00.001-07:00

Driving around this weekend, my hubby scoped out a new place to eat. It's in Spencer, Mass. It had a gluten free menu sign out front & he was excited to see that. He likes eating out, and he's always looking for something, some place we can all eat at together that works for all of us. So many times, we are left hungry & disappointed.. and me chained to the stove, once again. I don't mind once or twice a day, but three times is pushing it & then the kids want one more snack, one more treat.. and YET another drink. It feels like I'm cooking ALL the damn time & really, I am. So it's nice to have a hubby concerned about that & looking out for me, but really he just wants some pizza! ;)

I'm celiac, so I was quite happy to check this place out. Would have been even happier, if it was VEGAN & we're proud menu, but nonetheless, it's something. A change for the better, and more folks getting aware of other folks & their "special diets". So it's something. I had hubby sneak in & ask them if there were any vegetarian options.

And lo and behold, there was. However, I was after pizza & the pizza is vegetarian, but not vegan, since celiac versions of pizza dough use milk & eggs. The owner is willing to work with me tho, and that is also something promising! So I'm going to give him a recipe for gluten-free & vegan pizza crust & see what he comes up with. He's going to remove the cow's milk & use soy or almond. I also have a sneaky way of using flax seeds in place of eggs. Makes a pretty nifty pizza dough, as long as you don't overcook it, as rice flour is VERY tender. Ahhh the things I do, so I can order out! ;)

Currently, he does have salads, and gluten free pasta dishes that are vegan & gluten-free, and he also has the regular pasta as well. Turns out, his kids are celiac as well. Seems like I'm meeting more and more folks of late who are sensitive to wheat. WHY can't we just ban the stuff & be done with it?? JK Seitan lovers! I wonder if my son's (younger son) moodiness & temperamental behaviour could be part to do with that too. (It's on the celiac 300 symptoms list) Gosh, he really stresses me out, because of it. He gets really irritated, especially when he's overtired. NO he's not 2 anymore & the two year old antics have still continued, so I'm looking into it. I also think my Grandmother's RLS, Restless Leg Syndrome, is also caused by wheat, and my Mother is also experiencing that in herself. OY! But it makes sense, it runs in families (gallops in mine. :) so if they have a sensitivity, and I'm celiac. WHO's next. NO, not who's on first.

WHO else could have it in my family? OY! I hate to break this kind of news to folks. But it's funny, it could lead to getting folks in my extended family to vegetarianism, and maybe even veganism. And there I am again, off and running too fast for folks to keep up! Baby steps, Heather, Baby steps.

--Heather :)

P.S: Even tho it doesn't seem like it, sometimes. There's always a method to my madness. Me telling someone non-vegan how to on vegan & celiac pizza crust.. just passes the word along, that much further. HERE is the humour.. regular pizza dough is vegan. BAHahahah, at least I can laugh. ;0

You Want Me To DRINK WHAT??

2010-10-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

Crazy Raw Vegan Health Nut: "Spirulina powder & water, in a glass." You can also put it into smoothies, and stuff to make it more palatable."

Me: " Palatable LOL that's hilarious, this stuff looks like spinach in a cup or something! Ummm, and my blender is busted, the bottom plastic piece broke. Stupid thing, was only a month old. Damn, they don't make stuff like they used too."

CRVHN: "Excuses, excuses. Just try it. What do I have to do get all green soy eggs & tofu ham on ya?"

Me: "What? Seriously? It's sooo green. I'm not drinking that, it smells weird. Like a freshly cut lawn or something."

CRVHN: "Just try it, the health benefits are many."

ME: "Like what?"

CRVHN: "This tiny aquatic plant offers 60% all-vegetable protein, essential vitamins and phytonutrients such as the antioxidant beta carotene, the rare essential fatty acid GLA, sulfolipids, glycolipids and polysaccharides."

ME: What, what? Did you seriously just say polysaccharides? What in the hing, does that mean??

CRVHN: "Look it up. Plus, this stuff has anti-cancer properties & is good for detoxing. See here."

ME: Ahhhhh.

CRVHN: "Cheers!" :)

Me: Salute' :X

It actually doesn't taste all that bad.. it's just so GREEN! Bottoms up!

--Heather :X

P.S: Oh and if anyone wants to be my hero: YOU CAN HAVE MY BAG of this stuff. LOL! Just kidding. I mean tell me some ways to hide this stuff, so I can drink it.

QOTD!

2010-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day, for October 21st, 2010.

“There’s no reason to drink cow’s milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, it was not designed for humans, and we should all stop drinking it today.”
~Dr. Frank A. Oski, former director of pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University.

--Heather :)

Vegan/Vegetarian Homeschoolers?

2010-10-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Any of you out there in the Worcester area?

I'm homeschooling my kids this year, I'm looking at creating a playgroup for them. So naturally I thought it would be great to find a group of diverse folks, who are vegan, vegetarian? It's always nice not having to explain why our lunch looks different. Why we eat this way. I'd like the location to be different each week, either a playground or going somewhere fun, with an educational slant to it. Plus some hiking would be neat. Maybe set up some potlucks & meet and get to know some new friends.

If you're interested, please email me!

hskoconnor@gmail.com

Thanks, Heather :)

My new Disclaimer Aka Fine Print..

2010-10-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

I used this disclaimer (in the quotations below) on a post of mine today when talking candidly to folks about eating better, and I didn't mention veganism or vegetarianism, tho it pained me not to. I kept mum. Tiny steps, Heather. Small baby steps, don't overwhelm folks with TOO much information to begin with. They will race back away from change if you inundate them all at once.

"This message is sent with love & caring, BTW. I've lost tons of folks over the years, all due to bad diets. I'm getting DARN tired of it."

I thought it was fitting of a sort. Then I found this photo..

Hope everyone has a well balanced dinner tonight!

XOXO Heather :)

World Vegetarian Month Begins on October 1st!

2010-09-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Folks over on FB are all adding the letter V to their profile pics. I thought I should edit this cute photo of my kids from over the weekend, to the typical vegan saying you always see added to the stop signs. I think it's been used several times as a bumper sticker. My older son was a small part of the reason why we (hubby is vegetarian) all went vegan here in this household. My son was fed vegan baby food that I whipped up from scratch. When I asked the Pediatrician when should I feed him meat? He was like.. ah.. whenever, kind of noncommittal about it. Some kids just won't even try it that young. Some babies don't ever eat it, he said. Then later on my son hardly ever ate meat. He never really liked it. It was just one click in the cog that brought me & my family into the veg world.

--Heather :)

Vegan & Gluten Free Donuts

2010-09-17T15:30:00.001-07:00

NO, don't run away. They don't taste bad. No really, I'm serious. They're good. They don't taste like or feel like a lead balloon in the stomach. They are sooo cute too. See, look...

This is what happens when you take rice flour, potato flour, chia seeds, flax seed flour, apple sauce, milk, molasses, cinnamon, and yeast. Then mix it up in a mixer & fry it with vegetable shortening. (sorry, can't always be healthy around here.) You get cute, WEE, tiny gluten free donuts!

YUM! I think I need some chai to have with these!

--Heather :)

(I will have a recipe posted here soon. Just making doubly sure these work right.)

Happy Birthday to my Son!

2010-09-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

{Finished Cake}

I made him a Vegan (of course) Birthday cake, it was also Gluten free, so I could have some of it. Plus, I'm noticing my son is partial to my temermental moodiness and also sometimes complains of a stomachache after eating wheat or gluten foods. So I decided to take him off of them, and see if there was any improvement. So far yes. Less grouchiness and less tummy aches. So far so good. So this is his cake. Since I was pressed for time, and working in an unknown medium, I decided to cheat and use Bob's Redmill chocolate cake GF mix. Not sure I will do that again, ONLY because I cannot control the sugar amounts & type used in the mix. We tend to fair better using only maple syrup or molasses, at least for the kids. White sugar, brown sugar & HFCS makes us crazy here. I do use raw agave nectar sometimes, too. But, I wanna limit the instances that the children come into contact with plastic or foods in plastic, since I have yet to find any raw agave nectar in glass jars. If you know of one, let me know please. I'd be psyched to find one.

Now I know most folks *may* not understand limiting yourself from foods, especially if they taste good. But if they make you feel like crap, make you more prone to illnesses. The only real lasting solution is to make your peace with it & move on. Find something better & tastier and bribe yourself with it. Believe me, if it was possible to eat wheat, seitan, pizza and field roasts, I would do it. I've never even had Seitan, and I probably never will. Infuriating to think about, so I don't.

{Cooling cake}

With this cake, which is a mold. I cheated.. or rather I wimped out a little. I laid the pans flat & filled them with the dough & baked them this way. YES there is a little hole in the back to vent, since it's a mold. Enter my friend and yours tin-foil. Grease the pans, add tin-foil to the side with the hole & fill with batter.
You can take your chances on using the mold correctly. I'm a scaredy cat & proud!

{Fondant shown above}

I used my other friend, toothpicks to hold the cake together & a fair amount of frosting, and fondant to glue the whole shooting match together. Trust me when I say, I'm lucky it doesn't look like a pile of cake & uncooked dough. It wasn't hard, it was just nitpicky. Fondant was fun to play with, and I enjoyed tinting it yellow. It was like or almost like pulling taffy. HEE HEE so fun!

He loved the cake.. he was soo happy with it! I have no idea why he wanted one. I was worried he was going to want a monster truck or some lego inspired cake. What's rather funny is his baby shower's theme was the yellow rubber duck. My MIL even had a little kiddy pool and floated some in it. Her original plan was a red firetruck theme and he was born on 9.11. Hmm funny coincidences, he has mentioned wanting to be a fireman from time to time too. Neato!

Have you made any cakes like this? Tips or ideas to share? Do tell!!

XOXO --Heather :)

Shortest Recipe Ever!

2010-09-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

One bag of chickpeas, boiled or pressure cooked till soft. I used my slow cooker, and let it cook all day. One lemon squeezed, 1/4 C oil, dash of salt & dash of garlic or garlic powder to taste. Mix in a blender, blend, blend blend till smooth. OR leave it a little bit chunky, if you like. Yes please! Chunky is great! Dip chips of your choosing & or raw veggies into it & enjoy!!

Oh and I've done this also with white beans & red beans. Either way, it's all good & an easy way to get more protein & vitamins. Also makes a fabulous replacement for mayonnaise.

Enjoy! Heather :)

If you won't take my word for it..

2010-09-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

The prominent Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states, "Man's structure, external and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food."

--Heather :)

Have you tried Payaia?

2010-08-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

I did I did!! We all did! We liked it too! I used some brown rice, fresh grated ginger, fresh garlic, fresh onion, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, tumeric, dried parsley, a little olive oil & sauteed it these items & let them simmer and soak the rice & make it nice and ricey. What's the word, for when rice is done? Al dente? Fluffy? Well whatever, it is, that's what I mean.

After the rice was finished doing it's simmer cook thing, I added in some vegan prawns & sliced vegan Irish fish. NO idea what I'm talking about, do you?

Ok I'll explain, the vegan prawns are basically made from tofu & coloured and spiced to look/texture/taste sorta, kinda not really like regular shrimps/prawns. But without the whole blood on my hands & guilt thing. We got them from The Loving Hut in Worcester. You could use tofu or just more veggies, if you can't find them. (next time I'm adding in grape tomatoes & broccoli's)

The Irish fish, is actually not Irish. It's Faux Salmon also purchased at The Loving Hut. Sometimes we pretend it's faux ham, as it does have that sort of look to it. My younger son calls it Irish Fish, since the colours of the packaging is the same as Ireland's flag. No idea HOW he found this out, as we haven't had our Irish history lesson, as of yet. Hey, maybe knowledge just seeps out from my head into theirs as we sleep, or perhaps I need more GINKO for my brain & stat! Possible. Very possible.

Anyways, I basically cooked/simmered it for 45 minutes or so, give or take & then we dug in. My "I'm a mock meat and potatoes eating hubby", loved it! So this is good, another veggy dish, or one I can add more veggies to, in future meals, that he will actually eat. YAY! Claps hands! Seriously, need to shove more veggies down his gullet & if this helps, I'm psyched!

Pre-veg we used to use Sazon a lot & make a Puerto Rican inspired rice dish, one my neighbor from the Island taught me. She would toss anything into it that was hanging around, leftovers etc. We even put scrambled eggs into it, so this sort of one dish meal is very helpful for us, especially during the week & its something the children are used to. So nice to have found a vegan replacement. I could do sazon with rice & veg it up now, however I worry about the orange food colouring in sazon? At least I guess it is. Plus the salt content. I read yellow #40 was a contributor to hyperactivity in children & orange food colouring must have some. I'm just guessing it's in there. Maybe I'm wrong. However, the less hyper the better around here. Trust me. Plus the salt. I'm not a table salt fan, at all. Sea salt or nada.

Bottom line: DINNER WAS GOOD! MMM! Try it, if you can. Firm cubed tofu would also do spendidly in this dish. Just add it near the end of the rice's cooking time & good to go.

Thanks for stopping by! --Heather :)

My son says: TOFU is good!

2010-08-26T19:48:00.001-07:00

No I cannot believe it. All it took was cutting it into squares, spicing it with fresh grated ginger, garlic, tumeric, garlic powder, onion powder & a wee bit o' sel de mer aka sea salt.

Now this isn't our first foray into the world of tofu. No indeedy, I've used tofu in a great many items. Usually, in the form of tofu cheese/ faux ricotta. I've also used it instead of tofutti to make a cheesecake pie. However, my oldest son never tried tofu sans any manipulating/hiding/sweetening up. So this is a good change for the better. It means we are weaning ourselves off of the "no, I won't try it." portion of the kiddo's broken record.

What kicked the habit? Explaining to him what nutrients and vitamins are. He's very technical and geek oriented, must be related to me or something. He seems fascinated when I explain things to him, and then explaining the new words I use. Which he then makes use of by using them in his games & writings later on. So now when I bring up that something has vitamins & nutrients that we can use in our bodies to heal them & keep them healthy.. he's much much more willing to give something a try.

That just brings tears of joy to my eyes. Ah crap! Look at me, I'm all weepy, now!

I had planned on adding tomatoes & some basil to this (above) dish, and then pour it over noodles. However, when I turned around for a minute or two, I noticed the entire pan of the tofu was being eaten. This is the second time this has happened too. My son announced today: "He will only eat tofu when it's done this way & cut into squares."

Let's hope this lasts, altho you don't have to twist my arm to stick some tofu into cupcakes, so even if this phase passes, he'll still get some.

--Heather :)

I'm so TOTALLY pumped to tell you..

2010-08-23T21:17:00.001-07:00

All about this awesome new book, that I read to my kids the other day. It's called Garlic, Onion, Beet, Spinach, Mango, Carrot, Grapefruit Juice. Written by Nathalie Vanbalen. Yes, it's more than a mouthful. Inspiring, colourful, lively, interesting & thoughtfully kind.

I can honestly say, I'm in love with this book. It's one of the best book purchases that I have ever ever made for my children. They keep asking to read it over and over too. Never had that happen before. It's right on their level! The boys love the Vikings best in the story. While I'm very fond of Thora, especially, all her thinking.

The story explains our vegkindness to my children, without being violent or graphic in any way. I like that, because the less they see of that, the less they are infleunced by that. Even tho we don't believe in it, or aspire to violence, seeing is believing and makes it OK in some folks' minds. Boys, especially mine, in my estimation of them, seem to be more prone to following the leader, without questioning the why, at times. Less is more in that aspect of life, IMO. It's very very important to surround yourself with things that promote peace & love. This book does just that.

This is an awesome book. You can get your own copy here.

Nathalie is a very sweet person & even has some colouring pages on her site too!

Check it out and get pumped too!
XOXO Heather :)

Blood Test!

2010-08-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

Just a minor note: My son was tested for iron the other day at the docs. It was perfect! He is 100% vegan too!

He's vegan & he doesn't seem to be bothered by wheat, so he and his father (also not bothered)do eat some sausages by Field Roast from time to time. He eats a TON of fruits and veggies per day too. If I buy a box organic strawberries, I find that is GONE in 1/2 a day. The three of us eat them right up. So if we want any left several boxes have to be purchased. Strawberries have iron in them, BTW.

We will be switching docs next March. So then I will have the full blood workup done. We know a Doc that my husband has seen since he was younger. So we will be going to see him, very soon. Since he is from India, he has a lot of more experience with veggy people than Docs who treat patients who eat the SAD diet tend to do.

In fact, the doc lady who saw us kept harping on me to feed my kids Fish. Why didn't we at least eat that? Why didn't we like it? She smacked her lips, and went MMMMM it's sooo yummy. I must have a weak stomach. Cause I wanted to excuse myself. It grossed me out so much. Sorry to say this, but it does. Seriously, it's hork food.
Take a look at how polluted the waterways are.. then ask yourself if you should be ingesting that?? Not even going to bring up the moral side of things. Just go with the pollution levels first, that's certainly enough for me.

--Heather :)

(BTW: Our Doc (that we will be seeing in March) is in Worcester. So if nearby folks want his name, let me know.) He's not a pedictrician, he's a Family Practice type doctor, so kids have to be aged 6 to see him.

Lazy Blogger..

2010-08-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since getting this dehydrator, that I named "Vlad" for my Birthday, I've been a lazy blogger. But I've also been a busy chef around here. Well reading mostly. I'm on the hunt for recipes for bars & fruit and such for my dehydrator to "suck" the moisture out of. It's really taking up a lot of my time, the reading. Not much time for writing lately. I made some banana chips, apple chips, and strawberries the other day. I know they tasted good, altho, I didn't get many. The kids took off with them, and left me with the empty machine. I had to steal back a couple so I could see if they were any good. Apparently, they are good & the kids enjoyed them, so did my dogs. They liked the apple chips the best. I also made some fruit leathers. Not bad at all, tho I think I'd mix it up with several different fruits next time.

If anyone has recipes to share, especially, for dehydrator bars. Love to see them!

Thanks for stopping by!! Heather :)

Working on.....

2010-08-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

...some funny, lighthearted, silly, and even maybe some shnarky Vegan inspired sayings..

Just figured it would be a fun way to lighten the mood, to not take oneself so seriously. Something I need to remember to do. Possibly for use on my twitter back round. Or blogger.

I also made a Vegan peanut butter cake, that is very reminiscent of a Peanut butter cup, but oh so much more amazing! So excited about it. I'll share the recipe very soon. Photos are in the works now! I've also been working on playing with my new dehydrator, and I also finally unpacked my ice cream maker!!! I'm super excited by this! More recipes on the way!!

I've also recycled a few 1000 books out of this household. Hubby & I had a extensive cookbook collection, and now seeing how we're Vegan/veg here. We have no need for this collection. So we sent it on it's way. It's official! We're official! There's no going back to meat now for us. (not that there was a chance of it.) Ever. It's a freeing feeling! We also are hurriedly replacing these cookbooks with Vegan ones.

Just a couple things we've been up to here. How about you? What have you been doing? What cookbooks do you like, reccommend? I need to find some gluten free, vegan ones, but that isn't a have to thing. I can gluten free up practically any vegan recipe out there. Seitan might be the only thing I cannot fix.

XOXO --Heather :)

Happy Birthday Vegan ME!

2010-07-27T07:44:00.001-07:00

Yesterday evening I turned 36. To celebrate, I made a Tofutti cheesecake. This is the spoils before the war. AKA, before my kids begged to have a piece, before the cheesecake firmed up in the fridge. Eh well, it's yummy warm too. Rest is in the fridge cooling now. We did a couple of new, fun things to celebrate my special day. I taught the kids how to Tye dye shirts, and socks. Today we are working on origami, polymer clay figurines and in a few minutes I will show them how to make paper mache. Then we will head out when it's drying & go swimming for a few hours. Yes, hours.

All in a days work. Not for the weary in this household. I don't know if it's genetics, or vegan diet, but my boys are bucking to become Vegan Triathletes in terms of the strength and energy they have. I don't mind of course.. but jeez.. It's hard to keep up with them sometimes. Now, I'm another year older??!! It's a good thing my birthday present is on it's way. I was gifted a Food dehydrator. I will begin drying my own bars, fruit, fruit rolls and anything else I can think up. Stay tuned! I can't wait to show you what I come up with next!

--Heather :)

Yummy Vegan Birthday Cheesecake

2 containers of tofutti better than cream cheese. The non hydrogenated kind. Left on counter till room temp or put into a pan of hot water to get there quicker.
2 TBS Coconut milk
1/4 C powdered sugar
1-2 TBS Agave Nectar or maple syrup.
2TBS Cornstarch, potato starch or Tapioca flour
1/4 C of cocoa
1/2 C Chocolate Chips ----add these in last, just before pouring over crust mixture.

{mix the above in a bowl & set aside. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cheese mixture and add the cocoa to it in a separate bowl.)

Crust:
1/4 C melted vegan butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
(Squeeze of lemon if desired---or if you know someone allergic to cocoa/chocolate & wish to skip that. YES we have one of those folks in our family. Poor bugger.)
1 Cup Coconut shreds. I had the flakes & blended them in my blender.

Mix the above together & press into a cheesecake form or a 9 inch pie plate. ---Which is what I used. I'm still sans a cheesecake form. (HINT HINT, Hubby. ;)
Add choco chips to the mixture. Pour the vanilla cheesecake mixture into the pan over the crust. Carefully tap the pan on the counter to settle it. Pour the chocolate
cheesecake mixture over the top of the white or to the side or stir it in. However you would like. You can get fancy with a knife and do some marbling. My kids wanted it to look like a hat on his head. I drew the line at using the choco chips for making it into a face. ;)

Bake on 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool till room temp & put into fridge to firm it up. We dressed ours up with organic powdered sugar & a drizzle of agave nectar on the top.

ENJOY!

Why Am I Gluten Free?

2010-07-23T16:51:00.001-07:00

This is just one of the many reasons, I'm on a gluten-free diet. Namely migraines. Headaches. Aggravating pain in the head. You know I wanted to use another part of the anatomy there to describe "head". ;)

{Shown above: My Son's Gluten-free Birthday Cake.}

Headaches were just one of my many symptoms. Acne was another one. Weight gain, bloat and gas and some other things like IBS all bothered me and got worse or better depending on the day, and the foods I was eating. Now I'm gluten free and feeling light years better! Recently, I learned that there are over 300 symptoms of Celiac disease and or wheat intolerance. THREE HUNDRED! Yes you read that right. See here.

The three hundred symptoms also jumped out at me, so much in fact, that I noticed a few might also be bothering my sister. It's very possible she has it too. When I figured this out, I harped and harped and harped on her. I know she was mad and annoyed each time I brought it up. But it finally worked. Now she's trying wheat free diet too and noticing a BIG change in her life also. This is why I bring it to your attention. Because I care. Plus, NO ONE, I mean NO ONE should live with migraines. Gad they're awful. Now, I cannot remember the last time I had a headache and that alone is reason enough.

XOXO Heather :)

Quick Mac-N-Cheese Side Dish

2010-07-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is my recipe when I'm craving pasta & cheese. When I am out of Orange Daiya cheese, or out of sheese, or just when I'm craving this. As it's so delish & hits the spot, every time.

I use Gluten free Pasta. Boiled till al dente and then drained. You can use any kind of pasta with this. One of my favs, pre-celiac was the tri-coloured pasta or even the spinnach fetuccini pasta.

When I'm making it just for me:

A sprinkle of Nutritional Yeast.
A sprinkle of Parsely,
A sprinkle of Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder & Onion Powder.
Lastly a dollop of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese.

First I take the Tofutti & mix it with the warm noodles. Then I sprinkle on all the spices & stir really well till it's all incorporated together.

If I'm making it for a crowd of adults, I might take fresh garlic & onion & sautee them together in a pan and add them to the mac-n-cheese, unless it's for the kids. Then I'd skip that angle altogether.

If it's for a bunch of people, I also use the entire box of pasta, maybe even two boxes, depending on the brand. I'd also use the tub of Tofutti, and spices to taste. I tend to go light on spices & bring them along so folks can spice them to their liking, as everyone's taste is different. A little cayenne pepper for those who like it a bit more spicy or even some paprika just for the colour effect.

This is a great side dish or if you'd like it as a meal. Steam off some brocolli and carrots & add them right in or placed just to the side of the noodles.

Delish! Don't forget the Nutritional yeast, it's got a nutty sort of flavour, but not strong at all. It's good for Vitamin B12 and anything that gives you a needed nutrient is alright in my book.

--Heather :)

Credit for the Zine behind my noodles.

Artwork on the Zine's cover.

Forks Over Knives- Movie Trailer

2010-07-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

Go Vegan, save your own life. If you do, does this make you smarter than a Medical Doctor? It just might. Please pass this trailer on. I'm getting all weepy over here, thinking about my family, friends and other folks who aren't eating healthy. It's just scary. We could single handedly save the US Government money on Healthcare AND save our own lives, the lives of our children too. Think about it. Then get angry.
Then start passing the word on.

XOXO --Heather

Some thoughts for today..

2010-07-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau - Vegan Educator from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau on Vimeo.

I borrowed this from Virtually Vegan Sisters' blog. I was checking around on blogs I follow & saw this post, thought it was important to pass on, plus Colleen is my hero! I love her speaking style & thoughtful cheeriness. I get so happy just to hear her speak, make me feel better when I get 'vegandown'. She reminds me to be more honest with folks and tell it like it is more. People need to know the truth, not be placated so much.

I used to wonder why I overate. It was because I was undernourished. If you aren't eating things you can digest *meat* *gluten* etc.. you are constantly hungry & tend to get overweight. Because your body cannot digest it you either pass it all the time & are underweight or get overweight depending on your body & how it acts towards unfriendly fire, so to speak. So folks who are really thin aren't necessarily healthy. Same thing goes with people who are overweight, they don't look healthy and certainly take on the brunt of the looks, whispers behind their backs etc. All which is truly sad & unhealthy for their psyche. It's not fair at all in either case. People who are thin, that think they are all healthy, but aren't. That's not fair to them either, and I don't think about that as often. They need to be told too.

If you wanna be healthy you need to eat foods that you can digest correctly and glean the nutrients from, otherwise you will get sick all the time. Or after many many years of being unhealthy your body won't be able to fight off the illnesses and cancers. How do you get healthy? Stay healthy? Well since people should be on a vegan or herbivore diet, that is the main thing they should be doing. The information is out there, and it's as close as your mouth to find out why people should be eating a Vegan or at the very least, a Vegetarian diet. Next time you're in the bathroom take a look at your teeth. Do they look like fangs, like other Meat Eaters? I don't think so, unless you are a wolf & can read. ;) This also answers the question of why so many people have tooth decay in the modern world, with the toothbrush, toothpaste inventions. Because they don't eat the correct foods for their human form.

Since this information is so important, I also put a page up my blog titled: "Humans are Herbivores and Proof. Click the link when you have a moment & please pass the word on. It's time for the truth. I'm doing this for the animals, all of them, including the human ones.

XOXO --Heather :)

Cupcakes Cupcakes.. What's up with all the cupcakes??

2010-07-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

I saw this cupcake pan in the store, and had to have it. It's by Nordic Ware. I conned my husband into getting it for me for Easter instead of the typical chocolate bunny. The cupcake love is big here in this house! Serious cupcake adoration going on! I have the Vegan Cupcakes take over the world book, by Isa too!

This is a closer view of the cute little designs on the bottom of the pan. It even says it in English: Cute Cupcake Pan. How sweet!

Shows Nordic Ware, a cupcake, braided details all around the underside & it says: 6 cups of batter or 1.4 liters. I'm sure you can find this pan online or perhaps even locally depending on the season. Altho, I'm pretty sure cupcakes belong in the center of ALL seasons. Am I right?

This (photo below) is the mondo size cupcake that pops out of the oven from this pan. Not sure what Nordic Ware does to it's pans, but they hardly need any non-stick spray. This is a blueberry cupcake with coconut glaze frosting. I basically made blueberry muffin batter & added in a touch more sweetener. I used agave & a little raw sugar cane. The coconut glaze frosting was made with powdered sugar a little vegan butter and some coconut shreds. My trick for the glaze, frost the cupcake when it's warm to the touch, frosting just glides right on. Then you stick it into the fridge to cool & firm a little bit. My kids just dove right in. They didn't wanna wait a second. I mean it! Cupcakes tend to make us crazy around here!

The first time I made them, this was the cake (pic below) I made. I used a coffee filter, the kind with the fluted edges as a cupcake liner. I didn't place it in the pan when baking tho. It was just for decoration. I also let the kids choose the decoration, so it's a little bit rushed and not that attractive. Oh well! What can ya do? Tastes sooo yummo I didn't even mind.

Now why Cupcakes all of a sudden? Why Thursday? In order to find the answer to this question, I suggest you head on over to my friend, Roni's blog. Trust me, you won't wanna miss this!

XOXO & cupcakes --Heather :)

Wanna swap links with me? Now you can!

2010-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Just look on the right hand side of my blog, under the blog links of other blogs we like. Look for the little orange, don't worry you'll find him. If he doesn't jump out at you, I'll be surprised! He's very BRIGHT! Save the html add it to your blogroll & you can email me your html too.

--Heather :)

Happy Vegan 4th of July!

2010-07-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

Gluten free brownies with chocolate chips & Vanilla frosting & Organic fruit = a yummy dessert full of bliss!

Love from Worceatveg!

Rat Tat Tooooooie!

2010-07-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well it's actually spelled: Ratatouille. It's a French Peasant dish, of which I have ancestors. I also believe there is some Italian in my past, so this is a Italianized version. It's extremely easy, even a non-cook or person with no cooking skills could manage it. It's EASY peasy! Trust me, I'm a mother of four. Two human kids, and two fuzzy furkids.. I need easy meals that everyone loves & FASTER than fast. Cause vegan kids get HUNGRY and often! We're like cows here.... we graze all day!

First, find a glass jar {you can use canned sauce, if you like. However, I don't recommend doing so. Cans have BPA in the steel linings. Not healthy at all.} of your favourite Italian Pasta sauce, also called Red sauce or Gravy in some cases. I used Newman's Own Tomato & Basil. I have also made the sauce from scratch, however Newman has it down & it makes it much much faster. Next find the veggies you wish to add. Chop them up put into a big baking dish. I've done this in a baking bowl and a big flat tray pan. Either works well. I'd love to have Mushrooms and black olives in mine sometime. You can also whip up some pasta noodles and eat them with the veggies. Makes it a complete meal! Quinoa or rice would also be delish with it.

{This version of the Ratatouille shown in the above photo has some tiny yellow & red tomatoes added to it. the little grape sized maters. Yummy!}

For the 4th Cookout I used: zucchini's, summer squash, spinach, one small onion finely diced, fresh minced garlic. I buy my garlic already minced in a jar. It's faster, easier and IMO tastes much better.

I chopped the veggies put them into the baking dish, and took one jar of sauce dumped it in. Then I filled the empty jar up with water about 2 inches from the top & swirled it around in the jar to get ALL of the red sauce out & to also give the veggies some water to "steam" with while they baking. I added a little bit of onion powder & garlic powder & black pepper to this water & poured it over the veggies and red sauce. Mix it till all the veggies are covered and the water/sauce it mixed together. Bake it in the oven with tin-foil over the top. I used 375*F for about 45 miuntes, check the veggies, are they soft? If so turn the oven off & let it cool. If not, let it cook a bit longer. I like my veggies to have a bit of a snap left to them, when they are done. So it's ok if they are mildly crunchy. Tho even soft, they are still full of vitamins, since they are simmering in the vitamins, literally.

Lastly before eating I added in some Vegan shredded cheese. If you use the Daiya brand. You can put the cheese into the hot sauce & veggies, as it comes out & let it melt. You can also put it on the veggies about 10 minutes before the rataouille is to come out. If you use follow your heart brand, you might like to put it onto the ratatouille at the 25 minute mark, as sometimes it needs a little extra time to get melty.

See how easy? ENJOY your veggies!! --Heather :)

P.S: Any questons, you can post them here. I will answer!

Sorry..

2010-06-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging here much, at all of late. I'm working on the (see previous blog post) charity sale a lot & getting the word out for that. Plus, I haven't much been in the mood to cook all that much. Doing a lot of smoothies lately & quick meals. My son is almost out of school, when he's finished I'll likely get back in the mood to cook again.

In the meantime you can check out my mad salad below & also take a look through my flickr Vegan food photos, if you like.

Be back soon! I promise! XOXO Heather :)

We're selling to help the animals affected by the BP Oil Spill..

2010-06-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Cari of Loveluca for lending me this lovely photo.

Ever since the BP oil spill happened, I've been spinning my wheels. Wondering what to do to help, I have two kids and it's a full time job, so heading down there to actively participate in the cleanup process isn't going to happen, at least right now. I might get my chance of course, doesn't look like cleanup is going to happen overnight.

When Lisa of Pandawithcookie told the Etsyveg street team her plans. I jumped right up onto the bandwagon and helped myself to the reins. ;)

She posted her donation idea: "***20% of all sales go to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary who are preparing to clean and care for animals affected by the horrible oil disaster happening in the Gulf Coast: seabirdsanctuary. ****"

I decided I'd do the same thing & asked around on the other street teams I'm on & the one I help facilitate, if others would like to help too. The response was immediate! People out there are concerned and looking to do something, anything to help out.

Heather from the Thebluewindmill is donating 30% of this item to

Jesse from GingerCardCo is donating 10% from her shop.

My shop is donating 20% of all sales till July 8th to Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

Krugsecologic is donating 30% of sales till July 8th also to Suncoast.

Heather's shop Anthropomorphisis is doing 10% donation from her gemstone jewelery.

Pippi's shop is donating ALL proceeds to Sea Shepherd. She has also opened up an a Online Thrift Store that is donating proceeds as well to Sea Shepherd.

Twigandleafbotanical is also helping out. By donating 20% of our sales to the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund.

Athena said:
I will donate 30% of the sale of this frame to the relief effort.

Jade said: I'll happily donate 20% of sales from my shop, Mumbot.

Kimba of KimbasCritters said:

I would love to help out here! I will gladly donate 20% of any items sold till July 8th to the Sanctuary.

15% of all sales from SmileBernice through July 11th will go to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

Maggie from M's Knits and Things is also joining us till the 8th with 20% of her sales.

Yvonne from Karramandi, Collarmegorgeous, kakirra, and Juniperjournals has also stepped up to donate 20% from any of her shops to the Seacoast Sanctuary.

Lucy of luniquejewellery is also donating 20% of her sales, check her etsy shop for more information.

This shop here has also joined us. From June 3 through June 20, 20% of every sale in my Etsy shop will go to the National Audubon Society to aid in the Gulf oil spill cleanup.

This shop here also joined us, she is donating 10% of her sales to support the Gulf oil spill disaster cause with Defenders of Wildlife.

I will edit this page as time goes on & others join forces. Please check individual shop announcements for end dates on this sale. This shop on Etsy has been dedicated to selling items to help the Gulf Coast also.

Thanks for checking this out & helping! Heather :)

Some of the teams involved are: The Vegan Etsy Team. Check their blog here. The EFA team their blog is here and also the Etsyveg street team here.

Nutrient Density.. By Dr. Joel Fuhrman

2010-05-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is good news for me. I don't wanna eat a raw diet, altho I was considering doing so, if I had found it to be healthier. This also proves my point, that Veggies & fruits come high on the list of foods needed to be eaten first. Everything else, breads, mock meats, etc.. is or should be considered a condiment. Ketchup is a condiment. You dip things in it. So perhaps to be healthy or healthiest for longest you need to eat 90% veggies & fruits. With 10% of the diet being the condiments.

Food for thought anyways.
--Heather :)

Vegan Meatballs..

2010-05-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

Not sure what to do with these meatballs. Hubby picked these up from The Loving Hut also, when he picked up the Vegan Mock Fish. These aren't gluten free so I'm not excited to try them out, seeing how I cannot. Consequently I'm not finding any cooking mojo with these guys.. unless I make my own vegan, gluten free, sweet potato meatballs and try those & copy these for the kiddos. Hmmm.......

Do you have any ideas? Love to hear them. hskoconnor@gmail.com or please comment here in the comments section. Thanks for stopping in, Heather :)

Picked up something new..

2010-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I have eaten at The Loving Hut several times here in Worcester. We've been to the Veg Worcester buffets many times, and taken the children along. One time we went Hubby had a meal with mock tuna in it, and it was divine. IMO--it could also be used in place of ham dishes as it's very similar to what I recall a ham steak as being like. Even in taste a little bit and very definitely the texture. So I had him pick up some of the Mock tuna, as it's reported as being gluten free. I've eaten it once there, and barely had a bite since the kids kept eating off of my plate, since their preparation of it was so delish. They added sauces, rice, and steamed stir-fried veggies to it. Ever since enjoying this dish, we decided we needed to DIY with it. I wanted to know if it was good prepared like we used to prep fish.

This is what it looks like, when purchased:

I pan fried it with a little oil, salt, pepper, fresh minced ginger, and some fresh minced garlic. After getting it some colour on each side, I covered it and let it simmer on low till it was cooked through completely. Just before turning the heat off all the way, I added to that some vegan mayo mixed with the same above spices. Needless to say it was YUMMO x 4 Million --IMO. Reminded me very much of fish. Texture wise, as I stated before, it was very close to a ham steak. It was delicious tho and I will do this again, as we all loved it. Kids and I had our pieces with some baked sweet potatoes and red bliss potatoes. Hubby turned his into a sandwich and ate it on a nice roll. We took it with us for the Drive-in movie last evening. It was a easy meal to eat while "camping" next to the car & watching a movie. Fun! (Sorry no piccy of the prepped food. It was gone in a flash.)

Also while he was in at The Loving Hut, he picked up some mock Laver fish. Not sure just what Laver fish is. Doing a google search brings up some fish with a coating of seaweed on it. This "fish" does indeed come with seaweed coating it all over it top and bottom. It even flakes like fish and if you flaked it all and added it (once cooked) to vegan mayo, you could have yourself a little "tuna fish" sandwich and no one would be the wiser. It's very mild, you can spice it with anything & it's awesome.

Shown here is the Laver fish, with corn pancakes:

I took our piece of Laver fish and added minced garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and pan fried it with vegetable oil. Then I whipped up some corn pancakes to go with it. I was jealous of hubby's fish sandwich and wanted to try it out. So I made gluten free pancakes with corn kernels in it. I used my gluten free flour mixture, salt, pepper, applesauce, oil, corn, parsley, minced garlic and cooked them in a pan. It was divine with a little mayo, lettuce and tomato. I must order up some more Daiya Vegan cheese and try it with that as well.

Mmmmm I gotta get some more of these "fishies" I've got loads more ideas to try with them now.. it was sooo good! --Heather :)

Blog Mention

2010-05-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you, for linking my blog to the following places:

the50besthealthblogs

worcester-massachusetts

Thank you both very much! I added both of your links to my links page, as well.

Thanks again, Heather :)

Summer Wine, a Fresh Fruit tart and Coconut milk..

2010-05-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Step one:
Make fresh coconut milk. Hammer the heck out of a fresh coconut. I find using a RBH, a really big hammer, that is, works great. I also use a flathead screwdriver to make the holes into the coconut's dimples. Seriously get ALL of your aggression out on this coconut, you will feel better if you have any stress & the results are well worth the time spent. I then peel the dark brown skin/shell off of coconut pieces. Shred it in a food processor. Add it to boiling water. Do not boil it. Just add it to the hot water. Then place the whole shooting match into a smoothie blender, or one capable of the highest setting of smash/mixing availible to you. I used about 4 cups boiling water to one coconut. Don't take my word for it tho. Double check with another recipe here.

Then let it sit for a while. Like an hour. Next strain the junk out of it. DO. NOT. Throw. Away. the. coconut. meat. I MEAN IT! Do not toss it out! You can add it right into a batch of chocolate brownies, the freezer for later, or for using in smoothies. There is still some essence of goodness in the meat, after the milk has been extracted. Mostly it's fiber leftover, but fiber as we all know by now is good, good good!

Step two:
Make some dark chocolate brownies, with gluten free flour. Or by all means use wheat or whatever flour you deem to be the best. I made mine in a round pan. I also used about what I would consider 1/2 of the batter of a regular pan of brownies. There is a reason for this. An end result to my maddness. Just wait patiently please, kiddo.

Step three:
Chop, slice or cut up any sort of fresh, yummy fruit that you like. I chose Champagne Mangos, pineapples, strawberries & blackberries. I tossed a few sugar grains over the top to help sweeten them, and they probably didn't need it.

Step four:
Mix up some Strawberry Saft. Now Saft is a Swedish drink, usually drunk in the summertime, with wine or some sort of sweet liquor mixed in. Or it can be bottled for the wintertime usage with Gluug or Grog, or some other traditional holiday drinks. I followed this recipe here. Well I sorta followed it. I basically made a strawberry simple syrup & I used less on the sugar than the 1 cup that is mentioned. I did it to taste, till the water was mildy sweetened. Like literally 1/2 the amount contained in a 1/4 C measuring cup. I did add in the ginger & also the mint.

Step five:
When the Brownies are cooked, let them cool on the counter. If you made a regular amount on the brownies, you can cook the extra up as muffins, pancakes or freeze the extra batter or, by all means double up on the fruit & make twice as much brownies! Cannot go wrong with chocolate, I've found.

Step six:
Take about a cup of the strawberry saft, and mix it with one cup of the coconut milk. Simmer on medium-high with a little sugar, and some corn or potato starch. Let it bubble & cook till it has become pudding. Let cool on the counter. Put the rest of the saft into the fridge. Believe me you will be happy you made the saft. It's good with Vodka and even wine. I believe this is what the Corr's were singing about in their Summer Wine song, but maybe not.

Step seven: When the pudding is cool to the touch. Take about 1/4 of a cup of the pudding and pour/spread it over the brownies. Next, place the fruit on the top of the pudding & layer on the last of the pudding over the fruit. Plop this into the fridge and let it get cooled some more. Doing this will firm up the pudding a bit more. Altho you can eat it warmish. Sometimes it's hard to wait, right? ;)

Step eight: Pour yourself some saft add it to a glass of some nice Sulfite-free, Vegan vino & a slice of the chocolate fruit tart & kick back and watch the kids run around till they wear themselves out, at least this is my plan.

XOXO Enjoy! Thanks for stopping in, Heather :)

Ya Gotta Eat Yer Spinach, Babay!

2010-05-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

One: Chop up a bunch of veggies. Peas, carrots, corn, beans, spinach leaves & sliced tomatoes. Add in some fresh chopped garlic & onion, salt to taste and some pepper as well.

Two: In a blender add a splash of the oil of your choice, basil, garlic, and any other spices you like. I tossed in some cayenne pepper to mine. Then break up a 3/4 of a brick of firm, organic, non-Gmo tofu. Hit frappe or grind or something & really mix the tofu well till it is the consistency of riccotta or cream cheese. Your choice. We find we prefer "cream cheese texture" for this. Gives it a nice texture.You may need to add in more oil or even use some soy or a nut milk to get the right consistency. One you have the desired consistency, pour it over the top of all the veggies you cut up. Believe me the more veggies you add to this dish, the better it tastes. Use all kinds. You cannot choose a wrong one. Mushrooms are nice to add to it. Whatever you have hanging around. Have some tomato sauce? Dump it in. If you have a lot of spinach use as much as you can stuff into your baking dish & then ADD even more. It wilts the moment the heat hits it so it will shrink down. You could even steam it ahead of time. However, I try to keep as much as the nutrients in the dish as possible so I didn't do this. Once you've got all the veggies in & the tofu mixture on the top. Plop it into the oven. Let it bake for about an hour. Once the tofu is firmed up it's done. Have this with a glass of lemon-aide or lemon water, and the spinach's iron will be absorbed! Enjoy!

We have this Tofu souffle, with some nice bread, possibly, a soup or some sort of mock meat dish with it. You could even do up some spicy rice to accompany it. You can't go wrong with anything. Or just use it alone. Makes a nice dinner or even a nice brunch main course with some homemade Vegan donuts or sticky buns. I've finally found some Vegan Gluten Free Tuna locally, this would be a nice side dish. I'm working on getting some here & doing a recipe that is similar to how you eat regular fish with this mock Tuna. Maybe basil and Vegan mayo on it perhaps.

Salute! Heather :)

And to think, I was going to make mere brownies..

2010-05-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Seeing how we don't imbibe of the processed foodstuffs much around here. I bake all the time, which is just fine for me. I love to bake things. My kids love to eat the things I bake, so it's a happy arrangement. Plus, it's fun for them to learn how to as well. We've been doing this for sometime together. They learned counting and shapes while we baked, and now are moving on to measurements & more complex ideas while baking.

This is a dark chocolate cake, with some lightly sweetened peanut butter sauce poured on top. Really easy to make. We use real peanut butter, that we grind ourselves in our local grocery shop. So it has no articial anything added to it. Nearly all the brands I find, have corn syrup and or something else added that doesn't need to be there.

The cake was really good. The kids wolfed it down like lightening fast. Now, I need to figure out something else to make them to bring for school lunch. It's a constant battle me and my ingredients, the oven and making sure they have something palatable for kids to take to school. Currently, I have strawberries, water and sugar cane simmering on the stove. I think some strawberry, apple cinnamon muffins or pancakes are in the works.

Thanks for stopping by, Heather :)

Vegan Truffle Cookies

2010-04-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Inspired By The Panda & The Bake Sale @ MooShoes in NY.

Over the weekend the good Vegan folks of NYC had a Vegan Bake Sale at Moo shoes. One of my Etsy pals was there selling her goodies. Her shop on Etsy is called Pandawithcookie. Please check out her cute, adorable monsters here. I saw her post on FB and was drooling over her truffles. Figured, I'd whip some up. Decided about 1/3 of the way through I wanted a cookie instead. So I changed a few things & turned them into cookies.

1/4C Almond Milk,
1/2C My Rice/coconut/flax seed flour mix
1/4C DARK Cocoa powder
1/8C probably WAY less Organic Powdered sugar
1/4 of a bar of dark dark chocolate & a bit more powdered sugar as needed for rolling and dusting.

I basically mixed these items up & did it by eye & by taste. I'm ridiculously annoying about sugar & the amounts we eat. I tend to go light on the sugar. Less is more and all of that. Not good for you & blah blah blah. Milk, cocoa powder & my GF/vegan flour mix. Then I took the powdered sugar & added it last. I also rolled each one by hand into the powdered sugar and then baked it 350*F for about 15 minutes. After I dusted the tops with a bit more powdered sugar & finally drizzled each cookie into melted dark chocolate. The cookies are crisp on the edges & soft and chewy in the centers. I put them into the fridge to harden the drizzled chocolate up and they are really close to a truffle IMO. Really sinful. Even with my anti-sugar madness, these are really not low on sugar, by any stretch of the imagination. ;)

Fortunetely, my timing was impeccable. My son returned home and in 6 year old boy fashion, casually told me, at the last minute about a Boy's Birthday party in his class happening the next day. We are the only Vegan family in this one horse town, AFAIK. So not a Vegan friendly b'day party happening. So lucky me, my son has something he will adore having & showing off to his friends in class. WHEW! *Wipes sweat from brow* I often have flashes of terror when my son leaves for school. This is why. It took me months to get the school to even recognize our allergies & Veganism. Looking forward to the sugar induced HYPERACTIVITY these cookies stir up. NOT! (we're extremely sensitive to sugar here, it often sends us headlong into a frenzy of let's wreck the house proportions, I kid thee not.)

Thanks for stopping by. Just looking at these cookies and I want an insulin shot. ;)

XOXO Heather :)

Beastie Boys Recycled CD coasters by: Heathrock, and she does!

Got Lemons? Then Make....

2010-04-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Lemon Pudding Cake!

I had some lemons, I decided they needed to become something tart & sweet. I just saw them and decided it was lemon time. I also wanted a soft, moist cake or a pudding. I wasn't sure. So, I decided to combine them. First I squeeezed 6 lemons into my manual lemon juicer. I could have used my electric one. With yesterday being Earth Day, I opted to use the manual one. So this recipe is eco too. ;)

After the lemons were squeezed, I strained the juice into a jar, aka reserved for later. I then took 3 T of Potato starch, a pinch of salt, 1/4 C sugarcane (*I do sugar to taste and like it on the less sweet side.) and one cup of unsweetened almond milk and mixed it in a pan. Then I mixed in 1/2 C of the lemon juice. Put it on Med and cooked it till it thickened and then I cooked it a little more. So it was really thick. Once it was finished thickening, I put it to the side to cool.

Then, I mixed up the cake batter. 1 cup unsweet almond milk, 1/2 C apple sauce to replace the eggs in my recipe. 1/4 C sugar. 1/2 C lemon juice. 2 Cups rice/coconut/flax seed flour. (See my flour recipe here.) another dash of salt. Some baking powder and stirred it all up together and put it into a bundt pan at 350*F for about 20-25 minutes.

I was really good. To be honest with you, I suggest not putting this into the fridge, after cooking. I put mine into the fridge overnight, since there was pudding on it, I thought this was the best plan. Not too good tasting in the Am tho, unless warmed a touch in the microwave. Then it was fine. It also was a lil' bit dry after a day. If you have ever put rice into a container of salt. Then you understand why. Rice locks in moisture. Seems like rice always has plenty of room for more moisture. So, eat this cake in one day. Plan to use it for a party or something. Or plan to drizzle a sugar/lemon juice mixture over it when serving if you plan on having it more than a day or two. This is the only solution that seems like it would be workable to me.

--Heather :)

What Do You Do With Papaya?

2010-04-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

I picked up a Papaya the other day. Long wanted to try it. I've had it in some tropical drinks and loved it. So we wanted to try the fruit. I let it sit on the counter for a long time. Like a week or two. Till the skin started turning colours. I was afraid to leave it much longer when it started getting soft, so I cut it all up yesterday. Looks so yum! It's very sweet, in my opinion. It's soft like an avacado so according to wiki, it's ripe & ready to eat. So we dug in. The kids liked it very much and had me make some fruit salad with it. When I read the benefits it has (cancer protecting properties) I knew it was going to become a staple of our diet. I delve into the I'm paranoid about cancer pretty much every day and read anything, and everything, I can get my hands on about it's prevention. So I was very happy to learn it has these kind of benefits, needless to say.

Now I'm going to have to see about what else I can put papaya into. Ice cream? Cheesecake? Muffins? Hmmmm, How about you? Do you like papaya? What do you do with it? You can answer in the comments section if you like.

Thanks for stopping in! XOXO --Heather :)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Pancakes & Homemade Organic Strawberry Syrup

2010-04-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Whipped these up last week, for the kids. It was school vacation week, so we had extra time to linger over breakfast and sleep late. It was glorious. I had a small bite of the pancakes & strawberry syrup to sample. I think it came out pretty good. We found the Organic Strawberries at the Living Earth. They were so lovely.

Kids had no complaints about the food. I asked them if they liked them. Both boys came running back to the kitchen with an empty plate looking for more. I think that speaks for itself.

I used my Vegan & gluten free flour mix. I used organic, vegan dark chocolate chunks in place of chips. Apple sauce instead of eggs, a tiny splash of veg oil to keep things from sticking in the pan, unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon & vanilla and I mixed them up. I add a bit more milk or even a little bit of water if the batter is too thick. Organic strawberries mixed with water & a sprinkling of sugar and simmered in a pan till the berries let the juices run & it started to thicken up. I also tossed a bit of fresh shredded coconut over the top for the extra nutrition.

SO YUM! Sometimes a meal just comes together & tastes sooo good. I'm thinking of trying to make some Vegan stuffed french toast for them next, using tofutti cream cheese and jam or some more of this syrup in it. It's something a local place called Brittany's in Northborough makes. It was something I had a time or two there, in my pre-Vegan days and it was divine. Just for the record, I haven't been in there in a long while. My husband (he's Vegetarian, not Vegan) has and he reports they do have some Vegetarian items on the menu. PLEASE ask them when you dine out, no matter where you go to serve Vegan items. There is this olde saying, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It works quite well, especially when said with a please. My husband eats at Dinky's in the mornings with his work buddies and he's nicely bent the ear of the cook there & she is learning Vegetarian & Vegan cooking & how to now. I am planning on a trek to Dinky's really soon, so I will report back on how it is. One of my fav breakfast things is Veg loaded homefries. Which is potatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions all simmered altogether. To make this Vegan it's very simple. You use oil instead of butter or lard. Vegan is not hard. It just has a different name, so it throws folks off. If I have a fruit salad & the loaded homefries. I'd be stuffed for hours and hours. Sometimes all you have to do is explain what it is to folks in a simple way like this & they understand it better. Because everyone on the planet eats something Vegan every day, as long as they are eating fruit or a veg every day, that is. So it just sounds different, and more involved, than it has to be sometimes.

No excuses folks, we can eat anywhere *we please, just knowing a few things. Also, if you're going somewhere *non-veg* you can always warn them and call ahead, lots of places will be more than happy to accomodate you, if they have fair warning. :)

XOXO Thanks for stopping by, Heather :)

*Well, within in reason of course. NO one should eat at Mcd's or Dunkin Dognuts. ;)

Visit DunkinCruelty.com

2010-04-26T13:34:00.001-07:00

At Worcester Eats Veg.. we also show you where *NOT* to eat.

--Heather

Take the Walk and Talk the Talk..

2010-04-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Er shut up that is.

I'm taking part in this experiment/protest. Details here.

So.. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'll see ya Saturday on Twitter & FB!

XOXO Heather :)

Etsyveg Earth Day ExtraVEGanza!

2010-04-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

EtsyVeg is hosting “Earth Day ExtraVEGanza” later this week to raise funds for the earth lovin' organization, EarthSave! From Earth Day on Thursday, April 22nd through Saturday, April 24th, participating EtsyVeg member shops will donate 15% of all sales to Earth Save, and my shop is taking part!

EarthSave is an amazing organization that leads a global movement to promote healthy and life-sustaining food choices that make a more positive impact on environmental and human health. They raise awareness of the ecological destruction linked to the production of "food animals" while advocating and promoting a delicious, planet-friendly diet. Help Earth and the environment this weekend, donating to this important cause simply by indulging in a shopping spree with EtsyVeg's veg artisans and their unique handmade and vintage goods!

Tune in on Earth Day for a complete list of participating artisan shops!

I know it's not a foodie post. But several of the teamies like & make food. We even have teamies who sell food. On Etsy.com do a search for etsyveg team to bring up a list of items from member's shops.

Check out my shop I'm donating 15% too!

XOXO Heather :)

Gluten Free Flour Recipe

2010-04-20T13:15:00.001-07:00

I take one pound of rice flour. Usually an organic brown rice flour. Sometimes I find a rice flour that isn't organic, but I try for the organic as often as possible. Then to that I add 1 cup of coconut flour. Coconut shreds works too or you can grind up the coconut shreds if you like in your coffee grinder or blender. Next I add 1 cup of flax seeds. I find these already ground up into a fine powder. Next I mix all three ingredients together and put into a container that is safe for the freezer. You do wanna freeze flours. Never leave them in cabinets or on the counters. IMO that is faux pas. It's far safer and healthy to keep it frozen and from spoiling. They can go rancid far too easily otherwise.

If I'm baking breads or biscuits I used this kind of flour. I've tested the coconut and it is mild enough you don't even notice it. For pancakes and cookies and cakes I also use this flour it's pretty all inclusive for things. I also have used it for breading eggplant and veggies being baked or fried with oil. In this instance, I tend to add spices in a bowl to the flour before breading. Herbs such as cayenne, parsley, oregano, basil etc. Just to give it a little kick. If I am making a cake, I often add some tapioca or potato starch just for a little bit more softness.

That's pretty much it. I've bought flours in the past, and I have found them to have a little bit of an aftertaste, since going Vegan and eating raw veggies & fruits all the time I find my tongue has gotten "sensitive" it notices aftertastes much more easily now. I don't know if there is anything to that. But, folks doing those fancy 5 course meals they often give them sherbert or watermelon between meals to "clear the palate" and I feel my palate is cleaned a lot.

--Heather :)
(hskoconnor@gmail.com if you have questions)

Belmont Vegetarian Restaurant!

2010-04-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

You walk inside and hear this on the radio..

Instantly, your demeanor changes. You relax, you smile. You know you have found something truly truly special.

This restaurant is KICKIN'! I don't just mean the reggae or ska tunes coming from the speakers. I mean the food is amazing, intense and spiced to perfection. AND bonus round there is no meat in the food at all. So it's peaceful & very healthy on all accounts. I really mean it! This is AWESOME FOOD! YUM! I have always loved spicy, sweet barbecue. I was fine never having it ever again, until I tried this place out. NOW I'm excited to say: I can have it again, but Vegan with an OMG this is rockin' kinda way!

To the meat eaters, you will never know, just close you eyes & dig in. Then and only then will you understand! To the Vegheads, you will never know & you will enjoy it like nothing you've ever had. We are lucky in Worcester as far as Veggies go. But this find, just makes life for us SOOOO MUCH BETTER! I didn't realize how much I needed this place, till hubby happened to take a chance on it.

This is the Pepper steak tray my kids decimated. There was hardly any left, they were so excited & hungry when we opened up the bag.

For folks in the area, here is the contact information. You can see it larger here. But basically, it's up the street from UMASS on Belmont street.

The menu is availible here for better viewing.

I suggest getting a tray of the faux meats & a tray of a rice dish. You can also add in a tray of the veggy stew! So delicious! My kids adored it all. Hubby loved the Vegan boneless spareribs & Ham and Beans the best. He couldn't tell the difference, from having the real thing in our past life. *He* was the one who kicked & screamed about going veg. He's also the biggest yapper and Veg message spreader now! We also were given a sample of the mac n cheese which is a 100% Vegan & awesome according to the kids. It does have gluten in it, so not for me. But they gobbled it and the lasagna sample right up, no complaints, just looking for more. To be honest, I have one picky eater and one that could considered a little piglet. BOTH kids gobbled everything we got from this place right up. So take it from them, it's AWESOME!

Walk, NO RUN right over and check them out! This place rocks!

Vegan Coconut Macaroons..

2010-04-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

Found at The Living Earth. I've never had these sorts of raw cookies like this before. WHO NEEDS EGGS again? Please explain why? These were awesome!

I'm going to have to try to Diy these soon. I just know it!

--Heather :)

Yay For Vegfest!

2010-04-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of snaps from Worcester's Vegfest. We had a really good time today. I was excited to hear from COK, Compassion over Killing's Boca Victory! So happy to know the Boca products my kids & hubby adore are now Vegan! YES!

I couldn't take any photos in where the speakers were since it was "hush hush" and kinda dark. Didn't wanna be rude or such like. But the place was JAM packed. We didn't even get any samples from The Belmont Vegetarian Restaurant there were so many people in line. THAT's OK with me, though. I'll just boo hoo later to hubby & he'll stop in and get me some soon, just to shut me up.

Ok on to the photos..

Yay for Vegan cookies!

Just be happy I missed the OPEN MOUTH FULL ON CHOCOLATE GOO photo. ew.

Veggies as far as the EYE can see!

More Veggies milling about and such.

Then when I got home.. I had to try to make the taster sample I had today. Udupi of Shrewbury was giving away samples of what I was told is likely their Channa Masala. They are the next place on my VEGFOOD Radar lemme tell ya. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMXMillion!
So delicious!

All in all a very good time. I just have ONE complaint; We need a Veg Bake sale in Worcester AND pronto! I think billing it an Eco bake sale, might lure some folks in, so they can see how good Vegan/veg really is. Bribe them with sweeeeeets!

--Heather :)