Pita Perfection

Last weekend, I had a falafel pita for the first time (thank you Samm and Kristie!!). It inspired me to make my own version for a quick, easy, healthy, and delicious lunch. So, I bought some sprouted, gluten-free pockets (thank you Sunflower Market in Roseville!) and while I was getting ready for work, I sauteed bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions on low and threw them, along with some fresh spinach and chipotle hummus into the pocket and warmed in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Some other great pita ingredient ideas:
Mexi-Pita: Corn, diced tomatoes, salsa, diced carrots, guacamole, black beans, peppers
Veggie Overload Pita: Carmelized zucchini & squash, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, sprouts, hummus
Asian Delight Pita: Tofu, eggplant, rice, plum sauce
Breakfast Pita: Potatoes, onions, soy-rizo (vegan Chorizo), refried beans
Summer Salad Pita: Spinach, sunflower nuts, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, kidney beans, vegan ranch
Fancy Deli Pita: Sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, hummus, spinach, capers, vegan feta

On A Budget? 5 Ways to Eat Ramen for Dinner

I always keep Oriental flavored Top Ramen around the house and/or the office. It's cheap, and it comes in handy on those days I forget to bring my lunch to work, or I just don't feel like cooking once I'm home. Below is an article I found w/5 recipes revolving around this 17 cent wonder. They aren't vegan-friendly, so I'll be adding suggestions after each one...

On A Budget? 5 Ways to Eat Ramen for Dinner

• by Babble.com, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 7:53am PDT

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Times are tight, budgets are pinched. We had two dollars left in our food budget on Tuesday of last week, so I buzzed to the store and bought the only thing I could think of.  Ramen. At 17 cents a package, ramen has to be the best food deal out there. And, it’s a fun deal, too. Because a packet of ramen isn’t just soup waiting to be made. It’s actually a blank canvas ready to be turned into art. Here are 10 super-simple ways to pimp out your ramen and make it into a simple, satisfying dinner.

1. Veggie Ramen (pictured above) . Toss a tablespoon of butter into a skillet. Add 2 tablespoons each of thinly-sliced carrots, frozen green beans, frozen white corn, and edamame. Cook just until softened. Add a packet of Pork Ramen, 2 cups of water, and cook until the noodles are cooked through, about 6 minutes. Add seasoning packet. Serve and enjoy.

SUGGESTION: Add Oriental Ramen instead of Pork Ramen

2. Egg Foo Ramen. In a small bowl, whisk an egg with 1 tablespoon of water until well beaten. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour egg into the water, then add the noodles. Cook just until tender. Season with seasoning packet. Garnish with sliced green onions.

SUGGESTION: Use egg replacer instead of the egg

3. Chinese Chicken Salad. Shred 1/4 a head of cabbage, 1 breast of chicken, and 1/4 white onion. Add 1 package of crushed Chicken-flavored Ramen.  In a small bowl, whisk together the seasoning packet, 2 tablespoons of oil, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Toss dressing into salad, serve and enjoy.

SUGGESTION: Use a vegan chicken breast, as well as Oriental Ramen

4. Ham Fried Ramen. A simple take on Fried Rice, cook a packet of Pork Ramen until the noodles are tender. Drain completely. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon olive oil until sizzling. Add 1/4 cup diced ham and 1/4 cup of frozen peas & carrots to the oil. Immediately toss in the noodles. Crack an egg into the mixture and stir until well cooked and distributed around the noodle mixture. Season with soy sauce, garnish with a handful of diced green onions.

SUGGESTION: Use Oriental Ramen, vegan ham or sausage, and egg replacer.

5. Parmesan Ramen. Cook a packet of ramen noodles. Save the flavoring packet for another day. Once the noodles are cooked, drain the water from them completely. Top with a pat of butter, a bit of freshly-shredded parmesan, and some chopped parsley.

SUGGESTION: Use vegan parmesan cheese & vegan butter.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/on-a-budget-5-ways-to-eat-ramen-for-dinner-2508159/

Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Sandwiches

This vegan take on ice cream sandwiches improves everyone’s favorite summertime treat by dipping it in chocolate and covering it in sprinkles.

By Chloe Coscarelli

Makes 8 sandwiches

What you need:

• 2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups chocolate chips, divided
• 1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream (see recipe)
• 1 cup topping of your choice (sprinkles, toasted almond silvers, coconut, etc)

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment.
2. In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, egg replacer, salt, and cinnamon. In mixer, beat margarine, sugar, brown sugar, water, and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in flour mixture ½ cup at a time, then add 1 cup chocolate chips.
3. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and flatten with the palm of your hand. Repeat with remaining dough, and space on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until desired brownness (about 5 to 10 minutes).
4. Let the pint of ice cream soften in the refrigerator for about 15 to 30 minutes while the cookies cool.
5. Between 2 cookies, sandwich 1 scoop of ice cream and freeze. Repeat with all remaining cookies.
6. While these sandwiches firm up in the freezer, melt remaining chocolate chips over a double boiler or using the microwave.
7. Dip half of each ice cream sandwich in the melted chocolate and roll in desired topping until coated. Refreeze immediately. Enjoy!

I got this from VegNews.com 

http://www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=2280&catId=11

I think I'm gonna try it out this weekend! Looks delicious!

Refreshing Vegan Summer Snack/Beverages

I hate summer. Unless I'm submerged in water, I'm grumpy throughout the entire season. I'm probably the only person that actually gains weight for swimsuit season because I refuse to exert myself past walking from my air conditioned car into an air conditioned building. So, when I'm holed up in my home, air conditioner blasting, I do not want to cook. Below are a few easy snack ideas to help keep ya full and cool. 

Homemade popsicles. Channel your inner kid and buy some cheap popsicle molds from Walmart or Target. I like to make my own juice w/my juicer for the molds (I swear, the juicer is the best invention ever! I love my Jack LaLanne!). Voila! Delicious, healthy goodness!

Speaking of my juicer, I also make my own fruit and veggie juice. You would think veggies would taste bad juiced, but you are wrong! Well, celery tastes awful. If you buy a juicer (which I recommend because this is the best way to have a cocktail. Add vodka and you are in heaven!), make sure you add your favorite fruit first and second, then a half of a vegetable (squash, zucchini, and carrots taste great), and alternate until the end. Make sure you also put your fave fruit in last. I swear, the order you put the items in your juicer affects the flavor!!!

Tofutti Cream Cheese and crackers (just watch the label for milk, whey, any form of cheese, and honey). Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and the natural food section of Raley's and some Safeways have some great options.

Fruit Salad. Summer is the perfect time to throw some pineapple, mango, watermelon, grapes, apple, banana, orange slices, kiwi, etc. into a big bowl. It's always a hit at BBQs and brunches also.

Fancy lemonade. I usually buy an all natural lemonade rather than a zillion lemons to try to juice. Simply lemonade is great. I then add a handful of frozen blueberries and/or raspberries. Let it sit a few minutes (but don't forget about it for a coupla hours, cuz then it's disgusting). 

Chips and salsa are a fave of mine. My favorite is Herdez salsa with fresh cilantro and a buncha avocado. Yum!

Iced tea w/pineapple. When I went to visit my family in North Carolina, I became addicted to the tea. They sweeten it with pineapple slices. Word to the wise, don't plan on keeping the pitcher overnight, the pineapple breaks apart and becomes a mess. Serve it at a party, or just add a slice as you go.

Vegan ranch and veggies. I eat this all year round actually. I make my own veggie tray to take to work for lunch. Carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, etc. I have a fantastic recipe for vegan ranch in one of my earliest posts. DO NOT BUY VEGAN RANCH AT THE STORE. It is revolting. I repeat, revolting!

I used to love grabbing an ice cream cone during or after work (in fact, I'm sure I'll break down a few times this summer, as I work next door to a coffee shop that sells phenomenal cones!). Now, I keep either sorbet or ice cream made with coconut milk on hand instead. I'm surprised at how fantastic some vegan ice creams are! It's like a delicacy!

Strawberries dipped in chocolate. This. Is. Amazing. Melt some dark chocolate and either drizzle over the berries, or do what I do and submerge the entire berry up to your knuckles.

Hansens Natural flavored drink mix. 100% Vitamin C. It's the healthy version of Crystal Lite on the go packets. I freeze my bottle of water until it gets a thin coat of ice to break up. I then add a packet, shake and go.

Kudos to Kale

I had never heard of kale prior to becoming vegetarian. And I hadn't knowingly tried it until a few months ago at the urging of a good friend. Mainly because I didn't know how to cook it, and I was too lazy to put much thought into it. Well, it turns out that kale is such a great vegetable, the British have decided to devote an entire website to our leafy friend (http://www.discoverkale.co.uk/). 

Kale is part of the cabbage family, and is considered a "superfood", providing beta-carotene, vitamin C, and folate. In fact, kale is one of the vegetables most rich in calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. It also provides sulpher phytochemicals, which is thought to help protect against some cancers, as well as reducing the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration by way of providing the phytochemicals zeaxanthin and lutein.

As discoverkale.co.uk points out, kale contains four times more magnesium and five times more calcium than brussel sprouts! And really, who wants to eat brussel sprouts (unless you have had my sisters! That woman is an angel with brussel sprouts!). Kale also carries 17 times more vitamin C than carrots, and four times more than spinach. And that's just naming a few of the benefits!

Kale is easily introduced into ones diet. I'm gonna tell ya right now, remove the leaves from the stalk!!! It's really bitter. I don't care for it at all. I use kale almost on a daily basis. I have a juicer (which I highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in losing weight or getting healthy!) and I juice my daily servings of fruits & veggies (including kale) for breakfast and lunch. Kale is also great to just saute a bit with some other veggies, alone, or to have raw over a salad. I expect you to put kale on your grocery list! And let me know what you thought of our new friend.

Don't Plants Have Feelings, Too?

All vegetarians/vegans hear the question "Don't plants have feelings, too?" Most of the people asking this question ask as if it's a joke. I hope you want a serious answer, and that you are not trying to belittle my way of life. Well, here is the short answer: Plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a central nervous system. If you do not have pain receptors, you do not feel pain. Although those are the facts, that usually doesn't satisfy folks. Why? Because many people that ask that question are really wanting to know how far one must go to become vegan. Where do they have to draw the line? Unfortunately, instead of asking their questions in a constructive way in which we may seriously discuss the need and/or desire to stop eating animals, they phrase the question to make vegans like me seem absurd. And when it's friends and family that do this, it truly hurts. Sure, maybe we will learn something about plants in the near or distant future that we do not know now. But for now, we do know that they lack pain receptors, thus feeling no pain. We do know that humans and animals have pain receptors, nerves, and a central nervous system. Therefore, we know that they feel pain, they can suffer, and they struggle to live when being forced to die. That is the bottom line. All I can do, all any of us can do, is make the best of the information that we have here, that we have right now.

Vegan's Daily Companion

I Like Animals Because...

One of my favorite books right now is "Vegan's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Inspiration for Cooking, Eating, and Living Compassionately" by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. When I start to get overwhelmed by the sadness I feel from living in a world in which animals are so mistreated and unappreciated, I pick up this book. It reminds me that I am not the only person out there trying to save lives and that strives to make a difference in an indifferent world. So far, I haven't tried any of the recipes, as I've been combing the 320 pages for the stories and photos of rescued animals, incredible tales of how meat eaters were awakened by an event in their life to switch to a vegan lifestyle, and essays such as the one I have included below that share my inner compassionate voice. This book is also a great tool for the kitchen, with information on how to optimize your health for the body, mind, and spirit. We hear from Mark Twain (a huge supporter of animal advocacy), Roald Dahl, poet William Cowper, Richard Adams (author of Watership Down, and president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from 1980-1982), Walt Whitman, and Mary Wollstonecraft (author of Frankenstein, which she published under the name Mary Shelley), just to name a few. The stories of hope, rescue, and transformation are spell binding, tear inducing, and beyond inspirational.


"I Like Animals" By Laura Moretti, founder and editor of The Animals Voice


"Why do you suppose you like animals so much?" was the million-dollar question put to me Christmas Eve (and one I hadn't provoked). I knew my family was expecting me to say something like, "I like animals because they're cute and cuddly and furry and fun to play with." But instead I said, "I like animals because they are honest."

My observation triggered a facetious comment from one of my brothers. “About what?"--as if honesty were merely about telling the truth, and everyone knows animals can't talk! His notation was met with hearty laughter; for once, they thought they'd repaid me for all the discomfort I'd caused them at other family gatherings.

"I like that animals don't pretend to be someone they're not," I continued in my reply, hushing the crowd. "To quote a phrase, 'Dogs don't lie about love.' Animals don't fake their feelings. I like that they're emotionally fearless."

We were lounging on sofas and armchairs after our feast and present opening. Coffee was being served, so I seized the opportunity. "I like animals," I added, "because they only take out of life what they need. They don't abuse their environment, annihilate species, pollute their water, contaminate the air they breathe. They don't build weapons of mass destruction and use them against others-particularly members of their own species. I like animals because they have no use for those things, or for war or terrorism. They don't build nations around genocide."

My uncle seemed momentarily lost in thought. He had been born and raised in New York City. "That's because they don't know any better," a brother-in-law argued. "They don't do those things because they don't know how."

"A pride of lions doesn't get together," I countered him, "and decide how to exterminate zebras-their very source of nourishment. I don't think it's because they don't know how. I think it's because it's counter-productive." They laughed. "

I also like animals," I continued," because they don't punish themselves for their perceived inadequacies. They don't dwell on things of the past, nor use them as excuses for behavior in the present. And they don't plan to live some day in the future, they live today, this moment, fully, completely, and purely. I like animals because they live their lives with so much more freedom than humans live theirs."

"That's because they don't think," one of my cousins offered.

"Is that the difference?" I wondered. "'I think therefore I'm cruel, destructive, insecure, abusive?' You meant to say they don't think the way we think." The room had become strangely quiet. I was amazed at how closely my family was listening, despite the occasional grunt to the contrary.

"I like animals because they don't bow down to imaginary gods they've created, nor annihilate each other in the name of those gods; gods, they say, who are all-knowing and all-loving and just. I like animals because they only know how to give unconditional love and implicit trust. I mean, animals either extend those things to you or they don't; there are no shades of gray. They have the best of what makes us human and, as one observer put it, "none of our vices.'" "And thank God," someone injected.

"Lastly," I added, remembering why I was an animal rights activist, "Animals are the most victimized living creatures on earth; more than children, more than women, more than people of color. Our prejudice enables us to exploit and use them, as scientific tools and expendable commodities, and to eat them. We do to them any atrocity our creative minds can summon. We justify our cruelties; we have to or we can't commit them. I like animals because they don't do to themselves or to others the things we do to them. And they don't make excuses for unethical actions because they don't commit unethical acts."

"And finally," I finished, "I like animals because they're not hypocrites. They don't say one thing and do another. They are, as I've said, honest. Animals-not humans-are the best this planet has to offer." And, interestingly enough, despite my soapbox rant, not a one of them made a snide comment or a hint of laughter. The conversation actually rolled into shared stories of animals they've known, stories of animal loyalty and intelligence, their humor and innocence. And it was me who'd become the listener with the occasional comment: "Now, if only humans could only be, well, like animals." And that is why I fight the good fight; I rise on behalf of the best among us.”

Meet Rambo, Charlie, Barbie, and Malachi—four adorable, lovable, rescued animals. Read about their story, and others, in Vegan's Daily Companion.