No Animals Were Harmed in the Production of this Feast

This Meatless Loaf was the hit of the party!  The outer crust parts were the best so next time

I will cook it thinner or in individual smaller pieces to give it that wonderful texture!

Can't forget the gravy!  Once you go vegan gravy, there's no need to go back!

Andrea's Super Quick Lasagna.  Daiya cheese is almost like the real thing!

Our open minded dinner guests brought Indian spiced taro.  I need to

get the recipe from her because this dish was DIVINE! 

My lovely mom and sis worked on the sides: Orange juice marinated 

Sweet Potatoes and a Cucumber Pear & Persimmon Salad.

Vegans can pig out on Thanksgiving, too!  (This is my plate ;)

Oh yes, the desserts!  This easy breezy pumpkin pie got slightly overcooked 

so to keep it pretty I topped it with easy and fun candied cranberries! 

This was my masterpiece: Apple Pie Cheesecake.  I stayed up until 2 in the morning making the topping.  Well worth the effort as my non-vegan dinner guests raved about it and went back for seconds!!!!

Oh, and I adopted a turkey and his name is Skip.  :)

   

Vegan Rehab

Confession: Something happened this summer, and I completely fell off the vegan bandwagon.  Sh!, don't tell anybody, but I even spent some quality time at Taco Bell.  Yikes!  (Did you know their beans are vegetarian!?)  Needless to say, I went deep and dark into an addiction I call cheese.  Thankfully, some angels came my way (yes that's you Andrea and Joey!) and reminded me who I really am: a vegan!  Why vegan, you ask?  Well, because learning how to "Eat to Change the World" is part of my personal journey.  One thing I've learned in life is to never turn your back on your individual journey.  Be who YOU are, not who THEY tell you to be.  Listen to your heart, and you will be led to far greater happiness than had you stayed in the "pack".  Becoming a vegetarian changed my life.  Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".  Being a vegan is a personal choice.  I do it because I feel a burning in my gut that tells me I'm right where I need to be.  People tell me I am weird, that I am "extreme", that I need to eat more proooootein (the government-brainwashed agenda on protein is for a future post!), but life is too short to concern yourself with naysayers.  What I learned last year lit me on fire and made me want to be a part of the food revolution.  And darlin', with GMO's, pesticides, the destruction of our environment by factory farming, the skyrocketing of lifestyle-based diseases (namely our diet), the greed of corporations that compromise our health for profits, and the truly horrific treatment of most farm animals, you better believe there is a revolution coming.  So the next time somebody asks me why I am a vegan, I will answer "why not?".

"Let food be your medicine"

In the documentary Food Matters David Wolfe, a raw food guru, states that when you eat meals of 50%+ cooked food the immune system bolsters.  This means, if the majority of your meal is cooked, body defenses behave as if they are being attacked.  Learning this, my interest was sparked and I started educating myself about the differences between raw and cooked foods. 

Raw foods have enormously higher nutrient values than foods that have been cooked, as at temperatures over 116 degrees F enzymes are destroyed.  Besides dramatically dropping enzyme content, cooking food changes the molecular structure and can render it toxic.  One common scientific observation is that cooking creates free radicals which are a major cause of cancer.  When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.  Eating a diet of raw foods has been shown to reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease.  From my father, a holistic doctor, quite some time ago I first heard the Hippocrates quote - "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food".  A beautiful truth indeed.   

In November of last year, I decided to go raw for 30 days and personally experience any difference that could be noticed.  Those 30 days proved so beneficial that transitioning to a fully raw diet has become my goal.  Whether the transition to raw is immediate or takes 5 years, the pace of change must be comfortable and effortless.  I don't like the feeling of "missing out", and denying myself per se is not the real goal.  A fabulous meal, especially in good company, is one of the great pleasures of life.  The day when I marry the satisfaction of eating with the joy of a fully raw diet will be the day of that wonderful transition.  :)  At the moment, I eat a high percentage of raw foods (sometimes I go all raw for single meals, days or weeks).  For fun (or to lose a few pounds for bikini season ;), I enjoy the occasional raw challenge.  Starting today, I am undertaking a 90 day commitment.  You can look forward to many raw posts in the next three months.  Topics such as "So what do you eat?", "Don't you worry about protein?", and "Isn't it expensive?" will be addressed.  Below you can read the personal benefits that I experienced on a raw food diet.  Perhaps it will trigger a desire to do your own research and to embark on a new dietary path!!    

During my first 30 days, I noticed a marked increase in energy.  Between school and work, I sometimes felt quite lethargic, tending to rest on the couch watching TV during downtimes.  After I went raw, I noticed I would go to the couch out of habit, but 5 minutes later found myself doing the dishes or finishing a chore.  It was as if I couldn't sit still.  Coffee used to be a big part of my daily regime.  Although I enjoy the occasional cup of joe, I credit daily juicing (with my Jack LaLanne, RIP) for helping me quit the bean. 

I also observed a very curious side benefit to going raw: I slept 2 to 3 hours less per night, yet still had more energy than I'd had in years.  Many raw foodists mention this effect and attribute it to less energy required for digestion.  Digesting cooked food can hog up to 80% of a person's daily energy expenditure.  Raw foods are extremely easy to digest and require significantly less energy.  Whatever the reason for my change in sleep patterns, it was pretty cool to have an extra 3 hours per day.  That adds up to an extra 1,095 hours per year!  What could you do with all that extra time?  ;) 

I also received an unanticipated watershed in weight loss.  Without counting calories, and eating to my heart's desire, I managed to lose 15 pounds in 3 weeks.  I literally ate as much and as often as I wanted, but cravings for cooked foods were non-existent. 

And perhaps the most profound change was in my mind and spirit.  It's hard to describe a spiritual high, but I was on one.  We all struggle with our ups and downs, and I personally am hit with self-doubt and insecurity about the future from time to time.  Usually they are just small thoughts, but some days I would mentally beat myself up because I hadn't accomplished "this" and wondered if I could ever accomplish "that".  About halfway through the challenge, it dawned on me that I was experiencing a true sense of peace and happiness.  I felt like a person of value who deserved to live a rich, abundant life.  My life had greater meaning and I had deeper purpose.  It was as if nothing could keep me down.  The negative thoughts that sometimes made their way into my head had vanquished.  The kind of spiritual calm and peace I felt were simply indescribable and definitely the number one reason why I aspire to become a 100% raw foodist.  And to you my reader, I hope you find inner peace if you have not already found it, no matter how you come to find it...

You Are What You Eat

We are what we eat.  So, do you personally know what you are eating?  Are you really paying attention to what's going into your mouth? 

On September 7, 2010 I finally cared enough to take the time and research these vital questions.  Originally, I wanted to change my diet for better health alone.  But the information I began pouring over took many unanticipated turns. 

My blood really started to boil when I learned how the USDA/FDA/EPA and many, if not most, of our appointed government officials are "in bed" with Big Food.  The USDA consistently favors corporate interest over that of the public, producers over consumers and lies over truth.  In fact, public health has been sacrificed, in more ways than you can imagine, at the altar of profitability. 

The next "discovery," obvious after just a moment's reflection, was that we should always READ the ingredients of foods before consumption.  Consumer beware and face the facts.  Many ingredients are of questionabe benefit and safety.  Not uncommonly labels reveal toxic or even cancer-causing contents.  Once you realize an FDA  product may have 20 different ingredients that cannot be pronounced and a shelf life of 20 years, it's hard to escape the conclusion that perhaps what is commonly eaten cannot even be called food! 

I am now an ingredient nazi.  Most of the foods I consume do not have a package or label.  I try to eat whole foods as often as possible and minimize consumption of that which is processed.  These two simple, but profound revelations are just a few of the topics I plan to cover on this blog.  Ignorance is not bliss.  What you choose to put in your mouth makes a HUGE difference for your body, health and mood, not to mention the environment. 

Whether you choose looking away and refuse to believe how BAD things are, animals bred for food are most cruelly treated.  The horrific lives these animals endure and the senseless abuse they face is a reality.  It is my humble intent to further disseminate the work of Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Eric Schlosser, to name just a few. 

I want to unveil the dirty secrets that Big Food doesn't want you to know and get you started on a path of eating consciously.  Information that I uncovered was powerful enough to turn me, a "meat-at-every-meal, feel-sorry-for-vegetarians" kind of gal, into a vegan.  (Click here to read some food facts that turned my world upside down!)  Not one day goes by that I feel like I'm missing out, or that I gave something up.  I have gained an awareness of the world around me and feel proud of the difference I am making, while experiencing better health because of it.  Oh, did I mention shedding 18 pounds along the way as fantastic dividend! 

In this blog I want to include you in my continuing process of discovery and share my passions.  Educating myself and experimenting with different lifestyles is how I got here.  I compared 30-day cycles of going vegetarian, vegan, and raw.  Going raw was the most eye opening of all the experiments and therefore my enthusiasm for raw foods will be a central theme in this blog.  Raw foods, compassionate living, fun recipes, nutrition, holistic well being, etc.  These are just some of the upcoming posts that you can look forward to.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll visit often!