bad blogger!

As excited as I was to start the new blog, I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted! A lot has been going on the home-front. My kids started preschool - both of them. I am a little wistful for the good ole days, but at the same time getting a ton of errands done in my 4 free hours a week. I started an 18-week house cleaning and organizing project at organizedchristmas.com. Thanks to my facebook friend who is leading it all, I am pretty much keeping on track with that. And finally, my gall bladder has turned against me! I started getting really sick right after Labor Day and ended up in the ER with chest pains I thought was a heart attack. The doc told me I had heartburn and sent me home, but I followed up with an Internal Medicine guy who ordered an ultrasound and found gallstones. I had a total of 5 attacks in a short 2-week period, so my gall bladder has to go! My surgery is scheduled for October 16.

What bewilders me about the whole gall bladder thing is that I have never had problems before, and now that I am vegan the stones show up?!? I am losing weight slowly, and not eating excessive amounts of oil, fried foods, or foods high in fat - all the classic causes. My theory is that my body - during it's adjustment period to becoming healthy - has sacrificed my gall bladder to get rid of the remaining bad stuff.

Despite all the crazy busy sickness, I have been cooking! Mainly recipes from my birthday present cookbook, Moosewood Simple Suppers. It's a great book with fantastic recipes! While I'm not going to reprint the recipes (buy the book, you won't be disappointed), I would like to review some of them here. Perhaps in my post-op, while I am hanging out on the couch, have other people caring for my children, and am hopped up on pain pills :)

Stay tuned... and in the meantime... happy, healthy eating!

dreamsicles and fuzzy navels

Yum... I'm going to a martini party this week where everyone brings a different type of martini and everyone samples it. Basically, a bunch of girls sitting around drinking froo-froo shots. Last year, the Blueberry Martini won by a landslide! Could be because it was the 15th one and everything tastes good after 15 shots! Anyway, this year I looked to the internets to help me find a good drink. I found a recipe for the Dreamy Martini and had to try it out over the weekend - to make sure it was good. And it was! Tastes just like a creamsicle. I think what made it even better was that the kids were at Grandma's for the night. Here's the recipe:

1 part vanilla vodka (I used absolut)
1 part triple sec (use grand marnier for a high-end drink)
4 parts orange juice (I used pulp-free valencia)

Shake with ice and serve in chilled glasses. Mmmmm...

And since I had leftover OJ, I decided to add some to my morning smoothie today. The result came out tasting like a fuzzy navel! So good! Here's how you make a Fuzzy Navel Smoothie:

1 banana
1 peach
1/4 pineapple
1/2 cup (or more) OJ
1/2 cup (or more) soy milk
water, if desired
baby spinach - fill up the blender!

Blend and enjoy! Tastes like the real deal, but won't leave you with a headache in the morning!

Happy, healthy drinking!

zucchini brownies

Happy birthday to me! Since I am the primary (read only) baker around here, I doubt I will be given gifts of homemade vegan goodies from my hubby and preschoolers. So, out of the freezer come... Zucchini Brownies! They taste just like regular brownies but are a whole lot healthier. I did miss the crusty top one would get with a traditional brownie, but I will gladly give it up for only 5g of fat per brownie - the trick is not to eat half the pan in one sitting! Been there, done that. I got the recipe from recipezaar and didn't change a thing this time around. The last time I made them, I used some applesauce in addition to the oil, and they turned out a bit moister and sweeter.


2 cups flour (I use a blend of unbleached white and wheat flours)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa (use a good-quality, premium brand)
2 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil (or applesauce)
2 cups finely grated zucchini (peel first if you want to "hide" the zucchini)


Mix dry ingredients
Add vanilla, oil, and zucchini and stir until well-mixed
If it seems a little dry, let it rest (to let some of the zucchini's moisture out), or add 1-2 Tbsp applesauce
Bake in an ungreased 9x13 pan 30 min at 350 degrees.


Happy, healthy (birthday) eating!

simply summer

When I was young, my mom used to marinate cucumbers in Good Seasons Italian dressing, and we would eat them like they were going out of style. Those cucumbers are the inspiration for the recipe I created below. This fresh salad, bursting with summery goodness, can be eaten as-is. Add more vegetables to your liking. Or, for more variety, toss in some pasta for a healthy pasta salad, or serve over greens with a little extra dressing for a delicious meal.

Thanks to my mom, not only for the inspiration, but also for all the delicious veggies that went into this salad! She gave us cherry and roma tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green peppers, and onion. I usually don't like raw onion, but I thought it was so little and cute, why not? I added a purple pepper from the farmer's market and a few yellow cherry tomatoes fom our garden. Voila! The At-Home Vegan's Simple Summer Salad...

Veggies:
1 cucumber, chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved or 3-4 vine-ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped (optional)
a little chopped onion, if you wish

Dressing:
2/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Water
2 Tbsp Oil
seasoning of your choice, to taste (salt and pepper, italian spices, or the old standby Good Seasons Italian packet)

Chop veggies to desired size and place in large bowl
Combine dressing ingredients in small bowl
Toss half the dressing with veggies until veggies are well-coated
*Use all dressing if making pasta salad
Serve chilled

Happy, healthy eating!

read the labels lately?

Even though foods claim on their packaging that they're healthy, doesn't mean they are! Click to read the article.

shrooms and spinach skillet

For dinner last night, I threw together one of my quick and easy favorites. It takes 20 minutes, tops, and tastes delish!

At-Home Vegan Shrooms and Spinach Skillet

1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 Tbsp minced garlic
1 cup baby portabellas, sliced
1 cup sundried tomatoes OR roasted tomatoes OR 2-3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
approx 1 bag or 4 huge handfuls baby spinach
salt to taste, if using fresh tomatoes
1 box whole wheat couscous

1. Over medium high, cook garlic and onion until onion begins to sweat
2. Start boiling water for couscous (once water boils and you add the couscous, it can sit covered until ready to serve)
3. To skillet, add mushrooms and tomatoes and cook until tender
4. Add spinach, by the handful, until wilted
5. Serve over couscous

Simple. Delicious. Dinner.

Happy, healthy eating!

success at the dinner table!

As a mom of two preschoolers, I tend to turn small milestones into huge events. Take, for example, my picky eater. She used to eat only bread, cheese, and blueberries. The cheese could not be on the bread but had to be eaten separately. The day she ate a grilled cheese, I may have wept openly. Needless to say, the peanut butter sandwich was a huge accomplishment, as was the salami sandwich earlier this summer. Imagine, salami AND cheese in between bread!

But I digress. My kids, as you may have guessed, are not vegetarian and neither is my husband. This has made dinnertime a huge hassle for me, the Maker of the Dinner. This past week, I decided to try an experiment. I said, "I am going to cook one meal for everyone, and everyone is going to eat it." And guess what? They did!

I made my delicious Black Bean Burgers, and they were a huge success. My husband and I ate them sans bun with a little salsa and guacamole, and I turned them into "cheeseburgers" for the kids. Miss Picky was skeptical after a few bites and feigned a tummy ache, but I was able to bribe her with a frozen yogurt. This went over so well that the next day she requested to try couscous - and liked it! Then the planets must have shifted because when my parents took us out to dinner last night, she refused a piece of salami in the antipasto salad... But we focus on the positive around here!

On a side note, Buddy's Pizza now has a multigrain crust that is just as great as the original, AND you can order lactose-free veggie cheese! Choirs of angels started singing when I opened my menu. Yum...

I digress again! Here is my original recipe for At-Home Vegan's Spicy Black Bean Burgers. I don't measure much when I cook, so all measurements are guesstimations.

1 sweet onion, finely chopped
A couple cloves of garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped (I like baby bellas)
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp chili powder, or to taste
1 Tbsp cumin, or to taste
A few shakes hot sauce, to taste
1+ cups oats

1. Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper and mushroom until soft
2. Meanwhile, coursely mash black beans
3. Add spices and hot sauce, to taste
4. When veggies have finished cooking, combine with black beans
5. Mix in oats until desired texture
6. Form into balls and flatten slightly
7. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and refridgerate (up to one week) until ready to cook

This makes up to 12 small burgers

To cook:
Spray a pan with cooking spray and heat on medium-high
Cook until a blackened crust begins to form, about 3-5 minutes per side
Serve hot with desired toppings

Notes about bean burgers:

• This recipe makes a great dip! Omit the oats.
• You don't need oil or water to saute the veggies - they naturally sweat while they cook.
• I use Quaker Multi Grain Hot Cereal, which is a blend of rye, barley, oats, and wheat.
• These taste best when allowed to sit a few hours or overnight so the flavors can meld and the oats can suck up some of the moisture.
• If you're hoping for a hamburger-ish substitute, keep looking. These are definitely "veggie" burgers with their own unique and crumbly properties. A lot of bean burger recipes will use eggs as a binding agent, which makes them closer in texture to "real" burgers.
• That being said, you can dress them up like burgers and no one will be able to tell the difference until they bite into the yumminess.

Happy, healthy eating!