Vegan

Spelt Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, Sunspire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips, Coconut Oil, Muscavado Sugar, Fair Trade Vanilla, Soymilk, Sea Salt

A while back, I was sent a copy of "The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Cakes and Cookies" to review. The name of this book is a bit insane, but the recipes seem to be pretty great. All the recipes inside are Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, and Soy-free. She also tells you which ones are Nut-free. So there!I'm not gluten-free, but a lot of people I love are -- including my excellent cousin and a few of my beloved yoga students and friends. So, I like to have some reliable GF recipes on hand so that I can bake for them. Plus, if you think about how rarely people ever bake vegan treats for you, just imagine how the GF folks feel, and especially how the Vegan GF'ers feel. My goodness. Just imagining that sad state of affairs is enough to inspire me to go bake someone a cake.Of course, it's not like I need to be eating cake all the time, so it took me a little while to get around to writing this review. Recently, though, our excellent friends B&D invited us over for dinner, and B is one of my special GF friends. So, I seized the moment and made - not one, but TWO cakes to bring along! Ha ha!The first one I made was the Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake. It's a super orangey cake, with chocolate chips inside. Can you even believe how perfect and beautiful it is?? I cooked it a little longer than the recipe called for and still it was just a touch too moist. I would definitely make this again, because it is beautiful and had a CRAZY delish orangey and chocolatey flavor, but next time I'll bake it another 5-10 minutes more.Here it is all dressed up for the dinner party! This cake has TWO glazes: first a super orangey glaze that you drizzle or brush on, and then a dark chocolate glaze that you drizzle. So yumz! Also, though, the double glazing added a lot of moisture, so I would suggest doing it right before serving -- and that's another reason to bake the cake a little longer.I also brought along this really interesting Tahinopita cake. We all thought this one was really more like a breakfast cake. Kind of like scones or something. It was so good and tasted very sophisticated. We made coffee after dinner (decaf, of course!) -- and this one paired really nicely with the coffee. The rich, roasted tahini flavor really came through and was lightened by dried fruits, and nuts. Mmm. I really liked this unusual cake.Then, last weekend I was teaching a weekend-long yoga retreat, and I have a tradition of always bringing along a big batch of cookies so everyone can have a sweetie after lunch. There are usually a few GF folks on the retreat, so I decided to turn to this book again for help. After much consideration, I chose to make the Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies. They were great! The only fat in these cookies comes from tahini - how cool is that? Naturally, I used roasted tahini for extra deep flavor goodness! I think I over baked them slightly, but no one seemed to complain - and that was probably my fault for multi-tasking while they were baking. All the same, they really came out well, and I look forward to trying more GF cookie recipes from this book.Overall:If you're a vegan GF person, or if you have any GF folks in your life that you enjoying baking sweeties for, I think this is a really good book to have in your collection. There are a wide variety of recipes (cakes, cookies, and bars) -- with an array of flavors, so you're likely to find a number of them appealing. Also, lots of the recipes are really creative (like the Tahinopita cake) - not just the same ol' recipes you've already made loads of times.Lastly, I really appreciate that for each recipe the author specifies which types of flours to use (tapioca, brown rice, sorghum, etc) - and not just "1 cup gluten free flour mix." That sort of recipe drives me nuts because it seems so unreliable. These recipes are clear and specific.

It's been almost a year since I posted here! Why? Well, I definitely wasn't taking a blogging vacation. No, I've been blogging at Plant-Powered Kitchen. I'm there - but you aren't! I realized recently that 1000s of you are missing my posts. I have been posting new recipes, hosting giveaways, and talking all about leafy greens and ditching dairy - and more! So, jump over and subscribe to Plant-Powered Kitchen. I will be hosting new giveaways, launching an ebook, and announcing NEW book news very soon - you don't want to miss all that, right? Subscribe now!

Exciting news, Herbies! Dr. T Colin Campbell and Dr. Howard Jacobson's new book, WHOLE, has been released! and it's already a New York Times Bestseller! I got a chance to read this amazing book a few months ago and I can't recommend it enough. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to share an excerpt of the book with you today AND I'm giving away THREE copies of the book! (p.s. Fun fact: Dr. Campbell and I have the same publisher!) So what's the difference between The China Study and WHOLE? Dr. Campbell: The China Study was basically a summary of the evidence and what I thought it showed. It was based on my own career, of course, but also involving the work of others. Whole, in contrast, is to count why. In other words, the China Study was: Here's the scene, here's the evidence, here's what we think it says. And Whole is sort of an explanation of why this evidence actually works. It really has a dramatic effect on health - even more than I thought when I finished writing The China Study. I mean I was pretty confident in what I was saying, of course, but nonetheless, since that book was published, what we now know about this is just truly dramatic."** I also was interviewed by co-author Dr. Howard Jacobson about living the plant-based lifestyle, which was a BLAST. And you can listen to the interview! (The link downloads an mp3.) And don't forget to check out The China Study Cookbook, which was recently released as well. An excerpt from WHOLE: Making Ourselves Whole “If a little bird were to take a grain of sand in its beak from the seashore and somehow manage to fly it to the furthest quasar in the universe, and if it returned and repeated the process until all the sand of the oceans both from the beaches and the bottoms were gone, eternity would be just beginning.”—Anonymous, written on the wall of the Maté Factor Cafe, Ithaca Commons, NY If this book does nothing else, I hope that it convinces you that we need to change the way we think about health. We must recognize nutrition as a cornerstone of our health-care system, not a footnote. We must also recognize the limitations of our reductionist paradigm and learn to accept the validity of evidence beyond what that paradigm allows us to perceive. If we are truly to understand the meaning of nutrition, its effect on the body, and its potential to transform our collective health, we must stop seeing reductionism as the only method by which to achieve progress and start seeing it as a tool, the results of which can only be properly evaluated within a wholistic framework. And we must be willing to embrace wholism beyond the realm of nutrition. The body is a complex system; bodies gathered together in societies are even more complex; and human life, interwoven with all of nature on this planet, is complex beyond our imagining. We cannot afford to ignore this complexity any longer. I realize that what I’m proposing here is a tectonic shift in the way we think about nutrition, medicine, and health. The process may not be easy. But it is possible. I know, because this shift is one I experienced myself over the course of my career. My doctoral dissertation, written over fifty years ago, was on the greater biological value of animal-based protein. I believed then, as firmly as any meat-loving cattle baron, that there was no better, more beneficial food than the protein we received from meat and milk. But as you have seen here and in The China Study, my position today is very different. I am now convinced that there is no healthier way to eat than a whole food, plant-based diet, without added fat, salt, or refined carbohydrates. For me, the source of that shift was evidence—the empirical, peer-reviewed evidence produced over many years by my own research group. It was bolstered in later years by the evidence produced by my colleagues in clinical medicine, who have been independently and convincingly documenting the WFPB diet's [Editorial Note: WFPB= w

I bought a product called "Daiya Wedge" today in the jack flavor. I've bought Daiya shreds before but never this. It's basically a compact wedge of Daiya that you can slice and use how you wish. It melts nicely. I made a gooey quesadilla with roasted red peppers. This is the pasta e fagioli recipe from Urban Vegan cookbook. I pared down the recipe because I was cooking for one so I think my liquid to pasta/beans recipe was a little off. Normally I like it more soupy. But this was still excellent. I added sauteed onion, celery and carrots to mine. I topped it with Parmezano Sprinkles, which is a parmesan cheese substititue that contains cashews, miso paste, nutritional yeast, and salt.

I arrived bright and early (hey, noon is pretty early on a Saturday) to the Seed‘s second annual “vegan experience” today, and what an experience it was. Many of the usual suspects were there, including Vitamix, Tasty Bite, Sea Shepherd, Mercy For Animals, and Rescue Chocolate. However, many of last year’s local vendors didn’t make [...]

Tofu Scramble at Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast...The Tofu Reuben carried out from The Randy Radish for lunch...Chick Pea Soup from Le Pain Quotidien with Olive Bruschetta for dinner.Half a piece of Sweet & Natural Carrot Cake (no website anymore) for dessert.A great food day. Good thing I'm not gluten free. No clue where/what I'm eating tomorrow.

Revive

Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes is out! And I am happy to be part of … Read MoreWhole Grain Vegan Baking – Blog Tour! is a post from: seitan is my motor

Makes 16 rolls Total time: 3 hours || Active time: 40 minutes I always swoon over photos of negimaki. Beautifully grilled teriyaki rolls stuffed with vibrant scallions. See? Did you swoon? A vegan version is easy enough. The meat = seitan and the scallions = well, those are already vegan, silly! I tried to keep the ingredients list as simple as possible. The characteristics that I wanted to really shine were the charred grilled flavor and, of course, the scallions. The simple marinade of hoison and mirin really does its job, keeping things juicy with the perfect marriage of sweet and savory. Don’t feel like you can’t serve these unless you’re having an all-out Japanese feast. If you’re hosting a little garden soiree (or just watching TV, or catering a bar mitvah…) you can serve these rolls right along hummus and stuffed mushrooms. I guess I take a fairly laid-back approach to menu planning; it’s more about the balance of the overall menu rather than following a strict flavor profile outlined by national borders. So I just try to have a good mix of fresh and cooked items, grains and proteins. The more flavors the merrier. That said, these would be wonderful served alongside sushi or a Japanse noodle dish. Maybe with a fresh, gingery salad? You can even serve negimaki over rice, with some steamed veggies, as a main course. However you choose to serve, have fun with it! It’s a really playful and delicious grill recipe that is worth the extra effort. SWOOOOON. Recipe Notes~To simmer the seitan, you’ll need a pot that is at least 9 inches at the base. A 5 or 6 quart pot oughtta' do it. If you’ve only got a 4-quart, then slice the seitan log in two before simmering. ~ Make the seitan a day in advance, so that it can cool in the gingery broth overnight. Or at least give it plenty of time to cool. ~ If you’re looking for a gluten-free variation, tofu might work, but if it's not perfectly sliced, there's a chance it will be too finicky about wrapping.  Yuba or Soy Curls might be better options? ~ This recipe makes more seitan than you'll need, but that’s ok! It may take a couple of tries before you get the strips perfectly thin for wrapping. And any left over seitan will be great in a stir-fry. ~ I made these on an indoor grill, but they’ll work outdoors, too! You might want to soak the toothpicks in water, so that they don’t burn too badly.IngredientsFor the simmering broth: 8 cups vegetable broth 6 cloves garlic, smashed 1/4 cup fresh sliced ginger For the seitan: 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes 3/4 cup cold water 1/4 cup soy sauce For the marinade: 1/3 cup hoisin sauce 1/4 cup mirin 3 tablespoons water 2 teaspoons Sriracha (plus extra for garnish) 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, microplaned or minced to a paste 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil Also: 2 bunches scallions, green parts only, sliced 3 to 4 inches long A few tablespoons toasted sesame seeds Plain wooden toothpicksMake the seitan: Place all the ingredients for the simmering broth in the pot and bring to a boil. In the meantime, make the seitan. Combine wheat gluten and nutritional yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the water and soy sauce and knead until it forms a stiffish dough, two to three minutes. Form dough into a flat log that is roughly 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. When the broth is boiling, lower heat to a simmer and submerge the seitan. Simmer for 30 minutes, leaving the lid ajar so that steam can escape. Let cool completely in the broth. Marinade: Once seitan is cool, start the marinade. Simply mix all ingredients together in a wide, shallow bowl. Now, slice the seitan. You want it to be about an 1/8 inch thick, but it doesn’t have to be perfectly even (you can see in the pic that mine wasn’t.) Just make sure that a the slice can wrap around your pinky nicely, without breaking or being unruly. Once you have 16 slices, place them in the marinade for an hour, flipping