TAMALES!

Who doesn’t love tamales? If you haven’t had a chance to taste one of these beauties, let me break it down for you. Tamales are a traditional Latin American dish made by steaming a masa (corn) based dough with spices and various fillings in corn husks or banana leaves. Tamales are an ancient [...]]]>

TAMALES!

Who doesn’t love tamales? If you haven’t had a chance to taste one of these beauties, let me break it down for you. Tamales are a traditional Latin American dish made by steaming a masa (corn) based dough with spices and various fillings in corn husks or banana leaves. Tamales are an ancient street food; they originated in South America as early as 8,000BC. They were much loved by both the Aztec and Mayan civilizations and are still found throughout Latin America with a tamale cart on every street corner. Maybe they were the original fast food!

I spent my later years of university and my first year of grad school in Texas, living it up and loving the local food traditions. I ate tamales everywhere I went, and I knew you could always judge a restaurant’s quality by the authenticity of their tamales.

I haven’t had a tamale since leaving the states and going vegan, so it was way past time to make my own. Veganizing them was easy as could be, and oh yes, they taste just as delicious. Crumbly corn dough filled with Tex Mex flavors, succulent ‘sausage’ and the rich butteryness of roasted garlic and the bright zing of green olives, had me reliving my days of sipping margaritas in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. I hope you love them as much as I do!

Tamales 2 Ways - Makes 8 Tamales

1 head of roasted garlic
3 veggie burger patties, cooked till crispy, then crumbled (1 and 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped green olives
splash of liquid smoke

pinch of cumin

2 cups of masa harina
1 stick of vegan butter
1/4 cup vegetable based shortening
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
parchment paper
pinch of salt and pepper
3/4 – 1 cup water

- Get a steamer on the stove, heat the water to a low simmer

- Mash up the roasted garlic till completely soft

- Splash a bit of liquid smoke onto the crumbled burger patties to create the ‘sausage’

- In a food processor combine the masa, butter, shortening, salt, cumin, pepper, baking powder, and water for 1 minute. You want the dough to be soft and pliable, not too sticky – you need to be able to mold it together, it should not be sloppy and wet, but not too dry and crumbly either.

- Divide the masa mixture into two bowls. Put half of the sausage into each bowl. Put the roasted garlic into one bowl, and into the other bowl put the green olives. Mix up both batches of dough until the respective fillings are completely combined.

- In parchment paper (I couldn’t find the traditional corn husks! Don’t worry, this works fine.) spread a long thin portion of dough and wrap up the parchment paper around the filling, twisting both ends shut, like a tootsie roll.

- Once you have wrapped up all 8 tamales, place them in the steamer, it is okay to stack them loosely, and steam for 1 and 1/2 hours.

- Serve with beans, rice, guacamole, salsa, and LOTS of hot sauce! Enjoy!

Remember how [...]]]> Well, as you know, Cody is in Washington DC on a business trip, trying to secure his work visa for Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, he should be home soon…but these things have been known to take weeks, and sometimes months. So, please keep your fingers crossed for us that it will all work out quickly!

Remember how upset I was that Cody was leaving? Well, I miss him desperately and can’t wait for him to be back….but….I’m doing better than I ever imagined! All of you who told me that I’m so much stronger than I know, were right! It has been a bit lonely and boring not having my best friend around to make me laugh and keep me loved up, but I’ve really surprised myself by how well I’ve coped. Of course, we talk non-stop on the phone, and spend several hours a day video chatting, which helps tremendously!

Something else that has helped me keep a smile on my face is the love of my adorable, wonderful dingo herd! I’ve been cuddling them even more than usual this past week and there isn’t a moment that goes by when one of them isn’t sitting next to me or is curled up (held captive) in my lap.

Lobi

Polly

Jack. Yes, he really does sleep like that!

Yesterday started like any other day….except there was a 25lb bed hog lying next to me!

Normally, Polly sleeps in her bed on the floor, right next to my side of the bed. But since Cody has been gone, we are two single ladies again and she is back in her rightful place. Unfortunately, in her sleep she quadruples in size and manages to hog every square inch of the bed. But I love her anyway.

Rise and shine!

Breakfast was an icy cold green smoothie…that was actually green. So often I overdose on blueberries and it all turns into a purple (but still delicious) sludge!

After chugalugging my yummy green breakfast I skedaddled to the gym. Okay, I didn’t so much as skedaddle as almost die from heat stroke during the 5 minute drive over there. Have I mentioned that it is HOT? Like 125F and 90% humidity HOT? It is brutal and I hate it. And it will last until about October.

ANYWAY. I had a great workout – 1 hour of cardio divided into 20 minute segments on 3 different machines. I can’t stay on one machine longer than 20 minutes without getting bored out of my mind. And it is a lung saving device, too. People around here wear A LOT of perfume – A LOT. And it is the most gag inducing thing, especially when you are huffing and puffing for air. Seriously, give me some stanky BO any day, over too much perfume.

I headed back home to luxuriate in the AC with my sweet dingos, do some editing and writing (feminist work! yay!) and eat LUNCH!

LUNCH!

This lunch made me SO happy. You know those times when you eat something that fills you up, refreshes you, and is EXACTLY what you were craving? Well, that was this. And it was good.

A big raw veggie salad, crackers topped with raw cashew cheese, avocado, and hot sauce, and some perfectly ripe tangerines. YUM.

The afternoon was spent working working working and taking my dogs for a long rumble in the desert. It’s times like that when I really miss Cody. Our family is incomplete without him!

And then for dinner….well, for dinner I ate dog food.

Yes. I did. I ate dog food.

Allow me to explain. You see, my dogs eat better than most people. I homecook all of their meals and it is as organic as I can get it. We can’t get fresh organic produce here, but we can get some dried/canned/frozen organic stuff…and that is what my dogs eat. I make several pots a week of different combinations of beans, rice, lentils, Bulgar wheat, sweet potato, zucchini, green beans, barley, millet, peas, carrots, pumpkin, etc, etc, etc. Anything delicious and tasty and organic, my dogs get it.

In the US my dogs were all vegan; I fed them Dick Van Patten’s vegan dog food. They loved it! Here in Saudi, the selection of dog food is pathetic, obviously no vegan options. So, while their diet is predominantly vegan, I do supplement their meals with a small amount of the highest quality dog food I can find. (Cue the hate mail.)

So, last night I had just cooked them up a big pot of rice, lentils, bulgar wheat and peas…and it looked so good I just had to try some. I piled it into a tortilla with added black beans, bell peppers, onions, and garlic, fried it up and served it with roast cauliflower. It was tasty, but the cauliflower was out of this world! I roasted it and then when it was all crispy and caramelized I tossed it with nooch and vegan butter. YUM!

Alright, you wonderful people, I’m off to relax for the rest of the evening and cuddle my sweet dogs…and keep my fingers crossed that Cody can come home soon.

Keep your fingers crossed, too!

Okay. Confession Time.

As you all know I am an expat, born and raised, and still living in Saudi Arabia. Because of this I have spent much of my life traveling the world…by plane. By my rough estimate I have been on over 200 planes in my lifetime, starting with my first [...]]]>

Okay. Confession Time.

As you all know I am an expat, born and raised, and still living in Saudi Arabia. Because of this I have spent much of my life traveling the world…by plane. By my rough estimate I have been on over 200 planes in my lifetime, starting with my first international flight at the age of 6 weeks, 2 around the world journeys before the age of 3, and extensive travel in over 40 countries by the time I was in my 20s. You would think after 200+ plane rides it would be mundane and boring, a fact of life. Not so.

I have a severe fear of flying. Severe. As in nightmares about plane crashes months before I have to fly, hysterical crying at the slightest bit of turbulence, and irrational terror at the mere thought of flying. It is crazy, irrational, absurd, yes, all the things that make a fear a phobia. But it doesn’t make it any less terrifying and life altering just to know it’s not rational. I know, logically, that flying is the safest way to travel, and far safer than driving a car…but no matter how often I remind myself of that it just doesn’t help.

I wasn’t always this way. For most of my life I hopped on and off planes without a care in the world. But about 10 years ago, when I was 18 or so, it all started to change. Slowly, slowly, slight nerves gave way to unsettling fear which gave way to all out blind panic. It isn’t pretty and I wish it weren’t so, but it is.

Yesterday we found out that  Cody has to spend 2 weeks at the end of July/beginning of August in Washington DC on a business trip to sort out visa paperwork and get his Saudi residency. For the past year he has been on a temporary visa which has made day to day life a hassle and getting a permanent visa is not only necessary but will make our life a lot easier….if only it didn’t involve putting the only person on this earth that I’ve ever really loved onto not 1, not 2, but 4 planes. I will be staying here while Cody flies all the way to the states and back. Oh the terror.

As soon as we found out I’ve been crying pretty much non-stop, envisioning the worst, as a worrier like me always does in situations like this. I always predict disaster when it comes to the most mundane facts of life, so you can imagine that I really go overboard when it comes to my biggest phobia of all. Add to that the fact that in our 6 years together we have never spend more than 3 days apart, this is pretty rough. The only thing worse than me having to get on a plane is the man I love having to get on a plane.

Cody is sweet and patient with me, just like he was when we flew from the US to Saudi Arabia and he was left with scars on his arms from my digging fingernails. He is just as wrapped up in me as I am in him, so it will be hard for him to be gone for so long, but he is not scared of flying at all so he sees this as a fun summer holiday. He is looking forward to visiting all of DC’s amazing museums, visiting with our oldest and dearest friend Maris who calls DC her home, and spending a few days with his parents who are going to fly up from Texas to visit with him. For him this is an all-expenses-paid vacation, for me it is sheer, miserable terror.

So. If you all want to help me (and I know you do!) you’ll tell me how ridiculously silly I’m being. Tell me how often you fly, or how often your family members or friends fly. Tell me how fine it always is and how ludicrous I’m being. Seriously. Please tell me. A lot.

When I’m terrified beyond belief the last thing I want to do, or can do, is eat. I have to struggle just to fill my stomach, everything loses its flavor and nothing is appealing to me in the slightest. Here are the meals I nibbled at yesterday.

My usual morning green smoothie was okay. Green. Tasty. Cold. Sweet. My tears only slightly distracted me from its tastiness.

After breakfast I dragged myself to the gym for an hour of cardio which turned more into an hour of me trying not to have a full blown panic attack at the gym. Lovely.

When I came home for lunch this last thing I wanted to do was eat, but when I don’t eat I end up feeling even worse. So I spent an hour picking over this gorgeous and very tasty burrito and salad lunch –

It looks delicious and it was delicious, it just took all of my determination to finish it all even though this is my favorite kind of lunch. What you see is a spinach tortilla filled with vegan butter, Amy’s refried black beans, a batch of brown rice I made that is filled with onions, bell peppers, and garlic. I topped it all with sliced avocado and hot sauce. The salad is a mix of baby spinach, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, a dollop of homemade hummus and balsamic olive oil dressing.

I wish I could say that I felt better as the day wore on, but it was the exact opposite. As the sun dipped towards the horizon and the day wound down everything seemed even worse. Yes, there were more tears. Yes, I know how ridiculous my phobia is, that is why it is a phobia. It doesn’t make sense, logically I know it’s ridiculous, but like I said, it feels real to me.

So, amidst the tears and sobs I could not even think of eating something for dinner. Cody made me a tasty juice and convinced me to drink it, but that was all I could stomach.

That lovely juice had lots of celery, cucumbers, carrots, apples, ginger and mint. It was not enough for dinner, I know, but this blog is nothing if not honest and that is all I could manage last night.

So far today I’m doing a bit better, I feel all cried and panicked out. I just can’t believe that someone like me who has flown several times a year for every year of my life is this terrified of planes. It is ludicrous. Go ahead, laugh at me, hopefully it will make me feel better!

***

The TofuXpress giveaway was a big hit and the lucky, randomly selected winner is….Jessie from Bites and Pieces! Congratulations Jessie! Contact me with your address and we’ll have your TofuXpress to you in no time. Thanks again to TofuXpress for their generosity.

Today I wanted to talk to you about one of my very favorite things – FAT.

I love fat so much. In fact, while some people have a sweet tooth, [...]]]> Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a great day or night or whatever time it happens to be wherever in the world you are.

Today I wanted to talk to you about one of my very favorite things – FAT.

I love fat so much. In fact, while some people have a sweet tooth, and other people have a salty tooth, I think I must have a fat tooth. If there is one thing that I crave consistently it is fats of all kinds. Healthy fats like avocados, nuts, and oils, make up a large part of my diet. (And, to be quite honest, so do plenty of unhealthy fats, like fried foods which I love very dearly. Sambusa might just be the love of my life!)

But you know what I always say, food is good for the body and soul, so just because something isn’t the best for my body, doesn’t it mean it isn’t doing a good job making me happy, and that is important, too!

It makes me sad when I see people trying to live on a totally fat-free diet. We need our fats! Fats are not evil, they are not something to be feared, they are most definitely not the enemy. And it makes me so happy to see people embracing their love of fats, like Chocolate Covered Katie, one of my favorite bloggers, who did a whole series about loving our fatty foods. A woman after my own heart!

As much as I love fats, I know that not all fats are created equal, there are several different kinds, and some are better than others.

Monosaturated fats are found in avocados, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans, olives, and some types of seeds like pumpkin and sesame. People with a diet high in monosaturated fats are typically at a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Polyunsaturated fats are found in flax seeds and flax seed oil, walnuts, and soybean oil and contain the anti-inflammatory family of fatty acids so necessary for out health.

Saturated fats are found in animal products like meat, fish, eggs, and dairy, and also in palm oil and coconut oil. Too much saturated fat is definitely not good for you and it isn’t necessary to consume at all because our body makes all the saturated fat it needs.

Trans fats are found in fried food, candy, fast food, and pretty much every type of junk food you can think of. Nope, they are definitely not good for you but you won’t see me skipping my greasy fried sambusa, trans fats be damned!

Somehow, over the years, ALL fats have been lumped in with the ‘not so healthy’ fats and this fat fear has spawned a generation of people who think that no fat = healthy. Not true! Fats are such an important and necessary part of our diet, here are just a few of the ways they help us out from head to toe:

- Brain – Fats are essential to brain function. They keep us sharp, help us learn and retain memory, and stabilize our moods.

- Heart – 60% of our heart’s energy comes from burning fats. Certain types of fats keep the heart beating rhythmically.

- Lungs - Fat is needed to keep the lungs working properly and prevent them from collapsing.

- Nerves - Our nerves are insulated and protected by fat, speeding the signals and keeping us going!

- Digestion - Having healthy fats in a meal slows digestion and aides in the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, which ensures you get the most out of every bite.

Those are just a few of the ways that fats help our bodies stay healthy and fit.

Fats make up a very large part of my diet, and when they don’t I start to feel miserable! I need my avocados, my nuts, and my oils, or else my brain starts to short circuit! Fats keep me satiated and satisfied, and they definitely put a smile on my face.

Here are some of the yummy fats I’ve enjoyed over the past few days:

Sesame Noodles from Choosing Raw.

I saw this recipe for the sesame dressing earlier this morning and just finished eating my second bowl for lunch. I had all the ingredients on hand, it only took a few minutes to prepare, and was even more delicious than I could have imagined. It is rich and salty and oh so fatty. In my rendition of this recipe I omitted the ginger and added 2 cloves of garlic. Perfection!

The yummy fat showcased in this recipe is tahini :

Tahini is sesame seed paste and it is delicious, and full of healthy fats! It is one of the main ingredients in hummus and I combine it frequently with spicy mustard and olive oil to make a quick salad dressing.

(I’m also happy to have found an organic source of tahini. As you know, here in Saudi Arabia it can be very difficult (as in impossible) to find organic goods, so when we do it is a real treat. While I know organic foods are the best for my body, I don’t worry about it too much because I think our bodies are tougher and more resilient than we give them credit for. That is not to say that I wouldn’t buy exclusively organic if I could, because I definitely would! However, my main reason to love organic food isn’t just because it is the best for my health, but because I want to support sustainable farming practices that do not destroy our planet or wreck our resources.)

Hiding in this post here is my FAVORITE FAT OF ALL – Avocados!

I like avocados piled on toast with a pinch of sea salt and hot sauce, scooped right out of the skin and eaten plain, sweetened with agave nectar and spread onto my super decadent raw double fudge brownies, or like you see them here, stuffed into a toasted tortilla on top of pinto beans. It is what I had for dinner last night and it was delicious and nutritious!

And you can’t forget about dessert! After my yummy fat filled feast last night, Cody surprised me with a unique but out of this world delicious dessert.

That beauty right there is a big spoonful of cashew butter (my very favorite nut butter!) topped with a hunk of dark chocolate and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs.

OH YUM!

I think you can tell by the plating that Cody and I have been watching a lot of the Food Network lately. Fancy shmancy, eh? It was absolutely delicious, and highlights one of my all time favorite fats – cashew butter!

There you go!

That is a quick little tour of the delicious fats I have enjoyed over the past few days.

Do you have a fat tooth like I do? If so, what are you favorite fatty foods?

Oh SO delicious! A sundried tomato tortilla, filled with sliced avocados and hot sauce, fried till crisp and served with a side of sea salted edamame, and raw veggies with a nut cheese pate. This was one of my favorite lunches ever!

Finding [...]]]> Over the past few days several things have put a smile on my face…

Oh SO delicious! A sundried tomato tortilla, filled with sliced avocados and hot sauce, fried till crisp and served with a side of sea salted edamame, and raw veggies with a nut cheese pate. This was one of my favorite lunches ever!

Finding yummy new products in our commissary always makes me smile….even though I know they’ll be permanently out of stock in a week. These Yogi Chips were tasty and I could pronounce everything in the ingredient list. That’s not a must for me, because I like myself some junk food every now and again, but it is a bonus for sure!

When Polly yawns I don’t just smile, my heart melts!

My latest OBSESSION is so simple but I just can’t get enough. I eat a version of this almost every single day, sometimes twice! Rice and beans and veggies, piled into a tortilla, topped with avocados and lots of hot sauce. YUM! This time I served a vegan butter filled tortilla and a raw veggie salad on the side. Perfection.

Speaking of salads, my new favorite thing to add to the mix is lots and lots of chopped chives. I love the mild onion flavor. To me, raw red or white onions are too strong in a salad, but chives have the right amount of onion punch without being too overwhelming. Try it!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Blondies from Bittersweet’s brilliant new e-book Blondies and Brownies! These made everyone smile, look how insanely moist they are! These are powerful peanut buttery treats, perfectly accented with a hefty serving of chocolate. The original recipe calls for dark chocolate and white chocolate chips but since vegan white chocolate doesn’t exist here I just added more dark chocolate. Is there a better combination in the world than peanut butter and chocolate? I think not!

If you haven’t bought Bittersweet’s new e-book Blondies and Brownies, what are you waiting for? I’m slowly cooking my way through the whole thing and every recipe I’ve tried so far is just out of this world delicious.

Dozing kitties always make me smile! Twilah’s little pink nose is cute enough to cheer me up even on the bleakest of days. And look at those whiskers! Isn’t she regal? Twilah barely tolerates me, she is Cody’s cat through and through, but she lets me worship her from afar. I’m the dog’s favorite, they follow me around the house from room to room, so it is good that Cody has his own little side-kick…even if it is a persnickety cat!

A simple pasta dish topped with roasted veggies will always make me smile. Pure tasty comfort food, and just the thing after a long and tiring day. I made a quick basil, tomato, and cashew pesto coated pasta and simply piled on a mix of oven roasted broccoli, zucchini, and bell peppers. It was so great!

But out of all the things that put a smile on my face this was the absolute best.

A few days ago the cops actually found my stolen car! Sure, it was busted up and had missing license plates but they found it! It was on the side of the road in Dammam, the city right outside of our compound. No one can believe it was actually found, not even the police.

But the whole thing gets even weirder because a note of apology from the thief himself was slipped under our neighbour’s door! I guess the thief was mistaken about who actually owned the car, but our neighbour (who just got back from vacation today) brought the note over a while ago and none of us could stop smiling or laughing. Isn’t it crazy?

The note says:

“I am sorry I stole your car yesterday and I went outside Aramco and now the right arm is broken. I’m so contrite and I’m so sorry. Please forgive me I really don’t know why did I do this stupid thing. It’s a white mustang GT 1991. I am 14 years old and I don’t want to get in trouble. My name is Fadi. I wish that you forgive me. The car is in Dammam.”

(And at the bottom is a map where to find our car.)

Can you believe it!?! That note definitely put a smile on my face…although my grin would have been a lot bigger had it been accompanied by a pile of money to pay to repair all the done to the car!

My father, Rodney, is already [...]]]> The vegan diet is being put to the test! For the next 3 weeks my omnivore father will be eating a 100% vegan diet to see if it can help him feel healthier, more energetic, drop a few of those holiday pounds, and lower his blood pressure.

My father, Rodney, is already a very healthy guy, and at 57 works out more than most people half his age. He has always been athletic; he works out at the gym 5 days a week, is a certified yoga instructor and practices 3 days a week, does spinning 3 days a week, and meditates daily.

His diet, on the other hand, isn’t exactly stellar. He has a scorching fast metabolism and can get away with eating pretty much anything, which often leads him to make some less than healthy choices.

For breakfast he typically starts the day off with jareesh (bulgar wheat), which he cooks up oatmeal style. At lunch he usually snacks on fruits, nuts and canned sardines at his desk at work. And for dinner he normally eats a meat based dish, either at the company dining hall on our compound where everything is flavored with bucket loads of sodium and chemicals, or at home where he more often than not eschews fresh vegetables and grains, and uses canned meat and beans instead, often topping everything off with a large helping of cheese. And let’s not forget dessert: my dad has sweet tooth like no other and entire pints of dairy ice-cream are not safe when he’s around!

Even with his extremely vigorous workout schedule and meditation regime, he hasn’t been feeling his best lately. After a bit of holiday indulgence, on top of his normally not so healthy diet, at 6’2 he weighs in at 198lbs, which is about 10lbs more than what he weighs when he is feeling his best, his blood pressure is high (140/90) and most importantly of all he isn’t feeling as good as he usually does. He explains that he has been feeling sluggish and less energetic and he really wants to change that and feel better.

Enter a healthy vegan diet to the rescue! My dad asked me if I would be willing to cook for him for the next 3 weeks to see if it would help improve his health and of course I said YES! I am a vegan for animal right’s reasons but I am also a firm believer and proponent of the amazing, life changing health benefits that a vegan diet can create. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to put the vegan diet to the test. We all know that the science backs up the fact that a vegan diet is the optimal diet for human health, but it will be great to see it work its magic right in front of our eyes!

My dad continually warned me that he was going to be completely honest in regards to the food and the way he felt at the end of the experiment and I said ‘bring it on!’ I am 100% confident in the fact that 3 weeks of a healthy, vegan diet can change a person’s life.

(I would like to stress that this is not a challenge about losing weight. Weight is not always an accurate portrayal of someone’s health. In fact, it is much healthier to be slightly overweight and very active, than to be a thin couch potato. Unfortunately our society’s damaging obsession with thinness has led us all to equate skinny with healthy. We all have a different healthy set point weight where we can be our best and most fit, going too far above or below this weight is never the wisest decision for our health. We should all be striving to feel and be our healthiest, not just look the skinniest.)

So, my dad’s regular breakfast of jareesh is vegan and healthy so he can definitely keep up with that during The Great Vegan Challenge of 2010. His lunch of fruits and nuts can stay the same; they are a healthy way to get a nice burst of energy during the midday slump. Additionally, the yummy vitamins and healthy sugars from the fruit combine well with the protein and fat from the nuts to stave off afternoon hunger pains. However, I don’t think nuts and fruits alone are a big enough lunch to fuel the tank of someone as active as my dad. So, he’ll be coming home every day during lunch to pick up a super power packed green smoothie and a revitalizing green juice, and maybe a raw veggie wrap or two. The fiber and protein from the greens and veggies will not only give him a ton of energy, they will also keep him full and energized for the rest of the day, through his afternoon workouts, and up till dinner. And dinner will be something different all the time, but always vegan, always delicious, and always healthy.

We started the challenge this past Saturday, so let’s see what we’ve been up to:

Doing the green smoothie chug! The green smoothies contain LOTS of chard or spinach, bananas, frozen berries, a splash of soy milk, a splash of water, fresh mint, spirulina and peanut butter. The green juices have celery, cucumber, carrots, apples, ginger, and whatever other vegetables I have lying around that need to be used, like zucchini or bell peppers.

Dad’s Verdict: He really likes the green smoothies and green juices! A lot! He said he was very wary at first but now looks forward to his daily blast of green goodness. He told me that when he heads back to work after this kind of lunch he feels full and satisfied but light and not weighed down.

The inaugural dinner of The Great Vegan Challenge of 2010 was Enjedra from Veganomicon. It was amazing and so simple; you really can’t go wrong with lentils, rice and a TON of caramelized onions. I chose this dish specifically because I knew my dad would love it. We are all huge Indian food fans around here. Plus, did I mention that it has a TON of caramelized onions? Honestly, I could eat those every day.

Dad’s Verdict: He said this was ‘top notch’ and that he would be happy eating something like this every day. I think that was a hint. Looks like I better stock up on lentils.

Miso soup for the Vegan soul! Now, this soup is the light of my life, the apple of my eye, and I could eat it for days. Cody feels the same way. It is simple and chicken-like and onion infused and oh boy I wish I had another bowl right now. Healthy and filling and totally amazing.

Dad’s Verdict: He thought the soup was only so-so. He isn’t a fan of soup in general so I let this one slide. Hmph.

Raw tacos with baja cheeze from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen. So yummy! You know me and my love of all things raw; I couldn’t stay away for long and I want to get my dad hooked too. And this was a great place to start. The filling was amazing; the taco nut meat was smoky but simple, a perfect base layer to let the brilliant spicy and super zesty Baja nut cheeze shine through. A fresh and crunchy layer of baby spinach with a generous helping of tomato and bell pepper salsa pulled everything together. Yum!

Dad’s Verdict: He said this dish was absolutely spectacular! As he was eating it in the other room I kept hearing him repeat over and over again how much he loved it. And then he asked if he could have seconds, which is always music to the cook’s ears. He really liked this dish.

To appease that sweet tooth I made some of my chocolate peanut butter raw balls. These are always a favorite of mine and Cody’s, they just taste better every time.

Dad’s Verdict: He said he could start eating these and never stop – fantastic!

***

Well, that is what we have been eating over the past week. I usually cook a big dinner every other day and we have leftovers the next day. It has been working really well and I’m enjoying using this opportunity to try a lot of new recipes from my brand new collection of cookbooks. I’m having a blast!

Dad’s Weekly Report: He says he is feeling great! The first thing he noticed was that everything seems brighter and colors are more vivid. He also mentioned that his breath is much fresher than before, even after eating. And over the past day or two he has noticed that he is noticeably less tired after his workouts and has more endurance during them.

Success! I will keep sharing his progress with you over the next few weeks so we can watch the vegan magic right in front of our eyes!

***

Don’t forget to enter my Grand Opening Giveaway #2 to win a whole bunch of goodies from the amazing Vivapura company!

Step 1: Saute one chopped yellow onion and two chopped bell peppers in a little bit of olive oil for about 10 – 15 minutes, until nice and tender.

Step 2: Add 2 cups of already cooked black beans (you could use canned), a floret of chopped and already steamed broccoli, 2 diced cloves of garlic, [...]]]>

Step 1: Saute one chopped yellow onion and two chopped bell peppers in a little bit of olive oil for about 10 – 15 minutes, until nice and tender.

Step 2: Add 2 cups of already cooked black beans (you could use canned), a floret of chopped and already steamed broccoli, 2 diced cloves of garlic, and pinches of cumin, salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Step 3: Add LOTS of your favorite hot sauce!

Step 4: Turn off the heat and add a few tablespoons of chopped, fresh cilantro.

Step 5: Pick a nice, ripe avocado (aren’t they the best thing ever?) and slice it up and lay it out down the center of a spinach tortilla.

Step 6: Spoon the bean and veggie mixture on top of the avocado slices, down the center of your spinach tortilla.

Step 7: Wrap up your wrap and enjoy!

Can you believe how good these look?!?! Aren’t they so beautiful? Well, if you can believe it, they taste even better than they look!

Most people who have been to a Mexican or a Tex Mex restaurant know what a sopapilla is. But for those of you who don’t (like my hubby Cody who was clueless) [...]]]>

Can you believe how good these look?!?! Aren’t they so beautiful? Well, if you can believe it, they taste even better than they look!

Most people who have been to a Mexican or a Tex Mex restaurant know what a sopapilla is. But for those of you who don’t (like my hubby Cody who was clueless) I’ll tell you. A sopapilla is a dessert made of deep fried dough topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon and molasses or honey. And it is delicious!

Now imagine that combined with cheesecake! Pure perfection.

Thanks to the amazing Tofu Mom for this great recipe.