I’m a star!

I was just cast in the lead role of Catherine in our local theater group’s production of the Pulitzer prize winning Broadway play Proof! YAY!

And when I say lead role, I mean lead role. There are 83 pages in the script, and I’m in 80 of them. Whew. That is a lot of [...]]]>

I’m a star!

I was just cast in the lead role of Catherine in our local theater group’s production of the Pulitzer prize winning Broadway play Proof! YAY!

And when I say lead role, I mean lead role. There are 83 pages in the script, and I’m in 80 of them. Whew. That is a lot of lines to memorize.

But I’m not worried, I’m thrilled! This is my first time on stage in 8 years. Growing up I was always in the theater. In fact, during school we traveled all over Europe and the Middle East participating in acting and debate competitions. So, being back on stage feels so good and really natural.

The performances will be the first week of November, so the next 2 months will be a flurry of preparation. Catherine is such a compelling character, I really relate to her struggles and her personality…except for the math genius part!

So, on top of that news, I’ve been busy in other areas of my life lately. That explains the lack of posting. Sorry! I’ve been even more swamped than usual with women’s rights work – writing, researching, editing, rewriting. The usual. But I love it, so no worries. I’ve also got a ton of grad school paperwork to muddle through. Does anyone else hate mindless paperwork as much as I do? Plus, I’m gearing up for our second World Hunger Souljourn. The amount of work that goes into that is unreal, so I’m trying to get a head start.

But, as always, I make plenty of room for delicious food. Here are a few highlights from the past week -

Snack Plates 4 Ever!

Nutty Noochy Pate...I love you.

All the usual suspects get food processorized into my most favorite of nut pates – cashews, lemon juice, garlic cloves, soy sauce, turmeric, nooch, HOT SAUCE, anything delicious and nutritious.

The REAL star of the show.

The tiniest bit of leftovers from THE BEST POTATO SALAD IN THE UNIVERSE. Yeah, some of you bitch and moan that I claim that too many things are THE BEST, but you know what? I don’t care.

Anyway. This potato salad REALLY IS THE BEST. I boiled rough chopped red new potatoes, tossed them while warm with vegan mayo, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, thinly sliced red onions, and chopped marinated green olives. OH MY YUM.

Veggie Packed Zatar Bread

It’s the Muslim holy month of Ramadan right now, which means an entire month of dinners and parties and celebrations with family and friends. The grocery stores help out by always having tons of freshly prepared goodies you can grab up and take with you. Veggie packed Zatar bread is my favorite quick and easy snack.

Speaking of veggie packed...

You know I can never get enough veggies! I love veggie wraps with a side of super salty roasted pistachios. And I think I just about eat a salad with every meal. I think it’s cause I like the dressings!

The magical fruit!

And you know it wouldn’t be Voracious Vegan Headquarters without a pot of fresh made beans in the fridge at all times. The more onions and garlic in there the better! Serve with a side of fresh made bread topped with avocado and it’s a perfect meal.

We’ve also been social butterflies lately which is SO unlike me and Cody – we are usually the two biggest homebodies. But we’ve been playing tourguide lately to this really awesome American guy who just moved to Saudi last week. He contacted me through my blog a few months ago to see what it would be like to live in Saudi as a vegan. Yep, he’s a fellow veggie!

The new guy himself!

Me and the infamous Coco Larue.

Expat music night!

We also went took him out to dinner with a big group of our friends.

Of course, my brain froze up, probably unused to all the social graces being required of me, and I forgot to take any pictures.

Except one. It’s like my brain wanted to prove that mentally I’m still 12 years old.

Until next time! Hope you are all having a great week!

xoxox

A – To spend an awesome afternoon laughing and conspiring with her favorite feminist comrade, of course!

***

You know those once in a lifetime friends? The kind of friends that are so incredibly amazing you still can’t believe they are in your life? Well, that is [...]]]> Q – Why did the feminist cross the causeway?

A – To spend an awesome afternoon laughing and conspiring with her favorite feminist comrade, of course!

***

You know those once in a lifetime friends? The kind of friends that are so incredibly amazing you still can’t believe they are in your life? Well, that is the kind of friend I am lucky enough to have in Ro. Even luckier? She lives right across the causeway from me in Bahrain, and back when Cody and I still lived there we were next door neighbors.

Ro is my mentor, my friend, my comrade, and all around the coolest person I’ve ever known.

You have probably heard me gush about Ro before. She is an internationally renowned feminist, global south advocate, vegetarian, and gender specialist. (Here and here are 2 interviews I did with her.) She is also a globetrotter extraordinaire so I have to be sure to catch her when she is in town. So, it was off to Bahrain!

Bahrain is a tiny island kingdom located right off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The two countries are connected by a very long bridge, a causeway, that spans 25km of ocean, with a checkpoint in the middle so you can go through immigration and customs to switch countries. It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t so bad. In fact, I used to commute (with a driver, of course) from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain and back again every day for school during high-school. On a good day the whole trip only takes about 45 minutes. So, heading over to spend the afternoon with a dear friend is simple and not too much hassle.

First, though, you gotta wake up and get the day started right. And with me that always means a green smoothie -

Then it’s time to change into my comfortable traveling duds. No matter the occasion, comfort is always the most important thing in determining what clothes I wear. And being stuck in a car for at least an hour, in this brutal summer heat, means I need something soft and easy.

After reliving my modeling days for a bit, I remembered where I live, and that any time I leave the compound I need to wear my abaya. Of course, I chucked it off the second I reached the very liberal shores of Bahrain.

After saying goodbye to one of the more elusive members of my herd (gotta catch her when I can)….

…I loaded up into my car for the trip across the causeway.

Women can drive on my compound, but not anywhere else in Saudi Arabia, so I have to use a driver to get around. Women can also drive in Bahrain, but I have to use a driver to get from here to there! So, as the trip begins I hand him my passport so he can hand it over to the causeway immigration guards to get stamped once we reach the border…

I get my tunes going (it is impossible to ride in the car for any length of time without good music!)…

I also like some light reading material; I can’t read anything that requires too much concentration while I’m in the car, otherwise I get a headache…

Yep, the one ‘starring’ yours truly…

After only half an hour or so waiting in line on the causeway we finished crossing the border and before too long reached Bahrain, and the lovely ramshackle compound where Ro lives. Actually, Cody and I lived there for a year or so, too, and we still keep an apartment there.

It is such an offbeat and unique place, exactly our style, and a type of compound you rarely find in Bahrain anymore. It is one of the very few ‘authentic’ compounds left, and one of the only ones with grass, flowers, trees, and room for dogs to run. Plus, it was located right in the village that is known as Bahrain’s riot hot-spot. Bahrainis love to riot, so a few nights a week we would always be surrounded by the sound of Molotov cocktails, riot police, rubber bullets, and flying tear gas canisters. It was exciting, to say the least!

Happily, the whole family was home to greet me. Even Crystal, the blind, yet pugnaciously pushy rescue dog.

Peter, Ro’s fantastic husband, is the best cook. He is a star at making hearty yet simple dishes that I can never seem to recreate. I wish he would write a cookbook! We feasted on a veggie packed lentil stew and a crisp and crunchy salad topped with a tofu salad dressing. Delicious!

After lunch Ro and I talked for hours and hours, but no matter what, the topic always came back to global feminist struggle – my favorite! We dished, we laughed, we ranted (as all good feminists do), and we had a wonderful, fulfilling afternoon.

There aren’t many people like Ro in the world, unfortunately, and there are even less in my neck of the woods, so spending time with her is like a breath of fresh air. I was sad to go, but didn’t want to leave the trek back across the causeway till too late. So, I called my driver and piled back into the car for the journey home.

You know you're back in Saudi when...

Before too long I was home sweet home in Saudi. I didn’t really do much that day, but whenever I have to travel any amount of distance in this heat it tires me out. I lounged in bed, cuddled with my dogs and Cody, did some writing, did some reading, and for dinner feasted on a super tasty snack plate!

What you see up there is mashed spicy beans, toast topped with avocado and hot sauce, a salad, a few crackers, and super sweet tangerines. I never get tired of snack plates, aren’t they delicious?

What a wonderful day!

***

***Don’t forget to spread the word about the t-shirts for sale from Conducive Chronicle. The proceeds will all go to the Navdanya Project in India to fight world hunger. To be honest, I was shocked and dismayed by the lack of enthusiasm about this simple and wonderful way for us to all raise money for a good cause. We are a community of people who claim to want to make the world a better place. Are we all talk? Come on people, buy a t-shirt if you can, and spread the word. Take a stand and do something!***

Yeah, forget that.

Turns out I was only doing well because we thought we had an end in sight. Everyone at the embassy kept telling him it would only take a few days. Then it was [...]]]> Remember how I said I was doing reasonably well while Cody is stuck in Washington DC waiting for his Saudi visa?

Yeah, forget that.

Turns out I was only doing well because we thought we had an end in sight. Everyone at the embassy kept telling him it would only take a few days. Then it was a week. Then it was two weeks. Now it’s gotten down to ‘insh’allah’, which is never a good sign.

Saudi Arabia is extremely strict about who is allowed to enter their country. They are stingy with their visas and absolutely no tourist visas exist. You can’t just come for a visit. Specific jobs are reserved for specific nationalities, companies can only have so many foreign workers based on their percentage of local workers, educational backgrounds must match exactly the job requirements, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. For the past year Cody has been on a very rare temporary visa, which has now run out. (I’m only allowed here because of my father, as an employee and resident of the Kingdom he is allowed to bring his children to visit him.)

So, for the past 2 weeks Cody has been stuck in DC struggling to get his permanent working visa…but it hasn’t happened yet and we are beginning to worry that it might not happen at all. Cody’s boss will be speaking to the man in charge at the embassy this afternoon, so hopefully we will know then. Our entire future is at stake and I’m just sick with worry.

I have had a lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety, and even in the best of circumstances I am not the most optimistic or cheerful person. So, now that our whole future is up in the air I’ve been coping pretty poorly. And when I’m feeling nervous and scared I can’t eat at all. So these past few days have been a real struggle; I make delicious meals, only to pick halfheartedly at them. Or I get halfway through and then get a surge of sadness so powerful I can’t bear to eat another bite.

So, here is what I tried to eat yesterday.

Double down!

I had a green smoothie and a green juice, yesterday morning for breakfast.

I had a bit of produce that was looking a little sad (maybe it’s worried about Cody’s visa, too!) and needed to be used up quick, plus I thought all the healthy energy would do my awful mood some good.

Lunch was fresh and delicious. I had a big raw veggie salad, fresh baked oat and linseed bread topped with avocado and hot sauce, and 2 organic tomatoes from Holland topped with sea salt and olive oil.

Those beautiful tomatoes were the first tomatoes I have tasted since we moved here 3 years ago. Yes, I’ve technically eaten tomatoes since then, but they have been the local chemical laden completely tasteless variety. These were organic heirlooms and they had the  most profoundly tomato flavor. I nearly cried from joy!

When I’m feeling sad and nervous and exhausted the one thing that I really want to eat is soup. There is something about a bowl of steaming hot broth that comforts me no matter what.

I decided to make a small batch of my delicious miso soup, climb into bed, and watch Anne of Green Gables. When I’m feeling sad I like to watch sweet and wholesome movies, and that one definitely qualifies. I’ve loved Anne Shirley since I was a little girl and she never fails to cheer me up.

Oh! One last thing. Having the blues isn’t always a bad thing. You see, for years I’ve been dreaming about a pair of new glasses. I imagined the perfect pair for me would be big and clunky and bright, electric blue – one of the happiest colors I can imagine. But, I could never find glasses like that.

Until….this week! I walked past a glasses store and saw the glasses that I had been dreaming about. (Literally, I’ve dreamed about them, before!) The only problem was that they were sunglasses. Luckily, the store could accomodate my request to replace the dark glass with clear, prescription glass. And now I’ve got my perfect glasses!

Now, if I could only get my sweet Cody home. Any and all good thoughts, prayers, wishes, and crossed appendages are welcome.

A few weeks ago I recieved a treasure. Yes, a real honest to goodness treasure for a food obsessed cook like me!

You see, one of Cody’s co-workers, who is an Indian man from Hyderbad, found out that I love to cook and eat, and eat, and eat, so he generously gave us a copy of [...]]]>

A few weeks ago I recieved a treasure. Yes, a real honest to goodness treasure for a food obsessed cook like me!

You see, one of Cody’s co-workers, who is an Indian man from Hyderbad, found out that I love to cook and eat, and eat, and eat, so he generously gave us a copy of his family’s cookbook. And when I mean cookbook, I mean cook epic – it is more than 300 pages long!

It is not a published cookbook, but a compilation of all the family member’s favorite recipes and it spans generations and has every type of Indian dish you can think of. All of it vegetarian, most of it vegan. For those of you who know how much I love authentic, delectable Indian cuisine you can imagine how much swooning I did. (Hint: A lot!)

The book really is a treasure trove of recipes, some typed out more neatly than others, in all different fonts, and styles, some specific, some vague, but all of it, thankfully, in English. This was like a dream come true for me and I dove right in, poring over each entry, fantasizing about what I should make first. But, when it came right down to it, there was never any question. I’ve been craving Sambar lately, so Sambar it was.

Sambar is a Southern Indian lentil, potato, and vegetable stew with a sour and savory taste, filled with lime juice and lots of traditional Indian spices. It is incredible. I didn’t follow the family’s recipe exactly, you know me, I’m genetically incapable of following a recipe. I adapted it to suit my tastes and to fit the ingredients I could find here. But it is authentic and exceedingly delicious!

On the side I served up my famous Potato Vada. Imagine the perfection if you can – Indian spiced mashed potatoes, rolled into balls, dredged in a chickpea flour mixture, and fried. Crispy and salty on the outside and creamy and fluffy and spicy on the inside. There is nothing to compare.

And no Indian meal is complete without a piping hot stack of spicy roti to mop everything up with!

Sambar – feeds a hungry army!
(The recipe has many steps, but is simple and straightforward. Don’t be put off – if you devote an hour or two to making this dish, the rewards will come back tenfold. It is exquisite.)

1 1/2 cups green lentils
4 cups water

1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp black kalonji onion seeds

3 cloves garlic diced
10 fresh curry leaves (if you can’t find you could try subbing with several Tbsp of dried curry powder. Not the same at all, but close.)
2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 Tbsp vegan butter
1 Tbsp oil

3 chopped potatoes, leave the skins on
1 chopped onion
diced carrot

2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp molasses
10 cups of water

Juice of 4 limes
1 cup cashews ground fine
Sambar Powder – 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp fenugeek, pinch of asafetida , lots of salt and pepper, pinch of red pepper flakes

2 cups frozen peas
2 cups frozen green beans

- To get started boil the lentils in the 3 cups of water with a hefty pinch of salt until they are completely soft and tender and falling apart

- While the lentils are cooking, in another pot begin the main part of the stew. In a HUGE soup pot on medium high heat saute the vegan butter, oil, coriander seed, mustard seed, kalonji onion seed, garlic, and curry leaves for about 5 minutes. Cover the pot with a lid to keep the mustard seeds from popping out!

- After 5 minutes add the chopped potatoes and onion and stir around to get coated with the spice/butter mixture. Cook for another 5 minutes.

- Add the carrot, a very large pinch of salt and pepper, cook for another 5 minutes

- Add the tomatoes, molasses, and 10 cups water, bring up to heat till almost boiling and add the lime juice, ground up cashews, and sambar powder. Simmer for 20 minutes

- After 20 minutes add the peas and green beans and simmer for another 20 minutes

- Add the completely cooked and soft green lentils and cook for another 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Yes, they really are as good as they look. I nearly ate half the batch as I was setting up for the photo shoot!

For the recipe click here!

Spicy Roti

1 and 1/2 cups whole meal flour
1/2 cup gram (chickpea/besan) flour

1 and 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin

3 Tbsp oil
1/4 – 1/2 cup water – until the batter comes together and is not sticky

- Combine everything into a dough, break off into small pieces, roll flat, fry in a frying pan on high heat till crisp and brown. Top with a bit of sea salt and devour!

Don’t forget to enter my VegNews Giveaway!

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Good luck!

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to write a sweet and thoughtful comment, or an email about poor old Volvo. Those emails made me smile, and they gave me so much support in a time when I was feeling pretty low. I really appreciated [...]]]>

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to write a sweet and thoughtful comment, or an email about poor old Volvo. Those emails made me smile, and they gave me so much support in a time when I was feeling pretty low. I really appreciated the advice you all had to offer, it gave me the confidence to know that I would just *know* how and when to do the right thing.

For now I am happy to say he is doing really well. The pain medication is working wonders and he is even hopping around the yard a bit, with our help of course. We are careful never to make him move because the vet said that would just increase his pain, but if he wants to we will help him along. Other than that he is eating really well, enjoying his daily massages, and he seems happy and content. I will keep you all updated.

As you can imagine the past few days have been emotionally exhausting and I haven’t been able to sleep too well. In times like this it is almost as if my body is too tired to chew, and the thought of having to digest a big heavy meal is too much for me. So, I turn to soup.

Creamy, gently flavored, vegetable packed soup. It couldn’t be any easier or more delicious. This beautiful orange soup gets a wallop of vitamins and minerals from all of the healthy veggies like cauliflower, carrots, celery and onions. Garlic and turmeric are great for you too and they lend a depth of flavor (and beautiful color!) to the dish, while the lemon lightens everything up and brings together all the flavors.

CCCC Soup
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
4 ribs of celery, diced
3 large carrots, diced
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 and 1/2 liters of water
olive oil for drizzling
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp turmeric
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup nutritional yeast

- In a drizzle of olive oil in a large soup pot on medium heat saute the onion, celery and carrots for 15 minutes

- Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper, add the garlic and cauliflower and continue cooking for another 20 minutes

- Add the water, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to barely simmering

- Add a bit more salt and pepper, the bay leaf, thyme, turmeric and oregano and cook for 30 minutes, until everything is soft and very tender

- Remove from heat, remove the bay leaf, and allow to cool a bit. Blend until smooth with your hand mixer, food processor, or blender

- Add the juice of 1 lemon and the nutritional yeast. Serve garnished with a bit of chopped carrot.

I wish I could adequately explain how outrageously authentic this gumbo is. I wish I could send you all a bowl so you could taste for yourself the smokey, thick, rich lusciousness of the broth, and the melt in your mouth softness of all the vegetables. The broth is so silky and thick, almost like [...]]]>

I wish I could adequately explain how outrageously authentic this gumbo is. I wish I could send you all a bowl so you could taste for yourself the smokey, thick, rich lusciousness of the broth, and the melt in your mouth softness of all the vegetables. The broth is so silky and thick, almost like a very thin gravy, and the rich, smoky roux flavor will have you swooing at the first bite. Please believe me when I say you have GOT to make this gumbo.

Many people look at me with suspicion when I say how tasty vegan gumbo is. They would have you believe you need sausage or some kind of meat to get the fatty smokiness that is essential to good gumbo. But they would be wrong! The smoky flavor we associate with meat doesn’t come from meat at all, it is a flavor that can be imparted on many other things with the right cooking technique (especially mushrooms!) or added easily to any dish with a few drops of liquid smoke. And that fatty, mouth coating creaminess doesn’t come from dead animals, either. It is created by the roux, that magical mixture of oil and flour, that is cooked slowly and gently for nearly an hour to create the base of any decent gumbo. It really is magic, you’ve just got to try it for yourself.

To me, anytime I make or eat Gumbo, or, in fact, any Cajun dish, I instantly think of my amazing father in law: Stafford.

See the glint of mischief in his eyes? Well, that captures him perfectly! Just looking at this picture puts a huge smile on my face. I wish you could all meet Stafford because he really is one of the best people I have ever known.

He is 73 years old and is fitter than I could ever hope to be, and displays his youthful energy in frequent impromptu wrestling matches with his two sons, where he is always the victor.

As soon as he met me he welcomed me into his family with open arms and treated me like the daughter he never had. When Cody and I first got engaged I’m not sure who was happier, us, or him! He is charismatic, down to earth, incredibly friendly and so generous he would literally give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it. I am not exaggerating or flattering him, he really is one of the best, kindest, most wonderful men I know.

Most amazingly of all there is nothing he wouldn’t do for his family. He loves them so much that when you spend time with them it is palpable. He never misses an opportunity to tell his wife and his sons how much he adores them, how lucky he is to have them, and how wonderful they all are.

Stafford told me before that he never thought he would have a family, so when he got one, a bit later in life than most people, he considered himself the luckiest man on earth. Just thinking about his kindness, his craziness, and his awesome sense of humor is making me tear up right now. He lives in the US and Cody and I are over here in Saudi Arabia and we talk about how much we miss him frequently. (Stafford! If you are reading this hurry up and come visit!)

The reason Cajun food always reminds me of Stafford is because he is from the great and quirky state of Louisiana. You see, Cody is a true mutt. His mother, Shirley, is from England, and his father, Stafford, is a true Southern boy at heart.

When Cody and I first started dating his parents still lived in Louisiana (they have since moved to Texas) and we went to visit them several times and had a blast. I had never been to Louisiana before and it was everything I had imagined it to be. Muggy, sweltering, primordial, almost! There was so much green and lush wilderness everywhere it was like being transported back in time.

(Don’t worry! Even before going vegan there is no way I could have ever gone hunting. We were shooting clay discs that shot out of this little machine. )

Gumbo, to me and many other people, is synonymous with Louisiana. Its muddy, rich flavors and full bodied spices are a true symbol of the melting pot that is the American Gulf Coast. French cooking techniques, West African flavors, and American Pioneer ingenuity combine to make a unique and quintessentially southern dish. It is a simple soup, but when you have the patience to cook it for as long as it needs, it transforms into something truly magical.

Gumbo
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour
1 yellow onion, chopped small (you want all the pieces about the same size as the black beans you will be adding)
2 red bell peppers, chopped small
2 green bell peppers, chopped small
6 ribs of celery, chopped small
4 cups of chopped okra
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cloves of garlic, diced fine
4 liters of water
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
3 tsp liquid smoke
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
a few cups of cooked rice and parsley to garnish

- In a large soup pot add the oil and flour, cook on low heat, constantly stirring for 45 minutes until the roux has turned a golden, caramel color. This part is THE MOST IMPORTANT. Cook slowly and VERY gently, do not ever stop stirring and BE PATIENT. If you don’t let it gently cook for at least 30 minutes to an hour it will not be roux! This is they key to the magical flavor. Don’t let it go too far past a golden caramel color, or else it will burn and you’ll have to start over!

- After about 45 minutes, once the roux is a deep golden color and smells rich and nutty, add the onions, celery, bell peppers, okra, and garlic. Stir and coat with the roux. Raise heat to medium and cook for about ten minutes.

- Add the 4 liters of water, beans and corn, and all the dried spices plus salt and pepper. Raise heat to high, bring to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to simmer.

- Simmer for at least 3 hours. AT LEAST 3 HOURS. Really, do not try to rush gumbo, it just won’t work. If you want to taste the magic you’ve got to be patient!

- After about 2 hours of simmering add the liquid smoke, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar and continue cooking for at least another hour.

- After 3 hours serve it on top of rice with lots of crusty bread for dipping.

I’ve made lots of green smoothies for breakfast, of course. To me, there is no better way to start the day! Aren’t they pretty?

I’ve feasted on some gorgeous snack plates, like the one above that is filled with almond [...]]]> This past week has been filled with good food, good fun, and great friends. Here’s a recap:

I’ve made lots of green smoothies for breakfast, of course. To me, there is no better way to start the day! Aren’t they pretty?

I’ve feasted on some gorgeous snack plates, like the one above that is filled with almond cheese pate, oranges, avocado topped with hot sauce, zucchini, sauerkraut, baby carrots, and one adorable little raw chocolate ball.

I made sure to eat plenty of guacomole and blue corn chips, after all, avocados are one of the best things in the world. Sweet or savory, they are just perfect!

I spent an afternoon at my dear friend Robyn’s house for some delicious food and lots of gabbing. It was wonderful!

Everything she made was fantastic, as always, but my favorite part of the meal was this bright and tangy lemon/lime/mint drink. I’m usually not interested in drinking anything but water, but this was so good I had 3 glasses and I’ve been making it at home so I can keep enjoying it. (Actually, I’ve got an icy cold glass of it beside me right now!)

I brought Potato Spinach Squares which were delicious! The recipe is from Vegan Brunch and I highly recommend it. They were rich and filling with a nice hint of lemon. I loved them.

Doesn’t that look delicious? Robyn made raw rice and vegetables that were so beautifully done, I really couldn’t get enough. The flavors mixed together perfectly, and the texture of the rice was amazing. Thanks, Robyn!

Also this week, the wonderful Mihl from Seitan in my Motor asked me to test out a recipe for her. When I saw the recipe I thought it looked unique and delicious, but I wasn’t sure it was something that would really appeal to me. It was a lime/almond cake with a lime/rosemary glaze.

I should have trusted Mihl, she is the queen of desserts, because this cake was BRILLIANT. It is really one of our favorites around here now. The recipe was easy to use, even with the substitutions I had to make, and the taste was subtle and pure deliciousness. It had the mellow sweetness of a coffee cake, but with a bright hint of lime. The ground almonds gave it the most ridiculously good texture and the rosemary lime glaze was genius. We all loved it!

One of the best parts of this week was that after 2 years of not really being able to ride bikes (one of our favorite things to do) because of not having any place to do it or the money to afford new bikes, we finally live in a place where we can bike and we finally got decent bikes. REALLY decent. We bought Trek 4500′s and we couldn’t be happier with how awesome they are and we’ve been riding nearly every day.

Aramco, the wonderful compound that we live on, has miles and miles of great trails, paved paths, and flower and tree-lined streets that we can ride on. We’ve been having a blast!

But all this outdoor fun has really built up our appetites. I’ve been making very hearty dinners to keep us going. Like this yummy lentil soup, with a side of toasty bread and a mix of avocados, beans, and beets. YUM!

The soup was delicious and very quick and easy to make. In a big soup pot I sauted a yellow onion with several cloves of garlic and then added a bunch of yellow lentils and water. I let the water come to a gentle boil and I cooked the lentils till they were very soft, seasoning with salt, pepper, curry powder, turmeric, and fresh lemon juice and cilantro. Then I blended it up till creamy with my hand mixer.

This is one of my favorite side dishes, and it was inspired by a dish our dear friends Rosanna and Peter make frequently. I chopped up cooked beets and ripe avocados, and tossed them with a can of drained pinto beans, and stirred in a big dollop of vegan mayonaisse and a healthy pinch of salt. SO good!

I’ll leave you now with something strange we discovered while out riding our bikes through the old golf course here on Aramco this afternoon.

Looks gigantic, doesn’t it?

But it’s not!

We have no idea what it is but I love it.

Hope you have all been having a great week too! I’d love to hear about what you’ve been up to and all the delicious food you’ve been eating.

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!

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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!

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