Red Lentil Soup

Hello friends! It’s been a long time–five years since I last wrote a post. Rather than go into a long story of where I’ve been for the past five years or how much the world has changed (OMG. Vegan food is everywhere!), I first want to make an offering: A simple, yet delicious recipe you can make in about 30 minutes. More soon. Enjoy!

Red Lentil Soup

Serves 4-6

1 tbsp olive oil (or small pool of olive oil in pot)
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp dill, dried
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp umami salt* (sub: sea salt)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup red lentils, dried
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped (stems removed)
2 tbsp lemon juice (or juice from one fresh lemon)**

In a large soup pot add a pool of olive oil over low-medium heat, add the diced onion and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and sweat for up to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

While the onions are sweating, mince your garlic

Turn heat up to medium-high, add the garlic and stir just once or twice before adding the ground cumin, dill, chili powder, salt, and tomato paste. Stir and combine well. Add vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, and lentils. Stir.

Cover and bring to a boil. Remove lid and reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the lentils are very tender and starting to fall apart. Turn off heat. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Add lemon juice. Stir to combine. Serve and enjoy.

For a hearty meal, serve over brown rice, farro, or your favorite grain.

* When I lived in the Bay Area I would buy umami seasoning at Oaktown Spice Shop, an amazing bulk spice shop that I could browse for hours. You can buy it online too. I don’t live there any more but Trader Joe’s sells an umami salt also. Not as fresh, but does the trick.

**I like to use fresh ingredients but having a bottle of lemon juice at the ready is handy too.

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How to Make Seitan Like a Pro

While living in Chicago, I attended a cooking demo at Native Foods, a vegan restaurant chain. I never pass up an opportunity to attend a free cooking demo because every time I learn something new. The Native Foods chef taught us how to make several recipes, including seitan—a meat alternative made from vital wheat gluten.

I’ve made seitan many times. The first recipe I learned was from a cooking class also in Chicago. It was good, but this Native Foods recipe is better. The first time I made it, I followed the regular recipe as is. I’ve attached a PDF of the handout from the demo below. You will see that the chef provides a couple of different spice combinations to change the flavor profile. You can adapt the recipe for a spicy Mexican dish or Swedish meatballs.

I had been wanting to make a summer sausage seitan for years and now I had a solid base recipe to use as a starting point. We ate summer sausage a lot when I was growing up and I remembered I liked the seasoning (as well as the fat and salt). This summer sausage seitan recipe is much healthier–lower fat and sodium content, not to mention no cholesterol.

Before we started cooking, we opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed it with homemade nut cheese and chips.

This past summer my husband took some of his colleagues to Native Foods while they were in Chicago for a conference. Alex, who is from France but lives in San Francisco, loved the food and enjoyed the meat-like dish he ordered. So, my husband offered up my services and invited Alex and his girlfriend, Nazanin, for dinner, where I would teach them to make seitan. It was a fun evening and I can’t think of a better way to introduce omnivores to vegan food. We made enough seitan so they could take some home. At the end of this post, you can see what they made back in their own kitchen. Seitan is a versatile meat alternative that you can use in a variety of dishes.

Summer Sausage Seitan (say-tan)

Adapted from Native Foods’ Homemade Seitan recipe

To start, make the broth to cook the dough in:

Broth

For the broth, start by filling a large stock pot with water, 2/3 of the way full. Then add:

• 1 c Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves

Bring the broth up to a boil and reduce to a simmer for cooking the seitan.

Seitan
Makes two rolls

• 2 c vital wheat gluten
• 6 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 c vegetable stock (low sodium)
• 1/2 c Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 cloves minced garlic

• 1/4 tsp chili powder (or ground cayenne pepper)
• 1-1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1-1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1-1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1-2 drops liquid smoke (optional)*

• Cheesecloth
• Cooking twine
• Skewers

Dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, chili powder, mustard seeds, black pepper, onion powder and coriander. Mix well.

In a smaller bowl, add the vegetable stock, Bragg’s, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and liquid smoke, if used. Whisk together.

Kneading the dough.

Little by little, add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the dry mixture is moist. You may need to add a little water to combine the ingredients, but you don’t want the mixture to be wet. Once the mixture is well combined, knead the dough with your hands for 3-4 minutes.

Divide the dough into two equal size pieces. Using your hands, roll into two loaves.

Tightly wrap each loaf in cheese cloth cut-to-size, tie up each end with kitchen twine, and then stick a skewer through each roll.

Using tongs, place each roll in the pot of simmering broth. Cover the pot halfway with a lid so the steam can escape. Simmer for 45 minutes, turn off the heat and let the seitan sit in the pot for an additional 15 minutes with the lid off. Using the tongs, lift each roll out of the pot and take the skewers out to make sure the rolls are well cooked. The skewers should come out clean (like using a toothpick to test a cake). If done, remove the cheesecloth immediately. (If you need to cook the seitan longer, try simmering in 3-5 minute intervals.)

*I have made this recipe with and without liquid smoke. Either way is great. If using liquid smoke concerns you, learn more about the potential risks here.

Native Foods Seitan Recipe

Once the seitan was done, we made pizza for dinner. It was a group effort. We made the dough using our bread maker. I like to chop the seitan into chunks and pan fry for a few minutes in a bit of vegetable oil. In addition to the seitan, the pizza included our homemade tomato sauce, three kinds of mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and Daiya cheese.

Daiya cheese is my preferred cheese alternative. It melts and has a good flavor. I suggest trying several vegan cheese options to find your favorite. There are many on the market but some melt better than others. While eating dinner, Alex and Nazanin wondered what in the heck was in the cheese and then asked what was wrong with eating dairy. Read this post on why vegans don’t eat dairy.

Daiya Cheese ingredients: Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, vegan natural flavors, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor), titanium dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral).

As I mentioned, Alex and Nazanin took a roll of summer sausage home. They made Bolognese sauce with it. Before adding the seitan to the sauce, he turned it into “ground beef” using a blender. He calls it The Seitanic Pasta.

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In Loving Memory: The Story of Moose

Update: This was written and posted in 2011. I’m reposting because Moose passed away on June 3, 2013. Moose was rescued from a research lab. Animal testing stinks. Learn more here. Never buy products tested on animals and always choose adoption over buying an animal. Rest in peace, dear Moose.

When I first met Moose, a gentle Greyhound, he slowly walked up to sniff me. Then he slowly turned and walked away. I guess you could say he just wasn’t into me. It was obvious he wasn’t your typical dog. He didn’t bark or run up to the door when I arrived. He hesitated. He moved slowly. Moose didn’t act like a regular dog.

The Lab

That’s because he’s not. He lived in a research lab at Iowa State University for four-and-a-half years as a test subject in the racing chemistry lab — receiving regular injections of drugs. Just like in human sports, performance enhancing drugs are sometimes used in the greyhound racing industry. And just like in human sports, they are illegal. Research labs like the one at Iowa State pump Greyhounds with these drugs to find the threshold for testing “positive” for the illegal drugs.

People breed Greyhounds to race. It’s likely, although the specifics are unknown, Moose was not a good race dog, so his people sentenced him to the research lab where he lived until his “uncooperative” behavior was his ticket out of jail. Proof that being a rebel isn’t always a bad thing. Fortunately the research facility moved Moose to a local animal shelter rather than euthanize him. When I contacted the shelter about adopting a greyhound, the clerk who responded said it is rare that they have greyhounds for adoption. Fran Horvath* of Skokie, Illinois adopted him after being alerted that a Greyhound was at the Iowa shelter.

We often hear about the inhumane treatment of race dogs. We don’t typically hear about other greyhounds related to the same industry but used for experiments. Moose lived in a research lab and mostly confined to a cage. Although the lab personnel said they walk the dogs daily, this did not seem true. The pads on his paws were as smooth as a day-old puppy when Fran adopted him. “He could pee in a cup on command and they (researchers) were proud of that”, says Fran.

Coming Home

She knows because she called the school to gather information on him after the adoption. “Moose didn’t have any affect. When I looked in his eyes, they were blank,” says Fran. “He was broke. Unfamiliar with grass, bugs, flies, cars, airplanes, doors and stairs, Moose was clueless about living in a home. Everything was new to him and very scary,” according to Fran.

Moose adapted slowly. In the beginning, he lived in his crate in Fran’s bedroom. Regardless that he could come and go as he pleased, he only left to eat and go outside to do his business. Early on there were many times he didn’t eat all. After a year, he began to trust Fran and her kids. It took Moose a bit longer to accept Fran’s husband. It’s been 6.5 years since the adoption and Fran has seen many improvements. She says,

“Moose spends time with the family now as opposed to hiding in his kennel day and night. If we are in the living room, he follows. When I go to bed at night, he follows. He asks for food and enjoys treats. He was completely unmotivated by food for years. What dog turns his nose up at food?

He plays with toys and collects hats that he steals from my son, Mike. He didn’t know what to do with a toy for the longest time. One day he started carrying one of Mike’s hats in his mouth and took it outside. Now Moose throws them up in the air and catches them. He pounces on them. As soon as any one of us comes home, he goes to his toy basket and very specifically picks one to take outside. Every time, no exception.

It took several years to get him to walk to the end of the block. At first we walked out the front door and came right back. Eventually he would walk down the sidewalk, which is maybe 20 feet. Slowly, he walked further and further. This was over several years. Very slow going. Now he walks to the end of the block and back. He actually asks to go for a walk and won’t stop nagging until you take him. He cautiously enjoys it.

Now he takes an interest in seeing who is at the door. For the first few years if someone came over he would hide in his kennel. He loves to look out the window and see what’s happening outside,” says Fran.

Love Makes all the Difference

Moose is one of the lucky ones. Here’s how to help other greyhounds:

1. Learn more about the perils of the greyhound racing industry at Grey2K USA or The Humane Society of the United States.
2. Do not support dog racing. Say no when invited to the tracks by friends, family or co-workers and let them know why. (Avoid horse races also.)
3. Adopt your next dog from a shelter or rescue group. To adopt a “retired” greyhound, check out The Greyhound Project to find a group near you.
4. Raise awareness and share Moose’s story with everyone you know. Most people don’t know this side of dog racing. Forwarding this story to just one person will help. They may send it to another and so on. That is how the power of one works.
5. For general information on animals used for experimentation, click here.

*Fran Horvath is a friend and former yoga student of mine.  She owned and operated Ethical Planet in Evanston for several years. Her new venture is Greenout Cleanout, offering sustainable estate cleanout services. Find her out online at greenoutcleanout.com. If you have specific questions about greyhounds, Fran offered to share her knowledge. Email her at fran@greenoutcleanout.com.

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Recipe of the Week: Rice Pudding and a Giveaway

If you don’t have a slow cooker, you should consider getting one. You can make delicious food without much effort. I use my slow cooker often. It was only five bucks at a yard sale. (By the way, yard sales rock and so do used book sales. More on that later.)

I own one slow cooker recipe book, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals that are Ready When You Are by Robin Robertson. I’ve only cooked one recipe in my slow cooker that wasn’t from this cookbook. One of my favorite recipes in this book is a rice pudding. It’s easy to make and Robin gave me permission to share it with you.

Before I do that, I want to mention that Robin has a new slow cooker recipe book coming out soon called Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker: 200 Ultra-Convenient, Super-Tasty, Completely Animal-Free One-Dish Dinners. Notice the difference in the title? Love it!

Brown Rice Pudding with Golden Raisins and Toasted Almonds
Serves 4 to 6
Slow cooker size: 3-1/2 to 4 quarts
Cook time: 3 to 4 hours
Setting: Low

2-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1-1/2 cups vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar or a natural sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup golden raisins or other dried fruit
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Combine all the ingredients, except the raisins and almonds, in a lightly oiled 3-1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker, stirring to mix well. Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours, stirring once about halfway through — add the raisins at this time.

Serve warm or cold garnished with the toasted almonds.

It’s Easy Being Vegan Note: I have made this recipe numerous times and have made the following adaptations with success:

• Used unsweetened vanilla soy milk
• Used dark raisins
• Used an equal amount of maple syrup instead of brown sugar
• Skipped the salt
• Used raw almonds, skipped the toasting.
• Added the almonds when I mixed in the raisins.

Now for the Giveaway Just for Subscribers!

As I mentioned I got my slow cooker at a yard sale. I have found some great things at yard sales. I also love used book sales. The Newberry Library in Chicago hosts a huge annual used book sale. This year I found a copy of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker for a steal. It looks brand new. Since I already have a copy, I would like to give it away to a subscriber. For a chance to win the book, subscribe to receive blog post updates by email (not RSS feed) below. If you are already an email subscriber, you are automatically entered — lucky you! Contest closes on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 5:00am CDT. I will notify the winner via email. Contest open to US residents only.

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A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Sally

Vegan Library Display by Sally

Have you ever wondered who is typing the captions for live TV? I know I have. Well, meet Sally. I met Sally last year at the VegNews Yoga Retreat in Mexico, and now I’m happy to introduce this passionate activist to my readers. Be sure to read about her vegan library display below. It’s impressive!

Name: Sally Bennett

Where do you live? I divide my time between Cambridge, OH and Savannah, GA.

How long have you been vegan? Seven years

Wake up: I usually wake up at 5:15 AM. Sometimes it’s 3:30 AM., but only occasionally.

Breakfast: It’s always evolving. Usually I eat leftovers warmed in the toaster oven, or more recently since I purchased a high-powered blender, I’ll turn foods from my garden into a nice, warm soup. For a quick breakfast on the run, it might be a Tim Hortons bagel with Tofutti cream cheese and home-grown chives.

Activities/work: I get up early to start my job as a broadcast captioner. I provide real-time captions on live TV, so I usually start off with three hours of a morning show. I work from home.

Lunch: This is where I’m trying to turn my habits for lunch and dinner around. I’m trying to have a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner, so I have more time to burn calories. Sometimes I’ll eat out for lunch and enjoy some Indian Aloo Mutter or go to Loving Hut. I’ll almost always take some home to have for lunch another day. If I’m home, I’ll either warm up leftovers or just start tossing things together to make either a soup or stew of some kind. My son calls it my “Whatever’s-in-the-Fridge” soup. I have shelves full of onions, garlic, celery, carrots, kale, peppers, pomegranates, figs, mangos, kiwis, oranges, pears, tomatoes, eggplants, star fruits and cabbage. I either make a plate using a mixture of those foods, or I turn them into soup. Other times, I’ll enjoy some delicious home made Thai food made by my son who’s amazing in the kitchen.

Activities/work: More captioning work or perhaps hanging laundry on the line or walking around our orchards and woods to meditate (a valuable lesson I learned while at the vegan yoga retreat with VegNews last year) or reading or harvesting tomatoes or giving a dog a bath. It’s always different. I’ll usually make a blender drink and now I’m using organic aloe juice, celery, peanut butter and a banana. I might toss in a piece or two of kale.

Dinner: Usually a plateful of fruit and maybe a generous salad of spring greens, julienned beets, apple and carrots, a scoop of organic (canned) beans, avocado if I have it and a few walnuts, topped with some Bob Evans Colonial salad dressing. I know Bob Evans is not a very vegan-friendly restaurant, but I love its Colonial salad dressing. I buy it by the quart to take home. Since attending Summerfest this year, I picked up a tip to keep an open can of organic beans in the fridge and spoon some in all kinds of things. So if I make tomato soup, for example, I’ll toss a spoonful of beans in the VitaMix along with all the other ingredients. It makes it easy to get the health benefits of beans.

Activities: Catching up on the Young & the Restless (a habit I’ve had for 23 years) or watching reruns from TVLand or a movie with my family. I take yoga classes twice a week and really should do it daily, but it’s a challenge to do yoga in a house with cats. They like to get involved!

Lights out: Never early enough. I try to get to bed by 10 PM, but I’m happy if it’s before Midnight.

Sally’s a well-read vegan. She displayed her vegan books at her local library for one month.

Favorite Cause/Current Project: I support many groups which are working hard to protect animals. I only donate to groups which also promote veganism and whose members live the vegan lifestyle. I prefer to donate to smaller, grassroots groups which appreciate every dollar they get and take nothing for granted. On a personal level, I’ve participated in several informational protests including at an embassy, a fast-food giant and a department store that still sells fur. A few months ago I was able to put together a beautiful display of my collection of vegan and animal-rights books at my local library. It stayed there for a month, and they said that they had more compliments on that display than any other they’d had. I hope it caused people to rethink their eating habits and to start their journey to a compassionate lifestyle.

What else do you want people to know? I’ve never been happier than I am every day now that I’ve grown stronger as a vegan animal advocate. I came to the vegan lifestyle because I despised animal cruelty and was disgusted by the thought of eating animals. I’ve evolved as a vegan by learning that while it’s easy to be a lazy vegan and not care about nutrition, that there really is a better way, and it’s fun to learn how to be healthier.

What is the best part about being vegan? The peace of mind it gives me — knowing that I’m not responsible for the suffering or death of any animals. I appreciate the feeling I get from just being in close proximity to animals. I live in the country where there are many farms where animals will one day be killed. I see them as blessings to brighten my life as they go about theirs. And as a bonus, my health is good! I spend $0 on prescription medications.

If you would like to participate in the “Day in the Life” series, send an email to itseasybeingvegan@gmail.com. We’d love to get to know you too.

Want to Set Up Your Own Library Display

A library display is a great way to raise awareness for veganism and I wanted to know more about Sally’s efforts. So I asked her about it.

When you set up the library display, was it just a matter of approaching that particular branch and working with them? Yes, all I did was go to the library and ask if I could do a display of my collection of vegan and animal-rights books. The head librarian is who they told me to speak with.  It’s a small town and he remembered me from when he started working at the library. I was taking my then-young children in for story hour. I described the kind of books I wanted to display and he said that would be fine. He told me what month was available and that was it. I added photos taken from an old Farm Sanctuary calendar to add color to the sidewalls, and I added some toy animals to attract even more attention hopefully from young visitors, and also included a big selection of decorative vegetables and fruits for even more color throughout the shelves of books. I categorize them, somewhat, with medical/scientific books on one end, vegan cookbooks in the middle, and animal-rights to vegan lifestyle books on the other end. But there’s plenty of overlap.

Read how to set up your own library display from Mercy For Animals.

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Resources: Vegan Job Boards

Want a vegan job? Then check out these job boards to see what is available. Good luck!

VeganJobs.org

Vegan Mainstream

VegNews

Treehugger

@veganjobs on Twitter

Tip: Set up a search on Indeed using the keyword, vegan, and you will receive emails when a job with your search criteria is found.

If you know of a job board that should be added to this list, send it to itseasybeingvegan@gmail.com and I will update this page. Thanks!

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A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Mickey

I met Mickey when I started volunteering with HEART in Chicago. I really love what this group does, so here’s a quick shout out. HEART’s mission is to foster compassion and respect for all living beings and the  environment by educating youth and teachers in Humane Education.

Humane education is a field of education that focuses on teaching young people how to use critical thinking and problem solving skills to address problems that are faced by people, animals and the environment.

For more information on HEART, read the About page. HEART is based in New York City with chapters in Chicago and coming soon to Portland. If you would like to volunteer or donate to HEART, click here.

Name: Mickey Kudia

Age: 25

Where do you live? Chicago

How long have you been vegan? 5 years

Wake up: My alarm went off at 7am, but I hit the snooze and slept for another 15 minutes.

Breakfast: I had a fruit smoothie (a little bit of kale, frozen fruit, a banana, and rice milk), muesli with almond milk and coffee.

Morning activities/work: While I was drinking my coffee, I read for half an hour. Right now, I’m reading Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, but usually I’m reading something for grad school. Then I went to the HEART office a couple blocks away from my apartment. There, I answered emails and prepared for meetings. I met with Leona, another HEART humane education instructor, about a new lesson we’re developing about gender inequality in the developing world. For anyone interested in the topic check out the GirlEffect.org.

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Quick and Easy Breakfast

Oatmeal is a breakfast staple in my home. I usually cook two cups of rolled oats at a time which yields five large servings. I store the leftovers in individual glass containers that we can reheat and eat quickly the next day. This makes breakfast really simple and healthy. I typically eat it with fresh, chopped fruit. It tastes good and keeps me full until lunch time. If you want to start your day on a healthy note, give it a try!

A Simple Oatmeal Breakfast

1 small peach or nectarine, chopped

1 cup rolled oats, cooked

1/3 cup unsweetened, vanilla-flavored almond milk

Chopped pecans, optional

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A Day in the Life of a Vegan and Passionate Activist

Meet Debby Rubenstein, the Founder & President of two non-profit organizations: Wagner Farm Rescue Fund and its sister organization, Have A Heart Farm.

Wagner Farm Rescue Fund works to protect all animals associated with the Glenview (IL) Park District’s Wagner Farm.* In the past 10 years, we have rescued and transported 13 cattle, 65 chickens, 2 geese and 2 big farm pigs to life-long sanctuary. These animals would have otherwise been sent to immediate or eventual slaughter. We also address daily welfare issues at Wagner Farm as necessary and are working to address welfare issues connected with their 4H program.

Have A Heart Farm is working on establishing our own multi-species animal rescue/community service sanctuary for domestic animals, farm animals and wildlife with a focus on hard-to-place animals. We’re also working with other rescuers to establish a smaller satellite location as an interim location to move animals who need immediate, emergency relocation. These animals would then be fostered, adopted or moved on to our larger sanctuary. We also work in conjunction with other no-kill rescue sanctuaries.

Where do you live? Glenview, IL

How long have you been vegan? I will just say “for a long time”.

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Dear Omnivores, Cooking for Vegans is Easy!

This page originally appeared last Fall. I was inspired to write it after a conversation with my boyfriend. As I have mentioned, I left my corporate job recently and on my last day, my team had a going away lunch for me. As the only vegan at the table, the topic of cooking for vegetarians and vegans came up. I think it is fitting to repost this as the It’s Easy Being Vegan audience has grown quite a bit since Fall.

When do you think “so and so” is going to invite us for dinner, B asked while cooking vegan mac & cheese.

You’re going to have to get a new girlfriend before that’s going to happen, I said.

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A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Angela

Name: Angela Gunn

Age: 33

Where do you live? I live in Savannah, GA

How long have you been vegan? I have been a vegan for 6 months, since January 2012.

Wake up: I try to get up at seven, but lately I’ve been getting up between 10 and noon because of the crazy hours I was working as a Production Assistant on a fashion shoot.

Breakfast: What I eat for breakfast depends on when I get up. I have made Alicia Silverstone’s scrambled tofu from The Kind Life the last two mornings and I adore it. Other times, like this morning, I make a toasted sandwich with whole grain bread, lots of Veganaise, romaine lettuce and Tofurky. Yum.

Morning activities/work: I try to spend my mornings writing fiction, but this morning I found myself procrastinating by surfing the web.

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Recipe of the Week: Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Burger

I have been slowly working my way through The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman. This week we made the Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Burger. It’s a winner and Joni has kindly given me permission to share the recipe with you. Enjoy!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Burger
Makes 8-10 Burgers

• • 2 tbsp olive oil*
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp minced garlic
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 can artichoke hearts, drained
  • 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
  • 6 oz roasted red peppers
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 cups quick-cooking oats
  • 3 cups cooked brown rice**
  • Oil, for frying (optional)

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A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Lindy

Name: Lindy Stockton

Age: 50

Where do you live? Evanston, IL

How long have you been vegan? 11+ years

What’s the best part of being vegan? Knowing that when I make a choice that is vegan there are so many benefits:

1. health
2. environment
3. animal welfare

Wake up:  5:30am

Activity: Walk my fun pupster Baxter for 30-45 minutes.

Breakfast: green smoothie (apple, pear, spinach, cilantro, banana, ginger — all organic, all fresh).

Work: I work full time in corporate America.  I love my career and can easily get lost in my work.  I head up Change Management for our US businesses.  Today I was at work at 8:30am.

Lunch: Freshii rice noodle bowl with edamame, broccoli, red onions, cranberries, tomatoes, cilantro, mushrooms and spicy peanut sauce.

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What Happens When a Vegan Meets a Vegetarian Environmentalist?

They get engaged and it gets hot. Really f*!#ing hot. It’s not what you think.

I may not be using it, but I’m certainly not ready to find a new home for it either.

Environmentalists don’t like air conditioning. I like A/C a lot. So do my cats. It makes my life comfortable. I don’t like to sit in my living room and sweat — while doing absolutely nothing. That’s what I’m doing right now. Sweat is dripping down my chest and I’m barely moving. My feet feel like they are on fire.  Too much movement makes it worse. If I lie really still on the bed with the fan on over head, I can handle it. Doesn’t make for a productive citizen of the world though.

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Promoting Veganism

T-shirt from Mercy for Animals

There are some vegans who promote this lifestyle using the term, vegetarian. But, calling myself a vegetarian is not telling the whole story. The popular definition of vegetarianism is one who does not eat meat or fish, but still eats eggs and dairy.

If someone goes “vegetarian” to help end animal cruelty, they will likely be disappointed to learn that dairy and eggs are major contributors to animal abuse. Then what? They give up because they can’t do it all?

Kathy Freston suggests “leaning into” change. Perhaps this is a more suitable route for some. But let’s tell them the whole truth and they can decide for themselves how they want to live based on the facts. I believe mixed messages and “spin” muddle the message of veganism. What do you think?

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