Recipe of the Week: Mashed Cauliflower

A recipe from my sister’s kitchen

If you like comfort food on a cold winter evening, give this recipe a try. It’s a good substitute for mashed potatoes. Plus, it’s super easy to make.

Mashed Cauliflower
Serves 4-6

1 large head cauliflower, steamed
1/2 cup cannelini beans, cooked
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1-1/2 tsp Spike seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp vegan cream cheese
2 tbsp vegan sour cream
Unsweetened, plain non-dairy milk or water, amount desired

Remove the stem and cut the cauliflower into medium-size pieces. Steam until tender. In a food processor, combine all ingredients and blend well. If you need to thin the mixture a bit, use a non-dairy milk or water as needed. The mixture should be thick like mashed potatoes when done. You can leave it a bit chunky if you prefer. Warm and serve.

Note: If you want to get more creative in the kitchen, you could substitute the olive oil, cream cheese and sour cream with cashew cream to create a healthier alternative.

This recipe was created by Cathy Corey.

15 Quick Tips From Dr. Fuhrman

Last week I attended a talk by Dr. Fuhrman at the Center on Halsted. This talk was based on his book, Super Immunity. He presented information on cancer prevention plus delivered quite a few funny jokes.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) was developed by the Taliban. ~Dr. Fuhrman

Consider the following list the “Cliff Notes” version. If you want to learn more, check out his book, Super Immunity.

1. Chew your food — well! It helps with digestion and accessing specific nutrients that are released during the chewing process that otherwise are not available.
2. Eat your G-BOMBS everyday. That is, eat a lot of Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries and Seeds.
3. Eating white flower and sugar are cancer causing, especially for breast cancer.
4. Synthetic nutrients, i.e. vitamin supplements, can cause cancer when taken in excess. It is best to get your nutrients from whole foods.
5. Antibiotics increases the risk of breast cancer.
6. Cruciferous green vegetables lower the risk of breast cancer.
7. Overcooking vegetables reduces some of the cancer-fighting compounds. He’s not against cooking them, just overcooking them.
8. Eat one large raw salad per day and include a few nuts (for fat) to help absorb nutrients from the vegetables.
9. Avoid processed foods.
10. Take care of your health so that you don’t need to go to a doctor for remedies.
11. Alcohol: 2-3 glasses a week otherwise the risk for breast cancer increases.
12. Coffee: He doesn’t advocate coffee, especially if it’s an addiction, but acknowledges there are some healthy promoting properties.
13. Desk jobs are killers. Get up and move–often.
14. Supplements that vegans may want to consider: DHA/EPA, B12, Zinc and Iodine.
15. Use food synergistically for good health.

A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Sandy

Name: Sandy De Lisle

Age: I like to keep people guessing. They always guess me to be younger than I am — which I attribute to my vegan diet!

Where do you live? Deerfield, IL

How long have you been vegan? 25 years (with three healthy pregnancies!)

Wake up: 4:30 a.m.

Breakfast: Cheerios with vanilla soymilk and blueberries, oatmeal or chocolate chip pancakes (Sometimes I eat all three things in one sitting!).

Morning activities/work: Walk or run with my two dogs, pack lunches for the kids and write.

Lunch: Most likely something containing avocados or broccoli.

Afternoon activities/work:  More dog walking and more writing.

Dinner:  Most likely something with avocado and broccoli.

After dinner activities (more work?): Helping my kids with homework, watching HGTV and more writing.

Lights out: 10 p.m.

Current Project(s): I have several books that were recently released: The Teenage Boy’s Playbook on Sex and Relationships: From Rookie to MVP with 20 Simple Rules and Dibs Chicago: The Winter Phenomenon of Parking Spot Saving. It is my goal to combine my passion for writing with my passion for animals and write a book on the topic of veganism or animal welfare in 2013.

Favorite animal or vegan book? By far, my favorite animal book is Behind the Dolphin Smile by Ric O’Barry.

Favorite animal or vegan movie?  Forks Over Knives

What’s the best part of being vegan? Knowing I’m doing the most I can to prevent animal cruelty (and being fit without a lot of effort).

What do you want people to know about living vegan? For those who aren’t vegan: It is incredibly easy to be vegan (right, Christine!). For those who are vegan: Eat healthfully and donate your vegan blood. Nothing quiets dissenters quicker than when I tell them I donate blood every 8 weeks. Proof that vegans aren’t automatically anemic.

Healthy Vegan Snacks Revisited

Recently I read a report on 2013 food trends. Not only did it mention meatless meals and veganism, it reported that mini-meals and snacking were on the rise. Below is a  post I wrote in 2011 — offering readers 12 healthy, vegan snacks. Check it out, and remember to always keep a healthy snack at the ready. Enjoy!

Recently I read a blog post about nine quick and healthy snacks to keep you going until dinner. Animal products made up five of the nine snacks. Not too healthy in my book.

My definition of healthy may be narrower than the average consumer, but it is based on science.* I came up with 12 vegan snacks (not nine but 12 because I love you.) to keep you going anytime of day. All are plant-based, whole foods and simple.

12 Healthy Vegan Snacks

1. Raw nuts and seeds: Just a handful.
2. Piece of fresh fruit. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Better yet, switch it up. Variety is the spice of life.
3. Sliced apple with peanut butter: Make sure the PB is just peanuts and preferably organic.**
4. Raw veggies and humus.
5. Whole grain crackers with peanut butter or humus.
6. Dried fruit
7. Smoothie: Make it green for an extra nutritional punch.
8. Homemade trail mix: Again, just a handful.
9. Half of a peanut butter & banana sandwich. (Try other nut butters such as almond too.)
10. Air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast***
11. Toast (whole grain) with Mexican butter, aka avocado.
12. Edamame

*Good news! Science supports a compassionate diet. Not only is a vegan diet good for you, it’s also good for the planet and all the creatures that live here. Get the facts on healthy vegan diets from the experts:

• Neal Barnard, M.D.
• T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.
• Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D.
• Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
• Michael Greger, M.D.
• Julieanna Hever, M.S., R.D., C.P.T.
• McDougall, M.D.
• Ginny Messina, R.D.
• Jack Norris, R.D.
• Jeff Novick, M.S., R.D., L.D., L.N.

**See this post for information on my favorite, all-natural peanut butter.

***What the Heck is Nutritional Yeast? from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Who Thinks It’s Easy Being Vegan?

A few weeks ago on Facebook, I asked “Who thinks it’s easy being vegan?” Here are some of the responses. Turns out  a lot of people agree that it’s easy being vegan!

I was pescatarian and went vegan by accident. So, yeah, it’s very easy.

Easy as can be! I used to be a total meat and potatoes person. After viewing Forks over Knives, I changed my diet the next day. I just veganize all the dishes I used to eat. I don’t miss a thing.

Being vegan easy? Well, easier. Easier than worrying about who is on my plate; easier than worrying about higher risks of obesity, heart disease, stroke, numerous cancers; easier than violating my Buddhist precepts of not killing and to not taking what is not given; easier than feeling guilt about the animals I eat being the source of the 51% of humanities GHCs from carniculture; easier than feeling guilty about feeding crops into ‘my’ cow, which could have been fed to people; easier than knowing how ‘my’ turkey, cow, chicken, pig, fish lived and died; easier knowing that what I do wrecks the environment less that what an omnivore does. The hard parts: reading every label, being a ‘pain’ to friends, family, employers and restaurants, having to learn to cook (buts it’s cheaper and better and more fun than another frozen vegan lump from the store, or a third day of the same ethnic leftovers from a restaurant), wanting a steak or pizza and I know there are pretty decent fakes. Remembering why I’m vegan makes the hard parts easier.

This guy! It was hard for like the first month because I didn’t realize how much I actually COULD eat, but the next three years have been simple.

So much easier than it was 20 years ago, but it was always easy enough compared to the guilt I felt about spending my first 18 years non-veg and then a couple more just vegetarian.

Way easier than I thought it would be — mainly because it feels natural and coherent.

Not particularly to be honest. But it’s easier on the animals and easier on the conscience so that’s why I continue.

For me it’s not hard to not eat animals. What I found hard in the beginning was knowing what to eat and having to learn to cook different meals. I don’t really like to cook and find cooking for one takes time. As time went by I did research and found amazing sites on line, like yours, and found great recipe ideas and tips on how to be vegan. Now I am finding it easier. Still learning how to plan meals for the week and shop properly for the stuff I need that week and not over spending on stuff I think I might use, then end up throwing it out! I make a lot of soup and freeze some so I will always have something on hand. So the answer is yes and no! Very easy to not eat meat, not so easy at first figuring out the rest!

Vegan is so easy! It’s being gluten free that is a challenge.

So what do you think? Is it easy? What are your challenges? Use the comment section below and give us the details.

Dare to be Different

I was reminded recently that when you choose to live vegan, you become a minority. You’re “different”. In the beginning, this may feel uncomfortable. Over time, these feelings subside. They may never go away entirely, but you may come to love being vegan anyway.

I recall, during my first year as a vegan, a conversation I had with a couple of friends.

One said, “When I was growing up, I did everything possible to NOT be different.”

“You too?” I said.

Switching to a vegetarian diet when I was 17 was like a mini “coming out of the closet” for me. I have since met a few brave souls who decisively chose a vegan lifestyle in their teens as soon as they learned about the cruelty animals face in our society. I was too much of a wimp to “go all the way” at that young age. I admire these folks and aspire to be like them — brave — but I was certainly not like them when I was 17. I hemmed and hawed for years about being vegan until I was strong enough to change. Once I set my mind to it, I didn’t look back.

And yet, I still don’t like to be different. Recently my fiancé and I invited his family to celebrate Christmas at our house. After much back and forth with emails and phone calls, they declined our invitation. Food was one of the reasons. They were not comfortable going meat- and dairy-free for a few meals. We feed our guests well and are confident that we can satisfy the most passionate carnivores. We were excited and up for the challenge — discussing recipes and menu ideas months in advance. But once the final email was sent and it was official they weren’t coming, I spewed in frustration as I stomped my feet, “I hate being different”.

But, I love being vegan. I wouldn’t choose any other path. Different or not, it’s the way I want to live. Dare to be different, dare to be yourself.

Inspiration for This Post

Making Vegan Easy Tip #236: I was reminded this morning that when you choose to live vegan, you become a minority. You will be considered “different” from the norm. In the beginning, this may feel uncomfortable. Over time, these feelings will subside. You may even come to love being vegan as much as I do!

Join me on Facebook to receive tips on “making vegan easy” everyday.

Sarah-Approved Israeli Couscous Salad

This is an easy and tasty salad I created on the fly. Turns out it was a hit. My fiance’s daughter loved it. It’s nice when someone appreciates your cooking, isn’t it?! We enjoyed it with Falafel sandwiches. Give it a try.

Israeli Couscous Salad
Serves 4-6

1 cup Israeli Couscous, cooked
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced in long strips
1/2 carrot, shredded
1 large radish, shredded
3 tbsp of green onion, chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil (more if desired)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, parsley, cumin, salt and pepper in a small bowl. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the couscous, cranberries, sun-dried tomatoes, carrot, radish, green onion and pine nuts. Add the dressing to the other ingredients and mix well. Chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving.

Easy Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I remember my mom cooking Brussels sprouts when I was a kid. She would cook them in water — not boil them exactly, but not sauté them either. I’m not really sure what she was doing with them but I do recall they smelled horrible. They stunk up the whole house!

It wasn’t until I was in my late 30’s that I tried roasted Brussels sprouts for the first time. To my delight, I’m a big fan and eat them often. My favorite way is to roast them and they don’t stink up the kitchen.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Before you can roast the sprouts, you need to cut the end piece off each sprout, remove any yellow leaves and cut in half. If they are large (think golf ball size), you should quarter them. Spray a metal baking pan with oil. In the baking pan, toss the sprouts with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, salt and pepper. I use one package of Brussels sprouts and I don’t measure the other ingredients. I use more balsamic vinegar than oil. I love garlic, so I may use up to four cloves. Play with the amounts to determine your preference. Sometimes I add pine nuts when we have them.

Bake on 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. I like my sprouts soft, so I tend to roast them longer than a lot of recipes state. I like to add a bit more balsamic just before serving.

Leftover roasted Brussels sprouts are really good. I like to add them to salads the next day (as shown above) or eat them all by themselves fresh out of the fridge. If you were scared off by this vegetable as a child, give it another try. You might find you enjoy them as I much I do.

Tofu Salad

Tofu salad is a good substitute for egg salad. It’s great on sandwiches, in a wrap or over a bed of greens. Try this simple recipe if you’ve never made a tofu salad before.

Tofu Salad

1 package (14 oz) extra firm tofu, cubed
1 medium carrot, diced or shredded
1/4 cup dill pickle relish
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 tsp. Turmeric
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Press the tofu to remove the liquid. Chop it into to small cubes. Add diced carrots, relish, minced garlic and mayo. Mix well. Add more mayo if you want the salad to be creamier. Add Turmeric, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Chill in the fridge for about an hour  before serving. Enjoy!

Why I Gave Up My Favorite Food

Yesterday Mercy for Animals released a new undercover video from an Idaho dairy farm. It documented horrific animal abuse. Workers are shown beating, kicking and jumping on the cows while the cows struggle and moan in pain.

After I learned about the video, I posted it on my personal Facebook page and wrote this:

There is just as much cruelty in a glass of milk, grilled cheese sandwich or egg omelet as there is in a hamburger. That is why I’m vegan. This video is hard to watch but it shows what can happen at a dairy farm.

Almost immediately someone disagreed because “family farms” from her experience were humanely run. This video is from a large “factory farm” and I agree that this type of cruelty is less likely to happen at a family run dairy farm. The men in this video behave like barbarians. However, family dairy farms are far from humane. Consider the following:

• Humans don’t need cows milk. We are the only species who drinks another species milk. Human milk is for our babies just like cow’s milk is for theirs.
• Dairy cows are artificially inseminated, even at small family farms.
• Once the calves are born, the males are taken away from their mothers to become veal.
• Once dairy cows are spent, they are sent to the slaughterhouse to become beef.
• Cows can live as long as 20 years but cows raised for food often live just five short, miserable years.

Watch this short video to learn more:

Cheese used to be my favorite food. I ate it everyday and smothered salads, pizzas, quesadillas, crackers, hamburgers then veggie burgers, and omelets with it. I was one of those people who often said, “I could never give up cheese” and yet I did. It’s been over seven years since I’ve had it. I don’t miss it — despite being certain that I would.

After eating cheese and drinking milk most of my life, it was hard to change. Change is hard, but there are great non-dairy foods available that make the change easier than it’s ever been.

My favorite dairy substitutes include:

• Daiya vegan cheese
• Tufutti cream cheese and sour cream
• Almond milk (unsweetened vanilla) – any brand
• Soy milk (unsweetened) – any brand
• Mindful Mayo
• So Delicious Dairy-Free ice cream

Cookbook Resources

• Artisan Vegan Cheese
• The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook

If you believe the cruelty at this Idaho dairy farm is an isolated case, you will find more Mercy for Animals undercover investigations here. MFA has filmed at four dairy farms and has documented animal abuse at all four farms.

Make a Healthy Meal in Minutes

From time-to-time, I rerun posts I consider classics from It’s Easy Being Vegan. This is one of them. Eating vegan and healthy can be quite simple.

It’s a myth that all veg-heads live on salads alone, but salads make a hearty and healthy meal when done right.

Best of all, you can prepare about five days worth of ingredients in about an hour, making a salad an easy go-to meal when you don’t have much time. Get your veggies ready on Sunday and you’re all set for the week. Then all you have to do is throw a salad together each day and a meal is made. Easy.

Salads are a staple of my diet. It makes me feel good mentally and physically to eat healthy. I never beat myself up mentally after I eat a salad, but I sure do after I eat a bunch of crap. My goal is to eat one salad a day to fuel my nutrient-dense diet* and salads are a good way to do that.

Suggested Salad Fixin’s

• Greens (obviously). Use different types of lettuces each week to maximize your nutrient intake.
• Grape or cherry tomatoes. Wash and dry. Nothing else to do but drop a few in your salad.
• Brown rice or quinoa. Adding a grain to your salad will make it more like a meal.
• Tofu. Baked tofu works great. Plain will do.
• Beans. Try a new type each week. Again to maximize your nutrient intake. Drain a can of bean and store in a seal-tight container. They will last about a week.
• Peppers: red, green, yellow or orange
• Onions. Any type will do.
• Olives
• Carrots
• Celery
• Nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, pecans or sunflower seeds
• Dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries

Top off your salad with a simple dressing. Buy it in a bottle or make this quick and easy recipe:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 balsamic or white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp mustard (Dijon is best)
• Drizzle of agave or maple syrup, if desired
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Store in glass bottle in the fridge

Store everything in tightly sealed containers, and you’ll have at least five meals ready to go in about five minutes.

*If you haven’t read Eat for Health by Dr. Fuhrman, consider reading it. Learn about the importance of nutrient-dense food and your health. To learn more about weight-loss, I recommend reading Eat to Live.

Read about my Eat to Live experience:

• Live to Eat or Eat to Live?
• Eat to Live: 3 Weeks Down, 6 Weeks to Go?
• Eat to Live Follow-up
• Tofu Ranch Dressing

Homemade Kombucha

This is a guest post from Mania Labs. Bill (aka my fiance) is somewhat of a scientist in the kitchen. I mean, who else stocks pH test paper in their kitchen? He likes to make things and after buying too many $3.39 bottles of kombucha decided it was high time to brew his own. I’m lucky because now I have an endless supply of kombucha in my fridge. Bill attended two workshops and read several articles before he attempted to make kombucha. We have learned it’s a fairly simple process. You don’t need to be a scientist to make your own either. Give it a try. It’s rewarding to make things!

Kombucha is a fermented tea which has many purported health benefits. I make and drink it because: it may be a probiotic; it may contain beneficial vitamins; I want to drink green tea regularly; and I enjoy the taste, including the mild “bite” it provides. I usually mix it with something else, either fruit juice or plain green tea. For a more detailed description of kombucha and its history, see this article.

The process of making kombucha involves simply allowing a combination of yeast and bacteria to convert sugar into carbon dioxide and vinegar. The yeast/bacteria combination is called a SCOBY, which is an acronym for “symbiotic combination of bacteria and yeast”. The sugar used must be an actual sugar, not just a sweetener. Table sugar (sucrose) works best. Other sugars, such as honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, molasses or agave syrup will work, however, they have additional considerations. First, the timing will be different for each sugar. Also, the sugar must be sterile, in order to not interfere with the SCOBY. Lastly, the flavor of the kombucha will be different.

For the simplest kombucha, here’s the list of tools and ingredients.

A Day in the Life of a Vegan: Meet Bob

I’m happy to introduce you to Bob Shinn — just another normal guy going vegan! It’s happening everyday.  Bob recognized the benefits of a plant-based diet after watching the movie, Forks Over Knives. Like so many others after seeing this film, he switched to a vegan diet and noticed the benefits right away. Read on to see how his life has transpired.

Name: Bob Shinn

Age: 53

Where do you live? Colorado Springs, CO

How long have you been vegan? 10 months

Wake up: Between 6:00 and 6:30am

Breakfast:  I’ve never been a big breakfast person, so I start the day with a banana, peach or apple.

Morning activities/work: I usually get to the office around 8:30am. I’m the chief technology officer and a co-founder of an Internet company. Mornings are spent reviewing our progress from the day before and coordinating/prioritizing all software development and IT activities for the day.

Lunch: I eat a light lunch that is usually a homemade soup followed by another serving of fruit. My favorite lunch is a bowl of vegan chili followed by some mixed berries. Immediately after eating lunch, I walk my first four mile loop of the day. My walk takes me into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains so I get to enjoy some beautiful scenery and I usually spot some wildlife along the way.

Afternoon activities/work: Most days my afternoon is filled with emails and calls to customers but if I’m lucky and if things are going smoothly, I can get in a few hours of writing software. This probably qualifies me as a nerd, but designing and coding software is my bliss. I think it’s the creation aspect that appeals most to me. It’s probably akin to what a writer or artist feels when they are in the act of creation. Time ceases to exist when I’m in that mode.

Dinner: My wife Cathy and I have dinner together every evening. She is not (yet) a vegan but she always prepares a vegan dinner for us. She is an accomplished home chef so the dinners she creates are amazing. Sometimes they are based on recipes she has found online and then made her own, and other times she just combines whatever she has handy into a great meal. The variety of meals really keeps it interesting for me. Tonight we had one of my favorites – spaghetti squash with marinara sauce and a side of baked butternut squash and sweet potatoes.

Activities: Right after dinner, we go on another 4 mile walk around our neighborhood. We have a great trail system that cuts through nearby Cottonwood Park so we get to enjoy seeing all the activities going on at the park and the views of Pikes Peak. After the walk it’s time to wind down for the day and catch a TV show or watch a movie.

Lights out:  Around 11:00pm. Prior to my lifestyle change, I had trouble sleeping so there would be times I was up most of the night. Since I’ve been on a plant-based diet, I have had no problem sleeping seven or so hours a night.

Favorite Cause: Since I’ve been walking quite a lot lately, I found a group to sponsor my twice daily walks. Charity Miles has an iPhone application that records my walks and then donates money to Feeding America and my local food bank based on the distance I cover. At my current level, the donation amounts to 21 meals per day.

Favorite animal or vegan book? Eat To Liveby Dr. Joel Fuhrman. This book is very informative and introduced me to some nutritional concepts that I have successfully used over the last few months to accelerate my progress towards reclaiming my health.

Favorite animal or vegan movie? There are many great movies that helped me to reach the conclusion that I needed to be living a vegan lifestyle. “Food, Inc.”, “Supersize Me” and “Earthlings” opened my eyes to how food is produced in our society and were enough to convince me to never eat fast food again and to distrust heavily processed food. But my favorite vegan movie has to be Forks over Knives— This movie introduced me to the research of Doctors Esselstyn and Campbell regarding the health issues caused by obtaining your dietary protein from animal sources. Since I had been experiencing many of the health issues that they detailed in the movie, I saw their recommendations as a road map back to health. Up until then, I wasn’t sure that such a path even existed.

What’s the best part of being vegan? For me it’s the health benefits. When I made the commitment to this lifestyle, it was due to some health problems that I was experiencing. Like many people, I had a very unhealthy relationship with food. I was eating fattening, low-nutrition foods for most meals. I would eat at restaurants for every weekday lunch and at least 3 dinners a week. Over many years I had gained so much weight that I became severely obese and my health had greatly declined. I was battling hypertension and high cholesterol and, despite taking a variety of medications, I was continually getting sicker. I got the shock of my life when my physician ordered a routine EKG and I discovered that my heart was producing irregular patterns. I was referred to a cardiologist who ran me through a battery of tests that showed that I also had plaque buildup in my arteries that would only be expected in someone 80 years old. I was told that I had bad genes and though I didn’t smoke and rarely drank, I would probably only live 10 more years as long as I stayed on all the medications. I didn’t accept the prognosis and I began looking for a way to gain some control over my conditions. I found hope in the promise of a path back to wellness through a vegan lifestyle.

What do you want people to know about living vegan? Living vegan is really easy once you commit to it. The promise of increased health is real. I’m living it right now. If I can do this, anyone can.

I recently had my first annual checkup with my cardiologist since the lifestyle change and he is thrilled with the results I’ve achieved. In just 10 months I’ve lost 88 pounds. I no longer need any of the medications I had been on. I no longer feel sick every day and I have more energy than I have had in twenty years.  All my labs are in the normal ranges for the first time since I got sick and my LDL (bad cholesterol) is so low that my arteries are releasing the plaque buildup that was threatening an early death. Sometime over the next year I hope to have completely removed the blockages just by this lifestyle change.

How to Start a Vegan Business: Before You Quit Your Day Job

Before I quit my day job, I had a plan. Perhaps not a solid, set-in-stone plan but a plan nonetheless. It took me at least 10 years to formulate it. Here are some of the steps I took to get there:

1. Determine your strengths and what you enjoy doing. Where your skills and interests intersect, you may find your new career. I didn’t know what I wanted to do ten years ago. I had a degree in journalism and a lot of creativity, but no real focus. I’m very happy when I’m being creative, but that certainly doesn’t narrow things down for someone who has a lot of interests. So, I took classes. Lots and lots of classes. If there was a university dishing out master’s degrees for weekend workshops, evening classes and week-long retreats, then I would surely have one. Maybe two. I studied psychology and yoga. I attended personal growth retreats. I learned about non-profits and starting a business. I painted. I sang. I meditated. Heck, I just started another class last night. The list is long, but finally I started writing. It wasn’t even a class that spurred me on, it was this blog.
2. I read over and over that I should volunteer to get experience. So I did. I’m now qualified to care for cats! I did consider starting a pet sitting business. That was one of my first jobs after college, so I had experience. Why couldn’t I be a professional pet sitter? How about because I’m scared to give meds to any animal except the three cats I live with, which leads me to my next point.
3. Know your weaknesses. It pays to know yourself well. Knowing what you like is only half the battle. You have to be honest with yourself and be able to embrace your weaknesses along with your strengths. Go with your strengths.
4. Talk to people and read. When I started thinking about making a living as a writer, I started talking to writers and picking their brains. One friend, said it would be the hardest work I ever did. Great. I also started following writers on Facebook and reading their blogs, and I read a lot of books on writing. I especially ramped up these efforts over the past year.
5. Last but not least, get your financial house in order. I paid off all my debts except my mortgage. I stopped buying so much stuff. I reduced my expenses. I saved money. For me, this was the most important step.

I’m just in the beginning stages of a new career. At this point, I don’t know exactly what my future holds. I could be doomed for all I know and back in the corporate world a year from now. However, I’m optimistic because I have a plan and I keeping working on the plan. Of all the possible ways to make a living and I’ve explored many, I’m plan to write (as well as make art and practice yoga — multiple streams of income as a good friend likes to remind me) because I believe it’s a powerful tool for social change. It’s my intention to make a living doing work I enjoy while making the world a better place. I also believe if everyone got paid to do work they enjoy, the world would be a better place.

Joy in what you do is not an added feature, it is a sign of deep health.
~Mark Nepo in O Magazine.

Have you quit your job to pursue work you love? What tips do you have for others who want to do the same?

This is the second post in a series on how to start a vegan business. If you missed the first post in the series, check it out: Building a Dream.

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.