Making Almond Butter At Home & A Smoothie

Almond Butter:
Once found only to health food stores, you can now buy almond butter in most grocery stores. It is less expensive and very satisfying to make it yourself at home. All you need are some almonds, a little oil (or not), and salt or sugar if you want.

To toast or not to toast: 
Some people like to toast the almonds first which can bring out more flavor but I prefer mine untoasted. If you want to toast them first just preheat your oven to 350 F, spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast approximately 8 minutes. Let almonds cool before preparing butter.

Now for the butter: 
Add almonds to your food processor and start processing. You can gradually add in a little oil to help it get creamy, I use grapeseed, but if you let it go long enough the natural oil in the almonds will release and you won't need to add oil at all. Totally up to you and how long you want to wait. It may take up to 10 minutes for the oils to release. The longer you blend, the creamier your almond butter will get. If you want it salty add a little salt or if you prefer sweet do sugar. I don't do either, but this is your butter so go crazy :)

Other Options:
You can do this with any type of nut. If you've looked at the back of the grocery store peanut butters and seen hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup and other nasty additives, you'll be happy to know that homeade peanut butter is healthy and very good.

Usage and Storage: 
Once you have made your nut butter use it just like you would if you bought it at the store. Keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

The Smoothie: 
One of my favorite uses for almond butter is my nut butter and flax smoothie. To make it, add enough almond milk for the amount of smoothies you are making. If I'm drinking alone I usually do 2 cups. Then add in a generous glob of almond butter, a tablespoon of peanut butter, a banana, about 2 tablespoons flax seeds and some liquid sweetener such as agave. The result is sweet and creamy and has some chewiness from the almonds and flax seeds.

Deviled Potatoes

Deviled Potatoes

You will need:

6 small red potatoes

olive oil

4 T vegan mayo

1 t yellow mustard

1-2 T chopped onion

1-2 T chopped green onions

dash of hot sauce

dash garlic powder

garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste

paprika

It is up to you whether you want to peel the potatoes but I like to leave the skins on for crunch. Lightly spray a baking sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut potatoes in half and coat all sides generously with olive oil. Place them face down and bake for 45 minutes.

In the meantime, mix all the other ingredients together including about a teaspoon of paprika but also saving some paprika for the tops when they are done.

When the potatoes are done, let them cool until you can work with them and hollow out most of the potato with a spoon so it looks like a deviled egg. Take the potato you remove and add it to your mayo mix, stir to combine.

Now, Fill your potatoes with the filling and dust with paprika.

I like these warm or cold. 

Makes 12 halves.

These won't last long so you may want to double the recipe.

the meat of it

DISCLAIMER:  I am aware that a plant based diet isn't the solution to all our problems. I am not trying to judge anyone for what they eat, just sharing my viewpoint, which could be totally wrong but it's my blog and I can write what I want! Bahahahah ;)
 

Lately, I've started to have a lot of negative feelings about food choices. I haven't felt this way for a very long time, since I first stopped eating meat in college and wanted everyone to get on board with me. I'm pretty active on facebook and I see people I know posting links about saving endangered animals and puppy mills and environmental problems but I know that these people still eat meat. Now, please don't read this and think I'm judging anyone for eating meat, I'm not! I ate meat for the first 20 years of my life so I'm not trying to be all high and mighty :), but I stopped in 96 and haven't missed it at all. For me, it was so easy to give up and that was 14 years ago when there weren't nearly as many options as there are now! It was all about animal abuse in the beginning but I've found other benefits.

I can't help it, it bothers me when people say they love animals and want to protect them, but see nothing wrong with eating food they know comes from factory farms, it just seems like a contradiction. Then, when someone mentions factory farming and the huge impact meat production has on the planet they get all upset and make excuses without ever having tried a plant-based diet even for a week. How can you say something won't work, if you refuse to even give it a try?

I hear things like:
1) I have to eat meat, I have diabetes
2) I need my protein
3) I get sick when I don't eat meat
4) My family would never go for it
5) It's too expensive
6) I hate vegetables
7) Soybeans are bad for you and vegetarians eat all kinds of soy
8) Vegetables havings feelings too, don't you feel bad about killing them?

Noone, ever just says "I like meat and it's all about what I like, so I don't plan on giving it up anytime soon" which is closer to the truth and honestly would be a better answer than the ones I listed. Those excuses I listed have pretty simple responses:

1) I have to eat meat, I have diabetes:
Plant based diets are recommended by doctors for diabetics. And, if you've eaten meat your whole life and now you have diabetes, don't you think eating more veggies might be worth a try.
You can read more about this at WebMD via CBS news:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/26/health/webmd/main1837927.shtml

2) I need my protein:
Ok, this one is so silly and I'm really tired of it. Protein deficiencies never happen anymore unless you simply don't eat enough food. More info on protein:

http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/protein_myth.html

Think you need animal protein to get fit, check out this website:
 http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/



3) I get sick when I don't eat meat:  
I always want to ask: Really, how long have you went without it? What did you eat in the place of meat? If you ate too much soy that could be the problem. If you tried to live on pizza and macaroni and cheese that is a real problem. Did you eat a variety of food? Did you do research?


4) My family would never go for it:
It's true, they might not go for it, but what if you sat them down and explained why you want to try it but let them know in the end the choice was up to them. It's a chance to try new things, to experiment with food, maybe lose some weight. What's wrong with that?


 5) It's too expensive:
Have you seen the price of meat, dairy and eggs? If you learn to cook and bake for yourself it will be no more expensive than your previous diet and you may even find it to be cheaper, especially in the summer months.


6) I hate vegetables:
Well, if you hate them, that's all the more reason you should want to destroy them with your fork ;)
But seriously, I hear people say this all the time and when I ask which ones they've tried the answer is usually none or "well, I had a tomato once and it wasn't too bad" We all get stuck in routines with food, step out of the box and try something new!
 
7) Soybeans are bad for you and vegetarians eat all kinds of soy
It's true that vegetarians can get caught up in eating to much soy. I've been guilty of it, but we shouldn't eat anything in excess and should focus on a variety of foods including nuts, grains, fruits and veggies. Less processed food should be eaten without a doubt. I have my concerns about soy and especially the big name companies putting out low fat soy foods, they make me nervous. I don't think they have our best interest at heart. But fermented, organic soy foods like tofu seem fine to me.


 8) Vegetables have feelings too, don't you feel bad about killing them? 
This is the one that makes me laugh the hardest, because it usually comes from someone who really thinks they have a logical excuse but it's just so ridiculous. It's true that plants can respond to some stimuli, however at the end of the day they have NO brain and NO central nervous system. They are not like animals! And, in most cases we don't kill the plant to get the berry, veggie, seeds, etc.. those are given freely by the plant. You don't see many animals walking around missing a thigh.


What to do?
1) We all need to eat a lot less food period, we have become a nation of overeaters.

2) If possible we should try to grow some of our own food and buy local

3) We should try to make food choices that have the least impact on the planet and involve less animal cruelty. I don't expect everyone will give up meat, but it would be nice if people could cut back.

We all know there are health benefits associated with a plant based diet: much lower incidences of  heart disease, certain cancers,  high blood pressure, diabetes, etc... I am aware that a plant based diet isn't the solution to all our problems. But I look at all the negatives associated with eating meat, the mass cruelty involved in producing meat and the overall state of our planet and cannot understand why people don't choose to eat differently.

Sometimes, I think there's hope, then I take a trip to the grocery store look at people and what they're adding to their carts (processsed food void of any nutrition) and I know there isn't much hope for our planet. It makes me sad to think what it will be like in 50 years.

Spiralized Squash with Walnut Pesto

This is so easy to make and a good alternative to pasta if you are trying to eat more veggies. This time of year it's easy to get your hands on surplus squash. First, you need a spiralizer like the one shown below. It turns veggies like zucchini and squash into something that resembles pasta and you can eat it raw so you get more benefit from the veggie. Tonight I used yellow crookneck squash.



Just peel the squash and spiralize. Now for the pesto, take a cup of walnuts (you could also use pine nuts) and process in your food processor for a minute or so, then add 2-3 T extra virgin olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, some fresh basil and some fresh parsley, sea salt, nutritional yeast and any other spices you like. I didn't put measurements because I just throw in whatever. Process until smooth but still a bit rough. Add pesto to squash and it's ready to eat!

Columbus Ohio Vegan Meetup

Yesterday I attended the Columbus, OH Vegan Meetup. If you're vegetarian or vegan and aren't familiar with meetup.com it's worth checking out. Meetups are organized by topic and city, so search for vegetarian and nearby cities to join a group. I like the Columbus Vegan Meetup because Columbus is only 2 hours away and has SO many veg friendly restaurants. This meetup was held at On The Fly, which is part of Dragonfly Restaurant.

I had been to Dragonfly before but never to On The Fly, so I was curious about the whole setup. I arrived a few minutes late and went into the building, which is a small room next to the restaurant with a counter and a few tables. It was hard to choose but I decided on tacos and chocolate mousse pie. Then, I found a place oustide at one of the cute little tables. The weather was perfect for this meetup, not too hot and a nice breeze. My order came and there were 3 tasty vegan tacos consisting of a corn tortilla, refried beans, lettuce and a veg cheese sauce. My favorite part was definitely the dessert. The mousse pie was thick and rich and creamy, all around delicious. I drank water in anticipation of how sweet and rich the pie would be, so for the tacos and pie my total came to $9.90. This isn't the cheapest place to eat but compared to Dragonfly, which will probably run you $15-$25 per person (and is well worth it) it is a more affordable option.

After the meetup, I decided to hit a few shops before making the two hour drive home. I love thrift store shopping and Columbus has the best thrift stores! These 2 fun bottles had to come home with me. Got both of these for only $4.50!!

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The Crocosmia Lucifer is finally blooming! Spent most of the day weeding, not fun but necessary I guess.
Went to Lowes and bought a sedum assortment. I'll get some sedum pics up soon. Love these little groundcovers!

Pineapple Crisp

I've been eyeballing the Pineapple Crisp Recipe from page 184 of the  The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook: 240 Healthy and Easy No-Prep Recipes for Busy Cooks  for awhile and since I had the book out I decided to get the rolled oats and canned pineapple to make it today. Glad I finally did! This really turned out tasty, however when I make it again I will make some changes. I must have had extra juicy pineapple chucks because reserving 1/2 cup of the juice from the can and adding it to the recipe made this WAY to watery. See all that unnecessary liquid:

Once I took it out of the oven, I drained the liquid, but it would have tasted better if it wasn't there at all, so next time I will omit the juice. It also needed a lot more topping, which was the best part, crispy and sweet, loved it lots. So next time, I will double the topping. I think something else that would probably help is to use crushed pineapple, since the chunks weren't uniform in shape, the topping didn't stick really well. Other than those few changes, this recipe was a hit! The topping part was so good, I'm going to use it on some other fruits.

 Look for more recipes to come from PDQ Vegetarian Cookbook

Have a great evening!

Chocolate-Granola Refrigerator Cookies

 

Today, I made the Chocolate-Granola Refrigerator Cookies from page 176 of The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook: 240 Healthy and Easy No-Prep Recipes for Busy Cooks

I like this book, though all the recipes aren't vegan, many are and you can make substitutions to make them vegan in most cases. There's a recipe for pineapple crisp that I really want to try soon.

I chose this cookie recipe because it was fast and required few ingredients. Still, I didn't have everything it called for, like walnuts or pecans and granola. Since I'm not a big nut fan anyway, I just omitted this and in place of granola, I used oats.

These turned out really good. I love the raisin, chocolate and coconut combination! It took no time to make them either. The picture did not turn out so good I'm afraid. Don't let the fact that they look so gross deter you :)

These didn't get as hard as no bake cookies. Maybe they will after a few hours. Doesn't matter to me though.
They won't go to waste.