I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face. Why? Because I got to share a meal last night with two of the most inspiring, uplifting, intelligent, and ambitious vegan bloggers, culinary masterminds, and activists I know. Before I get to them, let me tell you a bit about our dining spot: Blossom on Carmine.

Café Blossom, on the Upper West Side, is by now one of my regular dining spots. The food is organic, fresh, healthy, and delicious. Beyond that, the entire chain of Blossom restaurants is dedicated to sharing information about animal issues (they do so on their website), and to partnering with Farm Sanctuary and other organizations that help animals and the environment. The restaurant is frequently represented at NY vegetarian or vegan events, and the staff is always receptive to questions about the lifestyle, and passionate about sharing love for tasty, plant-based cuisine.

Blossom now has five NYC locations. Five! Talk about signs of the times. I love that vegan restaurants are not only flourishing, but multiplying more quickly than I can possibly keep up with. Each time I come home, I find a new outpost or flagship restaurant to try! Since Blossom Café on the UWS kept me company often during the years I lived in the West 80s, I was very excited to try their new location in the West Village. My dining companions? My friend, fellow raw foods lover, and activist extraordinaire Lisa Pitman:

And the incredible culinary creative, blogging marvel, and cookbook author Allyson Kramer:

Lisa and I have known each other through blogging for a long time, but we met for the first time last summer, at Vida Vegan Con. Here’s a photo of us (I’m just left of center, Lisa’s just right) with JL and Megan:

And on our own:

Lisa is one of those rare human beings who manages to be extraordinarily good without being even slightly saccharine sweet. I’ve never heard her utter an unkind word—seriously, I haven’t, not one—but no Pollyanna is she. Lisa is whip smart, a savvy self-starter, uproariously funny, and I think she’s destined to do wonderful things for people, animals, and raw foods. Not necessarily in that order. Her food alone is an epic accomplishment—especially her raw dessert recipes! As an interesting piece of trivia, Lisa was born without the enzymes necessary to digest animal protein, and so she’s been vegan since she was six years old, an ethical vegan since her teens, and an activist for pretty much the entire time, helping family and friends to explore plant-based dining with her delicious creations.

I don’t have a photo of Allyson and I because 1) yesterday was mad humid in NYC, and none of us felt like having our hair photographed, and 2) this was our first time meeting! But it’s been a long time coming. Blogging is a funny thing: you sometimes forget that what you send out into the blogosphere actually has an impact on other peoples’ lives. When I first discovered Manifest Vegan, Allyson’s site, I thought it had been around forever—it was so masterful and beautiful and accomplished. It was only recently, over email, that Allyson told me that our blogs had started at around the same time, and that Choosing Raw had actually been instrumental in her gluten free food journey (which followed a rather harrowing diagnosis with Celiac disease). I was so touched! All this time she’d been a blog hero of mine, and I had no idea that CR had had any impact on her.

Both Allyson and Lisa fall into the category of true friends made via blogging. When we all started tweeting about a dinner months ago, it seemed as though the stars would never align for us to make it happen with our crazy lives (Allyson is a mother of two, she has a cookbook launching as we speak, and she’s an artist; Lisa is a social worker, a raw foods chef, and a vegan advocate; and I’m…well, we know about the whole post-bacc thing). I am so glad that we made it happen, and I had a wonderful time.

To celebrate our meeting, we started with drinks. Allyson chose a glass of vegan wine, while Lisa and I got ginger lemon mocktails (yum):

It was tough deciding what to eat from the restaurant’s extensive menu, of course, but the “baby greens and flowers” salad with shaved radish and persian cucumber, sprouts, sunflower seeds, kiwi and avocado paradise dressing was calling all of our names. And so we all ordered it!

Gorgeous, no? Love the edible flowers. I also loved the sweet avocado dressing, which was filled with the taste of herbs, and highly delicious. My only complaint was that the portion, which was the larger of two sizes listed, was pretty small for a vegan restaurant. We know how I feel about small salads!

Fortunately, both Allyson and I ordered an entrée, too: the zucchini rollatini. I actually thought that this would be a raw dish, simply because of the cashew cheese involved, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the cooked version. It was delicious: the cashew cheese was light and fluffy, the zucchini delicately wrapped around the filling, and the warm, savory tomato sauce was stellar. I also loved how it came served in a little mini skillet with marinated arugula!

I polished most of it off, and took one rollatini home (which made a nice mid-morning snack today!). In all, this was a great meal.

Blossom is nestled into a townhouse space on Carmine street.

The restaurant actually comprises two floors, which I like. Somehow, I’m always a sucker for restaurants that are tucked into townhouse spaces. There’s something homey about it, and it’s always kind of delightfully intriguing to find downstairs rooms.

Allyson and Lisa and I chatted away into the wee hours about, well, everything: blogging, writing, activism, hopes and dreams, school, work, motherhood, and life. There was laughter aplenty, and we also discovered that Allyson and I may actually be long lost twins. At the least, we have a mutual loathing of organized group activity and team sports, which is ripe ground for sisterly bonding.

I am so lucky and grateful to have friends like this scattered near and far. Thank you, Lisa, for getting on that plane to NYC from Toronto—you made my weekend. And Allyson, this will be continued soon, in NYC, DC, or Philly.

In the meantime, stay tuned for a full CR review of Allyson’s gorgeous book. And check out Lisa’s wonderful recipes and her raw, vegan Treat of the Month Club on her blog.

I’ll be back tomorrow, of course! Happy Memorial Day weekend.

xo

Happy Friday! Here from the perch of my final days off, it’s hard to tell holidays and Fridays from other days, but we do have a long weekend coming up, and I wish you all good weather, some rest, and a lot of time making fabulous food!

Memorial day weekend is thought of as the start of summer, and in keeping with that theme, I’m here to share a scrumptious green smoothie recipe, and to offer you a shot at winning my friend Cory’s new ebook, a collection of 50 fabulous smoothies and juices! Cory Gallant—known throughout the blog world as ZestyCook—is my blog designer and consultant; he’s the person who helps me to make CR look attractive and stay easy to navigate. He’s also great at giving me smart, savvy advice on how to manage my blog and keep it up to date. I’m one of his affiliates, so readers who join by clicking through his icon on my right sidebar get a special deal on his services. If you’re hoping to revamp your blog, or start one for the first time, I highly recommend his services!

Cory’s also a huge lover of fresh, homemade juices and smoothies. His new book, Top 50 Healthy Juice and Smoothie Recipes—isn’t vegan, but all of the smoothies can be easily veganized, and many of them already feature almond or coconut milk. The juices, naturally, are vegan. When Cory first sent me his book, I confess that I thought to myself, “I don’t really need help in the juice and smoothie department!” But Cory quickly proved to me that even juice and smoothie fanatics like me can benefit from some inspired new recipes.

Take his “Pina Colada” smoothie, for instance, which I tried this morning. Creamy coconut milk, banana, pineapple, and mint come together with fresh spinach. The result is a drink that’s as summery and sweet and generally delicious as it is healthy and green. I instantly fell in love!

Pina Colada Smoothie, © 2012 by ZestyCook (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 1-2

4-6 oz unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups bunch baby spinach
1 banana
5 sprigs fresh mint
1 cup fresh/frozen pineapple chunks

Place spinach and coconut water in blender and process on high until liquid. Add pineapple,mint, and banana and blend until smooth.

What a perfect treat for warm weather!

Other recipes include such treats as the “jack up the antioxidants” smoothie (rich with banana, dinosaur kale, pomegranate, and blueberries), the “sweet and sassy” (cucumber, lime, kiwi, lemon, spinach, ginger, and apple), and such self-explanatory mixes as “grapes n’ greens,” “mango banana,” “blueberry greens,” and “almond cocoa butter cup.” Yum.

Also included in the e-book is a short primer on blending vs. juicing (Cory’s answer is the same as mine: apples and oranges. Do both!) as well as tips on how to thicken smoothies, make them ahead, and what order to place your ingredients in. Whether you’re a smoothie pro or you’re just starting out, it’s a perfect guide and resource. Plus, Cory’s emphasis is decidedly on green smoothies, so you can rest assured you’ll have plenty to choose from!

A quick tip for veganizing Cory’s recipes:

Whey protein: replace with any vegan protein powder
Greek yogurt: replace with soy yogurt, coconut milk yogurt, or young coconut meat
Skim milk: replace with almond, soy, hemp, flax, oat, or rice milk

And as I said above, many recipes are 100% vegan already.

If you’d like to experience some of Cory’s delicious recipes for yourself, I encourage you to enter tonight’s giveaway! As usual, there are a few different options for entering. Each is worth one entry, and you can choose one or all of them. Just leave me a comment for each entry, please. I’ll announce the winner on Monday!

1. Leave a comment on this post, telling me your favorite smoothie combination.
2. Tweet about this giveaway with the URL of this post pasted into the tweet! http://bit.ly/KoUCht
3. Like Choosing Raw on Facebook
4. Like Zesty on Facebook
5. Follow me on Twitter
6. Follow Zestycook on Twitter

Good luck!

May you sip a green smoothie or two this weekend. I’ll surely do that, and I’ll also be having a lovely dinner with two very special bloggers whom you may know and love tomorrow night. Back here for a recap Sunday!

xo

On the list of childhood recipes I’ve always intended to veganize are festive Greek cookies called, koulourakia. These are made simply with flour, honey or sugar, and butter or olive oil (depending on the recipe). This year, I finally tackled vegan avgolemono; now, I’m trying my hand at my favorite Greek confections. As you probably know, most Greek desserts—including the famous baklava with which we’re all familiar—are honey-sweetened. So in light of yesterday’s excellent conversation about honey, this is the perfect time to bring sesame cookies to life with a variety of non-honey sweeteners. In the recipe below, you’ll find options for using agave, date paste, or palm sugar, which are three of my favorite plant-based sweetening options.

I love these cookies because they’re quick, they’re easy, they don’t demand the use of a mixer, they don’t require flax eggs or Ener-G egg replacer, and because they include some of my very favorite things: dates and tahini. I love that they capture the flavor of the koulourakia I remember without involving any butter or eggs, and that—in keeping with my recent vow to focus on gluten free baking options here on my blog—they are easily made gluten free (yes, I tested them with an all purpose GF flour mix as well as whole wheat pastry flour…more cookies for me and my Mom to polish off, you see).

My favorite sweetener here is probably the date paste, which has an incredibly special, caramel-like flavor. That said, the date paste also results in the softest cookies, and the koulourakia I remember are actually quite crunchy. The agave and the coconut crystal varieties were more traditional in terms of texture. You should simply use whichever sweetener is 1) in line with your dietary needs (some of you can tolerate dates, but can’t really tolerate agave), 2) cost-effective (agave is probably cheaper than date paste or coconut crystals, unless you order your dates in bulk, 3) pleasing to your palate. Special nods for this recipe go to Elana and to Agnieszka, who each have wonderful sesame cookie recipes on their blogs, as well as to the zillions of koulourakia recipes that I found (much to my surprise), when I Googled.

Sweet Sesame Cookies (vegan, GF with appropriate flour, soy free)

Makes 16-18 cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free four mix or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup olive oil (or coconut oil)
2/3 cup date paste OR 1/2 cup agave nectar OR 2/3 cup coconut crystals
1/3 cup sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. If you’re using date paste/agave: Whisk together the date paste or agave, the tahini, and the olive oil. If you’re using coconut crystals: use a fork to combine the tahini, olive oil, and the sugar. If you have a sticky paste, you may need to add a few extra tablespoons of oil to make this mixture wet enough to mix with the dry ingredients. 

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones. The mixture will be thick and sticky, but keep in mind that you’re about to form it into balls, so it should be pretty dense. If it’s too sticky, thin it out with a tablespoon or two of almond milk.

5. Stick the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes or an hour so that it can firm up a bit. Roll mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls between palms of hands, and then roll it in the sesame seeds so that it’s well coated. Press the dough ball onto a parchment lined baking sheet, so that it’s flat. Repeat with all the dough, and then bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until they’re golden brown.

I should add that, in lieu of coconut crystals, you may absolutely use demerara sugar or palm sugar, both of which are considerably cheaper than coconut crystals. I love coconut crystals myself (just discovered them), but I consider them to be an occasional financial luxury. It makes more sense for me to order dates in bulk and use date paste (which I basically prefer to the crystals) than to use coconut crystals on a regular basis. That said, some recipes really do demand crystallized sweetener, and for those occasions, it’s lovely!

As for the cookies, they may be my favorite recent baking invention. Like many of my baked goods, they’re sweet, but not too sweet, and they’re brimming with the taste of sesame, which I love. Best of all, they transport me back to my Grandmother’s home at Easter and Christmastime, when sesame cookies arrived from all of our family friends in decorative tins. Having always had dramatically different food tastes and inclinations from the rest of my family, I don’t have too many recipes nowadays than tie me to my childhood traditions, so it’s always nice when that happens.

I hope you enjoy these scrumptious and simple vegan treats. And I hope that this single recipe gives you a good sense of how many sweetening options exist for vegan dessert-making; I didn’t even get into some of the non-sugar options (like stevia or xylitol), nor did I touch on brown rice syrup or maple sugar. Needless to say, if honey is not a part of your diet, you are not without options!

Have a wonderful day, all.

xo

Yesterday, in my post on natural allergy remedies (great comments and tips—thank you all!) a reader inquired about why vegans don’t consume honey. I’ve never addressed this before, so I thought now would be a good moment to talk about it on CR! I don’t consume honey myself, but some vegans do. I’d probably say that honey is the one non-vegan food that I find myself consuming by accident most often, which is to say that I don’t check labels for it carefully enough (I’m getting better at this). I was eating an otherwise exclusively vegan diet for a while before I stopped consuming honey, so I also know from experience that it’s a little tricky.

If you’ve just started exploring veganism, it may seem to you that all vegans have the same positions on matters to do with vegan lifestyle. Not so! Though most vegans agree on certain core issues, we often disagree on subtleties. Should we continue to wear our pre-vegan shoes/bags for the sake of avoiding waste, or should we give them away, because wearing leather sets an example for others? Should we buy used leather on eBay, or should we support cheap labels that mass produce synthetic leather, which can be harmful to the environment? If we were to keep a hen as a companion animal, would it be acceptable to consume any eggs the hen laid (in other words, is private animal husbandry, not for profit, OK)? Is it OK to eat oysters?

Believe it or not, vegans have all sorts of different viewpoints on these matters. I think this is a good thing! All movements can benefit from some healthy debate and variety of opinion; it allows us to remain open-minded, receptive to criticism (and adept in responding to it), and it means that we aren’t so dedicated to a principle that we lose our capacity to raise individual concerns. I think it’s also important for non-vegans to see that veganism does allow for some wiggle room when it comes to minutiae, and to be reassured that going vegan doesn’t mean you have to surrender to one single ideology. Long after you go vegan, you can be curious about the logic of the lifestyle, and ask questions.

When I think about my own vegan choices, I always return to The Vegan Society’s definition of veganism: “a way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practical—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals.” Sometimes, determining what constitutes “exploitation and cruelty” is a little tricky, and I think that’s where a lot of the honey debate comes in. So let me share what I responded in my comments section to the reader who inquired about honey. (I’ve edited it a little, because I responded early this morning, before I’d had so much as a sip of coffee!!)

I know vegans who don’t care about honey at all (though those are primarily those who only identify as health oriented vegans, or plant-strong eaters). I know vegans who are adamantly opposed to consuming honey, and I know vegans who enthusiastically support small scale, local beekeeping. I’ve heard excellent, intelligent arguments from both pro-honey and anti-honey vegans. As someone who has listened to both viewpoints, I’ll just give you my personal perspective.

For many vegans, the choice not to consume honey just feels like a question of moral consistency. If you’ve vowed not to eat any other sentient beings, keep them in captivity, or take anything that comes from them, honey feels off limits. It’s worth saying that a certain amount of stress and injury to bees does result from beekeeping operations, large and small. In industrial-scale honey production especially, smoke is used to pacify the bees, queen bees are often killed by the beekeepers, bees are fed artificial diets (more on that in a moment), and some bees are invariably crushed in the hives or when honey is collected. So regardless of how extreme avoiding honey may seem, it’s really just an extension of the logic from which a vegan lifestyle grows.

Some people have a hard time empathizing with bees in the first place. My feelings can be summed up in this post: to me, veganism is all about finding empathy for all living creatures, even tiny ones!

What about CCD (colony collapse disorder)? It’s a tremendous problem, and I think vegans and non-vegans alike share in scientists’ bafflement and desire to help to stop it. Some believe that beekeeping is actually key to preserving and protecting colonies, but there is another point of view: BeeCulture magazine (which is actually a magazine for beekeepers) recently reported that beekeeping may actually be a culprit in the disappearance of bee populations: “Beekeepers move infected combs from diseased colonies to healthy colonies, fail to recognize or treat disease, purchase old infected equipment, keep colonies too close together, [and] leave dead colonies in apiaries.’ Artificial diets, provided because farmers take the honey that bees would normally eat, leave bees susceptible to sickness and attack from other insects. When diseases are detected, beekeepers are advised to ‘destroy the colony and burn the equipment,’ which can mean burning or gassing the bees to death.”

Others have suggested that migratory beekeeping, in which bees are packed into trucks and shuttled across great distances, is a part of the problem. And other commonplace beekeeping practices, such as splitting or combining hives, applying chemical miticides, or administering antibiotics, may also be playing a role. This is all yet still a topic of debate, and the causes of CCD remain unclear.

It may well be that small, local beekeeping operations manage to avoid any of the injury that takes place on the industrial scale. But I must also admit that I feel inherent discomfort with all forms of animal farming, small scale or not, because it continues to share the message that it’s acceptable to keep living creatures captive and take their products, so long as we do so in a particular way. That “particular way” can quickly start to include all kinds of abuse, evidenced in the fact that many “humane” dairy and egg farms still perpetuate injury/stress to animals, and end up participating indirectly in animal slaughter by selling old or young animals to neighboring farms in which slaughter actually occurs.

Then there’s the issue of the public example we set with our food choices. Whenever I’m asked that famous question about keeping a hen as a companion animal, and whether or not I’d eat her eggs, I say that the main reason I wouldn’t do it is because my eating the eggs would share the message that it’s desirable or necessary to do so. And as long as people think animal foods are necessary or desirable, they will find cheaper, quicker, more efficient ways to produce them than the small-scale, local model. They also may think, “well, if I can find a way to eat eggs, surely I can find a way to eat beef, too”—and now we’re talking about breeding and slaughter, rather than taking an egg. So my personal feeling is that I can do more for animals by simply living a life in which I don’t eat them or their products at all.

Last point: what about the fact that some bees are used in the production of a huge number of vegetable crops? Here, please allow me to admit some ignorance. I’m not quite sure which farming operations do this–whether it’s all farms, some farms, etc. Having seen a lot of small vegetable farms in action as a child in New Hampshire, I never saw bees being used as a part of the process, so I don’t imagine they’re a vital part of all farming. I’ll do what I can to research this.

As for another common argument—some insects get killed and squashed in vegetable farming, too–what do you have to say about that, eh vegan??—well, it’s a good argument, but I return to “possible and practical.” Whereas it’s 100% possible and practical for me not to buy honey, my diet would surely be limited (nearly nonexistent) if I were to stop eating vegetables, too. And it would not be a diet I could realistically promote to other people, which means I couldn’t help anyone else to go vegan, let alone vegetarian, or even vegetable-centric!. So I just do my best to shop organic whenever I can (which at least eliminates the chance that pesticides have killed a lot of insects), all the while humbly acknowledging that, yes, there are some inconsistencies in my actions and outlook. I do what I can to minimize them, but they’re there.

A year or two ago, an author of mine—a law professor at Stanford—asked me about oysters (which some have speculated cannot feel pain at all). I responded that, although I hear what folks are saying, I continue to feel uncomfortable because I fear the slippery slope syndrome. We don’t know for certain that oysters cannot feel pain, but even if we do, what’s next? Mussels? Shrimp? Soon, you’re finding ways to justify all sorts of seafood consumption. “I know what you mean,” he said. “To some extent, it’s helpful to just have a couple of bright line rules.” (If you don’t’ know what these are, I didn’t either.)

That idea is a part of what governs my choice not to eat honey, or oysters. But there’s also the fact that those foods don’t feel very essential to my diet. If I were to seek them out, and eat them—or go about adopting a hen so that I could eat her eggs—it would feel as if I was purposefully trying to make exceptions to my veganism. My diet seems so abundant to me; I guess I don’t really feel this impulse. In the case of honey, I have agave, maple syrup, yacon syrup, dates, coconut crystals, and stevia. So many delicious options to choose from! Tomorrow, I’ll share at least one delicious recipe that is delightfully sweet, yet honey free.

Bright line rules aside, I see the danger of allowing a matter of principle—vegan or other—to become arbitrary, or occlude one’s capacity for nuance. That’s why I think conversations like this are healthy and interesting; they allow everyone, vegans and omnivores alike, to think about subtleties! And there’s certainly a lot of subtlety in the great honey debate. I hope you guys have found this conversation interesting; I sure do. As usual, I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Funny: as I was writing this, I thought about the first time I heard about the vegan diet. I thought the whole thing was pretty bonkers, but the honey bit in particular struck me. “Now that’s just silly,” I thought.” It’s so funny to think about how much my own views have changed over time.

Till tmw, folks!

xo

When I moved to D.C., my seasonal allergies, which had always been occasional and mild, suddenly became frequent and aggressive. As terrible as sneezing and watery eyes can be, I have to admit that I wish my seasonal allergies manifested that way. I happen to be allergic to cats; when that allergy flairs up, my eyes get puffy and I sneeze and break out in hives. It’s embarrassing and uncomfortable, but it doesn’t ruin my day.

When my seasonal allergies strike, on the other hand, I don’t sneeze or get a runny nose at all. I get crushing sinus headaches, fatigue, and an odd kind of lightheadedness. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t a big deal when it happened a handful of times each spring and fall. Now that it happens more often, I’m starting to worry that it’s interfering with my effectiveness. It’s hard to focus on chemistry with a sinus headache!

I have the same attitude toward managing allergies that I do toward most commonplace and non-urgent health complaints: if it’s really bad, I’ll take an OTC drug. If it’s moderate or mild and I suspect I can manage the symptoms with a natural course of treatment, I will. So when my allergies are particularly bad, I take a Claritin or a Zyrtec. Both work, though I think Zyrtec may be a little more effective for me. What I’ve been wondering lately is whether there are natural remedies out there that can help me out on days when my allergies are serious enough to bother me, but not so intense that I want to hit the medicine cabinet. I’ve seen plenty written about bee pollen and honey, but as a vegan, I don’t consume either. So a few weeks ago, on a day when my allergies were particularly crazy-making, I posted a message on Facebook asking my readers what their tips were for natural allergy management. I got a slew of helpful responses, and I thought I’d share them with you!

1. Acupuncture
2. High dose Vitamin C
3. Nettle tea
4. Perilla seed extract (courtesy of Carrie)
5. Neti Pot
6. Butterbur
7. Swimming in saltwater (head submerged; same concept as neti pot)
8. Pineapple
9. Quercitin supplements
10. Apple cider vinegar and water as a drink
11. Natural D Hist
12. Lavendar essential oil from Young Living Essential Oil
13. Miao Ling Bi Shuang herbal nose spray from Yo San University.

Readers also directed me to this article from Rodale.

Thanks, CR rockstars! How tremendously helpful. I’ve been using my neti pot often and it doesn’t seem to be helping so far, so I’ll continue, but I’d like to add a few other remedies. As for acupuncture, well, I’ve tried it three different times, for different ailments. I found the whole experience very pleasant and relaxing, and my practitioners were very knowledgeable and insightful. But I can’t say that acupuncture helped the conditions I was hoping to manage, and since it’s not covered by my insurance, I’ll probably forgo it this time.

So! I think I’ll start with nettle tea, and then consider the Natural D Hist and the Perilla extract. Anyone have a nettle tea they recommend in particular? How does it taste?

In the meantime, I will of course take Hippocrates’ famous words to heart, and see if I can’t let food be my medicine. The foods that seem to have the best antihistimine effect are Vitamin C and quercetin. I think we’re all pretty familiar with Vitamin C (best food sources: citrus, strawberries, kiwis, bell peppers), but quercetin? Well, it’s compound found in red onions, in berries, and in tea (among other sources) which has been shown to reduce allergic inflammation and to reduce symptoms. Quercetin supplements exist, but since onions, berries, and tea are quite commonplace within a plant-based diet (even onion haters like me eat them on occasion, cooked if not raw) you can almost certainly obtain it without supplementation. Finally, apples have also been shown to reduce seasonal allergies and asthma significantly.

With this in mind, and a bad allergy morning underway, I whipped up the following salad two days ago. I used strawberries and raspberries in the vinaigrette (so it contains both quercetin and Vitamin C), and more berries in the salad itself. There’s half a chopped apple mixed in with the crispy baby spinach, as well as finely chopped red onion. I could only manage 1/4 cup (not bad for me, actually), but you could add more if you like. And to add a little nutrient density and protein to the mix, I also cooked up some tempeh and chopped it in.

All together, it was a satisfying and delicious meal. Except I realized after scarfing it down that a little avocado would have made the dish even better. So I’ve added it to my recipe, below. My loss is your gain

Allergy Fighting Nutrient Dense Salad: Berries, Spinach, Apple, and Seared Tempeh with Tangy Raspberry Vinaigrette (high raw, vegan, gluten free)

Serves 1 as a meal; you can split as an appetizer or double for two meals!

For the salad:

3 heaping cups baby spinach
1/4 cup red onion, very finely diced
1/4 cup blueberries
1/3 cup raspberries
1/2 gala apple, chopped
1/4 avocado, chopped
2 oz tempeh, seared or grilled lightly with some coconut oil spray and tamari (baked is fine, too!)

For the dressing (will make about 1 1/2 cups; reserve extra for more salads!):

1 cup mixed raspberries and chopped strawberries
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 pitted date
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp olive or avocado oil

1. Blend all dressing ingredients in a blender till smooth. Set aside.

2. Mix all salad ingredients together. Dress with as much vinaigrette as you like, and enjoy!

I love how this salad pulses with color! And it’s full of texture, too.

It’s delicious, too. And filling.

This salad is fairly nutrient dense and filling, but I served it, and would probably serve it again, with a slice of my raw bread, spread with hummus. Raw crackers, a little bean dip, or sprouted bread would be nice accompaniments, too.

Hope this post is helpful to all of my readers who are sniffly, sneezy, or sinusy right now! And please, readers: if you have any other brilliant allergy feedback, please, share with the class. And Ela, you may now teach us all about nettles.

Before I go, I wanted to share with you all my latest post for Whole Living Daily. It’s a short post, intended for folks who are very new to raw foods (and a little nervous!) about how to go more raw—easily and without any self-applied pressure. I’d love it if you checked it out! And if my raw or high raw readers have any other tips and ideas, please, feel free to leave them for the Whole Living audience in the comments section!

Till tomorrow,

xo

NB: If your seasonal allergies are severe or constant, please consult your health care provider for relief!

As usual, thanks for the feedback on Friday. I mentioned that I’d be spending the next two weeks resting and spending a little time in the kitchen (OK, a lot of time), and these scrumptious raw dark chocolate and cherry cookies are one of the fruits of my labor!

These cookies are inspired by one of my favorite One Lucky Duck cookies: the dark chocolate cherry macadamia cookies. These cookies, like all of Sarma’s cookies, are delicious, and shockingly authentic. The texture is quite a bit like the “real thing,” but I think the taste has even more depth.

The secret to Sarma’s cookies, I suspect, is a mixture of almond flour and oat flour. My version features these same ingredients: I used almond meal from Bob’s Red Mill (a favorite baking ingredient for me) and I ground raw oat groats in my coffee grinder (which I use only for grains and seeds) for the flour. You could, of course, grind regular rolled oats, or you could use store bought oat flour. Because I didn’t have maple powder (which is in Sarma’s ingredient list), I used dates, but in order to make the cookies work, I needed to use more almond meal than oat flour. I like the slightly drier (less chewy) texture that the oats created, but you could use all almond flour if oats don’t agree with you (Bitt!)

If you like dark chocolate, and you like dried cherries—and how on earth can you not?—you’ll love the taste of these treats. I was super decadent and used 1/4 cup chopped raw dark chocolate (Fine & Raw), but vegan dark chocolate chips will be just fine, too.

Raw, Vegan Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies (raw, vegan, gluten free if you use GF oats, soy free)

Makes about 8 large cookies; recipe can be easily doubled

1 cup almond meal (you can use store bought, like the Bob’s Red Mill brand, or you can grind almonds finely in a food processor)
1/3 cup oat flour (I ground raw oat groats in my coffee grinder, but you can use store bought, too)
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
12 large, pitted medjool dates
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup chopped raw dark chocolate, or vegan dark chocolate chips

1. In a food processor, process almond meal, oat flour, and cacao to combine.

2. Add dates, and process until the mixture is thick and sticks together easily when you clasp a little in your hand (look for similar texture to when you make homemade raw energy balls or Larabars). If the mixture is too dry, add an extra date, a drizzle of agave, or a tablespoon of almond butter!

3. Add cherries and chocolate. Pulse to break down the cherries and chocolate into small pieces and mix them evenly throughout.

4. Place "dough" onto a sheet of saran wrap that has been laid onto a flat surface. Cover with another saran sheet, and use a rolling pin to flatten the mixture to just over 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.

5. Cut dough into desired shapes with a cookie cutter, and enjoy!

These make for good snacking, as well as good dessert.

I thought hearts would be appropriate here, because nutritious raw and vegan desserts are heartwarming indeed.

Hope you get a chance to test these cookies for yourself. Of course, you can use any dried fruit you like (raisins, gojis, cranberries), and you can use walnuts or hazelnuts as the base, too.

I’m in the middle of getting ready to go to the filming of the finale of The Celebrity Apprentice, and the afterparty. Not a typical Gena Sunday—it’s usually a big deal when I get to watch Mad Men—but a friend of mine had a plus one. So off I uncharacteristically go, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

xo

When I wrote the title of this post, I thought “it’s taken me over three years to post my recipe for curried chickpea salad?!” In spite of the fact that I’ve never shared it, this was one of the first vegan lunch recipes I concocted on my own. I loved it then, I loved it now. And since my Mom is a great fan of curried chicken salad, and we’re eating some vegan food together over this holiday, I thought I’d share my recipe with her.

This recipe differs from curried chickpea salad in one obvious way (chickpeas, not chicken) and one less obvious way (no mayo). I use a tahini based dressing instead, which I truly love (and sometimes thin out just slightly as a salad dressing—yum!). To imitate many curried chicken salad recipes, I add some finely grated carrot, and I also throw in some raisins, which complement the slight sweetness of the dressing nicely. The dish is packed with protein, fiber, and folate from the legumes, and it’s also got a nice helping of healthy fat from the tahini. Best of all, it’s 100% plant-based and animal friendly.

I often like to serve these chickpeas in a nutrient dense salad: they add flavor and texture! But they also make a good side dish or party appetizer. It goes without saying that you can stay true to the idea of this being a vegan response to curried chicken salad, and serve it between two slices of Ezekiel bread—curried chickpea salad sandwich! And finally, this little dish makes a lovely snack. There are days when I want something to nosh on that’s far more grounding and solid than a snack bar or a smoothie or a veggies + hummus; on these days, munching on chickpeas really hits the spot.

A little odd? Maybe. But deliciously odd.

Gena’s Favorite Curried Chickpea Salad (vegan, gluten free)

Serves 3-4

For the salad:

2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 large carrot, grated finely (use the smallest size on a box grater, if that’s what you’re using)
1/3 cup raisins

For the dressing:

2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp tamari or Bragg’s or shoyu
2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp curry powder

1. Whisk all dressing ingredients together.

2. Dress the salad ingredients with the dressing to your liking: I tend to use most of the dressing, but not quite all. You can thin down any leftover dressing slightly with some water, and use it over a salad (it’s slightly too thick for dressing greens as is, but again, use your kitchen intuition!).

3. Munch.

What a tasty bowl to dig into with a spoon. Seriously. So satisfying! And I love the slight contrast of the raisins and beans.

Sometimes, we bloggers have foods we eat so regularly and make with so automatically that we just forget to blog about them. You guys have seen most of my regulars, but there are still some time honored snacks and dishes that I tend to dismiss because I think they’re not noteworthy enough for CR. I bet I’m wrong. And I hope you like the salad.

So, since you all have been kindly cheering me on through a hard few weeks with school, I wanted to give you all an update on how it turned out. I did, thankfully, pass Orgo. Phew!! I’m so happy that I managed to squeeze by. That said, my academic profile is still not where I need and want it to be for applications, so I hope that I’ll be able to improve it with my remaining classes (which won’t be quite the conceptual beasts that orgo was). I’m also very aware that pressure to “redeem oneself” academically can be unproductive, so I’m also trying to be gentle with myself. It’s a fine balance.

I’ve got classes through the summer, and one class in the fall, and after that my post-bacc will be essentially complete and other things (applications, glide year) enter the picture. I had hoped, when I started, to finish sooner, but a tough first semester forced me to drop a class, and then the whole delicate schedule got pushed back.

It’s no secret to any of you that I have struggled a lot through this process. In response to my Superhero Smoothie post, a friend of mine asked if I was setting the stage to possibly tell you all at some point that I was changing directions. I wasn’t, but it’s a good question. I think what I was trying to share was the reality that the post-bacc has never been the same thing as guaranteed admission to med school. Sometimes, when you say you’re pre-med, people assume that you’re automatically on a straight path to a lab coat! But it always was, and still is, a journey: I’m figuring out if this is the path for me. That’s what I set out to do when I left publishing, and I always knew it would be hard. It just turned out to be much harder than I anticipated.

If any of you are wondering whether I’ve had a profound change of heart about this decision: no, not at all. I still want to devote my life to the healing arts, as it were, and I particularly hope to do so by becoming a doctor. I didn’t blog about my hospital volunteer experiences this year for the sake of the privacy of the children I met, but I spent nearly 100 hours volunteering in pediatric oncology, and in spite of how hard it sometimes was, I loved it. It was always the best part of my week, and it was a constant reminder of why I set out to do this in the first place.

As many of you have insightfully reminded me, if med school doesn’t work out, there are a ton of avenues I can consider in health care: DO programs (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, which is the same as med school); nursing, which most of you are probably familiar with; PA programs (Physician’s assistant—many of my readers are PAs, and love their jobs); RD (Registered Dietician, which would love, and I have always kept in mind as a future option!); and psychology, which would be a shift of direction, but very germane to my interest in mental health and eating disorders. These are only a few, and if I were to ultimately change courses from the MD, I’d take some time and consider which of them would let me use my strengths most effectively to help people. In the end, helping people is what this is all about.

Anyway: this is all my typically verbose way of saying that I’ve still got my heart set on practicing as a doctor, but that I’m also prepared to explore other directions, when and if the time should come. I’ve never been very good at change or uncertainty, but both are part of post-bacc life, and in some ways, it has been an awesomely humbling experience. Again, I’m so grateful to you all for being supportive and insightful as I make my way through it.

And now, I’m taking time off from that humbling experience for two more weeks! I look forward putting a little mental distance between me and school, and to enjoying time with my friends, hanging out with my mom, and savoring a lot of unfettered time in the kitchen.

Happy Friday, everyone!

xo

You may recall my recent post singing the praises of SweetGreen, which is one of my favorite vegan-friendly eateries in DC. Though SweetGreen is associated with salad, the restaurant chain offers far more than greens alone; it also serves warm grain bowls, wraps, and fresh soups, which are nearly always vegan and gluten free. Recently, the restaurant has been featuring a white bean and vegetable pistou with which I am unequivocally in love. I often find restaurant soups to be very salty and garlicky; this one definitely lets you know that garlic is there, but it’s not overwhelming, and the seasoning is just right. I also love the hearty white beans and the basil sauce, or “pistou,” that brings the dish together.

In my attempt to make healthy, vegan dishes for me and my mom for a couple of days (I wrote about this initiative here), I thought I would try recreating this excellent springtime soup/stew. My version uses sugar snap peas, broccoli, and kale, only because it’s what I had, but you could use any mix of spring veggies you like: asparagus, peas, tender greens, and so on. The soup is brimming with vegetables, it’s low in fat, it’s incredibly high in fiber, and it’s also easy to make. I’ll treat this in the future as the kind of soup into which I put most of my vegetable odds and ends—the carrots that haven’t been used, the few remaining broccoli stalks, and so on. Zucchini will also taste great in here, and I can’t wait to try it.

Spring White Bean and Vegetable Stew “Pistou” (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 4-6

1 small white onion, chopped
1 small russet potato, cubed
5 cups vegetable stock or 5 cups water + 2 vegan bouillon cubes
1 cup carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tsp fresh, chopped well)
1 scant cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned (if you used canned, drain before adding)
1 cup broccoli florets, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup snow peas, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup kale or collard greens, chopped
1 1/2 cups cannellini beans, pre-cooked (either home cooked, or canned)
2 heaping tbsp + extra pesto (homemade or prepared)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sautee the onion in coconut oil spray or water until golden and tender. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

2. Add the potatoes, carrots, stock or water/bouillon, herbs, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until the potatoes can be easily pierced.

3. Add the broccoli, snow peas, cannellini beans, and kale. Simmer until the veggies are bright and cooked through, but not mushy. You may want to add a bit more liquid; I like this soup to feel like a “springtime stew,” but if the veggies are dominating to a ridiculous degree, go ahead and add more broth.

4. Stir in the pesto, and then season to taste (how much salt the soup needs will depend on whether you used low sodium or regular broth/bouillon, your tastes, and your health needs).

5. Ladle soup into serving bowls, and serve with an extra dollop of pesto if you like!

You can see how the the pesto infuses the soup in a lovely way. You can also see how many veggies are peeking out of this hearty springtime stew!

I am submitting this lovely recipe to Ricki’s wonderful Weekend Wellness series.

If you haven’t met Ricki and her blog, Diet, Dessert, and Dogs, now is the time! Ricki is a holistic health practitioner, a professor, a recipe genius, and a lovely writer. Each weekend, she hosts a “wellness weekend” event in which her readers can link up to/submit healthy recipes. They must be vegan, whole food recipes, and they must be free of refined sugar and flour. Readers pick particular favorites, and Ricki also selects some highlights of her own. I’ve been meaning to submit recipes all year long, but student life always kept me thoroughly discombobulated. I look forward to submitting a lot of raw food, but while I’m home and cooking for two, I thought I’d start with this lovely, nutrient rich soup/stew.

One pot meals like this are always a treat. Enjoy! And see you here tomorrow.

xo

I know what you’re all thinking, so I’ll just say it for you: there is no flattering way to photograph two brown colored bean dips. Fact.

Hopefully, the title of this post is enticing you even as you snicker at the image. Two creamy, super healthy bean dips: black bean chocolate and peanut butter dip, and sweet cinnamon adzuki bean dip. Both are unexpected, yet delightful spins on the notion of “hummus”—sweet variations on the theme. Both present you with a more nutrient dense and lower fat alternative to almond butter or peanut butter, if you’re looking for a new sandwich filling, oat topper, or something to dip fresh fruit in. Both are inexpensive, quick to make, and feature a short list of ingredients. It took me a while to discover sweet bean dips, but now that I have, there’s no going back.

The adzuki bean dip is a close cousin of my recent sweet cinnamon spiced kidney bean spread.

A lot of you loved the idea of this recipe, but to my surprise, a lot of you were put off by the idea of using kidney beans, and said you wanted to try it with either chickpeas or adzuki beans instead. While I do love me some kidney beans—they’re fantastic sources of lots of minerals, including manganese, molybendum, and iron—I also adore most all beans, and adzuki beans are a special favorite. Adzuki beans, which are native to east Asia and the Himalayas, are small, red/brown in color, and they’re often used in sweet, dessert-like applications. More interesting still, these beans are relatively high in zinc (1 serving gives you 25% of your RDA), which is sometimes tricky to source in a vegan diet; oysters, meat, and scallops are often presented as the richest sources, though all vegans should take note that pumpkin seeds, peanuts, crimini mushrooms, sesame seeds, and adzuki beans are all very good sources.

So is dark chocolate. What a burden for us all.

Anyway, I’m delighted to be presenting a very similar recipe to my sweet kidney bean spread, this time with adzuki beans as the main star. This dip is absolutely scrumptious, and I love the addition of sunflower seed butter; if you can get your hands on it, it really does have a different taste than other nut butters!

Cinnamon Spiced Adzuki Bean Dip (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 4

2 cups adzuki beans, cooked at home or canned
4 pitted dates (more if you want it sweeter), soaked 4+ hours and drained of water
1 heaping tbsp sunflower seed butter (peanut, cashew, or almond butter will also work!)
1 tbsp mellow white miso or 1/8 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients except for water in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Pulse to combine, and then run the motor. Drizzle in water until the dip is super smooth; you may need  a few tablespoons extra water as you go along.

Absolutely delicious. A bit of this on Ezekiel toast or a rice cake with sliced pear is just about my idea of a heavenly snack!

The other sweet bean dip I experimented with this week was a black bean dip with chocolate and peanut butter. I don’t think I need to say much more, do I?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Black Bean Spread (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 4

2 cups black beans, cooked at home or canned
6 pitted dates (more if you want it sweeter), soaked 4+ hours and drained of water
2 tbsp peanut butter (cashew or almond butter will also work!)
2 heaping tbsp raw cacao
Pinch sea salt
1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients except for water in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Pulse to combine, and then run the motor. Drizzle in water until the dip is super smooth; you may need  a few tablespoons extra water as you go along.

I have a slight preference for the cinnamon spread, only because I’m a veritable cinnamon junkie. But this dip is also stupendously tasty, and once again, it’s a really nice way to enjoy something that’s reminiscent of peanut butter, but invested with all of the nutrient density and deliciousness of legumes.

Side by side:

Hope these dips give you all a great sense of the possibilities for bean dip—it’s not just a savory dish!

So, there was lots of interesting feedback on my review of Thrive Foods Direct yesterday! To all of you who expressed hesitation/frustration with the cost: I hear you. As I said in my review, I wouldn’t be able to use the service myself, but I’m presenting it as an option for those who would spend equivalent or more money on hotel food or on a non-vegan meal delivery service. That may not describe many of us, but it does describe some!

To Elizabeth, who inquired about the meal plans presented on the Vega website (you can peek at them here): I agree. Too low calorie, especially when presented for those who are unusually athletic, or in training for a race or competition. To me, “Vega fruit dip (slices of apple, banana, orange), 1/3 serving Natural Vega, 1/3 serving” is a snack, not lunch, so perhaps the meals are meant to be supplemented with other foods! I’d be curious to hear if you get a response to your query. (Edited to add: Brendan responded to this yesterday by mentioning that meals are customizable to suit individual caloric needs; check out yesterday’s post to see his response if you are curios about this!)

And to those of you who asked about lower-cost vegan/raw protein powders and supplements: oh, you are in luck. I have a new protein powder round up post coming soon, full of my take on nutrition, cost, and quality. And that’ll happen as soon as I’m back in DC, with my beloved Vitamix.

Speaking of which, it’s time to meet a friend for a drink at Temple Bar in NYC. It’s good to be home.

xo

I like to think of myself as living proof that eating healthy, plant-based food is possible even within a hectic schedule. I’m a full time post-bacc, premed student, which means I’m doing intensive pre-med courses at breakneck speed. I’m also a food blogger who posts nearly every day. And in addition to all that, I like to spend time with my friends, work out, and do yoga. This leaves little room for leisurely hours spent in the kitchen, but in spite of this, I manage to make a lot of really tasty plant-based dishes each week. I promise you all that eating high raw, vegan food is within your reach, even when life is dragging you down.

Now that I’ve said this, let me make you an equally important promise: I will never lie to you about the fact that eating healthy when life is busy can be really, really hard. We all have limits to what we can do, and it’s helpful to know what those are. Recently, a friend and I were talking about how we’ve both considered buying healthy snack bars for quick mini-meals on the go, but then thought “no, no, I could make something like that myself.” The problem is that something comes up, and we forget to make the snack bars, and then we don’t have any snack bars on hand. Because we don’t have time to pack up something more complex—like hummus and crudites—we skip the snack, and we end up feeling ravenous. I’m sure you’ve been here: it’s the moment when you optimistically think you can do it all yourself, only to realize that you really need a helping hand.

“A helping hand” can be store bought foods, restaurant takeout, or allowing a friend/partner to take over kitchen duties. In my case, during exam week, help came in the form of Thrive Foods Direct, a new, 100% plant-based, whole foods meal delivery started by my friend Brendan. Thrive Foods Direct is meal delivery that reflects Brendan’s own nutritional philosophy. What is what, exactly? Well, if I had to sum it up, it would look like this:

• No common allergens
• 100% plant-based
• Whole foods
• Superfoods inspired (most of Brendan’s bars, protein mixes, and books contain a lot of chia, hemp, and sea veggies)
• Emphasis on the idea of alkaline-forming foods
• High “net gain” foods (foods that give a lot of nutrient density for less caloric cost)

As you can see, Brendan and I share many priorities as health advocates! Namely, we’re both very interested in foods that are nutrient-dense, plant-based, and whole, and we both like to work chia, hemp, coconut water, legumes, and ancient grains into our cooking as often as we can. Given these similarities, and the fact that exams robbed me completely of time in which to prepare dinner entrees for myself, I was the ideal candidate to review Brendan’s new, exciting meal delivery service.

A lot of you have heard about Thrive Foods Direct along the plant-based grapevine, and you’ve asked me about it through Twitter, Facebook, and my comments. Everyone seems to have the same concern, which is “Brendan’s books really emphasize raw food. These dishes seem primarily cooked—is there not enough raw involved?” Well, I can’t answer for Brendan, but I can answer as someone who eats relatively similarly to Brendan: there’s a big difference between the food we eat every day, in the comfort of our own kitchens, and the food we eat when we’re out in the world, keeping busy and moving from one place to another.

When I’m home, I eat higher raw, and the food I eat is fairly simple. It’s a lot of meal sized salads, raw nori rolls, smoothies, raw puddings, raw sandwiches, simple grains, and legumes. When I’m preparing food for company, I tend to focus more on cooked foods and fancy recipes. When I’m traveling, I go with the flow. If it’s vegan and it isn’t deep fried (or egregiously unhealthy), I’ll eat it. Travel, events, and special occasions aren’t just about the food: they’re also about the experiences we accumulate. So I don’t get overly worked up when my food options aren’t precisely in keeping with my likes and dislikes from an ideal world. Instead, I just focus on procuring vegan options, and being appreciative of what I find.

The idea behind Thrive Foods Direct is to provide plant based options for people who are on the road or simply too busy to prepare any food for themselves. If you need to travel for a business conference and you know you won’t have any vegan options, but you will have a mini fridge, TFD is for you. If you’re on tour because you happen to be a musician or an actor or a filmmaker, TFD is for you. If you’re a corporate attorney who is about to face a month of 18 hour work days, and you’re sick of ordering less-than-healthy takeout twice a day, TFD is for you. In a perfect world, we’d all eat more raw greens than what the TFD meal plans offer (though do note that there are raw chia puddings involved). But the whole point of the plans are to help you cope with less than perfect culinary circumstances. And there’s a way to modify the meals so that they do fit into a more ideal paradigm of raw and cooked; you’ll see what I mean in a second.

I received my shipment of TFD in late March. It was perfect timing, as I was heading right into an Orgo exam. I knew, however, that my need for the meals would be more urgent still, so I immediately froze three of the meals, and ate one of them—the roast veggies over brown rice—immediately. How do you think I served it, dear readers?

Why, over greens of course. Lots of them. With avocado on top. That’s how I do!

Seriously, I warmed up my delicious roast veggies and rice, and I plopped the whole dish over raw baby romaine. It was the perfect way to serve it, and it was exactly the kind of meal I’d make for myself on a given weeknight: grains, veggies, greens. The rice and veggies were very tasty and filling.

Last week, during the madness that was finals season, I tried my other three entrees: the eggplant lasagna, the sweet potato with mushroom gravy, and the scrumptious lentil soup. Brendan had mentioned that the lasagna seemed to be most popular:

I can see why: brown rice noodles (note that TFD is gluten free) with eggplant and creamy vegan tomato sauce? It’s comfort food, whole foods vegan style. I think if I had had more time, I would have added either tofu ricotta (a favorite dish of mine), or some cashew cheese, but I honestly didn’t miss either. I served the lasagna with spinach and my red pepper hemp sauce.

A few nights later, I had the sweet potatoes with mushroom gravy. This was more stew than cubed potato dish, but that was A OK with me! I adore sweet potato soup, and the mushroom gravy here was truly delicious:

Not surprisingly, this happened with a big salad of greens, broccoli, and red cabbage. I sprinkled some nutritional yeast on the soup and mixed it in; it was really tasty!

I think my favorite TFD dish was, unexpectedly, the lentil soup, seen here through the lens of Instagram:

I loved this soup, which was abundant enough to give me two night’s worth of food (the other dishes I ate each as a single portion). This was in part because (as you can see) I mixed in some chickpea odds and ends, as well as a big of steamed broccoli. This, too, was served with salad.

So as you can see, if you happen to be someone who is relying on TFD within the confines of your home, you can and should “boost” the entrees with raw or steamed greens/veggies. Brendan is providing the essentials we need to stay energized and healthy: protein from legumes, complex carbs from healthy whole grains, and as many fresh veggies as possible for vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals. But if you have the luxury, as I did, of eating the meals from your kitchen table, do go ahead and mix them with some raw foods, if that’s how you prefer to eat them. If I’d gotten the breakfast dishes, I’d certainly have had them with some raw fruits. If you are eating TFD on the go, rest assured that everything essential is accounted for in these meals, and that you’ll be back to giant salads at home soon enough.

Now, of course I should note that I got to experience TFD free of charge, for blog review. The cost ranges from $45 – $75, depending on which option you choose, and you can opt to have it for 5 or for 7 days per week. I’m well aware that this is not sustainable for a great many of you, but if you’re looking at TFD for a travel option—say, a work trip—keep in mind that it is very easy to spend $45 daily when you travel for work. If you invest the money in these meals, rather than overpriced hotel food or airport food, you’ll also be supporting sustainable, organic, ethically sourced fare, and you’ll be staying true to your taste for plant-based, whole food. You can also order some of these meals, freeze them, and use them when you know you’ll be in a bind for work or for school. This is probably no different, cost-wise, than ordering takeout or using the Whole Foods salad bar as an emergency resource!

And if you are like me, and you try not to spend any excess money on takeout at all, simply tuck the service away as an option for days when you are earning a little more. Also keep in mind that Brendan gives plenty of options for making this kind of food at home in his books, Thrive Foods, Thrive Fitness, and the Thrive Diet. If you want something super simple for busy days, check out any of my posts tagged as “hurry up vegan”—in these, I try to give good options for whole meals on the go!

Of course, I have yet to answer an important question about the foods: how do they taste? The answer is, they taste great! The vegetables and rice were a little bland for my palate, and I ended up sprinkling on some sea salt and oregano. But everything else was perfectly seasoned—some salt, but not salty like most prepared food, and Brendan notes that nearly all of the recipes are either oil free or contain less than 1 tsp added oil—good news for my no/low oil friends in the plant-based community.

Thanks, Brendan, for giving me four nights of nourishing food while I was pulling out my hair and trying to push electrons. It meant the world to me. As an amusing side note, I should tell you all that I promised Brendan I’d take lovely photos for the post. Of course, since I ate the meals at night, for dinner, my lighting was always off, and I ended up with a mix of photos that were just OK, plus Instagram. But I think Brendan would understand that, under busy circumstances, I was doing the best I could. That’s what TFD is all about, and in the case of these meals, “the best you can” will taste very good indeed.

By the way, if you’re looking for some fantastic tips on staying vegetarian/vegan while traveling, my friend Matt just shared 25+ travel tips from notable plant-based eaters–myself included! It’s super helpful, so check it out here. And also check out his review of Thrive Foods Direct, which went up today. Great minds think alike!

xo