Hello from Portland!  I arrived Thursday night and the vegan fun has been non-stop! I look forward to sharing restaurant treats, snippets from the excellent sessions at Vida Vegan Con, and more. For now, I wanted to let you know that I have a piece in the latest issue of T.O.F.U. Magazine.

I first tackled the issue of body image on this blog in January of 2011 when I wrote January Diet? Nope, I bought bigger clothes. Later that year I launched the blog Stop Chasing Skinny – because after writing that blog post I quickly discovered that I wasn’t the only one who was ready to halt the chase.

Yesterday Issue 7 of Tofu Magazine was released with a focus on Veganism and Body Image. My piece, Reframing What Beauty Means, was included in the magazine and I am deeply honored.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of the magazine; I would love to hear what you think.

Michael and Ethan graciously opened up their home to me last weekend. When we plotted out my few days in NYC, I was pretty sure I could be home from The Seed at a decent time on Sunday. I offered to take them out for dinner but Michael suggested that we cook at home with the pressure cooker.

Me: You have a pressure cooker?! (I may have squealed that question).

Him: No, but we can buy one.

While I was at The Seed earlier in the day, Michael and Ethan went through my pressure cooker recipes, selected two, went shopping, and had all of the food prepped. Michael picked me up at the train station and we drove directly to Bed, Bath & Beyond (the original!); he walked out a very happy man.

When we walked in the door Ethan dazzled us with appetizers to tide us over during the pressure cooker lesson.

Zucchini and Carrot Latkes with Spicy Vegan Aioli and Vegan Caviar

What a nosh!

Michael was ready to roll to with the lesson. I mean seriously ready. All he wanted was for me to explain new terms (bring to pressure, cook at pressure, natural release, quick release) and to talk about cooking times (I advise to cook beans the shortest recommended time first go around – just simmer uncovered if necessary to finish – to get to know how that particular pressure cooker works with that particular stove).

We talked a bit about intuitive cooking and how to eyeball liquid needs. I also showed him how to clean the pressure cooker well to avoid problems when cooking. We discussed all of these things while he made us a super-fun meal.

He started with BBQ Pulled Jackfruit Sandwiches.

This was a fun dish to begin with because it doesn’t take a lot of time but demonstrates how 10 minutes at pressure can mix and mingle spices in such a delightful way. We were also able to snack on the sammies while Michael made his first bean dish!

Yep, he chose to tackle chickpeas, only soaked for one hour, by making my New World Szekely Goulash recipe.

The chickpeas were perfectly done!

Michael mastered the pressure cooker, Ethan snapped fabulous photos of the occasion, and I….err…well, I ate!

Tomorrow Ginny Messina and I will be in Portland – as will Jasmin and Mariann of Our Hen House. Today, however, Ginny and I are on the Our Hen House online magazine.

Check out Ginny’s article Protein in Vegan Diets: Take Advantage of the Options which includes my recipe for Grape and Brazil Nut Chicken-Less Salad,

I have returned from a wonderful weekend in New York – my first trip back since moving to Colorado Springs six months ago.  Why New York? To attend, and speak at, The Seed!

My wonderful and kind friends Ethan and Michael hosted me in their gorgeous home filled with love and three dogs. I kind of just wanted to stay there for the three days. We feasted each morning!

Tofu Scramble and a New York (!!!) Bagel with Vegan Herb Cream Cheese

Vegan Pancakes and Banana-Chocolate Bread

Don’t you kind of want to move in with Ethan and Michael? I do and Dave totally understands.

Saturday morning we three hopped a train into the city and enjoyed a fun-filled day at the vegan expo in SoHo. Jasmin and Mariann wowed the crowd during their talk “Fed Up!”. Immediately after, Jenny Brown spoke on her work to save farmed animals. I had to duck out early because I was on a panel discussing starting or sustaining a vegan business.

Me, Gena of Choosing Raw, Kristin of Will Travel for Vegan Food (thanks for the pic, K!) and Pas (not pictured and the main organizer of The Seed – I bow down to him!)

Here’s one tip from my remarks:  Think about where you stand on your veganism and how that will play out in your business. Meaning I’m very clear that I am an ethical vegan but when I’m teaching classes or coaching my opinions are not the point. I focus on where my client or student is and if she’s not vegan and doesn’t want to be, that’s fine (before I was vegan, I was not). I’ll do whatever I can to encourage her to eat more plants knowing each time she has a vegan meal it’s good news for animals.

Saturday night I met Jasmin and my friend Megan for dinner at Blossom (on 9th Ave.). I feasted on chickpea latkes, seitan scallopini and a chocolate-banana pudding.

On Sunday I caught Gena and Kathy’s talk on smoothies before I headed to do my own presentation. Last year I was on a panel discussing vegan blogging and this year I was invited back to talk specifically about how to move one’s activism beyond the blog.

I can’t lie – I was pleasantly surprised to see a full room of people, most of whom identified as bloggers (or intending to blog). Their smiling faces put me at ease and I went for it!

I focused mostly on the importance of self-reflection- know your own blog niche/voice and your own skills and interests. Once you have identified those you can begin to think about how you can use your voice and skills to work on behalf of animals. My concluding advice included the notion that while social networking is key for blogging, at the local level newspapers and radio matter so get to know your local media. I also encouraged people who choose to move their activism into a paid profession to never apologize for wanting to make a living by following their passion. Even though some of what I do for animals is now part of my career, I still volunteer and donate my skills and services. You can do both!

I met some great audience members after the talk, people behind the blogs Farmers Market Vegan, The Food Duo, Rubber Cowgirl, and Zen Fans, to name a few

Ali and Ted

- and was delighted to see my friend Marcia, who has signed up for the Main Street Vegan Academy, and Marty.

After my presentation I had some quality time with Gena

Fran

and Victoria.

When I wasn’t hanging out with friends, listening to friends or presenting I was wandering the expo. Faves included Treeline Cheese, OlsenHaus shoes, Amrita bars and Vegan Bodega.

I returned to Michael and Ethan’s completly wiped out. But I am never too exhausted for a pressure cooker lesson! )I’ll save that adventure for a post later this week.)

It was wonderful to return to New York. It was even more wonderful to return home, to Colorado Springs.  I’m doing laundry right now, however, so that I can pack again tomorrow…Portland and Vida Vegan Con, here I come!

***

Yesterday I asked you to share what types of cooking classes you are interested in and/or cooking topics you’d like to see addressed here on the blog. I got several emails last night with awesome suggestions. Please continue to let me know your Hot Cooking Topics of interest (and thanks)!

Hello from Newark Airport! I had a lovely weekend at The Seed, and with friends, in NYC. Before I hop on the plane, I have a question for you. Actually, two.

1. I’m putting my fall teaching schedule together for Colorado Springs classes. What kind of cooking classes are you interested in taking?
2. What kind of cooking topics would you like me to address here on the blog?

Thanks! And see you tomorrow with my NYC/The Seed recap!

Last night I taught my first class on using the pressure cooker.

Most of the students were in my class last week - The Five Fabulous Vegan Food Groups:  Why you should eat them and how to cook them - where I made dishes to represent a typical day of eating vegan and to demonstrate how easy it is to each vegetables, fruit, beans, nut and seeds, and grains each day. I made the following:

• Breakfast: Green Smoothie
• Snack: Curry Cashew Butter with Celery
• Lunch: Creamy Kale Miso Soup
• Dinner: Mediterranean Beans and Greens (over brown rice pasta)
• Dessert: Cherry-Banana Soft Serve

If that wasn’t enough, earlier in the afternoon I prepped a kale salad (4 cups of kale massaged with one ripe avocado, juice of half a lemon and about two tablespoons of hemp seed) and I baked a tofu on a cast iron skillet – with simple marinade of olive oil, tamari sauce, rice vinegar and garlic powder – and cubed it. I wanted to them have a few things to nosh on while I cooked up the food.

Overachiever, much?

Well that sort of happened again last night. At the end of last week’s class I queried the students about how they wanted me to approach food prep for the pressure cooker class. We decided I should simply make and entire meal and that seitan would be the star.

Yeah, only I would give seitan to a group of people who represent the continuum of a vegan journey.

Truth be told I was a little nervous yesterday. I’m not an expert on pressure cooking. I just own three pressure cookers and use them four to five times a week. I needed to translate my zeal for the pressure cooker into concrete information for my students in a condensed time frame and make an entire meal. So what did I do? I made every single dish on the class menu that afternoon.

Overachiever, much?

The good news is that the seitan, soup, potatoes and gravy came out great.

Test dinner, all sprinkled with cinnamon!

So I made them again, last night, for ten students.

Setting up the demo table for the seitan (video below!).
Photo courtesy of Shannon M.

The dinner menu:

• Creamy Squash & Apple Soup
• Cinnamon-Ginger Seitan
• Mashed Fingerling Potatoes (using this method)
• Cinnamon-Ginger White Bean Gravy

Oh, the gravy! I developed this recipe specifically for the class and paired it with the seitan, using ingredients that would pull it all together.

During the lecture portion of the class (which I did while slicing and dicing), I included “JL’s favorite things to make in the pressure cooker”:

• Vegetable broth: 1 gallon freezer bag full of vegetables or veg-scraps + 8 cups water + 2-3 favorites spices + bay leaf.  Bring to pressure. Cook at pressure for 10, 12 or 15 minutes. Natural Release. Strain.
• Quinoa: 1 cup quinoa + 2 cups vegetable broth, cook at pressure for ONE minute.
• Beans:  My protein of choice, make them in minutes, no cans! SOAK them – for your digestion and for quicker, even cooking.
• Grains: Oatmeal, pearled barley, amaranth, and amaranth, I love ‘em all!
• Lentils: Super-fast, no soaking, great in soups.
• Chickpeas: You’ll never buy hummus again.  Chickpeas, sesame oil, garlic and onions all in the pressure cooker (use your favorite pressure cooker cooking time chart to determine how long to cook them), finish off with lemon juice.  Place in the food processor, add a little tahini, drizzle in cooking broth if you need more liquid. YUM.
• Soups/chili/stew: Mix and match grains and beans by cooking time – use lots of broth or water, lots of veggies and you can’t go wrong.
• Root veggies: 6 minutes, tops.  Quick release.  Freezes well. Potatoes, parsnips, turnips, oh my!

I have to give a shout-out to my good friend Justin Trolle. He recently caught the pressure cooker bug – thanks to my nudging – so I asked him to come to the class and bring his electric pressure cooker, which I know nothing about, to share how to use one and to jump in whenever an electric pressure cooker question came up. He was awesome.

My friend and student Shannon took a few videos last night!

Friday morning I’ll be on a plane, heading to New York. This is my first trip back since moving and I cannot wait. Cannot. Wait.  Friends, food…and The Seed!

I’m delighted to be returning to 82Mercer, the gorgeous, SoHo space where the positively plant-based festival took place last year.  If you recall, I was moderator, and presented, on a blogging panel

along with Gena and Yoli. This year I’m returning to present Blogging 2.0 – From Your Blog to Main Street: How to Expand your Vegan Activism.  I wrote a chapter on “veganism beyond the plate” in the forthcoming Vegan for Her, which includes a section on activism and I’ll share some ideas from that, but I have a special request.

Vegan bloggers:

1. How have you taken your vegan activism beyond your blog?
2. What do you want to know about going further with your activism? 

I will incorporate your questions into the presentation and will do a follow-up post here with suggestions and ideas for all of us.

I’m presenting at The Seed at 12:00 p.m. Sunday and hope to see you there!

A few days after returning from New York I’ll be back on a plane, this time to Portland for the second Vida Vegan Con, a vegan lifestyle blogger conference.

The week after VVC I’ll be, yep, back on a plane, on my way to the Niagara VegFest.

Ginny and I will connect in Chicago and travel together to begin spreading the good Vegan for Her word.  Ginny will present Happy, Healthy Vegan for Life: Ten Tips to Guarantee Success and I will follow her with my Healthy Food Preparation for the Busy Non-Cook: Tips, Trips and Techniques to Eat a Balanced, Compassionate Diet cooking demonstration and presentation.

The next weekend I’ll be in Austin for BlogHer Food 2013…

…in Austin! I am so excited to finally visit that special city in Texas.

Then, mid-June, I’ll actually be home for two weekends in a row but I certainly won’t be resting on my laurels. I’m teaming up with fellow Meetup organizers Lisa and Heather to offer a FREE 90-minute class Quick & Easy Ways to Make Plant-Based Meals for Kids (June 15). The following weekend I’m teaching a Summer Soups and Salads Cooking Demo Class (June 22), which will include a full lunch with wine!

That will wrap up June. July is going to be busy, too, but that’s connected to the book launch and worthy of its very own post – so more on that later!

I hope to see you in NYC, Portland, St. Catharines (Ontario), Austin…or Colorado Springs!

One year ago I registered for the Victoria Moran’s Main Street Vegan Academy to become a certified vegan lifestyle coach. A month later I completed the training

and I have been coaching since then.

I started coaching during the first few months of my new life of self-employment, while living in New York. I prepared a budget that made sense at the time (I wrote about this last week for BlogHer).

Last month, tax season in the U.S, I was able to see the big picture outcome of my business. I took that as an opportunity to review our living expenses after six months at a new cost of living in Colorado Springs. It became crystal clear that I could offer my lifestyle coaching services at a significantly reduced rate.

So I am.

I slashed my rates by over 50%.

If you’re ready for vegan lifestyle coaching, I’m ready to work with you!

Vegan Lifestyle Coaching

I have developed six education modules designed to guide your journey on how to eat and live more compassionately. Topics include health, diet, and meal plans; kitchen tips, tricks and techniques; living in the world as a social vegan; keeping a compassionate home; and more. Coaching services provided via phone or Skype (in person coaching available in Colorado Springs).

“I’m so excited about my personal plan – your heart and knowledge were so evidently poured into its creation.” - Debi T., Vegan Lifestyle Coaching Client

• The Single Coaching Session: During this 45-minute consultation you talk, I listen, and within three business days you will receive your personalized “Get Started” program. $45
• 3-Session Coaching (most popular!): We will begin with an introductory 45-minute consultation, then you choose two education modules for your coaching focus. $120
• 6-Session Coaching: This plan includes the introductory 45-minute consultation and covers all six education modules. $225 (BONUS:  6-session clients will receive a welcome kit, which includes coupons and products from vegan businesses. The welcome kit is valued at over $30!)

All personal coaching payments are accepted on my business page JL Fields Consulting

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom readers (and my mom!). My cats didn’t get me anything but then I told them not to, so we’re good.

Yesterday I hosted a Meetup featuring vegan cheese from Door 86.

Here’s a sampling of the samples…

…and that wasn’t even all of it! (Not pictured: The Sriracha Cheddar that rocked my world. Oh. My.)

Over 60 people RSVP’d to this Meetup and wow, did they ever show up when the doors opened!

I offered organic, vegan wine, asking for a $5 donation per pour to support Our Hen House

and gave away PETA vegetarian/vegan starter guides and Vegan for Her postcards

Speaking of Vegan for Her, Manuela couldn’t put the review copy down…

…and said “I don’t want to wait until it comes out. I want to just buy this copy.” Love it!

A huge thank you to Door 86 chef Daphne Medina for making a most amazing array of plant-based cheese and to Manuel and Rachel

for serving and selling the cheese with smiles all day long!

Do you live in Colorado Springs and somehow didn’t know about this event? Well, sign up for our Meetup!

Now, how about some links and news?

This week’s vegan links and news

In the news:

• Vegan Food for Everyone
• Whole Foods Mix-Up Lands Chicken in Vegan Salad
• Vegan Dinner Party Recipes: Cooking An Animal-Free Meal That Everyone Will Like
• Up to 50% off Tickets to The Seed NYC: Vegan Expo
• Vegan, vegetarian options sprout in New Orleans
• 5 Risky Diet Mistakes Vegetarians Make — And How You Can Avoid Them
• Vegan milkshakes and quinoa pancakes … at a diner?
• Bare Blossom Natural Mineral Makeup and Cosmetics Has Officially Launched

If you’re hungry…

• Raw, Vegan Carrot Raisin Walnut Cookies
• Potato-Free Rutabaga Hash Browns
• Lemon Rice Soup
• Roasted Walnut & Eggplant Boats
• Bacon and Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
• Simple Vegan Lasagna

This week on the blogs

JL goes Vegan

TUESDAY: Beyond Meat: Southwestern style for a vegan Cinco de Mayo

THURSDAY: It is better to travel well than to arrive: Revisiting vegan perfection

FRIDAY: On BlogHer: My first tip on how to Professionalize Your Passion – Build a Budget!

Stop Chasing Skinny

Have you stopped chasing skinny? Submit your story today.

Finally!

I solicited your questions and promised to write a series sharing my tips on how to Professionalize Your Passion and my first tip – Build a Budget – was syndicated on BlogHer yesterday.

I hope you’ll hop over to BlogHer, read the post, and come back to ask any follow-up questions you have and/or jump in with your own advice!

My next tip in the series will be If you don’t network, it’s not going to happen.  What do you want to know about networking?