Meet Ben Greene. Seattleite, vegan and badass Ironman Athlete, co-author of The Vegan Athlete and the owner of Greene Multisport.

An impressive resume, right?

To say Ben has also accomplished a lot in his young life is an understatement. Ben was born with mild cerebral palsy, and thus pursuing competitive, high-impact endurance sports wasn’t ever an easy task for him. In fact, it was challenging, and something that others in his life never thought would happen. Just knowing all this makes me feel even more in awe of this accomplished and strong vegan, and helps me know that if Ben could do all of the tough endurance training despite his circumstances, I certainly can achieve my personal fitness goals. I recommend reading read Ben’s full story (written by his father) to learn more. On top of all of the above, Ben’s upbeat, positive nature and dedication to helping his clients achieve their fitness goals is infectious and wonderful to be around.

Ben has been vegan for three years now, and just this year decided he was going to quit his job and pursue his dreams: creating his own fitness company to train people and help them meet their fitness goals all while focusing on healthy vegan food.

I asked Ben a few questions about being his book, services and the vegan gym he hopes to open very soon.

What made you want to open a vegan gym in Seattle? Do you have an ETA on the date/new location?

Well I wanted to have something I could call my own. I really am not the type of person who enjoys working for someone else. So I combined my love of working for myself and veganism and started working on opening up a studio. I do not have an ETA right now on the studio. Currently I am looking at spaces and trying to decide which space would be a good fit. I will be looking at some places located in Capitol Hill right now, my fingers are crossed.

Mine too! What were you doing before you decided to pursue training people full-time?

Before I was personal training full time, I was working at a local gym as a part-time personal trainer. It was not for me though.

Tell me about the book and about the experience of co-writing it. How do you know your co-author? What prompted creating the book and who do you think it’s for? Will you tour for it?

My book “The Vegan Athlete” was a blast to write. I was able to research two topics that I am extremely interested in, veganism and exercise. The toughest part was just starting. My co-author and good friend Brett Stewart and I met a few years back through a mutual triathlon friend, when I was living in Phoenix. The idea of the book was created by Brett, he came to me and asked me to write it with him. He is not a vegan and really didn’t know very much about the topic. When I was writing the book, I didn’t want the book to be for super athletes, I really wanted it to be for the new athlete. The book was meant to be a very easy read with a lot of useful information, that anyone could benefit from. I probably won’t tour, but I will be doing things locally in Seattle to promote the book.

What are some examples of meals and snacks that you suggest for people who are vegan and active?

This is kind of the million dollar question, it always seems to be asked. The book actually has 20 different recipes and covers all of this information. To answer the question though a great simple meal could be black bean burgers with some steamed or grilled vegetables on the side. It is one of my favorite meals, it keeps you full for a long time. Another even simpler meal is the good old standard a PB&J. I recommend Adam’s PB or homemade with organic strawberry jam, (Costco has my favorite jam) on Ezekiel bread! One of my favorite snacks is another throwback to childhood, “Ant’s on a log” Celery sticks with PB and raisins! Coconut water and or watermelon are two of my favorite ways to stay hydrated. (Editor’s note: yum!)

What type of clients do you take on? Have you had any success stories yet?

I do not have a typical client, they are all over the board. I train kids as young as 10 to adults in their 60s. I just love working with different people. All of my clients are success stories, they have all made a giant step in the right direction, by making exercise a priority. Most of my clients stay with me for six months or more.

Very cool. Can you tell me about your services? Anything ideal for people who are just getting into fitness?

Of course I can! I offer a wide array of services to my clients! I really want to teach them all what it takes to live a healthy lifestyle. Apart from private one-on-one personal training sessions, I also offer partner sessions, boot camp classes, in home cooking/ training parties, vegan smoothies delivered to their homes and vegan meals delivered to their homes. As for a little information about the cooking services, for the home cooking/training parties I will come to your home with ingredients and exercise equipment, teach you how to cook a healthy vegan meal, and then train you and your friends! As for the vegan smoothies I offer a 3-day smoothie cleanse program. It lets you choose from 12 different smoothies that are brought right to you ready to drink. Finally the vegan meal service, for this I will prepare meals for you and your family and deliver them to your home. I either cook in your kitchen or out of my cooking space. I think my services can fit any fitness level, I will create a program that is tailored to your wants and needs. I will make sure it is fun as well!

All your training has been on Capitol Hill thus far. Do you think you’ll expand to have boot camps in other neighborhoods anytime soon? Also, do you go to your clients for personal training, or are they all on the Hill right now?

As of right now I do not plan on bringing my boot camp to other neighborhoods. Currently I am only focusing boot camp in my neighborhood. But that could change! I have clients all over Seattle, I do travel to my clients homes as well.

I saw on Facebook that you started adding competitive boot camp sessions with prizes. Can you tell me a little more about what those entail and why you wanted to start them? Can people still go to boot camp if they don’t want to be competitive?

The competitive boot camp idea came from a few clients asking me about keeping score at boot camp. I liked the idea and ran with it to create the boot camp competition series. Prizes always seem to get people interested in doing something. The name might scare some people but anyone from any fitness level can come join in. People can definitely still come to boot camp and not compete. I plan on doing a big competition once a month throughout the summer. My goal is to build a tight knit community of people, who can push each other to exercise! I just want people to have fun and be healthy!

The day I met Ben he handed me a copy of the new book that he helped co-write, “The Vegan Athlete.” How rad is that? I’ve been looking for something similar for some time, and I’m glad to have found a book that not only combines sound vegan nutrition but key fitness moves and routines as well. Included in the book are:

• day-by-day meal plans
• protein intake recommendations
• the best calorie-rich foods
• optimal fitness techniques
• delicious meat-free, dairy-free recipes

I feel like this book would be great for both long-time vegans like myself and new or hopeful vegans. For the latter, there are sections outlining Ben’s vegan journey, vegan FAQs, dealing with the stigma of being vegan and an athlete (something that I’m sure any fit vegan has experienced), a general dietary overview as well as a two week to vegan meal plan.

For other people who’ve been vegan for a few years (as well as anyone else) the two main sections that stuck out to me are the fitness section with exercises and the recipes. The fitness section not only describes each move but also includes photos of each so you know that you’re learning the correct form. The recipes section is packed with recipes that look to be healthy, tasty and filling and that don’t skimp on flavor. While I haven’t made anything myself yet, I have saved a few recipes that I plan to try soon. I’ve already tried some of Ben’s food at a recent boot camp and can attest to the deliciousness of these recipes.

Penne with Cashew-Walnut Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes and the Frosted Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Both recipes can be found in “The Vegan Athlete.”

Not only am I lucky to have met Ben, but I’ve also been lucky to have some personal training sessions and some boot camp mornings with him as well.

(Full-disclosure: Ben offered to let me do the personal training sessions and one boot camp in exchange for my reviewing the experiences here).

I am someone who loves to work out. Love cardio, love weight-lifting (once I’ve gotten over the hurdle of not doing it for a while and am back in a groove) and just love sweating and the feeling of endorphins flowing through my body. I’ve worked out since I was about 12 years old when I would join my mom at our local YMCA, and that pretty much started my love affair with working out hard for health – mentally and physically.

Fast forward to January 2013, and I’m a member of a gym again, but I just do cardio and have totally lost my way in terms of weight-lifting. I have lost my muscle definition and desperately wanted to gain my strength back. And in comes Ben Greene, like a wave of positive vegan energy. Once we sat down and discussed my workout history, my past injuries and concerns, we decided to do two personal training sessions. Here are my workout diaries from those sessions:

Training day 1, Wednesday, Jan. 30

Drizzly out, cold, wasn’t really feeling it. Had eaten a cleanse meal of complex carbs/protein (black beans, millet, good fats, veggies) an hour and a half before and it hadn’t fully digested, dumb. I do cardio often, but it’s in a gym, and thus easy and not as challenging. I can’t remember the last time I lifted weights, but it was easily months ago.

What we did:

- Did some running back and forth on the field to warm up
- Medicine ball in the air, then throwing as hard as possible- pushups, bicep curls, tricep dips on the chain link fence
- core workouts on fence with stick and bungee cords
- punching
- run with medicine ball, squat with medicine ball
- lunges

Training Day 2:

- More legs/abs focused today
- Lots of yoga mat work (Supermans, traditional crunches, etc.)
- Lunges, squats, jumping squats
- Medicine ball twists

Felt good, very sore in the legs, but got through it.

And here’s a run down of what you can expect when heading to one of Ben’s boot camps:

TRX (suspension bar) push ups
Medicine ball squat throw
Rope slams
Suicides
TRX Row
Sprawls
Stand up crunches
Kettlebell Swings
Seal Jack relay

Ben’s boot camps happen Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. at Miller playfield on 20^th and John in Capitol Hill. His first boot camp competition (complete with fabulous grand prizes!) will take place this Saturday, March 30. It will consist of doing:

• 100 sit-ups
• 100 step-ups
• 50 push-ups
• 50 dips
• 20 burpees

…as many times as possible in 30 minutes in teams. I got tired just typing that up, but I know that competition and working hard help the adrenaline start flowing. Especially when you have excellent support. You work in teams to get on the board, name your team, designate a captain and have fun.

Details:

• When: March 30, 10:30-11 a.m.
• Where: Miller Playfield
• Cost: $15/person
• Teams: two or five people
• Fitness levels: all
• Prizes!
• Register: greenemultisport@yahoo.com and RSVP on the event FB page above

Ben is available for personal training, boot camp sessions, vegan meal and smoothie preparation, race strategy and much more. For a full list of his services, fees and more, visit Ben’s website. Also find him on Facebook and Twitter.

I was already am a big fan of Vegan Cuts’ daily deal-type site where you can buy new vegan products at a discount and support an all-vegan company. I first heard of the website at Vida Vegan Con 2011 before the site was up, so now I look forward to their daily emails announcing cool new products that I can check out via their well-designed site.

The Snack Box idea just takes things to a new level, though.

I love to try new things, and am always grabbing new brands of kale chips, dark chocolate, weird chia seed drinks, etc. at the grocery store, so this kind of service was tailor-made for me. Having it come to your doorstep every month is another way to try new vegan items every month and to find new go-to snack staples with absolutely zero effort all for $19.95 (shipping included). The American dream, right?

Without further ado, here’s my review of the February 2013 Vegan Cuts Snack Box:

Simply7 Lentil chips – Sea Salt flavor: There were the first thing I tried out the box, and I deemed them delicious. Slightly salty, very crunchy, and a good quick snack, these lentil-based chips are intriguing. I’ve had lentil and bean chips before and loved them, but these were a little odd in terms of texture. I would compare it to air-puffed Pirate’s Booty, and I enjoyed these.

Sjaak’s Heart of Cherry: I. love. Sjaak’s. chocolates. Every time I stop at Vegan Haven or Food Fight in Portland, I have to grab a handful of their perfect, bite-size chocolates, (generally the peanut butter or hazelnut butter bites). They’re seriously a glorious gift to vegans. Initially this Valentine’s Day-themed chocolate confused me and I thought it was a vegan cherry cordial, but thankfully it wasn’t. Instead it was a chocolate filled with creamy cherry truffle, and the combo worked smoothly.

Surf Sweets Fruity Hearts: Yum! I was a big gummy candy fan pre-veganism, so these were a welcome sight. The boyfriend and I dug into them quickly after I devoured the lentil chips, and both enjoyed these. Sugary sweet, I could see these being a great late night study session companion.

Merry Hempsters Lip Balm in Spearmint: There are so many vegan lip balm brands out there that I still haven’t tried them all, and Merry Hempsters was among one of those brands. This balm is classic spearmint, went on smooth and kept my lips chap-free all day. I love this practical, everyday addition to the box.

Righteously Raw Chocolate – Low Glycemic Antioxidant Rich 82% Raw Cacao, Divine Mint flavor: My taste buds didn’t react well to these, likely because I’m used to full-on dark chocolate, sugar and all. If you’re on a mission to eat less sugar or try and curb it out of your diet I would suggest this as a great option, but if that’s not the case, I wouldn’t automatically reach for these.

Dang Foods Coconut Chips: Soooo dang good! As I mentioned via Instagram, I am not a huge coconut fan (I use coconut milk and eat coconut milk ice cream, but straight coconut and flakes are too much for me), but I love certain coconutty things, and these chips were the bomb. I actually still have some left that I’ve been squirreling away to top on just the right snack. I keep eating them by the handful, but I think they’d be perfect on top of ice cream, yogurt, in granola/dry cereal or on oatmeal. I think these are officially my favorite out of the entire box.

Budi Bar, Star Chai flavor: I couldn’t eat this to try because I’m not a star anise fan. So this is my boyfriend’s review: “Very nutty. There’s bits of dark chocolate, so if you like very dark chocolate you’d enjoy this. It left me with a smoky aftertaste.” His overall impression was that he wouldn’t grab this given the choice, but I would be all over trying out other flavors of these bars because I liked the not too moist, not too dry consistency of them.

PureFit Nutrition Bars – Peanut Butter Toffee Crunch flavor: I was also not a fan of the texture of this bar and could tell that it was heavily processed by looking at it. It reminded me of the protein bars I ate pre-veganism, but I liked it. I didn’t taste the toffee crunch flavor, but this peanut butter loving lady was into it post gym-session. Lots of protein and it makes a good hearty snack if you’re on the go.

Serengeti Ticolino Tea: Full disclosure, I have yet to try these, but I can’t wait to! They seem like a really neat idea. They’re tea sticks which eliminate the need to squeeze a bag when tea has steeped long enough and also allow for easy stirring. Nifty, clean and convenient, these would be perfect for work or travel. I got Jasmine (my fave!), Earl Grey and Chamomile, so I’m eager to give them a whirl.

The last item in the box that I also have yet to try is a free online Vegan Cooking School Course, valued at $97. This expires in May of this year though, so I’ll be trying it out soon and reviewing it here.

Overall some hits and some misses, but the hits swung it out of the park and were true homers. I loved seeing this box at my door at the end of a work day and digging into all the new vegan treasures. And now I have some mainstays that I’ll include in my snacking rep. I didn’t mind that not all the contents of the box were literal snacks, but so long as those stay to a minimum, I’m up for trying new lifestyle products too.

PS: I totally subscribed after receiving this box, and am already excited to see what April brings!

Never enough green juice.

The third week of the cleanse was a breeze. My body had already been humming from consuming so much raw produce, juices, smoothies, salads and soups that it wasn’t that hard to get through the last week. My body had adjusted to consuming less and eating healthier food/more roughage, so it wasn’t hard to do so for seven more days. I still saw the light at the end of the tunnel cups of coffee with almond milk.

As time went on in the cleanse, I started to latch on to some favorite, easy-to-make recipes. As a busy human, I appreciated that Kris made some recipes that could be prepped quickly the morning of, so naturally her Green Guru Smoothie became my morning jam. With lettuce, cucumber, pear and good fats in the form of avocado, it had enough sweetness to be a tasty a.m. option. I also became fond of the Ezekiel Sprouted Grain cereal I mentioned in the last post. The amount of protein makes this stay with you, and the crunchy texture was something that I apparently missed when giving up cold cereals.

The makings of a delicious massaged kale salad.

Simple meals of baked tofu, whole grains, steamed and raw veggies and big salads became the norm, as well as soups, the Eggless Tofu Salad, Buddha Bowl and Massaged Kale salad (recipes from the book). There were plenty of recipes in the book, but some required more time or dehydrating, (I am dehydrator-less), so I stuck with the recipes that worked well for me and this helped me succeed in finishing the cleanse.

And even more salads. I thought this one with a bit of everything was lovely.

Here are some things I learned as a result of taking on the Crazy Sexy Diet Adventure cleanse. Maybe they’ll help you if you decide to take it on one day.

Takeaways:

- When I do this cleanse again I will want to make sure that I have more time and use it to do the majority of food prep during the weekends. I struggled with meal repeats sometimes due to lack of time and knowing that I knew how to make certain things, so I feel like my experience wasn’t most representative or the best it could be. Maybe it’s because I’m a crazy person who decided to do a cleanse while working, going to grad school and living life, but I definitely suggest food prep on the weekends and juicing every other day so your cleanse goes smoothly.

- I definitely suggest starting this cleanse on a Monday. As a result of starting mine on a Thursday so it would end at the end of the month, I unintentionally made it so that the seventh day juice fast days were on a Wednesday, my busiest day of the week. Next time I want to try the one day/week juice fasts, so I will start it at the beginning of a week.

- I kind of wish I had a buddy doing the cleanse with me. Trust me, I’m not codependent, but it would’ve been great to message or talk to someone else who was going through the cleanse with you and feeling the things you were. Instead, it was my friends and coworkers who heard about all the things I was craving/missing while detoxing. Accountability is excellent, and next time it’d just be nice to have someone around who’d know what I’m talking about.

- I did this cleanse mainly without reading the 21-day guide in the back of the book. Now, I don’t know if that affected my experience at all, but since I’m not into prayers/meditations/neti-potting, I felt like I followed the cleanse well enough just taking into account the food/exercise recommendations. Next time, I may read the passages each day and write down my thoughts/experiences to get a better overall picture of how I felt on the cleanse.

Overall as I mentioned before, this cleanse was a lot easier than I’d anticipated, and not as scary as most. When I told friends I could eat tofu, Veganaise, gluten-free bread and sprouted grain cereal, they kind of shook their heads in disbelief. Clearly more challenging cleanses exist, but despite the fact that you could still have some beloved foods, this cleanse forced to be more conscious of what I was eating everyday, and helped me incorporate more greens and veggies into my diet. It’s been said before, but it’s super easy to eat unhealthily on a vegan diet. This cleanse is excellent for those who want to recharge but not totally have to restrict themselves into doing a cleanse that might set them up for failure. This one is meant to be done successfully, and I think Kris Carr gives her readers all the proper tools to do so.

Raw trail mix has become a new favorite snack as a result of the cleanse.

Things I aim to keep up (for the most part) post-cleanse:

- Water with lemon every morning upon waking (no cayenne)

- Drinking a juice or smoothie everyday. Not a huge one that I did on the cleanse, but a smaller one so that I still get a burst of energy from green veggies first thing

- Having a salad every day (whether meal-sized or side-sized)

- Consuming less sugar overall, and limiting desserts to once or twice a week. Except dark chocolate, as that doesn’t count (to me)

- Focus on eating more alkaline foods than acidic. I won’t be as regimented, but I will strive to stay as close to 60% alkaline/40% acidic as possible

- Keeping my intake of gluten in check. As I mentioned before, I am pretty in love with gluten and breads, but I am in tune with how it makes my body feel, (sluggish). As hard as it’ll be, I’m going to try to keep my intake of it to a minimum so as to not inflict undue strife on my body and to focus on more whole foods instead

Overall, I loved this cleanse and would highly suggest it to anyone looking to refocus, recharge and clean up their act. If I could do it, you definitely can too. It’s all about focusing on getting back to basics and scaling back from those indulgences for a bit, which is something I think we can all benefit from once in a while, even while living our vegan lifestyles.

Did you also take on a cleanse in January? If so, which one? How’d you do, and what were some of your biggest challenges?

Week One

As I mentioned in my last post, day one of this cleanse was a bit magical. I was riding high on good vibes and visions of clear-mindedness and health. Everything was great on day one, minus the crippling caffeine headache I experienced around 4 p.m. After having some leftover green juice from breakfast and resting a bit, I felt just fine. My meals were tasty and I wasn’t hungry at any point in the day.

Day two: This was my awful, bad, no good day of the cleanse. I’ve heard some people say that day three is the worst for them, but not me. Day two was horrid. My great mood for day one? Vanished. My cravings for caffeine/sugar? Back with a vengeance. I started going off to my friend/co-worker about how much I wanted a cookie and coffee and about how tough this was. It was a totally mentally draining day, but thankfully I realized that all these feelings were normal. My body was detoxing and it was angry about it.

The Green Guru Smoothie from “Crazy Sexy Diet.” So much green!

To celebrate finishing week one: dinner at Chaco Canyon! I had the side house salad + a build your own grain bowl with brown rice, tahini sauce, baked tofu and all the veggies. I barely ate half the bowl.

The rest of the week was excellent. I made some delicious meals/salads/juices/smoothies from the book and had leftovers for days, (which is why I’m not recapping every single meal I ate – it’d get repetitive). And as the week went on, I started to feel a bit lighter, and a bit clearer. Remember how in my first post about the cleanse I said I’d be doing the one day per week juice cleanse as prescribed in the book? Well, that didn’t end up happening. See, in the book you’re to start the cleanse on a Monday and have a juice fast each Sunday, which would make it easier if you work a traditional week. But in my infinite wisdom I started the cleanse on a Thursday (I timed it just so that I would be done with the cleanse at the end of January), so that meant that my juice cleanse days would fall on Wednesday – easily my busiest day of the week as I work a full day then go to class for four hours. So, yeah. I know myself and know that I’d be cranky and irritable and not able to focus without food for a whole day, so this time around I’m not juice cleansing. I’m hoping that at some point later on in the year, I’ll do a one or few day juice fast over a weekend to try it out.

Week Two

For some reason, I struggled a bit more during week two than week one. Blame the way the stars aligned or my schedule, but things just didn’t fall into place the way that I’d hoped they would. I went out and bought all the necessary groceries that I needed for the week and struggled with finding the time to cook/prep them. As a result, I did some repeats of meals that were easy/quick (the Massaged Kale Salad and the Buddha Bowl), and everything else was cobbled together salads, grains/beans/veggies/fats combos and admittedly, some take-out (thank goodness for Veggie Grill’s cleanse-friendly salads).

Lentil soup, steamed/noochy broccoli and brown rice.

Tofu Eggless Salad (“Crazy Sexy Diet” recipe) on gluten-free Food For Life brown rice bread with carrots for lunch. This made so much, and I happily ate leftovers for days.

Despite being a bit scatter-brained, I still felt awesome in week two. My desires for sugar and carbs have subsided, likely due to substituting actual fruit and drinking green tea once per day. I realized that green tea will give me a buzz and keep me up at night if I have it too late, which is a little mindblowing to this former two cups of coffee a day girl. The juices have also treated me well, but I found that having just juice or a smoothie before lunch wasn’t quite filling enough, so I added in a snack in between juice and lunch. I’m loving Ezekiel’s Flax Sprouted Grain cereal. It’s not gluten-free, but it’s allowed on the cleanse. Unlike regular cold cereal, it has tons of protein and fills me up.

Generally speaking about the cleanse, I haven’t followed Carr’s instructions entirely. Namely, I try to work out three-four days/week, but she recommends five. I try to remember to dry brush before I shower, but I don’t always, and I am not neti-potting. I also am not following her daily prayers/affirmations but am reading them. I’m just not into them. That goes for the meditation suggestion, too. In another life/time where I had infinite amounts of free time and no homework, I might actually have tried to follow the non-food aspects of this cleanse more closely to see if they helped more in terms of detoxification and an internal overall. But sadly that’s not the case right now.

Favorite cleanse snacks:

- Almond butter on Food For Life brown rice bread

- hummus on brown rice cakes

- celery and almond butter

- kale chips

- raw trail mix

Realizations as a result of the cleanse so far:

- I’m getting way more into tea. It used to be a once in a while thing that I didn’t always enjoy, but I’m experimenting more with different varietals and treating it like a grand affair whenever I have it. It helps take the pangs of no coffee away slightly.

- Hemp seeds rule. I’d never bought them before, but I love throwing them in salads and on top of bowls. So much protein and nutrients in such tiny seeds!

- Massaged kale salads also rule. I’d read about them forever and after making them, I’ve realized how easy, versatile and delicious they truly are.

- I hate to admit this, but not eating gluten is really contributing to my feeling lighter, I think. It’s total speculation as I’m not eating a lot of things I used to, but I have a feeling that a lot of it is due to laying off my beloved wheat-y bread. This hurts.

- This city is a lot more cleanse-friendly than I thought. In addition to Veggie Grill, Healeo, Chaco Canyon and Remedy Teas have all treated me well in terms of tasty snacks and meals. I’m already planning on creating a cleanse-friendly Seattle restaurant round-up post-cleanse.

Feeling good, guys. Just a few days left to go!

Like this one: a delicious, buttercreamy Christmas cupcake from Sweetpea Bakery in PDX.

And now it’s January again, and I’m feeling the results of holiday feasting and all those aforementioned sweets. Meaning, I’ve been pretty tired, rundown and not my normal, awesome self. For the past two years, I’ve done a sort of “clean slate” approach to food and eating in January (in 2011 I did a elimination diet that was monitored by my naturopath to check for food sensitivities, and in January 2012 I did a month of clean eating as defined by me).  I feel that it’s nice to say goodbye to the times of eating whatever I want, seriously up my intake of green veggies and fruits, and lessen all things processed and not so kind to my body at the start of a new year. I’ve been vegan for years, but as I mentioned last year that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything I eat radiates health and nutrients. So I really am digging this tradition of keeping myself in check at the start and refreshing my view of eating and creating good intentions to have good habits again.

This year will be no different, but this time I am going full-on cleanse, along with the rest of the world. I was inspired by a few things:

1) I got a juicer for Christmas!!! I’ve had this exact one on my Amazon wish list for years, and now it’s mine

2) A feature in the February 2013 issue of VegNews, which broke down different types of cleanses and shared staff members’ experiences with them. I found it really helpful when choosing mine
3) “Crazy Sexy Diet” by Kris Carr, which I picked up over my break

As of last Thursday, I’ve been following Kris Carr’s 21-day cleanse included in the book, and will also be doing a one-day juice fast each week. No caffeine, no gluten, no sugar, no processed food and no meat or dairy (natch). Prior to starting the cleanse, I wasn’t too concerned about it, as it seemed more than doable and delicious, and I’ve been right thus far.

Today marks day five (I started the cleanse on Thursday, Jan. 10 so that I could end right at the end of the month), and I’m feeling good, better than I thought I would. Day one had me so optimistic, and excited about my healthier future, and I consumed the primarily high-raw meals with gusto. I got a caffeine headache at 4 p.m., but it was nothing some green juice couldn’t fix. Day two has been the most trying day by far. I woke up, was craving coffee and toast and my mood had completely shifted to one of “screw this,” “this is hard!,” etc., much to the chagrin of those around me. The rest of the days have been great, and I’m really enjoying cooking (or not cooking) new to me foods and enjoying such fresh meals.

My first (very) green juice from the juicer: the Make Juice, Not War Green Juice from “Crazy Sexy Diet” (all these food photos are made from recipes in the book).

Another first: massaged salad, the Shaved Kale Avocado Salad. So, so good.

Possibly our favorite meal from the book thus far: the Buddha Bowl, filled with good fats like avocado, hemp seeds and oils.

I am more than a little scared about the juice fasts. I’ve never done one before though I’ve been curious for years. The plan allows for easing out of them with whole foods at the end of the day, though, so I think I can handle it. The first one is this Wednesday. I’m also a little scared about making it the whole way through, as I’ve never done that before and have caved early on both past ones due to circumstances I could control (it was tough) and those I could not, (best friend was visiting and not cleansing). So here’s to accountability due to public awareness!

As I mentioned last January, this restart in terms of looking at food and health isn’t due to wanting to lose weight or reach a certain specific goal, but rather to just clean up my act and make health a priority again. It’s easy to get lost in the Mighty-O Donuts, Daiya-laden pizzas, fake meat sandwiches and what-not, and I do not begrudge anyone for having them. For they are delicious! But I personally need to scale back from time to time, and I figure that there’s no better time than the beginning of a new year. Fresh starts, clean insides. That’s my 2013 motto. Wish me luck, and I’ll be posting more about what I’m eating and how I’m doing throughout January.

Did you make any health-relevant New Year’s resolutions/goals/intentions? If so, what are they, and how are you doing thus far?

Photo of flier courtesy of Helen’s instagram account.

Vegan Haven (formerly Sidecar for Pigs Peace) is holding their Holiday Bake Sale this weekend, Dec. 15-16 to benefit the wonderful Pigs Peace Sanctuary. I’m going to be whipping up some savory treats for the event, know a few other local vegan friends will be doing the same, and know that friend Helen of Vegtastic is helping to plan it. The sale is still seeking more bakers to donate goods vegan baked goods for this very worthy cause. Have some free time and want to help bake for the piggies? Here’s more info:

Baker guidelines:

• Please drop off your baked goods at Vegan Haven during this time frame: Friday, December 14th after 6pm through Saturday, December 15 at 8pm.  If this doesn’t fit in your schedule or you would like to bring in your items on Sunday morning so we have fresh goodies, please contact Helen at bakesale@pigspeace.org to work out arrangements.
• All items must be vegan (no honey)
• All items must be cooked/baked.  Dehydrated food is A-OK to bring to the sale.
• Avoid potentially hazardous foods that spoil easily without refrigeration.  For example, pudding, cheesecake, a whipped cream filling or topping, etc.
• Wrap all of your items at home in individual sized servings.  For example, if you¹re baking cookies, wrap them individually or 2 or 3 together in saran wrap or a sandwich bag.  The reason behind this is to minimize direct hand to food contact at the sale.
• Follow hygienic practices when preparing and wrapping food–wash your hands frequently, keep a clean working environment, etc.
• Please bring a list of ingredients that you used in your baked goods. People might have questions at the sale regarding allergies, etc.  You can put the list of ingredients on each item or bring one list, it’s up to you.

Just a general bake sale FYI: individual-sized portions tend to sell better than large items. This way, people can pick and choose from a variety of treats, (I know this is my strategy). Also, you don’t have to be vegan to contribute, just your baked goods!

Treats from this year’s Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in Tacoma.

If you are unable to bake, eaters are always welcome too! The bake sale usually features a variety of types of brownies, cookies, savory treats, cakes, etc., so there’s something for every vegan baked good lover. You can also check out the wonderful Vegan Haven for holiday gifts if you’re one of those people who have yet to start their shopping (aka, me). Win-win!

I plan on attending the bake sale on Sunday, and I hope to see some of your lovely faces there!

Event deets:

• What: the Vegan Haven Holiday Bake Sale
• Where: Vegan Haven, 5270 B University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
• When:  Saturday, Dec. 15 from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 16 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

My last round of conquering food fears was three-fold: parsnip, rutabaga and turnip. So autumn it hurts.

I wanted to get a root veggie-heavy recipe to be a part of this challenge because despite the fact that I’ve eaten them in many forms in restaurants (parsnip soup, rutabaga and turnip in pasta dishes, etc.), I’d feared cooking them because they always seemed rough to prep. I also felt that they would not come out as well at home as at a restaurant that was used to seasoning them and cooking them thoroughly, so this trio was the perfect test of all three at once. So much to mess up…or get deliciously right!

I picked up my beloved, well-used copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen prior to heading to the store and immediately gravitated to the Roasted root vegetables with roasted garlic-lime dipping sauce recipe. I mean, can you count all the delicious-sounding foods in that recipe name? There are many, friends.

I’ve never made a recipe by Bryant Terry that I hadn’t absolutely adored, or that hasn’t wowed a group of people, so I knew that this would be a fitting recipe to try and knock out three cooking fears in one go. So I got to work making it, alongside some Roasted Rosemary Tofu (recipe also from Vegan Soul Kitchen).

Turnips education via Super Mario Bros. 2. Image by GameCola.net.

I went to Central Co-Op to grab these veggies for the recipe, and felt like an awful vegan. I literally had to ask the produce lady to help me differentiate between many of these vegetables, and I only knew what turnips looked like due to childhood memories of playing Super Mario Brothers 2, (nerd alert).

Parsnip, rutabaga and turnip, at your service.

I honestly had to look up online how to prep all of these veggies, minus the parsnip, because it basically looked like a bigger, white carrot. Peeling and chopping these took a minute. Once they were chopped, I set them aside and got to work on making the sauce.

Ready for roastin’.

The sauce was composed of fresh cilantro, fresh lime juice, olive oil and a whole head of roasted garlic cloves (mmm) among other spices. After roasting the beautiful garlic, my apartment smelled lovely.

Heaven, slightly burnt.

I then threw all the other sauce ingredients together into my trusty Vita-Mix, and it whirred together into this vivid sauce:

After this was complete, I got back to the veggies. I mixed them together with some olive oil and spices before roasting:

Here’s the finished plate, including tofu:

I made this dish a few weeks back, but the flavors are still memorable in my mind. The roasted veggies came out semi-sweet, but still nutty and autumn-inspired. Soft due to roasting and enhanced by the addition of the creamy olive oil/cilantro/lime sauce, this side dish was spectacular. A touch of saltiness in the sauce melded well with the near caramelized roasted veggies, and the roasted rosemary tofu ended up being this dish’s perfect partner. Honestly, these two sides would be perfect additions to your Thanksgiving table if you’re looking to switch things up from the traditional. I promise you won’t regret it.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy parsnips, rutabagas and turnips?

Prior to this weekend I’d never experienced spaghetti squash, either by cooking or dining out. Last year was the year of conquering cooking squash, but there are a lot of squashes out there! I tapped the surface in 2011, but I will try them all in time.

My co-workers and the Internet love to sing praises of spaghetti squash. Some pro arguments I’d heard:

1) It’s really easy to make, hard to screw up (great news for me)
2) It’s a nice substitute for heavy pastas
3) It’s versatile
4) It’s delicious

All good things that made me feel better about attacking this gourd.

Mushrooms and I, we have a history.

They’ve always been one of those “I’ve hated these since I was little!” types of foods, (except fancy ones. I love me some Shiitake and portobello mushrooms and yes, I realize how weird this is). If they were covered in cheesy pizza or well-hidden in something, I didn’t mind them much. But whenever I bit into the rubbery, odd texture of one, I immediately gagged. I thought them to be flavorless, awkward and not worthy of my attention.

Then last month I was reading Eat to Live and thought that I should give mushrooms another try as, you know, I’m an adult. And I like trying “new” things now. We slowly worked them into our lives in the forms of salad toppers. And I didn’t hate it! I realized that their flavor/textures weren’t that weird, and I’ve enjoyed them. But I still hadn’t cooked them.

So I set out to find a recipe that integrated both of these ingredients into something delicious.

Most spaghetti squash recipes that I found were of the ‘add red sauce (replicating actual spaghetti) and be done’ sort. I didn’t want to make a different sort of spaghetti, so I searched for something hearty and creamy with mushrooms. And Daily Garnish‘s Spaghetti Squash & Vegan Mushroom Cream Sauce fit the bill perfectly. So I got to work.

I cut the squash in half and covered it in olive oil, 5 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and roasted it an hour.

It comes out looking like this, with the tender flesh pulling away with the swipe of a fork.

Then I began work on the so-easy-it’s-silly cream sauce. First I sauteed them, and realized that it was the first time I’d smelled earthy, rich mushrooms cooking in vegan butter. I was missing out.

I changed this recipe up slightly by adding spinach towards the end, because I like a little green in my meals. I absolutely loved the result of the finished product.

I’m so glad we have leftovers.

Have you tried spaghetti squash? What’s your favorite way to prepare it?

Last year I participated in Vegan MoFo for the first time ever, and I was so happy that I did when the month was over. And this year isn’t very different, all except for the fact that oh yeah, I started grad school last week.

Full-time work and full-time school, plus new school blog and this blog and some semblance of a social life and trying to be a good cat owner = I don’t know, I hope some shreds of sanity?

In light of my new crazy schedule and life, I’m going to have to scale back majorly in terms of MoFo this year. Last year I successfully posted each weekday for the month, making that 20 full posts. Now I just shake my head at the idea of having that much “free” time.

This year, my goal is so low, it’s silly: one post per week, more if I can. One of the greatest things about Vegan MoFo is you can truly do what you want with it and make it your own month. So thankfully, I think I can handle that. I’m hoping there will be some weeks where I find extra time to dedicate to killer posts here, but I’m not counting on it.

For 2012, I have a central theme: cooking the foods that scare me. This was inspired by a few posts from last year’s MoFo, where I successfully cooked both acorn and butternut squashes. There’s still a whole lot of food out there that scares me for a few reasons, a few of which are: because I’ve attempted cooking them before and it came out horribly, because I’ve never cooked it myself, or because I’m just plan scared to try. Also, Halloween, boo, scary? Horrible joke, but I had to try. I often find myself cooking the same things because I know I make them well and they’re delicious, but every once in a while I need to kick myself out of my ruts and find new favorites. That’s what this month is all about for me.

And the first food that scares me for VeganMoFo 2012 is…eggplant!

I love eggplant. I love it in the spicy Indian dish Baigan Bharta, grilled, in creamy baba ghanoush, and any other way it can be prepared. The thing is, I’ve only had these amazing dishes in restaurants, and not in my home. I tried to roast eggplant once, and it was a sad, sad, attempt. Rubbery, dry and not at all appealing, I wouldn’t have fed it to an enemy. Pretty and bearing one of my school’s colors, I figured this vegetable a great place to start.

So tonight, I made the Eggplant-Chickpea Curry from Appetite For Reduction – a book that I love and utilized a ton during last year’s MoFo.

I didn’t remember what it was like to cut into an eggplant (rough, hard to slice through, squishy?), but thankfully the two I picked up from Central Co-op were perfect – not too hard, not too soft, and I sliced through them with ease.

Adding in some of my favorite all-time spices – garam masala, curry, cumin – tomatoes and a few other ingredients, my apartment started to smell pretty wonderful.

Tasting this dish for salt, I called it a success. The eggplant cooked down softly and created a sauce with the tomatoes and veggies. It was the perfect Monday night dinner for us when paired with some brown basmati rice and steamed kale.

Verdict? Eggplant accomplished.

Commenter #1, Roxanne!

Number 1 came up on the generator, so congrats lady!

Roxanne, I will be emailing you later today with more information about your ticket, the event, etc.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and maybe I’ll still see some of you at the seminar!