The movie musical Doctor Doolittle opens with Rex Harrison singing, “If I Could Talk to the Animals.” He sings about how wonderful it would be if he could effectively communicate with all animals, each in its own language: If I conferred with our furry friends, man to animal, Think of the amazing repartee. If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals, Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals, And they could squeak and squawk and speak and talk to us! Anyone with a companion animal has undoubtedly wished this too. I know I’ve spent hours talking to my dogs over the years. Sometimes I just needed someone to listen to me, other times I wished they could talk back. Of course there are times I am thankful they cannot, but for the most part I wish they could. More precisely, I wish I could understand what
On the scale of fugdey to cake-like, these vegan browniesare more on the cake-like side. While I prefer a more fudgey brownie, these satisfy my craving until I come up with an even better recipe. So bake up a batch, pour a glass of your favorite non-dairy milk and enjoy.
During our 3 days in Los Angeles, we ate… a lot. We said, “bye-bye diets, this is vacation.” So, without further ado, here is our review of our culinary adventures in Los Angeles. Hugo’s – 8401 Santa Monica Blvd. 323-654-3993 Hugo’s is a fixture in West Hollywood. Hugo’s has an extensive menu with ample vegan options. The menu has a key to help quickly identify Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Can be Vegan, Can be Vegetarian, Can be Gluten-Fee and Contains Nuts. We truly appreciate a restaurant that does this as it makes reading menus much easier. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. If you have any questions, they can usually answer them without having to run to the kitchen to check. Hugo’s is a great option if you are dining with a mixed group of omnivores and vegans. The menu has something for everyone. We had 3
Our dear friend JL Fields of JL Goes Vegan has a wonderful blog of recipes, articles, advice and coaching on all things vegan. She is an invaluable source of information, an amazing person and someone we are so fortunate to call a friend. While she is hard at work finishing her second book, she has enlisted some of her “favorite authors, chefs, business owners, and bloggers to share ‘Quick Tips’ with you – simple and easy ideas to make your vegan, vegetarian or veg-curious journey even easier! Print-friendly, if you want to keep the tips on hand you can clip them with Evernote or print and stick on your refrigerator!” We are honored to be the inaugural guest bloggers for this feature. We offer some of our tips for worry free vegan hosting. Read it, print it, send it to your friends and family. This is a great piece for anyone who is
This is one of those “all in one” type recipes, somewhat like a casserole where everything is contained in one package. Here, eggplant acts as a shell to contain a filling of cheese, pasta, vegetables and TVP. If you don’t like TVP, you can use any kind of vegan crumbles you like, just skip that part of the preparation steps and toss the crumbles in when you are preparing the filling. You’ll want to keep this in your make ahead or weekend recipe file. Grilling the eggplant takes a little work but when you open the springform pan at the end and have a beautiful dish to serve, it is all worth it. And really, grilling eggplant slices is not that hard. Just be sure the eggplant slices aren’t too thick, you need them to be bendable after they are grilled. You also don’t want them too thin or they
Ribollita literally translates to “reboiled.” Like much Tuscan cuisine, the soup has its origins as a peasant food. It was made by reheating the previous day’s soup and adding in stale bread to thicken it and give it a more stew-like consistency.
I love crunchy salty foods: potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, pita chips. If it is salty and goes crunch, I am there. As a healthier alternative to chips and such (which are just empty calories) I often turn to kale chips to satisfy my need for crunch. Even people who claim to not like kale will like these. Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 20 minutes Ingredients: 1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried 2 tablespoons olive oil Sea salt, for sprinkling Half a lemon (optional) Directions 1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. 2. Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1½ inch pieces. Toss in a bowl with the olive oil. Spread into a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. 3. Bake 10 minutes and turn the leaves over. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the kale is crispy. 4. Serve
Our Pine Bark is the perfect combination of sweet and salty, crispy and crunchy, and is just really good.
Eggplant was something I always thought I didn’t like, even though I’d never actually had it before. I have no idea why that would mean I didn’t like it. It was just never something served in my house growing up. However, while at my friend Jill’s house about 7 years ago, her mother served up some eggplant parmesean and my world changed. Fried eggplant covered in tomato sauce, yes please! Ethan then challeneged me to make my own version of it. Challenege accepted! I read about how to work with eggplant and everything I saw talked about salting and rinsing the eggplant slices to make them less bitter. Now I realized why my mother never used eggplant, it seemed to be a lot of work. But not to be discouraged, I set out to make my own eggplant parmesean. The kitchen counter was lined with pans of salted eggplant. When
Do not let the time or number of steps* deter you from making this hearty meal. This pie is an entire meal in one dish: a stew topped with mashed potatoes and cheese. It just doesn’t get any better. Even the “I don’t like vegan food” people will love this. This is great for a large crowd and the left overs reheat great. Make this on a Sunday and after cooking, let it cool completely. After completely cool, cover and store it in the refrigerator, then all you have to do to have dinner during the week is simply reheat as much as you need and keep the rest for another meal. * If you want to save a few steps, you can easily replace the TVP with chopped seitan or vegan crumbles. If you choose to do this, you will need 3 cups of whatever you use. Simply skip
