Birthdays and Thanksgivings

This past weekend was not only a couple of thanksgiving dinners but we started our weekend off with my sisters birthday! Which meant that my husband and I got the opportunity to make a few tasty desserts! (At least we thought they were tasty!)

My sister is always so kind and generous!  She always goes out of her way for her family so we really hoped to attempt to make it a special day for her! (Hopefully we succeeded)

We started with Friday where I attempted to make Chloe Coscarelli’s Celebration Cake. It didn’t turn out as pretty as the picture in the book but it sure did taste good! I would definitely recommend this!

On Saturday was Andrews turn for dessert. He made Chloe Coscarelli’s Cookies n Cream Cupcakes. These were ones we have definitely had before … and will have again! They are bites full of all things wonderful! Mint and Oreos in cake form … where could anyone possibly go wrong with this?!

I would definitely say that there is no way around describing this weekend as a weekend full of food! I had meant to capture a few pictures of the birthday and thanksgiving feasts we had Sunday and Monday but well lets just say I was too distracted by all of the food and great company that the plan totally escaped my mind until we were having tea later in the evenings!

In the past we had gone for either Field Roasts Celebration Roast or Gardein’s individual Turkey’s. But as neither were available my husband and I were very spoiled by the Lentil Loaf his Mom made us and the “Country Meatloaf and Golden Gravy” from Chloe’s Kitchen that my sister made for us and her family! (Looks like we really had a weekend of all things Chloe!) Those paired with mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and so many more things I think we will be full for at least the rest of the week!

What are your favourite things to make for meatless holidays?

Constant Repeat

Ever since I first heard this song a few weeks ago it has been on constant repeat in my mind. A never ending loop!

It first caught my ear when I was driving and tuned into the words on the radio and heard the line about photoshop – probably captured my attention because of my school project at the time. Manipulating a photo with photoshop and placing it in a magazine article that outlined the negative impacts of photo manipulation.

I suggest you take a listen to this song! It is definitely catchy but also inspiring! Definitely something that I struggle with! We need to love ourselves no matter what our size is and realize we are perfect just the way we are.

Rudy

Having a dog around is always wonderful! But one of the extra perks is definitely when you are cooking and they clean up the floor. … At least I think so anyways — (p.s. of course we still clean the floor after)!

Well a few weeks ago I was making bulgar and tofu tacos and a little bit of the tofu fell on the floor. I thought for sure Rudy would not like it and it would be similar to popcorn where he ate it and spit it back out haha! But he went crazy for it!! He was begging for more!

Something else we found out that Rudy is crazy for appears to be hummus … when my sister and her family were visiting the other day we had hummus out for a snack and when we were all in the other room Rudy sneakily licked out the entire dish!

I haven’t ever really thought about feeding our pets a Vegan diet just because we eat one. I know people do it … it is just not something that ever crossed my mind. But it is definitely entertaining to watch Rudy go crazy for tofu and hummus!

A little design work

If you have read my “a little about me post” you already know I am a Graphic Design student. I have always loved art of all different forms and have decided I would like to start to incorporate what is a huge part of me – Art/Design!

As I am in my last year of this program some of my projects are getting very intense and taking up 85% of my time … at least I enjoy the work!

One of my first projects this year required doing an editorial illustration. We were to pick an article off of the Globe and Mail or the New York Times and develop a stylized piece of art that fits the story. My story ended up being on the issues with the whole Ray Rice/Domestic Abuse/NFL cover up situation.

I have included an image of what I came up with.

What do you all think?

I felt it was important to show a lot of emotion and movement in this painting to really demonstrate how sensitive of an issue this is.

 

 

Field Roast forced out of Canada

We love to make our own seitan and home cooked meals when we can but sometimes you just need a quick alternative and Field Roast was an excellent option for those days!  (Unfortunately we have run into a lot of these over the past couple of weeks) Which is why we were so sad when we found out that Field Roast has had to pull out of Canada.

See this article for more information. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/field-roast-s-fake-meat-has-to-be-tested-on-real-animals-1.2781491

I still can’t believe it … claiming that by making simulated meat you have to mimic the nutritional profile of real meat so therefore it has to be tested on rats. — What could possibly be wrong with Field roast? It is veggies and vital wheat gluten! It can’t even be argued that they are worried about health risks as they are asking that chemical substances and vitamins be added to “fortify” the product. Also I think it is very important to note: it wasn’t pulled off the shelves because it was “unsafe for human consumption” but rather that there was issues with packaging and testing.

Mostly it just seems like the meat industry is worried about people buying field roast products instead of their meat products … I suppose if this is the case it could be taken as a good sign though – more people are moving to plant-based diets?

After I thought about this for a bit I decided to turn to trusty old Google Search. … According to this post: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sis8739. 2.5 % of American adults and 4 percent of Canadian adults sustain a Vegetarian diet. (About 5 million Americans and 927 000 Canadians.) This article was last edited in 2011 though so I wouldn’t entirely trust its accuracy therefore I decided to look for more information.

Another article I came across comes from The Vegetarian times: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/vegetarianism-in-america/. This article stated that approximately 7.3 million Americans are Vegetarian and that 22.8 million are following a vegetarian-inclined diet.

There is no denying it the numbers are definitely going up. Which makes me further believe it was the meat industry in Canada that forced Field Roast out. I am just hoping that the company figures out a way to sell there products here again!

New Project

Its been a crazy few weeks here! My husband and I are both back in school and its proving to be extra difficult to find the energy to eat healthy. I know we need too. And I want too. But sometimes its so easy to just pick up an Amy’s Vegan pizza or something similar. So when I was given a project at school to create a magazine and produce 12 pages of it with all of our own photography I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to start back on a healthy homemade track! (Although not 100% healthy … still have to feature those desserts 😉 )

I am hoping this project goes as great as I am imagining it will!

A few of our favourites

It has definitely been way too long since I last posted on here!

My husband and I are still continuing our meat free lifestyles and are constantly finding new recipes to try! He is still working on getting me to try more out there ideas. I will admit … I have my comfort zone! I prefer my food to be hot! But that being said, we have discovered different meals that I have grown to love that are served cold! Particularly the “Chickpea Salad Sammiches” off of the Post Punk Kitchen Blog. (http://www.theppk.com/2013/07/chickpea-salad-sammiches/)

I discovered we have definitely got our favourite Vegan Chefs that we turn to for inspiration the most! So I decided to share with you a list of our favourites!

1. Chloe Coscarelli: we love all things Chloe! We have brought many of her desserts to family events full of omnivores that people have gone crazy for!! Also her pastas are to die for! Creamy and delicious! We are definitely loving her newest cookbook “Chloes Vegan Italian Kitchen”. (Definitely suggest if you haven’t already checking out her books! http://chefchloe.com/)

2. Angela Liddon: love her blog and her cookbook! When I first stumbled onto the Oh She Glows Blog (http://ohsheglows.com/) I went crazy for all of her recipes! I was printing them out as I was seeing new ones to try and putting them on the fridge! When she released her Cookbook the “Oh she glows cookbook” I was so excited and it definitely did not disappoint! Her veggie burgers have become “The item” at our family bbq’s especially when paired with her grilled vegetable salad! You definitely can’t go wrong here! Her recipes are healthy and delicious!

3. Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I am soooo glad that my sister introduced me to her cookbooks and her blog (Post Punk Kitchen – the author of our homes favourite chickpea salad sammiches!) We have loved everything we have tried from here and her most recent cookbook “Isa Does it” has quickly become a staple in our home!

4. Robin Robertson: We are so greatful to Robin for providing us with so many cheap and healthy and of course can’t forget delicious recipes! As students these are all very important things to us – especially when paired with “cheap”! We have quite a few books by this author and would strongly recommend all of them! The two we use most frequently is the “Vegan on the Cheap” (of course 🙂 ) and “1,000 Vegan Recipes” – this one is amazing as it provides us with a lot of ideas and even includes basics! To me it is kind of like the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook but all things Vegan.

Of course there are a lot of other really talented Vegan chefs and authors out there! But these four are definitely our favourites! I hope you all check them out!

Camping as a Vegan

Just last week Andrew and I set out on our first camping adventure together. We have both camped many times growing up but it was nice to finally get out together and start some of our own traditions! This was also the first time either of us had gone camping as a Vegan!

For the most part our days revolved around food. Cooking, eating, cleaning then repeat. We of course went for walks and lazed around a lot in-between. But our biggest adventures were experimenting with different foods and trying new things!

Our simplest experiment was cooking corn on the cob on the camp fire. It also quickly became my most favourite way to cook corn! I could not believe I had not tried it! So simple and delicious!

Overall our trip was definitely a success!

Hopefully next time we will be able to go for longer!

Veducated — A Glimpse

Above is a trailer of a documentary titled “Veducated” that I found particularly interesting! I hope you all check it out!

Peanut Butter

For as long as I can remember I have loved peanut butter! It is how I have to start the day … even just a little bit of peanut butter helps. Always the natural … but sometimes the crunchy … with extra peanuts of course. Just how my grandfather taught me!

The other day, I became curious about what exactly I could learn about this staple food in my diet. I wondered whether it was considered healthy or not.

The first place I looked was Foods that Harm Foods that Heal: The Best and Worst Choices to Treat Your Ailments Naturally. It was here that I learned that peanuts “heal” diabetes, high blood pressure and low energy. This peaked my interest.

Later on in the same section of this book I found a particular statement hard to believe:

The Nurses’ Health Study found that women who ate peanut butter at least five times a week were as much as 30% less likely to develop diabetes.

All I could think was if this is the case — awesome.

There was another statement regarding heart disease that also intrigued me:

Peanuts are rich in plant compounds called sterols, one of the top proven cholesterol busters. Eating peanuts several times a week keeps high blood pressure under control. Both are risk factors for heart disease.

I found all of that information interesting and yet I was perplexed; peanut butter is good (according to the first statement) for diabetes, yet the unhealthy fats in it are bad for the heart, which, is commonly affected by diabetes. Moreover, peanuts contain those plant compounds that are good for the heart, but, when made into peanut butter, oils are added which makes it bad for the heart.

Therefore, I wondered, does this put peanut butter at a stand still for whether it is healthy or not?

So I pulled out my trusty laptop to access Google where I found an article titled Is peanut butter healthy? Yes, says Harvard Heart Letter. (Here is the link if you would like to look further: http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/Is-peanut-butter-healthy) This article stated:

Numerous studies have shown that people who regularly include nuts or peanut butter in their diets are less likely to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes than those who rarely eat nuts. Although it is possible that nut eaters are somehow different from, and healthier than, non-nut eaters. It is more likely that nuts themselves have a lot to do with these benefits.

Bonus!

Now I cannot guarantee that this is for sure the case as I just have the two sources. However, I definitely do believe that the type of peanut butter you purchase impacts how many health benefits are potentially available. It is definitely best to avoid hydrogenated ingredients.

While using Google to look up peanuts I ran into the National Peanut Board website where I learned a few fun facts about peanut butter:

http://nationalpeanutboard.org/the-facts/fun-facts/

A few of my favourite facts are:

• In one acre of land there are enough peanuts to make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches (The average farm for peanuts is 100 acres)
• The largest peanut butter factory produces 250,000 jars daily
• $4 billion is contributed to the economy in the United States from peanuts
• In one year, Americans consume approximately 1.5 billion pounds of peanut butter and peanuts
• By the time the average person graduates high school they will have consumed 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches