Giveaway! Subscription to 30-Day Vegan Challenge. (squeal!)

Update: See below in giveaway offer!

First off, I have been a very lame Snow White. I did not finish my Vegan Mofo by reaching my goal of 10 posts in one month. (sigh)

And yet, I don't feel too guilty. It's been a chaotic little autumn and one that Mr. Snow White and I were not looking forward to, due in great part to full-blown ninny-ness of forces that have wanted to do us harm. Hopefully this will resolve itself very shortly. (Sorry, can't go into it more than that.) But it's all been stuff that, in the big scheme, really doesn't matter. We have each other, everyone's healthy, Kaci does NOT have cancer, as our new vet suggested she might (the vet was thrilled as were we), we are both employed, we have a wonderful support system, and we both have good skin.

While going through this tumultuous time, though, I recalled some supportive words that had floated from the Facebook status of one Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. After having no luck retracing those pearls of wisdom, I wrote to Colleen, asking if she'd share them with me. Her husband had spoken them to her when they were facing similar ninny-like forces. Just seeing these words calms my heart (which has been beating much too quickly for my own good.)

"Keep breathing. Tell the truth. Be fearless. Choose love. Embrace mystery."

Beautiful, no? I feel so grateful to her and her husband David for sharing that calming mantra with the world. It's done wonders for my mindset.

And speaking of Ms. Colleen ...

She's got an incredible new online program called The 30-Day Vegan Challenge. I heard about it on her podcast and initially thought it wouldn't apply to me, since 1) I was a regular listener of the podcast, 2)  I had all her books, and 3) I had already been vegan for a while. How much new stuff could it offer someone like me?

A lot, it turns out.

The program only cost $20 and I originally decided to sign up so I could review it here for any folks here who wanted to try cutting meat, dairy, and eggs from their diet for just thirty days. I didn't anticipate how much I'd get from the experience.

The whole thing is designed to take you from day one, when you have no idea yet how you're going to pull this off, to the last day, when you realize how flippin' easy it is to eat without hurting anyone. You get one email per day, which opens up new parts of the program to you, step by step. I like this, because I tend to be an all-or-nothing gal who reads ahead, jumps in with both feet, and then often burns out. (Hello knitting.)  This way forces you to take it slow. The great part is that after that day's content becomes available, you keep it forever and can go back to it whenever you like. (Think of it as an online book you purchased. But a book with videos, podcasts, etc.)

The video section includes the following subjects: Stocking a Healthy Vegan Kitchen, Reading Labels, Getting to Know the  Grocery Store, Choosing the Proper Knife, Using the Proper Cutting Board, Tempeh Bacon Cooking Demonstration, Making the Time to Cook, Eating Out and Speaking Up, Rethinking Meat Cravings, Discovering That There is Life After Cheese, Kale Chips and Kale Salad, Plant-Based Milks, Better Baking without Eggs, Drop Biscuits, Green Smoothies, Finding Abundant Food Options While Traveling, Demystifying Tofu: It's Just a Bean, Eating by Color, Black Olive Bruschetta with Cashew Cream, Compassionate Fashion: It's Cool to be Kind, and A Vegan Thanksgiving. As a more seasoned vegan, I was amazed at how much these videos helped me, particularly the ones that addressed the interesting social issues that seem to arise.

There is a whole Audio Podcast section that is separate from her original podcasts on itunes. Like the videos, they cover a wide range of topics.

The Resource Section is a great go-to place for hardcore information, including Finding Vegan Food in Non-Vegan Restaurants, Restaurant and Travel Websites and Apps, and Tips for Making Travel Stress-Free and Fun. She delves into those often asked questions regarding protein, calcium, vitamins D and B12, and iron.

There are oodles of recipes, most of which I have not tried yet. (Did I mention it's been a stressful autumn?) But they sound delicious. Among them are the following: Coconut Red Lentil Dahl, Soba Verde Salad, Truffle Popcorn (!!), Lemon Artichoke Tapenade, and Mexican Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon. Yes. Yes to all of that.

And finally, there is a community aspect to the website as well. You can log on to ask questions to other folks. Or you can simply read the online discussions and learn from the expertise (and humor) of others.

Compassionate Cooks was kind enough to offer a free subscription to one lucky Suburban Snow White reader. This, my friends, is where you squeal. UPDATE: They have offered SSW not one, but TWO free subscriptions to The 30-Day Vegan Challenge.    Fainting.

 

If you've ever wondered if Ellen or Bill Clinton were on to something, but don't want to declare you're "going vegan," this is right up your alley. (And if you are totally on board, it's up your alley too.) If you merely want recipes on hand because you have a couple of vegan friends and always panic when they're coming over, wondering "What on earth do we make?" then this is a great chance to get some terrific ideas. Though truthfully, you'll end up wanting to hoard the food for yourself. Maybe you're just plain curious about veganism but have no intention to eat that way. You will learn a ton! So there's no pressure for the person who wins this to commit to an animal-free menu. I promise not to stalk you and peek into your windows to see what you're making. Unless, of course, you want to become my full-time chef.

Colleen is a super relaxed gal who explains things in a very common sense way. You don't feel preached at or guilted into anything. She just shares the information and lets you make up your own mind.  But I'm warning you -- you'll want her to be your new best friend. I'm JUST saying.

If you'd like to win this, simply write a comment below. You could explain why you'd like to win the subscription. Or share a tongue twister. Or send a message to Kaci telling her how pretty she is. Whatever. Be creative and have fun. Just be sure to leave an email address where I can reach you!

The Giveaway ends November 18, 2012 (Sunday night). Good luck! (I should mention that I'm not making a dime off of this. Just spreading the love.)

A Cure for the Aisle Three Blues: Vegan MOFO Post #7

Our fridge. Payton, the turkey we sponsored last Thanksgiving; our cat butt magnets, a lovely housewarming gift from Ms. Tufts; and the thing that keeps me from going over the deep end -- our personal shopping list.

Raise your hand if this is you.

You go to the supermarket, perusing the different aisles and buying what is on your list. And then -- dang -- you realized you forgot such-and-such in aisle three. So you trek back through the crowds, colliding with other carts and politely letting others through.

You so meant to get here earlier today when there were no crowds, but so-and-so called and then you had to do that thing that you've been putting off. And then, of course, you had to go to that appointment at eleven that you scheduled four weeks ago. And, you sheepishly admit to yourself, sleeping in this morning didn't help either. (Apologies to all the parents out there who are now understandably rolling their eyes at the couple with no children.)

Before you knew it, there was no other time to go to the market than NOW. And NOW is exactly the time that everyone else decided to go to the market. (They had the same kind of unfolding day.) The last thing you want to do is to have to retrace your steps and go back to aisle three.

Can I have a Hallelujah?

After enough trekking backwards to aisle three in my life to cover the length of the Massachusetts Turnpike, I decided to make a grocery list that actually made sense. I don't like my precious weekend time eaten up by retracing my steps. There are gardens to dig! Movies to see! Games to play! (And yes, a house to clean and all that, but who wants to think about the boring stuff? A post devoted to food shopping is bad enough.)

To make a more speedy shopping trip, I mapped out in my mind the best walking route through my favorite supermarket (one end to the other, in a winding, snakelike fashion). Then I listed the groceries I normally buy along that route. After a month of tweaking this list of items, I came up with a shopping list that allows me to get into the store, do my thing FAST, and then get out in record time, allowing me to resume my weekend.

Notice that this is the same list, done twice. That way, I just print several copies, cut them in half, and then stick them on our fridge with a strong magnet, so they're ready to go whenever we need them.

I created it on my Googledocs account (or you can just create a Word document) and then shared the document with my husband. So now it's online where we can access it, edit it, and print it from anywhere. If you'd like a copy, leave a comment below with your email and I'm happy to share the document with you. (I won't enable the "edit" function for you, but you can just copy it and paste it onto a new document and then revise the whole thing for your eating preferences and store layout.)

Another thing I find helpful is to write the week's menus on the blank side of the shopping list and then when I'm done shopping, I hang the menu on the fridge so I can refer to it throughout the week. If I'm using a recipe from a cookbook, I list the cookbook intials and the page the recipe is on, so I don't have to hunt for it later in the week when I'm hungry and grumpy.

Sorry these are so out of focus! I have much to learn about photography. But this is an example of the list filled out. 

And this is the flip side of the list, showing our weekly menu with cookbook initials and page numbers. (As you can see, I cooked a LOT from the Vegan Slow Cooker cookbook this week.

What sorts of timesaving tricks to you use to make life about living and not about backtracking? (These can be kitchen-related or otherwise.)

Autumnal Comfort Food: Vegan MOFO Post 4

The other day I spied some adorable Delicata squash in the market and decided to bring one home to try. The evening I tried it out turned out the be one of those rare nights when I got creative in the kitchen and the resulting recipe actually tasted amazing! (What usually happens is that I taste it, think "huh," and eat it anyway, so as not to waste the food.)

I cut open the squash and scooped out the seed/mush part. After slicing it up, skin and all, I threw it into a glass pyrex pan and scoured the kitchen for other things to put in, as the squash looked a little bare and lonely. I thought of the Granny apples I'd bought which were a smidgen too sour for even my taste and realized that the sour might be good balanced by brown sugar. So I cut up one apple and threw it in. (Again, peel and all.)

That sweet potato over in the corner -- you know, the one that languishes in your own kitchen -- had been eying me for weeks. (Get it?) It looked a little scary, though, and seemed to be growing vines. It had apparently assumed I wasn't going to do squat with it and was planning its escape. I tentatively snagged off the growth, peeled it, sliced it open and -- exhale -- it was perfectly good. It got chopped into large pieces and thrown in.

I added maybe a Tablespoon of olive oil and two Tablespoons of brown sugar and mixed it all together. Into the preheated oven it went (425 degrees). And off I went to figure out what my next post would be.

Ten minutes later, I thought, "Walnuts!! That thing needs walnuts!"

I quickly chopped some up, opened the oven door, and carefully, oh-so-carefully, dotted the dish with them and stirred them so they'd get coated with the oil and sugar. I closed the door softy, turned around, and spied some pears that had finally ripened after well over a week. I cut one up, re-opened the door, and added them to the growing pile of food.

I didn't time it, but it was all ready in close to half an hour. (If you're going to do this, though, I'd put your timer on for 20 minutes and then check it every 5 minutes or so after that.) The whole house smelled like holiday. It was the scent that Yankee Candle would give their eyeteeth for, but never quite achieves. I just wanted to breathe in that smell permanently, in a therapeutic kind of way. You've got to try this, if only to get this aroma to permeate your home-sweet-home.

Fresh out of the oven and sizzling...

Is it dinner? Or is it dessert?

Then I whipped up a quick and simple massaged kale salad. You wash and rip up the kale (taking the woody stems off), throw on a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and some fresh lemon juice, and then use your hands to literally massage the oil into the leaves for about two minutes.  It will reduce in volume pretty quickly as the leaves become more pliable.

This is the kale, post massage.

I decided to add some nuts to the salad to satisfy that autumnal fat craving. Any toasted nuts would be good. I was strongly leaning towards sliced almonds, but the pine nuts won. When you toast these babies, DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT walk away from them. They're a splurge and it's much too easy to burn them. (I'm just sayin'.) Simply throw them into a small pan with no oil. None. They actually have oils in them that seep out pretty quickly and do the cooking for you. Turn the stovetop on medium to medium-high heat. 

Initially they look like this.

But in about a minute, you'll see the oils come out and they'll get shiny.

Every thirty seconds or so, just swish them around.

And when they look like this (slightly browned), you're good to go. They'll look like this in about four minutes or so.

I decided to throw and apple and some avacado on the salad too. Why not?

Speaking of apples, about ten years ago I lived in a little town in central Bolivia called Yotala. It was there that I learned one of life's most important lessons from my best friend Margarita Manzano (Spanish for "apple"). I will pass it on to you. I'm sure it will change your life as it changed mine. Here it is.

(dramatic pause)

Never pick the pretty fruit. 

Margarita (or Marga, as we all called her) lived on the same street as I and, together with her mother and sister, owned a small store in front of her house, which is how I met her passing by one day. They made the best bread around -- people would drive for miles on weekends to come buy their bread -- and one day she saw the strange pale gringa walking by and called me over to enjoy some bread with her. From then on, we were best buddies. I used to even go to her house on bread-making days and help them make the rolls to put into the enormous outdoor mud/clay oven.

Oh dear. I'm rambling and way off topic. Back to the point.

During orange season, I started to pick out some of the more fault-free fruits from her store to buy and take home. She watched my progress, then came over, shaking her head, and muttered, "You Americans. Always picking out the prettiest fruit. Don't you know that the best fruit is the ugly stuff?" She threw my perfect specimens back, grabbed one of the more scarred ones, sat my down at her small wooden table, and expertly began cutting the orange open. (Bolivian women can do magic with the seemingly most cheap of knives.) She handed me a dripping, sloppy piece of the fruit. The second the piece of sunshine hit my tongue, I'd realized what a fool I'd been. The pretty fruit had nothing on this.

To this day, as I pick fruit, I always look for the scarred pieces. Not bruised, mind you. But the ones covered with blemishes that ordinary folk see as unattractive. Never judge a book ... 

Here is a Honeycrisp, topped with blemishes.

And Kaci with the apple, just because.

Here is my final dinnerplate, complete with a magnificent (and simple) risotto I made from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hestor.  (Get. This. Book.) The dinner was not only wonderful, but a great reward for my courage to take culinary chances, after so many past failures. :)

Finally, I'm going to throw some product placement at you, because I think it might make cleaning up a whole lot easier. Whenever I cook pine nuts, I always find the pan is stained a bit brown. The best way to get that off is to use this cleaner, Bon Ami. It's a scouring powder, but it does not test on animals and it doesn't have a strong odor. (When I used to use other scouring powders, I'd have to hold my breath, because the fumes made me feel a little lightheaded.) And it's the same cost as the other powders too. I absolutely love it. (And no, they are not paying me to say that. At least I don't think they are.) :)

Bon Ami -- a great scouring powder. Get it.

What sorts of make-it-up-on-the-spot recipes have you done that were winners?

Sorta' Wordless Wednesday: Vegan MOFO Post 2

This summer I discovered a new neighbor in our raspberry patch. About a week ago, he moved by our front door. He comes out every day, rain or shine, to hang out.

See him?

No? Look again. At the tippy top of the tree.





Boo!

Walk for Farm Animals 2012: Vegan MOFO Post 1

What a day.

And what an evening before! Holy sponsorships!

The Walk for Farm Animals, which takes place each fall in several U.S. and Canadian cities, benefits Farm Sanctuary, which has two locations in California and one in Watkins Glen, New York. As you may remember, Ryan and I took a little trip to the New York sanctuary this past July, and I blogged about it here, here, and here. It's a wonderful refuge for farmed animals who have been rescued from abuse and neglect. Which sounds sad and depressing. But it's surprisingly not. Both the animals and the people are brimming with happiness, and not in a hippy-dippy way. As I'd mentioned earlier, if you happen to eat animal meat and other animal products, you won't feel hated here. Instead, you'll get a chance to connect to animals that so many of us think of as commodities, and you'll find yourself amazed at their varied personalities. Goats will smother you with love and demand head rubs. And then the wheels start turning on their own as you begin to quietly consider ideas that may have lain dormant for years.

Boston's walk was one of the first of many, and I'd been looking for sponsors since early August. By the eve of my walk, I'd received just over $500 in sponsorships from generous friends, family, blog readers, and even super-secret anonymous donors. (I love a good mystery.) But I was only halfway to my goal. I decided to pull out all the stops and sent out massive emails and facebook posts to everyone. And lo and behold, the money kept rolling in. (Any Evita fans can hum along now.) When I woke up early Saturday morning, I was awed to see that the amount donated was exactly $1,000. I skipped into our guest bedroom (we'd been painting our master bedroom) and excitedly told my hubby the news, in the same squeal-y manner of a kid on Christmas morning running into darkened bedrooms, whispering frantically, "Wake up!" 

We arrived at Boston Common a little before 10 am. Though terrible storms (even tornadoes!) were forecast, my raingear was for naught. It was an absolutely lovely, warm and ultimately sunny morning. There were about 80 or so people walking, several of whom brought their dogs along. One of the first people we met had rescued his dog Max from a shelter, after the dog had been living in someone's basement for months as a puppy, with zero company, human or otherwise. Despite this and despite being in the shelter for a long time, Max was an absolute sweetheart. He won over many hearts that day.

Max, ever the happy dog.

I didn't get to meet this adorable dog, but it looks like Ryan did.

 
There were raffle prizes, lots of yummy vegan goodies donated from Whole Foods and other fine establishments, face-painting for the kiddos, lovely music, and a cow and a pig. (Not real, but wonderful nonetheless.)

Pig and cow taking a much needed break. (It was warm out, and those costumes were like extra cozy robes. Not what you want to be wearing in the city on a muggy day.) I love this shot, though. :)

Before walking, walkers from Fitness Together Belmont got everybody warmed up. We got a great video of this which I can't seem to get to load right. I'll add it later if I can figure it out. But the vision of the cow and pig warming up had me snorting.

A delightful surprise was that a friend from high school, Parm, showed up with her daughter Simi. Parm's sister, Tej, and I were close in high school, having long ago bonded over musical tastes and a love of drawing. I hadn't seen Parm since 1988. Wild! (She looks exactly the same, by the way. She and her Tej are gorgeous. And they apparently have a Dorian Gray thing going on.) Simi was probably one of the neatest kids I'd ever met. I desperately want her to meet my nieces, as I think they'd all become fast friends. She's one of those fun kids you can have a really deep discussion with and come away feeling more enlightened. As Dr. Seuss would say, "that kid is going to move mountains." I hope to meet her brother someday too, as I heard he is also spectacular.

Me, Simi, and Parm

Simi goes for the minimalist face-paint look. A classic.

A perfect shirt for the walk! (Isn't she beautiful?)

She was a real lover of animals. I think she may have been discussing her run-in with dolphins here. I can see why her Aunt Tej loves hanging out with her.

The walk itself meandered through many of the historical areas of Boston. I was so wrapped up in chatting with Parm and Simi, though, that I missed people's reactions to the walk. It was fun, though, walking through this part of Boston on a Saturday morning. There's nothing like playing tourist in your own city, is there?

Here is the whole gang of walkers, dogs included! Incidentally, the walk had its own photographer milling about, and he took some great shots. One of the published photos was of the three of us and it became the official photo that Farm Sanctuary sent out to its followers! If you are on Facebook, just look up Boston Walk for Farm Animals, and you can see all the images.

When we got back from the walk, raffle prizes were drawn and I won a $25 gift card to Life Alive in Cambridge! Woo-hoo! Ryan and I will be going some weekend soon to try this vegan eatery out. I've only heard great things.

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who sponsored me on the walk! As promised here is my mini-sandwich board, extolling the many virtues of some very cool people. Your generosity has helped many animals currently at Farm Sanctuary enjoy lives without fear, and it will help countless others who are in misery now, not knowing that their lives are about to take a wonderful turn for the better.