Lots o' wots at Blue Nile Cafe

For my husband’s 40th birthday, we enjoyed a long weekend in Kansas City.  After a luxurious massage, hitting the First Friday gallery walk in the Crossroads District, browsing vintage goods at Good Juju and handmade wares at Mash Handmade, and eating vegan fare that included raw, Ethiopian, and pub food, I have to say I had a great time celebrating my husband’s birthday!  Plus, I had no idea that his birthday would involve procuring so many adorable new things for the kitchen.  I approve!

Still, as much as I relish a weekend away and eating plant-based food around the city, it always feels good to be home, cooking in my own kitchen, making food the way that I prefer it.  Restaurant food can be delicious, but it’s also a lot saltier and richer than I make at home.  After a few days away, we were eager for salad and sautéed kale.  In my search for a new salad dressing recipe, I turned to the photos that have been piling up on my Pinterest page.  There are a lot of tantalizing recipes out there.  It’s easy to keep pinning and pinning.  I decided to pin one down and make it, and I landed on Creamy Red Pepper, Chickpea and Tahini Dressing from Choosing Raw.  The dressing is basically a thinner, smoky hummus with the enticing flavors of smoked paprika.  Plus, it’s oil-free.  I used my julienne peeler to slice broccoli stalks, carrots, and cucumbers and tossed it with the dressing and added a handful of curry-flavored sunflower seeds.

I served it with garlic sautéed kale and lemon rosemary tofu made from the Central Soyfoods Garlic Herb Tofu I picked up in Kansas City.  The tofu is made locally in Lawrence, Kansas.  They use organic soybeans and have several flavors.  (I also purchased their hickory smoked tofu, which I look forward to using sometime soon.)  It is softer and lighter than my regular brand and has a delightful slight sweetness to it.  With these fresh, vibrant flavors, it feels good to be home.

Giving up coffee was something I never thought I’d do.  I loved everything about it – the sound of the beans grinding, the smells emanating from the kitchen while it brewed, the warm feeling of the mug in my hands, and the taste of those first heavenly sips.  Better than all of that was the feeling that it gave me – as if I were being catapulted into the day.  I went from groggy and heavy to levitating off the kitchen floor, dancing and singing in a matter of 20 minutes.  (I’m glad that coffee drinking Cadry wasn’t with me on those first few days without caffeine, I don’t think I could have tolerated her enthusiasm.  Of course, if I’ve learned anything from Dr. Who, I know that having both of us there would have caused some kind of time rift in the continuum, but that’s neither here nor there.)

With a lift from coffee in the morning, I was a professional skier sliding up and over a ramp – nothing but wind in my face and a feeling I could get it all done in no time at all.  Despite this devotion, I’d kept my intake on the lower end.  I’d have a mug and a half in the morning.  In the afternoons, I’d often have a cup of caffeinated tea.  Maybe once a week I’d pick up coffee at a coffee shop.  I stopped drinking caffeine by three or four.  I never drank soda.

It wasn’t always that way.  In my life I hardly remember a time when I wasn’t taking in caffeine.  As a kid I was a fan of bubbly cola.  As a teenager I drank 5 or 6 cans a day.  By the time I got to college, I’d wake up with soda and fall asleep with soda.  Once I was out in the working world, I’d noticed a creep in my pant size and moved to diet soda instead.  I drank that for a year or so, and then decided to drop it because of the aspartame.  At that point, I said goodbye to soda and hello to coffee.  So why give it up now?

For me, there were a couple of reasons.  First, I wasn’t sleeping as restfully as I’d like.  I’d fall asleep okay, but then around 3 or 4 a.m. I’d wake up feeling stressed with an active mind.  I wanted to sleep more deeply and peacefully.  Second, I wondered what an uncaffeinated life would be like.  (One caveat: the occasional square of dark chocolate that I enjoy got the okay to stay.  The amount of caffeine is relatively small by comparison.)  Would I feel different?  The same?  More clear?  It was worth finding out.  Plus, I could always go back to drinking coffee, either in the amounts I’d grown accustomed or as an occasional treat.  There was no harm in doing a little experiment to find out what a life without caffeine would be like.

My last hurrah was on December 26th when I shared a soy misto with my husband as we drove back from holiday festivities.  On December 27th, I began the weaning process.  That day I filled my coffee mug halfway.  The next day, a little less.  I drank it in dwindling amounts until I swapped out coffee for caffeinated tea and did the same with that for a couple of days.  I hoped that by gradually decreasing the amount of caffeine I was drinking, I would tamper caffeine withdrawal headaches down the line.  During the period that I was weaning myself from caffeine, I simultaneously started the new habits that I wanted to replace my old behavior.  With those half cups of tea, I’d bring in a tall glass of cucumber and lemon water, or I’d make fresh juice of celery, cucumber, carrot, and apple.

After a week of weaning myself from caffeine, I started my morning with just a freshly made juice.  Instead of the noise of a coffee grinder breaking the morning silence, it was the sounds of fruits and vegetables being crushed into liquid.  On cold mornings, I reached for Rooibos tea (actually tisane), which is naturally free of caffeine and has a sweet, full flavor without sugar.  Unlike coffee, Rooibos is low in tannins, which can inhibit iron absorption.  Another plus for caffeine-free Rooibos is that it contains calcium, whereas caffeine leaches calcium from the bones.

To keep my dedication up, I sought out websites and books about giving up caffeine, like Kris Carr’s Crazy, Sexy Diet, which I read last year.  I haven’t done her cleanse, but I like some of the ideas she has for incorporating juices and smoothies into one’s diet.  She’s a big proponent of green juices, which I love too.  But if a person is having troubles getting over the caffeine hump, she suggests orange juice for its natural sugar boost.  Another idea was to start the morning with water with lemon and a dash of cayenne.  My husband tried a sip and seemed less than enthused about the taste some might describe as dirty water that burns the throat on the way down, but I actually felt like it helped.

As for withdrawal symptoms, during the days that I was weaning myself from coffee, I didn’t get a headache until the evenings.  Once I quit altogether, I had them pretty much all day.  That lasted for a few days.

After that, there were some mornings when I woke up and thought, “Man, I’d like a cup of coffee.”  On those days, I’d tell myself that first I had to get up and make tea, juice, or have a smoothie.  If, after that, I still wanted coffee, I could have it.  Wouldn’t you know, I never needed it.  My biggest surprise has been how easy it was to give it up.  Since I had so many attachments to it, I thought the process of not continuing to drink it would be impossible.  After being free of caffeine for a month, here are the benefits I’ve noticed:

1.  I wake up hungry.  I’ve always been a person who doesn’t want to have breakfast first thing in the morning.  I needed to wait until about 10 am to actually feel like eating.  Now I wake up ready to eat something substantial.  Caffeine is an appetite suppressant, but I hadn’t realized the effect it was having on my desire for a morning meal.

2.  I’ll be brief here, but let’s just say that my stomach is happier.  It didn’t like having an acidic beverage dropped on it first thing in the morning.

3.  I’m sleeping deeper, and most nights I sleep all through the night.

4.  Outside of rare baking and sweets-making, the only time I was using agave syrup was in coffee.  Now that I’m not drinking it, that’s less money and empty calories on agave syrup.

5.  My energy is more even.  I’m not doing cartwheels on the rooftop in the morning, but I am working out at 9 pm.  I don’t spend all of my energy as soon as I wake up.  Plus, I feel like my mind is calmer.

6. When I travel, I won’t have to worry about when/where I’m going to get coffee.  If I’m at a hotel and the coffee is less than spectacular (which it generally is) or in a country where tea is the drink de rigueur, I don’t have to start the day with a search for a coffee shop.  A couple of years ago I was going on a weekend trip to see my friend, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, in the Bay area.  If you follow her podcast, you know that she’s a major tea drinker, and in fact, she doesn’t even own a coffee pot.  That is to say, she didn’t used to own a coffee pot…  We were going to be working on a project at her home, and I knew there wouldn’t be time to go out and pick up coffee while I was there.  I didn’t want to have a fuzzy mind and headache, and so before the trip I purchased a small coffee pot, filters, and ground coffee.  Packing my little carry-on with a variety of coffee accoutrement felt silly but imperative.  I knew I’d have a much happier trip.  Anyway, I left the coffee pot with Colleen, and she still has it for her coffee-loving guests.  A nice perk of not depending on coffee to start the day is that it frees my time for more sightseeing and more space in my suitcase for important things like boots.

If you’re considering dropping coffee, cutting back, or even just doing a 30 day experiment, here are my tips:

1.  Wean yourself.  It probably didn’t cut back on the amount of headaches that I had, but it gave me time to get used to the idea.  Getting by on a half a cup of coffee bolstered my confidence that I could get by on none at all.

2.  During the weaning process, start practicing new habits – juicing, smoothie-making, drinking caffeine-free herbal tea, or starting the morning with cucumber/lemon water.

3.  Consider dropping coffee on a week you already feel crummy or are taking pain killers.  If you’re a woman, this could be the week of your period, or it could be a week that you’re starting a new exercise regimen or are sick.  If you don’t feel good anyway, might as well pile it on at once and get it over with.

In the end, do I think I’ll never have another cup of coffee again?  No.  However, I like the idea of it being a special occasion treat.  Maybe I’d have a cup on a weekend out of town or a girls’ day shopping trip.  It would be something I enjoy as a conscious, deliberate choice instead of as a habit.

It’s time for another cooking video!  This time I’ve enlisted the help of a certain clay dinosaur, who my husband has been animating via claymation since he was a boy with a Super 8 camera.  Over the years Gulp has had many adventures and swallowed many Lego blocks and Matchbox cars, but this is his first introduction to the joys of green smoothies and my Cashew Kale Shake.  (Eating cars may be one way to get your iron, but iron-rich kale is a heck of a lot easier on the teeth.)  With the help of my favorite hungry dinosaur, I demonstrate how easy it is to make your green smoothie dreams come true, even if you don’t have a high-speed blender.

Smoothies are such a delicious and simple way of incorporating more fruits and vegetables into a person’s diet.  I often enjoy them for breakfast, and it makes me feel good to kick start the day knowing that I’ve already had several servings of raw fruits and vegetables.  It sets a great tone and gives me a hit of wide-awake energy.  Hit a lull around 3 pm?  A smoothie also makes a tasty snack.

These are my top tips for taking a smoothie from good to great:

Frozen bananas are key.  First of all, bananas bring a pleasant mellowness to smoothies that otherwise might be overly sweet (like a tropical, orange, or berry smoothie) or bitter (like a smoothie with kale or collard greens).  Most importantly, frozen bananas give a thick, creamy texture that leans more towards a shake than a smoothie.

Always add ground flax seed.  It seems that every other article on health and wellness pages is about how the modern American diet is overloaded with omega 6’s while deficient on omega 3’s, creating an unhealthy imbalance.  An easy way to get omega 3’s into one’s diet is by adding a tablespoon of ground flax seed to a smoothie.  Outside of a vague nuttiness, it doesn’t add a lot in terms of flavor, but it gives the smoothie a fuller viscosity.  I like to grind whole flax seed in a coffee grinder as needed, but you could also use ground flax seed.  You’ll want to keep the open package in the freezer or refrigerator to avoid rancidity.  (Want to add raw cashews for a creamier smoothie?  While you’re grinding the flax seed, add in raw cashews as well and grind until they take on the consistency of flour.)

Blend tough greens first.  I almost never make a smoothie without greens.  It just seems like a wasted opportunity.  But without a high-speed blender, getting greens fully blended can be difficult.  The key to completely smooth green smoothies is blending hearty, fibrous greens first.  A bright green drink can already be a difficult sell to the uninitiated.  Add in chewy bits of tough kale and it’s even more of an obstacle.

Blend the greens with whatever liquid you’ll be using and continue until completely smooth before adding other ingredients.  The blender will probably need a hand with it, and so be sure to stop and scrape down the sides regularly to move the process along.  (Secret tip:  The circular handle on the lid of my non-high speed blender can be removed, leaving a small hole, and I sometimes stir the top portion of the greens while the blender is in motion.  It helps the momentum of the greens. Of course, it’s important to be careful that the spoon doesn’t come into contact with the blade, and it could be a splatter hazard if the liquid is too high.)

Vanilla soymilk adds dimension and balance.  For a long time I only used water in my smoothies.  With all of the nutrition and taste in the fruits and vegetables in the ingredient list, I didn’t think it needed anything else.  However, my feelings on this have changed.  A hint of vanilla in the background adds something special to a smoothie.  Now when I make it without, it doesn’t quite reach the same heights.

But don’t use too much.  Err on the side of less liquid for a thicker, creamier shake.  If you absolutely have to add more for blending, add a little at a time.

Ice cubes are your friend.  After a smoothie has reached its creamy and whippy perfection, I like to add six ice cubes and blend until fully broken down.  Without the cubes, it’s more like a shake or a malt, but with the ice cubes it’s all that with pleasant icy shards and a little added crunch.

A huge thank you to my wonderful husband, David, for animating, editing, and sound designing Gulp Vs. Smoothie!  You’re the best!

My favorite brand is De la Estancia.  It’s a fine grain polenta that cooks extremely quickly and is smooth in the mouth, unlike some coarse polenta brands.  My current favorite sun-dried tomatoes are from Trader Joe’s and come in a resealable bag.  What I like most about them is that they aren’t covered in oil in a jar and don’t have to be rehydrated before use.  They still have their moisture – like raisins or dried figs.  They come in julienne slices that can be cut down to a dice, if preferred, with kitchen scissors.  The only negative is that they aren’t organic.

The polenta cooks in a minute with a process that’s similar to making boxed mashed potatoes.  If I’m in the mood for a larger breakfast, I top it with beans, sautéed greens, or roasted vegetables.

Easy Breakfast Polenta

Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as a side

• 2/3 cup fine grain polenta
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups vegetable broth or 2 cups water + ½ vegetable bouillon cube
• 2 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped small
• ¼ cup rice milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Optional toppings:  fresh basil, red bell pepper chunks, beans, sautéed greens, or roasted vegetables

In a small pot, sauté garlic in oil over a medium heat.  Once garlic is translucent and fragrant (about 3 minutes), add broth (or water and bouillon cube, if using).  Bring broth to a boil.  Once it has reached boiling, lower to a simmer and slowly add polenta, stirring constantly.  Once polenta is thick and pulls from sides (about one minute), add rice milk, nutritional yeast flakes, and sun-dried tomatoes.  Stir to combine and add salt and pepper.

However, there are some things that would have been good to know beforehand – for example, how difficult it is to eat dinner while trying to keep up with what’s happening in a silent movie.  It’s much trickier than you’d imagine.  (Finish your dinner and then watch The Artist.  Thus far, it would be my pick for best picture.)  With a couple of the films – Beginners and The Descendants – I had imagined they were going to err on the side of light hearted, quirky comedy, when in fact, both of them were dealing with death, loss, intimacy, and the way we continue to renegotiate our closest relationships.  They were both well done, but more Kleenex was involved than I’d anticipated.  After the last tear fest, I turned to my husband with a stuffy nose and red eyes and said, “We have to start looking at these plot synopses more carefully.”  If only movies came with warning labels in addition to ones for violence, nudity, and adult language.  They could be things like, “Prepare for catharsis.”  Or “Get ready to clear your sinuses.”  Or “It’s going to get ugly.  You may just want to watch this one alone.”

The best movies have a combination of both ends of emotion – sweet and bitter, pain and joy.  In a way, it’s like the best meals.  It’s all about balance.  Which brings me to my recipe for Smoky Black Bean and Delicata Squash Tacos.  There’s no reason why sweet potatoes should get all of the love when it comes to orange vegetables in tacos.  The chipotle chili pepper and smoked paprika in the beans pair up beautifully with the natural sweetness of delicata squash.  While they’re both lovely on their own, when they come together they inform the other’s best attributes.  Top them with guacamole, salsa, jalapenos, and kale for colorful and mouthwatering tacos.  (If your heart doesn’t beat for kale, consider shredded purple cabbage or romaine lettuce instead.)

If you’re unfamiliar with delicata squash, you’re in for a treat.  It’s an easygoing squash that doesn’t have to be peeled and isn’t too difficult to chop in half to seed.  It roasts in 20 minutes, and one squash is usually just the right size for a family of two.  (For a video on how to work with delicata squash, check this out.)

Smoky Black Bean & Delicata Squash Tacos

Serves 2-4

• 1 small delicata squash, ends removed, deseeded, and cut into medium-sized chunks
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil + extra for light drizzling
• ½ medium red onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 ½ cups black beans (1 15 oz can drained and rinsed)
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp chipotle chili pepper
• ¼ tsp coriander
• ¼ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• Salt, to taste
• 2 Tbsp water
• Warmed hard or soft corn shells or whole wheat tortillas
• 1 leaf curly kale, rib removed, chopped small and massaged
• Cilantro, chopped (garnish)
• Guacamole, salsa, hot sauce, and/or sliced jalapenos (optional toppings)

Heat oven to 420 degrees.  Put seeded and chopped delicata squash on parchment sheet covered baking sheet and top with a light drizzling of extra virgin olive oil.  Toss to cover evenly and spread the pieces across the sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, stopping once to toss for even roasting.

Heat a skillet on a medium heat.  Add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to skillet.  Set aside 2 Tbsp of raw red onion to use as a taco topping.  Sauté the remaining red onion and garlic a few minutes, until fragrant and translucent.  Add black beans, lemon juice, cumin, chipotle chili pepper, coriander, paprika, smoked paprika and salt to pan.  Combine and add water to deglaze pan (if necessary).  Remove from heat and add black bean mixture and roasted delicata squash to warmed corn shells or tortillas.  Top with raw kale, cilantro, salsa, hot sauce, and/or sliced jalapenos.

This month’s Iron Chef Challenge secret ingredient was squash.  To see how others used this versatile winter vegetable, visit www.veganmofo.com.

As you can see in my initial review, when I received the Tofu Xpress my feelings about it were mostly positive but mixed.  It made life easier and my laundry pile of kitchen towels smaller to use this square, plastic contraption that’s dishwasher safe.  However, I didn’t feel it pressed tofu quite as firmly as my former method.  The Xpress comes with a lid for use while marinating tofu, and because the box is not much bigger than a block of tofu, I didn’t feel it allowed the marinade to fully infuse the block with its flavor.  (I prefer to marinate tofu with it already cut into slices, so that it can touch every section equally.)  Finally, while I won the Xpress in a giveaway, I wondered for the typical cost if it was worth $50 (including shipping) to lose the hassle of towels, a book, and a weight taking up shelf space in my refrigerator.

Now that many months have passed since I first received the Tofu Xpress, I thought it was time for an update.  After using it multiple times a week for the past 9 or 10 months I have this to say, if my Xpress broke in a terrible tofu-related accident, I would buy it in a heartbeat.  Since my review in April, I have done the old book/weight/towel method exactly… zero times.  It’s so convenient to reach into the drawer where I keep the Xpress, drain tofu from its water-packed package, put in the block, and return it to the refrigerator until I’m ready to use it.  If I get to it that day, fine.  If I get to it the next day, even better since it means the tofu will be that much more pressed.  Plus, it’s easier to enlist the help of family members to help you prep for dinner if it’s a simple, “Hey, could you put the tofu in the Xpress?”

After the first couple of uses, I stopped marinating the tofu in the Xpress because of the reasons I mentioned earlier of it not fully penetrating every part of the tofu.  Instead, after the tofu is pressed I cut it into 6 to 8 slices and put it into the baking dish or pie plate that I’ll ultimately be baking it in.  Then I cover it in marinade and let it marinate for an hour or more.

If I’m using a tofu recipe that doesn’t require marinating, I’ll mix the sauce for the tofu in the Xpress.  I’m going to wash the Xpress anyway, and so it’s handy to just use it instead of dirtying a mixing bowl.

The only negative I have is that after months of use, my Xpress is now in four pieces instead of two.  One of the plastic tabs on the pressing plate broke off after I washed it in the dishwasher one day, and the spring that connects the pressing plate to the lid came disconnected from the pieces.  Now I have to twist the spring into place on the pressing plate each time I use it.  It doesn’t cause any issues that it’s no longer attached to the lid.  It still stays in place fine.  Sometimes I haven’t twisted it completely evenly and the tofu presses at an angle, but it doesn’t make a big difference ultimately.  One other thing, I still think it would be great if they would make a wide version made of the same glass as Pyrex that could be used for pressing, marinating in slices, baking, and then storing.

The long and short of it is that after this much time, the Tofu Xpress has become an essential part of my kitchen.  I use it more than the immersion blender, more than the waffle maker, and more than the grill, but not as much as the blender and coffee grinder.  That’s a pretty high status.

For some people a New Year’s resolution might include juicing, eating more fruits and vegetables, and/or making a renewed effort at exercising.  I know I feel a real pull right now to eat more fresh, raw foods and start the morning with just-pressed juice followed up with some cardio and weightlifting.  In this clean slate time of year, it feels good to refocus.

If you have it on your to-do list for the year to add more fruits and vegetables, a good place to start is in the produce section.  We’re always hearing that despite all of the healing and protective antioxidants and phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables, people aren’t eating them in anywhere near the recommended levels.  Variety counts too.  To get all of the goodness that plants can give, it can’t be all carrot sticks and iceberg lettuce.  That’s why I’m starting a new series called How to Like the Vegetables You Hate.  I think the real key in convincing people to eat more vegetables is finding preparation methods that make even the most unloved produce palatable.

I’m starting this series with my old nemesis, beets.  Too many times I was tricked by beets.  They come in a variety of beautiful colors – orange, deep red, white, and even a variety called Chioggia that has a candy cane striped center.  I wanted to like them.  But whenever I’d have them, thinking this would be the time that beets would win me over, I’d be treated with a mouthful of dirt.  Okay, not literally, but to my taste buds, beets were bright red dirt.  There was dirt soup (borscht), roasted dirt, and worst of all, dirt burgers on a whole wheat bun.

I knew that beets were good sources of folate, fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and iron.  I knew that they’ve been shown to be protective against heart disease and even certain types of cancer, particularly colon.  However, I couldn’t get over their earthy flavor.  Then I discovered the beauty of raw beets.  So simple, so easy.  Plus, beets are sensitive to heat, which can kill its antioxidants.  All the more reason to use them raw.  Best of all, raw beets taste much more mild with a less pronounced earthy quality, especially when mixed with other flavors.

Grated beets are a colorful addition to everything-but-the-kitchen-sink salads.  I am not a three or four ingredient salad kind of person.  I like grated carrots, slices of celery, persimmons, cucumbers, radishes, different colors of bell peppers, tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, diced onion, avocado, broccoli and cauliflower florets, and artichoke hearts on a bed of massaged kale.  Whatever produce I can find in the refrigerator makes its way into my bowl with my favorite dressing.  Now added to that mix is a very vibrant beet.  To use beets in a salad, cut off the ends and peel them.  Then use a grater or chop them into bite-sized chunks.  One word of warning – red beets may make your salad kind of pink, especially if you save it until the next day.

Another way to add some beet-fueled color and nutrition to your day is by juicing it with other favorite fruits and vegetables.   Unlike the green juices that generally grace our kitchen, you might have an easier time getting someone to drink juice in a shade they’re used to enjoying in a glass.  When I’m making juice, I don’t bother peeling any of the vegetables, including the beets.  Since I use all organic produce, I just clean them thoroughly with a vegetable brush and pop them into the juicer.  Lately I’ve been enjoying this Calm Morning Juice.  It has a mild flavor with celery and cucumber, along with a little bit of sweetness from the orange, carrot, and beet.  It’s a pleasant drink for sipping and easing into the day.

Is there a fruit or vegetable that you want to like but so far haven’t been able to enjoy?   

Calm Morning Juice

Serves 2

• 1 beet
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 carrot
• ½ medium-sized cucumber
• 1 orange, peeled

Juice all ingredients.  Pour into 2 glasses and serve.

10.  Pulp NonFiction – Thoughts on my Breville Juicer

For Valentine’s Day this year my husband broke the number one rule of gift buying for women and bought an appliance for me.  (Luckily, I completely disagree with that rule.  Most of the items on my wish list are appliances, gadgets, and cookbooks!)  So I juiced through the cold winter months and throughout the farmer’s market season.  My juice-making slowed through the holidays, but now I’m feeling drawn to fresh juices again after the season of comfort food.  I’m starting the morning with celery, cucumber, carrot, beet, and lemon juice and savoring each sip.  Perhaps with the New Year upon us, you’re looking to include more fresh juices in your life.  This is my review of the juicer that I use.

9.  Five Things to Make For Dinner When I Don’t Want to Cook

I think we can all relate to those nights where we stare into the refrigerator and wish that the ingredients on each shelf would somehow morph into a meal.  On those nights when I’m tired and hungry and just want to eat now, making one of these meals is quicker than waiting for delivery.

8.  Happy Slurping – Kale Cashew Shake

Do you love kale so much that you want it for dessert?  Me too!  But kale-phobes, this drink could even persuade you to embrace that nutrient-dense green.  Any bitterness in kale fades away as cashews and frozen bananas make it sweet and super creamy.  For an icy crunch, add ice cubes at the end and blend; for more of an ice cream texture, leave them out.

7.  Cashew Cheese-stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

Getting people together for New Year’s?  These freshly made poppers can be made ahead of time and then put into the oven a half an hour before people arrive.  The heat level can vary, depending on the peppers.  Have some lemon-lime-cucumber water handy just in case or Mexican beer if you’re feeling festive.

6.  Obsession in the Making: Raw Kale Salad with Creamy Garlic Dressing

Months later, this salad is still my obsession.  I eat it four or five days a week with varying vegetables.  Sometimes I switch the cilantro in the dressing for other herbs, sometimes I use lime juice instead of lemon.  Regardless of how it’s personalized and tweaked, it always comes out delicious.

5.  Newsreel:  The Three Stages of Cheeseless Pizza

For Vegan MoFo this year, my husband and I made a series of black and white silent films called The Vegan Test, and this was a newsreel break from the others.  This short video takes a humorous look at the situation so many of us have experienced when ordering cheeseless pizza.  After all, the stages of cheeseless pizza are like the stages of grief, but with marinara.

4.  Five Simple Vegan Breakfasts

When people are transitioning to a vegan diet, one of the first obstacles is figuring out what is going to replace chickens’ eggs on toast.  In those early morning hours, there’s not always the time or inclination for whipping up a tofu scramble, waffles, or pancakes.  When something quick but satisfying is in order, these are the meals I visit.

3.  Melted Snowman Soup

Two soups that I made this month round out the top three of my most viewed posts of 2011.  They came in at the end and took a surprising jolt ahead.  First, this adorably pathetic roasted garlic and potato soup.  When the weather gets chilly, we could all use a smile – even if it’s at the expense of a snowman.

2.  Hickory Cheddar Cauliflower Soup

Hearty, smoky soup that’s thick and creamy by way of cauliflower feels like a quintessential winter soup.  With a full-bodied mouth feel it’s the kind of warming soup that the cold months are all about.

1.  How Has Going Vegan Changed My Life?

I have always been an animal lover.  That love has been manifested in many ways over the years.  When I was a child, a Doberman was one of my dearest companions.  As an adult two cats are important parts of my family.  And six years ago when I went vegetarian (and then vegan after that), that love and compassion I had for animals expanded to include pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, sheep, and goats.  It freed my heart in ways I never could have expected.  Getting to know animals at sanctuaries like Farm Sanctuary, who were saved from suffering, has only deepened that compassion.  This post is about that deepening.  It’s about the way that compassion for animals resonates throughout my life.

While children may be the predominant audience for building your classic snowman, this Melted Snowman Soup is geared towards adults.  It’s a creamy soup with the round flavors of roasted garlic and vermouth.  Still, you can appeal to the child in all of us by dressing it up with a carrot nose and two eyes made out of olives.  For the mouth, a sun-dried tomato works beautifully since it can easily be shaped into a frown.  (Out of sun-dried tomatoes?  A sliced red bell pepper also works.)  Add buttons of green peas or pistachios, and even arms of rosemary sprigs, if you please.  Mmm, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed the snow so much…

Do you ever wonder about the wisdom of snowmen smoking corncob pipes with two eyes made out of coal? It's suicide, man.

Melted Snowman Soup

Serves 2

• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil + a little extra for roasting garlic
• 1 head garlic
• ½ medium-sized yellow onion, chopped small
• 3 Tbsp extra dry vermouth
• 2 cups water or vegetable broth*
• 4 small to medium-sized russet potatoes (~3 ½ cups), peeled and diced into medium-sized pieces
• ¼ tsp smoked salt
• Salt, to taste

Snowman accoutrement

• 2 black olives, sliced (eyes and eyebrows)
• 2 small pieces of a carrot, sliced into triangular shape (nose)
• 1 sun-dried tomato, sliced (mouth)
• 6-8 green peas, steamed (buttons)
• 4 Rosemary sprigs (arms – optional)

Start by roasting the garlic.  (For a recent post on the how to’s of roasting garlic, click here.)  Preheat the oven to 380 degrees.  Separate the garlic head into cloves and remove skin from them.  Put them in a small covered container with a light drizzling of extra virgin olive oil.  Cover the garlic and roast it for 30 minutes, stopping once to stir it.  Once the garlic is fully roasted, set it aside to use later in the recipe.

Heat one teaspoon extra virgin olive oil in a soup pot on medium heat.  Add onions to the pot and sauté until translucent and fragrant (about 5-6 minutes).  Add vermouth to the pot to deglaze it.  Once the pot is deglazed, add water or vegetable broth and potatoes.  Bring the liquid to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer, and partially cover the pot with a lid.  Cook the potatoes until they are tender and easy to pierce with a fork (about 15 minutes).  Add roasted garlic to the soup and blend with an immersion blender.  (Because of the relatively small amount of liquid, you may have to tip the pot to blend fully.)  Stir in smoked salt and salt to taste.  Decorate soup with olives, carrot, sun-dried tomato, peas, and rosemary sprigs (if using) and serve.

*Note that vegetable broth may slightly darken the soup, depending on the brand and strength, which may give it a little less of a snow-like appearance.

Cozy slippers, new pajamas, hot tea in the afternoons and chamomile at night…  I’m very much a warm weather person, but this December is wooing me with certain benefits for sure.  Of course, the twinkling lights and promises of presents don’t hurt its case either.  Another benefit of dipping temperatures and long evenings?  Hot soup and crackers.  I recently made this non-dairy version of the cheesy cauliflower soup I grew up eating.  It has an echo of hickory with the full-bodied mouth feel that I’ve always loved.  It’s a rich and hearty soup that’s good for filling the bellies and warming the bones.

This recipe is only for two, but it could easily be doubled or quadrupled if you’re serving a larger group.

Hickory Cheddar Cauliflower Soup

Serves 2

• ½ head cauliflower, cored and chopped into medium-sized pieces
• 1 cup vegetable broth or 1 cup water + ½ vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 carrot, chopped small
• ¼ red bell pepper, chopped small
• ¼ medium-sized red onion, chopped small
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp We Can’t Say It’s Cheese hickory-smoked cheddar spread
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• Parsley for garnish (optional)

Bring cauliflower and broth to boil in a soup pot.  Lower heat to simmer and cover with a cocked lid.  Once the cauliflower has softened (about ten minutes), blend with an immersion blender.  Add We Can’t Say It’s Cheese to cauliflower, stir until fully blended, and salt to taste.  In a separate pan, sauté carrot, bell pepper, onion, and garlic until the onion and garlic are translucent and fragrant (about five minutes).  Add vegetable mixture to soup pot and continue cooking until the carrot has softened.  For a chunky soup, it is ready to serve once the carrot has reached its ideal softness.  For a creamier soup, blend the soup again with an immersion blender until it has reached your preferred consistency.  Top with fresh chopped parsley and ground pepper.