Vegan Stories and Tall Tales

Big City

2010-10-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

For those who might want to come up to the town of Payson, VitaMart on Hwy 87 is a great place for snacks and organic foods. It's in the Twin Pines shopping Center on the west side of the street.

If you are looking for lunch, try the Organic Cafe on Hwy 260, just west of the Super 8 Motel. They are kind of limited, but ok. Or while you are at the VitaMart, try the Small Cafe - they've fixed up a few things for me. If you get a chance to travel north on 87 to Pine, the Randall House can accommodate your vegan needs for breakfast or lunch, and dinner on Saturday nights.

Also in Payson, for some snacks and such - Back to Basics is on the north end of town on Hwy 87. They don't have the variety of VitaMart, but do have some good stuff.

Eat well, stay well.
DJ

Ooops

2010-05-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Whoa! So sorry on that recipe. It's 1 cup plus 3/4 cup of water....otherwise you will have stiff almond sludge.

DJ

The food biz

2010-05-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, at the prompting and begging of friends and the support of the wonderful husband, I started a tiny food company.

Here's how it looks on the way to the certified kitchen,,,sometimes, there's another load.

On kale chip day, I wash & prep piles of kale.

Then get it spiced for the dehydrator. So, two kinds of kale chips, veggie flax crackers, raw hummus, chocolatee date deezert.

And...the latest: apple cinnamon snacks.

Happily, on the food demo day last week, we sold out of most snacks! Woohoo.

If you have a dehydrator and want to try something sweet, and pretty easy - here's the apple cinnamon recipe -

Put a cup of almonds in the blender with 3/4 cups of water and blend.

Add 3 chopped apples, 3 chopped dates, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, a pinch of sea salt, a little vanilla and a teaspoon or so of agave nectar. If you're off agave, experiment with honey, but it is heavier tasting. Blend again.

Pour into a mixing bowl and add some finely chopped apples (about 2) and a tbsp of coconut. Let sit for at least an hour.

Stir.

Spoon about tablespoon size scoops onto the dehydrator sheet covered, preferably, with teflex, but you can use parchment paper. Dehydrate at about 110º for 8 hours. Take it off the teflex and continue to dehydrate on the screen for another 8 hours. The snacks will be a little chewy, not crisp.

EAT. Very yummy.

Have fun, eat well, go vegan.

Food & Fun

2010-04-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today's the grand re-opening of the Twin Oaks shopping center on Hwy 87 - Where my friends at Vita-Mart will be having food demos. I'll be there with samples. Hope you'll be there, too.
I think some classic cars will be there, and the car show is today... good day to be in Payson.

And then come on up to Pine & Strawberry - It's a beautiful day to shop up here - yarn shop, antiques, restaurants. In Strawberry, at the Fossil Creek Creamery, over 40 baby goats await your attention.

No snow today....beautiful blue skies. Spring is back. Enjoy!

Thoughts and food from friends

2010-04-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Natalie put together these black bean burgers, no soy, very Yummy. she did not give amounts, but basically organic black beans, organic sweet onion, garlic granules, sea salt, potato starch, tapioca starch, and a small amount of almond meal - also some of the spices from the Herb Stop - like Sprinkle & Rub and Anytime Salt Seasoning. This was really good! She also made some killer meatballs - no meat, of course.

If you've clicked on some of the people I follow, you'll see my friend over at Chicos and Beans brings you great recipes...and she has a fashion Friday. My all time favorite fashionista tee - YOU EAT WHAT? - which she hasn't posted yet, is available at Happy Cow, just click on their store link. My other favorite from the same shopping link is -POWERED BY VEGGIES.

I'm trying some new recipes this weekend. Let you know how it goes. By the way, you CAN dehydrate hummus - and rehydrate with a little (key here is little) water. Go slowly with the water until it reaches the consistency you want. You can also just use the dehydrated chunk as a sandwich filler - good for a backpack trip.

Eat those veggies - blend, mash, consume - you'll feel better.

DJ

On to more simple pleasures

2010-03-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Simple pleasures...a cup of tea for example. The wonderful husband has found many people are lacking in their tea-making education. He guides friends and relations, so their tea won't be bitter.

Last post, a complex recipe - this post - easy tea for thee. Photo: Suat Eman

What kind of tea? Most teas, other than hearty herbals and very black, require some Tea LC.
For white, green, oolong and darjeeling - after the water boils, let the water cool a bit before you add it to the tea. Otherwise you scald the little tea leaves, and your tea is - you guessed it - bitter.
Here's the formula we use:
   White tea: cool the boiled water for 4 minutes, steep for 4-5 minutes
   Green tea: cool the boiled water for 3 minutes, steep for 3 minutes
   Oolong tea: cool the boiled water for 2 minutes, steep for 2-3 minutes
   Darjeeling tea: cool the boiled water for 2 minutes, steep for 3 minutes
Great teas and rooibos, such as those available from our friends at the Herb Stop, usually have steeping instructions.

Remember, give your tea water a little rest, and yourself a little rest with a nice cup of tea.
DJ

A time for food

2010-03-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

We've begun the new food adventure: DJ's Real Food. I am getting some interest in the products. May may bring 2 or 3 more outlets for the crackers and hummus. That would be fun! Meanwhile the Vita-Mart is really helping with sales. Especially since BJ - owner with wife, Christine - loves to eat the Veggie crackers. Thanks to them for all their support. Actually, I've had amazing support from friends and business owners - thanks to all of you.

Meanwhile, back at the fixing kitchen...something new to try:

Coconut Mango Pie.... loosely adapted from I Am Grateful
(Next time I do this, I'll take pictures)
I had the original Live Coconut Cream Pie at the Fallbrook Lifestyle center
Here's my version:
Soak about 9 or 10 dates for a few hours. Soak 1/8 cup non-sulphured dried mango, too.
Trusty Crusty Crust:
Grease a pie pan with coconut oil.
De-seed the dates and chop them as well as you can without getting totally frustrated
In your food processor with the "s" blade, add:
2 cups of coconut flakes
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of sea salt
Start the food processor..... slowly add the dates - until you've put in about half of the amount you've chopped, or the stuff in the food processor suddenly forms into a huge ball, whichever comes first.
Take the ball of date dough out and smooth it onto the pie plate, coming up the sides as you would with a regular crust. Done with crust!

Filling:
Get 1 (or 2) green coconut (see Pause below) and open it. Rather than wrestling with the stupid coconut, look at this how to conquer a coconut link. Be sure to use one of your inexpensive knives.
Open the coconut... rest, relax, don't let it get the better of you.
Pour the coconut water into a blender. Scrape out the coconut meat. Put it in the blender.
Add 1/4 cup of coconut flakes.
Add 1/3 cup of packaged coconut water
Let's pause for a moment: If you do not want to struggle with the coconut, you can use pre-packaged coconut water - 1 1/2 cups, with coconut flakes and a quarter tbsp of coconut butter to get the "coconut milk." If you are good with coconut wrestling, you could use 2 coconuts and leave out the packaged goods. The point is to end up with about 2 cups of slightly thick coconutty liquid in the blender.
Add the rest of the dates
Add 1/4 tsp of vanilla
Add 1 chopped, seeded, peeled, fresh mango (If you don't have a mango slicer, so sad.)
Add the dried mango bits you've been soaking
Add a pinch of sea salt
Blend Blend Blend until smooooooth.
Add 2 tbsp of lecithin and 2 tbsp of coconut butter......blend some more.
Pour this into the crust. Refrigerate. Eat after dinner.

This is obviously not a quickie recipe....but it is really good. You could leave off the crust, and just have the filling as a pudding, as well.

Eat well, be well.
DJ

What the Heck

2010-02-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

No punctuation on that headline...you can read it several ways: WHAT the heck? What the HECK! and so on. That's the way you can do a vegan diet, too....in several ways, folks. Eat mostly raw, cooked, in between - whatever suits your body and lifestyle. And, speaking of veggies -

there are lots of winter greens available, thanks to these pickers (above).
Add the greens to your carrot juice. Make a kale salad (Adapted from How We All Went Raw):

2 bunches of kale, washy washy.
Strip the kale from the stems and put in a big bowl. (No nude kale pics)
Add juice from a lemon - sans seeds.
Add a few pine nuts
Add about 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
Add minced garlic if you want
Add 1 tbsp agave nectar
Pinch of cayenne if you want
Wash your hands and start kneading (I used to say massaging, but my massage therapist objected) the kale. Go for 5 minutes. Practice yoga position: Tree. It'll help the time pass.
The kale should be softer and take up less space. Eat it. Yum.

Now, these smelly creatures on the left, they eat anything. But you - you eat veggies. Feel better, have more energy - lose the animal-based food.

Speaking of animal-based food, I do use honey. I saw the Bee Movie. Don't want those bees to be without jobs.

For those of you with a dehydrator, here's a quick recipe:
Get a pile of zucchini & wash it.
Slice the zucchini into 1/4 chips. Use a mandolin (cooking, not music) if you have one. some food processors have a "chip" blade. Make it easy. In a bowl, put lemon juice, a little sea salt, pinch of cayenne & mix. Plop the zucchini in just to barely cover the chip, then put it on the dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate for 12-16 hours. Note to my friends in Houston, you cannot do this outside even when it's 110 degrees - Tucson, maybe, Houston - too much humidity.

And in other news, I've started DJ's Real Food Company. So far, the VitaMart in Payson is carrying my hummus, chips, crackers, and deezert. I have promises from some other places. Cross your toes!

Eat green.
DJ

View from here

2010-02-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

We keep having WEATHER...not as bad as two weeks ago - as evidenced by the overturned truck - but blowy and icy. Our snow is melting...so we have lots of mud. On the happy side, mud makes it easier to dig up unwanted plants - weeds. And all this water means a great spring.

As you know, we were in Yuma...why? Blue grass festival, but really other great sights to see...like this backroads sort of museum thingie.

Then we were in San Diego, where this amazing green stuff grows on the ground - I believe it's called grass.

And while camping, we used our very large and spacious kitchen. Luckily, in San Diego, I could go outside, use the Cobb™ grill and have a little more room.

Here's a quickie guacamole recipe I got from the Co-op in Ocean Beach:
Unseed and scoop out 2 ripe avocados. (If you want, save the seeds and make a tree.) Put the avocado in a bowl and add 1 chopped & seeded jalapeno - be sure to put a barrier between you and the jalapeno, and wash your hands before you touch your eyes! 1 tbsp of lemon juice. 2 tbsp of chopped, fresh cilantro. 1 chopped tomato. Mix it. Eat it. Make more because it's gone in 30 seconds.

More fun recipes coming...I'm trying a new kale chip recipe.

Eat well...have fun.
DJ

Happy Road Moments

2010-01-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

Just a moment from the campground.
As the great spouse and I were walking past a campsite with a dad and 4 little kids we heard: "Dad, you know what?" in one voice, and the next kiddo voice broke in - "I DID not!" The great spouse and I laughed about that for two days.

Another great camping moment: Our across the park neighbors towed their ancient Winnebago with an old Bronco. Who says you have to give up the motorhome when it won't run any more...just tow it!

Thinking vegan, I've been able to mix and cut to my heart's content because...I can go outside! Ahhhh. And I'm really glad I made dehydrated chips as well as hummus before we departed. Before our next adventure, I'll probably dehydrate more crackers, chips and such. We've got the lists going for the "must haves" and "it would be good ifs" preparing for future camper trundles.

More soon...with tips and recipes, I promise.
DJ

On the road

2010-01-28T15:58:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know how the road trip is going.

Camping in the miniature camper has been an adventure. First, we snuck out of N. AZ by the skins of our teeth. (How's your teeth skin?) Falling rocks, wind, rain, dust in the south. We saw 5 big rigs turned over on I-8. Then we "camped" in senior snowbird heaven. We were a minority...not Canadian.

Food: it was tough to do food in the miniature camper, but we succeeded with blended salads and beans/rice combos. We also ate at Nature's Express in Yuma.

In San Diego, more like camping....able to cook outside, use our food processor outside without someone thinking we were drilling. The Yuma space allowed "outside work noise" on Tues and Thurs. mornings.

We're getting better at thinking small. Found great little freezer packs that fit in our tiny fridge freezer for cooling extra veggies in the cooler.

More about camping adventures when I'm back at the space in Strawberry next week.

Thanks for watching.
DJ

In the Year 2010...Hmmm.

2010-01-10T12:13:00.001-07:00

Fans of food it's been great so far.

We went to the Randall House for New Year's dinner. If any of y'all in the valley of the heat are coming up, they will adapt their menu for vegans. They certainly did a great job for us on New Year's. Hope Barb and clan are enjoying their time off.
Oh yeah, don't expect to eat many places in Pine until Jan. 13. Two restaurants are on their winter break. The Pine Deli does have some nice vegan salads, and they are open.

In other news, I made some raw hummus to sell at the Vita-Mart. I know Christine will be happy when I have it down to more of a science in the weights and measures. Good news. I have new 4 & 8 oz. containers and a scale to bring with me this week. I don't know if it all sold, but I hope it catches on.

I know some of you bought a VitaMix™ recently, and were hoping to get a juice-like product. Here's what I found while I was at the momma's without a juice source:
Chop the veggies smaller, add half a cup of water, use a strainer if you don't like "pulp."
Here are two I did:
1/2 cup of water
3 carrots
1 cucumber
2 celery stalks
a couple of handfuls of spinach
BLEND....it's pretty good. The celery gives it a little "salt" taste.

Another:
1/2 cup of water

3 or 4 carrots

4 leaf things of chopped kale

a couple of handfuls of spinach

1/2 apple (no core)

2 celery stalks

BLEND.....strain....drink! ahhhhh!

We're getting ready to take the miniature camper on the road. Vegans camping. I've got some recipes to put together for the days we're only on battery power. I know...it's not like I'm back packing, but it'll still take some prep. By the way, I do have some backpacking recipes. We may need to do some of those soon.

Eat well. Laugh much.

New Year....let's roll

2009-12-31T13:58:00.002-07:00

Back from the road trips (Lovely view of nowhere Nevada, left) and home in Strawberry.
What's up in 2010...wait, how did it get to be 2010 anyway?
Moving on: I got my food handler's card, so I'll be making some hummus, and (later) some crackers at my favorite veggie stop, the Vita Mart.

Since it's been chilly most places, how do you stay warm and eat raw?
Do some soups in your blender or Vitamix, and let them blend until they are warm. My soups start to steam a bit, after about 10 minutes. It's noisy, but it works.

Here's a great, fast and easy, blender soup: (adapted from Alive in Five by Angela Elliott)
(serves 2)
Put all this in your blender or Vitamix:
2 cups of chopped zucchini
1 avocado
4 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 cup warm water
2 tblsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon (or, if you're out of lemons, use 1 & 1/2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, but lemons are in season)
2 tsp dried dill weed
1 garlic clove
1/4 (or so) tsp of sea salt.
Blend, blend, blend, blend...until it's warm and serve in a warmed bowl. Sometimes I put in 1/2 jalapeño to spice it up.
A note, too, for those who just put mostly whole stuff in your Vitamix...be sure to cut up the celery so the celery strings don't wrap around the blade - celery strings have been known to kill a Vitamix.

My wonderful spouse once said it was difficult for him to become a vegan because of image. Many vegan and vegetarian men have been portrayed as wispy, eyebrow pierced, purple haired folks - not something my husband can identify with. I mean he is a vegan now, but it took bad health to come to the change. If some of you have men friends with the same vision of vegan, take a look at this article (thanks Denise) about this vegan athlete: Vegan Ultra Man. There are many more out there. Some of the top Ultra runners are vegans.

Have a great beginning in 2010.

DJ

Meetings and connections

2009-12-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm still at the mom's so shopping at Whole Foods a bit more. While there the other day, I heard a gentleman ask that familiar question - "Vegan? Where do you get your protein?" The answer is "same place as elephants." Or, more politely - greens, legumes, nuts and seeds.
I talked with the questioner when I ran into him ( not literally) a few aisles over. We talked about finding variety, using meat substitutes (not often), and great places for recipes. I wished him well.
While the mom was in the hospital, when they finally gave her food, they went to Trader Joe's and got vegan "jello" for her. Didn't know they carried it. I'm not a fan of "jello" at all, and neither is the mom, but she was glad to have something after six days of no food. They were a bit stumped about other things to serve, but did fairly well. Still ... hospital food.
Well, that's the news from snowy northern Nevada. I'll get back to recipes soon.

Snow

2009-12-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving went very well at the momma's house. Hope some of you were able to try new recipes, and had a joyous time.

I'm still with the momma...getting through some life. We've done that raw corn soup a couple of times. She really likes that. A few blended salads have gone well, too.

So I was missing my juice, when my wonderful spouse reminded me that I did bring the Vitamix. Oh, yeah, huh? I made a celery and carrot blend yesterday - turned out great. I guess I'll trudge through the snow to get more carrots sometime today.

Just a note to self: bring snow boots next time you go to the momma's in the winter.

Keep up the good work.
DJ

Thankful

2009-11-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

We're on the road. We're thankful for a great car, great weather and some good recipes to try at the mom destination. Hope your holiday is wonderful.

DJ

More Thanksgiving

2009-11-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day on the Mogollon Rim. Some people I know are hoping for snow. Silly people. We had some a week ago...tiny amount. I know I live in a forest, and said forest likes snow. I'm a Florida girl. Enough said.

Thanksgiving is a week away. I guess we need to put out a few more ideas for the feast. One of my friends is going totally Javanese for her meal. But for those who want a traditional, but vegan, repast, here are some sweet potato or yam ideas.

One from Vegweb is a cooked recipe using cashew butter and agave nectar. Sounds good, but I haven't tried it. Click the Vegweb to see it.

For those of you going raw, here's a fun recipe:
Soak about 20 dates for about an hour.

Meanwhile, peel and cube 4 to 5 cups of sweet potatoes. It's OK if your cubes are not perfect, because you are just going to put this in the blender. If it doesn't really look like a cube, who cares? How do you know how many potatoes makes 5 cups? Wash, peel and chunk about 2 medium sized yams and see how much more you need. I think I used 3 potatoes last time.

Other stuff you need: vanilla, sea salt, cinnamon, coconut butter, psyllium, pecans

Put 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of sea salt, 2 tsp of cinnamon, and 2 tbsp of coconut butter in the blender, with 3 cups of water. Is your hour up yet? Put in the de-seeded dates. Blend until smooth. Now add those yams and blend until really smooth. Add the 1 tsp psyllium. This is the thickener. Blend well. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to thicken. (If it didn't thicken enough, add more psyllium, blend and let sit for 5 more minutes). Blend again.

Place the thickened mixture in a souffle dish and top with chopped pecans. Be careful not to eat it all yourself.

Root vegetable sticks: This is adapted from a Vegetarian Times ™ recipe. We just tried it. Husband and I liked it...and I usually won't go near a beet.

This recipe is for 12...I made it for 2, which meant much less chopping.
Preheat oven to 450º.
You need 6 gold beets, 6 red beets, olive oil, cayenne pepper, sea salt.
Scrub the beets. Cut them into "french fry" size sticks. Put in a plastic bag with 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tsp of sea salt, and about 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. (Add more pepper for more spice, but be careful!) Close the bag and shake, shake, shake. Spread the coated beets in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Eat. Yummm. Kind of a sweet, slightly hot, taste.

OK, y'all. Eat your veggies...or veg-out. Thanks for listening.
DJ

Whoosh...where have I been?

2009-11-16T11:33:00.001-07:00

Sorry folks, for the lag in posts. A family matter kept me from the keyboard. Now, where were we before I was interrupted? Ahh. Thanksgiving treats. Again, thanks to everyone for sending in ideas. Be sure to look at the comments in precious...I mean previous... posts to see links to some great recipes.

My friends at Vita-Mart got in this great Celebration Roast for the holidays. It does have wheat, but does not have soy. It's from the Field Roast Grain Meat Company. We tried it at the vegan house - it was great. All the family liked it. So, if you don't want to do nurkey, and want to try something different, this little roast is an interesting alternative. For you raw fans, this is not a raw dish. Ingredients include butternut squash, apples, mushrooms, garlic, tomato paste, wheat flour - and more.

Let's talk dessert. Apple pie for the holidays - or just for fun. This is uncooked and easy.
Crust: (adapted from Kim Wilson)
Soak 16-20 dates for about half an hour to an hour. This makes them MUCH easier to pit and process. You can go for a walk, or jump down to the filling part and do that while you're waiting.
1 cup of almonds and 1/2 cup of pecans (or walnuts)
Put the nuts and the pitted dates (or de-pitted dates?...anyway, take the seeds out) in the food processor. Process until the nuts are finely chopped and the mixture clumps together.
Have a paper towel ready for wiping your hands.
Spread the clump as evenly as possible onto a pie plate. Come up the sides like a regular pie crust.

Filling: adapted from Top Raw Men
5 apples - I use one or two of several kinds. You want more tart than sweet.
Peel and core the apples, slice as thinly as possible.
I have one of those apple peeler-corer contraptions. It clamps onto your counter and you put the apple on a prong and turn the handle. It is often sold in fruit and vegetable stores.

Get a good zip-top gallon size bag. Add the apple slices, 1/2 cup of raisins or currants, 1 tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tbsp of honey, 1 tbsp of agave syrup, 1 tsp of allspice.
Close the bag and knead the ingredients for about 5 minutes. The apples should start to get a little mushy.

Finale: Dump the filling into the crust. spread it evenly.
Now, you can cut it and serve it...it is a little sticky to cut. Or, you could just eat the whole thing yourself. But I don't recommend it.

Have fun. More very soon.
DJ

Here comes Thanksgiving

2009-11-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here it comes...Thanksgiving. And I'm thankful for all the recipe suggestions. I need to try a few. We'll be on the road at the momma's most likely. Yes, the place with the microscopic food processor. I think I'll make some dishes ahead, and bring my food processor with me.

Speaking of making early...or pre-fixing, if you will...let's talk Nurkey.

This Nurkey...seen above, is adapted from the recipe from Top Raw Men.
It takes space, time, a juicer, and a really good dehydrator. The Nurkey has to dehydrate for at least 10 hours. This recipe makes about 3 lb bird size, but is very rich. Makes a good sandwich for leftovers.

Part one: lots of nuts
Put 2 cups pecans (or walnuts), 2 cups almonds, 1 cup pine nuts and 1 cup cashews (or brazil nuts) into a bowl of water and soak for 4-6 hours.

Part two: waiting
Just for something to do while the nuts are soaking, prepare these ingredients:
Finely slice 2 celery stocks and one large white (or yellow) onion
Mince 3 garlic cloves

Let's say you've done the wash, vacuumed, played a game of tennis and gone for a hike. The 4 - 6 our soaking time has passed. Drain and rinse the nuts.
Get out your juicer and put in the blank screen, the one you use for ice cream and bread sticks.

Part three: nut snake
Run the nuts, along with a medium onion and 3 to 4 cloves of garlic through the juicer. This makes a long, whitish nut snake.

Part four: mix
Put the nut snake in a large bowl with the ingredients from part two - the celery, onion and garlic - along with: 4 tsp of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp cumin, 2 tbsp rosemary, 6 tbsp psyllium husks, and 6 tsp sea salt. Mix well.

Part five: sculpting
On your dehydrator tray (with parchment, teflex, or such under the sculpture) sculpt your Nurkey from the mixture in the bowl. I had to look at a picture. Make little drumsticks and wings. Eatable art.

Part six: basting
Mix 1 tbsp of soy sauce with 1/2 cup olive oil and 2 tbsp paprika. Brush this mixture over the Nurkey. This gives your "bird" a bronzish color rather than white. Much more appetizing looking.

Dehydrate for at least 10 hours---probably longer if there is any humidity at all. It should be totally warmed through and a little moist on the inside. Emphasis on little moist, as it will spoil within a few days if you don't dehydrate it well.

OK...you might go for Tofurky™ but this is nurkey really good.

Simpler recipes coming. And be sure to check out the recipes from the comments on the last couple of blogs.
Thanks for watching. And keep up the good work changing to a more heathful diet.

It can be tricky over the holidays. Cheating is one of our favorite "diet" words. You can't really "cheat" with a lifestyle change. Your just eating something you don't normally eat. And, sometimes, you get a stomach ache, gas, or indigestion if you eat some of those things. Or get sick. I went to a friend's baby shower the other day. They had cupcakes from a specialty cupcake company. One for each person. I had about a third of mine, then wrapped it up. Threw it away later. Did ok with it. It truly wasn't as tempting nor did it taste as good as it once did. This may be true for you, too.

DJ

quick note 2

2009-10-31T11:16:00.002-07:00

Check the comments, y'all. Got some great recipe ideas in there. Thanks.

A quick note

2009-10-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Seitan recipe sent in by La Phoenicienne sounds wonderful. She's been hosting Thanksgivings the vegan way for a few years. Thanks.

Garden's end - sniff

2009-10-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

Fall...cold...here it comes - in what we call "Rim country." A little smokey, too, from prescribed burns. The village of Strawberry sits just below the Mogollon Rim, the start of the Grand Canyon Plateau. We are in the largest area of contiguous pine forest in the U.S. - lower 48, anyway. Of course that gives us a grand harvest of - pine needles.

Elevation here is about 6,000 ft. So we get a little more snow than our sister village of Pine. But we have a pretty good growing season. First snow expected tonight, so I've picked the last of the garden. Sniff.

Next year I hope to have hoops in so I can cover the plants with plastic... start earlier, finish later.

Enough whining about garden's end. November cometh, and with it some holiday events.

Ideas for a vegan Thanksgiving:
roasted squash - The recipe is back a few posts - all about squash. Easy to do and very colorful.
cold veggie plate - sliced veggies with a little coriander and basalmic vinegar. Again, easy and fast.
mashed potatoes - Not the "raw mashed from cauliflower" but real mashed using almond milk (or your favorite non-milk milk) and vegan "butter." We use Nature's Balance spread....very sparingly.
sweet potato souffle' - not a true souffle', but a raw dish that is like a pudding. Recipe coming to a blog near you.
cranberry sauce - We found a fairly good natural one last year. Maybe someone has a good suggestion?
turkey - some folks really like Tofurky, sold in most natural foods sections. I have a recipe for a nut-based...uh...nurkey. You need a good dehydrator, but I promise to post it. It's from How We All Went Raw.
apple pie - I make a raw apple pie. Again, recipe coming before Thanksgiving.

If you have some ideas, post it on comments. We are all looking for good ideas. Watch for recipes.
Thanks for your support and notes.
DJ

Home, with all appliances intact!

2009-10-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

We made it! Back in Strawberry again. This puppy picture depicts the sadness of leaving our friends, but looking forward to seeing you soon.

One more note from the road. We found this great little place in Visalia, CA. Watson's Veggie Garden (Watson's) has a great deli, healthy foods for sale, a beautiful garden to munch in - wonderful find.
We also found one of those "salad means iceberg lettuce and a cucumber slice" places along the road - it beat a total blank.

We were happy to see the newly expanded Vita-Mart (Vita-Mart) store. Wow! If you are in the Payson area, be sure to check it out. If you're coming up from the Phoenix area for a fall color tour, be sure to stop in and check out the store. It's on 87 before you get to 260. Oh. And if you are coming up to catch the fall colors, hurry!

Thanks to Kenike, who suggested Veganomicon for those who are not yet ready to do so much raw food. Recipes are online. Great new resource for us.

Got to get into town an stock up on food... not much remains in the larder when you are gone for 3 weeks! ...if you don't eat lard, can you still call it a larder?

Hey...it's raining! Lap it up, garden!

Thanks for dropping by. More hints and recipes next time, I promise.
DJ

More places with food

2009-10-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

We've been on the move, again. Sorry I wasn't able to update sooner, big storm left us without power for awhile, then the writing mood was gone.

For those who might be traveling near Medford, OR and Chico, CA - a great place for breakfast, lunch, or dinner - Grilla Bites (www.grillabites.com). Not all vegan, but easy to make almost anything suit your vegan taste buds.

If you're a little further north in Grants Pass, there's a great little Greek restaurant on 6th street, about 4 blocks from the Shiloh Inn toward downtown. It's on the right... of course, I don't recall the name. Tiny place, very willing to leave off the feta cheese.

Great fast food, in Redding, CA... Greengos (www.greengos.biz). Very nice people, good variety.

If you decide to wander down hwy 49 to hwy 41 in north central Cali - try the Yosemite Forks restaurant, 3 miles east of Oakhurst on hwy 41. Good veggie plate and good linguini with marinara & veggies. Be sure to ask them to hold the cheese, even though it's not listed in the menu.

We've had great luck along the way. Breakfast - fruit...usually somewhere shows up for us for lunch and dinner. Haven't had to hit a big chain...the best way for us.

More soon. Thanks for our comments.
DJ

More from the road

2009-10-09T17:33:00.001-07:00

Some people have asked about brand names of things I use. I was a little hesitant about that, but I did mention Vitamix and oxo, so what the hey.

One of the readers asked about knives. I have my all time favorite Wusthof chef's knife. My next favorite is Cutco, I have a tomato and a pairing knife from Cutco and they are great. If any of you have a favorite, let me know.

The other conversation I've been having with some folks is about juicers vs blenders. Out in the vegan and juicing world, there's a big controversy over "blending" or "juicing." Here's the way I see it, you can make juice in your Vitamix, and strain it. This is pretty great juice and easy clean up.

If, however, you are juicing in order to quickly absorb enzymes into your system because you are quite ill, you want a good juicer that removes pulp. We have a Greenstar. It's fairly easy to clean. It processes the vegetables efficiently without heating them, and we can, therefore, store the juice in vacuum sealed jars for about 4 days. One of my friends has a Champion juicer. She can store sealed juice for 3 days.

The key is... will you use it - or try it 3 times and give up? You have to clean it nearly every time to keep the pulp from building up in the screen. Even with a Jack LaLane, you have to be willing to do clean up. That clean up can be tedious.

Having fresh juice is the most important part. The Vitamix will do a good job, has a variety of uses, and is easy to clean. According to juice purists, this is not officially "juice." Whatever. A great juicer is useless if you never use it.

Thanks for your comments and questions. And, by the way, we've used the food processor and blender on the road...made hummus yesterday. (For the recipe, see previous post - Hummus)

Happy opening week to my friends at VitaMart at their new, bigger location! (VitaMart)

Happy eating.
DJ

About getting started

2009-10-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

Recently, some folks have asked about getting started as a vegan. Is it hard? I want to be one, now what? For the husband and I, we tried to switch fairly quickly. We got to the point where we could NOT stare another salad in the face, but we knew we would be going to the Lifestyle Center in Fallbrook, CA, so we had help on the way.

Here are some items I think you need to survive a busy vegan lifestyle:
A good food processor - many people like Kitchen Aide - I have a Hamilton Beech, but I've seen those Kitchen Aides and they look great.
A Vitamix - this is the supremo of blenders. If you are going raw, you really want a Vitamix. You can make smoothies, blended salads, dressings, sauces, pates, nutbutters, soups... you get the picture. With soups, you can run the Vitamix for a few minutes after the ingredients are blended, and warm up the soup. Can a regular blender do this? Some of it, but you have to chop more and be more careful about burning out the motor on a lesser machine. Believe me, we agonized over the price for a long time before getting our monster blender.
Some really good knives - Your life will be so much easier with a good chef knife and a good tomato knife. Get a good peeler while you're at it.
A salad spinner - I love my OXO salad spinner
A strainer - I can sub a colander sometimes, but a strainer comes in very handy.

The other part of "Now What" is what do you fix? I suggest two books for the novice vegan - Alive in 5, Raw Gourmet Menus in Five Minutes, by Angela Elliot and Instant Raw Sensations by Frederic Patenaude. Both of these books have great recipes without overwhelmingly strange ingredients, and, for the most part, need no special equipment. You can even use a regular blender for many of the recipes. Alive in 5 does call for Himalayan sea salt and hemp oil in some recipes, but you can substitute any sea salt and olive oil to get a great rendition of the recipe.

Here's a Corn Soup adapted from Alive in 5 (Angela Elliot)
Take a 16 oz. package of frozen organic corn ( or 5 ears of fresh corn, in season - take the corn off the cob) Put the frozen corn in a colander and run hot water over to thaw. (This is a very important step to save your blender's motor!)
Put the corn in the blender with 2.5 cups of almond milk (or rice milk), a half cup of fresh cilantro, a bell pepper - seeded, 1/2 jalapeno (no seeds), and a tsp of sea salt. Blend...blend...blend - eat.
This is one you can leave your blender on to heat the soup a bit - putting the soup in a warm bowl helps, too. A regular blender will heat your soup, too. Just watch out about burning up the motor.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.
DJ

At the mom house

2009-09-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just so you can see the world's smallest food processor, which I mentioned in the last post .... here it is! Those are small tomatoes next to it.

If you are equipment hunting to begin your adventure as a vegan or vegetarian, get a regular size food processor. Even if you live alone, there's so much more you can do with a bigger processor. And who knows? You may have friends over! You can even use it as a substitute, sometimes, when a recipe calls for a "heavy duty" blender, and you don't have one of those mega expensive blenders.
I got my food processor for less than $30, at a big box store. It grates, it processes. I'm happy.

More from the road, later. Thanks for checking in.
DJ

From the Road

2009-09-29T10:04:00.001-07:00

The husband and I are on the road. Well, more precisely, he's on the road and I flew to my mom's. We catch up with each other on Friday, when I drive to Oregon.
Meanwhile, he's got his Happy Cow (http://www.happycow.net) list for driving to Utah, then Oregon. Amazingly enough, there's a burger joint in Kanab, Utah that has a vegan menu!

At the mom's, I have a food processor that holds one cup of lettuce...yikes! But she has an ancient, but good, blender. That works for some blended salads. She made some soup for us, bless her.

The mom and I are off on an adventure, now. So, more vegging and stories next time.

DJ

Some seasonal thoughts

2009-09-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Squash.... not the kind you play or drink... nice fall squash. I have one in my garden. I don't know what happened to the rest. Could be the roses? I hope for more in the next few weeks.

Here's a great recipe for Delicata, acorn, and carnival squash...even pumpkin.

(Serves 4)
Wash 2 or 3 squash really well.
Cut open the squash. Take out the seeds, leave on the skin.
Cut up the squash into 2 inch chunks. (Don't be anal about the size of the chunks, just chunk them) This is the most difficult part of the preparation.
Put the chunks in a big plastic bag, or in a glass bowl if you don't use plastic.
Add enough olive oil to coat squash, along with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp coriander, and basically whatever other spice might sound good.
Toss the squash to coat with the oil & spices - if it's in a bag, close the bag & shake- yeah, like "shake & bake."
Spread the squash in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
Bake at about 400º for 30 minutes. (The squash should be soft.)
Eat it. You can eat the skins!

Here's a great site to tell you more than you ever wanted to know about squash:
whatscookingamerica.net

The husband and I are packing for a journey. Yes, we are taking our Vitamix. That's just crazy.

More from the road. Thanks for reading.

Dj

Hummus, or making a slow recipe fast

2009-09-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

Fall came to our village just the other day. Seriously. I think the trees turned overnight. Even so, I think we can still put together a raw recipe or two that will work for fall.

Hummus for that tailgate party!

I call this a slow, fast recipe because you have to think about it, and soak the garbanzo beans 3 days! After that, snap. This is based on a recipe from In the Raw, by Kim Wilson (Simply Natural Health)

Hard part: Remember that you want hummus in 3 days. Soak 3 cups of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) in water for 3 days- empty, rinse, and refill water each day or it gets seriously scuzzy.

Easy:
Dump the soaked beans, not the water, into a food processor. Add 2 cloves of garlic, about 1/3 cup tahini (making tahini is another adventure, so get some from the store), 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt, 3/4 tsp. cumin, 2 tbsp. olive oil, juice of 3 lemons (or about 1/3 cu of apple cider vinegar), 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (if you have a good memory, you could pre-soak the sunflower seeds for a few hours). Some other stuff to throw in: 1/2 cup of parsley, a bit of red onion, 1/2 tomato.
Now, turn the food processor on and process until the hummus is fairly smooth. Mine is never totally smooth.
Eat it all at one sitting with friends or store in a glass container in the fridge.

I made some the other day for friends and family. This recipe makes a huge amount, so think about all the people who need some hummus. Sometimes giving away hummus can be like giving away zucchini, people will take only so much!

Gotta run.
Thanks for stopping by

DJ

Dining with family

2009-09-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

We had some family with us the last few days, and not everyone is onboard with this vegan thing. My son is a big fan of Indian (from India) food. That gave us hummus, filafel, and flax garden crackers. His girlfriend really likes broccoli, so broc salad fit the bill. We made it easy by eating out once. We did piles of fruit for breakfast. Veggie burgers, giant salad, sweet potatoes got us another dinner. Whew... no one starved! And, they even liked it.

Ok....this is the Thanksgiving dinner. "Nurkey," tomatoes, raw sweet potato souffle, organic cranberry sauce, garden flax crackers, and "cool apple pie" for dessert. The nurkey takes a long time, and a big dehydrator to make. The rest is easy. I'll get on posting those recipes and links in the next few days.

It's juice day, here, again. I'm off to dry dishes... the least I can do after all the juicing is done by the spouse.

Thanks for dropping in.

with friends

2009-09-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note to chat about dining with friends. We were invited to a gathering with my son's girlfriend's family. Her mother made a wonderful meal, gracefully serving a variety of non-dairy, meatless dishes, and had meat on the side for others. This was a gracious way to make everyone comfortable.

People are often at a loss for what to serve vegan friends. Make it easy on yourselves. Vegans, offer to bring a dish. Serve veggies, and we'll get by. Hopefully we vegans are gracious enough to not say, "Yuch, do you actually eat that?" when someone has meat or cheese on the table.

Thanks for stopping by. Oh, my husband said I need to explain the picture in the previous post: It was our first vegan Thanksgiving - and that's a "nurkey," I guess. It's made with nuts.

DJ

Making stuff

2009-09-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

When I first started making recipes, I very meticulously followed ALL the directions. Sheesh! I don't follow directions. Ask my knitting friends! Ask my husband!

I've found the easiest, fewest ingredient recipes out there and I sort of follow them. Do I ALWAYS soak the nuts first? No. I usually do, however, soak dates or sundried tomatoes, just for 5 minutes, because they blend much more easily.

One of my friends was saying that kale is really bitter, and another friend had never eaten kale. I must admit, I didn't even know what kale was before I went to "vegan camp." Here's an easy, but messy recipe for Kale. All my peeps who have tried it, like it.

Sweet Kale Salad (adapted from How We All Went Raw, Charles, Coralanne & George Nungesser, http://toprawmen.net)

In a BIG bowl, add:
2 heads of kale stripped from the stems (I like purple or Russian kale, especially)
1/3 cu extra virgin olive oil, or combination of olive & hemp seed oil
1/3 cu raw agave nectar
1 minced garlic clove
1/3 cu raisins
2 tbsp pine nuts or walnuts (never cashews)

Wash or glove your hands. Have a paper towel or dishrag ready for your hands. Knead and massage the ingredients for 5 minutes. This softens the kale considerably. You can practice yoga by doing "tree" and sing songs for five minutes, while you knead the ingredients. Or not. (Use lemon or coffee grounds to get the garlic smell off your hands.) After 5 minutes, ding, ready to eat. Give it a try.

Enough fun for today.
DJ

Gardening on the mountaintop and other thoughts

2009-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. I went out to look at the garden this morning. Some yellow squash are looking happy, and I think lettuce might be coming up.

Under the heading of food foraging, people have asked if we keep a garden. Yes, and it's great to walk out the door and gather a few veggies.
Creating a garden on a granite slab in Arizona, however, can be tricky. Especially for a non-gardener like me. You may notice the high fence. We have a few animals that appreciate food donations - elk, javelina, deer. It took my husband over 2 hours for each fence post. Why? Notice the box? Our ground is rock and caliche. To dig more than 3 inches, you need a pick! We have one box this year. We'll have 2 more next season.

Something to think about:We made an interesting discovery this year. Tomatoes don't like roses. Our tomatoes are leaning as far as they can from the roses. I guess tomatoes go in a different box next year.

Travel & Eating Out
As some of you know, being a vegan can be a pain as far as eating out and travel. We have discovered a website that's really helped us: Happy Cow. Restaurants and markets list with them. People leave comments. We've also found that many places fix you a great salad, if you ask.

Car travel in areas of nowhere, like most of Nevada, southeastern Oregon, and most of Arizona, can lead to ... hunger. To make it through: Burger King has a veggie burger, you might be able to order a veggie pizza with no cheese somewhere, or load up on veggies and fruit at a grocery.
Driving from Las Vegas to Reno? Most restaurants in the between miles think a salad is iceberg lettuce with 1/8th of a tomato and one slice of cucumber. Bring food, try BK, or the grocery. Driving from Reno to Utah? Same thing. And no, in Basque country, lamb is still NOT a vegan food.

In some places, you just have to face it, you're going to have to explain that turkey, lamb, or chicken is meat. It's like when I was in China - "It not meat, it eel." Blech!

I think I'll do some recipes next time. What do you think? Thanks for watching.
DJ

Juicing: or how to milk a carrot

2009-09-13T10:31:00.002-07:00

It's a juicing morning here in Strawberry. But not strawberry juice. Carrot juice and some green things. Luckily for me, I get to watch the great juicer, aka my husband, do the job.

The "carrot milking" process takes about 2 hours, including clean up. We've gone through several evolutions of the job. First, I did it. Then we did it. Now he does it. My job continues to be capturing the 30 lbs. of carrots each week, as well as green things to add in.

Back in the day, we used California juicing carrots which came in a 25 lb. bag. Do you know how much room that takes in the refrigerator? And now, think of all the other produce you have to fit in there because. hey, you're a vegan. We thought about 2 refrigerators, but that's another story. The other thing about these carrots-they are HUGE. Sometimes we'd get one that weighed a pound by itself! Huge carrots means more prep time. No more huge carrots.

We tried the little carrots, you know the baby ones. Blech! The juice was awful.

Luckily for us in our transition, a new store opened (www.thevitamart.com) only 18 miles away, and they bring in organic produce twice a week. So now, instead of having to drive 70 miles or greater for carrots, the trip is only 18 miles. We've got the process down to the 5 lb. bags, no huge carrots, and we can get 3 bags at a time! The store holds the other 15 for us.

Carrot milking: So, the husband is in the kitchen scrubbing the carrots. Then he'll squish them in the juicer, building his upper body strength. He'll fill 9 jars 2/3 full. Then he'll rummage around in the fridge for some green stuff, like kale, celery, parsley. He'll squish that and pour the resulting juice into the jars. We have a vacuum sealer thingy to suck the air out of the jars, so the juice lasts about 4 days.

Is it worth all the carrot wrangling, squishing and equipment cleaning? I have to admit, we feel better when we have the juice. And, when I had my eyes checked this year, the ophthalmologist reduced the strength of my contact lenses.

That's the tale for today. Thanks for stopping by.
DJ

Welcome

2009-09-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Vegan Tall Tales.
These tales originate in a village called Strawberry. No, really. You might be able to find it on a map, with a magnifying glass.

Everyone's got a vegan blog, so what makes me different? Hmm. My tale begins with my husband's cancer diagnosis. Many vegan tales begin this way. He researched and decided this was his way...and so it became mine. We went to a great Lifestyle center (fallbrookca@halifestylecenters.com) and learned to prepare whole, plant based diet foods, and the joy of juicing.

The fun part of the tale begins when we get home. We live in cattle country. The nearest location of organic produce is 18 miles away, and that's very limited. Getting food really involves driving either 78 miles or 100 miles, depending on snow. And it's hard to stockpile fresh produce!

Happily, things have changed in the last year, and organic produce has come to the town only 18 miles away. But, here we'll tell the tale of our journey and snippets about our friends, and some made up stuff. I am a storyteller, after all.

Thanks for watching.
DJ