Brunch for Yarden Planting

(Vegan French Toast on Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery Pumpkin Currant bread. Maple Syrup, Earth Balance Butteryness, A salad of Sprouted Mung Bean and Lentils with Kalamata olives and a light Apple Cider Vinegar, sea salt and Nutritional Yeast dressing. Cold tea from fresh Parsley and Oregano. Hot Dandelion Root / Coffee / Cocoa with frothy Cashew milk.)

Vegans can enjoy French Toast! This recipe can be made with any kind of bread, but I have to say that the Pumpkin Currant bread I had stashed in my freezer from last falls pumpkin crop, was pretty damn divine.

Nut Milk French Toast

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Nut or Nut Butter (I used tahini, but, other options could be peanut butter, cashew, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds)

4 tb oil

1 ts salt

1.5 cups hot water

5 or so slices of bread

optional:

a little bit of cinnamon

a little bit of vanillia extract

a little bit of milled flax seed

1 or 2 tb maple sugar (or other sweetener)

What to do?

Put the water and the nut /butter together in the blender. You can soak for a minute, or over night depending on the softness of your nut choice. Blend water and nut mixture a bit then add all other ingredients EXCEPT the bread and 2 tb of oil (which will be used for slicking the toasting pan).

Once blended well, pour the mixture out into a bowl appropriate for dipping the bread slices into. Dip and flip and soak bread slices.

Heat pan to a medium high heat, add a little oil, then toast up your soggy nutty bread. Do not try to garden or get into a deep conversation while you should be keeping your eye on flipping the toast. Flip toast. voilà. toast. French vegan style.

Serve with soy free Earth Balance 'butter' and locally tapped Maple Syrup.

Red Lentil Lemon Soup

First off I want to thank Bridget, Elon and Michael for encouraging me to share this recipe.

Second, I want to say that my first memorable experience with lentil soup was at Sultan’s Market in Wicker Park Chicago. The soup was simple, cheap, came in a Styrofoam soup cup and was served with a chunk of lemon. Best soup ever. Since then I have been perfecting my own lentil soup recipe…and now prefer my own lentil creations to anything currently on the market.

Before I get to the recipe, I want to mention how awesome lentils are. Lentils, cousins of the pea, were one of the first crops cultivated by man way back 8000 years ago. But lentils also have a history of being a food of the poor. The upper class would never consider serving lentils. Though, apparently Hippocrates did recommend lentils to patients who needed to improve their livers. And with these nutritional facts, the lentil has got me feeling like a rich girl!

100 grams of lentils have the same amount of protein as 134 grams of beef

1 cup of brown lentils will provide 38 mg of calcium (which is more easily absorbed by your body compared to the calcium from cow’s milk because your body won’t have to waste it’s energy and resources (including stored calcium) in order to process the animal proteins.)

Lentils are loaded with vitamins and minerals like phosphorus, magnesium, folate, iron, potassium, selenium, zinc, dietary fiber, Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, and B vitamins. With the addition of nutritional yeast in this recipe, vegans, you got your B’s covered :)

Remember, I don’t give specifics because recipes are meant to by guidelines for your experimentations.

Red Lentil Lemon Soup

Mandatory Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Onions (of any variety, red, white, yellow, green, fresh, powered, of course, whatever you can get that fits your local and organic food preferences)
Water
Red Lentils
Lemon Juice (or apple cider vinegar)
Salt

Optional Ingredients:
Garlic
Tamari
Cayenne
Dark Leafy Greens
Nutritional Yeast


Bust out your favorite soup pot. Get it going on a medium heat.

Chop your onion however you’d like. Finely chopped is great, chunks is great….experiment!

Cover the bottom of your soup pot with a thin layer of olive oil. Give the oil a few moments to heat up, and then put the onions in for a little sauté action. (If you are using garlic, chop and put that in now as well…..also, if you decide to experiment and add any other veggies that need longer cooking time, at the end of this sauté would be a good time to add them.)

Put your red lentils in something like a screen colander, or a bowl for a rinsing. Rinse them once or twice with cold water.

Now your onions should be about sautéed and you can pour equal parts water and lentils to your soup pot. Turn up the heat until the water boils. After water boils turn heat to low, cover your soup pot and let cook for about 20 minutes.

After about 20 minutes, give things a stir, the lentils should be just about sufficiently cooked (but will get better the longer they cook). If it’s too think for your preference, add water, too thin, cook longer. Now is the time you gotta bust out the taste buds to get the right flavor. Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice and a tablespoon or so of salt, stir, give a taste, learn to sense what you need more of…the sour of the lemon, or the salt of a fine sea salt (if you are upper class enough for such a thing.)

If you are using Cyanne and Tamari, now is a good time to add those flavors in. Stir your flavors in, adjust as needed and as preferred. Let everything cook together for another 10 minutes or so. Voila! That is the simple version. Now are you ready for the, “I’m a strong healthy vegan” kicking the ass of any steak dinner version?

Let’s start with the nutritional yeast. This is a powerhouse item which I feel is essential to healthy veganism. Add a tablespoon or so of that to the soup, stir in well.

So, once you have this awesome base of a soup, topped with the vitamin and mineral richness of nutritional yeast, go out into your garden, or rummage through your CSA box for your weekly dose of dark leafy greens. This is the stuff that keeps us alive girls and guys. I’m talking your kale, spinach, swiss chard, beet or even dandelion greens, etc and more…I’ve even used lemon sorrel in this soup! Incredible!

So yeah, get your greens together; rinse them off to give the spiders a chance to escape. For a smoother soup, I like to de-steam the tougher parts of a kale or chard leaf. Personally I prefer chopping my greens pretty fine, but test out different styles, if you are using smaller leaves, you might be able to use them whole!

(A trick for chopping lots of greens: As you rinse them, stack them into a pile, then roll them up into a tight roll, then you can chop all the leaves together at the same time in one roll.)

Ok, so now you got your greens chopped up, add them to the soup. Give them 3 to 10 minutes to cook, depending on your cooked / raw food ratio needs. If you need to add a little bit more water, go for it. Just remember to readjust your lemon juice / salt balance.

I think that’s it. Enjoy the joys of this healing and satisfying meal.

Why Vegans Do It; The Benefits of Veganism

Before I say anything about how great it is to be a vegan, I want to stress how important it is to educate yourself about the food you choose to eat. Save millions. Become your own doctor.

No matter what “ism” or “vore” you decide on, try learning about the nutrients your body needs and what foods your body can get them from. Remember that you are the only one who can hear the messages your body is trying to send to you. Listen to the messages your body is sending.

When you are hungry, your stomach lets you know. When you are thirsty, your mouth will become dry. This is your body’s way of saying, “Hydration Please!” If you ate greasy French fries, your stomach may let you know, perhaps in the form of heartburn. When you eat healthy food, like a plate of steamed dark leafy greens, your body will let you know. You may start feeling better and more energized. Now of course you can get suggestions from people and books about what food is “good for you,” but it ultimately comes down to having a conversation with your own body. Experiment until you find the types of foods that make you feel good.

After switching to a vegan diet, many report having stronger immune systems. On top of being more resistant to the common cold, vegans are less likely to die from heart disease. Vegans tend to avoid foods containing pesticides, preservatives and chemicals. While going organic sounds expensive, it is actually a cheaper alternative to cancer and type 2 diabetes. Oh, and you get to save the environment while your at it.

Lots of vegans do it for the environment. Raising a chicken here and a cow there can be good for the environment. Raising 50,000 acres of hogs on one ranch is not so good for the environment, and has the potential to produce more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. Animal waste is only one aspect of the detrimental effects of factory farming on the environment. Precious resources like land, water, and food are necessary to raise livestock. If you’d like to end world hunger, hear this now; five loaves of bread could be made out of all the resources it takes to get one hamburger! Not one cow, one single hamburger patty. Imagine telling that to the skinny kid on the poverty commercial.

Some vegans do it for human rights. Estimates of 25 million people go hungry in the United States every day. If Americans reduced their meat intake by 5%, guess how many people we could feed? Yup, pretty much all of those 25 million who currently go hungry.

Most vegans do it for the animals. Here is the simplest way I can put it; if you can still eat bacon after viewing the PETA video, “Meet Your Meat,” your heart must be numb. These 12 minutes of video could change your life, or at least how you eat.

Simple but Yum!

Here we have two beautifully bright vegetables to brighten up your dreary February. Squash and Yams. Both of these items were grown within 25 miles of my home! Yeah for local food!

These creatures are easy to prepare. Simply cut them in half. The Yam should be good to go, place right on the baking sheet.

For the squash, you will need to scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Then rub the veg with a thin coat of olive oil. Sprinkle sea salt and cumin. Put on baking sheet. Bake at about 425 for 15 minutes. Check them, rotate them, put em back in.

For quicker cooking of the squash, place the squash in a pan that you can add a half inch of water to.

Getting Started

Hi Friends,

This is the picture that is supposed to scare you into eating healthy and staying out of stressful and toxic environments. After this picture I became vegan.

Fast forward too many years later,

I started a vegan blog a while back. I am going to post some posts from my old "True Spirit Food" blog to help rev this new one, "Wholy Healthy," up.

I wrote this last spring, while in Seattle, over looking Elliot Bay.

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Before I actually get into any recipes, I want to prep you for new ways of thinking about how and what to buy when preparing the truest food for your spirit, family and friends.

Some rules of thumb:

1) The foods with the least packaging most likely have the least processing. For example, the produce section of a grocery store, if you quiet your mind, you can feel how alive it is. You don’t really even need to put your tomatoes into a plastic bag to get them home! Also, I love the bulk food sections, especially at stores or co-ops which let you weigh and fill up your own jars. This eliminates SO much waste, AND cuts down on how many trips you have to take to empty your trash and/or recycling bins.

2) Always organic. I respect the fact that each individual has his or her own standards for what they are willing to put into their bodies. Personally I’d rather fast than consume poison, or food that was grown with or around poisons.

3) Local local local. Getting your food from local sources not only ensures you are getting fresher products but also supports farmers in your area and cuts down on all the energy used to transport those huge semi trucks from miles and miles and miles away.

For Produce:

1) Having your own garden is probably the best option for the freshest highest quality produce. That’s if you are lucky enough to have the space, land and time for getting a garden set up. If you are not so lucky as to have the time and space…

2) Try a CSA. CSA’s are “Community Supported Agriculture.” These are so great for the community! You sign up for the season, usually pay up front so that the farmer can use that money to buy seeds for the season, but I’m sure some places have different payment plans. Each week or so you either go and pick up a box of fresh produce directly from the farm, or sometimes there are pick up locations closer to where you live. Google CSA’s in your area.

3) Farmers Markets are also a great way to get uber fresh produce. Usually you can talk directly to the farmer. Even if they don’t have an Organic certification, you can ask them questions about their farming practices and find out if their standards meet your standards.

For your Lentils, Rices, Grains, Nuts and other such Spices not available from your local farmers….

Co-ops are great! Usually you can sign up to be a member and attend meetings to help make decisions on what sort of standards you and your community will set for the food you decide to stock. Don’t forget to bring your jars!

Next post I will confess my love for wide mouth ball jars!

Body

So I am going to start this blog off by talking about the body. No matter what your religious beliefs are, I think we can all agree that the body is a vessel. The body is a vessel for our spirit, a vessel for the voices in our heads, the pull in our hearts, the action of our soul. This vessel is like our spaceship. As babies, we learn how to drive this spaceship around. We experiment against gravity. We experiment with gravity. When we fall, we learn more about our abilities and limitations. This process of learning and growing from experimentation does not end as we enter adulthood.