Good Eats, Good Tunes

Confession: Internet, I am no longer vegan.

Gasp.

I know. You are shocked, dismayed; you care. Or not.

I care, anyway. I've been sheepish about admitting it to my blog, since I was so, all, like, "I'm VEGAN." But whatever. I loved veganing; I feel like some day I'll go back to it, but for now I'm concentrating on other elements of my nutritional life.

I still make a lot of veganish recipes, like the following:

Raw Cinnamon Raisin Toast. I heard about it on one of my favorite foodie blogs, Heather Eats Almond Butter.

Technically, the recipe calls for a dehydrator, but I just put my oven on 170 (lowest setting) and kept the door propped open for a couple hours. I failed to buy raisins, and I couldn't really taste the cinnamon, so it's turned into just regular old bread. Well, to the extent that this can be called bread ... But it's working like bread. Today, for lunch, I brought an enormous salad, and made little open face sandwiches with a few squares of it. So so tasty.

I felt all cook-y (kooky?) over the weekend and made the bread substance, Dreena Burton's Quinoa Chickpea Confetti Casserole (which has converted me to quinoa--a miracle), vegan ice cream with coconut milk and date sweetener, and and something else. I can't recall. But it was GOOD, whatever it was. I haven't felt that interested in cooking in awhile. But I feel, lately, like I'm coming back to life, like I'm comfortable taking up space in my life, doing stuff, talking to people, taking walks, writing, reading, and, as mentioned, making healthy stuff.

Let me know if you try the bread. It's sort of a fun adventure, even if you're not trying to be raw or vegan or anything but your own self.

Comments

Kitty said…
Dear Deja,

I don't eat red meat. I'm not sure if you knew that. Well, last night for the first time since the 9th grade, I wanted a BLT with real bacon. Crazy but true. I didn't give in but I imagine that it may be an issue if I ever get pregnant.

Don't be too hard on yourself. Being healthy and happy is more important.

hugs,
kat
Emily Ruddick said…
Posting this under my wifes ID (but only because she is logged in and I can never remember my password). Instead of doing vegan you should look into some ethnobotanicals for medicinal and nutritional uses. A steady diet of fish for omega 3 fatty acids, for instance. Did you know that you can use chia seeds (like the chia pet) in shakes and lower cholesterol levels?? etc. etc. etc.

I only leave this comment because I am into good healthy eating and I have a garden. Not sure if you are into gardening but you could do some indoor stuff if so inclined. Organic baby! Thank is the ticket

-josh-
eden said…
i love quinoa.

and, vegan or not, i love you. (:

i have my moments (days, weeks...) of more vegetarian-type living, but i somehow love beef jerky - that's kind of as meaty as it gets in my opinion. so, that's weird.

hmm... i think that's all i have to say.
Deja said…
Thanks, all.

Kat: Bacon is, sadly, yummy. Hang in there; it's worth resisting.

Josh: Been meaning to try chia seeds but they cost a million dollars. Must get on that.

Eddie: You should try Dreena Burton's recipe for quinoa. I couldn't find it online, so I couldn't post it, but I could send it...
belann said…
Just keep eating healthy foods. Focus on health, not necessarily any particular lifestyle.
Amara said…
it's easy to get sucked into an "identity" and sometimes it helps when making day to day choices ---I've passed up cheese on more than one occasion because of the vegan thing, and that emergency backup can only help me with my food issues, but I think it's dumb to snub almost any food completely. I believe in small amounts it was all made to be savored (except maybe the truly junky and processed). It's that balance and control that's hard to figure out. Did you read that Animal Vegetable Miracle?
Emily Ruddick said…
Grow your own Chia. its commonly called indian wheat.
Amara said…
and now I'm going to try this recipe because you had the guts to even without a dehydrator.
Although I'm unabashadly full-fledged vegan, I'm the first to say you don't have to be vegan to be a healthy and happy person. Like Micheal Pollan says, "eat plants, lots of them." And you can do this, vegan or not.
eden said…
dej, i would love for you to send the quinoa recipe. thanks!

also, thanks a ton for the emails about the uganda trip. so sweet of you to pass that on. i just saw them and haven't had time to look at it, but i really appreciate you thinking about me.

i'm flying to dc this coming thursday. i'm sad that it's not closer to boston...
Terry Earley said…
When we tried the "bread", we did not have a liner, so I just sprayed the cookie sheet with oil, and it came out black on the bottom. --Of course we ate it anyway, and it was very good. Lasted for a week.

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