I’m finally writing about a reunion last month with my two best friends from University. I have known these women since we were about 19 years old (more or less), and well- we’re gaining on our 3rd decade of friendship. But we all look exactly the same (at least that is what we think). I am now older than my PARENTS were when I graduated from college, that is so bizarre. I feel lucky to have these forever friends, and even if we all live in different states, our states are adjoining ones. Since moving to Portland in 1999, there aren’t a lot of people in my daily life who knew me before I was married with kids, and all my “old” friends have a special place in my heart.

We’ve made it a point to get together at least once a year. Sometimes with families, sometimes just us. I found photos of the three of us in shoulder pads, stone-washed denim and big permed hair from the late 80s, and photos of all of us at each others weddings. Through marriage, kids, deaths, job changes, and other life changes, I know we all support each other. We had a lot of laughs trying to take a decent selfie for this trip, we just don’t practice enough I guess!

For this February weekend, we took over my parent’s home on the Oregon coast. And they were kind enough to leave town so that we could have it all to ourselves to talk freely (and without my mom seeing how many wine bottles we went through). Since my two friends both had some travel costs, I offered to plan and pay for the food and of course be the driver.

My friends are not vegan, and when we were planning the trip, they were really kind about saying I could make whatever I wanted.

I challenged myself to come up with food that they would hopefully enjoy, always trying to present an easy and delicious view of vegan food using whole foods. Making things that are supposed to emulate meat doesn’t really measure up to those who eat meat regularly (I’ve found). They are more satisfying for those of us who haven’t had the real thing for awhile!

My menu plan for the weekend was…

General Tso’s Cauliflower  A Chinese dish using breaded cauliflower that is baked. So good! I have written about this before.

Indian Vegetarian Korma Substituted coconut milk for the heavy cream to make it vegan. I also made some chickpea cutlets for the first time from Veganomicon, but those weren’t my favorite. However, people love those, and so I might try again and see if there was something that went awry. My friends said they liked them, but they are kind people, so what else would they say?

Vegetable Thai Red Curry I make this at least once a month, everyone loves it.

I ended up talking to them more about my vegan ideas and philosophy than I usually do. Later, I thought about that. I try to be careful with all my friends not to cause any alarm… or maybe to appear “normal enough” so they will continue to invite me over for dinner. (-; With these friends, I am not worried that they will abandon me, even if they don’t agree with me. Because it has become a very important part of my life, it was nice to be able to share that side.

We ended up eating out only a few times over those three days. On the way to the coast, we ate at Laughing Planet. Lazy Susan at the coast, where I was personally disappointed about the lack of even a non-dairy creamer for the coffee. It is charming, but not vegan-friendly… but the other options were Pig n’ Pancake or Scoop n’ Grill which definitely weren’t better. Sweet Basil’s Cafe is the most vegan-friendly option in Cannon Beach, but they open at lunch. For dinner back in Portland, we went to Pizzeria Otto, and tried their vegan pizza- cashew “ricotta”, lemon and pumpkin seed pesto. It was really good!

We had a pretty rainy weekend, but honestly, it didn’t matter that much. What a gift to be able to catch up on all the new developments in each others’ lives, talk about anything and everything, and reminisce. We may not talk often, but when we see each other it is like no time has passed.

I love you girls! Thank you for your friendship as we change through the years, but always remain the same at heart.

P.S. How did we forget to discuss TIM?

This may sound silly, but I wanted to share this story.

Yesterday, I was driving slowly near my house and heard a “thunk” against the car. I was talking on speaker phone at the time, and didn’t think I was distracted, but I honestly didn’t see what it was or where it came from.

I parked and walked back to the spot hoping it was a pine cone that had flipped up, and not what I was fearing.

But, there he was, a tiny little brown bird, eyes closed, feet straight out, not moving. Mercifully, I suppose he died immediately. I took a pine branch to sweep him off the road so he wouldn’t be squashed by cars, and he was still so soft that each rotation of his small body made my stomach lurch in connection to how recently he had been living. Such a beautiful day, Spring just beginning, and it was all over for him.

I made an internal vow that I would not use speaker phone any more (which I don’t do with kids in the car anyway). Not sure if it would have made a difference, but more attention on the road is always good, and made me feel like his life did mean something.

Each life does matter, and you may think I am over-dramatic, but I don’t want to be responsible for death. Yes, I know these things happen, even in harvesting vegetables, but we can do what we can to prevent as many as possible. It made the connection for me again that I don’t like to see small birds die, so I also don’t want to be responsible for killing the birds that I can’t see. If I eat eggs or chicken, someone else is killing that bird for me.

Later, I walked back to where I left him, near the curb, and he was gone. I would like to believe (and hope) that he had just been stunned, and woke up later. In any case, I learned something from that bird, and he strengthened my compassion.

Usually I keep my posts not too personal. However, I am ready to share the other side of our wonderful vacation last October. Also, most of my readers at this point are my family and friends, so this is for them.

I think there must be two types of people (generally). Those who enjoy the theme park experience, and those who find it a form of torture.

I thought possibly that I enjoyed it, but now that it has been 6 months since our Disney experience I realize we fall into the other category. I was pretty traumatized by it, and I don’t think I can ever visit one again, EVER, although Star Wars and Harry Potter tempt me. If I could go on an uncrowded, not extremely hot day, for free… well, that probably won’t happen. The kids were pretty unenthusiastic by the end, and didn’t even want to buy any souvenirs.

Their favorite part was having their own room and TV in the hotel, and when we went to a friend’s house for dinner and video games.

So my original post was all about the veg options. I left out the 45 minute lines for rides, accidentally becoming part of a charity walk for an hour before the park opened LATE, that our kids don’t like any exciting/fun rides. or that we spent like $50 one morning on enormous Jamba juices to try to quench our thirst.

The best part of Disneyland for my animal lover was their petting zoo! I heard that is going away, along with other Frontier land attractions to make room for Star Wars Land. I’m glad we can do our daughter’s favorite thing near our home, for free.

“Mom, can I just stay here in the shade and pet the animals?”

Are you a theme park person? I think it helps if you go often so you know what to do and how to maximize the fun, minimize the wait time. I’m pretty sure if there was a way we could have done this more wrong, it would have been difficult! Check opening hours, don’t leave your glasses on the ride, don’t go during a 108 degree record-breaking heat wave or get caught up in a charity event. Anyway, first world problems. I am grateful for the trip, if only for the future vacation savings for us and the kids.

We’re updating the blog, and as I reorganized some old posts, I realized that I missed celebrating my Veganniversary. February 1, 2012 I started this journey and have consistently stayed true to this commitment. And yes, I still count myself as vegan even if I slipped up sometimes.

I really didn’t know if I would relapse, but at this point, I feel even more strongly about the movement than before. It has made a huge impact in my life, and changed how I view the world. I’m now advocating every day for the animals, the earth and my kid’s future. Not to mention, our health. In the past 4 years I have read so much, and learned even more than when I started. I now have experience in cooking plant-based meals and there are more products even then when I started.

Besides trying a new vegan restaurant to celebrate, I have a new goal to start for March. While we feel positive about veganism from a standpoint of animals, environment and health, I think our family can make improvements to our meals and cut back on processed foods and oil. If you are just beginning, meatless chicken patties and prepackaged meals can help make the transition easier. Since I have had time to fall back on that, I want to delve deeper into making our meals to include even more whole foods and less sugar.

Mostly, I just get lazy sometimes and don’t feel like planning ahead. However, I want to help some people in my community who also struggle with meal planning, so I am going to put in the effort and make healthier meals that everyone will eat. I’m pretty sure that this is one of the major stumbling blocks for a lot of people. Once you remove cheese- how do you make quesadillas, grilled cheese, and other easy items? I’m not a fan of soy-based cheeses, so this means being more creative so the recipe doesn’t NEED the cheese. I love this easy, delicious cauliflower alfredo dish for example:

or using butternut squash on pizza.

I finally joined Instagram @eat4thefuture, and will be posting my illustrations over there as well. And I have made commenting easier, so if you have any suggestions, or resources… let me know!

Thanks for the comments, I love hearing from you.

I really want to insert a corny leap joke here!

I draw what I eat (usually), and write some commentary about it and the recipes. However, that makes it really hard to separate the recipes out. So, the plan is to reorganize! In the meantime it is a muddle… I made Mujadara yesterday for the first time. I don’t make as many Middle Eastern recipes. This recipe was simple enough, but it takes a full hour and a half to make. You pre-cook lentils, and then take time to really caramelize the onions, and the rice cooks in that mixture afterwards.

It turned out well- my caveats: probably used the wrong lentils. Ours were green, not brown. I felt like it used a lot of oil. I think I would cut that back from 1/4 cup. That was the only thing that wasn’t very healthy about the dish. I skipped the crispy onion part since I already used 2 onions, which is 2 onions too many for one of the kids.

Lastly, I finally got the vegan Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after much hype about it. I had visited our local B&J shop at least twice, and they didn’t have it, kept checking Fred Meyers with no luck. Finally, I tried Target since I heard they had it. I hate going to Target because I end up spending too much money buying stuff I don’t need. I made this special trip to buy the ice cream (along with some kid clothes). It was very disappointing to see that they didn’t have it there.

In this case, I decided to ask the stock person (on the advice of another local vegan). He said it was actually in the back. I waited for probably around 15 minutes while he went into some deep freeze area and came back with 4 options. All of them cost $4.99, much more than their dairy counterparts. I got two of them to try out.

This ice cream is made with almond milk, and I really like the coffee caramel fudge one. Maybe it’s elusiveness added extra pleasure. After my daughter tried it she exclaimed, “that’s it, I am going vegan”.

Sorry for the silence lately. There has actually been a lot happening, and much to write about.  There have been two big reasons for the silence.

One: I have a lot of work to do! For my design firm I have some great clients and am doing book illustrations, t-shirt designs, logos, a website and more.

Two: I just haven’t been really feeling like I have anyone reading this website.

Except… for my mother. And this post is for her.

My mom probably inspired me the most to be an artist. Since a young age, she has always given me opportunities and encouraged me. She frames my artwork, printed thank you notes that I drew, and enrolled me in art classes. She is a very creative person in her own right in so many ways: knitting, stamping, watercolor, gardening, and cooking.

She has been very supportive of my vegan lifestyle, even if she is not vegan herself. She enjoys trying new foods like tempeh, cashew cheese, and tofu and has given me some great recipes to try. She is queen of the kitchen gadgets and among other items, wanted a Vitamix before it was even on my radar. Now, it is my favorite and most-used kitchen appliance. Recently she got a spiralizer and has been making zoodles (zucchini noodles), and all sorts of interesting things. I am sure it is only a matter of time before I get one. We share recipes- successes and mistakes.

I am fortunate to have a very veg-friendly family in general. Our relatives have been great about making sure we have something to eat at all the gatherings, and choosing restaurants that have veg options too. When I visit my sister, she gets non-dairy milk and plans veg meals. Last Thanksgiving, my family even decided to have a turkey-less meal, which was so incredibly wonderful. I didn’t ask them to do this, but it was so appreciated. My mom substitutes out the chicken broth, and makes us meals.

My mom has always been encouraging of my endeavors, and I know she is my #1 supporter of everything, including this blog. It keeps me motivated to write, when I know people are reading it..

Thank you for being such a great mom, who accepts change, new adventures, and compassion. Love you!! Hope to try even more kitchen appliances and recipes with you for many more years (Instant Pot is next on my list, and cauliflower rice)!

Here is a vegan version of my mom’s delicious General Tso’s cauliflower recipe breaded in panko. It has been approved by my dad and picky kids alike.

I had a great long weekend filled with good friends, food and a lot of wine. I am trying to catch up- but there is my actual work to do as well and catching up with family as well. Here is today’s food diary. I made some favorites: Lunchbox cookies (somehow only made one dozen!!) which lasted only one day, and Vegan shepherd’s pie made with mushrooms. The recipe is in the comments, but you the little video is so well-done and makes this look even easier than it is. It was once again so good that we decided not to bake it and just ate the whipped mashed potatoes with the delicious “gravy” filling on top. All of us had leftover vegan meatloaf from the Engine 2 Diet book.

As I packed the kids lunches today, I reluctantly reached for the box of clear baggies for their sliced apples, another one for their tempeh sandwich. The environment is on my mind a lot, and I read so many articles. I know what is happening (for the most part) in other parts of the world. I strive to make a difference. To me, caring about climate change, clean air, water and food means caring about all animals and people. All our issues over racism, sexism, gun restrictions, and everything is trumped by the fact that if we don’t take care of our beautiful planet, we will all be gone.

Sure, it is just easier to enjoy the moment and hope that the future will work out somehow itself. Due to where I was born and the time I was born, I have enjoyed a good life. However, the really harsh part of the problems even those of us not dealing with poverty right now, is that it may not be us who pay the price, but our children. They will deal with the consequences of us not paying attention right now. In the end, the planet will be okay once it shakes us off, but we sure brought down a lot of beautiful creatures by our way of living too.

Back to the plastic baggies… I know there is an enormous swath of ocean filled with plastic. I know that each of those baggies will be around for hundreds of years, and that wildlife are choking on them. So why would I continue to do this? There is this feeling that it can be overwhelming to try and do everything, but that is not my issue. My problem is sheer laziness. I don’t have enough reusable plastic containers, and I wasn’t good about washing reusable sacs.

My friend told me about his parents who were raised by parents of the depression era in England. His mom would reuse his lunch bag over and over every day, she even washed out his sandwich bag. We all grew up in a time of convenience. It is easier to just grab the styrofoam or paper cup and throw it away than remember to carry a real cup with you.

Individual packaging to make lunches “easier” means we buy apples already sliced and in separate bags or plastic cups. In Portland, Oregon there is so much focus on reduce, reuse, recycle, it is probably one of the easiest places in the world to be “green”. We only have garbage pickup every other week, but compost and recycling every week. So that is a big incentive to make sure that anything that can be composted or recycled will be!

Baggies are thin and don’t take up much weight, so they get discarded. Am I a hypocrite because I take reusable bags to the grocery store but not reusable bags for all the produce I buy there?

We can’t do everything right, but the point of this rambling is, that I had an “aha” moment. I tend to focus on the consumption of animal products as that encompasses so many issues at once: animal cruelty, pollution, deforestation, water, climate change. I don’t understand how people can be aware that this is happening, but don’t stop their actions.

It is because we either need to have a real fear instilled.  Like in the depression when there wouldn’t have been enough money to be so wasteful. Or, it has to be incredibly easy and not too expensive. So, when people are deciding what to have for dinner, it is very hard for most to envision what the meal would look like without animal products. I believe if every fast food and grocery store had delicious vegan options at the same price, or less, as the animal versions, people would choose that.

I pledge to go invest in reusable tin containers so that I don’t have to feel that twinge of guilt every day. And then, I will move onto the next small thing. I will never be perfect, we can’t do everything but we can do something. I will make my carbon footprint as light as I can.

Eat less meat 4 all, is now Eat 4 the future! And no, I am not in love with the idea of using numerals in my name—it is just very difficult to get the domain name you want these days.

Why did I change the name? Eat less meat didn’t convey exactly what I wanted it to. Not only does meat not include fish, eggs and dairy, but most people think they are already eating less meat (which is very hard to gauge unless you try giving it up). Also, I am very passionate about the environment and climate change issues, particularly as something we all can help mitigate with our diet choices. This is what affects our children’s future. Finally, another reason to move towards a plant-based future is for health reasons—your own future.

I’m still trying new things out, so thank you to my small group of friends and fellow advocates for any feedback about what you like or don’t like. I’m on twitter, Facebook (pending blocked name change) and starting out on Instagram. It’s a work in progress, as we all are!

My first favorite cookie has been de-throned! I’m in love with this new recipe.

Last night, looking through the internet for a different recipe to try, I was a little shocked by some of the amounts of oil. One recipe asked for 3/4 cup oil. My other recipe uses 1/2 cup coconut oil. I have been hearing mixed reviews on coconut oil lately, more about that later!

What attracted me to Fork’s Over Knives Lunchbox Chocolate Chip Cookies was two things. One, the recipe is by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, vegan cookbook goddess. Second, it uses almond butter and flax seeds to add more protein and Omega oils.

I was getting ready to haul out my trusty mixer but the recipe says, mix with a fork. And doesn’t ask for multiple bowls for wet and dry ingredients. Less cleaning adds even more bonus points.

Here is my own version of this recipe since I was missing a lot of specific ingredients. Like almond butter, oat flour and sorghum flour. Try mine, or go for the original!

What I really love about these cookies is they have texture. I am not into the cakey type cookies, and those flax seeds and oats make these a hearty cookie. Mine were pretty sticky, but otherwise worked great. I couldn’t stop eating the raw cookie dough. Which is one of the biggest perks of making vegan cookies: no raw eggs.

My husband wasn’t a fan of my photo, but he definitely liked the taste. And it passes picky girl’s criteria which is a very, very high certification.

Amy’s Lunchbox Cookies

Makes 24 cookies, ready in 25 minutes

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat baking mats.

2. In a large bowl, use a strong fork to beat together the applesauce, almond butter, dry sweetener, and flaxseeds. Once relatively smooth, mix in the vanilla.

3. Add in the oat flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well.

4. Add the sorghum flour and chocolate chips and mix well.

5. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets in about 1½-tablespoon scoops, about 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies a bit, so that they resemble thick discs (they won’t spread much at all during baking).

6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The longer you bake them, the crispier they will be.

7. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.