Valley Earth Fest Pasta Salad!

Wow, it has been SUCH a long day! I can't believe how much fun it was to table at the Valley EarthFest today...I met a lot of great people and passed out a ton of samples and literature. I want to post more, but being as tired as I am, I am just posting quickly for those of you that I promised the pasta salad recipe to! It cannot be easier...or tastier :) Chick'N Pasta Salad
What you need:
Two packages of Gardein Chick'n Scallopini (frozen food section)
 One box of pasta shells
 One jar of vegan mayo (I used Nayonaise, but Vegenaise would also be great)
Diced: cucumber (seeded), bell pepper, celery, black olives, spring onions
 Two TBSP olive oil
 Salt and pepper to taste
What to do:
 Cook your pasta and drain it well. Add olive oil to the water to prevent sticking. Put into a large bowl. Put some olive oil into a skillet and sauté your Chick'n Scallopini cutlets. What is nice about Gardein is that it caramelizes if you cook it for long enough! Once they are cooked, set them aside to cool for a bit. While the cutlets are cooling, add the veggies to the pasta. Add about half of the jar of Nayonaise and stir well. add the salt and pepper...I said to taste, but I add about a half of a teaspoon of salt and an entire teaspoon of ground pepper. Stir again. Dice your Chick'n, and put it into a container. Chill the rest of the salad. When you are ready to serve, add the Chick'n. If you add it too soon, it will not have the same chicken-like texture. Serve and enjoy! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to see me today, I hope you take the time to read some of my earlier posts, there is all sorts of useful information, especially if you are like me...working full time and trying to create a healthier lifestyle for my kids at the same time. If you were lucky enough to talk to my fantastic children today, you know what I mean!! Check back again soon for more about my experience at the Earth Fest today, including my thoughts on some of the topics that you lovely people brought up to me today!

Rolling Along with vegFund

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am tabling at the Valley EarthFest (VEF) in Berryville, VA this month...April 22nd to be exact!  Well I decided to apply to VegFund for a grant to be reimbursed for the costs of literature to hand out to festival-goers as well as the ingredients for all of the samples that I will be handing out.  VegFund "empowers vegan activists worldwide by funding and supporting effective outreach activities that inspire people to choose and maintain a vegan lifestyle" (from the VegFund website).  In the past when I set up an informational table with my friend Dale Ball from New Leaf Vegan Society, she applied for VegFund to cover the costs of the materials that we used.  Now that I am going solo for VEF, I knew that I needed some help.  I definitely cannot afford to do this without a little monetary support.  It was a long application but I finished it in about an hour.  GREAT NEWS...It has been less than a day since I sent in my application and I have already been approved!  I am so excited, I cannot wait to get started cooking so that I have plenty of great vegan food to entice people to try MORE plant-based delicacies :).  Stay tuned for more updates as I decide how long it is going to take me to MAKE all this delicious food!  Probably going to start cooking DAYS ahead of time!

"But Humans Were Meant to Eat Meat, RIGHT?"

Wow, do I get into this discussion a lot!  It just happened again the other day, where someone was trying to convince me that because we are ABLE to eat meat (sort of), we HAVE to eat meat.  What I WANTED to say was, "Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"  But I didn't, because I care :)  What I wish I could do is show everyone the following movie for several reasons.  First, it is backed up by scientific facts, and I love facts.  Second, it makes a great argument without being too, well, IN YOUR FACE!  I love a civilized vegan discussion.  Last, it is kid-friendly (watch it first before you show it to kids, only you know what's truly appropriate for your child!) and HILARIOUS!  No joke, I thought it was great and so did my kids!  Take a look, it's an interesting 5 minutes!

Gluten-Free Vegan?

Gluten-free vegan chocolate chip pancakes.

Being vegan is more challenging than the average American diet...it's more challenging than just shoving whatever looks good into your mouth!  You have to put some thought into what you are going to eat, how it is going to be prepared, when you are going to eat, and even why you are going to eat it.  After any major change to your life, though, you get used to it and it is no big deal anymore.  That is what happened to my vegan family.  We have been vegan for almost 5 years now, and it is really just second nature...we know what we are doing, haha!  So I was in the nice groove at home, I knew exactly what I wanted to get at the grocery unless I was trying a new recipe here and there, and life was good, smooth sailing.
Now, insert daughter with stomach/digestive problems.  We had already given up milk because of a lactose intolerance (we gave up dairy before we even gave up meat or eggs!)...what's a mom to do?  I made a doctor's appointment, but that is still weeks away.  Something that seemed to help a lot of people with stomach issues is a gluten-free (GF) diet.  RED FLAGS: we eat a LOT of wheat products...even gluten just by itself (seitan, beautiful seitan!).  But I felt like I HAD to try something before the doctor.  I did some research and found that my little vegan's symptoms were very similar to those exhibited by those with a wheat intolerance.  So I decided to try it for a week, and the results were undeniable.  She said that after a few days, her constant stomach aches and gas were gone...that was enough for me, but she looked less bloated as well.  So it has been 2 weeks and she is doing great, although you can tell right away if she accidentally eats something with wheat in it!
So WHAT, you may ask, are you possibly giving that child to eat that is vegan AND GF?  Well, it is not as hard as I though it would be, although her choices have been significantly reduced.  We have a great local grocery that has several sections of GF products from crackers and cereal to pasta and bread.  If we have stir fry and noodles, she has stir-fry with rice.  If we have tacos with Boca grounds, I might make her some separate filling with rice or Textured Soy Protein.  On a typical day she eats corn chex and fruit for breakfast, has PB&J on tapioca-flour bread, potato chips, and apples for lunch, and for dinner we substitute a lot.  It just takes a little extra thinking, but it is worth it in the end.  A happy kid means a happy mom, gluten-free vegan or not!

Back to VFV!

So it's been a couple months since I last blogged...this is a busy, busy time of year for the special education teacher, I have to say!  I have had several new additions to my caseload in the last month, and we barely escaped an audit from the Dpt. of Education...whew!  At least my files finally look amazing!  So now that it is spring I am back full force...those buds on the trees and flowers on the hills have me thinking about plants, the environment, and chocolate peanut butter eggs :)  Yes, I put in my order to Pangea Vegan Store in Rockville, MD for the Easter Bunny's annual visit...that old bunny comes around every year and leaves all sorts of goodies that he ordered from Pangea.  This year he's leaving those big chocolate bunnies, peanut butter eggs, and creme-filled eggs.  Probably some Nerds, too, because I am a Nerd-aholic.  I love this tradition of having the Easter basket on Easter morning...we really stress the idea of Easter being a celebration of spring, new life, and new beginnings :)  We will probably take a trip out to Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary, too.
Some things coming up for Vegan Family Values...The Valley Earth Fest, where I will be tabling solo for the first time, lots of new recipes to try, the Poplar Springs 5K run, Earth Day, gardens and the Mother's Day Plant Sale, Apple Blossom Festival, and more!  Loving spring!

Shocked?

Paula Deen, stuffing her face.

It has recently come out in the news that Paula Deen, the Queen of Southern Cooking (whom I have dubbed the Master of the Lard) has Type 2 Diabetes.  I cannot say that I am surprised that she has the disease, she probably eats her own deep fried macaroni and cheese.  But I am disappointed that rather than take advantage of this to promote a healthier diet and lifestyle, she has teamed up with a pharmaceutical company to push drugs. C'mon Paula, get real.  My only hope is that people take a lesson from this and choose to better their own lives because she is a bad example and a terrible role model.  My guess is that many will just use her as an excuse as to why they "can eat whatever they want".  Only time will tell.  For more information, try this link to DiabetesMine.

Gardein Rules

 I am in LOVE with Gardein, and my love for it only gets stronger with time, haha!  My local grocery store has recently started carrying even more selections from this fantastic brand of mock meats.  IF you are a fan of plant-based meats and you are in an area that carries this brand, give it a try.  My personal favorite so far is the orange chick'n...I sautee it in a frying pan and then set it aside on a small plate while I cook a frozen vegetable stir-fry mix that I buy in bulk from the wholesale store.  After the stir-fry veggies are cooked, I put the chick'n back in and add the sauce that it came with.  One pan, unless you cook up a few packages of Ramen Noodles (minus the seasoning packets) to put the stir-fry on top of.  Be sure to use the plate that you put the chick'n on as a serving plate, less dishes.  After working all day at the school and squeezing in a workout before picking up the kids, it is nice to have a fast but really yummy meal to put on the table.  If there is no Gardein to be found near you, look back through to my 2010 recipes and mix up a batch of seitan for your stir-fry.  AND if meat analogs are not your thing (I understand!) then get some REALLY great mushrooms and pile them on top!  As soon as you are finished, rinse your plate, it makes the dishes easier to do :)

Snowballs!

There is no better time of the year than winter to make snowball cookies.  My aunt used to make them when I was a kid, and I always remembered them.  Before this year, I had never thought to even bother making them, but there is no time like the present.  Here is a great recipe that I picked up at VegBlogger.  It is very good...I do not chop my own nuts, I buy crushed walnuts from the grocery store.  These are pretty fast to make, and they go well with any plant-based milk :)
What you need:

1 cup of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
1/4 cup vegan sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans work best)
1 cup confectioner's sugar
What to do:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Add the butter, sugar and vanilla to a mixing bowl and use a hand mixer on it until it is fluffy. Then add in the flour and combine the ingredients. Next, add in the nuts and mix everything together. Then, have the kids take small amounts to create one inch balls out of the dough. Place them on the cookie sheet, at least an inch apart. Bake for 28-30 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven, roll them in the confectioner's sugar while they are still hot. Place back on the cookie sheet to cool. Enjoy!

Guest Post: Women's Image

Here is something new at Vegan Family Values: a guest post!  This was written by my husband, Mike Neese, in response to an unfortunate post that we viewed via FaceBook. 
When seen as a joke in passing, I can see the humor, but when the implication is taken seriously this becomes propaganda.

 

 Jokes aside, justifying an argument based on one example is fruitless. Second using women’s beauty as a metric to validate a point of view is not just stupid, but insulting. I mention this only because I have seen this same picture comparison for women as liberal, conservative, republican, and democrat. To that end not only is it offensive and propaganda, but exploitative, and sends the message to women that they are both ugly for what they believe, and that their attractiveness is more important than their beliefs. Third this is an unfair comparison, using cherry picked photographs to “prove” a point; using an airbrushed glamor image of one and a candid/real image of the other.
 I suppose I could start posting actual research on the benefits of veganism to individual health, like the evidence shows:
Vegans have lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, while having about the same HDL cholesterol as Lacto-Ovo and Non-Veg.
Vegans have lower rates of high blood pressure than Lacto-Ovo and Non-Veg.
Vegans have a lower BMI and body fat percentage than Lacto-Ovo and Non-Veg. People who have been vegan for more than 5 years have the lowest BMI of all diet groups studied here.

Or the many other interesting things found here at Vegan Health but my guess is if you are taking life style advice from anonymous picture posting on the internet I should just post pictures of ugly people for you to laugh at, clearly this is acceptable behavior.
My apologies for the rant, but these images irk me on two levels, first propaganda (which is basically a form of lying) and second the exploitation/degradation of women.  Honestly people have enough of a hard time making informed choices without funny lies floating around, and women have a hard enough time battling self image issues with current media standards without having their belief system tied into the mix.
Food for thought:

Vegan (and healthy)

Not vegan (clearly this road goes both ways)