• 2 cups dry pinto beans
• 2 quarts water
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 pasilla chile
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons Better Than Boullion Vegan No Beef Base
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• salt

Frijoles de la Olla

Day Before

Measure out 2 cups of dry pinto beans. Sort the beans and pick out any old shriveled beans, broken beans or any stones. Rinse the beans in cold water. Place in a french or dutch oven. Cover beans by at least one inch with water and soak overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Cooking Day

Note: A cast iron french or dutch oven works very well to cook beans. They cook quickly and are incredibly tender.

Rinse the soaked beans again and put back in the pot. Cover beans by at least one inch with water. Cook over medium flame until the beans begin to boil. A foam will form on the top. Skim off the foam, turn the flame down and bring to a low simmer.

Dice the onion and pasilla chile and add to the beans. Add two bay leaves and one teaspoon of minced garlic. Stir the beans and cover. Continue to cook until the beans are tender. When the beans are almost done add 2 teaspoons of “Better Than Boullion No Beef Base”. This adds a rich flavor without using animal products, keeping the beans vegan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove bay leaves before eating. Enjoy with salsa, avocado, cilantro or any other topping of your choosing.

The Bad

Some days start out okay and then quickly take a turn for the worse. This morning started out like any other weekday other than I was driving in separately to work as my husband needed to stay late. As he left for work, I heard the garage door make a horrible grinding noise followed by exasperated grumbling as he came back in the front door. The garage door spring had sprung and we no longer had a working door. My car was stuck inside.

The Good

My job is flexible enough that I was able to arrange to telecommute. I sent my husband on his way promising to get it fixed. I called a few repair places and arranged to have someone come out and fix the door. I changed back into comfortable clothes, sat down in front of my computer and slogged through the day’s work. Working from home has some definite benefits. I can dress comfortably, my cats are around to keep me company and I can make my lunch.

The Yummy

I decided to try making a vegan version of Macaroni and Cheese. Mac and cheese has been a long time favorite since I was a kid and Kraft Deluxe was my version of heaven. One of my fondest childhood memories is a rainy day when I forgot my lunch and my mom showed up with a thermos full of warm macaroni and cheese made just for me.

Over the years, my tastes have matured and I now prefer homemade macaroni and cheese to the Kraft version. I’ve been trying to eat less dairy and have been using a vegan cheese called Daiya. It used to only be available to food distributors and restaurants. I was lucky enough to be able to find it at Mother’s Market who sold it through the deli. Daiya is now available in retail packages at many natural food stores. It doesn’t taste exactly like cheese in the same way that soy-milk doesn’t taste like cow’s milk. It does taste good, however, like soy-milk does after you stop expecting it to be cow’s milk. Daiya also melts beautifully, which makes it a great cheese substitute.

I used a traditional cheese sauce method by melting vegan butter and stirring in some flour to make a roux. I added a cup of soy-milk and stirred until thickened. I added a cup of Daiya cheddar style which melted perfectly. I then stirred in the elbow macaroni to make a really decent vegan mac and cheese. My lunch included some Gardien Crispy Tenders to have the ultimate vegan kids meal of mac and cheese and chicken strips, hold the cruelty and cholesterol.

Stove Top Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

• 8 oz of elbow macaroni
• 1 cup of Daiya cheddar style shreds
• 1 cup of soy-milk
• 2 tablespoons of Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
• 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard

Directions

Boil the macaroni according to the package directions in salted water. Drain and set aside. While the pasta is draining, melt the vegan butter in the same saucepan. Add the flour and stir until golden. Add the mustard and stir. Add the soy-milk and keep stirring until thickened. Turn off the heat and add the Daiya cheddar. Stir in the Daiya until it is fully incorporated. You should have a nice cheese sauce. Add the cooked macaroni and stir to combine. Enjoy!

Although I haven’t committed to a completely vegan diet, I have found myself continuing down this path to a more compassionate way of eating. This journey began almost 19 years ago when I gradually stopped eating meat and became a vegetarian. During that time, I continued to eat dairy and eggs. My rationale was that no animal died for my food choices. I willfully ignored the reality that dairy cows and chickens still suffer terribly in factory farms.

With documentaries like Food, Inc., that reality is becoming harder to ignore. The plight of animals in factory farming is going main stream. The health benefits of a vegan diet are becoming more apparent in books like the China Study. Again, I am reminded about the reasons I became a vegetarian in the first place; eating meat is bad for my health, factory farming is cruel for animals, and the meat industry is bad for the planet. It just doesn’t make sense.

In the end, it is a personal choice. I do think that everyone benefits from a whole foods, plant based diet. If it begins with joining Meatless Mondays, that’s a great start. If it means bypassing the fast-food drive-through and going home to cook, even better. I’ve always been a middle-path kind of person. My path is now just a little farther along than it was before.

This is my favorite Banana Bread recipe from Cook’s Illustrated that I modified to be vegan. It’s may not be the healthiest, as it is using all-purpose flour and granulated sugar, but it is delicious. This vegan version is a little lighter tasting without the butter. The banana and pecans flavors come through in a more pronounced way.

Vegan Banana Nut Muffins

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 1 ¼ cups toasted pecans, chopped coarse (about 1 cup)
• 3 very ripe bananas, soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
• ¼ cup vanilla soy yogurt
• Ener-G Egg Replacer (1 tablespoon dissolved in 4 tablespoons of water)
• 6 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• * I added some vegan chocolate chips and coconut. Feel free to mix in other ingredients to suit your taste.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with parchment liners or spray with cooking spray. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.
2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, egg substitute, oil, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. (If the mashed bananas are less than 1 1/2 cups, make up the rest with soy yogurt.) Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Fill the muffin tins to 3/4 full; bake until muffins are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 22-25  minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chick'n Noodle Soup

One thing I have missed since becoming a vegetarian more than 18 years ago is a good bowl of chicken noodle soup. I’ve made a version with vegetable broth and tofu, and while it was good, it was not quite the same thing. Recently I discovered two new chicken substitutes which make a vegetarian, actually vegan, version not only possible but delicious.

Chicken substitutes are becoming eerily close to the real thing. I kind of feel guilty eating them and even worse for enjoying them so much. The vegan restaurant, Veggie Grill, has numerous sandwiches that feature chick’n that many meat eaters mistake for the real thing. It turns out that Veggie Grill gets their yummy chick’n from Gardien. Gardien is also available to the masses in some grocery stores including Ralph’s and Mother’s Market in Southern California.

The other chicken substitute that makes this soup work so well is Better Than Bouillon’s Vegan No Chicken Base. It is a vegan paste that makes a fragrant broth that is delicious and very close to chicken broth.

I didn’t really have a specific recipe to use, so I made this up. I hope you enjoy it as much as Dave and I do.

Chick’n Noodle Soup

• 2 quarts water
• 2 tablespoons “Better Than Bouillon Vegan No Chicken Base”
• 3 celery ribs, sliced thin
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 10oz vegan noodles
• 1 package “Gardien chick’n scallopini”, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

In a soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Add sliced carrots and celery and sauté until soft and fragrant, approximately 5 – 10 minutes. Boil two quarts of water and add the Better Than Bouillon to make the broth. Add the broth to the vegetables in the soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or until carrots are soft. Add the noodles and cook until al dente. Add the Gardien chick’n and cook for another 5 minutes to heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Broccoli at the La Grande Farmer's Market

Unlike President George H.W. Bush, we love broccoli. We usually have at least two bags of frozen broccoli florets in the freezer for a quick side dish. It’s been unusually cold this winter in Southern California. A nice bowl of warm soup is not only nourishing but a healthy balance for all the sweet treats that abound this time of year. You can trick yourself into thinking you’re being good.

I’ve been experimenting with vegan cooking lately. While we are still not vegan, we are trying to cut back on dairy and eggs for health reasons. I decided to try to make a broccoli “cream” soup without using dairy or adding cheese. It is actually quite tasty and a healthy alternative to other cream based soups. Look for a vegetarian “chicken” broth powder. You can usually find it in a natural foods store. It makes nice broth and is a wonderful seasoning when sauteed with fresh vegetables.

Vegan Broccoli Cream Soup

• 1-2 pounds of fresh or frozen broccoli, cut into 1 inch sized pieces
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks of celery, peeled and diced
• 2 small or 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of vegetarian “chicken” broth powder
• 4 cups of water
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup of soy creamer or plain soy milk

Directions

In a medium sized dutch oven, sauté the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in the olive oil until soft and fragrant, about 5 – 10 minutes. Trader Joe’s now sells a “Mirepoix” mixture of celery, carrots and onion to save you time, but it’s easy and less expensive to cut them up yourself. Add the “chicken” broth powder and saute for 5 more minutes. The powder will release more moisture from the vegetables and become more fragrant. Add the potatoes and cook for a few more minutes. Add the water, bay leaves, and the broccoli and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the broccoli and potatoes are fork tender. This will take about 20 minutes or so.

Remove the bay leaves! Using an immersion blender, blend the soup to a desired consistency. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup in batches in a blender, but be careful to only fill the blender halfway so that you don’t burn yourself if the hot soup overflows. If you like a chunky soup, you can remove some of the broccoli and potatoes and add back in. If the soup is too thin, you can microwave some frozen broccoli and add it to the soup. Add the soy creamer and salt and peppper to taste. You can add more soy creamer or milk if you prefer a creamier soup.

After you’ve eaten your healthy soup, you won’t feel so bad for eating a few more of those sinful Trader Joe’s star cookies covered in dark chocolate. Those things are evil!