It's official: another little Vegan will join the world

Thanks to all who've been asking where I've been... sorry about laying low for so long. It's just that it's hard to focus on anything when you are experiencing morning sickness ALL DAY. Fortunately I am in week 11 now and the nausea is finally starting to ease up a bit.

Baby Aronson is due in late July and we're all pretty excited. Ben's convinced he's getting a sister, but I have no clue what the gender is. I'll be finding out ASAP though!

In the coming months I'll include more posts about how to ensure a healthy vegan pregnancy, and if you have any questions, please do submit them!

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, and here's to a healthy, happy, prosperous 2010!

Top Vegetarian and Vegan Blogs

It's been brought to my attention that someone has taken the time to compile the Top 75 Vegetarian and Vegan Blogs! And I'm honored to have this one included in the list :-). It appears on a web site about pharmacy technician certification programs.

The author, Ashley M. Jones, even grouped them in the categories Cooking & Recipes, News & Politics, Health & Nutrition, Animal Rights, Lifestyle, Beauty and Fashion, Thinking-of-Becoming Veg, and Family.

You can be sure I have bookmarked this site and will be returning again and again. What a fantastic resource. THANK YOU ASHLEY!

3-Cheese Vegan Pasta and Vegan Orange Chicken

This is a pile of vegan, soy free cheese by Daiya Foods.

Tonight I made a dinner that is about as kid-friendly as it gets. I made orange "chicken" and penne and "cheese" with salad and cubed cantaloupe. Ben said "Mommy, your kitchen is just like the inside of a restaurant." And he didn't mean how my kitchen (which was last updated in 1954) looks, but the food. I'm not sure I've ever seen him eat so much at one sitting. What is more gratifying than watching your child devour your homemade cooking? Now I get why traditional [enter ethnicity/religion here] moms are known for their insistence to "Eat, Eat, EAT!!"

DISCLAIMER: This is not a good example of a health-supporting meal. I mean it won't kill you, and nutritionally it beats McD's by leaps and bounds, but do keep in mind that ideally, a healthful vegan dinner should contain fewer processed foods and more whole foods. For this reason, this meal was served with a huge salad and a cantaloupe. Anyway, this was just one of those nights, a night sandwiched between a one featuring homemade bean-and-collard greens soup and another featuring something equally wholesome tomorrow night.

Unfortunately the camera didn't make an appearance so you'll have to picture it in your mind. However I do remember how I prepared everything so I'm happy to share.

3-"Cheese" Vegan Pasta (serves 4)

• 1/2 lb pasta of your choice (we used whole wheat penne)
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated (but not "light") vegan margarine, like Earth Balance Soy Free Spread
• 1 packet of Road's End Organics cheddar-flavor Chreese (WHERE DO I GET THIS STUFF?)
• 1/2 cup shredded Italian Flavor Daiya Cheese (WHERE DO I GET THIS STUFF?)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/4-1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk

Boil pasta in sufficient water in a large pot. While pasta is boiling, get the other ingredients ready. You'll want to work fast and while the pasta is still very hot.

When pasta is done, drain the water (do not rinse) and return to the pot immediately; put the pot back on the stove over low-to-medium heat. Add the margarine and stir constantly until margarine is melted. Add the Chreese, Daiya, and nutritional yeast and stir until the Daiya is completely melted. Slowly add the milk until it's at the desired consistency.

I SWEAR this tastes like the real thing.

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Orange "Chicken" with Broccoli (serves 2 hungry appetites or 4 small appetites)

• 1 package Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chick'n Strips
• 3/4 lb broccoli florets
  
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Sauce:

• 2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Orange Sauce and Glaze (available at Asian stores and in the Asian section of large supermarkets)
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp agave nectar (or liquid sweetener of your choice)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cold water

(note: If you don't want to use the jarred sauce, which, admittedly, has corn syrup and other similarly undesirable ingredients, try using the zest of 1 orange, plus its juice, an option that is likely acceptable in flavor, and certainly superior nutritionally. But if you're like me, maybe you think it's OK to use these products once in a great while.)

Take out the Chick'n Strips so they start to thaw.

Lightly steam the broccoli (a quick way: find 2 matching soup bowls. Put the florets into one bowl with a couple tablespoons water. Cover with other bowl. Microwave for 3 minutes. If you're uncomfortable with a microwave, steam the old-fashioned way on the stove).

Put the sauce ingredients into a large (2-cup liquid) measuring cup and stir with a little wire whisk or fork.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the Chick'n strips (it's OK if they're still frozen). Stir fry until heated through. Add the sauce. Heat until thickened. Add broccoli, toss to coat. Serve.

(This would certainly go better with a pile of brown rice than with my mac and cheese but hey I had a 4-year-old in mind.)

If you make either of these... let me know how it turned out!

Americans' food habits ... and national healthcare

You've seen the Nutrition Facts labels on foods -- they give you the nutrition info per serving of that food, and they also provide a Percent Daily Value, which is based on a 2000-calorie (or "average") diet. In other words, this number represents the contribution (expressed as a percent) of that nutrient to a diet providing 2000 calories. The number 2000 was agreed upon by FDA nutrition scientists who came up with the newest nutrition facts label.

Maybe at one time, 2000 was the average number of calories consumed by American adults. No longer. According to recent research, the average American consumes over 3,500 calories a day. I found a fantastic interactive diagram that illustrates caloric intake of various populations around the globe. (You'll need Flash installed to use it.) This illustration shows the percentage of calories contributed from each food group among different nations. You will notice that Americans consume the most calories, and that Americans get almost 40% of their calories from fats and sugars. Intake of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and root veggies (all together), only account for 10 percent of total calories. TEN percent! Another 23% come from grains (white flour is the base of a huge proportion of what Americans eat), and 24% from animal products. No wonder 2/3 of Americans are overweight and diseases of excess are at an all-time high.

Compare US sources of food calories to that of other countries. We consume the most fat, sugar, and animal products, while consuming the least plant-based foods, of all countries represented.

And our healthcare crisis overshadows that of any other country.

Do you think these two facts are related?

Whether you support or reject universal healthcare, I have a question for you. What about personal accountability? While there's been widespread debate over the national healthcare plan, much of it revolves around whether or not the government should offer an affordable plan to everyone, and what should and should not be available to people. But looking at the problem a bit differently, why do we have this crisis in the first place? Why are premiums so high, and why is everyone in the red?

For many years, healthy people were the majority of the insured and sick folks were the exception. All of the insurance premium money went into a pool that provided medical services and pharmaceuticals for unexpected illnesses and illness of older age. Nowadays, insurance companies are having a harder and harder time affording to insure people because so much more money is being spent on preventable disease management and drugs, and the affected are getting younger and younger. Now, the majority of the insured need more money in treatment than their premiums cost. And the shrinking source of that money? Premiums from healthy people who take care of themselves.

Which, I feel, points to accountability. Are people who eat themselves into a heart attack or gastric bypass surgery entitled to full coverage of these procedures? People choose unhealthy lifestyles knowing full well the risks. Sure, smokers' premiums are a bit higher, and some insurance plans charge more for high BMI (measure of obesity). But this does not begin to cover the cost of all the drugs, illness, and treatment resulting from lifestyle-related diseases.

In my opinion, if more people actually took care of themselves by eating less overall, incorporating more plants and less junk, and exercising, our healthcare crisis wouldn't be so dire.

I'm interested in hearing others' views on this.

Vegetarian moms less likely to have kids with diabetes

Pardon my absence; switching over to a new computer has taken over as priority lately. I'm happy to return to regular postings with a report of this recent study, which looked at vegetable consumption in 6,000 Swedish pregnant women and, 5 years later, risk of diabetes in their child. It turns out that the higher the vegetable consumption during pregnancy, the lower the risk of type 1 diabetes in the child. The vegetable link, while strong, may not reveal the whole story, warn the researchers. Something else about the women's lifestyles could also be at play.

This study reminds me of another way that vegans are protected against type 1 diabetes; some research has suggested a link between dairy consumption and increased type 1 diabetes risk. For example, this study from 2000 (click to see the full-text version of it) from the journal Diabetes declares, "our results provide support for the hypothesis that high consumption of cow’s milk during childhood can be diabetogenic in siblings of children with type 1 diabetes." Another study published in the same journal in 1993 found a link between early exposure to dairy milk and diabetes risk.

At this point, no one knows conclusively what causes susceptibility to type 1 diabetes, but it looks like a plant-based diet, at least in part, plays a role in reducing risk.

Portland, Oregon: A Vegan's Paradise

Many thanks to all who asked... I will finally write about my Portland trip. My husband Dan and I were there in late September following a few days in Reno, which I wrote about here. On a personal note, it was an especially important trip because, as I mentioned before, it marked our 10th wedding anniversary, and, it was a much-needed week of complete relaxation, total avoidance of computers, and no child (who, by the way, had a ball at home with his grandparents).

Portland was incredible. The weather was perfect, the people were welcoming, and the vibe was outstanding. We took a lot of pictures but the memory card got corrupted, so unfortunately a lot of the photos are gone. But we do have some from another card. I was going to blog all about the trip but I never got around to it after coming home!

Portland is the most bike-friendly city in the US. We arrived in the late afternoon, took a train to the hotel, chilled out, and then the next morning we walked to City Bikes Co-Op and rented bikes and a bike map (very useful -- showed the best bike routes around town. Thanks guys!). We basically biked everywhere the whole week we were there! We stayed east of the river so we biked across the bridges most days; the bike paths are everywhere! One day we biked along the river going south, and it just kept going for miles and miles along a train and beautiful woods.

We tried 6 or 7 veg restaurants; all of them were great. It was a vegan's paradise.

My favorite day was when we biked into town on a Wednesday, when they have an amazing Farmer's market right in the middle of town.

We got some fruit and walked around, then biked to the university area. We got on the train, hung our bikes on the hooks (can you believe they have hooks for your bike?), and went 1 stop up the mountain to Washington Park.







We took the bikes up the elevator and out, and coasted down the hill for some time, then stopped where there were hiking trails.







We locked up our bikes, hiked and ran on the trails (PERFECT packed dirt trails, and I got to break in my new trail running shoes).






Eventually we ran into the Japanese Gardens, so we decided to take a tour. They were beautiful.







Then we hiked back up, got on the bikes, and rode back into the city. We headed straight for Voodoo Donuts and had a glazed and some other concoction with about 83 toppings.






Then we rode back to the hotel, showered and changed, and went to dinner at Portobello, our fanciest meal there. We indulged in Pate al Tartufo (pate with bread, figs, mustard), polenta, and gnocchi. And dessert. If only I could remember what. I just remember it was good. Everything was scrumptious.

Here are some of the other vegan and veg-friendly restaurants we visited:

Vita Cafe: This was a favorite of mine. We biked there for breakfast several times. They have a ton of comfort food and the feel of the neighborhood is great. We even got to know some of the staff pretty well. (Hi, Dave.) If you go, the morning potatoes are a must-try. And if you're gearing up for a day of hiking, do try the porridge; it kept me going for hours. Dan loved the chicken-fried steak. We both loved the corn cakes and scrambles. Across the street they have a place with vegan pizza. In fact at least 3 pizza joints have vegan pizza. I can't recall the names; do the goog before you go, to see what's in the neighborhood you'll be in.

Paradox Palace Cafe: Ok I can't stop thinking about their BBQ Rib & Peanut-Sesame Salad. I cannot remember anything else about the place. Order that.

Bye-and-bye Bar: Vegan bar food? You bet! We had a grilled cheese for goodness sake! And I had the Bye and Bye drink... served in a quart-sized mason jar, I kid not. And they don't skimp on the alcohol. That night we traveled by hotel shuttle, rather than bikes, in case you're wondering.

Blossoming Lotus: Raw food! Loved it. The Nachos were seriously one of the most delectable things I've ever eaten. We also tried the live sampler platter (highly recommend); my favorite on the plate was the cashew hummus. It's only been a month but I cannot remember what else we tried!

Sweatpea Baking Company: More than a bakery! One morning we got bagels and GLOBS of "cream cheese" -- it was a taste of Long Island out west. Their cinnamon rolls are terrific. Everything looked good but we only have 2 stomachs between us so we couldn't try everything we wanted to. Of course, this bakery is part of the Vegan Mini Mall, so we also spent a lot of time (and cash) at Food Fight and Herbivore. In fact last night I made beef stroganoff from the mix I got at Food Fight.


Planning to visit? Make sure to check out Veg Portland before you go!

Christina Cooks Vegan

Do you ever have a realization that something has been there right in front of you, and it totally relates to you and what you love, but you never knew about it? It's surreal, right? Here I am, a vegan, foodie, and dietitian, and I am ashamed to admit I never knew about Christina Pirello. Do you know who she is?

The other day I came home from a jog and plopped on the sofa with my mom, who was visiting for the day. She had the tube on in the background, and there on PBS was a cooking show called "Christina Cooks." The word "tofu" caught my attention so I started to watch. This lovely woman Christina was making 3 recipes containing silken tofu, and ALL were vegan! I thought, how lucky, I stumbled upon "tofu day" on this show, but not only that! I stumbled upon a cooking show that is ALL VEGAN! I couldn't believe it. My mother was very amused by my reaction, I am sure. The show ended with singer/songwriter Jon Michaels playing his guitar and singing right there in the kitchen, which was a nice touch.

I went to Christina's web site, checked out the recipes, and read her story. Christina is the author of the newish book "This Crazy Vegan Life," which I actually have heard of (and flipped through at the bookstore), along with other books. I never knew she had a cooking show too. A Philly native, Christina is a TV personality, talented chef, cancer survivor, and health guru. She's had her show going for SEVEN years! Plus she gives cooking demos and classes, mostly in Philly, but in other cities as well. After spending several minutes on her web site, reading her story and watching her video, I felt as though I've known her for years. Check it out!

I am so thrilled that her cooking show has gone mainstream. Her angle is health, and the "V" word is used sparingly (actually, I don't think she used it at all in this particular episode), so omnivores are her main audience. As such, what a service she is doing not only for her viewers, but for the animals and the environment. Her recipes look delicious and simple; I learned a thing or two about making perfect pan-fried tofu (something that I always manage to mess up, usually due to it sticking to the pan) and other quick and easy delights. She obviously inspires her fans to eat better and get excited about cooking, which is so important for people to include more plant-based meals in their diet.