VegMoms

Tuesday’s Natural Health: Watching Grass Grow is a lot more interesting than you think. This video by Liferegenerator (a.k.a. Dan the Man With the Master Plan) is a great primer in wheatgrass growing and juicing. I posted a few weeks back about my slow gravitation toward adding wheatgrass to my diet. Upon recommendation of my fantastic new accupuncturist (a.k.a. Dan at The Sanctuary), I started adding more greens into my diet last week, including wheatgrass. Now, I’m hooked. Nearly two pounds of veggie nutritional value in one ounce of the stuff. Two pounds! And it really tastes quite nice, in a lawn-ish sort of way, and leaves me feeling truly healthier for the rest of the day. Have you ever wheatgrassed, and if so, what do you think: Green Gold or Garish Grass?

Tuesday’s Natural Health: Some foods like meat, cheese, chocolate and simple sugars create an addiction-like craving that is almost impossible to withstand once you’re hooked, which usually happens to most of us with at least one of those common foods during childhood. Dr. Neal Barnard, founder of the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, wrote the book Breaking the Food Seduction to help those of us who don’t want to be slaves to unhealthy foods because of deeply rooted brain reactions to them. If you’re trying to go veg but sometimes just crave that cheeseburger or pizza too strongly to complete kick the meat or cheese habit, read this book. I did, and it’s helped immensely. Now I just need to read it to my cat.

Monday’s Speedy Vegan: I whip up many variations of this incredible dessert-worthy smoothie recipe at home, and we also serve a similar version at the smoothie bar where I work. Substitute almond butter for peanut butter, leave out the malt powder, add coconut, soy or rice vegan ice cream, plop in some grape jelly for a PBJ smoothie, even add chocolate chips for a decadent crunch. 

The only problem is, I can’t really tell you how I make them because I’ve never measured exact ingredients. Depending upon my mood (or, at work, the customer’s individual preferences), a little more chocolate, no ice cream, thick, thin. That’s also the beauty of this smoothie: You really can’t mess it up. Here’s Silk’s “official” non-vegan recipe (they call it “Silky Peanut Butter Cup”), just in case you want to go by the book before getting creative:

• 1 banana (I use cut up and frozen bananas)
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 3-4 Tbsp. malt powder
• 2-3 scoops vanilla ice cream (use a vegan ice cream substitute here)
• 1 1/2 cups Silk Chocolate or Light Chocolate

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Beware of brain freeze.

Serves 2 (photo: www.silksoymilk.com)

Wednesday’s Vegan Kids: I have one certain shirt that always gets stares and comments from my kids and any of their friends who happen to be around when I’m wearing it. It shows a comic-like drawing of a full-size cow impaled on a giant fork with the words: “It tastes OK as long as I don’t think about it” under the picture.

Pretty much sums up eating meat, doesn’t it? Sometimes I think people are shy about showing even ironic cartoon images to kids like the one on that shirt, but in my experience they not only aren’t freaked out by it, they “get” it a lot more than most desensitized adults do. Peta sells some cool ones, like this “We are not nuggets” T shirt. I think it’s about time I ask my kiddos if they want to pick out some anti-meat message shirts of their own. Would you let your kids wear these kinds of messages, or do you think it’s too much?

Some questions people have asked me about VillaVegan.com that you may want to ask, too.

What is VillaVegan.com? For now, it’s my blog where I post recipes, health info and animal rights, food, health and environmental news that I find interesting and that I think other people, especially moms like me, who eat vegan all or most of the time will find interesting, too.

What do you mean, “for now?” Eventually, I’d like to include more elements on the site, like forums where we can all share info. And I plan to do some original reporting on the issues (like natural health, our food supply, the environment and animal rights) that matter to people who believe in the vegan lifestyle, esp to vegan moms who want to know how we can help make this world a better place for our little veggie sprouts.

Who are you? Read my bio. Two new things that are not in my bio: I’m the co-author of the newly released The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids, and I work part-time at a fantastic natural foods market (with a fab vegan deli case).

Why did you write a Complete Idiot’s Guide? I don’t consider myself a “complete idiot” on the topic of vegan eating for kids, nor do I consider anyone who reads the book one either, so we certainly didn’t write it that way. This book is the very first time that a major U.S. publishing house (Alpha/Penguin) was willing to take a risk on a book about the health benefits of vegan eating for kids, and for that I’m grateful (and willing to be called a complete idiot!). Every step forward helps…

What is your vegan philosophy? At VillaVegan, there’s no such a thing as the “perfect vegan,” esp when it comes to raising veg kids. It’s about supporting each other where we’re at. To further the vegan movement, which at its heart is a healthier happier plant for all beings, I see the need for voices from all points on the spectrum. I’d like you to voice where you’re at and I’d like you to hear where I’m at, too. That support of incremental, individual change in people can add up to massive transformation in a culture.

But can vegan children be healthy? Yes! A well-planned vegan diet (with vitamin B-12 supplementation) can be much healthier for children than the Standard American Diet (SAD). Other than reading my book (see link above), I encourage you to check out the Vegetarian Resource Group’s Teen Families and Kids section, as well as the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Vegetarian Guide for Children.

 Keep working for change…