Cassie's German Blender Pancakes

Meet my friend Cassie.

You know when you meet a person, and she is just good at everything?  She's unbelievably smart, beautiful, and talented, to the point where you just want to say, enough already?  She sings, she's a great actress, she can dance.  Ugh.  But then it also turns out that she is hilariously funny and sweet, and gives you no choice but to instantly want to be her friend?  That is Cassie all over.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to get back to my educational roots by working with Worcester Shakespeare Company as the Production Stage Manager.  I don't know if I've discussed this, but even though I work at the fabulously glamorous electric company in customer service, I actually started out as an English major studying Shakespeare.  I have a Masters in English and wrote a crazy long comparative literature-style thesis where I talked about Eastern religious themes in King Lear, because that's how I roll--putting things together that have no business being together :)  Anyhoodles, I have been out of school for quite a while now, but Shakespeare is still my first love.  So when I finally crawled out from under a rock and realized that there was a summer Shakespeare company here in Worcester, I was thrilled to be able to get involved.

One of the most unexpected and wonderful things about working on the play was that I ended up meeting such an excellent and eclectic group of people, of whom Cassie was one.  We did Taming of the Shrew, with Cassie in the title role.  And although I've seen probably a dozen different productions of that play, I can very honestly say I don't think I've seen a better Kate.  Cassie perfectly managed to capture rage-Kate while at the same time showing the vulnerability within, and she did it with a sense of humor.  And that is probably because her own greatest quality is her ability to know that you don't always have to take yourself seriously.  For as many Facebook pictures as she has like the beautiful one above, there is always something like this one to balance it out:     

And as if all that wasn't enough, she gives me super-cool vegan recipes and doesn't yell at me for not posting them for three months!

Cassie's German Blender Pancakes

1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana; overripe is best)

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

pinch salt

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

Combine ingredients in your blender and run until well mixed.  The mixture should be very thin--almost runny.  Allow mixture to sit for a few minutes until frothiness subsides.  In the meantime, heat up a nonstick skillet over medium heat.  (If your skillet still tends to stick, you should use a small amount of cooking spray before each pancake.)  Once the skillet is hot, pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan and rotate the pan to allow the batter to spread.  You are looking for a thin, crepe-like pancake about 8-10 inches across.  Cook until the edges are golden brown, resisting the urge to flip too early.  When the edges are golden brown, use a spatula to gingerly lift the pancake and flip it.  (A good tip would be to tilt the pan vertically and slide your spatula underneath.)  Cook the other side for a few additional minutes until it is browned.  Repeat the process to make an additional 3-4 pancakes.  Keep cooked cakes warm on a plate in a 200 degree oven. 

These would be amazing on their own, but when you roll them up around strawberry jam and drizzle with a little maple syrup, they become absolutely gourmet.  Cassie also reports that she (and her equally phenomenal boyfriend Dan, who also deserves effusive praise for being an all-around awesome, super-talented dude) consider this recipe one of their staples not only for breakfast, but also for dessert, by replacing the jam with Nutella.  Nutella is sadly not vegan (although you can find or make a vegan version without too much trouble), but I do think these pancakes would like to be introduced to cashew cream or a vegan chocolatey spread to become a dessert course made in heaven.  And if all that isn't good enough, remember that this is an oil-free recipe, unless you have to use a tiny bit of cooking spray to make sure your pancakes don't stick.  I have made this with all purpose flour and with whole wheat pastry flour, and it works just as well either way, so you don't have to sacrifice health quality for flavor.  And why should you have to?  As Cassie proves, it's always a good idea to balance out your "serious" with a healthy dose of "silly."

Road Trip Restaurant Review: Mango Mango in Amherst, MA

We love Sunday drives, and this past Sunday, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, almost warm day.  We decided to take a quick little drive and ended up meandering all the way out to Amherst.  It was almost 2 PM by the time we got there, and our usual western Mass stop, Cafe Evolution, closes up shop at 2 after serving brunch on Sunday.  (And what a brunch it is.  Their bread alone is worth the trip, and someday I will take pictures and share them.)  So we found ourselves looking into other choices.  Mango Mango showed up on our iPhone app VegOut, but it had no reviews, so we weren't sure how it would be, but we decided to be brave and try it anyway.  And boy are we glad we did!

Mango Mango is a counter-service type place, where you go up front and order from the big board, pay, and sit down, and they bring out the food when it's ready.  A group of folks left right when we came in (I can't tell you if it's because I was wearing sweatpants or because they had finished their meal), leaving us with the whole place to ourselves.  The restaurant does serve meat, but there are a large number of vegetarian items available, as well as a respectable number of vegan options and gluten-free choices, all clearly marked.  

Instead of engaging in a fist fight over who would order the tempeh taco, John was the better person and let me get it.  It came with either chips or a side salad, and being that I have been pigging out on chips lately like the emotional eater that I am, I went for the side salad.  We had a seat with our drinks (John got a soda and I opted for a Hibiscus Cooler, which was noted as one of their house-brewed teas), and only waited for maybe ten minutes before the food came out, which was a pleasant surprise.

John has been on a curry kick lately, which you will see when I post another restaurant review this week, and he opted for the West Coast Curry with tempeh.  It was served over short grain brown rice.  The flavor and spice on this dish was excellent, and it had potatoes and haricot verts, which I thought was interesting and unique and made this stand out from a regular curry.

Meanwhile, my salad and tempeh taco.  Ho. ly. Wow.  This was so good, I am going to have trouble verbalizing.  First, the salad was delicious and fresh, with what tasted like a ginger-sesame dressing that was wonderfully light.  I could probably have eaten a much larger portion of just the salad alone.  The taco is actually these giant tempeh chunks with what I would describe as a teriyaki-type sauce, with guacamole, lettuce, and tomato wrapped in a soft naan-like bread.  It was so great, I see myself wanting to go back weekly to get one.

In addition to the pretty great selection of options, I have to give this place major kudos for what they do with tempeh.   John has never been much of a fan, and I have had mixed responses to tempeh, but we went to Whole Foods after we ate and bought a couple packages because we fell so much in love with this tempeh.  (Now I just have to figure out how to make it taste that good at home.)  Combining that tempeh deliciousness with the speed of service, I have to think that they have a magic wand back in the kitchen that they are making the food with.

Mango Mango serves lunch and dinner, but if these are the portion sizes for both meals, I think it's probably more of a lunch place.  The price was fabulous, only $22 for both our meals and drinks, and it's BYOB, if you are into that sort of thing, which I am but only when I don't have to drive home.  One other nitpick, which shows how spoiled I am by the number of vegan-friendly places in my area, was that they didn't have a non-dairy milk or creamer for coffee, so I hope that they will consider adding that in the future.  Otherwise, this is a definite recommend!

Moodiness and Meal Plans

So here I am, after a month of not posting, trying to come up with some sort of excuse for myself, but the truth is, I really don't have a good one, and making one up seems a bit like pandering.  I guess I've just been in a bit of a brown study.  I like that expression because it implies examination of your crap mood.  (I don't tend to be very accepting of my periodic depression; I prefer to badger it into non-existence.)  The current world events are bringing me down (along with everyone else I am sure).  The situation in Japan is heartbreaking, and the Libya thing has my peacenik panties in a twist.  On the personal front, I haven't felt particularly inspired to cook anything, which kind of puts a dent in the food blogging.  The produce in the store is just so wilted and depressing, it's not really exciting me that much. Beyond that, my ongoing sinus issues are making it so that even when I do decide to cook something, I can't figure out what it is that I want.  We have been eating out quite often (especially during the three week stretch when I didn't do the dishes at all), and although mostly we were sticking with tried & true foods, this weekend, we went to a couple of new places, one that was very good and one that was killer-awesome, so I'll be writing about those soon.  So I guess I did come up with a few excuses there, after all.

The good news is, spring is springing.  Most of the snow has dissolved, except for a few dirty icebergs in the parking lots, and we've had quite a bit of sun this last week, as well as a day when it was over 60 degrees.  I have seen enough people in shorts on the 30 degree days that followed to realize that it's not just me that is ready to say goodbye and good riddance to Old Man Winter this year.  It's like we got a taste of the good weather and we refuse to give it up!  That means the local farmers' markets will be coming soon.  I've done a CSA in the past, but I think I'm going to skip it again this year.  It's kind of hard to tell what you will get, and I don't want to see another giant bag of beets.  I think CSA shares are a great idea for some people, but for me, nothing beats actually seeing the selection and choosing for yourself.  Plus, I'm a control freak.  (John nods.)

The last bit of fantastic, amazing, super-awesome news, which is probably the number one thing that inspired me to get back on my blog is that (drumrolllllllll.......) my mom and stepdad have decided to go vegetarian!  Yay!  Cartwheels!  My mom is a bit of a reluctant meat-eater to begin with, and she has always been right on board with the way John & I eat, but my stepdad, who never met a pork product he wouldn't love to grill up, is the shock of the century, and it was actually his idea.  They are young (early/mid-50's) and in excellent shape, but in the last year or so, I guess they have been having some stomach issues and generally feeling kind of not great.  When John & I visited last year, our appearances and moods really made an impression on stepdad James, and apparently made him start thinking about what we are doing and why it might be a really good thing. Hearing this really made me feel so happy, because I try very hard not to be a vegangelical, but I do want to help people make the right choices (for themselves, the animals, and the world).  I guess I can't do any better than Mahatma Gandhi:  "Be the change you want to see in the world."  (I even have that quote on a t-shirt.)  I am always open to discussing my diet and life choices with anyone who is interested, but I think because I don't look like a typical vegan stereotype that other people want to look like, I'm not sure that my message gets across that well.  People don't usually want to give up a lot of their favorite foods and still be fat.  But this made me realize that the people who know me do see a big difference in me, and they want to know what the secret is.  Probably all of this sounds a little self-important, and for that, I apologize, but I am trying to be very honest, whether it's good or bad.

Understandably, my mom has a lot of questions and is looking for some advice on how to make this lifestyle change.  I've managed to bully her into giving up dairy in addition to meat, since I think dairy and digestive systems are mortal enemies (especially for my family), and she will be trying a few weeks gluten-free as well to clear out her system and then reintroduce later to find out if there is an issue there for her.  At the moment, she may keep eggs in her diet, as she gets them from her own chickens, and they may eat fish once in a while as well.  In addition to those concerns, she works a full-time job and weekdays mean quick and packable breakfast, lunch and snacks, and mostly quick and easy dinners.  James is a truck driver and is really only home a couple days a week on average, so he presents even more challenges and I'm honestly going to admit, I'm not sure how to handle that yet.  If anyone has any advice or ideas, I'd be happy to hear it. With their challenges in mind, I came up with some general advice as well as a quick & dirty meal plan that I think will be helpful to them, but also to anyone who wants to try eating low-fat vegan and feels overwhelmed.   I am going to include my general advice and post my meal plans in segments here on the blog, and I'd love to hear any additional suggestions that people may have, especially for those of you who may be vegans who live in the boonies and don't have easy access to a big, well-stocked supermarket.

General Advice

1. Get a reference book that gives you the science behind the diet.  There are a number of books that were very informative to me in this regard, including The China Study, Eat to Live, and even Skinny Bitch.  If you are worried about your ability to meet nutritional requirements, Becoming Vegan is a good choice, but I didn't read it until after I already had some experience with eating as a vegan.  (Just as a disclaimer, I'm not making any money off of recommending these books.)
2. Use the internet!  Vegan blogs are insanely awesome in showing you what you are gaining rather than what you are giving up, and you can get a lot of good information on making the transition to vegan by reading how others have handled it.  Both the ups and the downs.  You do have to be somewhat selective in your choices and have the ability to not believe everything you read.  But there is at least as much good as bad out there.  
3. Don't be an all or nothing person.  If you end up eating something that you had decided you weren't going to include in your diet, don't beat yourself up.  Use it as a learning experience.  How did it make your body feel?  Did you notice a difference in your digestion?  Your skin?  Your fatigue level?  Maybe you didn't.  Maybe you did. Either way, you just found something out about yourself, and there is no reason to feel guilty. 
4. Get a good all purpose vegan cookbook that uses ingredients that are familiar and easy to find, at least for the most part.  Once you are good and ready, there are a ton of great cookbooks on the market, but if you can start with something that gives a good overview of the basics, you will feel more comfortable with your transition.  I am not trying to play favorites because I love all my cookbooks, but if I had to choose a couple that fit this category well, they would be How It All Vegan, The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, or Veganomicon (my mom bought Happy Herbivore, which I do think is the best choice for her based on her location and her particular needs, and again, I made no money recommending these).  

Simple Breakfast Plan

Disclaimer:  I am not a nutritionist, and all I know about nutrition is what I've learned from eating vegan and reading about eating vegan.  This plan is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor or to cure or treat any disease.  It's meant to be a simple guide to make meal-planning easier for a new vegan, and I wrote it as off-the-cuff as I could to preserve simplicity.  Please note that as she is going to be going gluten-free for several weeks, she will be choosing gluten-free options based on my suggestions, which are not gluten-free in and of themselves.

Weekdays:

• Lowfat granola or other cereal with non-dairy milk (almond, hemp, coconut, or soy)
• Oatmeal made with water or non-dairy milk (may include mix-ins like nuts/nut butter, maple syrup, agave nectar, fruit, applesauce, non-dairy chocolate chips)
• Toast with fruit spread, nut butter and fruit
• Breakfast burrito/wrap (a tortilla filled with leftover tofu/veggie scramble, or nut butter and banana, or non-dairy cream cheese and jam or berries)
• Fresh fruit or fruit salad
• Non-dairy yogurt parfait (coconut or soy yogurt layered with fresh fruit and granola)

Weekends:

• Tofu scramble (include lots of veggies for extra nutrition)
• Tofu frittata
• Non-dairy, egg-free waffles, pancakes or crepes
• Breakfast potatoes (with onions, peppers, and mushrooms if you like)

So, taking into account my mom's likes, which I am fairly familiar with, those are my recommendations for vegan breakfasts, especially for a beginner.  And now that I've written a completely picture-free wall of text, which I expect will have multiple comments of TL;DR, I am going to sign off, with the promise that at the very least, I will come back soon to post lunch and dinner ideas.  If you read all the way to the end, thank you.  The cookies are in the mail.  :)

A Night Out at The Pulse Cafe - Somerville, MA

Oops, I did it again!  Obligatory self-explanation paragraph.  My last blog post, where I was explaining how stressed and busy I was, should have been an indication to me that I needed to slow down before I made myself sick, but I didn't figure it out until too late.  Last Friday, I left work early for some R&R, but within 3 hours I had a fever and chills and felt generally terrible.  I got smacked down by a flu/evil sinus infection combo that had me completely out of commission for four days.  Then John got it too, but only the flu part. He's better for the most part, but I'm still having some sinus symptoms.  Needless to say, I didn't eat much worth writing about last week.  Lots of Gardein Crispy Tenders and noodle soup bowls.  But last night, we had tickets to see comedians JB Smoove and Richard Lewis in Boston.  The tickets were one of my Christmas gifts to John, so there was no way we were missing it.  Smoove & Lewis, who are cast members in the wonderfully ridiculous HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," are two of the funniest people ever to both John and me.

Before the show, we decided to try grabbing some dinner.  We've tried a number of the places in & around Boston, but the relatively new Pulse Cafe in Somerville is a place we've missed so far.  I checked out the menu on their website beforehand, and it looked like a good place to fall off the healthy vegan food wagon for a night of indulging, so we went for it.  We were able to find free street parking a block or so away, which was both miraculous and probably illegal.  The restaurant is 100% vegan, which is also miraculous (and thankfully not illegal).  I do think it's a great thing to go out to not 100% vegan places to ask for vegan options so that vegan-ness becomes more mainstream, but I will also say, there is something so fantastic about not having to worry about whether or not I can trust the restaurant staff to understand what "no animal products" means.  Behold the easy way to be a fat vegan:

Vanilla & Chocolate Milkshakes

This coconut milk-based shake was definitely Georgia-approved.

 

Appetizer - Loaded Fries - French fries with cheezy sauce, sour "cream", and tempeh bacon

Bacon Cheeseburger - House made patty, cheeze, tempeh bacon, garlic aioli, & veggies on a multigrain bun

Philly Cheeze Steak - Peppers, onions, seitan "steak", and Daiya mozzarella on flatbread

I ordered the burger and John ordered the cheesesteak, but we ended up swapping, because his sandwich was too cheezy.  It was supposed to come on a sub roll, which would have balanced out the cheeze better, but they had run out.  I loved it, but the lack of bread did make it a bit rich.  The burger was very tasty, if a little small.  I would probably get a side salad with it next time to round out the meal.  The loaded fries were just as delicious as they look; in fact, I wish I had some now!  They had a number of dessert options, but since we were in a bit of a hurry at that point, we ended up grabbing two of their homemade glazed doughnuts to go.  They were made to order and warm.  I was totally in love!  They were very doughy and not very sweet, but that was okay to me, because I am a bread maniac, but John wasn't that impressed.  I think he would have gone for the apple crisp with ice cream if we hadn't already had milkshakes.  

With tip, it was $50, which is definitely on the pricey side for an appetizer, two sandwiches, a couple of milkshakes and a couple of small doughnuts, but it's about what should probably be expected for dinner in Boston.  The portion sizes were on the smaller side as well, but considering that the food is rich, that's probably a good thing.  We would check this place out again sometime when we are in the Boston area for a night out, and they do brunch on the weekends as well, which would be worth a try.

John's out on an acting job tonight so I'm flying solo.  I went to the movies once already (saw The Rite - it was okay - standard demon possession stuff with the added bonus of creeptastic Anthony Hopkins), and I might go again later after I work on our short film editing project for a while, if I can work up the nerve to go back out again in the cold & wind tonight.  Quite a few things to post this week, and I'm hoping I can get to them.  Right now, I think I'm going to head into the kitchen and find something to eat.  I ran out of Gardein, so I might be in trouble!  :)

Slow Cooker Vegetable Stew

Hi, I'm back!  I want to apologize for disappearing for a week.  It wasn't necessarily because I wanted to, but more because I've been going non-stop since last week.  I almost always have quite a few irons in the fire, but this last week, it's all converged to make me a little nuts.  Besides the blog and the full time plus job, John & I have a film production company business as well, in addition to him being an actor (and me driving him to auditions so he doesn't have to pay to park in Boston or Providence -- and he got the Providence job by the way, hooray!).  We work in non-fiction and fiction both, and depending on the project we could be handling everything from writing to pre-production to packaging and selling an end product.  Right now, we are also interested in getting into some freelance video editing.  So over the last week, I've been on the road a lot while also working and trying to stick to my every day exercise program and eating halfway decently and maybe getting at least 6 hours of sleep.  So no big deal, right?

The good news is, I have plenty of things to post, so provided I have time and can shut up about my life long enough to talk about food, I should be able to jump on a few times this week to share some of the recipes I've had lately.  The most thematically appropriate for this post seems to be this one, which uses my most neglected kitchen appliance, the slow cooker.  I don't know what it is about me and the slow cooker, but it's just not something I think of using very often.  I know how easy and convenient it is, but I guess I tend to be more hands-on with cooking.  The only meal I tend to think of as a definite crock-pot dish is stew.  I used to make beef stew a few times each winter, so I decided to make it without the beef (or seitan or another meat substitute) this time and see what happened.  What happened?  A hearty, healthy and delicious vegetable stew!  It's also oil free, so I think it would fit in with Eat to Live and McDougall followers.

Chunky Vegetable Stew

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and cut on the bias

6 small potatoes (Yukon gold), peeled and diced

1 onion, chopped

1 cup cooked lima beans

1 can green beans, drained

1 large can diced tomatoes, with juice

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

Garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except spices in slow cooker.  If necessary, add water to make sure vegetables are mostly covered.  Cook on low for 6 hours, stirring occasionally if possible.  In last 30 minutes, add spices, stir, and simmer.  A light touch with the salt is best.    

I almost never eat corn or lima beans but when I had them in this stew I remembered how much I love them.  They taste so good with tomato for some reason!  I almost always am saying in my recipes to adapt based on what you have on hand, and that is no different here, but I will also say that something about this combo is particularly tasty.  This would probably be pretty great with cornbread, but we just ate it as is.

We managed to make it through Tuesday without a full-on blizzard, which is more than I could have said for the last two weeks, and the sun was actually still out when I left work today, so that has me in a better frame of mind.  Hope the same holds true for the rest of you!

More Almost Homemade Vegan Dinners

Tonight, central Massachusetts is experiencing a brief respite between massive snowstorms.  I am in a hotel room about a mile away from my office so that I could minimize my driving time.  My Hyundai Accent is a great little car, but it's not a snow plow, and I'm hoping that by the time my workday is over tomorrow, a lot of the 2 feet plus of snow will be fallen and pushed out of the way so that I can get home without too much trouble.

Needless to say, these are the times when being vegan can be really difficult.  I didn't know the extent of the snow we were getting until this morning, and when I saw that it could be in the 25 inches range, I threw together a suitcase hoping I would be able to spend the night closer to work.  (I'm only about a 20 minute drive away on a normal day, but that has stretched into over an hour when we get snow like this.)  I also threw two days worth of breakfast and lunch into a bag (English muffins with Smart Bacon and vegan "egg" for brekky sandwiches, a tofu "egg" salad sandwich, an apple, and some leftover pizza--yes, sad food, I know--I was in a big hurry), and grabbed a few dollars worth of quarters for vending machines in case of emergency.  Tonight, I got capellini pomodoro from Olive Garden right next to my hotel.  Vegan?  Yes.  Blog-worthy?  No.  But at least I got a hot meal and a big (dry) salad.  Plus John talked me into bringing my laptop so I can post a couple of the things I've been sitting on for a while.

Both of these meals are homemade except for one convenient ingredient each.  In both cases, it was something I had sitting around for a night when I was short on time but still wanted to make sure I got something healthful and veggie-packed.

Vegan Chorizo Potato Hash

5 medium potatoes (Yukon golds are good in this), uniformly diced, peeled if not organic

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 medium to large green pepper, coarsely chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms (button or cremini)

1/2 tomato, diced

1 package soy chorizo (sold at Trader Joe's and other well-stocked supermarkets)

Parboil potatoes in a large saucepan over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until slightly yielding but still holding shape.  In a large skillet or wok over medium heat, saute onions and peppers in small amount of water until onions are beginning to soften.  Add drained potatoes and stir fry for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms and continue to stir fry until potatoes and mushrooms are beginning to brown.    Add chorizo and continue to stir fry.  When chorizo is heated through, add tomatoes and stir fry for several minutes until tomatoes begin to lose shape.  At this point, onions and pepper should be tender crisp, potatoes cooked through, mushrooms browned and chorizo starting to brown.  Makes about 5 servings.

It's not the most attractive meal, but it's tasty and filling, and it's one of the first vegan meals I ever thought up.  John is a "meat" and potatoes kind of guy, so it's something he really enjoys and always wants an extra serving of.  Interestingly, the package of soyrizo I used this time had a similar recipe printed right on the package.  

Cauliflower Chickpea Curry

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green pepper, diced

1/2 head of cauliflower

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1 jar of vegan curry simmer sauce (I used Trader Joe's brand, but Seeds of Change makes a few truly excellent varieties as well)

Cooked brown rice

Saute onions and peppers in water over medium heat until slightly softened.  Add cauliflower, chickpeas, and simmer sauce.  Mix well and lower heat to low.  Simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower has softened to tender crisp.  If mixture becomes too thick, add water and stir.  Once cauliflower reaches desired texture, serve mixture over cooked brown rice.  Makes 4-5 servings.

John & I both love Indian food, and I got an Indian vegan cookbook for Christmas, but I haven't had a chance to really get involved with it yet.  Right now, with the amount of snow we have on the ground, even the simplest trip to the grocery store takes more than twice as long as it should  Maybe when all this snow finally subsides I'll be able to get to one of the nearby Indian groceries and pick up a few ingredients to experiment with.  For the time being though, with how busy I have been, and how little I care to leave the house, this will definitely do!

Happy Vegan-niversary to Me!

Today marks the end of my second year as a vegan!  I drove John down to an audition in Providence tonight, and we decided to get a couple of vegan pizzas from Nice Slice.  It's a pizza & sandwich place right near Brown University.  It's not 100% vegan, but they can make practically everything on their menu vegan.

We went with the Phoni Roni and the Philly Cheez Steak.

After the ride back from Rhode Island, the pizza was a little chilly, but it was still very good.  I love to cook pizza at home, but it's also great to be able to get takeout on a busy night when we feel like celebrating.  Being able to get vegan brick oven pizza also reminds me that I'm not missing a single thing without dairy and meat!

Our favorite omni food was pizza, and when we initially went vegetarian, we were eating cheese pizza more than anything else.  It was kind of ironic, since I had initially intended to go veg for health reasons, and there are only a few things less healthy than cheese, especially for lactose-intolerant me.  We decided to give up dairy for a month to see how we responded.  As it turned out, it was the best decision I ever made.  I lost about 35 pounds within the month!  It took longer to completely detoxify, and it was really difficult.  I had an outbreak on my face, not just of pimples but also cold sores and even a boil.  I also got a terrible ear infection that wouldn't respond to treatment.  After three months, I was finally rid of all the terrible effects of a dairy-filled diet, and I have never looked back.  Much like my initial transition to vegetarianism, my transition to veganism started out selfish; I just wanted to improve my health and give myself a little edge over the cardiovascular disease that runs in my family.  But what kept me from backsliding wasn't thinking about myself; it was thinking about animals.  I finally made myself confront what it really means to eat meat or to ingest dairy products and eggs, and once I did that, it became impossible to go back.  There are so many common sense reasons to go vegan, and now that I have 2 years under my belt, I couldn't imagine living my life any other way.