The Veggie Queen

Hey guys, I just started writing guest blogs for Jill Nussinow who is a Registered Dietitian, culinary educator, pressure cooker expert, and author of the cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment. I already wrote my first post and have started working on the next ones. So check out my blog on her website http://www.theveggiequeen.com/.

Here's a link to my blog post about why I decided to go vegan.
http://www.theveggiequeen.com/articles/vegan-guest-post-maggie-sloan

Why did I start following a vegan diet?

I'm from Alabama and it's absolutely unheard of for anyone to be vegan in this state. Occasionally you'll find some vegetarians, but rarely any vegans. Alabama is known for it's large obese population with very high rates of health-related problems. Along with that, we also have limited access to fresh foods and health stores. But here's my story about why I decided to go vegan. 

Back in 2008, I read the book Skinny Bitch and I decided to become vegetarian. It's something I had thought about doing since I was in high school. I told myself I would do it for at least one year. And I loved seafood so much, that I made exceptions when my family went on summer vacation to the beach. But at the time, I didn't really know how to be healthy about being vegetarian and I thought I wasn't getting enough protein in my diet. After that year, I slowly started eating meat again.

One of my roommates in college was the first vegan I had ever met. I just thought, "How do you do it??" But I continued eating meat, not too much–the thought of cooking meat just grossed me out.

Back in the summer of last year, I started dating my long distance boyfriend, Scott, who has been vegan for about 6 years. Whenever I was with him, I ate vegan too (or mostly) and I enjoyed it. 
It wasn't until January 2011 when I stumbled upon the website Eat Right America. I filled out a food survey and got a free diet analysis, which was really a wake up call to how unhealthy I had been eating. (I should have known this, right? I have a degree in nutrition!! Haha) This plan encouraged a plant-based diet and gave me several recipes.

That's the point where I really started eating right. I started cooking a lot more and ate way more vegetables than before (yeah nutrients!). I began searching the internet to find vegan recipes and fell in love with several vegan blogs. Finding those vegan blogs has been a great help to me starting out vegan. It's almost like a support system, especially since I don't know any vegans near me.  

I love being vegan and I think it's fun. It makes me feel healthier, plus I'm learning a lot! I feel like I have so much more control over my health and I'm doing a great thing for my body. Eat more fruits and vegetables and feel better, easy as that. Of course, I'm not perfect. I'll still eat junk food every now and then if I want. I'm learning to "veganize" so many different foods and the options are endless!

No-Bake Cookies

I have loooved these cookies since I was a kid, I remember my mom making them when my sister and I were little. And when my family went on vacation to the beach, we would stop at this one gas station on the way, just to get oatmeal chocolate cookies! Haha every time my mom and I would eat so much that we felt sick! But they're totally worth it.

So the other night I was really wanting dessert, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it. While brainstorming for dessert ideas, I knew I had cocoa powder, peanut butter, and oatmeal, and figured out just what I wanted. Cookies! I had never even tempted to make these before (just like many things on my blog), but I knew they had to be easy since they were no-bake cookies!


No-Bake Oatmeal Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp vegan butter (Earth Balance/Smart Balance)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup soymilk (I used unsweetened)
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups quick oats


Directions:

First, you melt the butter.

Next add everything except the peanut butter and oats. Then stir.

Bring to a boil and let boil for one minute.

Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter and oats.

Drop by spoonfuls onto aluminum foil or wax paper and allow to cool. These can be refrigerated for faster cooling. 

I ate about a cookie's worth of it while tasting and licking the pan/spoon. No self control...

Once they've cooled, they are PERFECT!!

I ate two or three last night when I made them and I've been eating them all day today! Let me tell ya, these cookies are soooo good. I'm obsessed. I really have no self-control around them. Luckily the family liked them too, so I wasn't forced to finish them all myself. But I'm pretty sure I would eat them all at once if they could fit in my belly!

Mmmm!

Curry Dish

I don't know about you, but I LOVE curry. It wasn't til recently in my life that I realized this, and I'm sooo glad I did. I've never attempted to make curry, until I found this recipe from Budget Bytes and I realized how easy it is to make. Seriously, SO easy! With only a few ingredients. And that's just what I love.


Quick Curried Chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
2 (15 oz.) cans chickpeas, drained (or the equivalent from dry beans)
1 (20 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

Quick tip:  dry beans/peas are only $1 per pound! Talk about value!

Directions:

Water saute the chopped onion and garlic on medium heat until soft. (Just barely cover with water. It's just like sauteing with oil, without the added calories!)

Next pour in the rest of the ingredients except cilantro and stir together. Allow it to simmer.

Next chop the cilantro and add it to the pot, stirring every few minutes.

Continue simmering until sauce is thickened. You may want to lower the heat.

Serve hot and add more cilantro if you like!

It's a very inexpensive meal too. Tons of fiber, tons of protein, and some iron in there too! See, vegans eat well. People always ask about protein in a vegan diet, and here ya go! BEANS! ... or chickpeas, rather. Same thing.

1 cup of chickpeas will give you 15 grams of protein! Plus 12 grams of fiber and NO saturated fat or cholesterol. Meat can't do that!

Even if you're not vegan/vegetarian, it's a good idea to limit your meat consumption to only a few times a week. Get your protein from beans, vegetables, and whole grains. I promise, it's good for your body.

Roasted Peppers (plus a sammie!)

So, I never knew roasting was so easy... It just sounds complicated to me. And they sell roasted red peppers in grocery stores. NEVER will I buy any because I just found out how ridiculously easy it is to make your own. You literally just stick the peppers in the oven. And it only takes 10-15 min! So quick! You don't even have to add anything to them! I mean, I guess you could, to make a tastier flavor, but these turned out great!

Roasted Peppers

Set the oven to broil and preheat to 500 degrees.

Cut the peppers in half, removing the seeds and insides. Place on cooking sheet.

Daww pretty peppers.

I put aluminum foil on my pan, obvi. Once preheated, just sit the pan in the oven.

It only takes about 10-15 min in the oven, but I snacked on some raw peppers and Wholly Guacamole while I waited. Yummm!

When the peppers start turning brown, they're ready. They'll look something like this.

I put them on a grilled bagel sandwich! A bagel melt, if you will.

If you're interested in how i made my delicious sandwich, I'm about to tell you.

Ok, I started with the bagel thin, as pictured above. I spread a little bit of vegan mayo on it, sprinkled some daiya mozzarella cheese, loaded up tons of roasted peppers (omg yum!), plus more cheese, tomato, and guacamole on the other side. Then put it on the ole George Foreman grill (you can use a panini press if you're fancy like that) to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

And I ate the rest of the peppers as a side. I guess you could share the rest with someone, but my family isn't really into good food. Haha they don't know what they're missin'!

Check out that melty goodness. Mmmmm.

Guess what!

THIS IS VEGAN!

Quaker Instant Grits: Country Bacon 

Crazy, right? I actually discovered this a couple years ago when I was vegetarian, my step-dad bought it because he's a big fan of country cookin'. I think I was eating a bowl of cereal one morning while this box sat on the table in front of me, I just happened to notice the fine print. It says "with imitation bacon bits & artificial flavors." So I checked the ingredients, and sure enough, it's made with textured vegetable protein. No meat!

Last year, Scott and I got really into grits. Any time we were together, it was grits for breakfast! Or grits at 2am... whoops! We would usually load em up with vegan butter, daiya cheddar cheese, tofutti cream cheese, and hot sauce. Yeah, we're some fat kids, but I want some now just thinking about it!

Thanks, Quaker, for making these grits for vegan fat kids like me!

Vitamin B12

This is a big vegan issue.

Vitamin B12 is important for maintaining healthy blood and healthy brain and nerves. A deficiency can even lead to blindness, deafness, and dementia. Scary stuff, right?

In school, I was told that vegans have absolutely no way of getting Vitamin B12 from food. At the time I wasn't vegan, but I immediately sent a text to my vegan bf that he needs to start taking B12 supplements because I didn't want him to get nerve damage!

Turns out, it is not produced by plants or animals. It's produced by bacteria! It is a common misconception that B12 comes from animal products and meat-eaters do have higher levels of B12 in their system. But it's a good idea for vegans to take a B12 supplement. Your body is able to store this vitamin, so you may only need to take supplements every few days depending on how much you take. (The RDA for B12 is 2.4µg/day)

After becoming vegan, I found sources of B12 in foods. It can be found in fortified foods like non-dairy milks, meat substitutes, and some breakfast cereals. For example, 1 cup of soy milk has 50% of the recommended daily value for B12, so if you drink 2 cups of soy milk every day, you're good. Also, nutritional yeast (a GREAT vegan product!) has 150% of the recommended daily value of B12 for 1.5 tablespoons. It adds yummy, nutty, parmesan-like flavor to savory dishes, like pasta, popcorn, stir-fries, and tofu scrambles.

To get the full benefit of a vegan diet, vegans should do one of the following:

1. Eat fortified foods two or three times a day to get at least three micrograms (mcg or µg) of B12 a day or
2. Take one B12 supplement daily providing at least 10 micrograms or
3. Take a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000 micrograms.

For more detailed information on Vitamin B12, visit this website.
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/vitaminb12

"Garlicky Kale"

This stuff is GOOD.

I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon this recipe. Maybe I was searching for kale recipes, browsing blogs, who knows? But I'm sure glad I found it! I was going through the internet bookmarks on my phone (all recipes btw! haha) and I found this Garlicky Kale Salad I had saved from the blog Eating Bird Food.

Apparently this kale recipe was inspired by Whole Foods (love!). I just recently collected all of these ingredients and knew I must give it a try.


Garlicky Kale Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 bunch raw kale (washed, de-stemmed and dried)
• 1 T tahini
• 1 T water
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 T liquid aminos (tamari or soy sauce would work too)
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp. minced garlic (1 -2 cloves of garlic)
• sesame seeds, to taste as garish (optional)

Directions:

1. Break kale into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.
2. Puree all ingredients except kale and sesame seeds in a blender or food processor to blend the dressing. (I just mixed it in a bowl.)
3. Pour dressing over kale and massage into the kale with your hands until all pieces of kale are coated. (Your hands will get very messy!)
4. Let the salad sit in the fridge for an hour or so to marinate. You can skip this step if you need to eat right away, but allowing some time to marinate will wilt the kale a bit and make it a little more palatable – particularly for those who are skeptical of eating raw kale.
5. Sprinkle on some sesame seeds before serving if so desired.

The dressing...

Yum yum!



The finished product!


I seriously love this recipe. The texture was great, everything. And kale is SO good for you! Leafy greens are some of the best things to put in your body.

Yay nutrients!

Cashew Cheese!

So lately I've been hearing a lot about people making dairy-free cheese out of cashews. From the minute I heard about it, I was intrigued. I imagined the process would be long and complicated, but it was super simple! I just HAD to make it.

The whole concept of cashew cheese sounds sorta crazy, but the key is soaking the cashews. That way they blend easier. (Although I did see a recipe where you didn't need to soak them... Hmm.)


Cashew Cheese

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups raw cashews. (not roasted or salted)
1 cup water
2-3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:

Place the raw cashews in a bowl and soak in water for at least 2 hours.
(I soaked mine for 3 hours, but you can soak them overnight or while you're at work.)

Place the cashews and half of the water in a food processor/blender along with all other ingredients. (You can add more water if needed.)

My manual food processor (actually, a food chopper... haha) didn't work and this is how it turned out. Needless to say, I had to switch to a blender.

The blender worked just fine. Much better texture!

And this is the final product!

See how easy??! Just soak cashews and blend everything together. It turned out soooo tasty and has tons of flavor! Some recipes tell you to refrigerate for several hours so it will set and become firmer, but you can eat it just like this. You can do so much with this cashew cheese. Eat it with crackers, as a veggie dip, a spread on a sandwich or wrap, eat it mixed in a salad, or whatever you desire. It's so versatile and yummy.

Yay vegan cheese!

Vegan Boyfriend in Town

Last week I was so glad that Scott came in town (from NJ) and got to stay a whole week. Every time we're together life couldn't be any better. We had SUCH a fat kid week too. So good!

Some of our creations for the week were green smoothies, our own unique hummus with spinach and peppers in it, roasted brussel sprouts, mac & "cheese", sweet potato fries with a vegenaise + vinegar dip, homemade pizza (recipe below), and french toast using bananas instead of eggs!

Plus we enjoyed going out to eat ordering meals like vegetarian fajitas, tofu dishes, black bean burgers, and more! We were in Chattanooga, TN for a couple days and went to our favorite vegan restaurant there called Sluggo's North Vegetarian Cafe. Man, we LOVE that place! If you're ever in the area, you should check it out. Being from Alabama, vegan restaurants are very new to me. I couldn't even tell you a vegetarian restaurant near me.

Here's a picture of our Sluggo's feast: the MOST delicious vegan nachos, The Culture Club, BBQ Tofu Sub, garlic mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, along with New Belgium beers. We couldn't really move much after this huge meal. Haha

And one of our healthy picnic snacks: Jalapeno cilantro hummus with sliced vegetables. (Ps- we rode our bikes to this picnic, cute right? Haha)

Homemade Vegan Pizza

Ingredients:

Already made pizza crust (or make your own!)

1 can low sodium tomato sauce

Spices for sauce: Italian spices, basil, oregano, garlic powder

Any vegetables of your choice (I used peppers, mushrooms, and spinach)

Vegan shredded cheese (Daiya mozzarella and cheddar)

Directions:

Preheat the oven according to your pizza crust instructions.

In a sauce pan, heat the tomato sauce and add your spices.

Chop your vegetables for the pizza.

Spread sauce on pizza crust, arrange the vegetables on the sauce, cover with cheese.

Time for the oven!

Leave in oven according to pizza crust instructions, and make sure cheese is melted.

Let cool just a bit, then devour!

Mmmm.