"Nature Supports Life!"

"No animal should die so I can live."

"Gratitude is the foundation of stability and happiness."

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Our food tour and my attempt at spaghetti squash

Callie and I went on a health food tour yesterday and it was a really fun experience. We found this offer through dailycandy.com where you meet a health food expert at a Whole Foods and they take you around and teach you about what good food you should eat and know about. We spent two hours in the Whole Foods on 3rd street across from the Grove, and we learned some really interesting facts. Christy showed us new kinds of greens, fruits, and vegetables and how to make different and exciting meals with them. She showed us the spaghetti squash and taught us that when you roast this certain kind of squash, it gets stringy like spaghetti and it is a great substitute for pasta. So, after Callie and I shopped for our new items, I went home and looked up a spaghetti squash recipe. I came upon this one and thought I could substitute the tomatoes for red, yellow, and green bell peppers. I also was intrigued because one of the new greens Christy introduced me to was rainbow chard. So I thought I would give it a go.
The final product turned out okay. I think I might have under cooked the squash because it was much crunchier than pasta but all in all it was a good dish and I was happy to try something that was completely off my radar a couple hours before. I recommend giving this a try or finding a new recipe involving spaghetti squash.


Recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=11148.0


-Meg

Saturday, May 28, 2011

I heart Stir-Fry

Good morning world and happy Saturday! 
A few nights ago I got home from my internship and was pretty hungry. I was craving something substantial but not too heavy. Luckily, I found the perfect solution! A VEGGIE STIR FRY! All I had to do to make this stir-fry was saute a few veggies, beans and brown rice. I use olive oil in the pan when making the majority of my stir-fries because olive oil provides me with healthy fats, which as a vegan is VERY important. 


Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice (I buy the bags of pre-cooked frozen brown rice from Whole Foods) 
1/4 cup of pre-cooked organic lima beans (frozen or fresh) 
1 1/2 medium sized organic whole carrots 
one bunch of organic kale (cut into bite size pieces) 
a few slices of purple cabbage (cut into small pieces) 
organic cauliflower and broccoli (as much as you want) 
lotus root marinated in soy sauce (available from Dave's Gourmet Korean Food, I buy mine from this vendor at the farmer's market)
3 sheets of unsalted, roasted nori (seaweed) 


Directions: 
First, heat two tbsp of good quality, extra virgin olive oil in a medium sized pan. Second, put all of the vegetables in the pan and sprinkle with some shoyu sauce (raw, unpasteurized soy sauce) to your liking. After about 7 minutes add in the cooked brown rice, add a pinch of black pepper, shoyu sauce, and a little bit more olive oil. What I love to do is take my nori, and fill it with my stir-fry and lotus root then wrap it all up. I hope you enjoy your meal! 

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Internship Days 3 and 4 UPDATE

Hi Everyone! 
First of all, my internship has been going incredibly well. Yesterday I shadowed a server (a waiter) for about four hours. I got to see how a server must juggle one million things at once, while at the same time must make the costumer feel comfortable and satisfied with their overall dining experience. I helped to bring waters/drinks, plates, and straws to costumers as well pick up checks and deliver them to tables. I got to see what happens back stage at a restaurant. This experience made me realize how IMPORTANT it is to be kind and patient with waiters and waitresses. Today, I spent my day at the office of the owner of Real Food Daily, Ann Gentry. She was so nice and really made me feel at home. I helped her revise one of her blog posts as well as sit in on a virtual chat event on the facebook page of "Veria", a website/video database focused on healthy and holistic living. I then walked across the street with Ann and her assistant, Jessica, to the Santa Monica location of Real Food Daily. I ordered one of my favorites from there, The Living Wrap. The Living Wrap was completely raw and consisted of salad greens, various veggies, and a red pepper sunflower spread with tahini house sauce on the side. To drink, I ordered a "Trilogy" flavored Kombucha drink which aids in digestion (filled with probiotics). I highly suggest typing in "kombucha" into google and reading a little about it. My lunch and day were both was  wonderful. Thanks Ann!




-Callie

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Roasted Cheezy Broccoli over Quinoa

I wanted to use the broccoli/cauliflower package I bought at the market a couple days ago, so I found this recipe and used it as a rough guideline into making a delicious dinner for my mom and I! I recommend sticking to the recipe exactly because this looks reallyyyy good, but what I made (a lot more garlic and without a few ingredients because I didn't feel like going to the store, some chili sauce) was really yummy too!
Recipe:
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/10/roasted-cheezy-broccoli-over-golden.html




the nutritional yeast is what makes it taste and look cheesy
I liked adding some chili sauce because I love spicy food, so it's really up to how you want to make it!
-Meg

Mint Chip with Kale Ice Cream! DON'T BE AFRAID

Meg and I are BIG ice cream enthusiasts, so we were extremely excited when we found a healthy ice cream recipe that we could eat EVERY NIGHT! Yes, there was kale in this recipe, but don't be afraid it did not taste like KALE ice cream. The kale gave the ice cream a beautiful green color and a nice bit of taste. We found the recipe on vegweb.com and we used evaporated cane juice instead of fake white sugar. Also, instead of the highly processed Nestle chocolate chips we used grain-sweetened chocolate chips that were delicious (these are usually available at any health food store such as Whole Foods). We also used fresh mint leaves instead of mint extract which made a HUGE difference. We threw all of the ingredients into my vita mix then transferred the mixture into my incredible Cuisinart ice cream maker. The result was a thick, creamy, and HEALTHY ice cream.  


Recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=18362.0

-Callie!

Ordering Vegan Sushi

My mom went to a sushi restaurant last night and I really wanted her to pick me up something, but not the usual spicy tuna that I used to eat. I ordered a miso soup, a side salad, and a brown rice vegetable tempura roll. A lot of sushi chefs enjoy being creative with their orders so my mom just said "my daughter's a vegan, will you make her something with brown rice?" and this is what came out! Yes, it looks weird-but it was SO good and healthy and proved that you CAN order from a sushi restaurants without hurting any Nemos in the process.



-Meg!

Monday, May 23, 2011

The BEST Vegan Chocolate Cake I've EVER Made...EVER

Today was one of my best friend, Dani's birthday, so I decided that I would attempt at making my first ever vegan chocolate cake. I found both the cake and frosting recipe on vegweb.com (a really incredible website). Instead of using regular sugar for the cake recipe I used brown sugar and also added some vegan, grain sweetened chocolate chips to the batter. I decorated the top layer (it was a double layer cake) with a few vegan chocolate chips and some slices of an organic strawberry. For the frosting, instead of using cocoa powder, I melted some high-quality unsweetened baking chocolate to mix in. It was a great touch and worked out great. Between each layer of cake there was a thick spread of the frosting and chocolate chips. It was pure magic if I do say so myself. Everyone at Dani's birthday dinner loved it. Enjoy the photos and links to the recipes!

For the Cake: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6433.0
For The Frosting: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6441.0


-Callie!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

What I Scored at the Farmer's Market

This morning I ventured to the Farmer's Market alongside my mom and one of my best friends Alex. We left the house around 8 am and it felt great to be out and about so early. Farmer's Markets can often be overwhelming if you don't have a strategy, so here is a list of tips regarding both enjoying yourself and purchasing what you need at the Farmer's Market. 


1. Before you get there make a list of everything you need to purchase.
2. When you get there walk throughout the whole farmer's market once before buying anything to see the different produce available and pay attention to which vendors say "organically grown" and to the different prices of the various produce. 
3. Before making a purchase ask the vendor whether or not their produce is grown organically because just because they are selling at the farmer's market does not mean that their product is organic. Some vendors may say that they grow their food 100 percent organically however, that they are not yet "certified" organic under law. THIS IS OK! The process to get your farm certified organic takes a very long time. 
4. Ask the vendors (if it doesn't say on the sign) where there farm is located...the closer to your area of residency, the better! Buying local means that there is less energy going into importing it to you, reducing the overall carbon footprint of your purchase.  
5. Don't forget to bring your own RE-USABLE bags to the farmer's market so you don't have to use their plastic bags. 
6. If there is a vendor there which is some sort of organization trying to campaign for something or get a petition signed, stop and talk to them to see what they are all about. Today, I talked to an organization called "Green Peace" which I know want to volunteer for! 


There you have it! Here is a list of what I purchased today. 
1. Organic kale
2. One organic cucumber
3. One bag of locally grown lemons
4. Three organic sweet potatoes
5. One stalk of organic broccoli 
6. One package of raw lotus root in soy sauce from "Dave's Gourmet Korean Food" vendor. 


-Callie!

Experimental Tofu Scramble

I looked in my kitchen and decided to make a tofu scramble with all of the extra things that I had in my fridge. I didn't think it could really go wrong. I used:
tofu, cubed
garlic oil
garlic cloves, minced
white mushrooms, chopped
edamame, shelled
shoyu
a little bit of curry powder
nutritional yeast

put it all in a sauce pan, sauteed it and added it with chili sauce and tortilla chips. It was a good lunch and I felt like I used things that would have gone to waste.


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Power Oatmeal!


Steel cut oats made without a microwave, goji berries (super superfood), organic raisins
perfect, easy breakfast for champions!

-Meg

Friday, May 20, 2011

Breakfast at Hugo's

I went to breakfast with my mom this morning, we needed some major comfort food. We went to Hugo's restaurant on Riverside. Hugo's has an incredibly vast menu, always able to accommodate vegans. I got a golden dragon green tea to drink, I love it here because they serve it hot and give you a ton of ice. It's in a french coffee presser -such a cute touch!

My mom and I shared the
- veggie waffle cones:

Tofu Scramble:


and then I really wanted to try the roasted pineapple-coconut pancakes so the waiter let me order one!

It was a perfect amount of food for the two of us. Really different varieties of flavors and everything was vegan and tasted SO good
Definitely give Hugo's a try if you're looking to go vegan without compromising any taste or flavor!

-Meg



Thursday, May 19, 2011

Why I love Vegetables + My Internship!

Hello friends!
For the next two weeks I will be interning at one of my favorite restaurants called, "Real Food Daily". It is a completely vegan restaurant that offers both traditional macrobiotic meals (brown rice, sea vegetables, miso soup, pickled veggies, steamed vegetables etc) as well as healthy comfort food options such as fettuccine Alfredo, or a large plate of completely vegan nachos. I am so excited to be spending time at such a wonderful place! One of my dreams is to open my own vegan restaurant. I believe that a restaurant should be a place where people can come together and appreciate, learn and enjoy food that is good for your body and is not processed. One of the many reasons why I find vegetables to be so beautiful is because they can be eaten just as they are produced from the ground. In one of my favorite books, "Walden Pond" by Henry D. Thoreau, the author discusses the reality that nature provides us with everything we need to survive and thrive; however, we do not take full advantage of all of these tools that the Earth provides us to live healthy lives off of. It is important to have  relationship with the food you eat, and to think about the food you are about to put into your body. Ok, sorry for that off-topic rant; now back to my internship! Today, I learned a little bit about working at the counter of the restaurant. This included how to greet people, explain to people items on the menu and also how to make people feel comfortable in a new environment. The employee whom I was shadowing, used the analogy that the restaurant is like a house and the people who work the front of the house (F.O.H) are responsible for making sure everyone is comfortable, situated and has a good immediate impression. When my day at Real Food Daily was over, the manager asked if I wanted to pick something off of the menu to take home! That was one of the best parts of my day :) I ordered my usual, The Real Food Meal, which consisted of brown rice, sea vegetables, garbanzo beans, leafy greens (today it was collard greens), a pressed salad, and seasonal steamed vegetables with an incredible tahini-miso sauce on the side. It was everything I could wish for and more! It kept me full for hours. I will keep everyone updated on how my internship goes! Have a beautiful, peaceful, and gratitude-filled evening.


-Callie

The Brutal Truth

We know there are so many opinions on vegetarianism /veganism, but if you claim to love animals and care about what is actually going on behind those closed doors of factory farms, please watch this video. It is not easy to watch the whole thing-we had to stop it a couple times before being able to get through the whole thing, but we think it is so important to be informed with what is actually going on. We can't change corporations or the way so many Americans live, but we can try to make our mark at something that we both find crucial and life changing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBbYUdvGWk0

Our trip to Kind Kreme


After our dinner, Callie and I wanted to try a vegan ice cream place near vineland called Kind Kreme. We checked out the menu in advance and they have soft-serve, ice ream, smoothies, sundaes, etc. all completely dairy and animal free. We were very excited to say the least.


When we walked in, we noticed the cute ice cream shop that had a variety of flavors that sounded really good. We tried the vanilla and chocolate soft-serve and about four of the ice cream flavors (ex: cookies and cream, coconut chip, caramel latte). We both decided the soft-serve was definitely better than the ice cream. All the ice cream flavors were in no way terrible, but they didn't have that taste we were looking for in a sweet snack. We purchased medium chocolate soft-serves...for $6.99 each! Yes, it is extremely pricey and we have other sources that might make better vegan soft-serve (check out Hugo's Tacos on Coldwater-one of my absolute favorites) for less money, but remember when you're buying your 99cent ice cream cone, that Kind Kreme uses high-quality ingredients such as coconut milk, raw cashews, agave syrup, cocoa powder, etc. that are good for both your body and the earth that are not necessarily cheap to purchase. 


It was definitely an experience but were not completely sure we'll be coming back, the ice cream was good but probably still not worth that high price tag.

-Meg




Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Dinner Time

For dinner tonight, Meg and I wanted to try some new recipes out. We made a tasty and easy-to-make recipe for veggie fried rice using the ingredient list from a rice and veggie burger from the book,  "How it All Vegan" by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Bernard. Meg really enjoyed this recipe, however, since I'm not that into garlic, I decided to make something different. Using a hummus recipe from  Alicia Silverstone's cookbook, "The Kind Diet", I made a hummus and veggie wrap on an Ezekiel tortilla. We also made some great sweet potato fries! 
Veggie Fried Rice:
2 cups cooked organic brown rice
1 medium carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 medium stalk of celery, diced
1/4 cup zucchini 
1 clove of garlic 
1 Tbsp of tahini 
1 tsp of whole wheat flour 
1 Tbsp of olive oil 
Directions: saute the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil for five minutes then add the rest of the ingredients to the skillet until slightly browned. 





































Cauliflower Hummus Wrap: 
3 TBSP of favorite hummus recipe 
1/4 of sliced cauliflower
1 medium carrot sliced
1/2 red bell pepper sliced 
a few slices of purple cabbage 
Directions: Fill the toasted ezekiel wrap with all of the ingredients then roll it all up!



Sweet Potato Fries: 
5 sweet potatoes, sliced into wedges
Directions: season wedges with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper
-Callie!

Sushi day!

Meg here! 
After our kale smoothies, we made SUSHI for lunch! But first, we made pan-fried mochi. We tried the savory flavor this time and decided we would put the mochi in our sushi rolls! We also grated daikon to have on the side of our meal. You will find grated daikon at sushi restaurants on the side of your tempura dish. It's extremely good for digestion and something to definitely try! 




















Callie here! 
After our interesting mochi-nori rolls, we proceeded to make some delicious and aesthetically-pleasing nori rolls filled with organic brown rice, sliced up carrots, red bell peppers, celery, extra-firm tofu, umeboshi plum, and almond "cheese". We rolled them up in roasted sheets of nori (unsalted) and the final result looked like this: 

Yoga and Shakes! What more could a vegan ask for?

This morning Meg and I (along with two of our friends...yes, we don't just eat vegan food we also have a social life) went to a "Yoga Rocks" class at Yoga Shelter. It was a rough workout but we felt so centered and great by the end of it. After yoga, Meg and I went to Whole Foods to stock up on a weeks worth of supplies. When we got back to my house we made a delicious sweet kale smoothie using my new vita-mix blender! It was so delicious!

Recipe for Sweet Kale Smoothie:
One handful of chopped, organic kale
one frozen banana
1 cup of almond milk (unsweetened) 
2 organic medjool dates


VOILA! ENJOY
-Callie! 

Another Oatmeal Cookie!

You really can't go wrong with all of the amazing vegan chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipes out there. I picked another one from vegweb.com and made them with my friends, Aliza and Georgia. They're easy, fun to make, and delicious!


-Meg

Monday, May 16, 2011

Vegan in Boston!

Hello everyone! I'm currently in a hotel room overlooking Newbury street in Boston. I have discovered over the last three days that it is fairly hard to be vegan in Boston. I am here because my older sister is graduating fro Emerson college and luckily she has some cool vegan friends who take me to the BEST restaurant. I'm blogging from my mom's iPad so I can't post all of my food/restaurant pictures until I get home...but I will! This restaurant was called "Life Alive". All of the food on the menu was completely unprocessed, natural and whole! I enjoyed the "Goddes Bowl" which was filled with brown rice, kale, beets, carrots, tofu, and broccoli topped with an incredible Nama shoyu sauce and tamari almonds. This was the best meal I've had in a LONG time! I also got a wonderful banana/date shake which was only made with bananas, dates, and almond milk. If you're in the Boston area I highly recommend going to Life Alive. The restaurant was covered in meaningful and holistic quotes, flyers promoting documentaries and concerts, interesting artwork and books about phycology and diffent health food movements. There were even quotes in the bathroom that made me feel healthy and happy.

Pictures to come soon...and also a post about my epiphany regarding being vegan without a kitchen!
-Callie!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Crispy Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Treats


 I was browsing Alicia's book after making my mochi snack and decided I wanted to make the Crispy Peanut Butter Treats with Chocolate Chips. Desserts are always fun and everyone appreciates them! These are the healthiest kind of rice crispy treats you'll find and they were super easy to make!
All you need is 
-brown rice crisps cereal
-brown rice syrup
-fine sea salt
-peanut butter or almond butter (unsalted is the best)
-vegan chocolate chips (I purchased the grain-sweetened ones)

There is no baking involved and they are SO good. Definitely give these a try if you want a really good, sweet dessert.

-Meg


Pan-Fried Mochi

Callie and I both love Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. I read it cover to cover (including all the amazing recipes) in two days. It's so informative and really shows how a vegan lifestyle is a great way to go. She mentions mochi a lot, so I thought I would make the pan-fried mochi!
There are either sweet or savory versions, I chose to make the sweet version
Ingredients
-sesame or olive oil
-unflavored mochi cut into 1"-2" pieces
-shoyu (unprocessed soy sauce)
-brown rice syrup (you can also use maple syrup)

All you do is pan fry them for 4 minutes on each side and they morph into gooey, yummy goodness

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Clear up acne by getting rid of dairy!

My mom just sent me this article and I thought if anyone was interested on an alternative way to get great, clear skin, read this and maybe give it a go! I've been completely dairy-free for the last two weeks and I've been told by a few people that my skin has been glowing! I think we're on to something...

http://www.stylelist.com/2011/05/13/acne-treatment/?a_dgi


-Meg

Friday, May 13, 2011

Dinner for four

Callie and I decided to make a dinner last night. We invited our good friend, Georgia Tollin, and my mom, Wendy, to help us enjoy our meal. We made agave glazed tofu, steamed vegetables, tahini sauce, and a edamame/corn/lima bean mix. It was fun starting from scratch and making all these healthy foods together. We sat around the dining room table and had a lovely meal.


-Meg


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

First yoga, then protein shakes. Now that's what I call a solid start to a beautiful day.

Hello everybody! 


Yesterday, Meg and I began our day at 9:45 (early for Meg) by taking a great yoga class called "XFlowsion" at my yoga studio, "Yoga Shelter". This yoga class was not traditional in any sense, it was partially kickboxing and partially yoga. When Meg and I got back to my house we were really hungry so we decided to experiment with two different kinds of protein shakes. Below are the recipes for them and some pictures. 


Green "Vega" Protein Shake:
Ingredients:
1 frozen banana
1 scoop (2 if you would like) of Vega Original Flavor Protein Powder (available at most health food stores such as Whole Foods or you can order it online from the following website: http://myvega.com/)
           -The Vega brand also makes other protein powder flavors such as berry, chocolate, and vanilla          
chai
1 cup of ice cubes 
Unsweetened almond milk (start with one cup then add more as needed) 


-Blend all of the ingredients in a blender and enjoy! 

Banana-Date Shake (very sweet) 
Ingredients: 
4 pitted medjool dates
1/2 cup of raw whole cashews
1 frozen banana (freezing the banana gives the smoothie a more creamy and satisfying texture) 
Unsweetened almond milk (start with 3/4 cup then add as needed) 


-Blend all ingredients and then consume your delicious creation






-Callie






Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Oatmeal Earth Bars


While Callie and I were lounging outside enjoying the sun, we were flipping through our numerous cookbooks and both decided we keep making all these amazing vegan sweets! We need to make something that isn't a cookie or a cake! We landed on the Oatmeal Earth Bars from "The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes." We used the recipe as a guide line but added all sorts of healthy ingrediants to make it our own and fully get the nutritional benefit out of it! We added super-foods like goji berries (a new favorite of mine, yum!), unsweetened coconut flakes, cooked steel cut oats, walnuts, and cocoa nibs.



.
Don't let the picture fool you, they make a perfect snack for anytime you want a healthy, hearty, and nutritious snack! 

-Meg 

Monday, May 9, 2011

Coconut-Vanilla Cupcake

A few days ago, at the beginning of our vegan adventure Meg and I happened upon a delicious vanilla cupcake recipe (vegan of course!). We referred to our "BabyCakes" cookbook (an incredible vegan/gluten-free bakery in Los Angeles and New York) for the vanilla frosting recipe. The original cupcake recipe (attached below) called for vegetable oil, however, we substituted it with coconut oil which made the cupcakes dense, rich and delicious with a hint of coconut. 






-Callie


Vanilla Cupcake Recipe: 
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=27258.0 

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6658.0

Another cookie recipe! I picked these because I love oatmeal and I also had all of the ingredients in my house (there were no obscure ingredients that I couldn't pronounce), so I thought why not give it a try!
They turned out well!
I also always have extra cookie dough that I find myself either just eating (which is ok with vegan recipes because there are no yucky eggs or risk of salmonella!) so this time i took the rest of the cookie dough I didn't bake, flattened it out and put it in the freezer! Now we have TWO kinds of cookies.

Put those cookies between Purely Decadent Turtle Trails soy ice cream and I don't think there could be anything better..

Tofu Bell Pepper Scramble

For lunch today, I went to one of my favorite blogs, Veganstoner.com and chose one of their easy, yummy recipes. I landed on the Tofu Bell Pepper Scramble.

firm tofu (chopped)
bell peppers (chopped)
nutritional yeast
garlic powder
handful of chopped kale
tortilla chips
chili sauce

The full recipe is on Veganstoner.com, I added the kale and garlic powder and forgo the avocado. 
The entire process took about 20 minutes and it was SO good!
A Note on Nutritional Yeast : I've read so many vegan recipes that involved nutritional yeast, I had no idea what it was or what its purpose was. If you questioned the same thing, HERE is the info I learned:

-Yellow in color with a nutty cheese flavor
-it is an inactive yeast that is favored by vegans because of its similarity to cheese
-has vitamin B12 (vegans need to make sure they get B12 which is regularly found in meat)
-don't get brewer's yeast-it looks similar but it is not the same
-add it to hot popcorn, garlic bread, a stir fry, or pasta sauce

you can get it a little of it at the 'help yourself' part of whole foods. This is definitely a new item I will be adding to my diet!

Soy-Free, Dairy-Free, ANIMAL-FREE, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from Heaven! Also, a rant about processed foods and Henry D. Thoreau

It is currently 9:36 am on a Sunday morning and I just started my day with a fruit smoothie and piece of Ezekiel bread with almond butter! Yesterday, I was craving some sort of dessert that I wouldn't need to feel guilty about when I remembered a recipe for gluten free/vegan chocolate chip cookies. I found this recipe a few weeks ago on one of my favorite blogs: www.sketch-freeveganeating.blogspot.com. The authors of this blog (Jennifer and Jaclyn) never include any processed sugar or processed food in general (such as tofu) in their recipes, which I absolutely love. One of the biggest problems I have found when it comes to being vegan is that it is WAY too easy to be an unhealthy vegan if you are not careful. Just remember, just because the package says its vegan, DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN THAT IT'S HEALTHY! I have met many a vegan who simply live off of white pasta, beans, fake cheese, processed tofu, various meat substitutes, and sugar-filled "vegan" cookies and soy ice cream. There will NEVER be any processed food in my recipes except for the occasional tofu! Everything in moderation is perfectly acceptable, however filling your body with unnatural foods will simply make you feel drowsy and emotionally/physically unstable.
In my favorite book, "Walden Pond, the author, Henry D. Thoreau, discusses the reality that our Earth provides us with everything we need...INCLUDING FOOD. Let us help both our bodies and our planet by consuming the food that we are meant to be eating. The truth is, the more you tamper with a vegetable or piece of fruit by cooking it, or processing it in any way, you are getting farther and farther from its natural state of nutrition. 
Anyway, here are some "before" and "after" photos of these DELICIOUS vegan/gluten free chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday. I have posted the link to find the recipe below. 

http://sketch-freeveganeating.blogspot.com/2010/08/gluten-free-and-vegan-chocolate-chip.html