I made these for my boss’ birthday last week and they were a hit! They’re easy to make and super delicious, especially if you keep them in the fridge and serve them cold.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C oil
• 1/2 C soymilk
• 1/4 C cocoa powder
• 2 C sugar ( I used cane sugar)
• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 3 C oatmeal

Directions:
Mix first 4 ingredients well in pot. Place over low heat setting on stove. Once it begins to boil, let boil for at least 3 minutes. Stir in peanut butter until melted completely. Add oatmeal, stirring quickly.

With 2 spoons, scoop dough out. Place dough balls on aluminum foil surface to dry.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. Preparation time, 10 min. Cooking time, 10 min.

Recipe (slightly altered) from vegweb.com.

It’s been a looong time since I had real ham. I don’t recall liking it all that much. But we bought Pure Vegetarian Sliced Baked Ham and it’s really good! I get my Pure Vegetarian products at Rainbow Foods. It comes in the freezer section, so you need to let it thaw for a bit before you use it. They recommend heating it in a pan, oven, or microwave. But I threw it on my George Foreman for a few minutes and it tasted delightful!

If you don’t own a George Foreman grill or something similar, I highly recommend getting one. We use ours often. Our apartment is such that we cannot own a real grill, so this is what we use. And having a way to grill indoors is great during winter.

Silk now has a version of almond milk called Pure Almond, which I purchased this past week. I like that Silk is branching out to other milk types, but I think they’re not quite there yet with the almond milk. It’s very thick, almost glue-like and isn’t very refreshing. It glues up my cereal and coffee.

I do like almond milk in general, have tried several brands, and have even made my own in the past, but this almond milk just isn’t cutting it for me. I purchased the vanilla version and am not a huge fan of the taste. Maybe the original flavor is better.

Has anyone else tried it?

I don’t make sun tea very often. I forgot how great it is. And it gives me an excuse to use my totally awesome vintage “Solar Tea” jar. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Place in warm sunny place for 2 to 5 hours. Here I used green tea. I’m gonna try Lipton tea next. That’s the kind I had growing up. Note: sun tea must me made properly in order to avoid bacterial growth. See how here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Sun-Tea

…and here’s the more classic Lipton sun tea brewing. A beautiful, dark amber. And it’ll get substantially darker before it’s done. Yum!

I thought my eating habits would get worse once I got back to school, but the hubs and I are trying to devote time each evening to cook a nice meal together. This past weekend I visited my dear friends Matt and Darcie in Milwaukee and they gave me some amazing, fresh veggies from their huge vegetable garden, including some gigantic zuccini. Zuccini is super delicious when grilled with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. When grilling, char the outside so it’s nice and crisp and the inside is nice and soft. SOOO GOOD!! And so easy to make.

Additionally, I went to the farmer’s market this week, so we’ve got fresh produce up the wazoo. Hoorayum! My friend, Darcie is allergic to gluten, and makes the most delicious gluten-free dishes. I thought it would be a fun challenge to create some gluten-free meals myself. Attempting gluten-free meals is not easy, in general. It’s amazing how many store bought items have gluten in them that I never would have suspected. But when you have fresh produce, it’s much easier.

So, two nights ago I made spaghetti squash with home made, garden fresh marinara, topped with gluten-free vegan chicken patties by Pure Vegetarian.

And last night I made sauteed red kale, Bobby Flay style.

Recipe from FoodNetwork.com: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sauteed-kale-recipe/index.html.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

Now, I don’t think I’m necessarily allergic to gluten, but I do feel better when I eat delicious gluten-free food. Gluten means “glue” in Latin. Gluten is generally used as a binding agent. My theory is that, like high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, people are just getting way too much of this stuff and it is causing a whole host of health problems. But there is still a lot that remains unknown about gluten. So, again, moderation seems to be key here (unless you’re allergic, then just avoid it altogether, obviously). Thankfully, gluten-free items are becoming easier to identify in stores. Some stores even have gluten-free sections. So do yourself a favor and make gluten-free meals every once in a while. See how it makes you feel

I’ve seen some disturbing footage lately, and I wanted to weigh in. The first video was of a woman in England tossing a cat into a garbage can, or “wheelie bin” as the Brits call it. The second was a girl tossing newborn puppies into a river in Germany. These obviously upsetting videos caused a rapid uproar as they spread throughout the internet at lightning speed. (click on images to read the articles)

This can have positive and negative consequences, of course. On the positive side, both of these people have been identified and their cases are being examined. On the negative side, video viewers can be a very passionate bunch. Hopefully the death threats don’t go beyond just threats. The woman claimed she thought it was a funny joke and that she was just playing with the cat, assuming it would be able to wriggle out of the bin. And the girl says her grandmother told her to get rid of the puppies because they were very ill. She figured throwing them in a raging river would be a quick death. So, it is possible they were not trying to simply be horrible human beings. On the other hand, perhaps the stories are a cover. Or maybe these two are not in good mental health. Whatever the case, had the videos not been posted on the internet, these two may have never been caught. And they may have never seen the error in their ways. But I guarantee they’ve had to think long and hard about what they’ve done, now that they’re under such scrutiny.

It’s nice to know the public cares about animal abuse. Even if most of them don’t pick up on the irony of sending death threats to animal abusers, and then eating a burger and drinking milk, both of which come from factory farms where the animals are probably treated even worse than these poor, defenseless creatures.

But the point of this post is to say that, when it comes to capturing animal abusers, the internet is a wonderful tool. It’s hard to believe the “internet explosion” was only about 15 years ago. Can you imagine life without it now? What a different world it would be…

I was making a salad the other night and realized that all of my salad dressings were expired. It’s one of those items I rarely think to check the date on because store-bought dressings can last quite a while. Time to go dressing shopping!

Now, I know buying items from a company that specializes in cheese and meat is probably a faux-pas, but think of it this way: you’re supporting their vegan food, not the other stuff. Just like we do when we buy soymilk from companies that also sell dairy milk. We are increasing the demand for their soymilk and decreasing the demand for dairy milk. It helps companies evolve to meet the needs of the customers. Though, I should also point out that companies that make purely vegan items should be supported the most by us vegans. So, it’s a tricky issue.

Anyway, I bought Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame Reduced Fat Dressing. And it is awesome!! I could take a big pile of lettuce, pour this on it, and be happy. It’s also good with cooked veggies. It does contain high fructose corn syrup, which is a bummer. And “natural flavor” is always risky.

Ingredients: WATER, SOY SAUCE (WATER, WHEAT, SOYBEANS, SALT), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, SUGAR, SOYBEAN OIL, TOASTED SESAME SEEDS, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF GINGER, GARLIC, CARAMEL COLOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, XANTHAN GUM, GARLIC JUICE, SALT, PROPYLENE GLYCOL ALGINATE, POLYSORBATE 60, NATURAL FLAVOR, VINEGAR, SPICE, VITAMIN E. CONTAINS: SOY, WHEAT, SESAME SEED.

I haven’t fallen this hard for a dressing since I got the recipe for a restaurant’s homemade dressing and made it vegan. MMMMmmm. I haven’t made that one in a long time. It’s so good, too. This Toasted Sesame dressing is no doubt lower in calories and fat. So you can swap between the wholesome homemade dressing for the Light store bought, but delicious dressing, depending on your dietary preferences.

Buy it here! Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame Reduced Fat Dresssing, 16-Ounce Plastic Bottles (Pack of 6)

Annie’s Naturals also makes a Toasted Sesame dressing. I haven’t tried it, but it’s probably pretty yummy. Chilmark Foods also makes a version, as does Soy Vay.

And if you prefer to make your own Toasted Sesame Dressing, here’s a recipe I found, which is “a reverse engineered Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing, souped up to be so much more healthy because it uses healthy oil, real seeds and real garlic.”

Katie’s Asian Toasted Sesame Salad Dressing

2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2-3 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil (optional) plus extra virgin olive oil to make 1/2 cup
2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted*
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp ginger

1. Whisk apple cider vinegar, olive oil, optional sesame oil and soy sauce.
2. Whiz the garlic and toasted sesame seeds in a mini-food processor until garlic is in small pieces.
3. Combine and enjoy!

*To toast sesame seeds, put them on a dry cookie sheet in the toaster oven and toast on light once or twice until lightly browned and aromatic.  No toaster oven?  You could certainly use a regular oven on low heat – just watch the closely every few minutes to make sure they don’t burn.  I’m thinking you could also put them in a hot, dry pan and stir constantly until browned, but I haven’t tried that myself.

Store in the fridge (I think?) and try to remember to take it out a half hour before dinner, because the olive oil will solidify when cold. Recipe from Kitchen Stewardship. Full post here.

Basically, there are many options out there. And I recommend you try some because toasted sesame dressing is tops.