Vegan Gifts for Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season sharing ideas, catch-up conversations, fun and most of all good eats with family and friends. Being a vegan, I must admit I find the holiday eating part of this stressful at times. On the one hand, I see it as an opportunity to share some tasty vegan choices with others who don't really think of making changes to the menu especially during the holidays. 
 However, even though I offer various vegan delights, I find that most of them don't want to sample them because the more traditional foods are still available. The committed carnivores are more likely to try items like the stuffing I make with Earth Balance instead of butter and in addition to the bread bits, celery, onions, vegetable broth and seasoning my  tasty small bits of apple or sometimes the vegan green bean casserole. 
So even though there are vegan alternatives for me, it still feels like we are eating separate meals, not a true integration. Also, the sights and smells of the turkey prep and serving have become quite repugnant to me and there is occasional kidding about 'vegans' and it just makes me realize that my whole life and patterns of thinking about what I eat have changed in a way that separate me from the committed carnivores among my family and friends. 
Despite all this, I make getting together with those close to me a priority and just continue to set an example of someone who practices what they believe regarding food and will share information with anyone who has sincere curiosity about my choices. And I keep smiling, confidently happy with the vegan path and its many positive impacts especially on animal abuse, human health, and the environment.

 Having said all this, the best part is that I received 3 fantastic vegan cookbooks for Christmas. The first one is "Chloe's Kitchen" by Chloe Coscarelli. My last post told about my visit to Manhattan and her restaurant near Greenwich Village for a great lunch. Many of the recipes for items on her menu are in this book. I have tried some of them already like the Peanutty Perfection Noodles, Thyme for Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Orange You Glad I Made Crispy Tofu. They are all delicious and very easy to make. Seeing Chloe's smile on the cover and her enthusiasm for vegan cooking represent such a great addition to the vegan food scene

The other 2 I received were both written by Miyoko Schinner and both such a welcome addition to my vegan collection. As a matter of fact, I also received a gift certificate from my daughter to order some nut cheeses from Miyoko's kitchen in California and I am expecting a delivery today. "The Homemade Vegan Pantry - the Art of Making Your Own Staples" is fantastic. I have been trying to eat more 'whole foods' rather than processed vegan foods and this book offers so many ways to create tasty recipes at home. Some of the chapters are 'condiments' like mayo, mustard, dressings; 'dairy-and egg-free goodness' like cashew cream, vegan 'cheeses'; 'the meat of the argument' like real tofu, tempeh and veggie dogs. Can't wait to dive into this. 
The other Miyoko Schinner cookbook is, "Artisan Vegan Cheese from Every Day to Gourmet". I think one of the hardest foods to give up when I became a vegan was cheese - it's melty, sometimes tangy or smelly goodness a comfort food for sure. Miyoko worked to try to duplicate all this with vegan ingredients mostly nuts by understanding the importance of aging and culturing rather than additives. I am definitely motivated to try some of her techniques and interesting recipes. Some that look good to me are Risotto Fritters with roasted red bell pepper sauce, Easy Cheesy Sauce and the real cultured aged cheeses that use rejuvelac, a fermented beverage made from whole grains.

Meatless Monday Official In Onondaga County, NY

Need I say any more! This document signed by the Onondaga County Executive, Joanie Mahoney,  in NYS was signed on January 11, 2016. I applaud her and the County in making a commitment to citizen health, animal and environmental protection despite many pressures to suppress the important information delineated in this document. It may seem like a small thing, but, in my opinion, it signifies a small but bold step forward to address these issues. Meatless Monday could migrate into Meatless Tuesday or Vegan before 6 or even the accelerated adoption of a plant based diet. A positive slippery slope????

Manhattan Vegan Discovery - by Chloe

"The question is not, "Can they reason? nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?" 

                Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation 

On December 12, I went to Manhattan to see NYC in all of its Christmas finery, visit the Highline and have lunch at the new vegan restaurant ‘by Chloe.’ owned by Chloe Cascarelli who made history by winning an episode of cupcake wars with her vegan cupcakes. Of course, Rockefeller Center was festive with lights and ice skaters and Times Square was full of the teeming masses hoping to get their photos taken with dueling statues of liberty. (not sure how they get that green stuff off their face) The views from the Highline were inspiring and an oasis from the crowded streets below despite seeing only the remains of the summer plantings and navigating slowly along with many fellow travelers on the winding path.

Since this is a vegan blog, I would like to concentrate on my experience with ‘by Chloe’. First of all, let me say that I am always excited when a new vegan restaurant is born. Since this is in Manhattan, there are already many to choose from, but exciting nonetheless. Can you ever have too many?

‘by Chloe.’ is located near Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and all the details can be found at www.bychefchloe.com. It isn’t very large and has room for about 30 diners inside and 8 or so at tables outside. The website states that the food is 100% vegan, plant-based and kosher meaning no meat, dairy nor eggs. It also means no saturated animal fats, cholesterol, preservatives or artificial flavors. The menu has salads, ‘burgers’ and sandwiches, fries and sides and pasta.

The day I and my companions were there at lunchtime it was very crowded but the people who prepare and deliver the food were very efficient and the line moved fast. It was so hard deciding which delicious sounding item to order. Of course, we saved time by not having to second guess the ingredients to find out which we could eat…….. we could eat them ALL!!!!

I decided to order the pesto meatball sub (meatballs made of Portobello mushrooms and veggies) full of meatballs, marinara, sweet peppers, basil pesto, cashew mozzarella, almond parm and a sub roll. 

 

My fellow diners ordered other items so we could sample more than 1. One ordered the guac burger made from black bean-quinoa-sweet potato patty, corn salsa, onion, guac, tortilla strips, chipotle aioli and whole grain bun.

 

 

 

 

 

The other ordered the mac N’cheese – sweet potato-cashew cheese sauce, shitake bacon and almond parm and side dishes of sweet and white potato fries. I tried everything and it was all so fresh and delicious. Everyone agreed.

So my final words would be that I recommend this eatery and hope that this review inspires some of you to try vegan food even if it’s just one day or one meal a week. Every time a vegan meal is eaten, you can feel good about not eating the product of some form of animal abuse, preserving the environment and improving your health. You just may find out that eating this way can be delicious and not some sort of unpleasant sacrifice. J