Great Video

Awesome cook books!

If you are a Vegan, Vegetarian, or not, you should buy each of these cook books.  Appetite for Reduction is a Vegan cookbook that focuses on low-cal, low-fat recipes.  Good stuff.  Easy to follow instructions and tasty food that you will enjoy.

Color Me Vegan (anything by Colleen Patrick Goudreau) is an excellent recipe book.  What is so cool about it is that it takes the color of vegetables and explains why color is significant and how we can achieve nutritional balance by having a colorful plate!

The Happy Herbivore cookbook is new and easily the easiest cookbook to follow.  I have found no recipe with more than 8 steps. The ingredients are pretty common (I can find most at my local Wal Mart, THAT'S how common!) and like the other two, the food is great.

Not a great cook?  Me neither. I'm a southern guy who until last year only knew how to cook meat and potatoes.  If I can make the recipes in these excellent books, then YOU can!!  

(I linked each title to its amazon.com page for your purchasing convenience!)

Ok, so as a bonus, I also strongly recommend the first Vegan cookbook I ever owned, given to me by a dear friend.  The Vegan Table.

The Great Vitamix Experiment: SOUP!

Ok, so I've heard from people about how great soups can be right out of the Vitamix, about how the blender is so powerful that it actually cooks/heats the food if you let it run long enough (more on that when I talk about my hummus, but not now, soon, people, soon!).  So, I had a butternut squash just begging to be eaten.  I went to the Vitamix website and downloaded this recipe for apple butternut squash soup. 

Ok, the hardest part of this recipe is cutting the squash.  Those things are tough.  What a workout.  After steaming the squash and throwing a few ingredients (and I DO mean few, this is simple stuff, even for me), I mixed it up in the Vitamix and produced some pretty good tasting soup.  From squash cuttin' to soup eatin', I'd say this meal took 25-30 minutes.  But the vast majority is prepping and steaming the squash.  Vitamix time was about 5 minutes.

The only thing I'd change about the recipe is the apple.  It added a little too much sweet to the squash.  So to cut the sweet i added some salt and a bit of pepper.  I ate two bowls and it came right out of the Vitamix piping hot.

When you look at this pic, what I'd like you to notice is how smooth this soup looks.  Before going into the Vitamix, it was a collection of diced squash, a 1/4 onion, an apple and various spices and seasonings.  Coming out it was as smooth as ever.  Nice.

Vitamix Experiment: SORBET!!!!

Ok, so sorbet was not the first thing I made in the Vitamix.  I made hummus.  But that is another story.  More on that in a few days

Megan had mentioned how easy it was to make sorbet in the Vitamix in a matter of minutes and only using frozen fruit and maybe a little sweetener.  The blender comes with a great cook book, so between Megan's help and the cookbook, I was well prepped.  The first sorbet I made was orange, which I ate so fast I forgot to take a picture.  Two fresh oranges, some ice and a little sweetener and a minute or so in the Vitamix, and I had orange sorbet. I loved it.  Not only the ease of preparation, but the taste was amazing.  i loved it, but the true taste for any food is kids.  My kids couldn't get enough. Which kinda made me mad.  I mean, I wanted it all!  Of course, I want them eating fruit and veggies more.  But shouldn't they get their own Vitamix and make it for themselves?  Am I being unreasonable???  ;)

Next up was Strawberry.  Frozen strawberries, some Splenda, a little ice and a touch of water gave me this

Good stuff.
 
So next up was a more exotic fruit.  I love mangoes, so I picked up a bag of frozen mango chunks and made Mango sorbet.  because Mango is such a sugary and sweet fruit, I only needed a little water.  The results were fabulous.  Of course, in the interest of writing a fair review I had to offer some to my family. My kids aren't mango fans, but the liked it.  This time it was my wife taking more than I wanted to share!

I guess what strikes me about this blender are 2 things.  First, the simplicity of ingredients amazes me.  ice, water, fruit. Really?? Is it that simple to make sweet and great tasting stuff like sorbet?  Apparently so.  Second, the speed in which this thing produces the food is incredible. In all of these examples, it took less than 90 seconds to prepare the sorbet.  That blows me away.  So, I could in a matter of mere moments, produce some great tasting, healthy desserts.

The Great Vitamix Experiment

A few weeks ago, on a whim, really, I emailed the people at Vitamix with a crazy proposal.  Send me a Vitamix and I'll spend a few weeks making al sorts of natural and whole food-type stuff and compare it to the old blender I have been using.  I've been fascinated with the Vitamix ever since my friend Megan (Run Vegan Run, www.veganrunningmom.com) got one and has raved about it ever since.  I was somewhat dubious.  How could the Vitamix be THAT different from a basic blender.  I mean, was it formed from the dust of unicorn horns?  What's the big deal, I asked?

Well, much to my utter shock, Vitamix said, "OK."  I was a bit taken aback.  This is a reputable company and I'm a bald Vegan in Alabama.  That they took a chance on me is flattering.  I never thought they'd say yes, so I am now working on my plan to test this thing out and see what exactly is the big deal. So, they sent me one and I plan to, over the next several weeks, make stuff I typically made in my old blender.

  So, BIG thank you to Vitamix for taking a chance on a modest blogger like me.  AND full disclosure, I was given this blender for no charge.  But I promise to be objective in my review.  OK, here we go!  Let the taste testing begin!

Absent

Sorry I have been absent. As a college department head this has been a busy month for me.  School started back and I had to write our unit's annual report.  That's done.  I have tons of pics of my creations using nothing but our local no-too-friendly-for-vegans grocery stores.

Hang tight.  Back soon with a flurry of posts!

My Coming Out Party, well, kinda

Headed to Panama City Beach for the fourth. I'm meeting my wife and kids, who've been there for a few days already. I've been sitting the dog and unable to leave too early since I have only limited vacation hours.  This is my coming out party in some ways. I'll be around 14 other people in my wife's side of the family all of whom are omnivores.  I'll be the "Vegan in the room." I'm excited.  I'm proud of not only what Veganism has done for me and to me, but what I stand for now.  So, as a rookie Vegan, I've studied my info a bit.  You know, the commonly asked questions: "Where do you get your protein?"  "What about calcium?"  "Is b-12 a problem?"

I've been really pleased with the resources at "Vegan Coach" and of course have relied heavily on my dear friend Megan.  I'm ready. I got my "Joyful Vegan" t-shirt, and I'm bringing my food with me.  I'll let ya know how it goes!