Food Revolution Virtual Summit

John Robbins was one of the first inspirational figures in my young adult life. His book Diet for a New Americahelped shape me into a young vegetarian and environmental activist, and as I've continued on through my life, his light has continued to shine and point me towards a life of greater compassion and kindness. Most recently, his books Healthy at 100and The New Good Life, have helped me to believe that it is possible to live a life of simplicity, purpose, health, and joy well into your later years.

So I was excited to hear about the free Food Revolution Summit happening this month, where John Robbins will be personally interviewing 21 people who are "leaders in movements for healthy, sustainable, humane and delicious food". The guests include a bunch of names I'm sure you'll recognize if you're part of the vegan/plant-based movement: Dr. Joel Fuhrman (one of my heroes interviewing another one of my heroes, I can't wait!), Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Dean Ornish, Morgan Spurlock, Gene Baur, Rory Freedman, and more.

From April 28-May 6 there will be three interviews broadcast daily, and you can listen for free. You can get more info on the summit speakers and register at foodrevolution.org.

Here's some more info from their website:

The Summit offers training, inspiration and practical know-how from modern day heroes of health and sustainability. Participants are promised answers to burning questions, tools for dealing with family and peers, and practically useful insights, ideas, motivation and tips, all from the comfort and convenience of your phone and computer.

The summit will include focus on the latest thinking on preventing and reversing heart disease, cancer and diabetes; the truth about GMOs, soy, raw foods, and grass-fed beef; the social, ethical and environmental impact of what you eat; and how to inspire your family to join you in making healthy choices.

I'm going to go register!

Summer Refrigerator

Yes, I'm still alive! Not blogging, but working, single parenting, dating, selling my house, and now moving to a new house. If life gets any busier I'm going to have to clone myself.

Today I cleaned out my refrigerator and did a grocery store run (I was out of town this weekend and missed the farmer's market). It's looking so pretty, kid-friendly, and well-stocked I thought I would take a picture.

Apples, watermelon slices and veggie sticks (jicama, baby carrots, and celery) are ready to grab and snack on, along with coconut yogurts, applesauce cups, and dried apricots. My son is a big fan of the new So Delicious Coconut Milk; it's all he drinks at home nowadays. The chocolate soymilk boxes are for his morning snack at summer school.

A big bowl of salad is behind the veggie sticks, and right now I'm cooking brown rice and edamame to add to this easy-grab snack fridge.

I'm a Twit

As you can see from the new sidebar, I am now on Twitter (and it's not because of Oprah, it was sheer peer pressure from my friends who have been extolling the virtues of Twitter until I just had to try it for myself). Henceforth! I will be twitting away about all manner of mundanity if you care to tag along.

Some readers here have expressed an interest in knowing more about my nutrient-dense eating plan, so I will use Twitter to share a bit about what I'm eating now and then and perhaps give people more glimpses of an Eat To Live-style diet. Of course, I'll also share some of the other things I do during the day ... which would be mostly "doing laundry", but I'll try to spice it up a bit.

As if figuring out that bit of new technology were not enough, I have also created a Facebook page for Vegan Lunch Box. You can become a fan there, write or post pictures on my wall, or even visit my personal Facebook page where I've added a folder of my own favorite pics from Vegan Lunch Box through the years.

Foodscapes

Oh my gosh, check out these Foodscape Posters, so perfect for a school cafeteria or homeschool classroom setting:

Banana porpoises!

Cauliflower sheep!

A kiwi monkey!

What a great way to encourage kids (and us big kids!) to eat fruits and vegetables. Along with the posters they also sell a whole Foodscapes line with things like temporary tattoos and stickers ("Veggies can't be BEET!" hee). I think these would be so fun offered at information tables or at a nutrition class, or even tucked into a lunch box.

(thanks to Linda Marks for telling me about Foodscapes!)

Nutrition for Kids

The Feb. 26 archived episode of the PCRM webcast FoodforLife is called "Getting a Head Start: Nutrition for Kids". It's not the smoothest webcast I've ever seen, but the opening play written and performed by school students is very cute. "Nutrition! Nutrition! Nutrition!"

Tonight I made the Lentil Artichoke Stew they demonstrated in the webcast, and it was seriously Eat To Live-friendly and YUMMY! Using fire-roasted tomatoes really does make a difference, although I used two 14.5-ounce cans instead of the two 24-ounce cans the recipe calls for and thought that was plenty of tomatoes.

Acne

It must be true. Shmoo must really be hitting his preteens, because now he has zits. Last night he pointed to the big red blotches on his chin and asked me, "What is this?" My little baby!! Next thing you know he'll be going on dates and asking to borrow the car...

I've dealt with acne my entire adult life (they all told me I'd grow out of it, the liars). And although acne has been linked to milk and dairy products in several studies, going vegan did not clear up my skin at all.

Of course, although it didn't contain dairy, my early vegan diet did include daily servings of things like soda, chips, candy, and french fries.

When I learned about nutrient-density and started following Eat To Live, things changed. I cleared sugar, white flour, and oil out of my diet and added more fruits and vegetables, and within two to three weeks my acne had disappeared. At first I didn't know what to make of it. Each morning I would stare intently into the bathroom mirror, ready to do battle with my face, and would find that I had nothing to fight. I would stand back and gape at myself. No zits!

Of course, I'll always have acne scars and pores you can see across the room (along with wrinkles now, how lovely), but for the first time in my adult life I have clear skin. The nasty bumps return and flare up all along my chin and jawline within two to three weeks of bringing sweets back into my diet. (I wish I could say one experience of this was enough to keep me on the wagon forever, but I must admit I've fallen off a few times now, always with the same results.)

Then last week I discovered that I'm not alone. Here's the passage I read in Anticancer:

"When [Loren Cordain, PhD] was told that certain population groups whose way of life is very different from ours had no experience of acne (which is caused by an inflammation of the epidermis, among other mechanisms), he wanted to find out how this could occur...Cordain accompanied a team of dermatologists to examine the skin of 1,200 adolescents cut off from the rest of the world in the Kitavan Islands of New Guinea, and 130 Ache Indians living in isolation in Paraguay. In these two groups they found no trace whatsoever of acne. In their article in Archives of Dermatology, the researchers attributed their amazing discovery to the adolescents' nutrition. The diets of these contemporary sheltered groups resemble those of our distant ancestors: no refined sugar or white flour, thus no peaks of insulin or IGF in the blood.

"In Australia, researchers convinced Western adolescents to try a diet restricting sugar and white flour for three months. In a few weeks, their insulin and IGF levels diminished. So did their acne."

Think this information will be enough to convince shmoo to go sugar-free? I doubt it. That monkey just don't let go. But maybe when he gets interested in girls...

Why, Yes I Do!

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to comment on my last post, offering their experiences and encouragement. It’s true, raising a child is so difficult at times, especially now that we’ve hit the preteens! Thanks for all your encouraging words and for sharing your own struggles.

It’s so fascinating and affirming to hear from all of you who have also experienced problems with dairy. You know, I’ve often read all the bad news about dairy on sites like milksucks.com and notdairy.com, but I've always taken it with a grain of salt. Many people I know (including my husband) consume dairy with no apparent difficulties, and sometimes I think people with an anti-cruelty agenda will say what they have to say to convince people to go veg, even if it’s not exactly true.

But now that I’ve witnessed it in our own lives and heard from all of you, I take the dangers of dairy (at least for some) much, much more seriously than I did before.

By the way, I wanted to mention that I've also been talking with a fantastic vegan wellness coach who specializes in teaching kids about healthy eating. Gretchen says she sometimes recommends cutting dairy with soymilk, starting at half and half, to start weaning resistant children off milk.

Long Shmoo Update, with Bonus Momma Lunch

Hey, it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted a lunch! I just had to take a picture of mine this afternoon -- isn’t it beautiful? This is pretty much what I eat every afternoon: some kind of salad and steamed veggies or soup. This salad is topped with Blood Orange Vinegar, sliced oranges, and cold cooked beets. I just love all the color and freshness.

The cooked vegetables are asparagus and yellow squash. This is such a treat, the first asparagus I’ve had in months – so good! I can’t wait for May, when half my refrigerator will be devoted to our local asparagus.

Well, a lot has been happening here, some of it good, some of it bad. In the GOOD NEWS, I’ve finished writing a new cookbook! Vegan Lunch Box Around the World features menus from, well, around the world, with emphasis on nutrient-dense recipes and the healthy vegetables, salads, and fruits I like to feature in my meals (don’t worry – there are more than a few special treats thrown in as well!) Visit my flickr album to get a glimpse at the great pictures my friend Michelle took for the book (the veggie burger is my favorite). It will be available in September, so stay tuned!

In BAD NEWS, my son’s health has been failing this fall and winter. Bit of background: as I’ve mentioned before, shmoo lives in a mixed “mom loves veggies/dad loves steak” household, and although I try to present him with healthy plant-based options at all times, I’ve never dictated what the shmoo was “allowed” to eat. Although he consistently prefers veggie meats over the real thing, he’s never gotten over his passion for junk food, soda pop, and cheese. I battle with sugar addiction myself, and I know I haven’t helped at all with all the times I’ve broken down and brought home bags of cookies, taken him to Baskin-Robbins with me, or shrugged my shoulders when he wanted soda pop. Even worse, he continues to dislike a lot of the vegetables I offer, and his resistance to them seems to be getting more intense as he gets older. Many of the healthy foods he used to eat he now refuses to touch (he even turned down broccoli the last time I made it!)

Then a few months ago my husband decided to start buying raw, unpasteurized whole milk. This thick milk comes in glass jars with enormous globs of cream rising to the surface. Shmoo has been sucking this stuff down in huge glassfuls and loving it…it’s like drinking half-and-half.

This summer I was alarmed watching his weight go up, and then listening to the doctor prescribe him allergy pills. But I continued to maintain that my son was his own person and could make his own choices. I provided all the educational material I could without sounding too “geez, mom” lectury, but in my mixed household (i.e. without the agreement and support of his father) I feel like I’m only listened to so much, and that my hands are somewhat tied (i.e. I can suggest he lay off the crap, but I can’t remove it from my house).

Then in December, shmoo started coughing continuously, day and night, and was finally diagnosed with asthma. Now he carries an inhaler wherever he goes. Since then he’s also suffered two long-lasting colds that never seem to go away.

Is it the milk? I hate to talk trash about something certain people near-and-dear to me see as an ideal food, but I honestly think so. Of course, it could also be the junk food we’ve allowed (even vegan food can be unhealthy garbage!!), or the soda pop he always drinks when he’s away from home, or something else entirely.

Anyway, after nagging his wheezy little head off, I finally convinced him to lay off milk for the last three weeks or so. It’s impossible to say anything for sure just yet, but he tells me he feels a difference, and he has only needed the inhaler twice in the last week, versus several times a day before. Now if only the cold would go away…

What’s the moral, peoples? If I had to go back and do it again, you bet I would be laying down the law a heck of a lot more, enforcing instead of suggesting healthier eating, and hopefully would manage to be a better, more consistent role model for my son.

Veggie Betty

I love comics! I read a bunch of them online every day, and for the past two weeks I've been watching Betty's son try out vegetarianism:

(click on the image to see a larger, readable version)



I love the last one -- that's exactly the attitude my son has.

Depression Cooking

How's that ol' economy treating you? I thought right about now you all might find Depression Cooking with Clara inspiring. Clara is a charming 91-year-old great-grandmother who lived through the (first?) Great Depression. She demonstrates some of the meals that she and her family ate and tells stories of the times:



You might note that the cheap staples she uses in most meals -- pasta, potatoes, onions, etc. -- are vegan. In fact, except for the cheese sprinkled on at the end, this first meal is entirely vegan.

In other economic news, people are cooking at home more and packing more home-made meals to save money. Let's hear it for home cooking!

Yogurt Envy

I'm so jealous! Blog reader Kadri from Estonia read my recent soy-free vegan yogurt review and pointed out that they make Oat Yogurt in Finland! How cool is that?

Kadri writes:

"My favourite non-dairy yoghurt has to be YoSa. It's oat-based and flavoured with real fruits and berries.

"It's absolutely wonderful - their organic bluberry-banana YoSa and plum YoSa are incredlibly good as well. I'm not sure whether one can get it in USA, but if you can, give it a go. I'm sure you'll love it, too."

I'm sure I would, if only I could!

"Shmoo"...hey, I like the sound of that one!

Sorry, but you'll have to squint to read this Sunday's Sally Forth (why is Sally Forth always so darn small on Sunday?)



P.S. In case you're not sure, no, shmoo is not my son's real name. It was just a family "term of endearment" I decided to use as a web alias when I started blogging. Little did we know!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Little did I know when I planted 12 tomato vines this spring that they would eventually take over my kitchen and my life.

Saturday morning:



Saturday evening:



Ah, here's ten quarts of canned tomatoes and three quarts of Roasted Tomato Basil Soup ready for the freezer.

But look what's sitting next to them: more tomatoes! I've won the battle, but not yet the war. My next weapon of mass tomato destruction: Sneaky Momma's Tomato Sauce.

So that's what my weekend looked like. How was yours?

Speaking of Soy Sauce Fish...

It's our hero with the soy sauce fish head, Kikkoman!



Wow, he even gets the girl!

(My apologies for a few cartoon images of non-vegan food that appear in this vid. It was too good to pass up.)

Baskin-Robbins Gets Vegan-Friendly

No matter how many years go by or how many inspirational John Robbins books I read, I never get over the fact that my Inner Child believes that Baskin- Robbins is how people tell you they love you. It's sad, I know, but when I was little my Grandma and Grandpa would take me there, lifting me up so I could gaze at all the magical ice cream colors before making my choice. It felt like the biggest treat in the whole, wide world.

So imagine my dismay when the only vegan flavor my local store carried was Lime Daiquiri Ice. Rum-flavored ice was not exactly the child-friendly flavor I dreamed of sharing with the little ones.

This year, though, Baskin-Robbins has come up with two brand new vegan flavors: Tropical Ice and Strawberry Sorbet. My store carries both, and after shmoo's last softball game we all went there to celebrate. We tried both flavors; the Tropical Ice was awesome.

I know, I know, please leave your "how could you" flames in the comments section. You really should probably just stay home and teach your kids that there are sugar-free ways to show you care. But I still wanted to get the news out to those of you, like me, who don't feel like proper parents without some summertime trips to the BR.

Fruit Crumbles Cookies in a Head-To-Head Snack Time Smack Down

Check it out: new data shows that fruit now tops cookies as the most common snack for children under 6.

The article also states that kids today:

• Are less likely to consume carbonated soft drinks, ice cream, candy, cake and fruit juice as snacks than kids the same age did 20 years ago.

• Are more likely to have fruit rolls and gummy pieces, yogurt, crackers, granola bars and bottled water.

What good news for the health of the next generation! If they start out eating healthier foods like fruits and vegetables those tastes will continue into adulthood, leading to less obesity and less diet-related disease.

And to think, it all started on Sesame Street with a certain furry blue monster changing his ways. Thanks, Cookie!

Strange Timing

How odd that I just happened to pack Pringles potato chips for the very first time in my latest lunch box post. It turns out that the creator of the Pringles can just died and was buried in a Pringles can.

Although my Minis came in a bag instead of a can, I must still pause to raise an excessively salty, fatty crisp in memory of Fredric J. Baur, inventor of the Pringles can. Thank you, sir. Those cans have turned out to be quite useful. In my Wilton cake decorating class we learned that a Pringles can is the best thing for holding a pastry bag open as you fill it with frosting. They also make a nifty wall organizer, vase, windmill, or even an antenna. And I guess Mr. Baur found one final use for them himself.

So long, Mr. Baur, and thanks for all the cans!

P.S. Speaking of Pringles, have you noticed there are like 5 million flavors on the market now? Wasn't one enough?

Vice Cream, Anyone?

Lately my favorite non-dairy frozen treat is a simple frozen fruit sorbet: I push frozen bananas, pineapple, and strawberries through my Champion Juicerand out comes perfect, creamy sorbet with no added sugar.

But before I switched to sugar-free, I used to make luscious non-dairy ice creams using a Krups La Glaciere Ice Cream Maker and the book Vice Cream: Over 70 Sinfully Delicious Dairy-Free Delights.The recipes are simple and far better than any vegan ice cream I've bought at any store. The "milks" are from nuts, which give the ice cream a rich, creamy sweetness. Chocolate pecan was our favorites, but once you understand the basic proportions you can make practically any flavor you like.

In case any of you are interested, I'm selling the ice cream maker and book together as a set on ebay. I hope they go to a good vegan home, one that will use them to make many, many wonderful, non-dairy delights.

Let's Hear It For Sneaky Mommas!

After seeing my recent pea-filled St. Patty's Sandwich, Vegan Lunch Box reader Roxy shared this tip: "I like to blend peas into guacamole--it adds more nutrition to the already nutritious dip and you really can't tell the peas are in there. I use about 1/4 cup of peas to every large avocado. Yum!" Thanks, Roxy, I love it! In fact, it inspired me to make a post especially for sharing these kinds of ideas.

Sometimes it seems like the only way you can get children to eat vegetables is to slip a bit in quietly here and there. Kids might also be resistant to eating beans, or nuts, or ground flaxseed, or their daily vitamin. What is a parent to do?

As those of you who have read my book will know, I love getting sneaky! And when it comes to getting healthy foods into reluctant kids, I think a Vita-Mix is a Sneaky Momma's Best Friend. I use mine almost every day to blend vegetables into creamy soups, cooked kale into pizza sauce, even spinach into breakfast smoothies!

Of course, I don't actually lie about what is in my blended concoctions, but even when I tell my son that his favorite black bean soup is filled with onions, zucchini, and peppers, he tends to shrug and keep on eating. I guess it's "out of sight, out of mind", and what he can't see can't gross him out.

What other tips do you have for us desperate Sneaky Mommas (and Poppas)? Please share! And don't worry -- your secrets are safe with us.

Corrections

Well, it happens to all of us, doesn't it? We all make mistakes, and somehow this one got past me and all the eyes helping me look over Vegan Lunch Box before it was printed.

Last week, with the help of a sharp-eyed cook, we discovered a mistake in one of the recipes: on page 208, in the recipe for Red Rice, you should add 1 ¼ cups water, not ¼ cup. I apologize for any dry, crunchy rice that may have resulted from this inadvertent goof-up!

To celebrate this error coming to light, I have created a brand new Corrections Page on the website (Don't you wish every cookbook had one? I do!) If any more mistakes come to light I'll be listing them there, so check back every once in a while.