Have you stocked up on black eyed peas and cabbage yet? I am sure the shelves are barren of canned black eyed peas and there’s not a head of cabbage in the produce section. Both are intended to bring you luck and money in the new year. I don’t believe in the hooey, I just find it a good reason to eat something I enjoy, not that I don’t eat them any other time of the year although my wife HATES cabbage so that goes wasted if I don’t fix just enough for myself. She also thought she hated fennel until a few weeks ago. Same went for okra until I cooked it for her.

New Year’s Resolution?

Learn to play guitar.

Seriously, and not Guitar Hero.

Christmas is over. I didn’t cook as much as I had planned on, we were going to do cookies, ice cream, and a few other things. At the last minute I decided to make Figgy Pudding. That was all I had time for with a busy day of people coming and going. After hearing “Bring us some figgy pudding.” a few times in the past weeks I decided I wanted to know exactly what it was and if it was really good enough to demand “Bring it right here”.

It is.

As with other British puddings it is actually a cake with a sauce to accompany. Very figgy, very spicy with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and I made a brandy sauce (with 1/2 cup of brandy not cooked after adding) that made it very tasty. I didn’t take any pictures for those who have a thing for food images, sorry. I’ll post the recipe in the recipe section of the messageboard. I used a standard dairy filled recipe and adapted it, nowhere could I find a veganized one already. So, there will be one now.

Call it Ice Cream, call it Soy Cream, call it the best stuff ever.

Peppermint Ice Cream

2 cups soy milk
2 cups soy creamer
2 TBS arrowroot
½ cup evaporated cane juice
1 TBS vanilla extract
4-5 peppermint sticks, crushed

Whisk 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot. Heat the remaining soy milk and soy creamer to a simmer. Add the evaporated cane juice to the soy mixture and stir until completely dissolved. Add the arrowroot and stir until thickened, about 2 - 3 minutes. You are not looking for a “pudding” consistency, just a light thickening.

Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and cool completely in refrigerator.

Prepare accordingly using your ice cream maker.

When the soy cream reaches the point where it is almost finished add the crushed peppermint and turn the ice cream maker back on/keep cranking/etc for 3 – 4 more minutes.

RELATED:  If you don’t have one of the Cuisinart Ice Cream Makers, then go now and get one.  It makes recipes like these too simple to finish up.

Fresh RumNog Pecan Cookies, I love these things. They were just made today and I have just delivered a few tins, supplemented with fudge, to some of my clients. They were baked fresh this morning and I made certain a few were left over for me to munch on for the next few hours, that’s about all they will last. In fact I have eaten two as I am writing this. We picked up fresh pecans on our way back from Atlanta earlier this week just to make these. I can’t say much more about these except DELICIOUS!

I usually get two or three nights per week where I cook only for myself. I usually just get in a hurry and want something quick and filling so I just eat a couple veggie burgers and some tater tots or a baked potato. I’ll fry up an onion and sometimes a bell pepper and then put the patties on top of the fried onions and cook it for about 15 minutes before frying it. Steamed buns on top of the burgers and onions, potato, yum, sure. All of this is just junk food to me and I eat it far too often. I just don’t want to cook a big deal of a dinner for myself. I know I should move to something else, veggie burgers aren’t all bad but when you eat them constantly you’ll fall into a vegan junk food slump, as I have. Given the onions and peppers are a fresh addition but still, fried and all the time, not good. The cooking has almost become mechanized and scheduled. I can cut up the onions, set them on to fry, do something else for the allotted time, come back add the burgers, do something else, come back and flip, you get the idea. I think that’s where I got hooked, it is easy for me to do among other things and tends to be my first choice at the end of the day, when the day isn’t really over.
I think next week I am going to try to add something new to the mix. Maybe stir fry with brown rice. Should still be just as easy to prepare and may turn out to be quicker. It should end up being a little lighter and I’ll mix up the sauce so I can give myself more variety. I already have Five Spice and Sweet and Sour sauces from Trader Joe’s. I’ll can make up teriyaki sauce in advance as well as orange sauce.

Veggie burgers once a week won’t be so bad.

I have been to the Green Hills Whole Foods probably over 30 times since opening, that’s alot for the drive I make to get there. Soon (two years isn’t really soon, but I’ll take what I can get) my drive will be shorter. It has been announced that Whole Foods will be opening a new location in the McEwen Drive area of Coolsprings. Opening date has been set for Fall of 2009.

Anyone who has read this site knows that I am a huge Whole Foods fan, we have driven to Atlanta to get groceries at Whole Foods. My mother-in-law lives there so I can’t say that was the only reason to go but it was a big part of the trip. Now with a new location in Coolsprings I will actually have to consider getting a part-time job there. I have always thought about one since learning how they pay insurance for their employees and have great stock options. I do hope they will not close the nearby Wild Oats like was done when the Green Hills Whole Foods opened. I enjoy my Sunday nights in that store, the staff is too friendly (I’ll make exception for one or two people) and it has a small store feel that I enjoy, I know small-store feel is not going to be had with any Whole Foods but that doesn’t mean I can’t like it too.

It is beyond time to put up a Christmas Tree but we can’t seem to find what we’re looking for. Does anyone know of a vendor in the area that is selling trees with root balls? I don’t want a cut tree, we plan on planting each tree for the next few years in the back yard. Cut trees are a waste and no matter how you try to justify the “mulchability” after you’re finished with it I just see it better to be able to plant the tree and enjoy it for years to come. So, if you run across a place selling them in the Nashville/Franklin/surrounding area while you are out getting your own, let me know…ok?

Bethel Ethiopian has opened at 1909 Division Street. It is owed by the former manager and cook of Horn of Africa. I have not visited yet but I have been to Horn of Africa once and was mildly impressed, probably because I had never been to an Ethiopian restaurant and usually don’t get to eat with my hands when eating out.

Not many veggie choices, three or four from the looks of the menu. From what I rercall it is about the same menu as Horn of Africa.

http://www.bethelrestaurant.com/

I don’t write much about what I cook and eat.  Here’s a first.  Tonight I will be making Stuffed Bell Peppers.   Not the first time I have made this and it is very simple.   Tomatoes, TVP, a few spices that I am in the mood for, a little worcestershire (No, not common worcestershire, I prefer Annie’s Naturals brand.)  and, of course, bell peppers.  I just ran out of fresh from the garden bell peppers so I picked up two organic ones from Wild Oats, actually a deal at $2.49 a pound as opposed to what they usually go for.

Mashed Potatoes is always a great side and it will be there tonight as well, but I have some fennel that I picked up from Whole Foods this weekend as a “Let’s try something new.” thing.  I’ll probably sautee that to go along.

I am the pet of three cats. If you have cats you understand that statement. This includes one stray that adopted us. These cats eat all day, or they would if I fed them all day. The food they eat is, of course, an animal-based food. Cats are natural carnivores, they will not survive from a vegetable only diet no matter what you read. Feeding them so will lead to blindness and death. So this leads me to ask, are vegans truly vegan if they purchase and feed to an animal they keep animal-based food? I think so, but others disagree and believe cats can be healthy eating a plant-based diet. Others have thought the same but changed position.

Urinary tract problems are extremely common in cats and, because of the relative acidity of meat to vegetable protein, many vegan cats suffer from them.

Although we have been giving advice for some time on how these problems can be minimized while still feeding a completely vegan diet, we have found that the vast majority of our customers have not been following this advice.

Unless you are very committed to following the advice outlined below, we therefore recommend that you mitigate the risk of urinary tract problems by feeding males cats only a 25-75% vegan diet and females a 50-100% vegan diet.

Why would anyone risk harm to an animal by forcing a diet their bodies are not designed to subsist from? That is NOT vegan.

Are keeping cats, or any other pet, vegan? This is another question I have seen asked, but not often. Let’s take for instance, the stray we have. Venus is an outside cat, she has a nice warm place to sleep here and gets fed 3 times daily. She gets attention and has a home. If we did not take her in she may have been dead at this point, starvation or even hit by a car in search of food. We have done our part to help this animal. The other two cats we have that stay inside are similar but they were not strays, they were chosen by us from a litter of kittens someone had to give away 7 years ago. They too are fed 3 times a day and have a warm place to sleep. Where would they be if not here with us? In harm’s way or dead? I am helping these cats survive.

One of those mindless rambles but I have three mouthy cats that made me think about it.

Dan Mathews, Vice PResident of PETA was at the Barnes & Noble at Coolsprings today signing his book “Committed”.   After listening to him speak I think that this site might need a little different direction.    Food is an important part of any vegan or vegetarian but most veg*ns would agree that animal welfare makes a big part of assuming that lifestyle.   I will not take away any part of this site that caters to the eats but I want to dedicate more to animals and the horrors of factory farming and animal abuse to show more people that it not just about the tofu.    If anyone has ideas or suggestions please share.

We were at the new Whole Foods in the Hill Center at 8 am yesterday, many more people were there than I expected. The line doubled around the corner for the free breakfast.  After the bread breaking (Whole Foods’ way of doing a ribbon-cutting), we were the first in the door. Everything was as I expected from the other Whole Foods locations. One standout is the Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar tasting station, bottles line the shelves and slices of bread are supplied for you to try almost any vinegar or oil available.

One thing that I really liked was finding Organic Valley Unsweetened Soymilk and finally not having to purchase Silk any longer. I even spoke with one lady for a few minutes and noticed she had about 10 half-gallon cartons of Silk in her cart I told her about Dean Foods which owns Silk.   I saw her soon after putting all of her Silk back on the shelf, right beside the Silk representative that was there! I get laughs in silly, vindictive ways.

I spoke with Laura Button, owner of Journey To Bliss Foods, who was giving out some great samples of her products. My daughter loved the Carrot Cake.

For those wondering, plenty of local products can be found throughout the store and a brochure is even provided to give more information.

One thing I saw that was unlike any other Whole Foods was the cafe was located outside of the cash registers. As well, there was far more outside seating available than I have seen at other locations.

When we were leaving (after returning for the third time) we walked by a lady who was complaining to management about the traffic and parking situation. She went on and on and just would take any explanation as good enough. One management member even walked her through the parking garage to help her understand the best way to enter and leave. We made it a point ot walk up to the same management and thank them for bringing Whole Foods here and told them we had zero complaints. My mother said she went back inside 30 minutes later and the same lady was complaining to someone else about the same thing.

Of course, this will be my new hangout when I have nothing better to do.

Halloween is nearly here and soon bags of sugary concoctions will be brought home to be devoured by little ones. For those of you who are vegan and have kids do you plan on trick-or-treating? Is there really much point in going door-to-door only to get candy that you can’t eat? If you are vegan and giving candy out what are you going to give, a vegan candy or otherwise?

We don’t plan on going trick-or-treating this year, but for those of you confused as to what to give out I did happen upon a bag of small play-doh cans at Target, 25 for $3.99 A pretty good deal and a very good alternative to the sugar overload.

I think I read at least one letter a week to the editor of The Tennessean voicing desire for a Trader Joe’s location in Nashville or just the outright prediction that it is happening but the time is not known the place is not known and the reason they know this information is unknown. People claim the reason it won’t come is the inability to sell wine by Tennessee liquor laws, some say it can happen anyway and cite other states as proof. Maybe there are other reason keeping Trader Joe’s out of this area, it is not like Tennessee is the last state in the US without a store. What’s keeping them out of Colorado? Boulder sounds like a dead-on perfect location. How about Maine?   I love Trader Joe’s, enough to make trips to Atlanta to pick up vitals and a location in this area would be most welcomed by me but I am afraid it’s not going to happen.

After a little over 3 years of this incarnation of the nashveggie.com messageboard the first troll has made its way in.  I don’t immediately plan on deleting this post or the user, I only see good things happening with this.

If you haven’t tried the veggie burger at J. Alexander’s you should. It is made in-house, not a frozen shipped-in patty and is completely vegan AND prepared on a separate grill from the meat items. How do I know this? My wife spoke with the chef who prepares the burgers when he visited the store where she works. So far, this is the best veggie burger I have had in a restaurant. I visited the Coolsprings location but I did call the West End restaurant and asked about their veggie burger and they told me that it contained no eggs or dairy.

There’s a lot of talk recently with Whole Foods opening its first location in Nashville with wanting a Trader Joe’s to come here. For those who have never been to a Trader Joe’s you will find a plethora of goodies not easily found at other groceries at very low prices. There frozen and prepared foods are outstanding and they have a wide selection of cooking condiments, pastas, breads and snacks. Each trip I make I stock up on their super-cheap super-good organic ketchup, organic peanut butter and Joe’s Os for my daughter.

We love to travel and we love finding new places to eat, so eating out while traveling fits right in.   Our regular trips to Atlanta are scheduled around visits to Veggieland, Harmony Chinese, Sweet Tomatoes, Cafe Sunflower and Eats (mmm…collard greens).    We were told about a place we had never tried while on this trip and decided to see how it was.   My mother called and said she read on Citysearch about a restaurant called The Power Plant that had an entirely vegan menu.   At the same time my mother-in-law was researching the same place.  They both said it had great reviews for the food, but the service had horrible reviews.  I thought I could deal with having to get up to get someone to refill my drink a couple times in trade for an entirely vegan menu so we decided to give it a try.   My mother-in-law and my 2-year old daughter arrived ahead of us and got a table and waited as we found the place.  Once we arrived I saw “The Best Vegan Restaurant In the World” on the window and a huge banner hanging on the outside of the building advertising a $10 All-You-Can-Eat Vegan Brunch at which point I begin to loosen my belt and ready myself for the feedbag.  A brunch isn’t really something I strive to have every Sunday, and as far as I understand it’s for those people who want to sip a mimosa and eat croissants , not descriptive of me, but hey…this is FOOD!  When we entered and sat down in a small uncomfortable booth near the back of what is a very small dining  room I noticed that no one had any food on their table and I sturggled to keep my balance in a chair that seemed to want to sway to one side.   A smoothie was ordered for my daughter about 20 minutes prior to our walking in and at that point still nothing had been brought for her.   The menu was a copied paper which listed many great sounding items, all of which were faux-meat, BBQ ribs, “Shicken”, the obligatory veggie burgers, Philly Cheese Steak and many others I can remember now all for about $10 - $14 each  The brunch menu had “Shicken and Waffles”, French Toast, Sausage and Gravy and still other items not recalled.  Everything sounded good and I was debating between the BBQ and the brunch, if only someone would take our order.  I only saw two people working the floor while there and finally one lady came over.  She told us the had just become extremely busy (the restaurant was full, all 8 tables) and she promised excellent service if we were patient.  OK, I can wait a bit.  At one point a lady dropped a bottle of water off at our table, I don’t know why, but didn’t stop to ask if we were ready to order.  Still, no smoothie and at this point it has been about 15 minutes since we arrived and nearly and hour since my mother-in-law arrived.   This first plate of food I saw come out of the kitchen did so at this point, a “Sesame Shicken” plate for the table next to us.  It looked tasty with asparagus and a nice pile of “Shicken” (?) but the lady bringing it still did not stop to ask us about ordering.  When she left the person at the table next to us who had just received their sesame shicken tried to get her attention but to no avail.   A couple walked in and waited to be seated and we considered leaving at this point, something that always embarrasses me, I don’t know why.   When we left no one said anything to us, but then the two people who would were nowhere to be seen.  When we drove back by the restaurant after walking to our car about 15 minutes later I noticed to people who had just walked in were still waiting.

I have checked the reviews on Citysearch and found that, of course, we are not the only ones to get the same “service”.   Happy Cow reports the same.   I find it hard to believe this place has been open for more than a year!  I would try again but I just don’t think it is worth it.

Bar report - Today’s bar was a Think Organic Chocolate Coconut.   Actually, this one was a little filling, but that may have been because I ate it first thing this morning and I am not a breakfast eater.   Either way, it was slightly bitter and had a good coconut taste.  The chocolate was rich tasting but didn’t carry an aftertaste.  It is completely raw and, as the name implies, organic.   At $2.19 for 1.4oz it is a priced similarly to other raw bars.   I can recommend this one.

I was talking with an ex-manager of a Starbucks store recently and as he was telling me how much he hated Starbucks, which I hear often from ex-employees, he also told me how they burn their espresso roast and add oil to the beans. I have never heard of adding oil to coffee beans and can’t understand what effect this has on the product. I can find nothing online documenting this, I am not saying he is lying, but I would like to know why this is done. Any employees of Starbucks (ex or otherwise) or anyone else that might know the answer?

I have two plants growing in my yard, I have no idea what they are.   I have seen neither bloom so I can’t give blossom descriptions.  Does anyone have any ideas?   

I have been eating a lot of “bars” lately. No, not candy bars, but some of these bars can be counted as candy with as much sugar that is in them. Odwalla, Clif, Larabar, all good ones. I just had a Pro Bar, Cran-Lemon Twister to be exact. This bar calls itself “The Whole Food Meal”, if it is a meal I need seconds and at $3.79 each for a 3oz bar that leaves something to be desired. The tastiest by far are Larabars, Cherry Pie being my favorite. When on sale I stock up on Odwalla bars, any of the choices without chocolate. Clif Bars are also good but they are sometimes too sugary and sticky for me.

I’ll agree, it is really good stuff! Do I know the recipe? I’ll never tell.