Vegan Month of Food 2016 - Day 4 "Eating Out"

Without a doubt one of the most frequent questions we get from people who are thinking of visiting is "what about eating out?" Well.... what about that? Oh sure, island living is an adjustment for those of us who weren't born all islandy, but once you become part of the flow, instead of resisting the flow, it all falls into place.

Our beautiful Florida Keys are chock full of small "mom & pop" type places (some without the mom, some without the pop, some maybe run by dogs, who knows....) which are absolutely the backbone of this community. For many people, there is a lot of misinterpreted information about what it's like to be a small business owner. We dream about, and talk about all the time we're going to have off because "it's our business" but the fact of the matter is in small business, generally you work harder than you ever planned to, and see far less of that illusive time off dreamt of and spoken of. Despite this, we soldier on and most of us do have satisfaction and pride in how we run our small businesses in spite of the huge sacrifices it often requires.

The natural food stores in the Keys are among my favorite places down here. In Marathon, there is Food for Thought, in Big Pine there is Good Food Conspiracy, in Key West there is Date & Thyme, and the Sugar Apple. I've written about all these places through the years, done videos, taken pictures, and urged you all to patronize these places while visiting Paradise. Eating out in the Keys is really not difficult as vegans; not to mention The Cafe, on Southard Street in Key West which is a funky sit down restaurant open all day with tons of vegan options, including vegan desserts.  There's plenty of places in the Upper Keys too, although we don't venture that far too often. Most any place will provide a vegan meal upon request, although some places are better at it than others. Also, we caution everyone to stay far away from fish houses down here as they really don't care about vegans and will not make any effort at all (sure, there are exceptions, but be prepared as well to sit among the fish heads, ok?) When we combine our love of supporting small business owners, as well as those in the natural food industry, it's a given that one of our most favorite places to eat out is Food for Thought in Marathon. If I could bring you "smell-o-vision" on this blog and on my videos this is the place you'd need to be. Often times the faint smells waft outside, and I'm treated before I even walk in. The place is sparkling clean, modern, perfectly organized, has wonderful people working there, and the cafe.... OMG the cafe.... Christina makes magic in the kitchen, it is restaurant quality food every time we go in.

Today is Friday, which at Food For Thought is "Living Food Friday" on the specials board. Come watch my little video as we have lunch at Food for Thought in our beautiful Florida Keys. We may not have all the fancy places that big cities have, but we want for nothing down here, trust me.

I'm not sure if they're doing it again this year, but in years past, they even run a ThanksLiving special in the cafe for vegans. You place your order ahead of time, they cook and pack a vegan ThanksLiving meal for you at a set price that you pick up the day before. We've ordered our ThanksLiving meals from them on more than 1 occasion in the past. For us, that holiday is just another work day, so it's super-duper that they've done this, not to mention that finding vegan food in the Keys on holidays can be more difficult than a regular day. This is because most restaurants are either closed, or do a "special menu" on holidays, ditching their regular menus, thus becoming much more reluctant to go off menu for vegans or any other needs. The magnitude of the amount of death that ramps up during holiday season is really difficult for me (and so many others) to cope with. Although Food For Thought is not a dedicated vegan grocer, it's important to note that there is a lot of thought and effort that goes into the selection of items there, as well as the offerings in the cafe. The fact that they regularly "tip their hat" to the vegan lifestyle through books, prepared food, groceries, the newest vegan products as they become available to our island chain (aka Mars) and other means of community outreach speaks volumes to the fact that this IS a very important lifestyle (although I will take the argument that compassion is always the BEST way of life). 

See you next time!

Vegan Strong!

xo

Vegan MoFo 2016-Day 3 "I don't have time to cook!" meal....

Groundhog day around here.... too busy, not enough hours, extra stuff to do, blah blah blah.... today's prompt is something like "I don't have time to cook" so what's my go to meal. 

I was going to open a box of PowerO's and pour them in a bowl, but it's Vegan Month of Food, I felt obligated to do something more than that (although just barely).

For what this is, and the amount of time invested, it's delicious. The sauce is super. This is an oil free dish, and depending on how much Bragg's and what type of ketchup you use, it can be low sodium (I'm not low sodium generally speaking, but I do cut it out anytime possible, this dish is another example by using low sodium broth).

It's late, I'm still working; I've got to still hit the gym, and feed the little ferals I look after in the secret spot. I'll see you tomorrow. At least I've got lunch all fixed up already! 

Go vegan, stay vegan!

xo

VeganMoFo 2016 - Day 2 "Go -To Impress Me Meal"

Oh PULEASE...... could today BE any more over scheduled???? I'm in the kitchen working on the components for a bunch of vegan cheesecakes I'm donating for a charity this weekend. I've got chocolate to temper for the decorations, chocolate crusts to make, not to mention the filling itself and baking of all those cakes.  This, and today's prompt is "go to impress me meal." It just figures.

Heck, I'd love to make you a 6 course meal (no, not really, I don't like to cook, haters gonna hate, I'm a baker not a cook) but you're getting a fabulous vegan BLT from me today. I'm not about reinventing the wheel, meaning when I find recipes that are great, I use them. Not everything around here has to be a recipe I've written.

Vegan BLT
Artisan Vegan Bread
Aquafaba Vegan Mayo
Vegan Rice Paper Bacon
(scroll down for recipes)
Toasted, with fresh tomatoes, romaine and cracked pepper.

Twigs & sticks again... how do we vegans survive.

Bread in the Keys absolutely sucks. If you go to Key West, Cole's Peace Bread has a few accidentally vegan breads and I must say their mango bread is divine. Old Town Bakery also in Key West has a few accidentally vegan breads, they get extra points because they have a purposefully vegan sandwich on the menu using their own baked bread. Otherwise, I'm not vouching for any other bread bakers down here. When I lived up north I ate a lot of bread, every store, restaurant and bakery had good (vegan) bread. Once I moved here, bread became a non-issue. I won't eat it if it sucks, and just as well as I've cut many things out anyway because they cause me problems with inflammation (something I never bothered about in my younger years, but has caused me mountains of collateral damage for my health and ruins so much of my running efforts). Somehow I got turned onto this recipe for artisan bread, but I have no idea who or where I found it. The link for the bread shown in this video is provided after the video, scroll down.

Vegan mayo is now widely available from quite a few brands. I'm still an organic Veganaise gal as my favorite of all time, but JustMayo gives them a good run for the money. Aquafaba is a game changer in the culinary world (notice I didn't say vegan world.... I said culinary world) and I often make my own vegan mayo using the recipe linked below, scroll down.

Lastly, another game changer in culinary world is rice paper bacon. I use a recipe from "yup it's vegan" but the original is called Laekon, and if you google just that one word, you'll find their link. I don't single out any one particular animal product as worse than another, but bacon is evil. Gestation crates are truly a torture device. While visiting a farm animal sanctuary a few years ago, I was "invited" to step inside a gestation crate for the experience. Within seconds I began to have severe anxiety, which would soon lead to a full blown panic attack. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on this planet, but among the most abused. If you google "gestation crate" you will see. Rice paper bacon is actually on the menu here now, it's that good. The recipe in the link is gluten free, and I use Bragg's liquid aminos instead of soy sauce. Soy sauce seems to burn easier and the flavor seems not all I want it to be. Bragg's liquid aminos give the recipe a great flavor, I also put a pinch of smoked paprika and black pepper in my version, but you really don't have to use it. I've also tried to make rice paper bacon using liquid coconut aminos hoping for a soy free version, don't do it.  Coconut aminos are high in sugar, they just don't have the same properties as Bragg's, soy sauce or tamari, my attempt burned within 2 minutes.... billowing smoke galore. If you want gluten free and don't want to use Bragg's make sure you choose a wheat free soy or tamari sauce. Also, this certainly isn't a low sodium item, however Bragg's are about 1/3 the sodium of soy and tamari.

I've got to get back to my vegan cheesecakes now, but just know you can buy vegan versions of any of this, including vegan bacon, vegan mayo and store bought vegan bread. There's nothing like making your own, and what's most impressive about this super simple delicious sandwich is once you have the ingredients as pantry staples, you are looking at pennies on the dollar compared to store bought..... impressive indeed.  Let's get to the video, then scroll to the end for the links to the recipes (with credits to the authors)

Let's eat!

Bread recipe credit "It'salwaysautumn.com"
LINK: http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2016/02/12/homemade-artisan-bread-easiest-bread-recipe-ever.html

Vegan mayo recipe credit "peanutbutterandvegan.com"
LINK: http://peanutbutterandvegan.com/april-all-natural-day-5/

Vegan rice paper bacon recipe credit "YupItsVegan.com
LINK: http://yupitsvegan.com/2016/04/18/vegan-rice-paper-bacon/

Vegan MoFo 2016 - Day 1 Favorite Food

And we're off! Day 1 of Vegan Month of Food, which happens to fall not so coincidentally on World Vegan Day 2016! Woot!

This year we again have suggested "prompts" to work with, either a topic of the day, or a weekly theme. So far, my plan is to stick to the daily prompts. Today we're being asked for our favorite food. If you know anything about me, you know I love chocolate, Italian food, and sugar. I avoid sugar like the plague as much as possible ... although as these videos unfold through the month you'll see I have no problem being a sugar pusher in my cooking and baking. Last year during Vegan MoFo I was in the midst of quite a few months of high raw, even fully raw many days. I had also eliminated soy, wheat, oil, nuts, sugar, coffee, alcohol and a few other things.... although I'm not presently high raw or fully raw, I pay close attention to sugar consumption as a rule of thumb, which includes no alcohol. I am not here to lecture on soy, wheat, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, or anything else (I will feel free to lecture on veganism though!) because I actually think there's nothing wrong with soy, wheat, sugar or these other things, unless being avoided for medical reason, and consumed in reasonable amounts. What gets most of us into trouble is working to define what is reasonable.

All that being said..... DARBSTER!!!!!!!!!

Video please......

That's a lot of sugar on that plate, and also the first time in about 2 years I had such a breakfast. We had NO vacation this year (thanks Matthew.....) and our only time away from home consisted of a roughly 48 hour whirlwind road trip to North Central Florida for a festival. We crammed in a lot of delicious vegan food.... including breakfast, brunch and sugar.

Breakfast out is virtually non-existent for me considering the line of work I'm in. When I do get such an opportunity I usually opt for savory, or raw... but, damn, this was good.  French toast made with challah bread, banana compote, fresh fruit, tempeh bacon. Oh Darbster, I love you, love you LOOOOOOOOOVE you.

By the way, if you're wondering who has the best and I mean the BEST tofu scramble in the Universe, it's the Manatee Cafe in St. Augustine. Better than mine, better than yours.... better than anybody's. You don't get a video from there though.... thank Matthew for that too.

Happy World Vegan Day.

Go Vegan, Stay Vegan.

See you tomorrow.... I wonder what we'll be talking about.... I've got nothing preplanned. Wish me luck.

xo

Hooray for Vegan MoFo 2016 - Here's My Intro!

Hi everyone, it's THAT time of year.... not just Halloween.... Samhain.... but also Vegan Month of Food! Usually this glorious occasion occurs during September, this year the administrators moved it to November. We're in again this year, couldn't resist.

We had GREAT plans for you.... but typical with life, things change. We planned to shoot some videos during our road trip vacation, but we got chased out due to Hurricane Matthew. Turns out, the Keys were the only coastal Atlantic region in the State of Florida that really did not have any major warnings or watches. Silly us.... we left Paradise with plans of tooling around mainland Florida. Not to be. Next, we had a mini-road trip planned around Central Florida VegFest, but the best we could manage was a whirlwind drive straight through for Festival and come right back home. We shot a few videos ahead of time, I did a few projects with photos ahead of time, and as this intro video explains for you, it is what it is for 2016.

We hope you'll follow along, we're on Facebook, YouTube and right here on this blog. MoFo gives the opportunity for new life on the blog every year. I used to write every day, that was a long time ago. Maybe you miss me, maybe you don't, sometimes I really miss writing.

I'm looking forward to the month, and especially enjoying all the other bloggers and vloggers. Thanks to the administrators for again bringing us together for this international event highlighting vegan food!

Let's go to the videotape!

See you tomorrow!

xo

It Was Me. (CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE)

It was me that dozens of drivers passed on the highway chasing the mortally wounded bird. Scores of cars whizzed by far above the speed limit craning their necks to watch what was going on. Of the scores, one stopped to offer and help. To that kind driver with an entire family in tow, I sincerely thank you. To everyone who passed me by, I say fuck you.

I'm so sick from watching animals suffer needlessly and dying horrible deaths.

I was on my way to visit a friend. In my car which I had recently emptied out I had 2 small containers of carrot ginger soup, a smelly beach towel from yesterday's workout at the gym, and a crushed roll of paper towels with about 2 sheets left on the spindle. Gone was the small animal crate I usually have in the back, with the extra towels "just in case." Why did I remove that from the car? To make room for groceries? Probably. Regardless, it was a bad move.

I had just turned out of my street and not even driven a mile when something caught my eye on the side of the road on the opposing side of the highway. Whatever "it" was, "it" did not belong there, for "it" was trapped between the deer fencing that lines both sides of the highway in that spot... a blessing for cutting down deer strikes in that small spot, but perilous when an animal gets trapped between the fencing for whatever reason. As I came upon "it" I realized "it" was not an "it" but rather a cormorant who was wounded. At that time I couldn't tell the extent of the injuries, but without a second thought I pulled over, waited a second, and then did a U-turn to approach her. What I saw made me gasp.....

There she was on the bike path, desperate to fly away from me in my slow moving car now also on the bike path.... but she couldn't fly. She could barely walk. She was mortally wounded. Whoever did the deed did not stop to help, or even to call the Wildlife Officers to put her out of her misery. I grabbed my smelly gym beach towel, flipped on the hazards and went out to her. She was terrified, and tried to run... she tripped over the wing that was barely hanging on. I saw bones, tendons, and blood.... too much blood.

Fuck.

It was me whom all the interested, but not interested enough to stop and help, drivers saw running down the bike path frantically throwing that gnarly beach towel over a panicked, tortured, wounded, bleeding cormorant. It was me screaming aloud to the whizzing cars to slow down, please slow down.  Please stop and help. Please. PLEASE.

No one did.

I could see out of the corner of my eye, yes drivers were interested and watching me, but they were driving way too fast, and also not stopping to help. Three tries with the towel and I finally hooded this living innocent victim suffering so incredibly. In all my years of helping wildlife, I've never had a mortally wounded animal expend so much energy to attack me. She wanted to kill me. I don't blame her. If I were in blinding pain with one of my arms barely hanging on spewing blood over exposed bones and tendons, I'd want to fuck with you big time too.

It was me who was splayed out on the bike path with a smelly gym beach towel over the bird writhing in pain, trying to bite me. You, you were the ones who just looked and did not care. Why?

As she continued her efforts to bite through the towel, I scrambled with 1 hand to capture my phone and made a call to the other happy vegan. I knew he'd make the emergency calls, and be on site within minutes. As I was sobbing on that bike path because there was nothing I could do in that moment to relieve that tortured animal from her pain, someone pulled over across the highway asking if I was ok. No, I'm not ok, someone hit this bird and left her to suffer. Help is coming. Thank you for stopping to help, for caring, for bothering. Because no one else cares. No one else stopped. I am alone in the Paradise sunshine crying, hands covered with blood, trying to whisper calmly to an animal who is in horrible anguish and doesn't give a shit about whispers, words, or anything else because of PAIN.

The other happy vegan rounded the corner in his big truck, within a moment he was out and took over with the bird. I ran to his truck to get another larger, heavier towel. As we were doubling the hooding, FPH pulled up. I offered a less than 10 second synopsis, then begged for their help. There was nothing they could do.... they had to defer to FWC. Please, please, please.... can't you help, can't you get involved? I'm sorry ma'am, no.

It was me who had to beg enforcement for help that they could not give.

We got bird rescue on the line and informed what was happening, who we were bringing in, and what to expect. I jumped into the bed of the truck, grabbed a box full of tools and drill bits, flung them across the bed of the truck and brought it out to the bike path. As gently as possible, the other happy vegan lifted the double hooded bird into the box. No matter how gentle, we know more excruciating pain ensued. She was placed into the truck and off he went for the inevitable.

There she was precious cargo, dying in agony in a smelly used gym towel in a cardboard box that minutes ago was full of greasy tools.

You motherfucker who hit this innocent bird, I think you should know, it was me who wiped the fresh blood of a commorant off my hands at the side of the road on used paper towels dipped in the grass still went from the rain that had freshly fallen before all this started. While it probably was an accident hitting the bird, you intentionally drove on leaving her mortally wounded, in unimaginable pain, to die terrified among speeding traffic, alone.

You hit her and left her to die, but it was me who was left with what you refused to help with. You should know... the suffering she endured was immense. It was prolonged because you did not do the right thing as soon as it happened and make a simple call to emergency. You left her to suffer. You left her alone. You left her terrified.

It was me who will never forget the terror in her eyes and the blood on my hands. For all of this, I say fuck you.

What I Ate Today

I'm a fan of "What I Ate Today" posts on any forum... social media, blogs, videos, matters not where they're at, just that they're at.

Here's what I ate today.

Most days I do make time for breakfast (there's a rare occasion when it's impossible, but that's become more infrequent). For about the last 3 months, give or take, this is what I have:

Oats, shredded zucchini, mashed beans, ground flax, cocoa powder, mashed banana, protein powder.
Topped with a ridiculous amount of strawberries.
I pour unsweetened flax milk over it.
Don't knock it till you've tried it.....

For the last few months, I've recommitted to fitness, not just running. In fact, running has taken a back seat. You'll find me out on the street only about 3 times a week at most. Too many injuries. I've learned my lesson. So, now I'm back at a gym lifting weights regularly. I've also rekindled my love affair with the Spinner bike, I'm on that thing 5-6 times a week, sometimes for as long as 1.5 hours. It's a great workout. I always look forward to a recovery smoothie, sometimes I tuck in some white beans instead of protein powder, today was powder since I had no beans ready:

Post workout smoothie:
Frozen bananas, unsweetened flax milk, chia seeds, cocoa powder, powdered peanuts
with a smidge of protein powder tucked in.

Dinner for me most nights is very uninspired. Usually potatoes, veggies and beans. However, I had something to prove, and this was my day to prove it. On a recent night, we went out to see a friend play with his band at a local watering hole. The place is not generally known for it's vegan-fare, however they always assure us they can provide for us, despite this fact we don't go... trust issues. We decided to have a go at their food since we would be there anyway. I can chalk that visit up to one of the top 5 worst meals I've had since living in the Keys. What they served me that night was an embarrassment on their part, whoever was in the kitchen that night obviously has zero love for their own job nor love of whomever they may be serving. Worse yet, I had a side dish of attitude from our server as well. Now, that same place advertises something called "Bang Bang Shrimp" which obviously isn't even worth investigating in my world, but the name "Bang Bang" sticks in my head.  Oddly enough within a couple days of that super bad dining experience a post came into my personal Facebook feed from "Olives for Dinner" blog for..... Bang Bang Cauliflower!

I was more than a little intrigued.

I rustled up the ingredients, and this magnificent plate of food manifested out of my kitchen. This recipe is fantastic. Just for kicks, I'm making some and going to deliver it to the manager of the restaurant where we had our most recent super bad eating experience; just to reassure them that vegans might actually know what good food is.

Bang Bang Cauliflower!
Recipe from "Olives for Dinner" blog!
EXCELLENT!

Thank goodness our friend and his band were on fire that night at least!

Lastly, my snack today was a bowl of this cereal a local grocer has begun carrying down here, it's made with beans! I love this stuff loaded with a generous portion of strawberries and some unsweetened flax milk. Hm.... 3 out of my 4 "what I ate today" foods have chocolate. I'm sensing something here.....

Chocolate cereal is one of my guilty pleasures, but this one is made with beans!!!

That's what I ate today. See you next time!