Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 11: Dessert Without Added Sugar

As "free from" week marches on for Vegan Month of Food, today I was tasked with bringing you a great vegan dessert without any added sugar. For me, no added sugar includes NO maple syrup, rice syrup, dates, agave, Stevia, or anything artificial (not that you'll EVER find artificial sweeteners in my cabinet anyway). I still have a stash of fresh local mangoes here. They are in my fridge. This is to slow down their ripening as much as possible so I won't have to freeze them and I can still eat them fresh. I don't have as many as I'd like, and there won't be anymore this year as mango season is over, I will have to wait til next summer. One of the most delicious desserts I can ever hope to eat is mango ice cream. These mangoes are perfection, seriously perfection. I moved here thinking I hated mangoes (I've devoted several posts to mangoes in the past, and always say this one thing....) but I never hated mangoes, I just never had a real mango until I moved here. Those little orange orbs sold in the freezer case.... not mangoes. Those rocks sold in the product section of mainstream stores... not mangoes, not even when they ripen. Mangoes come fresh from the tree down here. You have to wait until they are just right, which basically is when they have some (or many) blackish spots on them, and the skin yields to gentle pressure when you pick it up. Another clue is the fragrance.... you'll know, trust me.

There's lots of ways to make mango ice cream vegan style, but my favorites are the simplest. The easiest way is to peel and cut your mango, freeze those pieces overnight, then make "nice cream" with either your  high speed blender or Champion juicer using the blank. With the Champion you add absolutely nothing else, just fruit (you can do this with any kind of fruits, it's called a "fruit freeze" the places I'm familiar with). If you use your Vitamix, you may want to add a dash of unsweetened non-dairy milk, my favorite to use for frozen desserts is coconut milk. Today, all I did was cut and freeze 2 large mangoes last night before going to bed. I pulled them out of the freezer, plunked them into my Vitamix, and added a little unsweetened reduced fat coconut milk (I'd say roughly 1/3 cup), then blended. This will NOT work with a regular blender. After everything was mixed, I scooped it into my ice cream maker. The one I got second hand that I've had for years now. It survived Irma! No, my $700 mixer didn't make it through unscathed, but my $10 ice cream machine sure did. I froze my ice cream container last night, and today just ran it for about 10 minutes. As you can see, it's perfect!

This mango ice cream is exploding with flavor and is SO creamy!
Look at the difference in the mangoes....
the one in the back is not ripe, its green and no flecks
the one in the front is reddish and has spots... she's ready for breakfast!

Even if you don't have an ice cream maker, it's perfect. It was softer of course out of the Vitamix, but the flavor is just as divine.

If I added sugar to this it would ruin it. On season ripe mangoes are so sweet on their own, plus the flavor just shines through so beautifully.

Mango sorbets are just as easy.... usually just fresh frozen mango and lemon or lime juice. Personally I wanted something creamy, not icy. It is still hot as Hades here. I know other people are considering pumpkins and mums, but I'm the tropical gal going kicking and screaming into pumpkin territory. 

So, there you have it. And, as you can see from the photo, you'll note a few black flecks starting to pop up on my mangoes. I pulled 3 out for tomorrow already. Mmmmmm. No added sugar or sweeteners!

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 10: Gluten Free Baking

Pardon the lighting.
I should do my videos in the daytime, really.
This is a gluten free vegan white cupcake with
gluten free vegan cream cheese frosting and
gluten free vegan silver stars.
Recipe from The Vegan 8.
It's bad ass.

Of all the challenges I've had since working the Deer Run vegan kitchen, gluten free vegan baking was the biggest for me. I was on my own way back when I started my own quest for high quality gluten free vegan baked goods. I had no professional training that covered gluten free, there was very little support was on line, and what I did find often wasn't vegan. I finally found a very obscure blog by someone who had Celiac disease as well as dairy sensitivity. Basically someone who was vegan, but not really by choice. She wrote about her life and how horrible it had been until she was finally diagnosed as having Celiac along with a dairy sensitivity (surprise, she's not a baby cow...) She included her stories about her hospitalizations due to severe and frequent illness, as well as her progression to reclaim her health via learning to cook and BAKE gluten free once finally diagnosed. Her recipes did not always work for me, probably because of my climate down here. But as I got more experienced I began to figure out more and more what DID work down here without gluten. Years, I'm telling you, years of work went into the gluten free vegan recipes I now use. It's one of those things that unless you find yourself in the situation of NEEDING to remove gluten, most people don't give it a second thought.  I've come to realize that although I do not have Celiac, I do have a sensitivity to gluten. It causes inflammation for me, which makes my life more difficult at times. I'm still  not 100% gluten free, but more and more I do kick it to the curb completely from time to time. When I do, I feel so much better. Also, since more companies are finally producing true gluten free vegan products that actually taste good it's much easier to be gluten free in my opinion.

Let's get back to the baking issue. Vegan baking has no eggs. Gluten free vegan baking has no gluten. Eggs provide moisture and binding in recipes (along with a heavy does of torture and cruelty), while gluten provides elasticity in baking which helps the dough's condition. It also provides protein, but who the heck do you know that eats a cupcake for protein anyway? Besides, gluten free flours provide levels of protein anyway. Damn, the last thing I ever want to hear is where do I get my protein... it's NOT in a cupcake. Removing those ingredients means we have to substitute other ingredients that will mimic the same or similar functions of the other ingredients. I have developed my own gluten free baking recipes that are fully adapted to the extreme humidity we have year around, as well as the heat which also compromises baked goods. Because my issues aren't your issues, today I'm linking you to a recipe from Brandi at the Vegan 8. She is a master recipe creator, all vegan, all gluten free and best of all her concept is all recipes have 8 ingredients or less. She has a cookbook out now too, I don't have it yet but it's one I am longing for. You can go to her blog and find tons of recipes, she is so generous with her own recipes.

I made you the Vegan 8 gluten free white cupcakes. She also provides a recipe for frosting, but I simply used a little of the leftover vegan cream cheese frosting I had from Mahogany cake day. The frosting happened to be gluten free. Also, I used gluten free vegan silver stars as decoration, my preferred sprinkle shop is Sweetopolita on Etsy, although now there are also finally more and more vegan sprinkle companies popping up too.

This is the link to the recipe I used http://thevegan8.com/2018/07/12/vegan-gluten-free-vanilla-cupcakes/

When you bake gluten free, unless you are buying a premixed blend of flours, you will have to keep a variety of different gluten free flours on hand. For me I tend to rely on more light flours than most other people would consider because the conditions down here are so extreme that it's bananas to bake with heavy flours. It's also bananas to use bananas or too much applesauce in tropical gluten free baking, they too are typically far too heavy for baking down here. I have almost every egg replacer you can name always on hand including aquafaba, EnerG egg replacer, the Vegan Egg, applesauce, tofu, flax, chia just to name a few. They are all gluten free, but not all are appropriate for every application. Trust me, gluten free baking is more challenging, but it's so rewarding. I do remember the time I made a gluten free vegan cake for someone who had not had a birthday cake in over a decade. She cried because she was so happy. I know I know.... cake cannot solve the problems of the world, but life is hard enough as it is, surely cake can brighten any day. 

As you start to bake gluten free, just give yourself the latitude to make mistakes, and then keep going forward. You'll get the hang of it thanks to great recipe creators like Brandi at the Vegan 8.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 9: Creamy Is As Creamy Does

Today we are tasked with bringing you vegan food, creamy style. The deal is we are not allowed to use nuts. Actually, all this week we're tasked with talking about various topics encompassing dietary and lifestyle restrictions. I think this week is a lock for me. When I took over the kitchen here, all I planned on was delicious vegan food. In time I began seeing more and more guests with allergies, intolerance and health issues.  In the beginning it was not always easy for me, some of the situations that cropped up were things I'd never even heard of. There would be hours and hours of research and recipe testing for some guests prior to their arrival. I always brought my "A" game, and I absolutely feel like when my head hits the pillow at night I have always done the best I could.

Now, this creamy thing WITH nuts vegan style... it's actually very easy to do. This includes decadent cream sauces, desserts, and meals. Cashews are especially beloved because they are soft in texture to begin with and they have a relatively neutral flavor. Too many nuts though.... not a good thing generally speaking for health issues, obviously much worse for those with raging nut allergies. Remarkably, I bring you a vegan cheese sauce crafted out of vegetables!!! Potatoes and carrots to be specific. LOOK!!

The creamiest mac & cheeze you'll ever have

Actually most of the ingredients are already in your pantry most likely (potatoes, carrots, neutral oil, water, lemon juice and sea salt). Nutritional yeast is the "wild card" in this recipe, many of us keep it on hand already too. Nutritional yeast ("nooch" to many of us) is an inactive yeast that has a mild cheese flavor. It's very versatile, and people like me sprinkle it on pretty much everything anyway. I'd forgotten about this sauce, somehow it popped up in my "memories" feed very recently and wow was that great timing. This recipe is from Vegan Yumminess, they published it about 4 years ago. It doesn't really taste like cheese because it has such a mild flavor, however the other happy vegan said if he didn't know it was vegan, he'd guess it was just a really mild dairy cheese. It's creamy, it's stretchy and it is super delicious. Add whatever you want to it (ie: smoked paprika, onion powder, hot sauce, whatever...) but do it AFTER you follow the recipe to the letter because honestly it is so good you may really not want to personalize this one. Come see!

Here's the recipe

(courtesy of Vegan Yumminess http://veganyumminess.com/creamy-vegan-mac-and-cheese/

2 cups peeled, boiled potatoes, mashed

3/4 cups peeled chopped boiled carrots

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1/3 cup neutral oil (original recipe calls for olive oil, I used non-GM safflower oil it's more neutral)

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1.5 teaspoons sea salt

Boil the potatoes and carrots together til soft, drain. Mash the potatoes to measure the appropriate amount, carrots can be loosely measured.

Place everything in the blender (really, you need a strong blender here.... I use a Vitamix)

Blend low to high about 30 seconds til completely smooth

Serve immediately any way you'd like. Keeps they say about 1 week, but it won't last that long. Reheat as necessary.

This makes about 2 cups or so of sauce, roughly. I made a whole pound of GF pasta, and still had about .5 cups left over of the sauce.

This doesn't taste exactly like a cruel dairy sauce, it's mild, but no matter trust me this is absolutely delicious. You can customize as you like, but really follow this recipe first, you may not want to change it at all (I used it exactly as published).

It's super to have a recipe in your tool kit that is so allergen free. Not only are many people allergic to nuts, but I've met more than my fair share that seeds are off limits too. This fits the bill in the most tasty way possible.

My work here for the day is done. Go forth and be epic with your potato carrot cheese.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 8: FOOD FAILS!

Today I'm tasked with the issue of food fails. At first, I thought we were just supposed to show/talk about fails. Heaven help me but I have so many pictures of food fails I could spend weeks just on this topic. However, when I went back to check the topic, I interpreted it differently in that I should show you how I fix a food fail by repurposing it. Challenge accepted.

Crappy Cake
Good Cake Pops

The video is pretty straightforward. I did two cakes yesterday, a suckass one and a decent one. I hoped they would both be good, no I don't plan my food fails just for Vegan Month of Food. I put the suckass cake aside for today, and wrote about the decent cake yesterday. Since at first all I thought all  had to do was show you my crunchy cake and while I stabbed it to death it on video I figured yay this is easy. But as you note above I realized perhaps I should do something with it besides a big video stabfest.

This cake was so hard and crunchy I dubbed it one of the worst cakes I've ever made. It's not burned, it's simply a dried out slab of cake. It was in the oven just like yesterdays... 20 minutes on the bean.

When I find someone else's recipe to work with, why oh why won't I listen to my instincts that it's either a good base recipe or a bad base recipe. I only chose this recipe because it was a different method for a Mahogany cake and I wanted a cake comparison. When the batter was mixed, it actually was like plaster. I baked it anyway.

Enter the cake pop. Friends, listen to me and listen good. When life hands you shitty cake, make cake pops. Unless it's burned. If it's burned, you're on your own with your head hung low as you slink out to your composter.

So, there it is.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 7: Rainbow Food (um.... well.... sort of, in my own twisted way)

Oh my heart. Can someone please just make today stop? I have just accidentally deleted most of what I just wrote for today's post. Save me, someone save meeeeeeee. Shall I begin again?

Listen, today is one of those days where things REALLY did not go as planned. Not one bit. Our prompt today is make food using our favorite color. I had something planned that although not my favorite color, it's one of the best colors. But.... something special I ordered quite a while ago that was promised to be here by today.... did not arrive. I sent 2 queries to the company, and thanks to an international issue, neither of us could track it. I waited til the very last moment when our letter carrier came today waiting with fingers crossed it would be in my mailbox. Big ol' nope. So, sure I had a backup plan, but that was more experimental, and not really as colorful.

Today I made a Mahogany cake for you. And, it was supposed to be a video. You don't see a video here, do you? At the last minute the other happy vegan pronounced himself as "I'm sick" and slunk off to bed. Literally this occurred as I was standing in the kitchen with the cake on the stand ready for me to slice it.

Men.

Next was an effort of mine to video myself with the cake.

Fail.

Here's the deal. I made a Mahogany cake and took a picture. At present there is a raw kale salad to the left of me, and a slice of this vintage cake with cream cheese frosting to the right of me. Decisions, decisions.

Why Mahogany cake?

It's a color that I just didn't think many people (any people?) would use today. My first choice with the ingredient that didn't arrive was also something I still don't think many will be inspired by. I'm not tipping that hat because I will use it another time. This really does have a reddish hue, it's undeniable. So in the ROY G BIV of color, we've got MOY G BIV today which will have to do.

What is Mahogany cake? Best as I can tell it's a vintage cake recipe using coffee and cocoa. It's not a chocolate cake, it's more a hint of cocoa. And, it has a rust colored hue.... like a wannabe red velvet. But this color occurs naturally since we use pure cocoa, of the non-akaline variety. The cocoa reacts I think with the vinegar and baking soda to give it a reddish tint... something to do with the coffe too, perhaps? I poured through different cake recipes yesterday just in case my special super color ingredient did not arrive, really I did. I read up on the cake history too, then I chose 2 different recipes and went to work on adjusting portions as well as veganizing. This is hilarious in it's own right as you'll scroll below and see one cake picture, not 2. Well, instead of a cake comparison, cake #2 is perfect for tomorrow's topic.... food fails. But let's not get ahead of things.

Here's a picture of my Mahogany cake:

Vegan Mahogany Cake.
As the fork says... "eat cake"

The cake itself is incredible moist (sorry, we all hate that word but I mean damn this cake is moist!) It barely tastes like chocolate, it's actually a flavor unto itself, a flavor cake I've never had before a little difficult to describe. It's a bit sour, enhanced by the cream cheese frosting which has a pronounced tartness as well.

Here's the recipe, if you dare:

2 cups flour triple sifted with

1/3 cup cocoa powder and

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 cups brown sugar (I used dark)

1/2 cup vegan butter (Miyokos is palm oil free, vegan and made by a small business... Miyoko!)

9T unsalted aquafaba

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup black coffee, cooled

1 Tablespoon vinegar (use white or AC)

.5 tsp sea salt

As noted above, triple sift those ingredients. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add 3T aquafaba, whip, add another 3, whip, add last 3 w/vanilla whip.

Fold in 1/2 flour mixture gently (or use low speed on your mixer), add in 1/2 coffee, mix gently, add the other half of flour mixture, fold in, add rest of coffee and all vinegar, fold in.

Pour into 8" pans that you prepared with either vegan veg spray or vegan butter and cocoa to dust.

Bake in 350 preheated oven 20 minutes (yes, 20... at least check at 20, mine was done 20 minutes on the bean!) Remove cake when toothpick inserted comes out clean. After 10 minutes, remove from pans, cool on racks. Frost when completely cool. By the way, use a 325 oven if using convection.

Here's the cream cheese icing recipe I used. It was not the best, a little too much sugar, but I did use Miyoko's cream cheese and damn it had a beautiful tart flavor itself which likely saved the frosting from being ruined with so much sugar:

1/2 cup vegan butter (Miyoko's if you have it)

1 8oz container vegan cream cheese (Miyoko's to the rescue!)

2t vanilla extract

4 cups confectionery sugar, SIFTED

Whip vegan butter, add cream cheese but do not overmix... it can get grainy if overbeaten, add the vanilla, and the confectionery sugar 1 cup at a time, whip til fluffy, careful not to overwhip.

Frost, eat.

Today reminded me to go with the flow. No special ingredient I was counting on, no 2 cake comparison, no video, and the final insult... my own deletion of half my post tonight. I'm tired, very tired. There's no doubt I'm a little on the crabby side, but I'll tell you what's at the root of my bothers. "They" cut down the papaya tree that was growing on the side of US1. She was growing where she didn't belong, and quite a few of us were watching her. She was a she we know because she had teensy papayas on her stem. She was next to a fence and the highway, grown all on her own we suspect from someone out here on Long Beach where I am that had their garden decimated and washed away. All sorts of things are growing where they normally do not, such as a papaya tree growing on the highway. I guess the County decided she had to go, I mean why have something that so many people actually enjoyed and were paying attention to, right? So, now she's gone. She was my planned video, yes a field trip was in the works for my last day of Vegan Month of Food instead of a kitchen tour. l didn't even get to say goodbye.....

Well, at least we always have cake. If you give this one a try, let me know what you think. I'm not really sure how I feel about this one, but it's a super fluffy cake no denying that. See for yourself, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Ooo..... I'm excited ....tomorrow's post will be a snap, LOL.

Vegan love, Mahogany style.

xo

PS: And, because I cannot leave a color post without the real deal.... here's a rainbow from yesterday as I dodged the raindrops.

As always...
No rain, no rainbows

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 6 - The Anti-Vegan

This was the ultimate vegan lasagna.
Three kinds of non-dairy cheese from scratch.
Vegan arribiata sauce from scratch.
Or, you can do your thing with premade.
Whatever you choose, it's going to be great!

Today we are tasked with bringing you food for the so-called anti-vegan. Those who say moronic comments like "mmm, bacon," "but cheese," or "I cannot live on salad."

Sigh.... it's all too real.

I spent hours making a from scratch lasagna for you. I mean from scratch. The only component I didn't make from scratch were the noodles but heck if you have one of those hand crank noodle machines (or even a mechanized version) have at it (just substitute aquafaba for the eggs). I made tofu ricotta, cashew mozzarella and use the parm from the other night's tortellini episode. I spent over 2 hours working the red sauce... same arrabiata as the other night, but double the quantity. There's fresh spinach and fresh basil in this too. If you don't want to make all those components from scratch, you can make bad ass lasagna yourself with ZERO dairy using commercially prepared vegan cheeses. Miyoko's makes a line of non-dairy cheese that will blow your mind. Actually, some of her "wheel" varieties were reviewed by some dairy cheese snob chef not too long ago. My recollection is that they made an "A" grade,  he was pretty shocked apparently.

Those of us in the know with non-dairy cheese are already in the know. But, it does take time to make from scratch non-dairy cheeses, unless you're going for simpler things like I did with the parm. Listen, the cashew cheese I made took about 1.5 hours to cook. But no one needs to do that. I'm going to skip the link to that, and give you Miyoko's wet buffalo mozzarella link IF you want to make your own as that one is quite fast, and really great. As far as the ricotta, you know there's even a Tofutti brand ricotta which is off and on carried by the chains down here. That means if I can find it, it's everywhere. But, again, the link to the tofu ricotta I used will be provided. If you aren't for tofu,  you can message me and I can give you a link to a good almond ricotta (trust me, it will be far more labor intensive). For the sauce, we ALL make vegan red sauce at some point in our lives. You can use your own recipe, or the method I gave you a couple days ago. Or.... you can even buy sauce in a jar.

My whole point of this "anti-vegan" post is that you can make things as easy, or as complicated as you want. Good food doesn't have to take all day to make, but it can if you want to work it that way. It's just up to you. When I make lasagna I typically make the cheeses a day or 2 before (I like using the Miyoko recipe I'm providing but trust me.... her premade variety is the best). I almost always use sauce from a jar. I choose vegan marinara. I add things to it. I make it mine. I do not sprinkle dead animals in it, there's simply no need.

If you wanted to add a meat like protein, pick up some Beyond Meat or Gardein crumbles, Treat it as you were using whatever you're used to as far as cooking or seasoning. But here's another great thing, those are already cooked so you can just sprinkle them into your sauce without cooking ahead of time.

Today, I put my fancy sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan, lined with the overlapping lasagna noodles, completely covered the noodles with the ricotta, covered the ricotta completely with sauce, sprinkled fresh spinach and basil over that, then dolloped my cashew mozzarella all over. I sprinkled a bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper, then repeated with the next layer the same way. When I got to the top layer, I smothered the top layer with the rest of the cashew mozzarella, more basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg. I covered the dish and baked at 325 about 40 minutes, removed the covering and baked for about 7 more minutes til the cheese got just brown (a few bits are much darker, you'll see). Let stand for 10-15 minutes before cutting. I swear, it was delicious!!!

Yay! I made lasagna!

Here's the links if you choose to  make your own non-dairy cheeses:

https://www.artisanveganlife.com/a-better-buffalo-mozzarella/

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/tofu-ricotta

https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-vegan-parmesan-cheese/

If you want to use pre-made, splurge if you can for the Miyoko's mozzarella. Use the Galaxy brand of VEGAN parm (they have 2 varieties, one is vegan, the other is not.... look for the purple "vegan" label) and for ricotta, try the Tofutti brand, or I think Kite Hill has a version now (pricey most likely) but why not make your own ricotta at least, it takes minutes and is so tasty.

I don't know.... when anyone says a rude or sarcastic comment about veganism I really do what I can to keep love in my heart and respond with ways to help them find what they think they will miss by going vegan.

Honestly, the only thing I regret about being vegan is that I wasn't born vegan. Now, go eat some lasagna with some decadent non-dairy cheese that didn't cause a bit of pain or cruelty to our friends the cows or their babies.

See you tomorrow!

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 5: Rocking the Cookbooks

Today I'm supposed to write/talk about what cookbook(s) inspired me most. Seriously? This is like Sophie's Choice! I have so many cookbooks. Not all of them are vegan. You know for a long time I've taken to picking up cookbooks at thrifts that I think have great potential to veganize the recipes. I also have scored some amazing all vegan cookbooks at thrifts for pennies. A few that come right to mind are Nava Atlas' book Vegan Holiday Kitchen, The Vegan Lunchbox Around the World, another copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (which I gave away to someone looking for it), and even The Garden of Vegan. Total scores!

While we were in Utah, we went to a thrift shop (of course) in search of cookbooks (of course) and I walked out with another Moosewood cookbook that I didn't have, as well as an all vegan cookbook, total spent $1.50.

When we arrived here, I came armed with a binder of recipes that were written exclusively for me by a professional chef. It's called a 10 day cycle menu. The teacher/chef taught me all the recipes as part of my training. I still use those core recipes, but other than that binder the only other books I had were my mom's typed out tiny recipe collection (still missing since Irma), and the Betty Crocker cookbook. Ok, maybe there were 1 or 2 other books tossed in there, but nothing else comes to mind at present. Flash forward, I now have over 200 cookbooks plus 3 large binders crammed full of my own recipes. It's not elitist trust me. These books are research for me, entertainment, and beneficial to my own business. Most have come from thrifting. I think of all the authors, I love Isa the best, at least I seem to reach for her books the most. Last  year for this topic I spoke about the Vegan Black Metal Chef's "The Seitanic Spellbook." I still recommend that book for sure. Now with the solidification of the Internet as a large part of so many of our lives, it's just too easy to go on line, pick keywords and poof up pops 20,000 recipes for a donut right?

Before I get to the books I feature, I do want to say I love the Vegan 8 blog and facebook page, and It Doesn't Take Like Chicken gets high marks from me as well. When someone is a new(er) vegan, I like to recommend Chloe Coscarelli's books because they have basic easy to find ingredients, contain photos of the food, and I've never ever found a typo in any of the recipes I've used (and yes, I've used her books often as well, especially her first one Chloe's Kitchen).

Now, I've rambled so here's the deal. Here are 2 books that most kitchens would benefit from, and certainly my own kitchen really benefits from having on site.

Wait, what? These aren't cookbooks so what gives?

The book on the right is one I used to keep in my massage studio when I first picked it up. This way I could look up ingredients if people had skin allergies or were taking certain things that maybe I didn't know about. A Consumer's Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients lost its place in my studio years ago, and migrated to the kitchen. It's gotten quite a workout through the years, trust me. This is an older version, I'm certain there are updates. For someone like me who has seen so many people through the years with so many sensitives and outright allergies, this book is mandatory. Some of you may be shocked at how many "cosmetic" additives and ingredients are actually used in food (another reason to stick as much as possible with real food, not processed). I would also suggest any home that has children should have a copy of this book.  The one on the left is self-explanatory. For all the cooking and baking I do, and all the knowledge I've acquired with this work I do, I still reach for that substitutions book a fair amount of time. I find it's really beneficial for me living here because at times we are just so darn limited in what's available in the stores (especially now in the off season).

Both of these books are not cookbooks, but short of someone living the raw lifestyle I cannot think of anyone else who's kitchen likely wouldn't benefit from one or both of these.

Tomorrow I'm coming at you with a video. Brace yourself!

Vegan love, as always.

J

xo