I Got My Books!

The title is not very unique and catchy, but it gets right to the point.  I got my books.  I had a short list of items on my Hanukkah list this year and I emailed it in document form to my mom and allowed her to forward it on to anybody that might need it.  Our extended family always picks names out of a hat/cup/bowl to make gift giving easier (although it never is) and a little bit surprising (which it rarely is).  


I didn't know if my mom would give the entire list to whichever family member picked my name, or if she would pick one or two items off of the list as ideas for the lucky relative.  The top two items on the list were vegan books: The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and Vegan with a Vengance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  I had been wanting Moskowitz's book for awhile after seeing it in a local Borders store and then hearing rave reviews.  Then after seeing Alicia Silverstone all over the media with her new book, I went nuts with the need to own it.  


Hanukkah passed and I didn't get either book from my parents or my brother.  I had lost hope and was ready to cough up the money by myself.  My aunt was a sly gift-wrapper though, and at our family Hanukkah party I unwrapped an old shoe box and thought to myself, I didn't ask for shoes and why would somebody buy gym shoes as a gift anyhow?  


Sneaky, sneaky!  She hid the books inside the box!  I was quite giddy after that and wanted to run home and start cooking.  The best thing I've found so far?  They both mention tempeh!!  


Oh, and my aunt reminded me, something I never noticed, that both books are by Jewish women.  Is this a trend?  


My brother's girlfriend who was sitting next to me during the gift-opening sessions looked over and asked, "Are those the kind of books you read?"  The funny thing is, I knew exactly what she meant.  Silverstone's book is part informational and part recipes.  So, only partly the kind you read.  Unless you're the type of person who sits down and reads a cookbook front to back.  I haven't gotten to that point yet.  


AND....(yes, there is more)


While helping one of my very best friends finish her holiday shopping today, we happened upon Urban Outfitters and their display of cupcakes--several cupcake books lying amongst other cupcake-themed goodies.  One book, BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery, caught her eye and she asked me if I wanted it because she knows I am a baking fanatic.  That's right folks, she hadn't bought for me yet.  She'll get a tsking later.  I told her I wanted to be surprised, so she went to the register and purchased it stating that she would wrap it beautifully later.  

Previous vegetarian cookbook count: 2

Current vegetarian cookbook count: 4

Future vegetarian cookbook count: 5

The cookbook cabinet is in a tight squeeze now.

I Don't Dislike My Hair That Much

It's almost 3am here and on any normal day I'd be sleeping.  My plan was to have my next post be about my latest trip to Trader Joe's, but I find my 2am wake up bark to be more interesting.

Bill, our pudgy little doxie boy, tends to switch between my parents' bed and his (and his sister's) blankie in the loft at night.  When he wants to get back into bed, sometimes he's just too lazy or achy (he has a bad back) to use his doggy steps to get up there himself, so he barks for somebody to help him.  At 2am I got a bark, a rare occurrence since he usually wants to get into my parents' bed and not mine.  It was then that I realized I had to pee.

Upon washing my hands and glancing in the mirror, I noticed an unusual amount of white on my head where the part in my hair was. Because I had woken up and not fixed my hair, it was on the opposite side of my head than usual and messy.  I fooled around with my hair a bit and was shocked to notice that my hair seemed thinner in the front than I remembered.  Panic.  What young female wouldn't panic?

I had noticed more shedding than usual while combing my hair after showers, but I passed it off as a seasonal shed.  I hoped it was.  But now I realize my latent fear is a reality.

My pseudo-veganism is causing me to lose hair.

I sighed and figured I'd sleep on it and talk to my mom tomorrow--or rather today at a reasonable time.  I hate the idea of talking to her about this because she still hasn't accepted my vegan diet.  She believes I'm depriving myself and taking on all the world's problems and suffering for everyone else.  She worries than I'm not getting protein and vital components of a healthy diet.  I can't tell you how many times she's suggested I have a dairy day a week.  Obviously I refuse.  So you can only imagine what telling her I'm losing my hair would do.

Well, I can't sleep.  I turned on my trusty laptop and did a search for the vegan diet and hair loss.  Boy was that a relief!

Friends, the vegan diet apparently causes a type of hair loss that begins 2-4 months into the diet and corrects itself a few months later.  The body recognizes the diet as a crash diet (and the fact that I'm trying to lose weight probably doesn't help things) and crash diets often cause hair loss.  Also, vegan diets are often short on iron and zinc, which can cause hair loss.  I'll be supplementing that, although I'm sure there's enough in my multivitamin.

I started my pseudo-veganism 4 months ago.  Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to waiting for the hair loss to stop and reverse, I want it now!  Who wouldn't?

I'm a little upset.  I'm mostly relieved.  I'm also trying to restrain myself from jumping out of bed right now to go buy supplements and oils to make the diet all nutritious and wonderful.

Omegas (They apparently come in 3, 6, and 9)

For awhile I gave up on looking for an omega-3 supplement that I could take.  Obviously, fish oil is not even vegetarian.  Don't even get me started on those "pescavegetarians."  Flaxseed oil, although vegetarian and vegan friendly, when in pill form is encapsulated in a gelatin monster.  I looked in drug stores and grocery stores galore to no avail.  I gave up.

But then there was Whole Foods.  Whole Foods has everything and anything, right?  So this miracle of grocery stores must have vegan friendly omega-3 supplements, right?  So I walk down the vast supplement aisles in the middle of store and find the omega-3 (and 6 and 9) section.  I find a bottle of vegetarian flaxeed pills and nearly jump for joy.  It does not, however, say vegan anywhere on the bottle.  I ponder.  Not everything vegan says vegan blatantly on the bottle.  I read the ingredients several times over and put the bottle back while I continue to ponder.  And then the inevitable happens.

"Can I help you find anything?"  I don't believe I've ever roamed the supplement and beauty section of Whole Foods without being tackled by a worker in a dark green apron who probably thinks I'm inept at picking out a moisturizer or multivitamin.  This time I do not feel so intellectually violated, but instead relieved.

"Do you have any vegan-friendly omega-3 supplements?"  He promptly takes me to the refrigerated section and shows me a bottle of liquid stuff.  It is pomegranate-blueberry flavored and can be added to yogurt (soy, of course), juice, anything you'd like, or taken straight.  It is expensive at nearly $30 per bottle.  But it is completely vegan.  I go for it.

The first couple of times I put the thick, creamy goop in my orange-pineapple-banana juice.  It makes it slightly smoothie-like.  I prefer my juice the original way.  The next time I take it straight from a tablespoon measure and it takes me a minute to get it all down.  It isn't quite unpleasant, but it isn't my ideal way to take a supplement.  I try it in soymilk and have to add chocolatey powder or I'll gag.  I was never a milk-drinking girl.

Meanwhile I've been getting the runs.  I know, you really wanted to know that, right?  I figure it's a side effect of Thanksgiving or the soy yogurt I've been trying.  I eat better, I watch everything.  I pay very close attention to when it happens.

I take the flaxeed goop.  I run to the toilet.

With nearly an entire $30 bottle of vegan flaxeed goop in the fridge, I realize it is giving me the runs.  Dammit.

Back to the beginning.

A Semi-Vegan Thanksgiving

It is December 1st and clearly I am in need of a Thanksgiving update.

Let me start by saying that I am entirely too jealous of my vegan friend who, with her vegan partner-in-crime (another reason to be jealous of her), prepared a completely vegan Thanksgiving feast for both of their families.  First, that is completely amazing to me.  I am so new at this dance that I can just barely imagine an entire feast of edible vegan food.  Second, the day my family sits down to eat an entirely vegan-friendly meal made by me with stuff they've never heard of before on plates before them is the day the United States gets universal healthcare a la Canada or England.

Thanksgiving is my mom's holiday.  Each sibling in her family has a designated holiday to host and we usually go nuts over Thanksgiving here.  For some reason we were a little more relaxed this year.  Mom roasted the turkeys, my dad attempted a turducken whose parts are packed away in the freezer for later sentencing.  My feelings on that will remain silent for the benefit of my parents and the birds.

The rest of the menu:
*I made the usual sweet potato casserole with streusel topping.  This is the same recipe you will find yearly in Cooking Light magazine.  It is a reader favorite and with good reason.  It is delicious.  I love sweet potatoes even just baked and plain, but mash them up and top them with sweet goodness and they are divine.  I have always made them vegan, substituting the half-and-half with soy milk and using a vegetable based substitute for the butter in the topping so that my uncle can eat them.  You see, my great uncle keeps kosher.  Turkey and dairy don't mix.  (P.S., we always have one kosher turkey and one non-kosher turkey.  I never really understood why we don't just get two kosher turkeys.)

*I also made Alicia Silverstone's rice crispy treats for dessert.  Everyone loved them!  See, vegan is scrumptious.  I'm not sure everyone realized they were eating something semi-healthy and vegan, though.  I feel slightly sly and evil that way.

*Mom made mashed potatoes using soy milk and Smart Balance spread for my benefit.  I love Mom.  (FYI, depending on the variety of Smart Balance spread that you buy, it may or may not be vegan.)

*Mom's cousin made the famous green bean casserole.  I used to enjoy this dish, but I look on the bright side in that it saved me some calories this year.

*My aunt made stuffing.  I'm not a fan of stuffing anyhow, so not being able to eat it didn't bother me in the least.

*My cousin my roasted veggies.  A huge pan of veggies (carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, green beans) seasoned and roasted fit for any diet.  Yum!

*Rolls with your choice of butter or Smart Balance spread.
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*Mom's cranberry sauce (for some reason tastier this year than in years past, I kept eating it!)

I'm forgetting something, I'm always forgetting something...

There is always more dessert than dinner at our family gatherings and I've realized that becoming an almost-vegan has helped me not over-do the desserts and keep myself from busting the buttons off my pants.  You can't stuff your face when you can't eat it!  As I mentioned before, I made the rice crispy treats which were a hit.  I also made some almost-vegan ginger bread cookies (one humane-certified egg) whose heads and limbs were broken off from a fall when my mom accidentally knocked the container off the counter.  My poor limbless cookies.  And the citrus fruit salad with pomegranate seeds was quite refreshing.

I went to bed exhausted, but not over-stuffed.  That I did the next day with the left-over mixed nuts...

The end!