Additionally, I’ve styled this as a one pot recipe. Any method that dirties fewer dishes is a plus in my book!

Recommended Tools

I’ve mentioned it before, and I can’t stress it enough, if you chop a lot of vegetables, you’re going to want a mandoline. I linked to a couple of fancier versions in the Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup recipe, but the one I use at home is much more basic:

And then there is the immersion blender. This thing is so. useful. I use it all the time, and it is so much easier and less messy than a traditional blender. If you don’t have one, you need to get one:

Recipe

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Colcannon Soup (Vegan)

This vegan colcannon soup is a hearty, satisfying winter soup hiding a lot of cabbage and an unrivaled depth of flavor.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Irish

Keyword comfort food, Vegan

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Equipment

• Immersion Blender

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 a green cabbage
• 2 tbsp olive oil or cooking oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans, undrained
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1-4 cups water
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Scrub and slice or dice the potatoes. Shape doesn't matter since they'll be blended later. No need to peel.
• Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are fork soft all the way through.
• While the potatoes boil, dice the onion and finely chop the cabbage.
• Drain the potatoes and leave them in the strainer.
• Add the cooking oil to the pot followed by the onions, cabbage, and thyme.
• Sautée the cabbage and onions until the cabbage is fully softened, stirring frequently to evenly coat with the oil and evenly sautée. About 10 minutes.
• Return the potatoes to the pot with the cabbage and onions, and add the vegetable broth.
• Add enough water to bring the level of liquid almost level with the vegetables in the pot.
• Simmer 5-10 minutes.
• While the soup is simmering, blend together the cannellini beans (with the aquafaba – liquid from the can), nutritional yeast, and butter until smooth.
• OPTIONAL: For a chunkier soup, remove some of the cabbage and potatoes from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir back into the soup after blending.
• Pour the blended bean cream into the simmering soup and use an immersion blender to blend it all together until reaching the desired consistency. I like to leave mine just a little bit chunky, but others prefer it completely smooth – especially if you have picky eaters in the house! If necessary, add more water during blending to thin out the soup.
• Season to taste with black pepper and salt.

The post Colcannon Soup (Vegan) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Amy’s No Chicken Noodle Soup is vegan and nails the chicken noodle soup flavor, but just isn’t hearty enough for me. Actually, I rarely eat a canned soup without at least adding a bunch of frozen veggies to it. The Amy’s soup can be a little hard to find at some grocery stores, but it’s easy to pick up on Amazon either by the can:

Or a case of 12:

Preparation Tip: Fast and Easy Slicing

If you cook with a lot of vegetables, a mandoline vegetable slicer is an amazing tool you will use ALL. THE. TIME. With mine, I was able to slice all the veggies for the soup in about 4 minutes.

Do you have a favorite “Cheater” recipe?

Print

Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan)

This vegan Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup is a quick and easy weeknight comfort food that is "Cheater" because it uses some ready-made grocery store ingredients.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword cheater, comfort food, soup, Vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cans Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• up to 7 cups water
• 1 can cannelloni beans, undrained
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 package noodles of your choice eggless dumpling noodles, orzo, and ditalini work well
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tbsp oregano measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 ½ tbsp thyme measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 lb frozen mixed vegetables or frozen peas* See note below
• Salt to taste

Optional Add-ins:

• Diced mushrooms shitakes are especially good
• diced potatoes
• green beans
• diced root vegetables parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, etc.

Instructions

• Heat oil in a soup pot on Med-High heat.
• Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery.
  
• Sauté until the onions are translucent.
• Add 2 cups of water and the pepper, garlic salt, oregano, thyme, and cayenne.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add the 2 cans of Amy's Soup, the cannelloni beans, and nutritional yeast.
• Add 2 to 5 cups of water based on your broth preferences. I typically use the soup cans to rinse out anything that gets left in them.
• Add the noodles and butter and bring to a boil.
• Boil until the noodles are soft, add the frozen vegetables.
• When the soup returns to a boil, it's ready to serve!

Notes

*Frozen Veggies Mom Hack:  I seriously felt like a genius when I thought of this.  If you are going to need to cool this soup off quickly (say, for instance to children who are starving to *death* and cannot possibly wait 3 minutes for it to cool down), hold back some of the frozen vegetables and add them when you serve the soup.  So much better than adding an ice cube because it doesn’t water down the soup!  Bonus:  If you let the kids add the veggies themselves, they’ll often take even more than you would have given them.  BAM.  #momgenuity

 

The post Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Firey leaves, cozy sweaters, hot apple cider, and ALL THINGS PUMPKIN.  That time of year is just around the corner.  Normally, I would wait until at least September to post my recipe for Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer, but an excellent article published on Food Babe yesterday, combined with a couple other factors, has me breaking out my favorite recipe early this year.

Fall is my very favorite season.  I could wax poetic for pages about the tangible magic I feel in the air throughout the autumn season (but I won’t!  I promise; no need to click away).

I will be the first to admit that I still feel some lingering trauma from the Polar Vortex that turned a glittering Michigan winter into a flesh cracking Jack Frost  Hell dragging its icy talons across the midwest all the way into MAY.  I am still joyously embracing every moment of muggy heat and asphalt fumes this August, and I refuse to openly admit that I enjoy a feeling of anticipation on the intermittent Fall-like days.  I still cringe at every buzzword mention of the Polar Vortex, whilst battling flashbacks to the 90’s and the most overused weather buzzword of all time:

And yet, even while fighting every inkling that there is yet another winter just around the corner, it didn’t take much to push me into Fall mode several weeks early.  And that little push was this incredibly well researched, and fairly disturbing, article on what actually goes into a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.

It is completely unethical for Starbucks, or any other business for that matter, to attempt to cover up their use of unsavory ingredients just to preserve profits.  Either come up with better ingredients, or accept the fact that a lot of us don’t want that garbage in our bodies.  Especially when making something just as delicious and MUCH more nutritious is so easy.

Similar to the Starbucks confection, most grocery store coffee creamers are full of all sorts of yucky stuff: hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and worst of all (in my opinion) factory farmed milk. The way those cows are treated is enough to make me wretch. And I can’t even bear to think about what they do to all those little baby calves.  Not to mention the stomach-turning health detriments caused by dairy.

Any way you slice it, whether it’s health concerns, sugar issues, fat issues, lactose issues, ethical, or humane issues, I just couldn’t continue buying those creamers. Your purchases say something! Not just about you, but about where you stand on various issues. I try very hard to keep my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

So here it is, my most popular recipe, which also happens to be on of my easiest, Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer:

Special Holiday Note: This creamer makes a wonderful and ethical gift.  Pour it into a clean, reused glass jar, maybe paint or glue some used wrapping paper on the cap, use strips of re-used wrapping paper to create a ribbon or bow, and pop on a gift tag made from old holiday cards or wrapping paper, and Voila!  An affordable, easy holiday gift sure to please!

Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups of creamer
2 cups Almond Milk*
2 tbsp mashed pumpkin (canned is fine, but make sure it’s just pumpkin and not pumpkin pie)
2 tbsp maple syrup**
1 tsp cinnamon***
¼ – ½ tsp nutmeg***
¼ – ½ tsp ground cloves***
¼ – ½ tsp ground ginger***
½ tsp vanilla extract*

* If you use Vanilla Almond Milk, you may not need to add any additional vanilla. You can also use Soy Milk, Rice Milk, Flax Milk, or Hemp Milk. Do not use animal milk – it will separate, go spoil quickly, and taste off.

** Adjust to taste and desired sweetness. If you use sweetened Almond Milk, you won’t need as much sweetener. Fair Trade/Equal Exchange brown or white sugar or agave nectar can be substituted for the maple syrup. The Maple just Falls up the flavor that much more.

*** Adjust spices to taste. You can also substitute pre-mixed “pumpkin pie spice.”

Directions

1. Whisk all the ingredients, except vanilla if you’re planning to add some, together in a sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Ensure all pumpkin is completely mixed in.

2. Heat until steaming, but not boiling.

3. Whisk in vanilla.

4. Pour into a jar for storage.

It’s that easy!

Shake before using, as the spices may settle.

This stuff makes my morning!

In addition to being a great gift, substituting this creamer for milk in any recipe is a great way to fulfill all your pumpkin spice desires:
Cookies,
Cakes,
Cupcakes,
Oatmeal,
Pancakes,
Chia Seed Pudding, …

What flavor would you like to see me try out next?  

What do you put in your coffee?

And as a final Fall themed bonus, I would like to share the following link in memory of my brother, Boo.  I spend days cracking up every time I read it, and I can see and hear him reading it in my head.  Fair warning, it is heavily peppered with rather “colorful” language:

It’s Decorative Gourd Season Mother******s.

You’re welcome.

The post Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer and Why to Avoid the Starbucks Version appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

These Falafel patties are a great flexible option. You can make them work with a variety of sides just by adjusting the side dishes.

Baked Falafel Patties
INGREDIENTS
– 1 16 oz jar chickpeas/garbanzo beans (same thing)*
– 1 medium onion
– 2 tbsp teff flour (or any flour of your choice)
– Oil appropriate for cooking (high heat) like grapeseed
– Spices**:
– 2 cloves garlic
– 1 tbsp cumin
– 1 tbsp cilantro
– 1 tsp tumeric
– 1 tsp fenugeek
OR whatever spices you prefer/have handy

*I find that it’s a big money saver to buy dried beans in bulk and reconstitute a whole bunch in the pressure cooker (or slow cooker) then can and/or freeze them. Also saves us from worrying about BPA lined cans, but canned chickpeas will work just as well.
** Since I knew I was making gravy, I went with more “American” spices, to a degree.  For a traditional mediteranean flavor use lots of cilantro and parsley, preferrably fresh, numeric, and coriander.

DIRECTIONS
1  Dice up the onions and mince the garlic. Let both sit for at least 5 minutes to maximize nutritional value.

2.  Preheat the oven to 450 (or save a little power and don’t preheat).

3.  Blend everything but the flour and oil in a food processor. It should be a rough paste.

4.  Stir in the flour.

5.  Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of the oil.

6.  Form the paste into patties roughly the size of small hamburgers and place them in the dish.

7. Mist, sprinkle, or brush the tops of the patties with oil.

8.  Bake until the patties are just starting to brown on top. Flip them over (they should be browned on the bottom).  Bake 10 more minutes.

9.  Enjoy!

This recipe calls for boiling the potatoes because of the way things played out when I made it, but making it with roasted potatoes and a little rosemary takes it up to an unbelievable flavor – perfect for Thanksgiving.

Garlic Smashed Red Potatoes
INGREDIENTS
All amounts are flexible based on amount you want to make/have on hand
– small red potatoes (the smaller the better)
– garlic powder
– 1/4 c (or less) almond milk (unsweetened)
– 1/4 c (or more) Nutritional Yeast

DIRECTIONS
1 Wash your potatoes, but don’t peel them – there are tons of vitamins and minerals in the skin. Chop the potatoes into 11 inch chunks (or whatever, the smaller the chunks, the faster the boiling time).

2. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender (no need to bring the water to a boil before adding the potatoes).

3. Drain the soft potatoes, sprinkle generously with garlic powder and nutritional yeast.

4. Mash with a potato masher (or your chosen mashing instrument), adding almond milk as needed to reach desired consistency.

5. Serve!

Sauteed Kale
INGREDIENTS
Amounts are flexible based on taste and how much you want to serve.
– 1 bunch fresh Kale (collards, mustard, turnip, or similar greens work, too), chopped to bites size.
– 1/2 a medium onion, diced and allowed to sit at room temp 5 minutes
– 2/3 cup roughly chopped mushrooms (I prefer shitake, but almost any mushrooms will do).
– garlic powder to taste
– 1 or 2 tbsp grapeseed or other high heat oil OR vegetable broth for sauteeing

DIRECTIONS
1 Sautee the onions and mushrooms in only as much oil* or vegetable broth* as is necessary to keep them from sticking until the onions begin to grow translucent.
2. When the onions start to become translucent, add the Kale to the pan.
3. Stir everything together in the pan, adding a few drops of oil* or broth* as necessary. I also like to add a splash of water to help wilt the kale.
4. Sprinkle garlic powder and pepper to taste.
5. As soon as all of the kale has wilted, the dish is ready to serve! Don’t overcook, this is a fast dish!

* For lower fat, sautee in vegetable broth instead!

The post Baked Falafel Patties, Kale, and Vegetable Gravy appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Carrot cake was an obvious starting point for me because our whole family LOVES carrot cake, but we rarely get to indulge.  Plus, Flintstone thoroughly enjoyed his carrot cake at his first birthday party:

But I knew I wanted to add more than just carrot since traditional carrot cake doesn’t actually have that much nutritional value. I decided on zucchini because I happened to have some very nice local zucchini from the Farmer’s market on hand, and I know zucchini bakes well.

Finally, I decided to come up with a vegan recipe. We are not technically vegan. We have backyard chickens for eggs, and I could have just as easily used eggs in the recipe, but then I probably wouldn’t have posted it. Some people don’t think twice before using grocery store grade eggs in a recipe, even with all my harping on ethical eating. So by posting a recipe that calls for eggs, I worried I would be inadvertently encouraging people to buy or use more eggs. If you aren’t familiar with the sickening practices of egg factories, including throwing thousands of baby chicks into meat grinders ALIVE, the please be a responsible human being and educate yourself about the products you buy.

It’s not like me to forget to take pictures of food, but I was pretty wrapped up in Flintstone’s birthday, so this it the only decent picture I got of his cake:

I was worried when I was making it because it had SO many veggies veggies in the batter and it looked a little dense, but it turned out really great, and it was a huge hit.  As soon as it was served, people started asking me what was in it and asking for the recipe, and it was at that moment that I realized that I needed a better picture for the post, but, alas, the entire cake was quickly consumed.  Which is why I have dubbed it my “All Gone” cake:

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Ground Flax Seeds
6 Tbsp water
2 Cups shredded organic carrot
2 Cups shredded organic zucchini
2 Cups Fair Trade/Equal Exchange Brown sugar (white sugar is ok, too)
1/2 Cup coconut oil (or other oil, your choice)
2 Cups fun flour and all purpose whole wheat flour*
2 Tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tsp ground nutmeg
pinch cloves (optional)
1 Tsp salt
2 Tsp baking soda

* We have been experimenting a lot with alternative kinds of flour.  I actually used about 1/3 coconut flour, 1/3 teff flour, and 1/3 all purpose whole wheat flour.  Different kinds of flour are fun and can really up the nutritional value of the recipe, but be aware that they may change the liquid requirements.  I just continued adding almond milk and water until my batter reached a “batter” like consistency before I added the veggies, and it turned out perfect!

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 (or don’t, and save a little electricity).  Use coconut oil to grease and flour a 9X13 cake pan.

2.  Thoroughly blend the Flax Seed Meal with the Water – you may want to use a food processor for maximum effect.  Let sit for at least 5 minutes.  During which time, you can:

3. Grate the carrots and zucchini.

4.  In a large batter bowl, mix the flax seed goo with the sugar until creamy, then stir in the coconut oil until well mixed.

5.   Add in the flour(s), spices, salt, and baking soda, and mix well.  Add almond milk or water as necessary to achieve a “batter” like texture.

6.  Stir in the carrots and zucchini – you could also throw in some nuts in this step if you wanted.

7.  Pour/spread into the prepared pan.  Bake approximately 50 minutes until a reusable skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Vegan “Cream Cheese” Icing:

Do you have any idea what they do to dairy cows, and, even worse, what they do to the baby cows they have to continually impregnate dairy cows with to keep them producing milk?  I, quite honestly, had no idea.  I went on eating cheese long after I stopped eating meat.  Even though I have tried to train myself to always questions where my food comes from, I was raised in a culture that takes food for granted.  And I LOVE cheese.  Love it.  It was the one food I never thought I’d give up.  Until the first time I saw a newborn calf being brutally dragged from it’s mother, both of them crying out for each other, the baby being carelessly injured in the process, and the mother remaining locked in a small cage, producing milk, set to repeat the whole process every year of her life.  Just remembering it is almost making me cry now.

I love cheese, and there are still some places I can get it, local goat farmers who I know don’t engage in these practices, and maybe one day we’ll have our own cow.  It is, after all, possible, after allowing time for cow and calf to establish a relationship, to take 1/2 the cow’s milk production humanely.  But you won’t catch me buying cheese, or any other dairy product, from a grocery store ever again.

So, please, if you can’t find or are unwilling to use vegan cream cheese, which is now available in almost every grocery store except Piggly Wiggly (ugh!), top this cake with something else.  Use Cinnamon icing, or any frosting recipe from Happy Herbivore.

Ingredients:

VEGAN Cream Cheese
Fair Trade Confectioners/Powdered sugar
Almond Milk (or your choice non-animal milk) – Vanilla flavored works great.
Cinnamon

Directions:

There are no set proportions for this recipe, at least the way I make it.  I used about 3/4 a standard container of vegan cream cheese, maybe 3/4 a cup of powdered sugar, and more almond milk than I needed.  I like my icing so that it drizzles over the cake, but really I had intended to make frosting so the cake would be easier to decorate.

Put your cream cheese and sugar into a bowl and add small amounts of the almond milk, mixing in a little at a time, until you reach desired consistency.  Adjust sweetness with more sugar.

Add cinnamon to taste.

***

Stand back, and watch it disappear.  This cake will be all gone faster than Todd Aikin’s credibility at a feminist rally.

As always, if you try it, please stop back by and let me know how you like it!

***

Today I’m linking up with Impulsive Addict and Seriously Shawn for Talk to Us Tuesday.  I rarely do blog memes, but this one has no rules, so it’s hard to resist (almost as hard to resist as the lovely hosts).

The post Carrot and Zucchini “All Gone” Cake appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

      Fall is in the air.  At least, I suspect Fall is in the air back in Michigan where I grew up – to whence I am trying to return.  Here in the South, it’s just not quite as oppressively hot as it has been for the last 5 months.  But Fall even down here there are still signs of Fall popping up in some places.  Like Starbucks.  Imagine my thrill when I found out that the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back! 

      Part of the reason I love Fall so much is because of the flavors.  Hot, spicy drinks.  Pumpkin, squashes, and other roasted Fall veggies.  Cinnamon and nutmeg and ginger!  Wonderful.  And, thankfully, all things I can use to get my Fall fix even when there are no beautiful Fall colors, crisp breezes, or hayrides and when the only sweaters I’m wearing have short sleeves.

      Even though I am a complete coffee house addict, I’m still not the type to be spitting up almost $5 a pop on a regular basis for fancy coffee drinks.  MacGyver and I hit up coffee houses as a treat.  One of our favorite impromptu dates is always to grab coffee down by the waterfront then go for a long walk.  Those rare treats don’t even come close to filling my Pumpkin Spice coffee requirements for the season, though.

       Enter, Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamers.  My absolute thrill at discovering these fancy holiday creamers in the grocery store was short lived.  Most grocery store coffee creamers are full of all sorts of yucky stuff: hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and worst of all (in my opinion) factory farmed milk.  The way those cows are treated is enough to make me retch.  And I can’t even bear to think about what they do to all those little baby calves.

       Any way you slice it, whether it’s health concerns, sugar issues, fat issues, lactose issues, ethical, or humane issues, I just couldn’t continue buying those creamers.  You purchases say something!  Not just about you, but about where you stand on various issues.  I try very hard to keep my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

       So, while I was sitting around pouting that the nearest Starbucks, where I could get a soy Pumpkin Spice Latte, was 40 minutes away, it occurred to me that there really isn’t all that much to coffee creamers.  I mean, really, it’s just sweetened, flavored milk, right?  So why not try to make my very own Urban Earthworm Ethical, Vegan, Healthier Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer?  And, last night, that is just what I did.

      I kept the recipe simple (mostly because I was trying to do this before making dinner ;-)), and was surprised by what a breeze this was to make.  And, like most of my recipes, it’s pretty easily customized based on what you have on hand.

 Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups of creamer
2 cups Almond Milk*
2 tbsp mashed pumpkin (canned is fine, but make sure it’s just pumpkin and not pumpkin pie)
2 tbsp maple syrup**
1 tsp cinnamon***
¼ – ½ tsp nutmeg***
¼ – ½ tsp ground cloves***
¼ – ½ tsp ground ginger***
½ tsp vanilla extract*

* If you use Vanilla Almond Milk, you may not need to add any additional vanilla.  You can also use Soy Milk, Rice Milk, Flax Milk, or Hemp Milk.  Do not use animal milk.

** Adjust to taste and desired sweetness.  If you use sweetened Almond Milk, you won’t need as much sweetener.  Fair Trade/Equal Exchange brown or white sugar or agave nectar can be substituted for the maple syrup.  The Maple just Falls up the flavor that much more. 

*** Adjust spices to taste.  You can also substitute pre-mixed “pumpkin pie spice.”

Directions

1.  Whisk all the ingredients, except vanilla if you’re planning to add some, together in a sauce pan over medium-high heat.

2.  Heat until steaming, but not boiling.

3.  Whisk in vanilla.

4.  Pour into a jar for storage. 

It’s that easy!

Shake before using, as the spices may settle.

This stuff makes my morning! 

I think I’m going to experiment with other flavors when I’m through with the Pumpkin Spice.  Any requests?

What do you put in your coffee?

The post Pumpkin Spice Creamer appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

      Since we started on our Ethical Eating journey a couple years ago, I’ve heard of nutritional yeast here and there.  It was one of those things that kept popping up in recipes and articles that I pretty much hand waved because it sounded too weird and not appetizing at all.

      You would think I’d know better by now!

      Since we’ve recently been working to cut out as much dairy as possible from our diets, I’ve been looking for something to satisfy my substantial cravings for cheese.  It was during this research that I found out enough about nutritional yeast to convince me to give it a shot:

– Nutritional Yeast, also called “Nooch” (a more kid friendly name), is a yeast typically grown on sugar cane or beet sugar that is then baked.  It is NOT active yeast and should not be confused with brewer’s yeast or baking yeast.  Because it is baked, it is not a raw food.

– Nutritional yeast has a delicious round, cheesy flavor that is very easy to incorporate into various recipes. And kids LOVE it.

– Nutritional yeast, or Nooch, is good for you! Low in calories, but high in protein and many other vital nutrients, Nooch has 8g of complete protein and 4g fiber in just two tablespoons plus it is a good source of B-vitamins (including, in most cases, B12, which vegans sometimes have a hard time getting), niacin, thiamin, biotin, and folic acid and minerals selenium, chromium, zinc, phosphorus, and magnesium. Seriously, it is hard to believe how healthy it is with as yummy as it is!

– Nutritional Yeast is a source of complete protein, meaning it contains all 9 amino acids your body can’t produce on its own. Seriously, anyone tells you you need to eat meat to get “good” protein is trapped in the past. Nooch, Quinoa, edamame – there are a lot of excellent plant sources of complete protein as well as “incomplete” plant proteins like nuts which are no less important.

– Kids love it. This is a biggie. My kids now see nooch as a treat. Flintstone will BEG for nutritional yeast sprinkled on air popped popcorn and Punky feels like she’s getting away with something when I let her sprinkle it on her veggies.

If you’ve never tried Nutritional Yeast, Nooch, I urge you to give it a shot. Nooch has gotten pigeon holed as nothing more than a vegan cheese substitute, and that is just wrong.

Nutritional yeast is a delicious food, ingredient, and condiment all on it’s own whether you’re vegan, whether you eat cheese or not. As a matter of fact, I did not present it as a cheese substitute at all in our house. I think if I would have, it would have been received with a resounding thud of failure.

So how DO you introduce Nutritional yeast to your diet and your family, especially if they’re hesitant to try new things?

– Consider calling it Nooch, especially to kids (and some husbands). “Nutritional yeast” just doesn’t get the saliva flowing in most people. I don’t really like calling it Nooch, either, but the kids didn’t seem put off by it.

– DON’T call it cheese. It’s not cheese. It does have a delicious cheesy flavor, and your family is more likely to appreciate that flavor if they’re not comparing it to something else.

– For very finicky eaters, start by slipping it into things without telling. You can mix a half cup into spaghetti sauce – or just about any sauce. You can stir it into dips and hummus and veggie dishes without having to reveal its presence. Humans are evolutionarily predisposed to like familiar flavors. If your family has been exposed to the flavor of nooch a few times before you “introduce” it, they are more likely to like it. It has been scientifically proven that 14 exposures to a particular flavor usually results in that flavor being perceived as enjoyable. That is why pediatricians recommend offering a food 15 times to kids.

– Offer it as a condiment. Let your kids sprinkle it on pasta, pizza, or popcorn.

– Let your kids be the one to add the Nooch to the recipe. If they helped add it, they’ll be more likely to enjoy eating it.

Ready to give it a try? Here are a couple recipes:

Nutritional Yeast Popcorn Topping
1 big bowl air popped popcorn
1 tsp olive oil (optional)
3 tbsp Nooch
2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
1/2 tsp chili powder (optional)

Directions
If you’re adding the garlic and/or chili powder, mix it with the nooch in a little dish or shaker. You can prepare a triple back in an old spice shaker just to have on hand.

Mist or drizzle the popcorn with the oil to help the sprinkle stick (optional).

Sprinkle the topping on the popcorn.

Cover and shake the bowl (optional).

Bonus: you can feel good about your kids licking the bowl when the popcorn’s gone (even if they do look like little barbarians when they do.

Creamy Nooch Pasta Sauce

Cooked Pasta of your choice
Veggies of your choice, steamed or sauteed
1/2 onion, diced
2 1/2 c unsweetened Almond Milk
3/4 c nutritional yeast
4 tbsp yellow miso
4 tbsp cornstarch or other thickener, mixed into a roux
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp tumeric powder

directions
Let the onions sit for 5 minutes after dicing.
Prepare pasta and veggies.
Sautee the onion until translucent or starting to brown, if you prefer.
Add the Almond milk, stirring well.
Add the Nutritional Yeast, Miso, Garlic, Tumeric, and any other spices you would like.
Stir well until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
Bring to a low boil.
Slowly stir in the thickener (roux), stirring constantly, until you reach desired thickness.
Plate the pasta, top with the veggies, pour the sauce over the whole dish.

My family devoured this one. So easy. I love it and will definitely be making it again.

Nutritional yeast has become a staple in our house. We add it to just about everything, it seems. It will make a wonderful addition to your kitchen as well, whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, an Ethical Eating omnivore, or just looking for a healthy new dish.

The post Nutritional Yeast: How Am I Just Now Discovering This? appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

I really like the change of pace this dish provides.  While we love a good curry dish and tend to select dishes from a variety of different cultures, I have never really used coconut milk based sauces before – which is very odd since whenever we go to my favorite Thai place, I always order dishes with coconut milk sauces.

Even with as much as I like variety, sometimes I feel like we get in a bit of a dinner rut.  This is the perfect change of pace to remedy that!

Beans and Greens with Coconut Sauce

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dried mung beans, prepared
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 chili peppers, minced (fresh prefered, I used dried because we have TONS of them)
2 tsp ground ginger (or 2 tbsps fresh, finely minced)
2 tbsps veggie broth or grapeseed oil for sautéing
4 oz (or one can) coconut milk
1 tbsp vegan soy sauce
3 cups greens, chopped (swiss chard, kale, collards, etc.)

Directions:
1  Prepare your dried beans.  There are many methods – soaking overnight, soaking then boiling, boiling then letting them sit.  I love my pressure cooker for this.  Our mung beans went from dried to ready to use in under 10 minutes, though I did make rather a mess.  I’m still getting used to the pressure cooker and “venting.”

2.  Chop your onions and mince your garlic first, allowing them to sit for at least 5 minutes before cooking.  This maximizes their nutritional benefit.

3.  Sautee the onion in oil or broth until it becomes translucent.

4.  Add the garlic, chilis, and ginger.  Continue to sautee for 3 – 5 more minutes.

5.  Add the coconut milk and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes.

6.  Stir in the beans and mix well, keeping the pot on the heat the entire time.

7.  Stir in your soy sauce and greens and cook until the greens begin to wilt.

Serve immediately.  This dish can be served over whole grain/brown basmati or jasmine rice, but it is hearty enough to stand up on its own, which is how we had it.

The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but that’s probably just my lack of photography skill.  I used kale this time around because we had a really lovely bunch from the Farmer’s Market, but I think I’ll try to use swiss chard next time.

This was a really excellent change of pace, and a great experience for my first time using coconut milk.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be making this dish, and others like it, a lot more in the future.

Let me know if you try it!  I’d love to know what you think.

The post Simple, Healthy, Different: Greens and Coconut Sauce appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

      You raise an interesting point, and I think some of your logic is quite accurate on its face. There are two sides to my response:      On the one side, I agree. I don’t like hormonal birth control as I feel it is introducing unnecessary chemicals into my body and disrupting my natural hormone balance.  I have used hormonal forms of birth control, and I did not like the way they affected me, particularly with respect to my moods.  For a few years now, I have used a non-hormonal (copper) IUD, which I love.  Whether you want to consider copper chemical or otherwise unnatural is a judgment call for the individual.

      That said, I wouldn’t necessarily call someone of my – we’ll say “green” – mindset a hypocrite for using hormonal birth control in the same way I wouldn’t call them a hypocrite for taking an OTC headache painkiller. While the goal is to introduce as few chemicals into your body and the environment as possible, that is a goal, and for many people it can be a nearly unattainable one.  Every little step helps and falling short of perfection is not a failure.

      While this isn’t a religious question, I think religion presents a useful analogy. In the same way that a Christian strives to avoid sin but sometimes fails – sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly – the same goes for those who try to avoid chemicals or abide by similar “green” standards – they sometimes fail. Where a Christian might say that the world and our culture are rife with sin, so a “Green” person might consider the world (and our culture in particular) to be rife with chemicals and other non-green conveniences. To avoid any of these things, one would have to remove themselves from society completely.

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      I’ve mentioned Ethical Eating a number of times on this blog, and I wrote about it a good bit over at Cheap Wine and Cookies.  The Ethical Eating phenomenon is spreading fast around the world, but many people are still in the dark as to what, exactly, this movement entails.  I am here to tell you.

      Ethical Eating is NOT a diet.  It is not a “never eat this;” “only eat this;” “carbs are the devil;” “grapefruit is the answer;” or any other random consumerist weight loss phenomenon.  Weight loss is completely off the radar of Ethical Eating.  It isn’t a goal; it isn’t a discussion point; it barely even figures in.  Except that, when practiced with any degree of devotion, Ethical Eating does result in weight loss and increased health, but that is more of a bonus than an aim.

       Ethical Eating is a lifestyle of mindfulness of the effects our food choices have on us and the world around  us.  It is at once simple and exeptionally complicated.  It’s simplicity is in it’s personal nature.  You don’t need a book or a kit or an app (though there are plenty of apps you can use to help you out if you want; I’ve downloaded a couple, but always forget to use them).  You just think before you eat – or, I should say, consume – because really the decision should come even before you purchase the product,  not only before you eat it.  You look at the food and you are mindful of everything that went into bringing that product before you, and you consider whether you feel it is ethical to consume it based on those circumstances.

      The complexity comes in trying to wrap your brain around just how much STUFF there is behind every food or beverage you might consume: the health consequences for you and your family – is it covered in pesticides? Is it processed? Full of extra sugar, fat, salt, colors, and preservatives?  Has it been artificially ripened or had the nutritional value otherwise stripped away?  What about the producer?  Was it produced by a major corporation?  A sustainable farmer?  Local or far-flung?  How far was it transported to get to you?  How were the farm workers involved in it’s production treated?  Were they paid a fair wage?  Were they exposed to toxic chemicals?  Were they children?  If it contains animal products, how were the animals treated?  Were they tortured and pumped full of chemicals?  Were hundreds of thousands of baby chicks thrown into a grinder alive in the egg factory?  All that sort of fun stuff.

      And then the headache sets in.  This apple is local but not organic, but this one over here is organic, but was shipped from Mexico…

      Don’t worry; it’s not quite as mind numbing as it seems at first.  And once you actually start practicing Ethical Eating, you find yourself wondering how you ever consumed some of the things you once did.  It becomes second nature.

       And yet I still haven’t given you a great definition of Ethical Eating.  Truthfully, there isn’t one overall definition.  I haven’t even been able to find a reliable source for who invented the word, but it is clear and largely accepted that the UUA is responsible for fleshing out, implementing, and popularizing the Ethical Eating movement (in addition to probably coining the term).  They even published the FREE comprehensive Ethical Eating Guide – an beautiful Ethical Eating resource and the first step for anyone looking to eat more ethically.  Seriously, it’s free, and it’s amazing.  Download it now.  I’ll wait.

      Got it?  Ok, on we go…

      The UUA is the go-to source for Ethical Eating in formation.  It is not the only source.  Ethical Eating is not a fad or a consumer product, and as the movement grows, many people and organizations are jumping on board and adding their own take, but for my part – and I’ve been actively studying Ethical Eating for years – the UUA is the first and most complete source for Ethical Eating information. 

      It’s about mindfulness of food choices.  And it is a really beautiful thing.  It’s not a hassle.  It’s not a chore.  It is a to be more closely connected to your life, to your health, and to your world.  What starts out as a simple contemplation of where your food comes from opens doors to a connection with life many  “average Joe consumers” never contemplate or experience.  And it is different for everyone – another beauty of it!  Whether your food conscience leads you to be vegan or to visit your local pig farm, it doesn’t matter, the point is the awareness.

      I challenge anyone – everyone – to try it, wholeheartedly, for one month.  I promise it will change the way you look at a whole lot more than food.  And if you’re eating like “average Jane consumer” right now, you’ll probably get that added bonus I mentioned above (a slimmer waist).

      Some people feel like Ethical Eating is restrictive.  They get all focused on the “can’t.”  “I can’t have meat.”  “I can’t shop at my regular grocery store.”  And all sorts of similar nonsense.  And none of that “can’t” is true.  We still eat meat about once a week.  We are just very mindful of where it comes from.  We shop at a regular local grocery store, we just don’t buy things we think are unethical there.  We shop at the Farmer’s Market because we love it, not because it is some sort of “rule” of Ethical Eating.

      Some people worry that Ethical Eating will be too expensive.  It’s not.  Or, I should say, it doesn’t have to be.  I’m currently working on a much longer post on the ins and outs of Ethical Eating on a Budget, but for now, I’ll simply say that people who believe Ethical Eating is expensive are focusing too much on one part – whether that be organics, local, Fair Trade, humane meat, whatever.  They forget that by combining and balancing all those factors, Ethical Eating can actually be cheaper that standard consumerism – especially when you figure in the amount of nutrition you get from Ethical Eating compared to many of the alternatives.  And there are also reduced medical costs, but there will be more on that in the future post.

      This is taken from the UUA’s Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience:

“We acknowledge that aggressive action needs to be taken that will ensure an adequate food supply for the world population; reduce the use of energy, water, fertilizer, pesticides, and hormones in food production; mitigate climate change; and end the inhumane treatment of animals. These steps call for an evolution of our eating habits to include more locally grown, minimally processed whole foods. We acknowledge that this evolution must respect diversity in cultures, nutritional requirements, and religious practices.

Some of us believe that it is ethical only to eat plants while others of us believe that it is ethical to eat both plants and animals. We do not call here for a single dietary approach. We encourage a knowledgeable choice of food based on understanding the demands of feeding a growing world population, the health effects of particular foods, and the consequences of production, worker treatment, and transportation methods. We commit to applying this knowledge to both personal and public actions. […] Therefore, we affirm that the natural world exists not for the sole benefit of one nation, one race, one gender, one religion, or even one species, but for all. […]

As individuals and as congregations, we recognize the need to examine the impact of our food choices and our practices and make changes that will lighten the burden we place on the world. We also recognize that many food decisions will require us to make trade-offs between competing priorities. These priorities include: taste, selection, price, human health, environmental protection, sustainability, adequate food supply, humane treatment of animals used for food, and fair treatment of farm and food workers.”

       Please, please, visit this page for a plethora of Ethical Eating resources and mountains of information (most of it in simple, “bite sized” portions ;-P).

      Ethical Eating has it’s detractors.  There are people who (usually without doing any actual research into the subject) like to proclaim that Ethical Eating is elitist, hipster, hippie, or philosophical blather.  I’ve never found one of these people who actually gave Ethical Eating and honest try, or really did any actual research into it.  They read some book reviews, maybe maybe watched Food, Inc. and were made so insecure by the implications of it all, that they strike out against it.  Mostly, I feel sad for these people.  They are people afraid of change.  Afraid of truth.  And usually blatantly insecure about various things.

      And it is to those detractors in particular (as well as to everyone else!!!) that I recommend this enlightening and skillfully crafted article by Alan Richman.

      Alan Richman was not a detractor, but he was far from a believer.  He believed Ethical Eating to be elitist and hipster.  But instead of attacking the movement blindly or simply ignoring it as a fad, he took the 30 day challenge:

“I wasn’t seeking audiences with our Aristotles, writer-philosophers such as Michael Pollan. I wanted our artisans. My plan was to listen to them, ask to be led through the riot of morality that has overwhelmed this seemingly honorable cause, find a way to sort through a dizzying and growing array of ethical beliefs: local, seasonable, sustainable, organic, biodynamic, green, environmentally friendly, nontoxic, grass-fed, and labor-friendly, to note most. In addition, I decided that for the thirty days of my trip, I would try to eat not by whatever feeble guidelines of ethical eating I might have picked up in the past few years—primarily avoidance of mushy farm-raised fish—but by paying attention to those I met. No matter where I went, I asked this fundamental question: What does ethical eating mean to you?”

       The article is a wonderful read.  And come on; it’s Alan Richman.  Go.  Again, I’ll wait.

      So that, in a nutshell (a really, really big overstuffed nutshell) is what Ethical Eating is.  In the future, I’ll be writing about what Ethical Eating is to Me, how Ethical Eating Ties in to My Religion, and Ethical Eating on a Budget – for starters.  In the meantime, please do not hesitate to send me any questions, either as comments to this post or email them to TheUrbanEarthworm [atsymbol] gmail.

      I will leave you with this.  For those of you who think Ethical Eating is simply a trend or a fad, the global implications and the amount of suffering – human and animal – that is tied up in our way of eating is lost on you.  Ethical Eating is giving a name to a very old movement:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better.  It’s not.” Dr. Seuss

The American fast food diet and the meat eating habits of the wealthy around the world support a world food system that diverts food resources from the hungry. A diet higher in whole grains and legumes and lower in beef and other meat is not just healthier for ourselves but also contributes to changing the world system that feeds some people and leaves others hungry.
— Dr.Walden Bello

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