And Cream topping – Naturally Gluten-free

This came out better than just about any dessert I’ve made yet. The recipe is from Forks Over Knives with a few tweaks to make it even better. Here we go.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs apples (about 8 apples but go by weight) I used Fiji apples

• 1 lb frozen raspberries, thawed (I see no reason why fresh wouldn’t work as well)

• 2 cups rolled oats

• 2 cups oat flour (you can grind another 2 cups of oats to make your own)

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1/4 cup cashew cream

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• About 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• A pinch of nutmeg

Method

Wash, core, and chop the apples.

Pour them into two frying pans and cook over medium heat until tender.
Cover to speed things along.

Add a couple tablespoons water if they start to stick.

While they’re cooking, mix up the topping

Mix the flour, oat, baking powder and salt. Whisk to distribute.

Add the maple syrup and cashew cream. Mix well, using hands if necessary.

If it’s too sticky/not crumbly enough you can add a little more oats and flour.

Back to our apples

Pour the cooked apples into a 9 x 11 baking dish.

Spread the thawed raspberries over the top of apples.

Spinkle the cinnamon over all of it.

Crumble on the crumbly topping to cover the entire dessert.

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes until heated through, and the topping browns

Whipped Topping

• 1/2 cup cashew cream

• 1/3 cup raw sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip together. Cover and chill until ready to use.

Cashew Cream

In case you need this again, to make the cashew cream, just cover a cup of cashews in water (not chlorinated or fluoridated) and let them soak overnight.

Drain, then whir in a high speed blender. Add 3 tablespoons water and blend some more. You can create the smoothest, creamiest consistency you want by adjusting the amount of water up or down a little bit.

This is your base. You can use it to make a mock sour cream, a mayo-substitute for mac and potato salad, a sandwich spread, ranch dressing, a multitude of dessert fillings, frostings, and toppings, and add it to chickpea salads for a creamier texture.

If watching fat due to heart or diabetes issues, limit yourself to a tablespoon or two of nuts or nut creams per day. 1-2 measuring tablespoons, that is. And 2 is probably pushing it. I know that’s not a lot. I had more than that on my dessert, I admit it.

See you next weekend!

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Step Through The Portal

Ingredients

• 7 slices Ezekiel bread (from freezer section) or 1/3 cup whole grain oil-free bread crumbs

• 2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced

• 1/3 cup plant milk such as soy, used here

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 2 or 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• 1/2 cup cashew cream (easy recipe here)

• 1 tablespoon ketchup, sugar-free if you have it

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

• 2 teaspoons dill pickle relish

DIY Breadcrumbs

Put 6 slices Ezekiel brand bread onto an air-fry rack and air fry for 5-7 minutes.

Put toasted slices into processor and pulse until crumbly

Put a sheet of parchment paper onto the air fryer rack, pour on the breadcrumbs and air fry another 2 minutes.

Put into processor and process on low until fine.

The Aīoli

Mix the 1/2 cup cashew cream, ketchup, and onion in the tiniest processor cup you have and process.

Add 2 tablespoons of milk from the 1/3 cup in the recipe, and process until smooth and creamy.

Pour into small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Add 2 teaspoons dill pickle relish

The Portobellos

Mix the garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, and breadcrumbs into a small bowl.

Put the remaining milk into another.

Dip each mushroom slice into the milk, then the breadcrumb mixture and place onto a parchment-lined air-fryer tray.

Air fry 5 to 7 minutes, checking frequently.

Time this so you can serve immediately, or they get soft and have to be crisped up again.

Serving

I toasted 2 Dave’s Killer Buns.

Spread Aīoli on both top and bottom. Put the mushrooms atop a bed of mixed greens with tomatoes on top.

Voila!

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LONE WOLF is coming May 12th

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My version is very different from hers. Hers is linked below in case you prefer it.

Do not think of this as oatmeal. Think of this as creamed greens that taste like thanksgiving.

Here are your ingredients.

• 2 and 1/2 cups collard greens, or spinach, or kale. I prefer kale.

• 2 and 1/4 cups water

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 cup oatmeal

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Method

• Put greens and water and spices into saucepan and cover.

• Bring to a boil on high head, then reduce heat to a 2 or low setting, and set a timer for 15 minutes.

• After the 15, add the oats, stir well, and set timer for 15 more minutes.

• After the final 15, pour into a bowl, stir in the nutritional yeast.

I get two meals out of this.

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn recommends 5 to 7 servings of green leafy and/or cruciferous veggies per day to flood the system with nitric oxide which removes existing artery plaque and repairs damage to the epithelial system. You can read more in his book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Ann Esselstyn is married to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and she’s the one with the original recipe she calls Warrior oats, which you can find below. Bear in mind Ann turned 90 this year, and this is not an old video. I want to age like Ann Esselstyn.

Try this. How else you planning to get 5 to 7 servings in and maybe fix your heart shit?

I love this stuff so much. When I tried Ann’s recipe, it tasted slightly like Thanksgiving to me, like the flavor of the stuffing and the gravy when I was a kid. So to enhance that, I added the celery and poultry seasoning.

Also, she adds everything at the beginning and cooks it all at once, but I do it in stages for my preferred doneness, and I leave the nutritional yeast out until the end, for easier cleanup.

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INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup dry white cannellini beans

• 1/2 cup dry black beans

• 3 cups water

• 1 large yellow onion

• 1 whole head garlic

• 1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari

• several shakes of liquid smoke

• Add a teaspoon of maple syrup at the end. We used a tablespoon but a teaspoon would’ve been enough.

The Day Before

First, cover the beans with water that is two inches deeper than the top of the beans, and soak them overnight. They need 8 - 12 hours.

The Next Day

Put the beans into the Instant Pot.

Dice the onion. (We cut into chunks in the video, but dicing would have been better.)

Slice the top and bottom from a whole head of garlic, then separate the cloves, slip the skins, and put them into the pot. Of chop them in half first, if you want.

Add the tamari and liquid smoke, but not the syrup. I don’t know about syrup in an Instant Pot.

The Cooking

Put on the lid, close the pressure valve and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes.

Do NOT open the pressure valve when done, but rather use “natural release” which is modern speak for wait for the pressure to come down on its own as the pot cools. After an hour or so, mine was good.

Check the pot. Open the valve and if little or no steam comes out, go ahead and remove the jiggler, then the lid.

Always remove pressure cooker lids with extreme caution, and hold your face away from the pot. Pressurized contents can blast out at you, and if they’re still under pressure, that means they’re still hot. Take care with this tool.

Results

My broth came out better than I could have even imagined! The combination of the smoke and the maple gave it a very ham or bacon flavor without the meat. Both Lance and I were surprised and really loved the flavor.

There’s lots of liquid left, so tomorrow, I’m going to add carrots, celery, and potato to this to make bean soup for dinner. I’m going to partially cook them together in a separate pot and then finish them in the soup. But next time, I think I’d throw the carrots and celery right into the instant pot with the beans, and add the potatoes after (So they wouldn’t get mushy.)

Aside: I’m really enjoying the Instant Pot my girls got me for Christmas!

Notes

My intent was to cook a big batch of dried beans to take the place of canned beans during my week of cooking. The problem? The Instant Pot is too small for that, so I’ll next experiment with cooking them in another way. But the result was a delightful new dish to add to the repertoire, so that’s a win in my book!

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At 3.49 to 3.99 a quart in the grocery store, broth is ridiculously expensive, and if you’re on a whole food plant-based lifestyle, this is a must-have item. We use it in everything, every time we oil-free sauté onions or mushrooms or peppers or all three, we need it to deglaze as we go, not to mention as a base for our soups, stews, and gravies.

Also, the last time I was looking at store-bought veggie broth, one of the ingredients was oil! And that was on a brand that didn’t used to contain ANY oil. Also they’re high in sodium. You’ll see no salt in this recipe, other than what’s naturally in the ingredients themselves (and a bit in the tamari.)

So watch the video to see how easy this is in the Instant Pot or on the stovetop.

STEP 1

All week long, as you cook, instead of throwing your produce scraps into the composter, through them into a container with a tight fitting lid, and put them in the freezer. Keep adding scraps to the same container till it’s full, and then keep adding new containers until you have about 6 cups.

So it’s important to WASH YOUR PRODUCE before you used it.

Never use cruciferous veggies for this kind of broth. Their flavors are overpowering.

Types of scraps to include:

• Greens (everything but lettuce)

• Celery (ends & pieces)

• Bell peppers (internal & seeds)

• Onions (ends, peels)

• Potatoes (peels)

• Mushrooms (skins, stems)

• Garlic (ends & skins)

• Squash skins, ends, winter or summer

• Sweet potato skins

• Apple skins (minimal or it’ll be too sweet.)

• A dozen things I haven’t though of here

STEP 2

Put the scraps directly from the freezer into the Instant Pot or stewpot on stove.

STEP 3

Add seasonings

• 2 teaspoons Italian seasonings

• 2 tablespoons minced garlic

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari

Stir it up.

Instant Pot: Cover with water put on the lid. Make sure it seals and add the jiggler, and set to pressure cook for six minutes.

Stovetop: Cover the veggies with water plus several inches. Simmer on low heat up to two hours, adding water as needed. It will boil away, even though you leave on the cover.

STEP 4

Instant Pot: Wait for it to cool, then release the pressure with the valve, removing the jiggler only after all steam has emerged. Open carefully. Then strain through colander.

Stovetop: Strain through colander

STEP 5

Pour into glass jars and keep for up to two weeks. You can also use your pressure canner with canning lids and rings to can the broth in large batches and store it up. I just don’t because I have scraps every week so I can easily make it as I go along.

OPTIONS

Change the seasonings.

You can lean into Indian flavors by adding ginger, masala, and/or curry powder.

Make a base for gravy by adding a teaspoon of poultry seasoning and a bit of white miso.

Use your imagination!

Enjoy!

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Women tired of holding the world together with one arm tied behind our backs deserve an escape now and then. And sometimes a week away in a tropical paradise spa just isn’t practical. That’s when we need a few hours, a cup of tea, and a Maggie Shayne novel. Just a little break from reality where some woman like us, facing problems way bigger and scarier than ours, rises up and defeats them all. She tackles the big bad using the skills innate to the female of the species. Her sharp mind, her keen intuition, her powerful emotions, her insight, her caring, her wisdom. And with these tools, she’s absolutely unstoppable.

And at the end, after you jump off the sofa and cheer with your fist in the air… you’ll feel unstoppable, too.

READ. MAGGIE. SHAYNE.

VIDEO ABOVE

TEXT BELOW

Ingredients

• 5 or 6 12-oz cans of beans/legumes: Lentils, kidney, cannellini, pinto, garbanzo, black beans.*

• 5 cans diced tomatoes, some of which can include green chilis

• A can of green chilis, not used here, would be great.

• 2 bell peppers of different colors

• Any hot peppers you like

• 1 very large red onion

• 5-6 large button mushrooms

• 2 and a half cups frozen greens, spinach pairs well

• an entire head of fresh minced garlic or two heaping spoonful jarred

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 2/3 teaspoon turmeric

• 2 heaping teaspoons Cajun seasoning blend

• 2 heaping tablespoons chili powder

*if you want to use dried beans for this, soak them overnight, then cover in water with one teaspoon baking soda. Bring to a boil for about a minute or two. Then drain the foamy green water, rinse the beans and cover in fresh water. Cook, covered, at a slow simmer, stirring frequently, until done.

Method

Pour the tomatoes into a crockpot or stewpot for the stovetop method.

Drain and rinse the beans and add them to the pot.

Chop the veggies and add those to the pot. Add the frozen corn and spinach as well.

Add the seasonings, and stir well.

For Crockpot: Cover the pot and cook on high for 4 hours or until the veggies are tender.

For Stovetop: Cover the pot and bring to a low simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes. Taste as you go.

Tips: This is super better the second day, as the flavors will have mingled.

Heat: It this can be as hot or mild as you like. To turn up the heat add a little bit of Kashmiri Chili Powder. But go a little at a time as it’s strong! Like start with half a teaspoon. You could also shake in a few red pepper flakes, or chop up some hot peppers and add them to the pot at the beginning.

Always add black pepper at the end of recipes, as it loses its nutritional potency through cooking.

Serving Suggestions:

In a bowl with chunks of sourdough on the side

Slathered atop a split open, steaming hot baked potato

As a dip for fresh veggies and/or corn tortilla chips

With macaroni added to create chili-mac

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Danger After Dawn

MARINATED TOFU BITES

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup good balsamic vinegar

• 1/3 cup vegan worcestershire sauce

• 1/3 cup reduced sodium tamari

• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

• 1 lb extra firm or super firm tofu, diced to bite-size.

1. Mix the marinade with a wire whisk.

2. Dice the tofu to bite size and place into a shallow dish with a tight fitting cover. Keep the formation tight, fitting all bites into two layers. One would be better.

3. Pour the marinade over the tofu, replace cover. Shake and turn to coat all pieces.

4. Refrigerate from 8 to 48 hours.

5. After soaking is complete, preheat oven to 400º.

6. Spoon onto a baking sheet lined in parchment or silicone mat and bake for 11 minutes.

7. It will dry out fast, so immediately after baking, I usually brush a little leftover marinade over the cubes, then cover with tin foil until ready to serve.

Serving suggestion: Use as a topping for giant dinner salads. Top mixed greens and over fresh veggies with diced cooked sweet potatoes, the tofu bites, some sesame seeds, raisins, and crushed walnuts.

I use my very good Sclafani balsamic as a dressing, but it’s been discontinued. It’s aged, and sweet, and thick, and affordable. A rare combination. I’m in search of a replacement so let me know if you have one.

My husband uses a balsamic glaze, which is also super easy to make and I’ll include it in a salad dressing post one of these days.

See you next time!

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The video version of this post includes a very thorough demonstration of the oil-free sauté, so watch for that if nothing else!

The homemade veggie broth how-to is at the bottom of the text edition, below.

Okay, I’ve told you how to make stew before but this time I’m showing you. Also my stew changes every time I make it.

Caveat here, I used fresh veggies I had on hand, and frozen for everything else. I was out of mushrooms and low on carrots and I didn’t have any frozen carrots for backup. It should’ve had more carrots.

Frozen veggies are more convenient, fresh are slightly more nutritious and flavorful. Both are great for our health. And you can add any vegetable you think might be good in this.

Okay, let’s do this.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 16-oz package frozen peas

• 1/2 16-oz package frozen black-eyed peas

• 1 16 oz package frozen spinach or other greens

• 1 16 oz package frozen mushrooms

• About 3 quarts veggie broth (no salt or oil added)

• 2 lg russet potatoes

• 3 to 5 carrots

• 1 head garlic (all the cloves)

• 1/2 cup pearled barley

• 1/3 cup red lentils

• 2 heaping teaspoons Italian seasoning blend

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• Several grinds of black pepper

• 2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari

• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast

First

Put all the frozen veggies (peas, black-eyed peas, spinach) plus the barley, lentils, and seasonings (Italian seasonings, onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, turmeric and tamari) into a stew pot and cover with all the broth. (Always add the black pepper near the end of cooking.)

Heat to a simmer.

While heating, put a frying pan on medium high heat.

Second

Chop the onions, celery and garlic.

Add these to the frying pan when it’s hot enough to make drops of water bead up and sizzle-dance.

Dry sauté, stirring almost constantly and let the onions begin to brown.

When the veggies begin to stick to the pan, forming a brown stickiness, deglaze by adding a splash or two of water and stirring, stirring.

Continue cooking now until vegetables are almost tender.

Third

Pour the chopped potatoes and carrots into the broth. Scrape the sautéed onions, celery and garlic in as well, and return to a steady boil.

Fourth

Pour the entire mixture into the crockpot. Add 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, and it’s okay to grind on some black pepper now.

Cover and let it slow cook for a couple of hours.

By boiling it up on the stove first, you’ve cut the crockpot cooking time in half.

Alternatives

• Use all frozen veggies

• Use all raw veggies

• Use any combination of the above

• Add 2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes to change up the flavor

• Use brown rice instead of barley

• Add any veggies you think would be good

• Add the onions, celery and garlic directly to the soup without sautéeing first. The sauté adds flavor, though.

• Skip the crockpot and cook it entirely on the stovetop, stirring frequently and watching closely for an about hour or until it’s done enough for you.

Skip the stovetop portion and put everything directly into the crockpot, then cook for 4 to 5 hours on high.

BONUS: Making your own veggie broth

Save the scraps from your veggies in the freezer, just adding to containers until they’re full. I like to have about 8 cups or all that will fit into the Instant Pot. Add seasonings like onion and garlic powder, Italian or whatever you like.

• In the Instant pot, cook five minutes once the pressure is up.

• In the crockpot, cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

• On the stovetop, boil at a steady simmer for two hours.

Strain out the solids, and store in a covered glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.

Dump what you don’t use and make a fresh batch.

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She’s been lied to her entire life,
And used for a singular purpose

As vampire bait

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Fall into the breathlessly romantic, heart-pounding, sexy, paranormal thrill-ride that’s destined to be your next obsession. WINGS IN THE NIGHT.

I love this recipe, and I have tested it to perfection so here goes everything

One note: For this I use my whole grain gluten free flour blend which is:

• 3 cups brown rice flour

• 1 cup tapioca flour

• 1 cup oat flour

• 1 cup potato starch

• Mix well

Okay, so here we go with the blueberry muffins

INGREDIENTS

Wet

1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas

1/2 cup cashew cream* (details below, it’s just cashews and water.)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (one ingredient: apples, maybe some citric acid)

1/3 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup salt-free peanut butter (one ingredient: peanuts, no added oil, no added salt, no added sugar)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Dry

1 & 3/4 cups whole grain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

a pinch of salt

METHOD

Mix all the wet ingredients and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until everything is nicely combined and smooth.

Mix the remaining dry ingredients with each other first, adding the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt if using to a separate bowl and whisking all with a wire whisk.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and hand stir to blend until all flour is incorporated, scraping sides to get every bit.

Add the blueberries last of all, stirring well again.

Fill silicone muffin forms nearly full, leaving maybe a half inch from the top.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350º. I almost felt like mine could have used five more minutes.

Test with a toothpick. If there’s much wet batter on it, they’re not done, though this is trickier with berry muffins. The presence of the berries tends to keep the batter on the moist side, and there will always be wet blueberry on your toothpick.

Cool in the pans, then gently pop out from the bottom.

*Cashew Cream

I’ve given you this before, but adding it again here will make it easier than following links to another recipe, so here you go. Plus, I tried Method 2 today, since I didn’t have any cashews soaking, and it worked beautifully. Maybe better than Method 1.

Method 1: Cover a cup of cashews in water and soak overnight in the fridge. The next day, drain and blend in high speed blender, adding water a little at a time to achieve the consistency you want. I like it creamy.

Method 2: Cover a cup of cashews in boiling water. Let stand until water cools, drain. Repeat, covering in boiling water again, and again draining when the water cools. Pour cashews into high speed blender. Blend, adding water a little at a time to achieve the consistency you want.

I’ve kept this in the fridge for more than a week with no problem. Taste it, it’s sweet without sugar! Just take care. Nuts are high in fat, and those trying to lower cholesterol should limit themselves to 2 tablespoons per day, the equivalent which is about 4 teaspoons of cream. (4 teaspoons = about 1 and 1/3 tablespoons). That’s one muffin per day. It’s very hard not to eat more than one of these a day, so SHARE.

See you next time!

VIDEO COMPANION: BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Still working on perfecting my setup. This time you could hear my fridge running in the background. Learning as I go here. 🤷‍♀️

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Heart-tugging, small town romance
and a family you’ll never forget.

Escape for a little while,
and feel good again!

(Psst! I’m working on Book 4 now, and it’s a doozie!)

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To make this lifestyle work, you need some go-to, easy-peasy meals that you can make fast.

This sandwich filling one of them, and it’s wonderful. I didn’t feel it this one was complicated enough to require a video. First of all, it’s packed with protein and fiber. You can make it with or without the cashew cream, and it tastes wonderful either way, although I think the texture is better with it.

So here’s how it goes.

Vegan Tuna Salad or Egg Salad Substitute

Ingredients

• One 14-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (save the juice, that’s aquafaba.)

• 1/4 cup dill relish

• 2-3 tablespoons cashew cream

• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard

• 1/4 onion, finely chopped (about 2 tablespoons)

• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped (as much as you want)

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup cup cashew cream for texture *optional. If you have coronary artery plaque, high cholesterol, or are looking to lose weight, skip the cashew cream, and follow the instructions below for using the aquafaba instead.

• AND FOR EGG SALAD: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan black salt. (use a little, then taste. Increase a little bit at a time.)

• OR FOR TUNA SALAD: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon seaweed seasoning

For serving:

• 2 slices Dave’s Killer Bread, toasted

• 1 large handful mixed super greens, chopped

• 3 slices fresh tomato

• A sandwich stacker pickle, if you like

Method

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and save the aquafaba

Pour the chickpeas into a wide bowl and mash them with the back of a fork or a potato masher.

Add the other ingredients, mixing well with a fork. When you get to the seasonings, start with a little, mix well, taste, then add a little more. It’s crucial to do this as you go, since you can’t remove the spices once they’re in there.

If you have heart disease and are looking to reduce cholesterol, skip the cashew cream, and instead add a teaspoon of cream of tartar to the aquafaba and whip until it’s creamy. Then fold that into the chickpea salad mix, for a smoother texture.

Press filling atop greens on one toasted slice. Then lay the tomatoes on top, put the other slice on the sandwich and slice in half.

*If packing a lunchbox, I recommend leaving the tomato off the sandwich, in a separate container to be applied right before eating. Otherwise the bread will get soggy.

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Got Vampires?

FOR READERS

Do you know about Kobo Plus?

Kobo is a bookstore, like Amazon used to be. It’s a Canadian company but anyone can buy books there. They also have a subscription service like Amazon’s only 20% cheaper. You pay 7.99 a month and read all the eBooks you want. For 9.99 they throw in all the audiobooks you want to boot!

You don’t need a special device, just download the free app from your App Store and read on phone, tablet, or computer.

We have now added my entire Wings in the Night series, 19 volumes, 24 stories, one related story, and one-omnibus that includes the first three in the series, to Kobo Plus, which means members can read the entire thing for free, and non members can still buy the books at Kobo or any other retailer, in paperback or ebook.

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I am more proud of it than just about anything I’ve written.

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There’s a video companion at the bottom of this post!

*There’s a strange hum that pops up toward the end of the video. Might’ve been my washer running upstairs. Sorry about that. No time to re-do it. MERRY EVERYTHING!

Maggie’s Favorite Cookies

Preheat oven to 350

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat

Wet Ingredients

• 1 cup shredded apple

• 1 cup mashed banana

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter

• 1/4 cup plant milk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats

• 1 cup whole grain flour*

• 4 teaspoons cinnamon

• A dash of nutmeg

• A pinch of salt

• 2 cups raisins

• 1 cup peanuts

Instructions

• Quarter apple, remove seeds, and shred in a food processor or use a grater.

• Mash the banana. Mix with apple and all other wet ingredients including syrup, peanut butter, plant milk, and vanilla. Beat until well-blended.

• In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients except peanuts and raisins. When well mixed, add them to the wet ingredients.

• Stir well, then add peanuts and raisins and stir some more.

• Drop by heaping tablespoons or quarter cup portions onto a parchment paper-lined or silicone lined baking sheet.

• Flatten to about 1/2” and shape with a fork dipped in water to prevent sticking

• Bake at 350º for about 15 minutes.

• Cool on a wire rack

These keep for about 5 days in the fridge

Best served fresh and warm from the oven.

PLEASE LIKE, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE!
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You can follow along in the companion VIDEO for this recipe below.

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Wishing you a blissful winter solstice, merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Kwanzaa, Happiest any holiday I left out.

Merry Everything!

Full holiday collection

*There’s a video companion to this post at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Last week…

When we left off our sugar cookers were chilling in the fridge. So our first step is to take them out, let them heat to room temp for fifteen minutes or so, while we preheat the oven to 350º and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Dust your cookie cutters with flour and go to town. Cut all the shapes you can from each sheet of dough, then gather up the leftover dough and roll it out again. Cut all you can, gather it, up and roll it out again. Do this until you’ve used every bit of dough possible.

Lay the cookies on a cookie sheet. I had to use two. You don’t want them touching but they won’t spread much if you’ve used enough flour.

They don’t look done when they’re done. They never browned on the edges even though I cooked them longer than suggested. 12 minutes is plenty.

Cool them on a wire rack, then frost as described below.

Basic Frosting Recipe

• 1 cup cashew cream

• 1 cup date paste

• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Food coloring and flavor variations given below

Method: Mix it all together in your smoothie blender.

Add the colors a little at a time, beating after each until you get the shade you want.

Add the flavors with extreme care, using the smallest amount possible, then adding more and tasting after each addition.

About Food Colorings

I’m playing with natural food colors for my frostings this year, and it’s still experimental.

Suncore Foods (a woman-owned company) has a full line of natural food coloring powders made from real foods. I recommend checking them out. Today I’m using gel food colors just because I didn’t want to experiment while recording and I needed to get these done. I’ll play with that next time. (I’d also add more flavorings to the cookie batter itself next time, double both the vanilla and the almond I think, or experiment with orange or peppermint flavorings, which were limited to just the frosting this time.

Variations

Here are the frosting variations including several I didn’t use in the video.

1. Chocolate: add 1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder.

2. Chocolate peppermint: add 2 drops peppermint extract to chocolate frosting.

3. Peanut butter chocolate. Use natural peanut butter (no oil, no salt, just peanuts) instead of the cashew cream, add 1-2 tablespoons cocoa. Might require a splash of soy milk or water.

4. Chocolate Almond: After adding the cocoa, also add 2 drops almond extract

5. Peppermint frosting: add 2 drops peppermint oil and green coloring.

6. Orange frosting: Add 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon orange extract and blend red and yellow dyes to make orange.

7. Strawberry frosting: Add 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract and red coloring.

8. Raspberry: Add 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract and less red coloring, to make it pink.

9. Blueberry frosting: Add 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon blueberry flavoring and blue coloring

10. Lemon: Add 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract and yellow food coloring

You can also sprinkle them with vegan holiday glitter sugars, sure to make any holiday cookie look like a work of art, even if your frosting skills topped out at age seven. (Like mine.)

Here’s a still of the finished product.

Also, you can visit the Suncore Foods website to order powdered, natural food coloring directly from them and save. Just click the image below.

Shop Suncore Foods

Video companion to this post.

Sugar Cookies Part 1 with companion video

Maggie Shayne’s Holiday Romances

Holiday magic that’ll fill you right up!

Browse the whole collection!

*THERE IS A VIDEO COMPANION TO THIS RECIPE WHERE YOU CAN WATCH ME MAKE THE CASHEW CREAM, DATE PASTE, AND COOKIE DOUGH. SCROLL DOWN TO FIND IT.*

I love great recipes, great cooking, and sweets. And I found this fabulous sugar cookie recipe that immediately broke my heart, because the first ingredient was a ridiculously large dollop, nearly a full cup, of “vegan butter.” Might as well say “pure fat” because that’s all it is. And it’s not even close to a whole food. It’s ultra-processed crap and nobody ought to eat it.

If a “recipe” calls for vegan butter or vegan mayonnaise or vegan anything else ultra processed, is it really a recipe at all? To me, cooking means from scratch, from real, whole, recognizable ingredients with no Frankenfoods added.

So I took this recipe with its 3/4 cup “vegan butter” and substituted in my versatile and amazing cashew cream. I cut the sugar in half, and substituted date paste, which I show you how to make here, as well, and I eliminated the salt entirely. You can’t always do that, if it’s needed to make dough rise, for instance. But in cookies its purpose is supposed to be “to cut the sweetness and enhance the other flavors.” I like the other flavors just the way they are, thanks. And the sweetness—well, that’s kind of the point of cookies, isn’t it? Honestly, I think it’s really in every recipe because it’s been in every recipe for generations. It’s habit, not purpose.

I cannot stop finding new uses for this stuff! I have to add that peanut butter would also work, and might be a fun flavor option. Peanut butter sugar cookies. I’m making a batch of each today! And remember, this is NOT Jiff, Skippy, or Peter Pan, this is a jar of peanut butter without added oil or salt and only one ingredient—peanuts.

Let’s compare it nutritionally

CASHEW CREAM, NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER, VEGAN BUTTER

• Calories: Vegan Butter 200
  Calories: Cashew Cream 190
  Calories: Peanut Butter 190

• Fiber: Vegan Butter 0
  Fiber: Cashew Cream 1 gram

  Fiber: Peanut Butter 3 grams

• Protein: Vegan Butter 0
  Protein: Cashew Cream 4 grams
  Protein: Peanut Butter 8 grams

• Fat: Vegan Butter 22 grams
  Fat: Cashew Cream: 13 grams
  Fat Peanut Butter: 16 grams

• Saturated fat: Vegan Butter 6 grams
  Saturated fat: Cashew Cream 3 grams

  Saturated fat: Peanut Butter 2.5 grams

• Sodium: Vegan Butter 210 mg
  Sodium: Cashew Cream 5 mg
  Sodium: Peanut Butter 0

The cashew cream and peanut butter have the following vitamins and minerals:

• CC: 13 mg calcium (0% recommended daily value or DV)
  PB: 19 mg (2%)

• CC: 1.7 mg iron (10%)
  PB: 1 mg (6%)

• CC: 160 mg potassium (4%)
  PB: 203 mg (4%)

• CC: 0.26 mg vitamin E (2%)
  PB: 2 mg (15%)

• CC: 0.07 mg B6 (pyridoxine) (4%)

• PB: 6 mg niacin (B3) (40%)

• CC: 139 mg phosphorus (10%)

• CC: 0.06 mg thiamin (vitamin B1) (4%)

• CC: 20 mcg folate (4%)
  PB: 31 mcg folate (8%)

• CC: 74 mg magnesium (20%)

• CC: 3.3 mcg selenium (6%)

• CC: 0.23 mg manganese (10%)

• CC: 1.59 mg zinc (15%)

• CC: 0.65 mg copper (70%)

Now the list of vitamins and minerals in vegan butter

Drum roll, please!

VEGAN BUTTER VITAMIN AND MINERAL LIST (complete)

• 0.90 mg Vitamin A (10%)

Yep, that’s it and that’s all. And that isn’t there naturally, but artificially added, probably so they can legally put something like “enriched” or “a good source of Vitamin 1” on the label. The food industry is all a con game. You’ve got to become too smart to be fooled.

A look at the ingredients list is next

VEGAN BUTTER INGREDIENTS
Soybean oil, palm kernel oil, water, salt, soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, natural flavor, lactic acid, vitamin A palmitate, and beta-carotene for color

CASHEW CREAM INGREDIENTS
Cashews, water

PEANUT BUTTER INGREDIENTS
Peanuts

My 2nd adustment to the original recipe

The other change I made was to replace half the sugar with date paste. When we replace the sugar entirely with date paste, the cookies don’t spread or bake the same way. And since these are rolled cookies, texture is important. My thought here is that if we only replace half the sugar, we can get a nicer bake, reduce the calories and the sugar, and have a healthier-but-just-as-yummy sugar cookie.

*As a rule, 3/4 cup sugar in a recipe requires a full cup of date paste to replace, for a ratio of 1.25 to 1. Just add 25% more date paste than sugar.

3rd Adjustment

Obviously I’m not adding salt.

Fourth Adjustment to the original recipe

I’m not using “all purpose flour.” Hell, no! I’ll be using my whole grain, gluten-free flour blend, even though I have no issues with gluten personally. It’s just the best freaking whole grain flour ever used for baking, and it happens to also be gluten free.

At first, I just used whole wheat flour but it really isn’t as tasty as the special flour blend.

I’m putting everything here in one place for your ease.

Whole grain, gluten free, white flour

• 3 cups brown rice flour

• 1.5 cups tapioca flour

• 1.5 cups potato starch

• 1.5 cups oat flour

Mix thoroughly and use for baking

*Forks Over Knives adds 4 tablespoons ground chia seed to this blend, but I’ve found it works equally well if without it, if you happen to be out of it, which I am.

Cashew Cream Recipe

Demo in the video below

• 1 cup cashews

• Enough water to cover them

• 1/3 cup water for blending

I usually pour the cashews into a glass jar, add just enough water to cover, and soak overnight in the fridge. That part’s important. The next day, drain the water off and run them through the food processor or high speed blender, using the smoothie cup and adding more water back in as you go to get the consistency you want. We’re going for buttery-spread-smooth here. You might want it a little thicker or frosting or dip recipes. This is also the basis for my mac & cheese.

Date Paste Recipe

Demo in the video below

• 2 cups pitted medjool dates (they come with pits usually, but they’re easy to remove. Slice date down the middle, split it open, pop the pit!)

• 1/2 cup water

Pour into the smoothie cup of a blender and blend until smooth. That’s it.

Now, when I’ve bought from the bulk bins, the dates have been harder and dryer. If they’re like that, they benefit from an overnight soak in water just like the cashews. But I’ve found if I buy them in foil packets, they’re always soft and moist. If I find a hard, dry one in the packet, I set it aside. For the right consistency, you need soft, moist dates.

Vegan Sugar Cookies

Demo in video below.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup cashew cream

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup date paste

2 tablespoons soy or almond milk

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 to 2 & 1/4 cups whole grain GF flour blend (above) (Don’t add all at once, see instructions)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Parchment paper

METHOD

Beat together the sugar, date paste, and cashew cream, milk, cornstarch, vanilla, and almond extract in large bowl with hand mixer, or use stand mixer.

Mix the larger portion of the flour (1 & 1/4 cup) with the baking powder, stirring with a whisk to get it well-blended, then add to the batter and beat some more.

Add the remaining 1 cup flour. Don’t skimp on the flour. You want it thick as play dough, so you can roll and shape and cut out the cookies. They can’t be sticky or thin enough to spread on the pan. The flour given here is the amount in the original recipe, but I wound up adding nearly a half-cup more to get it where I wanted it.

Split the dough in half. Scatter flour on a large sheet of parchment paper and roll each piece of dough out to about 1/3" or so thickness, each on its own sheet. Put another sheet over the top of each section of rolled-out dough and stack the sheets of dough on top of each other. Refrigerate overnight.

*In the video, I was out of parchment paper, so I rolled the dough out onto the countertop just as a demo. But you should roll it directly onto sheets of parchment paper, then cover with another sheet. The video ends there, since I was in real time, and it still had to chill overnight, and I was already late. But I’ll have Part 2 this coming weekend.

AFTER THE CHILL

Preheat oven to 350. Put a silicone mat pr parchment paper onto a baking sheet.

Take the sheets of dough out of the fridge and let them warm for a half hour or so.

Cut with cookie cutters. Then smoosh the leftover dough together and roll it out again to cut more, and so on until you’ve used all the dough.

Bake for about 8 minutes.

NEXT TIME

We’ll bake the cookies and frost them. I’ll have a bunch of whole food, plant-based frosting in multiple colors and flavors. (It’s still not going to be a health food.)

Here’s the video!

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Can’t get enough Yuletide romance?

I have a dozen or so you might’ve missed.

So in my Saturday post I said, “Next week we’ll start discussing Thanksgiving.” Only next week would be the weekend after Thanksgiving so, we’ll only be discussing it in retrospect, I guess.

My eldest daughter is hosting for our gargantuan family this year, and it’s a lot. She’s very careful with the gluten, since one of our tribe has full blown celiac disease and can get seriously ill from it.

It’s too much to ask her to also cook for us. Besides, as you realized once you really get going on this lifestyle, nobody else can really cook for us. Mostly because they can’t cook without oil.

We can.

So what Lance and I do is make our own main course to bring to the family Thanksgiving dinner, with enough to share for any who might want to try, but not too much, because most won’t.

This year we’re making a beautiful vegan lasagna. It’ll have layers of

• Whole grain lasagna noodles

• Cooked spinach/collard green mix

• My pasta sauce, loaded with peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic, herbs

• Cashew cheese sauce

My Pasta Sauce

In a large saucepan, stir together:

• Four 12-oz cans diced tomatoes

• One 12-oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilis

• 2 tablespoons

• One 8-oz can tomato paste

• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast

• 2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari

• 1 tablespoon (heaping) Italian seasoning blend

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• Black pepper

• A shake of liquid smoke (if you like it)

Bring to a gentle simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently. Simmer twenty minutes or so.

In a frying pan, sauté:

• 2 bell peppers of different colors, diced

• 1 large or 2 medium yellow onion/s

• 8 ounces white button mushrooms, diced

• 6 cloves garlic, minced

When they’re tender, add them to the tomato sauce, and continue simmering for another five minutes.

Serve over pasta or veggies

That’s what I’m doing for Thanksgiving. What you’re doing for Thanksgiving is entirely up to you, so I’m going to leave you with a bundle of Thanksgiving resources. The one called SALT is also the Pumpkin Lentil Soup Recipe. On the banana muffins, I added blueberries last time and they were heavenly.

And here’s Forks Over Knives’ Chef AJ with a video Thanksgiving Cooking Demo on YouTube.

Sorry if I made you panic last weekend. But there you go.

I am extremely thankful for every single one of you who come here, who read these post! I am grateful too, to those who remember to tick the like button every once in a while, or share a recipe, or leave a comment here and there. I am so glad you’re part of the plant-based tribe, getting healthier and stronger every day.

Happy Thanksgiving And many more!

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A town you won’t want to leave.
A Thanksgiving you’ll never forget!

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So I’ve discovered the glories of cashew cream. It’s as simple as this:

Cashew Cream

• 2 cups cashews

• Enough water to cover them

After a quick rinse, just cover the cashews in clear water, put them in a covered container, and stick them in the fridge overnight.

The next day, pour them into the smoothie cup of your high speed blender. Do not season them at this point.

Blend until smooth. Scrape into a container with a cover and refrigerate. Keeps for up to a week.

How to use it

Frosting

• 1 cup cashew cream

• 4 or 5 medjool dates, pitted & chopped

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 to 3 tablespoons soy milk

Add the cream, dates, vanilla, and blend on smoothie setting

TASTE

If it’s not sweet enough, add another date.

It it’s too thick, add another tablespoon milk.

Blend again on the smoothie setting.

Frosting Variations

• Chocolate frosting: Add 2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa and one more date. This will thicken the frosting, so you might need another tablespoon of milk.

• Mint chocolate frosting: Make the chocolate frosting. Add peppermint extract one drop at a time, blending after each addition and TASTING. And when I say one drop at a time I mean one drop at a time. It’s easy to go too far with mint.

• Lemon or orange frosting: Make the vanilla frosting, but use a tablespoon of water instead of the milk. Then add lemon juice or orange juice just half teaspoon at a time, blending and TASTING after each addition. (Garnish with zest for a fancy touch and a blast of flavor!)

• Strawberry frosting: Make the vanilla frosting recipe and add strawberry extract a drop at a time, blending and TASTING after each addition.

*I put TASTING in all caps because so many new cooks skip it, and just follow the recipe like it’s a religious rite. Recipes are part what’s written down, and partly what the cook does with it. So taste, dammit. Taste like the wind!

Use in Salads

Potato salad, macaroni salad, chickpea egg or chickpea tuna salad—all of them need something creamy to perfect their texture.

You can season the salad and just add a scoop for texture. Or….

Cashew Salad Dressings

• About 1/2 cup cashew cream

• 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish

• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped

• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

• Several strong grinds or shakes of black pepper

• Two good pinches of kala namak black salt for an eggy flavor (Optional)

So I use a spoonful of this in the chickpea salad sandwich mix hubs has fallen for. I spread it thick on toasted Dave’s Killer Bread, with a whole honkin’ handful of raw greens. I slice up a tomato but pack it in a separate container so he can apply it to the sandwich when he’s ready to eat it, avoiding soggy bread.

I also add a scoop to my macaroni and or potato salads instead of mayo.

Thinning this out a bit more, maybe shifting some of the herbs, you can make a decent ranch dressing.

Cheesy applications

The cheese sauce recipe, I’ve given elsewhere, and it’s the best I’ve had. But you can simplify here by adding some jarred roasted red pepper (oil-free) and some nutritional yeast. Start with two tablespoons nooch to 1/2 cup of cashew cream, blend, and then…you know I’m going to say taste it, right?

You can use it for Mac & cheese, or potatoes au gratin, or as even a layer in your veggie lasagna. It works for any other dish that calls for cheese sauce.

Thickened up (less liquid, more nooch) you can make a cheese dip for veggies.

French Onion Dip

Make the base recipe, then add caramelized onion, finely chopped chives, fresh parsley, and maybe a splash of low sodium tamari. (You can cook your onions oil-free and there’s a demo HERE. To caramelize, just cook them longer. You need to get that sugar starting to stick to the pan, then add a splash of water to reconstitute it.)

I think you’re beginning to see the applications here!

Summing up

So love making the basic cashew cream recipe on the weekend, then using it for various recipes throughout the week.

Caution: If you’re working to reverse heart disease you should limit nuts to two tablespoons per day. Easier to measure when they’re creamy, yes?

On the other hand, if you are exercising well, you can burn rather than store that fat content.

Remember, the plaque in the arteries comes from excess fats in the bloodstream. Animal and milk fats are the worst, non-animal saturated fats are next, of course. But any fat we don’t use can wind up there.

Excess calories are also stored as fat, and it’s fat that clogs our arteries. Clogged arteries is another term for “coronary artery disease” or “heart disease” for short.

A personal note: I’ve gotta tell you all how much I appreciate your subscriptions, and how much your presence here helps get me up in the morning.

Just the other day I was contemplating whether one of my blogs I might have to go. It’s a lot to keep up three (This, The Bliss Blog and the Coffee House Blog at MaggieShayne.com) while still writing a couple of novels a year and, you know, having a life.

But every time I consider it, somebody leaves a comment, or shares a post, or I get a new free subscriber, or a new paying subscriber which is like a shot of magical motivation juice, and I realize people are getting something important here. Some of you are even getting their health back. Some of you are going to life a few years longer, and a whole lot healthier than you would have, had you never stumbled upon this place. Thinking about that makes me tear-up!

So thank you from my heart for being here, free or paid.

And you paid subscribers, thank you times a million. I couldn’t keep this going without you.

Your Homework: If you’re new here, you might have missed my posts about how important to educate yourself on the whole food plant-based lifestyle from multiple sources. Here are a few of my go-to powerhouses of knowledge.

Documentaries

• Forks Over Knives

• What the Health

• Cowspiracy

• Seaspiracy

• The Twins Project

Websites

• Forksoverknives.com *Caution—they’re using oil in some recipes now. New ownership. But there are still thousands of recipes on the site that are truly WFPB and they have a free recipe app I use a lot.

• NutritionFacts.org—Dr. Michael Greger’s site on nutrition with frequent videos on specific topics.

• Nutritionstudies.org—Home of the T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D’s certificate course on plant based nutrition. When I took it, it was offered through Cornell University. Also jam packed with articles, recipes, and more.

• PCRM.org—Home of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, another site packed with the latest peer reviewed research on nutrition and health, frequent videos on various nutritional topics, and lots more.

Podcasts

The Plantstrong Podcast by Rip Esselstyn, son of one of the founders of the WFPB movement, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr, who is keeping it going with a whole line of foods and this fantastic weekly podcast. Jon Stewart was a guest for a double episode!

Plant-Based by Ann & Jane Esselstyn This is Dr. Esselstyn’s wife Ann, who just turned 90, and their daughter (Rip’s sister) Ann. They cook a recipe a week and all of them are 100% WFPB.

The Physicians Committee Podcast: This is usually Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee with guests discussing plant-based nutrition, and how it overcomes specific health. challenges.

That’s it for today, everyone. Thanks for being here. Be sure to like and subscribe, as it helps lift the blog in the algorithm. Sharing helps too!

Becoming a paid subscriber means you’ll get some glittery karma for all the years of healthy life we’re helping folks gain! (And when the cook book is done, you’ll get that free, too.)

Next time we’ll start talking Thanksgiving.

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Don’t you just love it when, somehow, against all odds, and often on Christmas Eve, something wonderful happens? You know how it feels when you get to that point in the story. The way your throat clutches up a little, and your eyes burn.

I have enough Christmas romances to make you feel that a dozen times between now and the big night. They’ll put you in the spirit even better than binging Hallmark movies! And leave you feeling lifted right up.

Feel Good Again!

Maggie Shayne's Holiday Collection!

Listen, folks, I know what you’re thinking. Or what you will be thinking when you read the ingredients. I have been a snob about using medjool dates ever since we first adopted a plant-based diet in 2020 and gradually got better and better at the “whole food” part.

At first I couldn’t eat tofu or seitan, hated vinegar, and wouldn’t even try medjool dates as a sweetener in recipes. All I saw when I looked at them was pitted prunes. Pitted prunes and I have a history.

The History

This one time, I had a large carton of pitted prunes on my desk beside me to eat just a few. I was working on a novel that day. Well, I fell into the story. This happens sometimes. My fingers fly over the keys, but all I’m seeing is the scene in my mind, and I’m as excited to find out what happens as I hope the readers will be. It’s just like I’m watching a movie unfold in my mind, and racing to transcribe what’s happening onto the page.

You know how when you’re watching a good movie and there’s a tub of popcorn in your lap, and suddenly you reach in for more and only feel the bottom of the tub, but have no memory of eating it?

Yeah, well, substitute “carton of pitted prunes” where it says popcorn. Suffice to say the results were no fun, and left me with a lifelong disgust at the thought of pitted prunes.

Back on topic: Medjool dates are NOTHING like pitted prunes.

I first decided to give them a try for a my carrot cake recipe, and at that time I was getting them from the bulk bin at a local food market. They were very big and very dry, and even after a lot of soaking, were still pretty tough. Even with a high speed blender on the smoothie setting, there were still little pieces of dates floating around in the carrot cake batter or whatever concoction it contained.

Well, this time, I got the dates in plastic package from the grocery store, and when I opened them, I was really surprised. They’re moist and soft and wonderful. They still have little pits in them, so you have to split them open and roll those out. It’s so easy, you can do it with your fingers, but I usually just slice them open with a knife on a cutting board.

Dates are high in:

• Magnesium

• Manganese

• Potassium

• Vitamin B6

• Copper

• Fiber

In fact 100 grams of dates (about 4 dates) have as much fiber as a whole cup of whole wheat pasta, or 1/2 cup of lentils!

So please give this a try. You will not believe how rich, creamy, smooth, and sweet this cocoa is. Downright decadent. You might even need to add more milk to ease its richness.

I did add a small handful of Dandy brand vegan mini-marshmallows, which are not a whole food, but are plant-based. And by a handful I mean, 1/4 cup. However, I’ve also added how to make your own foamy, creamy topping with a little bit of milk and maple syrup and a coffee/foam frother.

Enjoy!

WFPB Hot Cocoa Recipe

Part 1

• 3/4 cup water

• 300 grams medjool dates, pitted and chopped (about 11 dates)

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Put the water and chopped dates into a saucepan to heat. Bring to a low simmer and continue stirring occasionally for 3 minutes or so. Add the cocoa and stir continuously for another minute or so as it begins to thicken. If it starts sticking to the pan, remove from heat.

Part 2

• 1 cup soy milk with

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour the milk and vanilla into the pan with the cocoa mixture and stir until well blended. (No heat.) Then pour into the smoothie cup of your high speed blender. This works better in a slender shape than in a wide or bowl-shaped container. Blend on smoothie setting.

Part 3

• 2 & 1/2 cups more soy milk

• 1/4 cup vegan mini-marshmallows or soy milk foam topping (below.)

Pour this smooth, thick, sweet concoction from the blender back into the pan. Use a flat spatula to scrape every bit you can from the blender cup. Then add 2 & 1/2 cups more soy milk. Stir to blend and heat while stirring and heat until it’s nice and hot. You don’t want it to boil at this point, just heat to a good hot drinking temperature, remembering it will cool fast, once poured.

When it’s hot, ladle into mugs. Top with those mini-marshmallows, OR if you’d prefer keep this 100% pure WFBP, here’s an even better idea.

Creamy Foamy Topping Option

For this one, you need a foamer

• 1/3 cup soy milk

• 1 teaspoon maple syrup

• A sprinkle of cinnamon

If you have a foamer, pour a small amount of cold soy milk into a mug. Add a teaspoon of maple syrup. Foam with the foamer until frothy and light.

Pour over cocoa. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and serve.

There’s more about my discovery of the foamer here, along with a recipe for chickpea salad sandwich spread.

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Who has enough Christmas romances to start her own Hallmark Channel competitor?

This little elf right here!

Explore the entire holiday collection!

There’s a recipe below, but first I wanted to discuss salt.

Too much salt leads to high blood pressure which in turn leads to an earlier death. –Rip Esselstyn

“High blood pressure is the #1 worldwide risk factor for death resulting in fatal heart attacks, strokes, and other catastrophic organ failures” –Global Burden of Disease Study, involving 300 institutions across 50 countries,

Too much salt will kill your ass! –Me, a true salt-aholic

We Americans are eating too much sodium by a long shot, from 3000-5000 milligrams per day on average. Which begs the question, how much do we actually need?

How much sodium do we need?

The minimum amount we need for good health is about 500 milligrams per day, which is a little bit less than 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Our desired intake per day, the perfect amount, the gold standard is age-based.

• Under age 50: 1500 mg/day

• Over age 50: 1300 mg/day

• Over age 70: 1200 mg/day

For clarity, 1 teaspoon of salt =2200 mg, 1/2 teaspoon =1100 mg, 1/4 teaspoon =550 mg.

Rip Esselstyn says an excellent rule of thumb when reading labels is to look for a sodium-to-calories ratio of 1 to 1. So if a serving has 100 calories, it can have about 100 mg of sodium. He allows a ratio of 4 to 1 for condiments, so 100 calories could have up to 400 mg of sodium, but these items must be the exception, not the rule.

The benefits of cutting back

Our leading causes of death are heart attack and stroke.
Our leading cause of heart attack and stroke is high blood pressure (and diet.)

• Reducing salt by 1 teaspoon per day lowers blood pressure as much as blood pressure medication. –CNN

• Reducing salt by 3/4 of a teaspoon per day saves 400,000 quality-adjusted life years and 24 billion in health care costs annually. —New England Journal of Medicine

• Reducing salt by 1/2 teaspoon per day would prevent 22% of fatal strokes 16% of fatal heart attacks. – British Medical Journal

The thing about hypertension is, you don’t generally feel it, which is why it’s called a silent killer. It comes without symptoms. I know when mine is off, because I experience it as a fluttering in my chest, and sometimes a feeling of dizziness. My body is super sensitive. If I slack off on exercising, or eat the wrong things, my BP will rocket.

But mostly I keep it low with a whole food, plant-based diet and daily exercise. I was on medication for it at one time, but I’ve gone off it and am managing it without scripts now.

It’s been going very well with food and exercise, and it’s only recently that I’ve decided to step my health up yet another notch by taking a serious look at my salt and sugar intake, and cutting back on both.

I have tips below for doing so with salt. We’ll tackle sugar in another article.

This video is an entire hour on the health effects of salt, the benefits of reducing it, and how to read labels to ensure you aren’t getting too much. Rip Esselstyn is the son of Dr. Caldwell B Esselstyn from of Forks Over Knives fame, one of the founders of the entire whole food plant-based lifestyle. This is an excellent resource, as is his regular podcast, PlantStrong.

One of my own suggestions is to just stop cooking with salt. There is no reason to add salt to water when boiling pasta or vegetables, for example. There’s no reason to add it when cooking or baking, either. I never put salt in anything and all my cookies, brownies, cakes and pies come out fine without it. If baking bread with yeast, I believe there’s a specific amount of salt needed. I could be wrong as that’s an art I haven’t yet explored, so check on that.

The best use of salt for eating, is to scatter it on your food after it’s prepared. Rip points out in this video that a slice of bread has more sodium than a potato chip, but the chip tastes way saltier because the salt is right on the surface, not blended in, and because our salt-sensors are on our tongues. So if we surface salt our food, we get that same satisfying taste without all the sodium.

It does take time to adjust to a no salt diet, but if you use the surface scatter method, you’ll have plenty of that salty tang on your tongue without going over the ideal amount.

Another tip, is to buy Salt Sense or Morton Lite Salt, which is 50% sodium and 50% potassium, so you’re only using half as much with every shake.

Veggies high in sodium

Obviously, when buying processed veggies, frozen or canned, you have to check the label for sodium content. I always look for low sodium or salt-free varieties, but you have to check labels on those too. Sometimes Big Food’s notion of “low” doesn’t match mine.

Some veggies absorb the salt right out of the soil, and transfer it into the parts we eat.

In milligrams of sodium per 100 grams of vegetables, the highest are:

• Celery, 91

• Beets, 77

• Spinach, 70

• Artichoke, 60

• Carrots, 58

• Broccoli, 41

• Radish, 39

• Sweet potato, 27

• Kale, 23

• Brussels sprouts, 21

The rest have less than 20 mg per 100 grams.

We can easily get all the sodium we need from our diet, without adding a single salt crystal. But we don’t have to do that. If we just stop cooking with salt, and only sprinkle a little on the surface of our foods, (and if we’re eating a whole food, plant-based diet) then we’re golden.

If we’re “cheating” at all with ultra processed foods—no judgement, there are chick’n patties in my freezer right now—but if we eat that stuff, we’re likely getting a huge hit of sodium. And I’ll tell you what I just found out last weekend, if you go 100% whole food plant-based, seriously shunning processed and oils for a solid month and then you have a Brix vegan pizza smothered in vegan cheese as a reward for being so good for a whole month—you are going to get very sick. Your body will be like, “Um, no.”

At least, that’s how it went down for me. 🤢

It’s going to be the same with the salt. After getting used to not having it, having a high sodium day will have a physical impact on the body. Blood pressure can spike, you can feel bloated, dehydrated, have headaches, or feel severe fatigue. And those are just the immediate results. That BP spike is damaging your arteries, which can cause future problems.

The solution is simple

Just don’t add salt to your cooking, and don’t eat processed shit with salt added. Easy-peasy. Put 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a tiny dish, and then make that your portion for the day. Check the bread you’re using. Check everything.

And run a quick estimate on the produce you imbibe, grains as well as veggies, to keep a running tab on where you are.

PUMPKIN LENTIL SOUP

Here’s that recipe I promised you!

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, chopped

• 6 garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped.

• 1 teaspoon marjoram OR oregano (NOT both)

• 1 teaspoon cardamom OR cinnamon (NOT both)

• 4 stalks of celery, chopped

• 4 small or 3 medium carrots, chopped

• 2 cups dry lentils, well-rinsed

• 8 cups water

• 3 and 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 1/8 teaspoon or a generous grind of black pepper

Method

Sauté the onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and herbs until all the veggies for about 7 minutes.

Add the water and the lentils, and bring to a boil.

Cook on medium for about 25 minutes or until lentils are almost tender.

Add pumpkin puree and simmer for another ten minutes, then serve piping hot.

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This post is a day late, and for that I apologize. The 18th was jam-packed with joyful events beginning with a senior grandson’s final home soccer game where seniors were honored, and ending with the closest No Kings Rally to the soccer game’s location where 300-400 folks turned out including two unicorns, a giant chicken, a T-rex, a frog, and an alien! Talk about diversity!

I was plum exhausted by the time I got home, but fulfilled as well.

So now I have a moment to share this fabulous and versatile sauce recipe that has a million uses.

• Mix with pasta for your tastiest Mac & cheeze ever

• Drizzle over cooked veggies

• Stir into a bowlful of roasted cauliflower and potato chunks

• Use as a dip

• Dollop atop goulash or stir fries

• Add to mashed potatoes

• Dress up anything that needs a creamy, savory sauce

You can adjust the level of its thickness as much or as little as as you like, just by changing the amount of flour. If it turns out thicker than you want on the first try, add more milk to thin.

Ingredients

1 red bell pepper (The tall, slender red bell peppers have more flavor than the short round ones.)

• 1 & 1/2 cups soy milk

• 2/3 cup nutritional yeast

• 1/2 cup potato flour

• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

• 1 tsp dry mustard

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• Freshly ground black pepper

First, roast the red pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 425º

2. Wash the red pepper, cut into lengthwise quarters, remove the seeds.

3. Place the quarters skin-side-up on a silicone- or parchment-lined baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the skins are blackened and charred. Not just a little around the edges, you want to let them get blacker than that.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool

6. Once cooled, pinch off skins

7. Finely chop the remaining soft meat of the pepper

Make the sauce

1. Put all ingredients except black pepper into a saucepan, including the roasted pepper and whisk smooth.

2. Heat while stirring until the sauce begins to simmer and thicken.

3. If it’s too thick, add more soy milk. If it’s too thin, whisk some more flour with a little more milk and add that, then heat once again until it simmers and thickens.
   *Thicker sauce is better for dips and dollops, slightly thinner for mixing into other foods or pasta.

4. Finish by adding black pepper.

*Black pepper boosts the body’s absorption of curcumin, the powerful anti-inflammatory ingredient in turmeric. Usually it’s quite poorly absorbed into our bloodstreams. The presence of pepper fixes that!

That’s it, you’re done. Refrigerate in a glass jar with a tight lid and use for up to a week. Maybe longer.

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Oatmeal for breakfast daily is a miracle meal. I have it 5 days a week. Doing this ensures you get enough fiber, resets your regularity, boosts and builds your gut biome, reduces your cholesterol, lowers your risk of cancer and heart disease and a whole lot more. Oats are just that good. However, quick oats and instant oats DO NOT COUNT. They’re overly processed and not as nutritious. Besides, the old fashioned kind cook in like 3 minutes, so no big whoop.

Now for this first recipe, don’t think of it as oatmeal. It’s not oatmeal. It’s a single serving veggie stew of celery, mushrooms, greens, noochie, spices, and a half-cup of rolled oats just to thicken it up.

Credit for this, and for so much more in my life right now, goes to Ann Esselstyn, whose husband is Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn. You know him from the documentary, Forks Over Knives. I’ll link her fantastic, do-not-miss YouTube series where she partners with her daughter Jane below.

Ann has been eating whole food plant-based way more cleanly than I have, for forty years. She turned 90 this summer and still runs a mile before breakfast. I want to be Ann when I grow up, and lately, she’s inspiring me like few others have ever done.

Ann makes her “Warrior Oats” with artichoke hearts and adds sriracha. I haven’t found any artichoke hearts I can bear yet. I tried canned, and found them just awful, so I’m thinking fresh, but just haven’t sourced them yet. Meanwhile I sub in celery and poultry seasoning. No sriracha for me, thanks.

*Later note: Still haven’t found any artichoke hearts besides canned, however, the Sclafani brand is fantastic. Most brands you have to peel off the outer leaves, as they’re too tough to even cut, but with Sclafani, I chop up the entire artichoke heart. Nothing gets wasted. I also kept the celery just because I like the flavor. I eat this stuff 6 to 7 days a week and crave it when I don’t.

Ann says even if she doesn’t eat another thing all day, she has most of what she needs in this one meal, including B12 from the nooch. I don’t even take the B12 supplement when I have my Warrior Oats. You can find her version of this recipe in her cookbook, Be a Plant-Based Warrior Woman. (The spiral bound is the best for kitchen use, IMO. That’s the one I have.)

Get the cookbook!

I have my own version of this breakfast that does the same, and I do it a little bit differently. Ann throws everything into the pot at once and lets it simmer for 20 minutes or so while she works out. (Did I mention, she’s 90?) My method leaves the pot far easier to clean when you’re done. I tried it her way first. Clean up was rough! Even Ann says it’s way easier with her Caraway brand pans, which I have not yet and probably never will acquire. (They’re pricey.)

I’ll also give you a more traditional oatmeal recipe right below this, so no matter how awful this first one sounds to you, keep scrolling. Hubby says it tastes sort of like Campbell’s Chunky Cream of Chicken Soup without the chicken. So go into it with that expectation.

Savory Breakfast Bowl *modified from Ann’s Warrior Oats

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups water

• 2 cups greens, any kind, rinsed

• 3 button or baby Bella mushrooms, rinsed, chopped

• 1 stalk celery, washed, chopped

• 3 artichoke hearts, chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

• 1/2 cup rolled or steel cut oats

• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• Black pepper to activate the turmeric

• 1 teaspoon black chia seeds

• 1 teaspoon flax seed meal

METHOD

Put the water, greens, mushrooms, celery, turmeric, ginger, and poultry seasoning into a larger-than-you-think-you-need saucepan. Not your usual little oatmeal pot, the bigger one.

Put on the lid and turn on the heat. We want to bring it to a boil, lower the heat, and let it simmer for a good ten to fifteen minutes, to get the veggies cooked.

Add the rolled oats and stir, return to a simmer/low boil. Cook another ten minutes or so. Keep cooking until it’s spoonably thick.

While it’s cooking, put the fresh ground pepper, chia seeds, flax seed, and nutritional yeast into a big bowl.

When the veggie-oats are done, pour into the bowl and mix thoroughly with a spoon, getting every bit of the nooch and pepper and seed blended in.

*It makes a huge amount. I usually eat half of it, and set the other half aside for second-breakfast.

POST SCRIPT: I can use the canned artichoke hearts! I just need to take off the tough outer leaves and chop up the rest! I’ve continued adding celery, though, because I love it, and now add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) of poultry seasoning. Chef’s Kiss!

A More Traditional Oatmeal

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup oatmeal

• 1 cup water

• 1 teaspoon flax seed

• 1 teaspoon chia seed

• 3-5 strawberries

• 3-5 blackberries

• 1/4-1/3 cups raspberries

• 1/3 cup blueberries

*Do not add a banana. If you add banana, your body won’t absorb the beneficial antioxidants from the berries as much, so save your banana for later-in-the-day.

Okay, so pour the water and oats into the saucepan and simmer until it’s the thickness you like. Take two or three minutes. While it’s cooking, put the flaxseed meal and the chia seeds into your bowl.

When the oatmeal is done, pour it into the bowl and stir up all the seeds.

Slice the berries over the top. Your bowl can be up to half berries, if you want.

This is another excellent meal to start the day, this time leaning more sweet than savory.

A note about smoothies

Digestion begins in the mouth, and it begins with chewing. Chewing your food gives your body the first opportunity to absorb its nutrients. Most B12 is absorbed in the mouth, before you ever swallow it. (That’s why they make those dissolve-on-your-tongue tablets.) Don’t get your nutrition from smoothies. Chew your fruits & veggies.

Follow Ann and Jane Esselstyn’s YouTube series here.

Plant-Based with Ann & Jane Esselstyn

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Wings in the Night

It’s fall, and it’s time for hearty meals, so let’s get into the mood with a staple that most Americans list as a favorite! Good old mashed potatoes and gravy!

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 4-5 russet potatoes

• 2/3-1 cup soy milk

• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon rosemary

• freshly ground black pepper

Method

Wash and chop the potatoes. You decide whether to peel. If the skins are just really old and awful, I peel, but if at all possible, I leave the skins on. I like to steam the potatoes in the top of a double boiler, rather than boil them to leave more nutrient, and keep them from getting soggy. DO NOT OVERCOOK. Just tender enough for the fork to enter easily, and no more.

Drain and cool immediately with cold water.

Pour the potatoes into a large mixing bowl, and mash them with a potato masher. Mash as thoroughly as you can.

Heat the milk. Get it hot but not boiling, and then add that and the nutritional yeast to the potatoes and mix well. At this point I often break out the hand mixer. You don’t need to use all the milk, or you might need more. Judge the texture as you go along.

Add the remaining ingredients, a little at a time, tasting after each addition until perfection is achieved.

Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

• 8 oz mushrooms, chopped

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 1/4 cup whole grain flour

• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• 1 teaspoon ground sage

• 1 tablespoon miso

• 2 tablespoons tamari dissolved in

• 2 cups water

Method

Heat a quality skillet until a droplet of water beads and dances.

Add the chopped onions and mushrooms to the pan, and stir frequently while they cook.

Meanwhile, mix flour, nutritional yeast, sage together. Add a pinch of dry mustard to the mix, and set it aside.

Next, put the miso, tamari, and water into a high speed blender and use the smoothie setting. Miso is really difficult to get well-blended.

When the mushrooms and onions are thoroughly cooked, remove the pan from heat, and then quickly stir in the flour & herb mixture to coat every bit of it.

Pour the water/miso/tamari mixture into the pan and return to heat, stirring, stirring, stirring. Even as well as you got the miso dissolved, it’ll cling to the bottom of the pan and coat the edge of your stirring utensil. That’s okay, just keep stirring.

Bring it to a simmer and it will thicken up nicely. It’ll get even thicker when it cools.

Serve over baked or mashed potatoes in any way you like!

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