Have you ever brushed a cow?

Have you ever brushed a cow?

by | Jun 29, 2022 | My Story

I know I’m veering off of food blogging territory here, but this is important, and, in my opinion, really interesting. We all have our reasons for eating more plant-based. For some of us it’s purely health, others shift their eating for the environment, and others care about animal welfare. 

My first exposure to an animal sanctuary was The Gentle Barn located outside of Los Angeles about 10 years ago. While there, I got to brush a cow for the first time, hang out with pigs, turkeys, llamas and I fed the horses carrots too. 

The Gentle Barn, like other animal sanctuaries, takes in rescued farm animals. Of course, they can’t save them all… yet*. The numbers of animals slaughtered for meat consumption is in the billions. But every once in a while, one gets lucky, and they get to live out their days being cared for by a group of compassionate people. 

Not only do the animals benefit from the loving care, but the sanctuaries enable visitors to meet farm animals up close. For many people, this is a first exposure to animals other than pets. It’s an opportunity to experience the sentience of these beings firsthand.  I remember the sign at Gentle Barn’s entrance requesting that if anyone brought lunch to enjoy, to make sure it had no animal products in it out of respect for their residents. 

Makes sense, right? The sanctuary is home to rescued turkeys, but you’ve brought a turkey sandwich to enjoy. There’s a bit of a disconnect. 

In fact, more recently I was visiting a different sanctuary that had chickens, goats, pigs, horses and cows and one of the employees there was eating a salad with chicken. What???!!!! But I also know that not every sanctuary is “vegan.”**

It’s tough to care about a topic that we are very removed from on a daily basis. Factory farming largely happens behind closed doors and all we see are the neatly wrapped meat packets in the supermarket ready for consumption. What we don’t see are the innocent animals suffering. 

But why would we care anyway? 

It often isn’t until we have a direct experience that we even begin to care. And the sanctuaries provide opportunity to meet the animals and teach us about the fate that might have been for these wonderful animals had they not been rescued. 

I support a few sanctuaries. 

One of them is Animal Place in Northern California. In addition to offering onsite opportunities to meet their animal residents, they host an annual conference.  The conference offers good information not only about the plight of farmed animals, but also about technologies and good people that are helping improve plant-based and vegan food. And if you are interested in advocacy, they offer ways for your voice to be heard. 

Another favorite sanctuary has a different story. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is located in Texas. Rowdy Girl was founded by Renee King-Sonnen, who, until 2014 was the wife of a cattle rancher. She woke up one morning and decided to go vegan because she just couldn’t handle sending those cows to slaughter. She launched a fundraiser and raised enough money to buy her husband Tommy’s cattle and today they run a sanctuary instead of raising animals for food. (Renee is now the wife of a former cattle rancher. I love that she had the vision, took action, and Tommy joined her efforts.) 

Not only do they run the sanctuary, but they started the Rancher Advocacy Program helping ranchers around the world shift from raising cattle for food, to growing plant-based foods– vegetables, legumes, grains, etc. It’s a whole movement and it is fascinating to watch these people get creative and support one another. Renee is a firecracker and I’m honored to support them in their monthly membership program. 

Perhaps you’ve already heard of Farm Sanctuary. They have a large following with locations in both NY and Los Angeles.  In addition to offering sanctuary to their residents, they: “fight the disastrous effects of animal agriculture on animals, the environment, social justice, and public health through rescue, education, and advocacy.” 

While there are dozens more, I’ll leave you with this last one. It’s a small sanctuary in upstate New York called Squirrelwood. They got smart and turned a camera on one of their cows named Crouton when she first came to their sanctuary.  Now they have this wonderful following of people who love watching their animals’ antics in their barn. Sometimes they even put a GoPro on a resident and you can get a pig’s eye view of life on the farm. They do a great job with their social media- especially on Twitter, and it’s fun to watch the life in the barn. I don’t know that they are vegan, but I do know that if you’ve never spent time with a cow or pig or horses and want to have some fun, their social media is great. 

*One of Rowdy Girls missions is to help turn animal farms into plant farms so that we can save them all. Tall order, I know, but they are leading a movement that is slowly coming around. 

**Animal Place has a program that helps sanctuaries that are not already vegan, go vegan. It’s surprising to me that some sanctuaries rescue pigs, chickens and cows, but then eat food made from those animals. I’m happy that Animal Place is helping to shift that.

When is Not Milk, Milk?

When is Not Milk, Milk?

by | Jun 22, 2022 | Food & Ingredients

I don’t remember exactly when I switched to plant-based milk. I’ve had a lactose intolerance* since college and switching away was originally to enjoy cereal without an upset stomach. I suspect this was in 2012 or so. 

Back then, the only types of plant-based milks that I was aware of were soy and rice milks.  I noticed that there was a difference in taste and texture between the different brands. I didn’t really like soy milk in cereal, but I liked it in coffee. 

Then almond milk came into my purview. I preferred the consistency and taste of almond milk to soy milk for cereal. 

A couple of years ago I discovered Milkadamia and as you may guess, it is made from macadamia nuts. My understanding is that the production of almonds is rather water-intensive and I really like Milkadamia. (Nuts in general are water-intensive to grow, but the majority of them are grown in California where droughts are common. NOTE: Growing nuts is still significantly less water intensive than raising farm animals). 

Additionally, for many California almonds, bees are often shipped in from elsewhere to pollinate the trees. Many bees die in the process so I seek out alternatives to almond when I can. I find, however that Milkadamia or almond milks are too thin in my coffee. 

The plot (and non-dairy milk) thickens: 

My husband was willing to try non-dairy milk and decided that he liked some of them a lot. His preferred brand is Califia Farms creamer in his coffee. We also learned about a new company called Not Milk. Not Milk is a plant-based milk that was engineered to act and taste like dairy milk. It is pretty darn close. My husband loves the 2% and is totally satisfied using that in his morning cereal. The 2% Not Milk works well for me in my coffee, and we no longer use dairy milk in our home! 

The whole food plant-based experts from Cornell’s plant-based nutrition program suggest using plant-based milks that aren’t overly engineered or contain added oils like the Not Milk. But at the end of the day, it’s all better than dairy milk** and we should delight in all the plant-based options now available to us. 

There are always other environmental issues to consider when choosing a product. We can spend all day researching each brand (which I sometimes do, but not always.) I try to use as many organic products as I can too. 

In a nutshell, these are the brands we currently prefer: 

Milkadamia (I prefer unsweetened vanilla flavor)

Califia Farms Oat Creamer

Not Milk 2% 

Do you have a favorite? 

*Humans are the only animals that drink another animal’s milk once they are weaned. Our systems really aren’t set up for milk past the age of too and our bodies retaliate in the form of upset stomach, and possibly acne.

**According to research in The China Study, casein, the protein found in milk also causes cancer.

Why it’s Worth Eating More Whole Food Plant-Based

Why it’s Worth Eating More Whole Food Plant-Based

by | Jun 15, 2022 | Whole Food Plant Based

Why bother eating whole food plant-based if you are already plant-based? 

I thought I was doing my body a favor by not eating animal products. I felt fine and have always eaten a relatively healthy diet (no fast food, minimal fried foods, etc.) but I didn’t realize how much processed food I was still eating. Sure, it was good for the animals (that I wasn’t eating them), and in many ways, better for me too, but foods high in sodium, sugar and fat are only marginally better (and for some people not at all) than animal product foods. 

Then I learned to cook a few plant-based recipes which was a first step toward eating more healthfully. I was originally hesitant because I didn’t recognize any of the ingredients in the plant-based recipes. But the cooking class I attended helped with that. 

The biggest shift happened after I attended Cornell’s online Plant-Based Nutrition program. I learned just how powerful a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle is and now I endeavor to eat as much whole food plant-based as possible. 

“Most importantly, the diet that has time and again been shown to reverse and/or prevent these diseases [heart, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune, bone, kidney, cognitive and others] is the same whole foods plant-based diet that I have found to promote optimal health in my laboratory research and in the China Study. The findings are consistent.”*

 Let’s be clear, I am still not a pristine whole food plant-based cook or eater.  But I am moving in that direction. 

But it’s not 100%. My priority when I first started cooking plant-based was replicating the foods that I used to eat when I was an omnivore. That may be your priority at the moment too. I get it. It’s no fun feeling deprived. And now that there are SO MANY good recipes out there, there is no reason to feel deprived. 

And I still order in from restaurants or go out to dinner which is also not usually WFPB. 

I’m ok with this. Why? First of all, I if I can cook a plant-based recipe that husband will enjoy too, then I’m all for it, even if it’s not 100% WFPB. 

He’s kind of picky (can you say 4th grader palate?) and there are a ton of WFPB meals he wouldn’t touch. But we have made massive progress at home. 

Since I know that many of the restaurant recipes use more oil than I cook with, I try to balance it by eating more cleanly at home. Even though some of the recipes are not WFPB, I modify as best as I can (reduce or omit oil, sugar, white flour etc.)   

I feel really good too and dropped a couple of pounds without doing anything special. I eat more than ever but it’s clean food with minimal fillers. Pretty much the way we’re supposed to be eating. 

If you are familiar with The China Study, you know that the people in China who were studied eat more calories than in a typical Western diet and are much leaner and healthier. Their lifestyles were naturally WFPB because the western diet had not yet invaded their communities. I highly recommend this book. It’s big, but well-written and informative. 

The Cornell course I took is based upon this research (among other topics) and you can learn much of what I learned without the whole course. The course and book (and others that we will share down the road) remind me that we want to eat healthfully so that our bodies are fueled with proper fuel that prevents disease and supports our bodies in operating optimally. 

For me, and many people, however, food is also fun and a way to be creative and social. 

My motto continues to be; everything (plant-based) in moderation. 

For some of you reading this, the idea of eating exclusively plant-based is already challenging and WFPB is out of the question. And others may already be horrified at the idea of not eating WFPB because for you, food is solely a source of energy. Or perhaps it is solely about the animals. The point is- we all have our reasons for being where we are now. In the end though, studies show that the closer we can get to eating WFPB, the healthier our bodies (and minds) will be.  

Stay tuned because in addition to The China Study, we will be offering many more resources in the near future. 

*T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Thomas M. Campbell II, MD
The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition

What is Aquafaba and What Do I Do with It?

What is Aquafaba and What Do I Do with It?

by | Jun 8, 2022 | Food & Ingredients

I had never heard of this ingredient either, before my foray into plant-based cooking.  Aquafaba is the liquid from a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or other canned beans. Translated, aquafaba means bean water. Aqua (water). Faba (as in fava bean).  

It can be used for loads of different things in plant-based cooking. 

I use it as a replacement for oil in tofu bites and they are just as good.

I have used it in recipes that call for egg replacement that specify aquafaba.

I also use aquafaba when I roast veggies instead of oil. I admit it’s not as crispy as with the oil, but when the veggies are paired with something flavorful, it usually doesn’t matter.

And I made meringue cookies with it last year! I don’t bake as much anymore because I’m trying to avoid sugar, but I missed the egg-based chocolate meringues that I used to make and gave it a go. Once I added the cocoa powder to the recipe the fluffiness fell (which I was warned might happen) but the cookie still tasted good. Flat, but good.

Now when I open a can of chickpeas and don’t need the liquid for that recipe, I save the aquafaba in an ice cube tray. Each cube is approximately one tablespoon. So, if the recipe calls for two tablespoons of oil, I pop out two cubes of aquafaba. 

PRO TIP: TOMORROW’S (June 9, 2022) RECIPE WILL CALL FOR CHICKPEAS. If you are so inclined, save the liquid from the can rather than tossing it. It may come in handy. You can store it in the fridge for a couple of days and then after that it needs to get frozen (which I recommend). 

Why would we bother substituting aquafaba for oil? Well, even though plant-based oils (olive oil for example) are less unhealthy than animal fats (i.e. butter), there’s still a ton of calories from fat in each tablespoon. Since I learned about increasing fiber and decreasing fat, I have cut down dramatically on my oil intake, at least when I cook at home. When I eat out of the home, I expect many dishes will have oil in them. So, I try to offset the unhealthier prepared foods with healthier home-cooked dishes that use ingredients like aquafaba. 

Interested in some more recipes that use aquafaba? Check out this link.

My Favorite Plant-Based Butters

My Favorite Plant-Based Butters

by | Jun 1, 2022 | Food & Ingredients

I used to love butter — on toast, in a baked potato, in baked goods. You name it. But when I decided to give up eating animal-based products, that also meant switching away from butter. This was one of the last things I gave up too. Even when I had theoretically given up dairy, I couldn’t resist traditional baked goods.

Fortunately, there are now tons of alternative vegan butters to choose from in the plant-based butter aisle in the grocery store.

In years past, people ate margarine as an alternative to butter. Apparently, there could be animal products in margarine whereas the newer plant-based butters are 100% plant-based. Further, the margarines of yesteryear were filled with transfats, and the new plant-based butters are made from plant oils.

Why is this important? Studies show that it’s the actual saturated and transfat found in animal fats that are harmful. While too much oil from any source isn’t healthy, a plant-based, non-dairy butter is certainly better, all in moderation. 

Many proponents of a whole foods plant-based diet eschew oils because they are processed and we tend to use too much of them anyway. But we all draw the line in the sand somewhere and switching to a plant-based diet and utilizing some oils (in moderation) is going to be necessary for some people, especially in the beginning. 

I still enjoy a hearty grainy toast with some buttery spread on it from time to time and you might too. Plus, many other recipes that call for butter are still possible with the new plant-based butters.

We can eat plant-based and still enjoy the foods we’ve always enjoyed! Here are the plant-based butters that I enjoy in moderation: 

The first plant-based butter that I tried was Earth Balance. They’ve been around for a while.  Their product is pretty good, and it comes in soy free and organic options. You can purchase it in a tub and also in baking stick form which is handy depending on what I’m looking to use it for.

Earth Balance does use palm oil.  I contacted the company to ask if the palm oil is ethically sourced and they said yes, though maybe it’s best to avoid palm oils altogether just to be safe. To learn more about why eating palm oil isn’t ok, check out this video.  

And FYI, palm oil is in MANY processed foods, so please read your labels carefully.

More recently though, I learned of Miyoko’s Creamery. Miyoko Schinner (the founder) not only makes superior plant-based products (including butters and cheeses), she is also a champion for the plant-based and animal welfare movements.

My friend, Diane K, swears that she could only replicate her family baklava recipe when she started using Miyoko’s. (And I recently got to sample it, and man it’s good.) 

I like it too and the packaging of their original plant-based butter is eco-friendly. They also offer a version in a tub that adds oat milk and gives it a creamier consistency. That is my husband’s favorite plant-based butter, and we no longer have animal-based butters in our home. (We even snuck it on my son’s bagel, and he couldn’t tell the difference.) 

I have both brands in my house and use them for different things (they have different consistencies) though I use Miyoko’s more in order to support them because I love the company and what they stand for.

If you are new to eating plant-based, these are my two favorite options though there are others readily available in most markets. I have learned to use less and less of it since I eat more whole food plant-based, but it’s great knowing that we have some really good choices.