Monday, July 27, 2009

Lisa's Vegetarian Summerfest Adventure

Hello Everyone,

As you may have heard I had the opportunity to attend the 35th annual Vegetarian Summerfest in Pennsylvania.

I had an incredible time and now I wish I had thought to bring all of you along. Instead, I have tried to capture some of the highlights on my blog. I also got the chance to chat about my experience with John and Liam on a recent podcast.

I recorded a few interviews while I was at Summerfest that I will attempt to post on the TVA site this week. I will add a link here as soon as it is up.

I hope that you are enjoying the summer so far and looking forward to attending out 25th annual Vegetarian Food Fair in just over a month.

See you all at Harbourfront!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Summer Resolutions

Last summer I came up with this grandiose plan of trying three new recipes per week. Like most new years' resolutions it fell by the wayside within the first two weeks - mostly because I was busier than I expected. However, this week I was able to get this task done. I experimented with three new recipes - two from Dreena Burton's blog and one from Veganomicon.

Dreena Burton's "Super Charge Me Cookies" were quite good. Essentially I was looking for a healthy cookie and I was able to find it. I like biting into a "treat" and not feeling like I'm going to get a sugar rush or need to detox after the fact. These guys did the trick.

I also made a Mexican Millet. Although the recipe is found in the Veganomicon cookbook there is a pseudo-version found here as well. My good friend Colleen has really got me on a millet kick right now, and I truly enjoyed this recipe. If you like Mexican food you're bound to like this one too.

Lastly, I was in a "what-the-heck" kind of mood and I decided to try something that I wouldn't normally eat. Hence, I tried a Mac-n-cheez recipe. Now, I'm not the kind of vegan who craves things from my past-omni life. So if I never eat a fake cheese again I would be perfectly fine with this. The part about this particular recipe that I liked was that there was no mock-cheese per se...the "cheese" was cashew and brazil nut based. I pretty much eat all non-processed foods so I was willing to give it a shot. I enjoyed the meal for sure...I would recommend it to anyone who does crave comfort food.

I'm not sure if I'll get to do three new recipes every week for the rest of the summer, but when I do try something new I'll be sure to post about it here.