How to Keep a Green, Vegan Kitchen
As the holidays come to a head, the kitchen can become a watering hole of sorts as meals and gifts co-mingle in wintery goodness. And for the vegan, this can be a great time to try new recipes, too. Which of course means lots of ingredients, gadgets and cookbooks galore! We love this article on how to keep a green, vegan kitchen. It’s useful now and throughout the year!
How to Keep a Green, Vegan Kitchen, MNN.com
Do you know which animal-derived, eco-unfriendly ingredients might be sneaking around in your kitchen cabinets? If the answer is “no,” don’t despair. You’re not alone! Most people are surprised to learn that there might be whey (that’s milk curd runoff) hiding in their paper towels, or that their hand soap is harboring tallow (that’s rendered fat), or that there’s lanolin (sheep’s wax) lurking in their upholstery polish.
Animal by-products are a direct result of the factory farming machine, and that’s why ethical and environmentally-minded individuals, regardless of diet or lifestyle, are making the move towards natural, plant-based products. In my own home, I keep an eco-friendly, cruelty-free kitchen. It took a bit of research and a bit of reconfiguring to get all set up, but now it’s just as easy as vegan pie. Quite a bit cheaper, too! Here’s how I do it:
Things are pretty easy now that entire lines of cleaning products have gone green and vegan. Method comes to mind as the leader of the cruelty-free cleansers, but there are other popular brands, such as Seventh Generation, that are almost entirely animal-free (the Seventh Generation automatic dishwasher pacs may contain tallow). These are great options to pick up in a pinch. But the truth is, I prefer to make my own DIY cleansers using simple, natural ingredients. Baking soda, white vinegar and castile soap can be combined in any number of ways to create some seriously fabulous DIY concoctions.
Read the entire article on MNN.com
Blue Lotus Bags Review
Paper or plastic? We all know it’s a good idea to bring our own shopping bags to the grocery store. Some states are even trying to ban plastic shopping bags and some stores are charging extra for them. 
But have you ever thought about those plastic bags that accrue from bulk and produce shopping? Well, I have, and frankly they’re a peeve of mine and I’d be happy to see them go as well. Their problems are many, including:
● They’re not reusable and are devastating to our planet and its inhabitants.
● They get all gross inside and are impossible to dry. You might try turning them inside out, but then you’ve got the dirty outside of the bag on the inside, going next to your food and well, my touch of OCD just can’t abide that.
● They’re made from plastic. Whenever I can avoid plastic touching my food, I’m a happy woman. You’ve heard about BPAs, right? Well, I recently read that even BPA-free plastic has problems.
● They don’t work well for storage. These bags don’t breathe and they don’t close well, so food has a tendency to spill and expires prematurely.
Thankfully, I’ve found a wonderful answer to my plastic bag woes: Blue Lotus Goods’ sustainable Produce & Bulk Food Bags! Here are the reasons I love them:
● They’re reusable, and machine washable! You can toss these right in with your laundry to get clean and then pop them inside your shopping tote, stored in the car, for your next shopping trip. *Do follow the care instructions and line dry your bags (I put mine in the dryer and they shrank!)
● They’re made from 100% Organic Cotton! Put your food in these lovely bags and you will have no qualms about putting said food in you. They’re even committed to using inks that contain no phthalates, are non-carcinogenic and non-toxic. Plus, they are free of heavy metals and solvents. Why this isn’t the norm, I may never understand, but that’s a topic for another post.
● They’re great for storing veggies. Moisten the bags slightly with water (every couple of days) and place them in the crisper section of your fridge to keep water-loving vegetables (like carrots, broccoli and greens) fresh and crisp for more than a week.
● The designs are adorable. Carrots! Grains! Greens! These graphics just make you want to use them and they’ll garner enthusiastic comments (and perhaps a touch of envy) from everyone who sees them. Blue Lotus even prints the tare weight on the bag (lower left corner) so you don’t pay for the weight of the bag. Just ask your checker to deduct it.
● They’re the perfect sizes. The bags for Greens are big enough for plenty of greens, which is very necessary for our kale-hungry family!
Surely you can understand why I’m so in love with these bags. All of the goodness and no downside! Easy decision if you ask me, especially since they’re offering 20% of your next purchase at BlueLotusGoods.com to our fabulous Sweet Talk readers. Just enter code: ALGO11 on their website before July 31st to take advantage of this offer.
Elegant and Sustainable Straws: Review and Giveaway!
If there is one thing I try hard to avoid, it’s waste of the “disposable” variety. If there are two things I strongly dislike, they’re landfill filling and plastic. If there are three things I shudder at, they’re once-and-done debris, anything poly and also ethylene, and dirty things in my kitchen. If there’re four things I have an aversion to, they’re temp-use refuse, organic polymers that can be molded into shapes when soft and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form, filth near food, and plastic straws.
Olivia drinking green juice with her shorty decorative dots straw from GlassDharma
All that said, when one has a four-year-old, straws add convenience and fun. This is why eschewing plastic straws sent me on an ecstatic journey to find sustainable straws. A while back, I purchased a set made from stainless steel for my daughter. It was definitely a step in the right direction, but after a few uses, Olivia mentioned a funny taste. I was horrified to find that no amount of my obsessive cleaning could scrub the inside of those opaque straws. That’s when the clouds parted, the angels began to sing, and I found GlassDharma.
GlassDharma makes straws out of (almost) unbreakable glass (really, there’s a guarantee!). And that’s just the beginning! There are so many other great things about these straws. First, they are completely clear, so I can see that they’re clean and we get the satisfaction of watching our suction power beat gravity when we drink green juice, smoothies, and even fair-trade tea. Second, GlassDharma offers cleaning brushes specifically designed to fit inside the straw! Have I mentioned that I love attention to detail? Oh, and I’m obsessive about cleanliness, so this is a big one for me. Third, dots! These colorful, decorative dots add to the straws’ elegance and keep them from rolling off the counter. What a brilliant and beautiful design!
There’s something so fun about drinking through a straw, and Olivia says that GlassDharma’s are extra fun to blow through. 
These would also be a great addition to your To Go Kit, helping the mission of Take Out Without to reduce restaurant waste (and your own ingestion of plastics).
As a special treat for AG’s Sweet Talk readers, GlassDharma is giving away a $25 gift certificate to the commenter with the most straw-worthy beverage! Just leave a comment, here on our blog in the form of a description/recipe for your most enticing elixir! We’ll pick a winner Monday, so stay tuned.
Amazing Valentine’s Day Offer from Blendtec
I know it’s Monday Yumday, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share a special offer for one of my favorite kitchen tools, the Blendtec Total Blender. I first tried this high-powered blender in November and decided that it would be my holiday gift to myself, so ordered one in December.
We use it every morning for smoothies and it’s pure perfection when making all the rich creamy sauces needed for my vegan recipes. One of my favorite things is that you simply push a button for a pre-programmed setting and walk away. The blender does the rest and even turns off when it’s done!
There are two promotions they’re offering.
The first is for $50 off a factory reconditioned Blendtec Total Blender (see details below), which carries the exact same warranty as a brand new model. This is the machine I ordered, but when I discovered that it has just the 3-inch blade, I later ordered the Wildside container, which has the unique and fantastic 4-inch blade. The 3-inch will do just fine, but if you want the full experience, the 4-inch blade will pulverize just about anything (and they have some crazy videos to prove it – warning, not all videos are vegan) and makes it super easy to scrape out the contents from the wide base.
This offer applies to orders placed between January 31 and February 8, but I wanted to give you a little time to research and fall in love with it before you send the link to this post to someone special who will be delighted to get this gift for you (unless you want to be your own Sweetheart and get it for yourself!) So, to get the $50 off the reconditioned model, use this link, order between January 31 and February 8, and then enter the code “CHOCOLATE”.
The second offer they have is free shipping on only the Wildside 3-quart (left) and the Wildside 2-quart & 3-quart Combo (below right).
Enter “HEART” at checkout when ordering these two items to receive free shipping. (Note: The $50 off does not apply to this offer.)
Monday Yumday: Cream of Broccoli Soup
On a wintry January day, nothing satisfies like a rich and creamy bowl of warm soup. Yesterday, Olivia (our 4 y.o.) and I played in the kitchen together and chose to make my vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup. She used a serrated knife made for kids to rough-chop the veggies while I worked on the finer details. It was a “souper” fun way to spend time together in the kitchen on a chilly winter day!
Cream of Broccoli Soup
From “Veganize It!” in VegNews Magazine
by Allison Rivers Samson
Serves 6
1 cup raw cashews
2 quarts vegetable broth, divided
1 tablespoon coconut oil (unflavored)
1 cup onion, 1/4-inch diced
3 cups cauliflower, cut into large chunks
6 cups broccoli, separated into bite-sized florets and peeled stems cut into chunks
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. In a dry blender, grind cashews into a powder. Add 1 cup vegetable broth and blend until it makes a completely smooth cashew cream. (My new Blendtec handled the task beautifully!)
2. Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat and add coconut oil. Sauté onion, cauliflower, broccoli stems, and marjoram for 5 minutes. Add remaining vegetable broth, cashew cream, and salt. Bring to a boil, then lower to medium heat and cook until vegetables are very soft, approximately 20 minutes.
3. Using and immersion blender, or in small batches in a regular blender, blend soup base until completely smooth. Add broccoli florets and cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until broccoli is tender. (Adding broccoli separately ensures a creamy, white soup base, rather than one that’s tinged green.) Add pepper to taste and serve hot.
Note: If broccoli isn’t your favorite soup ingredient, try something else! Carrots, potatoes, button mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus and corn all make excellent additions to this hearty soup. Or, use white cauliflower for the base and add orange (or “cheddar”) cauliflower as the finishing veggie.
P.S. Find more of my vegan recipes here. If you make any, we always love to see your photos, so we hope you’ll post to our Facebook and Twitter pages!
Monday Yumday: Ditch the Canned Beans
For some reason, several of my friends have recently asked how to cook beans, so I was thinking that maybe some of you would like to know too. If the only beans you’ve eaten have come from a can, a whole new world is about to open up for you! First things first. Get yourself a good-quality pressure cooker. The brand I use is an Aeternum. Here is some great info on that and other brands. It’s true that beans can be cooked on the stovetop or in a slow cooker, but those methods take much longer than the 35 minutes needed in a pressure cooker. And if you are sure to take precautionary measures when using a pressure cooker, this tool will be your new best friend in the kitchen.
Cooking beans from scratch – that is when you buy them dry and cook them at home – makes for the most flavorful, perfectly textured, easily digested, highly nutritious beans you’ve ever eaten. I’m pretty sure that the main reason people don’t like beans and have issues with digesting them, is because they are rarely cooked properly – even in restaurants. The way to know that your beans are fully cooked, take one and press it between your pointer finger and thumb. If the inside of the bean is completely smooth and creamy, they’re done. If it is at all mealy or has tiny hard chunks, they need to be cooked longer.
So, here’s how to cook dried beans:
1. Spread dry beans onto a cookie sheet with sides and sort through them removing cracked or imperfect beans and rocks. Rinse well and place in a large bowl with four times as much water as beans to soak. Let sit 8 hours or overnight – I do this even with lentils. Drain and rinse well.
2. Read my safety tips on using a pressure cooker. Put the soaked and drained beans in your pressure cooker (never fill more than half way) and cover with fresh water that goes an inch or two higher than the beans. Bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. Add a strip of kombu seaweed if you like, for added minerals. Some folks say that kombu helps with digestion, but I haven’t found it to make much difference. Never add salt at this stage, as it toughens the skins and makes the beans harder to cook and digest.
3. Follow directions on your specific pressure cooker. The basic idea is as follows… Secure the lid of the pressure cooker and allow to come up to pressure. When the cooker starts to make a hissing sound, reduce heat to low and cook for 35 minutes. Then, remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally or transfer the entire cooker to the sink and run cold water over the lid to reduce pressure – this is the quick-release method. Once the pressure has completely dropped and there is no sound coming from the cooker, open the lid being sure to turn it away from your body to prevent steam burns.
4. Transfer cooked beans to jars (read about my jar fetish) to store them for further preparation later, or season as you would canned beans.
Once you’ve made your own beans and you see how economical and delicious it is, you’ll never want to eat those from a can again. Take it from my family – we’re a trio of bean snobs. Then again, we eat a whole-foods vegan diet and avoid soy and wheat, so beans comprise our primary protein source. We have a lot of experience with beans! We also eat plenty of quinoa and kale, which contain significant amounts of protein and dense nutrition. Read this for more info on vegan protein sources and eat with confidence, knowing that you’re supporting your own health and that of the planet, as well as caring for animals. Enjoy!
What’s your favorite way to eat beans?
P.S. See more of my recipes on our website, here. If you make any, we’d love to see some pics, so feel free to post to our Facebook and Twitter pages!
Monday Yumday: Vegan Cheese Sauce
My beloved vegan Mac ‘n Cheese has a wonderful little secret. You wanna know what it is? Of course you do! This is such an awesome secret that I just have to share it with you!! Ok so here it is… the vegan cheese sauce is relatively simple to prepare (see our Monday Yumday about it here) and can be made all by itself without baking and minus the casserole and breadcrumbs! 
In fact, we do this at our house and simply pop the sauce in a quart jar, (that’s another one of my secrets, but we’ll get to that later) so that it’s ready to use whenever we want it.
Once the vegan mac ‘n cheese sauce is made, it can be stored and then heated when ready to be transformed into numerous comfort food dishes!
1. Pour over your favorite pasta for a quick vegan Mac ‘n Cheese meal.
2. Drizzle onto broccoli for a nourishing side-dish (or entree) of vegan Cheesy Broccoli or warm up and use for Grilled Cheese sandwiches!
3. You can even ladle onto baked potatoes for a yummy vegan Potato Boat.
As you can see, when you want cheese, this vegan cheese sauce is ready to satisfy your wildest food fantasies! What are you going to make with it?
Speaking of fantasies, I’m ready to tell you about my glass jar fetish… After learning about the dangers of BPAs in plastics, I began to search for alternative food storage options. First we tried stainless steel storage containers, but it was impossible to easily see what was inside them, and since things in the fridge tend to be out of sight, out of mind, food spoiled regularly. Plus, the wide, shallow containers seemed to make things go bad more quickly with so much surface area exposed. Since we make almost everything from scratch and had had a lot of success with storing our homemade beans in glass quart jars, we tried our brown rice and quinoa too. 
That worked well, and with excitement we moved on to leftovers and have never looked back. These days, our refrigerator is filled mostly with glass jars (and cheese sauce)! Less plastic, easy viewing and convenient, affordable storage that’s simple to organize – everything we need!
What are your favorite ways to store foods?
P.S. See more of my recipes on our website, here. If you make any, we’d love to see some pics, so feel free to post to our Facebook and Twitter pages!
Blendtec Special Offer for Cyber Monday Only
Soon, I’ll be sharing a new series of posts where I talk about some of my favorite kitchen tools. What better way to kick it off than with a special offer? Blendtec is a wonderfully powerful (3hp) blender that I’ve recently had the opportunity to try. I’ve used a VitaMix for many years and was wowed by the Blendtec. I love the sleek look, square container that has a wider base (4-inch blades) than the VitaMix, which helps it blend better and makes it low enough that it doesn’t bump into my cabinets when on the counter, and easy clean-up. The presets are great for smoothies – I simply push a button and walk away. In 1 minute and 28 seconds, my morning protein shake is perfectly smooth and waiting for me. Now if only it could measure out all the ingredients! 
Blendtec is offering a fabulous Cyber Monday deal (see P.S. below) of an additional $50 off a Factory Reconditioned Blendtec Total Blender, complete with a 3-year warranty! Note: This model has the standard container with the 3-inch blade, but you may choose to do as I did and order an additional “Wild Side” container, which has the awesome 4-inch blade. Quantity is limited, so if you’re ready to go for it, order now and enter “Cranberry” in the promo code field. This is a perfect gift for the chef (or budding chef!) in your life. And if that’s you, feel free to send this post as a hint. Be sure to check out the great live demo videos on their site too!
Bonus: They’re made in the US!
