Healthy Eating for Discriminating Palates
Another Halloween come and gone . . . with lots of delicious food and drink and wonderful friends. This is just one of many hysterical pictures!
Guacamole, Black Rice Salad, Almond cheeze (herb and plain), pumpkin hummus, Party Cheese Ball, Spinach Dip, Pesto Potato Soup, Cashew-Truffle Hummus and cupcakes!
I hope you had a safe and fabulous Halloween!
I’m a little slow in getting this post up—I’ve been swamped, but here it is. I LOVE Halloween—behind Christmas, it’s my favorite holiday. It’s The Husband’s least favorite holiday, but he puts up with it for me. (Thanks, hon). He’ll even don a costume . . .
The Husband, on the left, after getting fed up with the (cheaply made) Headless Man costume and our good friend, and neighbor, Chris.
I decided to go as a witch . . .
(No, I’m not drunk, just hamming it up for the camera)
I’ll make this quick . . . I threw together some appetizer favorites along with a pot of Vegetable-Barley Chili. On the menu were Stuff Phyllo Cups, Mushroom/Spinach Truffle Oil Tart, Hummus, and my mom’s famous Party Cheese Ball.
For dips, I used Tofutti sour cream with vegan veggie mixes, had some olive out, as well as cider and punch. For something sweet, I decided to make Cinnamon-Sugar Pita Chips:
So easy! Preheat oven to 425. Cut each pita in half, then each half into 3 pieces, then pull each piece apart; place on a baking sheet. Heat about 4 Tbs of Earth Balance in a saucepan and combine 2 Tbs sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a bowl. Brush each pita triangle with Earth Balance, then sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Bake for about 4-5 minutes. Once they cool completely, whip up some icing by combining about 2 cups of powdered sugar with 2-3 Tbs of almond milk; drizzle on the chip. Enjoy!
Can you guess what my friend, Jessie is?
I absolutely LOVE Halloween and dressing up. C’mon! You only have a month left! We typically have a little shin-dig at the house with neighbors where we eat, hang out and hand out yummy vegan treats to the kids. I’m still not sure what my costume this year will be, but I always figure it out in time.
<——-Got my dress for about $12 at Goodwill–one of the best places for costumes–all recycled/ reused. Gotta love that.
This was the first and LAST time The Husband allowed me to talk him into dressing as a woman–but doesn’t be make a gorgeous Marilyn? ——->
So, if you have any ideas for us for this year–please let me know!
You might be surprised at how many candies are vegan. Here’s a handy dandy list from VegNews of vegan-friendly candy to give out by the handful: Airheads Taffy, Azure Chocolat Beauty Bark, BoomChocoBoom! Ricemilk Bar,Brachs Fruit Slices,Charms Blow Pops,Charms Pumpkin Pops,Chick-o-Sticks,Chuao Chocolatier Spicy Maya, Clif Kid Organic Twisted Fruit, Crows, Cracker Jack, Cry Baby Candy, Dots Endangered Species dark chocolate, Endangered Species Bug Bites Halloween Treats, Go Max Go candy bars, Hubba Bubba bubblegum, Lets Do This Organic Gummy Bears,Mary Janes, regular and peanut butter kisses, Jolly Ranchers hard candy, Now and Later, NuGo Organic Chocolate Bar,Peanut Chews, Original Dark,Pez, Pure Fun Organic Halloween Pops, Saf-T-Pops, Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates, Sour Patch Kids, Starburst Original Jelly Beans, Super Bubble, Swedish Fish, Tree Huggin’ Treats Crispy Cat candy bars, Tropical Source chocolate bars, Twizzlers, VerMints and YummyEarth lollipops.
I will keep you posted on my quest for that perfect costume and what I finally talk The Husband into dressing up as. . . he was one of those kids who hated Halloween; the one in the photographs as a kid with the scowl on his face, just waiting until he could get the damn costume off. I have made it my mission to change that. (But deep down, I think he really does like Halloween).
Is That A Carrot in Your Pocket, Or. . .
. . .are you just happy to see me? After all, I am talking about former President, Bill Clinton 😉 Joking aside, I’ve always liked Mr. Clinton and now I have another reason: He’s gone vegan. He wanted to lose weight for his daughter’s wedding, but also improve his health. After having a stint placed in an artery, he knew something had to change. So far he’s lost 24 pounds and is feeling better than ever. Check out this brief interview with him and Wolf Blitzer.
So does this mean that Mrs. Rodham Clinton will be following suit? Especially since their daughter, Chelsea, is a vegan, too? What about former Vice President, Al Gore? He acknowledged that going vegan is great for the environment, yet this “environmentalist” admits he still eats meat and dairy. I suppose I’ve always had a “beef” with this issue . . .
I think it’s great when celebs and other public figures share their vegan/vegetarian lifestyle with the rest of the world. They are in a position to bring much needed awareness to this oft-misunderstood way of life. Here’s a list of only a few vegan celebs: Casey Affleck, Drew Barrmore, Emily Deschanel, Tobey Maquire, Olivia Wilde, Chrissie Hynde, Jason Mraz, Mike Tyson, Ellen Degeneres, Carl Lewis, Natalie Portman, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Bob Harper (Biggest Loser trainer). Even Hugh Jackman went veg with the help from Triathlete Brendan Brazie. Have you seen those muscles on Jackman? *swoon*
“Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own.”
-Robert Louis Stevenson
