Vegan blogs

Last summer, I decided to go vegan one more time. Not really a huge jump, as I've been a vegetarian since 1972. But in the past, my few attempts at moving totally away from dairy and eggs had not been successful. With the opening of VegiTerranean, Akron's first vegan restaurant, I felt the time was right to try again.

You may be wondering how I managed during this past year. For the most part, veganism was easy to achieve. Vegetables, fruit, grains, pasta and lots of soy in all its manifestations were my staples. During the school year, I did lots of vegetable stews and soups in the crock pot, so I didn't have to do much food prep after a long day of school plus rehearsal.

I bought some vegan cookbooks to augment my collection of old favorites (Soy Not Oi!), but the most helpful source of vegan recipes turned out to be Google. Every time I had craving for something I used to fix that might have once included eggs or cheese, I'd simply type in vegan plus macaroni and cheese, for example and get a wealth of vegan possibilities. It's much easier to cook looking at a recipe on a computer screen than hunching over a cookbook.

The only problems I had with veganism were away from home on trips to places I'd never been before. I will confess to putting actual dairy cream into my coffee when soy milk was not available. Sometimes at celebrations, I simply ignored the fact that the birthday cake was probably made with eggs and milk. But generally speaking, restaurants will have a vegan option, even if it is only a Bocca burger and a salad.

I'd like to recommend a new recipe I just found online this week at Two Silly Vegans blog for chocolate chip raspberry scones. I had some fresh organic raspberries that I wanted to do something with, so I Googled and arrived at this recipe which I promptly tried out. Soy yogurt provides the binding agent. This recipe also uses a small amount of sugar, and as I halved the recipe to begin with, that turned out to be 3/8 cup. I used whole wheat flower and vegan chocolate chips and they turned out great!

Once I realized that people actually blog their vegan recipes, I did a search and compiled a new vegan blog roll for your convenience and mine! Just scrolling through these blogs gives me all kinds of new ideas for creating interesting and tasty new vegan meals.

So if you have been thinking about going vegetarian or vegan, why not give it a try? You'll be doing the planet and your body a huge favor. And oh, by the way -- a new scientific study shows that vegans and vegetarians live longer than meat eaters.

End of the Week Musings

Heck of a week for political theatre. I for one, am glad the show didn't end in only one short act, comprised of two scenes. We though Iowa was thrilling, little knowing what amazing plot developments would come out of New Hampshire.

The bumpersticker you see pictured here at the Village Green, has been riding around on my vehicle since the day after Kerry lost in 2004. I was madder than all get out and wanted to put something out there to double-whammy hex all those Bush/Cheney stickers. I made a couple dozen of these stickers to send out to my Happy Hour Atheist and Agnostic mailing list friends. Half said "Obama/Clinton," the others said "Clinton/Obama." It didn't really matter to me what order the names were it. What mattered was that these two names would make Republicans shudder. I can't tell you how tickled I am that these two names are now the top choices for the Democratic party.

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The weather in NE Ohio has been ridiculously bizarre, even by our usual standards of unpredictability. Upper 60s and bright sunshine as the week began interspersed with high volume wind storms. Obie, the huskador retriever, is shedding heavily -- in the depths of winter when he normally wears his luxurient thick double coat out into the snow storms.

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Just to let you know, VegiTerranean does really good take-out meals. I zipped over there to pick up a lunch via the Innerbelt. My goal for 2008 is to try everything at least once on their menu. For the record, today I went with the Tuscan "steak" panini with delicious vegetables and sauce. It came with a side of white bean salad and was portioned so generously I could save half to take home for dinner.

No, I'm not getting paid to plug the restaurant. I just think it is really cool that there is an actual vegan restaurant in Akron. It would be really fun to have an Akron blogger's meet up there some evening. What say you all?

VegiTerranean serves lunch

As announced earlier, VegiTerranean is now open for lunch during the week. My good friend and Kinks-buddy Tony from San Diego was in town this week, so we headed over to try out the lunch menu.

We both ordered burgers, and boy they were good! Makes the thought of heating and eating a Bocca Burger kind of not so appealing.

I haven't eaten meat since 1971, but I can remember how eating actual ground meat often times meant chewing on a piece of gristle, and then there was all that animal fat laden with the accumulated toxins from pesticides on the grain the animal was fed to hormone shots and various antibiotics. These things tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues. I'm very glad I haven't been consuming them for over 30 years. Which is not to say I haven't picked up a lot of pesticidal residue on various plant matter, but not nearly as much as regular meat eaters. Here is a list of the ten top toxic fruits and vegetables to avoid -- always look for the organic versions.

Our burgers arrived on whole wheat buns with a very generous side of salad. Along with our burgers, we shared a plate of fries made with a sprinkle of rosemary and homemade fresh tomato ketchup on the side

It feels so civilized -- to have a vegan restaurant in Akron! I'm not the only one with that opinion, I'm sure. The place was packed, and it was 1 PM on a Thursday afternoon. All ages from kids to grandparents and everything in between. We had called in reservations, but the answer machine had gone on overload. Fortunately, we found a place at the bar with a great view of the Y-Bridge and the valley beneath it.

Plans for the new year include a bakery and coffee bar.

Here's a sneak peak of what to expect. The coffee bar area is almost ready to go. The baked good prices look very reasonable. On display in the cases are vegan deserts that are available on the restaurant menu. They look just as sinful as anything you'd find made with eggs and dairy products!

The ambiance is definitely inviting! Tony and I spent a delightful hour and more at the bar, lunching and enjoying a holiday drink, and chatting about the possible Kinks reunion. Would they tour or only do a one or two off reunion concert like Led Zeppelin just did? No matter, we made a pact to get tickets and get to the concert site, no matter which side of the Atlantic!

The restaurant is located at 21 Furnace St on the ground floor of the new Northside Lofts. That's the building at the foot of Luigi's off of old Howard Street. Phone for reservations: 330-374-5550. It's the perfect place to take your out-of-town friends
and impress the heck out of them!

"World peace begins in the kitchen..."

...reads the manifesto underneath VegiTerranean's logo on the menu. Chrissie Hynde's new restaurant in Akron finally opened last week and I was fortunate enough to get a reservation for a late dinner tonight.

One week before the restaurant was to open, management decided to make it exclusively vegan rather than the announced vegetarian format. How thrilling! I plan to go there a lot and explore my way through the entire menu.

Tonight I had a pizza on special. It featured mushrooms and squash. Since going vegan last summer, I admit to having had the occasional strong longing for pizza with cheese toppings. My pizza had whole wheat crust and was topped with wild mushrooms and a sauce mixed with squash. They also offer a pizza called "The Ghoulardi" with banana peppers, olives, mushrooms, red onion with spicy marinara.

The menu includes appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, the afore-mentioned pizzas and entrees made with something called Gardein, garden grown protein. My meal tonight didn't include any meat substitute, but I can tell you the soy cheese on the pizza was deliciously melted and tasted great.

Finally, a place where soy cheese and other plant-based forms of protein are the norm, not the unattainable. The restaurant is open evenings from 4 - 11 and will begin serving a lunch menu this Friday and continue Mondays through Fridays. They will eventually be open for lunch on weekends as well, and then plan to be open for breakfast hours with vegan pastries -- yum!

The ambiance was stripped down and sleek at the same time. What a great gift for Akron! Thank you Chrissie! Wonderful job chef J Scott Jones and the wait staff!

VegiTerranean is located at 21 Furnace St on the ground floor of the new Northside Lofts. That's the building at the foot of Luigi's off of old Howard Street. Phone for reservations: 330-374-5550. You will need them -- the place was hopping! It was great running into old friends and former students in town for the holidays. If you have guests coming in over the holidays, there is now some place very special to take them.