Fun Food Fact Friday #8 Easter Edition

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Fun Food Fact Friday #8

 

Are you ready for Easter?

I am not!  This Fun Food Fact Friday is about everything Easter!

1)  My not-so-vegan dinner.  

We are having Honey Baked Ham for dinner.  My family absolutely loves Honey Baked Ham.  At Christmas I did eat it but this holiday . . . it just doesn’t sound appealing to me.  I do love homemade split pea soup made with the ham bone–but I’m not even sure that I will make that.  From a culinary perspective I do enjoy cooking with the ham bone, creating meals with the leftovers and seeing the delight on everyone’s faces as they “finally get meat”.  The kids love my crustless quiche–you can easily print out the recipe.

2)  We will not be dying eggs this year!  

I wrote about my huge fail on Marriage, Motherhood and Missions, another blog where I am a contributor.  I will be eating jelly beans and Cadbury caramel eggs!

3)  Food Research.  

The other day I was thinking about “where the heck do jelly beans come from anyway?”  I found this fun little article about the history of jelly beans.

4)  Spring and Easter

are symbols of renewal and spring cleaning!  I did a little bit of cleaning and found a gift certificate to White Flower Farms!  I bought a lemon tree, blue berry bushes, raspberry bushes and some interesting hostas!  I’m one step closer to having and edible landscape.  (Well, I can’t eat the hostas but I love them in my flower arrangements!)

5)  Saturday is National Garlic Day!  

Seriously!  I have a special recipe that I will be posting that I use ALL the time.  Garlic, lime, olive oil . . . stay tuned for the full details.

garlic

Be Blessed as we enjoy exploring all of the fun food facts!

Renee

#1 Soup Secret Revealed

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Do you want my secret for a great soup?

I love soup but have never been able to really figure out how to make it the same way they do in my favorite restaurants.  While I worked at Robby’s at the Icehouse in Ann Arbor, maybe 25 years ago?, Chef Dan took me aside and showed me his secrets.  I felt honored.  What I didn’t realize at the time is how much I would love creating soups.   

awesome soup!Making the perfect bowl of soup can be tricky.

But no worries!  I have taken the guess-work out of the perfect bowl of soup.  Today this video shows you exactly how I make a wonderful vegan soup base that reminds me of a great chicken soup.  I named the video “Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup”.

 

 In this video I added caraway seeds, parsley, herbs de Provence and celery seed for the “chicken” flavor.  When I create my India flavors I use a Marsala mix from the specialty store and my tex mex blends for my black bean soup include chili power, dried peppers, adobo seasoning, lime peels to name a few.  

[Tweet “”Only the pure of heart can make good soup” Beethoven”]

Looking for more inspiration?

I invite you to check out my YouTube channel where I have several more teaching videos.  Coming up are how to cut and avocado and making the perfect oatmeal.

L.O.V.E.,

Renee

Fun Food Fact Friday #7 (do you love your lunch?)

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[Tweet “Fun Food Fact Friday #7 what tip is your favorite? #vegan #lovemylunch”] 

1)  Step-by-step approach to simple change.

This is a very “heady” interview about how we can change . . . for the better.  I believe in an integrated medicine approach.  This is a short video with Depak Chopra that I found very interesting and informative.  

I believe a few simple (free) steps to can lead to a happy, compassionate, healthy life.

2)  Food with Integrity!  

This is another video that shows how pigs should be raised.  (I posted a really horrific one on the blog that showed animal abuse and this is not like that.)  I don’t eat bacon anymore–but I would eat bacon from a farmer like Paul.  My vegan struggle is about compassion–I don’t want to support farming that causes harm to animals.  I get that they need to die and that causes harm–my mind gets that but my heart still doesn’t want to eat meat.  So . . . I will seek out meat from this group of farmers who have adopted humane farming procedures to feed my family members who eat meat. 

3)  Read them or just look at the pictures?

I don’t really like cookbooks–I love to cook, learn about new techniques, explore exciting combinations . . . but 1/2 cup of this or a teaspoon of this–just isn’t my thing.  When I found The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, I was immediately interested!  Deborah Madison, the author, offers food facts (you know how much I love my food facts!), simple recipes–like this one: sliced fennel is brown in oil, add salt and pepper!  How simple and wonderfully delish AND vegan!  As a disclosure–I was not given a book by the author or publisher.  My excitement is purely my own–but if they did send a copy my way!  I would love that! You can order your copy here The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

[Tweet “I don’t really read them, I just look at the pictures! #lovecookbooks”]

4)  Do you Love your Lunch?

I am currently creating an email course about . . . LUNCHES!  I struggle with making lunches–I make 5 a day (hubs goes to the work cafeteria) and I’ll be honest, it can be a grind.  After packing school lunches and snacks for almost 10 years now, I’m getting really good at it!  My criteria for a lunch is sweet, salty, healthy, crunchy . . . with a huge glass of ice water!  Do you struggle too?  I will cover cost, nutrition, ease and how to get kids involved in making their OWN lunch.  I’m making shopping lists, idea lists, night before checklists, my goal is to make Loving your Lunch simple, fun and of course vegan if you want :-).

5)  Please leave a note in the comments!

I’d love to hear from you.  What did you think about the videos?  Could you take 10 minutes of quiet time a day?  Would you support more expensive farming that was compassionate?  Do you want more cookbook reviews like The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  Do you love your lunch?  I’m waiting in the comments to hear from you.

Have a great weekend!  I’ll be at a soccer tournament . . . I’m living my dream of parenthood.

Be Blessed.

L.O.V.E.,

Renee