January 15th, 2010

The tears you shed…

Posted by Beth on January 15th, 2010

Will be the tears of joy over vegan baking.

Well, something like that. Because I always enjoy a challenge, (and because I am something of a masochist) I thought, “Hey, if you’re gonna be a bear, be a grizzly– go ahead and make that crazy-complicated recipe from BabyCakes!” And so it was, that I found myself at Whole Foods scouring the aisles for things that have never once been in my pantry, and that I had to make repeated trip to the customer service desk to find them even in the giant pantry that is Whole Foods Market. (Momentary shout-out to the Whole Foods at 3rd & Fairfax– love your gluten free baking section, dah-lings!)

So, with gluten-free all-purpose flour, garbanzo and fava bean flour, Xanthan Gum, and soy milk powder in tow, I headed home, ready to be a grizzly bear of gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free sweetness.

And then I realized my JV mistake– I kinda failed to READ the recipe before I started to make the cake (it was to be the finest blueberry crumble cake in all the land…) and little did I know that the one recipe for crumble cake ping’ed back to require a recipe for cupcakes AND a recipe for frosting. Now, it’s no one’s fault but my own for not reading the recipe (and I do take full responsibility) BUT, is it me, or is that not standard cookbook operating procedure? At any rate, all you folks out there who will be using this particular cookbook in the future, don’t be a rookie– read the recipe in FULL before going to the store.

So, upon returning from my second trip to Whole Foods, it’s now close to 10 pm when I start baking. And while I love to bake, the first time with all of these new ingredients at such a late hour put me in a rather intense state of focus, and I was 3/4 of the way through before I realized, “DOH! Blog!!”

All of this is an extremely protracted way of saying that I REALLY wanted to have pictures, recipes, comments, and reviews posted alongside my first foray into Grizzly Bear Baking, but I think I overshot.

The good news, however, is that I still have lots of gluten-free flours and agave nectars, and one heck of a sweet tooth. And now that I have the lay of the land, get ready. Baking extravaganza this weekend. I will do my best to procure an image or two of the proceedings…

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart | Post a comment »

January 13th, 2010

No eggs for you!!! or, the joys of vegan baking

Posted by Beth on January 13th, 2010

Last week, my husband was away in San Francisco for work, and so I have been subsisting on meals from RFD and basically a static menu of brown rice, bean and Daiya cheese burritos (cooking for one is a real drag…) but to celebrate his return– and cut my newfound vegan teeth– I have decided that I want to try my hand at vegan baking.

This is not an entirely spurious decision, as I am making a wedding cake for a dear (vegan) friend in March, and while I’ve made a few traditional wedding cakes, this will be my first attempt to bake without eggs, butter and milk.

So I’ve rounded up a few vegan cooking books, such as the new Babycakes cookbook (which could not be any cuter) from the NYC temple of all gluten and dairy free desserts, and the Joy of Vegan Baking, which has come highly recommended by basically every vegan baker I know.

My inclination is to start with something from The Joy of Vegan Baking, only because she uses traditional All-Purpose Flour and Sugar, which, for better or worse is much closer to my “comfort zone” of how to bake. I am, however, a sucker for glossy pictures and adorable aprons, which is drawing me inevitably towards the Babycakes option. Oh decisions!

At any rate, my big question that I would love some suggestions on is the issue of egg replacement. There’s a great reference on the too-awesome-for-words Post Punk Kitchen, that lists a few different types of common egg replacers– who knew ground flaxseed could fill the yolky void of eggs? Food chemistry is an amazing thing…

At any rate, as always, I’m looking for help and support from anyone out there who has a great book, website, blog, recipe– anything that will help me make an AMAZING vegan cake (and, hopefully, to prove to my husband that we can get by just fine without dairy or swine…) :)

**And huge, huge thanks to everyone who’s been writing, emailing, and commenting so far, it’s a huge help to know you’re out there!!!**

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart | 2 Comments »

January 10th, 2010

Motivation for the Weekend

Posted by Beth on January 10th, 2010

I think it’s always tough to diet on weekends. And while taking on the vegan challenge is not a diet so much as a lifestyle, I maintain that there are many more temptations on a Saturday night out, than on a Tuesday lunch-break.

So, in an effort to stave off potential lapses, I turned to some of the facts about a plant-based diet that were really inspiring for me before I started. This is an ever-so-brief list, but I’d love to keep it growing. Let us know if there are any facts, statistics, or even favorite quotes about the benefits of veganism or vegetarianism– there’s many more temptations ahead!

These are some of the highlights of a recent IPCC study about the impact of a meat-based diet versus a plant-based diet:

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a well documented scientific study reports:

  • Of all raw materials and fossil fuels currently used in the U.S., more than one-third goes to raising animals for food.
  • An area of rain forest the size of seven football fields is destroyed every minute to make room for grazing cattle, but each vegetarian saves one acre of trees every year.
  • More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals.
  • The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth.
  • Raising animals for food is grossly inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of grain, they only produce small amounts of meat, dairy products, or eggs in return. This is why more than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that we grow in this country are fed to farmed animals. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce one pound of farmed fish flesh.
  • Eating animals causes 40% more global warming than all planes, cars, trucks and other forms of transport combined.   Put in other terms, eating one pound meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40 miles.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart | Post a comment »

January 5th, 2010

2010 and the 21-Day Vegan Challenge

Posted by Beth on January 5th, 2010

Hi! My name is Beth Griffiths, and I’m the newest member of Team RFD. I joined up with Real Food Daily in December, and I came on-board to help with communications and community outreach. I am a long time advocate for environmental and sustainable food systems, and cannot believe my good fortune at having found a job that combines my experience in food service with my dedication to the green movement.

Now that I’ve started the job with Real Food Daily, one of the questions I get most often has been, “but are you a vegan?!” To which, I’ve had to shake my head and admit, “no, I’m not.” Not only am I not a vegan, but I’m actually something of an expert on artisanal cheese and charcuterie. I love cheese, I love meat, but the reality is that I also love the planet, and at some point I realized that the planet needs everyone to embrace a little moderation on the “meat and cheese” front.

So, in taking the job, my philosophy was, “come for the organic, stay for the vegan.” Well, it’s been six weeks, and I am overwhelmingly impressed with the restaurant’s dedication to organic and sustainable food, and now I’m here for the vegan.

I’ve been following news of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, which is spearheaded by the Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine, and I thought it seemed like a really great way to challenge my cheeseburger loving soul to embrace the full culinary philosophy of Real Food Daily.

I’m looking forward to blogging about my experiences during the next 21-days, as well as discussing motivations, facts, information, and even some recipes and cooking tips from the helpful team here at Real Food Daily.

I have had such good fortune to meet and interact with so many of the wonderful and committed fans of Real Food Daily, fans and guests from all walks of life– from carnivores who just can’t get enough of the Not-Chos, to die-hard Real Food Meal aficionados who have been with us since the opening in 1993. I am looking forward to joining them in the dining room for the next 21-days, and if the meals I’ve enjoyed at RFD so far are any indication, I strongly suspect that the 21-day mark will be just the beginning.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

  • Real Food Daily Blog

    Real Food Daily is the premiere organic vegan restaurant in California. With two locations in Los Angeles, Real Food Daily continues to draw crowds who enjoy delicious, balanced meals made fresh with organic ingredients. RFD attracts the someday to the everyday vegetarian, celebrities, trendsetting young eaters with sophisticated palates and the mature diner seeking gourmet health supportive cuisine.

  • Categories

  • Tags

    21-day Advice for vegans Ann Gentry baking balance Beth blogging business owners Challenge chewing cookbooks Dairy-free diet eggs environment faux turkey Gluten-free Green holiday meals Kansas City Kickstart lifestyle macrobiotic moms New York Not-chos NYC preparing vegan meals Real Food Daily recipes RFD RFD Club RFD cookbook RFD Real Food Daily substainability thanksgiving Vegan vegan baking vegan cooking vegan holiday food vegan turkey vegetarian whole grains working mothers writer's block

  • Recent Comments