Sheboygan’s Culinary Car

by meaghan // July 15, 2014 // No Comments

JMKAC’s Culinary Car.

It’s almost finished! Well so I’m told. The John Michael Kohler arts center has teamed up with Nourish to create this amazing mobile car/truck/bus! The creative minds behind this adventure are connecting the community through food and arts. They will be using the truck to preform demonstrations on healthy eating, and help educate the public. The big premiere will be at this weekends Mid Summer Festival of the Arts, this Saturday & Sunday, July 19th and 20th. This festival features tons of local artists, workshops and live music throughout the day.

Vegpod has the honor of giving a food demo on board this magical bus at 3pm on Saturday. Come hang out after the farmers market. I will be walking through steps of those Raw stuffed tomatoes everyone loves, and giving out samples and the recipe. Yahoo for community!

Roundup : May 2014

by meaghan // June 2, 2014 // No Comments

Fish Creek, WI.

What a busy month! Ever feel like vacation takes more out of you, and you need a vacation after vacation? I’ll skip the sob story of how much non-stop fun we’ve been having and tell you in a more neatly compiled list.

Wisconsin- So we’re back. After a long baby-crying/mommy-crying car ride, we’ve arrived back in Sheboygan. I did not pack as many sweaters or jeans as I should have, but the weather seems to be warming up, and it looks like I get another month of spring. The farmers markets start June 7th, and I can’t wait to see familiar faces, and get back to cooking all day! I am also excited to give Oliver some much needed Grandparent time!

Foraging- Foraging is the concept of searching and harvesting wild food. Of course what you find will always vary on where you live, and what season it is. For a lovely Wisconsin spring day we hope to find fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, ramps, and morel mushrooms. We scored a ton of ramps, which we are going to try to pickle the bulbs, and dehydrate the leaves. Maybe we can launch a raw ramp ranch dressing at the farmers market! Erik scored a couple stalks of asparagus which Oliver used as a new teething toy. If you’ve never tried to forage, I highly recommend it. It is so much fun searching around, and you will discover things you never thought to pay attention to before. Nature is so wonderful! I have also been seeing a ton of beautiful recipes for tempura dandelions, as well as dandelion french toast. So pretty.

Ramp crazed.

The end of my ‘no-poo’- I was under the impression that everyone had heard of this by now. To my surprise, almost no one I talked with about this understood what it meant! A few months back, my hair started thinning after Oliver was born. I knew it was coming, but I had no idea how much I would be losing. For me, it was quite traumatic. If you had just passed me on the street, I’m sure you wouldn’t notice. I am not one to oversaturate any part of my body with too much product (even the organics) so I thought this was the perfect time to try out the no-poo method.

The no-poo theory consists of washing your hair with a baking soda solution, and rinsing with an apple cider vinegar solution. Sounds so easy right? I gave it a solid 3 months before I came crawling back to my Jason hair products. I missed the lather, I missed the smell, and I felt as though it wasn’t aiding any of my hair thinning. I was still wearing my hair back everyday. So I quit. I am still thinking about making my own shampoo.

Angel Olson- If you have never listened to the sound of her voice, stop everything and watch the video below. She reminds me a bit of Karen Dalton: unique voice, and very old-timey sounding. I don’t know bout y’all but I am so so SO over the girly girl voice these days. She has a new album out, and is touring at this very moment. Major girl crush…. nuff said.

Eating Animals- Another great book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals has been said to convert long time vegetarians to vegan activists. Not that yours truly needed any convincing, but every now and then it’s good to reassure your beliefs, and remember why you hold them so dear. His perspective on how our culture regards certain animals with greater importance than others is unique and thought provoking; the same people who wouldn’t flinch at eating a burger would cringe at the thought of devouring their dog and vice versa. I highly recommend this book to everyone, not just my fellow veg-heads.

You Are Your Childs First Teacher- I wish this book was longer. Or rather I wished Rahima Dancy wrote a follow up into the teen years. Its so great that every time I try to reference anything out of it, I end reading so much more than planned. I grow closer to trying to raise Oliver in a modified Waldorf fashion, and this book goes over so many great natural techniques to develop with our children. When I put the book down, I feel a little more assured of my parenting.

Indiana Jones- To be more specific, we watched the first of the series, Raiders of the Lost Ark. How in the world has my husband existed 30 years on this planet without seeing any Indie Jones movies! I can’t say I know what it was that attracted me so much to them as a child. Perhaps the tom-boy inside wanting to take down the bad guys while discovering historic relics. Or maybe it was Harrison Ford. George Lucas no doubt was ahead of his time. It was great to see the action, the romance, and of course, laugh at the gory death scenes. The classics never get old.

That was my month! How was yours?

Raw Nut Mylk

by meaghan // March 4, 2014 // No Comments

As a mostly full time, stay at home mom, the perks of making all of my own food seems endless. I don’t just mean making breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’m talking about making my own ingredients.

I suppose before the new family addition, it was difficult to see how I would find the time to manifest doing anything. And of course some days it still is (like this blog for example!) But as Oliver’s duration of sleep at night gets a little longer, and the naps are plentiful, I am happily enjoying the time I have to stray away from the ‘processed’ food we were eating.

I’d like to think that my diet is as healthy as it can be. I eat an entirely plant based diet, mostly organic, full of whole grains and legumes. But there were a couple things hanging over my head that I knew could be eliminated. For example, why was I not making my own almond milk? I had already dived into making my own yogurt, and vegan-naise, so why still buy the processed nut milks? Once my lovely vitamix came into my life, I had no excuse.

So here goes: My raw almond mylk recipe (plain, chocolate, and strawberry versions as well!)

Raw Nut Mylk

Ingredients

1 cup raw almonds, or any other nut
4 cups cold filtered water
1 Tbl. agave (optional)
pinch celtic salt
1/2 tea. vanilla
To make chocolate or strawberry mylk, you will need 2-3 Tbl. raw cacao, or 4 frozen strawberries)

Instructions

Soak raw almonds in warm water with a pinch of salt for at least 6 hours.
Drain water, then rinse.
Place almonds and filtered water in blender. Turn on high for about 2 minutes.
Using a nut milk bag, place bag over a large bowl or carafe. Pour in almond mylk.
Gently twist the top of bag (so not to lose any!) and start to work out the liquid leaving behind the nut pulp.
Return mylk back to the blender and add remaining ingredients (Add cacao or strawberries here.)
Blend on low just to incorporate, unless you are adding in the frozen strawberies- then blend on high.

http://vegpod.com/raw-mylks/

Simple. If you have a toddler hanging around, this is a terrific recipe to let them help. Lailah, my 3 year old roommate, loves dancing and counting with me as we wait for the almonds to blend. She also enjoys “milking” the almonds, and being the first to chug some of the finished product, making sure we made it correctly. So fun!

You also don’t need to discard the pulp! I keep it in a mason jar in the fridge and stir a couple spoonfuls into my steel cut oatmeal in the mornings. Protein boost!

Long ago I gave up soy milk, and switched to only buying soy products that were free of GMO’s and organic. But as of a week ago, I gave up soy. As a tofu scramble loving vegan, it was a hard thing to do! And I’ve started to realize how much soy plays the partner to corn. Soy lecithin is such a sneaky ingredient! Next on my list will be attempts at a vegan butter. I’m so thankful earth balance has a soy free butter.

Caramel Sea Salt Chocolate Cups

by meaghan // November 4, 2013 // No Comments

Blame it on fall, but I am loving the dates surrounding me lately. I often think figs are my favorite fruit. Figs have such a great texture, and are not too sweet. I used to love eating them fresh off the trees in San Diego. They are just so beautifully unique.

As far as dates go, they taste like nature’s caramel. Creamy, rich in dietary fiber, potassium, and Manganese (Manganese is good for your bones, anemia, and premenstrual symptoms) dates can be used in so many different ways. Smoothies, salads, oatmeal, savory dishes, brownies, or just as is. I’ve been using them to sweeten my 2 minute hemp mylk…recipe to come soon.

Dates! And yes, that is a huge Kohlrabi in the background!

There are endless varieties of dates grown in the Middle East, but from California the two most common are the Medjool and Deglet. My roommates just brought back a bag of plump Medjool dates from this great little place called Sun and Earth. I have yet to venture there, but they sell an assortment of bulk organic herbs, spices, and other random organic grocer products. The dates they brought back are out of this world! Its like they reached their peak of plumpness as they entered our kitchen, and hadn’t dried out too much where you’d want to re-hydrate them. They are just perfect.

With all this date hype, I wanted to share a recipe I used for Erik’s birthday. My husband doesn’t like cake, he’s not big on pie, so I opted to try for Caramel sea salted chocolate cups…. no biggie 🙂

Caramel Sea Salt Chocolate Cups

Ingredients

For the caramel filling:
2 cups pitted dates, soaked for at least 2 hours. Save date water...see below 🙂
1/4 cup soaked date water
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
For the chocolate:
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 Tbl almond milk
1 tsp virgin coconut oil

Instructions

For the Chocolate:

Melt chocolate chips in a small heavy bottomed sauce pan.
Stir in coconut oil, and almond milk. You may want to use a small whisk to help make sure the coconut oil is well mixed in.
Line about 15 mini cups with melted chocolate, bottom layer!
Place in fridge.

For the Caramel:

Drain soaked dates, but save the date water!
Place all ingredients in a food processor. Blend until smooth, thick, and creamy. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides as necessary, making sure all gets incorporated.
Set aside.

To assemble:

After bottom layer of chocolate has firmed up in fridge, layer with a caramel dollop, then top off with more melted chocolate mixture. Garnish with cacao nibs, and some course salt flakes.
Place back into fridge to solidify. They should be ready to eat in 15 minutes.

http://vegpod.com/caramel-sea-salt-chocolate-cups/

Some side notes:
I was a little concerned that the melted chocolate wouldn’t surround the ‘caramel’, so I added more than I should have. Not that I’m complaining, I mean ANY amount of chocolate is fine by me. But because of this, they did turn out a tad rich.

I also ended up with some of the date-caramel sauce leftover, which was great to eat with fresh apple slices! Or a spoon. That stuff is amazing, and definitely a danger to have just lying around the kitchen.

The first layer of chocolate goes in… did I mention that should you happen to make a mess, this is the best finger licking recipe to have that happen?!

The caramel layer.

Happy 30th Erik! This is definitely a big boy dessert! Who needs cake anyway?!

Are you ready?!

by meaghan // June 7, 2013 // No Comments

No I didn’t harvest all these vegetables today… Its been so cold and rainy here, one would never know its June. But this is a picture from one of our harvests last summer to remind you, excite you, and get you stoked for the Sheboygan summer farmers market!!

Vegpod will be in full effect this summer, starting tomorrow (Saturday June 8th) at Fountain Park, from 8-1pm. Though we have been known to sell out early, so don’t sleep in too late! If you haven’t seen us, or stopped by to taste any of our goodies, we will be offering our normal shebangs of Muffins, granolas, assorted hummus’, wraps, and At least one entree and side, soup, as well as one salad. Vegpod will also be testing out the raw food market in Sheboygan this year. Raw crackers, pizzas, burgers, cakes, and other tids and bits.

So whats on the menu for tomorrow? Rhubarb muffins, Lentil loaf with mashers and gravy, Raw Italian herb crackers, Eggless egg salad wraps, Fruit & Nut Granola, Chocolate Cherry Hemp Granola, Three Sisters Stew, and 5 varieties of Hummus. We are having a hard time getting local produce this early in the season, but we did manage some rhubarb, and lettuce! Most everything else is Gluten Free, organic, and of course vegan. I did hear the weather should be sunny and beautiful, so come have lunch, and soak up some vitamin D.

Oh Cali, you’ve done it again.

by meaghan // May 8, 2012 // No Comments

I am always the first to note that I am a New Yorker. Through and through. A bagel loving, pizza folding, IheartNY New Yorker. But somewhere along my timeline, I must have gotten sidetracked and gave away a big piece of my heart to California. This seems to be a trend among many east coasters. Its as if we had a time lapse. A battle of my inner conscious. Girls just don’t go around giving their hearts away to just anyone, let alone anyplace. Why would I have done such a thing?
On our recent vacation out west, I was reminded.

After the wedding of my dear friends Rachel and Josh, we headed up to Ventura, where we would take a ferry over to the Channel Islands. There we would Kayak around Santa Cruz island to explore the sea caves! The water was perfect. Erik proved to be the risk taker of the group, and the day was surrounded with sea lions, starfish, anemone, sea urchins, dolphins, and sun burn. All we needed was an aloe plant.

San Luis Obispo. Central Coast of California. For me this seems to be a perfect fit. Maybe it was the charming street signs, maybe it was the fog rolling in as it covered the mountains peaks. If I had to live out that way again, this would be where. We decided to have lunch at Big Sky Cafe. Not completely vegetarian, but wow. This might be where I could say I had my favorite meal of the trip. Erik had the vegetarian Pozole. A South American stew, spiced and seasoned perfectly, with Hominy. It was topped with a slice of cornbread and a slab of tofu. I had a veganized black bean Huevos Rancheros, and breakfast potatoes.

Side note: I find myself severely addicted to Hominy these days! Use this in a stew soon Meg!

After a filling breakfast we traveled around the corner to Kreuzberg, Ca coffee shop.
Berlin is a special place for Erik and I. What do Plato and Ayn Rand have in common? They are both entrees on the menu, along with a surplus of other great authors.

Haruki Murakami (a personal favorite of mine) was a vegan sesame tofu dish.

Erik had some doubts about Dostoevsky being a turkey pesto sandwich, but as we headed inside, we couldn’t miss a life size copy of the most prominent graffiti art in Kreuzberg Berlin. This place was filled with comfy furniture, and books…. tons and tons of books. Any of the books in store were fro sale. No more than $4. Unfortunately we had no room left in our bellies, so I ordered a latte. To my surprise, I had not only the option of soy, but almond, hazelnut, oat, rice, and coconut. This place was great.

Take note of the upside down light fixtures!

We bought sunscreen, and aloe then headed up the coast another 3 hours swirling round hwy 1. With our thrown together last minute packs, we set out for a 10 mile trek to Sykes hot springs. Knowing that we were going to stay the night at a place that had no amenities, we tried to pack lightly. Avocados, oranges, grapefruits, eggplant tapenade, and ezekiel sprouted tortillas, aseptic containers of miniture soy milk and packets of Chocolate vega protein mix, and coconut waters, held us up quit well. We hiked, camped, soaked in the springs, the set out for our 10 mile return. Just another beautiful day of hiking around the redwood covered mountains of Big Sur.
We made it out alive, still sunburned and our bodies sore, but lucky us, Big Sur Bakery was located just around the corner!

Big Sur Bakery prizes themselves on working with the local farmers, and the simple elegance of the vegetables themselves. We split a bread board, which included their 11-year in the perfecting 9- grain bread, and their italian bread. Both delish. I could’ve eaten a whole loaf. We made sure to finish all the black sea salt that was piled on the wooden board as well. We also split a vegetable dish that was composed of cauliflower, pine nuts, green beans, and cranberries. It was divine! The flavors were so fresh. We finished it off with two espresso shots, and hit the long road back to so Cal.

We made a stop in Los Angeles on our way back to visit some friends and family. Our dear friend Roi, is a chef at Sun Cafe in Studio City. Sun Cafe serves mostly raw vegan food. Roi insisted we try the gluten free macaroni and ‘cheese’ and Erik wanted to get his raw fix, and ordered the Pad Thai, with kelp noodles.

Both were great, but we were quite envious of Roi’s raw Shamrock shake, which consisted of banana, mint, spinach, and raw cacao. On the drive down I was whining about craving an ice cream sundae, which doesn’t happen often.

Roi insisted we skip the shakes and head around the corner to kindkreme. Kindkreme is and all raw, all vegan ice cream shop. They have 3 locations, offering cones, cups, shakes, floats, and pints to go! My craving was met! I got a cone with a scoop of mint chip, and a scoop of the superfood which had raw cacao, goji berries, hazelnuts, chia seeds, and a whole mess of other raw goodness.

The owner was so nice, she offered to let us sample every flavor!

The rest of the trip was filled with M Cafes’ sushi and macro bowls topped with the best seitan in the world (I have said this many a times before- go there and just get a side of seitan with their macro-ketchup!), beer breakfasts at Ranchos accompanied by chilaquiles, and the fabulous tofu cutlet sandwiches from Mama Turners B & B. Though many more food ground was left to be covered, our last stop before the drive to the airport was the old time fav, Influx Tofu #1’s.

The whole vacation was well spent, absorbing everything the beauties of California had once offered me, and had proven to stay true. I understood why my heart had sunk as I boarded the plane back to Wisconsin. I missed it already. The drive back up from the airport felt like forever. I knew work beckoned in less than 6 hours. But as I arrived home, my heart had been so distracted, that I had forgotten with what was really important… these two:

Kala & Cooper

And then I was glad to be home.

Nature’s Express Wraps!

by meaghan // December 2, 2007 // 3 Comments

Let me introduce to you my new friends…
I present you with the Raw Thai Ginger Collard Wrap, Raw Cashew Hummus Wrap, BBQ Tempeh Wrap, the Tequila Lime Chicken Wrap! All vegan, mostly organic.

I created these wraps for Kung Food, and now under Nature’s Express, they are sold in every Jimbo’s here in San Diego, as well as Whole Foods, and soon to be in every Whole Foods in LA county!!!

I’m so excited that some of my recipes are available to the public! My favorite is the Tequila Lime “Chicken”, or TLC as I call it.

Both the raw wraps are great for a light delicious lunch, plus we all need more raw veggies in our diet! If you’re in the area grab one for lunch on your way to work! Heck, grab two! If you aren’t in the Southern California area, we also ship through buykind.com.

Feedback on these yummy vegan wraps is always appreciated!

Nature’s Express Arizona should finally be open in 2-3 weeks. Its all coming together so beautiful. I can’t wait for the San Diego location! More to come soon!

Hillcrest Farmers Market

by meaghan // November 13, 2007 // 2 Comments

Ahhh, Sunday mornings. Upon wakening, I open my eyes, do a quick stretch, grab my bike, and I’m out the door. OK so it doesn’t happen quite like that every Sunday morning, but the one thing that I do enjoy waking up early on the weekends for, is the Hillcrest Farmers Market. Some of you might argue with me over which is the best of the 20 plus markets San Diego has to offer, but I think I’m sticking with Hillcrest! Located in the DMV parking lot, every Sunday from 9am-1pm, rain or shine, summer & throughout the small season of what is called winter here in Southern California.
There are so many wonderful vendors, but heres some clips of my favorites!

First, and my most favorite, is La Milpa Organica Farm stand. They carry a HUGE selection of the most vita-rich greens imaginable. Ranging from chards, kales, dandelions, collards, mustards, spring mix, and any other dark leaf you can think of. Lately they’ve had a braising mix, which is a blend of all their amazing greens! Heres a pick of them before cooking!

Another new favorite edition of mine, is the Majestic Garlic booth. Geni is usually there with a ton of different flavors to try. All of their spreads are always vegan friendly, and mostly raw. Try the cucumber mint, tarragon, and the smokey flavors! Great for sandwich spreads, cracker dipping, or baked potatoes. Don’t put up a fuss about the garlic breath either! Garlic has been used to fight disease spreading agents, and is super high in anti-oxidants.

Who can walk buy the raw pie guys without stopping to look at the vibrant pizzas! Live pesto pizza is a favorite, made with a flax cracker crust, pesto sauce, and topped with fresh veggies. The also have all different flavors of dessert pies, as well as zucchini noodle pasta! Raw foodies beware!

And the coolest kids you’ll meet at the market, with the best organic avocados, chiramoyas, and friendliest smiles….. Creekside Tropicals!

So if you haven’t been, you should. Support our wonderful local farmers! Your money goes directly into the hands of the farmer, you know exactly where your food is coming from, and you get the best deals in town! What more could you want? I’ll personally provide a wake up call for anyone that wants to bike down on a Sunday morning with me:) We can shop, then munch on some vegan tamales, and samosas! Your treat!