Creamy Spinach Pasta

HOWDY everyone!

Here is an awesome looking dish from one of our members.... Franchesca Garza...complete with recipe! I am anxious to try it out myself.

Just another example of how good we Vegans eat!!


BIG THANKS Franchesca for contributing to "OUR" blogsite!!


Creamy Spinach Pasta

Note: You might want to half the ingredients in this recipe, because I doubled them. I just didn’t want to waste any of the coconut milk. So, this is exactly how I made it.

The recipe is as follows:

1- can coconut milk (about 400ml)
2- tablespoons lemon juice
½ - tsp fine sea salt or regular salt
4 – garlic gloves
1- cup raw spinach
4- tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 small bag of your choice of pasta (about 7 oz.)
Nutmeg seasoning for flavoring
Pepper for flavoring

Sauce:
Put coconut milk, lemon juice, salt, garlic gloves, spinach, & nutritional yeast into blender. Sprinkle pepper & nutmeg into blender for flavoring. Puree until super smooth. (It’s okay to have tiny little pieces of spinach visible, it makes the sauce look pretty).


Cook pasta according to package instructions but remove with a couple of minutes left. Drain and place back into pot. Pour the sauce over and mix. Continue to cook over a low heat until sauce is hot enough to serve. When ready, taste and adjust with more nutmeg, pepper and salt as needed.

Serve and enjoy!!


**You can also toast some pine-nuts in a little of Earth Balance in a skillet. Sprinkle over pasta for added décor and a yummy added taste.











Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

First Meet Up for 2010

The Village Cafe was rockin’ this past Tuesday night the 12th of January. This was the first meetup of VISION VOICE VEG*N'z for the Brazos Valley of the New Year and there was quite a group there. Over 20 people showed up to chat it up, enjoy choices from the great menu that was prepared and to listen to LAURA THOMAS, Vegan Nutritionist currently working on her PhD, give a presentation on Pre and Pro Biotics.

What a great way to start off the New Year! Everyone had a terrific time and enjoyed the fabulous food! (More pictures forthcoming!)

The chef’s cooked up three Vegan options: musaka, soft tacos, and calipso salad.

Some of the comments I received were:

“Laura did a really good job and there were lots of interesting questions.”

“We had a great crowd last night, and Laura gave a very informative discussion on Pro & PreBiotics. Did I mention the food was delicious!!”

“Laura gave a great presentation. She really knows her stuff. Most of what she talked about I already knew, but some of it was pretty enlightening, & there was a pretty big turnout too!”

“Laura's presentation was brilliant. There were new people too, and everyone was impressed. Village Cafe made some really good entrees for us.”

Laura’s material in her presentation was supported by Mary Ellen Sanders, Ph.D.

Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders, through her business Dairy & Food Culture Technologies, consults on all aspects of probiotic applications in the food and supplement industries. She believes probiotics will flourish only if available products are scientifically validated, responsibly produced and accurately labeled. She strives to balance the potential consumer benefits of probiotics with an understanding of the emerging science. Based on her extensive work with manufacturers, academicians and regulators, Dr. Sanders offers a comprehensive perspective to those interested in the continued emergence of the probiotic industry.

If you are interested in this fascinating topic, I invite you to read the complete Scientific Journal from which Laura referred. How Do We Know When Something Called “Probiotic”Is Really a Probiotic? A Guideline for Consumers and Health Care Professionals by Dr Sanders

BIG thanks to Laura Thomas for putting together and presenting an awesome topic!

Join us next month, February the 9th, 6:30pm at the Village for our meetup when Betsy (Boots) McCann, PhD student in plant agriculture, will talk about the nutritional and environmental health benefits of eating organic foods and the importance of organic certification.

Good Health to you all!!

Slyck Pecena

Founder and Leader

Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

HEY!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Come join us for the first VISION VOICE VEG*N’z for the Brazos Valley meet up of 2010!!

One of our members, Laura Thomas, will discuss the advantages and need for Pre and Probiotics to keep our bodies healthy and clean. Laura is a Vegan nutritionist working on her PhD at A&M.

When: TUESDAY the 12th of January

Time: 6:30pm to around 8:30ish

Where: Village Cafe, downtown Bryan

If you want to order from the menu, please RSVP so I can let Chris know how many of us will be eating.

So look forward to seeing each one of you!!!

Peace,

Slyck Pecena
Founder & Leader

Also... on a side note..... Charlie Lindahl sent this interesting website to me about an online nutritional store that carries Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Low sodium foods for different lifestyles.

It's called Dixie Diner's Club and it is located in Houston. Check it out!

Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

Black-Eyed Pea Croquettes with Dijon Glaze

A good friend of mine from GOLDS Gym, now living in Dallas.... Mandy Mack.... submitted this DEEEE licious recipe for something different!! They look like little "hush puppies!' YUM-O!

And you know what? That dipping sauce would be awesome with my Humble Vegan Dolmas!

CanNOT wait to try this!!

Hope you guys will enjoy it!!!

Thanks Mandy!!!

Recipe from The Kind Diet cookbook

Black-Eyed Pea Croquettes with Dijon Glaze

2 cups black-eyed peas, soaked overnight in water to cover

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cups safflower oil for frying

Dipping sauce:

1/2 cup barley malt syrup or rice syrup

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Drain the beans and transfer to food processor. Add parsley or cilantro, salt, shoyu, and cumin. Blend until the beans are chopped to fine shreds, but don't blend them to a pulp. Form the beans into football/UFO shaped croquettes in your hands.Heat oil in skillet. Place 4 croquettes in oil (oil should bubble furiously) and fry for about 4 minutes on each side.

To make dipping sauce, stir together the barley malt syrup and mustard in a small saucepan. Warm the sauce over low heat until it bubbles. Serve warm alongside dipping sauce.

Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

The Animal Rescue Site

One of our members, Gail Ostensen, sent this to be posted. Please take a moment and "click" to support the Animal Rescue Site. Thanks Gail!!!

Hi, all you animal lovers!This is pretty simple... Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site!

Please pass it along to people you know.http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS!

Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

Annual Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale

Slyck & VVVers:


Next weekend (Saturday the 9th) will be the annual Urban Harvest Fruit Tree sale.

http://www.urbanharvest.org/classesevents/calendar/tree_sale_2010.html


This is an amazing event, the largest such sale in the world (or so say the promoters, whom I believe). I think they said they're going to have up to 20,000 trees. It is at the Rice University stadium. They fill half the stadium (decks behind the seats). I volunteered last year (general volunteer for hauling, cleanup, invoicing, etc.). If anyone wants to do general volunteering please refer to the URL above. I've volunteered this year too.


Last year the sale was supposed to go from 8AM - 3PM, but the 15,000 trees got sold in 2.5 hours (to bare walls!) Pix from last year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberchuck2000/sets/72157612671915203/





And YES I'm a TREE HUGGER! (proudly). See my picture showing same (!) Charlie











Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth

Pure Mutts Animal Sanctuary

HAPPY 2010 TO EVERYONE!!!

One of our members... Charlie Lindahl.... sent this to be posted. I love the name and the tag line.

Thank you Charlie for sharing this with us!


Pure Mutts Animal Sanctuary

--Pure Mutts - Designer Dogs designed by Nature


Pure Mutts Animal Sanctuary is founded to fill the need of providing special care for old, seriously sick and injured animals that ordinary shelters can't provide due to lack of resources. These special need animals come to the Pure Mutts Sanctuary from other shelters, from other rescuers and volunteers, from concerned citizens. Its a private sanctuary and does not get any state or federal funding. Sanctuary is in the process of getting its Non Profit status.Sanctuary serves as a -Hospice for older animals that have been abondoned by their families at their old age either because they are sick or because family wants a new model.-Long term foster home for really sick and injured animals that need a place for long term recovery. Animals abused by humans or abondoned animals injured in accidents.-Vacation home for healthy animals who stop by before they find their forever home. Usually stray who lived most of their life on streets or abondoned and lost animals who can't find their way back home because they don't have tags or are not chipped.



Check out their website!




Bless the Beasts, Bless our Children and Bless this Earth