A Bunch of New

Hi everyone! I apologize for the extended hiatus. Thank you for coming back!

During this time off, three fun new things have happened that I want to share - one related to food, one related to healthy living, and one just because I'm excited. :)

Working in reverse order, here's the new excitement in our life - our third fuzzy girl, Molly the Dog!


Molly joined our family in March from PAWS Chicago. Were we thinking about adopting another dog? Kind of. Greg and I tried to adopt Red, a very sweet puppy who became paralyzed after he was shot by robbers, last fall. Let me take a moment to plug Red - he would be an awesome addition to your home! He is very sweet and playful. We just couldn't adopt him because he needs to be a solo doggy, something he couldn't get in our crazy house. If you have questions about him, let us know!

Anyway, Red planted the seed in our brain for a third puppy, although we weren't actively looking. And then, one day, Greg and I were volunteering at PAWS, Greg saw Molly's face, and we knew there was no turning back. Molly is a four-year-old German Shepherd-Alaskan Malamute mix. She is a very sweet and mellow girl and has filled a spot in our house we didn't know was empty until we brought her home. Her doggy sisters Sheila and Lucy are just in love with her! I haven't been able to capture a really good picture of the three of them yet , because Molly has a gift for evading the camera - even when she's sleeping! When I do, I'll change my profile pic. But in the mean time, I do have proof these three love to snuggle.


The next piece of fun news? One of my very bestest friends, Sonja, has started her own blog, Defying Gravity, and I hope you will check it out! Sonja will be blogging about her experiences with running and skating, and I can't recommend her highly enough. I could listen to Sonja talk about her active lifestyle for hours; she's an incredibly engaging person who has wonderful insights on becoming and staying active. Her enthusiasm for running gave me the bug, and three years later, I'm training for my first marathon! Anyway, check out her blog; if you're checking out my blog because you'd like to live a healthier lifestyle, then you'll love Sonja's blog. Or, if you eat way too many cookies like me and that's why you're here, then Sonja can help you with that, too. :)

And finally - the food! One of my friends suggested a few months ago I try to incorporate some raw recipes into my diet. Although I was skeptical, I have to say, all of the luscious desserts I have made so far are awesome! I'm definitely not 100% raw, but I love incorporating raw foods (and desserts especially!) into my diet. Seeing as how the length of this post has already gotten way out of hand, I'll tease your taste buds with a recipe for the most amazing raw fudge from super raw enthusiast Alissa Cohen ever and I'll focus my next post on my thoughts about going raw - and the yummy results that follow. And a bonus with this recipe? Delicious chocolate without baking!

Fudge Balls (adapted from Alissa Cohen) - and no, not Chocolate Salty Balls
Yields: about 15-20 fudgy pieces

Ingredients:
2 cups pitted dates
2 cups almond butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder (or carob powder, if that strikes your fancy)

1) Process dates in a food processor until smooth.
2) Add remaining ingredients and process until well mixed.
3) Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop the mixture into individual balls.

Keeps in the fridge for 7-10 days; they can also be frozen.

Ask Veg Baker, J.D.: What's the Deal with Applesauce?

Hello everyone! First off, please accept my apologies for my one week delay in posting, but I'm back and raring to go!

To make up for my absence, I thought I would address a question I get all the time: what's my obsession with putting applesauce in so many of my vegan recipes?

My answer: because applesauce is a wonderful multitasker and can replace both a liquid fat AND eggs! (although not necessarily at once...read more below...)

When I was a young sprout, my mom taught me a great trick I could put right up my sleeve: you can use applesauce to replace the oil in boxed mixes. It's great because if you're in a pinch and you're out of oil (or other liquid fat, including melted butter), applesauce can swoop in and save the day. I often bake with it because it works like a fat with the benefit of having no fat; this means you preserve the flavor of a tasty baked good while cutting out obscene amounts of fat. No complaints here! Applesauce also works great because it adds a dense moisture to foods and adds depth to the final product's flavor profile without altering the taste itself. All in all, these are all great things!

When I decided to go the vegan route and was looking for eggs substitutes, I was shocked to see that applesauce can also be used. I should caution that applesauce cannot be used universally as an egg substitute; as Isa Chandra Moskowitz so eloquently stated in Vegan with a Vengeance, it helps to determine whether eggs are used in a recipe to bind the ingredients together or whether the eggs also leaven. As long as the eggs were used just to bind, applesauce is great. Therefore, I find that applesauce works well in quick breads (like pumpkin bread), cakes, and some "heftier" cookies, like the Oatmeal Banana Cookies and the Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk cookies. The other reason I like to use applesauce as an egg replacer is because I cut down on food waste; whenever I would buy a dozen eggs or egg beaters, they almost always went bad before I could finish using them. I don't have that problem with applesauce, or if I have a bunch, I can freeze the applesauce until I need to bake with it.

This all said, I wouldn't use applesauce to replace both the fat and the eggs in a recipe; I would figure out which role you want it to play and then determine a substitute for the other product. For example, with rare exception, I tend to use applesauce as an egg replacer when the recipe calls for a solid fat. Applesauce can only replace liquid fats, and I can use Earth's Balance as a great dairy replacment. However, if the recipe calls for oil, I almost always replace the oil with applesauce to cut down on fat and then play around with other egg substitutes, like bananas or soy yogurt.

So, appropriately, to further today's celebration of applesauce, I am including a recipe for homemade unsweetened applesauce, with tips for how to sweeten it, if that's your cup of tea. I played around with this recipe over the weekend. My wonderful mom offered to pick up "some" apples for me when she went apple picking - she very generously gave me a bushel! So needless to say, I'm trying to put those apples to good use. Similarly, if you ever find you have a couple of apples in the fridge that are not much longer for this world, you can save them by scaling this recipe down and making some applesauce.

I should also note that unsweetened applesauce - which is literally just water and apples - is dog-safe. You can freeze it and give it to the pups like ice cream. I'm not so sure if unsweetened applesauce is universally liked by dogs, though. I made some applesauce for Sheila and Lucy over the weekend and gave them an unfrozen version, and they were kind of confused. They clearly really wanted to like it, but they had never seen anything with that kind of texture before, so they were a little weirded out by how it looked. No matter; it was tasty to this human. :)

Please note, if you do choose to go beyond this recipe and add other ingredients, please don't feed it to your dog.

Unsweetened Applesauce
Yields: 2-3 cups of applesauce

8 apples
1 cup water
(hints for sweetening for a human-only version are at the end)

1) If you please, remove the skins. Some people like sauce with the skins on, but others think it is weird to have skins floating around their sauce. This is a judgment call on your part.
2) Core the apples and cut into bite size pieces. For reference, I often use an apple corer that also yields 8 individual slices; I cut each of those slices into 3 pieces, and that is enough. Don't feel like you have to do a crazy dice.
3) Put apples in a pot with one cup of water and cover. Bring to a boil.
4) When boiling, give the apples a stir (they should start to be mushy at this point), turn the heat down so the water is simmering, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

That's it! You can easily scale this recipe up or down and freeze what you don't want.
If you like a little sweetness in your sauce, at the end of the 20 minutes simmering, you can add a little white and/or brown sugar and some cinnamon to taste; mix until dissolved, and you're done. Some people also like cloves, but I think cloves are gross, so I wouldn't know about that. :) Just remember, if you add these ingredients, this recipe is no longer dog safe.

Spoiling Puppies on a Budget

Words cannot describe how much Greg and I love our puppies, Sheila and Lucy. From the moment we laid eyes on them at the shelter, we knew both of them needed to come home with us. They were roommates at PAWS Chicago, a wonderful cage-free shelter that Greg and I adore.

Sheils and The Moose, as we more commonly call them, were in the same suite. When we adopted them, they were four months old. They had been at PAWS for one month. They were brought in with their litters, who were instantly adopted out, and our little girls were left over and paired together. It was clearly meant to be because Greg and I visited PAWS, fell in love with them instantly, swooped them up, and took them home. Now, two years later, I cannot imagine life without them.

People often ask me if the wonderpups are vegetarian or vegan. To their surprise, the answer is no. After doing some research, I haven't really found anything that makes me feel comfortable making the girls go totally veg. From what I can tell, dogs are perfect omnivores; they really do require both animal and plant products to have a healthy diet. Obviously, though, there are the ethical considerations that Greg and I wrestle with as well. I think we've found a balance that makes us comfortable. For their meals, we feed Sheila and Lucy Wellness Sweet Potato and Whitefish food; Greg is a pescetarian, so it made sense to give fish to the girls, too. We also give them rawhides because dogs need to chew! When it comes to treats, though, we give them vegetarian, and almost always vegan, treats, since we figure that will help boost the plantstuffs they need to eat.

We have a wonderful local natural pet food store, Kriser's, that supplies the girls with all they need, but you can also make dog treats on the cheap. The good news is that dogs can eat some of the fruits and vegetables that their owners eat. We feed Sheils and Moose carrots (peeled and cut up), apples (core, seeds, and stem removed), and banana (peeled). The girls also love sweet potatoes, either baked or dehydrated. They are huge fans of natural peanut butter and have a preternatural sense when it is coming out of the fridge. (As far as I know, only natural peanut butter is safe for dogs. More dog food safety below.)

So what does all of this have to do with "being fancy on a budget"? Well, as much as we love spoiling the girls, it can add up. Greg and I like to give the girls a treat we buy at the store, marketed as a "dog smoothie." I used to think, for $7.50 for six servings, it was a pretty good deal. Then I read the ingredients and realized I could make the same thing for much cheaper. After playing around in the kitchen, I yielded a treat that Sheila and Lucy slurped up, and I made the same quantity as what we buy at the store for around $1.50. Smoothie people, you've been great to us, but I think the budget wins on this one.

There are two important words of warning before feeding your puppies homemade treats. First, don't overdo feeding your dogs in a sitting, either with these treats or with fruits, veggies, and peanut butter generally. In an attempt to be delicate, I will just say that fiber has the same effect on dogs as it does humans, and you don't want to hurt your puppy's tummy. Second, please do research before feeding fruits and vegetables to your dogs; there are some that can cause great harm or even death, including onions, grapes, raisins, and avocados. We keep sugar-free gum out of the house, because even a little bit can be fatal to a dog within an hour. In short, please consult your vet for advice on feeding your furry friend.

Homemade Doggy Ice Cream
Yields: 6-8 servings (1 serving = 1/4 cup)

Ingredients:
1 apple chopped up (peeled, cored, seeded, and stem removed)
2 bananas
1/4 - 1/3 c. natural peanut butter
1/2 c. water

1) In a blender, combine all ingredients until smooth.
2) Place in container and freeze until solid (about 5-6 hours).
3) To serve to your dog, scoop up 1/4 c. of the frozen mixture into your pup's bowl. He or she can take it from there. :)