What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

There isn't much more I need to say because the title said it all, but I'll give you the details of my version. First of all, I always assumed sauerkraut was cabbage in salt and vinegar because... I dunno... it seemed to go along with pickled items like capers and pickles.   But today I was perusing the ingredients of various brands of sauerkraut and I was pleasantly surprised to see there was no vinegar.  Quick segue for those who don't know... I avoid distilled white vinegar because it's corn-based and I am corn-intolerant.  There is no shortage of processed foods that have distilled white vinegar as an ingredient. Anyway, I look at the ingredients of Clausen brand sauerkraut: Cabbage, Salt, Water, Sodium Benzoate and Sodium Metabisulfite I'm not keen on things that sound like chemicals or that I'm not familiar with even when they say they are from some natural source in parenthesis afterward. Next I looked at Silver Floss brand: Cabbage, water, salt, sodium b

These are not part of a healthy whole-foods plant based diet.  They are, however, something I can make/have on occasion or for company.   I do use Miyoko's vegan butter in the recipe.  I will revisit this recipe and try it with water rather than vegan butter, but for now, this is it. Click here for a printable version of this recipe. Garlic Almond Crackers 1 cup almond pulp (the leftover stuff after you make almond milk) 3 tablespoons vegan butter 3 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon flax meal 1 tablespoon chia seed 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1 teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon salt 5-6 garlic cloves smashed or minced Mix everything in a bowl and divide in half.  Roll half of it out between two piece of wax paper to about 1/8th of an inch.  The more evenly you can make the thickness, the less likely you will have some burnt and some raw crackers at the end. Remove the top wax paper, cut lightly with a sharp knife into cracker-sized pieces and poke fork holes. Tran

For breakfast, I wanted sweet potato toast with hummus, but I didn't feel like hauling out the big food processor so I decided to experiment and see if I could make a small batch of hummus using my mini food processor . Here's what I threw into the food processor: 1 cup cooked (or canned) chickpeas ¼ cup tahini 3 garlic cloves, smashed Juice of one lemon 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar 1/8 cup water Salt  It came out great! For lunch, then, I wanted to use up the rest of my chickpeas so I made a salad with stuff I had in the fridge (red leaf lettuce, cucumber, carrot, celery, and the chickpeas).  Then I decided to make a hummus salad dressing. ¼ cup hummus 1 tablespoon honey (you can use maple syrup for vegan option) 1½ teaspoons dijon mustard 1½ sesame oil (you can try without for oil-free version) 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/8 cup water I put all the ingredients into one of my awesome plastic containers and shake the heck out of it. Then I drizzled a little over the prepar

In keeping with my meal plan ( see previous post ) I started work on the Moroccan Shepherd’s Pie because I was having company for dinner.  I am a huge fan of shepherd’s pie… traditional sheperd’s pie… MY homemade shepherd’s pie.  I had to go into this knowing it was going to be nothing like my shepherd’s pie, so I dismissed those expectations immediately.  I decided to think of it in terms of the fact that “sheperd’s pie” traditionally represents peasant food… a mash-up, so to speak, of simple maybe even leftover, inexpensive ingredients.  So I was going to make and serve Moroccan flavored peasant food (in the end I ended up referring to it as “casserole”). This recipe is adapted from a  Forks of Knives cookbook  (which I highly recommend… they also have a lot of  great recipes on their website ). So here’s how *I* ended up doing the recipe: Moroccan Flavors Lentil, Spinach, and Sweet Potato Casserole Click here for a printable version of this recipe Ingredients (

I have been NOT taking care of my health and hit another one of those “I have to do this!” marks.   So… here we go again.   I know full well that aside from craving fat, sugar, and salt… my biggest problem areas are in not planning. You see, when I have a day filled to the brim with projects that must get done, it’s hard for me to think about what is involved in healthy eating… because usually for me it would be: do dishes, go grocery shopping, do food prep, then cook.   That’s just WAY too much work when I can instead just slather some peanut butter and honey on top of a banana or toast and be done with a “meal” in 10 minutes flat, from creating to eating. Cleaning, prepping, and cooking can take hours if not all day.   Been there, done that.   So how do I resolve this?   A plan.   I have to have a plan and I have to plan ahead. Step 1: Meal plan. Pick 2 or 3 basic meals that I can mix and match for 3-4 days. Step 2: Use Instacart to do my grocery shopping for me

Today I made a vegan, no oil ranch dressing without yeast.   As someone who can’t have yeast, I gotta tell ya it’s an ingredient in a TON of yummy sounding WFPB recipes so I face lots of disappointment when I find recipes for foods I like only to find yeast is a significant part of the flavor profile. And while there isn’t anything that can really sub for yeast, I sometimes just omit it and other times I try to replace it with something… anything… that at least has flavor. Here’s the original recipe for this great ranch dressing.   I changed a few ingredients so here is my version. Ingredients 1 cup of raw cashews that have been soaked (4 hrs) then drained and rinsed 1 cup of cashew milk (or milk alternate of your choice) 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 2 teaspoons coconut aminos 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons onion powder (add after mixing) 1 Tablespoon dill (add after mixing) 2 teaspoons parsley I threw