Vegetable Pâté

A few people have been bugging me to post this recipe, which I tried a few weeks ago to great success, and I just haven't gotten around to it until now. This vegetable pate from my "Fresh" cookbook, is super delicious, savory, and makes a great dip, wrap or sandwich filling. After a long day of odds and ends, I made a lovely sandwich with this pate, some Ezekiel Bread and a tiny little bit of Dijon mustard. Not quite a meal replacement, but a welcome dose of nourishment at the end of a long day. The irony is I skipped dinner to go to Grocery shopping, because I was down to one sweet potato and a piece of ginger. Go figure.

Here's the biz:
1 cup soaked almonds (I'm finding it's good to get in the habit of keeps some soaked nuts and seeds at the ready. Soaking brings them to life and makes them easier for your system to digest. I'll generally put Things to soak into the fridge overnight, drain and use. Different recipes I've come across give you various minimum soaking times, but I don't think you can really over-soak your nuts.)

3 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced (and to this I say, why stop there? Maybe I have some kind of genetic predisposition to the taste of lemon, but when a recipe calls for half a lemon, I have never found using the juice of a whole lemon to Compromise the integrity of the dish. Besides, I hate having half a lemon left sitting on the counter to dry out and go unused. I just hate it. Grrrrr.)
1 tsp of sea salt

Row it all in your food processor and scramble the bejeezus out of it. Depending on the size of your processor, you may need to add your ingredients in increments in order to allow for space. After a minute or so, you should find that the contents of the container will start folding down nicely of the sides and back into the path of the blades, so there isn't a lot of stopping and scraping down the sides.

After your pate is 100% discombobulated, you may chill it or serve immediately to especially demanding houseguests who simply don't have the time, or likely the capacity, to chill. Actually, if these are your guests, make it in advance. I shared this batch with Corinne, who is as chill as chill gets, whilst visions of our impending meal at G Zen danced in our heads.

Of course I completely flaked on a picture, so here's a gratuitous shot of my kitchen island freshly "Wholefoodinated" for the weekend:




And one more of Dusty just for good measure! I call it "Détente."



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Location:Madison, CT

Lunch with Corinne

Shared a delicious lunch at G Zen with my dear friend fellow massage therapist Corinne Rossi of Better Body Works in Stonington, CT. If you're in the greater Mystic/Westerly area she is the bomb diggitty and a seriously gifted craniosacral therapist.

Here are a couple shots of our glorious meal!! First a vegan lasagna with tofu ricotta and a squash bisque sauce!




Corinne had the "Wheel of Dharma", veggie dumplings, and noodles, in a savory mushroom broth (this is a favorite on the regular menu!)


For dessert we couldn't resist the Avocado Key Lime pudding with a nut/date cookie bar! Totally decadent, and not hard to whip together at home if you want to wow your friends and or family with a healthy dessert!


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Location:Branford, CT

Herb Garden

Just a quickie, any plant that knows me well probably doesn't like it's chances of surviving in my house. Nevertheless, I am attempting to develop some kind of gardening ability by growing spotted herb garden on my deck this season. I am starting small, and maybe next year I will be brave enough to plant something in the ground.

Here's a shot of Dusty, Orbiting Vegan's carnivorous mascot, protecting my seedlings.




If you look to the edge of the sofa, the black area is my other cat, Sammy. She's helping Dusty.



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Location:Madison, CT

Penne with Artichokes

Suddenly it got cold again, 36 degrees as I write this. So made a great pasta dish that cld potentially be eaten hot or cold with this unpredictable weather. Penne with Artichokes ("Clean Food.")

And not just artichokes but so much more, this dish is definitely a meal unto itself, not hard to prepare, and the ingredients are relatively low cost, with the exception of kalamata olives, but they're well worth the expenditure. It also keeps well in the fridge, which is good, because the recipe yields quite a bit of food. I think I got two dinners and three lunches out of it.

Ingredients:
1 pound penne pasta
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup canned artichoke hearts
1/2 cup kalamata olives
1 fennel bulb, cored and sliced thin
1 bunch arugula
1 cup chopped tomatoes (I used the whole big can, came out fine.)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Ready? Here goes:

Introduce the onion and garlic to the oil, preferably in a large saucepan, and allow them to mingle over medium heat until they are comfortable with one another. Add the artichokes, olives, fennel, arugula, and continue to sautée a few more minutes. Give the flavors time to mingle, Then add the tomatoes, parsley, lemon juice, and mix well.

If you don't know how to cook pasta, I'm not going to tell you, the package will give you adequate direction. Needless to say, when the penne is ready, combine it with the sauce, and serve hot. Dazzle your guests. Have some salt and pepper handy for those that require extra dazzle.



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Location:Madison, CT

Hungry for Change

Watch this incredible new film online for free until 03/31/2012!!
Very eye-opening!

Hungry for Change Online Premiere!! Watch free.

G Zen, WTF, APNH and other acronyms....

Check out this great review of G Zen by WTF(Will Travel For) Vegan Food. If you haven't heard of WTF, it is a blog created and updated by Kristin Lajeunesse, who left her full time job last year in order to rove about the country, visiting and dining at vegan restaurants, and sharing her experiences with you and I. Sounds like an awesome prospect to me, definitely check out her blog, and get your butts to G Zen ASAP

PS.. G Zen is participating in "Dine Out for Life," a fundraising event for AIDS Project New Haven on April 26th, 2012. Click the hyperlinks to learn more about APNH and DOFL, a great fundraiser for a great organization! Participating restaurants will donate a minimum of 25% of each guest check for the evening to APNH. These events have been hugely successful in the past, so I would recommend making a reservation if you'd like to be involved.


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Chopped Salad

Yesterday was a phenomenal day on all counts, which was spent mainly exercising. I got up, had my smoothie, coconut water, spinach, orange, banana, and protein. Then I worked out, did some cardio on the recumbent bike, showered, changed, and hopped on my buckle and rode into Guilford, to Kai's house, a veritable wellspring of nutrition and positive energy. Check out her website at Nourishing Habits, llc.

My purpose was really to purchase some more protein powder since I had run out, but on my arrival I found myself on the tail end of a ladies luncheon, full, as you can imagine, of healthy glowing people and delicious healthy foods! Kai was gracious enough to offer me some lunch and a cappuccino, and some good conversation. I had a bean and escarole dish that was out of this world!

This was followed up with a bike ride home, and an invitation to tags long to a yoga class that evening, which I couldn't refuse. So over all, a lot of activity. Bt let's talk about what I made for dinner!

Chopped Salads can make a wonderful, satisfying meal, and are also very easy to prepare. The most energy you'll expend is gathering the ingredients from around your kitchen. This one is accompanied by a lovely poppyseed dressing that is just flavorful enough to notice without drowning out all the other wonderful elements in the dish.

The recipe comes from "Clean Food," and the ingredients are as follows:
2 endives, chopped
1 small bunch watercress, arugula, radicchio (save yourself the trouble and buy a nice spring mix, otherwise you're likely to have enough to feed a small army.).
1 avocado, peeled pitted and chunked
1/2 cup kalamata olives
8 stalks of fresh asparagus
I orange bell pepper, Seeds removed, chopped
1/2 red onion chopped
3 stalks of celery chopped
Several halved cherry tomatoes
Pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top

For the dressing:
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tsp agave

Assemblage:
Cut asparagus into 1" chunks, set in a bowl, fill with boiling water, cover, and set aside for one minute. Drain. (I included the red onion in this process as well, since it takes the edge off nicely, but the recipe doesn't call for it.) chunk the avocado, and toss with some lemon juice to keep it from browning. Combine everything else, toss, dress, toss. Enjoy. If your like a nice presentation, reserve the tomatoes, olives, avocado and pumpkin seeds and distribute them artfully on top of all the chopped greens. You could also add some chick peas to the mix for a little extra protein.




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Holy Freakin' Fennel, Batman!

If you watch or listen to the "news" these days, you've probably heard that its snowing in Southern California, and tornadoes are blowing across the Midwest and Appalachia like nobodies business. Climate change is a fickle mistress indeed. However, if you happen to live in New England, you'll know that we are enjoying a glorious early Spring, the weather has been warm, sunny and mild. I just couldn't be happier, since this part of the world tends not to really start warming up until the end of April, and despite the mild winter, Spring is just as welcome as ever.

Change of seasons means a change of menus, which is where seasonally organized cookbooks come in handy. Terry Walters' "Clean Food" is a favorite, and for those whose orbit extends a bit farther from vegan/vegetarian cuisine, try "Serving Up the Harvest," both of which are exceptional resources. After returning home from my weekly pilgrimage to Mecca, a got to work on an Orange Fennel salad from "clean Food."

Ingredients:
4 large naval oranges (really best without seeds, or else you'll have a mangled orange fennel salad.)
1bulb of fennel, cored and sliced
1/2 red onion sliced thin
1 small bunch of fresh mint 1/4 cup ish)

For the dressing:
1 tbsp coriander
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil

Prep was super easy. Zest two of the oranges, then cut all four into rounds or divide by sections. Soak the onion, covered, in boiling water for 30 seconds, which through some magic makes it much more tolerable. Mingle everything in a large bowl.

Dressing is just as easy, throw it all in your "good seasons" shaker, put on Madonna's new single, Girl Gone Wild, and, using the shaker as a microphone, dance around your kitchen. Repeat if necessary.

The licorice flavor of the fennel compliments the sweetness and tartness of the orange nicely, and the addition of mint makes this a refreshing lunchtime idea on a warm Spring day.



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G Zen hits the Spot Every time!

I've never really been a particularly big fan of tacos. Mexican food, sure thing, especially in my Austin, TX days when I could get good stuff! Güero's, I miss you. And your enchiladas. And your Mojitos. and your everything.

The point is, tacos in and of themselves never did much for me. As many of us stumble through our lives we begin to realize just how profoundly influenced we have been by our parents. In this case, an acquired disdain for chopped meat in corn shells due to the repeated insistence of a parent that I will love them if I really just give them a chance. But simultaneously we can't help being just like them.as we offer healthy alternatives to processed food, night after night, and insist they would be loved if only given a chance. Of course, refusal of such a request is another similarity between parent and taco-shunning child. Nothing changes. I am not my father. I am my father. Who knew? It's kind of like the universe of my persona expanding and collapsing in on itself. Repeatedly.

Philosophy aside, G Zen has opened my eyes to a new kind of taco. A raw Taco. A taco so delicious, so satisfying, so unbe-fuckinglievable that I literally went home and started figuring out how I was going to make them at home.

Here's a picture of theirs:



Dark, I know, but the flash did funny things to the image. Essentially, what you have is a romaine leaf "shell," topped with Spicy Walnut Taco Meat, covered with a rich tahini sauce, fresh raw salsa, and sprinkled with cashew Parmesan. Super easy, super delicious.

The star of the show is the walnut meat, which is surprisingly similar in taste to seasoned taco meat, but of course completely raw. Click the hyperlink above for a recipe. I could serve this stuff to my father and he would t know the difference. Until I told him, at which point he would probably spring to life and throttle me Homer-style. I did try to get him to have a taste, full disclosure up front, but nay, he sayed.

Mine did not come out as pretty as Mark Shadle's, but I suppose that has as much to do with his considerable experience as with my being wet behind the vegan ears, as they say. Hence, I am not sharing a picture of my very yummy but not quite as pretty attempt at the sincerest for of flattery. Instead, let me offer a photo of G Zen's Miso soup, which was mellow and sublime. Once again, apologies for the lighting, I really ought to start carrying my digital camera around instead of relying on my phone.





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Orange Tomato Soup with Cashew Dill Cream

Hola! One of the wonderful things about cooking, or uncorking as the case may be, is the the ability to depart intuitively from a recipe. I find it a delight when I try something a little different, or very different, and end up with a positive outcome. Whether its discovering I've improved on a tried and true favorite, or tweaked a first attempt, it's gratifying to taste the influence of my own personal touch, however minute. This is a much harder achievement in baking, which is very much about chemistry, and requires an entirely different intuition. I say this because when I have improvised with baking, the result is usually less than satisfactory. Or maybe it's just me. I'm not beyond that consideration.

Last night I whipped up a delicious Orange Tomato Soup from my Vitamix cookbook. It requires a little advance cooking, and a word to the wise, the big V has an automatic shutoff to keep its motor from overheating, so if the ingredients you put in it are too hot to begin with, it may engage in some civil disobedience after a short while. This happened to me the last time I began with hot ingredients, so make sure you let the soup cool somewhat before you purée it.

Here are the suspects:
1 1/2 lbs Roma tomatoes (which taste like styrofoam this time of year, especially ifit was picked green and gassed. Whole Foods is probably your only hope for a good tomato in March. I used red tomatoes on the vine, and it worked out great.)
1 medium carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced (most of you have gathered at this point that onions and I are not always friends. I had a leek leftover from something else, which has a lighter, yet still oniony flavor, so I subbed it in. I think the subtlety proved it was a wise choice.
1/2 medium orange, peeled, with a 1"x1/2" chunk of peel reserved for the soup. (POTENT! I used more like a one inch cube of peel, and it added a bitterness that was just ever so slightly over pronounced. Next time I will be much more sparing.)
2 cups of vegetable broth (I like Rapunzel cubes dissolved in water.)
1 tbsp sugar or to taste (I halved it.)
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil or flat parsley (basil, duh)
Crème Fraiche or sour cream to garnish
Parsley or basil to garnish
Salt and Pepper to taste (maybe a pinch of each, otherwise leave it to your guests to spice it up if they choose.)

Ménage all your ingredients, except the garnish, in a stock pot. Bring to a boil, Simmer 30 minutes or until your vegetables give up. I attempted purée them with my hand blender in the pot, but it was not quite up to the task. Let the soup collect itself for a few minutes, and after its taken a few deep breaths, pour into the Vitamix and scramble the living daylights out of it. When the soup is sufficiently disoriented, pour into soup mugs or bowls, garnish and serve. The ingredients will have gained back some of the heat they lost whilst they blend, so the soup should come out of the blender nice and steamy.

Here's the twist, I skipped the Crème Fraiche and opted for a raw Cashew Dill Cream, also courtesy of the Vitamix cookbook.

Here's the biz:
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw pine nuts
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste ( i used about three lemons worth actually.)
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh dill weed
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsb salt

*note: those are all the listed ingredients, which will yield a yummy but incredibly dense mixture in the blender. More like cashew butter than a sauce. I added an additional cup of water to the mix, and still came out with what I describe as a cream. The beautiful picture in the cookbook shows a lovely sauce, probably the consistency of a creamy salad dressing, artfully drizzled over some fresh veggies. My result didn't drizzle so much as dollop or spread. Some thing tells me there's something missing from the ingredients. Anyway, the short and long of it is you can easily vary the consistency with water, depending on what your end goal is.

I this case, I thought it would make a lovely substitute for Crème Fraiche, so I dollopsed and garnished. Voila!

The soup, as I said, was a little bitter from the rind, but the leeks were right on target. I gave them a light sauté before adding all the other ingredients. The cashew dill cream was out of this world! You could spread it on toast or crackers, serve it as a dip,garnish a dish with it, or thin it down a nit and serve it over salad or pasta. It has a rich savory flavor that will leave you wanting more. I could eat this stuff out of the glass jar in my refrigerator and be very content.





I'm delighted to see some comments and suggestions on the blog! Even if they are majoratively from my sister. I am not proud. Heading to G Zen tonight with a friend, and I promise to take a picture of my meal before it is half devoured.

Ciao!
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Location:Madison, CT

Raw Cucumber Soup with Roasted Portobello salad

Hello all! If you don't live in the area, let me begin with the weather. Today is that first absolutely beautiful day of the season, the kind that assures you Spring is on the way. It was almost 70 today, clear skies, light breeze, and lots of sun. A spirit lifting day, worry about nothing day. Hopefully the first of many.

So due to last weeks eye troubles I didn't make it to Whole Foods, and my receipt this week reflected it! Ouch. Double Ouch. Triple, even. But, since today is a worry about nothing day, I just packed my reusable bags, paid the bill and headed for Jamba Juice for a little refreshing treat for the ride home. Orange-carrot Karma, yummy, even if it is loaded with sugar. I'll have to spend some time on my bicycle this week working it off. I really think WF should give me some kind of regular shopper discount, or stop charging me altogether since I'm such a nice guy! Until they come to their senses I'll just have to tough it out.

With Spring in the air, I thought light refreshing fare would be a good choice for dinner. I settled upon a cold cucumber soup, and roasted portobello salad with a delicious mustard vinaigrette. Easy factor: 10/10. Everything was done from start to finish within an hour, dishes and all.

The soup recipe came from my Vitamix Cookbook, here's the biz:
1 cucumber, chunked
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1/4 cup fresh dill
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1 cup filtered water

Blend. Chill. Garnish if it seems appropriate. Garnish if it seems inappropriate. If you are able, garnish inappropriately(if you do this please send me pictures!)

The salad(Veganomicon) was just as easy, requiring just about 40 minutes to roast the mushroom caps.

For the mushrooms:
1/2 cup cooking wine (or real wine, whatever you have available, I went red. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that you really shouldn't cook with wine you wouldn't drink, so I tend not to keep cooking wine in the pantry.)
2 tbsp soy sauce (there are so many kinds, I used up some Tamari.)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced (by the by, you can get an enormous jar of the stuff at Ocean State Job Lot for pennies, if you have the real estate available in the fridge.)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-4 portobello caps, stems embarrassed

Mix it all together in a casserole dish, layout the mushrooms in the dish caps down, and marinate for 20. Cover with tinfoil and sauna at 400 for 30 minutes. Uncover, flip, back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Slice on a diagonal, if the mushrooms persist, threaten them with the knife then follow-through.

For the dressing:
1/4 cup prepared mustard (Dijon or whatever's handy-dandy. I hope, sincerely, that it isn't some kind of processed neon-yellow mustard-esque substance in a farting squeeze bottle.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tbs grape seed oil
2 tbsp maple syrup (real maple syrup. See admonition against yellow-mustard, please consider it a cousin to maple "flavored" syrup. It's not that I am anti-sweetener, I just like to stay close to the source. It will cost more, but unless you own stock in Eggo, it will last you a good long time.)

Combine it all into your old 4-seasons glass dressing bottle, and shake the bejeezus out of it. Done.

For the salad:
Mixed greens, I like a nice spring mix or some baby arugula
1 can of drained chick peas (aka garbanzo beans, I checked.)
1 avocado, pillaged, plundered and cut into lovely thin slices

*the recipe includes red onion. I say balls to red onion, skip it. Why ruin a perfectly good salad?

Assemblage (from the ground up):
Greens
Chick peas
Avocado
Dressing
Roast portobello slices

And you're done. You may eat. As I sit here and type it all out it sounds like rather a lot of work, but it isn't really. Lots of words, few actions. Sort of the opposite of what many of us look for in a man. Best not to date this dish. However, it may be served to a date at your discretion.

I did try to fancy up the presentation a bit tonight, must be the extra sunshine. Also, I topped the salad with some dried portobello sticks that I made in what passes for a dehydrator a while back.

Taste wise, the salad was spectacular, and the mushrooms were just meaty and incredible tasting. I am resisting the urge for a parenthetical comment. I just want you to know that. However, I'm sure it is not lost on most of you that were I to make one, chances are very good that it would involve double-entèndre. The soup was ok. I think it might have done well with the addition of mint, or perhaps lime, or maybe both. The cool, and refreshing bit was there, the flavor was on the bland side, something was missing. I am open to suggestion.












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Location:Madison, CT

Comfort Food

When I reflect on what the words vegan, vegetarian, or diet, and what they've meant to me in the past, I almost immediately come up with some instant associations; deprivation, hunger, lack of flavor or substance to name a few. One of the things I immediately start missing are the comfort foods we all turn to on a cold winter night, or a rainy day home on the couch when we just want something hearty and flavorful to satisfy the palette. I'm happy to tell you that if you decide to orbit vegan, or even raw vegan, those comfort foods you love are still there for you, in slightly altered, more healthful forms. One such dish is the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits ("Veganomicon," Moscowitz & Romero, p. 172 in my edition.)

When I think of cassoulet, it tends to involve lamb, a rich flavor succulent juices. This version is just as rich in flavor, and the involvement of yukon gold potatoes adds a heartiness that will satisfy your hunger, the ingredients are as follows:

2 Yukon gold potatoes
3 cups veggie broth
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced. (Side note here: leeks are a pain in the tuckus to clean, I've found it's much easier to chop them dirty, as it were, and then give them a thorough rinse to do away with dirt and debris that was contained within.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots diced
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Several pinches of fresh cracked black pepper
Salt to taste, if any (the broth may be plenty salty to begin with.)
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 can of navy beans, drained and rinsed

For the biscuits:
3/4 cup soy milk (or any other non-dairy milk, I used rice milk and they came out just fine.)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I like Bragg's)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (this may lose me a reader or two, but I did not have any organic, whole grain, organic, frou-frou flour in the pantry, and I wasn't about to make another trip to the store, so for the purposes of this recipe, it was plain ol' bleached white flour. Sorry.)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup non hydrogenated vegan shortening (once again, apologies, I used Crisco. Although the container assures me that their product is significantly lower in saturated fat and trams fats than it used to be. Next time I will buy Woo-woo brand. Promise.)

It's quite a roster of ingredients, and you guessed it, a rather specific preparation process. Totally worth it, but the PIA (pain in a$$) factor is mildly higher than usual for this one, and I did inadvertently skip one or two critical, but not unfixable, steps.
Seriously folks, just buy the Veganomicon it's worth the $27.50 for this recipe alone.

I wanted to give an idea of how it looks underneath the biscuits so I dug in first, this was one hell of a stew!!



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Location:Madison, CT

G ZEN

Happy Weekend! As many of you know, my initial purpose in creating this blog was to keep me on track with my goal of preparing one healthy dish each day, that I hadn't previously prepared, for 30 days following my recent cleanse. Tomorrow, Sunday, is day 30 and I actually can't believe it came so fast! What's more, I can't believe I kept up the momentum, nay the budget, this long! Fret not, the impending completion of this blog's initial purpose does not mean I am going to relegate it to some dark corner of cyber space and go have a cheeseburger. New commitment for the foreseeable future is three new recipes each week, for a number of reasons. Budget concerns aside, I would like to start incorporating some of the previous experiments into the regular mix as we head into spring, and a new season of ingredients begins sprouting.

I've often commented on the correlation between affluence and the ability to eat well.
One of my clients and I were discussing this the other day, and she deftly pointed out that quality, with food as with all things, will always have a cost, and that eating well seems more costly due to the proliferation of petroleum-based, high-fructose corn syrup laden, chemically engineered,factory farmed, hormone injected processed foods that can be produced in mass quantity fora significantly lower cost. Financial cost, that is. Look around folks, I don't walk down the street and. Pass by one healthy, active, energetic being after the next. Also, doesn't it seem like we all end up with cancer, stroke, or heart disease? If you think about it, we're just used to paying a lower price for junk that looks like food.

Anyway, I enjoyed not one but two outstanding meals at G Zen vegan restaurant in Branford, CT last week. If you're local, you should definitely hit this place up. Be prepared to spend some money, but know that in my estimation the quality of the meal definitely justifies the cost. The Chef and Owner, Marc Shadle, is the genius behind "It's Only Natural" in Middletown, CT, and his wife and business partner, Ami Beach, is a raw gourmet extraordinaire, and I believe she also runs a very successful colon hydrotherapy practice in West Hartford.

At any rate, I'm tickled pink to finally have some decent vegan cuisine in the area, and I've been dining there fairly regularly since they opened last fall. Outstanding items on the menu include a tempeh Reuben that is simply out of this world, featuring a spicy brown mustard and tangy sauerkraut, vegan "crab cakes" with a fresh home made tarter sauce, and when you can get it, a super-tart key lime avocado pudding, which I loved so much I've made it a point to learn how to make it at home.

You will also find that sustainability is a big part of the G Zen consciousness, Along with a wonderful selection of organic wines and sakes, And a selection of beautiful hand painted mandalas by the artist Paul Heussenstamm, who's artworks are owned by the likes of Deepak Chopra, and the incomparable diva herself, Annie Lennox.

For more information check out G-Zen on the web.

*It is now Thursday, March 8th, and I know I am behind on my recipe blogs. I am pleased to say that I accomplished my goal of a new healthy recipe each day for thirty days, and will catch you up in the very near future on the last few in that sequence. I have unfortunately been in rather excruciating pain due to a scratched cornea, which in turn was due to a defective contact lens, (Air optics, just in case you're wondering) and have not therefore been spending significant amounts of time with my eyes open let alone staring at a computer screen.

Please bear with me through the healing process, and I promise this blog will stay very much alive and well.

Just a side note to the Air Optics people, I fully welcome you're swift reimbursement of my ER and ophthalmologist bills which resulted from your scratchy lens in my eye. Thanx.



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Location:Madison, CT

Still here!!

Just a quick note to say I have t died! And I'm very exited to say that I have readers in Spain and Russia!!


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