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Vegan Bytes #56- Your Simple yet Traditional Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner November 19, 2012 |
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Hi! Vegan Bytes #56: Your Simple yet Traditional Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner
Welcome to the Vegan-Nutritionista.com subscriber group! Our newsletter focuses on helping you learn more about veganism and how to apply it to your daily life. Vegan Bytes is dedicated to keeping you up-to-date with the world of food, answering your vegan nutrition questions, and providing you with ideas on ways to spread your lifestyle beliefs.
*Nutritional Spotlight: Will Eating Pumpkin Pie Make You Live Longer? (if your email server doesn't allow you to click these links, scroll down in the email to the articles you like)
Do you know someone who would like this newsletter? More and more people read Vegan Bytes each month and part of that is thanks to you forwarding your friends my website. Thank you so much for your support. Since it's the start of a new year, many people are interested in getting back in shape and making this the year of health and happiness, so if you know someone who could use a little encouragement, send this along.
If a friend forwarded this to you and you want more, visit the Vegan Bytes newsletter page to subscribe for free and we'll see you next month!
If you haven't visited Vegan Nutritionista.com since you signed up for this newsletter, you might not have seen an awesome new feature we have. You can now comment on any page on the site! You can link it to your facebook account so your friends can see what you have to say, and help them to help themselves with a healthier, more compassionate lifestyle.
Nutritional Spotlight: Can Pumpkin Pie Save your Eyesight?
It's the season of pumpkin lattes, pies, risotto, ravioli, and tons of other squash recipes. As you're gorging on pumpkin pie this holiday season, feel free to whisper this little secret to yourself, "pumpkin is good for me."
Of course, it's always going to be the healthiest for you when it's closest to its natural form, but even in desserts you still pick up some of the health benefits of pumpkin.
Pumpkin is an awesome antioxidant, so it flushes out bad toxins in your body. It's also great for your skin, hair, and nails, and along with other fiber-packed fruits and vegetables, it helps prevent degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Read all about the health benefits of pumpkin, as well as my favorite ways to use pumpkin in recipes.
Updated Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
I was recently asked to give tips to a local magazine on how to celebrate Thanksgiving as a vegan, and it was such an uplifting exercise for me. One of the first questions people ask is how vegans can participate in holiday traditions without being left out, and I loved responding with ideas on how to make it easy and seamless for us all.
I have to admit that even as a child, the idea of gorging on turkey and stuffing never appealed to me, so Thanksgiving food was never something I loved. However, I know quite a few vegans for whom Thanksgiving was an immensely important part of their lives. I know forgoing the turkey was hard for them the first year, but I also know that celebrating now has the same spirit as food that tastes just as good as the meaty versions.
The last time I served Thanksgiving dinner, every side dish was vegan and literally none of my omnivorous family members noticed. They ate the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and dinner rolls just as quickly and happily as ever before.
I am really happy with my collection of Thanksgiving recipes, and I hope you'll try a few and let me know how you like them. You can also brag about your best recipes by sharing it at the bottom of the page, or clicking on this link.
I hope you have an amazing holiday full of laughter, love, and delicious vegan food!
Vegan Travel: Native Foods, Chicago
Native Foods is a chain of vegan restaurants that focus mostly on sandwiches, salads, and lighter entrees, as well as a few delicious desserts. They have locations in California, Colorado, Portland, and Chicago. A few months ago I dropped in for a takeout order and was pretty impressed.
There was one thing I was absolutely flabbergasted that they make themselves, and if you've eaten there you'll probably agree with me.
This is a perfect month to feature this restaurant, because for the 18th year, Native Foods is selling their "Native Wellington" holiday dinner entree. It looks amazing, cooks in two hours, serves 6-8 and costs $39.99. So, if you're just not interested in cooking or eating another tofurkey, try it and let me know how you like it.
Click here to read my full review of the Native Foods in Wicker Park, Chicago, and find out what impressed me the most.
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"Are sugar substitutes safe?"
Question:
"As we are getting closer to the holidays, I'm starting to bake more often and I just noticed how much sugar is called for in so many of my recipes. Can I use a sugar substitute like Splenda in place of regular sugar?"
~Katie
Answer:
Don't use the yellow stuff! Or the pink or blue stuff either. There are actually several very scary side effects of sugar substitutes like splenda, and I recommend people stay far, far away from the substitutes.
Sugar itself isn't good for you, but when chemists start pulling out chemicals to create a food product and during that transformation process the chemical turns into a poison, it becomes much worse than the original food.
If you want to use a safer sugar, use sugar that's as close to the original sugarcane product as possible. You can also check out our list of vegan sugars for ideas on less processed sugar for baking.
If you have any vegan questions and you want some guidance, feel free to send them in by following this link.
Vegan Nutritionista Downloadable EBooks
Vegan Cooking for Beginners is designed for new cooks and veteran vegans who want quick, cheap, and easy vegan recipes. It has 75 recipes, tons of pictures of the finished meals, nutritional information, and detailed instructions to make every recipe easy to follow. Read more and download a copy for only $7.99 here.
Vegan Meal Plans for Fall/Winter
Vegan Meal Plans is a complete meal plan for one month vegan weekday dinners. It includes 64 recipes, pictures, nutritional information, grocery lists, and tips and techniques. Everyone from those beginning a vegan diet to those veterans who want fresh menu ideas love this ebook. It focuses on fresh, local, and seasonal vegetables and uses all normal ingredients-- no fussy or gourmet skills needed. Download a copy for only $9.75 here.
The Vegan Bread Box: 30 Simple and Delicious Vegan Bread Recipes
This is one of our most popular cookbooks. I've found it really difficult to find a vegan bread cookbook on the internet; there are tons of recipes out there, but they're scattered all over different sites and you never know which ones are good. This book has everything from an eggless brioche to a classic whole wheat boule recipe, so you'll never have to go scrounging the internet again. I'm so happy people have gotten so much out of this ebook.
Learn more about the bread baking tip that's almost too easy here or download your copy for only $7.95 now.
Get iPad/Kindle/Kobo/Reader Formatted Vegan Bread Recipes for only $7.99!
Just the Menus Ebook Package Deal
Just the Menus Ebook Package allows you to have both Vegan Nutritionista meal plans, one for the fall/winter and one for the spring/summer at a discounted rate. Download your copy for only $16.99 here.
Menus and Cookbooks Ebook Package Deal
Menus and Cookbooks Ebook Package allows you to have Vegan Cooking for Beginners, both Vegan Nutritionista Meal Plans, The Vegan Bread Box, Vegan Christmas Cookies, and Cut the Cheese. Download your copy for only $41.99 here.
Entire Collection of Ebooks Deal:
Get Vegan Cooking for Beginners, Cut the Cheese, The Vegan Bread Box, A Fresh New Vegan You, both Vegan Meal Plans and Vegan Meal Plans for Spring, Vegan Christmas Cookies AND a free copy of the massive Vegan Grocery List for only $63.99. Save BIG on this package! Download this package here. *Note: this does not include a separate file for Soak, Rinse, Boil! because you get it within A Fresh New Vegan You.
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Recipe of the Month: Vegan Banana Bread with Chia Seeds
The age-old solution for too-ripe bananas is to honor their bruises by smashing them into banana bread submission. Because bananas are a natural substitute for eggs, and because banana bread is moist on its own, you don't even really need an egg substitute if you are veganizing an old favorite recipe.
I took it a step farther by eliminating the need for added oil. So this is officially an added fat-free banana bread recipe.
The key ingredient here is chia seeds, which are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, minerals, and protein. When you mix chia seeds with water, they turn into a gooey mess that gives your baked goods the perfect lift and fluff of adding eggs and oil. It's truly amazing.
And, the cool thing about this month's recipe is that I included a video of how to bake this vegan banana bread recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
You can share your own recipes and comment on others by following this link to Vegan Nutritionista. ______________________________________________________________________________
Pick Your Favorite Way to Follow Vegan Nutritionista
Vegan Nutritionista is constantly growing and changing, and if you signed up for this newsletter a long time ago, you might not have read our new information. Our blog page keeps you up-to-date with new articles on the site.
We're in the process of updating the design of our website. I sometimes had a hard time fitting everything I wanted to say into the two columns we used to use, so now we have three columns. And, we'll be transitioning over to a really pretty color scheme. Nothing changes for you; all the content is exactly the same. I hope you like it!
We also now have a vegan forum where you can find topics submitted by users for discussion, answers, and places to add your own input. There is no member name required to participate, so you can jump right in and
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That's all for this month!! I hope you enjoyed reading it. Have a great month! ~Cathleen |
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