Vegan Diet Guy

A lot of omnivores, and even many vegetarians, think vegan cooking is hard, but in reality, it’s no more difficult than non-vegan cooking. Getting into the mindset where you are ready for a plants-based, vegan diet is the most challenging. If you’ve landed on this page, you are obviously headed in the right direction.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca is one of those old standby recipes that I hadn’t touched since becoming vegan, that is–until my sister served a delectable anchovy-less rendition for New Year’s dinner. And, like so many other dishes I couldn’t fathom eating again (due to the elimination of a supposedly “core ingredient”), I am now rediscovering it. (more…)

Isa Chandra Moskowitz has made a liar out of me. Not long ago, I wrote that Moskowitz’ “Veganomicon” was the last cookbook you needed to buy, and now she comes out with “Vegan Brunch”. Blame it on her vegan Italian Feast Sausage recipe.

You see, growing up in an Italian-American family, I was used to eating pasta with tomato-meat sauce for Sunday dinners and other special occasions. Meat usually included meatballs, spareribs, and sausages. Living on myown as an adult, special dinners had always consisted of meat of some sort, if not cheese, and more likely both! As a result, it seemed Sunday dinners would never be the same after becoming vegan. Now, 3 years later, I’ve discovered there are hundreds of other delectable and healthy meals worthy of Sunday and any other day. But when I’m feeling nostalgic, pasta with a “meaty” tomato sauce is the ultimate comfort food.

You may ask, why bother making your own vegan sausages, when there are already meatless sausages appearing on the shelves in major grocery stores? I think that’s great news, and without a doubt, vegan sausages are preferable to meat sausages, but reading the ingredients and the nutritional data, I’m not sure all meatless sausages are actually healthy, or good for your diet. If you like to know what’s in your food, like me, why not try making your own vegan sausages? (more…)