Food: Being Vegan and some recipes

First, I'll say that I'm not a good vegan.  Well, at home I am an excellent vegan.  We don't have any meat or dairy in our fridge, just a few eggs that I buy on occasion to fix the kids for breakfast.  The rest is all various vegetables, a hand full of canned goods, and a hand full of packaged processed foods.

What makes me a terrible vegan, and terrible eater all together, is the weekend.  Every weekend something is going on, someone is grilling, and delicious meat products/chips/dips/desserts are laid out, calling my name to be devoured and enjoyed.  Yum.  And I always over eat in these situations.

So every Monday I start all over, trying to cleanse my body of all the Doritos, burgers and hot dogs I crammed down my throat.

This week I'm trying to prepare for the upcoming holiday, and junk food free for all, by preparing and freezing some Scott Jurik burgers and vegan ice cream.

I'm not a great cook, but I can follow a recipe.  I've made the Jurik burgers a few times, but this batch is the best yet.  This is probably because my husband (a former culinary student) took over half way through their preparation while I took our daughter to karate.  He diced up some veggies that were left over from grilling last week and added them to the patties. They're good ya'll!  And good for you!  Lentils, kale, mushrooms, nuts... I love em!

I have made the ice cream twice.  Both times it has been the coconut milk base but the first was with bananas and pineapple, and the second (which turned out sooo much better) was with bananas and strawberries.  It doesn't even have any sugar, just a little bit of agave, and it tastes wonderful.  Since I don't have an ice cream maker, I just put it in the freezer and take it out every hour to stir it around.  That's pretty much what an ice cream maker does anyway.  I have two more cans of coconut milk in the pantry so I'm going to try the coffee recipe today.

If I just stayed in and never left my house, being vegan would be so easy.  We went camping last weekend and I actually threw up from all the beer, doritos, hot dogs, and smores.  I woke up in the middle of the night, unzipped my tent door like a ninja, and high tailed it barefoot to the bathrooms.

We're spending the 4th at Bitchy Angie's house so I'm sure the food won't be that unhealthy.  Angie is always very mindful of her food choices, even at social gatherings.  BTW: She started blogging again.  It's more wine and less running, but still the same ole bitching.

Have a great Independence Day!

-Hugh Jass