Atlanta Botanical Garden - 30 acre botanical garden in midtown next to Piedmont Park. Features children’s programming, edible garden, outdoor kitchen, rose garden, hydrangea collection, dwarf and rare conifer garden, water plants, conservation garden, Japanese garden, Fuqua conservatory with tropical rotunda, desert house, orangerie, high elevation house, orchids, and… more, actually. Even more. If you’re local it’s worth it to get a membership and go often – they have a ton of programming, including free cocktails and chef demos in the garden every Thursday May – September from 6 – 10pm. Right now they’re doing Sculpture in the Garden and the Garden of Lights programming in winter is not to be missed. Adults are $18.95 and you have to pay for parking.

dragonflies with shoes at the Atlanta Botanical Garden's winter show

Bike the Trails: The Freedom Park and Silver Comet Trails are two favorites. The Freedom Park Trail winds around a park and can take you from Stone Mountain to downtown. (Stop for tofu tacos at Across the Street and tea at Condessa Coffee.) Note that the Silver Comet Trail is about 13 miles north of Atlanta, but it is awesome – I like to start even further up, in Rockmart. More about bike trails in and around Atlanta. Here’s some info about monthly bike rides with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. The beltline’s current trails. (I’m still learning about the Beltline Project – more soon, I hope.)

gratuitous picture of our bikes

The Center for Puppetry Arts – Hey, I’ve got a whole post about this one! One of my favorite places to go in Atlanta. Center hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9am-3pm; Saturday, 9am-5pm; and Sunday, 11am-5pm. Extended hours during evening shows. Closed on major holidays. Around $10 – $15 per person.

skeksis from "The Dark Crystal" on display at the Center for Puppetry Arts

Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum - Think Stanford’s Cantor museum, only way smaller. The Carlos calls itself “one of the Southeast’s premier ancient art museums with major collections of art objects from ancient Egypt, Nubia, Near East, Greece, Rome, ancient Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present.” Current exhibitions include “Embodied Seeing: Modernist Works on Paper“, and “‘For I am the Black Jaguar’: Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art“. They also have great lectures. Hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sunday 12 noon – 5 p.m. Closed on Mondays and university holidays. Admission is a bargain: $8 for adults and $6 for students, seniors and children. You can rent an audio tour device for $2.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History - Contains permanent and visiting collections. “Giants of the Mesozoic, on display in the atrium of Fernbank Museum, features a 123-foot (37 m) long Argentinosaurus (the largest dinosaur ever classified) as well as a Giganotosaurus. The permanent exhibition, A Walk Through Time in Georgia, tells the twofold story of Georgia’s natural history and the development of the planet.” (Sorry, I got lazy – thanks Wikipedia) There’s also an interactive section on the top floor and an IMAX theatre. Exhibits range from the ethereal – Mythic Creatures, which Nate and I enjoyed last year – to the everyday – upcoming “The Scoop on Poop” focuses on digestion. Monday – Saturday 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday Noon to 5 pm Adults are $17.50, kids are $15.50.

The High Museum of Art – yup, covered this one, too. “It’s the leading art museum in the SE US and is one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, it’s a division of the Woodruff Arts Center. The High holds more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection, including 19th and 20th century American art; European art; decorating arts; modern and contemporary art, and photography.” There’s also a special emphasis placed on supporting and collecting works by Southern self-taught artists, such as Howard Finster of Paradise Gardens. (Thanks, Wikipedia.) Didja know that when I was a little girl I tumbled through the original Paradise Gardens and sat on Finster’s knee? Sure did! My parents were big fans, and I grew up not too far from the site.

If you can make it out on a Thursday, tickets are half-price from 4-8pm. Otherwise, adults are $18 and kids are $11. Hours are 10am – 5pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10am – 8pm Thursday; 12pm – 5pm Sunday. Closed on Monday.

Living Walls Conference - from the website: “Living Walls, The City Speaks, is an annual conference on street art and urbanism that began in August 2010 in Atlanta. The Conference set out to highlight a number of problems facing the city – not just showcasing art, but building a platform for much-needed dialogue in the city. The idea behind Living Walls is to put the work of a very small subset of the population (street artists, graffiti writers, etc), people who actually interact with space, and people who spend their time in discourse about public space all under the same roof. Our intentions are simply to broadcast to the attendees a wide spectrum of ideas about public space, hoping that everyone leaves the event looking at the city, its walls, and how we interact with space differently.” See the amazing inaugural year murals here. And 2011 here.

Living Walls does an annual conference, lectures, workshops, and gallery exhibitions. Make a “Living Walls” day by taking your bike and public transit around to as many places of the map as possible. Note that due to the living nature of this work some might not be there. But my favorite, by Swampy, (seen above) still stands proud on Dekalb. You can get maps on the website or by googling.

Oakland Cemetery – Atlanta’s oldest cemetery, it started out as six acres but is now 48. A wonderful walk with rolling hills and so much to see. “Notable residents” include Carrie Steele Logan, Margaret Mitchell, Maynard Jackson, Ivan Allen Jr., and Bobby Jones. It’s also right across from Ria’s Bluebird, which is totally where you should have breakfast or lunch before your stroll through the cemetery. Admission is free but the visitor’s center is open 9 – 4 weekdays, 9 – 8 weekends.

a view of one small part of the giant graveyard

Psst: don’t forget to go to Ria’s Bluebird! Open every day, 8am – 3pm! Lookit these tasty options:

I’ve had the bionic breakfast and the veggie philly wrap. Both were absurdly good. I also had a bite of the southwest scramble, which is definitely the best in the city!

Young Blood Gallery and Boutique – when Isa and John came to down last winter, I advised them to visit two places: Sevananda and Young Blood. And they loved both! John got junk foods at Sevananda, and they bought a buncha cool stuff at Young Blood. Young Blood is a store of well-curated indie crafts with a gallery in the back. The shows I’ve been to have all been great. Excellent place to get birthday and holiday cards and presents. 636 N Highland Ave. Atlanta, GA 30306 Sun-Thurs: 12-8 | Fri-Sat: 12-9 And once you’re in the neighborhood, you can walk about thirty feet and have a meal at Soul Vegetarian II. Yeah, buddy!

Y’all: there are tons of other fun things to do in Atlanta, but these are just some of the biggies. Maybe I’ll make a follow-up post (or two, or three) sometime later. But this should get you started. Enjoy!

One way I thought I could make the enterprise harder was to do a liquids fast. Perhaps you’ve heard of juice fasting? I don’t have a juicer (and I like fiber), so I was content to make my liquid meals (smoothies) in a blender. Smoothies aren’t as nutritionally potent as green juices (juicing requires way more produce), but they were, in general, flavorful and filling. As I mentioned in the last post, I used Ani Phyo recipes.

I’ve already covered the first day. By Friday eve I decided to do the liquids fast as long as it felt good, up to 3 days. Since I still felt good Saturday morning, I decided to continue. The weather was perfect, so Nate and I biked to the post office in EAV. I had a long phone conversation with my oldest friend. I continued to (surprisingly!) enjoy my fast foods – the strawberry shake and ginger soup were great. My neighbor came over to say thank you for the lillies I had left in her door, and we talked for a while. I put on a pretty dress, did something sweet with my hair, and took off for favorite used bookstores with Nate.

The only hard part of Saturday was going to bed hungry. It wasn’t fun. It felt uncomfortable. I had to calm my mind and myself. But I was able to do so and fell asleep without too much delay.

Sunday I woke up early, easily, and naturally. I felt good. I went to quaker Meeting and sat peacefully for 30+ minutes, praying, sending good energy, whatever you want to call it. (How about this? In an interdependent, relational world, goodness works with what is to bring it to what it can be. Meditative prayer changes what is and therefore changes what can be.) I caught up with some old friends and had another tasty raw soup for lunch. Nate and I took another bike ride, only this time we went 4.4 miles (compared to yesterday’s 2.4). I had to walk a couple hills, but sometimes that’s just what ya gotta do!

freedom! Nate over 20.

The ride felt amazing. The sun was nice and the air was tinted with the fragrance of honeysuckle, blackberry flowers, magnolia and gardenia. (Heads-up, urban foragers: there’s lotsa blackberry fruiting, some even ripening already!) Zooming down neighborhood streets, I felt like I was back in Palo Alto with Nate and Benji. It didn’t hurt the mood to run into this friend:

Giant cactus!

happy little bee.

Catching up with The New Yorker late afternoon, I started to feel a sense that the fast was over. It was a peacefulness, a recognition. I just knew. I got up, started chopping an onion, a bell pepper, and pre-heating my pot. I wasn’t driven by excitement or hurried to shovel the first bit in my mouth. Like everything else these past few days, it was just gentle, easy, and calm. A giant bowl of all the vegetables chili with amaranth, quinoa, brown rice, and yellow lentils felt great.

No recipe for this one: just everything in the pot, seasoned with toasted cumin, coriander, cayenne, chipotle, turmeric, paprika, lime juice and salt. The cashew crema on top was a treat!

Moving forward, I am going to stick with smoothies daily because they provide a quick and easy form of high-quality nutrition. I might even do a raw soup or two! I’m happy to be adding salads, soups, and other basic whole foods meals back, if for no other reason than to give myself options at mealtime. Huzzah!

In general I found it easy to do things – easy to do my chores, easy to think kind thoughts, easy on myself. When nice things happened, I was particularly aware of and grateful for their specialness; when dumb things happened, it was easy to let go of them immediately.

I was also generally productive. I went to the gym and exercised for 35 minutes. I wrote a long blog post about the first 3 days of this experiment. I worked on our bi-weekly budget and prepared all the bills for mailing. In the evening, my beloved bestie Jina came over with her dear one Neil. It was my first time meeting him and I was so excited! They travelled all the way from Michigan and were here less than a week. That they made time on their last day – for a couple hours of conversation and tea – meant a lot to me!

The recipes were decent. I had two tasty recipes, one okay recipe, and one that was not my favorite. The menu:

• pretty decent: blackberry blast: frozen blackberries, soaked almonds, coconut oil, cinnamon, ice, filtered water, matcha powder, 1/2 tsp moringa powder, and stevia
• tasty: pineapple-green: frozen pineapple, kale, 2 tsp fresh ginger, water, pinch of cayenne, scant 1/8 tsp turmeric, a big fat strawberry, 1 tbsp flaxmeal and stevia
• ugh: raw bok choi “soup”: one whole head of baby bok choi, cleaned, leaves separated from stalks (to blend at separate times); half a cucumber, 1/2 an avocado, tsp fresh ginger, fresh lemon juice, lotsa barley miso, couple pinches cayenne, scant 1/8 tsp turmeric, 2 cups of water (too much)
• (a late afternoon Vega shake to squelch sweet cravings)
• tasty!: “tomato bisque”: whole tomato, half avocado, 1/2 tsp granulated garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, a cup of water; topped with tablespoon of nutritional yeast and several cracks of black pepper (Ed. note: how the hell was this so delicious?!)

All of these recipes are from Ani Phyo’s new book, each with several minor modifications. I was excited to get this one for her recipes – it’s packed with ‘em. (I also enjoy her Raw Food Essentials.) It might seem weird to use cookbooks to do what is basically chopping fruits, nuts, and vegetables and combining them in interesting ways. Doesn’t that seem so basic, even mindless? But raw food eating as a category is so alien (and often unattractive) to me that I just like the crutch of a well-tested recipe from someone used to pleasing skeptics. Kinda like how I lead new vegans to my style with a familiar favorite – like ooey baked mac & cheese – rather than something Super-Vegan. Sprout salad w/ miso-tahini sauce, while freakin’ awesome, tends to scare.

Further, since Ani’s trained to regard meal preparation so differently – raw is basically an elimination diet, where the tool eliminated is heat – she helps me see familiar recipes in new ways. Her “Raw-violi” made with mandolined raw beets and sandwiched with nut cheese is far from tender, yielding (scrumptious) traditional ravioli, but it’s really tasty… and importantly, I can’t say I would have come up with that one on my own!

Of course, yesterday wasn’t all smiles. The only tough part was my late afternoon slump when I craved sugar/sweet and all I had was a dumb glass of bok choi and cucumber to comfort. I took to gchat to complain to Nate and my bestie Jacquie, confessing that I might just finish the day and be done with it. My major complaint at the time was that I was sick of thinking about it so much. Now I think I was just tired and suffering sugar cravings, for when I “broke down” and made my usual Vega shake with stevia, I felt fine/normal again. Jina and Neil came over, we gossiped for hours, I made my tomato soup around 9, and went to bed at a decent hour.

And today? I woke up feeling great. It’s 1:03pm and I’ve had two smoothies and a bike ride. The most important thing I’ve learned about the liquids challenge so far is that it’s my choice. I’m glad I did it for a day, but I’m free to stop at any time. Yeah!

I woke up Tuesday with a lot of bright, happy energy. After some strawberries I went outside to water my plants and check on my seedlings. The basil and cilantro seedlings were doing just fine, so I went to unlatch my two hanging baskets from their hooks. Not paying them any mind, I set them down and went inside for a pitcher of water. Imagine my surprise when I came back to notice a tidy little robin’s nest and three perfect blue eggs! Worried that mama wouldn’t come back after I jostled her nest, I hurriedly put it back in place. Such relief when I saw her fly back a few minutes later!

Not our nest – I didn’t dare take a chance removing the basket again, not even for a photo. But this looks very much like it! Photo courtesy http://www.thevintagemoth.blogspot.com/

I quickly journalled the following late Tuesday: “How do I feel? In a word, natural. I feel balanced, even. Default mood, happy. Nothing has made me feel hopeless, overly sad, or irrationally angry. I got hungry once, in the afternoon, and sated myself with a shake. I thought about food most of the day because it was my first day and I was forced to think about it. But I was productive and thought about a lot of other stuff, too.”

With a smile, I noted that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I actually felt sleepy around 9pm and was fast asleep by 11pm. What a relief to my sweet Nate, who’s always ready to pass out well before I am!

Wednesday was special because I felt awesome all day, very aware of myself and my surroundings. Friends Elizabeth and Nova came over for dinner that night, so I gave our meal extra consideration. I didn’t want to force my monthly choice to be super-healthy on them, but I did want to find something nutritious and delicious. Flipping through Ruth Tal’s cookbook reFresh – one I was given for Christmas by Nate’s mom Jo – I landed on a recipe for a basic bowl of marinated tofu over greens with a warm peanut sauce.

I love playing host!

simple entree: (all organic) spinach with brown rice, tofu, peanut sauce, fresh tomato, cucumber, bell peppers

I had to play around with the peanut sauce to get it just right, but it’s a decent recipe. In the future, I’ll tone down the acid and replace the lemon juice with lime. I also liked it more with a little bit of sweetener. I guess the original recipe uses peanut butter with sugar in it, but I was using freshly-ground peanut butter from the farmer’s market. I ended up adding a little agave nectar and stevia to balance the flavor.

As a side note, I totally had an “oh, crap, this has sugar!” moment while making the sauce. I used up all the  farmer’s market peanut butter, tasted it, and thought it wanted thickening. So I pulled out my jar of organic peanut butter from Whole Foods and plopped a big ol’ spoonful into the pot. Then, of course, I licked the spoon. (Who wouldn’t?) Relishing the deliciousness, I idly checked the label. SUGAR! I felt like Luke’s grandma from “The Witches” when she eats what she thinks is a cucumber sandwich – and it’s actually fish paste! *cue whiny Luke* “Graaaaandmaaa, sugar can kill you!”

Well, sugar won’t kill me, but I did feel kinda stupid. And there wasn’t even a Grand High Witch hanging around to throw the game.

Joshua Ploeg's curried bananas

I also made Joshua Ploeg’s curried bananas, a recipe from his cookbook “So Raw It’s Downright Filthy”. I had this dish at the Dinner and Bikes event mentioned in my recent giant picture post.

Sugar reared its sweet head once more in the form of a scrumptious vegan rum cake with pecans offered by Elizabeth and Nova. I used up one of my three cheats and had a moderate piece. Holy hell did it taste great going down, but good lord did I feel horrible after I ate it. It was the weirdest thing: my nose and face got all stuffy and congested, as though I’d just been coughed on by a sick person! I spent the next couple hours blowing my nose and just feeling icky. I drank a lot of water to help it move through my system faster and by the morning I felt fine. Very strange.

My basic understanding of sugar’s metabolic impact – and my ability to google – led me to this: the white sugar was immediately interpreted as a toxin, which got my body’s defenses up and at ‘em with a quickness. Poor me. It sure was tasty.

Thursday was another good day. Nate worked from home so we had a great lunch together, partially of leftovers from the night before.

A little while later we biked to the East Atlanta Farmer’s Market, mentioned in my last post.

hooray for bikes!

Possibly the most exciting thing that happened at the Market was that I resisted vegan doughnuts. ANYONE who knows me knows that vegan doughnuts are my most favorite treat in the world. I have even been known to take vegan roadtrips in search of vegan doughnuts! That I turned them down is quite the feat.

Later that night I had a great time with three of my best girlfriends at our bi-weekly dinner co-op. (We’re usually a bigger group, but three others skipped us for an art opening. /gentlejab :)) Elizabeth prepared a vegan fajita filling with all the veggies: fresh squash, zucchini, onion, corn, and beans. I brought brown rice to keep my gluten-free promise and ladelled a pleasant amount of salsa over the mixture. Delish!

As usual, I was very excited to see Ping, a long-haired tortie cat who I call “Furry-Worry” because of her constant natural worried look. Can you see it?!

Furry Worry’s glamour shot.

(Just one reason) Elizabeth is special is because she is a certified wildlife rehabilitator who specialises in raccoons! She and her husband built a giant raccoon habitat in their backyard for young adults. They stay there til they’re ready to be released at a raccoon-friendly spot. She keeps younger (or ill) raccoons on the back porch or inside her house so that she can keep a closer eye on them. I was lucky to get to meet a lil fella last night!

Tails from the Hart is a one-woman awesome operation. Go to http://www.tailsfromthehart.com/ to learn more and donate!

I’m glad Jacquie and I carpooled because after dinner we got to have a long talk about how much we adore each other. You could say it was just narcissism, since we have so much in common. :) But honestly, as there’s no negative side effect to affirming someone you love, we should all probably do it more often. Til tomorrow, friends!

Today I want to share a bit about what’s motivating me. I’m not going to cover each point in too much detail because I want to leave room for future posts on the same topics. I’ve given my reasoning a lot of thought already and will continue to do so. Think of this as the Cliff’s Notes.

First, the number one, gigantic, super-important NOT:

I’m not doing this because I hate my size, think it needs to change, and have become convinced that going raw for 31 days (or any period of time) will make me slender. In fact, I find myself most attractive at my current weight. I’ve survived fat diets and eating disorders, body dysmorphia and heart-breaking body-esteem. I might be dealing with other issues right now, but loathing my body – thankfully – is absolutely not one of them.

In fact, as you’ll come to see, working towards self-appreciation is a big reason I am doing this.

It’s important for me to get this out of the way because I live among 1) a world of women who constantly think there’s something wrong with their weight and 2) people who are addicted to quick fixes. Some folks are starting to see raw, whole foods, partial raw, and even vegan diets as quick fixes towards weight loss. There are far too many vegan wannabes out there who don’t give two flips ethical values-based veganism – they just wanna be skinny bitches. That’s not my hope for this challenge (or anything else). Two of my resources are “diet” books, but that’s because they’re full of good lifestyle information and accessible recipes.

I didn’t weigh myself on day one and I’m not gonna do it on day 31. So there. :)

Silly as it sounds, I want a challenge. I want to shake things up a bit. I want a fun reason to get back to blogging regularly.

It’s already hot in Georgia. The other day it was near 90, and today it was solidly in the 80s. I get warm surprisingly easily and raw foods are physically cooling.

I live less than half a mile from a bountiful open air farmer’s market. I’d love to plan my weekly meals around their offerings, just as I did last season with the meal delivery.

EAV!

market fungus

I want to become more mindful of what I feed myself. I’ve been cooking from-scratch for so many years now that I really take a lot of what I do as a vegan for granted. I’ve become so familiar with recipes, techniques, “weird” vegan ingredients, grocery stores and label reading that I can basically forget I’m vegan. Plus, I’m a skilled enough cook that I can veganise pretty much anything but angel food cake. It doesn’t feel special. I don’t feel special. And I’ve lost touch with “transitioning” folks. An elimination diet will make me more aware of the challenges and pitfalls so that I can be a better cheerleader to those who are trying.

I’m addicted to sugar. No, seriously, I am. When I look back at my three-month food log and see that almost every day I had a chocolate bar, bonbon, cookie, or the like, I have to admit it’s an issue. But sadly, I’ve been in denial for a while. Under the guise of “being nice to myself”, I’ve been eating bonbons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sweetness has lost its treatness because I let myself have it whenever I want – particularly when I need a “boost”. If there’s one thing this challenge gives me, I hope it’s respite from my favorite poison.

The most important reason I’m doing this, and one I want to explore in a future post, is this:

I’m doing this because it makes me think about the way I care for myself. For far too long I’ve been willing to put myself behind anyone else in my life – my sweetheart, my cats, my mom, my best friends, even near- strangers. If there’s one thing that’ll bring a tear to my eye with a quickness, it’s thinking about how dang willing I am to put myself last. I’ve totally ignored Ru’s most important dictum: ”If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”

Going partially raw for a month means I have to put myself at the center. It insists that I take time chopping vegetables for myself, planning meals for myself, and looking out for myself. My brain finds the idea of doing something for myself – and even beyond, accepting and loving myself as I am – foreign. But perhaps brain will catch up as body daily incarnates self-love through practice. That’s the hope, anyway.

More thoughts another day – let me know if you have others to add!

Hello friends! If you saw yesterday’s post, you know that May is a special month for me. From the 1 – 31^st, I will be challenging myself to stick to a mostly raw diet. I’m doing this with the help of three particular books: Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr, Thrive by Brendan Braizer, and Ani’s 15 Day Fat Blast by Ani Phyo.

Carr, Braizer, and Phyo have a lot in common: they emphasize fresh, gently prepared foods, supplementing with superfoods like maca, spirulina, and matcha, and cutting out animal products entirely. I’m already vegan and will be picking and choosing from the three in terms of what I’ll minimize and eliminate.

mostly raw, with some cooked food

 mostly gluten-free, but not entirely

 refined sugar-free

mostly raw, with some cooked food: I’m not cutting out insanely healthy, filling cooked foods like beans and rice. I’ll emphasize raw salads and smoothies, but I won’t eat them exclusively. Typically this will mean a raw breakfast and lunch and a partially cooked dinner with raw components. Some call this 80/20 raw/cooked, but realistically, it’ll probably look a bit more like 70/30 most days.

almost gluten free, but not quite: Wheat pasta? No. Wheat cookies, cakes, bagels, wraps, bread? No. Seitan? Nope. Condiments? Probably. If something like soy-sauce (I use the organic, natural stuff) has a little bit of wheat in it, I’m not going to sweat it. I’m just trying to cut out the big guys – and not because I’m allergic to gluten or think gluten is bad. Honestly, I just want more of a challenge!

refined sugar-free: I won’t choose anything made with refined sugar. I will pick recipes to make that do not include sugar, or if I must use a sweetener to balance flavors, I’ll use a drop of agave. I’m not eliminating maple syrup because I think maple syrup’s bad (or choosing agave because I think it’s healthy); instead, I’m not using it because I like it too much, and I don’t like agave very much at all. By cutting out my favorite, I’ll be less tempted by recipes that emphasize a sweet component. Besides, I already use a ton of stevia to get my sweet fix – and that’s not changing.

fat-free: I’ll be eating lots of whole nuts, avocados, and nut butter. All of these are full of the healthy fats that can actually stimulate metabolism (if that’s what you’re going for). Far from fat free.

oil-free: I will use oil sparingly and when necessary, much as I usually do.

totally raw: again, cooked staples like beans and rice will be necessary and daily companions.

soy-free: this is not a soy-free diet. The only thing I’m eliminating is my usual sweetened soymilk because I’m substituting it for unsweetened almond milk (often homemade). I’ll still be having plenty of tamari, tempeh, tofu, and miso, my favorite.

perfect: Though I’ll strive to, I won’t be able to follow this plan 100% of the time. I’m allowing myself three cheats – three times when I’ll pick something off the plan. I’m not giving myself cheats because I want gluten/sugar/whatever badly, but because I’ll need to be flexible and hospitable to others in certain situations. For instance, bi-weekly dinner co-op is this Thursday. My wonderful friends already accommodate my ethical veganism, which makes me deeply happy because it shows respect for a way of living deeply rooted in personal theology, environmentalism, social justice, compassion, and commitment to living lightly on the earth. I’m not, however, going to ask them or anyone else to accommodate my arbitrary one-month restrictive diet. That’s just silly. :)

***

Tomorrow I’ll say more about my motivations and particular challenges. Anyone who knows how much I love sugar, sweets, cakes, and snacks has to be wondering why I’d take this up. Promise I’ll cover it all tomorrow. :) But for now, please know that I don’t feel deprived in the slightest. Yep, I get hungry – and sure, preparing meals this way is taking a bit of getting used to. But – at least so far – I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. After all, last night for dinner I had this:

Black beans slow-cooked with all the vegetables over brown rice, topped with homemade raw cashew cheese cream…

…and today for lunch I gobbled this:

…piles of spinach with cubed marinated tofu, peanut-lime dressing, shaved carrots, sweet bell peppers, smoky raw cashews, and a dollop of homemade raw cashew cheese.

Right now I feel light, clear-headed, happy, and cool as a cucumber (literally – I think all the raw & liquids have already lowered my body temp slightly). I hope it stays this way. I’m under no illusions that May will be easy – it’s too big of a change to be easy. But I’ll do my best to keep it positive.

Let me know if you have any questions/worries/concerns that I might address in tomorrow’s post. Looking forward to it!

None of my typical snacks, no refined sugar, and a focus on fresh fresh fresh. For those of you who know me well: brown rice at dinner must stick out like a sore thumb. (I haven’t had it since I got violently ill with food poisoning in 2008.) Volume of food aside, it might even look a little light.

The reason? I’m going mostly raw in May!

It’s an arbitrary challenge that I’m excited to be setting for myself. I’ll share my reasoning tomorrow, promise. But for now, know that I’m healthy, happy, and looking forward to a really different way of eating for the next 30 days.

/ one down, thirty to go. More soon!

April just turned out to be so busy. It’s like everyone decided to come out of hibernation and do all of the things at once. Like, travel. Nate spent two weekends away from me (Arizona, NYC) and then we both went to TN & MS for a wedding. Saturday we travelled to Chattanooga with the lovely Jacquie for an afternoon at Sluggo’s. It’s been fun, it’s been active, but I still regret my absence here.

Often when I’ve been away for a while and have a lot to catch up on I like to do a picture post and kinda cover it all at once. It’s a lot, but by the last picture you’re completely updated on my recent goings-on. For besties/super fans only? Nah. Too many good cat pictures and food pr0n to miss out. Let’s do this.

Alright ma. Show me watcha got.

Click more… (below) to keep reading

The yummiest thing I ate in April: seitan pot roast with local organic veggies. My own recipe, I made it for our March monthly anniversary (we still celebrate every monthly 30th). It’s so good.

Meanwhile: Perl.

Nate kicked off April fool’s day by leaving for Scottsdale, Arizona at 8:30am. He was there through Wednesday for JSConf. I asked him to take pictures of cacti for me because one of my favorite parts of travelling is seeing native flora. Plus, cacti are awesome.

Not so sure about this one.

View outside the hotel.

I occupied myself caring for Siggy and Maddy, Jacquie & Syl’s little babies. Siggy above, Maddy below. Love em.

The more cats the better. Here, Unix meets her first monarch:

“Herro.”

*reach*

*bonk* can’t… get… flutter thing…

Another delicious April dish: tempeh red curry with all the local organic veggies. The secret was caramelizing the red onions with a buncha sugar at the start.

Easter at my Aunt Mary’s house in Cartersville. I provided the bbq tofu slabs, new vegan Laurel (my cousin! my beautiful wonderful cousin!) offered up pasta salad. The food was great, but I love any opportunity to hide plastic eggs for kiddos.

When Nate got back from JSConf he took me to Blossom Tree, a Korean taco place across from Georgia State University that I’ve been wanting to try for a while. The tacos did not disappoint!

Best part was the free iced genmai cha. I had about twelve cups.

Post-Easter I was mostly preoccupied with helping a cat at the Cobb County (kill) animal shelter get adopted. Miss Sammy Joe, pictured below, stole my heart. She was dumped at the shelter after her owner passed away. In addition to soliciting donations from cat lovers on facebook, I had a bake sale.

Bake sale at Nate’s work:

Between the donations received through facebook and the bake sale, we raised enough to adopt Sammy Joe!

Sweetest girl.

She now lives with Laurel and John and their two kids in Cartersville! The elder son is just absolutely in love with Sammy Joe, as she is with him. Shelter pals are the best!

Good deeds done, I took myself out to lunch with a new old friend from Meeting.

We talked Quaker gossip and life plans and just generally became acquainted with the awesomeness that is one another over a vegetarian lunch. I had the Veggie Philly Wrap made vegan. It was super!

Too bad I couldn’t get a decent picture.

Sadly, just a week after Phoenix, Nate packed his bags for a late flight to NYC. But first, dinner at his favorite BBQ place, Burnt Fork in Decatur:

Mural on the side of the building. Story: “Burnt Fork BBQ is the namesake of Burnt Fork Creek,which supplied the city of Decatur with water from the early 20th century through World War II. The creek originates near Tucker and flows for six miles until it reaches the South Fork of Peachtree Creek. The confluence of the two creeks is just downstream from the stone bridge depicted in our logo, a relic of the Old Decatur Waterworks located near Toco Hills in Mason Mill Park. The mural on the side of our building, painted by Lisa Kemp, portrays the bridge surrounded by some of the native plants and animals that reside in or along the creek.”

So there you have it. Nothing to do with charred utensils.

I love getting to see vegan co-owner Cara, the wonderful woman who makes the following happen:

Local organic french fries, local organic kale topped with pecans, chewy gooey spicy savory yummy BBQ tofu.

Nate made it safely! I was so worried.

When he sent me this picture, worry turned to jealousy.

But I had my own fun, taking the opportunity to visit my momma up in the country. Here’s a view of her recently-installed raised bed gardens. The field in the distance is part of the property I grew up on.

Delicious garden. Several types of lettuce, collards, spinach, cilantro, and carrots peeking up.

A new friend! Have I ever told you the story of Adrienne and the Fuzzy Caterpillars? When I was a kid I had to walk about a half mile home from the bus stop every day, since the bus didn’t come down our narrow, windy, ultra-rural route. One day I was walking home by myself and saw this exodus of fuzzy caterpillars crawling from one side of the road to the other. It was a wondrous sight – hundreds of fuzzy caterpillars following each other. Now, our road didn’t get a lot of traffic, but I sure feared for those caterpillars. I spent the next couple of hours carefully picking up caterpillars and taking them to the other side of the road. I didn’t leave til every caterpillar had safely crossed. Who knows what became of them? My mom was just happy to finally have me home.

Some of mom’s spinach.

I welcomed Nate back to the glorious south with a vegan twist on a traditional supper. Butterbeans, cheesy grits, and mom’s butter lettuce topped with Georgia pecans and shaved Dr. Cow nut cheese. Oh, and don’t forget the iced oolong to drink.

I also surprised him with two new booster packs of Magic cards. Yep, Magic cards. The game your little brother played in middle school. Turns out, Magic’s pretty fun. Nate taught me how to play a few years ago and while I don’t play with the new cards, I enjoy a game every once in a while. I’ve even beaten him!

Well wouldja look at that. One of his little booster packs held a $20-something valued card. Some kind of vampire or something? All I know is that Nate was beyond thrilled.

At some point I made this veggie shrimp (using vegetable-based fake shrimp, not actual real was-once-alive shrimp, because if you eat shrimp you’re not vegetarian, let alone vegan /clarification) curry thing. It was okay. Nate really liked it. I found the veggie shrimp to be a bit too “real”.

But, listen. You could have given me your portion.

I would have eaten it right up.

Fine, then.

April 24th was my dear sweet friend Jenny’s birthday, so I sent her a box of extracts to help with her side baking business. Extracts are necessary but can be expensive, I love giving practical gifts, so why not send extracts? Yay! She loved them.

My goodness was rewarded with a box of kyotofu mini vegan chocolate brownies. Sweet packaging.

I did days’ worth of spring cleaning, which inspired Nate to finally get his office/studio (AKA our guestroom) in order. It’s nice to have a place to play music.

The third weekend of April was earmarked long ago for my cousin Jackson’s wedding in Mississippi. My aunt had trouble getting a vegan option from the caterer and asked if I wouldn’t mind bringing food for us + 1 other guest to the rehearsal dinner. No biggie. My food is outstanding.

Perl worries over our trip with her new friend Platty. Don’t worry, Miss Perl. Miss Jacquie will be taking care of you and your wicked sister while we’re gone. (And what an incredible job she did, too! I came back to beautifully groomed, well-adjusted girls. But that’s getting ahead of myself a bit…)

We kicked off the Mississippi wedding trip with Nate’s first visit to Ria’s Bluebird. He got the scrambled tofu pictured above while I went for the Bionic breakfast below.

***

Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful

Welcome to Mississippi, Birthplace of America’s Music

At the hotel pre-rehearsal dinner. Nate’s not sure about this suit situation.

Rehearsal dinner! I made the stroganoff and the roasted vegetables. The caterers provided a dry baked potato and a decent marinated salad. I doused the dry potato in cashew dressing I had brought for salad.

A terrible shot of my lovely Aunt (mother of the groom) making a toast, but what can ya do?

The lovebirds.

Mama and me at the fancy rehearsal dinner

Wedding day: reception location. The DeSoto Arts Council – Banks House Gallery.

I enjoyed the room with bird wallpaper.

Pleased with Nate for capturing this pretty, if blurry, picture of Jackson and Leesa Marie cutting the cake.

Me, the monkey in the middle. I was asked the assist with the cake cutting. If you squint you can see the little braid I put in my hair just for the occasion.

Wedding obligations met, we took off 25 miles north to Memphis for dinner at Imagine Vegan Cafe, Memphis’ first and only vegan restaurant.

The view outside. Neat record store next door.

The view inside. Homey, friendly, fun.

Dinner: bbq sandwich, beans, fries.

CAKE!!!!!!! We didn’t get any wedding cake so we actually started out meal with this big hunk’a frosted love. Mmm hmm.

Sated, we headed home to Magnolia Grove, our accommodations for the second night of the trip.

Magnolia Grove is beautiful inside and out. I’ve stayed at bed and breakfasts before, but never a historic home like this one.

Our room. I think we got the bridal suite? Lots of nuptial imagery. The best part was the door, pictured above, that opened out onto a private second floor porch. I spent Sunday morning there drinking earl grey and journalling about the weekend. There was a fair bit to process. It was divine.

Another view of our room.

After check-out we headed back to Imagine for special Sunday brunch. Because the owners are awesome, they celebrated Earth Day (that day) with Buy One Get One Free French Toast! We kicked off the meal with soysages in blankets.

Nate: “I was never much of a french toast fan, but this stuff is phenomenal.”

I was really into “The Memphis Slam”, two biscuits split and covered with soysage, brown gravy, tofu scramble, and homemade white cheese sauce.

The amazing Imagine Vegan team. Left to right: Kimberly (co-owner Kristie’s sister), Savannah, Kristie (co-owner, mama), a little one (Sierra?), Adam (co-owner, dad), Madalynn. They have another kiddo, too, not pictured. With plenty of space, a full kids’ menu, crayons, coloring books, and even a kids’ area, Imagine is super family friendly. The decor is warm and unpretentious. Anyone would feel welcome there. I honestly can’t say enough nice things about these gentle, generous, talented people if I tried. Such sweethearts, such talent, such devotion to their family and community. So proud to know them!

Home from travelling, I purposely made quick, fast-foody type meals to help wean us off of restaurant food (fatty, salty, sugary) and back onto my home cookin’. Tacos are delicious but I never made them. (I think I made them maybe twice in 2011, and this was the first time in 2012.) With a fridge full of Portland-based Heidi Ho hazelnut cheese I went to town on toppings.

Welcome back.

One day last week Nate called me from the bus to excitedly ask me out to a “black gay drag musical about the LA ballroom scene” – Leave It On the Floor - that was closing at the Plaza. Would I miss out? No way.

Plaza lobby.

Plaza schedule.

Creepin’ on the popcorn man.

The Plaza is owned by vegans, so of course there’s nutritional yeast at the topping station.

The sad part of last week was taking Perl to the vet and dropping her off for a urine sample. It was hard being without her for most of a day. (Update: she’s okay.)

We consoled ourselves with veganised chick’n biscuits, Nate’s first.

Friday I volunteered at the Atlanta stop for the Dinner & Bikes tour with feminist bike blogger Elly Blue, her partner Joe Biel (founder/director of Microcosm Publishing), and the travelling chef himself Joshua Ploeg.

I helped unload, set up, and folded a lot of t-shirts.

I was rewarded with a plate of Joshua’s unforgettable grub.

The master surveys his work.

Insightful slideshow. Learned a lot. Recommended. Bought all the zines.

Backing up a bit, before I volunteered at Dinner and Bikes I made a bunch more cookie sandwiches for two benefits: the Plaza and the Atlanta Vegan Bake Sale 2012 to raise funds for Atlanta’s first Veg Fest. I hope they all sold.

Plaza poster.

Bake sale friends.

Saturday Jacquie, Nate and I travelled north to Chattanooga with the express purpose of dining at Sluggo’s, the best vegan restaurant in the southeast. I finally met the owner, who was pleased as punch to have us. He and the rest of the team took really good care of us – it was all even better than I remembered. Above, the wings. Reigning champ, best vegan wings in the US, beating out Chicago Diner and many others.

Sorry for the smeared pictures. I got grease on my hands, I guess, and then the lens, and hence. Above and below, my pecan dusted seitan plate.

This dish comes closest to memories of mom’s porkchops from childhood. I’m pretty sure they pound the hell out of the seitan before dredging it and frying it, just like she did. Cruelty-free and ultra delicious.

Jacquie’s mega noms sandwich. She was able to eat most of half of it.

Aah. back in atlanta. The May calendar suggests similar activity, so I’d better get some rest. See ya on May Day!

The chili that’s familiar to me is a heresy to some, I’m sure. I don’t start with whole dried peppers that are toasted, soaked, and pulverized. Since I make chili so rarely, I use a combination of good-quality preground chili powder and an on-the-fly spice mixture. I use tomatoes. I am a vegan. I add spinach. I eat it with a Chinese soup spoon. There are lots of ways my chili is “wrong” from the start, but for those looking for a decent idea of how to make something tasty in a pot, here’s my method.

• Always start with a fried onion. Everything tastes better with a fried onion. Cut it however you like (today I did small, slender pieces), and saute it in a tablespoon of oil.
• Once it has softened, add some chopped bell peppers. Add freshly minced garlic. Let cook and soften.
• Add rehydrated TVP or seitan to the frying onion-pepper-garlic mixture. Today I used Upton’s Naturals seitan because it was quick and I was already hungry. Several of my friends like to use the Boca brand frozen crumbles from the supermarket. Boca crumbles are vegan, but Morningstar Farms brand is not vegan. (Almost every MF product contains milk and eggs.)
• Make a spice blend and add it to the pot. Today I used approximately 1.5 tbsp chili powder, a teaspoon of dried organic oregano, a half teaspoon of chipotle powder, a teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, several crunches of black pepper.
• Allow the spice blend to toast and become aromatic in the pot, stirring almost constantly, about 1min.
• Add 28 ounces of chopped organic tomatoes, or a bowl of several fresh tomatoes, cored and chopped; add 1 teaspoon brown sugar. Add 1.5 cups of hot vegetable broth mixed with several tablespoons of organic tomato paste. **If you think the chili is going to be thin by the addition of all the vegetable broth, just add it slowly, stirring, til it looks the right consistency. Remember, tomatoes will break down as they cook. Chili should be stewy, not watery/thin.**
• Stir well. Grab a bag of spinach from the fridge. Dump pretty much the whole bag on top of the stewy mix. The volume will be impressive and perhaps disconcerting at first, but spinach shrinks. Put the lid on the pot so it can steam the spinach. Steam a couple minutes, then take off the lid and stir the spinach into the mixture. It will continue to shrink. Your chili will not be leafy. The spinach will become succulent and full of saucy chiliness.
• Add three cups of cooked and rinsed beans, whatever variety. Today I used great northern and black beans. Incorporate well. Taste and see if it needs more of anything. If it does, add it. If it doesn’t, don’t. Today, my chili needed more onion and garlic, so I just added several teaspoons granulated of each.
• Allow the chili to simmer for a while so that the flavors can meld. Chili is great because the flavor will become richer and more complex as it sits.
• Chop up about a half cup cilantro (if you’re not averse) and incorporate well. Massage, cut, and squeeze half of one lime over the pot. Sit well. Serve soon and save the leftovers for later or a friend.

Chili!

I’m not in the habit of ending posts with questions, but I really wanna know – what does chili mean to you? Were you raised in a cultural context that viewed chili as a “this, not that” kinda thing? Is there another “recipe” that’s so free-form that you’ve never had to write anything down? It’d be nice to read your comments. :)

But reading the menu, it might not be immediately clear where your choices are. That’s because instead of just subbing tofu for the meat like a lot of places do, Across the Street veganises three separate meaty-meat tacos with three different vegan proteins: tofu, tempeh, and TVP. The Chipotle Shrimp Tacos becomes the Chipotle Tempeh with mango salsa; the marinated steak or chicken, TVP, and “The Best Fish Tacos”, vegan cornmeal-battered-and-fried tofu.

beans, rice, tempeh taco, fried tofu taco

It’s likely that you can veganise other menu options, like the enchiladas or chimichangas, by simply holding the dairy products. But that’s not something I’ve tried yet, because the tacos are so dang scrumptious. Chips and salsa come free with the meal. If you don’t go on Wednesdays, order a taco plate with rice and beans. They’re not just filler sides – they actually taste great. If the weather’s nice, sit on the charming patio overlooking the Freedom Park trail. It’s a good way to dog watch.

Words of caution: if you check Across the Street out on Yelp, you’ll notice that they have a boatload of bad reviews. Almost all of these reviews have to do with slow service rather than food, ambiance, or value. I think I’ve been to ATS two or three times, and the first time it was absolutely splendid. Tasty food, comfortable atmosphere, great prices, and best of all, attentive, quick service. The second time we went on a Wednesday taco night and they were swamped (there was also a giant party taking up almost all of the main dining room), so I understood the slower service. I am not planning on avoiding ATS because of service because I haven’t had bad service yet. But if you tend to get impatient easily (or are planning on going very hungry) just go at non-peak hours – aka, early or late lunch or dinner. HOURS: Tue-Thu 11 am – 10 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am – 11 pm, Sun 10 am – 10 pm, CLOSED MONDAYS.

Also, I don’t really drink, so I can’t speak to the cocktails/margaritas. If you’re into that, check the Yelp.

Across the Street is located at 668 Highland Avenue, Atlanta GA 30312. Park on the bridge overlooking or wherever you can find a spot, but not in the Highland Bakery’s lot. (404) 781- 0931. WEBSITE