A memorial

It's Veterans day, when people honor the dead and living who fought (or who are fighting) in the war. However, I would like to honor another, who did not die in battle. She fought her own silent war, as a victim of disease. I would like to honor and memorialize the passing of Pepper Junior, PJ for short- a rat with spunk, spark, silliness, and spirit.

Last year, I had been web surfing on Petfinder, a site for shelters to post adoptable animals, when I saw that there was a litter of baby rats at an animal rescue center a few hours away. At this time I was still in public school, so the day after school ended, we hopped in the car and picked up our friends Vi and PJ on June 14th, 2008. Vi was the spunkiest one in the cage, but PJ was the one set apart from the others. She huddled in the corner of the tank, and did not want to have anything to do with the other rats. My heart reached out to her, and we took Vi and PJ home. The little rats were only two months old, and still in awe of the world.

Once they were home, we promptly took them camping. Our family had never taken rats on camping trips, but it proved to be exciting for them. Once last summer, they camped for two weeks straight, when my mother had a forest service job, and my sister and I traveled with her to a small (and boring) town. Mom would drive two hours to tromp around the woods identifying plants for the service, and my sister and I would hang around the camp site and town. When the rats were let out each night, they loved nothing more that to jump off our heads onto hanging fabric and screen windows in the tent. Other shorter camping trips that same summer were just as fun for the girls.

PJ, who had originally been super shy, came out of her shell one day and became the leader of the two rodents. Vi, who had previously been top rat, was booted down a social level as PJ took command. She was always so athletic, and excited to do anything. The two girls were hilarious. hopping around their play areas. They especially liked the Christmas tree when it arrived that winter, climbing it and seeing the house in a whole new light. PJ enjoyed skittering down the branches, and going back up to hop on our shoulders and get carried somewhere else that was fun.

Beautiful, athletic PJ, Christmas 2008


Vi and PJ, enjoying their 2008 Christmas present- decorated rat sized ginger cookies. (top- PJ, bottom- Vi)

Spring and summer passed, and PJ was still in top form. She liked to crawl onto the floor and chase passing bunnies, and was always fascinated with the degus. Until early October. We began to notice a bulge at her stomach, but dismissed it as some excess fat. But she became less active, just eating and walking around a bit. It was hard for her to do exercise. She became obsessed with staring at the degus, and would do nothing else. It continued to get worse and worse, until finally, Friday November 6th, we took her to the vet. She could hardly get her feet to move her body because her tummy was so swollen. Her breathing was labored, and she was in obvious pain. After taking an x-ray and an ultrasound, the vet diagnosed uterine cancer. Without our knowing, cancer had sneaked into her body, entwining it's merciless fingers around her organs, and pushing on her spine and lungs. The veterinarian took PJ to surgery. But although we hoped for her to come home safely, the cancer was so severe and far gone, she had to be euthanize in her sleep. We received the call on the afternoon of Friday, November 6th, 2009.

PJ, 2 weeks prior to her passing

The whole family is so glad for the time we spent with PJ, but to me, death at one and a half years old still seems so young, even for a rat. Vi will hopefully be okay without the company of her sibling. We are spending lots of time with her.

PJ was such a beautiful rat, and a wonderful friend. I'll never forget her.

Branch, anyone?

The summer months, having rushed out to be replaced by an instantly chilly autumn, has seemed to sadden the rabbits in our household even more than it saddens me. With piles upon piles of plain parsley topped with carrot chunks, and a couple other miscellaneous things, the past couple weeks has shown little variation for the rabbit's breakfasts and dinners, which ordinarily include things like freshly picked dandelion greens, clover, and other free goodies of nature. By comparisons, the food options have recently been very limited. I don't wish to tell them that it will be the same for the months to come. The family is anticipating high costs this winter just to meet the rabbits palate needs, let alone our own herbivorous ones.

A house rabbits diet should mainly consist of hay and lots of vegetables and leafy greens, as well as fruit. Pellets, supposedly, too. We started making our own mix with vitamin powders after hearing a shocking story from our friends at River's Wish Animal Sanctuary, in Spokane, WA about a bunny who died of a pellet plug-up in his system. Ever seen a pellet expand in water? Well, imagine what unlimited pellets can do in a bunny tummy. After hearing that story, we stopped giving our three young rabbits (they about 8 months old now) unlimited commercial pellets, and made our own mix, which we currently dish out about a 1/4 cup morning and evening to for them share.

But though store bought produce goodies will be rare, my mother has found some bunny snacks on her morning walks. Such as a thin apple tree branch! Just as horses, rabbits would naturally eat bark, branches, tree buds, etc.- certainly in the winter days, I would imagine, when food is scarce. Whatever the case, all three rabbits munched on the sticks until they were gone, it seems it's time to restock already. Another interesting thing- the degus like the branches as well! Today, I thought you might enjoy meeting the three little musketeers. (All these pictures were taken in late August, 2009, in the outside pen my mom and I set up)

Nancy, who plows ahead with life with no regard for her personal safety. She is quite the personality!

Sweet little Lizzie!

Shy Smidge, who is famous for his high and twisting jumps around the living room.

Ahhhh...... life is good. With lots of tree branches.

(By the way, for those who are wondering, all three rabbits are mini-Rex siblings who were rescued from a breeder who shows rabbits, and then sells them to be turned into dog food. Luckily, these bunnies were rescued by River's Wish Animal Sanctuary, and found a loving life-long home with us)

Bananas for Bread

Get it? After having the inclination to make a banana baked good, I quickly found out that banana bread traditionally contains sugar, butter, eggs, and wheat flour- everything I work to exclude from my baking! Well, after a few different loafs, I came out with this baby. Made without the nuts that had previously been in it, using almost black bananas, as well as a couple dry ingredient tweaks, this mildly sweet bread is great with breakfast or just as a snack.



The millet flour, which gives an almost earthy aftertaste, could most likely be omitted and replaced with brown rice flour, however, I like the millet flour- it gives the taste of whole food goodness- reflecting the healthfulness of this delicious baked bread.

Banana Bread
gluten-free, vegan, soy-free, sugar-free, fat-free

1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. millet flour
3/4 teaspoon stevia powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon apple cider vineger
4 over-ripe bananas, medium-sized

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease a bread loaf pan.
Sift together the rice flour, millet flour, stevia, baking powder, and salt. Peel the bananas into a separate bowl, and mix and mash them until there are no lumps left. blend in the cider vinegar. Add the wet mixture to the dry blend and mix until just combined. Transfer the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. This takes about an hour to bake in my oven, but, like I've said before, our ancient oven isn't good at holding heat and several other things could be wrong as well. I wouldn't be able to tell. So- just trust the toothpick. This is great hot or cold, however it's easier to slice when cooled. But who cares, right?

Makes one loaf of bread

Printable Recipe

Happy Halloween!

Well, you or your kids have probably already finished trick-or-treating, but I'm still up and felt compelled to say........Happy Halloween!

I have a couple cool things coming soon. I'm so excited to share this- I will soon put up a vanilla cupcake recipe, that is GF, vegan, low-fat, and sugar free. I just have to do a couple tweaks, and it will be perfect. Unfortunately I can't do this for a week or so, because the five gallon bucket of agave nectar we ordered (we are bulk kind of people) wont arrive until Thursday-ish. However the original "prototype" cupcakes were not tasted by just me, but by the whole family- decked out in Hannah's Monster (green) Frosting, and set with a vegan marshmallow tombstone ghost thingy. Oh- and a mint sprig that somehow survived the cold outside.


Second order of business- though not in time for Halloween, I will soon disclose an Almond Bliss Bar recipe. I wanted an original name so that the Almond Joy won't sue me or something. Almond Joy's encompass three of my favorite things- chocolate, coconut, and almonds. mmmmmm..

Happy Halloween (again),
VEGirl

Simple peanut butter cookies

These peanut butter cookies are gluten-free, vegan, soy-free, sugar-free, low-fat and fantatic tasting, if I do say so myself. They aren't technically fat-free, since the peanut butter is, well, nuts. But the oils and fat in peanut butter are very nutritious.

SIMPLE gluten-free, vegan,
soy-free, sugar-free, low-fat,
fantastic peanut butter cookies

1 c. sorghum flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. agave nectar
1/2 c. water

1/4 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Grease 2 cookie sheets and pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Sift the sorghum flour and salt together into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the peanut butter, agave nectar, and water together until smooth. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine thoroughly. Add chocolate chips if desired.

Take your prepared cookie sheets, and drop the dough onto them by the spoonful, spaced evenly. Press down each cookie with a wet fork. (Note: you don't need much space between the cookies, since they won't spread)

Slide the cookies into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Check them after 10 minutes, since our dinky old oven from prehistoric times doesn't hold heat well, so it takes way longer to bake in our oven than it would in a newer one. You know they are done when they are firm to the touch. Serve hot or cooled.

Makes about 32 cookies

Enjoy your cookies,
VEGirl

Printable recipe

Pumpkin and spice makes everything nice!

I am very excited to share this recipe with you, the first on this blog. I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, with Thanksgiving a month away, but I couldn't wait any longer to experiment with some pie pumpkin. I hope you enjoy these muffins, I sure did! By the way- they are great with a cold glass of almond milk. mmmmm...... :)
Note: the recipe is still in the proportions that I originally made it in, which makes 7 muffins. Double it for more muffins, I think you could squeeze all the dough into 12 tins.

Gluten-free Vegan Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. millet flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon stevia powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered orange peel
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt*
2 cloves
1 all spice
1/4 c. molasses
1 c. uncooked pie pumpkin, cut into small chunks
1/4 c. raisins (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease your muffin tins.

Put the pie pumpkin chunks in a small pot with 1/2 inch of water, and steam it on medium heat for fifteen minutes, or until soft. While that is cooking, sift together millet flour, rice flour, baking soda, stevia, cinnamon, ginger, and salt into a medium sized bowl. With a mortar and pestle, grind the all spice and clove, and add it to your dry mix. You may be able to use a spice grinder.

When the pumpkin is finished cooking, drain as much excess water as you can, then dump it into a small bowl and thoroughly mash it up. Add the molasses and mix well.

Add the wet to the dry and mix well, but don't over stir! Put in the raisins if desired. Divide the batter into your muffin tins. These proportions make 7 (on the small side) muffins, but if you double the recipe, you could probably squeeze it all into 12 small muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes. Cooling them is optional.

Enjoy,
VEGirl

* I thought I detected a little too much salt when I used this amount, but my family didn't notice, so you make the call. If you generally don't like too much salt, use a bit less than 1/8 teaspoon.

Printable recipe

Two dreams in one post

I hope that you are not sick of product reviews and me raving about GF vegan snacks and sweets. Are you? Well, I'm going to tell you about two GF vegan dreams in one post. What a (sweet) treat.

Dream #1:

A literal dream, made by one of my favorite companies- Taste The Dream. They manufacture my favorite rice and soy ice cream, a wide variety of non-dairy milks, and as I recently found out.... chocolate. Now, I have a special spot in me for chocolate. I love darker percent chocolates (85%-mmmmm...) and mixing chocolate with other similar flavors (chocolate and strawberries.... chocolate and almonds.... chocolate and garbage.... anything goes with chocolate) and when I was strolling up and down the candy isle at my local Co-op, I found my dream chocolate. I immediately bought it and the second I was strapped in the passenger seat, I shared a piece with everyone.

Heavenly. As my mother said- it taste like milk chocolate- only healthier. The second a bit of this chocolate pops into your mouth, smooth and pleasant flavor rolls in and coats your tongue, meanwhile turning on every happy button in your body. Taste The Dream chocolate comes in many flavors, including Rice Crunch, Raspberry, Almond, Pure Dark, and Creamy Sweet. Looking for a "milk" chocolate? This is your golden ticket.

Dream #2:



Marshmallows. It may seem like a vegan oxymoron, but the Chicago SoyDairy Dandies air-puffed marshmallow tastes exactly like marshmallows as I remember them. I wish I could tell you more, but they just taste like delicious marshmallows! Apparently they also melt for rice crispy treats and s'mores. I can't wait to try!

Happy sweet-snacking,
VEGirl

5 ways to slash your plastic waste

#1 Okay, this is a no-brainer. You should already be doing this, yet I see so many people carry 50 plastic grocery bags every day. So- number 1: use reusable bags. For any situation. There are a few options for this:
(a) Use plastic or paper bags that you used on a previous shopping trip. The only flaw I see in this is the concern that the bags would rip on the third or fourth use.....
(b) Some chain supermarkets have reusable bags for sale in their stores, the thing is, a lot of them are made of plastic material. Go figure. Well, you can sometimes find old, yet functional, bags at thrift stores. Go hunting around, you'll be surprised at what you find!
(c) Or... (drum roll please)... buy a bag made of a bio-degradable material, such as cotton. Then, after you have gotten your use out of them, they will biodegrade, which is doubly good for the earth! Try purchasing your bag from Reusable Bags.

#2 Buy (and eat) little to no processed and packaged crap. Don't act so shocked, we all know it's crap. More commonly known as junk food, but crap, nevertheless. Apart from improving your health, junk food is packaged in so much plastic I feel like I'll explode. This is not to say that you can't have the occasional treat, but if you avoid the junk and focus on whole foods for the foundation of your diet, you and Mother Earth will fare better.

#3 Buy and USE a stainless steel water bottle. This will hopefully prevent you from buying those little plastic bottle of water. I know there tempting, so quick and cold, but resist it, you'll get into the habit of having your trusty stainless steel bottle around. You can buy lots of different sizes, and different tops, too! Buy your bottle from Klean Kanteen, or from a local store, where they are cropping up at a great speed! If you buy from a store or supermarket, just be sure that the one you choose is completely stainless steal (except for the top of course), because some companies are trying to line them with plastic. Kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think? Anywho, check out Klean Kanteen for information and a huge display of bottles.

#4 Use tins and reusable containers, NOT PLASTIC ZIPLOC BAGS, to store food. Instead, use a bowl with a plate on top. So what if you have to wash it afterward? And besides, if you have a washing machine, you can clean it in there. Although, washing dishes by hand (which my family does) uses less energy. Plastic bags, after they're used, will ordinarily throw them away or, as my family did for years, wash them to use again. However, when you throw plastic ziploc bags in the trash, they clog up landfills, and when you wash them, they release harmful chemicals. Icky! So, QUITE USIN' 'EM! Use:
(a) A bowl with a lid on top.
(b) If you need to keep something in an airtight container, use a metal tin. I don't think you're
supposed to put them in the fridge for fear of rusting, but I would double check that. So
anyway- you can store bread, cookies (mmmm.....), or other such things in a metal tin. You
can commonly buy these cheaply at thrift stores (saving plastic and reusing. Bonus!)

When you need to take a lunch or snacks to a destination:
(a) Use a metal tin
(b) If you must, use a reusable plastic container (though metal is better)
(c) I have seen specially designed stainless steel lunch containers at health food stores, though I
do not have one, I'm sure they're handy.
(d) Use bio-degradable waxed paper bags for snacks (they are also good for dog poop bags, but that's another story)
(e) And of course, take water in a stainless steel bottle!

#5 You know those rolls of plastic bags in the grocery stores for carrying fruits, vegetables, and other bulk items? Well, give 'em up. Buy loose fruits and vegetables, and use cloth, old plastic bags, or paper bags for bulk items such as nuts, grains, and flour. It's that simple! In fact, it is very useful to have a shopping bag filled with reusable bags and sacks for groceries, as well as glass bottles and jars for buying bulk liquids.

More to follow.....
VEGirl

Update

Will you forgive me?

Hey everyone-

Just wanted to let you know.... I am still getting used to this whole blogging thing. So I, uh, a little while ago I sort of accidentally disabled the commenting option for you readers. But don't fear! I just fixed it! Now you can leave your comments!

Also, I haven't posted anything interesting (at least I think so) in a while. This is pretty much due the fact that in the past two and a half weeks I a have been sick. Twice. first with a mild flu, a week or more feeling better, then the one I got Saturday, which we think was swine flu. But I'm taking my last day "off" today, feeling almost normal, just to be safe, then back to busy life tomorrow.

And lastly, some good gluten-free vegan, mostly sugar-free and low-fat baked good recipes are coming your way. I'm on the brink with a couple, so stay tuned.

Thanks for understanding-
VEGirl

Nana's Nummy Cookies

Imagine a cookie- that is vegan, free of both wheat and gluten, contained only natural fruit sweeteners, no GMO foods (genetically modifies organisms) and also was dense, moist, and mouthwatering-ly delicious. Well, wake up, 'cause now it's a reality.



I cannot say enough about Nana's gluten free cookies, made by Nana's cookie company. Not all their products are gluten-free, but every baked good is vegan, GMO free, and contains no refined sugars. And they taste
DELICIOUS.
HEAVENLY.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

Yeah, I think you get it now. I have tried both the chocolate crunch and lemon cookies (because that was the gluten free ones that were available at my Co-op), but there are others, like ginger and plain chocolate, plus cookies bars and cookie bites. The chocolate crunch cookie had a wonderful cocoa flavor, that wasn't clouded by sugar, and then a nice little crunch from the puffed rice in it. The lemon is absolutely fantastic, with a tangy lemon scent and flavor, but not overly sweet. That is another great thing about them, you aren't left with that horrible taste in your mouth, that refined sugar gives you.

The cookies come individually wrapped in plastic, and are a bit spendy, so I don't get them often, just as an occasional treat. We used them for our Easter basket this past Easter.

I encourage you to try them, they are so yummy. They will give you a brand new view on healthy gluten-free vegan treats.

Happy munching,

VEGirl