Pizza is no longer a threat!

Costco pizza is one of my weaknesses.  Any pizza probably is.  However, the smell and sauce from Costco pizza can send my eating goals into a tizzy.  And it HAS too many times to count.  But not tonight.  And hopefully not ever again.

Tonight was my son's 17th birthday celebration.  He chose Costco pizza (and I had a few Freschetta's in the oven).  Somehow I started re-evaluating my raw eating when I started seeing that melting cheese and could smell it baking in the oven.  And when we opened the Costco pizza box, I wondered how much my eating goals meant to me.

juice photo by brianc

Usually, I'd evaluate and re-evaluate, battling within.  But tonight, I decided to be proactive.  I decided to juice.  While the aromas were filling the air and a few guests had still not arrived, I decided to prep my apples, cucumber, lemon, celery and greens.  Then into the chute they went and out came my heavenly juice.

I was instantly satisfied and didn't visit the need to eat any pizza again -- not even when I cleaned it up!  Amazing!

Three cheers for juicing!

Homemade Pumpkin Smash -- Jamba Juice style!

 

I've tweaked a few Jamba Juice recipes that I found on-line for Pumpkin Smash and came up with a few that my kids and I love!  I want to work with it a bit more to see if I can take out the soy creamy, but for now, this is where it stands.  We've made it two ways and both are yummy.  I tend to make it with the peaches to give me more nutrients and to save a few calories.  I'll give you both recipes since I add a bit of soy milk to the peach recipe to keep the creaminess in.  The full-fledged soy ice cream way is super creamy, though and quite wonderful.

Pumpkin Smash Smoothie

2 c. vanilla soy ice cream **
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1 c. vanilla soy milk
2 T. agave or 3 T. real maple syrup
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
2 c. ice

Blend it all up in your blender on high until smooth.   Divide amongst 2 tall glasses and savor.  Ahhh!

Pumpkin Smash Smoothie w/peaches

1 c. vanilla soy ice cream **
1 c. frozen peaches
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1 1/4 c. vanilla soy milk
2 T. agave or 3 T. real maple syrup
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
2 c. ice

** I use Soy Creamy from Trader Joe's.  It's about 1/2 the cost of any other soy ice cream and is really tasty.  The only other brands of soy ice cream that I like are So Delicious and Purely Decadent.  Don't confuse So Delicious with SOY Delicious.  The latter is nasty tasting stuff!

Healthy Desserts Galore!

Yes, you CAN have your chocolate chip cookie dough and eat it too!  Even mint chocolate chip ice cream!  If you haven't notice this deliciously adorable blog on my list of favorite blogs (way down low on the right), I need to draw your attention to it.  Even if you never make anything from the recipes (and I hope you do), the photos are stunningly tasty to the eyes and her personality is adorable and fun.  

The blog used to be called Chocolate Covered Katie (which shows her zaniness right there), but somewhere along the line, she changed it to Chocolate Covered Healthy, which gives you more of an idea of what you'll find.  Katie makes up recipes without dairy and healthier versions of pretty much everything.  She started out making her fudge babies and Lara Bar alternatives (since they are so expensive to buy) and is quite talented at figuring out just the right way to make everything taste wonderful.  As she says on her "About Me" page:

What will you find on this website?
Naughty treats that have been given a healthy spanking! My aim isn’t for people to say, “This is good… for a healthy dessert.” I want them to say, “This is good. Period.”

That's kind of how I never wanted people to say I looked good for just having a baby after I had each of my children.  I wanted to look good even for NOT just having had a baby.  :)  She does tell you which of her recipes are great for taking to parties (like this chocolate raspberry fudge cake!), where people won't even suspect they are healthy versions (which is so interesting to me.  I've always thought people would WANT the healthier version or to know that little tidbit, but it tends to scare them away!)  

Mmm!  Look at this one.  Homemade Fudgsicles!  I want to make those tomorrow.  I even have a coconut waiting to be cracked open!

So go enjoy Katie's website and sign up for her e-mails.  She'll send you new recipes practically every day. 

P.S. (Katie gives permission in her FAQ to post her photos in your blog, as long as you give her credit.  So Katie, the credit goes to you at chocolatecoveredkatie.com !)

Wheat Recipes -- Peanut Butter Cookies -- Non-Dairy, Non-Hydrogenated, Unrefined

A few months ago, I promised a good friend of mine (Hi Chris!) that I'd give him my Peanut Butter cookie recipe, made with fresh ground whole wheat flour, unrefined sugar and non-dairy, non-hydrogenated butter. They're super hearty and very tasty! I'm finally getting to writing up the recipe and thought I'd share it with you too. One of my sons says that they taste like you're eating grass (I first thought he said they tasted like "rats" and was offended, but once he clarified, I figured grass wasn't half as bad as rats). He does eat them, though, and the rest of my family loves them (and so does Chris :)). They're a little more dense and crunchy than regular peanut butter cookies and they taste pretty wonderful, especially right out of the oven. (Well, actually, they're pretty good the next day too).

Basically, I sub wheat flour for white, unrefined sugar (evaporated cane juice and/or sucanat) for the white and brown sugar, and Earth Balance buttery spread for real butter or margarine (so as to avoid the dairy and the hydrogenated fat). It's what I do for most of my favorite cookie recipes and they turn out great.



Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (or 2 Earth Balance butter sticks)
1 cup Peanut Butter (I use Costco's organic or Marantha)
1 c. evaporated cane juice (can be found in bulk in most health food stores -- sometimes they'll let you buy it by the huge bag and get a 10% discount)
1 c. sucanat (also in bulk food section of the health food store or in little pkgs. -- the pkgs. get pricey though. If either are very expensive, I just use 2 c. of the other sugar)
2 eggs
1 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

Mix butters and sugars together first. Add in eggs, then the 3 small ingredients. Gradually add the wheat flour until blended well.

Form balls (or use a cookie scoop like Pampered Chef makes ) and place onto cookie sheet or baking stone. Press a criss cross with a fork to flatten out a bit. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Try not to eat too many!

Dairy products make me sick!

There, I said it. I'm not one to make firm stands about food in public. But I have to say right now that dairy products make me sick! When I talk to friends or family, I'll answer questions about how I eat and will explain the benefits for myself or my children. I'll even tout the writings of Dr. Fuhrman or tell about raw foodists. But I'm careful about making blanket statements about food. Call me a coward, (okay, please don't :)), but there are so many theories about food and so many bodies that react in different ways (even my own changes from time to time) that I step lightly around the subject and try to avoid confrontation.

Maybe it's because I remember how little I enjoyed hearing people say things like "Milk is for baby cows" (or calves) when I couldn't imagine ever living without cold milk in my cereal, ice cream late at night (or on Fridays after school, or for every birthday or celebration imaginable, or in the summertime when it's hot, or when I was stressed and just wanted that calm feeling of ice cream going down my throat, or . . . I'm sure I could come up with more), and heaven knows I found a thousand uses for cheese. I dressed up any dish with cheese to cover the fact that I didn't know a thing about flavoring anything. I made statements at different points of my life like, "I could eat at Taco Bell every day for lunch and be happy" or "If I could get away with eating pizza every night, I would." When I was a senior in college (and overweight), I used to come home every day from class and make tortilla pizzas while watching Brady Bunch reruns. I was quite content. Once I learned how to make omelettes with cottage cheese or mozarella, I couldn't stop. They were just fabulous.

So I wasn't quick to want to give up dairy and thought those who did were pretty "out there." If someone had a legitimate allergy, I'm sure I could support that. Ooooh, how big of me!

I already wrote a post about going off of dairy, but I just have to add today on the first day of September that I can no longer have some dairy here and there if I please in August like I have the past few years. I found that since allergy season went from March through July and started up again in September, that I was pretty safe having a slice of pizza or an ice cream cone on vacation if I really wanted to in August. It wasn't always as wonderful as I'd remembered, but I think I did it out of curiosity or just to eat it "while I could" since I knew it would cause such problems in the other months. I did have an ice cream cone a few weeks ago and felt like someone had painted my insides with thick cream. This was not a good feeling. I felt so coated inside. It was awful and I couldn't finish my cone. I didn't have a problem with the pizza though. In fact, I probably had it 3x this past month. That's probably what kept me from sticking with my raw goals I kept setting. (You think?)

I knew I was treading on slippery grounds, playing with fire, or whatever cliche' I can come up with because last September I got really severe asthma. It was about the worst it's ever been. I knew the climate would change, new things would bloom, and I'd be risking it again if I didn't stop and get my body strong. In fact, besides a few times with allergies, I haven't been sick since last September.

Alas, school started last week. My youngest son had his very first day of school EVER and came down with a fever/cold/asthma illness that night. He was sick all week. I dabbled in dairy a few times for whatever reason and by Wednesday, I was sick too. Painful sore throat for a few days, achiness for another, thought I was coming out of it and decided to eat some Annie’s cheddar bunnies since it was still August and I’d probably be fine. What? So that night, I felt chills, got the full stuffy nose and everything else that comes with that typical cold you get in the winter time. I was in bed all day Saturday, sleeping for hours and hours at a time. I was in bed ½ of yesterday and feel much better today. I’m sure my raw eating for the past few days helped.

What have I learned from this? I don’t need to dabble in dairy anymore. It’s not like I love it that much anymore anyway. Even if I did, what good does it do me? I went a whole year with tending to my children’s illnesses without getting sick myself. I know my body is stronger when I stay away from dairy and eat a high raw diet. Yes, pizza is wonderful, but I can make pizza w/o cheese and white flour and enjoy that too. It may seem like it takes extra effort, but so does nursing an illness for almost a week. I’m grateful it didn’t go on any longer.

So blah, blah, blah – thanks for listening to my tale about getting sick. No one likes to hear about anyone else getting sick. But I just had to talk about it while the passion was still in me. Dairy really does make a difference in my immune system. I’ve heard that children on chemotherapy aren’t supposed to have dairy either because it lowers their immune system. Maybe it’s taxing on most bodies who aren’t baby cows. Try living without it and see if it makes a difference in your life. Mexican food really CAN taste just fine without the cheese and sour cream. That’s one thing I’ve managed to not miss anymore. I’m even fine without cheesecake on my birthday anymore. In a world with so many people having to do without, it’s amazing that I’ve even thought it would be a hardship to live without something like this.

What is it the raw foodists say? Something like “Nothing tastes as good as feeling healthy feels.” So true.

An Abundance of Allergies

I've had allergies about as far back as I can remember, well at least as far back as 2nd grade. I remember having the skin on my eye lids flake. I wasn't sure why this would happen. I went to the doctor and he told me it might help not to use finger nail polish or anything with perfume in it. That didn't last long, but it's still a distinct memory. I also remember having watery/itchy eyes and sneezing a lot. I have a class picture of everyone smiling happily into the sunlight. I'm smiling too, but my eyes are as red as can be and I look like it's painful for me to face the sun. I remember that paradox of loving the feeling of the sunshine, but rejecting the pain it was causing my eyes to feel that bright light.

So many of the allergy medications that are over the counter now were my prescriptions growing up - - Actifed, Dimetapp, Benedryl, Sudafed, Afrin nose drops. I can't remember the name of the eye drops I took, but they were in a dark bottle with a dropper and felt WONDERFUL to take.

I remember how groggy I felt when I was on antihistimines, but taking them was a way of life during the spring. When I was 28 years old, I recall listening to the radio and hearing about a new antihistimine that would be released that year called Loratadine, which did not cause drowsiness. That sounded like heaven to me (and was later known under it's brand name, Claritin). I was sad to find out that Claritin wasn't quite tough enough to really make an impact on my allergies, but it was a start.

Later a doctor told me I could take a nasal steroid inhaler much like an asthma inhaler to help my allergies. I took it for a few years and it was helpful. But since it was a steroid and took a few weeks to get into my system to be effective and had to be maintained, it was hard to determine if I still needed it a month or two later. If the allergens were gone and I was still taking it needlessly, I couldn't tell. If I stopped taking it to test it out, and found I still had allergies, it would take another 2 weeks for it to start working again. It wasn't until I heard a report that repeated use of this drug could cause holes in the nasal membrane that I decided to quit using it.

I took my share of asthma medications too. I never had asthma as a child, but developed it when I was in high school. It was mostly allergy induced and we lived amongst grassy fields. Sometimes my mom would drive me into town during the night when I wasn't breathing well and would have me spend the night at my grandma's house. The change in environment would make a difference. Oft times I'd drive home from high school and as soon as I'd get to the "valley" where it was more rural, my air paths would close up. So I took albuterol, steroids, Theodur pills, and drank a lot of ice water trying to sooth my air paths.

This went on throughout my life, except for my college years. I wasn't allergic to Utah. My body seemed to like the desert, even though my heart missed the ocean, the redwood trees and the green lush terrain. I did develop some eczema the last year there though that continued bothering me for another 20 years.

In 1994, we moved to our current spot on the earth where it's misty and green almost year round. It's beautiful and the air is clean and crisp, but we have an allergy season that's not just 3 months out of the year -- it's more like 9 months with a few minor breaks. This was incredibly taxing on my body for several years. There were times when I was pregnant that I wasn't advised to take antihistimines the first few months. I tried herbs, which offered limited relief. I suffered night after night . Nights are always the worst -- for allergies and asthma. I don't know how many times I've gone into the doctor to get help for my asthma and they listen to me breathe and tell me I sound pretty good. I think "You should have seen me last night!"

I could tell you story after story of the severity of it all -- of doctors saying I shouldn't let it get so bad, that it can be life threatening, where I've wondered how I could get my next breath - -or of doctors telling me that the levels of medication I was taking could be eating away at my bone marrow and causing other problems I didn't really want to face. I could tell you about the needle pokes in my arms to determine my allergies and allergy shots for over 3 years. That did nothing but give me swollen shoulder muscles as hard as a golf ball. I remember trying to play my piano lesson with ice on my arm it would burned so bad. Later in life, people told me that allergy shots had improved. Some said nothing had changed -- they worked for some, not for others.

I came to the point of questioning. Did I want to live the rest of my life this way? Did I want to move my family, who seem to love living here? -- (and if so, where? I did internet searches and conducted forum polls on where to live allergy free - - we looked into Utah again, but their air quality has gone downhill since I've lived there and I didn't know what that might do to my asthma since the smog gave me problems while living in L.A.) What if there was some national crisis or even local one and I wasn't able to get any medication for a month or more? Would I be able to function? Would I be able to care for my family? Why would God send us to live dependent upon man-made medication? It just didn't make sense to me.

I decided to see what I could do from the inside out. I decided to experiment with giving up Dairy. I loved milk, ice cream, and cheese, but was willing to give it up if it meant I could live without all the suffering throughout the year. It made a huge difference. Sometimes I'd question if just a little dairy (piece of pizza, just one ice cream cone) would bother me and within the hour, I'd be sneezing, itching, and having throbbing in my nasal cavities. Once I had these symptoms from driving home from Costco with a pizza in the car. Maybe it wasn't the case, but I was convinced that inhaling that fabulous smell for that 1/2 hour caused me problems.

As time passed, going without dairy was helpful, but didn't rid me of my allergies and asthma completely. So I looked into eating raw foods and taking bee pollen. Both were miraculous. I'm not always 100% with raw foods, so the bee pollen is a great supplement to keep me strong and defensive against the allergens. Once I went camping and the bee pollen (which needs to be refrigerated and was in the cooler) became wet and was ruined. So I didn't get to take it on the last day. I was okay because we were about 3 hours from home. But as soon as we drove back into our valley, my asthma acted up and my eyes started itching. I took some bee pollen that night and the next morning. By the next day, my asthma and allergies were gone again.

I'll have to write a whole post about bee pollen. (Edited to add -- I have -- here's the link for my bee pollen post). It's a wonder food and is interesting to learn about. I wondered if I could just go scrape it off of our car windows and eat that instead, but I'm sure there's dust and who knows what else on that - -I'll just go with what I find at the health food store.

One final story -- When I was expecting my last baby, I went through that first trimester w/o antihistimines, having a horrible time with allergies. We'd planned a month-long car trip to the midwest from the California coast. It took me 3 days of driving (or hitting the Wyoming desert) before I could breathe clearly and felt healthy and human again. I enjoyed the rest of our trip - - driving through 9 states and feeling wonderful. As we drove down the mountain towards our home, my ears, eyes, and nose started itching. My nose started to run. My eyes watered. And I realized, I've been all across the country and I'm allergic to where I live! But I've since learned that I can live anywhere I want and be allergy and asthma free. And I don't need to be on ANY medication -- preventative steroids that damage my body or rescue inhalers, antihistimines or herbs. Sure, it might seem like it's not as fun to not eat like I used to eat, but was it any fun to live with allergies my whole life? Not really. This is so much better. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I now have about nutrition and truly feeding my body to be strong. And I seek strength daily so I can bend my will to the truths that I now understand.

Protein on a Plant-based diet?

"How on earth are you eating enough protein just eating raw foods?" Okay, maybe people don't say "how on earth" but that's the look in their eyes when they ask about protein in raw food. Most vegans and raw foodists say they hear this repeatedly. I do too. (But the question comes from people of all sizes -- not just like little comic down below -- it is pretty funny that people often ask nutritional concern questions while eating something really unhealthy :)).
Back to the question about protein, it makes sense that people are wondering because we've been told all our lives that you can only get your protein from dairy and meat (and maybe grains and vegetables IF they're combined properly to get the right balance of amino acids). Well, like all other nutritional information "out there" that comes and goes -- this too should go!

I have to write a disclaimer for myself that I am no scientist and even though I got A's in Science in High School and maybe some form of a B in my college science classes, I don't retain information well for repeating. It sinks into my knowledge bank well enough for me to assimilate it into practice, but I'm a pretty poor person to spew back the details. My husband is amazingly good at it. He can read an article 3 years ago and know the dates, statistics, and general message. I can barely recall the general message, but have changed my life in some small bit as a result of it (and will mess up the numbers like crazy -- Was it 10 million or 10 thousand? Something like that anyway). So keep that in mind as I write what I've learned about Protein. I will give links to articles so you can find out the details for yourself.

I took a class a few summers ago at the Vibrant Living (Raw Food) Expo (at the Living Light Culinary Institute ). One class was completely devoted to this topic, "Where do you get your protein?" by Dr. Rick Dina. He told the history of protein requirements (what's it called on the cereal box nutritional information -- recommended daily requirements?) -- how rats were tested to determine the amount of protein required for humans (who incidently are different from rats in how they eat and what they require -- would have been better to test monkeys or some other animal with more of a genetic make-up like ours). This study was done over 50 years ago and they actually took the result and doubled it to make sure we weren't deficient.

Then somewhere along the line, the theory (yes, the THEORY) came out about proteins in plant foods being sufficient IF they were combined properly. This was widely taught in 1971 in a book called "Diet for a Small Planet." The author later came out with the newer studies that most plant foods (a few exceptions with some fruits) contain all the essential amino acids and that humans are virtually certain of getting enough protein from plant sources if they consume enough calories. But no one seemed to take note of it. I remember my mom telling me about it in the late 70's which was likely years after the new studies were performed.

So the newest studies have shown that protein in any form -- plant or animal is useful to our bodies. There studies show that the only deficiencies may come if you consume a diet solely based on fruit consumption. There are some lower protein foods that may only have some of the required amino acids, our bodies have the other amino acids sloughed from previous digestive processes (don't ask me to explain that one!) to complete the digestion properly. (I can't remember if our bodies produce the acids or if it comes from enzymes or what -- I'll research it and see what I can find).

You've probably heard "the proof is in the pudding." Dr. Dina showed some slides of accomplished athletes and body builders who are either raw foodists or vegans to show that yes, even those who don't eat meat or dairy can build muscle, have the strength and endurance to compete and achieve amazing feats. One who was familiar to me was Carl Lewis -- multiple gold medalist track star. He says that his best year of track competition was when he started eating a vegan diet. Here's the article . I could write all the info on how much protein is in what plant food and how you really don't need as much as you've heard your whole life, etc., but just seeing this photo of Carl Lewis and knowing he can achieve world records while eating this way is plenty proof that it's adequate.

In case you do want some statistics though, here's an article with some good information on protein in a plant foods, as well as the difference in digestability of plant proteins vs. animal protein. When you get your protein from plants, it digests much more fully and you get a much greater percentage of that protein actually assimilated into your body. When your protein comes from animal foods, a smaller portion gets used by your body. You may actually get less protein overall assimilated into your body when you eat animal foods than from the plants you consume. But like they say on "Reading Rainbow," don't take my word for it, read this .

What else? Oh, I'd also like to share the information Dr. Joel Fuhrman has in his Eat to Live book comparing protein with plants pound for pound with steak. I remember brocolli, in particular being at the top of the list and having MORE protein pound for pound than steak. The problem is that we don't eat as many ounces or pounds of veggies as we do meat (yes, meat is dense and heavy). He has a newsletter completely devoted to this (if you are a member on his website http://www.drfuhrman.com/, it's the May 2003 issue). I just read through it and wish I could give a link because it has so many good articles on the subject (all written by medical doctors who have studied nutrition), but it's for members only. I will give you some information from the charts though just to illustrate protein content in plants. This is just a sampling:

Protein content as a percent of calories:

Watercress 50%

Spinach 51%
Broccoli 45%
Chinese Cabbage 32%

Mushrooms 31%

Romaine greens 28%
Peas 27%
Kidney Beans 27%

Cauliflower 23%

Oats 15%

Walnuts 14%

Almonds 13%
Apricots 10%
Cantaloupe 9%

Grapefruit 8%

Brown Rice 8%

As for grams of protein, there are other charts in Dr. Fuhrman's newsletter and "Eat to Live" book, but I just found a chart that shows sample menus for vegans and the plentiful protein count.

Alissa Cohen says that leafy greens are the best source of quality, usable protein. She does a raw food author/chef and enjoys strength training for fitness. She said that she is constantly questioned on how she can get enough protein. Here's what she says about it. Check out her before and after photos (after eating raw a few years -- you'll have to scroll down to the bottom). She doesn't look like she's lacking in protein to me.

The bottom line, though, is something that Dr. Fuhrman taught in his newsletter. He said that protein, carbohydrates, and fat are macronutrients and are readily available in all food. If we live in America or any other prosperous country, we are pretty much exempt from having a deficiency in any of the macronutrients (and shouldn't be a concern for anyone in the developed world -- unless you're anorexic, then that's a whole other story). It's the micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber) that we need to worry about. They don't contain calories, but are essential for good health and for fighting disease. Most Americans DO have a deficiency in micronutrients because they don't eat enough plant foods in their natural forms.



So there you have it -- my long-winded explanation -- but thanks for asking because I've learned a lot about it in the process.

NonDairy Cooking

I guess I should share how I cook without dairy since I brought it up. Some of it is easy and some takes creativity and experimentation.

The easy part for recipes I already have that take milk or butter is to substitute soy milk or almond milk for milk and non-dairy butter for butter (make sure it's non-hydrogenated while you're at it). For milk, I use vanilla if it's something that may taste good sweetened a bit (like french toast -- really good with vanilla soy, eggs, and a few shakes of cinnamon). If it's something savory or more bland, I just use plain soy or almond milk. You have to be careful with non-dairy butter because even though most of the ingredients look non-dairy, it may contain whey or casein further down the list, which are both components of milk. The ones I use most are Earth Balance and Canoleo. I like Earth Balance the best because it melts well for popcorn and bakes well in cookies, but it's firm when it comes out of the fridge and takes awhile to soften up. Canoleo is a little less expensive and I like to keep some on hand for mornings when we need to butter toast quickly and smoothly.

Cooking gets a little trickier when cheese comes into play. Many Mexican and Italian dishes that usually use cheese aren't that great without it. Pizza is an exception. It's still outstanding with a whole wheat crust, lots of sauce, and plenty of veggies piled up high. I just pass up things like lasagna and raviolis. But any whole grain pasta with great sauce and yummy veggies tastes wonderful. As for Mexican, I don't really enjoy going to Mexican restaurants much anymore. I don't want to order anything w/meat and that leaves many things with cheese. The other day I ordered a tostada with beans, no cheese, salsa, and tons of lettuce. I should have ordered some guacamole too. It was pretty good. What I've found with Mexican food is to increase the salsa (even add some other veggies like mushrooms) and it will make up for the lack of cheese.

The best nondairy cookbooks I've found are actually vegan cookbooks. My favorite is probably the "McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook." Everything in it can be made in under 10 minutes. It has great recipes that have taught me how to use spices and vegetables to flavor my food. "Vegan Planet" has a ton of recipes that take a little more time. Mollie Katzen's vegetarian cookbooks are great too. She usually has soymilk options for milk and optional cheese. I probably use her "The New Moosewood Cookbook" and "Enchanted Broccoli Forest" the most. She handwrote and illustrated each of those books. It's as much fun to see her artistic style as it is to make her recipes.

I stay away from milk chocolate and look for vegan options. I usually make my own chocolate recipes from scratch -- like brownies or raw fudge. There are some options in the store, like all the Clif bar products, which contain no milk products and are made with unrefined sugar. My favorite Luna Bar is the Nuts over Chocolate (tasted like a rice krispie treat with chocolate on top), my favorite Clif bar is either the Peanut Butter or Chocolate Peanut Crunch. The Clif Builder Bars are great – Target sells the Chocolate and Peanut Butter ones for $1.39 (and they have 20 g. protein – they’re usually 1.95). The absolute best one is the Chocolate Mint, but unless they’re on sale, I don’t buy them. Safeway had them last week 4 for $5. Clif also makes bars for kids called Z Bars that usually come in a box. They sell at Health Food stores and at Target (6 for a little under $4) – The Z Bars are probably the healthiest of all the Clif bars because they’re more of a whole grain bar and not a soy-protein isolate bar like the others, which gives more protein, but is refined in the process. I recently read that the Z Bar is the only cnack that passed the California school nutritional requirements. I try not to buy them that often because they add up and aren't as good for me as whole foods, but they are good for traveling.

There are a few options for vegan chocolate chips -- Tropical Source and Sunspire. The Sunspire ones are easier to find, but are just awful. They don't taste much like chocolate and don't bake well (they sort of crumble). The Tropical Source ones are really yummy and cook just like regular chocolate chips (they are a bit smaller though). So occasionally I still make chocolate chip cookies for my kids, only I use Tropical Source chips, Earth Balance butter, evaporated cane juice (and sometimes Sucanat) for the sugar, and whole wheat flour instead of white flour. It may sound complicated, but feels pretty natural after awhile. My kids actually like my cookies better now than the ones I used to make.

NonDairy Queen

Mary Engelbreit has those drawings saying "Queen of Quite-a-lot" or "Queen of Everything" and as much as I love Mary Engelbreit, I have never identified with any of that. I'd rather call myself the NonDairy Queen -- never out loud or anything, but I thought if there's a Dairy Queen out there, I'm pretty much the opposite (although technically that might be the Non-Dairy Peasant girl :)). I just don't depend on dairy anymore. Like I mentioned before, I used to question anyone who didn't eat or drink dairy products. It seemed like such a leap to cut out a whole food group like that -- especially one that I'd been brought up on. Remember the slogan, "Milk: It does a body good!" and "Milk has something for EVERYbody." We drank whole milk practically with every meal. I loved "washing down" my dinner, or especially COOKIES with a big cold glass of milk.

Ice cream was another food I couldn't imagine living without. If I eat a High Raw diet now, I think I ate a High Ice Cream diet for many years. I remember, especially, the time I was pregnant with my second daughter. I would buy 2-4 gallons of ice cream a week (and really only my husband and I were eating it). My plan was to have 2 of each flavor so they could be one in front of the over in the freezer (hiding the other like-flavors behind) so if I ate a whole carton in one day, it wouldn't look like I did because the other would end up in its place. Deceitful, I know!

I used to eat the ice cream in a variety of ways each day -- in a bowl, in a cone, with fruit on top, or chocolate syrup on top, as a shake, as a float, in between some cookies or graham crackers. I really loved my ice cream.

Even years later when we had more children, we'd get the kids to bed and would eat ice cream while watching TV. It was such a relaxing way to end the day. You're going to think I'm psycho if I admit to this, but I even remember many times, over a period of years, needing some space from my children, and making a huge bowl of ice cream without them seeing, then locking myself in the bathroom to eat it in peace. One bathroom that comes to mind was so small if you sat down on the only obvious sitting place that bathrooms always have, if either door opened, it would hit me in the knee. But it was a haven. The house we live in now has a huge attic room above the garage, only accessed by a 12 foot ladder. There's a freezer out in the garage that I've kept ice cream in in the past. I remember having a bowl and spoon out there and repeatingly going down the ladder to eat ice cream "in peace" high up above in that storage room.

So giving up ice cream never seemed likely to me. Pizza is a similar love. I think I stated once that I could eat pizza every day and be happy (I said the same thing once about Taco Bell -- ugh!)

But a few years ago when I hit a low with my allergies and asthma, I knew I couldn't go on living like this. I used to cry in the winter when I knew allergy season was just around the corner again. We'd talked about moving for a few years just to get me out of this green place, but that didn't happen (and when I researched to see where the allergy-free place in this country was, it seemed like it didn't exist). I fasted and prayed and tried to figure out how to help my allergies. I got the idea to look into giving up dairy.

I went to the library with the memory of Marilu Henner on a talk show discussing nondairy eating. I found a book of hers and a few others and started reading. I found that dairy products are mucus forming, that they contribute to allergies. I learned a lot of things about dairy that grossed me out, but the thought of pizza and ice cream seemed to cancel that out if I really compared the two.

I bought a few more books of Marilu's (Total Health Makeover being the key one) and even joined her paid forum Bootcamps a few times. I was able to give up dairy for the most part and saw huge improvements. Every once in awhile, I'd cave to just a little pizza or just ice cream this time and would suffer greatly as a result. The sneeze attacks would happen within the hour, many times within 20 minutes.

The longer I go without dairy, the less I care about it. I started out trying to substitute my favorite dairy products with soy or whatever is on the market. I found that if I had too many soy products, I had digestive problems. Now I mainly use soy milk for recipes (pancakes and waffles mostly) and use Blue Diamond original Almond Milk if I eat cereal. I bought soy cheese once and that was enough to make me never want to buy it again -- it's pretty awful stuff (and much of it actually contains casein, which is a milk product). Most soy ice creams have a horrid aftertaste and some of them have refined sugars in them (I don't eat refined sugar or flour anymore either). The only soy ice cream I think is okay (but I rarely buy it) is Soy Delicious. Their chocolate is pretty tasty.

An interesting thing I found after being away from cheese for awhile is that the smell becomes much stronger that I ever noticed before. When someone's cooking lasagna or even when pizza comes out of the oven, it's strong enough to make me want to throw up (sorry for the visual) -- but it isn't a pleasant smell. Nice to know that things can change.

I knew I'd really changed a few years ago when I was at a family pizza night gathering. We were all making our own pizzas and I was putting veggies right on top of my marinara sauce (skipping the cheese). A friend was watching me and said, "I'm so sorry you can't have dairy." He was well-meaning, I'm sure, but it seemed so odd that he would feel sorry for such a joyous healthy discovery in my life. My whole quality of life for 3/4 the months of the year had improved TREMENDOUSLY because I'd found that dairy was contributing to it (for whatever reason -- I'm not sure). I thought this was more of a reason to celebrate than to feel sorry for someone. I told him that I didn't mind at all -- I was glad to know that by cutting out dairy, my allergies weren't near the problem they'd been for so long. I realized afterwards that I'd hit a point of maturity with my eating -- I could take it or leave it with knowledge in hand. Knowledge truly is power.

If you're looking for information on why it's healthier to give up dairy than to eat it, there's a plethora of information on the internet and in books, but my favorite resource is from Steve Ross's book "Happy Yoga." He's the yogi who teaches on the Oxygen Network's show called "Inhale." He's really fun and has great music with his yoga (I have them all recorded onto dvd). But his book is amazingly insightful on many aspects and is pretty convincing with the research given on dairy products. My husband and most of my children still eat dairy, but I only buy organic for them now because I learned what's in the regular. And since my youngest son tested allergic to milk a few years ago, everyone's cut back on how much dairy they consume. I used to buy 8 gallons of milk a week and now it's probably more like 4. I don't buy cheese much because my youngest son misses it too much and it's hard for him to see. We do still buy pizza though. And I'm able to pass it up just fine. I do have my curious moments a few times a year like I wonder if my body will all of the sudden accept it with open arms. But it never does.