Step Two - An Appetizer

Today I'm going cover a appetizer that is easy, vegan, and great to serve if your menu is tapas or even to take on a picnic. It's also a great tasting healthy snacks for anytime you want that little something to eat.

Appetizers are great for those of you who are either easing yourself into becoming a vegan, or you are a vegan who is continually cooking for someone else who's not.

If you are cooking for someone else who is not vegan, and they are skeptical of your cooking because of it, keep in mind that for some reason, when it's an "appetizer", meat eaters don't seem to mind they're vegan. I'm sure they know there's no animal product used, but if you don't call it vegan, and just refer to them as appetizers, they really don't seem to mind as much. I'm not promoting lying or deception by any means; I just think sometimes things are better left unsaid. After a few rounds, and a liking of the appetizer by the meat eater is proven, then you can mention the word...softly. Unfortunately, some people have to be broken in slowly. I speak from experience.

Let’s start with a great vegan favorite, Bruschetta. It’s really easy to find bread at any store that is vegan. Get used to reading the ingredients on things you buy. You should always know what you’re putting into your body. I’ll get to the nutritional part later, as I want to concentrate on the basics for now, but one great big plus of vegan eating is if done right, it has a great positive impact on your health. I know I feel better, maintain a better since of balance, and also maintain a very healthy weight, which hasn’t always been the case.

OK, since I started, I will tell you, I haven’t always had issues with my weight, but just prior to becoming vegan, I had a discectomy in my lower back. After surgery, I gained 45 pounds. It was a combination between the prescribed steroids, the painkillers slowing my metabolism, being forced into poor eating habits (pizza, and lots of it), as it was difficult to cook for weeks after the operation, and a required sedentary lifestyle. Regardless of the reasons, and yes, some excuses, gaining 50 pounds in a relatively short amount of time brought me to a near depressed state and snowballed into even worse lifestyle choices including binge eating which left me pre-diabetic with boarder-line hypertension. I’m only 5’7” and had never weighed more than 135 pounds. I’m sure you can imagine 50 pounds was a lot!

Out of concern, I started doing some research, and came to believe the healthiest, quick way to loose unwanted weight without a great amount of exercise was to cut animal fat from my diet, so I thought; “Why not? It can’t hurt to try.”

Within six weeks, I had lost about 18 pounds. But then something happened I didn’t understand, and it sure didn’t make me happy. I stopped loosing weight. What I came to learn was that plateaus aren’t uncommon during weight loss. After your initial water weight loss, then some added pounds coming off, your body starts to readjust as neither gaining or losing weight is natural. Your body will resist change and your metabolism will adjust to try to maintain your weight.

If you are losing weight for health, don’t let these plateaus discourage you. Ride them out. They could last weeks, but if you keep increasing your exercise, and keep your calorie and fat count down, then it’s easy math. Basically, if you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight, and of course, we all know the opposite.

Thanks to my vegan diet, I lost all 50 pounds and decided to increase my exercise to become even healthier. I didn’t give up, I persevered, and it became a lifestyle. To this day, I still weigh 135 pounds, and for the first time in my life, have so much energy I LOVE the gym. I even became certified as a group fitness instructor and currently teach spinning classes 3 times a week (@ 5:30 am). I also work out on my own, so I get usually no less than 210 minutes of cardio per week. My yearly physical shows that I’m in great health, and I contribute a great deal of that to my diet. I’m no longer worried about diabetes or high blood pressure. Most importantly, as cardio vascular disease is the second biggest killer in the U.S., maintaining a healthy weight through eating right and exercising, will not only typically add quantity, but quality to your life.

Not ready for a gym or have physical limitations? Then exercise when and how you can, build up to make it work for you. Wash your car, do yard work, walk, do push-ups in a chair, whatever you do, make it a lifestyle. Don’t allow yourself to go off your routine. You have to stick to it to make it work.

Now if weight is not an issue for you, then thank you for your patients, and thank you for reading that lecture. One of the reasons I feel it’s important to acknowledge your reason for choosing a vegan diet…if you have a purpose, it will work for you. So in my case, it wasn’t the eating of animal that bothered me, it was the animal I was becoming…an elephant. What’s your purpose?

Anyway, back to Bruschetta. If you decide to make your own bread, follow the easy recipe below, then let the bread stand wrapped in a towel overnight. Slice thin, dab one side into a plate of extra virgin olive oil to completely coat one side of the slice, place under broiler just until edges turn brown. Remove from broiler, let cool, preferably on rack before serving.

Vegan Honey-Wheat Bread:

2 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups whole-wheat flour

2 tablespoon of yeast

1/2-cup honey

1/4-cup vegetable oil

1/4-cup soymilk

3 to 4 cups unbleached white flour

Pinch of salt (optional)

Directions:

In mixer with dough arm, or in bowl by hand, mix water, yeast and 1 tablespoon of the honey together in a large bowl. Pour in the 3 cups of wheat flour and mix well. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a dry place. Let it sit for a minimum of 20 minutes.

After the dough stands, pour in the rest of the honey, oil, soymilk and salt. Mix together. Begin adding white flour, a 1/2 cup at a time. Once dough begins to firm up, after about the third cup of flour, knead the dough on a floured surface, slowly enough flour to make the dough smooth and elastic, between 5 to 10 minutes.

Cut the dough into two equal parts. Shape them into long rolls about 1-2 inches in diameter, grease two cookie sheets, place dough rolls on greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel and let stand in warm place until the dough doubles in size, between an hour and a hour and a half.

Bake loaves at 350 degrees F for appx 25-35 minutes until golden brown on the outside.

OK, now you’ve baked or bought your bread, sliced, oiled and broiled it and let it cool.

Now you can place it around a plate with a bowl of topping in the middle, or top the slices before serving.

Here’s the topping:

6 Roma tomatoes – diced

One bunch scallions - finely chopped

1-teaspoon garlic powder or two cloves of fresh garlic chopped (feel free to add more or less to suite personal taste)

1-teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/4-cup extra virgin olive oil

1-tablespoon basil

1-tablespoon cilantro

1-tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon blacken seasoning (optional)

Mix all ingredients together, put in airtight container and refrigerate over night.

Another serving option is to place topping on bread, top with shredded vegan parmesan cheese and bake at 325 for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.

So there you have it. A great vegan starter that even meat eaters will love, quick, easy, delicious and aesthetically pleasing.

Now that the we have my history out of the way, we'll concentrate more on recipes. But I will, from time to time, explain the various reasons it's important to live good!