Don't want to put on those holiday pounds? Eat like a vegan!

You can't miss it - fattening food is everywhere!  Candy, pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, candy apples.  It's clear that the season of eating has begun!  Yes it's difficult to resist all the holiday food in the office, at your child's school or at the grocery store.  Most people are tempted, and so many of us give in.  And the pounds start packing on and continue through the holidays until we all feel guilty in January.


You always say it's going to be different this year, right?  Well how about nipping it in the bud before it begins?  What if, this year, you decide to go through the holidays by eating like a vegan?


You can still enjoy many of the foods that you've always loved but you'll learn to make them healthier.  And you can still eat Halloween candy (you'll be surprised that many of your favorites are vegan), but you won't gorge yourself on it.  And you can have that pumpkin latte - just have it with soy/coconut/almond milk and skip the whipped cream.  And if you check out vegweb.com or Veg News' website, you can try new holiday recipes that you can feel good about eating, that taste delicious, and your friends will love.  And then, of course, there's the halo effect of reducing animal suffering and causing less harm to the environment.  Festive reasons to celebrate indeed!

Those cupcakes aren't really vegan, are they?

This wasn't one of my best weeks.  I had been going along just fine and then strep throat cut me down in my tracks and I could barely move from the bedroom to the kitchen table.  And eating was completely out of the question.  But my son's birthday was on Wednesday and I was determined that he have cupcakes in his classroom to celebrate.  And not just any cupcakes.  VEGAN cupcakes.


I thought that, in addition to giving my son a wonderful experience on his special day, it was a fantastic opportunity to dispel a myth about vegan food.  The myth that it doesn't taste good.  All vegans will tell you that vegan food can be just as delicious as food with animal products, but we are often met with doubting looks.  I've had some success cutting down this myth with some friends, but hadn't ventured into the sugary world of cupcakes.


Luckily, I had seen that there was a vegan bakery at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market.  Even though there was no way I was leaving the house, much less traveling to the market, I decided to put my trust in untasted cupcakes.  So I ordered 2 dozen - half vanilla and half red velvet.  And I even asked for soy milk instead of their usual almond milk just in case there were any nut allergies in the class.  


Two nights later, with me still sick as can be, there was a knock on my door.  We live in darkest north Phoenix but Treehouse Bakery delivered those cupcakes with a smile.  They looked so cute but I was in no shape to eat any, so I had my husband taste test them.  A look of pure bliss appeared on his face and he said it was one of the best cupcakes he'd ever had (he's not vegan).  


The cupcakes were equally well-received at school.  The e-mail from my son's teacher said, "The vegan cupcakes were amazing!  Thanks for sending them in!  You've opened a whole new world for me...".  Making my son's birthday happy and expanding vegan frontiers - all in a day's work!