Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [103]
3/4 cup vanilla rice, soy, or hemp milk
1 tablespoon agave, maple, or brown rice syrup
Pinch of salt
2 cups ice
1 Combine all the ingredients except the ice in a sturdy blender. Blend until the whole mixture is smooth and well combined.
2 Add the ice and continue blending until smooth. Pour into tall glasses and serve.
Vary It!: To vary this shake, you can skip the cocoa powder and add more nutritional power by throwing in 1/2 cup frozen raspberries or pitted cherries. You also can add 1/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter to the original recipe for a rich treat.
Per serving: Calories 592 (From Fat 306); Fat 34g (Saturated 7g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 357mg; Carbohydrate 71g; Dietary Fiber 7g; Protein 13g.
Part V
Living Vegan in the Real World
In this part . . .
Eating vegan meals at home is easy once you get the hang of some new recipes. Venturing outside the house to eat can be more of a challenge, however. It’s important to stick to your convictions, but you also want to be a gracious guest and not alienate those who haven’t seen the vegan light yet.
The chapters in this part offer practical tips on how to have a social life in a nonvegan world. Whether you’re going to a wedding, cocktail party, or conference, traveling abroad, or driving across the country, you can make any situation work for you and your vegan lifestyle.
Chapter 16
Walking the Vegan Walk (without Being Preachy!)
In This Chapter
Providing variety to your vegan diet
Living in harmony with your nonvegan friends and loved ones
Connecting your veganism to mind, body, spirit, and earth
Some people become vegan because their health problems can be healed with a plant-based diet. Others focus on veganism as a path to spiritual health and enlightenment. Still other vegans love and respect the lives of nonhuman animals and refuse to participate in their enslavement and deaths, or they just don’t like the taste and texture of animal foods. People have so many reasons for living a vegan life, and the resulting benefits to your health and well-being are positive.
You may feel the temptation to start talking about your own vegan experience with the people around you, especially when you have been profoundly affected by specific vegan-related knowledge that has changed your own life. Veganism becomes religion. You have seen the light! Sharing yourself authentically with people is important, but you don’t want to alienate loved ones or live too single-mindedly.
A big part of this new lifestyle is incorporating different ingredients and creating a fresh perspective that includes like-minded people and your current friends and family. If, like me, you find that your new vegan diet and lifestyle are exciting and easy, you’ll always be looking for ways to widen your food experiences. Sometimes, however, new and old vegans alike can get stuck in a rut of the same old food choices. They may have lost the zest for vegan living or feel tired of explaining their choice in diet to nonvegans. But don’t worry; this chapter can help focus your intentions for a whole, vegan life and offer you support in speaking and living in the world with gentle love for everyone — including meat eaters!
Encouraging and Enjoying Variety in Your Diet
Some experts estimate that most Americans eat the same ten fruits and vegetables for most of their lives (and that’s if they eat fruits and vegetables at all). Think of it this way: A narrow diet can lead to limited energy and life experiences. If you want a full life, enriched by a wide array of adventures, your diet must include a diversity of flavors, colors, and textures. Include a variety of seasonal and local plant foods in your menus, and share these new discoveries with your loved ones. Doing so ensures that you don’t get bored with vegan meals — and you’ll get better nutrition to boot. When family and friends taste your locally inspired dishes and see how flavorful they can be, your reasons for going vegan will be easier for them to understand.
Imagine eating