ADA Report on Vegetarian Diet

The ADA just released a paper concluding that (well-planned) vegetarian diets can help prevent and treat conditions such as heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. More info.

For tips on transitioning to a vegetarian or vegan diet, listen to my foodcast A Million Cooks.

Chocolate Raspberry . . . Chocolate Blackberry . . . Chocolate Strawberry . .. Oh My!

I'm still churning out ice cream for tomorrow's tasting at Rutiz Farms. I wanted to make my favorite flavor Chocolate Raspberry but . . . no raspberries yet. There are, however, lots of blackberries and strawberries so I used my Chocolate Raspberry recipe from Lick It! substituting those berries and YUM!!!! The blackberry especially blew us away!  Come on over to the farm tomorrow to check them out . . . or try making one yourself! 

And by the way -- you can find my Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Recipes on VegFamily.com.

Making ice cream

I just picked up a bunch of luscious looking produce from Rutiz Farms so I can start making ice cream for Friday. My sister Lissie and her family are visiting from Massachusetts so I put her to work. Here she's straining the seeds out of marionberry ice cream.

Ice Cream Tasting

For those of you on the Central Coast of California, come on down to Rutiz Farms on Friday, July 10th starting at 1 p.m. until I run out of ice cream. I'll get sampling out some ice creams made from fresh local produce and herbs from my book Lick It! For more information about Rutiz Farms or to get directions, to to www.rutizfarms.com.

Vegan Blackberry Ice Cream

Blackberries are everywhere right now . . . so why not make a batch of ice cream. This is one of my favorite flavors -- it's creamy, sweet and just a bit of tartness. It takes a little time to strain out the blackberry seeds but take the time because it makes a much nicer ice cream experience.

Blackberry Ice Cream

Makes 1 generous quart

Some blackberries are sweeter than others. If the berries are very tart, use the larger amount of sweetener.

 

3 cups blackberries

1 (14-ounce can) full-fat coconut milk

2/3 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar or agave syrup

 

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender, starting with the smaller amount of sugar, and process until smooth. Taste and add additional sugar, if necessary. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl and press the mixture through it to remove the seeds. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

VegKitchen Newsletter

Check out the July newsletter from VegKitchen. Nava Atlas has featured an interview about the creation of Lick It! and a couple of my favorite recipes.

Horizon going "natural"

Seems that Horizon is following a similar pattern to Silk soy milks who recently began dropping its organic soy milks and began calling them "natural" which means they use conventional soybeans grown with pesticides, herbicides and possibly genetically engineered soy beans--how natural is that? 

Now Horizon--whose organic line is already very controversial because they were not using cows that have access to pasture which is in violation of the organic standards--is introducing "natural" (meaning conventional) dairy products.

The deception is that people are used to buying these products thinking they are organic. The labels on Silk products are so similar you wouldn't notice the word organic missing. Also, many people think natural means organic.

The worst part is for the organic dairy farmers who are in a financial crisis right now because there is a glut of milk.

See the OCA site for more info.