Field Trip to Ms. Julie's Kitchen in Akron

My intrepid friend Carol and I did another of our Lewis & Clark forays into the wilderness to explore further afield in vegan cuisine.  Carol maps out the route for its scenic and low traffic best, this time through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, while I am the driver. If you haven't driven through our local gem of a national park, you are missing quite a scenic event.  We live atop it and use it as a cut through every chance we get.  To get the general info about Ms. Julie's go to her facebook page.

On to the particulars of what I discovered!

The sandwich, on the plate above, was delicious! The best part --besides everything in between -- was the freshly-baked 7-Grain Sunflower Seed bread featuring locally grown spelt flour giving it lightness and a depth of flavor that was outstanding. Carol got the zucchini feta pattywich (vegetarian) while I got the Hemp pattywich (see the blackboard menu in the below collage).  Even though Carol's neither a vegetarian nor a vegan, she wolfed down her sandwich at twice the speed I did plus bought two big containers of the Kale chips to take home!  Ms. Julie's can take that as quite the compliment. (The Kale chips are to the left of Ms. Julie in the above collage.)

Ms. Julie is pictured to the upper right. She was delighted to discover my brother and sister-in-law had hired her to cater my surprise birthday party some months ago.

Not only does Ms Julie's buy as much produce as possible from local farms, but .50 of every fudge brownie sold goes to a local women's shelter.  Carol and I ate some of the brownies along with the zucchini chocolate cake (after the kale chips) for a glorious late afternoon vegan feast. This was a very fun field trip and goes a long way towards proving my belief that vegan food can be both fun and delicious, not a grim health mandated duty.

Art and Photography work in this entry by Carol Irvin.  

All text by Rebecca Dingle.

21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart at Whole Foods Woodmere

Last month Whole Foods in Woodmere sponsored a 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart program based on the eponymous new book by Neal Barnard, MD, president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. It's a healthy whole food plant based program that's far more effective than traditional diets for shedding unwanted pounds. Participants raved about Ellen's (WF's Healthy Eating Specialist pictured with me here) favorite breakfast of steel cut oatmeal with tons of healthy toppings like dried fruit, maple syrup, nuts and seeds; and the fat-free dressing I demo'd with the loaded salad was a big hit!

To make Steel Cut Oatmeal a la Ellen: boil 1 1/3 cups water and add 1/3 cup steel cut oats, simmer 20 minutes, then remove from heat and add fresh or frozen fruit -- raspberries or blueberries are her favorites -- then add a heaping teaspoon of natural peanut or almond butter, 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup, and 6 almonds. Voila!