Karina's Vegan Coleslaw with Peanut Dressing

Crunchy cool vegan slaw with a light peanut dressing.

It's almost the end of July. How has your summer been? Moonlit and sultry? All Popsicles and kiddie pool? Or just plain flat out busy as a bee? If it's been busy, Sugar, I can relate. Here in our tiny corner of the world we've been too crazy to cook much. We've been living on salads and smoothies. We're apartment hunting. Spending hours in the car navigating the neighborhoods of West Hollywood, searching for the perfect place. Or rather, the quasi-perfect place because perfection is unattainable. I know this. I do. But I still (naively) make a top ten priority list.

If I find a unit with a window over the kitchen sink (high on my list) there's inevitably no dishwasher. If I tour one with a dishwasher, there's no window, and no patio (I'd love some outside access to put a small table and plant a few pots by the door). Washer and dryer? Ha. You know that saying, If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans? Well, if you want to hear the gods laugh even harder, make a wish list. For an apartment in West Hollywood. For example...

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Vegan Almond Salad Recipe

Not Starkist Salad. Eat groovy. Save a tuna.

The older I get the more I crave simple. You know what I'm talking about. Home cooking. Childhood classics- like tuna salad. Instead of getting all worldly and sophisticated and dabbling with truffle oil, with each new gray hair my taste is hula hooping into kid-friendly food faster than Marisa Tomei can waggle. Well, maybe not that fast. She is pretty nimble. But you get my drift. I'm whipping up peanut butter and banana sandwiches, not oysters Rockefeller. Actually, I wouldn't know an oyster Rockefeller if it bit me in the tuchas. Filet Mignon (would you believe I've never had it?) doesn't even tempt me, Darling. And Chicken Cordon Bleu vs Chicken Kiev?

Okay. It is here where I confess that I'm no Betty Crocker and I've never attempted either recipe. Most likely because I was never what you'd call a big meat eater. I went vegetarian at age thirteen. If I've dabbled at all in the culinary arts it's been because of Anna Thomas and not Julia Child. The first cookbook I ever bought was The Vegetarian Epicure. That was 1972- the first time I ever made soup from scratch, thanks to Anna.

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Five Ways To Chill

1. Creamy dark chocolate sorbet. It's dairy-free and vegan. Rich but not filling. Cool and dark as midnight jazz. A respite from the shimmer of summer heat. Spoon it into chilled glasses. Turn off the lights. Light a candle. Music: Melody Gardot

2. Quinoa salad with lime and fresh mint. Cook quinoa in a rice cooker and keep the kitchen cool. Toss with just squeezed lime juice, good olive oil and garden ripe tomatoes. Spike it with whatever your heart desires- scallions, red onion. Kick off your flip-flops. Music: Crowded House's new album Intriguer

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Blueberry Smoothie- Veganluscious

Blueberry smoothie- dairy-free gluten-free chill.

Wilting from the heat? I've got a deep blue chill for you. Dairy-free. Easy as pie. Cool as a blueberry. I'm emancipating this recipe from the archive depths because it's just too luscious to get lost in 2007, never to be slurped again.

What does a brave and spunky vegan girl do when she is suddenly famished and her Crowded House whistling husband is scrambling up some free-range eggs and cheese for brunch? I'll tell what you do.

You reach for your power tools.

You haul out the Vita-Mix and thank your twinkling stars you have a bag of organic frozen blueberries in the freezer. You grab the carton of organic almond milk. You dip into the Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder. You smile slyly. You sprinkle in some stevia.

You switch the button to HIGH and sigh.

You froth with pleasure.

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Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookies

Almond flour cookies with the nutty crunch of pecans.

Here I am again. Baking cookies. It's one way I cope with the world. Which, in case you haven't noticed, is totally moon bat crazy. So what do you do? The older I get the more I let go. And it's not just letting go of the obvious stuff, like that box of canceled checks from your first marriage or those hideous platform shoes you bought after seeing Saturday Night Fever. I'm letting go of things I once cherished. Stuff I used to believe. Opinions. The Right Way To Do Something. Why?

Because the older I get the less convinced I am that I know what is best. Sometimes it's hard to tell. I know from experience that the best laid plans can will often fail. And that sheer dumb luck can plop in your lap and splatter you with an unbidden opportunity. I've lived long enough to see the truth in my favorite line from Little Big Man. Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't. So I don't grasp anything too tightly anymore.

Which brings me to Cheez Doodles and why you need to let go.

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Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins with Almond Flour

Tender almond flour muffins bursting with fresh blueberries.

Today I am sharing a new gluten-free muffin recipe, and a health update on my Gut Instinct post. I know, I know. Another muffin recipe? Most food bloggers are waxing poetic about grilling burgers and dyeing frosting for their red, white, and blue recipes this upcoming July Fourth weekend, but the truth is, Babycakes, I'm just not into it. I'm in such a different head space that it almost seems comical to me, reading headlines in my Inbox about the "Ultimate Burger", or how July Fourth wouldn't be a real celebration without a hunk of charred All-American meat or a Philly cheese dog.

Um. What?

Our founding fathers might disagree. In fact, wasn't Benjamin Franklin a vegetarian?

Don't worry. I'm not gearing up for an anti-meat rant or anything. That would be downright unpatriotic of me. Though, come to think of it, Thomas Edison was pretty patriotic, wasn't he? He invented the light bulb. An American light bulb. And I like what Tom said, "Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."

A powerful thought.

So hang with me for a minute. I've been thinking about America lately, and her addictions. To oil. Fast food. Meat. I've read Michael Pollan. And found Fast Food Nation informative. I was disturbed by Food Inc. And inspired by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I'm a thinking human.

I like to ponder stuff.

So after living most of my life as a vegetarian (sometimes flexitarian), when I was told, post hip-surgery, to eat animal protein in order to mend my fractured hip, I complied with my surgeon's advice. I went the organic, free-range, wild caught, sustainable route. And my hip healed. And three years later, I walk without a limp.

But here's the thing. My monkey gut hasn't been happy. Some of it's nerves, I know. Triggered by said hip incident and general, all purpose economic worry. Better known as STRESS. The Devil. Pure evil to your happy little cells.

Life'll kill ya. As Warren Zevon said.

So when I recently went for six days nil by mouth to calm my digestion and heal my sad and wounded duodenum, I tried to look on the bright side. Hey. I had an IV- I was detoxing by default- no caffeine, no alcohol, no red meat, no refined flour. No nothing.

Darling, it was like a trip to the spa.

But without a masseuse and Carlos Nakai.

Doctor's orders upon leaving shot a shiver down my spine. Four weeks of non-pointy food. Blandville all the way. No wine. No spices. No coffee. No tea. He paused and looked at me over the rim of his glasses and reiterated, Not even de-caf!

Forever? I asked. He shrugged a Well, yeah, as to a slow witted child. I blinked and nodded my best upbeat gluten-free goddess nod. I went home. And I did it. Banana smoothies and mashed potatoes defined my life. I was the Queen of Puree.

Five weeks later I underwent something I have feared for years. The dreaded endoscopy. I have issues with people stuffing tubes down my throat, okay? Not to mention, cameras. I demanded good drugs. It went off without a hitch. Sitting up in recovery, I yelled out to the anesthesiologist passing by the curtain, I love you!

I get that a lot, she said.

The good news? No villi damage (go gluten-free diet!).

My doc was happy. We even discussed trying an anti-inflammatory diet. It turns out he's gluten-free by choice. And receptive to the idea that our diet can influence our health (what a concept, right?).

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