{"id":4448,"date":"2013-09-27T09:15:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T14:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=4448"},"modified":"2013-09-27T09:32:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T14:32:02","slug":"vegan-as-easy-as-you-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/09\/vegan-as-easy-as-you-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegan – As Easy as You Want"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drop that grilled cheese! Come to Ozark Natural Foods<\/a> in October for my introduction to essential vegetarianism, “Vegan – As Easy As You Want.”<\/p>\n

\"Ben
The cook, May 2010,
Chotkowski Gardens, Fayetteville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I’m primarily a wordsmith, by my eyes I’m a foodie. Thus, I’ve offered to teach three 90-minute cooking sessions at the ONF Conference Center, east of the store and also in Evelyn Hills Shopping Center. The classes will be 6-7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, 17 and 24, a Thursday. The classes are free, focusing roughly on breakfast, lunch and dinner with tips liberally sprinkled.<\/p>\n

This is a small classroom so reservations are a must. To register, contact ONF Community Outreach Coordinator Heather Artripe by her email<\/a> or phone the store (479) 521-7558.<\/p>\n

Those who consider making dramatic changes in diet have many reasons, from concern for the planet and love of animals to assorted health issues or simply trying to trim down.<\/p>\n

As I wrote previously in Brick<\/strong><\/a>, my cholesterol began climbing when I was in my 20s so I started being careful, then in 1990 I cut out red meat and poultry. My doctor still had to put me on Lipitor about 10 years later. Yet, last June he took me off statin medications completely<\/em>. That’s because my blood levels dropped about half what they had been, just three months after I cut out the last animal products, eggs and dairy. And I’m 25 pounds lighter than a year ago.<\/p>\n

I am chief cook here at Shady Hill manse and always have been fascinated by food and nutrition. In fact, I dropped out of journalism to run a bed-and-breakfast<\/a> outside Eureka Springs with My Beloved for a whole year, 1998.<\/p>\n

October’s three sessions of ‘Vegan: As Easy As You Want’ will cover basic recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus tips on snacking, restaurants and travel.<\/p>\n

My primary resource for my syllabus has been the “21-Day Vegan Kickstart” program of the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. It has a website, 21daykickstart.org<\/a>, a free smartphone app and a book<\/a> by PCRM founder Dr. Neal Barnard.<\/p>\n

To get started, I followed Kickstart’s interactive online program April 1-21. It restarts on the first day of every month. My class can be used to prep for the three-week vegan challenge beginning Nov. 1 or Dec. 1. You could wait for the the traditional Jan. 1 start of new habits, but why not this year?<\/p>\n

My recipes come from many sources and I’ve adapted them for convenience and budget. There’s two reasons my favorite ONF aisles are the bulk ones. They’re freshness and price. Plus, you can buy a tablespoon of a spice blend for one new recipe, see if you like it, or a cup of an unusual or expensive grain, see if it finds favor in your household.<\/p>\n

I will be posting recipes, links to helpful articles at the Vegan, Softly page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drop that grilled cheese! Come to Ozark Natural Foods in October for my introduction to essential vegetarianism, “Vegan – As Easy As You Want.” Although I’m primarily a wordsmith, by my eyes I’m a foodie. Thus, I’ve offered to teach three 90-minute cooking sessions at the ONF Conference Center, east of the store and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kook-cooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4495,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/10\/easy-vegan-breakfasts\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":0},"title":"Easy Vegan Breakfasts","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time to get excited, and a little nervous, for tomorrow's first of three classes of \"Vegan: As Easy as You Want.\" They're in the conference room of Ozark Natural Foods (not in the store but several doors up in its office), and as of Monday, two-thirds full, says ONF\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kook Cooks"","block_context":{"text":"Kook Cooks","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ben Pollock at high school weight July 2013","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Ben-%40-WordCamp-072613-227x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5039,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/12\/vegan-schnecken\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":1},"title":"Snack on Vegan Schnecken","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, schnecken can be veganized. I wouldn't be posting, but the sweet rolls were a hit at a party Christmas afternoon. The friends won't know the pastries were animal free until they read this. The earlier recipe, in this Brick \"Savor Schnecken Like a Snail,\" was last updated a year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bake"","block_context":{"text":"Bake","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/bake\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Schnecken","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Schnecken.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4967,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/11\/falling-down-cake\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":2},"title":"Falling-Down Cake","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Falling-Down Cake\" is my childhood name for Mom's chocolate cake. Mom, as discussed previously, was a cook of post-War vintage, the Joy of Cooking, The New Settlement Cook Book and Thoughts for Buffets her references, with a handful of index cards copied from her BFF Isabel Marks. Her weeknight chocolate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bake"","block_context":{"text":"Bake","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/bake\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"These are Mom's cookbooks (her Joy of Cooking is lost). Note the cigarette burns on the Settlement. The Falling-Down Cake is from last night so it has a fresh snowfall of confectioners sugar. Yeah, its dome was doomed, right out of the oven, as usual.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Falling-Down-Cake-1000s-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5334,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/03\/onion-whole-foods-emerson\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":3},"title":"Teen Score and Whole Foods Ago, An Onion","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load A\u00a0longtime Onion fan, I had to see\u00a0Scott Dikkers, an early editor and former, longtime owner of the satiric website. He spoke March 10 at the University of Arkansas. About a hundred people attended the midweek evening lecture, which the sponsoring\u00a0Honors College publicized widely. Also compelling me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The knobs on the amp of guitarist \"Nigel Tufnel\" go to 11 not 10. The 1984 fictional documentary \"This Is Spinal Tap\" continues to be a locus of cultural history.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Spinal_Tap_-_Up_to_Eleven.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Spinal_Tap_-_Up_to_Eleven.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Spinal_Tap_-_Up_to_Eleven.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5996,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2018\/03\/vegan-queso\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":4},"title":"Vegan Queso Tastes Right, Feels Good","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Behold, a dairy-free cheese recipe you might want to make often. Tastes authentic without making you feel bloated from dairy. Finally. It's a spicy queso, with the main ingredient cauliflower, emulsified with cashew butter or just cashews. Like most contemporary recipes my source calls for fresh. If you're cooking the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condiments"","block_context":{"text":"Condiments","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/condiments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Diagram of a Fagor Splendid pressure cooker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/pressure-cooker-diagram1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5318,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/02\/tea-careers-calm\/","url_meta":{"origin":4448,"position":5},"title":"Tea, Careers and Calm","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load \"Cults, Conspiracies and the Twisted History of Sleepytime Tea\" by Megan Giller may well keep you awake. Celestial Seasonings had somewhat predictable beginnings in the hippy movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. But besides free love and illicit drugs, that period saw lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0512 brick logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Solebrick-logo-2-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4448"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4478,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions\/4478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}