While many in developing countries are suffering from food shortages due to high prices, huge food corporations and investors are making big profits

Of the World Health Organization's data on alcohol use, at the other end of the spectrum from Uganda is India. The country has been among the bottom 15 percent of nations in terms of per capita alcohol consumption for most of the past 40 years. As of 2003, the average Indian citizen consumed 0.3 liters of alcohol, roughly the amount in a drinking glass.

read more

Don’t throw away your old polycarbonate water bottle - turn it into a solar lantern! The last thing this planet needs is any more plastic in the landfills. But what do you do with your old polycarbonate water bottle (Nalgene or similar) that you don’t want to use any more? Don’t throw it away! With the incredibly handy LightCap200 you can turn your old (or new) bottle into the coolest home, deck, boat or camping lantern anywhere! (more…)

I love a good one-pot dish, but sometimes it's just not possible. This simple recipe is a good example. Oh, how I would have loved to have figured out a way to make it without using three separate pans. I combined steps as much as possible, quick-cooking the asparagus and zucchini in the same pot as the edamame, but my husband was still greeted with a pile of pots to clean after dinner.

Nevertheless, I think he'd agree that the meal was worth the clean-up. I served the quinoa along with a simple green salad for a meal that tasted fresh, healthy, and decidedly springish. (Yes, springish. It's my new word and I plan to spread it around!) I kept the seasoning light to allow the fresh flavors of the vegetables to shine though, but feel free to add more to your taste. Or, if you have fresh herbs on-hand, I know they'd take this dish to a whole new level of deliciousness.



Spring Green Quinoa
(printer-friendly version)

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 clove garlic, minced
4 (about 1 ounce) sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), chopped
10 ounces frozen edamame (2 cups)
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 -4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon oregano (more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon basil (more to taste)
1 generous pinch red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice (more to taste)
salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse the quinoa well in a fine-mesh strainer. Put it in a pot with the water, 1 clove of minced garlic, and the sun-dried tomato and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and cook until water is absorbed and grain is tender, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and keep covered.

While the quinoa is cooking, bring a large pot of water to boil (Dutch oven sized, about 1/2 full). When it reaches a boil, add the frozen edamame. Return to boil and cook for 4 minutes. Add the asparagus and zucchini and cook until they are tender but still crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain well, and place in a large serving bowl. Add the quinoa and toss well.

In a small non-stick pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable broth. (If you're not following a strict fat-free diet, you may use 1 tsp. of olive oil.) Add the minced garlic and cook for one minute. Add the remaining broth, oregano, basil, and red pepper. Simmer, stirring, for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Pour over quinoa and mix well. Taste and add additional seasonings, including lemon juice, as needed. Serve warm.

Makes 4 large servings. Per serving: 270 Calories (kcal); 6g Total Fat; (19% calories from fat); 15g Protein; 44g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 168mg Sodium; 8g Fiber. Weight Watchers CORE/ 5 Flex Points.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your favorite recipe. What a goldmine of recipe resources! With thousands of vegan recipes in books and on websites, it's hard to tell the great ones from the just okay ones from the truly inedible ones. Cooking something new is always a gamble, but the odds of finding a winner are better when a recipe is recommended by people you trust. And it goes without saying that I trust the readers of my blog to be pretty discerning folks!

If I could, I'd give everyone who entered a book. And I'd give everyone who picked one of my recipes two books. (Just kidding about that last part. Really!) I wasn't about to try to pick the best recipe myself, so I let the random number generator at Random.org do the choosing for me. And this is what it said:




Lucky number 13 is Lori, who offered this recipe as her favorite:



Congratulations, Lori! (Email me your mailing address and I'll get your book in the mail.) That hummus was chosen by a couple of people, and if you don't have a copy of Cook's Illustrated, you can find the recipe at What Did You Eat?

If you didn't leave a comment because you already had Veganomicon, feel free to leave one on this post and share your favorite recipe. And if you haven't already, look through the contest comments--you'll find a lot of great recipe recommendations.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free