Junk Food For the Vegan Soul

Before you get started with New Year's resolutions about being good, here's a post about being bad. Really, really bad.

Oh, come on! I'm talking about food. This is a G-rated blog, y'know.

When people think about vegans, the first thing they imagine is a bunch of do-gooders who read every ingredient label twice and then once more, interrogate waiters as if they were accessories to murder, and in general subject themselves to absolute deprivation because we don't want to murder animals for food.

Worse, the world worries, we will force our food habits on them (I swear a new acquaintance rolled her eyes last week when I mentioned we choose a vegetarian-friendly restaurant for a lunch outing).

But we vegans like to play dangerous too. And yes, our decadence can often be, ahem, rather healthy, but  there are lots of foods out there we love that qualify as total junk, even in the non-vegan world. And that, just before those resolutions kick in, is exactly what this fun post is all about: it's my rather counterintuitive list of five of my most favorite-- and widely available -- junk food splurges that are also inadvertently vegan. Meaning the manufacturers never intended them to be vegan and they are not labeled as such, but they just ended up being so.

Eggless Broccoli-Tomato Frittata from Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen: Cook That Book

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the idea of food as medicine. Although I am guilty of stuffing my own face with more junk than I should (think french fries, pizza, and crispy, salty snacks--ooh, where can I get some now?), I am an unabashed dictator when it comes to laying down -- and enforcing-- healthy-eating rules for my family.

Lucky for me, Desi is mostly an unfussy eater with a tendency to choose healthy foods, except sweets of any kind which he's crazy about. Opie, who I transitioned to an extremely healthy, homemade diet that is head and shoulders above any store-bought food, truly, madly and deeply loves mealtimes. Pie, my finicky kitty, has disdainfully rejected all of my attempts so far to feed her unprocessed, homemade food, but I'm not giving up.

So earlier this month, when I got a review request for the new book, Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen, I accepted without a second thought. I have a long association with this killer and I'd do anything to kick its ass. Cancer snatched my mom from me when I was just seven. Over the last two years, it has claimed three of my animal family members-- my dogs Freddie and Lucy, and my cat Pubm.

Global statistics on cancer are alarming. You'd think that with all the knowledge we have today, and medical advances, we would have this disease under control. But the World Health Organization actually predicts that cancer deaths will nearly double between 2007 and 2030. In developing countries like India, which once had low rates of cancer, the number of new cases is increasing at a rapid clip.

Butternut Squash Muffins, And Travel Through Timeless Lands

These Butternut Muffins were a bit of a gamble. I had some butternut squash puree leftover from making my Butternut Squash Pie, and some blended tofu from making my Mango Pie and I wondered why I couldn't just marry these two into a blissful breakfast food . And just like that, these delicious muffins were born.

Before I go on with the recipe, a quick word about our recent travels. Desi and I rarely visit the same place twice because there is so much world to see and so little vacation time, not to mention money, to see it. But when we planned our second trip to Las Vegas this fall (our first was nearly a decade ago), it was chiefly with the goal of making Sin City our base and then traveling around to the many breathtaking wonders that the area has to offer: Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and the Valley of Fire. We had a hectic trip, but it couldn't have been more fun. I have some photographs from Desi for you-- they follow the recipe post.