My Neglected Blog and Recipe of the Week

These are super simple and chewy chocolate chip cookies, but I’ll get to that in a minute…

Oh my goodness, where have the weeks gone?  It’s been about three weeks since I last posted and my “Recipe of the Week” should probably be renamed “Recipe of the Month”!  But I’m not quite ready to give up on weekly recipe postings just yet.

I have some good reasons and some not so good reasons for neglecting this blog lately (no judgment, just my own assessment).  First, I spent time in New York City attending Victoria Moran’s wonderful Main Street Vegan Academy, and now I’m a vegan lifestyle coach and educator!  Fifteen dedicated vegans from all over the country came together to learn, share and explore.  We heard from so many brilliant and committed professionals including Dr. Robert Ostfeld, Sherry Colb, JL Fields, Fran Costigan and others.  We also had time to enjoy the varied and wonderful vegan restaurants in New York, from vegan soul food at Seasoned Vegan to upscale eating at Candle Cafe West and Blossom to gazillions of options at Caravan of Dreams.

But easily the most wonderful part of the MSVA experience was sharing it with people with whom I feel a deep resonance.  I heard from many of my new friends that they sometimes feel isolated and sad.  I have certainly experienced some of that myself although both my husband and closest friend are vegan. Even before attending the academy I had begun actively seeking out like-minded friends here in Tucson and little by little I have been trying to build a community for myself. But I’m still aware of a need to scale it back or filter some of my thoughts and feelings about the animals.  At MSVA there was none of that.  While hanging with these people I could be fully open and honest.  I felt validated and understood and there is nothing better than that.  And being part of the MSVA alumni means I now have contacts and friends (I consider all MSVA grads to be friends) all over the country, and I will not hesitate to ask for their support or offer mine to them.

Another reason I’ve been neglecting my blog is because I decided, after a decade of saying “no, never”, to finally get on Facebook.  When Facebook first got going my daughter was in high school and heading off to college.  At that time getting on Facebook was a way to follow your kids to college and continue all manner of lurking.  I didn’t want any part of that.  And bearing witness to my sons’ adolescent shenanigans on Facebook didn’t seem like anything I wanted to do either.  But as Facebook morphed from the domain of kids and helicopter parents to the preeminent personal and business social network platform I knew I had to get connected.  And I’ve been enjoying my time there-too much time there actually, which is why my little blog has suffered.  It’s much easier to post pictures and share stuff than gather my thoughts and write something meaningful.  It didn’t take long for me to understand the allure of peeking into other people’s lives and letting them peek into mine.  And I did my share of “where are they now” searches.  But I think I’ve exhausted all that now, and instead I have another way of staying in touch with the people who matter to me.  And in terms of going forward with my vegan coaching, staying connected on social media is a must.  Evolution, evolution.

So on to recipes…I was going to share a recipe for a wonderful mushroom quinoa enchilada dish (you can see it on Facebook :)) but I don’t have permission yet from the author to reprint it.  If I get permission I’ll share it next week.  Regarding the cookies pictured above, I searched through lots of vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes for one that was not only delicious but super easy to make–one bowl, some elbow grease and a cookie sheet.   This recipe fit the bill and you can link to it here.  This uses coconut oil and a bit of almond milk but otherwise looks like the old Nestle Tollhouse version.  This batch came out great but I would probably use larger chips and add some nuts next time.

If you’ve got kids (or you’re still a kid!) and you need a quick and easy chocolate chip cookie recipe for all those school bake sales, this one should do the job.

Enjoy every sweet bite.

And don’t forget to “friend” me on Facebook (Lisa Slovin)