Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all had a wonderful day and that you ate some amazing cruelty-free Thanksgiving dinner. I had a Tofurky Roast, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and peas. What did you have?

My sweet Shelly in her Thanksgiving bandana.

Vegan pumpkin pie (I cheated this year and bought one already made from Whole Foods). I made homemade coconut whipped topping that was better than any soy whipped cream :-)

Vegan Breakfast and Lunch-What vegans eat & Carol J. Adams

I was recently filling out a survey about what I eat on a typical day, plus my favorite foods, cookbooks, books and restaurants. The survey was for a new book that one of my favorite vegan authors, Carol J. Adams, and a co-author Patti Breitman are working on. They are still looking for more vegans who are willing to tell others what they eat on a typical day and some of their favorite foods for a new book to help others discover the ease, joy, variety, and abundance of a vegan diet. If you are interested, please respond to Carol at cja[at]caroljadams.com. You can also download the survey on Carol's website www.caroljadams.com. The due date is April 29 2011.

The survey made me think about what I eat daily. I usually eat different dinner every night so there is a nice variety, however my breakfast and lunch are almost always the same. I work long hours and my job does not allow me to eat out and I don't like wasting my money on food deliveries, not to mention, sometimes it takes forever to get your food delivered. I don't have real lunch breaks, since my job does not allow me to take a regular break so I eat little bites whenever I get a minute throughout the day. I don't use the microwave at work because my coworkers' meaty dishes explode there all the time, so I haven't had a warm lunch at work for at least six years now. If I bring some leftovers from the previous night, I have to eat them at a room temperature or cold. I got used to it, even though I envy people who have a an hour lunch break and can eat anywhere they like, including a park when the weather is nice.

On a typical work day, my breakfast is almost always a soy yogurt, berries and granola or cereal parfait. I usually use frozen berries that defrost by the time I get to work. They seem to be cheaper and always ready to use, and I don't have to worry that they would go bad unlike fresh berries. For lunch I usually have a sandwich made with Tofurky Deli Slices, or jam and vegan butter. I have a late afternoon snack that is either a granola bar, or a candy bar. My favorite candy bars are Twilight and Jokerz from Go Max Go .

What do you eat at work on a typical day?

A nice addition to my "boring" lunch- a leftover vegan crab cake :-)

When I am not at work, I usually have the same breakfast and lunch like on a work day, or leftovers from previous dinner. Sometimes I feel like cooking lunch so I make something nice, or I eat out. I rarely eat out, but when I do I enjoy it a lot.

My lunch: Recently, I discovered my favorite pizza ever: Tuscan pizza with garlic, sauce, mushrooms, caramelized onions, truffle oil, vegan cheese and fresh thyme from Zpizza . The original Tuscan pizza is made with regular cheese, but I ask for a vegan cheese instead. They use Daiya cheese that stretches and melts perfectly. Unfortunately the closest Zpizza is about an hour away from where I live :-( Too far to get a delivery or to go there often. If I could have that for lunch everyday, I would :-)

My lunch: Orzo pasta salad with peas, caramelized onions, asparagus and walnuts on a bed of raw spinach. The recipe was from an old issue of Vegetarian Times Magazine.

My lunch: Fried rice and baked tofu.

My lunch: Falafel sandwich with dill sauce, leftovers from previous dinner. It actually tastes pretty good cold the next day.

Those were just few of my lunch examples. What do you eat for lunch when you are not working or studying?

Carol J. Adams is a kind-hearted, smart, and talented woman. She is a vegan writer, feminist, animal rights advocate, activist and an author of many books and articles.

Some of her books include: The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook, The Pornography of Meat, The Inner Art of Vegetarianism, Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat: The A-Z Guide to Surviving a Conflict in Diets, and many more.

I have read two of her books: The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, and Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook. Both of these book were very helpful on my vegan journey and I highly recommend them to vegans, vegetarians, anyone who cares about animals and women, and people who are thinking about becoming vegetarians or vegans.

Me and my sister contributed a picture to the newest edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat (Twentieth Anniversary Edition). I had the honor to meet Carol in person at her book signing in Atlanta last year.

Tofurky pizza review-Finally a pizza that you can share with meat-eaters

Until now if I wanted a pizza (other then a home delivered boring cheeseless tomato and bell pepper pizza), I had two options. Either make my own (using veggies and vegan cheese), or buy Amy's Kitchen vegan pizzas. I love Amy's vegan products (such as Mac & Cheese), but I am not a fan of their pizzas. The spinach pizza is weird and the roasted veggie pizza is too sweet for me. Thankfully, Tofurky has teamed up with Daiya to create vegan versions of your pre-vegan days favorite frozen pizzas. I bought the Italian Sausage & Fire-Roasted Veggies on Sunday. The whole wheat pizza crust is quite thin, thinner then most frozen pizzas, but I like it that way. The thin crust is loaded with tons of cute itty bitty pieces of fire-roasted veggies (zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, red bell peppers, poblano peppers, and green bell peppers), Tofurky Italian sausage crumbles, and a nice amount of gooey cheese. The cheese tastes and melts like a regular dairy cheese would. The veggies really do taste like have been fire roasted which gives it almost an authentic Italian Pizzeria taste. It is as if the whole pizza was baked in a fire oven instead of my home electric oven. I am not usually a big fan of Italian sausages, but the sausage crumbles on this pizza were actually pretty good. I cannot wait to try the other Cheese, and Pepperoni & Cheese pizzas. This was a delicious, easy and quick dinner.