Have you missed me???

Well hello there, you've been wondering where I've been haven't you? I've been here, right here in my kitchen all this time. Right here cooking up a storm. Right here where you'd expect me to be, cooking all sorts of things I've been dying to blog about.

So, why the lack of food posting lately, you are no doubt asking yourself.......right? Well, as badly as you want to know where I've been, I've wanted to tell you even more!! Waiting to tell you has surely been slow and brutal torture.

Without further ado, the reason for my absence...................................The Happy Herbivore is developing a cookbook that will be published and available for your purchase in about a year!! OK, you're really confused now, right? All of this build up and excitement over someone else developing a cookbook, crazy, no? So what, right? Well, as a matter of fact, this cookbook truly is exciting for me. Exciting you see, because she's asked me to be a recipe tester for her. Yeah, that's right, me a recipe tester!!! Along with a few others I get a first glimpse and a first taste of the recipes that will be included.

I've been a fan of the Happy Herbivore blog for quite some time now and I finally "met" Lindsay (aka Happy Herbivore) on Twitter a few months ago. Not long after that we became cyber-friends, we learned that we had a lot in common when it comes to our ideas about food and veganism, and shortly after that she approached me to test recipes for a cookbook she was hoping to have published. And now it's official, she's made a deal and the cookbook will hit shelves in just about a year.

This cookbook is going to knock your socks off. Lindsay cooks real food for real people, using real ingredients that you can easily find at any well stocked market. Lindsay's recipes use whole foods, whole grains, and include little to no added fat. It's good food you can feel good about.

So, there you have it. I've been here, right here in my kitchen cooking up a storm. Now that it's official I can finally share with you!!! I'll leave you with just a few photos of what's been cooking in this test kitchen...................

Sloppy Joes

Baked Onion Rings

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(low fat, whole wheat, and all of the flavor of it's full fat cousin)

For more sneak peeks at what the testers have been cooking up, check out the flickr pool.

Adopt A Turkey

Say hello to Rhonda and Hawthorn. These beautiful birdies are the the gobblers we adopted through Farm Sanctuary's Adopt a Turkey Program. This year I let the girls view the pictures and quotes from each of the Turkey's and these were the favorites.

For just $25 you too can Adopt a Turkey and help care for the rescued animals at Farm Sanctuary locations. You can even gift these turkeys. The recipient will receive an adoption certificate with their turkey's name, the sanctuary they reside at, and the personality of their turkey.

According to the USDA more than 45 million turkeys will be cooked and eaten in the United States during Thanksgiving. Help reduce that number, celebrate Thanksgiving the vegan way.


Turkey's that are raised for food are raised under horrible, unnatural conditions, crammed so tightly into their living space that they can hardly move. Because they can't move and are deprived of their natural behavior, the tend to peck one another, leading to a horrific practice of cutting off their beaks with a hot blade, known as debeaking, so they will not be able to peck at one another. These birds are also produced to grow so large that their legs can not carry the weight of their bodies. For more information on how turkeys raised for food are treated visit this link.

Keep your holiday table cruelty free this year. Let your meal celebrating thanks represent your values, create a plant based Thanksgiving, spare a turkey, and donate instead to the cause of offering life to those who have been rescued.