Thoughts About A Cookbook

Lately I've been thinking a lot about writing a cookbook...or perhaps I should call it a bakebook.  But see, that's the thing.  I can't decide what my "angle" should be.  Here are my current thoughts, going in order of my leanings towards.

1.  Solely baked goods (working title: Vegan with a Cherry on Top).
2.  Everthang (working title: Vegan This!).
3.  Quick and simple recipes, using very few ingredients (working title: The Whole Vegan).

Soooo those are my ideas.  And I would like your input!!

Now, for this week in food.  A sad thing has happened.  Vegan Delights is no longer available at my work.  I don't know what happened but people stopped buying and I had to pull out.  After all, I need money to but ingredients to make my delights!  I am going to instead dive headfirst into baking right now, not worrying about what "might sell" or what will be easy to package.  I'm just going to bake what I want to!  I am looking at it as welcome reprieve (although I did get a lot of enjoyment from seeing people enjoy my goodies and, believe me, I enjoyed the extra flow of cash income).

But that is the past!  And as yoga teaches, nothing is permanent--good or bad.  This too will change.  And I don't say that (or type, rather) idly.  I sincerely believe it.

With all the free time I've acquired since I've stopped baking, packaging and preparing goodies to bring in to work, I've had to think of other healthy (subjective) ways to fill my time.

Okay, I realize this is probably not the image one would be expecting as I segue into healthy ways I spend my time, but it is!  Yesterday and the day before I went to visit my grandpa's grave because the weather was beautiful and I like the drive.  With the beautiful weather we've been having I thought it would be nice to plant some flowers around his headstone.  So see?  Good, old-fashioned, healthy gardening!

I thought up an easily transportable lunch, put it in a Whole Foods bag, and was on my merry little way.  When I was making my lunch I was thinking of other cook/bakebook ideas and how it would be nice to have a cookbook (and I know some exist) that cater to on-the-go vegans.  Not every vegan can spend an hour--or more!--preparing dishes and my lunch was so easy, quick and still totally satisfying that I thought, Hey!  Another cookbook angle!

The lunch I whipped--literally whipped, it was so fast--was raw pad thai.  I did not start making my lunch with the intention of making a raw meal, it just so happens that those are faster to make!  This lunch rocked my socks (sorry, but that phrase just seemed right) and all it consisted of was: 

-  Kelp noodles

-  Carrot ribbons (using a veggie peeler)

-  Crushed peanuts

-  Sauce (a quick mixture of oil, tamari, lemon juice, tamarind, garlic chili paste, to taste)

I didn't measure out my sauce ingredients; I just made something that tasted good to me and that is the wonderful thing about cooking!  Although this meal didn't really require any "cooking," in the technical sense, you get my drift.

So, dig, dig, dig, weed, weed, weed.  I prepared a little area in front of the grave where I would plant my flowers.  The next day I returned and gave the headstone a total makeover! 

Look how close some random person was buried by my grandpa!

And again I brought a lunch with me to the site!  Super quick and easy collard wrap with avocado, mango, Dijon mustard, arugala and romaine.  Yum! 

I think this wrap's ingredients are my favorite.  I could probably eat it every day...or at least every other day.

I dedicate this post to my grandpa, Donald R. Vanderbrook.