Tips for the busy non-cook at VegFest Colorado

Good morning! I bounced out of bed at 4:00 a.m. because I need to pull together boxes of books and cooking demo supplies for VegFest Colorado! We will have a Vegan for Her table for both days of the festival in Golden, CO and I will do a presentation and cooking demo at 12:30 Sunday.

Healthy Food Preparation for the Busy Non-Cook: Tips, Trips and Techniques to Eat a Balanced, Compassionate Diet

Ginny will join me at the Vegan for Her table tomorrow and I plan on pulling her into my demo, which I mentioned in my interview with Westword this week.

In my presentation I like to offer simple ways for people, particularly non-vegans, to add more plants into their diet.  Many people still assume eating vegan is complicated or time-consuming. Here are a few tips I offer:

  • Saute your favorite green in tons of garlic, in either extra virgin olive oil or vegetable broth, for just a few minutes and add almond slivers at the end. It looks like a fancy dish but only takes a few minutes and it’s delicious!
  • Drink your fruit. Yep, I always confess that I’m that vegan that doesn’t entirely love fruit. So I drink smoothies just so that I can toss some fruit in the drink.
  • Not sure how get more beans into your diet? How about a hummus sandwich?
  • Always have one or two grains cooked and ready in your refrigerator. They are terrific to reheat and use as a base in a “hippie bowl”: grains, greens (use the garlic sautéed veggies mentioned above!) and top with canned beans or tofu!
  • Adding nuts and seeds into your diet is easy: peanut butter on a brown rice cake, a dollop of almond butter in a smoothie, pumpkin seeds on a salad, ground flax seeds in your favorite homemade bread.

I’ll share how to make some of my favorite, easy recipes from Vegan for Her.

Easy Recipes in Vegan for Her

If you’re at the VegFest this weekend be sure to stop by the Vegan for Her table to say hi. And join us Sunday at 12:30 when I’ll expand on the tips above, all while making a Creamy Kale Miso Soup (samples available for the first 50 people in the room!), and Ginny will jump in to offer solid nutritional advice as it relates to my tips, as well as the ingredients in the soup.

Ginny and I have all kinds of fun things planned in Colorado over the next five days, detailed here: Vegan for Her to Launch in Colorado. We hope to see you soon!