Potlucking:

Foodscaping my backyard with my sweet, sweet friend Jeremy:

Fermenting! I’m wild about these raw, fermented nut cheeses made with rejuvelac. Incredible:

Can’t wait for the next batch!

—

And now, what you came for: coloring! Hope you enjoy these little veggie valentines. Color, cut, and share with your dearest.

PRINT COLORING SHEET

Happy February, friends! xo

Check out these super-fun videos!

Disco Dancing Penguin Party
Merry Christmas
Happy Chanukah
Mouse Attack!

—

I’m still taking requests for veg/winter themed coloring sheets. Let me know what you’d like to color!

—

Lastly, the limited edition Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice character dolls will no longer be available in 2012. These snuggly friends have had a good run, but the time has come to start making new things (more zines!). Thora, Aksel, Krog, and the Tweeters will be available in the ThoraThinks store until the end of this week.

Farewell, friends!

(making NYE ginger beer!)

making holiday gifts, catching up on reading, spending time with loved ones, gearing up for another animation camp (remember this?), and working on ideas for new coloring zines! You can count on some fun, veg-themed coloring in 2012.   : )

In the meantime I’m taking requests for winter, vegan, holiday, and/or Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice-themed coloring sheets! Wrap yourself in a warm blanket, bust out those colored pencils, and speak up… what do you want to color?

p.s. You can find snowy coloring sheets from last year here, here, and here.

Last week I celebrated November in all of its abundant glory– a creative, collaborative, joyful, farm-fresh, vegan Thanksgiving feast!!! Friends arrived throughout the day, and we worked together to make lentil-pecan-stuffed acorn squash, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato-peanut soup, spicy daikon cakes, kraut, tempeh, chanterelle gravy, fresh bread with rosemary-garlic spread, turnip greens, salad, cranberry sauce, stir-fried broccoli, pumpkin cheezecake, chocolate-peanut butter cookies, whipped cashew cream, wine, hibiscus tea, and even more stuff I’m forgetting! DELICIOUS.

What a celebration! When we choose not to have a turkey on the table, our traditions are not threatened– instead, our celebration becomes more meaningful and full of life.

…and what would Thanksgiving be without Green Friday???

After helping our farmer friends harvest for the CSA, we all feasted on leftovers–

—

Thanks again to all who have supported, endorsed, enjoyed, and COLORED my very first zine, Happy Thanksliving!   This was such a fun project. Your glimmering, shimmering feedback has gotten me totally pumped, and I can assure you that there are more coloring zines to come!

A few bits of Thanksliving lovin’ before we get to the way-too-delicious lemon ice cream recipe.

-Thanks to Marsha at the Institute for Humane Education for her super-supportive review. IHE has also compiled a list of 9 turkey-friendly children’s stories for Thanksgiving. Sweet! (This one also looks promising). I recommend browsing this wonderful site to learn more about IHE’s compassionate work.

-Want your copy of Happy Thanksliving! to arrive before Thanksgiving? Place your order by tomorrow!

-Here’s a fun, new interview!

-Adam Gnade of Microcosm Publishing has put together a vegan recipe zine, entitled Let Gluten-Freedom Ring!  This collaborative cookzine is only $4 at Microcosm and includes my recipe for raw cheesecake balls. Not exactly Thanksgiving-themed, but fun news nonetheless!

-On a glutenous Thanksgiving note, this looks incredible.

—

On to the rich, creamy, tart, sweetness! Yesterday we celebrated a family member’s birthday and his request was lemon ice cream. I stuck with my tried and true cream base– coconut milk and raw cashews– and the rest was so simple and terribly delicious.

A juicy lemon was perfect for this moody November day.

Vegan Lemon Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS
-1 can coconut milk*
-1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least an hour
-1/2 cup liquid sweetener of your choice
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/4 cup + 2 tbs. lemon juice
-1 tbs. lemon zest + more for garnish

*I recommend Native Forrest brand organic coconut milk, because the can is BPA free.

—

Combine all ingredients in high speed blender and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions. Garnish with additional lemon zest. I recommend serving this ice cream with the blackstrap gingersnaps from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. (Or something similarly warm and gingery).

So wonderful! More ice cream here, here and here.

—

I’ll start by saying THANK YOU to all who have shown their support for Happy Thanksliving!. It feels wonderful sending copies all over the country, imagining lots of vibrant, compassionate kiddos reading and coloring. Working on this project has surely ignited my excitement about the holiday, and I hope that Happy Thanksliving!  brightens your celebration as well.

image borrowed from Bonzai Aphrodite

—

*If you want your copies of Happy Thanksliving! delivered before Thanksgiving, place your order by THIS FRIDAY!*  (If your order also includes a hardcover book or dolls, your shipment will take longer to deliver.

—

Want to read what other people are saying about the Happy Thanksliving! coloring zine? Check out these sweet reviews by:

-Your Vegan Mom
-Bonzai Aphrodite
-Little House of Veggies
-The Vegan Mom
-Vegan Crunk
-Our Hen House
-Vegbooks

—

Now let us color!
What would you like to say to a turkey friend?

PRINT COLORING SHEET

—

Love,
Nathalie VB

Thanks to Mariann Sullivan & Jasmin Singer at Our Hen House for their sweet, shimmering review. 
…and their podcast love!

Thanks to Jessica Almy at Vegbooks for her super-supportive review.

Thanks to Microcosm Publishing for naming Happy Thanksliving! as their Featured Awesome Product of the Week.

AND thanks to all who have purchased a copy for a friend, family member, or for themselves. (If you think you’re too old to color, you’re wrong). I’m so thrilled to hear that everyone is enjoying the zine! Wahoo!!!

—

While we’re on the topic of Thanksgiving, I’d love to re-introduce you to these turkey-honoring coloring sheets from last year. They’re pretty fun!

Feeling the turkey love? Head on over to Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey Project and donate $30 to help some feathered friends.

More reviews, turkey-love, and recipes coming soon!

—

Hey everyone! Cheers to the final day of Ingvar’s Vegan MoFo! Today I do not have a recipe. I have something so much better.

Today my new coloring zine, Happy Thanksliving!  is available at ThoraThinks.com! This veg-friendly zine honors turkeys, thankfulness, and fall fruits & veggies in all of their much-deserved glory.  Happy Thanksliving! celebrates the warmth and compassion of the Thanksgiving holiday. It raises questions about turkey eating, the representation of Indigenous tribes, and more. Best of all, it does these things with a fun, rhyming poem and super-sweet drawings that beg to be colored!

Happy Thanksliving! is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. It is bound with thread (rather than staples) for the safety of little ones.  Each page was drawn with tons of love. On the back cover you’ll find topics for further discussion and suggested children’s books containing relevant info. Did I mention that this little zine is full of love? Copies cost $5 each with free domestic shipping. So sharpen your coloring devices (vegan crayons, anyone?) and Check it out!

—

On another note, I couldn’t possibly post today without giving a Happy Halloween shout-out! I hope you all have a fantastic time dressing up, gettin’ spooky, and eating sweet things. I hosted a costume party this weekend and had SO MUCH FUN dancing the night away with a slug, a butterfly, a tree, a tide pool, a vampire squid, a very impressive Edward Scissorhands, monsters, zombies, anarchists, hispsters, cross-dressers, witches, and more! This year I made an angler fish costume because they are ridiculously awesome. I’d love to hear about your costumes, too! Ahhhhh, Halloween is just the best.

Halloween coloring sheets here & here   : )

—

Thanks to all who have participated in Vegan MoFo this month! I have had a great time posting, and have really enjoyed seeing all of the gorgeous food my fellow vegans are sharing on the web. More to come soon,

Nathalie VB

Congratulations to Kevin from Raleigh, NC! You’ve won this week’s book giveaway!

Ingvar loves this crunchy October salad! I hear you, Ingvar. I love it too!

…more tomorrow. : )

Yesterday at the post office I stood in line next to a guy whose right eye was red like mine. He said he noticed my Ohio license plate. He’s from Michigan. It was quickly established that (like just about everyone who moves to Nashville from someplace north/east/west) we are both allergic to this place! Ayayay.

I’ll skip the part where I complain about how yucky I’m feeling and go straight to the good stuff. I feel so lucky to have herbalist, doctor, midwife, and other wellness-friends here who are happy to help out when I need some guidance. I called up my dearest Heather (experienced doula, nurse-midwife-in-training, and daughter of an herbalist/naturopathic doctor… what a resource!) to ask what she recommends for relieving environmental allergy symptoms. Other than using my neti pot, I didn’t really know what to do. Since many of us deal with allergies this time of year, I want to share some of Heather’s insights with you…

Here are some allergy relief suggestions:

Allergies occur when the body’s immune system treats a harmless substance (such as pollen) as if it’s toxic. The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal suggests a regular daily intake of vitamin C to support optimal immunity and prevent/treat the haywire activity that occurs in the body and results in the allergic reaction. I’d suggest 500-1000mg of vitamin C daily. For reference, one orange = 70mg, one medium tomato = 23mg, cup of kale = 80mg (!!!!!), cup of parsley = 79mg vitamin C. A good vitamin C supplement (with bioflavonoids) may help you achieve the recommended amount.

The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal also recommends using Elderberry. This makes sense to me, because Elderberry is a premier immune tonic. Tincture or syrup are the best preparations.

Garlic, garlic, garlic. The Green Pharmacy recommends Garlic because of its high concentration of quercetin, a compound that retards inflammatory reactions. I’d suggest several cloves garlic daily, preferably raw.

Nettle is another plant The Green Pharmacy recommends for allergy relief. As well, Herbal Healing for Women includes it for hayfever treatment. I can attest to its power wholeheartedly. The dried leaves are used to make a strong tea (known as an infusion) of 1 part Nettle to 8 parts water steeped covered for 4-8 hours. The tea turns dark brown and should be strained at the end of steeping and stored in the fridge until being used. I fill a quart-sized mason jar with 1-2 inches plant material and cover it with almost boiling water. Drinking a quart a day seems to be an effective dose. Alternatively, freeze-dried Nettle leaves in capsule form seem to be quite helpful for many folks. Both the dried leaves and capsules can be found at Whole Foods. I get my Nettle from Mountain Rose Herbs

Ingvar with nettle leaves

Chamomile is also suggested by The Green Pharmacy. It contains compounds that are anti-histamine (histamine is what the immune system produces that causes inflammation) and anti-allergic. Drink it as a tea and massage the diluted essential oil on itchy places of the skin.

(follow up)
Doing some more research, I’ve found that many folks encourage higher doses of vitamin C than I suggested…anywhere from 3000-5000mg/day, with the dosage split and spaced in even intervals several times daily. Also, Magnesium is a natural antihistamine…400-800mg/day seems to be the common dose. Parsley seems to have some antihistamine properties, too…I’d suggest making a strong pesto and incorporating several heaping tbsp into your meals. Finally, Reishi mushrooms are touted as a plant remedy for allergies…a compound in the mushroom called Lanostan appears to inhibit the release of histamine. They also happen to be a wonderful adaptogen, and thereby offer general support for the adrenal glands and immune system. I think Mountain Rose has Reishi…like any tonifying plant, effects are generally seen after taking the plant for a period of time…immediate results are less common than those appearing after several weeks.

THANK YOU, Heather! If anyone else has suggestions for folks with seasonal allergies, please feel free to share! In the meantime, here’s a very tasty recipe for parsley pesto. Gotta get that vitamin C. YUM!

Parsley Pesto
INGREDIENTS

-1/2 lb. fresh parsley, rinsed and drained
-1/2 c. olive oil
-1/2 c. hemp seeds
-4 cloves garlic
-1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
-1 tsp. sea salt
-1 tsp. nutritional yeast
-1/2 c. water

Combine oil, hemp seeds, garlic, salt, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast in food processor and blend well. Slowly add parsley and continue to blend. Scrape down the sides of the food processor to incorporate all ingredients, and add water as needed to create a smooth, creamy spread. This is delicious enough to eat on its own, or serve with… well, pretty much anything!  Store in the fridge in the sealed container.

served with balsamic-rosemary tempeh, quinoa, and a mizuna/arugula salad

—