Earth Day may fall on April 22nd this year, but I think we would all love to make some Earth Day resolutions that last throughout the year. Since food is always forefront on my mind, one of the first things I began thinking about was eating conciously.  Sure, I do okay, but I could certainly do much better. In fact, there are a few books that I am planning to give a first or second look. Two are cookbooks that focus on eating seasonally, Local Bounty and The Veggie Queen. Their recipes are vegetable and fruit-centric (and delicious I might add!), and the chapters are divided by season. Eating seasonally will not only yield tastier results (have you ever had an out of season strawberry? bleh!), but seasonal produce is often grown closer to home, requiring less travel, less energy, less pollution, etc. to get to your plate.

For overall awareness of how what we eat affects the environment, I found Grub by by Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry (he also has a new cookbook out, Vegan Soul Kitchen) to be an encouraging eye opener. And though I haven't yet read Food Matters by Mark Bittman, I plan to for my first Earth Day resolution.

It's the weekend and you deserve something special. Something that you may not have time to make on those hurried weekday mornings. Perhaps a stack of fluffy pancakes or a savory "egg" dish will do? Yes, I just put the word egg in quotes. That's because I have two brunch recipes to share from the April issue of The Vegan Culinary Experience, a free online eMagazine (see their website to subscribe). Both recipes are dairy-free, egg-free, and meat-free (okay, I don't know of any breakfast pancake recipes that call for meat anyway), and generally lower in fat than their non-vegan counterparts ... yet equally flavorful and delicious. The best part is, these recipes aren't overly fancy. In fact, you may just have all of the ingredients on hand to whip them up right this very minute. So go ahead, indulge ...

Is there such a thing as too much broccoli? No seriously. The fact that I ate half a pound of broccoli in one sitting doesn’t indicate that I have a problem does it?  Perhaps I have a slight love for those little green trees, or perhaps this recipe for Sautéed Lemon-Garlic Broccoli(ni) was just too darn good.

While broccoli may not seem adventurous to some, I really hadn’t ventured beyond steamed and sprinkled with salt, so a new flavor or two was in order. It was my first recipe from Ms. Ina [aka the Barefoot Contessa], and she definitely did not let me down. Of course, I made a few little changes to the recipe to make it my own and to keep it dairy-free. I also found, that if you wanted to go lower in fat, you should be able to get away with just a wee bit less oil …

From scratch is (almost) always better, but sometimes baking from a mix offers a nice break and a quick dessert when you just don't feel like the hassle. So when Kathy at WNY Food Allergy Connection was kind enough to email her tested recipe for making egg-free, dairy-free brownies from a mix, I thought it suitable to dedicate a post to brownie mixes for special diets and include her recipe.

For starters, what mixes can you buy? Many brands contain milk in the ingredients, so reading labels is essential (that includes double checking the brands I list here, just in case the ingredients or processes have changed!). If you want to go dairy-free, egg-free, and most other allergens-free without the concern of a special recipe, I recommend giving Cherrybrook Kitchen a whirl. Cherrybrook runs a dairy, egg, and nut-free kitchen, and they offer both a regular and gluten-free mix. However, if you want to pick a more mainstream brand off the shelves at your local grocer, you do have a few options ...

Every Tuesday we will feature a review from our Dairy-Free Library. This week’s selection is Vegetarian Times Fast and Easy: Great Food You Can Make in Minutes from the Editors of Vegetarian Times Magazine (reviewed by jae steele, author of Get It Ripe). Note that this is not a completely dairy-free publication, but we found it to be dairy-free and vegan-friendly - I was attracted to this book as soon as I saw the cover. To me it says warm, simple, vegetabley - just what I love in a cookbook. Vegetarian Times magazine has been around for more than 30 years. And this is the latest in a small handful of books they've published over the years.

So, what do you do on a Friday night? Well, I bake Cinnamon Buns … half way. You see, all of those recipes that require you to make cinnamon buns from scratch in the morning seem ridiculous. I am hungry in the morning! I don’t want to wait for dough prep and two whole rising times before I can sink my teeth into those babies. No, a little forethought is in order, whether for a voracious appetite or a special occasion (such as a busy Easter brunch).

As it happened, I was out of eggs. So these Cinnamon Rolls are also vegan (dairy-free, egg-free, and optionally soy-free), but don’t let that fool you, they are incredibly tender and delicious. You won’t know the difference between these and those fluffy store-bought cinnamon rolls. In fact, my husband swore that these were much better. As verified by the quantity he ate before I could even take a picture!