Gluten-Free Gets Gorgeous!

Our March meeting went off without a hitch at our new location! Frederick's "The Loft," was a beautiful location and felt like we were eating in a real restaurant. Of course, all the delicious food really made the feeling complete!
Our topics this month was gluten-free living, with Shirley Braden, the leader of the King George Celiac and Gluten Intolerance Group. She demonstrated how eating gluten free is easy if you take a "real food" approach. We had a plethora of natural, gorgeous, gluten-free dishes at our meeting. Check them out! (Seen above - Bob's Rosemary Focacia bread - not gluten-free but a must-have at every Veg Group Meeting!)

Winner of "The most beautiful dish" award went to this Persian sweet rice dish, in honor of International Women's Day (March 8th, actually) and the Persian new year (Nawrooz - March 21st). The saffron and caramelized nuts made it pop!







There were two beautiful salads with gluten-free dressings on hand. This one had fresh pears in a slightly sweet dressing. Yum!










These peanut butter (?) chocolate chip cookies were vegan and gluten free!












A hot pasta tossed with tomatoes and peas!













Lentils with Maple Syrup - a stew with potatoes, tomato paste, carrots, onion, garlic and spices! Made with Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce, which often contains wheat.














This chickpea-eggplant bake was a big hit!



















These curried carrots and kale were another popular dish - in a beautiful serving dish as well!















Couscous is not gluten free, as it is actually a tiny pasta, but it certainly is vegan! What a springlike dish!

















This Chickpea-Tomato curry is a beautiful example of a hearty winter dish!
















Quinoa is a popular gluten-free grain, which contains all the amino acids, making it a complete protein. Easy to cook and work with, it is often paired with black beans, as seen in this yummy dish!








This crockpot was bursting to the seams with stewed beans and onions - yum!













Baked Beans are always a popular dish!














Halvah is a traditional Turkish dessert. A fudge made with tahini and pistachio!












And last but not least, amazingly delicious raw onion crackers from our resident raw foodist. Speaking of which, Roland will be next month's guest speaker! Join us on Saturday, April 4th, 11:30-1:00 (please be prompt!), to learn about eating raw foods, including juicing and dehydrating. There are links to raw food information on the side of this blog. Here's the newsletter block, describing our next event:

It’s Raw-some!

As spring has finally arrived, many of us are digging into our gardens, checking out the farmer’s markets, or looking forward to the first produce from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). But how to cook so many fruits and veggies? Well, what about not cooking them at all?

On Saturday, April 4^th, from 11:30-1:00, Roland Hermann will share the benefits of a raw food diet for our monthly potluck meeting. As a 25-year veteran of the restaurant business, including co-creating and running a juice concept, Roland has been juicing for over 15 years and eating raw for 2-3 years. He will discuss the health aspects of juicing and raw foods as well as his new interest, Bio-dynamic wine. Roland will bring a juicer, dehydrator, and other equipment commonly used by raw foodists. Proponents of this lifestyle state that cooking alters and depletes the enzymes in food, thereby decreasing the amount of nutrients absorbed and forcing the body to work harder during digestion. So, plan on leaving our meeting, feeling lighter, happier, and healthier . . . just in time for spring!

As always, we encourage members and visitors to bring their own place settings, although we always have extras on hand! Donations are accepted in lieu of potluck vegetarian or vegan dishes. In honor of our speaker, we encourage raw dishes! Check out http://www.rawfoods.com/recipes/ to start. Please remember our location change! Frederick Heller, of Frederick’s restaurant on Princess Anne St. in downtown Fredericksburg (across the street from Hyperion), has graciously offered his Loft above Frederick’s for our meetings!

Gluten-Free at The Loft

Next meeting! This Saturday, March 7th, 11:30-1:00, at The Loft, Princess Anne Street, downtown Fredericksburg.

With March ushering in National Nutrition Month, the Vegetarian Group will be hosting a speaker this month on the topics of celiac disease, gluten intolerance and gluten free living. Eating low gluten or gluten free diets can actually be a way to focus on more natural, healthy foods. Shirley Braden, the leader of the King George Celiac and Gluten Intolerance Group, will discuss how eating gluten free is easy if you take this “real food” approach. Shirley has been gluten free since 2003 and believes that many health issues can be resolved by taking gluten out of our diets. To learn more about this guest speaker and find some recipes, visit her website, Gluten Free Easily, at http://glutenfreeeasily.com.

Because so many members of our Veg Group and even the Fellowship are finding that they have gluten sensitivities, we always welcome gluten-free dishes at our monthly potluck meetings. However, because of this month’s topic, we encourage everyone to try to make a gluten-free dish to share! Two other websites of interest include www.eatright.org, where you can find a celiac and vegetarian friendly registered dietitian in our area, and www.vegiac.com, an online vegetarian and vegan celiac disease community.

As always, we encourage members and visitors to bring their own place settings (so we don’t have paper or plastic waste), although we always have extras on hand! Donations are accepted in lieu of potluck vegetarian or vegan dishes. Please note our location change! Frederick Heller, of Frederick’s restaurant on Princess Anne Street in downtown Fredericksburg (just a short distance from the old Fellowship and across the street from Hyperion) has graciously offered his Loft above Frederick’s for our meetings! Meet us upstairs at 11:30-1:00 for a delicious and informative time! Wondering what to bring? Read on for some ideas!

The UUFF celebrated the beginning of its annual pledge campaign this year with the Gourmet Gala, an evening of food, friendship and fun! Each table was headed by two hosts, who coordinated the potluck dishes for their table within a theme. This table was the vegan, gluten-free one (one of several vegetarian ones that night) with a Mediterranean theme and what a spread we had! Homemade hummus and gluten-free crackers (especially Mary's Gone Crackers) started us off, along with a Greek Salad.

Roasted, sauteed and spiced veggies accompanied a Mediterranean stew and a North African one (flavored with peanut butter - yum!) along with perfect rice, iced tea, dried dates and almonds, and fresh fruit.





Of course, you can't have a great meal without a great dessert! Gluten-free desserts can be difficult, but, like vegan desserts- they just require some label-reading, substitutions, and extra thought.

This pistachio-chocolate halvah (a Turkish fudge featuring tahini) was a sweet ending to the night, as was the dessert pictured above and here...


A gorgeous (gluten-free, vegan, of course!) chocolate cake, topped with fresh raspberries. Wow!! Everyone kept stopping by our table to admire our desserts. Next year, I envision more competition to be seated at this table!









A Greek Currant Cake, made with lots of extra-virgin olive oil (I refuse to use Rachel Ray's acronym - ugh), was also made gluten free with a gluten-free flour mix by Bob's Red Mill. It is readily available at most local grocery stores now.






Here are some beautiful roasted veggies from our January meeting....
















As stated above, remember that our new location for our monthly Veg Group meetings will now be held at The Loft, above Frederick's in downtown Fredericksburg. Frederick Heller, owner of both establishments, is eager to create a new menu of vegan, gluten-free and healthier options and has offered his space for the next year of Veg Group meetings, as our own fellowship building is being constructed. I leave you with a shot of that North African stew - come with an empty stomach and open mind!

Diet for a New America

Yum! Check out N's gorgeous and delicious vegan baklava-like treats! She did it without a recipe, of course. What a great way to start the new year for our Veg Group! We are in our fourth year and growing every month!

To celebrate, this past meeting (January) we showed the film that was shown at the first meeting: Diet for a New America, by John Robbins (follow the link to learn more about John and his current work - several people were curious about what he's doing now, as the film is somewhat dated). Interesting enough, the information and data in the film are still all accurate (although I'm sure the statistics on health and the environment have worsened) and it's scary to think that we've had this information for two decades and done so little with it. At any rate, it was a good refresher for our group - to remember what it is we stand for, and why. It even helped some of us commit to a vegan diet for the first time!
We had a plethora of amazing dishes this time around - and many were gluten-free. This was a beautiful tofu and rice dish. Look at that presentation!










We know how good our greens are for us, and we love them, too! Thanks for this delish spinach and strawberry salad!












This spicy peanut stew was another gluten-free hit with rice!















Roasted veggies are always welcomed in the winter!


















Another rice stew, this one with some peas and green onions. Mmmmm....













Rasta Rice and Beans, from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook
















Black beans are a great source of iron!


















You'd never guess that these B.J.'s chocolate cups are gluten-free and vegan! So is the vanilla pudding inside. Who says vegan desserts aren't good?
















Potato pancakes hit the spot!

















We all need our Vitamin C during these dark months - fresh fruit hits the spot!














A chickpea stew rounds out the hot meals.












Candy-cane flavored "Oreos" (Joe-Joe's - Trader Joe's brand) are vegan!
















A bean salad makes everyone happy!

See you next month (February 7th) at 11:30 at the downtown library (where we'll be from now on)! Our speaker will be a local nutritionist. We'll be in the small room off of the main meeting room from now on, as well. Don't forget to bring a veggie/vegan dish or donation, AND a plate, utensil and cup if possible!

Sweets to the Sweet!

It was a presentation of treats that rounded out the 2008 year of the UUFF Veg Group! I was lucky enough to be the presenter this time, with tips on how to veganize your desserts, from replacing eggs to swapping out dairy products. With general baking tips and cool cooking implements, everyone was ready for the holiday baking season! (Thanks to everyone for being kind despite my nerves!)

Here are the Peanut Butter Chocolate No Bakes from The Joy of Vegan Baking, which didn't last long....(all recipes will be on the wiki, remember?). This is a great book overall, with recipes from bar cookies to biscotti to pies! But these particular gluten-free (vegan) treats are certainly the easiest (although not the lightest!) treats in the bunch.

Also tempting palates were the Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies, from Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romano (also authors of Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). You can't taste the blueberries much but they definitely are fudgy!
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take a picture of the Sparkle Ginger Cookies, from Vegan with a Vengeance, because they were gone so quickly! The last sweet was a veganized box mix of spice cake from Duncan Hines. Nothing easier than subbing Ener-G-Egg replacer for the eggs! You can even find vegan canned icing, if you so choose, right on the supermarket shelves.

Other members brought equally enthralling delights for our potluck. Featured here, organic chocolate chip cookies from Nature's Path. Perfect and pretty!















Another sweet treat: an apple-fruit bake! A great, warm dish to say good-bye to fall.












A warm salad of greens and turnips says hello to winter!












One of the favs of the day: a sesame noodle salad brought by a brand new visitor. Beautiful presentation! (recipe on the wiki!)











You can never get enough greens! A salad with dried fruit and nuts rounds out the meal.











Warm casseroles of rice and veggies are always hearty and popular!












What is more comforting than a dish of pasta and sauce? Ummm.....













And of course, no Veg Group meeting is complete without Bob's rosemary bread....
I apologize for not having everyone's dishes photographed! Presenting and eating and talking make it a bit difficult - I'll do better next time! Speaking of which, we'll see you in the new year, with a viewing of Diet for a New America, by John Robbins. This incredible film is credited with changing many of our own members' lives (turning them veggie or just opening their eyes to their health and the food industry). Join us in our new location at the downtown Central Rappahannock Regional Library's headquarters building, practically next door to the UUF (which we are saying goodbye to as we move to new digs!). Same time (11:30-1), same great people, and more great food! See you in 2009!

November Feast!

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early this year, with our own holiday meal, vegetarian-style, of course! The presenters this month were five Veg Group members who veganized (or made vegetarian) traditional Thanksgiving dishes or ones that were family favorites.

First up was this beautiful homemade stuffing, made just this morning with real bread cubes (toasted) and a variety of other seasonings, spices and fruits. Delicious! This was presented after a discussion of the "unsavory" ingredients typically found in a bag of ready-to-make store bought stuffing. The member who made this also brought two Quorn meat-less rolls for us to try (vegetarian, not vegan), which were quite a hit for their meat-like texture. (I forgot to get a photo of them - sorry!)

The second presenter is famous for her "off the cuff" dishes, which always amaze us. This time, she described how she caramelized onions as the base for this dish using wild rice and barley. She typically adds whatever other leftovers she has around when she is cooking at home, such as chickpeas. Slivered almonds were later scattered across the surface for a beautiful display.


The third presenter talked about her father's famous potato salad, and how everyone always begged him to make it every year. Thankfully for them, he always relented! Here is her version of a German potato salad, with far less mayonnaise (Nayonnaise, this time) than her father might have used. Fresh and comforting!





The fourth presenter, a certified chef and local restaurant owner, brought in this dish to share: an apple-flavored stuffing. Soft and creamy! There was plenty to go around! She discussed how she had grown up avoiding meat at Thanksgiving anyway, and we all agreed that side dishes are the best part of any holiday meal!











The fifth and final presenter ended the sharing time with desserts, of course! Here is her Nana's famous apple crisp. The recipe is direct from the school cafeteria where she used to work (although cut down in size!).










She also presented her Nana's easy peanut butter-chocolate no-bake cookies. In fifteen minutes, with no special ingredients, these can be in your mouth (I mean, on your plate) and ready to take to your next holiday gathering!







Of course, all the other Veg Group members (and some newbies - welcome!!) brought their special dishes, too. Everything was devoured!

Here is a rice, bean and corn dish, comforting on a cold fall day!






This rice dish (we make a lot of rice dishes because we have several Celiac members) had a twist of dried fruit and diced veggies.











Our raw foodist of the group brought an amazingly creamy zucchini dip. We can't wait to see what he'll make when he presents in April!










Butternut squash is a fall favorite at many Thanksgiving meals. Mixed with a little sweetener and chili powder, this was another perfect dish!










What would our meals be without Bob's famous rosemary focaccia bread?












A bright and cheery beet salad/slaw gave us fiber and vitamins with every crunchy bite!












A bean and pepper salad was a cool contrast to the other warm dishes.












Of course, what would a feast be without a salad and homemade salad dressing?





(I apologize if I missed taking photos of anyone's dish! I really tried to get them all.)





Then, we all chowed down. See you next month for a presentation on vegan desserts! (N.B. - we may be meeting on the second Saturday in December (the 13th), instead of the first. We'll keep you posted!).

Happily absent was the ubiquitous turkey. Perhaps she was wandering around Farm Sanctuary?