vegoftheweek

Inside The Oven: No, it’s what’s inside my breakfast collection this week. Week Links: Did you celebrate National Hug a Vegetarian Day? A KFC reason to move to Canada?

Every so often, I like to let readers take a peek at the most private and intimate parts of my life-yes, that’s right, my freezer, refrigerator, spice rack, and much more!

It’s just another way I hope to bring you some ideas for meals, snacks and hopefully, to break the monotony. This week it’s what I eat for breakfast. Staring from the far left:

Van’s Organic Blueberry Waffles:
Vegan. 5 grams of protein. 4 grams of fiber. These stats are starting to turn this into a personal’s ad. Looking for someone to smear vegan butter over it and drizzle hot organic maple syrup in every crevice. Whoa…almost too hot to publish.

Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Cooking Oats:
You should really take a trip to the Red Mill one day. It’s rife with wholesome, mostly organic items from gluten-free to cornmeal and flour to lentil soup to mixes for muffins and other sweets. The Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats are pleasurable for any meal and I’ve had “dinner oatmeal,” on several occasions.

Silk Coffee:
Silk Soy Products have really come a long way. It looks like “coffee,” is cropped in this pic. Think vegan Starbucks Frappuccino: a coffee flavored creamy drink sans dairy. I seriously think this should be used in a switch and swap test. As a former Frappuccino drinker, this brought back memories. Starbucks and other caffeine junkies will be too satisfied to realize the difference.

Nature’s Path Peanut Butter Granola:
I once saw cold cereal as a waste, sticking to protein bars or oatmeal. It seemed pointless to eat the empty sugary calories of most traditional cereals, then again, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the high fiber, oat and grain filled, “Mother’s Bran,” you normally think of you grandparents eating to assist with their…um…routine bodily functions.

That changed after I tried Nature’s Path Peanut Butter Granola cereal. My preferred soymilk of choice to let this granola swim is Silk Vanilla. Incidentally, this brand of cereal is the same that one of PETA’s cutest of 2008 likes, although he favors the hemp variety. My logic: One of PETA’s cutest likes Nature’s Path. I like Nature’s Path. Therefore, that automatically makes me one of the cutest too. Mathematicians, I know you have a formula that backs this up.

What else do I eat in the early morning hour? Learn how you can have Pina Colada for breakfast after the break…

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Awhile back, I told you how I was rooting for my favorite protein bar to cross the finish line. But Amelia Kirchoff (right) and her daughter Jolanta Sonkin (left) have already won several races. Amelia beat cancer and both women have a successful macrobiotic food business that started in Amelia’s kitchen. And amazingly, the only real “horror” story, so far, is a burned cookie here and there.

On How Go Macro Got Started:
Amelia: It was really the fact that I got breast cancer. At the time, I was very concerned and Jola had an aunt that had lymphoma and it had been diagnosed as a terminal cancer. And she had been told she only had six months to live. She went on a macrobiotic diet and has been doing great. And it’s been at least 10 years now. So that was a great incentive for me. And I went on a macrobiotic diet at the time as well and later when I got better I started to make desserts-macrobiotic desserts because really there was nothing available.
Jola: My mom wasn’t just making them to start a business. It was my husband who suggested that, “These are so good, you guys should sell them.” It was so random. Who would have thought we’d be here with this company. I said, “Mom will you make a batch of these. I’m going to try to sell them to my local health food store. She made me a batch and we wrapped them in Saran Wrap. We printed up these labels-I just typed up labels and pasted them on the back and went to the local health food store in Downtown Chicago.

On The Challenges Of A Self Owned Business:
Amelia: I can’t think of any real horror stories, other than of course we have thrown out batches. And still do occasionally. Not every batch turns out well. I think Whole Foods told us our first packaging looked washed out. So that was a bit of a disappointment (laughs). But we got new packaging.
Jola: And there was the one issue of gluten-free (testing) and it forced us to invest in gluten-free testing products.
Amelia: We used one testing procedure and we had to change to a different one. We learn as we go along.
Jola: I think there’s been challenges along the way like any business…Everything that happens, really it’s been a positive thing for us because it’s forced us to improve.

What They’ve Eaten For The Week:
Amelia: Years ago, I always used to like Beef Stroganoff. And there was a recipe for something similar using tempeh and several different types of mushrooms. It was a vegan sour cream for the sauce. And some spices.
Jola: Seitan Pear Pie. But not a sweet pie. It was made with wild rice, dried cherries-the pears were on top. The seitan was mixed in with the wild rice and dried cherries. Some brown rice syrup-those are the main ingredients.

Learn what Amelia and Jolanta wouldn’t mind eating over and over again after the break… (more…)

Co-Founder of Go Macro Amelia Kirchoff switched to a macrobiotic diet after being diagnosed with breast cancer. After declaring victory over cancer, she was convinced her diet helped her cross the finish line and began creating macrobiotic sweets with ingredients grown on her own organic farm. When I bit into my favorite, the experience reminded me of eating peanut butter balls as a child. Read more about peanut butter chocolate chip Macro Bar, Macro Treat of the Month Club, other Macro Bars and Macro Treats available through Go Macro after the break... (more...)