Vegan by Valerie

Mexican Chocolate-Covered Edamame

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Happy Monday! I have a feeling it’s going go be a great week   This post is going to be a bit random… first I want to share a brief Operation Beautiful-related musing, then I have some pictures from the weekend, and then a recipe.

So, I hate to admit this, but today I was watching MTV.  That’s my first confession of guilt.  I never watch MTV, but nothing else was on this morning so I stumbled onto one of the Fat Camp reality shows.

Wow… I was blown away with how sad I felt watching the adolescents talk about how much they hated their bodies and how they looked.  Even worse, only a couple of them were what I would even consider to be overweight!!  Here is the before and after picture of one of the campers (I’m still trying to figure out how to rotate pictures taken from my iPhone – any tips on this?)

As you can see, she was never fat to begin with!!!!!! Not only was I pretty repulsed by the fact that she thought she was grossly overweight before, but her parents must have also supported this ludicrous idea.  In addition, the camp let her in (despite being of a healthy body size) and every week at the weigh-in the camp director verbally berated her (and others) for not trying hard enough.

For the first time, it really drove home to me how annoying it is to listen to someone talk about how fat they are – especially when they are not, according to medical standards, fat!

Though I know it will be hard, I’m going to make a concerted effort to personally stop fat talk, both to myself and to other people.  When a ‘fat talk’ comment drifts into my head, I’m going to do my best to let it float off on a pretty, white fluffy cloud. Ok, so it might not be that easy, but I’m going to give it my best shot

***

Weekend recap: Friday we went to a Girls on the Run bar fundraiser for two of our friends who are running the Chicago Marathon for the GOTR program.

Saturday I met up with my mom and grandma at the Aquarium – we didn’t see the bigger animal exhibits (dolphins, etc) but saw a lot of adorable little fish!

Lunch was at Flattop Grill, and I thoroughly enjoyed the unlimited stirfry buffet after running 10 miles that morning!

After lunch we walked by one of the scenes from the Transformers 3 movie they are currently filming in Chicago (the picture is of a car covered in debris when a ‘building’ fell onto it.)

Sunday was another lovely day.  After morning yoga and gym time, I got a haircut and spent the next few hours at the Barnes & Noble across the street – aka, my favorite passtime ever. The last time I saw Jenn she recommended this book, and I’m slowly but surely reading it 100 pages at a time, each time I go to a bookstore.  I definitely recommend it – very riveting!  I also drank a delicious coconut green tea – very good!

For dinner, I met up with Mike and some friends at Resdad Thai in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. The vegetable spring rolls with peanut sauce were great, but my main dish (a massaman curry) was too spicy, even though I requested that it be made very mild!

And here’s a mini-recipe, like I promised you.

I remember years ago, back before I was a vegan and when I used to use other people’s recipes, I found a recipe for Emeril’s Mexican chocolate spiced cake, or something like that.  I thought it was very fun and new-agey, although Mike’s family thought it was pretty weird to put cayenne pepper in a cake!

Fast forward to 2010, when more people can appreciate that move of culinary genius.  I’m not even a spice girl, but even I love this fun recipe!

Mexican Chocolate-Covered Edamame

Ingredients:

3 T. coconut oil
¼  c. cocoa

2 T. agave

½  tsp vanilla

1 tsp. Cinnamon

½  tsp. Chili powder

2 T. water

3/4 c. edamame

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients (except edamame) in a food processor or blender until combined.

2.  You may need to add 1-2 T. more water to thin it out so that it evenly coats the edamame.

3. Combine the edamame and chocolate sauce in a bowl and toss to coat.  Spread onto a baking sheet and store in the freezer, taking it out 5-20 minutes before you would like to eat.

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