Vegetarian Star

Spaghetti Tacos. Credit: Vegancognito.blogspot.com

Spaghetti Tacos are all the rage, thanks to the Nickelodeon on Sunset television series iCarly, which features adolescent Carly Shay, played by Miranda Cosgrove, who creates her own web shows with her two best friends Sam and Freddie.

Sam (Samantha) is known for her gluttonous desire for meat, which is probably why the original recipe for Spaghetti Tacos listed on the iCarly website calls for meat sauce. And burping.

Get taco shells.
Get spaghetti (with meat sauce).
Get a BIG spoon.
Use the BIG spoon to put spaghetti into taco shells.
Eat.
Burp.

Thank goodness for Carly’s 26-year old brother and guardian Spencer, who at least recommends some low-fat vegetarian pizza from time to time.

There are numerous ways to vegify this recipe to make it healthier and cruelty-free, as Vegancognito did using faux meat and vegan sour cream.

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Oh, no. The life of stardom has turned Juliette Lewis into an addict who can’t break the habit of the white stuff. The coconut stuff, that is.

“Since I’m a health freak, it’s my crack,” the actress told New York Magazine of coconut milk, before getting her fix of a smoothie with extra coconut and hemp protein.

Thankfully, coconut milk is both legal and readily available for purchase in the non-seedy parts of town during the daylight hours. One brand you might see regularly in natural foods stores in Thai Kitchen. Originating in Thailand, the excellent non-dairy substitute is made from pressing ripe coconuts and adding nothing else–no preservatives or chemicals.

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Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is for Veg Star’s fantastic graduate students out there, in the middle of another grueling semester.

When a writer at Riverfront Times wanted to conduct a, ahem, “scientific” experiment on vegan goods, she tested the hypothesis that “Vegan baked goods are always readily identifiable as being vegan.”

In other words, this skeptic wanted to prove that vegan desserts are cardboard, pasty, granola pyramids of disaster. Sure hope she didn’t bet her thesis on it.

Materials for vegan chef and author Bryant Terry‘s vegan dessert included a coconut pie crust made from coconut oil in place of butter, a chocolate pecan pudding filling with non-dairy rice milk, maple syrup and arrowroot powder, a fantastic thickener for pies, puddings, gravies and other dishes that doesn’t add fat.

Results: “I don’t understand how that is vegan.” (In non-scientific terms: How the heck does it taste so good?)

Conclusion, experimenter notes and recipe below.

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PETA’s president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, would like to treat Lady Gaga to a full course vegan meal.

At the group’s 30th anniversary gala, Newkirk revealed she sent Gaga a little letter due to the singer’s recent escapades in outfits fashioned from raw meat.

“I’ve written to her privately and suggested that maybe we have a vegan dinner privately somewhere,” Newkirk said.

A special event may have varying levels of dress requirements, but we do hope Lady Gaga realizes her meat dress worn to the MTV Video Music Awards is a little inappropriate and would get her turned away faster than a polka dot pants wearing shirtless gent at a black tie party.

As a vegetarian or vegan, you’re probably already an expert at hosting meatless dinner parties, but if you’re going to be on the guest end of things, you can politely email tips for hosting a vegetarian friendly dinner to your host.

The basics of ensuring the guests feel welcomed, of course, is remembering what each type of diet means.

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Giant Quinoa Tamale

Today’s Meatless Monday recipe is from Mark Bittman‘s latest cookbook released this month, the Food Matters Cookbook, which is described as a collection of “500, terrific, less meatatarian recipes.”

Bittman’s Giant Quinoa Tamale with Tomatillo Salsa is a completely no meatatarian dish from the book, which can easily be made vegan by either leaving off the Monterey Jack cheese or substituting with a vegan brand of Jack like Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet.

This recipe is actually 2 in 1, as the tomatillo salsa featuring the green or green-purple colored tomato can be saved for your favorite Mexican snacks later.

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Tahina. Photo: Serious Eats

Michael Natkin is a vegetarian food blogger at Herbivoracious who stops by the highly trafficked SeriousEats.com website to share a meatless recipe for the Serious Meatless section.

Tahina goes great as a veggie dip, sandwich spread or drizzled over falafel, but don’t confuse it with hummus, as Natkin says many people do. Hummus is created from chickpeas while tahina is crafted from sesame seeds.

Then there’s that conundrum of how to spell it.

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Jamie Oliver's Pumpkin Rice Laksa Soup. Credit: Cookstr.com

In some parts of the world September means back to school, leaves changing colors and pumpkins popping up everywhere!

If carving creepy faces isn’t your thing, there are dozens of delicious ways to use a pumpkin this season, like in the Pumpkin Rice Laksa Soup by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Cookstr.com is a website launched in 2008 that publishes recipes from top cookbook authors online.

Oliver is one of several chefs with dozens of recipes listed on Cookstr and his pumpkin soup makes a great dish to start off the cooler season with flavorful combinations of coconut milk, cumin, five-spice, lemongrass and chile, to name a few ingredients. If you’ve used all your pumpkins in the carving contest, don’t fret, butternut squash, onion squash or acorn squash can also be used.

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Iron Chef America-Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy. Credit: Healthy Happy Life

In case you haven’t heard, New York vegetarian restaurant owner Amanda Cohen did broccoli well on an episode of Iron Chef America that aired this weekend. The secret ingredient could be found paired with a crispy, orange tofu, which one judge said tasted, “nothing at all like the tofu I made when I was a teenager, when I was a strict vegetarian.”

Ironically, another judge liked the tofu and everything else but the secret ingredient. “I’m not so found of the broccoli.”

Sigh…You can’t please everyone.

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