My Primary Agenda--Eat Dessert First

My Asian friend says that Americans finally get smart after age 50. At 53 years old, after way too much egg nog and red meat over the holidays, I decided it was time to begin eating clean. The feeling that I might have a heart attack and the fact that the numbers on the scale were climbing well beyond what I ever thought I could weigh, made me ask the invisible powers that be to give me a sign! Within a month, I had four separate clues – a TV show, a book on spirituality, a DVD on spiritual weight loss, and a cookbook all pointed me in the direction of becoming a vegan. Never would I have thought I’d do this, but as Mom always said, “Never say never,” because the next thing you know…I’m a vegan.

I started Googling vegan recipes and came across the Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn, a fireman from Austin, Texas. Reading the story of Rip and his fellow firefighters, I was sold. Went right out and bought the book and started shopping for the few things like tofu, nutritional yeast, and egg replacer that I didn’t have at home.

One night while writing till after midnight, I had a craving for chocolate. I remembered reading a lot about chocolate in Rip’s book. There it was—a recipe for dark chocolate brownies, and I had all the ingredients, but not quite enough unsweetened applesauce.

I improvised and ground up some frozen raspberries to make up the difference. Pouring it into the pan, the batter seemed a bit dry and sticky, so I added a quarter cup of strawberry soy yogurt for extra moisture. When at last they were ready, a taste revealed that the raspberries really made the chocolate sing and gave it a fruity twist. I poured myself a cup of chocolate rice milk, and cut a nice warm brownie fresh from the pan, and I was in chocolate vegan heaven. Tempted to eat even more, I immediately cut them into squares, individually wrapped them and put them in a plastic self-sealing bag in the freezer to allow myself only one a day till they were gone.