February 7, 2014 at 9:56 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack,

I think I might be over cakes, cupcakes, and cookies, now that Mommy has introduced our family to “no-bake vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls.”

She found them on a website called, Gluten-Free-Vegan-Girl, which is apparently orchestrated by an 18 year-old girl from Norway.

(That’s the country where your great-grandfather on Mommy’s side was adopted from, by the way.)

So, it’s official: These no-bake vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls are awesome!

Not only are they pretty easy to make, considering you don’t even cook them, but they taste so good that they are extremely addictive.

However, the ingredients are healthy and simple:

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 3/4 cup dates
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• a pinch of maldon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped 70+% dark vegan chocolate (or use vegan chocolate chips)

So I kind of think these might be our new family favorite treat.

They’re mainly sweetened from the dates and “fattened” by the cashews; which provide less than 1% of the daily recommended amount of cholesterol.

Remember my theory on consuming more than 0% but less than 1% cholesterol?

“Being a vegan means your cholesterol intake is more than 0% (from good fats, like avocados, cashews, coconuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, etc.) but less than 1% (because of no animal fats). I think part of the reason vegans feel so much better after nixing animals products is because they are no longer experiencing another living (at one time) animal’s cholesterol and fat running through their veins.”

Like most food that Mommy and I approve of for our family, these no-bake vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls are better when made by us… not bought pre-made and packaged from a store.

Having a fun (and delicious!) recipe like this makes it even more fun and special to be a plant-based family. Like I’ve said before, it’s not about what we can’t eat, but about what we can!

We get to enjoy this secret dessert snack recipe that hardly anybody else knows about. It’s not the kind of thing a person would normally think to make or eat, but when you rule out animal products from your diet, you (are forced to) discover new foods that you actually like better than what you were eating before.

I’m contrasting this recipe against any token grocery store cake, or boxed cake mix, made with food dye from petroleum and/or bugs, along with a whole paragraph of unpronounceable ingredients.

Yeah, that’s not food.

This is!

I’ll take no-bake vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls anyday! But, shhhh… we’re adopting them as a secret family recipe now- thanks to an 18 year-old girl in Norway named Solveig Berg Vollan!

 

 

Love,

Daddy

 

P.S. Click right here for the full recipe featured on Gluten-Free-Vegan-Girl!

Or check out other vegan recipe reviews I have written

February 1, 2014 at 2:36 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack,

Now that I haven’t consumed any dairy products in the past eleven months, it’s simply common knowledge in my mind that the consumption of dairy products led to my former sinus congestion, abundant mucus production, and allergies.

I imagine that other vegans and “non-dairy consumers” already know this as common knowledge too, but unless you’re actually living it, how else would you know?

Granted, I’m no doctor.(That’s a major understatement, by the way!)

However, I did suffer through 22 years straight of, everyday, feeling like I had to blow my nose, but nothing would come out.

I endured 22 years of a couple times each year, getting a sinus infection. Plus, I was extremely allergic to cats.

Then, after only one weekend of cutting out dairy, my sinus problems and allergies cleared up.  Not one time since then has it felt like I needed to blow my nose but nothing would come out.

Also, I no longer itch or sneeze while in the presence of cats- no matter how much I pet them.

I remember how for a week following that fateful weekend where I experimented with giving up dairy, this weird yellow plasma started draining from my nose.

Whatever it was, it was what was keeping my sinus pressure and infections going. It was fed by the intake of dairy products.

And get this- my mucus has only been clear in color since I gave up dairy nearly a year ago; it’s never white or yellow like it used to be- just clear…

Interesting, right?

Not only am I not a doctor, but I’m also not a scientist or animal biologist; yet still, I want to point out a theory I have about dairy products, and I want full credit for it if it ends up being legit…

Milk is a secretion produced by the exocrine system, which also produces mucus. I’ve noticed that sneezing creates mucus, which helps flush outforeign objects from the human body.

So what happens if you consume the secretions (like milk) of the exocrine system of another species?

In my case, the human body tried to reject it- by producing more of its own mucus (frommy exocrine system) to flush out the foreign secretions from the exocrine system of another species.

For me specifically, not only did my body produce a lot more mucus to flush out the milk and cheese and butter I was consuming, but it also went into defense mode by attempting to sort of “lock out” further consumption of dairy products, by producing constant sinus pressure as a warning system to my brain.

It’s like my body knew what my brain didn’t.

Finally, after 22 years of suffering, I watched the right documentaries on Netflix (Forks Over Knives, Hungry For Change, Vegucated, The Beautiful Truth, Dying To Have Known, Supersize Me, and Food, Inc.) and realized that my body is hostile to the secretions of the exocrine system of other species of animals.

And the thing is, I don’t even miss dairy at all. Now that I really know what it is, I’m actually disgusted by it.

As for the nutrients that animals’ milk provides, for the past eleven months, I’ve easily gotten them from plants-  “the Big 6” (vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds), to be exact.

Plus, we use Earth Balance butter (made from olives) instead of dairy butter. And when Mommy makes cookies, she uses almond milk and/or applesauce instead of eggs.

Fortunately, you’re not a huge fan of milk anyway. You like “chocolate covered milk,” which is dark chocolate almond milk. (No, you don’t even mind if you have to drink it out of your cousin Calla’s pink princess cup.)

I hope you don’t end up with the same sinus and allergy problems I’ve suffered with for most of my life; up until last year, of course.

However, I believe that avoiding dairy is the key. As you grow older and experience a higher consumption of dairy products, if you choose to, your body will serve as a science project.

Either I will be very right, or very wrong, about my theory of the consumption of dairy products (secretions from the exocrine system of another species).

I just don’t want you to have to suffer like I did. We didn’t have the Internet orNetflix to tell us any different, back when I was growing up.

I was brainwashed to believe that milk actually does a body good. Turns out, it actually did my body worse.

With all that said, decide for yourself.

 

Love,

Daddy

December 4, 2013 at 11:49 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years.

Dear Jack,

Today, rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur Jay Z has asked for my advice on his 22 day experiment with veganism, with wife Beyonce joining him.

Okay, well, I should clarify…

Jay Z isn’t asking for myspecific advice, but he is asking his fans. Given that only about 2.5% of the American population identifies as vegan, I happen to be part of that curious minority who lives the plant-based life every minute of every day.

While I’m already witnessing on the Internet a wave of criticism for his decision to try out, and possibly stick with, the vegan lifestyle, I happen to be one of the few to actually have some good advice for Jay Z.

Because when it comes to being a vegan, I know what I’m talking about.

I’m not a heckler in the crowd who mocks veganism by saying, “We’re all going to die at some point, right?” Instead, I am a living science experiment for everyone to see.

This very week makes 9 months that I’ve been a vegan (an extremely strict one, too: no honey!) and 2 whole years since I’ve been a vegetarian.

Of course, my dive into the plant-based life was several years in the making, since I started out 5 years ago by going kosher (no pork or shellfish).

And that journey led me here.

So, if by some chance Jay Z happened to read this letter I am privately writing to you today, what would be my best advice for him?

Simplify it…

It’s not about what you “can’t” eat, it’s about what you can.

I break it down into the 6 “Vegan Food Groups” or what I call, “The Big 6″:

Vegetables, fruits, beans, grain, nuts, and seeds. As a vegan, you can eat as much of those 5 things as you want. And it doesn’t take long before you realize that those 6 things are so full of protein, fiber, “good fats” and “good sugar” that you aren’t left wanting for more.

Basically, and this is only my theory, being a vegan means your cholesterol intake is more than 0% (from good fats, like avocados, cashews, coconuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, etc.) but less than 1% (because of no animal fats). I think part of the reason vegans feel so much better after nixing animals products is because they are no longer experiencing another living (at one time) animal’s cholesterol and fat running through their veins.

Based on how much better I feel after having become a vegan 9 months ago, I believe the human body functions perfectly on more than 0% but less than 1% of the daily allowance for cholesterol.  (One large chicken egg alone equals way more than half of the daily allowance.) 

Yet, I don’t believe everyone should “go vegan.” It’s something you have to want in your heart, especially after having watched any of the following documentaries on Netflix:

Forks Over Knives, Hungry For A Change, Vegucated, The Beautiful Truth, Dying To Have Known, Supersize Me, and Food, Inc.

Also, it’s important to listen to your appetite. If you’re craving a big, fat, juicy cheeseburger, ask yourself what your body is actually craving.

A large cheeseburger contains a lot of (and by that I mean way too much!) protein and saturated fat.

So, out of vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds, which have a lot of protein and fat?

Protein: Vegetables and beans.

Fat: Nuts and seeds. (That includes avocados, cocunuts, and cashews; all of which are in weird food categories.)

But after all that, you’re still craving something sweet, like soda or candy?

Well… how many servings of fruit have your had today?

Craving sweets is your body’s way of telling you that you need the nutrients of fruits, which are packed with “good sugar” (as opposed to Monsanto-drenched high fructose corn syrup) and fiber.

The bottom line is this, your body tells you which of the “Big 6″ (vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds) you need.

The problem is, if you’ve grown up with the Western Diet of eating highly processed foods, at first, your brain only knows to speak to you in the form it recognizes by experience.

So you have to retrain your brain on where to get the best source of the nourishment it’s actually wanting.

Granted, this means there’s no such thing as a “quick bite from the drive-thru” anymore.

In the likeness of how Dave Ramsay says you have to tell your money where to go or it will tell you where to go…

You have to plan your meals out days in advance. You can’t leave it up to the mercy of a busy schedule to dictate what and when you eat.

That’s why Mommy keeps a schedule on the fridge so everyone knows all week “what’s for dinner.” (Most of her recipes are from the flawless vegan recipe website: Oh She Glows.)

Anyway, that’s what I’d tell Jay Z if he happened to somehow be reading this.

But, hey, you’re my son, you live with me and know all this stuff already first hand. It’s “normal” to you.

Or, I should say… It’s a plant-based life for us!

Love,

Daddy

Note: This is an opinion piece of the author and does not reflect Parents magazine or the medical establishment.