Any of my readers fans of Susan Powter? If you are, and even if you may not think you are, you must listen to her new online radio show, Susan Powter’s Radio Show. She tells it like it is, completely unafraid, unfettered with advertisers. Amazing! This show is a revolution. And after you listen to her show, head over to Eric Marcus’ VegTalk Radio. I get fired up every time I listen to these shows. So inspiring. Not my favorites, but there’s also Vegan Radio , Go Vegan Radio and Vegan Freak Radio.

With this recipe I wanted to not only make a thick and creamy hot cocoa I also wanted a thick frothy foam to form on top, mimicking melted marshmallows. This recipe accomplishes that. You will see a frothy foam form on top as you are mixing it. Even more so than in the photo. I had to take some of the foam out so that the cocoa would show through. GO TO RECIPE >

I recommend that you use Thai Kitchen’s Pure Coconut Milk. It has no chemical additives or preservatives like some other brands.

This is the last recipe I’ll be posting until 2009, although I might post another blog entry. I will not be returning with recipes until the second week of January. Next year should be a good year for MVC. I have plans to start a slickly produced digital vegan magazine. It’s still in the planning stages but I’ve recently purchased InDesign and am gearing up to publish hopefully in spring of next year. I’m not sure how many times I will publish a year. At most 3 times a year. It will probably be more like Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, so twice a year. If I get inspired I could wind up doing an extra one in the middle.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all my readers. Minty winter-y smooches! lol

I get a lot of emails asking about isolated soy protein and why it’s bad. First I should explain that I am a follower of Dr. John McDougal. McDougal advocates a low protein, high starch plant based diet. So I follow that by eating a lot of potatoes, rice and plenty of fruits and vegetables. The high starch diet philosophy is based on the fact that most successful cultures have lived off mostly whole grain carbohydrates. Rural Asians with their rice and Central America with their potatoes. All have a long and mostly disease free life and looking thin and beautiful well into old age. Both of these examples eat low protein diets compared to the United States. Large amounts of protein, particularly animal derived proteins in large amounts is bad. It triggers growth and the growth of cancer cells. I’m not a doctor or an expert on this subject so I have a little trouble explaining things like this. Luckily, Dr. McDougal has a wonderful video explaining protein and isolated soy protein. Watching this will open some of your eyes to mistakes you might be making in your vegan diet. It also explains the common foods isolated soy protein might be in and to look out for. Every vegan needs to watch this.

I’d also like you to watch this next video to understand more about Dr. McDougal’s philosophy. He’s a brilliant man who knows his subject well. I go to his website often and I recommend you do to if you are interested in staying disease free and youthful appearing. I recommend starting on his HOT TOPICS page.

Mushrooms give this No-Beef Stew it’s “beefy” flavor. With this recipe you won’t be asking, “Where’s the beef!?” This stew goes great with my Half Whole Wheat Biscuits. I like to dip my biscuit into the stew. Mmm, so warm and good on a cold winter day. GO TO RECIPE >