<center>Vegan Noms</center>: Vegan MoFo: It's here...

Isn't it gorgeous?! And it's HUGE, as well. The frigging thing doesn't fit on my countertop underneath my cabinets when the lid is on. But who cares, right? :D I'm so happy, I don't even know what to do with myself. All those days of lusting have led up to this one. And, let me tell ya: it comes with an amazing cookbook! Over 300 pages of recipes and full-color photographs in a spiral binder with room for notes. I haven't gone through the whole book yet, but there are some naughty looking pics in there. Yum!

Ohhh, mama. This is Vegan Yum Yum's Hurry Up Alfredo - my first Vita-Mix creation! And it was out of this fucking world! This is the first time I've attempted making a cashew-based cream sauce and it was so effing worth the wait. This just might be a weekly staple. I only altered Lauren's recipe a tad: I used 1T of sweet yellow miso instead of tahini and didn't notice until after the sauce was made that I had used Silk Vanilla... but it didn't affect the taste. :P This sauce is SO GOOD, GO MAKE IT NOW. With broccoflower. (Hey, gotta have some green in there somewhere, right?)

For dessert I whipped up some chocolate ice cream! The recipe, I thought called for far too much ice, so it will take some tweaking before it's perfected. On top I crumbled some maple chocolate fudge I had made a few days ago. Nom! I'm going to try my hand at a mint chip ice cream next time... oh,yeah!

In other news: Earth Balance e-mailed me back about their palm oil!

Thank you for your interest in our Earth Balance products.

Our oil comes from the palm fruit, and it’s sourced primarily from Malaysia. The palm fruit oil we obtain only comes from existing palm plantations and not new jungle-clearing projects. We purchase our oil from reputable, law-abiding plantations that are registered with their respective national governments.

Our palm fruit oil comes from peninsular Malaysia and not Eastern Malaysia (i.e. Sarawak and Sabah on the Island of Borneo). There are no orangutans in the wild on peninsular Malaysia. We DO NOT source palm fruit oil from Indonesia (Sumatra), the other primary home of orangutans. Indonesia has been the focal point for most of the concerns regarding sustainable palm oil production.

Palm fruit oil is a key ingredient in the natural oil blend that is used in our spreads. Palm oil provides the solids needed in our balanced fat blend to make a buttery spread and is what helps to make Smart Balance a heart-healthier product that is naturally trans-fat free. Many people have suggested using soy oil instead of palm oil but we would have to use a synthetic manufacturing process such as hydrogenating the vegetable oils which creates trans fats. In addition, it would not be a balanced fat product.

You can find out more information about the palm oil cultivation through The Malaysian Palm Oil Council web site www.mpoc.org.my

If I can be of any other service, please do not hesitate to contact us or visit us online at earthbalancenatural.com

I was very impressed by how in depth they went about their supplier's practices and location. High fives to Earth Balance for this e-mail. They gave far more information than I had ever expected. Now I just have to sit on this information for a little bit and see if I can allow myself to continue to buy their products. *Jeopardy music*

Until next time!