The Ultimate Ratbag

First I want to thank you all for the overwhelming response for this new blog! 

Now, let’s get a little more acquainted.

My name is Somer, and I am a Ratbag.

I started blogging earlier in the year at Good Clean Food and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of my three friends there: Amanda, Erika and Carolyn. They gave me my blogging wings and helped me stand firm when the transition to a plant-based diet was toughest.

In an act of penance for leaving them and going solo on this site, here are 3 fabulous recipes in photo form, one of my favorites from each lovely lady.

Amanda’s African-Inspired Peanut and Vegetable Stew

recipe here

This beauty of a dish is a one pot meal. You can cook it on the stove-top like in Amanda’s directions, but it’s also fabulous simmered in a slow cooker all day. It’s autumn comfort food meets creamy, spicy and peanut buttery goodness.

Guess what else? There’s a whole head of kale in it (shhh!) and your kids will eat it AND lick their bowls.

Erika’s Happiness in a Cookie Bite

recipe here

When Erika named these cookie dough bites, she wasn’t messing around. She brought them to a lunch we had at my house and we were all very happy to eat every last one.

They made us so happy we couldn’t stop. Delicious, meet nutritious!

Carolyn’s Sourdough Quinoa and Black Bean Bread

recipe here

I’ll admit when Carolyn first posted this recipe I was too afraid to try it. Quinoa and black beans in sourdough bread? Um, weird! Then, once I made it, I couldn’t figure out why I waited so long. It’s unique and amazing!

Here’s a little hint: don’t go searching high and low for the black bean flour. Grind your own flour from bagged, dried black beans in your high powered blender or coffee grinder. If you’re trying to cut back on oils and sugars like I am, just replace them with an equal amount of almond milk in the recipe.

If you don’t all ready have a sourdough start, there are also lots of recipes on-line for getting your own start going. Carolyn gave me some of her ancient sourdough starter with this warning: if it turns orange, it means DEATH! Chuck it out! Thanks girl, it still hasn’t turned orange!

Much love and thanks, Somer

p.s. I’m finally on Facebook and Pinterest. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing in either forum yet, but you’re welcome to come hang out with me in either place.

Facebook Link

Pinterest Link

20 Reasons Why Going Vegan Sucks


1. You start behaving like a Mormon Missionary and proselytize the benefits of a plant-based diet to everyone you know with copies of Forks Over Knives and The China Study. (Count em, 27 converts to date)

2. You spend so much time in the kitchen that you think “Maybe just this once pre-soaking my pinto beans ISN’T necessary.” Then later, you and everyone in a 12 mile radius of you seriously regrets you didn’t take the time to pre-soak.

3. You get all crunchy and granola like and start making your own soap and deodorant.

4. You get involved in things like the Virtual Vegan Potluck and you get your first facebook account. ever. so that you can hang out in the top secret VVP batcave with the coolest co-horts ever, Annie and Jason.

5. You become one of those obsessed people (we’re victims, really) who can’t stop posting food porn or yet ANOTHER way to use cashew cheez in a recipe.

6. You lose weight even though you no longer count calories and you are forced to go out and buy an entirely new wardrobe.

7. After races, you recover ridiculously faster than you used to, so no-one feels sorry for you and you don’t get to take an “extra rest day” afterwards.

8. You feel like you know and love some of your blogging buddies (people you have never actually met) more than your next door neighbor.

9. You become star struck for the first time ever and start stalking celebrity Vegan Chefs like AJ and Ramses.

10. You have so much produce in your fridge, that fitting in yet another box of organic spinach in there becomes a precarious circus act. Things like ‘ears of corn’ topple out onto your head every time you open the door.

11. All of the money you saved by getting off prescription drugs goes towards your organic produce habit. You feel compelled to defend organic foods like an errant family member despite current evidence against it, because you are what you eat.

12. You start to feel “Dietarily Superior” to everyone who’s not plant based.

13. You have less no constipation, so your regular reading of “Runner’s World Magazine” gets completely cut out of your schedule.

14. Even though you are all ready a dietary outcast (1-2% of the world is vegan), you still sometimes consider going raw, high-alkaline, gluten-free or all of the above to further alienate yourself at social gatherings and restaurants.

15. You sadly realize that even though being plant-based has completely reversed your Ulcerative Colitis and significantly reduced your risks of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and more, it has not cured your cankles or cellulite.

16. You have more kitchen gadgets than anyone you know but you can’t stop buying more, resulting in a severely receding counter-top space.

17. Your children get harassed at school because of the contents of their lunch box. Bully Child: “I thought you said your family didn’t eat meat, why are you eating a Turkey sandwich?” My child: “Um, that’s Tofurky.” Bully Child: “What’s a Tofurky?” My Child to me: “Mom, do I really have to drink a green smoothie everyday at lunch? Everyone stares at me!” (Actual comments) 😦

18. You feel like you’ve broken up just a little bit with some of your closest friends because you don’t share the same values regarding foods anymore. And truth be told, they probably think you’re a little crazy.

19. You feel compelled to blog constantly about your plant based devotion. So much so that you decide to ditch your best friends over at Good Clean Food and get your own dang blog. Sorry girls.

20. You get overly excited when you have a new recipe to share, as if it’s going to change the world! Well, just maybe it will, one plate at a time.