Day 15 Of The 21-Day Vegan Kickstart!

Day 15 of PCRM’s 21-Day Kickstart on #LunchBreakLIVE featuring Melanie Arce, a passionate animal rights, health, sustainability, and social justice activist. She is co-leader for PlantDiego as well as for San Diego Animal Save, which hosts a monthly fish vigil at Sea Port Village. Her health led her to recently finish her degree as a Master in Public Health. Follow Melanie on Instagram @breathevegan.

Melanie Arce is currently a Master’s of Public Health candidate at CSUSM, focusing on health behavior, education, and promotion. Melanie’s mission is to help others live happier, healthier, longer, and ultimately more fulfilling lives. Melanie has been vegan for 7 years and is an active volunteer for many organizations, including PlantDiego, Challenge 22, Animal Save, HappyCow, Farm Animal Refuge, and The Official Animal Rights March San Diego.

Tracy Childs is the Founder and Director of Veg-Appeal a San Diego company that offers educational cooking classes, corporate wellness, individual cooking lessons, store tours, and personal health coaching. Tracy is also the Founder and Director of PlantDiego, a local nonprofit organization inspired by the movie “PlantPure Nation” to educate and support people in living a healthy, whole-food, plant-based lifestyle.

Tracy is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and holds a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from eCornell. Tracy has taught nutrition and cooking for over a decade as a Food for Life Instructor, certified with the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. In addition, Tracy contributed over 100 recipes for the recently published book — Handbook to Higher Health Consciousness.

Now let’s check out some of the delicious food that was made for day 15 of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart!

All the ingredients used for the carrot dogs.

Who would ever think to make a “Carrot Dog?” Sounds strange right? Well, I assure you it is SOOOOOO delicious, and healthy! A must-try for sure!

Tracy and Melanie just before shooting #LunchBreakLIVE.

Carrot Dogs…it’s a thing! Photo Courtesy of PCRM.

Photo Courtesy of PCRM. Beautiful and healthy Carrot Dogs as a meal!

Melanie and Tracy showing off their delicious and healthy meal!

Carrot Dogs

A perfect swap for hot dogs, try these carrot dogs with your favorite condiments. Vegetarian baked beans are a fun topper to make a chili dog.

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Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine American

Servings people

Ingredients

4 carrots cut to fit the buns
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 -2 cloves garlic minced
¼ teaspoon liquid smoke  black pepper to taste
4 hot dog buns toasted

Instructions

Boil water in a pot large enough for all the carrots. Lower the heat to medium and add the carrots. Cook until just fork-tender when you bite into them. Remove from pot and run under cold water.—you want them to have a snap
In a container with a tight-fitting lid, combine the remaining ingredients to make the marinade. Tighten the lid and shake until well-mixed.
Place the carrots in a container in which they can lie flat. Pour the marinade over them and marinate at least 3-4 hours, up to 24. The longer they marinate, the more vinegar flavor they take on. If you know you need to leave them longer than a day, cut the vinegar to 1/8 cup. If the carrots are very thin, keep the time short.
To serve, put the carrots in a 350 F oven, or in a grill pan on a hot grill, until heated through, 10-15 minutes. You can also cook these in your slow cooker in the marinade. You need to check on them so they do not get mushy, so it is not a set-it-and-walk-away affair. Cook until a fork just goes through the carrot but it is still slightly firm.
Serve in a toasted hot dog bun or wrapped in a lettuce or collard leaf, and pile on your favorite toppings, including mustard, relish, tomatoes, onions, sprouts, purple cabbage, and peppers.