When following a vegan diet, convenience foods are largely out, so it does take a little more time and effort, plus diligent label-reading.
But Dr. David Hughes, who likes to cook, said there are a “ton of fun ways to play with vegetables, legumes and whole grains.“
Willpower? “When you’re feeling better,“ Hughes said, “there isn’t any temptation anymore.“
To see a recipe for one of Dr. Marc Katz’s favorite dishes, Fat-Free Vegan Vegetable Hash, go to TimesDispatch.com. Keyword: columnist

In a happy reunion, Scott McKee met many of the people involved in saving his life at Richmond International Airport. But until recently he had yet to meet the young woman who helped before disappearing to catch a flight.

After being friends for 65 years, Jane Baird and Peggy Rasberry decided it was time to meet. So, this week, Rasberry traveled from her home in western Tennessee to visit with Baird, who lives in Richmond. Pen pals since age 5, Rasberry and Baird—both now 70 and grandmothers—never had met and hadn’t even spoken on the phone until they started working out the details of this week’s get-together.

Anative of Chicago, Rich Lahvic is momentarily bemused any time a local weather forecast calls for a few inches of snow. Then he starts baking more bread. Lahvic, who along with his wife, Sher, owns Montana Gold Bread Co. in Carytown, was pulling loaves of baked bread from his huge rotating-shelf oven and replacing them with more pans of dough yesterday morning when I stopped by.

Scott McKee and Kayla Cagwin embraced like long-lost friends, which was noteworthy because they’d met only once before and McKee doesn’t remember it because he was pretty much dead. “I’m really glad to see you’re OK,“ Cagwin said as they hugged in the atrium of the main terminal at Richmond International Airport on Monday afternoon. McKee thanked her, marveled at her youthfulness and presented her with a bottle of champagne—after making sure she was of legal age. She’s 22.

VALENTINES The cards and letters start trickling into the little post office in January and reach full flood stage come early February. They will arrive in huge tubs daily from just about every state and from a dozen or more countries. The thousands of pieces of Valentine’s Day mail are sent to this out-of-the-way crossroads in Brunswick County for one reason:

As houses pancaked, people screamed, and death and despair descended around her, Laura Wright thought: “If I ever get home, I’m never coming back.“ By the morning after the earth quake, however, Wright had reconsidered, the reason she traveled to Haiti in the first place overcoming any momentary feeling of futility. “Honestly, I didn’t want to leave,“ Wright said of her departure from Haiti at the end of last week with her tour group. “But I will go back as soon as I can.“

Christmas is officially over. I can say that with certainty after dropping by Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this week to watch staff members and a small army of volunteers begin disman tling the GardenFest of Lights. You thought pulling the electric Christmas candles out of your windows was a nuisance? Or that climbing a ladder to strip the icicle lights from the front porch was a pain?

The building where the Rev. Brenda Halbrooks awoke Sunday morning no longer exists. That’s a sobering thought, but even more sobering is this: How and where are all of the people she has befriended and helped in Haiti over the years? And what will become of those who survived Tuesday’s massive earthquake? “We are all shaken and shocked, and our hearts break for the people of Haiti who have suffered so much and now must . . . grieve losses even in the midst of a situation already devastating with poverty and lack of resources,“ said Halbrooks, pastor of Three Chopt Presbyterian Church in Henrico County.

Carl F. Robison was a fixture in the front seat on Richmond Hokie Club bus trips to Virginia Tech football games. He had a smile and a “Go Hokies!“ for everyone, as well as a handshake that would bend steel. “When he shook your hand, he about crushed your fingers,“ said Ruth Kusterer, whose husband, David, is a coordinator of the bus trips. “Strongest handshake I’ve ever seen, and he was 101 years old!“

Lucinda Whitehurst loves books, but that doesn’t fully explain her recent drift in nighttime reading. “The Lion & the Mouse,“ “14 Cows for America” and “Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem” are just a few of the children’s picture books she has taken up with. Personally, I’m acquainted with neither Billy Twitters nor his problem, but Whitehurst can tell you all about him and it.

Her world has grown smaller as age finally seems to be catching up with Willie Alcorn Wells. She doesn’t get out much anymore, she has had to give up her weekly appointment with a hairdresser and she spends much of her days relaxing in a recliner in her bedroom. Several days a week, she even has what her caregiver calls “pajama days.“

The Christmas tree standing in the corner—if it’s still standing—is looking a little peaked. Needles are dropping like dandruff, and the thing has gotten as dry as Death Valley in July. You can haul it to the curb with the trash as most of us will do, or you can do what Al Schalow does and turn it into art. For almost 40 years, Schalow has saved the trunks of family Christmas trees and using knives, saws and assorted carving tools fashioned the wood into ornaments to hang on future trees. The ornaments often represent significant events in the lives of his wife, children and grandchildren—the Eiffel Tower, a piano or maybe colorful parrots to commemorate attending a Jimmy Buffett concert. Then, he gives them as Christmas presents.

This is a story of faith and friendship, a good man gone and a gift beyond measure. It’s not exactly a Christmas story, but you could make the case it is precisely that. “We just never can anticipate, especially at this time of year, the surprising wonder of how things happen” said the Rev. William Tuck, the interim pastor at Cool Spring Baptist Church in Mechanicsville. “It’s a powerful story of good coming from tragedy and how God works in mysterious ways.“