Simplicity

I am very unimpressed with the leftovers from last night. I will never make that spinach/potato dish again. Just meh.

However, my lunch this afternoon was pretty tasty. I made whole wheat pasta with sauteed garlic, shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives, broccoli, and chickpeas. Simple, but tasty. I needed to use up some of the last ingredients in my fridge before my trip.

Indian Inspired

On my first night of vacation, I made the potato-spinach curry from Appetite for Reduction. I paired the curry with the baked masala tofu to make a complete meal. Very tasty. The tofu was so flavorful, whereas I think the curry needs a little more spice.





Cleaning house and packing tonight/tomorrow. I am so excited about this trip! I just found out my friend's house is really close to one of the vegan restaurants I want to try in LA, so I'll be going there for lunch while he's at work. That will allow us to try other places for dinner. :)

Extra Sloppy Joes

I saw this lentil sloppy joes recipe recently and knew it was a simple weeknight meal. I served it with mixed veggies and mashed potatoes yesterday the last two days, but today I finished it off with sweet potato fries and peas. Simple, but healthy and tasty.





I'm so excited for Vegan MoFo and my upcoming trip to LA! I emailed my friend a list of places to go out to eat in LA, so we'll see if he agrees to any of them. We might also do a night of cooking with some of our other friends, which would be great because I have yet to meet our friend's new wife!

Girls' Night Out!

Last night, I went out with my friend Sarah and her friends, who wanted to join their friends at J Alexander's for dinner. Surprisingly, they had an incredible veggie burger! They were willing to serve it on whole grain toast and without the cheese and mayo so it would be vegan. I didn't want fries for the side, so I requested broccoli instead. I didn't get a food photo because I didn't know most of the people at the table, but let me say it was tasty even though it looked plain!





Today, my mom came to visit me. We went to Yard House for lunch and Kilwin's for sorbetto. I stopped by Whole Foods too, so I could get vegan protein powder packets for my upcoming trip to California. I'm thankful that my mom came to pick up the cats to care for them while I'm away, but I'm going to miss them so much this week while I'm still in Jupiter.

TVP Tacos

I selected one of the simpler meals on my menu plan for last night. I was just feeling sleepy after work, so I wanted something I could throw together as quickly as possibly. I made tacos! The tacos contain TVP seasoned with a homemade mix, the cheesy sauce from 30 Minute Vegan, salsa, and lettuce. I served these with a salad containing carrots, sun-dried tomatoes, and pickled jalapenos. This was pretty tasty and I was able to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. :)

Lettuce Wraps & Unfried Rice

Based on my friend's rave review a long time ago, I finally made the hoisin-mustard tofu lettuce wraps in Appetite for Reduction. I bought the hoisin sauce and sesame oil recently at the Asian market. I served this with unfried rice. I made the rice yesterday because cold rice is supposed to improve the texture of the fried rice. I took the cookbook's suggestion and bulked up the rice with lots of veggies, including broccoli, peas, carrots, and zucchini. I topped the rice with sriracha for a little oomph. Yum!

Black Bean, Zucchini, and Olive Tacos

In Appetite for Reduction, there are some incredibly tempting tacos. The tacos have black beans, zucchini, and Kalamata olives. I *love* the saltiness of Kalamata olives. I selected the taco recipe and the unfried beans recipe for dinner yesterday. The refried beans have tomato sauce in them to make them creamy, instead of a ton of oil. So tasty! I used whole wheat burrito size tortillas, instead of small corn tortillas, and used the extra tortillas to make chips (just crisped them in the oven with some seasonings). I ate dinner really early because I went to the Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger concert last night with some of my friends. No photos from that though, since I forgot my camera!

Tofu Satay

I love the idea of food on sticks, as any good American would, but I rarely eat food on sticks. I decided to change that up for fun this weekend. I made tofu satay based on a recipe in The Asian Vegan Kitchen. I couldn't find baby corn or asparagus (that was thick enough to poke a stick through, at least), so I omitted those from the satay. I don't have a grill, so I decided to bake the satay sticks in the oven (400F for 30 mins). The cookbook recommends serving the satay with a coconut milk/peanut sauce and cucumber relish, both included in the book. Quite tasty! This book has a lot of enticing recipes, so hopefully I'll start cooking from it more often.

Vegan Mofo V

That's right! I made the crazy decision to sign up for Vegan Mofo V. Of the many blogs I read, several have done Mofo in the past. I read the requirements and it's 20 posts in October about vegan food. I can do that! I am going to be out of town the first week of October, but I will be able to post on the trip. Wish me luck!

Food Truck Frenzy

Tonight, West Palm Beach hosted its first food truck round-up! I saw the info about Food Truck Frenzy online the other day and organized a small group to enjoy this event. I really wanted to go when I saw that a vegan truck would be there!


Mac'n - the vegan truck!





Sarah's selections: gluten-free macaroni with soy chorizo and pepperjack Daiya, hand-cut sweet potato fries, gluten-free fried green tomatoes [Mac'n uses designated fryer, utensils, and cookware for their gluten-free items!]



My selections: jackfruit pulled pork-style sandwich with apple and red lettuce slaw, mac and cheese with portabello mushroom, peas, and mozzarella Daiya, and a banana cream cupcake (the cupcake itself was gluten-free, but the filling was not)





Food coma in 3, 2, 1...

Crock Pot + Indian Food = Win

I'm a big fan of chickpeas, Indian flavors, and the lazy cooking method of using a Crock Pot. When I saw The Indian Slow Cooker on Amazon, I ordered it even though it is not a vegan cookbook. The reviews I read on other blogs said many recipes were vegan or easily veganized. Given my love of chickpeas, the first recipe I wanted to make was curried chickpeas (Rasa walla Kabuli Chana). Instead of cooking dried chickpeas for 14 hours, I soaked the beans overnight and cooked the recipe for 8 hours on low and ~1.5 hours on high. I had a little more water left than I intended, but I added enough to cover the beans and leave a fraction of an inch of water to prevent drying out and burning. I used canned diced tomatoes, instead of a fresh tomato, and sauteed the onion before adding to the pot. This recipe is very tasty! It makes a ton of food, so be warned! I served with basmati rice (my favorite rice!).

What The Average American Eats

From The Atlantic here

That amount of animal-based foods is disgusting. 1045.3 lbs of the 1996.3 lbs shown is animal-based, not including the fats and oils section (which for most people is probably butter!). So even without the fats/oil category, 52% of the diagram is animal products. I can't believe I used to eat like that once upon a time... Gross.

I am so, so thankful that I went vegan. Think of all the animals I'm not killing! It's about 100 per year!

Mac & Cheese!

I love mac & cheese, so when I noticed there was a recipe in Vegan Diner, I knew I was going to make it. The sauce is made from blended cashews. I soaked my cashews for a couple hours in the fridge, since my blender isn't very powerful. I really enjoyed this version of mac & cheese, which Julie Hasson said is what they serve at Native Bowl (her food cart in Portland). I served it with broccoli and Morningstar Farms ribs. The cookbook has a ribs recipe, which is based on the fatfreevegan recipe that I've made in the past. I was just being lazy by using pre-made ribs.

Football Season!

Since I missed the opportunity to make something sports-friendly for dinner last week when LSU opened their season, I knew I wanted to make something special for last night's NFL game of the Saints v. the Packers. I decided to make "wings" - yes, I know lots of storebought wings exist, but I wanted something homemade. I made the chicken-style seitan from Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food to dredge in seasoned flour and fry up in a little canola oil. I covered my wings in the spicy buffalo sauce in the book. I served my "wings" with baked beans (defrosted from before), mixed veggies, and sweet potato fries. The sauce was pretty good, but not the best wings sauce I've ever had. I was so bummed that the Saints didn't win, but it was a great game!

"Worst Thing I Ever Wore"

The BBQ I went to over the holiday weekend had a theme - "Best Thing I Ever Ate/Worst Thing I Ever Wore." Like I said, I brought cupcakes. Other people brought deviled eggs, punch, bacon (for bacon cheeseburger Luthers - meaning it was served on a Krispy Kreme donut instead of a bun), and a casserole made of tater tots, cheese, and beef. I commented that I had seen the Luthers on thisiswhyyourefat.com, which got a good laugh.

Some of the girls posed for a picture. You may remember my tiny hat. I knew it needed to make an appearance at this party.

Holiday Weekend

As summer winds down, I celebrated the weekend at a BBQ with friends. I brought Gardein burgers, which were freakishly meaty, and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Both items were so tasty. The hostess had homemade pickles to top off the burgers!!





Tonight, I made pesto. I've never made pesto before, but I like basil. It seemed like a nice summertime item. The recipe is from Vegan Planet. I tossed the pesto with some rigatoni and frozen chick'n strips. I had a coupon for Morningstar Farms products, so I bought the chick'n and the ribs to keep for quick meals. I totally didn't think to plan ahead and make seitan cutlets from American Vegan Kitchen, which are my usual go-to for chick'n cutlets.

Falafel

I made falafel again the other night. Love falafel. I used the recipe in Vegan Fire & Spice this time. I baked these on Thursday night, but the leftovers were much better when I fried them in a little oil on Friday. I made baba ghanouj as a side dish using the recipe in the book. My eggplant exploded in the oven, so be careful! I took the leftover pitas, pulled them apart, and cut them into triangles. I seasoned the triangles with cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder. I gave them a quick spray with olive oil and baked them until crisp. Cheap pita chips - voila!