Lentil-Bulgur Loaf

I have been eyeing this Dreena Burton recipe for a while. I found the Lentil No-Fu Loaf recipe here. I made this before MoFo started, so I'm glad to finally get it posted on the blog. I loved it and thought it was quite good as leftovers. This could go on the holiday menu this year since it's pretty simple but flavorful. I mixed in some celery and green bell pepper that was languishing in the fridge. It would be great with mashed potatoes and some green veggies, but I had it with fries and frozen broccoli.

Weekend Fun

This weekend, I went to Loving Hut with VSOP for the final event of Texas Go Vegan Week. The people I met at the Pepper Tree event were there and we seemed to really hit if off. Yay vegan friends! I ordered the sweet and sour divine, but my partner ordered a curry dish. I can't believe how late we stayed at the restaurant! Totally missed the kickball kegger, but I'm actually OK with that. Someone called my partner to ask where people were, so I don't think the party had great attendance. That's what you get for hosting the party at a bar on Washington Street instead of in Midtown, where many people in the league live. After dinner with friends on Saturday, we watched a few more episodes of Breaking Bad. We were close to the end of what's available on Netflix, so we decided to enjoy BB instead of seeing who was left at the party. On Sunday afternoon, we used my cable account info to stream the remaining BB episodes and watch them on the tv. I can't believe how it ended. I'm glad that it was so final, but I'm a little bummed that it's over. I brought over Italian tofu (made with broth instead of wine) and pesto for sandwiches using recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance. We served the tofu on crusty bread with pesto and spinach, then had pretzels and watermelon slices on the side. Nom nom nom. Didn't get photos of the sandwiches, so I'll just share my Loving Hut photos.

Sunshine's Deli - Houston, TX

I really wanted to go to Sunshine's Deli during MoFo, but it didn't happen. After yesterday's Elephantopia march, I went to Sunshine's with some friends. The spicy black bean burger and nachos came highly recommended, so I ordered both. The nachos were the star! The red salsa is actually spicy and the cheese sauce is tasty, even though it's a weird shade of yellow. One of my friends ordered that too, but the other chose to get three salads from the salad case to go with his burger. I tried the almond pate. It tasted like there was some lemon juice in there, which was a surprise since it visually looks like tuna salad. I inhaled my cookies from E-dub-a-licious Treats. They were a little pricey, but they were good. From the outside, I would have never guessed there would be delicious nachos inside, but I will definitely go back for the nachos!

Banyan Foods to the Rescue!

I played indoor soccer tonight with my team. It's a hard sport, so much running since the game is shorter than outdoor soocer. I play about a quarter of our games, but I almost had a chance to score tonight. The keeper dove for the ball and I couldn't get it into the goal. 4th attempt at a goal and still nothing. *sigh* I've been working late a lot this week and today was no exception. After rushing from work to soccer, I didn't feel like cooking when I got home from soccer. I stopped at Fiesta and picked up some pre-made vegan goodies from Banyan Foods, a locally owned soy foods company. A lady at VSOP has recommended Banyan to me several times, so I finally decided to try it. I noticed that they don't use any preservatives or MSG - impressive! I bought the chipotle tofu "egg" rolls and the tofu fried rice. Banyan clearly labels everything with a giant VEGAN word, so the cashier asked me about it. I got to tell her that vegans abstain from all animal products and it's the greatest thing ever. I got home and put a few rolls in the oven to cook while I was in the shower. I microwaved the fried rice. Everything was pretty good. I'm sure this will become a regular option for lazy days, since it's two servings of food for the same cost as one meal at Chipotle. I should also note that I've seen Banyan products at Whole Foods in town too.

Vegan Oktoberfest

Now that we're a few days into October, I can share some Oktoberfest recipes! I was invited to an Oktoberfest themed party last weekend by some kickball friends. They have a lovely backyard, it reminds me of a Target commercial. Since I knew they were not going to plan ahead to feed a vegan, I woke up early Saturday morning and started cooking. I made the German chocolate cake from Chloe's Vegan Desserts, making the frosting and then the cakes. While they were cooling, I started the dough for German-style pretzels using this Oh, LadyCakes recipe. The dough was super sticky, even with 4.5 cups of flour and lots of flour on the table when rolling them out. It had rained that morning, so I think it was too humid in my apartment for dough. The recipe calls for dipping the pretzels into boiling soda water, which is how the pretzels get their color and crunchy crust. I tried 3 different ways to get my sticky pretzels into the water, but they all resulted in blobs. I decided to take some of the boiling soda water into a bowl and brush it on the tops of the remaining pretzels before baking them. They did turn brown on top, but in spots instead of uniformly, and my holes baked closed. They were SO delicious fresh out of the oven. I seriously considered not bringing them to the party. I saved a few for the party to show my non-vegan friends that every food possible can be veganized (even though most bagged pretzels and Super Pretzels are already vegan). While the dough was in the first rise, I made warm German potato salad. I found a recipe in the Google Books preview feature in 30 Minute Vegan's Taste of Europe. The recipe calls for tempeh bacon, but I decided to use Upton's Natural new seitan bacon. I had tried the bacon at Austin VegFest, so I knew it would taste fine. I put all the cooked ingredients together and stored them in the fridge, but chose to dress the dish at the party so the potatoes would not get soggy. I covered the big bowl with my cover from Hello Kiddo Handmade, which is usually a good conversation starter. I noticed at the end of the night that the potato salad and the cake were almost gone, maybe one serving of each! There was half of a pretzel left too. In order to save my sanity after a full morning in the kitchen, I brought Tofurky beer brats for the grill. I served my brat on a wheat bun with a little stone-ground mustard and sauerkraut. I didn't load up on mustard and sauerkraut because I'm slowly learning to like bitter flavors. I wish I had added more sauerkraut though. Now go celebrate your own Vegan Oktoberfest with these recipes or attend the real deal with new vegan options being served!

Texas Go Vegan Week Kick-off at Pepper Tree Buffet

The first week of October is Texas Go Vegan Week, which is sponsored by Vegan Society of PEACE. I love VSOP for being an abolitionist vegan organization and for providing me with the opportunity to make so many new friends. I have met half of my friends through VSOP and I continue to introduce myself to newcomers of the under 35 demographic. I met 4 more people at the Pepper Tree dinner last night and got their email addresses. I've already got a reply from one of the people! Pepper Tree discounted their ALL VEGAN Chinese buffet for the kick-off event of Texas Go Vegan Week. I've said it's a little bland in the past, but there was definitely more flavor this time. Rich flavors like tomatoes in the little dumplings sauce, gravy with tofu and potato cubes, and obviously soy sauce. I could have used a little squirt of sriracha, but I didn't have a clean mini container to bring in my purse. We also played vegan trivia and I won. I had 12 points and the second place person had 6 or 8. I knew a few more answers but wasn't the first person to raise my hand. I strategized and kept my hand near my chest, instead of lowering it to the table, between questions so that I could very quickly raise my hand for the next question. I knew a lot of the answers from the internet, but I definitely took a shot in the dark on the year Tofurky roast was released and actually got it right!! It's 1995. For my prize, the last one available was a gift certificate to the restaurant, which was exactly what I wanted. Pepper Tree is on the same block as the movie theater, so I wanted the gift certificate for a dinner and movie date night. I didn't have to steal anyone's prize! I'm so proud of my partner for getting a point for knowing Sinfull Bakery makes giant cinnamon rolls and he had the right answer for another question, but didn't get his hand up fast enough. We got to sit with some friends, including one who always gets a second plate like me, and overall it was a great night. :)

Vegan MoFo Summary

I can't believe I managed to finish my unofficial MoFo theme of dining out in Houston! I had some posts in the queue before the month started, which ended up being super helpful when things in my personal life got chaotic. I'll talk more about that in a future post, I'm still processing that. October 1st marks the start of Texas Go Vegan Week, so I'll be dining out even more. I'm definitely ready to get back into my kitchen. I have several photos of home-cooked meals to share, so I'll post them soon! I still can't believe that I didn't make it to Sunshine's Natural Deli (a mostly raw vegan place over by UH), Pine Forest Garden (a mostly vegan place in Chinatown), Cafe TH (a Vietnamese place open for lunch), or Blue Nile Ethiopian. I'll have to try those places in the future because I've heard good reviews for each one. Some other local favorites include Green Seed Vegan on the border of the Third Ward and Museum District, Doshi House in the Third Ward, Quan Yin in Chinatown, and Pat Greer's booth at the farmers' market. I am still on the fence about trying the new Radical Eats menu since their new location is much more convenient. I've been to those places before, so I wasn't too upset about not getting to them during MoFo.

I have this leftover photo from MoFo to share today. It's from the Whole Foods hot bar. Usually the hot bar at Whole Foods on Kirby is rather boring for vegans. Maybe that's just my luck. It's mostly steamed veggies, plain beans, and brown rice. In Florida, I could get TVP taco casserole and channa masala regularly. I stopped by the store to grab something else and saw this chickpea and quinoa dish on the hot bar. I asked the people working if it was vegan since it wasn't labeled, which is pretty rare at Whole Foods. It was vegan and it looked damn good. It had a lot of black pepper, but I didn't mind that. I ate this before heading out for a day with friends and it kept me fueled. I did save the chocolate cake for the evening. I'll have to stop hating on the hot bar and check it out more often.