Vegan Chili

I had to make dinner tonight because Mikey flaked out, so I looked around and decided it was chili night. My mom has a set recipe for this but I'm a little more experimental. So here's what I did:
I sauteed a chopped white onion and garlic with a little oil, then added a bag of soy meat. I seasoned it with cumin, chili powder and salt. Then I decided I needed more spice so I chopped up two serrano chiles and threw them in. I also added a little orange bell pepper. I still wasn't satisfied, so I added chopped tomato. This is what it looked like.















Then I added a can of chili beans and a can of black beans. I'd like to soak my own beans someday; however, dinner in a hurry does not equal soaked beans. I simmered the mixture for about ten minutes and added a little more chili powder and salt.




















After ten minutes of patient waiting, I was starving. I served it atop a green salad with some leftover chopped onion and Daiya cheese on top.




I think this may be my favorite version yet, but I still want to play around with chili. I found a recipe for sweet potato black bean chili at work today, so that may be veganized in the near future!

Vegan Ceviche

Mikey is new to veganism (he's on the Crazy Sexy Diet with me) and so I try to veganize his old favorites as much as possible. He is a huge seafood fan, particularly ceviche. Having never had ceviche myself since I've been vegetarian for so long, I looked up several different ceviche recipes and played around with them to make my own for lunch today.
Here's the end result:



I combined chopped and cooked cauliflower with cucumber, tomatoes, white onion and carrot, all finely chopped. I added the juice of five lemons, a little olive oil, sea salt and black pepper to the mix. Something was still missing, so I threw in two finely chopped serrano peppers and Voila!




I served it on tostada shells, in the traditional fashion.



The former meat-lover gave it a thumbs up! He said "I guess I don't need fish to enjoy a good ceviche". Success!

Next time, I think I will add some radish and see how that works out. Many ceviche recipes say to add V-8 or another tomato juice but I didn't want to add the salt and Mikey said the ones without it taste better, anyway.

Squash Enchiladas

Saturday night, my parents were going to have their usual weekend meal of fish, potatoes and salad, when I stepped in and said I was going to make dinner. My dad is considering going full on vegan (he eats only fish and a modicum of dairy right now) so I'm trying to keep him away from the animal products.
I decided to make squash enchiladas. I posted the recipe on VegWeb here:
I also made the yellow rice from the Viva Vegan! cookbook and some refried beans.
Here I am preparing the filling. I used Mexican squash, yellow squash and zucchini, mixed with onion, serrano chile (I use jalapeno if I have them) and spinach.













After about ten minutes or so, when the squash is nice and soft, I filled up the tortillas like so:















And finally I threw green sauce over the whole thing and took the little bit of leftover filling and put it on top. It's messy but delicious.


You have to use green sauce with this...red enchilada sauce wouldn't compliment the taste of the veggies very well. I suppose you could use a little bit of Daiya, but I find it pretty tasty without it.

Breakfast

I never make breakfast posts. This is because I drink the same shake every morning:


Avocado, spinach, kale, a banana and a cucumber mixed with water and a dash of agave.
Yum.

Disneyland Vegan Food Pt. One

I go to Disneyland a lot. My fiance, Mike, bought me a pass for Christmas and I'm kind of a sucker for Disneyland. It was always my favorite place to go as a kid. I hear a lot of blah blah, corporate, blah, blah, but, you know, a lot of stuff is corporate and I love Disney cheesiness.
Moving on, since I spend a lot of time at Disneyland, I thought I'd help people finding vegan options there, since there aren't as many as at Walt Disney World in Orland (more on that in a second). I had read via Disneyland's FB page that the Hungry Bear Cafe in Critter Country recently redid it's menu and although most of it contained meat, I saw "Fried Green Tomato Sandwich" and I knew I had to give it a try. I looked up the ingredients online: fried green tomatoes with a cornmeal crust, jicama pepper slaw, remoulade, and havarti on a multigrain bun. I looked up remoulade since I had no clue what that was (it's akin to mayo) and Havarti I knew was cheese. When we got to Disneyland, I asked the servers at the Hungry Bear if the cornmeal contained dairy. They said it did not. One was a vegetarian and knew what I was talking about so I trusted her. The sandwich is also made to order, so I easily took off the remoulade and havarti. It came with a side of sweet potato fries as well.
Here is the pic:


(Sorry about the lighting, it was 8:00 p.m. and the lighting was bad)

It was a damn good sandwich. The jicama-pepper slaw was slightly tart, which complimented the sweetness of the cornmeal. There was also cabbage in there and red onions, both pickled. The tomatoes themselves were savory and warm. And the sweet potato fries! Damn, Disney does NOT mess around. When I was a kid, I remember their food being kind of bland, but not this stuff. It was delicious. When I was done with my sandwich, I kinda wanted another one! It was that good!
Just a side note, there is also a salad advertised as a chicken salad there, but I was told could be made vegetarian. Also, the veggie burgers are still available at the Hungry Bear, they just aren't on the menu.

Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock

Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock is awesome. I first read about it in Quarrygirl.com about a year ago and I have been wanting to try it ever since, Today Mike and I finally made it there. All the vegetarian items there can be easily veganized by asking for no cheese. The items are also not your typical Mexican fare. They had a vegetarian jamaica burrito/taco/sope, but I guess I was too scared to try it. I had been looking forward to trying the portobello tacos, but when I got there, I didn't see them on the menu. However, what I did have was freaking delicious.


We began with chips and salsa. The salsa was exactly how I like it--rich tasting and fairly hot. I can't stand weak salsas, and I'm fairly picky about taste and freshness, but this one passed the test. The chips were pretty rad, too. They were lightly seasoned with chile and salt. Next to them is my drink, which was a papaya and mango aguas fresca.It hit the spot...cool and sweet and delicious, with little papaya chunks in it.


We also ordered mole fries, which we didn't really get to taste because it came out as the same time as our meals, which were huge, as you will see. However, Mike had a few and said it the mole was perfect, not too sweet, not too spicy. In the deli case, the label on the mole said "Imported from Oaxaca" so I think that had something to do with the authenticness of it.



My meal was tacos de papas (potatoes). I asked for no cheese, but that apparently didn't translate over to the beans. Oh well. They were pretty freaking good. I eat a lot of potatoes de papas and these were probably the best ones I've ever had. The blue corn tortilla complimented the flavor of the red salsa and potato. The potatoes themselves were cooked in a salsa of some kind that I think was tomatillo and green chile. Either way, they were pretty damn good.


Mike got the calabacitas burrito. It consisted of mexican squash and corn, mixed with rice and frijoles de la olla (no lard!). I snagged a bite and it was pretty good. It reminded me of the squash enchiladas I make. I promised him I'd make him one with Daiya soon.

All together, I give them 9 out of ten vegan cats! I am super stuffed now and plan to laze around in my fatness before work.

Dinner 3/23/2011

I felt really sick at work today. Luckily, Mikey was making dinner since I had told him earlier I was tired of coming home at seven and cooking. He made black bean and sweet potato burgers from the Crazy Sexy Diet book. I didn't get a picture because I felt like crap, but I assure you they were delish.

Lunch 3/23/11

Today Mike and I took a three mile hike to Monrovia Canyon Falls and when we got back, we were hungry and I didn't feel like cooking anything ornate. So I threw together this salad from La Dolce Vegan! and added green olives for funsies. It was ten shades of delicious.

To Begin

Hello. I have the free time, so why not start blogging about my veganism? I kept going back and forth on being vegan out of pure laziness (although I've stayed vegetarian since I was about 10), but after reading Crazy Sexy Diet I have decided to stay this way. I'm currently on Day 12 and I have never felt better. I've also lost some weight, thanks to my Jillian Michaels workouts. Before I began this diet,, I would feel tired and sore the next day after a workout, but now I feel fantastic. My muscles never hurt, my headaches have vanished, my backaches are gone and my skin has cleared up. I cannot recommend this book enough!