Easter Feaster

I made several things for my Easter Feaster. My plans didn't work out the way I wanted, since Mikey had to work, but I did get my eat on.

I made Peanut Butter Cups the night before. These were mostly for my dad and Mikey, to encourage them to avoid dairy. They were so easy to make too! First I melted half a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave. I added in a little Earth Balance, mixed it in and then put it into cupcake holders:


I froze them while I went shopping for my nieces. When I came back, I got about a cup and half of peanut butter, mixed it with some Earth Balance (which is a margarine) and crushed about 5 vanilla wafers, and mixed them in as well. I then put a dollop of peanut butter on top of the frozen tops.
Then I melted the rest of the chocolate chips, mixed them with the Earth Balance and I dropped chocolate on the peanut butter. Spoons were not my friend here. I used a toothpick to even out the chocolate on top.

Things got messy. I froze those for about an hour and then they were ready to eat!




On the healthier side (sort of. Not really), I made an ambrosia salad. I took two chopped bananas, chopped pineapple, a can of mandarin oranges, a can of cubed pears, a small jar of maraschino cherries, a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, shredded coconut and mixed them all together. Then I took some non-dairy pistachio pudding mix, mixed it with almond milk and poured about half over the salad (my sister ate the rest). And there you have it, easy ambrosia:



Finally, for dinner Mikey was going to make grilled stuffed mushrooms, but he was at work, so I made a simple meal instead. I cooked some green beans, made a salad, warmed some rolls and veganized a new mashed potato recipe I saw in a magazine. The original called for potato flakes (ew), chicken broth (ew) and white beans (yay). Instead, I boiled six peeled and chopped potatoes. When they were done and drained, I took a cup of vegetable broth and blended it with a can of white beans in the blender. I poured this mix into the potatoes instead of plain soymilk. I added about three spoonfuls of Earth Balance, a little bit of garlic and some salt and pepper. It came out really well. The bean taste was only slightly noticeable and it actually gave the potatoes a nice flavor. And I got my protein and carbs all at once!

Allison's Gourmet

Hello! For those of you who didn't know, I won Allison's Gourmet Easter Scavenger Hunt! right after I complained about how I never win anything! It's like the universe said "in your face, Jennifer!" in a good way. Anyway, I thought I'd review it, seeing as how I've never had any product from Allison's before.

As you can see, the fudge came in a lovely box...I kind of didn't want to ruin it, but there was FUDGE inside!

Here is what the inside looked like:


I cut and shared the fudge with everyone in my family. Everyone agreed it was delicious. It was the Java Crunch Flavor, and it was basic chocolate fudge with coffee powder sprinkled on top. I personally am not a fan of coffee at all, and even I liked it (although I liked the bits without the coffee better). The texture was smooth, creamy and the right kind of soft. I only had two bites because I'm doing P90X and I have a wedding to look good for. I think my mom and sister had one or two as well. My fiance, who is a choco fiend, had four. My father is the King of the Choco Fiends and he had the entire box, minus our pieces. He recently went vegan, so I was happy to make the concession to him.
In the future, when I am too lazy to make my own fudge, I will definitely be buying from Allison's. Since Father's Day is coming up, I think I may have to order some more chocolate products!

Enfrijoladas

Enfrijoladas is a very delicious dish that many people have never heard of. I believe it is regional to a specific part of Mexico (Jalisco?) and it's never offered in Mexico. Luckily, I was taught how to make it by someone from Mexico and it was very easily veganized. The best way I can explain it is enchiladas with bean sauce.
So I present to you now...Enfrijoladas!
2 c frijoles de la olla or 1 can of pinto beans
1 ripe tomato, roughly chopped
1 serrano chile, chopped
1/2 brown onion, chopped
2 tbs of minced garlic
1 tbs of Mexican oregano (regular is fine, too!)
1 1/2-2 c vegetable broth
6-8 tortillas (note: you need very fresh tortillas, preferably from a tortilleria if you can get them. If you must buy store-bought, warm them first).
1 c Daiya cheddar
Cooking oil

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine the beans and broth. Meanwhile, pour the cooking oil (I used Canola, but olive is fine too), enough to saute the veggies in. Saute the onion, garlic, tomato and chile for three minutes, or until soft. Add the oregano and saute another minute.

(It doesn't matter how finely they're chopped because it's all going to be blended)

Add the beans and broth and simmer for about ten minutes.



After ten minutes, remove the bean mixture from the heat for about five minutes. Very carefully, pour the mixture into a blender and puree for ten seconds. Pour the sauce back into the pan and warm for two minutes, stirring every few seconds.


Now it gets tricky. Using tongs, you're going to take the tortilla, dip both sides in the bean mixture, and transfer to a glass baking dish, folded in half. This is why the tortillas need to be fresh or warm because they won't fold over correctly otherwise.


Dipping side one...



Dipping side two...



Folding over in my dish...


Attempting to fold neatly.

Once the tortilla is in the dish, lift up the top flap and put a handful of cheese inside, then refold.



Once you have made all 6-8, take the remaining bean sauce and cover the tortillas, like you would with enchilada sauce. If you have a lot left over, don't use it all. Make sure the tortillas still stick up a little.



Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. The bean sauce will look slightly browner and maybe harden a bit when done.


And YAY! Enfrijoladas. They are kind of hard to get out of the pan without breaking and sticking, but who cares. They are delicious. I served mine with lettuce and onions and a side of chips. I would have added sour cream but I was out. They would also go well with orange or yellow rice.


If you try this, let me know how it works out!

Food for Lazy People aka Black Bean Casserole

I got back from whale watching and feeling seasick yesterday so I was not in the mood to get fancy. I looked in the pantry, saw some ingredients and came up with a black bean casserole for lazys.

1 can of black beans
1 can of either Rotel chiles and tomatoes or chopped tomatoes and chiles
1 bag of tortilla chips
about a cup or so of cheddar Daiya
2 green onions

Preheat oven to 350. Smash a bunch of the tortilla chips on the bottom of a small casserole dish, enough to cover the bottom. Pour about half the can of beans (drained!) over the chips. Then pour half the tomatoes and chiles over that. Chop one of the green onions and sprinkle over the tomatoes, then put about half the cheese over that. Then put another layer in the same order, using a little more cheese on top. Put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melty.
I served mine with some homemade guacamole, which I made while the casserole cooked. In the future, I may add soy crumbles.
And TADA! Casserole for lazy vegans! Would also taste great with Tapatio or Sririacha (or however you spell it).

Meatloaf!

I got an urge to eat meatloaf the other day, and one thing after another prevented me from making it. My other issue was that none of the meatloaf recipes I found were what I wanted or else they were complicated. Red meat was the last thing I gave up and I have fond memories of eating a big meatloaf sandwich with red onion, made for me by my grandma. So I set out to create my own meatloaf recipe, suited to my tastes.

1 1/2 package veggie crumbles, defrosted
1 c. bread crumbs (go more or less depending on preference)
1 can of plain tomato sauce
1/2 onion, chopped (I prefer red, brown will also work)
2 tbs vegan Worcester sauce
2 tbs tamari
Salt, pepper, dried oregano and dried basil, to taste
1 tsp garlic salt

I set the oven to 350. I warmed the veggie crumbles in the microwave. Defrosting is preferable if you have time. I mixed the crumbles with bread crumbs. Once they were mixed, I added in the tomato sauce, a little bit at a time, mixing as I went along. Then I added the tamari and worcester sauce and mixed well.

Note: don't use the bread crumbs in the pic! They aren't vegan....someone bought these for me without reading the label. There's a lot of junk in there.
I added a little bit of salt, pepper, basil and oregano and threw in a tiny bit of garlic salt. Finally, I added the chopped onions. I pressed the mixture into an oiled loaf pan and baked it in the oven for half an hour.
Before
After
When it was done, I served it with portobello mushroom gravy on top, the recipe which I got here and a nice spinach salad.



This recipe would easily adapt itself to the inclusion of other veggies such as carrot cubes or chopped celery. I want to mess with it a little and see how that works, but it got the seal of approval from my meat-eating mother and my very recent vegetarian fiance and I hope it can encourage other omnis out there to give it a try :)

Tofu Salad

I made tofu salad for lunch today. I got the initial recipe from the Crazy Sexy Diet book. Mike really liked it, but I kind of had issues with it. I thought it a little on the plain side and I wanted to jazz it up a little.


It's pretty easy to make.
1 drained package of firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup vegan mayo (I used plain Vegenaise. I recommend the Dijon for more flavor)
1/4 dijon mustard
2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
1/2 chopped brown onion
Handed ful of parsley, minced
The basic recipe calls for these ingredients well mixed together. I got jazzy and added
1/2 can of black olives, chopped
1/4 cup chopped pickles
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

This made it much more flavorful and a little more like my awesome potato salad (coming soon).

Since I'm trying to teach omnis more about a meat-free life, I will say that tofu is very strange the first time you crumble it. It helps to take it out of the fridge and let it sit for a awhile because I really hate crumbling extremely cold tofu. It reminds me of the time I went hiking in February and had to cross a stream created by snowmelt. Not a fun time. Also, it's very important you drain your tofu well, so your salad does not become watery.
Also, I've found the tofu is more flavorful when I allow the salad to sit for at least half an hour.

Tonight, I'm taking on meatloaf. Stay tuned....

Loving Hut

First off, Loving Hut sounds like a Polynesian porno title. But I digress. I've had a drink from the one located in the Westfield Shopping Center in San Francisco, but I've never had their food before. See, I'm not big on Asian food, except perhaps Indian. I don't know why; their flavors usually aren't my thing. But Mikey likes it (he likes it! Hey Mikey!) (sorry, that was terrible) so I gave it a try.

I went to the closest one, in Upland, Ca. They sell some prepackaged foods at their counter, like Daiya, Dandies, Go Max Go candy bars and Vegenaise there, which is pretty cool.

Their menu was different than the one in SF. That one was more like a Panda Express, with pre-made food under heat lamps. The drink menu there was also a lot smaller. This one had a fairly decent menu with good drinks.
I had a berry shake to drink:

It was nice and creamy, kind of like drinking berry ice cream.

Mikey had pineapple green drink:

It as very sweet and syrupy, too much so for lunch.

For our lunch, I had the Simply Fried Rice:

It was fried brown rice, with chunks of peas, carrots, onions and fried tofu. The fried tofu was meant to resemble the flavor of chicken slightly and was very good. I put a lot of chili sauce on it, but then, I love things spicy. It was fried with a little soy sauce and was simple, but filling.
Mikey had something called the Sweet and Sour Lady. It was not the most weirdly named menu item, either. I'm shocked mine wasn't Super Love Happy Rice.

I frankly thought it was disgusting. I think the mock meat was supposed to be sweet and sour grilled chicken and I don't care for sweet and sour food. It is not something that appeals to my palate. The mock meat was also chewy and weird. The salad had some funky ass honey mustard-like dressing on it that I did not think was appealing either. The brown rice was the best thing about it.
I suppose for former meat eaters who miss sweet and sour stuff at Panda Express et al., this would be a good transition. Mike thought it was great, so point proven. For me, however, I will stick to rice and chow mein at places like this.

Zephyr Cafe

My fiance is a former Marine and we go to the VA in Long Beach a lot. Thanks to my Los Angeles Vegan Guide that came Tuesday, I found out that there is a vegetarian/vegan cafe nearby, The Zephyr Cafe.

I had a glass of what they called "Hibiscus Iced Tea" but I call Jamaica. It wasn't very sweet, but it was nice and refreshing.

I also had a BLT, made with tempeh bacon, toasted whole wheat bread, vegan cream cheese, tomato and romaine lettuce.


It came with two toasted tortillas and a cup of salsa. They helpfully explain behind the counter that they no longer carry commercial brand blue chips, but use handmade tortillas from a local tortilleria to minimize environmental costs and "step away from corporations".
I enjoyed the sandwich. The bread had the little grains and whatnot in it, which I love. There were two strips of bacon in the sandwich, but I felt it would have been better with one. It was strongly flavored like barbeque and overpowered the other flavors in the sandwich a little. The cream cheese was a nice touch. The salsa was nice and fresh and the tortillas nice and crispy.

Mike had the tofu steak sandwich. I had a bite and the tofu was the opposite of the bacon: it lacked a lot of flavor. It was lightly grilled, but it didn't taste seasoned at all. The bun and toppings were good though.

I didn't have any dessert but there were lemon poppyseed and ginger wasabi (?!) cupcakes available.

There you have it. Pretty good vegetarian lunch for a decent price in the LBC.

Veggie Grill, I want to marry you

Before I went on my Disney mission, I had to go to Irvine to pick up my diploma (I just got an MA in English). I also had a card for a free birthday meal from Veggie Grill! There is a Veggie Grill right next to UCI's campus, in the University Shopping Center. This is where I was introduced to the goodness that is the Veggie Grill. I've since been to the Irvine Spectrum and West Hollywood locations, but this one will always be my favorite.

I didn't take a picture of it, but their Strawberry Lemonade is delicious. Also, I learned if you eat in, they will still give you a to go cup for this deliciousness and there are free refills. So drink up!

I had two starters for my meal: the macaroni and cheese and the nachos (I was clearly not in a health food mood; I usually have the quinoa salad).




These nachos actually gave me an idea. I think I'm going to start trying to make my own versions of stuff I eat a restaurants and give you, (my seven readers :P) the recipes for them. These nachos are the bomb diggity but Veggie Grill is too far away for me to go every day. The beans are northern white beans in a spicy sauce. I think the cheese is Daiya, mixed with soy milk? Not sure. There is also cashew sour cream, guac, tomatoes, green onions and jalapenos involved. Delicious.
The mac and cheese tastes a lot like Amy's brand mac, which makes sense since they both use Daiya. Veggie Grill puts bread crumbs on top and I added Cholula sauce, salt and pepper (no tomato sauce, boo).

Mikey had the Cajun chicken burger:

Very good. Nice blend of Cajun spices. I like their buns as well; they have that nice whole wheat taste to them. The chicken was Gardein chicken (I think) and it was grilled just like regular chicken sandwiches. It also came with sweet potato fries and Veggie Grill's chipotle ranch sauce. Seriously, if they bottled this dressing, I would be a happy girl. It tastes just like spicy ranch! I think the hardest thing for me about being vegan has always been the loss of ranch. I ate it with my fries all the time, with fried zucchini and on my salads. I've tried vegan ranch but nothing measures up. Except Veggie Grill's chipotle ranch.

So once again, the Veggie Grill satisfies me and wants my hand in marriage. I really wish they'd open one closer to me, in Claremont or something.

Disneyland Vegan Food Pt. Two

I spent a chunk of my day Friday looking at every single store at Disneyland for a Snow White purse Mikey was supposed to buy me for my birthday (it was sold out). It was to no avail. I did, however, get a chance to try Disneyland's vegetarian (actually vegan) chili, located at the Harbor Gallery across from the Haunted Mansion. They also have it in California Adventure, next to the Boudin Bakery place.



It was pretty meh. First of all, the service sucked. I asked the guy for one vegetarian chili in a bread bowl and he said "what about it?" I then repeated my order. He asked if I wanted cheese and I said no. Then he said "you don't want cheese?" I said no. He "Okay then" in this tone. I don't know what his deal was, but it was rude. He ruined my magic.

The chili itself was whatever. It had corn in it and I don't particularly care for corn in my chili. It also tasted like most of the ingredients were canned if not the chili itself. Also, I make my chili with veggie crumbles and this, of course, didn't have any. My recommendation is if you want something in a bowl, go across the way to the Royal Street Veranda next to the Nightmare Before Christmas store and have the gumbo. Far superior.

Vegan Mac and Cheese, Grandma Style

Whenever I would read mac and cheese recipes, I would think "wha?" when I got to the sauce part and the mixing of the cheese with flour and milk because I learned how to make mac and cheese from my grandma and she never did any of that. Now that I've gotten more into my culinary skills, I've made mac and cheese the traditional way but I still prefer my grandma's version, with tomato sauce and onions (veganized of course). Mike had never had my version of mac and cheese, so last night I got on it. Even now, when I make Amy's brand vegan mac, I throw in tomato sauce and green onions. Frankly, I think it tastes way better. But I digress. The very simple recipe:

1 box vegan macaroni noodles
1 can tomato sauce
3-4 green onions
2-3 cups of Daiya or vegan cheese of choice

First, boil the noodles for about seven minutes. You can adjust the amount of noodles depending on how much macaroni you want. Preheat the oven to 380.

Boil away, little ones.

After the mac is done, drain the noodles fully. Then take about half the noodles and put them in a casserole dish appropriate to the amount of mac you want. I was making less than I usually do, so I used a smaller dish this time.


Take the can of tomato sauce, pour about half on the noodles and mix it in with them. Then add 1 1/2 chopped green onions and mix in as well. Then coat with a layer of cheese.



Take the remaining noodles and make a second layer in your dish. Pour the remain tomato sauce on top and mix it in without disturbing the bottom layer. Add the rest of your green onions and coat with a nice even layer of cheese.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese browns a little. I was in a rush to go watch Mike's nieces and I didn't let it brown enough. It still tasted good.

I usually put a big helping of salt and pepper on my serving, but that's just a personal preference. This goes well with a nice side salad.

Super Awesome Vegan Birthday! (Pt. 2)

Sunday morning, the morning of my birth, we went to Flore Vegan for their brunch. Mikey has been dying to try their chicken and waffles. I just love brunch. So we went. I should also add whoever does the tweets at Flore is super awesome and wished me a happy birthday in the morning because I had mentioned going there on my birthday. I asked my server and he says he thinks it's the owner, Miranda. So Thanks, Miranda!

We had a fairly short wait for a Sunday. Both of use ordered the kale, celery, lemon and banana (I think) juices. They were pretty good. Very frothy.

I ordered the Southwest Scramble after a lot of indecision. I wanted to try just about everything on that menu. More excuses to go back for brunch, right? Actually I have another one, but I'll get to that. Anyway, here it is:

Tofu, mixed with black beans, corn, onions, and tomato, with chili sauce mixed in. It also came with a side of homestyle potatoes and a tortilla. I also added tempeh bacon to my order.
The scramble was good, if fairly basic. The potatoes were good. I mixed them in with the scramble, which made it even tastier. The tempeh bacon was also pretty good, with a nice smoky bacon-y flavor. I didn't touch the tortilla. For some reason, I don't care for the tortillas at Flore. It sucks because they have awesome taco filling, I just don't like the wrapper they come in.
Me, about to dig in


Now the piece de resistance:


I've never had chicken and waffles. I grew up disliking meat, and so there are a lot of dishes I never try to veganize because I never ate them as a kid. Mikey, however, loved him some chicken. He has been on the hunt for an acceptable substitute. This, people, is it. These chicken and waffles, to quote the kids I teach, is bomb. The waffle (I sampled everything) was no ordinary waffle, but a banana and cinnamon waffle. It was freaking delicious. Cooked just right, nice and light. The potatoes and mushroom gravy were savory. The mushroom gravy had a creaminess to it I've never gotten in a mushroom gravy before. And then chicken! I think it was made out of seitan, but I'm not sure. Mikey thinks all mock meats are tofu, so he swears that's what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was seitan. It had a nice chicken-y flavor but not so much so you'd get grossed out by the authenticness of it (that's why I can't eat un-chicken nuggets).
It was so good. He wouldn't stop talking about it all day. I have to figure out how to make it or we will go broke on brunches at Flore Vegan.

I also received a birthday cupcake for free!



Hee hee. The last picture is my new Facebook Picture.
It was a great start to my morning.
It was followed by a pedicure from my mom (using vegan nail polish!) and a trip to Disneyland, followed by a surprise dinner party at Tortilla Jo's. No vegan cake there, but I had a tostada salad with black beans. Everything vegetarian can be made vegan (all three items, ha ha) and it was pretty good. Lots of veggies involved.
It was a super awesome vegan birthday :)

Super Awesome Vegan Birthday!

Okay, I haven't updated in a few days because things have been crazy! Saturday I worked, did Relay for Life Azusa, and celebrated my birthday with my family. Sunday, my actual birthday, I had brunch at Flore Vegan, got a pedicure, went to Disneyland, and had a surprise dinner party at Downtown Disney!

There were a number of veganish things I wanted to discuss, so I'll start with my birthday dinner on Saturday. My mom, who is awesome, made soyrizo and potato enchiladas. The recipe is super easy!

1 package of soyrizo
1 package of Daiya cheddar or other soy cheese
10 tortillas
4-5 baking potatoes
1 can of red enchilada sauce
1 brown onion, chopped

My mom usually bakes the potatoes in the microwave for about seven minutes. While she's doing this, she heats up the soyrizo with the onion. When the potatoes are done, she roughly cubes them and throws them in the pan with the soyrizo. After about 3-4 minutes of cooking it, she warms the tortillas (this can be done on a comal or in the microwave) and fills the tortillas with two or so heaping spoonfulls of the potato/soyrizo mix and puts them in a glass baking dish. When they are all filled, she pours enchilada sauce over them and adds the cheese on top, enough to cover each enchilada. She bakes them for 10 to 15 minutes on 375 and then deliciousness ensues!

I was so excited about eating them, I forgot to take a picture until I was already eating them. So here you go :)



As you can see, we also had tacos, beans and homestyle chips.

My mom also took her first foray into baking to make me a vegan German chocolate cake using the chocolate cake recipe from How It All Vegan!



As you can see, I am eager to eat said cake. It was very choclatey and thick. Delicious. It went really well with So Delicious vanilla ice cream!

I had a great pre-birthday dinner, thanks to my awesome mom. I am going to do the Flore review in my next post.

Crazy Sexy Diet

I finished the Crazy Sexy Diet the other day. It's weird, at first all I wanted was junk, junk, junk, and now I don't want it at all. I'm still drinking green shakes every morning because eating seems weird and also, I really love those shakes now. My skin cleared up, I have more energy and I never get sick. I didn't lose any weight at all, though. But my clothes fit better. I've been told I put on muscle, which weighs more than fat, blah blah blah, so I'm hoping that's it. Mikey lost twenty pounds in three weeks. His skin is completely clear now. I believe he has given up meat for good, although not dairy :-/ However, I think doing this has saved him from diabetes and an early grave. I have fully committed to whole foods and clean eating now.

Thank you Kris Carr, for this wonderfully motivating book! Everyone go read Crazy Sexy Diet!

Sage Vegan Bistro

I went with Mikey into LA the other day for something job-related (for him) and because I was pretty sure I could talk him into lunch at a new place. Unfortunately, things took longer than expected and I had to be at work by 2:45. Yet, I was determined to try Sage Vegan Bistro inside the Kind Kreme in Echo Park.

The setting is pretty small but bright and cheery. The waitstaff was also very friendl, if a little slow. After patiently waiting for ten minutes to have my order taken, it became kind of obvious I was going to have to get it to go. They were very accomodating in that respect.

There were many delicious things I wanted to try (pretty much anything NOT involving eggplant...shudder). I went with the Black Bean and Plantain Burger, shown below, with a side of potato salad. I had never had plantains before, although it's been on my to-do list for awhile. Let me tell you, you will not be sorry with this burger!
The plantains were lightly grilled. They weren't as sweet as bananas. It was kind of like eating a grilled green banana, both in taste and texture. I love green bananas so I loved it. The black beans had pico de gallo atop them. There was also some sort of sour cream on them. The top bun had arugula, jalapeno and a sauce which I believe was a jalapeno/chipotle aoli sauce. The potato salad was made of red potatoes and lima beans and seasoned with rosemary and dill.

The whole thing was so good, I asked Mike for permission to marry it. Seriously, it was probably one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. My only complaint was the arugula...not too fond of it. But the aoli covered up its taste pretty well. The potato salad was seasoned perfectly.


Mikey got the Jack Daniels Barbeque Burger. It was jackfruit seasoned like pulled pork (so he says, I've never had it), covered with Jack Daniels sauce. Carmelized onions were also involved.

He loved it. I need to find jackfruit somewhere because I've been told I need to learn how to make this :)


While I was waiting for my order, I had a line of view of the treat counter at Kind Kreme and eventually I just gave in and ordered a walnut fudge while I waited.

Not bad. I couldn't finish it all because it was extremely dark chocolate-y, so Mikey got a piece and a half.
So there you have it. Sage Vegan Bistro's food more than makes up for slow service. Next time, I will plan better so I am not writing about flavors while in a car.