Me love food.

So I've been slacking on the blogging lately.

I've even missed getting Naked on Sunday once or twice (SO SORRY!)

But it's probably because I've been crazy busy eating all this bomb ass delicious vegan food, and it's not polite to talk with your mouthful.


So without further ado, here's some photos of some recipes I have either made myself, or eaten myself, that gives omnivore "junk" and "comfort" food a run for its money.

(DISCLAIMER most of these were taken on my cell phone in a mad dash to get a shot before the food in question was completely wolfed down, AND unedited, so please excuse all the blur and poor framing.)

First off, the grocery shop.

I know there are a fair share of WINCO haters out there (trust me, I see them with their protest signs literally EVERY time I go to the discount super grocer) but I just gotta go with a place that I can get two weeks worth of food (including a varied selection of fresh produce, organic bulk dried goods and some pretty decent vegan specialty foods) for around $50. And it's less than five minutes from my humble South End abode. 

I usually round it out with trips to Fred Meyers, Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe's (when I'm feeling extra energetic) but hot damn, B! 

You really can't beat WINCO for the basics of a good, well-rounded vegan diet on budget. 

And moving on to all the downright deliciousness I've created with that and similar shopping trips.

We'll start with my Scratch Pizza. 

This is/was one of my pride and joy recipes I made a while back, COMPLETELY from scratch from COMPLETELY delicious, healthy and whole ingredients. 

This is also the only food porn you will see today that was taken with my "real" camera, and spruced up a bit in Photoshop.

Here is the uncooked model:

And AFTER about 20 minutes in the ol' toaster oven. 

I topped this super easy, scratch, whole wheat pizza crust from The Preppy Vegan with some super rich and fresh pesto I just "whipped up" right quick, sauteed onions and greens (can't remember now if I used kale or spinach), sliced red peppers, sliced red tomatoes, a simple cashew ricotta from Hipsterfood and tempeh sausage crumbles from the venerable Isa Chandra Moskowitz's go-to vegan recipe guide Vegan with A Vengeance.

OMG IT WAS SO MOFREAKIN GOOD THIS PICTURE CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I WANTED TO CRAWL INTO A HOLE AND DIE AFTER EATING IT BECAUSE MY LIFE WAS PRETTY MUCH COMPLETE.
But the best part is, this was so the opposite of the super trashy, greasy pizza I usually lean towards, I actually didn't want to crawl into a hole and die because the ingredients were so good I felt close to amazing after eating it.

No gut-bomb. No guilt. PURE LOVE.

And speaking of the aforementioned trashy, greasy pizza I so adore, there is still a special place in my heart for that breed of goodness as well. 

Behold, homemade (but definitely not from scratch) stuffed crust, gooey, greasy, bad-for-you-pizza complete with melted garlic butter and ranch for dipping. 

And tall boys, of course. 

I used a pre-made Pillsbury pizza crust, stuffed the edges of it with more Daiya mozzarella than should be legal, spread out a healthy slather of BBQ sauce, topped that with even more mozzarella, threw some diced white onions, olives and pineapple on top, coated the stuff'd crust with butter and garlic seasoning, and while that all baked up just perfect like, I melted a heaping spoonful of Smart Balance with garlic, and brought out the home-made vegan ranch that I had made the day before just with pizza-dipping in mind.
To avoid the risk of sounding redundant, please go back and refer to the completely bolded paragraph above if you are interested in how the enjoyment of this, pretty much my favorite meal of all time (I'd probably eat something similar before being sent to the electric chair) went down, but skip the part about it being all healthy and shit. 

And now moving onto something much more healthy: rawchos!

Here's the plate of completely raw nachos which I enjoyed on my first trip to the new, almost completely raw restaurant downtown: AmeRAWcan (pronounced American) Bistro.

They were delicious, fresh and I can't wait to go back and try more off their raw-tastic-menu.

Is that a vegan torta? Or are you just happy to...  ---  OMG HELLS YES THAT IS A VEGAN TORTA.

what?!

 So for those of you who know me, know there is one food that is pretty much on par with pizza in the "favorite" slot on my list of top comfort foods.
And that would be sammiches.
And about a year ago, I experienced a torta (a Mexican sandwich) for the first time, and it has been true love ever since.
After going vegan, and not realizing that there was a good vegan mayonnaise on the market (my first attempt at vegan mayo was Nayonaise which just did not do it for me) I thought I would never enjoy the amazing flavor combo of a well-made torta ever again (as mayo is one of the key compliments to a good mexi-sammich-stack.)
 And then one fateful day I discovered the utter holiness of Vegenaise.
Thus, my homemade vegan torta was born.
Smashed up black beans, thick sliced cold tomato, white onion and avocado, melted pepper jack Daiya, a nice schmear of mayo, cilantro and a home-grown Serrano pepper all put together within two thick and crusty pieces of toasted soft roll.
I ate one and an half of these in less than 30 minutes.
And I am not ashamed.



And then, with my leftover, large soft roll and pepper jack cheese, I made a delicious broccoli and cheddar (dare I say?) "hot pocket" sandwich for lunch the next day.
Nothings super crazy, but definitely a "spot hitter" for a Monday in the cube.

And that wraps up my food porn update for today!

I realize it's mainly pizza and sammiches with a slight detour into the fine world of nachos,  but I gotta share when I do "normal food" vegan and it turns out a million times more amazing then I could ever even imagine.

For the record, I do not eat these types of foods on the daily - they are once-in-a-while meals I spring for when I get inspired to veganize something and put a pesky craving to bed.
I make a wide variety of healthy greens, beans and whole grain dishes too, just like every good vegan should, and maybe sometime I will share some of those with you as well.

But until then, just enjoy the pizza and nachos, aight?