Thanksgiving!

Here's a quick and dirty post about my super awesome, luxuriously long, Thanksgiving weekend.

It started with a verrry verrry long drive- about 2 hours longer than usual because of damn holiday traffic.
But surprisingly, Sean and I didn't kill eachother on the trek to his family's cabin spot on Devils Lake (near Lincoln City, Ore.)
We actually had fun!
But I didn't take any pictures of that.
We got to the cabin late - about 11:30 p.m. the night before Tofurkey Day.

But, this is what we got to wake up to:

 Let me just say Sean's mom knows how to party ;) 

Here are the guys of the cabin, having a pre-dinner toast. From left to right - Sean's stepdad Jerry, Uncle Mark a.k.a. 'the lowrider,' cousin-in-law Jason, and Sean. 


Here's the rest of the gang, excluding Aunt Donna (taking picture) and little brother Avery (napping.)
The girls are cousin Emma (center), me, and Sean's mom Christine (the one who knows how to partay!)



The food was amazing! I got to make my very first Tofurkey Roast, and whipped up my signature gravy (which everyone loved, as always. Not trying to brag, just saying).

Sean made some tasty yam and apple dish, as well as a hippie-infused focaccia bread (I naively bought the "healthy" unbleached whole wheat flour over our usual all-purpose flour for this recipe not realizing it would drastically change the usual fluffy texture Sean takes so much pride in. But it was still pretty good.)

I will say I am a proud member of the completely clean plate club, which I actually photographed, but later decided not to post because I think you all know what a clean plate looks like.

 Sean's cousin Emma and her husband Jason. It was so fun getting to know these guys over the weekend! We had a blast. 

Buffy and I in our matching red hoodies...  at the ocean, btw.

     More shots of the ocean at the very nearby Road's End state park. Our cabin was actually on the  lake, but we were so close to the Pacific you could actually hear the ocean from the deck!

  Sean, Christine and Avery.

After spending the morning at the ocean and briefly touring Lincoln City, Sean and I headed back home, where we were greeted with yet another Thanksgiving!
Since my mom always works Thursdays (aka always works Thanksgiving) and my sister was unhappy with her leftover ratio, she suggested we have another dinner Sunday night in honor of Thanksgiving as well as my upcoming birthday! (Which means I got to invite friends!!!)

I didn't take as many pictures this time around, but we had another amazing meal (where everyone loved the vegan stuff, yet again), and a super fun time laughing with literally (most of) my favorite people in the world.

My sister Rachel and her husband Chris, the fucking cook.
(Not sure if he actually cooked anything but whatevs).

Three of my best girls: Kat, Court and Tay. 

Also in attendance, but not pictured, Janis, Jim, Justin, Julian, Grace and Camden. 

Yipeee! 

Chickpea Tacos!

I came across this simple recipe while perusing Happy Heribvore's blog this week.
She said it was hands-down her husband's favorite recipe ever, so I knew I had to give it a try.
And since I had prepped a buttload of chickpeas over the weekend and still had a bunch leftover, it was a super easy recipe to whip up for a Wednesday night fiesta!

Historically, we've always gone with TVP to make our trusty and delicious taco filling, but these hearty, super flavorful Mexican-style chickpeas will definitely be making their way into my regular rotation!

 They were a cinch to make and they're super healthy, which is pretty much an unbeatable combo.

Check out the recipe here.

Just another pizza...

Pictured above: Pre-made pizza crust, generous layer of Isa Chandra's Romesco sauce, a sprinkling of vegan Mozz (very optional) sliced green almond-stuffed olives, diced onion, and crumbled scratch-made Italian sausages (one batch has fed us for four meals and counting btw...), quick-made pizza ranch dip.


This pizza was so good and rich with flavors that seemed to complement eachother perfectly.
I highly recommend trying the Romesco red pepper sauce for your next pizza - it hits your basic tomato spread out of the park!

Lunch!

Not only is lunch my favorite meal of the day, it is also the second most important meal of the day. Especially on workdays.

I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything worse than getting halfway through a boring day at work, only to be greeted with a super lame lunch.
Lunch needs to be a satisfying half-point that says "way to go slugger! we're half way to dinner!" not a humongous let down that says "I could have been the high point of your workday... but I'm not because YOU suck."

Now, part of the reason I love lunch so much is because I love going out to lunch, especially with good company.
But, that can get pricey and can tend to be on the unhealthy side, so I typically brown-bag it to work. (Although I don't actually use a brown bag. I tend to use no bag, and then end up cramming my purse with non-spillables and juggling my spillables with my keys as I exit house/enter car/exit car/enter office. It's stupid really. I almost always drop my fork.)

The key to not letting you let yourself down at lunch is planning.
Some days, when the fridge is stocked/there's leftovers from dinner, packing a good, effortless lunch is, well, effortless.

Other days, you don't think about lunch at all until you're running late on your way to work and you open the fridge and you realize there is NOTHING there waiting for you.

Those days are ususally when going out to eat is in order, or you're delusional enough to think that grabbing something lame like an apple and a Clif bar is really going to make your mid-way meal a winner.
It's not. At least it never is for me.

So something I have been working on lately is prepping food in advance, so that I always have a good option for lunch that takes relateively no time to prepare in the morning.

This week, I marinated tofu over the weekend (in some random marinade that included soy sauce, vegan Worcester, garlic, tomato paste, liquid smoke, cinnamon and red wine vinegar... I think...), and then baked it up last night while a rice-cooker full of millet cooked.
Pair that with some sort of veggie (I used fresh broccoli) and you'll be good to go for a nutritious and delicious meal that will spread out over at least a couple of days, with little to no work on your part!

For the record, I've recently solved my "fork dropping" problem by keeping an "office fork" at my desk. Genius, I know.

What's your usual lunch routine? Any favorites or planning tips?

Green goodness

Here's a simple green smoothie recipe to start off Week 2 of Vegan Mofo!

It's nothing crazy or super special, but it is a staple part of my diet, and a generally great way to start off your day! Especially your Mondays. (And especially especially after a late night of karaoke and Sunday hi-jinx in general)...


My personal favorite recipe doesn't really change much from day to day - I either use a big old handful of kale or spinach (depending on what I have in my fridge), a banana, about a half cup of almond milk, some flax seeds and sometimes I throw in a tablespoon or so of agave, just to sweeten the deal even more.

Put everything in a blender, like so, and put it to work.

You'll end up having something that looks like this:

For all you green smoothie virgins out there, you're probably thinking:
"No way in hell am I drinking something that looks like it came out of Swamp Thing's ass!" 

But trust me. You will soon become addicted to the frothy and refreshing beverage that, dare I say, "packs a punch" nutrition-wise.

Obviously, this is just the beginning of more than a bazillion nutrition-infused smoothie combinations.

As my good friend Dawn at Vegan Moxie eloquently put it in her recent post about smoothies:
"Smoothies are like snowflakes, guys!"

All that means is that anything can be added, altered or removed making a beverage perfectly customizable to your tastes.

Sometimes I get crazy and add frozen berries, cinnamon or even powdered ginger for kicks, but what I love about this recipe is its simplicity. I always have these ingredients on hand, it takes less than 2 minutes to make and I know it tastes great, so it's fool proof.
I have no excuse not to get my Popeye on before I even get dressed in the morning.

So give it a try and let me know what you think!

Chickpea Curry salad

I loooove me a good chickpea salad.

Simply mixed with Vegenaise (one of the best factory-made 'vegan alternatives' known to man. Nasoya's Nayonaise ain't got nothing on Follow Your Heart's mayo recipe... sorry Nasoya!), salt and pepper and a little chopped celery and carrot, it's perfectly satisfying sandwiched between bread, in a wrap, on lettuce - or on its own.
It's fresh, light and filing and it tastes unbelievably good (I say this because I was so surprised myself the first time I whipped up a batch of this stuff and tasted its simple delectableness).

Anyways, I cooked up a big ol' pot of chickpeas (or Ce Ce beans, as we call them at my house) the other night to make a variety of recipes with; all of which I will be featuring throughout Vegan MOFO!

But first off, I needed some lunch, so chickpea  salad it was!

I wanted to make it a little more special than the staple recipe I had become accustomed to, so took a bite out of my mom's style, and recreated a curried apple chicken salad she had made for me years ago as a child.

This recipe includes about 1 cup of slightly mashed chickpeas, a shredded carrot, one segment of celery, about one-half of a small apple, and about 1/4 cup Vegenaise mixed with a few dashes of celery salt, black pepper, a tablespoon (or more) of curry powder, a bit of cinnamon and another bit of red pepper flakes.



Mix it all together and let it sit for a bit before you eat it, so the flavors make friends. I usually make it the night before, or in the morning, then eat it for lunch, either in a sandwich or over greens like so:

Quick disclaimer:
If you use another version of vegan mayo and are disappointed with the results, please don't come complaining to me that "vegan mayo" sucks. Vegenaise is the ONLY WAY TO GO. I repeat Vegenaise = ONLY WAY TO GO.)

GUAC ON PASTA!

Here it is!

An actual post of an actual recipe that I actually made during the actual official time frame of Vegan MOFO!

It is also a recipe I had never made before, but have wanted to for a long time.
And last night, the stars aligned, and it was my time to finally whip-up some avocado-alfredo -  a.k.a guac on pasta.

Now, before I dive in, let me just toot-my-own horn here for a second and say that I've been putting basil in my guacamole since long before ever reading an avocado-alfredo recipe on the web.

(Just sayin'.)

However, when I did read about avo-fredo a few months ago, I was like:

"Hey! That sounds amazing! Why didn't I ever think of that?"

I mean, guac is good, but you can only eat chips and dip for so many meals before people start to wonder.

So I welcomed the idea of being able to top my pasta with guac, but under the clever guise of a fancy/inspired/vegan answer to alfredo.

But, like I said before, I read a recipe months ago, but didn't actually jump in and make it until last night.

And the reason why I decided to do so was because I had finally gone to the grocery store to stock up, and they had a great deal on avocados. Then I walked by the chip aisle and thought:

"mmm....guac..."

After I got home, just as I was about to crack open the bag of tortilla chips I thought:

"Wait a minute! This is Vegan Mofo! I need to do something different. Chips and dip is 'boring!' Plus, it's not summer anymore. Who the hell can justify guac in fall - for dinner?"

Then it came to me.
Make that guac, put it on pasta, and call it fancy.

BAM!

So then I Googled a few quick avocado alfredo recipes and found that all I needed was avocado, garlic, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and fresh basil.

I was stocked on the 'cados, lemon juice (albeit, not fresh), and seasonings, but no fresh basil.
However, I had just picked up a container of vegan "garlic galore" pesto, so I figured that would do the trick.

So, I put a pot of water on, threw in some fettuccine noodles (you can use whatever noodles you like, but I happened to have some fettuccine laying around. They aren't my favorite, but I figured no better  time to use them than with a 'fredo).

As they were cooking, I took 1.5 (fairly small) avocados, a couple dollops of the pesto, some lemon juice and salt/pepper and made 'em dance in my blendah. I adjusted to taste, and even got a wild hair to throw in a couple sun dried tomatoes (and a little extra garlic).

I drained the noodles, put em in a bowl and put a spoonful of "alfredo" on top.

Then I mixed it up and sprinkled a bit of nutritional yeast on top, just for kicks. 

Fresh. Creamy. Delicious.

The thing about this sauce is a little goes a long way - it doesn't take much to evenly coat all your noodles, which is a good thing. Because avocados are a little on the fatty side. AND that means I had leftovers for lunch!

*LEFTOVER TIP: Keep remaining sauce separate from noodles - you do not want to have to reheat the noodles if they're covered in 'cado.

Taco Tuesday!

So, my impromptu/unofficial participation in Vegan Mofo! has gotten off to a somewhat rocky start.

I can attribute this to not having an adequately stocked kitchen at the moment, and a SINKFULL of dishes that I have been putting off washing since Sunday, for no good reason (other than the fact that my dishwasher is broken and I am damn sick of doing dished by hand.)

Anywhoo, these two things together have put my usual cooking routine on hiatus, which is pretty annoying timing considering I'm attempting to blog about food every day (or so) for the rest of the month.

Now, I could show you a picture of the Clif bars I have eaten for breakfast today and yesterday due to my lack of smoothie fixings. OR upload a quick shot of my leftover Sunday soup (the last meal I cooked) which has lasted us through several meals Monday, Tuesday into Wednesday as well.
But for some reason, that just seems boring.

So, instead, I will tell you about an impromptu taste-test I encountered last night, after unintentionally going to two local bars which both happened to serve $2 tacos as part of Tacoma's sweeping Taco Tuesday movement.

For the record, I do not usually go out on Tuesdays, especially to two bars. But when a friend who you haven't seen in over a year calls and wants to meet for drinks at the last minute, you do it.
And  then, when another friend invites you out for tacos, and you are already three beers and a taco deep, you do that as well.

Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to realize that a "Tacoma veggie taco-off" would make a great topic for a MOFO post, so I did not take pictures.

I did, however, whip up a couple "artistic renditions" of each taco plate, in order to give readers a true visual understanding of what I ate last night.

O'Malley's:

So first of all, I had the O'Malley's Taco. I was having beers with the aforementioned old friend, and all of a sudden realized it was "Taco Tuesday."

Once I got over my regret of not ordering the $2 Dos Equis on special instead of my boring old PBR, I realized the special board also listed "veggie" tacos as an option.

My stomach immediately started growling, and I ordered the veggie taco - hold the cheese and sour cream. (Bonus kudos to O'Malley's cook for coming out to the bar and personally asking if I wanted Ranch on my taco, since I guess that's what usually comes on it. I said "no dairy whatsoever please" and thanked him for being thoughtful/considerate enough to ask.)

The O'Malley's veggie taco was actually more like a burrito. Large, flour tortilla wrapped in foil, and stuffed with deliciously spiced grilled peppers and onions, along with the staple shredded iceberg and diced tomatoes. 

It included a surprisingly spicy, fruity (mango perhaps?) salsa, and a side of salty tortilla chips and more salsa for dipping. 

It really hit the spot, was a great amount of food for the low price, and definitely didn't feel like a "random veggie taco" afterthought.

Hell's Kitchen:

Once we decided to venture down to Hell's Kitchen to meet some more friends for tacos, I was excited to make the comparison.
First of all, I was glad to find out that the Kitchen also had veg-tacos on the menu, and were happy to serve them up without any animal products.
Again, the price was $2 for an order of tacos, which actually includes two tacos, with an option for soft or hard shells.
 I ordered soft and was most surprised by the amount of food that came out to my table.  Two large soft taco shells filled with sauteed onions, olives and mushrooms, again topped with iceberg and diced tomatoes.
Considering I was a little full from O'Malley's already, I only ate one of the tacos. And they were pretty good. They lacked a little on the seasoning side, but HK has a wide variety of salsas/sauces to add yourself. Another complaint was that the mushies were on the thick chewy/side, borderline rubbery, which was odd and makes the HK taco loose a few points.
But defintely a good value, and not a bad meal overall.

....anndd the winner for the night goes to O'Malley's for their sweet and spicy sauce, side of chips and close attention to detail for the Ranch follow up!

Maybe next Tuesday I'll round out my taco tour with the rest of Tacoma's taco-Tuesday offerings.
AND maybe I'll actually take pictures...

until then... just suck it up and enjoy my drawrings.

VEGAN MOFO!

So I've decided to unofficially participate in a month of Vegan Food blogging with the 700 or so other vegans in the world who blog as part of Vegan Mofo!

I'm excited, because since going vegan in April, writing/talking/blogging about bombass vegan eats has  become one of my favorite things to do. And Vegan Mofo will encourage me to do it pretty much daily throughout October.

My first post includes a photo of breakfast at our house on Saturday. You may notice that it bears an extremely strong resemblance to Dawn at Vegan Moxie's first official Vegan Mofo post, and that is probably because we are both awesome and share a common love for b&g (duh).

 
Anyways - this meal included quick and easy simple Bisquick biscuits (with garlic and agave added for some extra zip), white bean gravy from "Vegan with a Vengeance," and an adaptation of scratch-made pinto bean sausages Sean pulled from Vegan Dad (which Vegan Dad pulled from the PPK).
We made the sausages last Sunday for Sean's famous "Italian stuffed fennel" recipe, which is always freakin delicious.
In the past, we used Tofurky's Italian style sausages, but I now will swear by the scratch recipe.
They are super easy, and the texture was even better than Tofurky's.
Plus, you have full control of the flavors/seasonings. (We added sun dried tomatoes to our version which was ingenious, I  must say.)

We froze the rest and I crumbled up two links/got them crispy in the frying pan before adding them to the gravy for breakfast on Saturday, and I could not have been happier about the outcome...

Deeelllicccioouusss!

  Thanks for stopping by! 

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?

Naked Sundays - round 15

Vegan Italian Feast
One of the more delicious things I ate this week.

Italian sausage stuffed fennel topped with cashew ricotta, a creamy caprese pasta salad and crusty bread with pesto (pesto not pictured.)

It's PHILLY TIME!

Ever have those days where you just want to come home from work, plop your ass on the couch, and eat something that will put you into an inevitable, yet glorious, food coma?

That's how I felt last night. I will spare you the details, but I was tired, cranky and just plain yearning for some comfort food and snuggles.

This meal was quick, easy and definitely did the trick. 

(At least as far as the need for comfort food goes. Eddie covered the snuggles.)

Philly CheeseFake Sammich, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a classic "salad bar" salad.

So, this probably looks like I put a lot of work into it, but I really didn't.

(Hint: I used instant potatoes and a couple of Bocas from the freezer. Having leftover sliced veggies from the Father's Day Barbecue really sped things up, too).

Here's a loose recipe, if you choose to follow:

Saute some chopped onions and garlic in a little olive oil 'til they are soft.
Add chopped mushrooms and chopped, thawed, Bocas (I used two patties. It served two and had leftovers. Use your best judgment on amounts. It's a Philly Sammich, not rocket science.)
Add a few table spoons of Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce/Tamari- whichever you prefer).

Let cook for a few, meanwhile, boil 2 cups water in a pan, add a broth of sorts (veggie bouillon, broth concentrate, pre-made broth - whatevs) season with more Bragg's and some herbs and spices.
I used black pepper, sage and mixed "Herbs De Provence"' (I don't know what the hell that means, but it's a good mix of marjoram, oregano and something else, I think, and it makes a 'mazing gravy flavor).

Add a little bit of that broth to the Philly fixens, then cover and let simmer for a few. Then add some frozen peppers and let it cook till you just can't wait any longer and you want to get your ass on the couch and eat.
Use whatever kind of cheese you like. I slathered two sides of a toasted sesame bun with vegan cream cheese, and it tasted bombdigs.

MEANWHILE, while Philly simmers:

Boil some more water for the instant taters, and then remove from heat and add some instant potato flakes. Stir until it's thick. Add some butter and milk (I use Smart Balance and Almond Milk), stir, and cover 'til your ready to eat.

The gravy is also super easy to make.
I've used this recipe for Thanksgiving a few times, and it always wins over the hearts of all the meat-eaters who prefer mine over the Turkey drippings (can I just say 'ew' to that phrase?) variety.

Heat up a little more oil, throw in some more chopped onions/garlic (If you want. You don't have to). Cook through, then add a table spoon or so of flour. Whisk it up into a roux (clumps of flour) then slowly add the rest of that broth you made earlier to the pot while whisking. It will thicken up.
Too thick? Add more liquid. Not thick enough? Add more thickener (flour.)
Season to taste with Bragg's, salt, pepper, Herbs De Province. WHATEVER you want that will make you some good gravy.

GOOD GRAVAY!

Then grab your fat girl life alert and get your ass on the couch.

(I also recommend saving the dishes for after dessert, but that's totally up to you.)

I love lunch.

I love lunch. I guess that makes me a "lady who lunches," (whatever that means. I think it's a reference from before my time?)**

And for those of you who know me, you know Wednesdays at the office are no fun for me. 

I'm stuck at the desk, reading content, editing pages, and scrambling to get last minute things together for a 3 p.m. deadline (which we rarely meet, btw.)

However, since deciding to go/becoming vegan, I have a new obsession with consuming as much info as possible from the millions of vegan food and lifestyle blogs on the web, which I manage to squeeze  between editing and all that other stuff, making Wednesdays a tad more enjoyable.

This fact also makes me much more hungry for an uber delicious vegan fix on Wednesdays, which is ironically the least lunch-friendly workday of the week.

I am usually stuck at a desk, unable to take an actual lunch break,  realizing the food I actually brought to eat sucks and totally pales in comparison to all the crazy delicious sounding recipes I've just read. Sometimes I get sad when the clock strikes lunch on Wednesdays. 

(A lot of times, I don't even bother eating lunch on Wednesdays, especially if we are super busy which is CRAY for me as a devout luncher.)

Anyways, I'm sharing my lunch story today because it was awesome. 

It was a mix of homemade, takeout and a quick, much-needed jaunt from the office, coming together in perfect harmony as a totally classic, simple, (vegan) American lunch:

Soup. Sandwich. Cookie.

So I actually brought the sandwich in for lunch yesterday, but never got around to eating it (because a more exciting lunch option came up... aka lunch buffet @ Gateway to India with my office mom, Kim)

and I was a little skeptical how a day old hummus- tomato-cucumber-radish-spinach sandwich would stand up against my mouthwatering, vegan-blog-reading appetite.  

So, I jumped at the chance to go with coworker Jill down the street to Infinite Soups to pick up a bowl of their tasty, made-daily-from-scratch soups (of which they always have at least four vegan options.)

I couldn't decide between the Jamaican Rice and Bean or the Caribbean Red Bean, so I went nuts and  ordered half and half. 

I do not regret that decision.

AND, on top of everything else,  the lovely, also fresh-and-scratch made vegan-friendly Corina Bakery just happens to be right across the street from Infinite Soups. That's where the double pack of peanut butter cookies (vegan and gluten free) come in*.

*Cue parting clouds and  heavenly music.

As I near the end of writing this post, and take another bite of peanutbuttercookie-y goodness, I am overwhelmed with joy and happiness at the simple, absolutely delicious local lunch that can now join the blogosphere of vegan food write-ups that I will inevitably continue reading once I get done eating and get back to work...










** before posting I decided to go ahead and Google "ladies who lunch"... here's the Wikipedia definition:

"Ladies who lunch is a phrase to describe slim, well-off, old-money, well-dressed women who meet for lunch socially, normally during the working week. Typically, the women involved are married and non-working. Normally the lunch is in a restaurant, perhaps in a department store during shopping. Sometimes there is the pretext of raising money for charity."

Ok, so apparently I'm not one of these "ladies who lunch." Maybe it would be more appropriate to call me "a lady who loves lunch" or "a lunching lady"? The simple term "lunch lady" also briefly popped into my head, but that phrase doesn't really work for the purpose of this post, either. 


Anywhoo - thanks for reading!

Sincerly,


Your Lunch Loving Lady

Today was a good day...

Fact: sister is an avid photographer/semi-famous blogger

Fact: she likes to shop for new toys

Fact: first two facts combined mean she was hip to buying a fancy, new, top-of-the-line Nikon D5100 (it takes video, has a flip out screen for selfies and a 2500-noiseless ISO people! I'd buy one too, if I had a sugar daddy...)

Fact: She ultimately had no use for her "old" camera

Fact: I'm less hip to making independent tech upgrades

Unavoidable outcome:

I bought my sister's old camera. Which is about three years newer than my 2007 model, higher mega pixels and came with a brand new freakin' lens. 

Yep. 

You could say I'm a pretty happy lady (see fig. 1).

Especially since I was even able to sell my old camera, so buying my sister's didn't even break the bank too much.

I'm also happy because my new camera called for a new handmade strap (see fig. 2) and allowed me to take an adorable picture of two of my favorite females (see fig. 3).

It's only a coincidence that those two females happen to be my semi-famous blogging, toy-upgrading, camera-selling, camera-strap-making sister and her semi-famous blogging, extremely talented and adorable daughter (aka my favorite niece). 

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3 

For the record, Grace is not actually taller than Rachel. As you can clearly see, Rachel is sitting down, hiding her true, impressive height.

And on top of all that, I got to enjoy a totally delicious and fully-satisfying vegan meal with my family tonight at my big bro's birthday party. 

Granted, I was the only one who enjoyed the vegan items, but it was quite the step-up from last week's family dinner where my mom told me that she made the "special trip to get fish" to accommodate my vegan diet. 

Tonight, she offered to leave the butter out of the chicken-broth-infused Stove Top dressing,
Seriously, so sweet of her to try!

Anyways, check these beauties out:

Stuffed baby 'bellas with a mixture of about 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, 1/8 cup vegan Blue Cheese, 1/2 cup finely chopped spinach, removed mushroom stems diced, green onions, minced garlic, salt n' pepa and some fresh thyme (bake for about 10 mins at 400 then broil for a few to crisp 'em up just right).

Add to that dog snuggling and more red wine drinking, and you could safely quote  Ice Cube when reffering to my feelings about the day.
I didn't even have to use my AK.

(explicit lyrics disclaimer) 

Food!

Today I brought in my first harvest (a big-assed bowl of mixed greens, see below) AND saw the first few sprouts of my kale!!! (I'm so excited for my eventual endless supply of organic kale, btw.)

I've also planted two types of slicing tomatoes, onions and carrots, but those aren't doing too much in the way of boutinful returns as of yet.

In other food news, I cooked up a delicious and healthy vegan dinner of marinated smokey barbecue tofu, savory quinoa and a big ol' pile of spinach to counter-act the batch of mixed berry brownies that I baked/ate as an after work snack...

Vuryy tasssty!

Now I'm drinking wine and sitting on my couch watching Law & Order.... and I'm probs going to eat another brownie. Or maybe even two.

'Night!

Naked Sundays - Round 6

This weekend I had the pleasure of babysitting 3/4 of my nieces and nephews (aka my sister's kids).

I spent Friday night and Saturday with 11-year-old Grace, 7-year-old Camden and 15-month-old Charlie.

We watched a lot of TV (sue me, it was raining) and the kids ate a lot of mac n cheese. 

In Charlie's case, the "eating" of the mac really consisted of "getting everywhere" especially on Friday night when he rubbed it all over his head (giving him an awesome 'do, I might add).

Here he is eating on Saturday. No mac-n-cheese 'do, but you get the point.

And this is a very rare shot of C.P.'s mac-n-cheese eating style... he is using a fork rather than his hand as a shoveling device.

Yum! 

And so cute! 

I actually think this expression (which was caused by distraction from the TV) is a strong resemblance to Charlie Pete's namesake, his Uncle Pete, which I love.

Random Daily Update.

So, today was a fairly uneventful, run-of-the-mill Tuesday...

However ironically, it happened to be eventful enough for me to feel the need to post something about it here, on my blog.

And here goes my first ever non-picture-including random daily update:

A) Went to work. Pretty normal. Realized I forgot my lunch. Got bummed out. (For those who don't know, lunch is very important to me. I'm not one of those weird people who just doesn't eat lunch.)

B) Got over the lunch thing. Started being highly productive by minimizing time spent on Facebook, and maximizing the amount of content I wrote and posted to the TW website (including our new daily updates blog 'The Daily Mash-Up,' which you should totally check out...especially if you're local).

C) Lunch time. Realized I couldn't "go to lunch" to remedy the "forgot lunch" situation because I was more-or-less tied to my desk waiting for a return phone call from a source (that's deadlines for ya.) 

Got bummed out again. 

Luckily I had a spare orange on hand.

D) Co-workers birthday. There was singing. And Barbie cake. Pretty eventful, right?

E) Got hit-on my a widowed old man. At work.
He came in to the office to submit his handwritten "Letter to the Editor" about his legal struggles of getting his name-plaque installed on his three-year deceased wife's headstone. 

He told me I had "very pretty hair -- eyes," that he has "adopted a new lifestyle since his wife died" and that he also happens to be "driving a convertible Mustang." 

wow. 

For the record, the Mustang did not have the top down, despite the sunny weather. (I asked.)

F) Came home from work. Ate snack to cure rabid no-lunch hunger. Cleaned kitchen. 

G) Rode my NEW BIKE (which I purchased Saturday at the Starlite Drive-In Swapmeet for $30 and since have rode two extensive bike tours of Tacoma, totaling 19 miles over two days... I'm sure I will be posting more/pictures about in the future)  to Grocery Outlet for t.p. but ended up buying more goods than would fit in my backpack, so the 1.2 mile ride home was surely an amusing site for  spectators. 

Full grocery bags were hanging off my handle bars, my wheels were squeaking, there were fly-aways all over the place hair-wise, and I'm pretty sure my fly was down (always seems to happen in these jeans.)

Eventful.

E) Came home and treated myself a tasty, flavor-and nutrient-packed quick and easy bean-quesadilla/brown rice dinner, complete with a perfectly crispy tortilla and a house made chili-lime-cilantro sauce (will share photo in next edition of :  '"what the hell do vegans eat besides nuts and berries?'" related post), red wine and the first 45 pages of "Vegan Living for Dummies."

F) Then I topped the night off with popcorn, chocolate chips, more red wine and an episode or two of "X-Files" season 1 with my two exceedingly hairy male companions.

And there's the random daily update for ya...

Goodnight!

VEGAN?!?!

So after years of not eating meat (except for fish) due to my strong beliefs in animal rights, I have finally taken the plunge into veganism.

I have never been one to preach my beliefs on others, or even delve into my reasoning for not eating meat (unless specifically asked to do so) because for me, it has always been a personal choice.

I am not necessarily trying to save the world, but I cannot stomach  the factory farming industry (pun wasn't initially intended, but yay for puns!)

I will, however, briefly touch on my philosophy here, to explain my current move into veganism.

I have always known the mistreatment of animals didn't stop at the slaughterhouse, it is just as bad for factory-farmed dairy cows and egg-laying hens.

However, I never felt I was able to "give up" one of my favorite foods: cheese.

Until recently, the idea of going full-fledged vegetarian had entered my mind... but then there was that little voice that said "but you can't live without cheeese!"

And over the past few months, that voice started growing smaller and smaller, until I realized I was ready to jump into a diet-lifestyle that fully reflected my strong disdain for large industry, factory farming practices.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Anywhoo - a change to a vegan diet isn't all that crazy drastic for me, having already cut meat out of my diet (and a good portion of non-cheese dairy) for quite some time.

But in the last month of transition (and close to three weeks of full-fledged non-dairy eating) I have definitely had to adjust.

Asking restaurants to leave the cheese, sour cream, butter etc... off of my veg-centered meals is no biggie. 

Cooking at home even more do-able.

But milk and eggs can sneak their way into even the most unsuspecting of items, which causes me to think twice and read the ingredients much more often than before.

And then there's the people that you "break the news to."

My two carnivorous, food-loving best friends literally cringed when I told them about my decision while on vacation in Charleston.

(They've since warmed up to the idea. One of them going as far as to say "I'm so glad you're a vegan who still eats!!!)

At my "last hurrah" fancy-pants-ed "cheese eating" party for my Aunt's 50th birthday earlier this month (literally like 20 varieties of delicious, gourmet cheeses... it was pretty good timing in my mind) much of my family - several former vegetarians - had a similar reaction.

"But whyyy?!" they wanted to know.

My boyfriend simply said "YOU not eat CHEESE?" and laughed at the idea when I first told him (that's how much I love cheese). 

He has since been very supportive, checking ingredients and eating vegan right along with me.

My brother didn't think twice at the idea, and even seemed to understand when I told him.
Until he asked me if I wanted a snack, and then got completely flabbergasted because: "You can't eat anything!"

Only one of my friends (who isn't a vegan themselves) immediately said "Go for it! You can do it!" without even a second of hesitation, or skepticism. (In all reality, she said it in a text message, so for all I know, she could have been rolling her eyes and scrunching her face all over the place, but I took it as sincere support and appreciate Taylor very much for it.)

But the purpose of this post (other than being a passive attempt to tell my mom about my new dietary restrictions...because her reaction will undoubtedly be a dramatic one)  is to show my brother, and the many other people I have come across in the past few short weeks of my vegan journey who say "Vegan?! What do you eat then?" that a vegan diet is a delicious one, with endless possibilities, room for invention, creativity and extremely satisfying meals that isn't all nuts and berries...

So, here are some of the highlights of my recent home-made vegan masterpieces:

This is one of the first fully vegan meals I made for myself, when I first started seriously thinking about going full force. It's a Reuben. The main difference from my would-be previous vegetarian version: vegan mozzarella, and a home-made vegan thousand island dressing. 

I used Tofurky, cooked up in a zesty meaty combination ( I think it was soy sauce, ketchup, and a dash of liquid smoke) grilled onions, red sauerkraut I picked up on a whim a few weeks prior, and a "thousand island" sauce made with soy-mayo, Catalina dressing, pickles and onions.

This meal is where I first patented the idea for a "Fat Girl Life-Alert." (You know the buttons they have for old people who fall and can't get up? Ya, I need one for food comas.)

This was test number two. Vegan mac and cheese (one of my true loves in life).

I wanted to know: is it doable?

Because I surely couldn't live without this tasty combination.

Well let me tell you, this recipe (an adaptation to my original, real cheese recipe, but with almond milk, vegan cheese, nutritional yeast, turmeric and I'm sure a lot of other seasonings... oh, and some broccoli) was I kid you not - better than than my original recipe by far. 

I am not just saying that. 

Drooling right now just thinking about this shiz.

Delish recipe numba three: a vegan taco salad.
Made with my home-made taco meat leftover from a "taco party" dinner the night before. (Ok, it was just me and Sean, not really a party per se, but we did break out the limes and the Modelo Especial.)  

It doesn't need much explaining, other than the fact that I used TVP for the meat, seasoned up crazy good Mexi-style, and let it simmer.

It was bomb. 

I brought the leftover-leftovers to friends' house that night as part of a Mexican bean/"cheese" dip that pleased the whole darn crowd of meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.
Success.

 Full-on "Italian Dinner" complete with a side ceasar salad (I scored an organic vegan ceasar dressing at GROCERY OUTLET for a DOLLAR!) toasted bread with vegan spread (I'm currently still working on a large tub of Smart Balance - also from Grocery Outlet.) And a hearty red sauce, made with blended olives, carrots, celery and onions, crumbled "Italian" baked WestSoy tofu, red wine, diced onions, and bunches-o-herbs n' spices.

Deliciouso! 

And finally, my latest creation (ate it for dinner last night and the night before) which I officially dub:

"The Fat Vegan Girl's Dream: fried chicken, bacon and cheese sammich!"

Ok, so I realize this isn't the most appealing food picture I've ever taken, but I had to share this.
(Full disclosure:  this photo  was actually taken mid-bite... at least I took the courtesy of cropping out my greasy vegan fingertips...)

But this thing was soooooo goood. Life Alert was on-hand for sure.

Brief rundown:

Chicken-fried tofu (I used WestSoy's "Asian" baked tofu this time, which I got for 99 cents AT GROCERY OUTLET at the same time I bought the Italian flavor. I think I'm going to go back and get more soon because they came in handy...)

I adapted my breaded-then-fried tofu recipe from No Face Plate, using flour, a non-egg wash (milk and a dash of olive oil did the trick), Shake-n-Bake, nutritional yeast and onion powder.

Fried it up in olive oil and placed it on toasted bread: one slice slathered with soy-mayo, hot-n-spicy stone ground mustard, onion, pickles and lettuce; the other slice: Tofutti cream cheese, Daiya cheddar cheese shreds and Bacos.

Excuse the language, but EFF YA.

So in conclusion, you can see there are tons of possibilities for us vegans to enjoy "normal,"  fattening, carb-laden, sodium-packed foods, just like the rest of America!

And all without contributing to needless animal suffering.

:)

Naked Sundays - Round 4

Happy Easter, errrybody!

Made this delicious batch of quinoa-oatmeal-chocolate chip-coconut-almond-peanut butter cookies first thing this morning after 40 days and 40 nights of absolutely no sweets. 

(Confession: I accidentally sampled a tiny little key-lime wafer while in Charleston. It was totally unintentional, I swear.)

Anyways, if you know me, you know that I have got a wicked sweet tooth.
And chocolate chip cookies, in all their ooey-gooey-simplicity, are my absolute favorite thing in the world.

So whipping up these freshly-baked cookies this morning was a pretty big deal.

Here's the mix, all ready to get balled-up, onto the baking sheet and into my trusty toaster oven:





I will making a similar version of this recipe to share next Sunday at Tacoma's first-ever Vegan Bake Sale at King's Books! (More info at my awesome friend Dawn's Tacoma-veg-blog)

If you're local, check it out - you don't have to be vegan to enjoy the delicious baked-goodness that will be there !






P.S. sorry this is up so late. I was busy eating making cookies all morning, ya know...