*Some AZ Flare* ...Minus Mountains, Cacti, Scorpions and Sunsets

I know I told you all one time to not fall out of your chair upon viewing a Tofurky sandwich on my blog, as it was not intended for me to eat. What you see above here *is* and *was* for me to eat and I am sure happy that I was open-minded one day (to a particular food, that is). So, if you instinctively fell out, get up now because yes I did eat this. If you didn't fall out of your chair and think I'm a huge nerd... that's ok, too. For those of you who do not already know, I am not a faux meat/cheese person and I cringe even at vegan steak sandwiches. I have tried a Boca burger or two, I do not mind black bean patties as long as they are piled with greens and ketchup, but mostly I stay far away from anything between a bun or that is faux meat. I won't even try anything "fake" from an all-organic, all-vegan restaurant here in town. Ray thinks that's crazy.

Recently, I discovered Sunshine Burgers. These are fabulous, all organic, do not resemble nor taste like anything that is supposed to be from a dead animal, full of nutrition and good stuff grown from the Earth, and about a dollar a piece for a pack of three. Overall, these patties (I don't like to call them burgers) are wonderful and we grill them on the vegan-George F-grill and it only takes about 1 or 2 minutes. How easy is that!? I've seen another type of Sunshine Burger and they already come with a bun. That reminds me too much of gas-station-sandwiches and I am never in too big of a hurry, nor have a craving for a bun where I must buy a "burger" pre-built. I'll pass on those, even if they are all vegan and all organic. The Sunshine Burgers (patties to me) have been eating up around here on sprouted Ezekiel buns but I only use the bottom bun. No, I don't support the A-word diet, I just really can't stomach a whole entire bun, patty and what ever else I may have on the plate. Plus, too much bun takes away from the rest. The photo above is shown with the full bun for your viewing pleasure.
Above photo: Taken in the *real* Southwest on my patio. No, I can't see over the brick wall (something that the majority of AZ homes have- weird), no we don't have catci in the neighborhood, and no the palm trees are not native to AZ. Now check out the lovely list of all organic ingredients. These patties are wonderful, I love how it is free of soy, wheat and bullshit. Not that I mind anything soy or wheat, but for vegans who eat a lot of soy or wheat, this is a nice change of pace.
Now here's my plate with the top of the bun ready to be tossed outside to the birds. I even throw bread "like a girl" I was told the other day... What you see here is a huge bowl of organic yukon gold mashed potatoes made with soymilk and Earth Balance. Sea salt and fresh ground pepper were added as well as some minced garlic. Yum. I served this with a side of sweet summer organic corn and you can see the ketchup glob under the lettuce. I don't care that I'm 25, I still need ketchup on some things. It's 100% organic ketchup, by the way. Ray eats this with Veganaise on one side of the bun and a ton of Bone Suckin' Sauce on the other bun. The website shows one jar priced at almost $2 more than we buy it for at Whole Foods. You can also get it at places like Cost Plus World Market. I don't care for either of the above condiments.
This photo below is freaky. Doesn't it look like cow-burgers? I didn't realize how freakish looking these were until I posted the photo on the computer. In "real life" these don't look as burgery. I made grill marks on the Foreman by turning the patties 90 degrees by lifting with a knife.
EDIT TO ADD AND A HUGE ***WARNING***: I just realized a huge factor... I have raved above about the South West Sunshine Burgers. Keep in mind (as I didn't) that the bright yellow and red packaging is the same on the Original Sunshine burgers as well as the SouthWest. I accidentally bought a box of the "regular" kind, attempted to eat it for lunch, had 1/2 of it, and decided to dig into a pint of ice cream. Here's the thing: the SouthWest Sunshine burgers are everything I was talking about above and these are awesome. Unless you like the taste of a broccoli burger, I highly suggest not trying the regular kind. I don't even think there was broccoli in it. The ingredients are almost the same, minus black beans and a few other things, but the Original ones are freakishly green and I did my best to take down 1/2 of it, I even slathered ketchup on both sides of the patty. No luck. So, beware... if you do go for the Original ones (which I hear are easier to come by than SouthWest), don't say I didn't warn you, but if you do like them, more power to you. I simply returned them at WFM in exchange for some Gardenburger Chipotle Black Bean patties. Sorry this warning is so late, this all happened today after my big rant! (End of Warning)

On to the next business: Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VwaV. Let me tell you "yum". I have never been a gravy person. I didn't grow up with it, I never wanted to try it, and I always knew it was made with blood. This is a totally different scenario here. I think it was my de-virginizing to gravy. First off, this is packed with nutrition, from the nutritional yeast, chickpeas, onions and garlic, to the herbs, spices and no blood! This stuff is amazing and I apologize for this photo doing no justice at all. I have made this gravy twice now and it was even better the second time around. I am now a gravy fan, but only if it's Punk Rock.
Here's a blurry photo of the gravy. This was from the first batch and my first bite, so I was hesitant to pour it (like Ray did) all over the top of the mashed potatoes. The second time, I loaded it up!
Moving on: Just like the Sunshine patties, mashed potatoes and gravy, I have made Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew from VwaV twice now. I have made corn fritters several times now and plan on using fresh cilantro next time. I still have a ton left from the stew. You can now see that I am breaking in my VwaV book based on the recipes. If you saw my book, you'd think I have had it for a whole year. Or maybe you'd think it got sucked in by a natural disaster. I can be a messy cook... Anyway, this stew was great, a bit on the tomato-y side, but really hardy and "southwestern". This photo was taken from the first batch. I cut the potatoes way too large and they were a bit of a hinderance while eating. I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh like the recipe wanted me to. For the second time around, I used one less potato than the recipe called for and cut them up way smaller. I also got some local organic fresh cilantro and tossed that in. To my dissapointment this stew wasn't black-beany enough so I added a second can to the second batch that I made a few days later. The stew was served with blue corn tortilla chips the second time around and probably Seduction Bread the first. I also used the juice of 1.5 limes instead of just 1 the second time around.
Again, the first batch of black bean stew. I must say, fresh cilantro makes a big difference and I enjoyed the extra juice of the lime more this time around. I still have 4 servings worth of leftovers.
Not only have I made the above repeats at least twice each, I've also been making fruit-filled crepes with Maple Butter Cream (from a tested recipe for Dreena's newest cookbook), chocolate chip banana pancakes with blueberry syrup and kiwi (part of Banana Bliss pancakes from Vive le Vegan, part of my own magical creations, and Blueberry Maple Syrup from Vive le Vegan), Sloppy Lenties of course, cereal with vanilla hemp granola, many salads, and what would life be like for me without... ice cream. I just had to throw "ice cream" in there, even though that is a daily given, I didn't have a sweet photo to post. So that's that. I plan on branching out a bit, I guess I'm hooked on a few VwaV recipes... and flavors of my residence, the Southwest.

Most importantly, I Netflix-ed The Future of Food and I will go into it more some other time. For now, it is a good film to see. Sorry Vicki (and everyone else) I still haven't seen An Inconvienent Truth, but I plan on getting it on video. Back to The Future of Food... I don't know where I've been for 2 years, but it came out in 2004 and is about GMOs, farmers, corporations, politics of course, and all sorts of aspects of biotechnology. There is a microbial ecologist in the documentary and I am thinking of maybe pursing a Master's in this area (not due to this movie only, of course). Anyway, I watched this 3 times this weekend (to add to my redundancy of everything lately) and I attempted to take notes but then realized I was practically writing down the whole script of the movie. I have so much to say about it, but mostly it makes my stomach cringe, I get pissed off at my government and huge corporations that suck, and I will keep eating as many organics as possible. I even wear organic cotton when I can. This film told me a lot of what I knew already but I like the perspective it comes from. Go rent this film please.

Yay to Cooking!

I have done some light cooking lately after going to the store and finally stocking the fridge, freezer and pantry back up. It feels good to have foods in the house again (other than simple fruits as snacks and boring stuff like soy yogurt, couscous and such) yet I am still dizzy and have no idea what the #%^@ is wrong with me. I don't think it is life threatening since I've had certain tests to show, but this still isn't anywhere near normal. I plan on doing more about this. I was getting stir-crazy from being cooped up, not cooking (much), going out to eat, running out of money to go out to eat, as well as not being productive nor having fun in the kitchen. It was time to change that so Ray and I went to the store and thought of some stuff to buy that would turn into semi-quick, semi-easy meals. See, I don't say quick and easy because for me, nothing ends up that way. Some recipe that is supposed to take 30 minutes somehow takes me 2 hours. But I thought of some good feel-good comfort foods to cook up for the week other than yukon gold smashed potatoes and a side of corn. I have had Sloppy Lenties about 5 times this month, but I thought I'd spare you all another photo of them. I did have a Sloppy Variation though... fill up 1/2 a pita with the Sloppy Lenties. Fabulous.

Above you see our "dining area", in which soon you will be seeing a lack of yellow countertops. I am happy to report that we finally bought kitchen chairs and finally took all the crap off the table we had for so long, moved all the crap to appropriate places (well, more appropriate), and are now eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and some snacks there. So now you will be seeing more "table" rather than yellow countertops, although I am missing the flare a bit from the counters.
Back to business... for some unknown reason I have been craving corn chowder lately. For some weirder reason, I've never had corn chowder (vegan or non) in my whole life. I had no idea why I was craving this (no I am not pregnant) and I decided to make and eat corn chowder for the very first time. What is an even newer first is my use of Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook. I am quite embarrased about this fact. I've had this book for months now, read it cover to cover probably about 20 times, memorized practically 5 recipes, but never made anything. There are a lot of "oven" recipes, but besides that and before I started to feel crappy, I can't believe I have never used this cookbook before. Maybe I just always thought I did since I've taken it outside under the umbrella and on the couch in the living room to read over and over, have seen other people's photos of the creations, and practically know the book inside and out. But this was a first and another first... Corn Chowder from VwaV.
Corn Chowder Verdict: I started smelling the soup towards the finish and exclaimed to Ray that I didn't think I was going to like it. It smelled a bit bland and I don't care for thick soups. I still went with it, after all, I spent all the time and energy to make the meal. I am also weird about not tasting foods while they are cooking. I know I need to change that since I could have made variations while cooking and tasted it to see if it was ok before it was served on the table. I served the corn chowder with Seduction Bread from WFM and overall, the soup was sweet and tasty. I used 2 jalepenos, and I didn't taste any heat at all, just sweetness from the corn and maple syrup. Just like the recipe says, it's even better the next day. I only had a few modifications in this recipe. First, I didn't have a fresh red bell pepper, as I am not willing to pay the crazy prices I've seen them for. Instead, I picked out all the red peppers from the frozen bag of red, yellow and green pepper strips and used those, just chopped more. I also used organic frozen sweet corn instead of shucking my own. Plus, I am really into having frozen corn on-hand lately. The recipe also called for 3c veggie broth and I used 2c broth and 1c water instead. Other than that, everything else was followed exactly, and yes, I measured.
This was tasty and filled me up big-time. While eating with Ray we discussed and I wrote down what we could do next time to make the soup better. This is what will be changed for the next time I make this: less thyme and rosemary because it was a bit overpowering, more salt and pepper, a tad less liquid to make it thicker (I don't like thick soups, yeah right I guess), cut veggies smaller, use one more potato and one more clove of garlic. It sounds like a lot but it's really just adding and subtracting here and there. I'd even add a third jalepeno if Ray can handle it. Oh, and this is my new snack set. I have a green one and Ray's is an earthy blue. These are great because they make huge coffee mugs with a small treat, a great bowl for soup or whatever, and in this case it was nice to have a set with the bread placed right on the side. I do a lot of snacking but it usually requires only a bowl and a spoon (you know where I'm going with this).
Above is Dreena's Sun-dried tomato pesto for her upcoming cookbook. I've tested this recipe about 20 times now. It's awesome and simple to make (even if you don't feel well) and it is warm and filling with great flavors. I love the almonds and pine nuts. I know many people will be quite pleased by the simplicity yet overwhelming yumness of flavors in this recipe. It is also quick to make, as it takes longer to boil water and cook the noodles than to make the sauce. And I make the sauce while the pot is boiling. Served with the pesto above is organic mixed greens, dressings and homemade green tea with cranberry. I have been making this tea by the gallon tri-weekly and sweeten it with about a teaspoon of agave nectar for the whole gallon. On the side are organic croutons (super-cheap at WFM bakery section) and Ray's parmesean grater. It is so nice eating at the table... Below is something I wasn't sure if I was going to post about. You see, this is just plain ol pasta with marinara. I decided to post this because I think simple, easy, hearty meals like this one are quickly forgotten about. Or they are picked over a lot because it seems to blah. One night we were wanting something simple and quick and I decided to boil up some curly spinach noodles. Then I just heated up a jar of 365 organic fat-free marinara, added a few spices from the rack, and dumped it in the pasta. Since I am no longer an oven/toaster user, I "toasted" garlic bread with nutritional yeast and salt and pepper on the next burner on the stove. It worked out pretty well. And fast.
Below is an organic mixed green salad. I am not going to say organic anymore because 99% (that's my percentage guestimate) of all foods we have in the house are organic. At least fruits, veggies and grains are. On that note, we have all organic: greens, carrots, red onions, whole wheat croutons and honey mustard dressing (yes a tad of honey is ok to me). I love the tanginess from the cider vinegar in this one. We have been eating salads at all dinners and sometimes twice a day, with or as lunch. Instead of buying bulk greens since I have an adversion to the tongs and certain bulk items (took too much microbiology in college and too many nasty hands using the tongs), we bought a 1 pound box of pre-washed greens. Just like those bags, but bigger for $3.99/lb. It lasts us both the whole week, plus greens for other recipes.
This next one here is my second recipe attempt from VwaV. I decided to make corn fritters since I was still on a corn kick. I will also mention that Ray made popcorn last night for our friends Jordan and Bob. This sweet summer corn is just sooo good. Before Bob came over to smoke cigars with Ray (eew, not me) I made corn fritters for the first time in my life. Everything was going well, there were minimal ingredients, I had everything, it seemed easy enough for me, and everything was going well until...
What happened here? I added more than a sufficient amount of oil, had it hot before dropping spoonfuls of batter down. I know it's not non-stick, but I thought if it's not non-stick you just add oil to it and it is non-stick. Anyhow, these were taking a while to cook and I attempted to lift one up and realized that they were badly sticking to the bottom. I was really upset at this point and didn't know if I was going to ruin and waste the whole thing and just eat leftover lenties and corn chowder and salad for lunch, or try to do something about it. I chose to do something about it by switching to a smaller, non-stick pan. I managed to save most of the mixture as it was falling apart and sticking to the pan. This worked out well, but you can see the mess I salvaged. This mess sure did taste and smell wonderful.
This recipe is to be cooked in two batches so luckily I still had half a batch to try to actually make patties with instead of corn fritter mush. Ray said it looked like scrambled eggs and I almost puked. Gross. Not even close to eggs. Anyhow, the second round went much better (don't you agree) and we ate the mess and the patties within a tenth of the time it took to make. And these were made quickly. I am going to make them again next time and add more jalepeno (you can tell Isa isn't from the Southwest. I'm not either, I'm just used to certain heat-flare after 7 years or so). I love how these were sweet from the maple syrup and the sweet corn, as it was a nice treat to have with veggies. These corn fritters are going to be made again soon. In a non-stick pan.
And what would this blog be without treats and sweets?! Of course there is ice cream here (SO Delicious Cookies n Cream, my favorite) in between an Original Newman's O's. There are two here, as how could I just chomp on one?
PS. I really appreciate all the comments, emails and pop-ins from everyone who has expressed their concern for my health and well-being. It makes me feel good to know (well, I already knew) that there are so many good and caring people out there. I am thankful for all the kind and warming words.

Drunken Sopapillas

Ice cream with pretty much anything [vegan] is fine by me. When I stumbled upon Lindy Loo's blog (no pun intended), she posted about her "Berried Sopapillas" and they looked amazing and lazy enough for me to make. The recipe, if you will, was simple and I had my own way with it.

First, on a side note, I just finally realized that much of my blog lately (even previous posts) are filled with sweets. I do love sweets, but also eat other good stuff, and of course, all vegan. Maybe this blog is heading in a sweet-filled direction. I wouldn't mind only posting about this stuff or ice cream. Back to the sopapillas...

One warning I was given was to not drink (aka, be drunk) while making sopapillas because it becomes a tasty, yet dangerous task with an end result of aah-ing and moaning. I didn't have to worry because I haven't been drunk -slash- drank in over a year. I just don't care for it nor think about it for that matter. But after seeing my end result (carefully inspect photo) and then comparing it to the original version on Lindy Loo's page (carefully inspect that one), I look like the one who was drunk! I feel dazed and confused and dizzy over here, but hey, this was a quick 5-minute deal in the kitchen, and my sopapillas are a mess! They are super-tasty though.

Getting down to "recipe" business. First, I couldn't get myself to even think about deep frying the tortillas. Yuck. I'm not scared of fat, I just don't care to deep fry if not necessary. I have a sensitive tum. Anyway, this serves 2. Take a tortilla, I used organic authentic New Mexico tortillas, and heat up a skillet with veggie oil. I only used enough to not even cover the tortillas. I just plopped one in the pan and turned it over real quick to oil both sides but they weren't laying in oil. Heat the oil on med- to medium low and the tortilla should bubble up. In my case (non-deep frying) they didn't stay too bubbled, but were semi-crisp. Heat on both sides for about 1-2 minutes each and place on a plate with paper towels to soak.
Then I filled a plate with sprinkles of raw sugar and ground cinnamon and rolled the tortilla in the mixture on both sides. Then the tortilla was placed on the serving plate. Then I took 2 scoops of Soy Delicious cookies n cream and plopped those onto the tortilla that smells amazing from the cinnamon/sugar mix. Next, I ground up blueberries and agave nectar. I splashed agave in, equivalent to about 1t. or less. The fruity puree was then spread on top of the ice cream. I used 2 handfuls of blueberries, and next time I would like to use more. Maybe an ideal measurement would be 1c. (Lindy Loo uses 2c). Then I topped that with a few sprinkles of chocolate chips (non-dairy) and a long drizzle of Ahlaska chocolate syrup, finalized by 3 squirts of Soy whipped cream. *Yes, I'm still having fun with the whip, it's almost gone though. Repeat with second tortilla. This only takes a matter of 5-10 minutes. *I realize that I picked a bad color plate to take a photo of the tortillas on it. Oh, that's right, I was drunk. Hee hee (yeah right).

I grabbed a spoon and went into the other room to eat with Ray. We both didn't really know how we were going to eat these, and it was my first thought about that right then. I mentioned how I was going to "pick" at mine, but that would have taken forever and been annoying to watch (and do). Ray decided to pick his up and eat it like a burrito. I did the same. They were even more messy (but more tasty) and because I didn't fold in the bottom in the first place, there was goodness oozing out the bottom on both of our plates. We still managed to scarf 'em down and they were fabulous. So orgasmically good. I highly recommend trying these. Don't forget for those of you who drink: if you want messy sopapillas, make them sober. If you want beautiful sopapillas, make them while drunk. If you just want awesome tasting ice cream goodness with a Mexican flare, go make some sopapillas anyway. I finally looked up sopapillas and realized many are eaten folded up with an array of ingredients. I prefer this ice cream method.
Yum.
Edit to add: A few things would have made this better. First, I would like to try adding the sugar and cinnamon while the tortillas are heating up. This way the coarse raw sugar can melt in. It was still ok, but I think I'd prefer it mixed in. Next, like I mentioned, add more fruit. I would also fold the bottoms under like real burritos so they stay put. Also, I think for next time I'd like everything to be piping hot except the ice cream and have all the steam and heat melt the ice cream into gooey mess. Yep, all of the above would make this better (and while eating I didn't think it could be better, this is all after-thought).

Arrived: Homemade COOKIES (and soap)!!!

Yay! I am the happiest cookie monster around. Or perhaps the only one around. In my last post, I half-jokingly shared that I was willing to pay [big bucks] for someone to send me homemade cookies, especially Dreena's cookies. Even though I was not seriously requesting cookies, I was willing to accept! I didn't think anyone was really going to offer. Lucky for me (for personal selfish reasons), Jody offered to bake and send me some. After all, she was planning on making some of Dreena's cookies anyway and we shared the batch.

I was so pleased and grateful to have this offer, especially since I haven't had homemade cookies since before last December. We were in touch late last week and she sent them off on Monday. They arrived early today (so quick for across the country) and I have to force myself to savor them and not eat them all today. Because I can eat 'em all!!! They arrived in a re-used cocoa cannister, not the one shown here (way to go Jody!). Along with the cookies were her homemade vegan soaps. Three flavors and they all smell wonderful. If you want soap, good smelling, good vegan-ingredients soap, contact Jody.

And here's a close up of the yum-ness. No messing around here. Thanks Jody!!!

PS... one day I hope to show you all cookies that came out of my own oven.

Ramble on Rose

I could say that some little sparkly fairies came and swept me away to another land, but they didn't. Wow, it's been so long since I've posted and while I've been up to a lot, I've also been up to not much at all, if that makes any sense. It all started off when I decided to take a small break from blogging a few weeks back. After all, it's been hot and living on fruit and fruit smoothies isn't much to blog about. But then I didn't buy any groceries because I was planning on going away on a short trip. The trip was cancelled because for the last week-week and a half, I've been feeling dizzy. Now, I usually don't do the whole doctor thing. If I don't feel well (which is a rare occasion to begin with), I just let it pass or treat myself naturally. But I was dizzy for about 4-5 days straight, almost falling over, and really not feeling well. I let laundry and dishes pile up and Ray bought me meals from restaurants for a few days in a row. I was getting worried that I didn't know what was going on in my body. Finally, I was forced (by someone who loves me) to go to the doctor so I went to the hospital and it was the biggest crock of shit ever. They didn't do much. After the weekend, I went to the conventional doctor (I'm not getting into that one either) and had a check as well as a blood test. Everything's fine and turns out I have vertigo from either something I breathed in or from something with my ear. It's subsiding, but it makes me a bit dizzy at the computer, hence me not blogging a lot.
But it's been making me crazy not being able to post even though I haven't made any elaborate meals. I've been making re-runs, if anything at all. Of course, special treats as I always like. I have a pathetic MwM list that I am not going to post. It's a bunch of random stuff I've bought over the past few weeks.

Other than from trying to enjoy summertime, not feeling too well lately, postponing a trip and avoiding the 115 degree heat and serial killers and rapists, I am doing ok. I appreciate everyone who has chimed in wondering about me. I have been cruisin around other people's blogs, that doesn't make me dizzy!

This first photo here is my freezer. Typical of me. And this photo is not staged either. I usually have at least 2 ice creams (not including Ray's Organic Stonyfield Farm dairy), and sometimes up to 4 or 5. If you didn't know already and don't get it from the photo, I love ice cream. I try to eat it everyday. The coconut sorbet is the best I've ever had. I also have the new Whole Foods 365 brand of soy vanilla. It's good, very creamy, but I prefer the SO Delicious over that one. It is twice as much ice cream as the Soy Delicious, and the same price. Oh well. Cookies n Cream is my standard, and I love the white chocolate and raspberry one when I'm feelin' fancy.

Let me tell you a story about how I got the top two ice creams. First, the 365 soy vanilla: Ray and I were at Whole Foods Market and I almost fell over and died when I saw they had a sampling station set up with rootbeer floats, including SOY ice cream. This was seriously the best sampling station ever. I had a Virgils rootbeer (also the best kind) with soy vanilla and sprinkles and almonds. She gave me 2 scoops for free! I went right ahead and purchased the 365 soy (and gave into the marketing scheme). That same day, most likely due to my overwhelming excitement of the sampling station, the lady told me there would be 4-5 non-dairy ice cream samples set up the next day. I planned the whole next day around the ice cream sampling time, went to the store, and she wasn't set up yet. I thought we would just come back later, and to our suprise, she took us into the ice cream isle with 8 spoons in hand, and told us to pick out 4 kinds of non-dairy's that we would like to try. I almost fell over again! We tried the CaoBella coconut sorbet and immediately decided to buy it. We also tried Soy Delicious purely decadent Swiss Almond Vanilla which was amazing, Soy Dream blueberry, which was good but I could do that at home, and a rice one that wasn't even that good I can't remember the brand. It was mint chocolate chip. I don't care for the textures of rice ice creams, but the sorbet is a good alternative to soy. Those 2 days at the store were seriously the best ever. Our 4 samples were the ones that were going to be used for the station. I loved that we got to pick them out. I also didn't know that it is WFM policy to let anyone try *anything* they ask for while at the store. They already let me dig through the basil containers. Hmmm...

Below is my very first vegan cheesecake. I purchased it at the co-op from a local baker. I had no idea what to compare it to since I can't remember ever having cheesecake in my life. Most people I know have "issues" with cheesecake, vegan or non. But this was good. It was a marionberry with blackberry cake made with tofu, non-hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese, raw sugar, soymilk, maple syrup and vanilla. It was 100% organic and mighty fine. It may be a while before I miss it though.
Next up cookies. To all of you people who are baking up homemade cookies (hint hint Dreena!), I have been missing cookies (homemade especially) since December. So many posts lately have been of cookies and I seriously need to offer some big money or something to have someone send me some. This is the closest I've got to pretending they are homebaked. First up, my favorite, Uncle Eddies. These are great, all vegan and the Trial Mix is my favorite. I really wanted simple chocolate chip, but it seems that's what everyone else at the store wanted before me. A few days later, even though I had cookies at the house still, I took a long drive up to Wild Oats for lunch and ended up buying this bag of Wild Oats veg oatmeal raisin cookies. They are good and taste like cinnamon snickerdoodles but with raisins. I am happy.
And something healthier, but not necessarily more nutritional: yellow watermelon. Am I the last person on this Earth to discover yellow watermellon? I saw it at the store and it looked interesting so I got one. Ray cut these (I cut watermellon differently) and they taste just like regular pink watermelon. Maybe not as juicy, and they didn't have seeds. This was organic, of course. Yum.
I finally splurged. I was informed by Kris that the co-op has vegan whipped cream. I was also informed that there is a better brand out there, but this is all I can find so far. I saw it at Wild Oats for fifty cents cheaper. This whip cream was interesting. The first taste was a bit "chemically", maybe the processed soy. But it was a nice texture and creaminess and I really liked it after a few bites. Scroll down and you can see how much I really liked it. Did I mention that it's been 7+ years since I've had whipped cream? And my newest find, Hip Whip, doesn't count.
This smoothie is a mango kiwi smoothie. I forgot that I was gonna keep it yellow, and without even thinking, I tossed in blueberries. Maybe because I always do that. At that point, I knew it wouldn't "look" like a mango smoothie, so I also threw in a red plum. Ingredients: all organic, mango, kiwi, blueberry, plum, vanilla soymilk, hemp seeds. I have been going whipped cream crazy... Oh, and I am not trying to advertise for Pom here. These are the new pom teas and mine was a pomegranite green tea with lychee. Yum. I like these because you can keep the glass. We have a few at the house now, and they are just as good, if not better, than our other glasses.
Next up on the food porn list (or rather whipped cream list) is a Virgil's rootbeer float with 365 vanilla soy ice cream and whipped cream. This was Ray's. I can't handle this much of any type of soda. I only had a few splashes of rootbeer and it was great. I can handle any amount of ice cream though!
And this was my dinner the other night. Don't be mislead by this post, I do eat foods other than ice cream and sweets. After all, I am a nutritionist (and human), but my simple meals of grains, pasta, beans, salads, etc, have all been meals that show I haven't been feeling well lately. I also haven't felt like taking photos of these foods, treats are way better. I'll be back in the routine again soon. For now, this awesomeness was my dinner. It was cookies n cream ice cream, Uncle Eddies cookie, whipped cream and Alaska chocolate syrup. Yum. So, I'll leave you all with this great looking food porn to glaze over for a while.

"Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose? Ramble on baby, settle down easy. Ramble on, Rose." ~Robert Hunter

Oh Little Lenties How I've Missed You So...

Remember how much I used to make Sloppy Lenties? Pretty much ever since Jennifer McCann posted about them for Shmoo's lunchbox and I went overboard for a while. Way more than I even posted about. I love my concoction of an adult-slash-kid version of the lenties and it's been a while since I've made them. Boy, did I miss those little bad-boys. I made them exactly the same as I always do (have the recipe memorized) and they were once again, wonderful. I thought it would be too hot and filling to eat these, but the Monsoon has rolled in (3 consecutive days of a dewpoint 55 degrees or higher) and it was a pleasant meal to have during a dust storm. No Seduction bread this time, this was some whole wheat something that was hard on the outside and soft inside and great for this dish. Oh, little lenties, it won't be for too long that we part again... (I'm a nerd).
And here's some blueberry ice cream pie. Sort-of. You see, this is supposed to look blue-er than it looks. I made a similiar pie to the amazing one I made last week but this time decided to make the guilt a bit less and add a shitload of blueberries to make it "healthier". It's not that it's unhealthy, come on, it's vegan, but there's something said about having ice cream pie for lunch three days in a row with no fruit filling. Hmm. List of ingredients in my pie: Arrowhead Mills already baked graham cracker crust, Soy Delicious cookies n cream ice cream, a few Newman's O's, maple syrup, hemp seeds, blueberries, almond butter, chocolate chips. Everything is organic except for the handful of chocolate chips. This pie is amazing.

I know these are two re-runs of many previous posts, but I felt because it's been a week since I've posted, I must post something, even if it's old material. Blogger withdrawl can only last so long.

Killian's Birthday, MwM, Pesto:Part II & Layered Cereal Squares

Today is Killian's Birthday! My baby boy turned 4 today and he is still my fat kitten. Today isn't technically Killian's birthday, you see, I rescued him from the pound and he was about 4 weeks old and fit in my size 6 shoe. I was unsure of his exact birthday and did know it was about the end of June, so I deemed it June 28. It's the 28th because I like the number 28 and it's my birthdate too. So, happy birthday Killian, who is now huge and poofy and about 16 pounds!
I have been wanting to get Killian a kitty condo (aka kitty playground) and have looked online. There are so many choices and sizes and prices and I really wanted to find one that would suit his fatness best. Ray and I were at the pet store (Pet's Inc., a family owned business, one location only) getting a few fish accessories for our 4 swimming friends. We decided to double our number of fish in the tank by purchasing a little algae eater (bottom feeder) as well as three other fishies that I don't know what type they are. They eat all the crap at the bottom and are already helping the tank out. Back to the condo... at the store there were many kitty condos to choose from. I decided on this one and to finally get it (it was a good price and we didn't pay for online shipping) and also purchased a blue fuzzy toy and a rolling-bell-thingy for him to get freaky with. The photo above is Killian checking it out. It didn't take him long to like it (and surprisingly not hard for him to jump onto) and he was lounging for a good part of the day.
Above: Killian perching and hunting the birds outside the window. What a different perspective for him up there. You can see the fuzzy blue toy that he likes to carry around in his mouth.
All passed out.
I am glad Killian likes this and uses this already because I've bought him toys and things in the past and he prefers household (aka MY) items and steals pens, caps, paper, almost anything. Ray even bought him a comfy basket and it took him a whole year before he stepped into it. He went through a faze where he snuggled in it for about a month, but hasn't returned to it since.

Below you can see the guy eating his special treat. He freaks out as soon as there's a little tear in the lid. He comes running and meows and mooches until (yes, I usually give in) he gets it. I give him a few licks of yogurt about once a week or so but today I let him have a bit more. He grew up in a vegetarian household and has always prefered soy. He mooches to Ray's cow ice cream, but really prefers mine, as well as many other foods.

I let him dunk his face in this time. He had yogurt in his eyelashes and even on his ears! I love my kitten.
And onto Midweek Munchies. Click on the photo to view the shopping list. The * means organic, and as always, this is a combined list for 2 weeks worth of munchies.
I made Dreena's Sun-dried Tomato Pesto with Almonds and Pine nuts again. I can't give the recipe because it's a tester. Stay tuned for the new cookbook. Anyhow, no photo, but there were 2 changes and I followed the recipe exactly the same. First, I used spaghetti this time instead of linguini. I prefer thicker noodles or super-thin ones. Next, this time I ran to the crappy store (walking distance, well, WFM is too, but I was lazy) and purchased conventional sundried tomatoes. I swear this is the only reason why the pesto wasn't as flavorful and pungent and awesome this time. I followed the recipe exactly again, but the tomatoes were missing a lot of good things. The pesto was still fabulous, but I will only make it with organic main-ingredients next time. I still had the leftovers for breakfast.

Next, I made Dreena's Chocolate Hemp Squares yet again. See the post about them below for details. This time I omitted the hemp seeds on top, doubled the recipe, and used 2 kinds of cereal plus rolled oats because I ran out of one type of cereal and was already in the works.
The bottom layer is Koala Krisp (Nature's Path like Rice Crispies) mixed with cashew and almond butter and all the other good stuff. Next, a layer of chocolate, then a layer of Gorilla Munch plus rolled oats plus the goodness nut butter stuff, then topped with a huge layer of more chocolate. These are awesome.

Tofurky Sandwich

Now don't fall out of your chair... this is Ray's tofurky sandwich. I still refuse to even try a bite, but I still think it's way better than eating a real dead turkey. This Tofurky is new to us, not by acknowledgement but by actually buying it and Ray tasting it. It all started when we went to Green, a 100% vegan organic restaurant (one of the few around here) and discovered they are now hosting daily specials and a Pesto Tofurky Sandwich was the first one. Ray was super-excited and I just stick to my usual artichoke dip and jerk tofu salad, cliche, even for a vegan place. He thought the sandwich was great, especially because it was more than just a veggie sandwich but not a real-meat sandwich (his "last" bite of meat was in February... yes, I'm shocked!).

A few days later the Tofurky was still on his mind and he decided to buy some at the store (the peppered one, that's what Green had) as well as a big-ass roll and some veggies for topping. We have organic Veganaise, which I don't like either, never liked real mayo, and Ray likes it better than real mayo, so it works. He built this sandwich all by himself (thank goodness, as I just simply cut a piece of ice cream pie and had that for lunch yesterday, again) and it was ready in no time. He did a wonderful job, may I mention at stacking the layers so nicely.

And yes, the cheese you see is from a cow. He buys super-small blocks of "good cheese" every so often. On the tofurky sandwhich at Green there was faux cheese, it was a pepper-jack-something, but Ray has 5-year Wisconsin Cheddar and he was raving about it for the sandwich. It's all complete with peppers and lettuce and red onion. And isn't it nice to see a "meat-filled" sandwich that is still mostly veggies? So many sandwiches I see are just filled with meat and cheese or cheese sauce or some crap, and maybe a sprig of iceberg lettuce and a crappy tomato. In this case, there's a great variety and it is not overstuffed by one main ingredient. He ate the whole thing (it was huge!) and still has many slices left over for another time. He is trying to get me to taste even just one bite of one slice, but I feel like I am 5 years old again, throwing a fit, although this time it's not fitting about dead animals being eaten. It's about eating something that is claimed to taste just like a turkey tastes and I don't care to know that, chew it, digest it, nor even try to comprehend why I would want to eat something (vegan) that is supposed to be what the flesh of turkey tastes like. We've been through this before, I'll stop here. No thanks for me, but this is a pretty sandwich, right? And nothing dead.

Vegan Ice Cream Pie & Walnut Basil Pesto & Polenta Verdict

How can I not start with this. I made this pie in about 4 minutes last night. I glanced at La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer and came across a recipe for easy ice cream pie that I liked and completely modified though. Instead of crushing my own creme-filled cookies, I took a pre-made graham cracker crust by Arrowhead Mills (that's been in the pantry for months) and lined the bottom with a small spread of organic almond butter. That would have been fantastic on its own! Next, I got out my food processor and combined about 2T maple syrup (organic, grade A) with about a handful (I have small hands) of chocolate chips and an even bigger handful of raw organic pecans. Blend until it's all combined. Then since I always have ice cream on hand, I grabbed a bigass container of So Delicious (used to be Soy Delicious) Cookies n Cream, my favorite kind, and added about 4c ice cream (1/2 the carton) to the food processor. From there I blended until everything was homogeneous and looked sooo good. Next, dip your spoon in it a few times just to make sure it really is as good as it looks, if not, better! The original recipe didn't have nuts and called for mint or any extract, and I omitted that completely. Next, I dumped the mixture onto the pie crust and spread it evenly. Then I topped it with hemp seeds because, well, that's just what I do with most things. Then the top of the pie still looked a bit boring, even though I knew there was awesome stuff going on within it. I decided to get out the Organic Santa Cruz (like hersheys) syrup and I topped it with that. You can see that the spout is bigger than my liking, and I had a few globs of too much here and there. I took this photo after the pie was frozen for about 2 hours. The active time in the kitchen was only 4-5 minutes (yay) but you have to patiently wait for it to firm up. I didn't. It was somewhat firm, and it is now 16+ hours later and all this "talk" has made me want to check and see how it is now... and eat it. I know it will only get better.
Now this is what I decided to do with the leftover basil (2c) I had. Yeah, yeah, it's another pesto, and I appreciate all the non-pesto advice, I just wasn't up to anything major. I used a recipe for Walnut Basil Pesto from Dreena's Vive le Vegan and served it cold (we usually eat cold and late on Tuesday nights with minimal ingredients). I topped it with pine nuts because I like pine nuts a lot and had them on hand. This pesto wasn't as good to me as the sun-dried that I tested for the new book, but I think it's because I didn't know it was going to be "creamy" and I don't really like creamy things. Even when I was a vegetarian that ate a lot of cheese (when I was a kid and young teen) I still didn't ever like creamy dishes or creamy soups. Therefore, I think it still holds true, and even though the creaminess is due to the crushed 1c walnuts, I didn't care for the milk in it. I did though, like the overall taste of the recipe, it was just too creamy for me. If you like pesto and you like creamy, go for this recipe!
Polenta verdict: I am going to make this as short as possible. I mapped out on paper what I was going to do with the polenta. This is how it goes: First on the bottom, a layer of polenta with blue corn chips all around the plate. The polenta was to be fried in olive oil on the pan with some garlic and nutritional yeast. Then there would be a layer of canned organic black beans with chopped red and yellow (frozen) bell peppers mixed with cumin, lime, cilantro, cayenne, s/p, and more garlic. Then there would be a top layer of jarred organic salsa with more cilantro on top.
I finally got out the tube of polenta (biggest mistake right there, after everyone's advice on homemade) and cut it open. It scared the shit out of me because I didn't know it was going to be rubbery. Yuck. So I just went with it. I took out a can of black beans and did the prepping according to plan. The black beans got overcooked while sitting in the pot for a while when the polenta was frying in oil. The polenta didn't get brown (after a really long time) so I stopped it to try it. It felt "done" in my mouth but I didn't like the texture. I stopped the heat on everything and attempted to try it all mixted together (just on my fork, not set up on a plate) and it tasted like complete crap. I've had this idea in my head for a week, mapped out on paper for 3 days, and it was such a disaster. By the time I thought about a photo, most of the polenta was in the drain and the black bean mixture was getting debated on getting tossed or not. It was a bad disaster and it may be another while before I have polenta unless I make it myself. I am never buying anything in a tube again (besides toothpaste and chapstick).

I'm going to have some ice cream pie for breakfast now...

Cereal + Chocolate + Cashews + Almonds + Hemp = Squares

I made Chocolate Hemp Squares from Vive le Vegan last night. I must say, these are so sweet and rich that no matter what your stomach (and/or brain) tells you, one is satisfying enough. Well, maybe two. Anyway, I've been wanting to make this recipe from the very first day Vive arrived in the mail. I always spot out the hemp nut butter at the store but still haven't splurged. Why? I really don't know. After all, I always keep hemp seeds stocked in the house and eat them almost every day, but hemp butter is more expensive (for what it is) therefore I decided to modify the recipe. These bars came out so wonderful and of course, they were no-bakes and super-fast to make.

Instead of hemp seed butter I used cashew butter, and used almond butter as my other. Here's the list of ingredients I used: Nature's Path Gorilla Munch (kids) cereal, cashew butter, almond butter, maple syrup, sea salt, vanilla (all for the base), soymilk and chocolate (topping). I then sprinkled hemp seeds on top (to make it more authentic). I can't get over how good these are. They are super-rich, but not super-dense due to the ground cereal, but super-filling and awesome.