Vegan Vancouverite

Bring the Box!

2009-11-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that I have finally started ordering the weekly box delivery of organic produce from Green Earth Organics! It's so nice - the company drops off several pounds of organic produce to Vancouver and Toronto homes once a week which means I HAVE to eat produce. Gorgeous, fresh organic produce. Yay!

I roasted the box's summer squash, potatoes, mushrooms and red onion with some carrots and made the super tasty Mushroom Gravy from my new cookbook "You Won't Believe It's Vegan" and you'd better believe it was good gravy.

I also baked two batches of cookies from Vegan Singles - two different recipes because I foolishly forgot I was baking from a book designed for one person - and while I'm fond of eating cookies, I'm also fond of sharing cookies.

The Classic Peanut Butter Cookies were super super and healthy enough with whole wheat flour but if I were to make them again I'd definitely double the recipe if I made them again.

The Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies weren't quite as good - they turned out having a slightly off consistency which might have been my fault as I subbed agave for maple syrup.

A Courageous Catch-Up

2009-11-07T17:33:00.001-08:00

I hang my head in shame - it has been months and months since I've touched this blog - which doesn't mean I haven't been eating or cooking or getting obsessive about vegan cookbooks and food in Vancouver. I have been doing all of those things and I have indeed been photo-documenting a great deal of it so I really have no excuse (other than spending a month teaching in Africa, tackling third year at UBC, two part-time jobs, moving twice and now living on my own) to not be posting. In fact - I've missed the Vegan Vancouverite and will do my best to resurrect it! The courageous element of this post is going to be getting far too many photos uploaded on one post.

Check out these gorgeous slices of organic, vegan, wheat-free pie from Aphrodite's Cafe and Pie Shop in Kitsilano! This was a beyond amazing end to the summer - raspberry rhubarb and strawberry rhubarb.

Midsummer I made an incredible new vegan friend from Ontario who is partly such an incredible new vegan friend because she shared with me her incredible vegan Nawt Macaroni and Cheese recipe which I would share with you had she not whisked it away afterwards. I'll keep you updated.

I must admit that I was slightly frightened of the kitchen at the first place I moved into this summer (which I have happily since left) and only have one sad, lonesome meal to show for it - quinoa sushi which is a really good idea that someone else had for me.

Midsummer I went on a fantastic cycling trip around Vancouver Island - just my boyfriend and I, a tent and our bikes! I still can't believe we made it around Vancouver Island and Salt Spring what with my non-existent leg muscles.

I'm just a little sad that my first shot at henna from Vancouver's Folk Festival was sweated off two days after I got it.

Biking/tenting was such a great way to see the Island - we enjoyed many highways, several provincial parks, a broken bike chain in the middle of nowhere, a tented thunderstorm, lots of sunscreen, the Salt Spring Saturday market, and plenty of camping food.

As in affordable camping food - like raw oats and water for breakfast. Yum.

And cans of beans and rice for lunch.

As in cold beans because of the campfire ban.

And granola bars all day, every day.

And seaside peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Salt Spring Island has a wonderful grocery store in Ganges called Thrifty Foods which I wish we had in Vancouver - they had tons of organic stuff at incredible prices you can't find in the city. We considered stocking up before remembering we were on bikes. We did, however, combat the sun with some soy ice cream that was not bad at the start with chocolate-covered coffee beans (purely for cycling energy).

I lucked out while waiting for the ferry departing from Salt Spring at Morningside Organic Bakery and Cafe.

It's super cute and full of organic and wheat-free breads and baked goods.

I got a gingerbread cookie and a blueberry spelt muffin for the ferry - yum!

Pizza! With soy cheese! With a whole wheat crust! On Salt Spring Island! At Pomodoro Pizza! Yum.

Back in Vancouver, I hit The Naam in Kitsilano about eight hundred times before summer was over, at all times of the day and night. It's so nice to have a twenty-four/seven vegan-friendly restaurant (with really good soy chai) so close!

The Naam now has new Daiya cheese - that's right; soy-free vegan cheese that actually melts. Due to The Naam's need to ensure their vegan nachoes compare to their non-vegan nachoes cheese-wise, they slightly burned the top of the mile-high pile - which somehow added to its cheesiness. Weird but fantastic.

While this does not (thankfully) directly have anything to do with me eating, I feel obliged to post some cute rabbit photos!

We discovered that the tame bunny colony down at Jericho Beach really likes freshly-picked seaside blackberries and carrots.

The final two weeks of my summer were spent sleeping on my friend's couch (rough times at the place I rented for two months in the summer - rough but now hilarious). We went crazy at Whole Foods on several occasions but all I have photographed is some mediocre pasta.

We tried to welcome back my friend from her three month stay in Italy with an Italian night so we made bruschetta

We also made the obligatory pasta and zucchini which was probably nothing like Italy but the thought was there!

.............

Copious Cupcakes

2009-02-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

This is a cupcake-exclusive post, which is not to say that I haven't made anything other than cake and frosting - rather, nothing has been photographed other than that which Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World has provided me with.

For my birthday this year, we went out for some tasty brown rice sushi (and the best yam fries I can find in this city) at Mandala Iki Asian Bistro in Kitsilano. I sometimes feel weird bringing cupcakes to eat in a restaurant, yet continue to do so on a regular basis. At least I haven't been kicked out yet.

I happily made my own birthday "cake" to avoid the vegan challenge - Peanut Buttercream on Your Basic Chocolate Cupcakes.

My German friend Mia left for her other home and we sent her off with German Chocolate Cupcakes - Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting on Your Basic Chocolate Cupcakes, which were much tastier than they may look.

Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes for my dear friend Arianna's birthday.

Short, but rich. Just like her.

Orange Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for Andrea's birthday. I wish I could master the swirl!

Chocolate Buttercream on Your Basic Chocolate Cupcakes for Gabe's birthday:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes - no frosting equals easy transportation.

Tiramisu Cupcakes for Liam's birthday. Note: do not take photos with your Mac's Photo Booth. They look awful but were actually quite good - in fact, a friend of mine who never, ever eats sugar even splurged.

Chocolate and Cookies 'n' Cream Cupcakes for a fundraising for a Tanzanian school bakesale:

I can happily report that the funds were raised.

And chocolate again - I'm really not trying to be redundant, but Chocolate Cupcakes are really the go-to cupcakes of choice.

I seem to bake a lot of them. In fact - it's hard not to.

Natural-er Nanaimos

2009-01-23T12:29:00.001-08:00

Nanaimo Bars are apparently actually native to British Columbia - that is to say, they were named after the town Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I finally made some vegan ones after talking about it for at least year, using this recipe:

www.ravs.enviroweb.org/recipes/nanaimo.html

They turned out very tasty but when I remade them I doubled the middle which seemed more legitimate, if you can handle that much Earthbalance and sugar! Evidently I should have photographed the second batch - but you get the picture. Just the wrong one.

Greenpeace and Granola

2008-09-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

I'm very lucky to have Monday afternoons off of school, which means I get our kitchen to myself to make lunch while no one's around to hear me singing. Today's mid-morning meal was from Foods that Don’t Bite Back - the Curried Lentils variation which I had on brown rice.

I should really make more lentils and brown rice-type dishes, as they are not difficult and you sense that there is the tiniest chance that you've consumed some iron, which is always a good feeling.

While waiting for the lentils/rice to cook, I whipped up Foods that Don't Bite Back's Creamy Chocolate-Orange Pudding with firm silken tofu. From cleaning out the bowl, it appears like it will be super good pudding for dinner's dessert. In fact, if it doesn't change drastically between now and consumption, it is probably the best vegan chocolate pudding recipe I’ve ever made.

Yesterday I made some really good granola from La Dolce Vegan - Apple Cinnamon Granola, with pecans and dried apples and sweetened with maple syrup.

When I worked at Booster Juice a couple of years ago, we sometimes made an acai parfait which I attempted with mangoes instead of bananas and Belizza Acai sorbet, topped with homemade granola. Perfection!

I finished this over a really interesting book – “The Greenpeace to Amchitka” by Robert Hunter, the co-founder of Greenpeace. I really enjoy the references to hobbits in between the awesome account of twelve Greenpeace guys travelling up the coast from Vancouver to Alaska to attempt to stop the nuclear bomb and save the planet. It’s fascinating how this voyage from the seventies continues to instil a sense of empowerment and can challenge one to revolutionize, rebel and save the Earth all thanks to “planet love.” I really appreciate his comments on avoiding paranoid grandiosity and warnings against becoming too eco-egotistical. Ha!

A Slew of Sugar

2008-09-21T21:12:00.001-07:00

I made La Dolce Vegan's Chocolate Puddin’ Cake last week, only I used whole wheat flour because white scares me. I probably should have baked it in a higher dish, because mine exploded rather artistically.

I also recently baked some of La Dolce Vegan's Wolffie's Snickerdoodles, forcing in whole wheat flour again. They're not super healthy regardless and not super good, either.

La Dolce Vegan's Simple Oatmeal Cookies are not worth making again - weirdly dry. Possibly I should not have used whole wheat flour.

Simple Treats' Brown Rice Krispy Treats turned out alright - they held together while in the fridge but shortly after leaving they fell right apart. Still - they were noble attempts at healthy vegan rice krispy squares, I must admit.

I should probably mention that I am not single-handedly consuming all these vegan sweets myself - I live with three other people and usually end up giving cookies/etc. away, so don't be concerned.

Black Beans and Banana Bars

2008-09-20T20:54:00.001-07:00

Earthsave's 25 and Under Group's September Youth Vegan Potluck was tonight, a relatively smallish one but enjoyable nonetheless. I made La Dolce Vegan's Wolffie’s Black Bean and Lentil Salad, full of red peppers, red onions and flax oil and surprisingly rather good.

I also made a dessert - La Dolce Vegan's Wolffie’s B’nanner Bars, which bascially combines white flour and white sugar with Earthbalance and bananas. Definitely not healthful - but not bad with La Dolce Vegan's “Butter Cream” Frosting which oddly enough requires cooking and tasted like the Vanilla Ryza I used as the milk substitute.

A word to the wise: when the icing says sit in the fridge for two hours, believe it.

Vive le Vegan!

2008-09-13T20:03:00.001-07:00

Vive le Vegan's Chocolate P-Nut Butter Squares turned out alright but didn't hold up too well outside of the fridge, meaning they weren't so great for traveling farther than our kitchen counter.

Always one for baking a bunch when I get started, I also made three of Vive le Vegan's cookie recipes.

Her Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies are really, really good - apparently these are quite famous online. They worked out really well with spelt flour - yay!

Peanut "Better" Cookies are also pretty good with spelt flour - super similar ingredients.

Maple Walnut Cookies are pretty good, also with spelt instead of wheat.

I really like how healthy(-er) Dreena's recipes are - even sweets. She rocks.

Reputable Reads

2008-08-24T09:33:00.003-07:00

The discount Book Warehouse in Kitsilano had a single copy of Dreena Burton's second cookbook so of course I couldn't pass it up. In Vive le Vegan, I have at long last discovered the recipe for Capers' addictive Power Cookies - spelt flour, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, dark chocolate - it's all in Dreena's Energy Cookies, which add barley flour and use maple syrup instead of sugar.

These are the kind of cookies you take with you on the Tour de France, trekking across the Sahara or climbing Everest - they've got plenty of protein and no doubt put one in an energetic, perhaps powerful mood. These are not the type of cookies you munch on over tea and a good book. Nevertheless, I have some book suggestions from my summer's reading list which veg*ns may find readable indeed:

"Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy" by Matthew Scully is a brilliant survey of how humanity regards animals, both from a modern and Biblical perspective. It is highly quotable and hard to put down. I plan to read this again and would recommend it to anyone.

"Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money" by Erik Marcus presents a vegetarian view not only on animal exploitation but also on animal rights' activists exaggerations. He exposes agendas and suggests revolutionary methods to educate but not alienate, with complete honesty.

Jane Goodall was a childhood hero for me and the subject of many of my elementary school class speeches. "The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for The Animals We Love," partly written by Goodall and partly by Mark Bekoff, is a challenge to respect life through conservation and care of the planet and its inhabitants. Goodall and Bekoff present stories about interactions with various animals and remind readers that humans are not the only ones who feel.

I realized that I should probably read "An Inconvenient Truth" after finding myself complaining that it did not address animal agriculture enough. This rather thick textbook of sorts consists mainly of its movie counterpart's information, presented in large photos, graphs and fewer pages of print than expected, meaning it is a rather quick read. While Al Gore seems very well versed in climate change statistics, he leaves hardly enough room for the animal agricultural causes of global warming, a frustrating fact, but at least something is there, even if that something is incredibly small and short.

Marvelous Macaroni

2008-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight I cooked up some beautiful brown rice pasta with La Dolce Vegan's recipe for Wolffie’s Nutritional Yeast “Cheese” Sauce which translated into vegan macaroni and cheese - you don't realize how much you miss nooch until you have it after ages without.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's MoMo’s Falafels - although I lost patience while trying to brown them, they turned out fine and were really good with the simple but super Tahini Sauce from said book. The Garden of Vegan's Swiss Chard and Garlic wasn't anything spectacular, perhaps minus the iron and calcium from the kale I subbed.

I made La Dolce Vegan’s Nutty Oatmeal Raisin Cookies yesterday using peanut butter and forcing in whole wheat flour because white flour simply isn't classy.

How It All Vegan!'s Rise ‘n’ Shine Granola is pretty good, but I like Sarah's other granola recipes better.

Granola is like very oat-y trail mix.

Poppy Pancakes

2008-08-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Garden of Vegan’s Orange-Poppy Seed Pancakes are really nutritious, with lots of sunflower seeds and no sugar. I used oat flour instead of white which worked out perfectly fine.

I forced oat flour into The Garden of Vegan's Apple Streusel Muffins which turned out pretty well - I don't understand why those If You Care brand unbleached muffin cups don't actually hold on to their muffins.

Foods That Don't Bite Back Spicey Chickpea Curry was an awesome lunch today. I'm really liking this cookbook even though it's super thin.

I took this photo with my MacBook Photobooth, which explains a lot. I suggest checking out the proper photo on the book's cover.

Homework Headstart

2008-08-08T11:05:00.001-07:00

It may seem crazy to start prepping for school starting so soon, but the rest of August promises to be rather busy so I think it's essential to be sure my freezer is stocked with school lunch fare now, because as much as I would like to, I probably shouldn't give all of my savings to Sprouts once UBC opens and my kitchen time disappears. I had the apartment to myself this morning so I got to messy up the entire kitchen and blast some music to fill my baking void and any hungry stomachs come September.

La Dolce Vegan's Simply Crunchy Granola is really easy and full of walnuts, sesame and sunflower seeds - a cheap but healthful breakfast for sure.

The Garden of Vegan's Oven-Baked Muesli isn't quite as good but any granola is a good staple.

I really like Simple Treats’ recipes because they are all made with no white sugar (maple syrup instead) and no wheat flour (barley and oat instead.) These Almond Shortbread Cookies are going right to safety in the freezer - now.

Eat Drink and Be Vegan's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are made with spelt flour and hardly any sweetener. I really like Dreena Burton’s cookie recipes and am not the only one who thinks she should write a healthy vegan cookie cookbook.

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Jam-Print Cookies are also wheat-free and tasty but super flat for some reason.

La Dolce Vegan prints Vesanto’s Choco-Currant Cranberry Squares in two sections of the book, so obviously they’ve got to be good. I used raisins, peanut butter, rice syrup, unsweetened baking chocolate, Brown Rice Krispies and Nature’s Path Kamut Krisps to make them as healthful as possible – I just hope they survive until September in my freezer.

I forced whole wheat flour into La Dolce Vegan’s Maple Flax Squares, which aren’t super healthy or super good but I felt bad for freezing a bunch of cookies without sharing so my dad got these - he likes them so I can’t complain.

It was my younger sister's birthday this week but I was working and she had already picked out a non-vegan cake to be made. I made up for it by making her La Dolce Vegan's Daniyell's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bars, which have enough sugar in them to be birthday fare if you ask me. She seemed happy.

I'm the type who doesn't see the point in using all the measuring cups and spoons and running the dishwasher for one batch of cookies, so once I start it's clearly a marathon or nothing.

Lentils and Leaves

2008-08-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Book Warehouse in Kitsilano on West Broadway has changed to an outlet store with crazy good deals but the only vegan cookbooks they had left when I checked it out was Foods That Don't Bite Back: Vegan Cooking Made Simple, which is rather thin but looks promising enough. Tonight I tried out three dishes for dinner and my non-vegetarian parents approved, so I certainly can't complain.

Sweet and Sour Lentils are pretty good - my house needs more lentils. My dad ended up with most of the liquid and thought this was supposed to be soup, but neither he nor I minded.

Kale with Mustard-Tahini Sauce is really good but I'm pretty sure there is a typo where it says to cook the kale for twenty minutes. Kale is so healthy - I really don't know why I don't buy it more often.

I also made some brown rice Stuffed Grapevine Leaves, which aren't too time-consuming if your mother helps you make them. We usually make them without crushed tomatoes but got over any skepticism rather quickly.

New cookbooks are exciting - all those recipes waiting to be tried, all that blank paper waiting to be written in.

Cumin, Cinnamon and Cookies

2008-07-14T11:45:00.001-07:00

Tonight for dinner I had Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Blackened Tofu with sesame fries which was pretty good with a salad with said recipe book's Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette. My tofu wouldn't get black due to hunger levels but it turned out alright.

Here's the new Vegan Thumbprint Cookie sold at Capers from Whole Foods - woot! It's wheat-free and is sweetened with maple syrup. It's huge. It's kind of exciting.

I also made my own cookies - Simple Treats' Hemp Seed Chocolate Chip Cookies which are fantastic, if I do say so myself. This cookbook absolutely rocks.

Who needs sugar or wheat for good cookies anyways?

Simplicity is Stir-Fry

2008-07-10T21:02:00.001-07:00

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Tempeh Hashbrown Casserole, involving red potatoes and lots of green onions, is fantastic.

Of course it's in the breakfast section but I made it for dinner with a stir-fry, which is always a good stand-by what's-in-the-fridge-and-choppable dish.

The Garden of Vegan provided a nice stir-fry sauce - Spicy Orange Sauce with sesame oil, orange juice, maple syrup and ginger.

My family CAN eat tempeh. I'm proud. Impressed. Thrilled.

Buckwheat and Barley

2008-07-09T14:06:00.001-07:00

How It All Vegan!'s Basic Buckwheat Pancakes are really good in a heavy, stick-with-you-breakfast kind of a way. I subtituted barley flour for the all-purpose and they turned out hearty and wholesome tasting. This is the kind of breakfast you should have before facing a day in the wilderness, chopping firewood or chasing bears away from your blueberry bushes.

I particularly like Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Warm Raspberry Sauce using fresh raspberries and apple juice. What more could pancakes ask for?

I also made Blueberry Muffins from Simple Treats, which are basically like all of the other muffins in the book but with blueberries in them. Yummy.

So it's not impossible to be wheat-free and vegan - one just has to spend more time in their own kitchen. These were worth it, at least.

Wicked Wraps

2008-07-08T22:44:00.001-07:00

Lunch today was once again partly liberated - Vegan with a Vengeance's Fresh Mango Summer Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce. The rolls were great but I definitely wouldn't make the sauce again - perhaps a peanut butter one instead.

I made La Dolce Vegan Betty's Salsa for some more wraps for dinner, using only half of the can of diced green onions.

The salsa fueled La Dolce Vegan's Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos, which my parents and younger sister really, really liked, for good reason. I refused to use vegan "cheese" for this recipe, and used much more salsa than called for. Of course I could eat the entire bowl of mashed sweet potatoes. Baby food, perhaps, but the best, because yams are simply the best vegetable there is. No arguments.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's Zucchini with Tomatoes and Marjoram with both green and yellow zuchinis, which looked pretty neato.

Sing praises to organic summer vegetables. Do it or you'll wish you had.

Lovely Liberation

2008-07-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today I had the good fortune to rescue (accompliced, I might add!) a couple of bags worth of beautiful organic produce set for the compost - a windfall of summer fruit! Let the fruit fill you.

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes are fantastic! They aren't too sweet and turned out perfect. Dreena Burton rocks.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's Sugar-Free Banana-Strawberry Sorbet which was wicked awesome.

I used only a quarter of a cup of apple juice and maple syrup with frozen fruit to create this summer star. It's probably the healthiest ice cream I've ever had and it rocks.

Tonight we had a bunch of veggies for dinner, also organic and also liberated. I made La Dolce Vegan's Avocado Tomato Salsa, which was in desperate need of some salt.

Vegan with a Vengeance's Orange Glazed Beets are easy and tasty - look at that steam!

La Dolce Vegan's Baby Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette is super easy and super good.

Can't complain about free organic food.

Can't complain about this summer!

Sweet Stew

2008-07-03T22:46:00.001-07:00

I rescued a bunch of only slightly imperfect lovely organic sweet potatoes which were going to be composted today to make Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Pureed Spicy Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew with Chickpeas, which was as wonderful as the title sounds.

It was even better with brown rice because you can never have too much brown rice.

Summer is going well - bring on the sweet potatoes.

Cookie Catch-Up

2008-06-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

I made some cookies for a friend this morning - Vegan with a Vengeance's Maple Walnut Cookies with whole wheat flour because he's healthy like that.

I also made some of Simple Treats' Cashew Jam Bites - healthy cookies with barley flour and sweetened with maple syrup. Fig or raspberry jam.

Here is a terrible photo of La Dolce Vegan's Peanut Butter Coconut Squares - bad photo, but awesome recipe which was rather natural with organic peanut butter and Nature's Path sugarless cereals.

I somehow missed posting about the awesome wizard rock concert on the 12th (!!!) - the Remus Lupins at Just Imagine, a costume shop not too far from where I live and cook, myself. There were a couple of other vegans there and I was one of two
girls who baked vegan cookies for the band - how cool is that?

I made them La Dolce Vegan's Rachel's Chocolate Chip Cookies with whole wheat flour because I thought they needed some extra health for the tour.

They also got some of La Dolce Vegan's Daniyell's Peanut Butter Cookies.

I had a half of each of these cookies - yum.

Wizard rockers often spend ridiculous amounts of energy each concert - all night driving, signing t-shirts and whatnot after the show, going out to Irish pubs after the show with fans (which was super fun, I might add.)

Chili and Cornbread

2008-06-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

This morning I was craving matcha. I serve organic, Fair Trade coffee and tea all day to caffeine-crazy customers but the only thing that is ever really that enticing is a matcha latte... which never quite works at home with unsweetened Ryza milk on the stove, but one can always hope and try, can't they?

Tonight for dinner I cooked up Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Sweet Potato Lentil Chili, which was really filling with black beans and red lentils. I really love Dreena's recipes - I need to make more of them this summer... lately I've been reaching for Sarah Kramer's books because they seem so jam-packed with fast recipes, but I really should be giving Mrs. Burton some kitchen-space.

La Dolce Vegan Wolffie's "Buttermilk" Cornbread was super tasty, using spelt flour and rice milk.

We also had some small salads with Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's "Honey" Mustard Vinaigrette which is super creamy and sweet - why do people buy salad dressings in bottles?

A well-rounded meal, if I do say so myself.

It's wonderful to have so much time to cook! Summer sure beats school right now.

Potluck Plethora

2008-06-22T23:11:00.001-07:00

I attended/organized yet another youth potluck yesterday - this time I doubled How It All Vegan!'s Cousin Natasha's Rice and Bean Salad, with brown rice and WAY too much red onion. This made a crazy huge amount which meant that my family had ample leftovers - unheard of for a potluck, you ask? It was a small one and this was a massive dish.

I also made La Dolce Vegan Auntie Bonnie's Chickpea Salad which is superbly simple. You can never have too many beans, evidently.

I also made How It All Vegan!'s Chocolate Chip Bars, which had a truly generous amount of white flour, sugar, chocolate chips and oil. These are actually like thick, square cookies

This is a massive recipe - the potluck-ers couldn't even finish them!

La Dolce Vegan Mint Chocolate Fudge was the best thing I made for sure - super good, much better than the peanut butter fudge I tried to make from this same book last month.

This fudge is truly deadly. A warning to you if you make it - be sure to have someone to give it to or you'll be sorry when you've eaten the whole recipe. Thank goodness for potlucks. And awesome vegan fudge.

Brilliant Baked Beans

2008-06-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time I made my own cows' milk subsitute - How It All Vegan!'s Easy Breezy Rice Milk. I normally just have unsweetened Ryza (unless almond or hemp milk is on sale) but I'm not particularly fond of it. This homemade rice milk was rather thick - almost reminded me of the brown rice amasake they sell in bottles at natural food stores.

Dinner tonight was How It All Vegan's Jana's Honey Lemon Carrots, with said recipe book's Brilliant Baked Beans which my dad was happy to help me eat. We made it a complete protein with La Dolce Vegan's Cumin-Spiced Brown Rice which was reallly nice.

Cranberry Apple Crisp La Dolce Vegan - I added much-needed more apples. Fresh/frozen cranberries are great in a crisp.

Last week was Father's Day so my mom made La Dolce Vegan's Tara's Chocolate cake in an eight-inch pan, while I was at work. She iced it with La Dolce Vegan's Rene's Vanilla Frosting, which wasn't unlike any other vegan or non-vegan butter-y frosting, so it was perfectly acceptable by my dear dad.

My sister creatively contributed an iced safety vest on the top, the one he wears when he goes motorbike riding in the evening. Normally his Father's Day cakes feature a motorbike - this time it involved the accessories.

And yes - my dad does actually wear that reflective vest when out on late night marathon rides. They all have them, and apparently it's quite something to see.

Mexican Meanders

2008-06-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

Kramer Kraze

2008-06-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner came once again from Sarah Kramer, which are definitely my fall-back books right now as I recover from wisdom teeth and am trying to avoid complicated recipes with much reading.

We had The Garden of Vegan's New Potatoes with Fresh Rosemary and Thyme – but of course not with actually fresh spices, but no matter anyways because they stuck to the pan despite my father's careful attention. I think I’ll just cook new potatoes the normal boiling way next time - much less trouble. We also had The Garden of Vegan Black Bean Spread, which was way too spicey and a little too raw red onion-y. I suppose you actually can go wrong with bean dip - sigh. My mom also made a green apple and red cabbage salad from an old Alive magazine - we've been "collecting" Alives for a few years now and she's finally decided to read through and recycle them, which is commendable.

The Garden of Eden's Nummy Yummy Waffles turned out alright, even though I used spelt flour and rice milk. I would double this recipe for sure as it's pretty tiny but thankfully simple. They were also a little thin but worked out alright for a simply plain waffle on our new never-burn automatic waffle-iron machine. Exciting prospects are opening as we speak.

I made also made La Dolce Vegan's Coconut Curry Red Lentil Soup from La Dolce Vegan in a slightly sad attempt to replicate soup given to me. Not so sure if the call for cilantro helped or not.

Here's The Garden of Vegan's Fried Pineapple Rice, which we could have used more of! Super good.

I also made How It All Vegan!'s Creamy Banana Pudding, which I used the optional dates in, was alright - my parents liked it at least.

S'alright.

Brainy Bread

2008-06-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yay - I'm doing really well now after my wisdom teeth removal - today I even managed to have a bowl of matcha granola! This was not my brilliant idea - but it's life-changing anyways. (Is that almond milk GREEN?!)

La Dolce Vegan’s Tasty Tempeh Chili – my dad loved the spiciness despite some initial mumbling about the visible tempeh chunks beforehand and lack of ground beef. I'm actually quite thrilled that he really liked my first chili. Sarah Kramer is great but she uses way too much chilli powder – we didn’t even put nearly as much as she did… perhaps the spice we have is killer or something, or maybe we are just really weak.

I also made La Dolce Vegan's Brown Rice Flour Dinner Rolls, using non-seedy cumin. These were perfect for a little gluten-free vegan dinner muffin.

We also had La Dolce Vegan's Mom's Chocolate Pudding, which was eaten after dinner of course.

I've been on a bit of a Sarah Kramer's three books craze, which I interrupted this morning to make ExtraVeganZa's wheat-free wonderfulness called April's 'Bread Wot is Amazing', and amazing it is! The only ingredients which make up this heavy and hearty little loaf are spelt flour, cornmeal, brown rice, two tablespoons of oil, sea salt and water. I will definitely make this again - hardly any kneading neccessary and such perfect results.

This is one smart bread. It even looked like a grade ten biology brain science project I once had to make. (Actually, mine was a coloured cauliflower, but I wish I could have handed this in instead.)

Here's the day before yesterday's meal - one of two almost identical days - yay for lots of brown rice and carrots!

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan White Bean Spread was super good on a slice of the amazing bread.

I have been eating a rather lot of cooked carrots because big bags of organic carrots are actually quite affordable at Whole Foods/Capers, a twelve minute walk from my apartment.

I also made Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Warm and Cheesy White Bean Dip, which was another really nice use of cannellini beans and cashews, which with a little nutritional yeast becomes a great topping for steamed broccoli.

Repetition isn't the worst thing, you know.

Lovely Liquids

2008-06-04T20:08:00.001-07:00

I'm still recovering from the wisdom teeth removal so here's some more liquid-like food I've been consuming lately.

La Dolce Vegan's Banana Date Smoothie, creamy with cashews, frozen bananas and a little soft tofu.

I made How It All Vegan!'s Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup with beige lentils and macaroni, which is actually rather like what I recall canned Campbell's Soup and the like to be. Not bad at all.

La Dolce Vegan's Banana Coconut Pudding is kind of stringy and not so sweet as puddings go... wouldn't make it again.

La Dolce Vegan Quick "Anything Goes" Ice Cream, creamy and cool with banana and blueberries. Good for sore teeth, hmm? Let's not talk about blueberry seeds.

I'm branching out a bit and made How It All Vegan!'s Racy Raisin Rice Pudding which was good. I'm proud to say that I braved the almonds despite the missing teeth, which are incidentally in my desk drawer. I don't have the courage to look at them - they sound really big when rattled.

I made and really enjoyed La Dolce Vegan’s Vanessa’s Lentil-Quinoa Stew, which was contributed by a friend of mine from White Rock!

I think Vanessa should make up some more recipes - yum.

Smoothies and Soup

2008-06-04T12:47:00.001-07:00

My four wisdom teeth came out two days ago - this is the first time I've been put under and the first time I've had to survive off of smoothies, soup and porridge.

How It All Vegan!'s Tangy Citrus Shake, using soft tofu, is a good orange and banana combo for a smoothie.

La Dolce Vegan Quick Breakfast Quinoa with almond milk and blackberries was so yummy and happy protein-y.

The Garden of Vegan's Apples and Oat Cereal makes SOO much even though I halved the apparently two-serving recipe. Either Sarah Kramer eats a massive breakfast or her husband does, because her breakfast grain recipes are highly filling.

La Dolce Vegan's Quick Ginger Carrot Soup makes a nice, light lunch.

Even better was the soup my boyfriend dropped off for me - the best curried yam soup I'll probably ever eat! I really need this recipe (which apparently was made up on the spot, which I am highly suspicious of.)

I'm trying to eat really soft stuff - it's really not so bad at all, to be honest. Particularly when people bring you amazing soup. I froze some - I'm going to conduct a lab test to find out the precise recipe - if I don't thaw and eat it first.

Sugar Surplus

2008-06-01T19:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's potluck was really casual and enjoyable - our monthly Earthsave youth group's vegan potluck got a good turnout with lots of good company and good food - lots of hummus, which rocks of course. In anticipation of this usual phenomenon occurring, I made a few desserts to balance it out.

La Dolce Vegan has a ridiculous amount of desserts in it - often with a ridiculous amount of sugar, such as in Jae's Peanut Butter Fudge. I used organic smooth peanut butter and almond milk as well, and it ended up being a little too grainy anyways, but in a sugar granule grainy sort of way.

I wouldn't make this again - I could hardly even eat it due to the excessive amount of sugar! The potluckers enjoyed it, however. I hope they brushed their teeth shortly after.

I snuck whole wheat flour into La Dolce Vegan's Stephanie's White Diamond Cookies and they were ultra amazing for vegan white chocolate cookies.

I also made Wolffie's Peanut Butter Cookies which I wasn't too fond of - I need to find a healthy-ish peanut butter cookie recipe I feel comfortable consuming!

Some wonderful potluck-ers contributed Whole Foods/Capers Cake, which is unfortunately not served at the location I frequent, however.

It was gorgeous as vegan cakes go - very impressive. Look at all that fruit! I really do like potlucks. But perhaps not so much sugar.

Back and Baking

2008-05-30T18:53:00.001-07:00

I'm back from Mexico, which was brilliant. I'll dedicate a post to the sometimes good/sometimes terrible/sometimes too repetitive to mention availability of vegan food in Mexico, but for now here's the first thing I made when I got back. I've been wanting to bake something healthy but was mildly disappointed.

La Dolce Vegan's Brown Rice Flour Banana Bread hardly rose but was really good for a rice bread - seems sort of similar to the Banana Rice Muffins at Capers. Perhaps this recipe needs to be doubled, because it only uses one cup of brown rice flour which seems odd for a loaf, unless it was intended to be an inch high.

I'm feeling pretty thrilled after my trip but I came home to only three family members rather than the usual four as my eleven-year-old golden labrador Chester passed away during my three weeks away, which really dampened my return. He was the most wonderful, loving, loved and lovable dog ever and my sister and I's first pet, our childhood playmate. It is incredibly difficult to know that I'll never get another Chester-hug again.

The pain of losing an animal makes me realize how important it is to appreciate life, all life, and continue with the animal rights movement because it is essential that we appreciate the gift that animals are.

Pudding Pie

2008-05-03T22:26:00.001-07:00

Dinner was acceptable enough - The Garden of Vegan's Melissa's Stuffed Mushrooms are great.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's Nutty Pasta Toss which was kind of horrible, to be honest.

As we're going to be away during Mother's Day I decided to make my mom a mega-chocolate something before I left, and whipped up The Garden of Vegan's Death by Chocolate Pie, which is pretty much amazing. However, I shouldn't have used the No-Bake Pie Crust because it kind of failed in comparison to the pie itself, which is kind of a like a thick chocolate pudding.

I made The Garden of Vegan's Maureen's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies using a banana as the egg replacer. These guys survived my usual whole wheat flour substitution quite well.

One more batch of cookies before a trip - why not?

I'm off to Mexico on Monday, to face three weeks of beans and rice. Woot!

Done, Dinner and Dessert

2008-04-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

First year university is done for me at last and I can begin the first four-month summer I've ever had, which I find terribly exciting. Dinner tonight was The Garden of Vegan's Artichoke and Black Bean Dip, using marinated artichoke hearts, which was really good. You can never go wrong with bean dips. It's like protein on a chip.

How It all Vegan!'s Sweet Polenta Pie was pretty good, but the cornmeal crust underneath didn't cook quite properly.

It sort of looks like a mish-mash of cooked vegetables on a plate but it was actually very casserole-like, if I remember what casseroles are meant to be like.

I attempted La Dolce Vegan's Stephanies' Asteriods with peanut butter for dessert, but they were actually really terrible - they tasted like raw oats with too much sugar. Ugh.

I attended yet another Earthsave vegan potluck and made La Dolce Vegan Wolffie's Chocolately Moist Brownies, which were actually not great brownies, probably because I used whole wheat flour instead of white which scares me sometimes.

Anyways - I'm going to be gone for a while as I'm off to MEXICO! I'm ridiculously excited. I just hope I'm going to be able to find something to eat - beans and rice, I've heard. Hmm...

Frantic Fries

2008-04-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

Sesame Baked Fries make a really easy dinner when you're crazy from essays and exams, thanks to How It All Vegan! for the quick recipe. This picture isn't as blurry as me consuming it before running off to write and read and study, woot.

Gillian's Lentil Dip is really simple to make and a great way to eat some lovely red lentils.

My mom was kind enough to make Vegan with a Vengeance's Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding because I am going to Mexico soon! It's going to be the first time I've left Canada/USA so I'm pretty excited. I was pretty excited to eat this pudding, too, I have to admit.

Now back to studying!

Cookie-Crust Cheesecake

2008-04-17T20:53:00.001-07:00

Smoothies start my day and today's was an actual recipe - the Strawberry Cream Pie Smoothie from The Garden of Vegan. Sarah Kramer doesn't mention to freeze the banana but of course that's a necessity and of course it was good.

Pumpkin Tofu Cheesecake is indeed magnificent - I made the gingerbread crust with Vegan with a Vengeance's Ginger Sparkle Cookies. I didn't pay enough attention to it when it was out of the oven to coat the top with maple syrup so it cracked but I didn't mind so much because it tasted really good - the first vegan cheesecake I've made!

Dinner tonight was La Dolce Vegan's Emira's Speedy Gourmet Kale and Tofu Delight which was pretty good for what it was - something anybody could throw together without a recipe. I'm too cheap for pine nuts (at least, too cheap for something like this!) so I skimped with some standby chopped walnuts.

When I was little, many, many a year before veganism gripped my heart and refused to let go, I was a white chocolate fangirl. In elementary school, I recall excitement building up to Easter because white chocolate would become suddenly and wonderously widely available. So, when the Vancouver Vegetarian Association on Commercial Drive closed and held a sale, a friend helped me secure a couple of bags of vegan white chocolate chips, which are pretty much the real thing but dairy-free.

I'm pretty thrilled with them but entirely over any white chocolate obsession (I hear it's not even considered to be real chocolate? Shocking.) I made La Dolce Vegan's White Chocolate Almond Bark, which would probably be really pretty with craisins instead of raisins but fantastic nonetheless, not to mention ridiculously easy.

Breakfast is Best

2008-04-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day - I believe it. Breakfast is definitely my favourite meal of the day - the second I wake up I've got my customary smoothie recipe on the brain. Smoothies are fantastic, but it's too bad when classes start for you at eight so you can't switch it up a bit and make waffles or something - but that's when it's time to stop at the wonderful vegan-friendly cafe on West Broadway, called The Land of Green Ginger, on the way to school for a (day old if possible!) Chai Spice muffin - beautiful.

On weekends I try and make something kind of exciting for brunch, and here's Baked Aporridgy from La Dolce Vegan.

It's bascially oats you have to wait a long time to eat, with spices and walnuts and raisins - sort of tastes like molasses, though. I dunno - I liked it.

The Garden of Vegan's Breakfast Barley with apple juice, apricots and walnuts makes a huge serving even though I halved it. It was pretty good but I definitely prefer barley in soup than for breakfast.

La Dolce Vegan's Breakfast Cous-Cous is pretty easy and tastes alright - the banana sort of melted into it.

La Dolce Vegan's Monday Morning Muesli isn't the best, but I shouldn't complain because I should just admit that I anticipated it being so.

Granola is generally good no matter what (unless you burn it...) so I'm pretty happy with How It All Vegan!'s Rise 'n' Shine Granola and will try not to attempt to survive off of it for the next couple of days.

I further stocked up on some breakfast baking by making Banana Bread from How It All Vegan!, which has a bit too much oil for my liking, but the chopped dates were kind of healthy and happy in it.

I kind of want a smoothie anyways.

Beans and Bananas

2008-04-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

How It All Vegan!'s Larry's Re-Fried Beans on rice equals easy complete protein dinner when there's not enough time for studying let alone cooking, sigh.

I chopped up some bananas and made The Garden of Vegan's Banana Chips in the oven. They were rather good but didn't get hard like the ones you can buy in bulk or find swimming around the bottom of trail mixes.

These guys get stuck in your teeth - it's a warning.

Algae and Apples

2008-04-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

I made How It All Vegan's Gross spirulina apple juice which was definitely not photo-worthy, nor unfortunately taste-bud-worthy. But that's not actually what this post is about. Dinner was a much better than that failed attempt at breakfast, as we had soup and freshly baked bread, which unlike algae and apple juice, is a winning combination.

The Garden of Vegan's Oat Bread is super easy and was really tasty with whole wheat flour. I get really happy when Sarah Kramer's baking works out well, in case you haven't noticed yet.

We made Vegan with a Vengeance's Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with it, which was really good - super thick.

Tasted better than the photo. Believe it.

Voracious Veganism

2008-03-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

Dinner included How It All Vegan!'s Voracious Vegan Pate, which was surprisingly super! It whips together sunflower seeds, mushrooms, nutritional yeast and all sorts of spices and onions to create a fantastic dip/spread/pate/sandwich filling that honestly impressed my non-veg family.

How It All Vegan!'s Flax Seed Crackers tasted a little too much like dog biscuits, maybe because I used whole wheat flour? Sarah doesn’t mention to grind the flax seeds but I find that to be a necessity so I did. I wouldn't make these again.

The pate, however, is a definite save-this-recipe type. From the recipes I've made so far (about fifty) from this book, I would have to rate this as at least top three.

How It All Vegan!'s Simply Lovely Carrot Soup is simple and lovely so I quite liked it.

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan's Popcorn Fries are ridiculously easy to make and reminiscent of fast food fries. Dreena uses coconut oil to achieve such a lofty goal.

How It All Vegan!’s Angelic Apple Crisp is really awesome, using apple juice and maple syrup in the filling. I used walnuts for the nuts - yummy.

I would definitely make this again, should an amazing apple crisp ever become a necessity.

Two fantastic recipes from How It All Vegan! - how could I ever complain about that book?

Free Food

2008-03-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World's Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes are amazing!

They are so much easier to make (and transport!) than other cupcakes because their topping is simply and ingeniously cocoa, icing sugar and cinnamon.

They look pretty cute, too.

I made them for this month's all-ages Earthsave Canada potluck, which was yesterday so it fell on the Earth Hour date which meant we powered out for the hour by turning all the lights off, but there was a speaker with a powerpoint anyways so we didn't use the lights.

The potluck had a really good turnout and thus lot of food, which meant I managed to tupperware myself some lunch for school.

Speaking of tupperwared lunches, the awesome co-op at UBC called Sprouts has a free vegan lunch once a month to all who bring their own container. The co-op is a great place to volunteer, to get organic, Fair Trade coffee for cheap and find vegan brownies.

They gave out generous portions of quinoa salad and potato salad, both of which were chock-full of organic vegetables from the UBC farm and lots of flavour.

It's so nice that UBC has such a love for veganism. At least, that Sprouts does.

Garden of Generosity

2008-03-27T19:51:00.001-07:00

The Garden of Vegan has provided many a recipe for my family these past two nights. For tonight's dinner, we made Sarah Kramer's Stuffed Mushrooms were really good - just lots of zuchini, carrots and spices mixed and stuffed into some fungus.

The Garden of Vegan also helped us out with Delightful Rice Salad with Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, which should've involved more rice for bigger servings as it was really good but too dressing-y for its own good.

We also had The Garden of Vegan's Garlic Asparagus which was, well, asparagus and garlic so rather asparagus-y and garlic-y.

Last night was a sort of American-y dinner, you could say. I used whole wheat flour in the Biscuits dough to make NOT Pigs in a Blanket, which were unlike anything I normally make, but of course it is important to try many things at least once, whether one finds tofu dogs revolting or not.

We also had The Garden of Vegan's Caramelized Onion and Fennel Mashed Potatoes, which were good but not worth making again, even with the okay Simple Shallot Gravy on top.

Yay for healthful vegan mock foods.

Mismatched Morsels

2008-03-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a few of the things I made over the last while:

I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Balsamic-Glazed Portobello Mushrooms with a beautiful big portobello mushroom I got for free (yay!) This recipe is sooo good - I would love to start growing portobello mushrooms on my patio or something because they are incredibly tasty, but unfortunately expensive.

Vegan with a Vengeance's Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is also really great. It is super thick and filling - very autumn-y.

The Garden of Vegan Baby Carrots in Dill-Chive Sauce are super good! I don't bother to buy an entire bunch of fresh dill for something like this so of course I used dried spices and they were enjoyably eaten up by my family.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's Chickpea Toss which was somewhat good on rice as a complete protein combo.

One of the proper meals I've had lately - school is eating up all my time!

The Garden of Vegan's Kathleen's Chocolate Cookies have plenty of Earthbalance margarine in them but are rather good.

I brought them to school so I could share them with my Philosophy studygroup instead of eating them all myself - they went quickly.

I also made the Garden of Vegan's the "hippie food," Quick Muesli, but wasn't particularly impressed.

Perhaps muesli isn't meant to be impressive?

Monday Madness

2008-03-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

This Easter Monday morning began with a Get Your Motor Running Smoothie from The Garden of Vegan so I could begin a day of baking. I haven't actually ever had a cup of coffee and my caffeine intake is generally restricted to chocolate but I managed to survive the coffee beans and cocoa mix this one deals out! Yummy.

I started out with the Garden of Vegan's Raspberry Fig Breakfast Bars are super fantastic!

I love figs and these are simply perfect. It's nice to make oat bars without Earthbalance for a change.

It's kind of hard not to eat the entire pan, I have to admit.

I also made a batch of the Garden of Vegan's Brownie Cookies to take to school tomorrow to share.

I can't actually tell if they are cooked or not but they sure look nice in their super portable containers.

I also made the Garden of Vegan's Delightful Banana Nut Muffins which are really good if you like banana muffins.

Walnuts look pretty on top even if my photos aren't particularly beautiful. Heck - they're just muffins, after all. But really tasty muffins nonetheless.

A morning full of intensive baking has been a wonderful way to celebrate the start of the fifty days of Easter! Baking a bunch at once is definitely the best and practically erases Lent. Happy Easter!

Easter Excitement!

2008-03-23T22:31:00.001-07:00

Happy 100th post for Vegan Vancouverite and more importantly, Happy Easter! The rest of Lent passed uneventfully with mostly repeat meals - warm but nothing too exciting. This morning at midnight, however, everything changed because sweets were back on the menu. My best buddy and I do this every year and it's probably really unhealthy not to eat sugar for forty days and then have a free for all. At least I don't freeze stuff like slices of cake in my freezer and defrost for today like SOME people do... However, I did get up at midnight, snuck into my fridge (unfortunately startling my mother who was sleeping but forgiving in the next room) and got this. It was the most fantastic (and rather massive) chocolate heart I had bought last week at Sweet Cherubim when the Earthsave 25 and Under Group headed over to Commercial Drive for the first youth dine-out (filling up the place with about twenty people!)

And at last, cupcakes! I had to work this Easter morning so the whole decorating with mint icing and Quick Melty Ganache on top of the Your Basic Chocolate Cupcakes to make Chocolate Mint Cupcakes didn't go as beautifully as it could have in a rush upon returning home. Neverthelesss - they tasted fantastic!!!

My family approved so much that they attempted to decorate them with those sadly non-vegan miniature eggs which I will not name here.

My parents have hidden eggs for my younger sister and I since we were little, yet the Easter egg hunt seems to be getting smaller and smaller each year. This time around all I had to look for was this egg, but what an egg it was!

I might as well admit on my hundredth post that I am an incurably obsessive Harry Potter fan. Perhaps that is why I found this Golden Egg so captivating...

Or perhaps it was so awesome because it was made out of organic vegan dark chocolate. This one will last me a few days for sure - wow.

I found this tiny chocolate bar in my bedside table drawer - so cute. I love Cocoa Camino.

Actually, I pretty much love vegan chocolate in general. Happy Easter! It's been worth waiting for.

Raw Relapse

2008-03-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

I realize that Lent is not quite over yet but I have decided to stop being raw. I feel a little bad about breaking my Lent promise but I do feel proud of myself that I've managed to be raw for almost a month! I've been a tad frozen lately, not to mention probably terribly irritable. My non-veg family has been relying on lots of old meat staples now that I haven't been choosing recipes and cooking for/with them, which is kind of defeating the purpose of me being vegan in the first place. It kind of sucks knowing that the reason they're eating animals again is because I'm eating a plate of lettuce and not contributing much. Being raw is definitely challenging and while I respect raw foodists/ism I simply don't have the time to whip up platefuls of raw delights what with term papers coming up and late winter organic produce being rather expensive. I'd be up for trying to be raw for a while again, perhaps in the summer or with someone else next Lent, which seems to be ending early for me this year. However, I'll continue to avoid sweets until Easter (sigh - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is calling my name!)

My mother and I made a lovely batch of Vegan with a Vengeance's Corn Chowder, which was super warm and wonderful! Hot soup is fantastic - this one is so fresh I could probably eat the pot.

I also made the best applesauce ever, also from Vegan with a Vengeance. You have to roast the apples in the oven before blending them.

Roasted Applesauce is also very warm and wonderful.

Hot food is happy food.

Odd Oats

2008-03-04T18:25:00.001-08:00

I'm discovering that being raw is really challenging when you live with three carnivores. I keep discovering all sorts of interesting raw recipes, in Ani's Raw Food Kitchen and on goneraw.com, but don't seem to end up making much.

While this slightly green oatmeal loosely based off of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen recipes looks kind of revolting, it actually wasn't that bad of a way to get some hemp and grains into me, and actually tasted much better than it looks. How inventive. (Or repulsive?)

At Capers (now supposed to be called Capers Whole Foods Market) we have a Carob Mint Spirulina Smoothie which I attempted to re-create in my own kitchen with frozen bananas, raw nut milk, spirulina and raw carob powder. Success.

Here is a rather terrible picture of salad. My camera isn't too happy lately and I think that not eating cooked food has made me grumpy or something because I haven't got so much patience to wait for anything, let alone an acceptable photo.

Craving Cupcakes

2008-03-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

Lent is half over. Oh dear me. I may just be craving some tempeh. I accidentally purchased a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World at Book Warehouse last week as I was checking the one on Broadway for a raw cookbook. Unable to find one, I happened to come across the last copy of VCTOTW at much cheaper than I've seen it elsewhere and bought it immediately, at last. The photos are beautiful, of course, and way too tempting for a lowly raw foodist. Oh Easter, will you ever arrive?

Instead of making and consuming gorgeous cupcakes, I whipped up raw Almond Cinnamon Oatmeal from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, except I added a big, juicy Fiji apple which was fantastic. It was much more filling than just about anything else I've eaten lately.

Dinner was a kale wrap with Not Tuna Pate from an untraceable recipe a friend sent me. It was pretty good - the celery made it almost tuna-y. I made the Thai Dipping Sauce from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, too, which was great even though I used peanut butter and no lime leaves.

Good. But I want cupcakes.

Spectacular Show

2008-03-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

This morning my best friend and I headed over to the Green Living Show at BC Place, downtown Vancouver. It was an incredible convention - probably the most complete array of green things with which to live. There was sustainable home improvements like non-toxic paint, government representation like the parks board booth and lots of samples like Fair-Trade coffee.

I got a beautiful and super comfortable organic cotton green hoodie from the Me to We booth, which has tons of awesome t-shirts and whatnot made out of organic cotton or bamboo, with half of the profits going to Free the Children. Fantastic!

http://www.metowestyle.com/

This huge tree-mover was also there, looking super impressive. It hugs trees and takes them to new homes. Mildly terrifying to stand underneath.

Wal-Mart was also there. Wal-Mart?! Apparently they are going eco-friendly. How nice. We'll see if that extends to their manufacturers, too. On top of the environment, what about their employee treatment? The woman representing them quickly told us that she didn't actually work for Walmart herself before launching into a discussion on some solar panels certain mega-stores have installed to offset their massively disasterous behaviour. Clearly she has yet to deal with Lord Waldemart herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0WqYWdH74

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuEAJFnMIjk

Other than the eyebrow raising over Wal-Mart, everything was awesome - except for the food court. They were selling white pizzas and ham sandwiches and whatnot - nothing exciting and organic or whatnot. We asked the cafe part if they had any vegan muffins just to be bothersome and the guy yelled "Vegan?!" back at us with such force it was almost frightening. Ah well - you can't win them all.

We decided to skip the food court and bought some almost-raw Fair-Trade dried fruit instead, which is awesome.

I also bought a bunch of hemp stuff to try and get me through this raw thing. Yay for hemp seeds, powder, butter and oil!

I'm so glad we didn't skip this show - so many of these sorts of conventions seem to be the same but this was one I will definitely not miss next year! Now, go live greenly.

Raw Ragout

2008-02-29T18:13:00.001-08:00

This week is at last over, along with those pesky midterm exams! Hopefully this weekend I can either get a lot of essay work done, or make some really good raw food. Hopefully I can accomplish both?

Encouraged by the sucess of yesterday's breakfast, today I made the raw Banana Raisin Oatmeal Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. It was really yummy as well and I think I'll add some chopped up walnuts to the food processor part next time to give it some crunch.

For dinner tonight I whipped up Ani's Raw Food Kitchen's recipe for Polenta with Mushroom Ragout, which was really tasty! I was out of cashews so I substituted walnuts which were fine. This included a really yummy Mushroom Gravy recipe which I would make again with, say, mashed cauliflower.

I usually halve Ani's recipes (which generally make four portions) as I'm usually the only one eating them and don't mind having the same thing twice in two nights, but consider four to be pushing it. This was a quarter of the original recipe and I figure that Ani must have a salad or something with hers, because this was a not a massive meal. I ate a bunch of snap peas with it, but while they were good, they definitely weren't photo-worthy!

Grain Greatness

2008-02-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

Alright, so raw fruits, nuts and vegetables are great, but lately I've been craving some grains. For breakfast I made Ani's Raw Food Kitchen's Almond Cinnamon Oatmeal which was really great with some agave on top. Soaking the oats overnight gives them that cooked sort of texture and blended in the food processer with some cinnamon makes a great breakfast, especially when sweetened with a little agave.

Ani's Mango Lassi was also very yummy but the dates wouldn't cooperate with my blender so they were clearly visible. I've developed a date addiction, though, so I didn't mind so much.

Smoothies generally rock and this one was no exception! I can almost see why some people are fruitarians.

Dearest Dates

2008-02-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight for dinner I made collard wraps with sliced cucumber, green peppers and grated carrot. They were really crunchy and collard greens are perfect for wrapping.

I dipped them in a version of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen's Thai Sauce. I used peanut butter, which may not be technically raw, rather than almond butter, as this raw Lent I'm doing is not a purity thing. Besides, almond butter is simply (and sadly) ridiculously expensive.

Dates are amazing, as any raw foodist would probably let you know. I made Ani's Florida Orange-Spice Bars today, the crust and topping of which I regretably totally overprocessed. The bars were very sweet nonetheless, and my dad, who loves date squares (he still calls them matrimonial bars) even gave them the thumbs up.

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen is a good book, don't get me wrong, but as it is the only book I've been "cooking" from lately, I'm getting a little tired of seeing Ani's constant photographs of herself rather than the food. I really miss my old cookbooks. Lent must be nearly over, no?

Beyond Breakfast

2008-02-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Reading Break is now over, and to celebrate going back to school, I made this wonderful smoothie for breakfast, which ended up being as tasty as pudding if not better. In reality, I made this after my first class, Spanish, as I inhaled a kiwi before catching the bus this morning after getting up an hour late because I keep on turning my alarm clock off during the middle of the night. I really need to start hiding that thing. Back to the food - this smoothie rocks! I've made it a couple of times lately but find it really perks up with a tablespoon of peanut butter! Raw carob powder + frozen bananas + raw pumpkin seed milk + peanut butter + flax seed oil + raw cacao nibs = the best breakfast ever.

Dinner wasn't nearly as exciting as breakfast, as I simply finished the Brazil-Broccoli Mash and Miso gravy and made a slaw-like salad with grated carrots, beets, kale and Ani's Raw Kitchen's Mustard Salad Dressing. It was alright. I miss breakfast.

I'm still holding out on this raw food Lent thing. I think the fact that Lent is nearly half over is giving me some encouragement.

Brazilian Broccoli

2008-02-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

I love smoothies and have one every single day if I can. Usually this means that I consume one to two bananas every day and sometimes would like to have a banana-less smoothie. Ani's Raw Food Kitchen has such as smoothe: Carob Strawberry Bliss.

This smoothie was alright, but not as carob-y as the title suggests, and I think that there was something missing, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps my strawberries weren't sweet or ripe enough to do this smoothie justice? The colour rocked, nonetheless, despite the terrible lighting in my apartment.

For dinner tonight I made the Brazil-Broccoli Mash from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen with her super yummy Miso Gravy. The mash was great, but not quite as good as the Cauliflower Miso Mash.

The gravy, however, is fantastic, and the orange is definitely not detectable. Brazil nuts are great snacks to munch on, too.

Best Brownies

2008-02-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

For dinner, I threw together some collard wraps with things from the vegetable crisper in my kitchen. I wonder if lifelong raw foodists get really frustrated with their disporportionate fruit and vegetable crisper drawers. I know that I'm getting tired of trying to shove all that produce in there.

I also made a salad with one of Ani's dressings, which I think was called a Kreamy Dressing or something. It uses an apple and curry powder to become very tasty and just spicey enough.

I put some raw hummus in these wraps, which I made from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. This didn't taste so great, sort of watery but maybe my zucchini weren't the most flavourful... I didn't bother to even attempt to get an acceptable photo as I was getting a little down about this raw food thing.

Desiring to get less glum about raw food, I decided to make Ani's Carob Crunch Torte again and this time I pressed it into a pan to make the best brownies ever! Those buckwheat crispies make them cute, if you ask me. I would have renamed this recipe as a brownie rather than a torte.

I could honestly eat the whole pan of these. Carob, chocolate? What's the difference again? (I can't believe I'm saying that.) Yay raw food!

Lovely Leigh-Anne

2008-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

My wonderful friend Leigh-Anne has a passion for vegan cooking and baking and she had an intense bowl game tournament at her house today over a generous lunch consisting of Veganomicon goodies! I didn't want to be rude about being raw for Lent and appear incredibly picky because the lunch was vegan, so I enjoyed her sandwiches and enchiladas!

The Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta Sandwiches were rather gourmet indeed. (No fingers were lost in the process, despite whatever this photo make look like.)

Terra Breads makes the best breads and were most worthy of these sandwiches.

I somewhat helped her make Veganomicon's Potato Kale Enchiladas With Roasted Chili Sauce which were super good, of course.

Such a good lunch! (Excuse me while I go eat some plain fruit and vegetables, sigh.)

www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=2062

Numerous Nuts

2008-02-18T19:18:00.001-08:00

I've been eating a lot more nuts than ever before because of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I guess raw people have to get their protein somewhere... For breakfast I made Ani's Beautifying Pumpkin Mylk and created a smoothie with a frozen banana and some carob. Yum!

Tonight I made her raw Taco Nut Meat which turned out really tasty; I like how she throws cumin and coriander in and makes chopped up nuts taste like much more than what they are.

I didn't have any collard greens for a wrap so I improvised with a kale leaf to make a sort of wrap for the taco "meat" with guacamole and more shredded carrots and beets.

My friend is lucky enough to have a dehydrator and she gave me some Buckwheat Crispies from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, which are pretty much puffed buckwheat and are nice and crunchy, like cereal.

I made Ani's Carob Crunch Torte, which ended up being balls and a bar. I substituted walnuts for the almonds because I am getting cheap and they are sooo good! These are mostly dates and nuts and it would be very easy to eat the whole batch at once. Hmm, for some reason there is no photo evidence of it.

Peculiar Pancakes

2008-02-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

I should probably be studying for my History midterm. Nevertheless, here is a photo of the Pear Frosty from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen which was a really fresh breakfast.

Here is Ani Phyo's raw pancakes, called Coconut Breakfast Cakes. This is bascially pure ground flax seeds with some maple syrup and coconut oil. I was really apprehensive about these but curious enough so I halved the recipe and ended up with six. They were really dense and somewhat sweet. I also halved the recipe for Orange (Vanilla) Syrup which ended up really thick but yummy.

I also threw some carrots and apples through my food processor's grater and mixed it with a little maple syrup and some soaked raisins and walnuts to make it a somewhat sweet salad to pair with the "pancakes."

Half the recipe made me six. These are really good but after I manage to eat six over the next few days I don't know if I'll be wanting to make them again any time soon!

Tonight I made the best square I've had in a while - Ani's Lemon Coconut Bars which absolutely rock! They're basically almonds and coconut with some lemon and a little sea salt. They are phenomenal!

On Sunday we held a youth potluck for Earthsave and I made Ani's Confetti Salad in Orange-Cucumber Dressing which was a lot better than this hurried photo I snapped looks! Dried cherries make this salad really great and the dressing was really fresh.

Ani is Awesome

2008-02-08T18:48:00.001-08:00

For breakfast today I had Ani's Chocolate Mylk with cacao nibs in a banana smoothie which was really yummy. I also threw some apricots in my food processor with some coconut and sunflower seeds to make flattened balls which could pass as cookies. Cookies and mylk-shake for breakfast! This raw thing isn't so bad after all.

For lunch I made the Cabbage Kale Slaw in Simple Greek Dressing, which was surprisingly fantastic.

Dinner was a repeat with the addition of some bought bean sprouts and Ani's Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice" which uses a food processed butternut squash and cumin and coriander to become delicious. My family even really liked this! I don't think I'm going to want to give this uncookbook back.

On the other hand, I also made the Sunny Dill Cheeze as well for a dip with the crackers from Gorilla Food but really didn't like this at all. Luckily my family ate it with no complaints so I tried to keep it quiet that I had wished I would have halved the recipe. The other cheezes look better, but I definitely won't be making this one again.

Something else I tried to enjoy was the Carob Pudding, the recipe of which I halved, thank goodness! I suppose the avocado wasn't so great or something because this was really, well, unpleasant. I tried my best to eat it but couldn't finish it. Ugh! The other puddings look great, but this was definitely not a make-again.

Gorilla Greatness

2008-02-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

Gorilla Food is AMAZING! Currently they are a bit of a hole in the wall at 422 Richards Street, downtown Vancouver, but are opening up a restaurant a couple of doors down very soon. This vegan, raw and organic take-out restaurant has made my second day of Lent incredibly easy. I went with my best vegan friend and a non-veg, although all three of us drooled over the menu for quite a while before ordering the freshest food I've had in a long time.

The raw Falafel was really yummy in a lettuce wrap. We just happened to have taken Veganomicon with us because I had taken it out of the Earthsave library and reading vegan cookbooks in the bus is obviously a cool thing to do.

We also shared the Thai Fresh Wraps which were super and the raisin chutney was incredible.

I took some Ital Herb & Tomato Flax Crax crackers home with me. They're really crunchy and tastier than I expected.

Dessert was an apple and banana cobbler with the fruit on top, tasting much better than the photo looks.

I also took a cookie home with me, and although it IS Lent it IS raw so I don't feel so bad. It was the biggest pecan I had ever seen and the best raw cookie I've ever had!

Being a hole in the wall, we took our food to the nearest park and ate under the shadow of a downtown cathedral. I started wondering if perhaps God really wanted us to be raw, before I realized the Garden of Eden must have been much warmer than our chilly fingers were today.

Go check it out!

www.gorillafood.com

Lengthy Lent

2008-02-06T18:18:00.001-08:00

Today is Ash Wednesday and being Catholic this means that Lent begins! I've given up junk food and chocolate and whatnot during past years but this year I have decided to go RAW for these forty days. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Today for breakfast I had Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Drink Your Greens Smoothie with mango and it was pretty good. The avocado seems sort of unneccessary but I suppose it made it kind of creamy. I've been trying to add more kale to my smoothies lately and this is a good recipe to adapt.

I'm borrowing Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo from my best friend. It's really great, as long as you have tons of raw nuts and extra virgin olive oil on hand. I am unable to find affordable vanilla sticks so I've been leaving them out and can simply imagine the vanilla flavour. I'm really impressed with the recipes in this book and although it can be rather repetitive, the additional information about sustainability are interesting. For dinner tonight I made the Cauliflower Miso Mash with Miso Gravy for dinner (apparently miso is considered raw, if you ask Ani?) This was actually very similar to mashed potatoes, in appearance and texture at least.

I really liked the mash, particularly the gravy. However, this is very heavy and could definitely use less olive oil - a lot less. Ani seems extremely generous with the extra virgin olive oil! I also made a salad by food processoring some beets with carrots.

That is a slice of Nature's Path Manna Bread, which is sprouted and raw enough for me right now.

Tons for Tuesday

2008-02-05T21:18:00.001-08:00

Today is not any old Tuesday - it's Fat Tuesday and I feel sick from eating too much junk food. Sure, it may be vegan junk food, but it's still junk food. And a lot of it. Anyways, tonight for dinner I made The Garden of Vegan's Rustic Quinoa and Yam Salad is supposed to be served cold but I think it was better warm.

I also made The Garden of Vegan's Matthew's Delicious Tofu but it wasn't as delicious as I had hoped and therefore a bit of a disappointment. At least that block of tofu isn't going to be staring at me everytime I open my fridge during Lent, in which I'm hoping to go raw.

There is this recipe that my mother has been wanting to make since before Christmas as it is technically a Christmas recipe but she got around to making it last week. It's really dense and yummy - here's the last quarter of it.

Allow me to post all the extra cooked food photos I have made in the last while but have become sidetracked by that all-too-distracting annoyance called homework to put up. Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Hemp-anola is very tasty and I really liked the barley flakes in it.

So yummy with cold rice milk! Oh, the joys of baking your own cereal.

I made the very cute Peanut Banana Tortilla Turnovers which were a really kiddish snack as wedges. I wasn't so fond of the Molassa-Sauce although perhaps with some agave it could be better.

The Chocolate Walnut Brownie Cookies from Simple Treats are the best!

Beef is Bad

2008-02-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

This photo has been sitting strangely on my blog for the past while because I was in a panic to get my Social Justice class presentation up and couldn't otherwise access the photo online due to a grumpy computer. I think I'll keep it up as a reminder of my commodity chain presentation on the impact of our food choices. My group picked a stir-fry and naturally I chose the meat product, researching beef while trying to weigh both the animal and environmental rights side with what the actual cattle industry says. It was an incredibly interesting project which became very overwhelming but I managed to read most of Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (I can really appreciate the alliteration in that title!) and skimmed Livestock's Long Shadow by the UN. I learned a lot and threw together this diagram of where the cow may travel, including where its food comes from. Our instructor expected us to create the meal for the class which put me into a bit of a spot until I grabbed some Green Cuisine Wheat Cutlets and cooked up some seitan instead. Everyone ate it without a problem and our stir-fry was super tasty!

So I had stir-fry for breakfast at school and for dinner my family ate Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Garlicky Broccoli, Corn and Bean Burritos which were tasty. That would be the bean sauce on the side. I also made an orange and spinach salad with ED&BV's Back-to-Basics Balsamic Vinaigrette which was lovely. Better than beef for sure!

Radha Rocks

2008-02-04T18:38:00.001-08:00

A few nights ago I went to Radha with two great vegan friends of mine, one of whom is a raw foodist and very happy to find organic, uncooked choices on their menu! I can't believe that this was the first time I had ever been - it is by far one of the nicest yoga studio/restaurants I have been to. Their menu changes every month and we went on January 31st, the first day of their new February menu and right in between our three birthdays. What a treat!

We shared the Nori Roll with a raw pate and avocado, probably the best sushi I've ever had. Not the kind of sushi you want to eat quickly, though - the kind that you need to savour.

The Stuffed Portobello was incredible with lots of tasty tempeh and some roasted potatoes. Unfortunately I felt bad flashing my camera in the tranquillity of the restaurant so the photos didn't turn out stellar.

For dessert our raw friend had the Raw "Cookies and Milk" while two of us chose to share the Vanilla-Almond "Panna Cotta" which was a really nice finish with strawberry sauce.

I should mention that we shared an amazing chocolate hemp smoothie, too, but no photo to prove our gluttony on that one. I would consider Radha to be a very gourmet restaurant to save for special treats - that place you want to impress somebody with organic and incredible dishes.

www.radhavancouver.org

Awesome Alfreda

2008-02-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

My mom made Vegan with a Vengeance's Carrot Bisque soup, bless her, which is really creamy with coconut milk. I need to make more soups! More soups and less hummus before I (gasp!) get sick of it.

For dinner we had Vegan with a Vengeance's Fettuccine Alfreda which rocked! I think you're supposed to mix it up with the noodles and I did but lost patience and instead snapped a shot so I could start eating. My family actually really liked this and I think it turned out great, even though I quartered the chile powder (I think this was a wise move as my spice must be way hotter than the one Isa uses.) This is a great way to get your nutritional yeast!

Okay, so perhaps hummus is still allowed, because I admit that I made Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus for more snacking on in between studying. It is sooo tasty! What a good combination. Olives are the best.

Now Nineteen

2008-02-02T00:19:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was my 19th birthday and before heading over to the Kitsilano Community Centre's ice rink we went to Dharma Kitchen at 3667 West Broadway. It was really nice to see fifteen of my friends enjoy (or at least pretend to enjoy) vegan meals! I love that restaurant - it's so peaceful and their food is really tasty. (I hope we weren't too loud.)

I refrained from photographing the restaurant food because I didn't want to appear too odd to many of my friends who were just trying things like tempeh and sprouts for the first (and hopefully not the last) time. However, I couldn't resist getting a shot of the cupcakes my mom made to send along with us - Vegan with a Vengeance's Lemon Gem Cupcakes.

The Lemon Frosting took some extra icing sugar to get it not to drip all over the place but ended up working out fine.

My dear friend Chloe, a proud owner of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, was super sweet and made a batch of mini cupcakes which I believe were chocolate with orange icing. Best cupcakes EVER!

I know - such a grown-up birthday, what with skating and cupcakes, but to tell you the truth, I feel far from grown-up at all.

I received a few bars of organic and fair trade chocolate which made me very happy, not to mention some hemp socks! A vegan friend in the know gave me this Dagoba Lavender Chocolate and it was incredible - the kind of chocolate you have to eat slowly.

Today happens to be Groundhog Day and my mom made a cake. For my birthday, that is, not Groundhog Day, although holidays are always a wonderful excuse to have two desserts in two days. She made Vegan with a Vengeance's Raspberry Blackout Cake with Ganache-y Frosting so my family could share it. Oh my goodness, this cake is amazing! She was really impressed with how easy it was to bake and by the time I got home from work it was all iced and ready to be enjoyed!

Can't you just hear those plates screaming for a slice? (Never mind, maybe that noise is just my taste buds.)

Goes to show how different the lighting in my apartment is.

Okay, so enough with the photos. That is, after this slice shot.

Capers is really great about employee birthdays. Usually the staff member gets either a carrot or chocolate cake but one of the bakers whipped up a Cocoa Orb cake for me! It is so good and will probably take quite a few days to finish!

That's a lot of chocolate. I think that somebody needs to go on a detox. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy some vegan treats and not think about the early approaching Lent!

Cauliflower and Cookies

2008-01-30T18:08:00.001-08:00

Sauteed Cauliflower and Cilantro from the Garden of Vegan is pretty yummy. We had it for dinner with Vegan with a Vengeance's Spicy Indian Rice with Toasted Almonds which was definitely a "make me again."

The other night I also made a rice dish for a guest - ExtraVeganZa's awesome Coconut Cilantro Rice Pilaf. I love this dish so much, I'll probably make it again super soon.

The Garden of Vegan's Herman's No-Bake Cookies are easy enough to make but taste sort of like uncooked porridge with maple syrup (which I obviously used for the "liquid sweetener."

They look nice, though, don't they? That's what counts I suppose.

Pesto on Pasta

2008-01-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Sesame Ginger Dressing from The Garden of Vegan is phenomenal! We had it with ExtraVeganZa's Paul's Spinach Parsley Sauce on top of brown rice noodles. Yummy.

I originally made this pesto-like sauce for a raw friend's birthday potluck but unfortunately just as I was all packed up and ready to go with sliced carrot chips for dipping, it unfortunately began to snow and my friend and I didn't want to risk driving back from White Rock in a Smart car.

Due to my recent success with Simple Treats' Cranberry-Orange Muffins, I decided to make their Cranberry-Orange Scones. These were also really good but the muffins make more sense and hold together better.

Barley flour is the bomb.

Heaps of Hummus

2008-01-23T19:35:00.001-08:00

I've been making more hummus, I have to admit. I seem to be eating tons of garbanzos lately, partly because I'm using up the cans my mom bought at some case sale and partly because Eat Drink & Be Vegan's Roasted Red Pepper and Almond Hummus looks (and tastes) so good.

Tonight we had Vegan with a Vengeance's Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables with some plain brown rice. The parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and squash went very well with ginger and maple syrup and everyone expressed the wish that I had made more!

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Cinnamon Sweet Tortilla Strips were a really nice snack and my sister's eyes lit up when I pulled these out of the oven. They are really easy and inventive and although the photo isn't exactly beautiful, they also taste super.

As you can probably tell, school is keeping me way too busy to make elaborate meals or blog for very long about them. My apologies.

Packaged and Purchased

2008-01-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

I usually make food from scratch but it is always a treat to find packaged stuff that is vegan! For example, the best granola bars come from Capers. However, let me admit right away that there is organic honey in the list of ingredients. Nevertheless, this Organic Gourmet Granola Bar is incredible, and nearly everything in it is organic and good for you; oats, sunflower, sesame, flax, hemp and pumpkin seeds, almonds, dried fruit... yum.

Capers also makes one vegan muffin. Out of over fifteen muffins and scones - one. It's a Carrot Maple Muffin. Okay, so it IS made "with organic ingredients" and fine, it IS low on sugar, and alright, it IS nice and big - but it also has white flour and gets really, really boring. In fact, I've had it so many times that don't think I could ever eat it again. (This one was bought for my dad.)

Sometimes all there is time for is a bowl of cereal. But what a wonderful bowl it is with rice milk and those crunchy, perfectly shaped Puffins! Cereal is amazing.

Breakfast rocks.

Carob and a Casserole

2008-01-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

Breakfast today was Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Blueberry Carob Pancakes, which are really yummy! It seems that carob can be good, believe it or not.

I was a little apprehensive about Vegan with a Vengeance's Chickpea Broccoli Casserole but decided to trust Isa and ended up really enjoying it!

I understand why she says that you can "doctor it with fresh herbs and spices" but it is tasty the way it is anyways in a comfort-food sort of way.

My mom made a rice pudding from this month's Alive magazine for dessert but it wasn't anything special. Nevertheless, I do love rice pudding. And hey, aren't beans and rice a complete protein?

Banana and Broccoli

2008-01-16T20:58:00.001-08:00

Breakfast today was How It All Vegan!'s Ban-ini smoothie, which I halved and used maple syrup for the "sweetener." It was incredibly creamy and I loved it even though I don't usually like tahini that much.

For dinner we had Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry. This was one of those recipes where my family skirts around the tofu and I end up having to eat it all. Oh well - it was pretty tasty nonetheless and makes me wonder why I don't make stir-fries more often.

I realized that I don't really like rice noodles unless they are properly cooked. I should work on that.

I've been eyeing the non-vegan Cranberry Orange Muffins at Capers for a quite a while and finally found a recipe for some that are cruelty-free and much less cake-y! I absolutely love Simple Treats' Cranberry-Orange Muffins, which are full of barley flour and actually quite healthy.

Belated Barber

2008-01-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

My family really loved Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Bean and Corn Tortilla Lasanga with Avocado. It was a really inventive spin on lasanga! I used some Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese on top. I'm still not a big fan of vegan cheeses and have to admit that I get a little scared about their ingredients lists. Nevertheless, everything tasted very good.

I made James Barber's Moroccan Orange Salad from the Peasant's Alphabet with it as a tribute to James Barber the great. I remember watching the Urban Peasant, the cooking show he hosted for years, with my late grandmother before I started elementary school. I don't think that there were very many cooking shows on those days and watching that smiling old man cook as I spent time with my grandmother happens to be a very fond memory of mine and one of the few I have of her. I had the chance to meet him just months ago at a book signing at a cookbook store before he died this past November. It was really lovely to speak to him, as he was just as friendly in person and I got a photo with him and he even signed my book!

To get over all those bittersweet feelings, I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Chocolate Pudding, which is pretty good, although it makes me really want to made ExtraVeganZa's Triple Chocolate (Kahlua) Velvet Pudding again, which is incredible even without the alcohol. Nevertheless, I did enjoy Isa's pudding and it did cheer me up a little.

Burton and a Bundle

2008-01-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

The first weekend of the new term has started out well - Friday I finally went to the Foundation on Main Street for the first time and shared their Mingling Yams which was a dip with chips and flatbread. Last night I met some friends at Sejuiced on Fourth Avenue and we had Teryaki Tempeh, Lentil Daal Soup and a Mega Protein Salad, although they also serve many fantastic smoothies and juices. They even have vegan brownies and raw bars on occasion... but I don't bring my camera everywhere, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Here's a few photos of things I've made in the last incredibly busy week which involved adding and dropping courses and trying to cook up a few dishes in the meantime.

Somebody in my house bought a baugette the other day and I saved half of it, waited for it to dry out a little, and then made Vegan with a Vengeance's "Fronch" Toast which was pretty good with raspberry preserves on top.

A few nights ago I made The Garden of Vegan's Coconut Curry Vegetable Bake which incoprotates coconut milk with yams and potatoes. I love yams (who doesn't?) and it was really good but I wasn't particularly fond of the potatoes part.

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's hummus recipes are becoming addicting already - I made the Black Bean and Orange Hummus which was really nice even though I got cheap and substituted peanut butter for the almond butter.

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Teriyaki Quinoa makes for a really nice side dish. This is so good - I really should eat more quinoa.

Dreena Burton made her Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan at her cooking demo at this year's Taste of Health for Earthsave but I somehow missed trying these. They are surprisingly way better than I had even imagined, as I've never been a big fan of whole garbanzo beans - until now! They're so easy to make and my family kept asking if there were anymore. I'll definitely be making these again soon!

Roasted Winter Squash Rings from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan turned out to be slices rather than rings but ended up super yummy.

What's left? Why, another batch of cookies to get my family through the week, of course. I'm starting to actually like carob, helped by Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Double Carob Cashew Cookies.

Leafletting and Laziness

2008-01-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day of leafletting for Vegan Outreach at the University of British Columbia. I stood outside the Student Union Building with two other activists and smiled and handed out "animal rights information" for about an hour after the first day of second term's classes. It wasn't nearly as difficult or scary as one might expect - people were very friendly and although of course there were quite a few "no thanks," many people seemed rather receptive and we even had a few people explain how they were already vegetarian or even vegan, which was fantastic. Yay!

www.veganoutreach.org

When I got home I become very lazy and made some easy pasta bowties and tomato sauce from a jar (is that too boring to post?!) My sister made her signature chunky guacamole and I also whipped up The Garden of Vegan's Maple Dijon Flax Oil Dressing for a simple Earthbound Farm Mixed Greens and tomatoes salad.

Yesterday I met up with some other activists at Earthsave for a preparation meeting about leafletting with training and tips from an experienced Vancouver Island activist. I made some cookies to bring with me but ended up misjudging how long the baking would take and brought still-warm cookies in a container so of course they crumbled but they still tasted alright. Although, with a name like Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies (from Simple Treats) how couldn't they?! I used organic Maranatha peanut butter (the BEST) and Fair Trade chocolate buttons from the bulk bins at Capers, so of course they were good.

We also did some booklet stickering, too, before heading off to the Chinese restaurant Bo Kong with some board members of Earthsave Canada. The food was really good and I would have taken photos of the dishes we all shared but didn't want to be too weird in front of everyone! I haven't had Chinese food in over a year because I've always been a little cautious about the vegan-ness of it, but Bo Kong is all vegetarian and we even had one dish made with coconut instead of cow's milk. Everything was really tasty, especially a green beans dish. I even tried lemon "duck" which wasn't something I've ever had before, along with a sweet and sour "meatballs" sort of dish. I bet my family would like to go out for Chinese food without me sighing about it... Chinese food was my childhood favourite and it has been difficult living without it, I must admit.

Potlucks and Power

2008-01-05T23:11:00.001-08:00

Tonight was Earthsave's first monthly vegan potluck of the new year! It was well attended and the speaker was simply incredible! Eleanor Boyle gave a super enthusiastic and inspiring presentation called "Eat Less Meat: the Coming International Campaign" on factory farming's impact on climate change. I learned so much and really hope to see her speak again (hopefully with some yet to be enlightened friends!) There was so much food and despite how many potlucks I go to, I always get excited about looking at the potluck table and thinking to myself "I can eat ANYthing off of this table!"

I had to work this morning until an hour before the potluck so by the time I got home all I had the time and energy for was making hummus. I made a Black Bean Hummus which doesn't look terribly exciting but tastes quite good.

I'm pretty sure that just about every vegan has their own recipe for hummus, and when I make it with black beans I generally use this because it is pretty easy to remember:

Black Bean Hummus

2 cups (or one can) black beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon or lime juice
3 tablespoons nut butter
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp sea salt

Blend in your best friend (aka food processor) until smooth like cement. Garnishing is nice if you happen to have parsley on hand.

I always try not to eat too much the day of the potluck but working for eight hours is difficult on an empty stomach so I had my normal smoothie for breakfast and bought a Power Cookie from Capers. I could probably survive on them in all their seedy, nutty, spelty, chocolately and organicy goodness. They make me feel, well, powerful. I think that some Whole Foods stores are getting them now, too, which is rather exciting. Let's just hope that they stay vegan!

You can't really tell from the photo, but Power Cookies are about the size of the palm of your hand, unless of course you are a rather small child, and much better than the Power Muffins, which are sadly not vegan.

Lovely Lentils

2008-01-04T23:54:00.001-08:00

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is such a good book! The Peanut Sesame Hummus is so yummy that I really want to make the rest of the hummus recipes right now. It was really good with baby carrots. In case you happen to be wondering, those are chopped peanuts on top.

For dinner tonight we had ED&BV's Savory French (Puy) Lentils with How It All Vegan!'s Jana's Healthy Rice - both of which were very good. I need to eat more lentils, especially tasty ones like this recipe, and found the curried rice just spicey enough.

I met some friends who are back from school in Ottawa for the Christmas Break and brought ED&BV's Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies with barley flour with me. They tease me about my veganism on occasion, but really liked these cookies! Yay.

Brussels and Biscuits

2008-01-03T22:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made Cinnamon Lime Quinoa with Apricots and Almonds but Dreena says to try other dried fruits so I subbed in medjool dates for the apricots. I love quinoa and really enjoyed this recipe, especially since I don't feel so hesitant to use almonds as they are now on sale after the Christmas baking rush. I really like Dreena Burton and am starting to really want her other two cookbooks, too!

I also made a smaller size of Vegan with a Vengeance's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Garlic once again - yum! For dessert I made Simple Treats' Baked Apple-Cranberry Crisp, which was delicious. The cranberries were a great addition, pairing really well with the apples. (Yes, I realize that this is a bad photo but I don't care. It tasted yummy.)

This morning I was feeling bad that although I do a lot of baking for other people, I never bake for my dog, Chester. He's an always-hungry ten year old golden labrador and rather cute so I suppose he deserves some fresh baked biscuits. I made How It All Vegan!'s Dog and Cat Biscuits, with whole wheat flour and bran and kelp powder and all sorts of yummy things. Chester, needless to say, really enjoyed them. I didn't find them that incredible tasting (don't be grossed out - all the ingredients are "normal" and come from my pantry) but his tail wagged every time one of these came out of their jar.

I made them hearts because Chester is extremely lovable - sort of like a polar bear. In a very kind polar bear sort of way.

Cherubim on Commercial

2008-01-02T21:53:00.003-08:00

A friend and I headed over to a Greenpeace Canada volunteer meeting this evening and being on Commercial Drive, we couldn't help but hit Sweet Cherubim for dinner! This restaurant is incredible: almost all of their items are vegan and they have a massive dessert case that I could probably live off of.

They have a really flexible dinner special in which you get to pick from bread, chapati or rice, soup or salad and an entree including lasanga - we picked a salad with Tofu Basil Dressing, chapati and a Nut Loaf. Oh so good and big enough that I easily shared it with my friend.

They gave us some miso gravy as well, which was much better than other vegan gravies I've tried. I wish I lived a little closer to the Drive, but at least the buses are accessible enough in the city!

We couldn't resist leaving without the dessert case being left closed so we took a vegan Nanaimo Bar with us, which was photographed in its bag on the bus after the volunteer meeting when we had become less hungry. It wasn't really what I remember nanaimo bars to taste like but the chocolate-ness was appreciated.

www.sweetcherubim.com

Anniversary Already!

2008-01-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Today, January 1st, is my first year anniversary of veganism! Sure, I stopped drinking milk a few years ago and went vegetarian between grade seven and eight, but I officially labelled myself a vegan exactly one year ago, began diligently reading ingredients lists down to the last few words and haven't looked back! Veganism has made me happier than I ever imagined and introduced me to so many new foods and friends, and given me a real sense of peace, in eating habits at least. There is, of course, much work to be done, and I look forward to a new year of patient advocacy through baking and cooking to encourage people to accept cruelty-free eating. Yay veganism... anyways, here are some photos.

Yesterday a friend and I bussed over to West Vancouver to visit the always wonderful Whole Foods! We both work at Capers at the moment so having the discount extend to Whole Foods is rather exciting. There is only one official Whole Foods in Vancouver right now, and it's simply massive!

Park Royal Mall was hopping with shoppers but we were just as excited to hit the deli with WF gift cards. We loaded up bowl/plates with all sorts of random self-serve deli salads and vegetables so that it sort of looked like we were attending a potluck (a little of this, a little of that) and got their Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake which was really heavy and probably too much for one person to eat at once, so it is a good thing that we shared it!

Whole Foods also has a vegan muffin (yes, we grabbed one of those, too,) a vegan chocolate cupcake (not this time, but it has been very good in the past...) and a bird's nest jam cookie and is even selling Capers' orbs and Power Cookies in their bakery/deli. I feel like being such a megastore that it might be nicer if they were selling more vegan items (so many things seem so easily veganizable in their bakery) but I suppose that Capers can be like that sometimes, too. At least they have vegan options, though, so perhaps I shouldn't complain!

Last night we welcomed in the new year watching some movies and trying to distract my dog from any fireworks. We also baked some of the Post Punk Kitchen's Low Fat Brownie Bites which didn't turn out too stellar, perhaps because I'm not a big fan of coffee.

www.theppk.com/blog/2007/12/07/brownie-bites-for-when-youve-bitten-too-many-brownies/

I hope that everyone's New Year celebrations were fun and that this year will be a wonderful one!

Stunning Samosas

2007-12-29T18:43:00.001-08:00

Tonight my dad helped me to make Vegan with a Vengeance's Potato-Edamame Samosas with Coconut-Mint Chutney. We used the peas instead of edamame option and they turned out really nice, even though I ended up with about two cups of extra filling. We made both larger and smaller ones - they are so cute!

The chutney wasn't what I was expecting; a produce guy told me that fresh coriander was actually cilantro so I used that. I'm not so sure about that as the chutney wasn't really a chutney but my family still really liked it. I also made Eat, Drink & Be Vegan's Coconut-Lime Basmati Rice which was good but not as good as Vegan with a Vengeance's Coconut Rice with Toasted Coconut) and Simple Swiss Chard which hopefully get some much-needed iron into me.

VwaV's Gingerbread Apple Pie was dessert and although I overbaked it a little (it may have had something to do with me stuffing the samosas simultaneously) it still turned out very tasty. I don't bother peeling apples when they are organic so my pie ended up looking rustic but aren't a lot of the apple's vitamins in the peels? Excuse me while I try and redeem this pie's healthfulness...

Tonight I threw out my "no-white-flour" rule twice; usually I just force spelt flour into Isa's recipes.

I also made Cashew Banana Ice Cream, which is very rich and creamy and paired nicely on top of the pie. Incredibly full, I ate mine a little later as freezing and then thawing it for a little while keeps it creamy. I just wish that cashew butter wasn't so expensive!

Acai the Antioxidant

2007-12-29T00:26:00.001-08:00

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is beautiful! This morning I made the Acai Antioxidant Smoothie for breakfast (a large portion as I confess that I did drink the entire recipe despite the two servings suggestion) but it ended up being lunch as well. It was so good, and as I've been wanting to try it since missing it when she made it at the Taste of Health this summer, it was the first thing I made out of this lovely green book.

I also made ED&BV's Curry Chickpea Hummus and cannot wait to try the rest of the hummus recipes. One entire chapter on hummus! Who could ask for anything more? Curried hummus is very clever and very delicious. (Those are raisins on top instead of mixed in because I can't get my sister to start liking them. Ah well, she likes hummus - who doesn't? - so everything was alright.)

For dinner, I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Sauteed Green Beans with Mushrooms (yum!) along with ED&BV's pan-Fried Tempt-Eh! which was really crispy and soft in the middle, which I will definitely be making again! I also made Coconut-Lime Basmati Rice but kind of of liked VwaV's similar dish more, although I may have simply used the wrong type of coconut milk this time.

That's the Curry Chickpea Hummus on some pita in the background, in case for some strange reason you happened to be wondering.

Christmas Cheer

2007-12-26T23:21:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! I was well prepared calorie-wise for Boxing Day by consuming quite a lot. I made some Christmas treats but ended up being rather lazy for Christmas dinner itself, as the smell of cooking turkey kept me away. I did enjoy the vegetable portion of my family's meal, and was quite happy with my homemade cranberry sauce, potatoes with Naam miso gravy, brussels sprouts and maple syrup and walnuts (sounds weird, but very tasty) and baked yams. Yum! Who need the turkey, anyways?

I really liked the wholesome Gingerbread Cookies from Simple Treats, baked with barley flour and sweetened with maple syrup. They smell so good and have such a similar consistency as the Clove Cookies, but with ginger and golden raisins.

I tried and sort of failed to make ExtraVeganZa's Chocolate Truffles without the sherry and subbing for the extra soymilk. They didn't roll so perfectly but tasted very good. I made portions of the "batter" into the almonds, peppermint and lavender versions. Oh vegan chocolate, how I love you.

Here's some of the veganish gifts for me under the tree this year, including (yay!) Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, The Garden of Vegan and The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook! I also got quite a lot of vegan, organic and Fair Trade (the winning trio, you might say) chocolate bars, soaps and lotion from the animal-friendly companies Pacifica and Jason, as well as a Fair Trade purse from Ten Thousand Villages.

Today I did quite a lot of Boxing Day shopping at Oqoqo on 4th Avenue (the sustainable fabrics clothing store paired with Lululemon) to get some half price clothes made out of organic cotton and bamboo. Robson Street was kind of fun to walk around today during the marathon shopping; apart from an organic cotton t-shirt from Roots and the Oqoqo clothes, my best friend and I hit a consignment store called Shine on 4th and got t-shirts for $11 - I generally don't shop and Boxing Day makes up for the rest of the year! The abundance of leather, fur trims and sweatshop clothing makes me cringe but I feel like I made somewhat sustainable purchases today. I hope that everyone's Christmas was tasty and pleasant and that Boxing Day wasn't too stressful!

Random and a Restaurant

2007-12-23T13:44:00.001-08:00

Some random things I've eaten recently include Capers' deli's Edamame Rice Salad with Wasabi Dressing isn't as hot as expected but its probably full of protein from the soybeans. Capers has a lot of things in their deli, like Lentil Burgers and Veggie Pate, which is vegan and tasty.

I love Acai! I could probably live off this stuff; juice, sorbet, whatever. I worked at Booster Juice for almost a year before moving to Vancouver and became so addicted to their Brazilian Thunder smoothies (without the sorbet or yogurt) and custom acai juice smoothies. This juice is really good, too, apparently full of sustained energy and all that good stuff.

My best friend and I bussed to Commercial Drive for dinner at an Indian Restaurant called Yogi's, which was really warm and welcoming, with fantastic food. I'm only starting to discover Indian food in all its vegan glory - yum! However, I must admit that I am not so comfortable with snapping photos and flashing my camera in darkly lit restaurants. Tonight we shared pappadam (which I've never even heard of but really enjoyed) and some pakoras which were very crunchy and yummy.

Eating out over the school break makes me realize that I really should be taking advantage of the local vegan-friendly restaurants all around Vancouver. This time my subtle snapping skills weren't up to par and I started laughing, pulled the camera off the table and then feeling incredibly odd and indiscreet by trying to photograph the food. Perhaps less dimly-lit restaurants are easier places to photograph, but here's an incredibly blurry shot of our already-nibbled main dish - yum!

Sort of Spanakopita

2007-12-20T22:35:00.001-08:00

Breakfast today was Vegan with a Vengeance's Coconut Pancakes with Pineapple Sauce which were so yummy! I used whole wheat flour so they were a little heavy but really great.

I also made the recipe for Spanakopita in Vegan with a Vengeance for dinner tonight in all three of the forms. I usually make them in mini triangles for potlucks but bigger ones are more meal-ish. I thought that the coil shapes were really inventive - they look like fiddleheads! The easiest type by far are the dish ones, with all the leftover phyllo dough piled on top as a crust.

I really, really love spanakopita and was initially worried that I would never be able to eat it again once going vegan but I have obviously been proven wrong. The last time I made vegan spanakopita I used a recipe from the internet which had miso in it and I have to admit that it was a lot tastier than these ones - but they're both good all the same! I ended up getting tired and scooped the rest into a lined pan and folded over the rest of the phyllo dough for the pan shape.

Mixed Up Meal and More

2007-12-19T19:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight's dinner was a bit of a cultural cross. I made ExtraVeganZa's Mashed Rutabagas and Yams with everything but the 1/2 teaspon of onion powder which may have made it lack flavour but I liked it all the same because yams are incredible. It looked kind of cute with its dried cranberries and pecan topping.

We also enjoyed Vegan with a Vengeance's Sesame Asparagus which would be fantastic with sushi and a little less red pepper flakes. I also fried some Green Cuisine Indonesian Tempeh I found in my fridge, which was spicey and may have assured my dad that tempeh is indeed tasty!

Today I made Bittersweet's Chocolate Candy Cups (which are actually inventive, vegan Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and exactly what I've been craving since Halloween!) I made both the peanut butter and peppermint versions, substituting Earthbalance for the shortening in the peppermint version. They were both fantastic but peanut butter won out! I used rice milk chocolate which was incredible even though I was hesitant to melt stuff in the microwave (which I actually haven't touched once since we moved into this apartment!)

Don't look at my photo - go and look at Bittersweet's beautiful pictures:

www.bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/treats-without-tricks/

Baking Bonanza

2007-12-18T19:39:00.001-08:00

This is going to be a very long post by my standards - because today was my first day of Christmas Break, no more exams or essays or school! My best friend came over and we baked up a storm! We hadn't really planned what we had wanted to make so ended up baking a lot of random cookies, especially ones I've been wanting to try but not eat the entire batch of from Vegan with a Vengeance. I'm not used to baking with so much white sugar and flour, but it is Christmas and they are gifts!

We started out with Vegan with a Vengeance's Sparkled Ginger Cookies, which looked a little nicer and crackled last time I made them but they are still tasty!

Then we made the very unhealthy and very tasty Chocolate Chip Cookies from VwaV which are just like "normal" cookies!

We made four Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies which were particularly gigantic (ignore the camera flash and appreciate the size!)

We also made ton of smaller ones to fit in the gift boxes. They remind me of the peanut butter cookies they sell at Capers!

My favourite cookies were probably the more holiday-ish of the group - Simple Treats' Clove Cookies without sugar (maple syrup instead) and barley and oat flour. They are so soft and pretty!

We found a brownie recipe which we had all of the ingredients for on Vegweb. We had apprehensions because the dough was kind of odd but it ended up looking more brownie-like topped with chopped walnuts.

www.vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6640.0

They turned out pretty tasty - yay for white flour and sugar! We tried something more wholesome by opening up Simple Treats again but the Brown Rice Krispy Treats didn't stick together very well. Perhaps we shouldn't have substituted the barley malt syrup with more brown rice syrup, but I doubt that barley malt is much stickier than brown rice as far as syrups go! It ended up falling apart but tasted alright!

Here's everything together:

Yay for Christmas! Time for me to box these up and get them out of my sight!

Holiday Happiness

2007-12-17T21:48:00.001-08:00

Last night was Earthsave Canada's monthly vegan potluck, which was hosted by the 25 and Under group as a holiday potluck. It was super good! Potlucks are so much fun - they are like cheap buffets where you don't have to pay cash but in a dish. It's so great to be able to look a table full of food and know that you are able to eat it all! We of course had a lot of Christmas baking, and I was running on little time with an exam the next day to study for, so I also made some cookies. Vegan with a Vengeance's Buttery Lemon Cutout Cookies were pretty easy to make.

Although they are pretty good, I wasn't too fond of sugar cookies pre-veganism so I wasn't as excited about them as I can get about Isa's other cookies. Making cutout cookies is pretty fun nonetheless!

I snapped a shot of the table before everyone jumped on it, not surprisingly from the dessert end.

I was impressed by someone who had brought a selection of the baking they had done so far, making me excited about properly starting my own Christmas baking!

My friend over at the Bjorked Off blog made the best chocolate fudge I've had in a long time and I can already feel the Christmas sugar overload coming!

Sort of Sloppy

2007-12-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight I tried to make Vegan with a Vengance's Veggie Burgers with TVP, but try as I might and despite the many times I read the recipe, they turned out too wet to stick together properly. I tried to fry them with the utmost patience but ended up making sloppy joes with the batter instead. They turned out quite tasty nonetheless, and my parents and sister even liked them quite a lot.

We ate them with some new potatoes and a pickle or two to make them feel like real burgers. Even things I mess up on in Vegan with a Vengeance taste good!

Date-Nut Diamonds

2007-12-14T20:44:00.001-08:00

I cracked and started baking earlier than the planned post-exam time. I got home from my English exam and started baking Vegan with a Vengeance's Date-Nut Diamonds before I realized what was happening, oops. I love walnuts and especially dates, despite despising them when I was little (who didn't hate dates as a kid?) I think that this recipe could potentially be a very healthy bar, I just need to majorly lessen the sugar and Earthbalance because dates are probably sweet and sticky enough to hold up without them.

I used spelt flour which may have been why the bottom wouldn't spread properly despite using a pastry knife to break up the Earthbalance. Hey, it tastes fantastic so what does it matter?

Protein Plethora

2007-12-13T22:44:00.001-08:00

I think I may have made up for any protein deficencies I've had in the past year today! It's exam week so I had the morning off and made Vegan with a Vengeance's Scrambled Tofu for brunch for myself. I halved it because I'm wary of quartering a recipe, meaning that I ended up with a healthy serving indeed! It wasn't quite what I was expecting - although I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect - but it was super tasty. (That piece of toast was not consumed, have no fear. It was put back in the bag because I probably would have burst.)

Tonight I had seitan for the very first time (I know - vegan for nearly a year and shockingly seitan deprived!) It's one of those packaged Green Cuisine cutlets with garlic and ginger. I somewhat stir-fried it (I should have gotten out the wok) with some fresh ginger, kale, mushrooms and soy sauce. I was really suprised with the texture and my dad took one look at it and said "Hmm, supposed to be beef, is it?" before serving himself and chowing down. I couldn't ask for a more accepting family. Oh, seitan, the possibilites! Kabobs, pot pies, stir-fries...

My mom also made African Nut Stew from the recipe which came from an Alive magazine sometime last year. It's got lots of lovely flavours from the peanut butter and chickpeas (which all sunk to the bottom but in reality make the soup really thick and more like a stew,) not to mention extra protein, if you're feeling depleted.

My plan for the post-exam bliss called the Christmas holidays (oh, when will they arrive?!) is to mucho bake and attempt to make homemade seitan- yay!

If I'm counting properly, I have now made 30 recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance, and they were practically all incredible!

Simple Spaghetti

2007-12-12T19:54:00.001-08:00

My family makes Jamie Oliver's Funky Spaghetti when no one feels like cooking (this hardly ever happens to me but I had a nap after returning from an exam this morning and woke up as it was being served!) The recipe is so easy that it's almost silly and it's a good standby, along with guacamole and chips. I really like Jamie Oliver, especially after he revolutionized the menus at British schools from frozen to fresh, although he swears incessantly and, sad to say, hardly makes anything vegan.

www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/food_20030718_spaghetti.jhtml

I put Eat in the Raw's Parma! Vegan Parmesan on my spaghetti, which I got from the Vancouver Vegetarian Resource Center when they had their 50% off sale. The best thing I can say about it is that I'll be reusing the bottle to put homemade "parmesan" in it when I finally finish it. It's really not that good (and I do feel bad saying that because I do believe in supporting vegan products, but this one isn't my favourite.)

Mocha Muffins and More

2007-12-11T21:04:00.001-08:00

This morning I made more muffins to add to my freezer collection. Vegan with a Vengeance Mocha Muffins are really sugary and caffeiny if you're looking for that sort of jolt; very yummy. Personally, I've never had more than a sip of coffee but still found these to be very yummy with tea!

I teach a grade three/four PREP class at my church and we had our Christmas party tonight so I thought I'd add to the buffet table of sugar by making mini Ginger Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting from the Post Punk Kitchen! I ended up forgetting to buy vegetable shortening but I subbed more Earthbalance for the icing, meaning that I needed to add more icing sugar so it didn't melt all over the place, but by the time I got there I had to pop them in the fridge anyways. I made some big ones with the leftover batter and tons of icing and they were unsurprisingly so good! I really hope to get Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for Christmas, but it may dangerous to have it in my possession.

www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=91

I'm at a loss on what else I can make with that tub of soy yogurt.

Pot Pie and Pear Pudding

2007-12-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

I made ExtraVeganZa's Root Vegetable Pot Pie, complete with rutabagas, turnips and carrots, for dinner. I'd probably leave out the kale next time because it seemed a little unneccessary in this recipe. Nevertheless, I can't wait until leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I heated up some leftover Vegan with a Vengeance's Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy for the top and it was fantastic!

ExtraVeganZa's Cardamom Pear Pudding was a rather healthy dessert that's really smooth and just sweet enough. I love the recipes from that book - they are all so wholesome and make me want to visit Laura Matthias' Vancouver Island farm so I can see her kitchen!

Loving the Lemon

2007-12-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

For brunch, I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Lemon Corn Waffles which were really good with Blueberry Sauce. The batter was really thin but with some patience my stovetop waffle iron turned out some lovely, crispy, lemony waffles. I will finish that tub of soy yogurt!

Dinner tonight was Mashed Potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy because I was pretty full from a few too many waffles. The gravy made so much and I was rather generous because was surprisingly fantastic!

Capers makes these really great orbs called NRG and Cocoa-Orbs which are really filling. The cocoa balls are the best, of course, but they are the most tasty when eaten together. I really want to find out how to make them at home in my food processor!

Mad for Muffins

2007-12-08T22:09:00.001-08:00

Vegan with a Vengeance's Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins are so yummy! I made them last night and they're just as good today - I could probably eat them all. Can you tell I'm still trying to use up my soy yogurt?

I didn't heed the warnings, but I made VwaV's Crispy Peanut Butter Cookies and they did not work out, as predicted, but of course I got all curious and had to make sure. Ah well, they were somewhat tasty crumbs!

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1342

So I've discovered that it's not a good idea to take photos the day after you make the food. Either I ask for a new camera for Christmas, or I ask for more vegan cookbooks. Cookbooks it is, hands down.

Better Bacon

2007-12-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

I baked Vegan with a Vengeance's Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins, which were a good use of my Nancy's Soy Yogurt but not as lemony as I had hoped. I'm really not a big fan of soy yogurt so I rarely buy it unless I'm baking with it. These were good, but I think I want to try Isa's other muffins.

For dinner I made VwaV's Tempeh Bacon, which I probably should have crisped up a little more but I admit that I couldn't wait - they were sooo good, anyways! I also made some yam fries with some sesame oil and seeds with a peanut sauce; yes, I realize that this meal looks very orange. I need to learn how to battle with my apartment's bad lighting and win.

Potatoes on Pizza?!

2007-12-03T23:21:00.001-08:00

Tonight I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Pizza Dough, using light spelt flour and little patience, which meant that it didn't rise as long as it was supposed to but ended up very tasty nonetheless. One of the pizzas was the Potato and Tempeh Sausage Pizza which was surprisingly tasty - who knew that fennel and potato could compliment a pizza? The tempeh was incredible and looked strangely sort of like a mealover's pizza. My family was even impressed at the tempeh - yay!

The other pizza used up the rest of my Vegan Gourmet Cheddar "Cheese" (looking rather radioactive.) I threw some tomatoes, spinach, olives and marinated artichokes on it - but it wasn't near as good as the tempeh pizza!

Banana Brownies

2007-12-02T21:39:00.001-08:00

I went to a friend's vegan salad party tonight and once again opened up Vegan with a Vengeance (watch me steadily make everything in that cookbook) to make the Banana Split Pudding Brownies. They were tasty (even though I'm sadly not as big of a fan of bananas as I'd like to be.) The brownie layer was especially fantastic and I'll probably use that recipe for pure brownies again.

Phenomenal Perogies

2007-12-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

I made How It All Vegan!'s Monday Morning Oatmeal Pancakes for brunch because I got up so late after a week of four hour sleeps! They were really good but I don't suggest trying to make the massive sized ones as the recipe says because they're unflippable past 1/3 cup of batter.

Tonight's dinner was How It All Vegan!'s Potato "Cheese" Perogies with Jana's Honey Lemon Carrots, which were both very tasty. I used light spelt flour for the perogies and the dough was difficult to roll and I ended up with WAY too much filling, despite my many attempts to fill them up to the max. Ah well, they were still fun to make and tasted just like the cheese perogies I remember eating from the grocery stores' frozen section.

Vegan Gourmet Cheddar Cheese worked really well in this recipe and I was impressed at how it actually shredded - perhaps I should make some pizza with the rest of it!

I celebrated the end of this four-term-papers-due-in-three-days week (and the first day of snow in Vancouver) by making How It All Vegan!'s Auntie Bonnie's Wacky Cake which was really chocolate-y. I "iced" it with the (peanut) Nut Butter Icing but the consistency was all wrong so no photo of that stage.

Last week I also made How It All Vegan!'s Apricot Almond Tea Cookies, but I couldn't get a good photo because the light wasn't right and I lost patience. They turned out well but I refused to use an entire cup of almonds for them!

Plenty of Pumpkin

2007-11-25T18:36:00.001-08:00

My family finally chopped open the 20-something pound organic pumpkin I got almost a month ago. Pureed pumpkin is filling up the freezer and what's not going in there is making its way into every sort of meal possible this week.

I made Vegan with a Vengeance's Pumpkin Seed-Crusted Tofu with Baked Pumpkin and Cranberry Relish for dinner and (gasp!) have to admit that the recipe failed - however, I take full responsibility as I am pretty sure that I mis-measured something somewhere. The relish was really nice but I think I goofed on the tofu, of whose taste I shall not speak of.

Sugar pumpkin would probably be very tasty over random slice of Mr. Massive pumpkin but I guess I sort of managed to create a sort of badly-timed American Thanksgiving meal!

VwaV Pumpkin Waffles (with whole wheat flour) are sooo good, especially with some rather runny jam and maple syrup. I definitely, definitely will be making these again! They'd probably turn out fantastic with spelt flour, too. This was the first time my family has pulled out the waffle-maker and hopefully we'll be doing it again soon because the rest of Isa's recipes for waffles look equally incredible.

My mom made me VwaV's The Best Pumpkin Muffins which are aptly-named (what with that much sugar!) They hold up really well even after freezing, too, which means that they are perfect for school lunches.

Here's a repeat: Pumpkin Pie from the Smartbran Recipes booklet, the way that pumpkin pie should taste.

I thought I'd switch things up a little and made How It All Vegan!'s "Perfect" Pumpkin Pie with the Rolled Oat Pie Crust. Not so great, but at least I tried.

Rad Rum

2007-11-24T23:03:00.001-08:00

I finally opened the bottle of the Naam's Miso Gravy I've had sitting in my fridge for quite a while and cooked up some more tempeh and fried mushrooms to go with it. I also made a quick salad, which would have been very boring had I not whizzed together How It All Vegan's Creamy Italian Dressing to go with it. It sort of reminded me of the sauce they throw on your salad when you get the falafel plate at Falafel King, in a good way of course!

Dessert tonight was spectacular! My dad helped me make Vegan with a Vengeance's Chocolate-Rum Pudding Cake. Oh my gosh, it was so good when it was warm and it's super good when it's cold.

I also made How It All Vegan's Maple Nut Orbs (and threw in half of the cocoa powder for the chocolate variation, too) for a grab-me snack. These were, well, alright, but I guess I was expecting the fantastic NRG and Cocoa Orbs from Capers because I wasn't too impressed. However, my family (who obviously haven't sampled Capers' orbs as often as I) really like them, so there's no doubt they'll be eaten. Maybe I should have put the maximum maple syrup in them?