Vegan Wonk

Joining the Vegan MoFo 2015 fun - first 5 days

noreply@blogger.com (Leah) — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 01:13:00 +0000

"Vegan Month of Food" is a sort of "NaNoWriMo" (national novel writing month) for vegan food blogging. This year, there are established daily themes bloggers can follow if they want to, which seems fun to me - so I am jumping on board.

Without further ado - here's what we've got:

Day 1: Vegan breakfast - Okara pancakes!

We saw a package of okara at H-mart a few weeks ago, and without really knowing what it was but assuming it was similar to tofu, we picked it up. We were only halfway right - okara is a byproduct of tofu & soy milk, so it's essentially soy bean pulp. Apparently it can also be used to make tempeh - mmm.

Anyway - we used the recipe on the package to make okara pancakes (Blogger REALLY wants to correct that to "okra" -- also good, but no). The recipe was super easy, the only hard part might be getting your hands on some okara if you don't have an Asian or international food store nearby; I'm not sure how common it is in supermarkets. The pancakes ended up tasting close to latkes or corn cakes (is that a thing? I swear I've had pancakes made with corn), but without a strong flavor. The green onion adds a savory aspect, although I still enjoyed mine with maple syrup. We used apple sauce as a topping as well, because of the latke similarity.

Recipe for okara pancakes, borrowed from the okara package + veganized:

Makes 9 smallish pancakes (well, small by my standards)

Ingredients:

1 c. flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 c. okara

2 tsp Vegg powder + 6 tbs water

(if you don't have Vegg - 2 tbs ground flax seed plus water probably works, or 1/4 c. apple sauce)

1 - 1/3 c. water

1 stalk green onion/scallion, chopped

Mix together the Vegg & water and set aside. Mix flour and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Add the okara - it will be pulpy, like a soft dough; break it into chunks. Add the Vegg mixture or other egg substitute, and add the water. Mix everything together to make a thick batter, and throw in the chopped green onion.

Heat ~2 tbsp canola or safflower oil in a medium pan over medium heat (so medium!). When the oil is hot, spoon out about 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan, and flatten it into a roundish pancake about 1/4 inch thick. Repeat until you have 2-3 pancakes in the pan - try not to overcrowd. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes and keep warm until you're ready to enjoy.

Top your pancakes with apple sauce, maple syrup, or a savory sauce, depending on your mood. To make a quick hoisin-based sauce for a savory accompaniment, mix 2 tbsp hoisin plus 1/2 tbsp agave and a dash of soy sauce; add more agave or hot sauce to taste.

Day 2: Recreate a meal from your childhood - Tortellini?

I used to really love tortellini - I think it was my favorite food for a good 5 years. Then I stopped eating cheese, and sort of lost interest before I found vegan tortellini options in stores (I know they exist). BUT, Tal Ronnen's The Conscious Cook has some amazing vegan-cheeze-filled pasta recipes, and tortellini recently made a brief comeback in my life.

Uhh, yeah, this is more gourmet than whatever frozen pasta stuff I remember from my childhood. Those are 4 huge tortellinis in that bowl, covered in a thick white sauce, plus some fresh spinach and an awesome tomato soup. Dan and I took the leftover tortellinis and combined them with the leftover soup for tortellini soup - aaaAAAaaah best leftovers of the year! Also, rolling out pasta is very hard without a pasta roller. Ours is in storage right now due to temporary displacement (these photos are all at my parents' house in Virginia) so I suffered a rolling pin. Gettin' the big muscles, baby.

I wish I could elaborate, but just buy the cookbook if you want more of this experience. Next up...

Day 3: Quick, easy, and delicious

Dang, this could describe so many things.

OK, let's start with a cocktail. Doesn't really count as "food", but um, in its own way...

Yeah, this photo is not #nofilter. I was experimenting, OK?

Spiked raspberry lemonade:

2oz vodka

Ice

Lemonade

4-5 fresh (or frozen, not picky) raspberries

Muddle a few of the raspberries in a glass, add vodka, add ice, fill with lemonade, and add some whole raspberries to top it off. It will be pink and summery and delicious, unless you hate lemonade or raspberries or vodka - in that case, ignore this, but consider making it for someone who likes those things.

And how about more breakfast foods?

Are these the most beautiful pancakes I've ever made? Nobody knows. (Except for me, and the answer is yes, they are.) My go-to pancake recipe is from One Ingredient Chef, and while they don't always come out like this (I mean - I don't even know what I did here), they always taste good, and they're really easy. It's more than one ingredient, by the way, I don't really know about the blog's name, but it's catchy. These pancakes are from 2014, but one day I will make beautiful perfect pancakes again. As soon as we get our griddle out of storage. (Seriously, appliances are the one arena where I have outdone my parents. They have like 10x more furniture, but we have twice the kitchen appliances.)

Day 4: A weird food combo that I love

What IS weird, anyway? It's all relative... but even I think that canned pears, mayonnaise, and cheese sounds weird. This is another childhood food thing, handed down from my mother. I used to really like it, and then it was like there was a major change in our household's recipe regimen and suddenly pears with mayonnaise were no longer a thing. (Probably because my mom stopped using mayonnaise, for very good reasons.) But what the heck? Why was it so good? What would it taste like with vegenaise and Daiya? What the fudge is up with the FDA going after Just Mayo, anyway? I think that stuff would be freaking good on a canned pear.

No photos, because - seriously, you want a photo of canned pears with mayonnaise and cheese? No photos.

Day 5: Best sandwich ever

I stand firmly by the assertion that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best ever. I don't really love sandwiches in general, other than those. Here's a sandwich type thing I ate tonight, and while it was pretty good & I almost ate all of it, it wasn't the best ever:

That's a Gardein chickn patty with a béchamel sauce (I added a tsp of miso to the recipe in the link) and some grilled tomatoes. The béchamel was really for the grilled gnocchi, also pictured. As I said, it was good, but I'd rather eat my weight in okra (alllllso pictured.)

Here's a list of other non-PBJ sandwiches that I have really liked:

Peanut butter and tofu "egg" salad wrap from the UMD co-op - why is this so good?!? Should this be under weird food combos? Next time you make tofu scramble, put it in a wrap with some peanut butter and tell me if I'm ridiculous.
Chaco Canyon Scramble Sandwich - Dan and I ordered sandwiches to go from here during a trip to Seattle, and ate them on a train to Portland. This was in 2012, right after we started dating.
OK, wait. I'm recalling another childhood food memory involving mayonnaise. I used to eat scrambled eggs with mayonnaise on toast and thought it was the best sh*t ever. Is this why all these sandwiches have tofu scramble?

I just remembered that my other favorite sandwich is vegan egg salad sandwich. It just takes more than 3 minutes to make, which is apparently longer than my memory span.

I know that's not the best photo because a) two hot dog buns and b) it's really hard to get a good photo of egg salad, even eggless egg salad. Here's the recipe, from Mouthwatering Vegan. I remember I had to cut down on the water-to-potato-flakes ratio - all potato flakes are special and unique, so some require different water quantities.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for staying with me until now.

Vegan Party Favors

noreply@blogger.com (Leah) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:22:00 +0000

Posting this one from my parents' house, which they just moved into nearby us -- we just ate a great meal of quinoa, kale, Tofurkey sausage, and white beans with squash... yum. But that's not what I'm here to talk about! What do two vegans give away as party favors at their reception? Umm... vegan chocolate, duh. This is a non-recipe but very party-related post (we'll get some recipes to you soon!) -- these were a big crafts project for me and my assistant Dan. Here's the final result:

We wanted something a little personal that would have something for everyone -- so it was tea and chocolates in a cute little jar. I liked the jars because people can use them later for spices or buttons or whatever -- a repurpose-able gift!

Contents:

Jar from myweddingfavors.com (no customization)
Hand-filled tea bags with choice of 3 teas from Teaism:

Gen Mai Cha (green tea)
Darjeeling (black tea)
Anxi (oolong tea)

Vegan Choices caramel chocolate (mostly rice-based)
Strips that I cut from a plaid men's shirt, bought from Buffalo Exchange, for some color...
Tea tag with our names, wildflowers I doodled in Photoshop, descriptions of the tea & how to brew, plus one of three Japanese poems (they went with the tea)

The nice thing about the Choices chocolate is that they were already individually wrapped. If you want to make something like this & can't get a hold of Choices, then some vegan truffles from a place like Premium Chocolatiers wrapped in saran wrap would work, or filled with little nibs or nuts from Charm School Chocolates.

We chose a nice mix of teas from Teaism -- all three are realllly good & come highly recommended. The bags were heat & seal bags purchased from Etsy, but we tied them up with twine instead of heating & sealing.

Filling the tea bags and working on the tags were the hardest parts. I chose three short Japanese poems that I love (they're very simple & beautiful poems, by two of Japan's greatest poets, Mitsuo Aida and Akiko Yosano.) Here's one of the Aida poems:

"You see beauty in everything because your heart is beautiful" (That's my own translation, which is probably a little off, please correct me if needed!) This was the first Mitsuo Aida poem I read, on a post card from my friend Natsuki.

I'm not sure how well-received these were, since we gave them to people as they were leaving, but I was really happy with how the tags turned out, and at the very least, I think people will put those little jars to good use!

Anyway - if you are thinking of favors and have 60 or fewer guests (60 felt like a lot, and I like doing crafts), consider favors with a bit of DIY-ness to them. Once you have the materials down, it is kind of a stress-relief activity to assemble it all, which is a necessity during wedding planning... and I absolutely recommend some combination of tea and chocolate -- if someone doesn't like one, chances are they'll like the other :)

Vegan Wedding Party: Appetizers part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Dan J) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:32:00 +0000

Dan and I had our vegan "wedding" (really reception) last weekend, with a welcome party on Friday night and the real deal on Saturday. We pulled off Friday night with some major successes and one minor failure... I forgot to take any photos of the food! I sent a photo of the wine to my friends, which happens to have food in the background, though, check it out:

Appetizer table --
The dishes of this post are in that blue/white dish and the out-of-sight dish on its left,

I can make up for some of them with photos from when we made the dishes at home, which is what I'll do here. For others, I don't know -- a drawing? Photos of the ingredients? Photos of the views of Lake Superior with mouthwatering descriptions of baked beans?? I'll try my best.

Red Onion Jam

If you haven't gotten the cookbook Vegan Cooking for Carnivores yet, it's worth it just for this tiny recipe at the back of the book. It looks like you can find the recipe by searching, and I'm not really into sharing copyrighted stuff anyway -- so I won't share the recipe here. I will share my one diversion -- though I use safflower oil at home, I used canola for the party, and it worked fine. I also use dried rosemary instead of fresh because it's what I always have on hand (and it tastes amazing anyway.) I doubled the recipe and it still went perfectly.

Here's what it looks like cooking -- the final product is more jamlike and somewhat spreadable

I can also tell you what to pair it with! The best, and most expensive, pairing is probably Punk Rawk Labs Nutmilk Cheese on a cracker... it has a tangy, sharp taste to compliment the sweet herby taste of the onion jam. If you can't find that (we found it in St. Paul, and it's made near there) or you don't want to splurge, Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese is a tasty match as well!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

This has to be one of the best things to dip bread in... I was super proud, because the best I've ever made this was Friday night. The recipe comes from Yup, It's Vegan! I recommend using unsweetened almond milk with this for taste. I also sub arrowroot for tapioca starch, depending on what I have in the pantry. But man!!! If you want to feel really cool for cooking something, make this! Or if you don't like using packaged vegan cheeses (I do like using them, but holy cow, it feels awesome to make your own melty cheese), this is the way to go.

OK, it looks better all stirred up!

I actually used frozen spinach when I cooked it Friday (raw spinach is in the photographed version), and it turned out just fine -- I think I used probably 1 cup of frozen spinach to equal 2 cups raw. It was a little more spinachey, I guess. Seriously, the coolest part is making melty vegan cheese in a saucepan. All three times I've made this, I yell out, "I'M MAKING CHEESE!!!" -- that's how exciting it is. (It might just be me, I am still a cooking novice, even after several years...)

Conclusion: Both of these were a hit!! I was so happy with them both -- I saw people going back for seconds and wanted to cry tears of joy (and stress, and general overwhelmedness of throwing a wedding reception, but totally joy too). And just because I keep saying I cooked this stuff doesn't mean I am the only one who cooked -- Dan and his mom cooked, maybe more than I did, and pulled off even more major hits. Which I did NOT get photos of. Grrrr.

Parting view of Lake Superior... I'll try to get one of these in for each post.

How awesome was our venue?

Vegan MoFo - First Post Fajitas!

noreply@blogger.com (Leah) — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:22:00 +0000

I'm planning to use Vegan MoFo as a motivator to get back into posting often -- but for this first week of September, we're up in Wisconsin with not much internet services, so posts will be sparse until we're home. BUT, the reason we're up here is related to our MoFo theme -- we're holding our vegan wedding reception up here!

We arrived on Saturday equipped with photos from cookbook pages, Vegusto and Just Mayo packed in ice, & ingredients lists for everything else we need... and that's just the cooking part. Lots of other prep work to be done (and I had initially imagined this as a low key event.....)

Anyway, as a kickoff post, a pre-wedding-reception meal -- easy to make, healthy (ish?) and delicious. We had some fajitas with onions, peppers, vegan chicken, and homemade tortillas, as well as the summer tomato salad from Cookin' Crunk.

Fajita fixings

The homemade tortillas and the tomato salad were actually the best part. I used this recipe for the tortillas, and cooked them in a cast iron pan, which I think worked wonders. I did NOT use any cooking spray - I've found that as long as you use enough flour to keep the tortillas from sticking together, they don't stick at all to the pan, and they cook a lot nicer. I also mixed in the oil before adding warm water to the dough. So be careful. You can also sub whole wheat flour for some of the white flour -- it tastes really good that way, but the tortilla is a bit more tough with whole wheat.

For the peppers, onions, and chickens -- we just cut one onion and two bell peppers into strips, sauteed the onions over medium heat for a few minutes, then added the peppers and turned it up to high. In the middle of sauteeing, you can squeeze some lime juice on them - otherwise no seasoning is really needed. Once they have a nice char on them, they're ready to serve. We used the same pan for the vegan chickens (I prefer Gardein or something; these were SoL cuisine).

Usually I make a chipotle mayo sauce with a few tbs vegenaise, 1/4 cup vegan plain yogurt, and one chipotle pepper (from a can, with adobo sauce), plus some lime juice and salt, blended together in a food processor. We didn't do that this time, since the SoL chicken had chipotle flavoring with it.

For the tomato salad - you will just have to read the cookbook! I subbed red wine vinegar for rice vinegar, and we threw in some fresh dill, both of which I think were good choices. The key is really good tomatoes and cucumbers, and 'tis the season...

Sorry I didn't take another photo of the plate! And more wedding-themed stuff will be coming. As a teaser: Red onion jam, cashew cheeze, homemade hummus, catered vegan entrees, and booze.....

Happy MoFo!

Mad Momo's

noreply@blogger.com (Leah) — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:39:00 +0000

I realize this is the first post in a few months -- I'll pretend we have a valid excuse, planning a wedding reception takes energy! And a reception weekend where we plan on cooking for everything but the main event requires devoted recipe searching/testing energy, thus a diversion from posting. But - it will pay off next month, we will post about the reception for Vegan Mofo in September!

In the meantime -- I felt compelled to sing the praises of a great restaurant near our place, Mad Momo's. (It has a beer deck too - we haven't gone specifically for the beer deck, but how awesome does that sound right now, what with the mild weather this August?)

Dan and I have gone here four times by now - and every time I order the same thing, the vegan thukpa noodle bowl. We also have had the vegan momos, which I don't have a photo of, but they're amazing - not to be missed.

Vegan tofu thukpa noodle bowl

There's a reason I order the thukpa bowl every time - it's really good. It has tofu, kale, carrots, lettuce, and some herby stuff that dissolves into the broth (sorry for my lack of adequate descriptors.) The tofu is crispy - I'm not sure how they fry it, but I want to learn! The broth has kind of changed each time I've been, from more on the green side to more dark brown colored, but it's always good.

Last time we went, Dan had the vegan naan-mi (there's a cultural mash-up for you...), which has tofu with a bit of slaw inside of a naan bread. With... tater tots? (It works...)

It's not as good as my thukpa bowl, but if I was going to cheat on the thukpa, it would be with this. And hey, the tots are pretty good...

Mad Momo's also has some good cocktails (I like the Get On the Floor) and beer/wine selections. They do half-price bottles of wine on Saturday, which is a great deal.

The restaurant is located on 14th street & Perry Place, about a 7-10 minute walk north of the Columbia Heights metro station. I recommend heading over to Lyman's Tavern afterwards & enjoying another round of drinks with some pinball. Enjoy it while the weather is nice!

Vegan party!

noreply@blogger.com (Leah) — Mon, 05 May 2014 19:16:00 +0000

About a month ago, Dan and I hosted a party in DC for our JASC friends to come and eat/drink/be merry & "celebrate togetherness", i.e. our engagement. We had planned for a picnic outside and ordered food and cake in advance, so when it rained that weekend, we had to go to plan B -- which happened to be our favorite sports bar, Rocket Bar. Rocket Bar doesn't have its own food, so it allows you to bring in outside food. This was perfect for us, since we'd already arranged our vegan catering for pick-up!

We had five people staying over at our apartment that weekend, so I tried to start the morning off nice with some vegan cinnamon rolls - a nearly disastrous endeavor, since our oven started smoking, and not in a glamorous 60s kind of way (OK, smoking was never that glamorous.) There was some crud at the bottom of the oven making a terrible smoke, which miraculously didn't leave its mark on the cinnamon rolls. They came out fine - more undercooked than usual, because we were so eager to stop the smoke!

Luckily, the food only got better from that point on. Woodland's Vegan Bistro supplied us with fried "chicken" and macaroni & cheese to feed 15 (and then some), along with barbecue sauce and hot sauce. Dan made some pasta salad, and a friend brought chips and hummus. I LOVE Woodland's vegan chicken, and though it's always better fresh out of the frier, the leftovers kept Dan and I happy for days. And, the macaroni and "cheese" is one of the best dishes in DC, and I'm not the only one who says so.

Our friend Diane got a photo of the plated food -- I was too busy running around ordering champagne and trying to get the jukebox to play good music to remember to take a photo!

We also ordered a cake for the occasion, from Sweet Themez Bakery. They made us a "Cherry Blossom" cake, which was cherry-flavored cake and cherry jam in the middle - we loved it! Again, borrowing a photo from another friend, Yuri.

Sometimes it's not that exciting to have a lot of food and cake left over after a party, but we were grateful for it - with guests staying over the next day, it helped feed us all for lunch and sustained my lunches for a few days afterward. And I could eat that cake for days if I had to!

So, lesson learned - vegan parties in DC are a piece of cake, even when it rains. I won't pretend I wasn't nervous about the logistics of getting us all together & well fed, but it all came out perfectly, and we had a great time hanging out with our close friends.

Homemade vegan ravioli

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 23:27:00 +0000

Last weekend we made vegan ravioli with cashew "ricotta" filling. The pasta dough worked out superbly. I'll share the recipe below so others can partake in the ravioli fun -- it is a bit of work without a pasta roller, but they cook really quickly, and what's better than homemade pasta?

I'll give the recipe, then a few photos of the process, rather than interrupting the instructions with photos - that gets really confusing to follow, I know. So look to the end for photos, and enjoy!

Homemade ravioli! With kalamata olives and spinach over tomato sauce

Step 1: Make the cashew ricotta filling first just to get it out of the way...

Ingredients:

1.5 cup raw cashews, soaked for ~2 hours or more
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs nutritional yeast
~1/2 tsp salt - but add ≤1/4 tsp first and check the saltiness level!
Dash lemon juice
2 tbs unsweetened soy/almond/whatever milk

Process the cashews for 20 seconds or so in a food processor, add the olive oil, then slowly add the water in while the cashews are processing. You can stop the processing after the water is incorporated, and add the vinegar, nutritional yeast, some of the salt, and the lemon juice. Process again. Taste -- if you like the taste as-is, don't do anything. I prefer a more creamy, tangy, and salty "ricotta" -- so I would add the lemon juice, unsweetened non-milk, and more salt at this point and give it another whirl. Set the filling aside when you're done, and focus now on the pasta...

Pasta ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp black salt (kala namak) (optional - gives the very slightly egg flavor of fresh non vegan pasta)
Pinch regular salt
1 tbs nutritional yeast
3/4 cup water plus more...

Mix together the flours in a large bowl and work in the olive oil with a fork. Add the salts and nutritional yeast and stir to combine. Pour in the water and mix up the dough - I had to add plenty more water - until you can knead together to get a firm dough. Knead the dough for several minutes.

If you have the patience, you can wrap the dough up and let it sit for 10 minutes to an hour. I don't really know the advantages to doing this vs. not - we left it for about 10 minutes and it was fine. Looking up non-vegan recipes, it seems like some "resting" period was advised, but I am not curious enough to figure out why. Maybe you know. Just do what feels right. I'll tell you later if I figure anything out.

Anyway - when you have your dough ready - if you have a pasta dough roller, now is the time to use it. We do not have one, so I can't help you there, but I have faith that you can roll a great ravioli dough!

If you are going to use a regular rolling pin like us, divide the dough into 4 or more sections and roll it out so that it's about 8 inches width, and longer than a sheet of paper. The dough should be pretty thin, as thin as you can make it with your awesome dough-rolling muscles. About 1/4 centimeter or less is probably good.

Cu the dough into 2 four-inch strips. These two four-inch strips are going to make two rows of ravioli, if that makes sense. On the right-most side of one of the strips, pile ~1tbs of the cashew filling every 2 inches. (Here is where photos are helpful, below.) Cut the strip in half so that you can top the filling side with a blank side. Push down around the filling piles so that they are air-tight between two pasta strips. Cut between the piles to make the ravioli squares, and press the edges down with a fork. You can cut off some excess if the edges are too long, and roll that back into the dough or just make little noodle strips with it.

We started water boiling after 1/4 of the dough had become raviolis, because you can take them out one-at-a-time as they get done. Put a large pot of water to boil and put in 8-10 raviolis to start (can do more if your pot fits more.) Once the raviolis float to the top, after a few minutes, they're done - use a slotted spoon to strain them of water and put onto a plate or bowl. Keep them warm by putting them in the oven at very low heat, if you'd like.

Top with sauce - we added onions, spinach, and kalamata olives to a generic tomato sauce the first time around. For leftovers, I made a white sauce with flour, Earth Balance, nutritional yeast, and soy milk. Each time was great!

Photos of the prep:

Cashew "ricotta" filling

Ravioli dough

Filling on the dough

Dough over the filling, ready to cut out

Final product - notice the fork marks!

Happy eating.

Salt Lake City Vegan

noreply@blogger.com (Dan J) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 02:57:00 +0000

We just got back from a ski/work trip to SLC, which also turned out to be a vegan food trip (as they all do...) It was like everything we ate just got better and better.

Tiramisu from Sage's Cafe

Sage's Cafe, where we got that tiramisu, was actually one of the last (and best, but really hard to rank) stops, as we ate there on our last night. And I'm oh-so-glad we did. I got an amazing pasta casserole, or "casserulola", with pomodoro, spinach, tofu, and my choice of penne and mushrooms. Soooo good. Not enough on the plate, but I forgive because of how good it was. See below...

Best pasta bake ever.

I actually craved it again today, and we sort-of recreated this dish-- more later on that, probably. But mannnn, I wanna go back and eat that and some tiramisu again.

Mushroom stroganoff

Dan went for the mushroom stroganoff with linguine, which I would have gotten but for the garlic (and the garlic wasn't even overpowering when I tried it, not enough to get me sick, at least!) -- this was realllly good. I don't have a photo, but Dan's mom had a pasta primavera which also got a good review. Highly recommend Sage's Cafe, and they have a ton of gluten free options as well (both our dishes could be made gluten free.)

The first night, we went to Vertical Diner, a vegan restaurant with sandwiches, entrees, and breakfast options. Dan got the special, which was a country fried seitan steak and hashbrowns. I got a sausage philly pizza steak. Both really good--very diner-ish (appropriately). Dan wasn't a huge fan of his seitan but the gravy & the breading was great.

Country fried 'steak' and hashbrowns

Isn't that a huge plate?? The potatoes were good too.

Philly pizza steak with vegan sausage

I finished all of mine, albeit with some trouble; it was so filling! Those are mashed potatoes and gravy back there, YUM. I really liked the sausage. It seemed like the sausage and seitan were homemade, which deserves major props. It tasted like something my mom would make, but on a sandwich. Dan's mom got a pancake with blackberries, which I kind of wish I had gotten because I have a super sweet tooth and I love breakfast. But, I am glad I got to have a messy sandwich (toooo messy, I had to eat with a fork, but I am a wimp when it comes to messy food...)

Veggie sausage burrito with jalepeños

City Cakes & Cafe was probably my favorite place at which we ate, and that was our final food adventure. We went there for breakfast before heading to the airport. I had a waffle, not pictured because I ate it so fast. So good. And Dan's potato wrap was even better... aaaah. I don't even prefer savory breakfast and I loved it. Turns out we'd been eating City Cakes' muffins and scones the whole trip because we got them from Whole Foods for breakfast. They are amazing. I wish this place would combine with Sticky Fingers and offer both their menus in DC. I could eat the sausage wrap for breakfast like 4/7 days of the week, and that is saying a LOT given my affinity for sweet foods for breakfast.

Not pictured: A wonderful pizza and zeppoles (little dessert breads) from Este, a pizza place which can make pretty much anything on its menu vegan, and it's also a really cool place to hang out. Very nice wait staff and a really enjoyable time. I am just terrible at remembering to take photos (yet every time I pull my phone out to take a photo at a restaurant, I feel like I'm fulfilling a stereotype.....) but the pizza looked and tasted awesome, I assure you. I really recommend it, as it was the only non-fully-vegan place we went & still fulfilled my every need.

Also not pictured: The amazing salads & breakfasts from Whole Foods (some of which were thanks to City Cakes) -- aside from muffins and scones, we got some good tofu salad, vegan chicken salad, wraps, and spring rolls to tide us over for lunch a few days. I realize Whole Foods is everywhere, but the deli section is pretty different in different cities, and they do local baked goods and such. The SLC Whole Foods we went to was particularly good for vegans (though it didn't have the vegan chicken salad they had in Memphis, which still has my heart for favorite Whole Foods store.)

Special thanks to Sue, Dan's mom, who treated us to all this amazing food & our snowboarding fun... we couldn't have asked for a better ski trip partner!

Bonus photo: Dan at the odd Gilgal Sculpture Garden. What a weird place...

Cold-weather food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 20:47:00 +0000

DC weather has been weird this month--we saw the effects of the polar vortex just like everyone else, then it was 50 degrees days later, followed by some near-freezing days. I can't remember if the past two years here were like this, but it seems really erratic.

Anyway, it's been generally cold, and we've been making some soups and curries to warm ourselves up lately. Check it out --

Ramen with smoked vegan goose, baby corn, and bok choy

Spicy thai soup with tomatoes, shiitake, onions, carrots, and tofu

Grilled daiya on rosemary bread and hot & sour soup with mushrooms and cabbage

Red curry with eggplant

I'll share the recipe for the red curry, originally from my mom's blog here.

Red Thai Curry with Eggplant

1 14-oz. cans lite coconut milk
2 tablespoons red Thai curry paste
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
12-oz. package extra-firm tofu
10 oz. package frozen peas
salt to taste, or more tamari
chopped coriander, for garnish

Pour 1/2 of the coconut milk in large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk in curry paste until well blended. Add onion, eggplant and bell pepper, stirring well with rubber spatula and scraping bottom of pan.

Add remaining coconut milk, sugar, vinegar, and tamari, stirring with spatula to mix well. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes.

Add tofu to curry mixture, stirring with spatula to mix. Cook until heated through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add peas and warm through, 1 to 2 minutes. Add salt to taste, and sprinkle with coriander. Serve hot.

Stay warm everyone, since apparently no state has avoided a taste of the cold this month!

More vegan holiday meals

noreply@blogger.com (Dan J) — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 02:50:00 +0000

We went to Dan's house in Wisconsin for Christmas week, and had some awesome food -- homemade pizza, soups that his mom made, and an all-vegan Christmas dinner!

Dan's mom cooked pretty much everything but the gravy (which I made, but I didn't do that good of a job!) and I helped bake the Field Roast, which is pretty low-maintenance. Clockwise from the very left, you can see the perfectly shaped homemade rolls, Field Roast with gravy and cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes & squash, brussels sprouts, and fruit. I know the sizes seem small, but this filled me up.

This was my first time trying Field Roast, and while I really like many of their products, I have to say I prefer Tofurkey to their holiday roast. But, it did its job filling us up, for sure.

Cinnamon rolls

I also carried on my family tradition of having cinnamon rolls before opening presents in the morning. When I was little, we did the Pillsbury rolls, but I don't think those are vegan -- even if they were, these are way better. I use Vegan Yum Yum's recipe and it always works, even when I accidentally use like half the yeast needed, like this time (needed, or kneaded? ha ha...) I was happy these turned out so well and Dan's family got to try them.

Dan's mom is also an amazing baker & made tons of vegan cookies and treats -- I didn't get a photo of those, sadly (I was busy taking photos of a kitten...) -- but believe me when I say the cookies were picture perfect & their taste more than lived up to it.

For New Year's, we were back in DC, and didn't do much on New Year's Eve (I went to work the next day, & we didn't feel much like going out). But, on New Year's Day, we made black eyed peas for good luck.

Black eyes peas, rice, and yes, that's cabbage

The recipe for the black eyed peas is from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. We might have subbed a few of the vegetables with whatever we had on hand, but it turned out really yummy. The grocery store was out of cabbage heads -- everyone had the same plans, I guess -- so we got some shredded purple cabbage, which is totally not for this purpose, but it's such a nice shade of purple! We put some salt and apple cider vinegar on it and it all worked out.

I hope everyone else had a good holiday season and a great start to the new year. I don't really do resolutions, but I do plan to maintain a lifestyle that helps me and the people around me to feel good. Dan and I will be starting our first year as a married couple, and while I don't think marriage is what makes a partnership special, it will be great to celebrate our happiness this year with our friends and family, and then with each other for years to come.

On that sentimental note, have an amazing 2014!

Thanksgiving food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 23:56:00 +0000

(I know this is late for Thanksgiving, but wanted to post in advance of any Christmas or New Year's meals people might need ideas for!)

Thanksgiving has its drawbacks--it's based on a misleading story and it has turned into a tradition of killing and eating turkeys and then watching the news about people duking it out over stuff on sale (I know of more people who make fun of black Friday shoppers than who actually go shopping, which is kind of just as bad?)

I will take any excuse to cook a big meal once or twice a year, though. But our family Thanksgiving tradition, if we ever have kids, will be to explain what actually happened when Europeans came to the 'new world' here, and also how life was much better for turkeys before that time.

This year, we ordered a few vegan smoked goose packages from May Wah and cooked those along with a ton of other dishes:

Too much for one photo!

I'll try to list the dishes from top to bottom: We've got cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, store-bought rolls off to the side there, gravy, brussels sprouts, smoked non-goose, stuffing, and green bean casserole. And lots of wine, of course!

Everything but the bread was homemade--and the stuffing was an herbed bread so we also skipped a few steps on that. I'll share all the recipes we used here, as well as tips for the stuff we came up with.

Cranberry sauce: I halved this recipe from the Food Network since we bought a small carton of cranberries.

Sweet potato casserole: From my mom's blog -- I've never had a Thanksgiving without these, even though I used to hate this dish & still am not too keen on sweet potatoes.

Gravy: A recipe a lot like this one, but we added nutritional yeast.

Brussels sprouts: The recipe for pecans and brussels sprouts from Bianca Phillips' Cookin' Crunk!

Smoked vegan goose: I marinated it in vegetable broth, soy sauce, and plum sauce and then rubbed it with rosemary and sage, then cooked for 20-30 minutes. The plum sauce flavor was really nice.

Stuffing: This recipe from Anything Vegan--I wasn't sure how much bread I used in comparison to theirs, and maybe should have added more broth in some places. It was really good, we just had a few dry pieces.

Green bean casserole: I veganized the Campbells recipe. I sautéed mushrooms then added 1 cup vegetable broth and 1 cup soy creamer to make the cream of mushroom soup, and unsweetened almond milk for the milk. I would add flour to the cream of mushroom soup, since it wasn't quite thick enough, but it was good!

And we had pie too -- I used the recipe from Isa Chandra's Vegan Pie in the Sky. Always turns out well, but unfortunately we used store-bought crust that happened to be vegan, and the crust was terrible! The pie was best eaten outside the crust as a pie-pudding in this case.

More photos below:

Another angle

Crowded plate!

Pies... and wasted crust!

Enjoy your own holidays, whatever they may be, and stay warm!

Birthday food!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 22:51:00 +0000

Last Saturday was my birthday, and I got to have some spectacular food...

Tiramisu cake

First, on Friday before my birthday, my mom sent this cake from Sticky Fingers to my office (which was highly appropriate since it was my coworker's birthday the same day as mine!) It was SUPER delicious, and really rich -- supposedly this serves 6-8, but I think they mean 6-8 dinosaurs, because after a small piece in the morning I was full until dinner. That's not a bad thing, of course, since it meant the cake lasted through the birthday weekend. My coworkers and I really enjoyed this Friday treat.

Crepes with blueberry syrup and cream cheese frosting

The morning of my birthday, we made crepes, which we've talked about before... the blueberry syrup was totally me making up how to make blueberry syrup but it came out really well. I couldn't tell you what I did if I tried, but it involved blueberries, water, sugar, and a bit of corn starch. The cream cheese frosting is easy, just half a tub of cream cheese and a handful of walnuts beaten with powdered sugar until you get a nice consistency and flavor. So easy, so perfect for a birthday breakfast.

Yes, I took a picture of a latte cup

We headed into Georgetown to meet coworkers at the holiday bazaar that the Swedish Embassy hosted (which was great!) Before heading there, we got a soy latte from Baked & Wired, one of our favorite cafes in DC (and they sometimes have vegan cupcakes!) And, an extra surprise when my friend Kia from college was working there & made our latte! She did a great job, I have to say, one of the best soy lattes we've tasted. Or maybe getting it on my birthday made it better... a combination of both, I think.

No photo of this, but we got some small cups of glögg (did I spell that right?) from the Swedish bazaar--mulled wine, but with a cool Swedish name. Another perfect warm-up drink.

Veggie 'beef' clay pot

For dinner, we went to Harmony Cafe in Georgetown, and ordered a veggie clay pot -- delicious, as usual. I also had a plum wine with that and a vegan fish dish, also good.

On Sunday, we went to If/Then, a musical that was playing in DC for a while starring Idina Menzel. The acting and singing was top notch, which is what musicals are for, so we weren't disappointed. Food-wise, we just had drinks -- white wine and gin & tonics. Perfect.

A great weekend overall! But a whole year to wait before the next one... luckily, I can find lots of excuses for vegan cake in the meantime.

Vegan ramen in DC (part two, kind of)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 22:28:00 +0000

We previously posted a comparison of a vegan ramen shop in Tokyo (T's Tan Tan) compared to vegan ramen from Daikaya, which is in Chinatown, DC. We've also visited Sakuramen in Adam's Morgan, which has a vegan ramen. Both Daikaya and Sakuramen have pretty good vegan ramens, which are tasty in large part because of the awesome mushrooms included in the soup (if you like that kind of thing.) But today we tried out the vegan ramen from Taan Noodles, also in Adam's Morgan, and it's definitely my favorite of the three DC options we've tried.　本当においしいよ！

I'll lay out my reasons for giving Taan Noodles top place in vegan ramen below:

1. The tofu. It's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and actually has a nice tofu flavor (some people say tofu is flavorless by itself; I've found that to be untrue!) This was maybe the best part of the soup, and 3 pieces is enough to fill you up.

2. The atmosphere. Sakuramen and Daikaya are fun to hang out in, and I do like the 90s hip hop they play in Daikaya, but Taan just felt really gentle and neutral compared to both of those. This might be biased because we were there for lunch and not dinnertime, but I have been to Daikaya for a late lunch & I still like Taan better in comparison.

3. More sake -- Daikaya izakaya upstairs probably has a better selection, but they don't have ramen upstairs, so it doesn't count! Taan has a good selection of drinks & some drinks that aren't too common outside of Japan. We didn't order any, but if we go back, I probably will. (Bonus points for the "It's not a milk, it's Nigori Sake!" quotation under a junmai nigori description!)

4. Toppings - This is actually tied with Daikaya and Sakuramen, since I like their toppings too, but they have unique toppings like pickled ginger and a small boiled tomato. Plus that tofu. Yummm!

5. The broth. It's soy milk based and super spicy! (If you can't do spice, definitely ask them if they can tone it down or serve another type of veggie broth...) The soy milk was interesting, I never would have thought of putting soy milk in a ramen broth. Whoever came up with this, whether it was the chefs at Taan or some other soup they borrowed from, it's a good idea.

The noodles themselves are also great, about equal to the other shops', and the price is about the same as Daiyaka/Sakuramen at $14. So, all else held equal, Taan wins out for me. The other two just have a really overpowering grill flavor throughout the broth, and I prefer my grill-flavor to stick to the veggies and not permeate the soup. Taan did not have grilled toppings, but that's fine with me, they didn't skimp on veggies & used great ingredients.

We also got the veggie gyoza, which was delicate and yummy:

The filling was cabbage, carrots, and onion; I'm not sure what the sauce was, and was a bit wary that it might be honey, but it didn't taste like it at all.

We used an Amazon Local coupon and got a deal, but even without the deal the meal would be worth it. I definitely recommend any ramen-loving vegan in DC to check Taan out and have some vegan ramen and sake!

Vegan breakfast/brunch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:06:00 +0000

I have to start this off with a bad review, unfortunately -- I had been really excited to visit The Coupe, a few blocks from our house, since I'd looked at their menu and seen vegan pancakes and french toast. We went up there last weekend when some friends were in town, and within like weeks of me looking at it, the menu had changed -- the only vegan brunch option was a tofu dish. Super, super disappointing, since I prefer sweet to savory brunch, and they just didn't have anything that fit the category. But, to try and make up for it, I ordered buffalo seitan tacos, which were on the lunch menu. They were awful! I don't know if it was badly made seitan or terrible buffalo sauce, but something was extra salty in there and they were just inedible. I really hope no non-vegans try them, as I'd admittedly be put off from seitan and its capabilities by that one dish. Dan had the vegan tofu dish on the brunch menu, and it was OK, but really not worth returning for when Meridian Pint is down the street offering curried tofu scramble and vegan french toast. Sorry, The Coupe. You should have kept the vegan pancakes on the menu--it's SO EASY to veganize pancakes! I don't have a photo of my food, but maybe that's for the best...

OK, rant over--now, for some happy thoughts of vegan breakfast foods that everyone can make at home instead of going out to get terrible seitan tacos!

I have a sweet tooth, so I usually for stuff like this:

Sorry, was hard to show the filling in a good photo, but yum!

These are jelly filled muffins from this recipe. The batter was like cake batter, it turned out really moist and nice, and the jam-filled centers were great. We filled some of them with jam plus vegan cream cheese, which is totally indulgent but really good. Filling the batter seems hard, but even when I did a crappy job, they came out OK, so don't fret. Anyway, I definitely suggest making these if you like to indulge on a sweet breakfast during a weekend!

But, if you like savory breakfast & don't want to work too hard for it, try some 'fried eggs' using Vegg powder (or, some combo of black salt, nutritional yeast, & water for the yolk if you can't find Vegg powder) -- Vegan Crunk has tips on that here. We just made some for breakfast sandwiches with Gimme Lean sausage.

Crépes, the big hit in our household

Or, if you're cooking breakfast for a mix of sweet and savory folks... how about starting with plain crépes and adding either jam & cream cheese frosting for the sweet or sautéed mushrooms and vegan cheese sauce for the savory? Here's the recipe we use for crépes!

Breakfast/brunch foods are some of the most fun foods to veganize for me (when the 'classic' recipes aren't vegan, at least), and I like taking some time on a Saturday or Sunday morning to explore new breakfast recipes. Pancakes are a regular fall-back for us (we like these peanut butter flax seed pancakes) and muffins are also a good option -- we made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins the other weekend, which were glorious -- and when we go savory, like today, tofu-eggs or vegan sausage is usually the way to go.

OK, enjoy your breakfast... it's never too late in the day for brunch, right?

Vegans eating food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 00:03:00 +0000

OK, time for another one of those stuff-we-eat posts, a glimpse into our tummies (OK, that would be gross, my photos look a little better than stomach contents usually...)

Are you ready for some photos?

Brown sugar carrots with rigatoni casserole

It's really hard to get a photo of baby carrots that don't look like fingers. I know baby carrots are all a conspiracy anyway, or something like that. I knew it when I was little, too:

Anyway, we adapted this recipe to make these and served them with rigatoni casserole. They were good, better than I remember them being when I was 3...

Apple pie!

This is from Vegan Pie in the Sky... yum! It was really good, but it lasted too long since we were the only ones to get to eat it...

'Chicken" noodle soup with veggies and turnip greens

A soup full of vegan chicken (we used Gardein for this), turnips and their greens, potatoes, and noodles. My first time cooking with turnip greens. It was good!

Vegan shrimp spring rolls

Hard to see the veggie shrimps in here, but they came with a big haul from May Wah that we ordered in preparation for Thanksgiving (we got some vegan smoked goose and other goodies.) They taste really good. We also tried them fried. I highly recommend ordering from May Wah if you can't find certain veggie meats in your area -- shipping is costly but it's worth it. Try the vegan mock duck...

Ah, that's all I have on my computer, but I do have more photos to share sometime soon!

Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Recreating perfection?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 03:53:00 +0000

During the past few trips to Busboys and Poets, I've branched out from the usual selection of $9 dollar sandwiches and appetizers (seriously though, those appetizers are filling) and tried some entrees for a few extra bucks. That's kind of a lie, the first time I tried an entree was because Dan's mom ordered their orzo dish a few weeks ago, and she let me have a bite. But, with that bite, it instantly became my new favorite dish.

And, since I now have a job to go to instead of blogging every day (sorry!) I can afford to buy my own $14 entrees sometimes. So, last weekend when we went there with a friend, I ordered the pan-seared basil tofu. My new new favorite dish!

Sorry, trendy restaurants --> crappy photos, but yum!

This was pretty much perfect (if you like tofu, but even if you don't love it) and I ate it in like 5 minutes. It's really not enough food for a dinner, so if you're already spending the $14 on the entree, go ahead and get an appetizer or a side. I was lucky & had Dan's calzone (also amazing, but not quite as mind-blowing as this) to share.

I didn't really have conscious plans to try and cook something like this at home, but then Dan started talking about tofu and quinoa the other night... we pretty much made this same thing, but subbed the tomato cream sauce with chipotle remoulade.

Pan-seared tofu over quinoa and chipotle remoulade

It came out really well. We didn't have the same quality of herbs to really get the tofu right, but the pan-sear turned out pretty well (OK, not as beautiful as theirs, I'll just have to keep trying!) The broccolini, which Dan sauteed with some lemon juice, margarine, and salt & pepper, was a really nice touch. We added raisins and sun-dried tomatoes to the quinoa -- I could do without the tomatoes, actually, but quinoa went great with tofu and broccoli.

There's not really a secret recipe here, but we based the quinoa & chipotle remoulade off my mom's stuffed peppers dish here. Pan-searing the tofu (or is this pan-frying?) just meant rubbing the tofu with some herbs and cornstarch, heating up a pan with a thin coating of oil, and letting the tofu sit there for a few minutes on each side. This is the same way I cook up marinated tofu to put in soups and stuff (see blog header!) so it wasn't really anything new, but putting the meal together was pretty novel for us -- and delicious.

I'll try to blog some more this weekend, I have such a backlog of photos to put up! Enjoy November, everyone.

Vegan "steaks" with gravy & potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 16:16:00 +0000

I used to hate the smell of nutritional yeast as a teenager, whenever my mom cooked with it. But after having these veggie-crumble steaks with gravy, I started craving nutritional yeast gravy all the time. We re-created this recipe from my mom using Trader Joe's beefless ground beef. The steaks were really delicious--and even better as leftovers (as many things are!) I guess they're more like burger patties than actual "steaks", but that doesn't make them any less awesome to eat with potatoes and gravy...

The gravy might be the best part!

These are really easy. We also happened to make the most perfect mashed potatoes, that might have been the 2 tbs of Earth Balance I stirred into them... the original recipe is here--note that it is from over 8 years ago! So, consider my version the "updated" recipe... though it's not really that updated.

Here's the recipe, with my edits:

Salisbury "Steak" and Gravy - makes about 4 "steaks"

1 tablespoon non-hydrogenated canola oil
~~8 oz. Gimme Lean burger-flavored product~~
~~1 cup Morningstar Farm crumbles, or similar product~~
1 package beefless ground beef -- not the frozen kind, unless you add something to help them stick
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon onion ~~powder~~ flakes
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp sage
~~1/4 teaspoon garlic powder~~
black pepper, to taste
2 cups Brown Gravy, or favorite gravy recipe

Mix Gimme Lean, crumbles, breadcrumbs, and seasonings until combined. Form oval-shaped patties. Fry in oil (or use cooking spray) on both sides until brown. (They may stick to the pan; if so, pry them off gently.) Add 1/4 cup water, cover, and steam until the water evaporates, about 10 minutes. Pour gravy over the top and simmer for another 5 minutes or so, or until your potatoes are ready. (You were planning to serve mashed potatoes with this, weren't you?)

To make Brown Gravy:

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 cups water
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
Dash of oregano
Dash of thyme

Combine flour and yeast in dry skillet. Heat until it begins to smell toasty. Turn off heat and whisk in water and tamari until smooth. Heat again, until mixture is boiling, then reduce heat and simmer a few minutes.

(We did make mashed potatoes -- we added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup almond milk and ample Earth Balance and some salt to make them amazing!)

Enjoy!

Crêpes!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 21:15:00 +0000

When my sister and I were younger, my sister's favorite breakfast food was crêpes. My favorite breakfast food was also secretly crêpes, but I never admitted it because I wanted to like different things than my sister. My dad would make them with raspberry syrup and cream cheese with walnuts, and it was pretty much dessert for breakfast--as it should be on the weekends!

Last weekend, Dan pulled up this recipe from The Everyday Vegetarian and started making these while I was in the shower--a nice surprise! We didn't have any vegan cream cheese or raspberries, but we filled them with homemade cherry jam from Dan's mom, applesauce, and chocolate peanut butter.

Crepes with jam and applesauce

These were probably a little healthier than my childhood favorite, since they are sans cream cheese frosting, but they were awesome! A word of caution: the crepes were not very hard to make, but that is probably in part because we used a non-stick griddle whose non-stick feature is very, very useful in this recipe. I'd recommend using your most frictionless pan for these.

This morning, we did happen to have cream cheese and walnuts in stock... so, we made these again, the "proper" way (with the cherry jam subbed for raspberry syrup.) They were perfect -- and eaten too fast to snag a photo! I used half a tub of Tofutti vegan cream cheese with some powdered sugar (probably about half a cup, but I just added until it was sweet enough), a squeeze of lemon juice, and about 1/2 tsp vanilla, mixed with a handful of almonds.

Anyway, if you have a good non-stick pan, make these for sure--you don't have to go the sweet & fattening route like we did, these would be good as savory crépes as well, and they're great with just applesauce or jam, as we discovered!

Imagine Vegan Cafe, Memphis

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 02:31:00 +0000

While we really regret missing DC VegFest this year, I'm glad we got to go to middle Tennessee to see family, and we did try to make up for it with our own vegan goodies on the trip. One of the best parts was visiting Imagine Vegan Cafe after we flew into Memphis. It was my second time to Imagine, and Dan's first. We really loved it! The atmosphere is similar to my favorite vegan cafe in Florence, MA (Cafe Evolution), and the food options are pretty much perfect.

The outside of Imagine Vegan Cafe

We were lucky in that we were ordering pretty much 2 meals each -- we wanted one for lunch, then some to take to Lexington for dinner (we were pretty sure there would be slim pickins for vegans out there.)

Eggplant sandwich and grits

I ordered the eggplant sandwich with a side of grits (OK, I didn't know it came with a side, and he caught me off guard by asking, so I just chose what I hadn't had in a while!) The sandwich was awesome! It's not a lot on the plate, but it's really cheap (like $5.99 or something) and it does have that side. It filled me up for lunch, either way. I LOVE mixing white sauce & marinara sauce & having a lot of it, so this was great! A little messy, but we weren't taking this one to go, so that was fine.

Fried shrimp, greens, and bbq beans

Dan ordered the fried shrimp with two sides, barbecue beans and greens. I have never had 'real' fried shrimp, and I haven't had un-fried 'real' shrimp since I was a little kid visiting relatives in Louisiana. I -kind- of remember liking it, I'll admit, but I don't see how it could be better than this! This was a really good plate.

This might be pumpkin latte cake?

We ordered a slice of cake without even asking what kind it was (if it's vegan, any cake is fine with us) and it turned out to be, I think, a carrot or pumpkin cake with coffee in it--I think he said pumpkin latte, when we asked if there was coffee in it. Clearly, we started eating before the picture because we couldn't wait. It was amazing.

We also ordered the appetizer platter, which comes with 4 appetizers, including hush puppies, buffalo wings, and dogs in blankets (not sure of the term for this they use...), and a plate of 4 sides--corn casserole, broccoli, beans, and something else I forgot. Both of these plates were to go, as well as a vegan chicken wrap.

All of that was only like $50! I promise we left a good tip. Everyone there is so nice, including the kid who ran by telling us "time for dinner!" It is definitely worth the short drive from the airport, and it softened the blow of missing VegFest!

An apology! And the last week of MoFo, condensed.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 23:33:00 +0000

So, I do sort of have of an excuse for the 2 weeks of no posts. We had some unexpected family news last week and had to make a last-minute trip down south, and this past week, Dan's parents have been visiting, so we have been hanging out with them instead of blogging! Forgive us?

Our sudden change of plans meant we missed out on DC's VegFest this year. VegFest is like Christmas (or pick your holiday) for me -- free samples, coupons, deals, vegan food from PA, VA, and MD that we don't get to eat usually, and talks and demos throughout the day... we will have to wait until next year, though.

We DID get to go to Imagine Vegan Cafe in Memphis, though, which will get its own post later!

Anyway, here are some photos I had been planning to post for the last week of MoFo:

Red beans and rice with vegan sausage

We made red beans and rice from my mom's recipe, using some multigrain rice (it had seeds and stuff in it, it was good) and leftover seitan sausage from a while ago. I love red beans and rice. I think it is one of the meals I'd be OK living off of--maybe because we used to have it almost every week when I was little, and I never got tired of it.

Pad thai, brussels sprouts, and leftover rice

Admittedly, pad thai is not one of those foods I could live off of forever, but maybe for a few weeks! We made a sauce for this with a bit of peanut butter, hoisin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, and this Thai mushroom-chili spread stuff from Trader Joe's. The brussels sprouts were yummy! I think we microwaved these in a bag, and then added olive oil and salt (we might have fried or broiled them a bit after microwaving, I can't remember...)

Pasta and broccoli casserole and green beans

Another childhood dish, slightly altered... this is usually made with rigatoni, but Dan bought some other pasta--whole wheat. I actually do not recommend using whole wheat pasta for this. The white sauce doesn't cook with it as well, or something. Also, make sure you used unsweetened milk... we used unsweetened almond and it was kind of weird, so maybe soy or rice is better? The green beans were cooked in the oven for 30 minutes or so with olive oil, salt, and pepper!

I also made these cookies and had planned to take a photo, but I didn't get to before we had eat them as we rushed to the airport to head to Memphis!

That's all for now...more soon, I promise!

Dijon potato salad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 02:15:00 +0000

I tried to think of something cool to say about mayo-free-potato-salad, and none of it made any sense, so I will just be straightforward. We made dijon potato salad with fresh dill this weekend, not so much as a football game accompaniment, but as a... weekend-long side dish, I guess you could say. We actually went to Duffy's Irish Bar, a Packers bar near U street station, to watch the game--they have veggie dogs! And veggie burgers. We just had fries. I'm not sure if the buns there are vegan, we've never ordered them. Anyway, back to the potato salad:

It might appear blurrier than it is, or maybe I did move the camera... I can't tell if it's an illusion or not!

We bought a new bowl just for this! Not really, that bowl was $3 at Target and we didn't already have one that size--good deal. Anyway, this is something my mom used to make to go with veggie burgers (recipe from my mom's blog here). We used green beans, small potatoes, fresh dill, toasted almonds, and dijon mustard. I think this weekend marked the end of barbecue and potato salad season... so we went out with a bang, by making this and also going to an office barbecue (in the rain, but that didn't actually dampen the occasion much!) where the hosts made three great vegan salads--lentil/orzo, bean/avocado/tomato, and spinach with raisins--and we brought some veggie dogs and tofu burgers to eat. I love it when people think creatively about 'salad' and 'vegan' together -- beans in a salad is a big thumbs up from me.

So, if you want to feed a vegan at a barbecue with something other than veggie burgers (or make an entirely vegan barbecue), I hope I've given you a few ideas to add to your repertoire... think beyond the lettuce!

District of Pi Pizzeria

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:43:00 +0000

Last week, a friend from Japan arrived in town, and we planned a JASC get-together for Friday the 13th...which happened to be his birthday (as I discovered after planning it!) Since we were all coming from different metro lines, we picked Metro Center as a location, and District of Pi (where Dan and I have been once before) seemed like a good group option for omnivores and vegans alike.

We shared a vegan and a non-vegan pie, since everyone there would happily try vegan pizza (though thankfully they left us ample servings of the vegan pie!) District of Pi makes deep dish pizzas, but sadly the deep dish dough is not vegan. Anyway, the thin crust is still delightful!

Vegan pie from District of Pie

We ordered the above pizza, and the first time they brought it out, they actually forgot the vegan cheese and put real cheese--I recognized that it wasn't anything Daiya-like (the vegan cheese most pizza places, including this one, use), and asked the waiter. They recognized it as well and took it back, bringing a newly vegan pizza within ten minutes. Our friends were amazed that I'd recognized the cheese issue, but then they saw the Daiya-covered one and noticed it's slightly different -- not that Daiya isn't totally convincing & delicious, it just comes in the pre-grated shreds that leave a different impression once melted. Anyway, I've heard the District of Pi has the best vegan pizza, and at this point, I'd say it's definitely up there. I actually like Rustik Tavern a lot, which uses a different vegan cheese, but it always smells like sausage in there... We've tried almost all the vegan pizza options in DC at this point, and it's really nice to know that there's a pizza restaurant that will cater to us in almost every area, especially for group situations. We all had a good time, and took our friend to Red Velvet cupcakery later on for him to have a birthday cupcake (they have vegan cupcakes there, which are AWESOME.) A good night overall -- sorry I didn't get a cupcake photo :(

Sorry again for less posting lately for MoFo -- starting work has meant less time to kill during the day, and I prefer to spend my evenings away from a laptop! But, we've been cooking up some stuff lately that I'll share next week, so stay tuned.

An eventful week makes for boring cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 01:23:00 +0000

I'm a little self-conscious of posting 'boring' foods like spaghetti and soup on here, or posting too much about eating out... but we haven't made anything novel since those scalloped potatoes (yes, a sad life when scalloped potatoes are 'novel'.) What we have done is make some spaghetti, ramen-not-the-instant-kind, eat bibimbap at Rice Bar, and order veggie Chinese food from Peking Garden in Adams Morgan. I think last week we made a pretty great vegetable soup, too. So, I'll share what I've got photos of...

Vegetable/pasta soup, in our inherited chipped bowl--we only have one nice bowl, this is not it!

I'll start with the soup, since it's a better photo (and don't meals start with soup--or salad--anyway?) This has everything in it. I say 'everything' because I can't even remember all the stuff in it. Onions, carrots, swiss chard, tomatoes, maybe some corn? Kidney beans? Those spiraley macaroni noodles with a cool name? Is that all? I don't know, it was good. Soup season is coming up, folks.

A blurry photo of spaghetti and more swiss chard. Green of the week, I guess.

We were supposed to have some kind of jarred marinara sauce with this, but it met its doom somewhere on Florida Ave, so this was from a can, with vegan beef pieces and fresh tomatoes on top. The spaghetti is whole wheat. Dan likes whole wheat pasta, I like every kind of pasta, but I like spaghetti the least. Why can't we always have those spiraley macaroni things! Why can't someone make an awesome cashew-cheese tortellini in a convenient package! These are just a few of the many issues ~~vegan~~ all pasta lovers must face. That's why rice is my starch of choice these days. Rice and veganism were meant to be together.

Clearly, it's time for me to leave--happy VeganMoFo, and get excited for DC VegFest in just over a week!

Dining out DC: Meridian Pint

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 00:47:00 +0000

A few weekends ago, we went to Meridian Pint for brunch with a friend. They have two or three vegan options for breakfast (more if you include the rest of the menu, which I think is available at brunch time.) I went here about a year ago with some coworkers and ordered the french toast, which was great then. Still great!

Vegan french toast

They flavor it with orange zest or something, so it's got a good flavor. Mine was pretty crispy, which is good, but I kind of like the "soggy" feeling mixed with a crispiness...this was all crisp. It came with fruit as well, which was nice!

Curried tofu scramble

"I think this is the best tofu scramble I've had" were Dan's words after trying his dish, the curried tofu scramble, which comes with potatoes and fruit. It -was- pretty good, I have to say. I also liked their potatoes a lot. I hope Dan gets this again next time we go, so that I can sneak bites of his & still have the french toast! We might try a curried tofu scramble at home, hopefully we can make it almost as good (and colorful, look at that) as this one.

Price-wise, it's a good deal, around $10-13 for each dish. It ends up being almost the same as Sticky Fingers for the amount of food, so we'll likely be coming back (though we'd never desert our favorite all-vegan bakery brunch.) If you go here any time other than brunch, they do have a veggie burger, which I've tried before (I wouldn't give it high marks, but it's homemade and they might have improved it--plus, I appreciate that they have it at all!) and they might have other sandwiches or dishes. There are so many amazing vegan options in the Columbia Heights area that I'd say spend your dinner time somewhere else if you don't come to the area often, unless you're with burger fanatics or want to try their beer /happy hour (worth it). But, definitely give brunch a try!

Food-ball week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 02:11:00 +0000

We watched the Packers play again Sunday, winning big against Washington's home team, whose name I won't mention... to go with our football beers, we made a layered dip for chips. This is at least the fourth layered food we've had during MoFo--lasagne, baklava, scalloped potatoes, and this dip!

Can you see the layers?

It's basically refried beans with some seasoning, vegan sour cream, homemade salsa, and vegan nacho cheese. For the nacho cheese, we melted 2 tbs butter and stirred in 2 tbs flour, then added 1/2 c almond milk and a cup of cheese and let it melt and thicken. I wish the cheese had stayed hot on the top, but the rest of the dish was cold, and chilled the whole dip.

Wanted to show off Dan's awesome homemade salsa, with corn, bell pepper, and 3 types of tomato

Chipped

Next time, maybe we'll make a chipotle black bean dip instead, and keep it somewhat warm... but it was good! The salsa is undoubtedly the best part; we had some left over, so not all of its glory was buried in cheeze sauce.