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Vegan on the Go: Fast(ish) Food

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

And…exhale. Today I helped out on a unit full of babies and very friendly nurses and techs, but things got a little awkward around lunchtime. I wasn’t in the main hospital, and the one I was in didn’t have a cafeteria. I planned on having a snackfest for lunch, but the nurses had organized a potluck and they had TONS of food in the break room – casseroles, potato salad, sloppy joes, spaghetti, chili, [bacon-topped] baked beans, and a bajillion [admittedly delicious-looking] desserts. I’m sure you can see where this is going. After their enthusiastic encouragement that I eat up, I put some crudités and some salad on a plate and tried to hide it on my knees so they wouldn’t see my food and think I was 1.) snobby/too good for them and their food, or 2.) on a diet. Then I supplemented my veggies with an apple, pretzels, and a Larabar.

And I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling… kids… nurses? I dunno. Anyway, a couple of hours later, the following conversation ensued:

Tech: You must be so hungry; you only ate lettuce for lunch! You should eat more – we have tons of food left!
Me: Ah, it’s okay, I’m actually vegan.
Tech: …vegan? I don’t know what that means.
Me: Well, I don’t eat eggs or dairy. Or meat, haha.
Tech: Ohhh! No WONDER you’re so skinny!
Me: Ehh heh heh. I think I was skinny before I was vegan…
Tech: So is it a religious thing?
Me: No, a personal thing… moral and ethical, really.
Tech: Oh, that’s cool! I should probably eat less of those things… but I love my meat! Give me chicken and turkey and I’m happy. But different types make the world go ’round!

So, really, a pretty painless “coming-out” moment. :) The tech then went out of her way to call the woman who’d made the chili to find out if it had meat (it did). She also asked if that meant I didn’t eat eggs in food. Hehe. I know I should’ve just said I was vegan when they first offered me lunch, but there were at least 6 or 7 people in the break room, and I chickened out! I just didn’t feel like dealing with the questions, y’know?

Aaanyway, after my shift ended and I finally got back to my hotel I obviously needed to make up for the lettuce lunch. I opted for… Chipotle. Heh. Whatever; it’s easy and filling. I think it’s pretty stupid to post a photo, but in the name of MoFo I’ll do it anyway.

Fooooood.

Gee willikers, but that’s a horrid photograph! I don’t really care though. It was a deeeee-licious burrito bowl full of rice and black beans and salsa and tomato and lettuce and corn and guacamole, and now my tummy is full and happy.

Anybody have a favorite “fast food” meal? I don’t know when I last ate at a “real” fast food joint, but Chipotle is pretty fast!

How was your Saturday? I’m super tired after my shift, so I’m chillin’ with TV and the internetz. Then I’ll rest up and get ready for another day of floor support. Oy.

Food Fail: Kale-Chickpea Curry…ish

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Today’s theme: Food Fail

Well, piddle on a fiddle. After last night’s dinner, I’m officially adding a new category to my MoFo list o’ themes: Food Fail. Totally shoulda built that one in from the beginning, right? At least it’s pleasantly alliterative! Anyway, this post will be both short and vaguely unpleasant, and also probably ugly. You’ve been warned; proceed at your own risk!

So – last night I wanted to make something quick yet flavorful and filling. As soon as I got home from work, I put a pot of rice on the stove and set to work. I wanted to make something chana masala/curryesque, so I opened up my trusty ol’ copy of VWAV and used the Chickpea and Spinach Curry as the [very loose] basis for my meal. I grabbed some kale and cherry tomatoes from the freezer (frozen at the end of summer; yay homegrown veggies!) and some leftover chickpeas from the blondies I made a few nights ago, and set to work. This was the result:

Yawn.

Okay, so it’s not exactly hideous, but it’s also not the most appetizing thing you’ve ever seen, right? In my memory it was much uglier. I suppose I’m conflating the result with the process, because the process of creating this meal was rather ugly. Whoever said that “a picture is worth 1,000 words” failed to consider the fact that pictures cannot include odors and textures and the entire story behind the photo. I mean, this meal was okay, but the process was… unpleasant. Consider the following:

  1. I burnt the garlic and had to scrape blackened chunks of mustard seeds and garlic from the bottom of the pan.
  2. I didn’t press my tofu or really cook it for very long, so it was… squishy.
  3. I undercooked the kale, and it was a bit tough. Plus there was really no base or sauce to the travesty of a curry, so it was really like rice + tough kale + squishy tofu + chickpeas… with some sad tomato skins for variety. Mmm… appetizing.

Needless to say, the stovetop fan got a good workout tonight. Oh well – it really didn’t taste terrible, and it could’ve been a much worse experience, and now that I’m writing about it I just sound like a whiny little brat. Well… the pan was a legitimate pain in the patootie to clean! So there. Cough.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for ya, folks. I’m just keepin’ it real, you know? MoFo can’t be all cupcakes and rainbows and prancing ponies all the time! Hopefully I won’t resort to this category too often, but… I can’t make any promises. ;)

Have you had any food fails lately? Do you post “ugly photos” on your blog? Are you less inclined to read about failures than successes?

Just FYI, I’ll be leaving for my work trip tomorrow morning. I’ll still be posting throughout the weekend, but probably not ’til late at night. I’m really anxious about the trip for about 4829 reasons, so feel free to send all your positive thoughts my way – I’d really appreciate them!

Fibertastic Pumpkin Muffins (or, how I learned to suck it up and use my pumpkin pie mix)

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

Remember when my inner food snob reared her ugly head, inspired by an accidental purchase? I showed my true colors and disparaged the accursed can of pumpkin pie mix that made its way into my grocery basket one day when I mistook it for the far more acceptable pureed pumpkin.

Sneaky devil!

Well, I still stand by my opinion that pumpkin pie mix has no place in my kitchen cupboard, thank you very much. However, I still had to use up the rest of the mix, so with a little creativity, I came up with another place for it: muffins. Yeah, I totally ignored every recipe in the whole wide world that says, “Be sure to use pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie mix OR ELSE YOUR BAKED GOODS WILL EXPLODE AND YOU WILL DIE.” Pshhh, whatevs. I purposely used this sucker in a batch of muffins. And you know what? It worked. SO THERE.

Nobody suspects the s3cR3t iNgR3d13nT!1!!!11!!

Fibertastic Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water)
1 C pumpkin pie mix
1/3 C nondairy milk (I used almond)
1/3 C applesauce
2 T oil
2 T molasses
Heaping 1/4 C raw sugar
1 t vanilla
1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 C toasted wheat bran
1/3 C old-fashioned oats
1 T baking powder
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t allspice
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves

Preheat your oven to 350˚.

In a medium bowl, combine the flax egg, pumpkin pie mix, milk of your choice, applesauce, oil, molasses, vanilla, and sugar until well mixed. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Pour spoonfuls of the batter into greased muffin tins and fill them about 3/4 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Et voila! Healthy, fiber-rich muffins that use up a good portion of your ungodly-sized can of pumpkin pie mix. You could also make this with regular canned pumpkin and just up the amount of milk you include, and maybe add some more spices. This recipe is loosely based on the Pumpkin Bran Muffins from Vegan Brunch, but I changed a fair few ingredients and adapted it for my own nefarious needs. By which I mean (obviously) my need to use up the mix.

I’ve still got a bit left, but I’ve discovered another use – as an addition to oatmeal. I’m accustomed to adding regular pumpkin to my oats, but I won’t lie – the additional sugariness of the mix adds an undeniable bit of sweet yumminess to my breakfast.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for ya today. I hope I survive this crazy windstorm the Midwest is battling, because one of my best friends is visiting this weekend, and we’re going to geek it up and hang out with Neil Gaiman at the House on the Rock. Yeah, no biggie. ;) Anyway, my posts might be sparse for the next few days, so have a great weekend and a fantastic Halloween! Do you have Halloween plans? Will you dress up? And – more importantly – do you like Neil Gaiman?!

Pumpkin Crackers for Oktoberfest

/ Kelly / 9 Comments

AGGHHH. What a week! I wrote this post on Tuesday, but due to having no internet at home (Star Satellite, me no like you) and being insanely busy, I’m not posting it ’til low-traffic Saturday. Oh well. :(

My life’s a little hectic these days. It’s crunch time at work, and on top of that I’m taking an American Sign Language class two nights a week, from 6:00 – 8:30. I don’t get home ’til 9:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays, but that doesn’t stop me from booking up my Tuesday evening. Whaddya think – did I have a hot date? Hit up the bars? Get crunk in the hood? Nah. I made crackers.

A work friend hosted an Oktoberfest-themed cocktail/beer gathering on Thursday, and I offered to bring “pumpkin-y snacks.” I spent days musing about what to make. Cookies? Mini pumpkin pies? Pumpkin bread? They just didn’t seem appropriate for a cocktail party.

Then the wonderful Angela came to my rescue. I was over the moon with happiness when I saw her serendipitous post about homemade crackers. Immediately I thought, “What ho – crackers! I shall make crackers!” and then I thought, “PUMPKIN CRACKERS! I shall make a cracking batch of pumpkin crackers!” And then I scrolled down and saw that Angela, too, had thought of pumpkin crackers – she’d even topped her regular crackers with a pumpkin and EB mixture! Brilliant!

So on Tuesday night I took Angela’s flexible recipe into my own hands. I managed to create a batch of some darn lovely crackers, despite nearly getting killed by my microwave (It started up while I had the door open! If I sprout tentacles and become a cracker-eating mutant, YOU’LL KNOW WHY). and discovering that a hasty post-class grocery store shelf-grab of canned pumpkin had resulted in something terrible.

THE HORROR!

PUMPKIN PIE MIX. AGH. Of course I only saw the writing on the wall after I’d opened the lid, and then I gasped in horror, causing my roommate to think that the microwave had attacked me again. Never in my life have I purchased pumpkin pie mix! Easy food?! Just add eggs and a can of evaporated milk?! You can’t get any further from my food philosophy than that. The ingredients in this “mix” include something horrible called sugar syrup. I… don’t want to know. I hope it’s just sugar + water. Anyway, I ended up using the pumpkin pie mix, and, to be honest, it’s not really noticeable.

Anyway, I modified Angela’s super-flexible recipe a bit when making my crackers. I subbed the accursed pumpkin pie mix for 1/2 C of the almond milk, and I added extra sesame seeds and some hemp seeds in place of the whole flax seeds. I cut down on the nutritional yeast and scratched most of the spices in favor of poppy seeds and rosemary. Then I doused them in the pumpkin pie + EB mixture, sprinkled on some salt, and popped ’em in the oven.

My vintage yellow Pyrex bowl glows oddly in photos...

I even got to use the adorable teeny-tiny Wilton Halloween cookie cutters I picked up on clearance a few months ago! Can you spot the tiny bats and pumpkins?

These are tasty little nuggets. The pumpkin flavor isn’t too pronounced, but that’s okay – they’re complex and yummy nonetheless, and about 1000x better than mass-produced crackers. The rosemary flavor is a little strong for me, so next time I think I’d use a little less. I’d also cook them for longer, and be sure to use a dark baking sheet – the batch I cooked on a light sheet is more chewy than crunchy.

I brought them to the gathering, where they were fairly well-received. One girl in particular asked me all about them and said she really enjoyed them. I even served them with a really simple dip, a blend of Tofutti and the pumpkin pie mix. The hostess also served about five types of pretzels and five types of mustard to go along with our Oktoberfest theme, so there was no lack of snacks.

Have you ever made your own crackers? Do you generally try to bring vegan options to social gatherings? Maybe the real question here is, what on Earth am I going to do with 8/10 of a giant can of pumpkin pie mix?!

P.S. Forgive my food snobbery; I tend to use hyperbole for the sake of entertainment. Easy pumpkin pie mix has its place in the world… just not on my shelf. ;)

Christmas in October?

/ Kelly / 12 Comments

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Or, well, sort of. I saw the most wonderful, heartwarming thing at the grocery store this weekend – SEASONAL TEAS. My favorite [no-frills, employee-owned] grocery store, Woodman’s, had a brand new display of seasonal teas by Celestial Seasonings and Stash. I nearly had a teagasm right there in the store! I’m familiar with Celestial Seasonings’ offerings, but I’d never seen Stash’s holiday-inspired teas. My Christmas-season-loving heart thrilled inside of me when I saw tantalizing flavors like Christmas Eve (herbal mint blend) Christmas Morning (black tea blend), White Christmas (white tea, peppermint, and a hint of ginger), Holiday Chai (black tea with hints of gingerbread and rum), and organic (!) Merry Mint (green tea, spearmint, and peppermint). Stash also has gorgeous packaging – what can I say; I’m shallow! I managed to restrain myself, though:

Teas on the floor. Class-ay.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize that White Christmas was a mint tea, so I accidentally purchased two minty varieties. Guess I’ll have to go back for more! Clearly tea is one of my major weaknesses, but for $2.00 a box, I’m not too concerned about breaking the bank.

All of these Christmas flavors got me thinkin’ about other foods I associate with my favorite holiday. My family has a tradition of enjoying cinnamon buns and grapefruit on Christmas morning, and as I thought about holidays of yore, I got a strong craving for sweet, cinnamon-y goodness. Last year Mom made VeganYumYum’s incredibly decadent cinnamon buns, and they were gorgeous and tummyache-inducingly rich. Throwback photo time!

Oof.

I feel full just looking at them! I didn’t want to make anything that rich during this go-round, so I turned to Happy Herbivore for a healthier alternative. I ended up making Lindsay’s whole-wheat, fat-free cinnamon buns, and despite an emergency grocery run necessitated by moldy applesauce, they came together quickly and with very little fuss.

Tea&bun.

And they taste fantastic, too! Soft and chewy on the inside, only the outer rings of my buns (heh heh) were at all crusty. The cinnamon filling is absolutely perfect, and it only contains brown sugar, applesauce, and cinnamon. Genius! I’ve been savoring these babies for the past few days, and they’ve totally sated my cinnamon craving. Once they’re gone, I’ll lay off the buns so that I’ll properly appreciate our traditional breakfast come December 25th.

Do you have any holiday traditions? Do you get excited about winter holidays? Any favorite seasonal teas?

Karma Chameleon’s Gonna Get You

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

…see what I did there? Yeah, pretty lame, I know. Moving on.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the idea of good energy, good vibes, karma and the like. To an extent, I do believe that if you surround yourself with positivity, you will be healthier and happier than a peer who views the world through poo-colored glasses and slips into Debbie Downer* mode 500 times a day. But I’m not so sure about the next level of karma, the idea that if you send out positivity and good vibes, they’ll come back to you in some cosmic-scale recycling effort. I don’t think it’s impossible, but I do find it implausible. On the other hand, perhaps upbeat people surround themselves with similarly-tempered folks, so their interactions are generally more pleasant? Or perhaps they make others feel happy and centered and calm, and those others subconsciously return the favor? I just don’t know.

That said, I had what I can really only call a good karma experience recently. See, I have this friend (no, really!). Or, more specifically, I had this friend; he was an essential part of our core group of pals for most of college, and I was especially close to him. During senior year, however, he sort of grew apart from our group for various reasons. After we graduated, I harbored a fair amount of anger, underneath which was a large pool of hurt. For over a year, we barely spoke. And by barely, I mean I sent him a Christmas card, and he sent one back, and that was it.

A few months ago, though, I realized how stupid that was. Because when you’re close to someone, when you can talk about things that matter like life and feelings and not just shiny surface-issues, that’s a friendship worth preserving. So I let it go. I let go of the anger and the hurt and the need for an explanation for what transpired. It was liberating, and so much easier than I’d imagined. And then I reached out to him, and despite my fears, his reaction was nothing but positive. Now, I am so glad to have him back in my life. We always had great rapport, and I missed it. Even though he’s in New York and I’m in Wisconsin, it’s still great to Gmail chat every couple of nights and to catch up on the past year.

Now, you might be thinking, “Kelly, that is all warm and fuzzy, but where is the karma? I was promised karma chameleons and there is a distinct lack of it in this post.” Or, perhaps, “Kelly, I do not give a hoot about your college friends or your karmic musings. Where’s the damn food?!” To both of you I say, hold on to your hats! It’s coming (sort of)!

 

Look at him! He's like a tiny dinosaur saying, "Bitch, please. I've had it with the karma jokes!"

 

Image from here.

My friend is the bio-major type, and he currently has a couple of research positions working on various projects. Someone he works with is an ex-vegan (sad!), and when my friend found out that I’m vegan now, he told me that his ex-vegan friend was looking to get rid of some vegan cookbooks, and did I want them? Because he’d gladly send them to me!

Did I EVER want them! Today, I received this stack of fabulousness:

 

Kram-o-rama!

 

Basically, Sarah Kramer now has some serious real estate on my cookbook shelf.

Anyway, let’s recap the chain of events: I extend the olive branch to my friend. My friend reciprocates. I get free vegan cookbooks. The only possible explanation? Karma, baby!

I let go of negativity and consciously chose positivity, and I was rewarded with Sarah Kramer. Thanks, Mr. Chameleon, sir.

Do you believe in good energy and karma and the power of positivity? And on another note, what’s your favorite recipe from any of those cookbooks? :)

* Yes, I did watch every single Debbie Downer skit on Hulu to choose the best one to post here. It was research! BLOGGING’S HARD WORK, Y’ALL.

Vida Vegan!

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Guys. I just made the greatest spontaneous purchase EVER.

What did I buy, you ask? A clue:

OMG OMG OMG! I REGISTERED FOR VIDA VEGAN CON.

It’s past midnight on a work night right now, but for some reason – for the first time in ages and ages! – I’m lapsing into a college-era late-night creativity-fest, and my post-11:00 PM giddiness has resulted in me registering for the first ever vegan bloggers’ conference. AHHH!

Truth be told, I didn’t even intend to go to the con when I first heard about it. I mean, I’m a small-time blogger, for one. And second… well, the idea of going to a convention makes me a little panicky. I struggle with social anxiety and related issues, and the idea of going to a packed convention and maybe not knowing anyone and probably feeling really lonely even when surrounded by all these awesome people just makes my heartrate increase and my mind go a little spinny.

If I’d let myself focus on those negative thoughts, I never would have done it. Then, come next August, I would’ve sat here, reading other people’s posts about how TOTALLY RAD Vida Vegan was, and I would’ve beaten myself up for not registering and missing out on all the fun. So, in this case, late-night spontaneous decision-making proved the kick in the pants I needed! Woohoo!

And you know what? It WILL be totally rad. The vegan community is awesome, right? And I’ll find someone with whom to room, right? Yeah! Plus, “Vida Vegan” is just so damn close to my blog name that I couldn’t not attend!

So – are YOU going to Vida Vegan?!

A winner is you!

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

Hi everyone! The results are in, and the big winner of my autumn-themed giveaway is…


Lucky comment number 7 – LIZ! Liz’s favorite thing about autumn is “Afternoon walks with my Greyhound, underneath the beautiful blazing trees in my neighborhood, when it’s sunny but cool…”

How lovely! Makes me want a doggie. :) Liz, I’ve e-mailed you with a request for your mailing address so I can send off your package. Congrats!

Thanks for playing, everyone! What with VeganMoFo on the horizon, I intend to do another giveaway in the not-too-distant future. :)

Apple-Carrot Harvest Bread

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Hello, friends! Happy Tuesday. Sorry for the prolonged silence – remember when I said that summer made a triumphant return to Wisconsin? Well, this weekend things really got crazy – the temperature soared into the low 80s and quite possibly shattered a record or two. So, needless to say, I made sure to get outside and soak up some rays. Gotta stock up on enough vitamin D to get me through the dark days of a Wisconsin winter!

However, the high temps don’t negate the fact that it is, quite obviously, still autumn. Ochre and burnt rust colors dominate the skyline; most of the trees around here have changed already. It’s quite sensorily confusing to feel summer-hot while hearing brittle eaves crunch underfoot and seeing yellows and oranges and reds. These autumnal colors are also prevalent in my food lately, because I haven’t given up on autumn-inspired meals and ingredients. Carrots and apples and pumpkins, oh my! Inspired by a bounty of freshly-picked apples and the beautiful, bright carrots from my latest CSA share, I came up with a perfectly autumnal recipe:

 

Autumn in bread form?

Apple-Carrot Harvest Bread
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized apples, grated
2 carrots, grated
1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water)
2 T oil
3 T applesauce
1/2 t vanilla
2/3 C rice milk (or other non-dairy milk of choice)
1/3 C vegan cane sugar
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 t cinnamon
1/8 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t salt
dash ginger
3/4 t baking soda

Preheat your oven to 350˚F and lightly grease or spray a loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk the water and ground flax to create your flax egg. This is a great time to grate the carrots and apples. Next, add the oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla, and sugar to the flax egg. Whisk until well-mixed. In a large bowl, sift the remaining dry ingredients together. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just incorporated – be careful not to overmix! Fold in the grated carrots and apples, pour the batter into your loaf pan, and pop that baby in the oven.

I baked mine for probably 45 – 50 minutes, and it was just a little bit under-done in the middle. I recommend keeping it in for longer – just wait until a toothpick or thin knife inserted in the center comes out totally clean. Remove from oven, let cool, and enjoy! You now have a slightly dense, very flavorful, and quite healthy quick bread, perfect for enjoying with a mug of tea and a good book on a cool afternoon.

…not that I’ve had any of those recently. :)

Hey, don’t leave yet! You still have one more day to enter my giveaway! I’ll choose a winner tomorrow night at 9:00 CST (not 7:00 as previously mentioned… I’ll be in class then!). So get on it!