VeganMoFo2010

Servin’ up a Survey, MoFo Style

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

Day two = finished! Today’s eats were so pathetic that I can barely talk about them. I didn’t take/get/have/whatever a lunch break, so I basically snacked every once in a while to stave off hunger. For dinner, I thought I’d be a genius and go to the grocery store and pick up some [more] snacks and a frozen meal or something, but just as I discovered Kroger’s fairly impressive selection of various vegan eats, I remembered that my room at the Hampton Inn is microwaveless. Har har haaaaar. I picked up some Back to Nature granola and Kashi cereal bars, and plan on making it a fully snackified day. Yeehaw.

Anyway, Keri over at I Eat Trees posted a fun MoFo-inspired survey, so Imma fill it out, and you should do the same!

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?
This is super unoriginal, but I really have to say cheese! It probably helped that I mostly gave up cheese before officially going vegan, so then the few times I did eat it during that time period, I realized that it really wasn’t tH3 gR3@t3$t th!nG 3v3R!1!!111!! Now, I only miss it very occasionally.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?
Gosh… anything with sweet potatoes or squash. I KNOW. Now I LOVE sweet potatoes, and am much fonder of squash.

What vegan dish or food you feel like you “should” like, but don’t?
Bananas. Also, Daiya.

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?
Water!

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?
Geeze… any sort of dessert, really.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
I hate raisins in baked goods. Hate, hate, hate!

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?
Umm… anything sweet, really!

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?
Hmm. Baked goods? Most people these days buy packaged desserts or mixes…

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?
I don’t mind paying a little extra for organics. I don’t really buy “cheap” food… it’s my one weakness, ‘cuz otherwise I’m not much of a spender!

Are you much of a snacker?  What are your favorite snacks?
Yes. Everything.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?
Black olives, artichoke hearts, banana peppers, my dad’s awesome spice blend/spread dealio.

What is your favorite vegetable?  Fruit?
So difficult! Brussels sprouts, maybe?! And grapefruit. Or mango.

What is the best salad dressing?
I rarely use salad dressing, actually. But I do like sesame-ginger.

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?
A delicious all-fruit jam.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?
I like pureed squash soups, although recently I’ve been making my own miso soup.

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?
Umm… anything with chocolate!

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
See above.

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?
What a question! My weeknight meals tend to be fairly simple. I miss the big ol’ mess of sauteed veggies I made all summer long with my CSA yumminess… :(

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?
Umm… I live with a roommate, and we cook separately. Plus I think she’d eat anything I made, unless it had tons of mushrooms!

How long, in total,  do you spend in the kitchen on an average day? Well, on weekdays I only make dinner at home, but then again I do tend to bake fairly often. So maybe an hour or two on week days, and three or four (or more) on weekend days?

How many fingers am I holding up? Eleven, apparently!

Your turn! :)

Vegan on the Go

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

After a day of traveling, I made it safe and [mostly] sound to Zanesville, Ohio. The work part of my work trip begins in earnest tomorrow, so tonight I’m taking it easy and trying to get rid of the headache and sore throat that’ve plagued me all day. For that reason, enter Super Cop-Out Post Numero Uno!

Question: What’s a vegan to do when she’s traveling to a small town, working 12-hour shifts at a hospital for three days straight, and said small town features mostly restaurants like Steak ‘n Shake and Bob Evans?

Answer: Snack it up! This was my suitcase this morning:

Case o' snacks.

That big ol’ bag features mostly Larabars, pretzels, sesame sticks, assorted teas, and… oatmeal. Or oats, rather, ready to be made into oatmeal at a moment’s notice. Except I don’t have a microwave in my hotel room, come to find out. Oh well – I’m sure I can be resourceful and figure something out. I’m counting on the hotel’s morning breakfast spread to include fruit that I can squirrel away for later, and my snacks along with whatever vegan fare I can rustle up at the hospital cafeteria should hold me over throughout the day. However, I’m not quite sure how I’ll survive at dinner time when I’m hungry after a long shift… I’ve a feeling that snacks won’t cut it then! I’ll report back and let you know how I fare. ;)

What are your on-the-go eating strategies when you know you won’t be in a vegan-friendly location?

Cookbook Challenge: 500 Vegan Recipes

/ Kelly / 9 Comments

Today’s theme: Cookbook Challenge

Hey y’all, guess what? I made 3 recipes from 500 Vegan Recipes! I feel a Bon Jovi comin’ on: whoa, whoa, I’m halfway… a quarter… okay fine, .6% of the way there. Yeah, that was pointless.

Anyway, I purchased this cookbook a few months ago when I received a $50 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble for renewing the lease on my apartment. Score, right? I used the book a couple of times during the summer, but it’s been lazing about on my cookbook shelf ever since then. So I decided it was high time to give it another go. I actually made these recipes over the course of two nights, but I’m going to post them all in one shot.

First up – Spicy Frites. Okay, I know, this is sort of a cop-out recipe to make – I make oven fries in my sleep (Literally; I’m a pro at sleep-cooking. Okay I lied.), and they reallllly don’t require a recipe. But sometimes it’s nice to mix things up and use somebody else’s idea for a spice blend or a technique, y’know? These are flavored with garam masala and cayenne and definitely require a Kleenex or two when you eat ’em. Celine & Joni suggest serving them with a sprinkle of lime juice, but I 1.) didn’t have a lime, and 2.) get a little icked out by putting liquid atop something that has the potential to get mushy. Back in RI, people do the whole malt-vinegar-on-fries thing, which makes me want to vomit – I hate vinegar and I hate mushy fries. Nas-tay. These fries, however, were not nas-tay.

Taters, precious!

Pretty! Just ignore the little pile of peeing ketchup in the corner. Muir Glen ketchup is tasty but incontinent, apparently. On the subject of liquids, I should note that this recipe calls for peanut oil. I, however, do not keep peanut oil in the house, so I used the oil from the top of my peanut butter jar. I’m either a genius or a cheapskate. Your call.

Moving on! Up next: Chickpea Blondies. Now… I wanted to love these. I’ve been intrigued by bean-based baked goods for a while now, and the ingredient list was simple enough that I had [nearly] everything on hand. I made a half batch and baked ’em up in a loaf tin, and other than the issue where my roommate’s Magic Bullet didn’t want to blend everything very well (I don’t have a food processor, wahhh!), the recipe came together quite quickly.

Blonde chicks!?

They look sort of fudgy and chewy and intriguing, right? Well, they taste… meh. That’s really the best (and perhaps the worst) I can say. They’re not bad, and I don’t mind eating them, but I wouldn’t necessarily serve them to a skeptical omni and I can’t imagine waking up at night with a mad craving for them. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, though, because I didn’t have strawberry jam and ended up using a lackluster apricot variety, and then I didn’t even have enough apricot, so I added a tiny bit of canned pumpkin. Maybe if I made them with a bolder-flavored fruit, they’d have had a little more flavor.

I will tell you, though, that my final recipe was not at all lacking in flavor. No, this was the winner of the bunch, without a doubt. Take a look:

Gooey goodness.

Folks, that is the unlikely but ingenious Butterscotch Pumpkin Pudding, and it is heavenly. Like, I-can’t-stop-eating-this heavenly. Like, how-can-I-work-this-into-my-family’s-holiday-meal-plans heavenly.

I was a tiny bit skeptical before trying this, because I’ve traditionally been fairly ambivalent towards puddings in general, and I’ve always found butterscotch puddings to be wayyy too sweet for me. But this is a true, homemade butterscotch, and it’s sweet in a way that doesn’t give you a tummyache or make you want to go straight to the dentist without passing Go immediately after having a spoonful. What I’m saying is, it has a distinct flavor beyond just SWEET!!!1!!!111! It has just enough pumpkin-y flavor to add a fun twist without being overpowering and it’s wonderfully spiced, with notes of cloves, cinnamon, and a bit of molasses. Plus there’s a spoonful of rum for all you boozers out there. A winner is you, Butterscotch Pumpkin Pudding!

So there you have it, my 3/500. It strikes me that all three photos have a fairly similar color palette, despite their subjects having wildly different ingredients. And that’s only enhanced by the the horrible no-time-to-take-photos-in-natural-light side effect of MoFo being in November. Ah well. Anyway, I can’t wait to tackle some of the more substantial recipes from this cookbook, because Celine and Joni have really put together an outstanding collection. I’m lookin’ at you, Pumpkin Fauxsage!

Do you have a cookbook you know is full of fantastic recipes but that you just don’t use often enough?Alternatively, how do you feel about pudding?

Spreadin’ the Bloggy Luuurve: Two Happy Herbivore Pasta Dishes

/ Kelly / 11 Comments

Today’s theme: Spreadin’ the Bloggy Luuurve

During my initial MoFo scheming period, I thought I’d do something like LJ is doing and come up with a theme for each day of the week. I even had some fun alliterative titles, just like LJ. Thankfully I realized that this approach wouldn’t be practical for me and that it’d probably result in frustration and burnout, or possibly awful cop-out posts in which I’d say, “Wanderlust Wednesday, eh? Screw that; I’m tired!” and heat up a can of refried beans and call it Mexican.

So instead of forging ahead with my regimented posts, I’m taking the flexibility approach. And, goodness gracious me, I’m already glad I made that decision! Last night I was EXHAUSTED. A weekend of madness at House on the Rock slayed me, and neither caffeine nor sugar (from fruit!) provided much energy while I was at work. When I got home, I couldn’t even fathom making a big, elaborate dinner. I was in the mood for something carbolicious and warm, though, so I hit up ye olde Google and settled on Happy Herbivore’s Instant Vegan Alfredo.

Although the ingredient list is minimal, I ended up leaving out one key item. All the pumpkin-y baking I’ve been doing lately has depleted my stock of nutmeg, which is, according to Lindsay, “a necessity to get the right flavor.” I made it anyway, and served it over Ezekiel sprouted grain linguine and peas.

This is ugly; I'm sorry.

Although it was tasty, warm, and filling, I found it a little too nutritional yeast-y, and a bit bland (or perhaps just lacking in nutmeg!). I don’t hate NY, but I’m not a huge fan, either. I’d make this sauce again, but I’d also cut down on the NY, make sure I have nutmeg, and maybe serve it with regular whole wheat pasta (I <3 Ezekiel, but it tends to be a little sticky and dense when I make it).

That said, I made Lindsay’s Soy Free Vegan Mac n’ Cheese last week, and it knocked my crazily-patterned socks off! I’m constantly on a semi-Quixotic quest for a cheesy sauce that 1.) isn’t super high in fat, 2.) doesn’t rely too heavily on nutritional yeast, and 3.) is delicious! Happily, this recipe satisfies all those criteria.

Served over veggietastic Wacky Mac... 'cuz I'm five years old!

Hooray for noodle dishes! Do you enjoy noodles? What’s your favorite topping or sauce? I’m a big fan of all noodles, from sprouted grain spirals to gluten-free spaghetti!

Vegan MoFo IV: It’s Finally Here!

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

It’s finally here – Vegan MoFo IV begins today! As excited as I am for this MoFo, new beginnings always send me on a long path down memory lane, so I can’t help but reflect a bit on last year’s MoFo experience.

Thirteen months ago marked the beginning of Vegan MoFo III. Thirteen months ago also marked the official beginning of my life as a vegan. During MoFo III, I posted every single day. During MoFo III, I lived with my parents and worked a part-time job with hourly pay. Coincidence? As if.

During MoFo III, I thought to myself, Daily posts? No big deal! Imma rock this shizz and get all up in MoFo’s grill, every day! I’m a new vegan and nothin’ can stop me! Burnout?! What’s that?!?

Ah, naiveté. This year, I live in a big-girl apartment and work a full-time, salaried, big-girl job. I often work 45 – 50 hours a week, and sometimes when I get home from work I’m absolutely exhausted, and the thought of writing up a blog post (not to mention making food about which to blog!) seems like the foodie equivalent of climbing Everest while wearing a bikini, keeping my eyes shut, and having noodles for arms. Plus, as I’ve said before, it’s deadline time for writers at my company, so things are extra busy these days.

Not to mention the fact that I’ll be  on a sUp3R sP3c!@L work trip this weekend, working 12-hour shifts on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I’ll be lucky if my destination (a small town outside Columbus, Ohio) has any vegetarian options, never mind sweet vegan eats that’d merit a MoFo post.

So, November? Yeah, not really the ideal month for hot MoFo action.

However. Having said all that, here are some more factoids about me: I’m a little bit of a masochist. And I’m a perfectionist. And OCD? Yeah, she and I are kinda sorta best frenemies. And so. This year, for Vegan MoFo IV, I am going to post every single day. There, I said it out loud – I’m accountable now! I’ve been thinkin’ about how to make this a fun, enjoyable experience, one that won’t leave me weeping on the floor, cursing the blogosphere, and swearing off anything besides frozen burritos just as that most venerated of time periods – Christmas baking season! – begins. So here are some themes and topics you can look forward to in the month ahead:

  • Nomadic Noshing. I’ll try out some [mostly] authentic foods inspired by places I’ve visited, places I’ve lived, and places I’d like to visit.
  • Cookbook Challenges. Let’s face it – there are some cookbooks I underuse or (heaven forbid!) don’t use at all. I’ll choose a couple of those sad, neglected books and pick recipes that’ve slipped under my radar ’til now.
  • Erudite Eats. I’ll make foods inspired by my favorite books, films, works of art… that sort of thing. I’m really excited about this one!
  • Keepin’ it Raw. I’ve dipped my toe into the ocean of raw foods before, but ’til now I’ve kept it simple with chocomole, banana soft serve, zucchini noodles, and simple stuff like that. It’s time to wade on in and go for a swim!
  • Spreadin’ the Bloggy Luuurve. Y’all have some great recipes out there, and it’s high time I stop just bookmarking or starring them or adding them to my Crap I Want to Make document, and actually make them!

I’ve also got another idea to take MoFo to the next level: interactivity. When I know I have lots of time to devote to cooking, I’ll ask you to challenge me, to suggest recipes for me to try. If I get too many suggestions, I’ll use a random number generator to choose a few of your suggestions and cross my fingers and toes that I don’t wind up making opera cake and vegan turducken.

Beyond those special topics and themes, I’ll also post recipes, product reviews, and – let’s be honest here – the occasional cop-out food survey. And to start things off, how about one of those recipes?

Forgive my silly attempt at a sriracha spiral...

Thai-Inspired Cocobutternut Soup
Ingredients (Makes 1 or 2 servings)
~ 1/2 butternut squash, roasted and gently mashed
1 can light coconut milk
1 t dried lemongrass
Curry powder, salt, and any other spices to taste

After roasting your squash, heat coconut milk and spices in a pot. Transfer all ingredients to a blender (in batches, if necessary), and puree until smooth. Serve with sriracha for a kick of spice.

…yep. That’s it. Simple and quick. :) I think I liked this soup, but I’m not sure. I definitely liked the idea of it, but my reservations towards coconut-flavored things kept me from falling madly in love with it and running off to Vegas to get hitched. Maybe you’ll like it, though.

…and with that, I’ll wrap up my inaugural MoFo IV post. You should know that I essentially wrote this post twice yesterday because WordPress ate the first one. You should also know that, despite it having been a frustrating day in the food department (burnt oven fries and dry pie dough and stupid kitchen towels that kept falling off the oven handle, oh my!), I resisted my urge to cry and/or give up on MoFo before it began. Instead, I immediately rewrote the post. I know that I forgot a totally awesome title for a couple of my themes/topics, but other than that I think I recreated it fairly well. An inauspicious beginning, perhaps, but things can only go up from here, eh?

Anyway – happy MoFoing, and I’ll see y’all tomorrow!