veganmofo 2010

On Yoga and Oatmeal

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

I’m going to be straight with you (again), but this time about something a little more serious than food (I know; how dare I do that!).

The thing is, I haven’t felt like myself for the past month or so. I’ve been a big ball of anxiety and nerves and stress. I feel like I haven’t properly b r e a t h e d in weeks and weeks. I know I haven’t been eating as well as I should, and I also haven’t found – or made – time to exercise. So this stress has taken its toll physically as well as mentally – I’m getting sharp, piercing pains in one tiny spot of my back when I bend over; my neck crackles (crackles!!) when I move it, and I feel tired fairly often. It’s no good.

So this morning I got up and put a pot of oatmeal on the stove, mixed with a diced apple and lots of yummy spices. Then I transferred it to the oven to make my first-ever baked oatmeal. And while it was baking, filling my apartment with warm, homey smells, I dug out my yoga mat, the yoga mat I purchased with a CSN store gift certificate a few months back but have only used once since then.

I rolled out my mat on the floor in front of the sliding glass doors in my living room. And then I dug deep into the dusty corners of my overtaxed brainbox and tried to remember how my yoga teacher led us through our Ashtanga practice during spring term of my senior year at Carleton, when I met yoga and fell in love only to grow apart after graduating.

And so I stretched and I warrior posed and I tried my darndest to rid my mind of all the junk that’s been bummin’ me out lately. I dutifully breathed in and out, deeply, five times during every downward facing dog. With each breath, I tried to let go of something.

Breathe in – looming work deadlines! – breathe out – goodbye, looming work deadlines!

Breathe in – blog blog blog blog blog! – breathe out – goodbye, constant need to write blog posts in my head!

Breathe in – so many Christmas presents to knit, so little time! – breathe out – goodbye, knitting frenzy!

Breathe in – why is the “Maint Needed” light on in in my car?! – breathe out – goodbye, worry that could be alleviated if I’d just call the car shop!

Breathe in – crap, I really should start on all those foods I wanted to make for MoFo! – breathe out – goodbye, stupid desire to overachieve!

And I tried. I really tried. I held my poses and I tried to focus on my breathing, but I couldn’t let go; my mind kept working working working thinking thinking writing writing writing. At one point, I even yelled aloud: “Shut up, Kelly!” Good thing my roommate’s not here at the moment. But it wasn’t until I was in the middle of one of my favorite simple seated poses* that I gained a brief, blissful, fleeting moment of relief. For one moment, the thoughts in my head faded. I heard nothing but footsteps from the people upstairs and a car driving by outside. And it was wonderful.

All too quickly, though, my thoughts came flooding back, reminding me about all the crafts I want to do and the foods I want to make. But it’s okay. My downward-facing dog might’ve been more like a downward facing humpbacked whale, and my joints might’ve creaked as if I were a 95-year-old lady instead of a 23-year-old youngling, but it was wonderful. And it taught me a lesson I refuse to forget: I cannot ignore myself. No matter how stressful things get, I need to make time to b r e a t h e, to center myself and to let go of all the stress, even if only for a minute. Fifty years from now, will I care what I posted about during day 20 of Vegan MoFo? Probably not. But I will care about how I felt during that time in my life; if I was happy and relaxed or constantly anxious and worry-filled. So I resolve to incorporate more yoga into my life, to make time to work out, and to b r e a t h e.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got  to eat breakfast, because that baked oatmeal won’t eat itself. And then I’ve got to take a short trip into work, because those revisions won’t make themselves.

Up next on my to-do list...

However, I promise to take a few deep breaths in the middle of it all.

How do you calm yourself down when things get crazy?

* I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s number 25 here.

Random Food Photo Friday: Apple, Baked

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Imma lay it down straight – I got nothin’. The foodie highlight of my day was probably the mango I ate for First Dinner, and even that was a bit of a disappointment because it wasn’t quite ripe enough. So how about a random food photo?

There's something slightly unsettling about this picture.

This is a baked apple. I ate it a couple weeks ago, and it was Good. I cored a Granny Smith (good God that sounds horrible) and filled it to the brim with a delicious mixture of EB, oats, brown sugar, and spices. Then I, ahem, baked it. It got all bubbly and mushy and hot and foamy, and I ate it, and I wondered why I’d never made a baked apple ever before. The end.

Happy Friday! How was your day?

P.S. I saw HP and it was not as offensive as some of the previous movies have been. So… that’s good, right?!

Spreadin’ the Bloggy Lurve: Molasses-Ginger Cookies

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

After last night’s major brownie flop, I needed a fail-proof baking project tonight to bolster my confidence and give me somethin’ sweet to munch on while I stare at the sad remains of my flavorless brownies of d00m. So I took a little trip through MoFos of ages past (by which I mean last year), started salivating when I came to this post, and set my sights on the spicy-smooth flavors of molasses-ginger cookies. Awww, yeahhh.

I'd share, but...

Last year I made these so I could send some sweet cookie lovin’ to my boyfriend, but these days I’m a single lady, so I halved the recipe. I still got 14 cookies out of this batch, and that’s not including the embarrassing amount of dough I scarfed down while putting these together. They’re just as delightful and cozifying as I remember, and they come together super quickly (even more quickly if you’re impatient and don’t refrigerate them for an hour (not that I would do that (ten minutes in the freezer is the same, right?!))). I used freshly-grated ginger, giving them an extra kick of yumminess.

The recipe comes from the ever-amusing Claryn over at Hell Yeah It’s Vegan!, and I highly recommend it. It’s definitely one of my favorite cookie recipes, and one day I might even make it with the crystallized ginger! Gasp!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have a major cookiefest in the hopes that if I’m in a sugar coma, I won’t remember that I’m not seeing the new Harry Potter movie at midnight and thus won’t die of shame for being such a bad HP fan.*

What’s your go-to cookie recipe?

* Maybe it’s for the best, though. I love the HP books with an extreme and undying geeky devotion, and I always look forward to the movies with the naive hope that they’ll be awesome, but they inevitably disappoint me because they just don’t hold a [teeny, tiny, stub of a little birthday] candle to the books. Still… I love midnight premieres, and I’m really sad that I’m not going to one for this movie! :(

Food Fail: Not-So-Decadent Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Man, I am so disappointed. All day long I was thinking up something yummy I could bake and then share with you guys as part of my triumphant re-entry into the world of the living/MoFo. I toyed with lots of ideas, most of them involving crushed candy canes, chocolate, and suuugarrrrr, but then I decided to stick with a more autumnal theme and bake up some Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies. Mmhmm. It was gonna be fantastic; I envisioned a pumpkin, tofu, and Tofutti mixture swirled into chewy, dense, chocolaty brownies, creating a decadent, beautiful treat.

Well. As they say, the best laid plans of mice and vegan bakers often go awry. When I set out to create my cheesecake mixture, I discovered that both my pumpkin AND my tofu were sporting attractive moldy fur. Apparently they’d been in the fridge much longer than I’d remembered… I guess that’s what happens when you don’t think about anything but work for a couple of weeks! Being the pumpkin-lover that I am, I did have another can in the pantry, so I just forwent the tofu and used pumpkin, Tofutti, agave, and a spice blend for the cheesecake mixture. Whatever; that was manageable, and then the brownies came together as smoothly as decidedly non-vegan silk. Because I don’t have a go-to brownie recipe yet, I decided to try out the Decadent Brownies from The Garden of Vegan, and after an hour or so in the kitchen and in the oven (the brownies, not me), I pulled this out:

Looks delicious, but...

Not too bad, right? Maybe a little cake-y, but I thought I could live with that. When I cut a square and took a bite, I was hopeful; I was sanguine that the flavor would make up for the sad lack of fudginess. Oh, how wrong was I.

Have you ever heard the saying “beautiful on the outside; boring on the inside?” Yeah, neither have I; I just made it up to describe these sad little squares of boringness. They look pretty, but that’s about all they have going for them! These are, quite literally, the least decadent brownies I’ve ever had the misfortune to taste. They don’t even taste like chocolate, for crying out loud! They’re just puffy squares of flavorless cakiness. Somehow, though, their lack of flavor overpowers the pumpkin cheesecake flavor! How absurd! The pumpkin cheesecake mixture tasted really yummy pre-baking; I know because I sampled it not a few times. But in the brownies it just gets lost in a sad mix of blaaaaah-flavored nothingness, whatever that even means.

...looks can be deceiving.

Gosh, I ‘m so disappointed. I don’t even want to look at these stupid little dudes because they make me sad and angry. SIGH. I mean, okay, maybe it was my fault for using the Trader Joe’s brand of cocoa powder, and maybe I should’ve ignored the fact that the recipe called for olive oil and just used vegetable oil instead, but still. Ugh, I can’t even think about it anymore. Please, tell me something wonderful and cheery and puppies-and-rainbows happy!

I’m Tired Tuesday: Burritos for Dinner!

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Coming on the tail of a rather manic Monday during which I worked ’til 9:00 PM, this might be called a tireless Tuesday. As in, I had no choice but to tirelessly revise, revise, and revise some more. But I did it, and I own tomorrow’s 8:00 AM deadline. Of course, the next two weeks will involve even more revisions and two more deadlines, but I’ll deal with those as they come. Today, I was just glad I didn’t need to stay super late to get everything finished.

I did, however, stay ’til around 6:00. When I got home, I almost took the uber lazy route and made pasta for dinner. But after rooting around in my pantry and discovering a can of Full Circle organic refried beans (don’t judge me), I whipped up this sexy number:

Wrap me up, baby!

That’s a mountain of Texmati rice, refried beans, mushrooms, onions, and Newman’s Own black bean & corn salsa, shamelessly lounging on a whole wheat tortilla. Ooh la la. I know this color palette calls for some green, and my burrito would’ve been perfect with some lettuce, but alas, my crisper drawer is not feeling the love at the moment. Still, though, I ate two of these babies and am feeling happy and full right now.

Now that things will be a little slower at work, I fully intend to dive back into MoFo with a vengeance. Between my travels and my crazy busy-ness, I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I’d like to putting together creative and fun dishes, and I’ve been sadly neglecting the ambitious themes I created in my days of naivete. But I’m hopeful that I’ll have more time soon, so here’s to a [slightly] more relaxed – and thus more foodlicious! – second half of November!

So – what’d you eat for dinner? How has your MoFo experience been so far?

Cookbook Challenge: Getting My MoFo Mojo On (Thanks, Viva Vegan!)

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Live from Verona, Wisconsin, it’s SATURDAY NIGHT VEGAN MOFO!

With deadlines looming around every corner, writers at my company are having a late-night work night this evening. I’m surfacing from the world of revisions, revisions, and more revisions to make a quick little MoFo post about last night’s dinner. Last night, you see, I got my mojo on:

MOJO!

You’re looking at the Tangy Orange Mojo Baked Tofu with a side of yuca with Cuban Garlic-Lime-Mojo Sauce, all from Terry Hope Romeros’ fabulous Viva Vegan! Oh. My. Word. If you don’t have a copy of this cookbook, you might want to rethink the completeness of your cookbook collection. I mean, I’ve only made two recipes from it, but already I can tell that it’s going to become a favorite. Terry’s filled it with all sorts of recipes for rockin’ your palate with Latin cuisine, and she includes lots of tips about traditional ingredients and where you can find them. The book deserves a much longer post, but suffice it to say that the Mojo Baked Tofu totally blew my mind. I ate the leftovers for lunch today, and they were a bright spot of happiness in an otherwise soul-crushingly busy day. I cannot wait to give more of Terry’s recipes a whirl!

And with that, it’s back to writing for me. Except not the fun MoFo kind, alas. How’s your Monday? Anyone else having a stressful week already? I hope not!

Miso, miso, fighting in the dojo!

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

Can I get a BRRR, y’all?! Madison might not have gotten the snowstorm that slammed other parts of the Midwest this weekend (MSP, how you doin’?!), but it is ch-ch-chilly. I have yet to turn on my apartment’s heat, though, and now I’m stubbornly determined to wait until December to do it. I’m just hoping that they light the pilots/turn on the gas for our gas fireplace soon, because we don’t pay for the gas and it’s mighty nice to keep a fire going when it’s cold! I also think it’s time to shrink wrap my windows… my computer desk is right in front of my bedroom window, which on its own does a very half-arsed job of keeping the cold air out. As I said – brrr.

So what’s a girl to do on a cold day? If you said, discover the joys of a veganized, agave-sweetened hot toddy, well, um, you’re right, but that’s another topic for another day. I’m talking about soup-makin’! Miso soup, if you want to get technical. Ever since buying my first tub o’ miso a month or two ago, I’ve been in love with how quickly I can whip up a tasty, nourishing bowl of soup. It’s endlessly versatile; I can throw whatever I want in there and it just takes it (twss). Yesterday I enjoyed this pretty little bowl of warmth:

Oriental prince in the land of soup!

Mmm. I feel like I might be insulting all my readers’ foodie street cred by posting a recipe for this, but I’ll be honest – I was a little vague on the specifics of miso-soup-making for an embarrassingly long time. So, what the heck – I’ll share my personal take on miso.

Fighting in the Dojo Miso Soup for One
Ingredients
2 C water or vegetable broth
Generous handful of rice noodles
Thinly sliced veggies of your choice (carrots, leeks, etc.)
1/4 t freshly grated ginger
1/4 t dried lemongrass
1 T mild yellow miso
1/4 C tofu, cubed

In a small pot, bring water or broth to a boil and add veggies and spices. After about 5-7 minutes, when the veggies are getting soft, add the rice noodles. Cook noodles and veggies for another 5 – 7 minutes. Turn off heat, stir in the miso until dissolved, and top with cubed tofu. Voila!

I know this is probably a highly unorthodox miso soup, but I love the kick of ginger and the subtle flavor of lemongrass. I suspect that this would make for a great chicken soup stand-in during the sicky times of winter, but I haven’t been sick in ages, so I haven’t had a chance to try that out (curses… did I just jinx myself?!). Simple, quick, and tasty. Yum!

Do you like miso soup? Do you have a go-to recipe for a quick soup? Do share!

Saturday Survey!

/ Kelly / 8 Comments

Hey-o! Suddenly it’s nearly seven in the evening and I’ve yet to even think about a MoFo post. What does that mean? It’s survey time! Imma do one of the original MoFo surveys, because I filled out the 2010 version already.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

Almond! Generally Almond Breeze, but I’ll admit it – I like Silk’s version, too.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

I’m getting ready to dive into Viva Vegan! tomorrow, and I’m pretty excited. But I’m not going to share exactly what I’m planning to make, because that would ruin the surprise!

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

I really freakin’ love kettle corn.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

Geeze… I don’t know. I tried making some apple bread from scratch once, and it was just weeeird. I hadn’t figured out the science of baked goods at that point.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Uh. Cucumbers. I’m not really a fan of any other pickled things… it’s that whole aversion to vinegar, y’know?

6. How do you organize your recipes?

Well, there’s my infamous “Crap I Want to Make” Pages document, in which I store terribly-organized links to bloggy recipes. Then I tend to use tiny bits of paper as placeholders for recipes that catch my fancy while I’m reading through a cookbook, which inevitably means that my cookbooks have bits of paper between every page. Heh.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Here in my apartment, trash, recycling, and garbage disposal. I composted a bit during the summer when I could sneakily bring things to the compost bin at the garden, but now that’s not available. :(

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

How dare you. Umm. Dark chocolate… kale… peanut butter? I detest this question.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

Every Christmas morning we ate cinnamon buns and grapefruits. Still do, actually; last year my mommy made vegan cinnamon buns and they were out of this world.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

I’ve really only tried a few, but Coconut Bliss is the shizz.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

Oy. I don’t really have many fancy-pants appliances right now, sooo… my stove. Hahah.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

Cumin!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

I have an American Girl cookbook back home somewhere. Hmm – when I go back to my parents’ house for Christmas, I should totally dig it out and veganize some of the recipes!

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Cherry, maybe? Or apricot?

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

Let’s be honest – any decadent baked good will do.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

Tofu; I’m boring.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

I love baking. As for time of day, I like afternoon cookery, but I’m only home in the afternoon on weekends, alas.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

A glass serving plate, a giant tin of sesame sticks, a martini shaker, a ridiculous cow-udder shot glass, and vodka.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

A big ol’ bag of cherry tomatoes I froze during the summer, kale I also froze during the summer, and tons of frozen baked goods!

20. What’s on your grocery list?

I just went grocery shopping! Umm… still need some EB and vanilla, though.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Woodman’s. I love its lack of fanciness and its surprisingly large stock of organic/natural/vegan-friendly foods.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

I want to work on some of the traditional Portuguese recipes my Grammy and Vava used to make when I was a kid.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

Oh pshaw. I love you all!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

Okay, I’m a boring purist type person – I really only indulge in dark chocolate!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

If we’re talking price, I bought a bottle of applejack brandy the other day. IT’S BEEN A ROUGH WEEK; DON’T JUDGE.

…dude, I filled out this survey last year, too. Aaand most of my answers haven’t changed, although there’s 200% more alcohol in this post. SRSLY DON’T JUDGE.

Yay; hooray; that was fun… but this post is lacking something visual that’s not too abysmal. How about a stack of fluffy, whole wheat pancakes? I’ll post the recipe for these babies soon, but for now you can just look at them in all their fluffy, puffy glory.

They're stacked.

P.S. Lest you think it was sunny and warm today, it wasn’t. This is an old, previously-unseen photo. It was grey and rainy and cold… all the better to get a head start on my holiday knitting! Woohoo!

How’s the weather where you live? What did you do today?

When Serendipity Strikes: Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

I don’t even want to tell you what I made and consumed last night. I mean… it crosses all sorts of lines of healthiness and whole foods and blah blah blah. I blame Serendipity.

See, yesterday afternoon I was perusin’ an Eat, Live, Run post where Jenna confessed that she wanted to drink one of these from a sippy cup (go on, click that link), and I thought… hmm. I mean, I DO still have some Dandies left over from my s’mores cupcakes. Serendipity? I filed the idea away in my head. I figured, if it’s meant to be, things will fall into place. Serendipity.

Then last night I did some grocery shopping, and lo and behold – organic Rice Dream ice cream was on sale for $2.69. I very rarely buy vegan ice cream, but… hmm. I picked up a carton of the vanilla variety. Serendipity.

I went home. I ate dinner. And I thought, hmmmm. I had the marshmallows. I had the ice cream. I had the almond milk. Hmmm. Serendipity?

A few little Dandies found their way into the oven, under the broiler, and they came out all puffy, with a little sun tan.

Shiny!

After getting all warm and toasty in the oven, the little marshies obviously needed to cool down with some vanilla ice cream… in my blender. And, at that point, there was really nothing I could do but make a veganized version of Joy the Baker’s Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake.

Pure sugaaaaar!

A Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake tastes pretty much exactly like you’d imagine. It is pure, unadulterated sugary sweetness. Like, head-to-the-dentist-and-do-not-pass-Go kind of sweet. Like, my five-year-old self would’ve been all over this thing, promising marriage and babies and a life of eternal luuurve.

My adult self, however, was a little horrified. I mean… I drank it; I won’t lie. Afterwards, though, I felt like I might slip into a sugar coma at any minute. It was touch and go for a while, but I survived and came out on the other side with an intense craving for greens and hemp and anything hippie-healthy. Still though… it was pretty tasty.

Next time, I’ll add chocolate. Serendipity?

What’s the sugariest thing you’ve ever eaten? How do eXtreme amounts of sugar affect you? Have you lost your tolerance for super-sweet foods as you’ve gotten older?

S’mores Surprise Cupcakes

/ Kelly / 9 Comments

Today, I’m going to start things off with a photo.

Say hello to my s'mores-y friend!

I call that a S’mores Surprise Cupcake. Perhaps you’re thinking, “But Kelly! Where is the surprise?! I see something vaguely graham-y and something white like a marshmallow and something obviously chocolaty.” To which I must reply, “Shut it.” See that bit o’ white peeking out over the top, just under that drizzle of ganache? That’s the surprise. Or, well, it’s supposed to be the surprise.

Allow me to explain: a month or so ago, I won a bag of Dandies marshmallows from Kris over at Nom! Nom! Nom! Blog. When I tried a Dandie, I was shocked – they’re so puffy and sweet and eerily similar to the nasty gelatin-filled marshmallows of my childhood! I knew immediately that they needed to be made into something s’mores inspired – stat. So I worked up a recipe for some simple cupcakes, flavored mostly with molasses and a few spices, and decided to hide a little marshmallow in each one. As you can see, however, they refused to stay hidden:

Well, hello, there!

I think the problem was that I added the marshmallows before putting the cupcakes into the oven, so they had way too much time to puff up and go all soft and melty. Originally I meant to add Dandies to half the batch at the get-go, and then add them to the rest of the batch halfway through baking. But I got overexcited at go-time, resulting in little marshmallow-y volcanoes of sticky goodness. No worries, though. I think they look pretty fun, all covered with the Quick Melty Ganache from VCTOTW.

A whole legion of cuppers!

I wanted to post a recipe for y’all, but somehow said recipe disappeared. I wrote it out on an envelope or a scrap of paper as I put it together, then somehow lost said paper. Somehow, I think you’ll survive – the recipe needed a little work, and there are quite a few fun recipes for Dandie-filled delights out there. You could try Kris’ Sweetie P Cupcakes, for example, if you wanted a cupper that calls upon that most sacred of Thanksgiving traditions, sweet potato casserole. Or you could go with Amy’s Grahamy Mallow Brownies for a chocolaty, sweet square of delightfulness. Or, y’know, you could just eat these straight-up from the bag, popping them into your mouth like particularly addictive candy. Not that I’d know anything about that. I only make elegant, sophisticated baked goods with my Dandies!

Have you tried Dandies? What about Sweet & Sara marshmallows? I won a sampler of Sweet & Sara marshmallows last year… o m g. So delicious! Not the sort of thing you’d want to put in a cupcake, however. Them’s fer savorin’.