VeganMoFo: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.

I love Thanksgiving! Dead birds aside, my family has a great time together, eating drinking and telling really stupid stories about eachother from year's passed. We always crack up, and we always have a good time. This year, same as last, I will be responsible for the "vegan" table. Normally there are 5 of us, but this year, only 3 will be there. I usually make enough food for a small army, but it's always awesome. The omnivores are always interested in tasting the "weird" stuff and they always have nice things to say.

This is last year's feast (not everything is showing) :


Our table consisted of pumpkin gnocchi, Bourbon Sweet Potato Mash, Greek Stuffing, VCTOTW Pumpkin Cupcakes, VwaV Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, A Tofu Not-A-Turkey with Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Nutty Cheeze Sqaures and crackers (because not only do we do dinner, we also do appetizers and snacks), SunDried Tomato Focaccia, and of course, SoyNog!

This year I am making Greek Stuffing, Bourbon Sweet Potato Mash, Fried Nutty Cheeze Sticks with Marinara, Butternut Squash Ravioli in a sage cream sauce, Traditional stuffing, a loaf of ho'made wheat bread, Joanna's Sesame Green Beans, and I am still trying to think of a dessert.

What are you making?

Today was the first time in over four years that I had to punch a timeclock at a "job." I have forgotten what it's like to work a straight 8 hour day. I really like being my own boss, so this transition is going to be strange. Especially when it comes to meals. I have decided to pack my lunch, whenever possible, to save money and time (I only get a 30 minute lunch break.) Today I had coffee with vanilla silk creamer for breakfast, a Scarborough fair burger on a bun with vegenaise and some generic oreos for lunch, and I totally skipped/forgot to eat dinner because when I got home from work I cuddled up with my sick kitty, and konked out for the night.

My first Food Porn and how the PPK changed my life.

Today I ask, "When did you discover food porn?" And before that, did you care about the presentation of your food? I have always loved to prepare meals for others and I love having dinner parties. But I always did it buffet style and therefore never really cared about the presentation on each plate. Then, I received "Vegan with a Vengeance" as a gift, and discovered the PPK. It's strange to think that anyone can even be a vegan without knowing about the PPK. Yet so many are. Even I had been making recipes from that book before I ever checked out the website. In fact, I had many other vegan and vegetarian cookbooks before, but none had ever changed my life! Now I take pictures of almost every meal I make, and blog about it, and post about it. Literally, the PPK has changed my life. Making dinner was no longer just making dinner, it was an experience. Isa (and Terry, and lots of other talented folks) inspired me to not only cook, but create.

This was the first food porn I ever posted. Be nice. I remember it well, because those biscuits were as hard as a rock and tasted like crud! It was on October 18, 2006. Just a little over a year ago. So much has changed since then.

Another very busy day. I got a new (2nd) job and today I had orientation. First I had to go the vet with my kitty, then to my real job, then the orientation for the new job, then I finally got to come home. Needless to say, I was pooped. I forgot to bring my lunch with me to work, so I had the coconut curry seitan I made last night waiting for me when I got home. Thank goodness. For breakfast I had coffee with soymilk and a plain bagel. I skipped lunch, but had a soy latte on my way from one job to the next, dinner was the curry, and a late evening snack was some kahlua and soymilk with some cookies. Not the healthiest of days, but...

Busy Day = Easy Food

Some days are just too busy to create a masterpiece in the kitchen. Today was one of those days. Although I wanted to just kick back and order pizza, I still mustered up enough energy to make myself a nice, and easy dinner. Usually on nights like this, I just boil up some pasta, melt a little EB on it and call it dinner, but I wasn't in the mood for that. So as I tried to think of things I liked together, and stared into my pantry, I came up with this.

Out of my pantry (and fridge) I took:
1 13.5oz can of coconut milk
1 15oz can of peas
1/4 cup of cashews
1 cup of brown rice
1 tbsp yellow curry powder
1 cup of water
1/4 of a log of Lachesis Seitan'O'Greatness (sliced into strips)
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper

Then I threw it all in a nice big skillet, let it simmer until most of the moisture was absorbed and the rice was tender and called it done. There's even enough leftover to take to work tomorrow for lunch.



Other things I ate today: Coffee, a zucchini mushroom burger on a bun with vegenaise for breakfast, a scarborough fair burger on a bun with vegenaise for lunch and above recipe for dinner.

EcoLibris

I got this email, thought it was interesting, so I am reposting it here as requested by the sender:

Dear Joni,

I saw you're taking part in VeganMoFo, and therefore I thought you might be interested in a book recommendation by Victoria E on The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau that we posted today on our blog (http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2007/11/joy-of-vegan-baking-holiday-green-gift.html).

This recommendation is part of Eco-Libris' Holiday Green Gift Guide for Book Lovers - a guide that is aimed to help people find the best green books to give as gifts this holiday season.
Please allow me to introduce Eco-Libris: it is a new green biz that lets book readers balance out the paper used for the books they read by planting trees. About 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. What we want to do is to raise awareness to the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people with an affordable and easy way to do something about it: plant one tree for every book they read. Our customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One tree planted for this book” and can later display these stickers on their books' sleeves. You are welcome to check out our website at: http://www.ecolibris.net

If you could feature our recommendation at your blog that really would be great! I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks! Best regards, Raz GodelnikEco-Libris

VeganMoFo and the great Grocery Experiment of 2007

Last year my cousin Leah and her boyfriend Tim did something amazing. They dubbed it "The Great Grocery Experiment" in which they vowed to only eat food they already had in their kitchen, and not to buy anything for an entire month!

Think about that. 30 days of eating only wht you already have. Most of us could do that, no problem. Go look in your pantry. There is enough rice, beans, pasta, quinoa, nuts, seeds, oatmeal and cereals in mine to last me until the end of the year! Not to mention the stuff in the freezer and fridge.







(Please ignore any cheese or mayo or ranch or diet pepsis or beers...those belong to my husband. Other than that, I think I have effectively pushed him and all of his animal products out of the kitchen!)

I am going to make an effort to only cook with what I have until the week of Thanksgiving. ( I have quite a feast to plan for that week, so I will surely need to shop for fresh produce at that time.) The challenge will be to make exciting dishes with things I already have, and not resort to rice and beans or simple pasta. From the looks of it, some soba noodles in a peanut sauce with frozen broccoli may just be the ticket for tonight's dinner. I will post everything I make, along with recipes and photos when possible.

I challenge you all to look into your kitchen's and do the same! Think of the money you will save!

Edited to add: I made my first meal, for lunch, with enough left over for dinner. I made Joanna's Spicy Almond Noodles from Yellow Rose Recipes . I subbed peanut butter for almond butter because I was still crving peanut sauce after being dissapointed at Mother's. This really is an excellent recipe! So today's food includes: Breakfast: Coffee, 3 cups with just a tad of soy vanilla creamer, Lunch, the above mentioned Spicy Almond Noodles and Dinner will also be those yummy noodles. I am also going to try to avoind any late night cookie binges too!

Pattern emerging so soon?

Part of my committment to the VeganMoFo that I made to myself was to write about everything I eat for a month. It's only been a few days and I am already seeing a pattern.

Too much coffee and lots of burgers.

Truth be told, when I am testing burgers I end up with a gagillion in my fridge and freezer. They are just so easy to reheat and eat. Not to mention that they usually taste good too. But, geez, I need to vary my meals a bit. I think that sometimes I just go with burgers, because making a huge meal seems like too much work, just for me. My husband doesn't eat what I cook, so it seems selfish and wasteful to be extravagent just for one. That being said, I am still waiting for delivery of "Veganomicon" and when it finally arrives (I pre-ordered way back in August!!!) it'll be on in the kitchen. But until then, burgers it will be.

Edited to add: Breakfast was plain black coffee, but I broke away from burgers for lunch today, but only by accident. I responded to a call for "general manager" position at the Veggie Grill and today I went for an interview. The interview went well, although I think they might be looking for someone with more restaraunt management experience as I have none. Nonetheless, the manager who interviewed me, bought me lunch! I had their brand-new-on-the-menu Carne Asada Sandwich and a side of Sweetheart Fries. It was really, really good. I didn't take a picture, sorry. For dinner, I broke down and had a burger. And more coffee. Aaaargh.

It's already time to start planning for Christmas!?!

Today I will be out and about. I have to work this morning and this evening and in between I am meeting up with some wonderful vegan folks for lunch for the first time. It's always exciting to meet new people, and this is a group I am excited to meet with. I was introduced to Wanda by telephone about a month and a half ago. She is a wonderful woman (I believe she is now in her 70's) who has been a vegan and passionate animal right's activist since the 70's. Longer than I have been alive, folks! She was given a copy of my cookbook as a gift, and called me to invite me to join her and some other like minded folks for a monthly vegan luncheon. My first one is today. We are going to Mother's Market and Cafe in Huntington Beach. I will report back later on which of the delicious offerings made it into my belly.

Edited to add: So, I went to Mother's, and don't get me wrong, I am thankful that they have a restaurant with vegan offerings, and the market is superb, but every time I eat there I leave feeling a bit underwhelmed. The coffee was good, but I ordered the Thai Peanut Tofu with Udon, broccoli, sugar snap peas, peppers and onions. Sounds awesome, right? Meh. In addition to the coffee and lunch at Mother's other things I put into my belly Sunday included, more coffee in the morning with a touch of soy vanilla creamer, a Scarborough fair burger with 2 slices of whole wheat bread for breakfast, a alte afternoon cup of coffee with chocolate added and a Mushroom Zucchini burger with 2 slices of whole wheat bread for a late dinner. I also had a couple of lemon creme cookies (think Oreos, but lemon.)

But, now, I am asking for your help. It is already November, and time to start planning for holiday gift giving. Each year, my business partner and I put together a basket of goodies for all of our current and past clients (I am a Real Estate Agent by day.) We make everything from scratch and bundle it all up in a cute little basket, or tin or bag and hand deliver them to each doorstep. In addition, I also make a bigger and better basket for all of my friends and family. All in all I usually end up putting together about 65 baskets! 2 full weeks of morning to night baking, packaging and delivering.

What are your favorite "giftable" treats? Last year's baskets included Kittee's peanut butter fudge, Orangeluna's soft sugar cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Modified VwaV chocolate thumbprints (aka peanut butter fudge bombs), Sarah's Cracker Candy (AKA Skor Bars) and Sneaky's microwave peanut brittle. All of these recipes came from the lovelies over on the ppk forums.

What should I put in this year's baskets?

Alone on a Saturday night. The Scarborough Fair Tofu Burger

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you know that it's a rare occasion that Dan and I leave the house on the weekends. Instead we have stay at home date night, and we cook up some fun dinners in the kitchen, that we wouldn't have the time or energy to make up on a weeknight.

Well it's Saturday night, and Dan has left me for the night to hang with the boys and do boy stuff. I'm sure none of it revolves around cooking. Drinking? Maybe. But cooking? No way.

Fried Zucchini

The food I have put into my mouth today: Breakfast was a few cups of coffee with a little vanilla silk creamer. Lunch was a zucchini mushroom veggie burger on a whole wheat bun with way too much vegenaise. A late afternoon snack at the office consisted of 2 cups of coffee and a cookie. Dinner was another burger on a whole wheat bun topped with marinara and my beloved vegenaise served up with a side of fried zucchini (recipe below) with extra marinara for dipping. It's friday night, so I had some Kahlua in my vanilla soymilk.


I find it absolutely meditative and sexy to stand in the kitchen and hand chop vegetables. There is a sensuality to it that is simply unexplainable. First the washing and the drying of freshly bought produce, and then the power of the sharp blade slicing and dicing it into little pieces of goodness that will make the meal.

I was very ready to hand slice these zucchini and even got out a hand grater to shred some for the burgers, but for some reason, I wanted to try out the slicing attachment on my food processor. I have had the thing for over two years, and have never used that attachment. So I used it. Now, damn if it didn't slice that zucchini into a bajillion little discs in a matter of 3 seconds! Whoa.

I might just have to use it a little more often...seriously what could be more sexy and powerful than a speedslicer?

Moving on. With all of these little zucchs sliced and ready, I placed them in a large ziploc bag along with:

1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Then I shook 'em up shake and bake style until I got a nice coating on each piece. Then, in a cast iron skillet, filled with about a 1/2 inch of canola, and heated, I fried these puppies until golden, about 1-2 minutes per side. Make sure you don't overcrowd the pan. Then, I removed them from the oil, placed them on a plate lined with a kitchen towel or paper towels to drain, and I popped 'em back in the bag for a fresh coating of the flour mixture. Meanwhile, I added a little bit more oil to the pan and let it heat back up. Then for the second fry. This time a little longer on each side to get that yummy golden brown color. After the second fry, it's back to the draining plate. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Yum.

VeganMoFo and Zucchini Mushroom Burgers (From the "Just the Burgers" Test Kitchen)

VeganMofo is Isa's (from the PPK) vegan version of the NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a "novel" in a month. Since us food bloggers aren't really into writing novels, we are blogging instead. The goal, an entire month of vegan food posts in the month of November. My format will be to blog about everything I put into my mouth this month. I will include pictures when possible, and recipes if I can.

Katie of "Don't Eat off the Sidewalk" designed the logo. Thanks Katie. Everyone should thank her by going to her site and buying the 2nd issue of her 'zine! It's holiday themed and everyone should have one.

Now for my eats for today. I had coffee with Kahlua for breakfast. (I know, weird, but for some reason some of the suits at work thought it would be a good idea to bring a bunch of liquor to the office. They brought vodka and bloody mary mix, champagne and OJ and Kahlua and Baileys. They were trying to get us sloshed at work!) and a plain bagel. For lunch I had leftover pizza from halloween night and I put some tofutti sour supreme on it, 'cause it was dry. (I had ordered cheeseless pizza covered in jalapenos and onions form Zito's. They have vegetarian sausage, but I wasn't in the mood.) And for dinner I made a new burger for the "Just the Burgers" test kitchen. It's pictured below. It's a Zucchini and mushroom burger made with zucchini's from my mom's garden. I only cooked one, and plan on having another tomorrow night with a side of fried zucchini. I'll post that recipe tomorrow. The burgers are yum. Simple and juicy and full of flavor. I ate it on a whole wheat bun, covered with marinara and vegenaise. For dessert I had the last two of those pumpkin treats I posted about on halloween. I washed it all down with two glasses of vanilla Soymilk.