Happiness

This hamster is so cute I think my eyes are going to bleed!! It's guys like these why I really enjoy being vegan. Not that people are out there eating hamsters...it's just a general love of animals big and small. How do you not embrace this at full speed? Love it!

Christmas Robe

This year I thought I'd make a robe for Mother dearest to gift her on Christmas day. Why a robe? Truthfully, it's only 1 of 2 things I know how to sew. So what? Everyone can use a good robe during the wintertime!

This particular pattern is kimono style so I picked out an Asian print. I'm still unsure if I'm all that jazzed on the fabric I picked out...but all in all, I think it turned out pretty good! :)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Below is a picture of dinner time in our household this Thursday. We ate a faux turkey, hot artichoke dip with crostini, tofurky brand gravy, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, yams, fresh cranberry sauce, sparkling apple cranberry juice as well as blueberry pie!


The following is a pic of the creation of my faux turkey. I tested out a super simple recipe from www.everydaydish.tv. We were very surprised how much we felt this tasted like a store bought tofurkey. I never had much luck with vital wheat gluten in the past but I think the key to making it successfully must be in the boiling piece because that was new to me. We also baked it afterward to crisp it up a bit.


Since Mikael so graciously allowed us to have a "traditional" midwest Thanksgiving versus an Italian or East coast menu I permitted him to pick out this years signature dessert. The result - blueberry pie! I took this particular recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking but to be honest, it seems like most blueberry pie recipes mimic the rest. The pie was served with vanilla bean soyscream (Mikael's hybrid for soy ice cream) and soyatoo whipped cream. MMm!!

Taco Pizza, Tomato Harvest, and Japanese Treats

With an Italian in the family, handmade pizza is a pretty regular occurrence in our household. Happily we've had many delicious outcomes and no real disasters. Usually I like a really saucy cheeseless pizza with pinneapple and ranch dressing to dip. This week I felt like giving something else a go. Enter "taco pizza."


This delicious little pie is a handmade crust (simple flour, yeast, water). I spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on top then added a layer of spicy refried beans. The next layer is cooked lightlife brand mexican ground beef. Lastly topped with diced tomato and onion. Baked about 20 minutes.

Once the pizza came out i topped it with fresh chopped lettuce, salsa and tofutti sour cream. In hindsight I think I would've preferred to add the salsa before baking. Otherwise it makes for an icy bite.


It's starting to get brisk and drippy in Portland these days so we were beginning to worry about our tomatoes. This was our first year with a garden and we planted the romas pretty late in the season so they aren't ripe just yet. The below pic is a decently large bowl with our loot. I think it's a lot consider it came from a small container on our apartment's patio!


I thought you all would get a kick out of our shopping spree at Uwajimaya - the local Asian Market. We pretty much bought anything that was vegan friendly but most of it happened to be candy. That little pink stud is Willy - the blankie doll I sewed with my own two hands. Say hello, Willy!

Apron Prettiness

This is a pic of the cute little apron I recently finished! Ignore my face...I look grumpy but actually I was tired and didn't know my head was going to be in the pic. :)

I was *so* in love with this fabric used on the body...it reminded me of a Russian plate or vintage doll or something. So beautiful!! The contrast print on the other hand...I'm not so sure. It "matches" but didn't result in what I hoped for.

Now I'm ready to cook!! <3

Greek Bean Soup

Sunday's dinner was comprised of one of my FAVORITE recipes...Greek Bean Soup!! This particular recipe comes from the Dining with Friends cookbook. We made the mistake of buying a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes when we were looking for diced so this was more of a modified tomato soup...but still tasty.

At the moment I'm in the early stages of the common cold so here's to feeling better! (and sorry for the crappy pic...)

Cheeze Soup & Scalloped Potatoes

Saturday's dinner was pulled from one simple question. "What meal comes from yukon potatoes?" We hadn't gone shopping yet for the week and it was slim pickings around the fridge. I was flipping through my Imus Ranch cookbook searching for that twice baked potato recipe I've been meaning to try when I came across a page for Scalloped Potatoes. Yum!

The recipe is fairly simple: potatoes, soymilk, nutritional yeast plus salt and pepper. Basically you layer up the potatoes in a casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes.

I decided to pair up my potatoes with a soup since I came across a Broccoli and Cheeze recipe in the Imus Ranch book. I had some Daiya to spend but no broccoli so I made some modifications. My version is essentially...

1/4C olive oil
1/2C chopped onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups broth
1/2C soymilk
1/2C cheese
1/4C flour

I put a little pepper on top to garnish. The soup was OK but to be honest I haven't really cared for Daiya so there weren't any high expectations. Just a simple out-of-groceries dinner!

Vegan 100

1) Copy this list into your blog or social networking site profile, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment on this post linking to your results.

The Vegan Hundred:

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi – I always see this at the health food store, but it’s crazy expensive
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice...with Extra Ginger

50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless 'Pixie' Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

Wow, I guess I better get to eatin'...

Mac & Cheeze

The evil temptress known only as "cheese" has haunted me through all my vegan years. What can I say, as someone who grew up in Wisconsin (and as a human being)...I love cheese! Here's the problem, I won't eat it! So what's a girl to do...

I scour the vegan blogs and various sites daily for the latest and greatest secretly yearning for cheesey recipes. It must have been a few months back I encountered the Mac & Cheeze recipe on vegnews.com. There is a god.

My first stab went pretty well - I added a whole package of noodles (12oz) instead of the suggested 8oz so it was a little dry and I was disappointed. Yesterday we gave it another whirl and it was glorious indeed. I am happy to report such success for vegan Mac & Cheeze not only without tofu but without nutritional yeast!! It's too bad there is so much butter that needs to be added but for a special "now and again" treat I'm not going to stress about it.

Try the recipe yourself....here!

Lemon Squares!

If there's one thing I've been in the mood for, it's tangy Lemon Squares. Last night I whipped up a batch from the Veganomicon cookbook and they were brilliant! My only vegan comparison would be from vegweb.com and it's been years since that experiment and to be fair, I don't remember much. What I like best about this recipe is that it is TOFU-FREE (sorry, I just don't feel comfortable with curdled bean in my dessert) and delicious.

Enjoy the pic...

Vegan Chicken & Rice Soup

The coziest time of year showed up last week and I welcomed it the only way I knew how...tasty soup. Sure, I'm probably ahead of myself with the flannel slippers and hot chocolate but you really can't argue with some homemade Chikn Soup!

I came up with this little gem on the spot. Actually, I'm incredibly proud of this soup because it's the first recipe I entirely made up!



Ingredients:
-1 package Gardein brand Seasoned Bites
-3/4 cup long grain white rice
-1 bouillon cube
-1.5 cups water
-6 cups broth (no-chikn or veggie)
-2 roma tomatoes
-1 white onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, chopped
-a few tablespoons olive oil
-salt, pepper and parsley

Set up on your stove one large soup, a medium pan, and a medium pot. Rinse then pour the rice into a medium pot and add the 1.5 cups water with a bouillon cube. Bring the rice to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Occasionally stir the rice until cooked and fluffy then remove from heat.

After you've started the rice, start the chikn. Add a tablespoon oil to a medium pan and heat at medium-low until the oil becomes glossy and hot. Then add the package of Gardein chikn pieces including all of the delicious sauce. Cover and continue to cook on medium-low until the most of the sauce cooks off and absorbs. Use your spoon to cut the chikn into smaller, mouth size pieces.

Once the rice and chikn are close to finished, add 1-2 tablespoons of oil into the large soup pot. Heat on medium-low until the oil is glossy and hot. Then add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until the onions become clear, about 5 minutes. Add the 6 cups of broth as well as the rice, chikn, and tomato. Add salt, pepper and parsley according to taste (I believe I used about 1 teaspoon each). Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, spoon into bowls and enjoy!!

Two Wee Little Purses

In an effort to be crafty I fired up the sewing machine today to create some tiny purses. Well, ok, they're more like little pouches but nonetheless - craftiness! I've wanted for several years now to sew and make beautiful things from my imagination and finally this past June my mom bought me my very first sewing machine. It was my way to thank her by making her a little gift. (Thanks, Mom!)

The first pouch is a pink damask print with a zipper closure. I ironed on a monogram applique for contrast. The second pouch is purple satin with a glass crystal "B" for her last name. I decided to only add one initial in case this is too bling-bling...that way my sister can use it. :)