Halloween Party!

I love to host a party, and this weekend was my first time hosting as a vegan. To make it even more of a challenge, all our guests were carnivores. So, I decided I had to make EXTRA delicious vegan food to distract them from the lack of meat....and egg, cheese, milk, etc..

On the menu:
Black Bean & Butternut Chilli
Corn Bread Muffins
Spiced (and Spiked) Apple Cider

For Dessert: 
Brownies
 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

For the Chili, I used THIS recipe from Bon Appetit. To make this Gluten-Free, I used Red Quinoa instead of Bulgur. I obviously also omitted the sour cream and cheese as recommended toppings. ;-)
I also didn't use quite as much oil. Just a few drops to cover the bottom of the pot.

I made this in a pot over the stove, and then transferred into a crock pot to keep warm (and free up space on my stovetop).

For the Cornbread I used a recipe from my new favorite cook book, The Happy Herbivore. She has the most amazing blog with a ton of her recipes.

For the Spiced (and Spiked) Apple Cider, I sort of punted for a recipe. After scouring the internet, I only ended up confused. There were a million different recipes, and all of them were way too different. So, I decided I'd throw things in a pot a see...it ended up DELICIOUS!

2 Qts Honeycrisp Apple Cider
1t Allspice
1/2 t nutmeg
3 Cinnamon Sticks
1/2C Woodford Reserve Bourbon

So far I've made these brownies twice. Both times they were a hit with the non-vegan crowd....a true test in my book.

They are the perfect blend of soft & chewy with a little crispy top. And, they are super quick and easy to make. They don't have a lot of ingredients and it's all pretty basic stuff you should already have in your cupboards.

The highlight of my evening was making a winning batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. Pre-Vegan, I was quite the cupcake baker. So, giving up dairy and eggs seemed like doomsday on my cupcake obsession...

UNTIL....I got the best cookbook ever, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" . (Yes, that is it's actual title) And, I must say in my world, they definitely have.

1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup oil
1 c granulated sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. preheat oven to 350.

2. in a med. bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir together with a fork -- don't use a mixer, as it will make the batter gummy. Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips.

3. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let fullly cool before icing.

These were the perfect blend of pumpkin and chocolate. They were moist, fluffy, and delish! In the book it recommends a cinnamon glaze, but wanting to decorate them with webs, I opted to try making my own vegan "butter cream":

1/2 c Eath Balance Margerine
2 T Soy Milk
1 t Vanilla
Add Powdered Sugar to desired constancy (about 2 C)

I made the webs by drawing 2 circles on the cupcakes (like a target) and then dragging a toothpick through them. My non-vegan guests didn't even know they were vegan...well, until we told them :-)

Vegan Hawaiian BBQ Teriyaki Chickpeas

My sister turned my onto the awesome cookbook called, "The Happy Herbivore" ...this girl is awesome. Her recipes are easy to follow and don't have any crazy ingredients that leave you running to the grocery store every 5 minutes.

The recipe I made was the Hawaiian BBQ Teriyaki Chickpeas. It was SO simple and took me about 15 minutes to whip up. She's posted the recipe online, here
 I hit up Trader Joe's and got some of their frozen brown rice, Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce, and hot sauce. I subbed honey instead of sugar.

I've made this twice now, and learned that the key is to really let the chickpeas simmer in the sauce for a while. The longer they simmer, the thicker the sauce gets.....and, the thicker the sauce gets, the YUMMIER (yes, I'm using that as a word) the sauce gets.



*Once recipe has about 2 servings, I doubled the recipe (in picture #2) so I could have leftovers*

Check out her blog at www.happyherbivore.com

Green Smoothie 10/28/11

 

This morning's green smoothie consisted of:

1/2 Apple

1 Banana

1/2c frozen mango chunks

1/2c TJ's berry cherry frozen mix

2T Flax Seed

1/4c Apple Cider

1/4c Cherry Cider

BLEND, then Add:

2c Spinach

2c Kale

*This recipe made enough for 2 people*

Vegan Pizza

I think the defining moment when I realized maybe being vegan is do-able, is when I discovered I could still have pizza. Obviously, I still have it in moderation, but for that every now-and-then treat, it can be just as amazing as the real deal.

For this little beauty I used a dough recipe from food.com. I decided to use whole wheat flour to make it even more tasty and healthy. (Also, as a side note: I have learned that keeping yeast on hand is a staple)

I used Trader Joe's pizza sauce and soy cheese. I topped it off with tons of mushrooms and some soy pepperoni I found at Whole Foods.(obviously, these are up for modification to people's taste)

Baked for 15 minutes and done. Quick, easy, affordable, and totally makes you forget it's not a pizza from you pre-veg past :-)

GREEN SMOOTHIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I have jumped on the green smoothie train! Thanks to the suggestion of my sis (shout out to Lindsay, hey hey) !! I have to say, I REALLY like them...and I like that I can put a whole bunch of healthy stuff in them...but it still tastes delicious!

My first step in joining the green smoothie movement was buying a blender. I found one at Target for $25 and it is mighty powerful. So much so, that I am certain my neighbors did not appreciate my new found smoothie fascination when I was blending at 5:30am the other day before work. Whoops, being healthy required sacrifices....for me it may be my neighbors giving me the stink eye.

 In this smoothie I started with a banana and apple. I covered is with some apple cider and blended. I then added 1T of flaxseed, 1 hand-full kale, and 1 hand-full spinach.

I took a taste test, and decided it need a just little something more, so I found some frozen mango chunks in my freezer and threw those in. PERFECTO!

Vegan Chipotle

The other day I ran out of the house without a lunch...which always leaves me in a bind when noon rolls around and I'm starving. But, I decided to go to Chipotle. Even pre-vegan I liked Chipotle mostly for the fact that they are consience of where their products come from. Much of their produce is organic or grown locally, which I appreciate.

So anyway, I sort of forged my own vegan path. I made a half salad/ half veg burrito bowl. Mine included: Romaine, rice, black beans, fajita veggies, corn salsa, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

It was just as amazing as the Chipotle I knew and remembered from my pre-veg days....didn't miss the meat at all.

I'm loving the Loving Hut!!

Tonight Izzy and I tried a new restaurant that's just down the street from my place. It's called the Loving Hut (and yes, I too think their name is kinda lame) but they have a 100% vegan menu, which is awesome. It's kinda nice to go to a place and not have to ask the poor server a million questions about the contents of their food. Anyway, I got their spicy Bun Hue....it had noodles, mushrooms, soy slices, and tofu. They served it with mint, bean sprouts, and cilantro/mint on the side. It was quite tasty.

Izzy was feeling less adventurous and opted for a burger and fries. He wasn't really big into Asian food even pre-vegan....so I couldn't really blame him. Plus I stole a couple fries...so then I REALLY couldn't blame him ;-)

Lunch 10/21/11

Another TJ lunch! I found a bistro salad at Trader Joe's. It has Kale (which I love because it's high in calcium) and edamame, tomatoes, and dried cranberries. It was muy delicioso!

I found these soups at WF...they have an entire vegan line. This one gets a so-so rating from me. I have a few more in my pantry. I'll keep you posted ;-) Not everything can be fabulous, I guess :-)

Vegan Italiano

 Last night for dinner I was in the mood for a little Italian. AND, I was feeling a little adventurous....confession time: I've never cooked with Eggplant before.

So, I picked up an eggplant. And decided to jump in the deep end of the pool (aka no recipe).

For noodles I used a cool Gluten-Free version made with a blend of rice and quinoa. They were actually quite tasty...and pretty cute if I might add :-)!

For the base of the sauce I used a pre-made organic version from whole foods (I'm adventurous....but not "make-sauce-from-scratch" adventurous)

I added garlic, yellow bell pepper, roaster corn (from TJ), a can of Chickpeas (for some added protein) and of course some eggplant.

Also, I found added some ingredients not pictured above (that's what happens when you start digging in the back of your fridge). Mushrooms, spinach, and a tomato.

If you're going to try and make this at home...there really was no rhyme or reason to my cooking. I sauteed garlic and onion in a little olive oil then started adding veggies (eggplant, pepper, tomoato, frozen corn, chickpeas, etc) When the veggies were cooked I added the sauce and let is simmer. Right before I served I added the spinach to let it wilt. Then I just served is over the pasta.

Yummy!

Starbucks turns Vegan!

 Yay Hooray! Starbucks has jumped on the Vegan train! I was in a crunch for a last minute meal because I had a pop-up meeting at work. I quick ran to Starbucks thinking I might be able to scrounge up a soy latte and some almonds or something....but to my excitement I found this vegan bento box. It's not explicitly advertised as vegan, but I checked the ingredients...then double checked by googling it when I got back to the office. Yay! 

It included some yummy soba noodles in a sauce, these little yummy crunchy sesame clusters,  cucumber salad, and tofu. It was super yummy. I paired it with a soy vanilla latte. 

The Farmer Market haul...

Despite the 70 degree temps today, I was inspired to embrace fall at the farmers market today. They had a bounty of squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and other fall-ish produce. So, I made a veggie soup. I was looking for a recipe online, but since they all pretty much had you throw random things in a pot, I decided to forge my own path. Here are the things that ended up in my pot:

Veggie Broth
Onions
Garlic
Black Beans
Barley
Red Potatoes
White corn
Yellow Corn
Fresh Tomatoes
Stewed Tomatoes
Yellow Bell Pepper
Carrots
Celery
Oregano
Tyme
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
and good ole salt n peppa

I also decided to make some fresh baked bread. I used the same recipe I used in an earlier post....only this time I used more whole wheat flour.

A little honey on the warm bread...and DE-LISH! My soup started out small and kept growing,  I guess I know what I'll be having for lunch this week :-)

Vegan Mac n Cheese!!!

I know it sounds like and oxymoron, but I just had the most delicious vegan mac n cheese....and I made it myself!! :-) I got the recipe online and was a bit skeptical, but it turned out awesome. And, this is WAY more healthy that anything from Kraft. Instead of cheese it uses a blend of soy milk, vegan butter, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, garlic powder, and agave. It was quick, delicious, and I have enough for leftovers.

I didn't have 1lb of pasta, so I halved the recipe and it worked great.

Ingredients

• 1 pound elbow macaroni or piccolini
• 3 cups broccoli florets
• ¼ cup vegan margarine
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour)
• 3 cups soy, almond, or rice milk
• ½ cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon agave

  Procedure

  Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook according to package directions. Add broccoli for the last 5 minutes of boiling and let cook until broccoli is fork tender. Drain and return to pot.
  Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, make a roux or paste by whisking the margarine and flour over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add nondairy milk, yeast, tomato paste, salt, and garlic powder to the saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until the sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning to taste and stir in lemon juice and agave. Toss the noodles and broccoli with the sauce and serve immediately.

New Fav Blog

I found a great blog for yummy recipes. Pre-vegan I saw this girl on an episode of cupcake wars and thought she was super inventive (not to mention adorable). I am so excited to find her blog. AND, not only that, but she studied under Dr. T. Colin Campbell, one of the doctors involved in Forks Over Knives.


http://chefchloe.com/

Catching Up

So I just spent the last 5 days working CrAzY hours (12-18 hrs/day) installing a huge event at the San Diego Convention Center. It was painfully exhausting, but the event went well and I was able to stick with my newly adopted veganism. Here is a before and after shot.



Tonight is my first night home after the craziness, so Izzy and I had a romantical dinner while we watched the Brewers game (we won, yay!). Last Sunday I had purchased some frozen tamales from the farmer's market. So I steamed them and served them with black beans and rice. The tamales are totally vegan...these were the potato and cilantro version.

Breakie 10/10/11

Running off to work this morning I devoured an apple and some almonds as I ran out the door.

Still starving, I ventured down the the vending machine at the confernce center I'm working at...gasp! To my plesent surprise I found these little babies! So nice to see that vending machines are offering some healthy alternative these days!!

Breakie 10/9/11

Oh the illustrious life of an event planner. Here is a snapshot of what my day is looking like.
I would so much more perfer a beach view and a umbrella drink, plant-based of course ;)

Breakie this morning consisted of an apple with organic pb. This was accompanied some toast....HOMEMADE bread! Oh, yeah! I had this recipe, but made it without the min and rosemary. I plan to make it again and try it with, but wanted an everyday plain bread.

Dinner 10/8/11

After a long day at work all I wanted was a home cooked meal. Always an uphill climb when you're exhausted. Luckily I had a pretty easy recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. Easy to make and pretty tasty! Plus, no I'll have something in the fridge when I come home exhausted tomorrow. Ugh!

I got the recipe from Shape magazine, but I made some modifications and used soy cheese to make it vegan. Link is here.

I used Red Quinoa and decided to add some roasted corn. I also used green bell peppers instead of red, because they were all I could find at the farmers market.

Lunch 10/8/11

I <3 Trader Joe's!! I needed a lunch on-the-go since I was at a job site today....and I found this SUPER yummy Super Spinach Salad!
Paired it with an in-season Honeycrisp apple...deelish!

Breakie 10/8/11

For lack of time this morning, I was a little unoriginal....oatmeal! It's Saturday and I'm running off to work...yick! However I spiced things up this morning with some raisins and cinnamon...yummy! I also had some plums from the farmer's market.

On another note, as a recovering diet-cokeacholic I found that mineral water has helped SO much wean myself off what I called me "morning coffee". Half my addiction was the cold, bubbly-ness...sometimes I get really classy and add a splash on cranberry ;-)

Dinner 10/7/11

So, tonight we headed out for a Brewer victory celebration. GO BREWERS!

But, I had a depressing discovery. Pre-vegan one of my favorite restaurants for a burger was a local change called Burger Lounge . After checking their website we saw they had a veggie burger....but we found out their veggie burger has cheese in it :-( Boo!

So we ended up at a restaurant across the street called Luna Grill, and to our surprise they had a TON of vegan options. We're still working on the avoiding "processed" food, which is hard when you eat out...but I had a veggie burger and salad. Iz opted for the falafal burger with a side a fries (his treat for a rough first week ;-)

Lunch 10/7/11

Last night we went to the AMAZING Mexican place we love called Rancheros in North Park. We loved it before we turned Vegan.....and we love it even more now that we've discovered there totally vegan options. They are this cute little hole-in-the-wall local place, which is amazing. So delish!

Lunch today was leftovers....sorry I must remember to snap a pic BEFORE I devour it. Can you tell I was starving?

I had the Veggie Trio Enchiladas ( 1 Blue Corn Avacado, 1 Entrijolada w/mole & 1 Tofu ). There mole sauce was TO DIE FOR!! YUM!

Breakie 10/7/11

Now that I'm actually reading my nutrition labels, I'm discovering a lot of my old favorite breakfast cereals have ingredients I never knew of (hydrogenated corn oil, refined sugar, etc). So, this morning I stuck to an ole favorite. Why mess with a good thing?

Old Fashion Oat-Meal
Handful of Walnuts
Agave Sweetener
And a really yummy Mango I got from the farmers market the other day.

Inspiration.....

About 10 days ago I was blissfully enjoying my carnivorous life and not really thinking too much about the reason I ate the things I did. If there was any deciding factor, it was probably taste and convenience. I ate relatively "healthy" sticking to a diet of almost everything besides pork or red meat....having cut them out a few years back. This was until my boyfriend (shout out to Israel, aka Izzy) came back from a trip home to WI. He had watched a documentary with his brother called "Forks Over Knives" and wanted me to watch it with him again.

This documentary has challenged the way I think about food. It discusses the benefits of nutrition and and encourages the use of food as medicine. It also discusses the many studies that have proven that animal protien is the cause of many of chronic illnesses in our culture today. Thus, (long blog short) it encourages a diet of plant-based whole-foods. Meaning avoiding processed foods and any animal products, and embracing anything that comes from the ground....ideally in it's most natural state. (less refined sugar, bleached flour, etc) SO, this documentary has not only inspired a change in my outlook on food and the way I now eat, but it has also inspired this blog. I figured a blog would be a great platform to share meal ideas, recipies, and even help keep me accountable to what I put in my body. You comments, encouragement, and questions are always welcome! <3 Megs