No time

Sorry Vegan Mofoers, but I just haven't had the time to post on my blog.

With the karmavore shop moving, I've been too busy to do much blogging.


I think I can get one more cookie post up tonight though! Maybe...another goodie as well. We'll see...

simplicity

Our basic stir-fry that we like to make quite often. I never get tired of it because I can use whatever veggies I have on hand, add some tofu or tempeh, and make a quick sauce.

It's so simple.

This week db was given an ActiFry as a thank you gift from his boss. It just takes a tablespoon of oil or less to fry whatever you want really. Last night he tested it out with some homefries that turned out crispy and perfect. Tonight...

Tofu! He added some chili flakes and some BBQ sauce. I'm just about to go try it with tonight's stir-fry. Yummy.

Thrive

Part of my journey to eat healthier led me to the Thrive Diet. I usually don't buy any book with "diet" in the title because to me it suggests a regimented diet, but I was interested in the Thrive Diet because I admired the author Brendan Brazier for being a top level tri-athlete who promotes a plant based diet.

The recipes in this book are simple, tasty, and have many raw options. If a recipe calls for cooking it is usually at a low temperature.







One of my favorite things to make in this book is the walnut burger.
All of the burgers in the book are very good, but the walnut burger is my favorite. Everything goes into the food processor and then you just make them into patties. I decided to cook half of the burgers and keep the other half raw. I think I prefer them raw. It was a nice complement to my roasted veg and beets
Then I made his cheezy sauce with sunflower seeds. I warmed it a little and served it on the side with the burger. The two went great together, and made for a great lunch the next day with some spinach, sprouts and raddichio. My lunches at work always have to be cold so I usually do a salad with lots of stuff in it, or occasionally a simple sandwich, so this walnut burger was a nice change.

no brainer breakfast

This is my daily breakfast, or at least a version of it.  I'll add in different flavours to keep it interesting, but this is my favorite version: banana, unsweetened almond milk,  vanilla soy, a scoop of Vega Whole Food Optimizer, cocoa, 1 tbsp of Udo's oil, and a dash of liquid iron. Into the blender and I've got a tasty breakfast that holds me for a couple of hours.

It's also my post-run drink with1.5-2 sccops of Vega WFO to get the max. protein.

Vega has become an essential ingredient to my daily vegan life. It's so great to see this company do well and have its creator, Brendan Brazier (a tri-athlete), promote a plant based lifestyle. I'll admit that when my friend red jane first introduced it to me, I wasn't that impressed and the flavour made me gag, but Vega has come a long way since then. They have a huge range of products (no, I don't work for them. I just really love the product) for every need (I also love their energy berry bars).

What would I do without my Vega! It's gluten-free and it contains all of the vitamins and minerals. It has all of the essential amino acids, and it's ready to mix. You can make it into a smoothie, or mix it with your favorite beverage, or even bake with it.

It's not comfort food or a fancy baked goody, but it is an essential part to my overall health. I often celebrate the rich vegan foods and I just wanted to remember and celebrate the everyday foods that I eat (or drink in this case) to try and maintain a healthy vegan lifestyle.

Days of the Week

We don't always have time to create new and exciting meals. Mostly we just have our standards that we make during the work week, something that will take little time and use up whatever we happen to have in the fridge. 

db's stir-fried veg with quinoa was delicious even if he didn't intend to make blackened tofu. He just has a way with seasoning and making sauces that I can't match so his stir-fried veg is always tasty. 

This mac and daiya cheese was a plan B that I had to put together quickly when I realized that I didn't have all of the ingredients to make Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon.  I used wild rice mac noodles, a sauce I made with cheddar daiya cheese, and lacinato kale, which I could almost eat everyday (I exaggerate of course). 

Have you tried daiya? Most of the feedback I've had has been really positive, and I know that I love it. It's so melty good and the cheddar is perfect for a sauce or quesadillas, nachos, grilled cheese etc...

Vote to Build a Radiology Suite to Save Injured Wildlife.

 I volunteer at Wildlife Rescue and am so amazed at the work the staff and volunteers do to save injured wildlife. It's an amazing place. I would really like to see them receive the funding for this idea.

You can "vote for this idea" by going to the Pepsi Refresh Project. You have to sign up if you haven't already, and then you can vote every day for this idea.

The more votes, the better the chance Wildlife Rescue has.

Wednesday

db is really the creative cook in our house. He can take any ingredients and make a fabulous meal out of it. (If only he had a blog! Naw...it would just be about hockey, and maybe shrooming.) On the other hand, I like recipes. We have dozens of cookbooks that I like to use regularly. I have a few standbys that I often return to, but when I have a handful of ingredients that I want to use, I'll turn to my cookbooks to guide the way. And what a selection of vegan cookbooks there are out there in the world, which is a great thing because it means more people are interested and more people are cooking vegan. Hurray! 

Yesterday, I had broccoli as my main ingredient that I wanted to use. I turned to Veganomicon to whip up these broiled polenta with broccoli mixed in. After putting all of my energy into the polenta, I put together a quick mixed greens salad with radicchio and raspberry vinaigrette with a healthy sprinkle of hemp seeds.

 Earlier in the day (I had the day off), I had time to bake another selection from the Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book.

ginger wheel cookies 

I skipped the wheel spoke part with the fork tine making the pattern and just opted to sprinkle generously with sugar before baking. These are soft and chewy cookies. Very tasty.

Most recent mushroom finds.

 Zeller's bolete (apparently edible, but the ones we found were inedible because they were full of maggots. I know, it sounds appetizing doesn't it?)

 Helvella lacunosa (I think)

I had to ask my stepdad, pw, about this one. He's much better at identifying than I am. I wasn't having much luck using my reference book, Mushrooms Demystified.

 I was also so startled by its appearance that I wondered if it was a plant and not a type of fungi.

 Our most recent collection of chanterelles.

We can't seem to get enough of them. Is it possible that I find them tastier this year compared to last?

Vegan MoFo Gluten Free Baking

It's that time of year again! It's Vegan MoFo!

I'll admit that my last MoFo attempt was a bit weak, my heart wasn't in it. This year I feel a little more inspired, more like the first year I participated when MoFo was just getting started. So get ready for a whole month of vegan food in whoville.

Of course every month around here is the vegan month of food, but I don't blog about it as much as I use to. That's just the nature of my blog; it changes as do I.

Okay, okay on to the food.

One of my challenges over the last couple of years has been to cut out the gluten in my vegan diet. Because I have a wheat sensitivity and do not have celiac disease, I can cheat and do often cheat by eating something wheaty (the most recent example being our trip to Portland where I had to sample some of the goodies from Sweetpea Bakery and Back to Eden Bakery).  So, I'm a cheater. Well I can strive to do better.

Just this past weekend, I purchased Flying Apron's cookbook since it was on sale at my local vegan shop.  As with many cookbooks, the delicious sounding recipes and glossy photos attracted me, but what attracted me most was that this cookbook contains recipes that are tried, tested, and true, and are served in the Flying Apron Bakery in Seattle (next trip).

My first recipe! Flying Apron's Buckwheat Biscuits seemed like a good place to start because I had all of the ingredients in the cupboard, and wanted something to have on hand for breakfast. Also biscuits are a bit of a nostalgic food for me. Drop biscuits or the rolled biscuits my mom made through my childhood and still makes today has always been a favorite of mine. This recipe is a bit different: there was some chilling time for the dough; there is working with non-gluten flours that means the properties are just different; there is also sugar in the dough that adds a nice sweetness to them that reminds me of a sweetened scone.  The results were a success! We're still enjoying the results. I took one to work as did db, and we both commented on how tasty these are.

I suspect that this month will have more photos from my gluten free baking.

If you want to follow more Vegan MoFo blogs or just check out the blogroll of all those participating in Vegan MoFo, you can find the list on the Vegan MoFo blog.