Vegan Food for Hungry Girls!

Here be the hungry girls.

Meet Sara. She's on the left.




We end up here.

OR Smoothie & Cafe.




This be the food.

I am quite a bad girl for even showing you this photo. This shop is run by Asian ladies... And there are signs all over the inside of the place saying "No cameras" and "No cell phones." I don't quite understand why, but maybe it has something to do with feng shui. Could anyone enlighten me? Anyway, I took a picture even though I was in a no-cameras-allowed zone. It's all for you guys, all for you. :)

Anyway, I got the Vegan Burger with vegan cheese (the nacho flavor of Vegan Gourmet, which actually tastes awesome) and carrot stick fries. They make the veggie burger patties in house, and they are amazing. Exquisite. They are so wonderfully good I constantly crave them. This is saying a lot, because when I go out I never, ever order veggie burgers -- I mistakenly thought they all tasted the same (think frozen Boca burger).

The great thing about this particular deli is that the word "Vegan" is also another thing that is plastered all over the walls, and further even, this deli is really into all things organic and above all, healthy. There may be processed vegan cheese on my burger, but I always feel so healthy and at peace after I gobble this thing up.



And whaddaya know? Another day, the same two girls get hungry again.

Must. stop. the. pain.

So we solved the problem and got some more food, somewhere else this time.

Here be the goods.



I know I said I'm not a veggie burger girl, but ever since my infatuation developed with OR's veggie burger I have this compulsion where I must try every homemade vegan burger patty in this darn city. I'm not a big vegan cheese user either, but hey, it came with the burger. (And the vegan cheese was good after all.)

Above is the Chili Cheddar Burger with wee grapies from VegaDeli, a brand new all-vegan deli in town. 'Tis pretty cool. They have 4-ish entrees a day, and they switch up the offerings and there is something different every day you go in there. They do have a "McVegan" sandwich, with mozzarella Teese and a tofu "egg" and a vegan sausage patty. And...get this: It tastes healthy! And freaking awesome! At the same time. The Chili Cheddar Burger was really good, though I like OR Smoothie & Cafe's patty a tad better. I would still eat this again, though. If they offered it again. But they probably won't, because everything is different every day. If I had to guess, I would say the cheese is cheddar Teese.



Here's me with the food. I had a cornbread muffin too, but it is on Sara's plate. You'll have to check out her post (if she makes one) if you wanna see her goods, so I won't spoil the surprise. Thanks for exploring with me, Sara! I have lots of fun hanging out with you. :)

Two Winter Celebrations

It just so happens that there are two holidays I celebrate every November.

The first is Thanksgiving. As for the second? Ees my birthday!



My lovely friend made me special cupcakes for my birthday. Isn't she awesome? She has great decorating and baking skills, and she surprised me by combining all sorts of things I love into one cupcake: chocolate, coffee, and almonds. Here we have mocha cupcakes topped with almond butter buttercream, cocoa dusted almonds, chocolate ganache, and toasted almonds. Oh my goodness! These are the best cupcakes I have ever tasted. They tasted even better than my words can describe, and if you can believe it, even more delicious than they look in the pictures. I devoured most of them myself; was nice and shared three of them with others; and have one final cuppie waiting for me in my apartment freezer. I flew home to Texas for my birthday and Thanksgiving, but I am super excited to return to my apartment at school just so I can defrost my last birthday cupcake. Teehee.

I left school a little before Thanksgiving break really started so I could be home in time for my birthday. I went out with my sister and parents for lunch in Austin, Texas at Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse to celebrate. It's a funky vegan and vegetarian cafe downtown, pretty close to the University of Texas campus. I think the fam was a little bit scared off by the menu and the types of people at the cafe, but I loved my food and the alternative atmosphere!



I ordered the Oven Cakes Breakfast, vegan-style -- complete with black beans, vegan blueberry cornbread (with a ramekin of agave for drizzling), and an amazing tofu scramble! Check out this scramble, closer now:

It was noochy and delicious. I loved it a lot! Normally restaurant tofu scrambles don't impress me, but Bouldin Creek does a great job! The cornbread was absolutely lip-smacking too; despite what you'd think with the blueberries and all, this cornbread wasn't sweet in the slightest. The agave tasted perfect on it!



A few days later and it was Thanksgiving time! My immediate family eats out for Thanksgiving because I am the only cook, and no one else wants "my" food. This year they chose a local diner for the feasting spot, a place kinda like Denny's but for cowboys. I equipped myself beforehand with goodies from Whole Foods. I heated everything in the oven before we left for the diner and wrapped it up real good in foil and ceramic, and I whipped it out when everyone else received their meaty Thanksgiving meals at cowboy Denny's.



When it was time to order the food at the diner, I told the waitress I was a vegetarian and had brought my own meal. Once she saw my food, she was like, "That looks really good, actually." Actually?! Haha, it was kind of an insult and kind of a compliment. I guess she expected that something meat-free on Thanksgiving would be boring or gross. Nope, not on my watch.

I noshed on Celebration Field Roast, wild mushroom sage gravy, roasted butternut squash with spinach and cranberries, a rosemary sourdough roll (with a little container of Earth Balance!), and herb roasted beets. Oh wow, this was incredible!

On a day like Thanksgiving, I certainly couldn't forget about dessert! I planned ahead and got some Purely Decadent Snickerdoodle vegan ice cream to enjoy later that night (after seeing a movie with the family), and I whipped up the "You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate" Cookies from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan on a whim. I was nice enough to share the cookies with the others, but as for the ice cream? Well, it's deliciousness was something I decided to keep a vegan secret for now. The omnis don't know what they are missing (even though my sis was intrigued -- she loves Snickeroodles, even vegan ones!).





I hope everyone else had a happy Thanksgiving! I am upset that I have to go back and start studying for finals now. Ick, double and triple ick.

Vegan Pre-Thanksgiving Feast!

I am so lucky to have a good friend who is also a vegan. She was the mastermind behind the idea of a vegan pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We wanted to be able to have a decent feast before we both left town to pursue family holiday events... So we invited an adventurous crowd over to her place of residence and made a bunch of awesome vegan food.

Wanna know what we made? Okay, here goes!

(1). Apple Ginger Seitan from The Post Punk Kitchen



Words from me to you: You. Must. Make this recipe.



(2). The Best Vegan Mac and Cheese in the Entire World from VegWeb

My friend actually adds her own secret touches to this, so it's even yummier. This is actually a picture of leftovers, because it was hard to take good photos at the real feast. On the plate, you can also see the (3) maple-roasted Brussels sprouts and (4) roasted butternut squash from the dinner.



Visible here are some traditional (5) mashed potatoes (and the pot o' butternut squash), but it is pretty hard to see the rest of the spread.



Here's my plate (and bowl) from the actual dinner. (Oh, yes, there were seconds.) In the bowl is the (6) Sweet Potato Chili from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan minus the lentils. Going clockwise, at 1 o'clock are the roasted Brussels sprouts; the mac and cheese is at 5 o'clock; at 6 o'clock we have apple ginger seitan; roasted butternut squash is from 8 to 9 o'clock; and the mashed taters are at 11.



One of my favorite sides of the night was my friend's (7) Sweet Potato Biscuits. It's one of her grandma's recipes, but her family all agrees that the biscuits are better veganized. Score!



We didn't forget dessert, don't worry!



(My friend is on the left, and I'm on the right, for your curious minds' information.)

(8). Pumpkin Pie Brownies from The Post Punk Kitchen





We also made the (9) Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance and had 'em with glasses of ricemilk. Secret Tip: these cookies come out even better if you refrigerate the dough overnight! These little sparkly guys were yum, yum, yummy.

The entirely vegan dinner was a hit, even though my friend and I were the only vegans there. So, by popular request, we are in the planning stages of a pre-Christmas feast. Yay!

 

Seitanic Satisfaction

I just finished eating this meal approximately 3 seconds ago and it was so incredible that I could not wait another nanosecond to blog about it.

My copy of Pudge-Free Holidays, a brand-new e-cookbook created by the Happy Herbivore herself, arrived in my inbox yesterday and I immediately added the Maple Glazed Vegetables to my meal plan for the week. I picked a really good recipe to start out with! I am so glad I decided not to go out for dinner, because her Maple Glazed Vegetables are better than anything else I could have imagined eating tonight! You are in luck, too; this particular recipe also appears on the Happy Herbivore blog.

To make this awesome meal, first I sautéed a serving of Veganomicon’s Simple Seitan, cut into cubes, in 1 teaspoon canola oil and set aside. I cubed two itty-bitty Yukon Gold potatoes, boiled them for 8 minutes (until fork-tender), and set them aside also. Then I followed the recipe to make a portion to feed just me, using frozen broccoli and the Yukon Golds as my veggies. I made the sauce, including the optional agave nectar, and followed the directions exactly except for substituting lime juice for the lemon. After the sauce was thickened with cornstarch and reduced, I added the seitan back to the pan and tossed to coat. I served it over brown basmati rice and topped it with sesame seeds. This was freaking delicious and so incredibly satisfying that I was quite happy and fulfilled after I ate it!!!



Pudge-Free Holidays also includes many other healthy recipes that I am really excited to try, including Maple-Kissed Pumpkin Muffins, some delish Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes (I have actually kinda tasted them before, when Lindsay mailed a couple double chocolate mint muffins to me as a prize for a contest on her blog), Southern Cornbread, and even a recipe for African Kale and Yams to honor Kwanzaa. Lindsay is selling the cookbook for only 5 dollars on her blog, and I highly recommend it... Even if you don't care about being pudge-free for the holidays, the cookbook is worth it just because of all the yumminess inside!

As for other news -- my city has recently become really, really awesome in terms of vegan eats and dining out. I will be updating very soon with a detailed report!

All the Vegans You Can Eat

Wait -- what am I saying?!

I meant: All the vegan food you can eat. Indian style.

Sara some non-bloggers but Very Important People friends, and I met up at a local Indian restaurant for a vegan buffet. In her post about it, Sara summed up the event's cause: "some weird vegetarian/Ghandi/peace-love-animals thing...yes I went to an event for a cause I can't even explain just to eat the vegan food...don't think less of me!" Those are her words, but I felt the same way about it!

I have eaten at Indian restaurants my fair share of times before, but this place was the best Indian I have had, ever. Normally this place's menu is not completely vegan (it is a totally vegetarian restaurant, but they really love to cheese/dairy up their food), so we'll just have to wait until they have another vegan night to return. Now on to the eats:

Plate 1:



Clockwise, starting at the bowl: Spicy tomato soup, mattar tofu, yellow daal, a fried puffy thing (pani puri?), icky roti

Plate 2:



Clockwise, starting at the long tortilla thing (which I started to demolish before I took the picture): Masala dosa, channa saag, more mattar tofu, something yellow and unidentified

Plate 3:



Clockwise, starting at the small bowl: Sheera (also called halwa), canteloupe, honeydew melon, a different fried puffy thing, vegetable biryani, some green bean things

Some of the stuff was exceptionally good, and several things were bland and not-so-great at all. The yummies of my selection were:

- Mattar tofu (as you can see, it was so good I got seconds; consisted of tomato gravy, garlic, ginger, peas, coconut milk, and very firm tofu. This was my favorite of the bunch)

- Masala dosa (the long tortilla thing, it was nice and greasy and rich and fatty, similar to a crepe and stuffed with potatoes, onions, curry, and spices)

- Spicy tomato soup (So good! I could eat this every day. It was really simple, thin and light without being watery, and had a nice little kick of spice.)

- Sheera (a.k.a. halwa)

- The juicy melons!

The sheera was the dessert and was exceptional! It is a sweet, slightly creamy semolina pudding studded with cashews. Yum! Normally it is made with ghee, so you probably won't find many Indian restaurants with a vegan version. But fortunately, the online world is here to help out should you have any cravings for vegan sheera: recipes here and here. I kind of wanted a second bowl of it...

 

There must be five spices in heaven.

Does anyone else out there have major problems making tofu?

I am sure I have made tofu a hundred different ways since I became a vegetarian, but only a handful of my attempts have come out just right. Among the few winners are the tofu in the famous General Tao's Tofu recipe on vegweb.com, Em's tofu from the Gliding Calm blog (which I still mess up 66% of the time), and Veganomicon's Broiled Tofu, and any kind of scrambled tofu is an easy way out of the whole press-marinate-and-bake mess. I have gone through many, many tofu losers -- they just usually don't make their way to the blog. But that's not what this post is about!!!

I am here to tell you that you don't have to go through the trouble anymore. You don't have to kick yourself for trying a new recipe that yields mediocre tofu. Here's your new best friend:



Meet Mr. Five-Spice Tofu. This is the same stuff served at Pei Wei Asian Diner (where I worked this summer!) and P.F. Chang's China Bistro (in their heavenly vegetarian lettuce wraps).

Five-spice tofu is amazing -- if you have an international food store nearby, this tofu is worth seeking out! You're not going to find it at any normal grocery store; not even Whole Foods carries it. Also look for the words "dry tofu" or "dry spiced tofu" or just "five-spice" on the package, as I believe there are multiple brands of this tofu.

It is already pressed and baked, and it is absolutely delicious. Instantly delicious. The texture is just fabulous, and its appearance rocks too: The outsides of the tofu are browned, so that when you cut it into slices, the edges are darker and the insides are light. So cool!



I used up this block pretty quickly. First, I made General Tao's Tofu, from vegweb.com. I made double of what you see on the plate and I took half to bring for lunch at school the next day!



Next, I finally made a recipe from the Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook, the Gandhi Bowl. I have eaten this for two nights in a row, it's so good! Now I'm sad all my five-spice tofu is gone.



I made it yesterday with buckwheat soba noodles and tonight with brown rice. I also included baked sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, wild curry sauce, and pan-fried five-spice tofu, garnished with raisins and scallions.

I ordered the Gandhi Bowl at the actual Native Foods restaurant, but I have to say, the sauce I made myself was even more incredible than I remember having in California! Here's a picture of how the restaurant did it (they served it with tempeh):



According to the menu, Native Foods' Gandhi Bowl consists of jasmine and brown rice, steamed veggies and blackened tempeh topped with cranberries and wild curry sauce. The ingredients that really make the sauce pop are coconut milk, maple syrup, and curry powder -- there are definitely a lot more ingredients to it, but I am purposefully leaving their names out. Buy the cookbook!!! It's worth it. Or just visit Native Foods in California, like I did this summer (twice). I love that place.



Just for kicks, here's another tofu photo (although not the five-spice kind).



There's a brand new Whole Foods in town, and it is incredible. The Asian station serves Szechuan tofu (I will try this soon) and Kung Pao tofu (my choice). I took it to go, and enjoyed it with some kale salad as my family chomped on steak and French fries at a local diner. I think my food was better! The smell of the sauce reminded me of something I've had before, a long time ago, but I can't put a finger to it. Here are the ingredients, if you're curious:



And I should mention that the whole reason I ordered this entree was because it came with peanuts (Kung Pao entrees are usually known for this). Guess what they forgot to put with my tofu? Peanuts. Ughhh. Oh well. I still love you, Whole Foods.

Let me know if you find and buy the five-spice tofu. I would love to hear what you think of it!
 

Huge Relief!

Maybe I'm just a big baby, but I am exhausted from studying this week! I only had two exams, one bright and early at 7:30 this morning and one yesterday, but I am drained, for sure. It is a huge relief to have them over with, without another test anytime in the near future! The silly part of being so "busy" is that I "banned" myself from the internet in order to devote more time to studying, but somehow I found myself sneaking online to read your blogs anyway.

And somehow I convinced myself I didn't have enough time to write a blog entry myself.

Sometimes I feel so greedy, relaxing and reading blogs but going so long without returning my own written contribution. But, after a rather long break, I am finally back!



I am a Texan girl, it is true. On my way southbound, coming home from university at the end of last semester, I was ecstatic to stop at Spiral Diner, a one-hundred-percent vegan eatery. While my dad is a good sport, my other immediate family members aren't the most adventurous people when it comes to food, so I decided to omit the small detail that there would be no meat at our food stop. (As if any one of them would die without meat, anyway.) I merely told my dad and sister, "My friend Katie told me that there is something for me to eat at this diner place in Fort Worth!" So we stopped and my sister practically had a heart attack when she saw the huge letters spelling V-E-G-A-N on the window of Spiral Diner. Teehee. I am so sneaky.

You can read up my last post on Spiral Diner to learn more about that particular experience, but as for this visit? This time we stopped at Spiral on our northern trek back up to college, and this time I got my food to go.



I never eat meals on-the-go and make a point of it to have a sit-down meal, every meal in order to be conscious about what I am eating and truly appreciate the food I have. However, I was more than happy to agree to eat my Spiral fare in the car as we adhered to our strict driving schedule! I started off my meal with Ramsey's Perfect Protein Platter, a generously sized portion perfectly spiced quinoa and black beans mixed with the diner's homemade salsa. It came topped with avocado and with a side of tahini dressing.

Let me tell you, while a simple meal like this can go wrong quite easily, these plant-based proteins were not bland in the least bit! I was so incredibly satisfied after this meal and I could have skipped five miles from all the feel-good energy it gave me. But I had to sit on my butt in the car instead.

I entertained myself further with this bebe:



That's right, folks, one heck of an incredible brownie, period. This is only the second vegan brownie I've had in my lifetime, but it was perfection. It was nice and big and walnutty. You can only imagine how happy I was for the duration of the car ride! All in all, this trip to Spiral was much better than the last, and two for two at that -- my entree and my dessert were both winners over last time!

I will leave you with a recipe for my new favorite breakfast these days. Over the summer I was not craving oatmeal the slightest bit, but my hunger for it has come back full-force. This new concoction is a conglomeration of my old carob-oatmeal pudding (recipe here), Kath's oatmeal template, and the oatmeal-raisin pudding recipe posted by Miss ChocolateCovered Vegan. I have made this lots of ways now and have probably had a version of this 20 out of the past 30 days of my life...

Just to warn you, the recipe's kind of long and particular. Even if you don't make this, you can at least be amused at how silly I am about my oatmeal.

My Favorite Breakfast



Serves one

1/2 cup quick oats
pinch sea salt
1/2 cup bananas, sliced thinly
3/4 cup unsweetened soymilk (we add our maple or agave later for some sweet)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground flax
2 teaspoons toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon almond butter or peanut butter (to tell the truth, I use a heaping tablespoon, but do what you want)
2 teaspoons maple syrup or 1/2 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons crunchy toppings (optional) – could be granola, crumbled grahams, or dry cereal like Annie’s Cinna-Bunnies; if you want chewy you could even add wheatberries

Cook quick oats with 1 cup water and a pinch of salt in the microwave for a minute and a half to two minutes. Transfer to a pot with soymilk and 1/2 cup banana slices and heat over medium-high on the stovetop. Stir. Once soymilk begins to bubble, turn heat down to medium. Stir occasionally, whipping the bananas so they break down and are evenly suspended throughout the oats.

Sift cocoa and cinnamon directly into the pot and stir. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir more to prevent cocoa powder from burning. Remove from heat once mixture reduces to a thick consistency, which can take 10 or up to 20 minutes. Stir in flax and walnuts and pour into serving bowl. Drizzle maple syrup or agave over the top of the oatmeal and gently stir into the top layer (not too deep or you won’t be able to taste the sweetness – by just leaving it on top we can get away with less sugar grams – yes!). Sprinkle crunchy toppings on, if using.

Serve with a spoonful of nut butter. I portion out all of my nut butter first, set it to the side, and scoop out a teaspoon or so of the nut butter into my spoon and keep refilling from the original portion with another teaspoon until I run out. The trick to this is spreading the nut butter evenly over the spoon and taking a small bite of it with each bite of oatmeal, which is collected in small amounts just on the tip of the spoon. This is my very favorite way to have oatmeal, and it is so delicious and filling.

Once you reach the bottom of the bowl, the chocolate taste starts to become more bitter because the liquid sweetener only permeates a little past the top layer. I don’t mind this at all – I have this method down to a science and this is just the way I like it – but if you’d prefer a sweeter end to your breakfast rather than the bitter/dark chocolate taste, add another teaspoon or so of agave or maple once you get to the halfway point. The sweetest bites definitely happen at the top layer of the bowl.

Also, Kath from Katheats.com mentioned that she eats her oatmeal from one side to the other, which is what I do now. It is so fun! That way, I work my way all the way to the bottom on one half, pick at the (less sweet) bottom of the newly revealed half, and then pick at the sweet top again as I go. I like eating my oatmeal methodically -- it helps keep me awake and alert and entertained early in the morning! It definitely prevents mindlessness, that's for sure.

Here are some other ways I have enjoyed this recipe:

• Eat the oats with dry roasted unsalted peanuts instead of nut butter. Just stir those nuts in after cooking the oats – it is a really yummy variation! When my uncle saw me eating it one morning, he gave me a weird look and said, "What is that? A Peanut Buster Parfait?!"
  
• This is sooo good with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter. It's my favorite nutty butter on the planet -- I can't wait until they start making it in jars instead of squeezy packets!
  
• Adding Annie’s Cinna-Bunnies cereal as a crunchy topping is so satisfying, because the bunnies melt after you stir a little, and they get a little soggy the longer they hang out underneath the oats – they taste so good that way!
  
• You can make this with roasted leftover butternut squash or canned pumpkin or even baked leftover sweet potato. Add it to the pot along with the banana. For this, I omitted the cocoa powder and decreased the sugar, but I bet it would be good in a chocolate-y form, too.
  

Enjoy!

 

Back to school

Like a lot of you, I started school again this past Monday. I met up with another blogger this week, Sara of onlywannacook. This was the first time we had met in person, and it also marks the first time I've gotten to meet another blogger! We had a fun dinner at Whole Foods, which we have been planning for a couple months now.



We both love love love to eat at Whole Foods and deciding what to get was really hard. I immediately knew I wanted the Red Curry Seitan I saw at the hot bar and then paired it with a cranberry-walnut roll from the bakery and a salad with argula, yellow bell pepper, jicama, edamame, beets, marinated mushrooms, and Bragg Liquid Aminos (which is basically my favorite salad combination ever). The texture of the seitan was excellent -- not too dense. I am impressed -- Whole Foods should serve seitan at their hot bar more often, as far as I'm concerned! I had no complaints about this part of my meal. The roll I got is also one of my favorites. I know I was stuffed at the end of this and I'm pretty sure Sara was too but we had to get dessert. It's pretty much required when eating a meal at Whole Foods and there are so many yummy options!

Brownie? Vegan carrot cake? Bakery cookies? In the end we each got a pint of the new Snickerdoodle flavor of the Purely Decadent ice cream line. What a fabulous choice! I normally really don't care for Purely Decadent, but the Snickerdoodle was the die for -- Sara and I especially liked the chunks of snickerdoodle cookie dough, which were interspersed in a perfectly-spiced snickerdoodle flavored ice cream base. Mmmm. The texture of this ice cream is delicious too -- not icy or tofu-y like certain other soy ice cream flavors. This is a must-try!



We certainly enjoyed ourselves -- more Ruby and Sara adventures are ahead! We were trying to find someone to take our picture together but for some reason no one would walk by our little bench! So Sara had to take it.



I have my own apartment now, so I'm basically cooking all my own meals. Thank goodness I don't have to throw money down the drain any more due to unused dining plan meals. Here's a visual. Now you can have a mind's-eye picture whenever I talk about what I have been cooking and eating!



Here's my fabulous table and my itty bitty bed...



My collection of vegan cookbooks and my dressing area...



And my cute little bathroom!



For those of you going back to school this week, good luck! Have a great week, and I'll try to get back to you all soon. Start looking forward to a post on a visit to a vegan restaurant (I won't tell you which one yet...I am evil) and on my new favorite breakfast!
 

My First Cuppies Say Hi

My little sister's birthday was this past week, which gave me an opportunity to do something that I've been wanting to do all summer: Make cupcakes!

I've had the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook for quite a few months and hadn't done anything with it until now. If you have read my blog before, you may have heard me speak of my incredibly picky sister, who will not eat anything vegan unless it contains lots and lots of sugar. It bugs me to no end, though I do realize she's entitled to her food choices...but closed-mindedness gets to me. She was open to the idea of me making her cupcakes, but she gave me many "requirements": The cupcakes can't have warm fruit, the cupcakes can't be chocolate, I don't know what ganache is but it sounds icky and I don't want that, I want "real" icing (because we all know vegan icing is fake). In the end, I kept what I decided a secret from her. I knew she would like the cupcake once she tasted it, but she might have rejected the idea if she heard it beforehand.

And this month is my one-year anniversary of being a vegan. So I guess they were kinda a little sorta a treat for me too.

So Teddy Graham cupcakes it was! While the cinnamon Teddy Grahams are indeed vegan, I would use Annie's Chocolate Bunny Grahams if I were making them for myself... and maybe do a chocolate cupcake base (the non-chocolate Annie's grahams contain honey). Annie's graham crackers are organic and don't have partially hydrogenated oils, like the wee Teddies. But I caved for my sister, since I know she loves Teddy Grahams.



I made a subtle cinnamon frosting for the VCTOTW Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. I've never been a straight vanilla girl, but Isa and Terry's vanilla cupcakes are incredible. My sister claims to hate cinnamon, so I told her the frosting was a brown sugar frosting and she never guessed the diff. She ended up loving the cuppies, though, so thank goodness! We had a pretty good time on her birthday, too.

We went to the movies and saw Mamma Mia. The beginning was cute, and I was into it for a while... But then it started dragging and the downright awful singing really started to get to me. I used to be a theatre major and am really critical of plays and musicals. The girl who played Sophie was a great actress, though. Too bad Meryl Streep annoys me... I used to love her and I did like her in The Devil Wears Prada, though, but the more movies I see her in, the more I realize everything she does is the same! I don't know about you, but I like for actors to surprise me.

For dinner that night, we went to Chili's, which I groaned about. I've hated that restaurant all my life, even before I was vegan. Normally I will sit and whine and not eat when I am forced to go there, but I decided to make an effort this time and came away with a surprisingly delicious vegan meal. I would even go as far to say it was a small feast. Here's what I ordered:

• Corn tortillas (request plain and dry - I think they're supposed to make them in the microwave when you order this way)
• Steamed vegetables (request steamed, plain and dry) - they gave me broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers
• Black beans
• Pico de gallo
• Guacamole

So there are actually some edible and rather tasty goods at Chili's for vegans, and our server was really nice and accomodating. I made my own cute little corn tortilla fajitas at the table by spooning some of everything into the tortillas. I was satisfied, and I busted out the cupcakes for our family after!



We ate them at the table at Chili's, and I think our server was kind of amused, haha. Yum! They were really delicious. But not as delicious two days later when eaten from the fridge. The teddy's head got soggy and I had to replace him with a new teddy from the box. And I may have snuck a few extra teddies onto my plate, too. I really hope my family eats the rest of the box before I do... I'm going to get cancer from those evil addicting bears.
 

Yeah, it's my first time

I've been waiting to post until I had a few of those "lightbulb" food finds -- you know, when something's really yummy and it gets you all fired up to post. Thankfully I finally had a few of those moments this week!



Just this morning, I tried a new waffle recipe. Normally I never make a basic waffle recipe -- just because I never had one -- but I remember a really old post here and got to work on making some nice basic vegan waffles. I topped the waffles with peanut butter, raspberry preserves, and ground flaxseed, and had them with a glass of Silk Unsweetened Soymilk (it's my favorite!). The recipe turned out pretty well. I cut Veggie's recipe in 1/4's to serve one, which was a little too much batter for my waffle iron. It actually started oozing out the sides of the iron. (The oozy stuff tasted yummy, by the way.)

But lately my waffle iron just hasn't been the same. I own a restaurant-style Waring Pro Belgian Waffle Iron, but I was reading reviews about it on Amazon.com and it seems like it typically has a relatively short life. I make waffles a lot and hope to get a lot more waffles out of it, especially since I got it just this Christmas as a gift! Hopefully my baby decides to stop acting up so I don't have to become waffle-deprived. Because then I will cry and cry. Oh, and I decreased the baking powder by one-half in the recipe.

I've also been absolutely, positively obsessed with Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. They are so amazing! I purposefully didn't buy tofu this week, thereby forcing myself to eat more beans and lentils, and this chickpea recipe has been keeping me really happy.



The other day I had said chickpeas over the Sesame-Lime Soba Noodles (from the same cookbook) with steamed zucchini (which is sooo good steamed, by the way). Yum. I decreased the sweetener in the sauce -- it really doesn't need that much agave to be yummy!

I also made wheatberries for the first time! I soaked them overnight in a 1:3 ratio (wheatberries:water), brought them to a boil this morning, and simmered them uncovered for about 50 minutes. They are so yummy and spring and chewy! I love 'em. I love how they smell, too. I had the last of my tamari-roasted chickpeas over a bed of wheatberries for lunch, surrounded by some steamed swiss chard seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed up with some Annie's Goddess Dressing (another one of my newer obsessions).



By the way, these chickpeas are all fresh! I finally cooked up some dried chickpeas instead of buying canned. The price and taste cannot be beat. Fresh cooked chickpeas are the best, and I stored a few servings in the freezer until I was ready to use them.



I fear my newest obsession is the infamous Microwave Brownies from VegWeb. They got a lot of bad reviews, but a lot of good reviews, too. I spent a lot of time going through what people wrote about them so that I would be prepared and they would come out yummy. I made 1/4 of the recipe tonight and changed it up a little. Here's what I did:

Microwave Brownies



3-1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tablespoon raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsweetened soymilk (Edit: use 3 tablespoons!)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons dutched cocoa powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

squirt Ah-laska chocolate syrup (about a teaspoon)

I mixed together the wet ingredients in a bowl (not including chocolate syrup) and sifted in the dry ingredients. After mixing them well, I sprayed a small microwave-safe dish with canola oil spray and I transferred the batter into the greased dish.

I heated the batter in the microwave on high for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and then added the squirt of chocolate syrup to the top of the brownie. Then I heated the brownie for 15 more seconds. My mom and I split this.

It was great, even without chocolate chips; the heated chocolate syrup on top was absolutely perfect in terms of taste and temperature. Next time I will add 1 to 2 tablespoons soymilk to the liquid ingredients and I will try microwaving for only 3 to 3 minutes and 30 seconds initially. The brownie tasted great but it was too dry. It would definitely benefit from a little more gooiness, which can be attained with a more liquid-y batter and less heating. I was pleased that the finished brownie was very easy to remove from the baking dish. (Edit: I made these again and 3 minutes worked well in my super-powerful microwave, so the brownie was just fudgy enough instead of dry! Just experiment, but start with less time because you can't undo it once you've gone too far.)

Yay for silly baking experiments! I want to try again tomorrow, so hopefully I can find someone to split the brownie with me. I can see myself quickly becoming obsessed with this recipe... Even if they aren't the best, most gourmet-fabulous brownies ever, this is probably going to be one of my guilty pleasures and something I'll have fun making for friends in my apartment next year. Yay.



Oh, and these are pretty yummy, too! But they only give you three in a box! What's up with that?! I'm used to even-numbered items in boxes. Three is kinda random. And a final discovery: click here for your ticket to heaven. I won't even describe it, just go to your nearest Whole Foods or wherever and get one. Mmmm. Seriously good.