White bean plate

Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen's "New Orleans style white beans" with the infamous vegan blue ribbon corn bread recipe (with cheddar Daiya and scallions mixed in) and something I am calling "trail mix greens". I sauteed collards with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and a little orange juice, then tossed in some slivered almonds and dried cranberries and let it cook down a bit.

Udon noodle salad

Is there anything not improved by peanut sauce? No, there is not. Summer, winter, hot, cold, spicy, sweet, on satay, noodles, banana pie, anything. I ate a peanut butter sandwich every single school day of my childhood. I am likely made up of 90ish percent peanut matter. The cravings are now cell-deep.

Tomas made this long ago. It's udon noodles, chopped raw spinach, scallions, red peppers and zucchini with homemade seitan (the Viva Vegan "red" recipe, so excellent) and peanut sauce, garnished with sesame seeds and lime.

Chick-pan-dilla just doesn't like labels!

Part chickpea pancake, part quesadilla and yet filling a distinctly omelette-y role, this is something I maybe invented. Or something. This was the result of random leftovers + having secured a steady sources of locally available Daiya: two savory chickpea pancakes (aka pudla, cheela, socca or farinata depending on what country your recipe came from) made with scallions, cumin, turmeric and pepper sandwiched with white Daiya vegan cheese, chopped tomato, onion, fresh cilantro and spinach. Accompanied by some store-bought cilantro-chili chutney.

Potato Bread with Scallions

I regret that I let yeast doughs intimidate me for so long. Making bread at home is really easy, it makes your apartment smell super. Barring some crucial mishap (and I haven't had one yet, and I doubt you will) you'll have better bread than you'd be eating otherwise and you'll pay less for it.

This is from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. The recipe is for potato bread with chives but I used scallions and substituted whole wheat for some of the white flour in the recipe. The onion flavor was subtle, but nice. Oh, and it made a two fat, happy loaves!

The thing is-- pizza always looks good...

Nothing new, but the picture was so nice I figured I'd post:

Pizza with basil-tofu-cashew ricotta, tomato sauce, spinach, cherry tomatoes and breaded fried eggplant. Asparagus, zucchini and red onions with some olive oil, salt and pepper made in a grill pan.

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli: olive oil, celery, carrot, onions, garlic, vegetable broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, kale, navy beans, macaroni, oregano, red chile flakes, pepper.

Served with homemade whole wheat flax bread and roasted cauliflower.

Gado-Gado

Here is the gado-gado recipe from Vegan Express from Nava Atlas. It's an Indonesian salad with baked tofu, steamed and raw veggies, rice and peanut red curry sauce. Really easy and really satisfying.

Cocoa V

My friend Sandy gave me these great chocolates from Cocoa V months ago when I left my job for grad school. The lollipop has a kitty face because we like our kitties! The chocolate was preposterously good. Support vegan chocolatiers by buying your favorite vegan fancy chocolates.

Also, I miss work friends!

So, what did tofu do to you exactly?

Some people think vegans live on salad and tofu. This is not true. I live on kettle corn, whole wheat toast and juices and Tomas eats a diet of 100% vegan sausages in ketchup.

Sometimes, when we feel bad about this, we eat a salad and call it even.

Tofu was marinated in white wine, garlic, tamari and pepper and pan fried with olive oil. Salad includes baby spinach, carrots, red onion and cucumber and is topped with agave-mustard dressing.

Voting Yes on Proposition "Raw Cake"

Like an outdated lolcat meme, I was skeptical, yet curious. Ultimately, I found this Ani Phyo recipe to be a success!










It's really fast: you blend dates, walnuts, and cocoa to form the cakes, layer them with fresh berries and a frosting made with cocoa, dates, agave and avocado. It works! Of course it does, it's sweet and full of yummy healthy fats! Especially with coconut vegan ice cream.

Fancy Butternut Flatbread

Recipe from Chef Chloe. I used my own semolina-flax pizza dough recipe (will post once I perfect it-- semolina is magic!) and topped with Chloe's recommendations: butternut squash, apples, spinach, garlic-white bean puree and caramelized onions. This is a great recipe, and you should go make it now if you like things that taste good and are healthy and awesome.

Recipe-less stuffed mushroom plate

Baby bella mushrooms stuffed with more mushrooms, vegan sausage, panko bread crumbs, red peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil, red chile flakes, oregano, pepper and salt. Sprinkled with paprika. Cooked at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Mashed potatoes with Earth Balance, salt, pepper and soymilk.

Baby spinach sauteed with olive oil and garlic very very briefly.

Viva Vegan!

Tres leches cake with coconut and fresh fruit. The cake is soaked in a boozy, milky spice mixture and finished off with a coconut custard type topping. I've never had the "real" thing but this is delicious cake. Tomas says it tastes pretty accurate. This is funny because I think I reduced the liquid too much at first and then just winged it making more soaking liquid and had no idea if it what work. It did! Fair warning: time intensive recipe. Will impress (and quiet) your (drunken) friends!



Potato seitan tacos (use the skewers recipe, but not the skewers is all), refried black beans and jalepeno-lime rice. The tacos, like a few recipes in this book could stand to have to oil content reduced a bit, but were thoroughly delicious all the same. You'd think as a vegan you'd be pretty jaded about rice and beans; "I've tried it all" you say in a raspy voice to the young and naive veg-inclined. But NO, you discover you haven't tried them all. These particular dishes came out so light and so delicately flavored (almost *fluffy* I could say) all descriptors not usually used on rice and bean dishes or about a lot of Latin food in general.

All recipes from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. Aka my new favorite cookbook. To be fair, Tomas has been the one cooking the most from it, but I have really enjoyed *eating* everything, so I am still an expert and stuff. We also have made the yucca with Cuban garlic-lime mojo sauce, the Brazilian braised kale, annatto oil, arroz con leche(rice pudding), peanut sauce, steamed red seitan and steamed white seitan and the dough recipe for baked empanadas. Honestly, all the recipes so far are incredible and the only modification I would suggest is possible decreasing the amount of oil in some of the recipes which really is a matter of personal taste anyway. It was just surprising to me because I do have a personal taste for a goodly fat content. Anyway, the seasonings are dead-on and the methodology is user-friendly.

Muchas gracias Terry!

PB Crispy Rice Treats

I melted peanut butter, Earth Balance, and Dandies Vegan Marshmallows and then added some crisp brown rice cereal to coat and set the mixture in a pan to set. Once the treats firmed up I sliced them up and gave each one a little dip in a semi-sweet ganache bath (chocolate chips, soy milk) and topped them with a few roasted salted peanuts.

Dandies, (the candies with the happy bow-tied marshmallow on the bag) are great for this kind of dessert or any other classic puffy sugar application-- you know, your s'mores, your hot cocoas, etc etc. I like the Sweet & Sara marshmallows too (They come in fancy flavors! And I can see their factory out the subway windows on my commute! Their logo is a bunny!) but I think they are better appreciated on their own, maybe served with some fancy chocolate and fruits.

Rockie Road Cookies

These are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They have roasted almonds, chocolate chips and vegan white chocolate chips, which can be tricky to find (I usually order them online). They were a fun change from regular chocolate chip cookies and well received by the other vegans in my office. (There are 3 besides me now!)

Peanut Butter Waffles

Peanut butter waffles with sliced bananas and maple syrup. Recipe from Vegan Brunch, which has to be my favorite vegan cookbook at this point.

I got a waffle maker (a $20 one from Target) because of this cookbook's many waffle recipes. All of the ones we've tried have been great. I used to be a bit intimidated by homemade waffle-craft, but that seems silly now. Making waffles is less time-consuming and more dummy-proof that pancakes and they re-heat better too. If you make one batch of waffles over the weekend, you can just pop the leftovers in your toaster during the rest of the week. These peanut butter waffles are easy to make using 1/2 whole wheat flour and go great with some applesauce and cinnamon if you want a healthier breakfast.

Mango Seitan

Mango Seitan: Fry seitan chunks dusted in cornstarch. Drain and set aside. Stir fry red onions, green bell peppers and fresh mango chunks until veggies are softened. Add minced garlic and ginger and let cook for a minute longer. Add seitan pieces back to your wok and toss. Stir in a slurry of orange juice, lime juice, tamari, agave, sriracha, black pepper and cornstarch. Cook and toss until sauce thickened. Serve over rice and top with chopped roasted cashews, sliced scallions and fresh cilantro.

On it like chocolate on strawberries!

All dressed up and everywhere to go! Chocolate-strawberry vegan cheesecake and cupcakes make you the most popular guy or girl at the party. Cupcake recipe is just the faithful old chocolate Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World one, topped with chocolate ganach. The cheesecake recipe is here at Bakingsheet. I just reduced the lemon juice, added some vanilla and baked a double batch in a homemade chocolate cookie crust.

New Farm Macaroni

Mmmacaroni and cheese- vegan style. Recipe is from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I added some peas to the casserole and topped it with sliced fresh tomatoes and lots of paprika. Comfort food to the max.

If you're not familiar, the New Farm cookbook is great stuff. It's the favorite recipes of an intentional community called The Farm in Tennessee circa the '70's(complete with groovy cartoon illustrations and great vintage hippie action pics) . The Farm is still around, and besides pioneering simple down-to-earth vegan home cookery, they also were the first to distribute my beloved nutritional yeast (vegan dietary supplement and "cheesy" flavoring of the gods) and also apparently they also published a lot of work about natural birthing techniques. Anyway, it's cheap as heck used on Amazon, and you won't be disappointed, unless you're like looking for low-fat recipes or something. The brownies and the oatmeal cookies are particularly yummy.

Kitty pic for a good cause!

"Simone here, Jill's adorable rescue kitty here sporting my 'treats nao bish plz' face to remind you to please adopt an animal and to never ever patronize fly-by-night puppy mills and pet shops! 4 million adoptable cats and dogs are put down each year in shelters. I'm one example of an awesome rescued cat. I was found dumped in an abandoned part of the city, and then after I was rescued, I waited a whole year in a crowded cat rescue before I got a real home. Even after I found my home, I hid for weeks from the humans in the house because I was a scaredy-kitty, but now I *love* snuggling with my people, watching wildlife documentaries (OK, sometimes I fantasize about being a cheetah or a lioness!), meeting new visitors and obvs-- TREATS."

It's almost Halloween, when, sadly, many black cats are adopted as props or pranks nationwide and soon after discarded or worse, hurt because they're no longer "needed" for "decorations." Black cats (and black dogs) are already less likely to find a permanent home (seriously!) so give them a second look when you're out looking for a furry friend. Even if you have your heart set on a particular breed, there are lots of purebred animals in shelters and there are also plenty of breed-specific rescue organizations you can contact too. Just because an animal is in a shelter doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. This campaign from Animal Care & Control of NYC does a good job of illustrating that. All these animals are "guilty" of is wanting some love!

Adopt A Pet, Save a life!
Black dog syndrome/ black cat syndrome