Peanut Butter Cups

Instead of prepping for the art show later this month I've been making, and eating, a lot of these:

Every time my brain tells me to work on a cookie recipe, my tummy tells me to whip up a dozen or so peanut butter cups. Outside is vegan chocolate and inside is peanut butter, powdered sugar, and a bit of almond milk.

I'm way behind schedule and I'll be in big trouble if I don't bake off some cookies today. So off I go.

Vegan MoFo Survey

Sorry I've been missing the past couple of days. I caught something that is going around and I've been too queasy to think about food. I attempted double chocolate muffins the other night, but either my taste buds are off or those suckers were nasty. Roo's been eating them everyday, but he will eat almost anything. All this sitting around has given me plenty of time to plan out meals and my work schedule this week is much more accommodating to MoFo'ing. Maybe things will start to look up around here. In the meantime, I will do the Vegan MoFo survey:

Favorite non-dairy milk?

Almond milk. I like hemp milk almost as much.

What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

 I need to use this butternut squash I have sitting around.

Roo wants "clam" chowder and shoofly pie.

I have a bit of baking to do for a collaborative art show around Halloween.

Topping of choice for popcorn?

 EB & salt.

Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

 When Roo and I first started dating, I would make him dinner as often as I could. One night I was making ravioli, but I rolled the dough out too many times. We ate crunchy pasta for dinner.

Favorite pickled item?

Pickles! Peppers! Okra! Green beans!...

How do you organize your recipes?

 I don't.

Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

 We trash anything we can't compost or recycle.

If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods... what would they be (don't worry 

 about how you'll cook them)?

Dried beans, rice, and veggie stock.

Fondest food memory from your childhood?

Waking up to the smell of food every Thanksgiving morning and helping my mom cook as we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Favorite vegan ice cream?

I make my own. Banana-coconut has been my favorite so far.

Most love kitchen appliance?

My knife. Does my knife count? Definitely my knife.

Spice/herb you would die without?

Spice = cumin

Herb = cilantro

Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

When I was in the 9th grade my best friend gave me OK, So Now You're A Vegetarian. I never started using my cookbooks until about a year ago.

Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Apple

Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

Vegan Explosion Queso

Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

I don't like meat substitutes very much. I guess tofu, I like using it in recipes.

Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

I like to cook soups or tomato sauce. Makes the apartment smell so good.

What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

A lonely butternut squash &some empty ice cube trays.

Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

 Frozen bananas, Smooze pops (4 flavors), Sunshine burgers

What's on your grocery list?
 Lots of produce and some baking supplies. It's a pretty long list.

Favorite grocery store?

Whole Foods by default. We don't have anything better.

Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.

Mimi's earthquake cake.

Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the 

top 3?

Whatever is most recent on my reader.

Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

I've been making lots of peanut butter cups recently.

Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

I haven't splurged in a while. Last month I ordered a few cartons of Mimic Creme.

Ingredients you are scared to work with?

Agar. Even though I've used it successfully every time, I still fear it.

I have this strange, intense craving for pizza rolls, so I may make some later if I don't feel so puny.

Veggieland

I don't have much to post about today. In fact, I haven't had too much to post about the past week or so. My work schedule has greatly interfered with my cooking, and I haven't had too much of an appetite anyway. This couldn't have come at a worse time, either. I'm very frustrated and I'm waiting to snap out of this, but until then I will say a little bit about our day trip to Atlanta on Monday.

I didn't think too much about where we were going to eat because I was sure we would have enough time to figure that out when we got over there. WRONG. We left an hour or so behind schedule, and barely made it there with enough time to eat before the show. Before we left I had written down the address to one restaurant we hadn't tried yet: Veggieland. We've only eaten at a couple veg restaurants in Atlanta, but I must say, this beats the others. When we finally found it (tucked away behind a natural foods store) we were greeted warmly by the lady at the counter. They had three specials that day, and all of them looked fantastic. The menu was much larger than I had expected and the prices were much lower, too. We were in a hurry so I ordered the special, curry potatoes, and he ordered a veggie pita. Despite "not being hungry" he ate the whole thing in no time. Mine was delicious and filling and the service was fast and friendly. I will definitely return next time I visit Atlanta. I was so grateful that we a) actually found this place in time, b) the place had good, inexpensive veg food, and c) treated us like they valued our patronage. A few of the other restaurants we've been to over there have treated us like we were not worthy to eat their food, laughed at us when placing an order, or just plain ignored us until we demanded service. If you're ever in the area, consider stopping by Veggieland. I hear they have great vegan cakes. 

Slurp, slurp

I love smoothies. Love, love, love them. I've always had trouble eating right after I wake up, and I usually can't eat until the afternoon without getting sick. That's not the case with smoothies! I can sip those suckers anytime, and I do. Not too long ago, I started adding fresh greens to my smoothies. This was after several failed attempts at greens powders and the like. Fresh greens are definitely the way to go. No gritty mouthfeel whatsoever. I started with just a little bit of spinach and worked my way up to using other greens as well. Spinach, kale, and chard are my favorite, especially kale. I've never been a huge fan of cooked kale, and I certainly don't like it raw, but I can put handfuls in my smoothie and it tastes so good! I don't know how I would have survived summer without these guys, and I definitely will be drinking them through the coldest parts of winter.

Here's a Green Tropic smoothie:

I like mine thick and spoon-worthy.

Mmm, this one consists of one banana, handful or two of spinach, couple glugs of flaxseed oil, peach-mango goodbelly, shelled hempseeds, and frozen peaches and pineapples.

When I got home from yoga this morning I made a Berry Green smoothie: same as above but with kale, blueberry-acai goodbelly, goji berries, and frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Deee-licious.

I'm off to Atlanta for the day. I'll be seeing Beach House &Grizzly Bear this evening. Hopefully I'll find some good vegan eats! And maybe the skies will clear up? I sure hope so.

Rainy Day

What do you do when you've been at work all morning and your back is killing you and it's cold and rainy outside? You make brownies, of course. I'm not exactly sure what sparked this craving. I usually opt for soup or brinner on a day like today, but the only thing I could think about today was brownies. These were the best vegan brownies I've had yet. I've been searching for a fudgy brownie, but every recipe I've tried turns out cakey. Until this one.

The link to the recipe was posted in the food porn section of the PPK a few weeks ago. The recipe can be found here.

Summer Rolls

I was put out all day yesterday due to excruciating back pain and failed to post for the first day of Vegan MoFo. I was pretty embarrassed when I realized it, too. I'm feeling better today but I'd like to go ahead and say that because my work schedule is not constant, my posts won't necessarily be on weekdays. I will, however, try my hardest to post as much as possible. But enough with the excuses, let's get on to the good stuff.
I tried to make a plan for the month of October, but I already know I'm too fickle to stick to it. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of my favorite dishes and to also try new ingredients. I will be baking for a collaborative art show later this month, so you'll read plenty on that as well.
I'm so glad it's finally autumn now, but the other afternoon I was craving one of my favorite things: summer rolls! I like to keep rice wrappers on hand for such occasions, and I had plenty of extra veggies sitting around so I prepared a delicious afternoon snack.


These had a filling of red bell pepper, cucumber, mung bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro, basil, mint, rice noodles, and a little bit of dipping sauce. I made a sauce of sriracha, rice vinegar, tamari, garlic, and ginger. These were spicy and delicious.
Now that the leaves are finally falling here and the temperature has dropped to the low 70's, I will start cooking more seasonal food. And I can't wait!

Vegan MoFo III

I've been a bit busy lately and haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but all that will change starting tomorrow! October kicks off the third annual Vegan Month of Food and this year it is HUGE. Last count I read was over 315 bloggers! That's insane! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vegan MoFo: Vegan bloggers and foodies and cooks alike will be posting as much about vegan food as they can (at least five times a week). This is my first year to participate, so I will do the best I can and try to keep up. I can't wait to get started tomorrow. I am looking forward to reading so many great blog posts and getting so many wonderful ideas.

If you'd like to participate, sign up on Kittee's blog here. The deadline is Friday, October 2.

Happy blogging & Happy October!