Burnout on writing, but not on cooking

Sorry guys. The end of october gets RIDICULOUSLY busy for me. (Birthday and all)

So, I was supposed to go to a vegan potluck (organized via ThePPK) but something happened and it ended up not happening (but it will! At some point! Somewhere!). I'd spent a while thinking of what I wanted to make for this potluck-one person who was going to attend has a nightshade allergy so I was trying to brainstorm things to make that were friendly towards this person. I had Celery Root in my refrigerator from the farmer's market and I google searched to see if celery root went with Sweet Potato. Supposedly it did.

I remembered the Quesadillas I made previously (which I have yet to blog about. Whoops!) Yuca quesadillas from Veganomicon. They were incredibly good. So. Good.  So, I figured, if I could do a mash of that and put it in a tortilla and call it a quesadilla, why couldn't I mash Sweet Potato and Celery Root together with some spices and onion and garlic and call it a Quesadilla?

Well? Why Not?

I did:

Sweet Potato Celeriac Quesadilla with kale

I did half on a cast iron skillet on the stove and the other half in a George Foreman (can you tell which one this came from? You're very smart, so I bet you can).

I had to add a bunch of spices to the mash, but after frying, these babies tasted delicious-indian spiced but wholly my own creation.

Breakfast!

I've been... slacking recently. Posting pictures of food with no back story. As such, I have a wee little one for you today.

I've been dating a boy for a month. Back when we first met (from the internet, of all places), he would go on about how we ought to go to brunch sometime. It was not to be for our first date (turns out thankfully), but several weeks later. Overall, it sounded like a good plan to me, though I was slightly concerned with the places that he suggested. On one of their websites' however, the one restaurant claimed to be able to cater to any dietary preference/style. I figured that meant vegan-friendly. Or at least, there was probably something I could eat. I had high hopes that they might be able to make vegan pancakes. I knew I should have called ahead of time, but work was busy, so I didn't.

We get there and there is a [short] line and the boy was already waiting there. There's a man gladhanding (if I use the term correctly) and I asked him about vegan options. he said anything and if the server gave me a hard time, come to him.

So I ask if I could get vegan pancakes. Turns out, not really. SO! I had a bagel toasted with jam:

Bagel with strawberry preserves

And a giant plate of fruit with granola (I didn't actually really like the granola..I never really have, so I'm not sure what I was thinking-but the fruit was fantastic!):

Fruit Plate with Granola

As it turns out, something in this breakfast didn't agree with me as I started having...severe....digestion issues that lasted into the next morning. I think it was probably the amount of fruit I ate (almost the whole plate) plus the fact that I didn't let my body just flush it out. I had to eat more food later... But it tasted so good while I was there! :)

Soup and the accompanying awful picture

Ever since I moved in the beginning of September (and really before, in conversations my then-meat eater roommate and I had about food/sharing food), my roommate has been talking about this chili that he loves. He makes it with a base of peppers instead of tomatoes and sweetens it with honey (not this time!). I was vaguely intrigued but cautious. Chili is not my favorite in the first place, so it didn't seem like something I'd necessarily want to try..

It's quite good at first go, with some daiya on it plus some vegan sour cream. I learned in eating the leftovers, however, that it should be warmed up again and have more vegan cheez & sour cream in it, plus maybe some bread or something. Potatoes might go nicely in it..

One of my favorites

I'm a (veggie) burger kind of gal. I love making burgers out of beans/legumes/veggies. Stuffing my nutritional needs into one little patty? Best thing. Plus I can put ketchup on it. I like ketchup on my burgers, no matter what they're made of. So. Good.

Anyways. I made these a little while back with sauteed kale and tomatoes (I have got to find a better recipe for kale... Like peanut sauce or something!). From Color Me Vegan, the Cashew Red Lentil burgers. (Curried) They are to die for. (Well.... maybe not. But they're really good! I promise!)

And a little shout out to Occupy Boston! Love them. So well organized.

Chickpeas & Kale with Vegan Dad's pumpkin Rolls

It appears I have several days to make up for. Whoops. (for the record, here's what kept me from posting-Rock Climbing with a work friend + spending a night at the boy's, having work thursday night as well as during the day and being exhausted/forgetful when I got home)

So! Moving on! On Sunday night, after I was foiled by the local indian restaurant in my quest to have spinach and chickpeas as dinner (darn you ghee) the previous night, I made Isa Chandra's Chickpeas & Kale indian spiced dish from Appetite For Reduction. If you have AFR, I'm sure you can figure out the real title of the dish. If not... well, if you ever borrow the book or see it, I'm sure it will become obvious what I'm talking about-it's in the stews section.

Last week, when I saw Vegan Dad's Pumpkin pull apart rolls,  I lusted after them. Lusted, yearned for, and any other descriptors that you can think of along those lines. So, I made them on Sunday. YUM. I'd picked up Pumpkin butter from the same place I bought a bushel of apples and smeared it all over. So. Good. I can't recommend that recipe enough.

Indian Chickpeas & Kale

(PS, Sorry for the random elbow/dish in the background. I'm still figuring out photography and the boy hadn't moved his elbow in time.)

I know, I know.

Everytime I say I know, now, I have to say it twice. (I think it comes from listening to the Wicked soundtrack one too many times)

Mea Culpa. I know [I know]. I am incredibly incredibly lucky to have so many vegan/veg friendly restaurants in the near Boston area and that my whining the other day was taken the wrong way. I am sorry.

Anyways. I'm skipping a few days worth of food to give you last night's dish, which was... very interesting. As you may remember, I am following the Cookbook challenge from The PPK. This week is Vegan Soul Kitchen and it has quickly earned a place in my heart. I will probably be buying the cookbook at some point. Last night, I made a bbq tempeh over flat bread and topped it with the Apple Beet Currant salad instead of the Carrot Cayenne Coleslaw (somehow, cabbage didn't appeal to me-I've never really been a fan). Guys. The Apple Beet Currant Salad? SO. GOOD. Unbelievable. The flavors together were a little wonky, but tasted good over all.

Beets!

I love the way beets dye everything they touch.

(We had a beet and apple salad last night on top bbq marinated tempeh (both from Vegan Soul Kitchen) and homemade flat bread). Blog post to come on that. 

Surrounded by a bounty and unable to partake

I live outside Boston, MA. A place not exactly known for it's dearth of vegan restaurants-we have two in Somerville, two vegetarian in Cambridge, one vegetarian in Watertown, three in Boston... Yeah.

So, I was on a date with the boy last night. Instead of visiting Veggie Galaxy (the vegetarian restaurant newly opened in Central Square) as would have been the smart move, I decided we could probably chance it somewhere in Inman or Union Square. They seemed like urban enough places that they'd be vegan friendly.

We failed. There was a Sandwich shop that I now know is veg friendly-but based on my stomach, I was pretty sure I should have something a little beans & greens like.. So we left Inman Square having failed miserably and walked on to Union to see if Machu picchu would be at all veg friendly. (Peruvian food)

Not so much. I had thought since it wasn't american, it might be more friendly towards veg people. But it seemed like most of the dishes had meat. So, in the end, we went to the Indian restaurant. I got Chana Masala after being foiled on another chickpea & spinach dish that had butter in it.

It was good, a little hot & spicy, but good. Except all of a sudden the cilantro tasted like soap! What the fizzle?

I've never had an issue with cilantro before. Ever. Of course, maybe I hadn't used it enough to realize? But it seems kind of strange, because I have certainly eaten cilantro in things before and not had issues...

Anyways, here's the pic (I keep taking pictures once it's dark outside, sorry! And sorry for the poor iPhone quality):

As you can see, I started eating before I remembered to take the picture. Whoops.

Day 6! (MoFo'in it up)

Remember a couple days ago how I had a really crap day? Well, I was planning on making this new recipe that night-coconut rice with quick curried swiss chard and some sort of bean-y side for the protein. I soaked pinto beans since I don't work with them much. Of course, I forgot that I soaked pinto beans at work. I also didn't make sure to soak just over a half cup (which usually ends up being pretty close to the 15 oz can amount). So I had less than a 15oz can's worth of soaked pinto beans by the end of the day. Anyways.

As I was saying-I forgot that they were pinto beans. I thought they were navy beans. So. this shit day where the main thing was going to be coconut rice that I'd never made before? Quickly became White bean rosemary burgers. Only I got home to less than a can's worth of beans and them being pinto at that.

I told myself it was ok, cooked the beans, reduced the amount of onion, but otherwise followed the instructions. (From What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyways-see previous posts for a link) I ended up having to add some water to hold it together, but they still tasted decent and they were really fast. Done by the time my roommate got back from picking up more ketchup. (Somehow, we go through a ton of ketchup) 

I still made the quick curried swiss chard from Color Me Vegan. That was great the second time around. Really really lovely. The first time too, for that matter! Anyways, the burgers turned out quite well even if the combination of tastes between the chard and the burgers was a little on the strange side...

Rosemary Bean Burgers with Quick Curried Swiss Chard

Well....

At least they aren't solely using non-human animals in studies....


Tonight, the boy came over. Which means I have a lot less time to put together a blog post. Which means that I'm just going to show you what my roommate (an omni) made for dinner! It was delicious (though he used more oil/fat than I ever do). A stir fry of vegetables and nuts and sauces. Yum. Also, pan fried sweet potatoes. (Also, more fat than I ever use, but that made them more delicious)

Vegan Mofo-Post 4

Good evening!

I am perky right now. Very very perky. Earlier today, I was not. And it is all because of these five words: Peanut Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies (there would have been chocolate chip too, but no such luck). They are joy filled words. So. Joy. Filled.

Which is exactly what I needed on a day like today. Today started fine, but starting around lunch/after lunch, it started going downhill. Have you ever had those days where you just get into a funk for no particular reason? You just start feeling sad/down for no reason? Yeah, it was one of those days. I think maybe it was just my body/brain processing all of these emotional highs and compositing all the opposite feelings into an afternoon. (I've had a LOT of really good days recently and nothing really to bring me down.)

Anyways, it actually transitioned into a really awful commute home. I took the Silverline to the Red line, stayed on that until my stop. Realized the bus wasn't going to show up for 20 minutes, because busses to my area are really really infrequent, even at rush hour (not having a bike is really frustrating). Saw the bus. Got on the bus. Proceeded to realize after a half mile that it was the right bus going in the wrong direction. Missed both possible correct busses. One of which I got about 50 feet away from but couldn't catch. Ended up walking home in the cold misty rain. At least the boy kept me company via text. :)

Of course, I also daydreamed of what kind of baked good could possibly make it up to me. I remembered my failed peanut pumpkin soup (more on that later) from last night and decided that perhaps that recipe wasn't completely wrong-the flavors of pumpkin and peanut go fairly well together. So, naturally, why couldn't they make a delicious fall cookie?

I stopped by Market Basket and picked up a can of pumpkin puree and another jar of Teddie Peanut Butter (I bought one last night too).

After dinner (which was supposed to be Coconut rice, quick curried chard & some sort of asian-y bean dish, but ended up being the Rosemary Bean Burgers from What the hell does a vegan eat anyways), I searched for a recipe that resembled what I had in mind. Nothing quite came up, so I just dumped a bunch of sugar, peanut butter, pumpkin, applesauce, flour & baking powder in a bowl and mixed these up.

I baked them at 350F for ~15 minutes and they came out puffy and a little cakey. Perfect. Smooth texture and just sweet enough taste with both pumpkin and peanut flavors shining to their best (unlike that soup!).

That's it! Peanuts and Pumpkins seem to be the theme of the week. Pumpkins have come up a LOT so far that I've seen on the Vegan MoFo feed. So I feel like I fit right in. 

Cinnamon flapjacks with apple Butter

On the PPK forums, there is a cookbook challenge for 10 weeks? Last week was American Vegan Kitchen. I actually bought the cookbook, as it was the only one I didn't own/couldn't find in the library. No offense to Tami, but AVK is not my type of cookbook. Don't get me wrong-all the recipes look delicious-but I'm attempting to eat as whole-foods focused as possible with as few meat-subsitutes as possible (My roommate is an omnivore and also trying to eat healthy, so we avoid fake meats/soy products). I also don't like TVP. And fried was out. So a lot of the recipes either weren't worth it to me or were just plain sides and I look for easy to make dinners-one pot or very simple dishes that can pair well. Nothing jumped out at me. 

Friday nights and Saturday mornings are where I allow my choice in foods to become a little less... smart. I had a 'Somerville cheese steak' and marble cake from The Pulse Cafe in Somerville on Friday night. No pictures, as I ate it immediately. Saturday for brunch, I made apple-cinnamon flapjacks as a nod to AVK during the AVK week. They were good, though not really flap-jack-y. More thick panCAKE. I spread homemade apple butter all over them too. Quite delicious and I would definitely make them again. Though I might add a wee bit more almond milk to thin them out next time. 

What I can't do without

When I went vegan, it wasn't too much of a struggle. I was lucky in that I went vegan and the first day and a half I had someone cooking for me. That made things much easier. Of course, if I hadn't, I probably would have subsisted on cereal (before I accepted most as non-vegan and switched to Kashi's 7 Whole Grain Puffs) and soymilk and PB&J's. As it was, I managed when I got home with a few home cooked meals, some of my own invention, most from one of the cookbooks I got-Urban Vegan or Vegan with a Vengeance (I still have not used veganopolis) in the beginning. One thing I had (and still have) every day is this:

I swear by it. So. Freaking. Good. I'll eat it by itself mostly now, but a really great dessert is a spoonful of this with some chocolate chips mixed in. Or making my own peanut butter cup by adding some sugar to the peanut butter, melting down chocolate chips, resolidifying a base in a mini-cupcake paper and then putting the peanut butter in and covering with more melted chocolate. SO GOOD. 

It's incredibly rich and fattening, so beware, but once in a while, it's a nice treat. 

Why I went vegan

It all starts here:

Ok, well, actually, I shouldn't say that. I don't like lying. Let's try that again.

It all starts here:

That's better. That building is where I was convinced to go vegetarian. I was 15 and attending a 5 week French immersion program in Nova Scotia (the place is called Universite Sainte Anne-there's an accent on the e in Universite, but I don't know how to make that happen). One of the requirements for the class I was assigned (based on my skillz in french before I arrived) was to give a presentation. I played my bassoon and talked about classical music. This lovely girl I met there gave a presentation on veganism. It was good. But I was afraid, so I went vegetarian. I did that for seven years, but it became habit/rote rather than belief. I ate turkey at thanksgiving and christmas one year. I definitely didn't pay attention to ingredients labels. I didn't realize I could find a vegetarian community online. I felt disconnected.

Which brings me to the first picture. That's the plaque denoting the start of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. I wish I could say I had a picture I took/a picture of me by that plaque, but I was the only lonely person on top. I would have stuck around for a bit, but I had a really bad case of the shivers. It was windy and cold. And, more importantly, I was really nervous. So I picked up my too-heavy pack (weighed in at 26 pounds without water, with food) and turned around to walk North on the Appalachian Trail. I ate vegetarian food for the first week. Then, after a snowstorm I hiked 15 miles in (I've never hiked 15 miles before in my life), the wall broke. I started eating meat again. We won't get into that.

Fast forward a bit:

I made it! (Which brings to mind this hiphop song I've heard playing a lot recently...) I was one of several hundred from the several thousand who attempted! Go me! I think, in the beginning, a lot of people looked at me and were like she'll never make it. (I weighed 190 pounds at 5'7.5") The funny part is, that it never crossed my mind that I couldn't make it-I pushed myself through the emotional parts but the physical aspect was never much of an issue. 

I lost about 40 pounds and gained a lot of self-worth/self-confidence. 

When I started acclimating back to real life, I started having a lot of food issues-I've always had food issues, but they became especially difficult, seeing as I'd been eating junk food on trail and I still lost 40 pounds. I didn't know how to eat healthy to keep it off. I tried. I tried really hard. Some of it crept back on. I managed to stabilize for a while. Then the holidays came and I started really worrying.

Eventually, I decided that going Vegan would solve all my problems (it didn't) and that I could never gain weight by going vegan (I totally did). But I gained a whole lot more than just weight. I became much more closely connected to my body. I started listening to it. I started feeling so much compassion for animals again. I realized that this diet choice I'd made to feel in control again (i still didn't) was the best choice I could have made for so many reasons-I was helping to make animals' lives better. I reduced my own impact on the world, environmentally wise. I was feeding my body the best kind of food I could without the worst of it.

I've now been vegan for 9 months (to the day!) and so far, I'm having a blast.