Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 30: Swan Song

Today is the last day for Vegan Month of Food 2018. Our prompt is "kitchen tour." We are not ready for that because of the hurricane. Instead, I shot a video for you on egg replacers as someone suggested I do this when I asked "what would you  like to see?" There are so many more vegan egg replacers than there used to be even just a couple years ago, it can be confusing for sure. I don't use the same replacer for every application. I have issues down here with the relentless heat (especially in summertime) and year round humidity. I've refined what works best for me. In different climates, different things may work better for you. Here's a picture of most of the different items I use. Scroll down for the video as well as a link to a really nice chart of measurements and applications for almost all the viable egg replacers you'd ever want to use.

Here's the link to the egg replacer chart I really liked: https://www.vivahealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/Egg-Vegan-replacer.pdf

Thank you for following the bouncing ball for Vegan Month of Food this year. Hopes are I'll be back one way or another for 2019, with any luck. This blog is always up and running, feel free to throw suggestions my way. I'll be writing a little more frequently, a lot is happening right now with the preparations for reopening, it's been a long road with a few more miles to go, but it's nice to be working with furniture designing instead of having conferences with lawyers.

See you soon!

Vegan love to you and yours, always.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 29: BRUNCH!!! (and a dead panini press, boo hoo)

Today we're talking about brunch. It's neck and neck with breakfast for my favorite meal. Brunches are typically associated with holidays, occasions and Sundays in my world, but really every day is an occasion for brunch. I was simply going to post a few pictures of the millions (millions?) of photos I have from the years of food photos I've made for guest breakfasts and special occasions. By the time 5 minutes had passed, I was overwhelmed and couldn't even begin to choose. In frustration, I reached for Isa's "Vegan Brunch" one of the best cookbooks of all time (mine is so shopworn it's actually in 3 pieces now), made myself an omelette and called it a morning.

That right up there? That took all of about 15 minutes. From scratch. It's a gluten free vegan omelette made from silken tofu and chick pea flour. Chick pea flour? No need to buy a special ingredient, take your high speed blender (not a regular blender, no way) toss in some dried chick peas and let it rip. What gives this the eggy flavor is kala namak salt. For filling, I used what I had from MoFo leftovers: tofu ricotta, diced artichokes, kale and mushrooms. Those potatoes are pieces of leftover tater tots I had waffled in the iron for a failed effort on one of the themes. The bread is gluten free vegan DeLand (now back in stock at Food for Thought) and the mango.... show stealer.... I've still got about 1 dozen South Florida mangoes in my fridge. By keeping them in my fridge til the day or 2 before I want to eat them, I've been able to make my very last seasonal delivery extend by several weeks. The only thing that would've made this breakfast better is if someone made it for me.

Meanwhile, in sad appliance goings-on.... as I was flipping this omelette in the pan a large crash occurred about 8 feet over. I looked over and saw my little grill press exploding into bits on the floor. RIP little panini press, it was too good to be true when you entered my life. I lovingly transported you from the thrift in Moab all the way to your new home in the Keys, and used you maybe 6 times if I include last night's picnic sandwich post. Your plates are still in the dishwasher from last night's MoFo, you didn't even get to complete your last bath time scrub. HOW did this happen? Suffice to say... if you happen to see the other happy vegan out and about in town today, maybe give him a hug. There is no love coming my way today... it's his fault my panini press is in RIP-land. Between the one Irma stole, and this one, perhaps the Universe doesn't want me to panini press things. Ever.

RIP panini press. I am going to miss you, sniff sniff.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 28: Let's Picnic

We're going on a picnic today, or realistically we're faking going on a picnic today. I had to work, no picnic for me, but I did want to eat when I got home and the other happy vegan was famished after another long drawn out day with zero food. I dragged out the little panini press I picked up while in Moab and set to making different sandwiches using some things I had on hand, filling in the blanks with purchases.

What I had already was:

hummus (my first batch in over a year!)

cilantro cream (tofu based)

pesto (walnut based)

tomatoes

balsamic dressing

 What I purchased was:

Miyoko's sun dried tomato and garlic cheese (half price!)

marinated artichokes

cucumber

kale

baguette loaf bread

roasted red peppers

I cut the baguette and filled each piece with a different combo of all the above, just randomly mixed things up. Then I jammed them on the panini press and heated through so everything thoroughly melted together:

I also made rigatoni pasta (other than wagon wheels, the best pasta ever) since the store where I'm at actually had organic rigatoni imported from Italy sitting right there on the shelf calling out to me with love. I had a little bit of pesto left, so I mixed it all up with some of the artichoke hearts I diced. See how beautiful it looks?! Tasted even better. I also picked up a bag of Vegan Rob's cauliflower puffs. Really if you buy ANY Vegan Rob's you'll be super happy, but these puffs and the turmeric chips are my favorites so far (although the rice flips do suck, so it's not entirely true that they all are great.... just that one, meh).

All those things travel well, and are delicious cold or room temp. The sandwiches can be made the day before, and the pasta 1-2 days before.

I'd love to go on a picnic. I'm about 15 years overdue. The sun is shining, I think it's best we all make hay.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 27: TV Dinner

"TV dinners, there's nothin' else to eat...

TV dinners, they really can't be beat..."

So, today we're talking TV dinners. Curl up on the couch, Netflix, and our own version of a TV dinner. It's really a comfort food kind of thing... not a whole dinner.

I'm a mashed potato and gravy kind of gal. That's all I want if it's comfort food. See?

Mashed potatoes, skin on
Soy Milk
Tons of black pepper
And the vegan gravy recipe noted outside the caption
A happy zone for me

I like them lumpy, but I'll eat them smooth. I don't care, as long as they're vegan, potatoes are life. Here's the gravy recipe I really love, I have no idea who to credit this to, but if anyone knows, please fill me in, I'm not looking to jack someone else's recipe as mine:

2 cubes vegan poultry bouillon (I use Edward & Son)

3 cups water

3T vegan butter

3T flour, plus more to thicken

1/2 tsp vegan poultry seasoning (pretty much all poultry seasoning is vegan, but double check)

cracked black pepper to taste

Heat the water and bouillon, stir til dissolved. Heat a pan over low/medium heat and whisk butter/flour til smooth and a roux forms. Pour the bouillon water slowly into the pan, whisking as you do so you don't get lumps (lumps are evil). Keep over medium heat til it bubbles, whisking to thicken... adding flour by the tablespoon til it's your desired consistency. When thick, remove from heat, whisk in seasoning and pepper.

Yepper, this is the real deal in my world.

"I like 'em frozen but you understand
I throw 'em in and wave 'em and I'm a brand new (wo)man, oh yeah"

Did you know Robert Palmer did a recording of this song too? :)

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 26: Holiday Time

Today's post is dedicated to holiday times. I do believe it's actually what is our own favorite holiday, in case I'm wrong, we'll cover that at the end.

Endless Summer baby!!!! True love forever and ever! Really, is this ANY surprise?!!!

Vegan Strawberry Shortcake
Sweet Vegan Biscuit Recipe
Organic Strawberries Marinated All Day in a Touch of Organic Sugar
RediWhip Non-Dairy Almond Whipping Cream

My favorite holiday is the First Day of Summer; Summer Solstice; Litha for the Pagans out there. I'm a simple gal.... ocean, sunshine, palm trees, beach, boat, breezes. Cats on beaches. Deer on beaches. The smell of sun tan lotion and ice cubes clinking in glasses. Moonlight. Heat, the more the better. Humidity, no problem if it comes with sunshine. Get my drift?

With summertime comes vegan strawberry shortcake.

The end (Almost. Refer to the PS...)

xo

PS: for those that missed it, and you're thinking "the holidays" as in what many think of.... please go back a few days to my Day 18 post.... you'll be rewarded with about 10 pounds of Miyoko's Unturkey for your holiday.

xoxo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 25: Happy Birthday To Me (and to all the fellow Virgos!)

Happy Birthday Virgo! Let's have some cake!

In case ya haven't figured it out, today's prompt is Birthday Bash.... what do we eat on our birthday?

Want to get to know a Virgo. Good luck with that. Fellow Virgos understand. I searched around a tiny bit and found some traits alleged to be attributable to Virgos. I chose some of my favorites, tee hee:

Reliable. Perfectionists. Strong dislike of incompetence, especially in others. Self-destructive (partially due to need for perfectionism). Introverted. Smart. Need for intense structure. Doers, not talkers. Worriers. Loyal to a fault (unless crossed). Hard workers.

Well then. I guess that sums it up.  Happy Birthday from one Virgo to all the rest.

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 24: Crunchwraps for Potluck!

Today is about what to bring to a potluck. We had a prompt for that (I think) over the summer, when I talked about the gluten free vegan tofu Rubens I brought to a potluck around July, along with the vegan tempeh Rubens I made. The most epic potluck sandwich has already been covered, so what to do?

I made my own version of a vegan crunchwrap. The cafe I'm in made them as a lunch special last week, boy oh boy were they delicious, they sold out (of course). I wanted to use some of the Unturkey I have left and season it but I didn't have the right seasonings for a good taco mix. Instead, I used my own version of a cilantro cream, along with Daiya pepperjack, and some of the Miyoko's wet buffalo mozzarella I made (but didn't showcase, since I didn't have basil for the Caprese salad last week). Actually, these were great, not as creamy as the ones in the cafe from last week, but super delicious none the less. If you make these at home, I highly suggest using a large tortilla. I used a smaller one. My ingredients were the vegan cheeses above and the cream (on mine... the other happy vegan swears cilantro will kill him, after making everything taste like soap), beans, tortilla shells, roasted onions and red peppers, avocado (minimal on mine, maximum his) and tomatoes. You can use anything you want pretty much. Fold it up like a flower, and brown both sides til golden in a pan with light oil or veg spray. I had mine with a little dash of the cilantro cream drizzled on top, he went with a drizzle of balsamic dressing. These are perfect for potluck. Once they cool, they are easy to cut into small single serve sections, wrap them up in paper wrap and you are good to go.

This was my version of a vegan crunchwrap.
Best for you to go with a larger tortilla.
You can see I had to fill the center of the "flower" with a small piece.
VERY tasty!

Oh, there was lots of deer butt this afternoon.
These little guys always make me smile.
There's a fawn in there... can you see the fading spots?

I did manage to spend a few minutes looking at the sky today too.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 23: Sunday (Funday!) Dinner

Oh my.... today we're tasked with Sunday dinner. Traditional, whatever "tradition" was for us. Tradition, smadition, I don't have it. In my house when it comes to food, we got to pick our own dinner on our birthday, Thanksgiving was carcass so was Christmas. That's all I can remember.

I'm happy to report thanks to prior activist vegans who came into my life to educate me, carcass is long gone, yay! I remember at some point my mom turning the reigns over to me more and more in the kitchen. Most likely she did this because she SO loathed cooking. Poor mom. I'm not kidding when I say she hated cooking. Baking was a little more on point with her, at least she and I had that in common. Instead, I bring you one of the first recipes I ever learned to cook, peppersteak (using seitan here of course). This version is from a 1974 cookbook called "The Penny Pincher's Cookbook" by Sophie Leavitt. I still have this book, not a reprint... a first run, I mean because there was such a stampede for this book upon publication, right? I kept it because I knew at some point I'd want to veganize this particular recipe at some point. Today was the day.

Here it is:

Seitan Peppersteak
Modified from Circa 1974 Sophie Leavitt's Penny Pincher's Cookbook

Anyone who wants the exact recipe, please let me know. To keep it simple, do this:

Make or buy a pound of "beef" style seitan (locals, Winn Dixie has the vegan beefless bouillon!!) Pick up a couple of peppers (I like red and green) and a can of diced tomatoes (or about 4 fresh ones mixed in with a can of tomato soup.... penny pinching, remember?) You'll also need an onion, vegan Worcestershire, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar.

In a large skillet, heat a bit of oil (or use broth if oil free). Slice your seitan into strips, dredge in flour, sprinkle w/salt and pepper. Place the seitan into the skillet over medium heat, stirring, til it's mostly brown. Add in your onion, stir. Add in the diced tomatoes, a tablespoon or 2 of vegan Worcestershire, a tablespoon or 2 of sugar, the peppers (sliced) and let it cook with a cover for about 10 minutes. Of course I didn't cover it, of course I didn't time things, of course I just threw things into a pan after the seitan was brown and the onion cooked. Cook it for a little while til the peppers are desired softness. Serve over desired rice, grain or noodle.

Remember last week's "budget" theme? Well... I still had a whole first Unturkey in the fridge, remember that fiasco? I boiled it in lots of beefless bouillon for about 10 minutes, and just let it sit in there to hopefully mask some of the seasonings that were already in it. Worked good enough.

Pretty sure you'll be seeing that Unturkey #1 or #2 again before the end of the month. Sophie would be proud.

This morning as I was surfing the channels, I found a cooking channel making a big deal out of a Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Lava Cake. While I was waiting for my vat of seitan peppersteak to cook, I whipped up a tiny batch of lava cake, like yesterday, but I swapped Matcha chocolate ganache for the chips. Nope, not as pretty. Needs more time for the center to set (note the sinking strawberry, whoops) but all in all, great flavor, and way better lava effect. Just so ya know. 

Chocolate Lava Cake cuz I was bored
Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Ganache Center
If you do this, make sure you allow extra time for the inside to set
if you plan to top it. Live and learn.

Anything you can eat, I can eat vegan. Let us show you how. Vegan. For the Animals.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 22: Food Fit For a King (Made By A Pauper)

Today is "Fancy but Frugal" with our assigned theme. Here's mine:

Vegan Chocolate Lava Cake
with strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce

I planned on making epic ravioli. I'm out of an ingredient.

I made you a cheesecake but had the wrong size pan, it cooked too quickly. Not suitable for a King.

I planned on making Miyoko's wet Buffalo Mozzarella with a Caprese salad. No basil.

I reached for an old friend... Chloe's Vegan Kitchen and used her recipe, subbing strawberries for raspberries because that's what I had in the freezer.

My friend bought me that cake fork years ago on a stroll down Duval years ago, in a store that's now gone. I love it. Thank you friend.

Eat cake, fancy vegan style, made by plain ol' me.

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 21: Scratch and Dent (Food, Not Me...)

Today our challenge is to make something using a reduced price item, you know... scratch and dent, clearance, whatever.

I'm lucky because sometimes the store where I work will give me things totally free that are barely out of date since they can no longer sell it legally. Before they do the giveaways, they pull close to expiring items and put them on the clearance shelf. This is not just helpful for my kitchen in general, but also makes it a lot easier to experiment with new recipes because you know.... new recipes usually take several tries (or more than several) to get them just right when it comes to baking. I just picked up a bag of reduced price organic rice flour. I also happened to have a bag of sorghum flour in my freezer that they had given me not too long ago. Both of these items would've been staples in my pantry while I had my bakery, but not since the storm. I was so happy with these items, major scores in my life. With them I made brownies. Actually I made them twice today, once in the morning before work with rice, the second, tonight, with sorghum. I thought the first batch was dry and gritty, but they ate them at the cafe anyway with gratitude. I fixed them in my opinion, and the cafe will be getting this little tray too. Need a tiny pick-me-up? Make this, it's not a big recipe. Scroll to the end for the recipe, it's actually not bad at all. The recipe also includes organic flax meal that was given to me for free by a friend who didn't want it (score!) and a dash of that $1 jar of Justin's peanut butter we spoke of yesterday. 

Bad lighting for a bad brownie.
Too dry, you can see the cracks.
Even the peanut butter was too dry (nearing the bottom of jar).

Better lighting for a better brownie!
Far better than first try.
Added a touch of non-GM safflower oil to the peanut butter.
Added some Fleur de sel.
Added some aquafaba to the batter.
Used chocolate soy milk instead of plain (evil genius).

These are good enough for a quick snack if you want a gluten free sweet. I don't recommend these for anything else, maybe it's just me but I've made better brownie recipes before. I like this though because you only need a 6" pan and well if you're sad you won't stuff your face with too much crap (or is that just me?) Here's the recipe with the changes I made for the second version. Use rice flour if that's what you have. Add enough aquafaba to make it smooth, and not overly sticky.

One Bowl Vegan Fudge Brownies (gluten free) - modified from www.thefitcookie.com

1/4 cup oil of choice (I used non-GM organic safflower)

1/4 non-dairy milk of choice (I used chocolate soy)

1 tsp organic vanilla

1/2 cup organic sugar

1/4 cup fine grind organic flax

1/4 cup (heaping) organic cocoa

1/2 cup sorghum flour (or rice)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup organic chocolate chips (I omitted, this is budget week!)

a little bit of your $1 Justin's peanut butter, yum

1 little bit of Fleur de sel for sprinkling, if you want
Aquafaba

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for convection). Prepare 6" round (or square) baking pan by using veg spray and parchment, or however you normally do it. In a large bowl, whisk oil, non-dairy milk, vanilla, sugar and flax seed. Sift and whisk in cocoa and sea salt. Stir in the flour. Add a little aquafaba to smooth the batter, not too much. Add chocolate chips if using. Spread in pan. Add peanut butter and sprinkle w/Fleur de sel. Bake 20 minutes. Cool completely. 

I'm making an educated guess this small pan of brownies cost me no more than $1.75. You cannot even buy a cookie for that rate. Not bad!

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 20: 4 4 4

Today is feed 4 for $4. I've got some stuff for you, read on (links to recipes at the end, scroll down if I bore you.... no harm no foul)

First, I made a recipe from www.howdoigovegan.com off their facebook page for Banoffee oats. I wasn't even sure what Banoffee was, I had to look it up. It's an English dessert pie. It contains bananas, cream and toffee. So, ok... easily veganized, and better still someone already took care of that for me. For your information, their social media page is in "pounds" as far as money goes, and I don't have a symbol for that. Here I'm in U.S. dollars, my service price was a bit higher, I used organic. I didn't use almonds on the top, I used pumpkin seeds because I had them. I also added 2 strawberries to mine because, strawberries.

Scroll down to the bottom of the blog for the recipe
This ended up being about $.95 per serving
Maybe just a little less depending on your banana price

Then I got busy making soup for tonight. One of my favorites is a West African Peanut Soup, but it would exceed the budget because it has some extra things in it. I found a similar recipe on Minimalist Baker for Thai Carrot soup. I guess the Thai part of it was supposed to be the basil, funny about that.... she calls for regular basil, but I happened to have Thai basil in the spice drawer, then I forgot to add it. So basically this is carrot soup w/peanut butter (OMG the peanut butter I'm using is a jar of Justin's for $1.00 the other happy vegan found at the market marked way down because they were clearing the shelves to make room for a new floor plan. I used the regular price of peanut butter when I calculated, not many people will find $1.00 peanut butter of any brand lying around). Here's the picture:

Scroll down to the bottom of the blog for the recipe link
This ended up being $.80 per serving
About the bread? Scroll down a bit more!

The soup is SO good! And, because it's soup, really you can adjust for preferences and what you have on hand. No matter though, carrots are always dirt cheap!

Next I made a Thai Coconut Jackfruit Crabless Soup. It's a recipe that is published in the latest VegNews recipe. They don't give it up on the internet yet, I am going to publish it on my facebook page tomorrow for you ok? I've never had crab in any form anytime in my life. No idea what it tastes like, nor do I want to know. I imagine it's got an "of the sea" flavor, which if you know anything about me at all, you already know that "of the sea" ANYTHING is really nasty to me. This includes sea vegetables. Remember Fukishima? I still have one last bag of Kombu that hasn't been opened. I bought a stash right when the disaster happened, and never bought any since. That's how much I use sea veggies.... not much at all. But.... I did break down and pick up a shaker of kelp granules for this particular recipe. And, I have a small shaker of dulse that's also about 100 years old, which I do nothing with. Although over budget,  I've chosen to include it for 444 day because when I was at the Asian Market last week (I'm getting a lot of mileage from that trip for sure) I noted that jackfruit in water was .88 a can! What is typically on shelves here is pushing $5 a can, and it's a smaller can than the Asian Market ones I saw. But.... what we DO get down here is organic and branded. Truth be told, this was one of my 2 last cans of jackfruit that was donated to us a while ago. Diversion story time...

One day when I was picking up messages, a very kind man had left a voicemail of how he just left us a case of jackfruit outside our driveway. I never called him back. I was so far down the rabbit hole of depression I was not speaking to anyone at that time. I sent the other happy vegan out to get the jackfruit and I stayed in bed for like an additional month or 2. I've gotten a lot of mileage from that one donation, having some freedom to experiment with different jackfruit recipes. I don't really like BBQ jackfruit which is the most popular way it's caught on. It's a texture thing for me.... too much like dead. Because I've been able to experiment without financial pressure of this ingredient, I've found quite a few ways I really do like jackfruit. So, anyway, I've included this recipe because the jackfruit was donated to us, and because in so many areas around the world it is extremely budget friendly. I would venture a guess breadfruit will work in this. And, if it's all just too out of reach, use white beans (dried of course for budget reasons..... save the aquafaba for mousse and egg replacer!) But.... as it is, this recipe came in at $1.85 per serving. Which mainly was the cost of the mushrooms, lemongrass and the organic pasta I used. Do not skip the lemongrass, really... it's what puts this over the top. I have a friend who grew lemongrass in her garden like crazy. She used to give it to me for free, and even gave me a few stalks to plant. No more, sad face time. I also liked this recipe because it really does not taste "of the sea" despite having kelp in it. It simply tastes flavorful. The recipe looks complicated, nope, it's just a long list of ingredients as you'll see on tomorrow's post (there is no link, VegNews doesn't give us one, it's in their current issue mag). You can pull the cost down by using garlic powder, skipping the Thai basil (which I forgot to use anyway). One more thing... about that red curry paste. Who the heck can find VEGAN red curry paste? Not me. I used 1/4t turmeric, 1t coriander, a shake of red pepper flakes, and 1tsp Srirachi hot chili sauce (also more budget friendly than premade curry paste). And, holy mother of crap, I forgot to put the coconut milk in the recipe.... My price includes using it, I just forgot to pour it in.  Look at this picture!

This was so good that my before cooking plans were to give it away!
Nope, not anymore... it's mine, all mine.

And, about that bread. We discussed this recipe multiple times through the years on this blog. There's no pictures of the loaf, but you see slices here. There is enough for at least 6 generous servings, or more. On my calculations the serving cost is .33 per person. Do you remember 2 years ago for VeganMoFo I made those veganized BLTs for the other happy vegan, with rice paper bacon. MMMM. This was the bread I used, and if you read that post, you'll see I even made my own vegan mayo using aquafaba. Pennies, just pennies to make!

Let's not forget the aquafaba mousse I brought you a few days ago. I did the calculations and mine was .28 per serving using a good quality chocolate. Incredible!

I make my own broth using scraps from veggies. I toss all my scraps in a container for the freezer, when it's full, I boil it with just enough water to cover and maybe a bay leaf. No salt, nothing else. It's basically free, and you can just season it as you'd like when you use it depending on your recipe.

Used dried beans and grains.

About those oats. It's enough for 2 people. You can put them in cleaned out peanut butter jars, put the lid back on and you've got a "to go" breakfast. The people on www.howdoigovegan.com had theirs in a really pretty tall sundae dish. I'm lucky to have any dishes at this point in my life. I thought it looked just as pretty in a jar and damn it was tasty. I even had leftover caramel date sauce, I'll use it tomorrow.

Sure it's challenging to eat 444. Most people I know are in different areas of the country where tomatoes, corn and zucchini are growing like crazy in gardens. Here, a single zucchini is $2.50 and they are small. Tomatoes, forget about it.... from Mexico mostly. Corn? Never.... it's feed corn down here and a fortune. So, basically you need to do some planning for cheap meals like using dried beans and grains which are batch cooked and frozen, stocking things on sale, making your own veggie broth, and eating seasonally for your own area. Cheap comes with some preparation, but unless you're eating at Taco Hell every day or buying your home meals pre-prepared, we've all gotta do some prep at some point.

CARROT SOUP LINK: https://minimalistbaker.com/creamy-thai-carrot-soup-with-basil/

BREAD LINK: https://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/homemade-artisan-bread-easiest-bread-recipe-ever.html

I have to give you the oat recipe, it's off a social media page from www.howdoigovegan.com and I cannot link, so here:

Banoffee Oat Sundae (this recipe made 2 servings for me, it's a lot of food!)

Ingredients: 
1 cup oats
2 bananas (1 mashed, 1 sliced)
8 dates
a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla essence, if available
Peanut butter and flaked almonds to serve

Directions:
1. Soak the oats in enough water (or use all-plant milk if you prefer) to just cover them. Add 1/2 of the mashed banana and stir.
2. Place the dates in a blender with salt, vanilla essence, and enough hot water to blend to a smooth consistency. If you don't have a blender, chopped dates will work perfectly well!
3. Layer the oats, sliced bananas, date caramel, and mashed banana into a glass, alternating. Top with a few dots of peanut butter, and sprinkle with flaked almonds.

Hopefully today's great recipes make up for yesterday's disappointment. You'll like all these recipes, really they are great.

TTYL!

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 19: Leftovers for A Broken Heart

Yesterday I made an Unturkey using Miyoko Schinner's magical recipe. I still have about 9 pounds of it left. I planned on making soup, but everyone does that anyway, right? Instead, I found a recipe for Asian style rolls, you know, eggless egg rolls for lack of a better term. The Universe continues to do some serious ass kicking on my heart. Today was difficult, time was not on my side because of extenuating circumstances. But I had a secret weapon in my fridge.... vegan egg roll wrappers. Or so I thought. Referring once again to the trip to the Asian Market last week, I had picked up what I thought were won-ton wrappers. They are vegan, indeed, I read the ingredients correctly. But get this.... they are bean curd sheets. Fresh bean curd sheets. Exactly what I needed for the Unturkey was lurking in my fridge all along. I grabbed the wrong thing as far as wonton wrappers, nope not them. Why am I even talking about this? At the last minute I decided to make vegan Unturkey, cranberry and vegan cheeze egg rolls. I really thought I had this one in the bag.

If nothing else, Vegan Month of Food gets me to try new things, new styles of cooking and new products. Here are my vegan Unturkey egg rolls:

I mean, they don't even look good, do they. Believe it or not, that plate is green. The dip is a cranberry mustard dip which is bright red, you know... cranberries. Ugh, it's hard to believe sometimes I think I know what I'm doing in the kitchen.

So, as far as flavor, not really bad, but the sheets are not crispy as they should be. They browned and puffed slightly, but not like a wonton wrapper. And they also have a flavor that was ok, but overwhelming in the recipe. The wrapper should be the carrier, not a main flavor. I shredded some leftover Unturkey in my food processor and added a touch of the leftover powdered seasoning I had from yesterday's recipe. I then made a fast vegan spread cheeze using soaked nuts, lemon juice, salt, pepper and miso, and used smooth cranberry sauce. Put it all in the wrapper, rolled it up and baked 20 minutes. I'm telling you the method because if this was done in the right wrapper, it would've been good. The sauce is cranberry sauce, with a splash of Dijon mustard and VEGAN Bee Free Honee (that's the brand I use).

I have a different recipe I am going to hopefully bring to you after Vegan MoFo is over. It's an Unturkey sandwich style meal, using leftover mashed potatoes in the waffle iron, with sliced leftover  Unturkey, cranberry sauce, avocado, and baked tofu (seasoned with kala namak, you know to make it like an egg) in the middle of the sandwich. I think I'll leave the tofu out, and add rice paper bacon. Tune in another day for that, today I just didn't have time. If you read my Facebook page you know why.

I'm tapping out for tonight.

Jen

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 18: "Pre-Leftovers" Day

Today we are tasked with making a meal for you that will be used as a different meal tomorrow... you know, repurposing leftovers. For those of you who don't want to read, scroll down for the pictures and recipe link at the end. For those that want to read, here we go.

I bring you now, Miyoko Schinner's famous Unturkey!

Does anyone remember Now and Zen company when it first began and was founded by the amazing so far ahead of her time Miyoko Schinner? Yes, the same Miyoko who is now famous for her groundbreaking non-dairy artisan vegan cheeses! That company was close to my heart for 2 things.... vegan chocolate pudding, and the Unturkey. Nope, not Tofurky (which I crush majorly on as well), but UNturkey. This was one of the first (perhaps THE first?) vegan turkey analogues. I bought my first one around 20 years or so, give or take, in a crunchy granola store down the shore. Interesting look on the box, interesting concept especially with Thanksgiving coming up and me expected to produce dinner for the family and a few friends. I labored for hours in the kitchen with sides, a from scratch meal and the Unturkey (that part was fast, the rest not so much). When I sat down to the table, I cut the Unturkey, plated the food and took a bite. My first bite included yuba "skin" (commonly referred to as "bean curd sheets I later learned). Listen, I'm the one who bought the thing, cooked the thing, and plated the thing. I had full and total control the entire time, yet I swore up and down that someone made a mistake and I was eating animal skin. I was horrified. I ran to the box to read the ingredients again. Vegan. But HOW???? I peeled the weirdness off anyway, still convinced it was flesh. It wasn't. It was bean curd sheets, which is a skin that forms when soy milk is produced. Back then I had no idea. I came to learn that indeed it's vegan, and I continued to buy Unturkey until gasp.... it was DISCONTINUED! Looking up the dates, the Internet tells me it went away in 2006 but it seems to me it was way before then that I lost my true love, the Unturkey.

After a few years I stumbled upon a few threads confirming the Unturkey had gone to it's Unrainbow Bridge because the company was sold. Miyoko was no longer associated with Now and Zen so that explained it. But the greatest thing happened, the recipe was eventually shared. Years ago I was stalking some zombie threads and found an underground recipe version before Miyoko published it. Please remember, back then the extent of my cooking ability was dialing out for pizza (w/o cheese of course, again so far before Daiya or anything of the like). I did not cook. Reading the underground version long ago it was far too complicated for me to even consider. I was happy because Tofurky is one of my holiday loves and we remained besties (still to this day!) But I never forgot my other love, the Unturkey. I decided to finally make an Unturkey after watching Miyoko's video about 10 times (not kidding) quite a few years after moving here, as by then I had enough years of serious cooking sorcery under my belt. It really did not look that difficult, but WTF is this bean curd sheet thing? I made my first Unturkey maybe 3 years ago. I couldn't find yuba. Let me tell you, I'm hardcore.... I made my own yuba. It was one of the messiest and most frustrating things I've ever done. But, I persisted and had enough to cover an Unturkey after maybe 2-2.5 hours at the stove. Mine was sloppy.... yuba is produced in drum size containers of the 55 gallon variety which makes a big ass sheet of yuba. Being that I'm not a commercial tofu or soy milk producer I used my largest skillet and went to town. That first Unturkey wasn't as pretty as Miyoko's on line video version, nor the one I pulled from the box, but damn it was delicious. And HUGE, over 10 pounds.

I'd like to stop writing here, but there's more.

I got up extra early this morning to make a second Unturkey for Vegan Month of Food. The first I made yesterday but there was a mistake in the measurements of the recipe I followed. The seitan loaf itself didn't come out perfect so I decided no biggie I'll make another one, the first one we'll use for deli slices. Get this.... last night in preparation for this morning's second Unturkey prep, I reached out to the most revered Miyoko herself and guess what SHE WROTE BACK! I would be starstruck meeting her in person. I have so much respect for her. She was so far ahead of her time with the Now and Zen company, and being a woman at the helm to boot. Really, I have so much admiration for her for these reasons. Anyway, back to the second Unturkey....

Today absolutely spiraled far out of control with animal issues. If you read my facebook page, you have an idea of one of the issues, but trust me there were more. I'm skipping over it, really. I had started to mix my Unturkey when things began to go wrong. I left one of the necessary bags of gluten at the market. Paid for. Lying there lonely on a converyor belt when it needed to be here. The other happy vegan was already out for another emergency and said he'd pick up the gluten. He did. But then I had my own non-MoFo emergency. All the partially mixed dough got put to the side with a damp towel over the already huge vat of gluten mix and I left. I didn't get back to it for close to FIVE HOURS. Five hours of it just lying in a stainless bowl, growing and growing. When I got back to it, the towel was dry, the mix had grown and it was taking over my bowl. I said "f-this" and reshaped it into a log as it was and began the baking & cooking process. When it finally came out of the broth about 1.5 hours later, it was so huge it began to crack in 2. At this point I was (still am actually) continuing to deal with the other plural emergencies at hand. I again said "f-it" and decided to run with it anyway. I soaked the bean curd sheets. Seriously, look at the shit it ended up to be:

Dammit! This is supposed to be a SHEET!
A FREAKING SHEET! NOT CRUMBS!!!

As you will note from the photo above, my dehydrated bean curd sheet (my ass!) was pulverized to bits. I salvaged what I could to cover my beloved Unturkey which was going south so quickly my head was spinning. Apparently I should've checked the Asian market freezer or refrigerator case for FRESH bean curd sheets. Friends, NEVER buy these dehydrated pieces of you know what or you'll be sorry. But, again, that was my first ever trip to the Asian market last week for "hot without chilies" day, don't you remember my glee? Yeah, it was all sucked out of me today when I opened my beany curd sheet (my ass!) package. BOO HISS.

If you follow the recipe on the link I'm providing below, you will have at least 10 pounds of Unturkey. I know perhaps it's not elegant but neither is a dead turkey with stuffing shoved up his ass.  ASS STUFFING! How can anyone eat that?!!! Go for the Unturkey, I mean, have some fun won't you? Now that I've made my Unturkey, I have all that leftover for tomorrow's prompt which is "use leftovers from yesterday's recipe." Leftovers? Oh heck, I got 'em, I got 'em good. 

Without further nonsense of the day that turned to shit, here are more pictures, and the link. As I said, this is Unturkey, not something super elegant. These pictures look a little freaky, to say the least!

This is how my second Unturkey came out after baking (before simmering)
It grew so much that it
actually hit the rack above, despite me pre adjusting the racks immensely.

How can I in all good conscience publish such an ugly photo you ask?
I respond "because it's real!"
This is the bean curd sheets (my ass!) lining my roasting pan
along with the bottom of my unturkey sliced after simmering for an hour.

This is a huge volume of stuffing placed over the bottom piece.

This is my Unturkey after placing the top split piece back on over the stuffing.
It's covered with bean curd sheets (my ass!) and basted with the seasoning mix.

After baking!

This is part of the reason we have no video tonight.

I had visions of me in the kitchen tonight gracefully showing you how to rehydrate bean curd sheets (my ass!) as I waxed poetic about the ease and simplicity of applying said sheets. Uh.... no.

This is what we saw when the other happy vegan sliced it!
NOM!

And, this was the plate I made for him.

Perhaps I should've saved my bean curd sheets (my ass!) for "fail day." But, this isn't a fail overall it's just a crappy package and I shouldn't have gotten the dried version. Guess what I have another pack of the bean curd sheets (my ass!) so I'll have to find some way to use them up. For now, I've got about 9.5 pounds of Unturkey left for tomorrow and I swear I'm going to find some way to incorporate those bean curd sheet (my ass!) bits into tomorrow's recipe along with the Unturkey leftovers if it kills me.

Here's the link:

https://www.artisanveganlife.com/will-the-real-unturkey-please-stand-up/ 

Also, here's a different link which is to the video demo Miyoko published. The audio quality is exceptionally poor, but this was so helpful to me to actually watch her make it so here it is for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6kHOxR4bDY

Now, my parting comments. Firstly, I found a link that said use 4 cups gluten, in fact it may even be in that video link. When you see that DON'T DO IT! The correct quantity is 8 cups of gluten. Yup, EIGHT! That was part of my fail for the first Unturkey I was making for this post.

Secondly, this makes a huge roast, absolutely huge. You can halve the recipe, but if you do halve ALL OF IT, not just the gluten, ok? But, my thought is you're going to all this effort to make this, why not just make the giant one, and have leftovers and/or freeze some of it. Really, you will love this. Make it in a pretty roasting dish. You most likely will not be able to lift it out of the roasting pan to place on a platter. I forgot that part and instead used one of my large stainless roasters which I use to make those oven roasted seasoned potatoes that you feasted on all those years. Remember? 

Thirdly, this is so not for every day eating. There's oil (which I omitted entirely from the gravy by the way). There's sodium. But, hey to answer the age old question of protein, there is officially a crap ton of protein in this recipe, seriously it's almost off the charts. Give it up to vital wheat gluten for protein content. My point is, before anyone starts crying of how unhealthy this is, consider what too many DO eat on holidays anyway.... it's not healthy and it sure wasn't healthy for the carcass considered a centerpiece either, was it?

If you have any questions, fire them off to me, I promise I'll answer you if I see it. You can always email me at the bed and breakfast too. Do not be intimidated by this recipe. And, if you happen to get pulverized bean curd sheets (my ass!) like I did just rehydrate the bits anyway, squeeze the water out and scoop them with a spoon over your Unturkey. It will crisp up anyway, and you sure know it by now it's not animal flesh... yet crispy and succulent. If you cannot find the bean curd sheets (my ass!) either make your own (messy and time consuming) or just omit it. The world won't stop spinning if you make your Unturkey without those bean curd sheets (my ass!)  

Wasn't this fun?

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 17: Cheap Sweets (YASSS!!!!!)

For the love of dog... this has TWO INGREDIENTS!
It is delicious!

Wasn't sure if this would land in "free from" week or this week for "budget friendly."  As you see, in the end I chose budget friendly. However this recipe is vegan, gluten free, egg free, nut free, dairy free (duh, VEGAN) and soy free (provided you use vegan chocolate which is allergen free).

Today, 2 ingredient chocolate mousse. Two ingredients and you're on the way to super deliciousness sans the brutality of dairy. Oh, did I mention TWO FREAKING INGREDIENTS!!!!!

If you add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and a splash of plant milk, you have 4 ingredients. The recipe works with it, or without it. I did not add any sugar, none, zip, zilch, zero.

The credit for this recipe goes to Lazy Cat Kitchen.

Their link is: https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/fluffy-vegan-chocolate-mousse/

1 cup aquafaba (240ml) (I did not reduce mine, you'll see in the video)

140 grams good quality vegan chocolate (I used Multiple Organics, a fair trade allergen free chip)

optional: sugar (you seriously do not need it)

1 tsp vinegar (optional)

splash plant milk (optional)

Pour the aquafaba in a stand mixer, add vinegar if using. With balloon whisk, turn mixer on from low to high and let it whip (visions of Dazz Band now) til 100% firm. You'll know when it's ready.

Heat chocolate and splash of plant milk if using. I used the microwave at 30 second intervals. Whisk til completely smooth. Cool completely, 100% cooled!

When chocolate is cooled and AF whipped, add in your chocolate to the AF and fold in completely, gently. The AF will deflate, it's ok, that's what it does. When combined, pour into dishes of choice. Recipe says 4 servings, I got way more than that and if I had enough dishes I could've probably done 10!  Chill overnight, it gets fluffy and perfect.

Have at it. You will not be sorry!

xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 16: Getting the Goods While On A Budget

Today we are tasked with a clear your pantry meal. Can I just say, I'm loving these prompts! Videos and posts for the super majority of topics have really have been (for me at least) falling into my lap. Today is another one of those "oh happy day, lucky me!" topics.

A few weeks ago, I was following the bouncing ball on a week of cheap nutritious eating with recipes from www.howdoigovegan.com I think they called it their cheerful cheap week or something like that. I was famished because I ate nothing all day. I was contemplating eating something vegan but unhealthy and then I remembered I deserve better than that. Scrolling through the cheap easy recipes l was pretty sure I had everything already in my possession for the post on quick coconut tofu stew. I walked into the kitchen and replicated their recipe almost exactly in 15 minutes flat.

Quick Coconut Tofu Stew
Made for pennies, in just about 15 minutes flat!

What I didn't have on hand was curry powder. The challenge is to make a dish with ONLY what we happen to have on hand, not with what we have PLUS going to the market for the 1 ingredient missing. So I did a quick "help what can I substitute for curry powder" Internet search and simply subbed in 1/2 teaspoon coriander, and 1 teaspoon cumin for the 1 teaspoon of curry. I used a full block of tofu, because if not I'd have a half a block of random tofu just sitting in the fridge most likely til it got shoved to the back, and onto science experiment life. Pass.

It's hard to believe I had scallions lying around in the fridge, but I did. I bought them for a raw recipe that I never got around to. I had to peel a few of the outer leaves off, but they were on hand. The mushrooms were just about to turn too.... another purchase for a raw recipe that I just didn't get to. And lastly, I had the frozen spinach on hand because I've been putting it in my smoothies. It's like a wizard peeked into my kitchen and then wrote this recipe. I was shocked how good it was, actually I think it's better with my spices than the curry would have been. Some people really dislike curries (including the other happy vegan, although he won't admit that publicly). He devoured this stew, sans curry.

There will come a point that I will do a public "eat on x-dollars a week" theme around here. For now there's still too much chaos and my schedule is too unreliable to commit to much meal prep. I'll be there for you on that soon though.

Their recipe straight off their facebook page ends today's post. For now, check back tomorrow for another great recipe for pennies. This week is all about the budget. I'm already planned til almost the end of the week, I'm so excited about this week!!!

Vegan, budget friendly love to you and yours. Scroll down for the recipe:

Courtesy of www.howdoigovegan.com

"cheap and cheerful week"

For Day 5, Dinner, we had a Quick Coconut Tofu Stew. 

Ingredients
1 can reduced fat coconut milk
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp maple syrup or suitable-for-vegans sweetener
1 tsp curry powder
Approx. 130g canned tomatoes
1/2 block tofu, cubed
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 large handfuls spinach
2 scallions, sliced

Directions
Add all of the ingredients to a large lidded saucepan, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

We also made an easy flatbread by combining 200g flour, 100ml water, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil. We mixed it well for about 3 minutes (no need to knead) and divided it into four. We rolled two of the pieces out, dry fried them until they started to bubble, and then flipped them to fry the other side.

My changes were: 1 full block tofu, 1/2 tsp. coriander, 1/4 tsp. cumin, omit the curry, I used more mushrooms because I had them and they were getting ready to turn,  I used a little bigger can of tomatoes because it's what I had, I omitted the sugar, and I used Bragg's liquid aminos instead of soy sauce. As far as the bread, I added nutritional yeast to mine for more flavor before baking. Work with what you have. Buy nothing. xo

Vegan Month of Food 2018 Day 15: Harboring a Fugitive, Truth Bombs and a bit about GAPS

I'm starting this post minutes PAST midnight on the 15th, past deadline for "today's" topic, which now is actually yesterday's post. Considering the time of day (night) and how my day went, plans are to keep this short.

Our topic "today" (yesterday...) is anything "free from" to close out free from week. Read on.

Minutes ago I walked in the door from dropping truth bombs for a few hours on Duval Street, Key West. Yes, it was another "Cube of Truth" event organized by Anonymous for the Voiceless: Florida Keys. Cubes I feel are some of the best activism I've done in my life, but I won't lie, they take a toll on my emotions.

After I walked in, I snapped a picture of my topic for tonight (scroll down) and was walking over to the computer to do this post when the other happy vegan stumbled out of bed and says to me "did you see the kitten?"

......

Uh.....

......

At present, we are harboring a fugitive. I've learned we have a kitten who showed up a few days ago at one of the feral feeding sites. No idea where she came from, but she was fairly friendly meaning she wouldn't run when we put the food down. And, she chummed up with one of the regulars. Two days ago, she had an injury or something. With the help of another angel for the ferals, an agreement as made if he or we catch her, we will get her to the vet for necessary care. I guess tonight was the night. She is in the area where we used to feed all you wonderful people the epic breakfasts over the years. She's hiding. Who can blame her.

There. So far, I've covered truth bombs and fugitives. On to the topic.

One of my first years here, I had a guest come in adhering to something called the SCD diet (Specific Carbohydrate Diet). I had barely dealt with any special food needs. I remember researching this SCD thing on the Internet, and getting ready to cry. It's super unvegan-friendly. I did my best, one of the hardest I've ever worked for a guest. Fast forward to know, and we have something called GAPS diet which is something that is either like SCD or a hybrid of SCD. Regardless it is just as unvegan-friendly. I did a little reading earlier this week, and learned about the steps for GAPS and it's goals. It's very restrictive, and embraces things like bone broth, meat, eggs, fermented dairy.... and the steps progress. I'm not here to debate the merits of GAPS. All I'll say is I know it exists. I did make a raw cake years ago for someone on GAPS, it complied with the restrictions, was vegan, and although it was easy to make, it took quite a bit of research on my part. Mission accomplished at least. So, there are ways around this non-vegan nightmare it would seem. I even found a vegetable broth to make from scratch which according to my reading is GAPS compliant.

My contribution for today is Kombucha. It's fermented. And, it's compliant for full GAPS, not the early stages. Don't worry about the stages unless you're going for it, right? I'm not going to explain them. It's irrelevant for this post. I'm here to tell you how I brew my own Kombucha.

Considering I was up to a 2 bottle a day habit, things had to stop retail-wise, ya know? I bought a jar from the fancy site Cultures for Health, a SCOBY and whatever else I needed. Guess what, the jar is broken (defective upon purchase and now I'm stuck trying to get my $60 back) the SCOBY molded over (now I realize it's because the jar was broken) and I've got all that crap I'm not even using. A friend gave me a healthy SCOBY with a cup of starter, and I got a jar at the thrift for $4. Here's my current brew, yes it looks freaky, but this is normal! That is NOT mold! SCOBYs freak people out, but they really just want to be loved...

This is my Kombucha.
That is not mold. That's a healthy SCOBY.
The jar looks frosted because of the lighting.

Here's my Kombucha recipe:

1.5-2.0 gallons water

About 1.5 cups sugar (sugar, not liquid stuff, not fake sugar, not Stevia)

Black tea of choice (about 10 bags)

Boil the water, add sugar til dissolved, turn off heat, then add the tea bags. Remove tea bags after brewing (about 10 minutes or so) cool completely, do not refrigerate!

Use a large vessel (a Kombucha jar with a spigot is my jam considering I'm doing continuous brew), pour in your sugar/tea mixture, add in your starter plus SCOBY (which you get from a friend... you NEED this and my suggestion is don't waste a penny of your hard earned $ on a dehydrated SCOBY or any other shit from Cultures for Health, they do not stand behind their products at all!) put the lid on your jar, cover it with a lovely piece of fabric to darken and then sit it on the counter. Mark your date for about 7 days to taste. Here, I'm bottling my Kombucha in 8 days. It's fermenting so fast with the heat, even wtih AC on in the house. Sometimes you may choose to go up to 14 days. It will get very sour almost like vinegar, that's not really  your goal. The SCOBY eats the sugar, that's how she survives. So your final product is not sweet. You can either drink it plain when you taste it (bottle it and get another batch going, leaving some in as starter and your pretty little SCOBY friend) and just keep going and going and going.

I do a second fermentation using grapefruit. That's pretty much NOT GAPS compliant. But, damn if my first brew at 7 days isn't delicious as it is!

You can look on line and lose your mind with Kombucha videos. I was terrified on my first batch. And, when it failed, I thought I just sucked at it. Nope, it's the SCOBY. A $4 jar and the price of tea and sugar I'm brewing about 8 bottles at a clip. It's so delicious. And GAPS compliant unflavored.

This isn't a meal, but it's good for almost any of us. Fermented foods are good for gut health, easier to digest and delicious. Choose the vegan ones, I mean geez I make non-dairy yogurt at least once every 2 weeks no need for all that dairy.

Please don't let my time on Duval Street be in vain. Go vegan, you don't need a Cube of Truth to tell you what we all already know. Vegan is love.

There, I'm done.

xo