Vegan MoFo day 22/Chickpea Patties and pumpkin bundt cake

Is everyone staying warm and toasty?  Whew it's been cold.  We just got a 24hr notice from the weatherman that we need to cover our plants because Tuesday night it's going to dip into the 20's.  Okay it's California people and here that is coooooold! 

The other night I made some chickpea patties.  They turned out quite tasty too I might add.

Keaton liked them served this way on a tortilla with mustard, lettuce, tomato and avocado. I need to find the recipe I wrote down as I was making these before I post it.   

  

This small bundt cake is made using the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe from VCTOW.   

A light glaze would be perfect over this.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for a few items I need for some Thanksgiving recipes.

Are you all prepared for Thursday? 

Vegan Mofo days 20 &21/ Vacation trip part 2

So I missed a day of blogging for MoFo and I'm so bummed about it.  I was so busy Sat. morning with trying to get everything packed and ready to go for our overnight trip that I didn't have time to sit down at all.  We went to visit a friend we haven't seen in a while so......

Anyhoo I'm back and on to share more of our summer vacation trip on the northern coast of California. 

Farmers Market in Arcata one morning.  Yes it's summer and it was a cooler summer out here in CA.  Up in that area they said most of the summer was overcast like this. 

We spotted this tamale and salsa booth.

Vegan tamales were a score and ever so tasty.

This was really cool to see...raw juice at Farmers Market...very cool.

This handsome speciman was spotted on our way to Fern Canyon.  Isn't he beautiful!

The trees were just so huge and amazing.

 

We ate dinner one night at Humboldt Brews and they had a good selection of vegan choices.

These aren't very good pictures but I had the falafel that came with sweet potato fries.  Check out all of the veggies on top of the falafel.

Another pic of falafel.  Keaton had the grilled portobello but I forgot to take a photo of it.
Check out the menu by clicking above on Humboldt Brews.  They even had tofu as an option.


I'll share more photo's of the redwoods in future posts with more on food as well.
So tired....
Have a nice night.  Back tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo Day 19/ Sami's Bakery-GF sourdough bread

  Per Jessy at HappyVeganFace I ordered some great tasting GF-Bread.  It's from Sami's Bakery.
You have to try it if you can only eat GF-bread.

Yes that's right.  Sourdough!

You have to place a minimum order of $25 but that's okay for us cuz I'm just going to freeze the rest.  I ordered a couple of loaves of sourdough, the millet & flax bread and lavash.    Keaton loved it and I'm so happy he did.  We finally found a vegan GF bread that isn't heavy, dense and chewy.  YAY!\

Enjoy your night!

MoFo day 18/ Pumpkin Scones

Good evening everyone!  Whooo...I'm barely making the post for day18!

I made 2 pumpkin desserts but I'm only posting one right now.  These are pumpkin scones with a cinnamon glaze.  They turned out more on the moist side, you know not as dry as most scones, kind of cake like and really light. 

Pumpkin Scones w/Cinnamon Glaze

serves 8

2 C + 1/4 C. spelt flour(if using white flour use 2C +1T. flour)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 Tsp. salt 

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 C. pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. sugar

1 T. molasses

7 T. Earth Balance

3 T. full fat soy milk or non-dairy cream

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.  

In another bowl blend together pumpkin puree, vanilla, molasses, earth balance, soy milk & apple cider.

Blend in the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until completely combined.  The dough will be more wet than dry.

Flour hands and take the dough out of the bowl and place on baking sheet. Form the dough into a 7-inch circle or so and then take a knife and cut through making 8 slices, but keep it in the circle.

Place in oven and bake for about 20min.

Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes just to slightly cool.  Than take your knife again and gently cut through each piece and place on a cooling rack to completely cool.

Once scones are cool you can glaze.

To make the glaze use about 1 C. of powdered sugar, cinnamon and non-dairy milk until you get the desired consistancy to drizzle over each scone. 

Vegan MoFo day 17/Better late than never

Not much in the way of food today.  We went on a new hike, Farmers Market, than picked up our dinner at Santa Ynez Burrito.  They have really good burritos, I had the grilled veggie burrito. The food is all organic which makes it even better.

So this vacation post is really long over due.  I mean it's November and we took our vacation at the end of August.  We traveled up to the Giant Redwoods in Northern California.  It was so beautiful!  Instead of posting about some of the first places we ate on our way up north I'm going to start with the best meal of our trip and the most exciting one.  Just so you know this was one vacation that there was plenty of vegan options all over the place.  A vegans dream!  Just how it should be everywhere you go.

My husband's friend's daughter(did you get that?) and her husband, bought this Japanese sushi restaurant a few years back in Eureka, CA.  When he found out we were going to vacation up that way he told us to go have dinner at their restaurant. It's called Kyoto Japanese Restaruant.  We heard that  it's best to make reservations because they are always crazy crowded.  I'm glad we did.  It's not a very big place but they are in the process of expanding...again.  So we get there and let Jenni know, the owner who is so nice, that Keaton and I are vegan.  She said it was no problem and that almost everything on the menu could be made vegan.  Keaton and I smiled.   Yippy jump for joy!

This is the miso soup for starters. Yum!

When you walk into the restaurant there is this big white board with the daily specials.  It was amazing how many daily specials there were on top of what was listed on the menu.

Mushroom Veggie Stuffed Squash Blossoms

  Jenni's recommendation was the stuffed squashed blossoms on the daily menu that were filled with crab but she spoke with the chef and he stuffed them with mushrooms and veggies and the batter was rice flour instead of egg.  I have to tell you these were absolutely exquisite!  I can't say enough about them or describe them any more but let me tell you at just one bite,  my mouth was very happy!  Seriously I could of eaten a whole plate full and would have been satisfied but I still had more food to eat.

This was a cold apple salad with a light veganaise dressing and almonds. Keaton didn't really care for it but Dave and I did.






Avocado Rolls and Tofu Tempura Rolls






Keaton ordered the tofu dinner and he said it was really good.  It came with tempura tofu rectangles(front right), rice, a savory cake like rice cake thingy(sorry I forget what it was but it's in the top right corner),  ginger salad(top left), carrot slaw and sliced ginger.

Dave had a non-vegan dinner so I didn't take a picture of that.

If you are ever up on the coast of Northern California you  must stop and eat at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant!

More vacation posts with vegan food to come.   





Vegan MoFo day#16/Pasta Della California-Veganomican

We've been getting some of the best avocados from the Farmers Market, I mean just perfect!  They are also still so inexpensive right now that we keep a good amount in the house for salads and sandwiches.

With the weather being a bit warmer and having arugula and broccoli in the refrigerator I knew what I was going to make for dinner.  Pasta Della California from Veganomicon is one of our favorites.  The first time I made this I was skeptical about having warm avocados with pasta but the results were amazing!  Dave called me up yesterday and asked what the dinner menu was and when I told him, he was very very happy.   If you haven't tried this yet you must, I promise you'll love it. My mouth is watering again just wishing I had some leftovers to eat. 

Aren't these pomegranates beautiful!  My mother-in-law gave us about 6 when we went down to

there this past Saturday night to watch Pierce College play football.  My father-in-law is a football coach for them.  So anyways, she says it's too much work to take the seeds out.  This is the deal, it's easier to take the time and just seed them all at once and to put in a bowl and store in refrigerator.  They don't last long in our place and will probably be gone tomorrow.  Fill a big bowl of water, place in the sink and cut in half.  Then you just break and seed them in the water so there is no juice spurting out everywhere.  The result is tasty and great for you pomegranate seeds.  No added sugar and no concentrate, just pure crunchy with a burst of juice right in your mouth.    

Until tomorrow!

Vegan MoFo day 15/ Warmer weather calls for some grilling!

First let me start off by saying I'm the winner of a Trader Joe's gift card!!!   Woohoo!  They just called me and thanked me for bringing in my bag and told me the giftcard will be waiting for me.  It's funny the last trip to TJ's my husband Dave asked me when I was going to win cuz I've been filling out those slips for many many years now.  YAY!

A heart sliced beet.  That just shows how good beets are for you.  I usually juice beets but once in a while I roast them in the oven.  I also love the taste of beet greens, do you?  If you never have used them give them a try and let me know what you think.  They don't last long in the refrigerator only a couple of days or so.

Recently I've been finding that I'm not alone in craving salads again. I think it's the warmer weather we are having.  Fall salads are actually really yummy using seasonal veggies.  I grilled a large white sweet potato, russet potatoes, red  and yellow bell peppers, asparagus, carrots and beets.  I used the balsamic dressing from the other night to drizzle on top.  Served on the side of the salad are stuffed portobello mushrooms.  These mushrooms are so flippen good and is a great recipe to make for company.  The recipe is from the Candle Cafe but of course I make my adjustments.  To cut down on oil for the sauteeing of the onions and garlic I use water.  I add more garlic, cuz garlic is good, and more onion.  The rest of the ingredients are bread crumbs, sage, thyme, spinach and walnuts.  I don't use a measuring cup I just eye it. 

Goodnight!