First Day of Vegan MOFO and Halloween weekend review.

It's November and the first day of Vegan MOFO! I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! I did, it's my birthday on Halloween. Dave, Keaton and I went to a late breakfast Halloween morning and guess who was sitting a table away from us?????? Peter Facinelli, Jennie Garth and their kids. A vampire eating breakfast right by me. hee hee!   That was a pretty cool celebrity sighting and start to my morning.  Later that afternoon Dave carved the pumpkin.

Scary Leprechaun

Keaton made me a chocolate cake, while I made the filling and ganache topping.

The go to  chocolate cake recipe we go to all of the time that is super moist and comes out perfect everytime is taken from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts.  There are some changes I make they are: We double the recipe, use applesauce for half of the oil and I add a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee.
The caramel filling I used was actually the Dulce De Leche recipe from Viva Vegan and then the chocolate ganache was made with full fat soy milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted of course, than poured over the top.

Keaton went as a gorilla this year.  He had some cool sunglasses to wear but forgot all about them.

3 Bean Chili

For dinner I made a pot of chili and a side of cornbread.  For this recipe I used a ground veggie crumble because I thought that one of the parents were coming over to eat with us and they are a big time meat eater.  We actually prefer no veg meat in our chili. I forgot to add the chipotle chili in adobe sauce which adds an amazing flavor, oh well next time.  I make my own beans and this is actually the first tine I've cooked up my own kidney beans and man are nothing like the canned, they are so much better!  I also use Pomi tomatoes in a box because it is free of BPA but you can use any tomatoes you like, even fresh which I use all summer long.

3 Bean Chili

Olive oil for sauteeing

2 medium onions, diced

4 Italian red peppers, diced

2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced

5 garlic cloves, minced 

1- 12 oz. pkg veggie crumbles

1/4 C. soyrizo

1 1/2 T. oregano

1 1/2 T. cumin

4 T. Chili powder

2 T. Cocoa powder 

1/2 tsp salt

39oz. Pomi diced or whole tomatoes in juice, don't drain( if whole you can chop up or just pour into pot and mash them with spoon against side of pot to break them up)

2 C. water

2 C. black beans, drained

2 C. white beans(northern beans or cannelini), drained

3 C. kidney beans, drained

Chipotle in adobe sauce (optional) use according to how much heat you can stand

In a large heavy pot heat oil.  Once oil is heated saute onions, red peppers, garlic until they start to soften.  Then add the veggie crumbles and soyrizo.  Cook until it is browned and pepper-onion mixture is soft.  Next stir in the spices, salt and cocoa powder for about 1-2 minutes.(This is also the time to add the chipotle if you want).  Then add the water, tomatoes and beans.     Bring to a boil cover and turn down heat to a simmer for an hour or longer.  The longer it simmers the more the flavor develops. 

      

VEGAN MOFO and stuff.

It's that time of year again for Vegan MOFO! November is going to be a month dedicated to blogging about vegan food everyday! I'm really excited about this because it's my first time. I signed up to help me get back into the swing of blogging again. I miss everyone and this will throw me into to it again, for sure. If you'd you'd like to sign up just click on http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/ .   There are so many blogs signed up already, it's so cool!

So Cleo and Merlin weren't too happy about the crowns, obviously eh? 

 It's definitely Fall weather and Halloween is coming quickly. Is anyone going to see Paranormal Activity 2? I just watched the first one yesterday and what made it kind of creepy was that many of us have experienced at least one time in our lives some type of paranormal activity. I know I have when I was about 4 years old and then when my son was a toddler.  Have you?  Okay so I like the scary stuff. 

We've had visitors for the past 2 weekends and coming this weekend.  I love it!!!  I have been cooking and baking but not as many pic's lately because we've just been busy with stuff around the house and I haven't made anything new and too exciting due to finishing up our office and just getting stuff done around the house. 

  I'm still juicing everyday which really makes me feel great!  Here are a couple of  meals that I've made recently.

Fettucine with Delicata Squash, Cremini Mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, sauteed sage in a light white wine sauce.



Stuffed Italian Peppers with brown rice and tempeh mixture.

Green juice-broccoli stems, celery, green apple, romaine, cucumber

I'm officially back on track to blogging so now I need to catch up on your posts.  See you soon!

Raw "tuna" salad

I do love the fall.  Pumpkins, spices, baking, Halloween(my favorite), scary movies. What are some of your favorites?

I finally made a raw "tuna" salad.  I don't know if it's because my tastebuds have changed or that I really wanted it to taste like tuna.  I was very pleasantly surprised.   

This is the mixture in a bowl.  I made a wrap for Dave using this mixture, avocado, lettuce, tomato and Miso Mayo.  

Raw "Tuna" sushi roll. 

There are quite a few versions of the Raw"Tuna" Salad recipe out there but this is how I made mine.

Raw "Tuna" Salad

1/2 C. raw sunflower seeds, soaked 6 hrs or more

1/3 C. raw almonds, soaked 6 hrs or more

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. water 

3 T. carrots, shredded or finely diced

2 T. celery, finely diced

2 T. green onion, finely sliced

1/4 tsp salt or more to taste

1/2 tsp. dill, dried  (optional)

In  a food processor blend until quite smooth sunflower seeds, almonds, lemon juice, water and salt.  In another bowl add carrots, celery, green onion and dill.  Add the seed and nut mixture into veggie mixture.  Stir to combine. 

I read that if you wanted to you could add a little mayo to it if you wanted it more tuna style.  But I don't think you need to.

Colbie Caillat at Ventura Farm Walk 2010 and vegan cooking in school

So this past Saturday a friend and I participated in the The Farm Sanctuary, Walk for Farm Animals in Ventura. Colbie Caillat walked right along with us and after the walk sang one song with guitarist Justin Young.  I didn't actually meet her cuz, well, I'm kind of shy in that area but she seemed very down to earth.

This is Melissa on the left who has been hosting the Farm Walk for the last 4 years and is doing a fabulous job!  I'm on the right with a goofy face(I don't really like my picture taken).  The event was solar powered thanks to her boyfriend.  There were vegan baked goods for sale, I made cranberry pumpkin bread, raffles and a plant based dietician, Julieanna Hever, to answer any nutrition questions.  Julieanna is coming out with an idiots guide to plant based nutrition next year. Check out Julieanna's site at http://www.plantbaseddietitian.com/. 

Colbie Caillat

You can see  more photo's from the walk by clicking here from the newspaper.

Carrot Bread



One of the required classes at my son's school is beginning cooking.  He was able to bring home all of the recipes and we went through and veganized them all.  He's really enjoying the class and the extra perk of making all of the recipes vegan is that he and his partner gets to eat and bring more food home than the rest of the class. He thinks that part is pretty cool.  Like this carrot bread above, he made with another student.  They each got to bring a loaf home whereas the other students had to split up their loaves. The great thing about this class is that they rotate partners so that all of the students get to try their hand with vegan cooking/baking.  The verdict so far is that the students are pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the vegan recipes.  I was told that the vegan carrot bread turned out alot better than the original recipe and that everyone loved the vegan rice pudding over the dairy based one.  So, so far so good.  I just think it's great that the kids are learning that vegan food is just as good or even better.

Walk for Farm Animals!!!!

I'm so frustrated!  I've been using our laptop because our office is out of sorts do to painting, etc. and I now can't seem to download my pic's.  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.  I'll have to wait until Keaton gets home so he can help me.  I'll be brief this post and explain what we've been doing and why I haven't posted lately.

Dave and I have been busy redoing our office/music/guestroom.  We are also refinishing a piano that was given to us from a neighbor who decided years ago to paint it a white shabby chic style.  It looks like she painted rather quickly and with a flat paint which doesn't clean very well.  We are trying to refinish as quickly as possible so we can bring it back inside the house and so Keaton can get back to playing. I'll post the finished piano when done. Lastly we are working on our yard.  So lots of house stuff!

This past weekend, out here in California, we got hit with a heat wave. We may be under 100 today, yay!  At least the nights are down in the 50's which is good because we don't have air conditioning.

Before I continue my day....Have you signed up the Walk for Farm Animals, Farm Sanctuary Walk?  Tomorrow morning I will be walking for Farm Animals with a good friend of mine. If you don't have a walk near you, you can make a donation on line or go to my fundraising page, First Giving which located on the top right of my page here.  It should be a really good turn out this year I'm really looking forward to it and then afterwards we will all be eating at Mary's Secret Garden, which is a great little vegan restaurant right across the street from where we will start our walk.  I'll post all about it afterwards.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Raw Caesar Dressing

It's officially Autumn.   You know how you can just tell when the seasons change, it's the feeling in the air?  I'm already missing the longer days.   We have a pick-your-own Apple Farm up the road that I pass a couple of times a day taking Keaton to and from school  and they already have these really huge, bright orange pumpkins growing.  At the farms there are quite a few autumn/winter squash available too, and so realising that summer is gone, I gave in and bought my first seasonal squash, a nice delicata. It's also the season for baking to begin so I need to stock up on all my baking ingredients.  During the summer I'm not much into baking just because it heats up the house and there is so much fruit available to eat as is, in it's natural state.  Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm not going to pass up a berry pie.

Move over bell peppers,the Italians are in town! Sweeter and tastier than bells, what's not to love about Italians. Yummmmm... I've tried growing these and not much happened, so I was so happy to see these beautiful red Italians sitting there on the table of the onion/garlic guy at the Farmers Market.  Last night at the F.M. I was telling him how much I loved these beauties, he agreed, and he said he was selling alot more of them than his bells.  2 for $1 and his Anahiems are 3 for $1.

Blackened Tofu w/Raw Caesar Dressing on romaine with grilled veggies.  The blackened tofu recipe actually comes from The Real Food Daily cookbook but it's used with tempeh, I just didn't have tempeh on hand.  I also cut way down on the oil that's in the recipe.

I've  made a couple of different versions of caesar dressing but I really love the Raw Caesar Dressings best.  The recipe below is one of our favorite raw dressings, especially my son. I hope you like it too.

Raw Caesar Dressing

adapted from a Woody Harrelson recipe

1/3 C. pinenuts, raw

1/4 C. cashews, raw

4 T. tahini

2-3 garlic cloves

3 T. nutritional yeast

2 green onions or 3 T. sweet onion, chopped

2 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. apple cider vinegar

2 T. olive oil or flax oil

1/2 - 1 C. water

salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor blend all ingredients together.  It can be thick so add more water

to desired consistency.

 The cool thing about this recipe is that it can be played around with, if you like garlic add more, you want more lemon, add more lemon juice.  You can also add kelp granules or dulse flakes.

Leftovers

Good morning!  I just thought I would leave you with a quick post before I get ready for my girlfriends that are coming up to spend the day with me.

Remember the Corn Saute from my previous post.  Well the next day I had it for lunch but added some extra yumminess to it.  I sauteed up some swiss chard in a hot pan, added some chickpeas, Corn Saute mixture and heated it through.  Next I spooned it into a bowl and topped it off with avocado.  This made for a very filling lunch.


Lemon Cucumber

If you think regular cucumbers are refreshing you must try these, just a slight lemony taste to them.

Have a great weekend!