Vegan MoFo: Lunchin' it up

Tommasina and I tried a new-to-us restaurant today.  VegeThai in southeast Portland is a cute spot with very friendly staff.  Our lunches came with complimentary vegetable soup.  We ordered Thai iced teas, Tom Yum soup, green papaya salad, pad Thai, and a spicy tofu and basil dish.  VegeThai is, as the name suggests, an all-vegetarian restaurant, and they were knowledgeable about ingredients.  Virtues in a restaurant, me thinks.

Pad Thai is my favorite dish, and while this one was decent, I haven't given up my search for the best in Portland.  Overall, the dishes could have used more flavor, especially the papaya salad and the tofu basil.

The verdict: I'd go here again, especially for lunch since they have a punch card.  The dishes were affordable and, gosh darn it, I really like friendly staff!

Vegan MoFo: CSA box Monday

Today in my CSA box:

A bunch of jalapenos, six apples, two onions, six purple fingerling potatoes, two yellow squash, seven tomatoes, six peaches, one large cabbage, one acorn squash, one teeny white squash, two zucchinis, and two ears of corn.

I think the corn is going with tonight's chili.  Cabbage tomorrow, perhaps.

VeganMoFo: Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I made three batches of my Grandma's Wacky Cake recipe today.  One to take to a work outing, one to take to a meeting, and one for us to keep all to ourselves.  (Two of these were in cupcake form for easy eating.)

Happy birthday, Grandma!

And what a coincidence.  It's my Grandma's birthday today!

An already-vegan recipe, developed as a result of rationing during WWII, Wacky Cake is a chocolate cake made with vinegar (wacky!) and no eggs or milk. This is a great cake to throw together when you don't have a ton of ingredients hanging around and it comes together quickly.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups cold water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Mix dry ingredients directly in rectangular cake pan. Create a well in the dry mixture. Add different wet ingredients and combine. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

I made a simple ganache icing, mixing cocoa powder, powdered sugar, canola oil, soy creamer, and vanilla.  Nummers.

Vegan MoFo: Homemade Chai

Confession time.  I'm Amanda and I'm a chai-aholic.  I'm also pretty opinionated when it comes to ingredients in my chai.  I like a super peppery and sweet, not too clove-y chai.  And I definitely don't like wintergreen in my chai.

Now that we have that out of the way, would you like to see how I prepare chai at home?  I'm sure it's not traditional, but it's pretty great if the above chai guidelines work for you.

You'll need a smallish saucepan, a mortar and pestle (or something to grind/pummel spices), fine-meshed strainer, and something like a pitcher into which you'll transfer hot liquid.
Makes 7 3/4 cups tea!

Ingredients:
20 green cardamom pods
1 1/2 tsp peppercorns (I usually use black, but today used tri-colored)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
5 pieces crystalized ginger, ripped into pieces
1 bay leaf
6 cups water
8 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
4 tsp loose black tea (Assam works the best)
sugar to taste (I used 7+ teaspoons)
1 1/2 cups rice milk
1/2 cup soy creamer or soy milk

1.  Beat up the cardamom, peppercorns, and cumin.

Before/ After the spice beating.

2.  Bring water to a boil in the pan, then reduce to a summer.  Add the cardamom, peppercorns, cumin, ginger, and bay leaf.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

Before/ After 20-minute simmer sesh.

3. After 20 minutes, throw in the cloves, cinnamon, and tea.  Let brew for 2 minutes.

4.  Pour liquid through the strainer over a pitcher (make sure the pitcher can handle hot liquids!).  Discard the spices and tea.

5.  Pour the tea back into the pan and add the sugar and milk.  Heat through and serve!

Vegan MoFo: Milkshakes are pretty great

Milkshakes. They're pretty fantastic, amiright?

My faves to find around town include The Chocolate Moca from Back to Eden and the Strawberry shake from Sip.

But you know what the very best milkshakes are?  Those shared with friends.

Tommasina and I made milkshakes today with fresh peaches from the CSA box, a banana, almond milk, and So Delicious vanilla ice cream.

Do you have a favorite milkshake flavor?

Vegan MoFo: Pizza Night

It's pretty sweet having bread master, Julian, staying with us for a bit.

Among other tasty treats, last week he made a batch of pizza dough from The Bread Bakers Apprentice, letting it hang out in the fridge until we were ready to use it. The next day he harvested a ton of basil from the garden and whipped up a healthy amount of pesto, some of which is in the freezer, waiting to be used.

Mighty fine bubbly action.

We had quite the pizza feast.  Toppings included the pesto, tomato sauce, melty gooey Follow Your Heart, black olives, sun dried tomato spread, shaved fennel, mushrooms, arugula, red onion slices, and fresh avocado.  I throw together a salad to go along with our carbfest- arugula, chickpeas, thinly sliced red onion, diced apples, and raw pumpkin seeds, tossed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, nooch, and salt and pepper.

We were loosing daylight, so sadly four pizzas went unphotographed!

Tonight, Julian is cooking up an Indian feast (which I think you'll be able to read about here tonight).  I'm sitting on my butt, MoFoing while inhaling the aromas coming from the kitchen.  It's pretty nice to have someone else cooking after you've worked all day!

You three, pose awkwardly with your pizzas!

Vegan MoFo: A Quick Weeknight Meal

Quick!  Dinner time is approaching and you haven't planned a meal for your family.  What should you make?  Last night I faced this very dilemma (as I do multiple times a week) and made something that all four of us proclaimed 'downright tasty'!

And so a creamy (and healthful) pasta dish made its way out of the kitchen and into the tummies of our household.

Remember that delicata squash I received in my CSA this week?

Well, I cubed it and set it steaming for a few minutes while I started on the the rest of the meal.  I based a sauce off of the cheeze sauce in Vegan Diner, working with what I had on hand, adding some silken tofu that was open in the fridge and the delicata squash.  The squash added an even creamier texture to the sauce, packed in some nutrients, and added a greater depth of flavor.  Try it!  (I wouldn't recommend summer squash, though.  I wouldn't recommend summer squash in general- blech!)

I boiled some pasta, throwing in collard ribbons during the last minute of cook time.   Then I tossed the pasta and sauce together, topped the dish with more sauce, then a pile of collard ribbons, and finally some chopped tomatoes from a friend's garden.

Crappy night-time photo.  C'est la vie.

Voila!  A quick, tasty, and healthful weeknight meal, featuring collards from our garden!