Slacker!

Holy crap, two months and no posts!  Needless to say, summer has been very busy but not to worry, the vegan food has still been divine.

I started making my own pickles after reading an article in Veg News that made it sound too simple and delicious to be good. Turns out it was!  My family has been consuming them at an alarming rate :)  The recipe makes two big jars and I usually double it. I'll share the recipe after  we return from Burning Man, but essentially you just slice picking cucumbers and put them in jars, add garlic, dill and some spices, then boil a mixture of water, vinegar, salt and sugar and then pour into the jars.  Let them sit in the fridge for two days and then EAT!  I just made a batch of Indian pickled cauliflower, too. Pull my finger.

I've been making raw cashew cheese too...SO GOOD.  Simply throw raw cashews, lemon juice, garlic, water and salt into a food processor. It's great on everything, especially homemade pickles :)

Brad and I bought a Seal-A-Meal so we can take some pre-made meals to the playa. I feel like such a tool now...I can almost hear Ron Popeil shouting at me while I'm sealing my food.  I'll let you know how our food fares. We made veggie burgers, Brad's noodle meal, baked tofu and some freaking delicious Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage sausages! Hopefully we wait until we get to the playa to eat them.  Oh, we'll also be making vegan ice cream in my Play and Freeze ice cream maker!

See you post burn, suckas!!  xoxox

SPEED POST!!

I've been busy making hula hoops and drinking shots with Ashley so I have severely neglected this blog! Thankfully Kristin passed along a yummy sounding recipe...make it and tell me how much you loved it please :)

Oh and I didn't have any pictures of this dish, so you get a pic of Chili Peppers stuffed into helmets.

Super fast, healthy KICK ASS stuffed peppers

Oven at 375*
2 pkgs Uncle Ben's Ready Rice (spanish flavor)1 can black beans
6 peppers, preferably red :)
1 yellow pepper
3 green onions
3 tomatoes
1 elephant garlic clove
1/4 c cilantro
vegan cheese


Cut red peppers in half (length wise) and de-seed them, pile on a plate, cover with 3 wet paper towels and microwave for 3 min. Cook rice per directions, throw in a large bowl. Drain black beans and add to rice.Crush garlic clove into rice, chop yellow pepper, tomatoes, cilantro and green onions and add to mixture. Mix and stuff in halved red peppers, place in glass baking dish and cover lightly with cheese.
Bake for 20 min. EAT

Why yes, peanut sauce does go on EVERYTHING!

I love peanut sauce, minus the fish sauce (FYI, I love everything minus the fish sauce. I also hate people that use “FYI” so I’m compelled to use it to hurt myself…) so I decided to make my own and I’m kicking myself for not making it sooner!  I love this recipe. It’s perfect as a dip for veggies, tofu, spring rolls, salad rolls, works great on wraps, and of course it's amazing as a salad dressing!

I threw together a kind of sad salad last night (we need to go shopping) of Napa cabbage, spinach, cucumber, broccoli, snap peas and red bell peppers, tossed on some peanut sauce and called it dinner!

Peanut Sauce

4 T peanut oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 T fresh ginger, minced

2 C vegetable broth

¾ C peanut butter (I use Adams chunky!)

2/3 C rice wine vinegar

1 T chili flakes

3 T agave syrup

3 T soy sauce

Squirt of Sriracha sauce

Juice from 2 limes

Heat peanut oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add garlic and ginger and cook for about 3 minutes, being careful not to brown the garlic.  Add the remaining ingredients with the exception of the lime juice, and whisk until well combined. Reduce heat to medium high and let cook for about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and add lime juice.  It will thicken as it cooks and it will thicken even more as it cools!

Protein Sex Salad*

*results not guaranteed.

Kristin claims to have made a salad that will induce orgasm!  I'm certainly intrigued but I haven't have time to make it yet!!  You single kids, get to cooking and let me know  ;)

I'm a huge fan of Google image.  My "Sex Salad" search returned some fabulous images, but this was the very sexiest and saladiest!!

No need to thank me. The mental image of all my friends eating vegan salad and writhing in ecstasy while trying to picture anything BUT Richard Simmons nude in veggies...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh more than thanks enough.


Protein Sex Salad
1 cup brown rice
1 can black beans
2 Quorn chik'n cutlets chopped (I will sub a vegan brand, probably Gardein)
Yumm sauce
huge squirt of cock sauce

Mix all up and dump over a bunch of wild greens.
Die happy!

Yuck.

I heard an interesting comment a while back, "If you're more afraid of al-Qaida than heart disease, you're not paying attention."  No kidding. Check this out...borrowed from Happy Herbivore's blog.  You might not be a fat, gluttonous pile of shit, but odds are you know a LOT of them and they're starting younger all the time.

Let them eat rum cake!

RUM CAKES!!!!  Yum!!  I took a pansy-ass recipe and made it more potent, because no one wants to waste time and calories on a rum cake only to find that you are still able to drive or say the alphabet!

First, make your favorite vanilla cake recipe.  I use the one from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and you can find it here.  I double the recipe and I use about 14 of the cupcakes for rum cakes and leave the rest for the kids.  They need something to eat while Mom passes out with rum glaze running down her cheek.  Arrange the cupcakes in two shallow cake or pie pans, about six or seven per pan. Poke about five holes in each one and then pour your slightly-cooled rum glaze over the top (half in each pan).

Rum Glaze

1-1/2 cups dark rum (I use Sailor Jerry’s)

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

¼ cup margarine (Earth Balance)

In a small saucepan, bring rum and sugar to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer for one minute, reduce the heat to low and stir for another two minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.

When they are all the way cool, top with some buttercream frosting:

Vegan (No) Buttercream

½ cup of nonhydrogenated shortening

½ cup of vegan margarine (Earth Balance)

3-1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ cup of non-dairy milk of choice

Beat the shortening and margarine until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat three more minutes. Add the vanilla and soy  milk and beat another five minutes, until fluffy and pretty!

I made these for Kristin and Coral and Jonathan's birthday. Kristin provided the following pics and story:

"Just FYI.... I ate 1/2 of my cup cake and left the rest till I said hi to everybody.  Next thing I know, all the cup cakes are gone and Brad was licking his fingers."

Enjoy!

Food Fight!!!!

As the veg lifestyle increases in popularity, so do the food options.  When I gave up meat in high school, I was still eating Mom food and felt no pain (she was a granola girl in the 70’s and made us a lot of stuff that was already vegetarian).  In college I was dirt fucking poor and lived off of cheap and healthy things like falafel and veggie sandwiches!  I relied very little on processed foods because there just wasn’t much for vegetarians.  But NOW, oh man…it’s a vegan junk food paradise out there. Pizzas, candy bars, ice cream, chips, dips, cheesy stuff.  Fred Meyer has an increasingly good selection of vegan items, and of course Whole Foods and stores of that sort carry a wide array, but my favorite store is Food Fight.  It’s an ALL vegan grocery store in Portland and it is huge fun to shop there. I don’t HAVE to read every label, which is so very very nice.  I also love supporting a store that promotes my ideals.  We are firm believers in voting with your dollars.  It’s part of a vegan mini-mall located at SE Stark and 12th, so after you shop at Food Fight you can go the amazing Sweetpea Baking Company for some lunch and a treat ( I recommend The Higgins sandwich!), Herbivore Clothing for something cool to wear (buy me the Hail Seitan shirt and I will love you forever!) and get a tattoo at Scapegoat Tattoo Co., an all-vegan tattoo shop!

I have been trying super hard to eat well (Summerween is coming, you know...) and Food Fight has been torturing me with emails about new products like peanut butter cups and caramels.  Grrrrr.  If you make the trip to Food Fight, here are some items I ALWAYS pick up:

Butler Soy Curls:  Ugly little dried bits...you soak them in water, they plump up into meaty little strips that you can saute with spices and sauces to achieve any flavor you desire!

Nacho Mom's Vegan Queso:  This cheezy dip is amazingly good!  The ingredients are simple and natural and I think the entire jar is like 170 calories, so even if you "pigged" out and ate the whole thing, you're still way ahead of the cholesterol-filled dairy game.

Cafe Yumm's Yumm Sauce:  We get the chipotle. It's too good for words.  Great on sandwiches, as a dip, straight out of the jar :)  

WayFare We Can't Say It's Cheese Spreads:  They are all great but the Hickory Cheddar is our favorite.  It makes an excellent grilled cheese and it's made from nuts!  Again, big F.U. to artery-clogging dairy.

Tofurky Pizzas: Like the crappy frozen pizzas you loved as a child, but cruelty-free.  We usually some pineapple to the top of these and play some video games and drink sodas, whoooo!

Cowgirl Steaks from Viana:  These are just...made of magic, I don't know. We fry these up and eat them straight with gravy (that reminds me, you all need my recipe for Madeira wine gravy!) and potatoes and veggies, or on a roll as a sandwich.  

I find it hard to get over to Food Fight as often as I like, but I have found that I can order online (except the frozen and cold foods)  and I get my package the next business day for just about $5 in shipping!  Not bad when I need a Soy Curl and peanut butter cup fix :)