Veganmofo 2018: Introductions!

For those unfamiliar with my blog & eating style it generally means avoiding salads like they killed my loved ones and eating damn good food.

Hopefully with a focus on frugality, simplicity, and above all taste! Occasionally I take nice fancy photos of my food which can be seen on my Instagram @vegannotjustgreens or here. Othertime I make some damn tasty food, which photographs poorly.

Typically my food style is a mixture of veganizing foods from around the world, to tried and true PPK favourites to more experimental stuff. But ultimately I come back to the same standbys of fast, filling, tasty.

Lately I have started a job which involves a lot of travel, many days away from home, away from my kitchen and in hotels, on the train, or in Montreal. So this year Mofo (as with last) I will be doing my best to return to my love of food, blogging, and cooking. Substituted with insta photos of tasty food I've tried dinning out. Because the thing with a well paying travel job where I am only in my home province 2/7 days means I rarely get to the grocery store and rarely cook. A sad state I am trying to fix, but the reality might be more hotel cooking and hurried lazy meals for when you just gotta eat.

I am so excited to be back with Veganmofo and cannot wait to see what everyone works on!

Happy Mofo!

Meal Preps & shout out to Moon @Things2Eat

Hey Folks,

I know it has been a long hiatus and those on Instagram can vouch that I have in fact been eating however I have not been cooking. Some may know I got a new job working for Via Rail, which means most of my days are spent on a long haul train, the rest in a hotel in montreal and occasionally a few days back home in bed. As such, since my move to Dartmouth cooking has fallen by the wayside and honestly that bums me and my stomach out.

Sure we've had some tasty food here and there but for the most part, it has been sparse. I still follow all kinds of you lovely folks online with your cooking adventures from the side lines but as fortune has it I have a whopping 4 days home; I've been following alone the lovely Moon's @Things2Eat blog project where she crafts menu plans from blogs around the vegan-sphere. So please, please, please check out her mailing list and meal plans.

@Things2Eat

**Menu Plan Sept 3-9 Original post+recipes**

So yesterdays big adventure was getting groceries which I haven't done in months, I mean MONTHS. With my schedule more often then not things when bad, and there just wasn't time which also meant there wasn't fresh food and so you can see why some of my recent grams were a bit bland.

Meal Preps in action, carnage from multiple recipes on going.

One thing I think I would like to start doing is keeping a better photo record of receipts and food prices here, because it seems they can be somewhat steep or maybe I can work harder on spending less. Let me know if you folks would be interested in seeing more grocery hauls & cost stuff, or if I should leave it to Instagram posts.

As you can see yesterday's adventure amounted to around 100$ but this included non-meal plan items, snacks for board games and a few non-vegan things Adam got. 100$ a week is steep for my usual costs but seems on par with what folks are spending for families (What do you roughly spend on groceries a week?). Some of this will also last longer then a week and many items needed for the menu plan Moon set up I already had so I spent 39.49$ CAD on this meal plan (few things were on sale, plus I subbed red onions/leeks for white onions, used jarred lime juice I already had, skipped all fresh herbs because they are 2-3$ a pop here).


For me the most expensive ingredients were Vegan Ranch @5.49$, 1.79$ avocado, and red peppers 4.06$. I also realized during cooking I didn't buy good bread for the cassoulet so I am gonna go back out and I imagine it will be around 5$. But enough about food costs & my frugal cost cutting.




I didn't follow Moon's directions exactly and I have left a few meals to make later, part way through prepping the bowls, the cassoulet, the lentils, the salad and soaking the chickpeas I realized I might be going on the train Wed and to make a full pot of soup in addition to all these things was potentially Too much food even if I pack leftovers for MTRL & on Board. Since my freezer is still busting, I can't do my usual freeze half for later tactic. But since the corn was on sale, I would like to use it before it goes bad and the coconut milk can is open so I believe I will prep the corn and freeze it in the coconut milk with the red pepper. As the onions/garlic/potatoes are both cheap to buy and should keep until I am home.

Sheet pan full of vegetables for Minimalist Bakers Buddah Bowls. #mealprep

 I also realized I had forgotten to get bread, so what I wound up doing was prepping the cassoulet sans bread and my plan will be to get some after the meeting tomorrow take the dutch oven out of the fridge and bake it for dinner tomorrow so it all works out. I also think maybe the original author of the recipe used a much larger dutch oven or a more shallow one as my tomatoes/beans were incredibly liquid so I kept cooking to reduce it a bit more and thicken the sauce.

Anna Jone's Tomato Coconut Cassoulet (a bit bastardized by me & being cheap). I am going to chill it like this and resume the baking when I have bread

  Not sure why coconut is in the title with only 4tbs that don't seem to add a whole lot but I imagine it increases the richness. I also added dried basil to simmer a bit, not the same as fresh by any means but it will hopefully get me closer to the authors initial creation. I have also learned I need to take some time when I am laid off to inventory my pantry because many of the staples I sore I had in spades are low or exhausted but that is a project for another day.

The Garden Grazer's Lentil Black Bean Cumin and Lime Salad. This will be great train/lunch food and keeps super well. I imagine I will be coming back to this & maybe spending the extra $ for parsley

There is just something satisfying about beans soaking in the fridge over night and prep/chopping a ton of veggies as you stew/roast and mix various things. I miss the kitchen juggling act, with timers beeping at different times when you need to toss the sweet potatoes or reduce the lentils or simmer the sauces. I hope this long winded post finds you all happy and still cooking.

xoxoxox

B.A.D.

PPK Wisdom: Terrible Archining of Veganisms awesome history and our weirdo family

Lots of knowledge was shared over at The Post Punk Kitchen form and while our supreme leader is moving on to better things we are going through the process of trying to preserve our little piece of the internet.

I am looking into more professional and complete archival options with my classy library data science friends but for now, I am just doing what I can to try and save some stuff

Colander Sprouting Method

The colander method is basically find any colander where the holes are small enough that the seeds you want to sprout don't get through them - at least till they've grown enough. Most cheap plastic ones work too! Even for alfasprouts! :)

Put the seeds in lukewarm water overnight in a cup or the like. Drain it then and put them in a colander (or several if you're making lots of sprouts). Then find a soup plate or the like to put under the colander(s). Stack them one above the other if you are using several. Morning and evening you then hold the colander - or the colander stack - simply under the water tap to rinse them and let most of the water drain. Shake them a bit too. Empty the soup plate from any excess water before and after the rinsing. Simple as pie ;)

Astrid aka Helgonblomma

Seitan O Greatness

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 c. vital wheat gluten


• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast


• 1 . salt


• 2 t. paprika


• 1/4 t. cinnamon


• 1/4 t. cumin


• 1-2 t. pepper


• 1/8 t. cayenne pepper


• 1/8 t. allspice (I skipped this)


• 3/4 c. cold water


• 4 T. tomato paste


• 1 T. ketchup


• 2 T. olive oil (I used canola because I was out of olive oil)


• 2 T. vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce--I used soy because I had no Worcestershire)


• 1-3 cloves garlic, crushed well (I just sprinkled in garlic powder to taste)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325°.

In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix the rest of the ingredients (liquid ingredients) in a smaller mixing bowl. Whisk well until mixed.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well, then knead for several minutes.

Form into a log (6-8" long), wrap tightly in foil, twisting ends. Bake for 90 minutes. When done baking, unwrap and leave out to cool all the way. Then wrap it foil or plastic and refrigerate. Slice to use as desired.

Burmese (chickpea tofu) John P

This wondrous stuff is the subject of one of my most-read posts on the PPK Forums. By the power of the interwebs, and the work of a number of PPKers and bloggers, the original recipe has been simplified. See what happiness we can make by working together! So you don't have to weed through the kerjillion posts at the PPK, I will condense the collective wisdom for you:

3 cups chickpea flour

9 cups water

1 t. vegetable oil

1/4 t. turmeric

1 t. salt

Mix the chickpea flour and water, stirring well. Allow this to sit out at room temperature for 12 - 24 hours, loosely covered - no more stirring.

Prepare a container for your finished chick-fu, lining it with cheesecloth. (Do this now, you will have no time later.)

To a large pot, add the oil, turmeric, salt, and most of the chickpea mixture. There will be a very thick sludge (sounds lovely!) in the bottom of the chickpea flour bowl - about a cup or so. Leave this in the bowl for later. You want to have just enough liquid left with the sludge so that you can pour it into the pot later.

Bring the pot to a boil and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring constantly. (I mean it.) Take the pot off the heat, arm yourself with a study whisk, and add the sludge (mmm!) from the bowl to the pot. Beat the crap out of it until it is combined smoothly. Put the pot back on the heat, and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring constantly. You will get tired, complain, and want to stop. It will get very thick. Don't be a baby. Keep going.

When done, pour into your prepared container - fast! It starts to set up quickly. Let cool and refrigerate until fully set.

You can make this in smaller amounts. I have done 1/2 and 1/3 of the original amount. You will need to cut back the cooking times slightly. Also, the last few minutes, when things are getting really thick, are more difficult with a smaller batch. So it goes. I say make the big batch and freeze what you can't use.

Esme's Special Sauce

In a small bowl mix up the following in equal parts:
Tahini
Miso
Soy Sauce (I always use tamari because it’s my favourite thing ever)
Olive Oil
Nutritional Yeast or Mustard
Lemon Juice or Vinegar
A few cloves of Garlic.

Toss with hot, cooked pasta. That’s it, you’re done! It’s excellent with greens, I usually have it with steamed brocolli. My favourite thing about this sauce is how incredibly versatile it is and how I usually have the ingredients for it on hand. When I made it today I didn’t have any tahini or lemon so I used peanut butter and lime and it made quite the tasty peanut sauce. I make it all the time when I’m short on time (or not, it’s so good). 

Lachesis' Alfredo Sauce 

The Real Alfredo Sauce by Lachesis
½ cup Earth Balance
2 cups unsweetened soymilk
1 package extra firm tofu (Mori-nu, in the tetra pack, appr 12 oz)
1-2 tbsp white cooking wine
2 tbsp onion powder
2-3 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tsp black pepper (to taste)
pinch of nutmeg
2-4 tbsp arrowroot powder (more or less, as needed.. it should be creamy and the Earth
Balance should not separate)
Combine all of the ingredients except the arrowroot powder into a food processor and blend until creamy and smooth. Put the mixture into a pot on medium-low heat. In another container mix the arrowroot powder in a little of the sauce mixture. When the sauce in the pot is nice and hot, whisk in the arrowroot mixture. You can turn up the heat a little, but don’t let it boil. When it thickens and just starts to bubble it is done.

Alfredo Stroganoff
First marinate the mushrooms. They soak up the flavor pretty fast, so you don’t have to marinate them for too long if you don’t want to.
Mushroom Marinade Ingredients
1/3 cup vegan Worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp Tamari sauce (or soy sauce)
2-3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup water
Mix and let baby bellas or creminis marinate while you make the Alfredo sauce.


Some stuff from the Will it Freeze Thread

Isa's marbled banana bread and muffins, Yes! Moon and others have had success.
Cucumbers for gazpacho: YES!
Chickpea cutlets, Yes! Share your methods below
Cooked beans, yes!: Most folks here seem to make a big batch and freeze small containers or portions (in cooking liquid i believe?)
Isa's beet burgers (and likely all other veggie burgers) Yes! steps in link
Lime juice/zest (likely all citrus)
Mirepoix DeneRose posted in the pantry thread that they freeze mirepoix so share your secrets!
Tomato sauces/soups/chillis/curries and other saucy mixed vegetable dishes: Yes!
Brown Rice, cooked (pg2) Chicki shared this recipe form Pressure cooking today
Salsas: Yes, but they will be waterybirdsonawire suggests draining the salsa before use if you find it watery
Seitan: I have seen numerous ppkers mention freezing seitan so share your tips/tricks/methods below
Veggie Scraps, YES! PPK method use a freezer bag to house onions skins, vegetable peels and bits/ends when the bag is full boil contents with bay leaf and pepper corns for homemade broth (avoid bitter veg like cabbages cauliflower etc or only in small quantities) the broth can also be frozen into icecubes or larger containers for future use

Minatomachi's Leftover curry paste, tomato paste and chipotle in adobo sauce freeze well. Which is good since I never use the whole jar or can in one go.

Blanched fresh broad beans freeze well. I like that since I only have access to them in early fall.

Fresh hot peppers, lemongrass, ginger and turmeric freeze well.

I keep all my nuts and seeds in the freezer so they don't get rancid. I also keep cooked diced tomatoes in the freezer because I make them myself in batches. Same for cooked beans (without their cooking liquid.)

Fresh herbs freeze, but I only use them in dishes where they'll be cooked, because they become too limp and soggy for salads or such.

I also put peeled and seeded raw winter squash pieces in the freezer when I have some leftover from a squash too big for the recipe I'm doing. It becomes soft like it's cooked, but otherwise it works.

Bread crumbs (or loaf ends for making bread crumbs) work too, as well as nut-based parmesan.

Fresh ho fun noodles don't freeze. They turn into a sad, sad mush.

I just dump all the peppers, lemongrass, ginger and turmeric into a container (I break or cut bigger pieces of ginger into smaller knobs before). I haven't had dryness problems, but I unfreeze them before using. They get a little soggy, but it's workable (when partly unfrozen, they are easiest to chop or grate, but my timing is generally not that good).

Concerning curry paste, hot sauce and chipotle, I freeze them in a candy mould or any very small mould since I use them in small quantities. Then I umold the frozen pastilles and keep them in a jar. When I need one, I take one from the jar with a spoon and put it in the fridge or microwave it.

I transfer tomato paste to a small jar and freeze the jar until I'm ready to use it. I do the same for applesauce since I make a batch for use in baking instead of eggs or oil.

vijita I freeze a tonne of chilis this time of year. Every type of chili I can find fresh. I hoard 'em and if I have enough room in the freezer they'll keep me going all year! I freeze them whole too. If you must deseed, it's really easy when they're just a tiny bit defrosted. I keep all my dried chilis and lemongrass and ginger etc in the freezer too so my freezer is more like an explosion of fresh aromatics than the place where old loaves of getting-stale sliced bread go to die.

Efcliz Also in case people don't know the absolute best way to use ginger is take it right from the freezer as a knob and grate it on a microplane right into the dish, skin and everything.

March Cookbook Challenge!

From the lovely minds of the PPK, I've signed back up for a cookbook challenge to cook at least a few things from an honest to goodness book.

I also signed up for a cookbook swap with the Halifax Veg*n FB group, and got two cookbooks from another HRM Vegan. So this Month I am cooking from those.

So Far~!
Challenge : Cook from the book
Book : Martha Stewart's Meatless
Impressions: lots of easy/basic intro to making vegetables taste good, reliance on fresh ingredients and simply showcasing basic cooking techniques.

This is likely a book I really enjoyed flipping through and have bookmarked about a million things to make, but for the most part I will likely use this book for inspiration or a basic direction rather than a true every day go to book. Like a lot of non VEGAN specific authors/books, it does some pretty tasty vegan dishes and sides but mostly its a lot of making vegetables not taste bad and nothing that is super mind blowing (but maybe PPKers/authors like Isa, Terry, Joanna, Kelly, Katie, Kittee, Julie, Joni etc have ruined me for other authors)

Now the good stuff, photos and recipes tried!

Roasted ChickPea/Eggplant Stew
This was super easy and one of those dishes I could see myself turning to when there is wayward eggplant in the fridge on a busy week night. Eggplant aside, I always have the rest of the ingredients if I sub dried herbs for fresh (because im not a millionaire).

I love that the recipe has everything roasting on one pan all at once to make it an easy throw together, the stew was very thick and tasty the next day with Vegan Naan for lunch. It was pretty earthy and salty, and definitely good but not something I would go out of my way to make

Roasted Chickpea/Eggplant Stew PG136-137

Italian Baked Eggplant with Seitan

This was another recipe that was pretty easy to make because I had a huge batch of julie (everydaydish.tv) famous seitan sausages I needed to use up. The recipe looks way fancier in the picture, but I left my roommate jae in to prep and he said he found it a little cumbersome/involved for a week night meal. The end result was good, but someone not quite what I envisioned. I might try this one again with a more hands on approach, overall it was a decent filling one dish meal but the steps of breading the eggplant wasn't as low key/tasty as I had hoped. Still good and gave us lots of leftovers and didn't feel like we were missing anything by eating this by itself (since it has eggplant, tomato, spinach and seitan)

PP. 168-168

It also photographs much better.

There is another eggplant dish, I am regretting not trying for a simple dip. I have a feeling the simpler recipes are where this book will really shine showcasing vibrant fresh produce and ingredients w

I think in the future, I would try breading all the eggplant, it seems like this dish aims for a more casserole like dish and our presentation might be to blame for it's middle ground achievement.

I still really love reading through this book and have a weak spot for Martha, so while I wouldn't pay full price for this book and feel it's target is better suited for non-veg*n looking to learn how to eat more vegetables or even learn how to cook some veg*n food. I will probably buy this guy used or on sale, because I am a sucker for well edited books with lots of photos

Veganmofo: Fuck yes pumpkin! Pumpkin Pie Loaf/Muffins

This recipe is a based of Yellow Rose Recipes Aloha Bread and The PPK's Pumpkin Bread and various PPK pies with coconut milk.

I didn't write down the exact ratios so please let me know if you try this! This recipe made a double batch of muffins and fairly large loaf for me.



Pumpkin Pie Loaf or Muffins

Dry

• 2 cups white flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  2 tps baking soda
  1 dash of salt
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
  2/3 cup white sugar

Proximately:

• 1 1/2 TBS cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mace
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp all spice (or Chinese five spice if your out like i was)

Wet

• 2 generous cups pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  1/2 can coconut milk
  1/3 cup toasted coconut (Optional any add ins like chocolate chips/nuts would be good too)
• earth balance for greasing

Preheat to 350 degrees and grease muffin or loaf tins with earth balance. If using coconut and it is not pre-toasted spread in single layer on pan and watch closely until colour changes.

Mix all your dry ingredients into a bowl in the order listed (I would advise sifting because I ran into issues with the baking soda clumping). Whisk together until evenly distributed. Add spices and stir again.

If you roasted the pumpkin previously like I did you can skip the preheating (just turn it down to 350 to cool)and go straight to pureeing pumpkin. Make sure to have all your pumpkin pureed in case the mixture is too dry, you don't want the wet baking soda to sit around long.

Add your pumpkin, oil, vanilla and stir to incorporate. Crack open the coconut milk and add roughly 1/2 can until the batter reaches a good consistency. Fold in your toasted coconut or other toppings.

Now divide the batter into greased muffin tins and loaf pans (I did a double muffin tin and large loaf, alternatively you can do more loaf pans or muffins to suit your preference).

Place trays into heated oven, as I had both double muffin tin and large Pyrex loaf pan side by side the muffins took approximately 40 mins and the loaf pan was done in 80 mins.

Set timer for 30 mins to be safe and check on muffins or set timer for 40 mins to check on loafs. You want an knife inserted to come out clean, if not return to oven for 20 min intervals. Remove and place on cooling rack these are super moist and might pull apart while they are still warm (messy but soo good). Allow to cool before storing in fridge with plastic wrap or in container.

 Closer look. Tasty

Enjoy alone or with Earthbalance or jams!

Veganmofo: Ok, I know it's over but I just got my swap today!

Over on the ppk we had arranged a mofo swap! Which was basically a care package to assemble and send to another lucky mofoer! Well my lovely (and talented) swap partner Kelly! or warriortwo so check her out.

I am so so so in love with this loot, check it.


3 PACKS OF JERKY!! I am a huge jerky whore, nomnomnom. Although Party wound up grabbing my opened bag of spicy 'chicken' flavour! RAWR -_-. I was not impressed, and it was considered a great lost. Not sure what it is about stonewall jerky, but man I cannot get enough!

Other look includes organic spices and body care samples!



Stickers, pins and zines oh my!



Soups!

Cookies!

And chimes!! Mango ginger to be exact and boy are they good.

She also made me a burnt cd "Got my mofo working!" which I am excited to play.



thank you so much kelly! and I am glad you enjoyed your package as well.

Veganmofo: The Magic of Tea!

Just quick post to sing the many, many praises of tea.
nothing beats a fresh hot cut of tea to warm you body and soul.


which brings me to this post, the ppk tea bag swap!

I received mine today from Anna, and I hope hers arrived safe and sound.

Lovely shot of my assortment, I cannot wait to try the cucumber tea! neato!

Decadent Double Chocolate Peanutbutter cookies

If there were only one cookie in my life (were a the monogamous cookie kind) this would be it. These rich, chewy, chocolate, creamy delights are more than any cookie lover could hope for.

These are a simple altered version of Isa's Double Chocolate Cookies found here.
The original recipe is great, so be sure to check her out along with her amazing books.

My batter wasn't terribly hard like the recipe describes and I was able to stir it fine with a wooden spoon (to avoid losing punk points!). This batter however is oily, so be prepared to get your hands messy and moisturized! I used a coffee grinder to grind the flax seeds and simply whisked in the soymilk.

So, here is the twist to making these cookies fantastic. Peanut butter. I only added a 1/4 cup, but I will soon be trying these with larger amounts. This gives the cookies a subtle and not overwhelming peanut butter flavour. The other change I made was to use a generously filled table spoon measure to form even balls of dough.
I also ignored the part about pressing down the balls of dough which resulted in smaller, thicker cookies which I liked more. Try it both ways and see which you like more, here is an example of the original method of pressing and next to it the non-press method.

These are omni approved, although be warned the bestowing of these cookies may result in socially awkward exclamations such as"this cookie is so good it's giving me an erection".

That one ingredient

If you are anything like me you always wind up purchasing some product, produce, sauce etc simply because they are on a clearance sale (i.e. the use me ASAP sale). Normally marked down produce is my main weakness, which always leaves me drawing a blank on what to do with my abundance of quickly spoiling goodies.

This week the culprits are two pounds of button mushrooms. I love mushrooms, and usually add them to just about everything I make. However, having not made anything recently I need to find a mushroom centered dish and quick. I usually turn to the PPK as unlike vegweb (which I do love/enjoy) the ppk never disapoints. Plus as an added bonus a while back Bethamphatamine
had some free time and compiled a handy dandy list of a group of the "what do I do with ____" threads and was kind enough to share it with the rest of us. So now I am sharing it with you, behold the glory of the "What to do with just about anything thread"

Food Survey Fun!

This one is brought to you by the lovely Jess of get sconed!.

1. What was the most recent tea you drank?
Licormint from back home!

2. What vegan forms do you post/lurk on? If so, what is your username? Spill!
I post on the ppk, username B.A.D.

3. You have to have tofu for dinner, and it has be an Italian dish. What comes to mind first?
Tofu balls in spicy marinara over whole grain pasta.

4. How many vegan blogs do you read on an average day?
A day? Well I tend to only get a few hours a day with internet (sometimes none at all), but with veganmofo I tend to read 10 post/entires or so. Unless it's my day, then I can spent the whole day reading about vegangoodies

5. Besides your own, what is the most recent one you’ve read?

Kittee's review (cakemakertothestars) and Ash's post on this survey (lovelikeavegan)

6. If you could hang out with a vegan blogger that you haven’t met, who would it be, and what would you do?

One I haven't met? hmmm well I love everyone i've met, but for those I haven't I would love to chill with Katie (Don'teatoffthesidewalk) for some wings and buffy watching. And Jordan (hopestinks), because lets face it she is pretty awesome and a fellow Canadian (for now)

7. If you had to base your dinners for a week around one of the holy trilogy – tofu, seitan or tempeh, which would it be?
Tempeh! I have so many great tempeh recipes and its often too long before I bother to make them again. It's still good for you if you fry it right?

8. If you had to use one in a fight, which would it be?
Most people seem to have a fear or tofu, so I guess it would be a good weapon.

9. Name 3 meals you’d realistically make with that tough protein of choice!
Fried tofu sticks and fries, vegan lasagna with vcon caesar and baked tofu with veggies and wild rice.

10. What’s a recipe in vegan blogland that you’ve been eyeing?
Soo many. Although I've been meaning to make kittee's gulten log.

And I have yet to make Katie's Pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

11. Do you own any clothing with vegan messages/brands on them?
Yes... most of my wardrobe. Current fav, the Liberate Hoodie I bought from herbivore (not sure who did the design).

12. Have you made your pilgrimage to the ‘vegan mecca’ yet? (Portland, duh)
Yes. Once every year, since the gathering.

13. What age did you first go vegan? Did it stick?
I was 12? and it stuck.

14. What is the worst vegan meal you’ve had? Who cooked it?
Anyone who's ever tried to feed me salad. And the first time I cooked with tempeh, some kinda tomato taco idea... failed miserably.

15. What made you decide to blog?
Honest? So I'd have something to tell people when they asked about my food photographing. I love reading about food, and I figured maybe writing about it would be cool too. Plus, it gives me something to do with all my food photos besides post them on the ppk.

16. What are three of your favorite meals to make?
Well on the farm, whatever is easiest so a lot of pasta.

All time:

1) chickpea cutlets mustard gravy and lemon herb roasted potatoes with steamed greens.

2) BBQ collards, mashed potatoes, baked tofu

3) lasagna with vcon caesar and garlic bread

17. What dish would you bring to a vegan Thanksgiving-themed potluck?
Stuffed squash!

18. Where is your favorite vegan meal at a restaurant? How many times have you ordered it?
Hard one... lately vegan calzone and garlic knots from pizza Aroma althought I've only had it once.

19. What do you think the best chain to dine as a vegan is?
Chain? hmm... pizza hut? I have a thing for the crispy crusts

20. My kitchen needs a………

Vitamix! or kitchen aid mixer.

21. This vegetable is not allowed in my kitchen…..!
Olives. If they even are vegetables.

22. What’s for dinner tonight?
Something from house of Hong! (going out with Farm Staff)

23. What’s your favourite cookie cutter?
The farm animal cookie cutters Jacblades sent me!

Home for days and first meal-Take that McD's

Oven Fries and Burgers, amazing.
Plain, simple and lazy as all fork veggie burger fried in onions basted with BBQ sauce.
Local bakery vegan buns (white, but hey Unhealthy is in my blog name) toasted, vegan moza slice with mustard and ketchup.
I also decorated the tree today, so that's done too. And I included the bonus picture of the forums.

Although the meal may not be extravagant of wholesomely good for you, it taste great and was a nice break bake into the kitchen. Food doesn't have to be fancy, and it must always be about health, fat and slimmer waist lines. Besides the fries were baked not fried, salt was limited and the cheese is trans fat free and dairy free to!

Nomicon is upon us!

Yay! All you lucky folks with your kitchens get out there and start eating! And can someone send me a copy of the book? Maybe a stove to go with it??