VeganShizzle

Oh, hello!

2012-01-27T01:51:00.000-08:00

It's been 3 months since my last post, good God!! Time flies, amiright??

I leave tomorrow for a 2 week vacation. I'm flying first to my hometown of Sarasota, Florida for 5 days, then heading back to Durham, North Carolina to hang for a couple days before Travis and I drive cross country back to Oregon. Because, see, he's moving here! Whoo! I'm excited for the trip and excited for him to be in the same town as I.

I should be going to bed though, but I thought I would just show you an awesome shirt I got from Because We Must, run by awesome Jeff.

"Don't Tell Me What to Wear, Tell People Not to Rape"

Organic cotton, only $20! Eff yes! Ladies (or those that like to wear girl-cut shirts), go get you one! In case it's helpfu: I'm wearing a size medium (as is the girl on their website).

Fall time!

2011-10-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Me in the kitchen

I feel like this picture doesn't represent at all the kitchen I use. The sun was really freakin' bright when I was taking this with my computer's Photobooth feature and makes the kitchen look big and open.

Anyways, that day (sunny, crisp...so fall!) I felt like pumping out some food (normally I cook one dish and maybe- maybe!- a side of kale and then call it a day), so I made 5 Spice Delicata from Appetite for Reduction, a bastardized version Breast of Tofu, and a brand new recipe to me, Bee's Knees Pumpkin Potatoes.

Sadly, none of my food tasted like The Shit. The delicata wasn't as sweet and flavorful as I remember, the tofu was meh, and the potatoes weren't as divine as I had hoped. HOWEVER, this was all on my part: the tofu soaked up too much oil when I was frying it because I didn't let the oil get hot enough, I didn't use a 5 spice mix and I don't think I added enough of the separate ingredients nor enough of the maple syrup- I did add more syrup to my leftover half, and I didn't use just russets (I had one russet, 2 reds, 1 parsnip, 1 sweet potato).

What I did really enjoy was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pecan biscotti I made. It's my friend Katie's recipe and I've made it several times. I like my biscotti to be more like cookies, so mine aren't cooked to crunchy. More like cookie-logs. Yum!

What I've Been Up To

2011-09-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hanging with this guy!

Meet Travis, my brand spankin' new boyfriend. It's been a long, long while since I've had one of those and he's super sweet and cute, so I'm psyched. Unfortunately, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, so we're not going to get to see each other much the next few months (we're thinking he might return to Portland to live). Sad face. He just left yesterday morning after visiting for 6 days, so I've been mopey. But I'm hoping to see him in a few weeks, in October!

New shoes!

2011-08-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

Finally used up my Delia's credit! These Rocketdog sandals were on sale and I thought they were mighty cute. Turns out they're even cuter in person! Currently, they're a bit on the uncomfortable side (which is why leather is nice in that aspect...though I suppose you have to wear leather in as well...), but I do hope they get better with time.

Happy August to you and yours!

2011-08-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

It's August now. The weather here hasn't been the hottest, but you know what? I am not complaining! I hate hot hot weather. It's just amusing to me that I'm still wearing pants and hoodies in the morning and evenings here.

My mom left today after being here for a couple weeks. We had a good time. But now back to my regular day to day life. We did go berry picking on Monday with my sister and her pitbull, May. May was quite useful and helped pull the wagon.

Isn't she sweet?

She really is. I love her so hard. If only she wouldn't whack her tail on me when she's happy...which is often.

She also picked her own berries...

That there's my mom giving me her strainer of berries to put in our tupperware. Sadly we ended up with mostly raspberries, not Kim and I's favorite. The blueberries were pretty picked over. I love making the blueberry scone-like things from a cookbook that I have (the name of which I'm totally spacing on!).

Vancouver BC

2011-07-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Our time in Vancouver was all right. We mostly drove around a lot, either lost or unable to find any free parking. (It didn't help that we didn't get some Canadian monies right away...We just kept putting it off for some reason.) Seriously, Vancouver's a pain in the ass when it comes to park. PAIN IN THE ASS! Most of it is permit-only parking for people that live in there, which, ok, I get, but hey, have some love for the tourists! I've just never seen so much permit only parking. A lot of which wasn't in use...

We stayed with a friend of mine, who was out of town. He lives a few miles from downtown, where all the action is. We even got towed our first day there! It was great! Ugh. Yeah, that alone might have tainted our time there.

BUT we did eat some good food, saw pretty things, and saw the 5th (or was it 6th?) Stanley Cup Finals. It would've been awesome to be there if the Canucks had won that game (thereby winning the Cup), but alas, they sucked that game. (And you know what happened the final game.) There were reminders everywhere that the Canucks were playing the finals. On buses (see below), on signs hanging in businesses, on people's clothes...

See?

Capilano Reserve- where we went for a hike

Naam for breakfast- those sausages had the realest fake skin on them!

The waterfront. That stadium, I believe, was part of the Olympics they hosted.

View from Jericho Beach that we happened across. I liked the lined up logs.

Me and the view

More traveling...

2011-06-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

So now I'm in Vancouver, BC. I've been here previously to visit a friend (and to go to Vancouver, of course!). My friend still lives here but he's currently on a long-ass honeymoon, so no hang out with him. It's nice to have a free place to stay. Especially when, on the first day, your car gets towed out of a spot that we thought wasn't reserved and you have to pay $100 for towing, $13 for a taxi to get to the car lot, and then plus a $60 parking ticket from the ImPark people. Yeah. Awesome sauce. But Corinn's working on getting at least the parking ticket taken off...Hopefully that works.

Anyways, when I left you last post I was still in Seattle for a couple more days. I went to the Victrola Coffee shop on 15th for another French Toast donut and coffee. I also went to Sage (former Hillside Quickie II or something??), which was only a few blocks from where I was staying. I got it to go so I could eat it in our apartment/hotel with some Dr. Pepper. I ordered their version of the Philly, called the Fremont Philly. It's made with seitan, which is my favorite "meat" to use for a Philly (though the tempeh version at my former workplace, Paradox Cafe, was my kryptonite for awhile). The menu said it was going to be $10, but it ended up as $11. Taxes? But why an even $1? I don't know. I do know it was the most costly sandwich I've ever gotten. Anyways, it did come with a side of rice. Not plain rice, but I couldn't tell you what exactly it was. It was all right. The sandwich itself was hella messy to eat, very saucy and sadly, not a lot of seitan. (DC Vegetarian kicks it's ass in every department) Mostly bell peppers and onions. Yeah. I wouldn't get it again and it's not awesome enough for me to tell you to even try it once. I want to hope that all of the ingredients are organic, so at least that's why it's so costly.

The disappointing Fremont Philly

That reminds me, the bread was damn tasty. But onwards!

That evening we went stopped at Grim's, a Capital Hill bar nearby, for Happy Hour. We had drinks in cute little mason jars and I got the Cauliflower and Hummus Crostini (it might have been cauliflower hummus...), which during Happy Hour is only $4.75 (instead of $7.50 or something). It was a great price for the 5 large crostini's we got. I'm not the biggest cauliflower fan, but it went well with the hummus and pickled/carmelized(?) red onions and cute chives atop.

After that, we stopped at Bimbo's Taqueria, which isn't worth much mention, and we went on to Moe's, which is venue Nuemo's attached bar. We were going there to see Campfire OK play at Neumo's. If you haven't checked out Campfire OK, you should. The Oddfellows Cafe video is the best. Moe's played great hip hop, I really enjoyed it, Corinn...not so much...

Saturday morning, we went to Wayward Vegan Cafe for breakfast before driving north to Vancouver. Again, no pictures...I got 3 sides: tofu scram, grits, and garlic greens. The greens weren't cooked enough for my liking and by the time I got them, they were about room temperature. The tofu scram was almost inedible because the amount of turmeric on them, I barely touched them. The grits were good. Nothing crazy good about them, just grits with Earth Balance, a little faux cheddar, and some salt & pepper. Corinn got the Monte Cristo, a huge French Toast sandwich with fake ham and turkey and served with some jam. It also came with homefries. If Wayward does anything, it gives the largest portions I've seen. I just wish the food came out of the kitchen better. The French Toast wasn't cooked long enough, a little soggy. Too much faux meat. The latter wasn't a huge deal, but the sandwich just was lacking in general. We did leave full though.

I'll talk about Vancouver on the next post...

Seattle

2011-06-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

I am currently in Seattle for a few days. There are a lot of Portland-Seattle comparisons, but the two cities are very different. I would say that I would never move here (oh, when I say never, I'm just saying if I had a choice between our two fair cities and I wasn't in a relationship with someone in Seattle...I wouldn't hate it, I'd prefer it to Asheville or Chicago or small towns...), just as someone here would say the same about Portland. Seattle is too city for my tastes. Too large, not as residential. The steep hills kill me (you would *never* find me on a bike here, you can barely find me on my bike in Portland). And the busses take your fare after you've ridden, not when you get on it...which ok, that one isn't a big deal, but for some reason I find it annoying. Also, the two bus drivers I came across were the least friendly bus drivers I've come across. It's population is definitely more diverse than Portland. You'll find a lot more older people here and it's more racially diverse. The feeling here in Seattle is less like you're on a college campus with your peers, which is what Portland usually feels like to me.

I'm here because a friend of mine has a work conference in a town nearby, so free hotel and gas. Tomorrow we leave to go on to Vancouver, BC, where my friend Corinn has never been. We'll be staying a friend's house, though he's out of town on his forever-long honeymoon (2 months, people! Turkey!).

The first day I spend taking my friend to her conference, then dropping her car off at Stingray Auto, to get her brakes fixed (p.s. right now they have a special where you get 10% off if you mention Yelp), walking back to the apartment/hotel where we're staying so that Qwest could fix the problematic wifi (which was stupidly just plugged incorrectly), going to Victrola Coffee on Pine, then getting lost when going back to Stingray to pick up the car. We had dinner at In The Bowl on E Olive Way, then hung out on Broadway and drank and ate sweet potato tots at Highline using my Groupon, and finding the bar 22 on 15th St. Good night. Here's some pictures of some of my happenings:

The Berkeley Vegan (minus tomatoes) from zPizza, I should've also gotten no zucchini, too raw for my tastes! Good pie though, better cold when the Daiya didn't stick to the roof of my mouth.

Mighty-O French Toast donut and coffee at Victrola's.

"Sweet Tots" from Highline. Corinn writing postcards in the background.

Photobooth at Highline. It takes credit cards only, which is kinda handy.

Failure

2011-05-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well. My goals for the past 30 days were to post more and go on a date. Both of which I have failed, y'all!! I did sorta ask someone out, but it wasn't clear that I was asking them out and they said they couldn't go that night and didn't mention going out some other time, so I'm going to take that they're not interested in me like that. Which is fine. I did initiate contact with someone on an online dating site that I normally wouldn't have because the guy didn't see like someone I would normally go for. We wrote back and forth a couple times but then contact stopped when he never responded to my last message. Good times, y'all! I don't even have any good crushes right now. Well, not any that are in my town. Life is kinda sad when you don't have the fun of running into a crush...

I recently got a new job at Blossoming Lotus! For those who don't know, Blossoming Lotus is an all vegan restaurant here in Portland. They're on the pricier side since they use a lot of organic and whole foods. We sell raw cheesecakes from Freshly Wild that are amazing! At $8 a slice, it's not cheap, but so freakin' good! I've tried only messed up slices and so far have had Pomegranate, Key Lime and Chocolate Orange. The Key Lime was superb!

Blossoming Lotus makes their own vegan soft serve (which I heard they'll stop making when their machine dies, so get it while you can!) and it's so good! It's soy based and it's by no means is it good for you (sugar!).

I'm looking forward to a trip to Seattle and Vancouver, BC in a couple weeks. Let me know if you have any specific recommendations of where to go/eat!

A belated Day 29 & 30

2011-04-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Day 29: Goals for the next 30 days

To post more

To go on a date

Day 30: Your highs and lows of this past month

Highs:

Meeting a new friend (Hi, Hudson!)

Sitting in the sun

Getting a new job

Having a magnificent view of Mt Hood

Feeling a lot of support from my sister and brother-in-law

Gettin' love from my niecedogs May and Tilda

Lows:

Having those moments where I feel very alone

Day 28

2011-04-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

Day 28: Something that you miss

I miss being a child with all that not worrying about money and jobs and food and not thinking about someone to love, romantically.

Day 25-27

2011-04-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

And I was on such a roll...

So, Day 25: Someone who fascinates you and why

Celebrities, all of them, big (Alicia Silverstone) and small (you know, that one girl who played that one small part in that one movie a few years ago?). If I recognize you from tv, I will most likely be interested how you're 'Just Like Us!' Why? Well, I wish I knew.

Day 26: What kind of person attracts me

Physically: Red hair. Plaid button ups. Cute shoes (Vans, Converse, MacBeths, of that nature.)

Nonphysically: Being kind to others, thoughtfulness, humor, vegan/vegetarian food habits.

Day 27: A problem that you have had.

My main problem in life is a lack of a goal. More specifically, what kind of job I want to aim for.

Day 24

2011-04-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

Day 24: Your favorite movie and what it's about:

As mentioned in Day 21 post, it would be hard to pick just one favorite of most things. So here are some favorite movies.

Anchorman

Amelie

Pride & Prejudice (the 6 hour one with this dude)

The Princess Bride

Say Anything...

Sixteen Candles

Wayne's World

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Buffalo '66

So I Married an Axe Murderer

While You Were Sleeping

I'm not going to tell you what these are about, most likely you already know. Buffalo '66 is maybe the only one you wouldn't know, and you should totally know it! Watch it! A couple times! It really grew on me. It's weird and funny. It made me like Christina Ricci.

Day 23

2011-04-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

Day 23: Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous that you find attractive:

Updated to include Kip "Half-Sack" Epps from Sons of Anarchy (redhead!):

James McAvoy- dreamy Scot

Ryan Gosling

Johnny Depp- here is a Benny & Joon still

Michael Cera- cute one.

James Franco

Teese Mozzarella Sticks

2011-04-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Picture Source

Chicago Soy Dairy came out with vegan breaded mozzarella sticks using their vegan cheese called Teese. Teese is probably my favorite vegan cheese, so I was psyched to try these out. I work at a mostly vegan restaurant and my boss was able to get samples of the cheese sticks from a distributor for me to try.

I tried one of them by themselves and the rest I dipped into our homemade marinara sauce with a bit of Sriracha in it as well. My general consensus on them was: meh. They're not bad, but they're not something I imagine myself craving. The most disappointing part of them was the "cheese." It tasted like nothing. The breading on them was really good, but it didn't make up for the blah middle.

It's fried, so, yeah, if a plate of these were put in front of me, I'll eat them with gusto. I just wouldn't go out of my way for them.

Day 22

2011-04-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Day 22: How have you changed in the past 2 years

I no longer work full time and I've been even more appreciative for the support my older sister and her husband give me. I have experienced more of life, which has changed or strengthened my opinions on certain things and has matured me a bit as well.

This is another one of those questions that I feel I can't really answer because it's way more personal than I want to get on a very public webpage.

Day 21

2011-04-07T23:21:00.001-07:00

Day 21: One of your favorite shows

How can they ask you to only talk about one of your favorite shows? Doesn't everyone want to talk about more than one? But this is probably the only time when I would be able to tell what my very favorite of something is. When asked my favorite food or movie, there's no definitive answer, but favorite show ever? Arrested Development, hands down! I have watched all the episodes several times and don't ever tire of them and they make me laugh so much.

But a few other favorites:

Freaks & Geeks

Chopped

Modern Family

30 Rock

What Not To Wear (I *love* makeovers!)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Cougar Town (for reals, y'all, it got really good)

Home Movies

Dr. Katz

Seinfeld

Day 20

2011-04-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Day 20: How important you think education is...

Well, as someone who only went to one semester of college, I apparently don't think college is necessary to survive in this world. I have never known what I wanted to do for a career and I went to college mainly because I realized working full time kinda sucks. I also wanted to have the college experience, which wasn't a party experience for me. I went to a religious college and, though I hung out with kids who drank, they weren't getting drunk or partying it up. It was responsible, conservative drinking.

I sometimes wish that I would go back to school, but I still don't know what I want to do with myself and I don't want to pay off a loan for years and years to come. Especially when most of the jobs I go for don't need a college education. (I've been trying to get back into the natural foods type grocery store business for the past couple years, the ones around here pay pretty well and have benefits.)

My sister was like me in that she didn't know what she wanted to do, but she enjoys learning a lot more than I and so went and got a degree in Social Sciences.

Neither of our parents finished high school and they've never demanded we graduate from college. I'm glad I was never pressured to finish college, though I think perhaps I might feel/be more mature if I had gotten a degree. Tests and papers were never my strong suit and that's what makes me fear college, for that is all you ever seem to do. I was a straight B student -without really trying- in high school, in college I got 1 B, 2 C's and 1 D. Blah.

I think education is definitely important, the main purpose is so that we can make better decisions, improve our life and learn about the past so that we don't repeat it in the future.

Day 19

2011-04-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

Day 19: Disrespecting your parents

My sister and I were good kids, we didn't get into trouble and we weren't the rebellious type. We didn't get into drugs or drinking. After a certain age I did argue with my dad a lot. I disagree with him on many things and I have a hard time keeping quiet. We weren't perfect, but I think we were pretty respectful.

Day 18

2011-04-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Day 18: Your Beliefs

I believe the rich need to be taxed more, or at least as much as everyone else (I recently heard that they pay 3% less than everyone else, perhaps that's only state by state? I don't know.)

I believe that gay couples should have the same rights as hetero ones and should be able to use the word "marriage."

I believe that factory farming should be illegal. Animals are not treated as they should be in a factory farming environment. It's disturbing. As a human being, you have the responsibility to know where your food is coming from and if you don't care how that meat you're eating was treated when it was alive, it's just sad. Americans eat way more meat than is necessary and healthy.

I believe that marijuana (and growing hemp!) should be legal.

I believe we should all have access to affordable health care and that health insurances should stop being such assholes about stuff. (see: Sicko)

Day 17

2011-04-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Day 17: Your highs and lows this past year

Highs:

I turned 30!

I had several good make outs.

I learned something new about myself.

I ate delicious food.

I had good times with my awesome friends.

Lows:

The moments of feeling rejected and the inexplicable feelings of sadness.

I turned 30!...and I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

I had a mysterious health issue.

Doing these lists aren't easy because most of the stuff is pretty personal and I don't want to put everything online for everyone to read.

Day 16

2011-04-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Day 16: Your Views on Mainstream Music

I like it a lot more than I probably should, but it's formulated to be catchy and it definitely sucks me in and I don't mind. Lots of fun music to dance to.

Day 15

2011-04-01T15:04:00.001-07:00

Day 15: My favorite tumblrs

When I first read this one I thought they were referring to these tumblers.

1. Are You My Ghost- I'm pretty sure this is the first Tumblr I ever looked at. Or, at least, it's the first one I looked at on a regular basis. Renai has great style and has a great blog. I enjoy having her as my Twitter friend, as well.

2. you can have it all- recently started looking at this one.

3. fuckyeahredhair- because FUCK YEAH, REDHEADS! If you know me at all, you know I have an affinity for the gingers.

4. fuckyeahryangosling- These are usually pretty silly, but there's plenty of amusing ones. The best is when Ryan Gosling reads them though. You must click on the link if you haven't seen it yet.

Day 14

2011-03-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

Day 14: Your earliest memory

I have a hard time knowing what is memory and what is from seeing pictures or dreaming stuff. I feel like I have a memory of knowing there was poop in my pants. Great early memory, right? There's a lovely half naked picture of me outside and my mom is hosing my lower half off. The question is: who took that picture?? Who thought that was a great time to photograph a moment?

I remember being at the beach eating a pb&j sandwich and seagull swooping down and taking it.

I remember David Higgins chasing me around the playground in kindergarten.

I remember pretending to cut my hair, or was it my dad's hair, and him getting mad and telling me to go to my room.

I remember running over my younger male cousin with his 4 wheeler. No harm done, by the way. What can I say, he told me to follow him and I was driving the 4 wheeler...

Day 13

2011-03-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

Day 13: Somewhere you'd like to move or visit

There are too many places I'd like to visit, but here's a few:

Australia

Hawaii

New York City

San Francisco

Spain

Return to Italy, Ireland and Scotland and see more of them

Iceland

Greece

Move to:

hmm...I really liked Edinburgh. When I was there I wrote down that I wanted to go back and live there for at least 6 months. I would consider Vancouver, BC, as well. I enjoyed my time out of the States when I was gone for 13 months, but I was excited to be back, I feel at home here.

My other option besides Portland was Philadelphia and I wouldn't mind living there. I really love the architecture there and I LOVE the pretzel place that sells fresh pretzels for about $0.40/a piece at midnight...

Day 12

2011-03-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

Day 12: Bullet Your Whole Day

6:10am My alarm goes off, I snooze for another 15 minutes.

7:20am Arrive at work. Traffic wasn't too bad, yay.

10:30am-ish Had to kick out a disheveled man because he came in a second time without money. He tries to barter with stuff that he's brought with him. He claims his money was left in his other jacket. He's very homeless looking and incoherent (like he's on drugs, he is constantly shaking and moving around in an odd manner.). Last time he left a cell phone while he "went to go get money", this time he had a bike and a bright yellow Jeep stereo. I told him to not leave anything, but he left the stereo. I hate kicking out people, it makes me uncomfortable. But at least he had some food in his belly.

2:52pm Leave work for the drive home, sad because I should've left work right when I got off at 2:30 because carpool lane starts at 3pm and it gets busy even before then. So sleepy on drive home.

Hang out with dogs a bit, change the chicken's water and left them out of their chicken mansion for a bit to poke around, then try to sleep, but dogs are playing on my bed and being annoying. Finally get to sleep when my sister gets home...

8:59pm Wake up after 4 hours and hang out with sister for an hour before she goes to bed since she has an early morning.

Hang out with puppy Tilda and watch Pulling on Netflix Instant in my bed.

I'm not good at bullets since they're usually very nondescript and I can't tame my words sometimes...

Day 10

2011-03-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Day 10: Put Your iPod on Shuffle & Write the 10 Songs That Come Up

1. S.O.S. by Abba- such a good band. Can anyone stay in a bad mood when they come on? My at-work experiences with it says no.

2. Chariot by Page France- i really love this cd (Hello, Dear Wind), this song is one of the best.

3. Obstacle 1 by Interpol- i own 3 songs by Interpol. they're all known as "Tracks", this one being Track 7, but i looked it up for your knowledge.

4. The Dress Looks Nice On You by Sufjan Stevens- i love Sufjan.

5. I Can't Stay by The Killers- this is off their newer album that I don't know.

6. Come on! Let's Boogey to the...(something, I can't see the rest.) by Sufjan Stevens- his Christmas album is lengthy and good. I love his version of the not-very-Christmasy song Come Thou Fount.

7. Adam's Song by Blink- 182- I shall never tire of this band.

8. Whyyawannabringmedown by Kelly Clarkson- wow, never listened to this song before. It's not her usual sound. I have a soft spot for Breakaway (it was playing on the radio a lot when I was making the big move west) and Since You (i refuse to spell it "u"!) Been Gone.

9. Untitled 9 by I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business- it's the solo project of the singer from The Early November, which is band I haven't listened. I believe my friend Becca is the one that put a couple icmamlnb songs on a mix for me.

10. The World Has Turned & Left Me by Weezer- such a good song to end this on! This is my favorite off their most famous album.

Day 10

2011-03-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Day 10: Discuss your first love and first kiss.

Well, since I have yet to be in love (unless I just didn't realize it, but I'm pretty sure I haven't), I'll go straight for the first kiss. I was almost 18, I had been dating my boyfriend for about a month, and we were in Winter Haven, where he lived. (We lived an hour and a half away from each other. He was in a band that came to my church to play and that's how I met him.) We were walking around after a show and he kissed me. I was so freakin' nervous about it and so I was happy that my first kiss was over with. (I still am happy when the first kiss with a new person is over...Some people love that first kiss, I just find it awkward.) Oh, I just remembered I had braces. Aw.

Day 9

2011-03-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Day 9: How You Hope You're Future Will Be Like

I kinda feel like this is a repeat to Day 2. Right? Or, at least, my answer will be the same. Yeah, it seems pretty similar. They totally just needed to fill in a day :o)

Day 8

2011-03-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Day 8: A moment you felt most satisfied with your life.

Hm. That's a hard one to pinpoint for me. My memory isn't as good as it used to be. You'd think you'd remember the most satisfied you'd ever felt though, eh? I would say that I felt very satisfied whilst romping around Italy, looking at amazing cathedrals, eating gelato (what's strange is that i don't remember eating pasta, other than gnocchi, which isn't pasta...), seeing amazing art, walking a ton. I felt pretty satisfied when I made the big move out to the Northwest. I have moments of happiness, but they aren't cemented in my mind of where and when.

Day 7

2011-03-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

oh, hey, it's been a week!

Day 7: Your Zodiac Sign and If It Fits Your Personality

I'm going to go with the old zodiac signs though. Astrology-online.com tells me that these are signs of a Taurus:

Patient and reliable

Warmhearted and loving

Persistent and determined

Placid and security loving

But, on the "dark side" there's also:

Jealous and possessive

Resentful and inflexible

Self-indulgent and greedy

I've never put stock in astrology. It seems like I could match up to any of the other signs without much difficulty. But, yeah, I'd say most of the above descriptions fit me. Taurus's are also known for being stubborn and me and my friend (a fellow Taurus) were quite a match when we were both being stubborn/inflexible about something.

General: Astrology doesn't matter to me.

Day 6

2011-03-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

Day 6: Write 30 Interesting Facts About Yourself

1. David Higgins was the first boy who ever liked me. It was in kindergarten and he would chase me around the playground, which I didn't like.

2. Most people find my Mennonite background very interesting. Probably because they think of the horse and carriage kind.

3. I lived in Germany for a year und Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen.

4. I wasn't allowed to cut my hair because of my dad. I cut it within a week of my 18th birthday. It wasn't a good haircut, but my goodness it felt good!

5. My first piercing was an upper cartilage piercing when I was 19.

6. My first tattoo was when I was 26.

7. I was a fat baby with lots of dark hair.

8. I really wish I could draw or paint.

9. My favorite country that I traveled to is a 3 way tie: Scotland, Ireland, Italy.

10. My favorite food growing up was Chick-Fil-A nuggets.

11. We were a Pepsi family. But, ick, gross. I prefer Coke now, but I rarely drink it.

12. That's because one of my favorite things is Dr. Pepper. My one roommate and I bonded over our love of Dr. Pepper Lipsmackers.

13. My well drink of choice is currently: Greyhound

14. Favorite Show of All Time: Arrested Development. I watch this repeatedly. It never gets old.

15. My first crush was around age 16 (I was a late bloomer) and his name was Trent Sexton.

16. I played sports when I was younger. Lots of softball and a couple years of basketball. My basketball career was horrible, I made one basket.

17. I could not tell you how many, or all the names, of my first cousins on my Dad's side. He's got many siblings (I can never remember the official number...10?) and they sure can reproduce.

18. One of my favorite artists is Jen Corace.

19. Niff Nicholls is another favorite of mine. She's also my friend. <3

20. I almost moved to Philadelphia instead of Portland.

21. My only celebrity sighting (besides glimpses of Jerry Springer, who has a house in my hometown, and the girl who played Alex Mack, who was in my hometown promoting a film at a film fest) is Tom Green. He said "nice shirt" to me, I was wearing an old school NKOTB shirt. Weird times...

22. I have one sibliny. She's older and has taken very good care of me.

23. I've been auntie'd 4 times now. All dogs. I don't have favorites. Not because of my equal love for them, but for their equal 'meh' love for me. Though I have to say May and Tilda seem to be able to pull at my heart strings like Daisy and Mosie (both R.I.P.) never were able to. The faces, the cute pathetic faces...

24. I hate hoppy beer. Give me a fruity hefeweizen any day of the year!

25. Photobooth pictures are the best, aren't they?

26. I was in a 4 wheeler accident when I was about 14 or 15. It's the only time I've gone to a hospital-like place (I can't remember where I went, maybe an Urgent Care? I was in Ohio visiting my cousin.) I got 9 stitches and one funny looking (but very smooooth feeling) scar under my right knee.

27. I went to private school 4-8th grade. I believe that it made me a more introverted person because I went into a new school where I didn't know anyone and most of the 40 kids in my grade had been together since kindergarten. Then I chose to go back to public for high school and though I recognized some kids from my public elementary school, I hadn't seen them in 5 years and they had already formed cliques and knew each other well. I was lost in a sea of 250+ classmates (let alone a school of more than a 1000). It took me a long time to make friends.

28. I wish Junior Mints were vegan.

29. I love very old cathedrals.

30. I look like my dad, Elmer.

This was not easy. One tends to find most facts about themselves not very interesting.

Day 5

2011-03-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

Day 5: A Time You Thought About Ending Your Own Life

Thankfully, I've never been that depressed. Death scares me more than living does.

Day 4, y'all!

2011-03-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Your Views on Religion

I was raised Mennonite. My mom is from Ohio and my dad, from the land of Mennonites & Amish, Lancaster, PA. They met in Sarasota, Florida, which is where a lot of northern Mennonites and Amish go to retire or for the winter.

I didn't really know what being Mennonite meant, like what their doctrine was. Because we're not as conservative as some other Mennonites, I dressed like other kids (though my dad is on the conservative side and didn't want us girls wearing pants -unless we were horseback riding- and we weren't allowed to cut our hair, though my mom cut hers anyway). My mom wore a covering for many years, but by the time I was about 10, she had stopped wearing one. So I didn't feel like we were any different than the Baptists, Lutherans, and other denominations. As I got older, I learned about how Mennonites are different for their pacifist and anabaptist beliefs (anabaptist means you don't baptize your babies, you let them get baptized when they are old enough to decide for themselves.). I have come to really appreciate my background. I compare Mennonite to Jewish, it's a culture as well as a religion, so no matter if you're a practicing member or not, you still consider yourself one.

I do consider myself a practicing Mennonite and I am definitely on the very left leaning side of the Mennonite spectrum. Like any denomination or religion, there's going to be people you disagree with. I was happy to find a great Mennonite church here in Portland and the church is welcoming of everyone (Though under the Mennonite conference we aren't allowed to marry gay people...which I hope is changing...).

I consider myself tolerant of other's religious beliefs. I want mine to be respected just as much I respect yours. I do not wish to force it onto anyone. I think it's impossible to change people's minds so easily.

Day 3

2011-03-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Your Views on Alcohol and Drugs

I drink at least a couple times a week and I have a really hard time dancing in public without it. I was raised in a conservative Christian home and I don't remember being told not to drink, it was just assumed (like smoking and premarital sex) that you don't do it. What I found out much later was that my Dad thinks it's okay to drink wine occasionally. Not beer, which is only drank so you can get drunk (what? you didn't know that?). I didn't drink at all until I was 21 (okay, once I took a sip of my friend's drink, which I thought was just soda and I was, like, dude, your soda's flat! Apparently that's what vodka can do to a soda...), I hung out with rule-following Christian kids, so I never was around any sort of peer pressure to drink. It was in college where I met Christians that drank and then when I went to Germany, where beer is king and almost everyone drinks. (Germany is also where I started to use "bad" words. It's not seen as a big deal.)

I wasn't around drugs at all until I went to Amsterdam when I was 23. Since then the only other drug I've been around was cocaine at a party of someone I used to work with. That drug kinda freaks me out. Oh, I mean the thought of it, I've never tried it! I've not even tried pot. I hate the smell of it and just haven't been very interested in trying it. I feel like I'll be one of those people that gets really paranoid. I do think marijuana should be legalized. If alcohol is legal, marijuana should be even more legal. Have you ever heard of an angry pothead? I can't imagine someone high beating their wife or child. (I could be naive, maybe that actually happens, but you sure don't hear about it.) I read Eric Schlosser's book Reefer Madness and it made me mad of how much money our gov't wastes on locking up people caught with some pot. Meth and the like that actually ruin a person's life, sure, keep it illegal. (And why is hemp illegal to grow in the States??? It is such a damn useful plant and people don't smoke it!)

Time for a nonrelevant picture:

These be my sister's chickens. They were suspicious of the snow, but eventually left their Chicken Mansion.

Day 2 of 30 Day Challenge

2011-03-19T15:59:00.001-07:00

Day 2: Where You'd Like to Be in 10 Years

I am horrible at planning ahead. Even 6 months is hard for me to plan for. Actually, strike that, make it 2 months. When I was in high school I had a hard enough time accepting that I would even graduate. It just seemed like something I would never get to. I'm not sure if it was because in youth group it's always pounded into your psyche that you could die at any time (and if you died "do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?").

So, in 10 years...I have no freakin' clue. I would like to be happy. I would like to be in love. I don't have the American dreams of owning a house (it sounds kinda like a pain in the ass) or having kids, they're not goals of mine. I may change my mind, I find that happens often. I want to find a job that I get some joy out of, or at least, doesn't completely suck.

And I hope these two niece dogs of mine will still be alive and well:

Isn't May (the Pit) the best at the Pathetic Puppy Dog Eyes? She breaks my heart every time I leave her at home. She was a rescue, she had been left in a parking lot and had saggy titties from the several litters she had already had. She also had been obviously whipped with a belt (she cowers when my brother-in-law takes off his belt...not to whip her, by the way). I just don't understand how people can do that to animals.

30 Day Challenge

2011-03-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

Steffers, a PPK friend, fellow Portlander (if I consider myself a Portlander...which I do even though I don't technically live there right now) and blogger colleague, is doing this 30 day challenge on her blog, so I thought I might as well do it too.

So :ahem: Day 1...

Your Current Relationship, if Single Discuss How Single Life is:

I'm a singleton. Single life is...not the worst thing ever, but I do long for a partner-in-crime. The single life isn't something I enjoy. What I enjoy: cuddling and holding hands. I don't meet new people very easily and online dating is lacking in guys that I would be interested in. Cute boys are a dime a dozen here in Portland, but me and my girlfriends have noticed they aren't big on making the first move. The feminist in me says I can make a move, but, dude, I am sick of initiating stuff, I already initiate conversation, most of the time. I want to be pursued, I'm old fashioned like that.

Got a secret, can you keep it?

2011-03-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

Oh, I don't have an actual secret. I've just been watching Pretty Little Liars...

I haven't posted in along time because...well, I am a great procrastinator.

There's a new pizza place in town called Sizzle Pie. The former owner of the delicious super-vegan friendly bar Tube has opened a late night pizza place with a lot of vegan options. Toppings include Daiya cheese, flavorful soy curls, vegan pepperoni, and creamy basil cashew spread. I've gone several times now. I usually get the $6 slice and salad deal.

This here is a New Maps Out of Hell slice (soy curls, basil cashew spread, 3 veggies- which this time was black olives, green peppers and onion) and the Caligula salad, which is just their name for a Caesar. Their Caesar dressing is made vegan and it's quite yum. Currently they only have bottled/canned beers, but when their bar (Quality Bar) opens next door, I can only assume there will be draft beers.

The pizza isn't the best ever (my favorite crust is still Hot Lips Pizza), but it's tasty. Normally, the two vegan slice options are New Maps and Spiral Tap (carmelized onion spread swirled with marinara sauce...good, but boring- i want toppings!), but occasionally they have others, such as Thunder & Lightning (vegan cheese with pepperoni!). They're open until 4am (I can't remember what the weekday hours are), so if you're out late downtown or at Rontom's on Burnside, it's a great after hours place to go. I just wish they had Dr. Pepper on their sode fountain...

I just made myself the yummiest boozy milkshake. I was mixing Silk Chocolate with some Kahlua when I remembered I had Coconut Bliss ice cream. Delicious combo, y'all!

Meat is for Pussies, the book

2011-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Before I get into that, I just wanted to comment on my last post regarding Nature's Path. After I reviewed that I was emailed soon after to inform me that they were going to reconsider their packaging when sending to get reviewed. So happy to hear that they are doing that!

Ok, on to the book! I was given the opportunity to read a copy of John Joseph's book titled Meat is for Pussies. Honestly, I am not a fan of the term "pussy" when used in this way. Not because I'm someone who thinks political correctness is absolutely necessary all the time. I just don't care for it and it reminds me of douchebag guys that call their friends pussies if they can't do something well and would also say shit like "you throw like a girl." So, yeah, I didn't have high expectations that this book is something that I would like for myself.

Before the book's foreward there is "acclaim" by several well known vegans, such as Chef Tal Ronnen, Moby and Rory Friedman (writer of Skinny Bitch). The book is written by 47 year old John Joseph, known for his punk rock back The Cro Mags, and has been vegan for over 30 years. With chapters (and sections within the chapters) titled Beat the Meat, Diets are for Jerk Offs, and Kick Cancer in the Nuts, you know that you won't be getting this for your parents (unless your parents are the opposite of mine). I suppose you could say it's the masculine version of Skinny Bitch, which is a book that is written in a style I don't care for.

Joseph goes through all the different reasons one should go vegan (environmental, health, etc) and then gives you a week's menu with exercise plan. There are recipes (which I wanted to try out, and why it took me so long to blog about this, but I still have yet to make anything. Sad face!) included. I would really like to try the Veggie Chicken & Rice Casserole and Sweet & Sour Tofu Balls Over Quinoa.

This book is not made for the likes of me, but perhaps there is a young lad or butch in your life that would be changed by this book, and for that reason, I'm glad it exists.

If you are like me, might I suggest The Food Revolution by John Robbins or Meat Market by Erik Marcus?

Nature's Path Ancient Grains Granola with Almonds

2011-01-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

Nature's Path sent me their new Ancient Grains Granola, which was a collaboration with Kirkland Signature. I was confused about this, but what I've read around the Internets is that this was done so that the product would be more widely available and that Nature's Path was still independently owned, so whatever, good for them.

They sent me the Costco-sized box of the cereal (it was 2 separate bags in one large box) in the mail in a huge box that was supposed to look like an old suitcase/wooden box. I thought maybe there was a good reason for the huge size

My cute niecepup Tilda to show size comparison.

but no...

There were some papers on top of that blank space (recipes and info on the cereal), but really it was just a bunch of hay-type filler. I just thought it was a ginormous waste, it seemed like something that would've been the idea of a Kirkland rep. But it's their money, I suppose?

Anyways, on to the cereal...

The grains involved are spelt, kamut, quinoa, amaranth and oats. The almonds are a tasty inclusion for those of without an allergy to them (like my poor sister). The flavor is good and I enjoyed it with soymilk or my yogurt. It was also nice not to have to deal with an annoying vanilla flavor. With 5 grams of protein and 9 grams of sugar per serving, it's a pretty healthy choice as far as granolas go and I would definitely eat it again.

Have y'all had it?

Merry Belated Christmas!

2010-12-26T17:05:00.000-08:00

And a very belated happy Hanukkah!

I don't like blogging without pictures, which is the reason I'll blame for the long stretch of time with no posts. Though I bought a new memory card to replace mine back in the beginning of December, so really my excuses don't hold strong.

What's happened since I last posted? Well, I went to Seattle with Jess Scone. She had to go for work purposes, so I was ecstatic to tag along for a free hotel and gas money. I had been wanting to go for another visit and it's fun to go with another (vegan) food enthusiast. It was also nice to meet a couple new vegans/fellow PPKers while there.

I also went to the penis of America. AKA Florida. My hometown is Sarasota and I spent a week there, hanging out with mom, some with dad and some with friends. Unfortunately, the 80 degree weather that my mom was bragging about when I bought my ticket disappeared while I was there. Dang cold front. I'm happy to report that though it got warmer after I left, the last week has been cold again. (I'm happy because at least I have the comfort of knowing it wasn't warm during Christmas when my mom would've had me come.) The vegan scene in my hometown is definitely wanting, but it's getting better each visit. Though most of it leans towards the raw foods.

I did have a soup and salad at Simon's Coffeehouse. This is a place that's been in Sarasota for a long time, but for some reason I've never really gone. I mean, I went once several years ago, but not since. I heard they use vegan sausage and have tofu scrambles for breakfast. Unfortunately, I went with my mom for lunch. Fewer options, which is weird, no?

I got the soup simply called Green. It was a slightly salty soup of spinach and some other pureed greens. I quite liked it, actually.

The salad was the Thai Tofu special salad of the day. i had to get it with a balsamic vinaigrette instead of the creamy (nonvegan) thai dressing that went with it. The sprouts were a little odd with that mix, but all in all, not bad. The seedy bread that came with it was an end piece and pretty tough. I had a little salad left over. This was $9.95. I would've thought $8.95 would be more reasonable.

While at home my mom made some cinnamon rolls for me. She always has bread starter (or so it seems) and makes cinnamon swirl bread often. She made cinnamon rolls using the Earth Balance she bought for me and then also didn't butter the tops of the cinnamon bread she made.

Time to rise!

The middle piece was mine, all mine!

I would have to say that this is the first time (that I recall, anyways) my mom has offered to make me something vegan. I really appreciated it. This trip my mom was very awesome about going to places that had vegan options, as well.

We went to the Saturday Farmer's Market.

My mom in the crowd.

I was happy to see such a bustling farmer's market. I guess it was probably more bustling since it was so close to Christmas.

After walking around the market, we stopped at the nearby Whole Foods for lunch. Which is where I got this donut:

It wasn't the best donut ever, it was a little dry/old, but I'm sure that if I didn't have the likes of Sweetpea Baking or Voodoo Donuts I would be ever so happy to have these at my grasp.

I did try going to the beach on the warmest day, but it was a no-go. I was there for 10 minutes and was cold in my shorts and hoodie, my towel draped over my legs.

Sad face.

As always, I'm excited to come home to Florida, but always ready to come back to the Pacific Northwest, my new home.

The Tofurky Feast

2010-11-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

(Took pictures, they will eventually come!!)

I was excited to get asked to try out the whole Vegetarian Feast from Hood River, Oregon's Turtle Islands Food Company. (I just found out they spell is Tofurky, not Tofurkey...which is kinda weird, no?) I've had the Tofurky Roast before, just not with all the fixin's.

At $15.99 (the price at Fred Meyer), this 2lb stuffed roast feast is supposed to feed 6 people. Included is Giblet Gravy, a wishbone made of jerky, and (new this year!) is Amy's Kitchen Chocolate Cake. Not included: mashed potatoes. Sad face for this girl who didn't have potatoes to make some mashed taters.

I didn't thaw it for the suggested 24 hours, but it was close enough for me to follow the thawed out directions. They give 2 marinade options for those of us who can't think of one ourselves (me!). I picked the olive oil, soy sauce and sage one. I surrounded the roast with some onion, carrots and sweet potato. After about an hour and a half, it was ready to eat.

Right after I put the roast in, I started in on the chocolate cake loaf. (I hadn't eaten breakfast yet!) This moist chocolate cake reminds me of the sheet cake my mom used to make and top with white frosting. It's not a lot of cake, but I guess after eating a large Thanksgiving smorgasboard meal that we're used to here in the States, a small slice of chocolate cake will hit the sweet spot. Final thought on the cake: yuuuuuuum! (gah, I just ate some more of it! yum!)

The first time I had Tofurky Roast I didn't much care for it. I tried it again after I found them on sale for cheap after the holidays. They are LOADED with protein, it's crazy! For real, 1/6 of the roast is 42grams! The roast grew on me though. The texture is a tad bit on the rubbery side, but, if I may say, in a pleasant way. If you're not into realistic fake meat, you may not care for this. It does have a turkey-like consistency. I found the "meat" to be (...for lack of a better word that doesn't gross me out) moist.

The stuffing inside is pretty good as well. It's nice that it's included so that you have one less side to make. If you're looking for something to replace turkey, I think it does a pretty good job. I never was huge on turkey and my family didn't do the turkey-carving-at-the-table thing (they cooked the turkey and took it off the carcass and had it piled onto a plate, so perhaps that's why I don't worry about replacing it on Thanksgiving). I do, however, love fake meat! Give me a Boca burger over a Gardenburger Original any day! The more realistic, the better! My, how I miss the faux chicken pieces that Food Fight! used to sell...sadly, the manufacturer stopped making them...

Oh, the gravy! Hm. It was too salty for my tastes, which is strange since I like salt! Perhaps if it was on top of some mashed potatoes, it would nicely even out the saltiness.

I haven't gotten to try out the wishbone yet, but I love the idea! And that you can eat it after you've pulled it apart!

I'm a big fan of many of Tofurky's products. Trader Joe's carries their italian sausages and their smoked turkey deli slices, so handy. I think these feasts are great for those who want a replacement for the turkey or chicken that is traditionally part of a holiday meal. It does feel weird when you're surrounded by the nonvegetarians and you're not able to partake of, what feels like, the main part of a meal. And if you don't feel like making a roast yourself (if you traveled, don't have time, lazy, procrastinator, etc), this is a great option!

i've decided to be the worst MoFoer ever.

2010-11-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

I think I may have decided to quit. Yeah, it's only been 13 days and I'm quitting. See, my camera has decided to hang on to a video I made and now it won't let me even play it (it doesn't even show that it's there, it's only when I connect to my computer does it say it exists) and then it refuses to upload the pictures I have on it. This is the second fucking (sorry, ma) time this has happened to me!!! This is my second memory card. I don't feel like buying a new one. Does anyone know how to fix this?

I just have been really uninspired, foodwise, lately and don't think I want to try and pressure myself into continually blogging for MoFo. I think blogs without pictures aren't as fun and I don't want to continue being unfun.

Most of the reason I feel uninspired is that I've been living with my sister since February and still am not truly comfortable in her kitchen. I never feel like cooking in it. All I ever make is sauteed tofu and vegetables with some grain. I'm also bad at taking pictures of food I eat. This is due to the fact that I feel like every time I load pictures onto my computer I'm bogging it down. It's old and doesn't have much memory...

Yeah, I have lots of excuses. Sorry.

I'm sure I'll post one or two by the end of the month, but I'm going to just take the pressure off myself.

Shoes, how I love thee, let me count the ways...

2010-11-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I can't find a pair of boots -that I like and that fit my skinny calves- to save my life! I do own a pair of Rocketdog boots:

They don't really fit like I want them to. I can't wear them with skirts because of how loose they are around my chicken legs. They're not slouchy-cute, they're slouchy-stupid.

But I have better luck with other types of shoes. I own at least 4 pairs of the ubiquitous Chucks. The reason there are 4 pair, by the way, is that 2 pairs of them have holes in the sole so I can't wear them when it's been raining/is raining. As you know, Portland isn't known for it's dryness.

My favorite shoe brand is BC Footwear. They're not all vegan, but they have had a lot of cute shoes. Samples of such that I have had the pleasure of owning:

Michelle C's cute vegan Saucony's on the left, my beloved BC's (RIP) on the right

I love this pair, I'm wearing my brown pair right now...

Yes, I have 2 pair of the same shoes in brown and in black. There's a good reason for this! My sister and I found these shoes on sale in a Delia's catalog and we each got a pair, but hers were too small (and they didn't have the half size larger she needed), therefore I got both. The black ones now have a hole in the sole and so no longer are wearable in the rain...sad face.

Ok, now, I have 2 pairs of another BC shoe...so this might seem like I have a problem. It does sound like it. BUT! These shoes are so cute! I thought I found them in a better color, so I had to get the second pair when I saw them at Buffalo Exchange, a used clothing and shoe store.

They're the ones at the end. Man, I love the red ones even more than the ones I have!

So I initially got them in navy patent pleather...then found them in a white and black striped fabric. Both have the white wedge. I've never worn the white and black stripe pair and have only worn the navy ones once. It's sad, I love them so, but never feel like they go with anything I wear.

I own 2 pairs of the same kind of Vans, one in Citrus (Florida native represent!) and the other in an awesome green (they were on sale!). I easily find tennis shoes, it seems. I also find Chuck's to be really comfortable, so I'm fortunate. I hike and work in them, no problem.

I love checking in at Ross, Marshalls, Payless and the like for vegan shoes. I haven't found any lately, but I it's always the surprise of a good shoe find that keeps me going. I currently have banned myself from buying any black colored flats. I, sadly, lost my favorite pair of flats about 6 months ago. They were red, from Target, and awesome.

Online store:

Lulu's - they even have the vegan shoes tagged

Zappos - I had an expensive experience recently and now don't ever want to buy from an online place that doesn't do free shipping to you and return shipping.

Not just about food.

2010-11-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

For most vegans, veganism isn't all about food, it's also about not wearing animal products. For some reason, vegetarians aren't as into this belief. I asked my sister, a pescatarian, aka seafood-eating vegetarian, about this. She buys leather shoes, but wasn't interested in buying a leather couch (I believe that's because the fabric doesn't need to be as sturdy..or something). She says it's because leather shoes last a lot longer than man-made materials and (I think she said this) that the cows were already being killed for their meat. I was once when of those vegetarians that didn't think about leather, but now I wonder why I didn't. What about becoming vegan gets someone thinking more about what they're wearing?

I think your opinion about this matter depends a lot on why you abstain from the animal products you do. If you're eating vegetarian/vegan for health reasons, obviously you're not going to care about wearing leather or not. And if part of the reason is for environmental reasons...well, I'm not sure what the effect of man-made materials are on the Earth. I would say that from I've read, leather doesn't sound that much better.

What has your experience been with this subject matter?

In upcoming posts I will post about where I buy my vegan shoes, etc. But, for now, I must go, my job calls!

My Favorite Vegan Bloggers

2010-11-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

I look at a lot of blogs on the regular. Several of them have nothing to do with food, most are about everyday lives. I like those best. I like to see what people are doing and eating.

Here's some of my favorites:

1. Awesome. Vegan. Rad. - she's a fellow PPKer and I wish I could hang out with her. Her blog posts are interesting and funny. They're what I wish mine were.

2. GetSconed - another fellow PPKer and I do hang out with her. She posts many recipes and lots of pictures of her food life. She's a vegan that's involved in several vegan-centered activities, such as Vegan Iron Chef and the upcoming Vida Vegan Conference here in Portland!

3. Joanna Vaught - Yeah, another PPKer...There's not a lot of vegan bloggers who aren't on the PPK, it would seem. Joanna is a friend of mine as well. We bonded over "cycles" of America's Next Top Model and I even landed myself on the cover of her cookbook (headless), Yellow Rose Recipes. On her blog, she talks about her favorite things/books/etc, her adorable son Milo and food. She also has a beautiful yellow rose tattoo on her forearm that I love.

There are just a few, perhaps I'll do another posting of some others a little later.

Ye Olde Vegan MoFo Standby: Questionnaire

2010-11-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you know me even somewhat well (like, if you were ever my Myspace or Facebook friend...or read this blog), you'll know that I love questionnaires! Perhaps because I am horrible at coming up with things to just write about willy-nilly...

Anyways, I was reading through my Google Reader feed at MoFo posts and came across Singer Eats post that had a questionnaire and decided to do it too.

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?

Cheese. Usually. I don't think there's anything that I 100% don't miss. I just don't miss it as much as I thought I would. Brie and feta were two of my favorite cheeses and are hard to replace with vegan versions. I'm fine without and I don't spend time all my time thinking about stuff I'm not eating anymore, but, on occasion, it's missed.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?

Hm. I don't think I was a very particular child when it came to food. (Mom?) I don't remember ever pushing away food, it's more like I had my favorites and stuck to those. I wasn't exposed to a huge variety of foods growing up. My mom had her repertoire of dishes and didn't experiment much with her cooking. Oh, actually, I do remember making a gross face when my sister and mom would eat asparagus! Surprising since asparagus are such a fun looking veggie.

What vegan dish or food you feel like you “should” like, but don’t?

I dislike flowers in my baked goods and cooked dishes. The idea of lavender or rose disgusts me and they seem to be everywhere!

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?

Probably water, but just barely beating out the other stuff I drink on a given day.

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?

Probably cake/cupcakes, but that's only when it's a birthday. I get really lazy/procrastinator for potlucks and end up bringing alcohol.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?

No raisins in oatmeal cookies, it's a tease! you think they're chocolate chips and then you bite into the cookie...sigh...

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?

Dr. Pepper.

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?

Umm...baked tofu, I guess. It seems hideously overpriced.

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?

Vegenaise.

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favorite snacks?

Lately, I've been getting into prunes, they're so yummy! Dried plums makes them sound so much tastier, no? Also, peanut butter and jelly, apples with peanut butter, soy yogurt with rolled oats-sunflower seeds-pumpkin seeds-flax meal, various baked goods from vegan bakeries here in Portland.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?

nutritional yeast, vegan sausage or faux pepperoni, mushrooms, roasted garlic cloves

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?

veggie: kale. fruit: avocado!

What is the best salad dressing?

Goddess- i use it on the grain/bean/greens bowls i make, so yum!

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?

Earth Balance.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?

Veganomicon's Chickpea Noodle

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?

I like plain vanilla. For both really. But not always together...hm...for some reason I can't think of a flavored frosting or cupcake that I like better than vanilla...

What is your favorite kind of cookie?

I really have been diggin' the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip ones from Vegan Cookies Invade.

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?

The aforementions grain/beans/green bowl. So easy, so healthy, so good!

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?

I don't think I have that problem.

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?

Depends, anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour.

Oh, hi, November 3!

2010-11-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's 3 days into Vegan Month of Food and this is my first post. But, hey, it could be worse! So, so much worse...

As ever, I don't have a theme (at the moment) that I'm going with, but it's going be whatever's knocking around my brain. If you have any suggestions, bring it!

I'm going to start with a post about the most beautiful bunch of lacinato -aka dinosaur- kale (which I've been misspelling and, therefore, mispronouncing...I've been saying lacinto...) I ever laid eyes on.

See how beautiful and crisp it is?? Well, perhaps you can't, but I promise you, it was lovely. Also, it was bugless, none of those pesky aphids to convince to rinse off. I got this bunch from the Farmers Market and I don't remember what booth I got them from, so not sure if it was organic, no spray, or what. Most likely not organic though since they normally have little bugs on them...

Anyways, I decided to use some of them for a scramble:

The above is onion, garlic, Anaheim pepper, a little Tamari, thyme, oregano and extra firm tofu. And probably some s&p.

The final product: kale and broccoli added towards the end. A piece of Dave's Killer (and he's not lying, it's the best bread ever!) Bread with some Earth Balance. I always top my tofu sautes with some nutritional yeast and hot sauce (Chalupa and Srirachi being my favorites).

I would love some suggestion for a flavor helper! I like these scrambles of mine, but they're not something I would serve to others because the flavor is a bit...blah.

Today was a sunny, beautiful day in Portland, I hope yours was too! I need to go get ready to hang out with a friend at Tube (vegan ham and cheese!! boozy vegan milkshakes! $2 well drinks!)...

Vegan Month of Food begins...tomorrow!

2010-10-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

Every fall Vegan MoFo asks us vegan bloggers to blog the most that we can blog. Every year, I've gotten better at it. As in, I blog more times, not that my posts get better...

But so far, the most I've done is half the month. Let's just see if I can do better this time, shall we?

Click on to the above link for the hundreds of blogs that are participating this year! I love reading tons of blogs! Hopefully I won't be hungry when I do because it makes my stomach make hungry noises...

And a photo of me and my niecepup Matilda. We enjoy spending time together under the warmth of covers.

GoodBelly (Plus!)

2010-09-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've been finding myself in poor health this last month or so, with various ailments coming and going. I've always considered myself to be "healthy as a horse" (wtf kind of phrase is that??) and have never been to the hospital, just urgent care for a 4 wheeler accident and the normal chicken pox crap. Oh, and I have back problems, but, really, I rarely get sick.

So for one ailment or another, I decided I wanted to take some probiotics. I haven't been eating a lot of (vegan) yogurt, so a supplement seemed necessary. I got some vegetarian cap Acidophilus, but decided to also buy some GoodBelly Plus, which is found with yogurts and the like in the fridge at your local grocer (though if they don't even carry soy yogurt at your local grocer, you're probably shit outta luck). I've tried GoodBelly before and I really enjoy their packaging and interesting flavors. This time I picked the Pomegranate Blackberry (looking online I realize I now have tried them all but the Strawberry). The "Plus" is the added vitamins and minerals, which includes 100% of both your B12 and Vit C. Flavorwise, I don't think this one was my favorite. The two flavors with berries kinda taste the same to me. I think the Mango may be my favorite. I wish they were less sweet, but you can't complain they taste gross. They're fruity and drinkable.

My favorite part about this product is the container. I think it's very Europeanesque. And, really, how can you resist a container that is smiling at you???

These little guys are about $1 a piece, so as a multi-vitamin with probiotics (20 billion "at time of manufacture"...so perhaps some are dead by consumption?), it's not that pricey, but I think I would prefer a pill for everyday.

I would like to try some of their other products, such as GoodBelly Splash and their family sized quarts. The quart sized have about 21 grms of sugar per serving, so a little more than I'd like in my juice, but not as much as I get when I'm guzzling the sweet nectar of the gods.

Just an FYI, this wasn't free. I did this product review of my own volition and money.

Nature's Path Gluten Free Cereals

2010-08-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

Vanilla to the max!

I was given two samples of Nature's Path's new gluten free cereals. I have an on and off love affair with breakfast cereals. I'll eat it everyday for weeks and then I'll get sick of it and not eat it for at least a few weeks, if not months. I have been dabbling with eating less gluten and so this offer of free gluten free cereal excited me.

My first taste of both was a dry run, if you will. It was in my car when I picked up my salmonella-poisoned sister from Urgent Care and she thought she should eat something, so we opened them both up. Kim's opinion: Gross. My first, initial, opinion: Meh. But they grew on me! The Whole O's practically have no sweetness to them (actual nutrition facts: 4gm sugar per 2/3 cup...is that much?) and the taste is...off. But the more I ate them, the more I wanted to pop the little spheres in my piehole.

The Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise was a bit better initially. Again, it grew on me. I think I've mentioned before that I am suspicious of vanilla flavor in cereals. It usually comes off as too vanilla-y to me. I ate some of this with plain soymilk and thought it was good but that the vanilla flavor could be kicked down a notch...so I took the flavorless Whole O's and added them to the mix and it was good! It just evened out the vanillaness a bit. I've enjoyed bowls of the merry mix now, it makes a lovely snack or breakfast!

Thank you to Nature's Path for the free boxes of cereal! Thank you for making gluten free products for my celiac friends and for those trying to eat less of gluten!

Pizza Time!

2010-08-22T23:15:00.001-07:00

Pizza!

Hey, y'all! I'm back with a review of Tofurkey's new pizzas. I got a coupon for a free one and so I picked up the Italian Sausage & Fire Roasted Veggie. People rave about Daiya cheese, but I'm one of those nonravers. I don't hate it, but I don't see how it's better than Teese or Follow Your Heart. I also think they should do thicker shreds because, normally, it has such a weird thin look when I see it on pizzas. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but perhaps you've seen what I'm talking about...

Anyways, the pizza was good. Not great. Not something I would spend $9, usually. I can see myself splurging on this in certain situations. It does have a lot of toppings and I think it's a bit bigger than your average small frozen pizza (But my memory could be wrong).

I dislike pizzas where the toppings and sauce go to the edge of the pie, which Tofurkey has done. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I used to work at Hot Lips Pizza and the owner insisted on doing that. Personally, I like having a place to grip where my hands won't get messy. I also like pizza bones, you know, the crust, nice and plain. If I didn't want pizza bones I would order it Sicilian style or something!

Final Thoughts: Good in a pinch, but my homemade pizzas (made with the fantastic dough from Hot Lips here in Portland) kinda kick their ass...But when have you thought otherwise about a frozen pizza? I do love using Tofurkey's sausages on my pie, so they're still getting my money! :o)

Vega Shake & Go Smoothie

2010-07-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

I was given a free sample of Vega's new line of Shake & Go Smoothie. Or should I say, "smoothie"? I'm just not able to call something a smoothie if it's not a frozen treat where ice or frozen fruit is involved. Shake, yes, smoothie, nah. Out of the 4 flavors (Bodacious Berry, Tropical Tango, Choc-o-lot, Vanilla Almondilla), I chose Tropical Tango. The 300gr pouches of the product retails at $23.95 and are available online.

Forewarning: I have never had a protein/supplement powder that I have actually liked and used continually.

It took me awhile to finally try the product. I love the idea that I can just shake it up with some water and go, especially when I haven't felt like cooking in the a.m. as of late, but these types of products don't get me excited. I don't have a lot of luck with them tasting great and something needs to taste great (or my life has to depend on it) for me to continue using something. I tried this product twice and I couldn't get over the texture. The flavor wasn't bad, it was totally doable, but there was a bit of grittiness to the smoothie. Perhaps I didn't shake it enough? What I did learn was that it gets really gross looking if you let it sit around for awhile, this is because it consists of xanthan gum.

I did give the Tropical Tango to a friend who was really interested in trying it. She had this to say:

It is great in yogurt with a banana, but it is not great w/ soy/rice/almond milk b/c it is too sweet. I haven't tried it w/ water but the sour quality of plain yogurt seems to cut down on some of the 'starburst-sweet' quality. I like it, the bag style is convenient, and I keep it in my lunch sack and when my blood sugar starts to drop at work I mix a little into a container of yogurt and it stabilizes the blood sugar much better than using just yogurt alone, actually almost as well as a high protein animal source like cheese. I would recommend it for anyone with blood sugar issues who needs pick me ups through out the day and doesn't want to use protein bars (I think this would be healthier and cheaper). anyway, thanks for the sample, it is great to have at work!

I think it's a great idea to put it in some yogurt, much better than plain water. Have you tried it? What do you think?

Thanks to the Vega people for the sample! I appreciate you guys making healthy vegan products!

French Meadow Woman's Bread Review

2010-06-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

I was given a coupon for one free French Meadow product. I have had a couple of their products in the past. If you're looking for good soft, fluffy bread for sandwiches, such as your childhood favorite, the peanut butter and jelly, you will want to look elsewhere. For dense, healthy-tasting bread, French Meadow's your best friend. Previously, i had tried their Hemp Bread and their Hemp Bagels. Neither was horrible tasting, but they're definitely not for the faint of heart. Dense, y'all!

I was at Whole Foods when I remembered I had their coupon. The selection at this Whole Foods was actually not that great. I looked in both the fridge and the freezer and they seemed to only have 4 varieties, 2 of which had just come in that day. I guess 4 isn't a bad number, I was just hoping to have a pick of pretty much everything French Meadow sells. Anyways, I chose the Woman's Bread, since Men's Bread seemed silly to get (since I'm a woman and all) and the other options were of the hemp variety.

So, the Woman's Bread...I toasted slices for breakfast and snack times and smeared with jam or Earth Balance. This bread isn't very sweet, even with it's inclusion of cranberries (actually, now that I think about it, cranberries are only sweet once you add sugar to them and I'm pretty sure these were straight up cranberries, with no sugar added.) and then it's also not savory enough for me to want to put veggies on it, like cucumber or tomato slices on it. This bread was formulated when the owner of the bakery didn't want to take hormone replacement therapy after a hysterectomy and decided to get phytoestrogen from soy isoflavones. This is what I don't like about the bread: soy that I don't want. I already think I eat plenty of soy as it is. I've actually been trying to eat less of it by switching to a different kind of nondairy milk. I feel like this bread is for nonvegetarian women whose diets don't tend to include much tofu and tempeh.

As I've said previously, this isn't sandwich bread. I think it's an all right bread, but I doubt I'll ever buy it. I'm still going to stick with Dave's Killer Bread, which is made locally and is perfect for sandwiches and toast alike. Oh, and cheaper.

Owl Necklace Giveaway!

2010-06-25T02:19:00.001-07:00

Not on my blog, but this one!

Fingers crossed, y'all!!

Helen's Kitchen, Part One

2010-06-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

A few months back I noticed Helen's Kitchen products in the freezer of a grocery store I was at and I was intrigued. So I was happy when I heard that they (or a PR person) wanted to send me coupons to try out a couple products. I picked up GardenSteak TofuSteaks and the entree Thai Red Curry. Not all of their products are vegan, so keep that in my mind when purchasing.

The first item I tried was the Thai Red Curry. It's a small entree so, thankfully, I was not completely famished and this filled me up just right. It's all organic, gluten free, gmo free and has 13 grams of protein in it. The red curry sauce was the perfect amount of spice for me (I'm just a bit on the wussy side of spicy). The TofuSteak chunks are extra extra firm and have a nice slight chicken-y flavor (the TofuSteaks come in both regular and "chicken"). The peas and butternut squash in this are tasty as well. I actually really enjoyed this meal, but, honestly, I'm unsure if I'd buy this if choosing a frozen meal. It's mainly because if I'm going to get Thai food, I'm going to head over and pick some awesome to-go at Pad Thai Kitchen. When eating frozen, I tend to go for nonAsian dishes. Just my preference, I guess.

Have any of you tried their stuff? I look forward to trying the TofuSteaks! I love love love firm tofu!

Vegan Iron Chef

2010-05-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, June 6 Try Vegan is hosting an event in Portland called Vegan Iron Chef. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Tickets are all sold out, but there will be live-streaming!

The chefs:

Aaron Adams from Portobello Trattoria- yum! All new restaurant opening in a few weeks!

Quasu AsaaseYaa of Asaase Ital Palace- a food cart which I hear is delicious!

Wes Hannah of Blossoming Lotus- killer Sunday brunch menu and I hear the 4 "Cheese" Lasagna is amazing!

vegan chefs are dreamy...

If you watch the live streaming, look for me! I'm the judge (or chef...can't remember) liaison and will getting whatever they need so may end up on camera a little bit.

More Teese, please!

2010-05-09T17:31:00.001-07:00

This weekend I had a great birthday celebration vacation with some friends in preparation of my big 30th birthday on Wednesday. It's nuts that I've lived in Portland for over 5 years now, but what it's even more nuts is that I no longer will be in my 20s!! It's not that I don't like getting older, I'm totally fine with it. It's that I don't feel like I thought I would at this age. I still haven't had, what I would consider, a real adult relationship. I haven't had someone I called my "boyfriend" since I was 18. I have definitely matured a bit, but I would say I feel more like I'm 25. And I definitely look less than 25. Well, at least when you don't see the darkish circles under my eyes... :o)

But you're not here to read about my circles, or my feelings, right? Right! So back to food. After I received the 2 small (but still a lot) tubes of Teese a couple months ago, I received an email saying they (Chicago Soy Dairy) were sending me a tube of their new formulated Mozzarella style Teese. It's supposed to be less liquidy after it melts and to be more stretchy. I did notice my first tube of Mozzarella had been a bit liquidy after it was melted, so I looked forward to testing this new one out.

The time to test came when we decided on making pizzas for Saturday dinner. None of my friends that came to the weekend are vegan and I had deemed this an all vegan weekend because there's nothing better than being able to eat *anything* (which is why I love vegan potlucks so much!) and not have to ask if something's vegan, etc. Some friends made the pizza dough and pizza sauce and for toppings we had: fresh asparagus, sauteed onions, mushrooms, zucchini, Tofurkey Italian Sausages, shredded Mozza Teese, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives (I didn't partake of the pizza with those awful things on it). Of course, there was optional hot sauces and nooch. Johnny made 5 pies total and did an assortment of pies. My favorite was asparagus, sausage, zucchini, onions and Teese. It was so good!!! I wouldn't consider the Teese stretchy exactly, but I enjoyed it on my pie, it held the ingredients on to the crust. One friend didn't even think about it til afterwards that the cheese wasn't the real stuff. Two of my friends thought it tasted good uncooked, though I disagree. I wouldn't waste eating it raw when I could eat on a pizza!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take close up shots of the pizza, but shoot on over to Jess Sconed and check hers out!

Johnny & Amanda- makers of pizza pie!

Thanks to Chicago Soy Dairy for the awesome samples!!!

New Blog & A Review

2010-04-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

I've been ignoring this blog a bit, somewhat due to that I now have another blog. I had been discussing with a friend that I frequent coffee shops with about how I was thinking of starting a fashion blog. So many times I'm looking online at online shopping, fashion blogs, etc and I think "what the eff??" and I feel the need to show someone else what crazy thing I have seen. So I've been posting links on my Twitter, but I don't get much feedback from that and you can only fit so much in 140 characters and I feel annoying if I post several posts in a row. While I was discussing this with my friend I got the fun idea that we could co-host a blog together. I have a friend that does a blog with a penpal of his. It's like they're talking back and forth to each other, a conversation in photographs and art that they've done. But this way I could also interact with whoever else was interested. So 'anchor and crow' was born...So far I'm the only that has posted, but I hope soon (nudge, nudge) Miss Crow will post something.

This, my dear readers, is a delicious vegan frozen dinner. I've been really diggin' fried plantains as of late (Mostly from a great dining experience at the food cart Fuego de Lotus). Description of product:

Plantains with roasted sweet potato, black beans and kale. Spicy ancho sauce with pumpkin seed garnish over Kashi seven whole grain polenta, plus amaranth.

I tried amaranth for the first time a few months ago. It kinda looks like a smaller version of quinoa. Mine ended up pretty gloppy, but I think it's supposed to actually stay separate. I don't love love love it, but it's not gross. It's eatable and knowing that it's very good for me persuades me to continue eating it.

I was surprised by how much I liked this. If stars were given, I would probably give 4 out of 5.

If it's on sale, I'll definitely buy it again for those desperate times when I don't have any food prepared and don't feel like making any.

Teese Experiment #2

2010-04-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a week or two ago, I received 2 types of Chicago Soy Dairy's Teese to play around with. This past week I did something with my Mozzarella style. I had some cremini mushrooms to use up and also had some Gimme Lean sausage on hand, so I decided upon Baked Stuffed Mushrooms with Sausage & Mozzarella. I didn't follow it exactly. I didn't have green onions and I didn't use any faux Parmesan (even though I had some...I think I just forgot to put it in). I didn't have Italian Seasoning, but had the separate ingredients and I may have added thyme. What I love about this recipe is that it allows you to input how many servings (which for this recipe equates to how many mushrooms you have) and then it changes the recipe for you so there's no thinking "hmm, what is 2/3 of 1.5 teaspoons?" They do all the work for you!) Also, I added some s & p.

I didn't love this recipe, but I did like the mozzarella Teese! I noticed that the more I used, the better it tasted! If I used this recipe again next time I would use less sausage and add some bread crumbs. Oh, and more mozza Teese!

Yesterday, I made another dish with the mozzarella Teese. I had no recipe this time and just used up the veggies that were going bad in my fridge with some marinating tofu also needed usin' up. The tofu had been marinating in tamari, water, sage, rosemary and nooch. I sauteed some leek, garlic, red bell pepper and the tofu in olive oil and after it was done cooking I grated some of the mozza into it and stirred it up. I put a piece of Good Seed bread in the toaster oven with a couple slices of the mozza, then plated it up, piling the tofu/veggie mix on top. I enjoyed this quite a bit! Next time I would add more mozza and perhaps some kind of gravy. Yum!

I definitely think this is the best mozzarella vegan cheese I've had so far! I look forward to making a panini sandwich with it with some pesto and summer-fresh tomato!

Eggplant Burger

2010-03-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

Eggplant Burger with a side of my mom's favorite, lima beans!

So I finally got to the other eggplant product by the folks at Dominex! Woot! Finally!

Well, so there's the Eggplant Burger. I put it on a slightly toasted whole wheat bun with some vegenaise, ketchup, yellow mustard, lettuce and a piece of Tofutti "American" cheese. I didn't realize that this was going to be a like a Boca patty, as in, meaty soy product. For some reason I didn't get that idea from reading the box, but I didn't read it very carefully and I just glanced at the ingredients and didn't really think of it. I thought it was going to be, like, 98% eggplant....which I thought sounded kinda weird. So when I was cooking it on the skillet in a little oil, I was, like, oh, it's just a fake meat patty with some eggplant thrown into the mix.

Flavorwise, not impressed. It tastes a bit off and it's definitely not as good as Boca, which is one of my favorites. The texture is fine and since my nose has been stuffy and my memory is bad, I don't have anything to say about the smell.

Yeah, this burger did nothing for me except give me some nutrition.

The lima beans are frozen from Grocery Outlet, I think they were Green Giant but I can't find any proof online about that. I believe they were 99 cents. You take them out of the box and put them in the microwave for 5-6 minutes and walah! Ready to eat limas! Semi-dry tasting, just as I remember from my youth!

Green Chili Cheese Grits

2010-03-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

*Cilantro for looks only

I am one of the many bloggers that are participating in the Teese vegan cheese challenge. I was able to choose which of the flavors I wanted (we picked a back up flavor, they ended up giving us both, which so awesome!) and then were asked to make something that really hadn't been done before.

The flavors I got were Mozzarella and Nacho Sauce. First up: Nacho!

I thought and thought, trying to come up with something I hadn't seen yet. And based on the google search for recipes, this isn't something that's come up lot. Perhaps it's because there's only a small population of people out there who actually like grits.

I normally only see cheddar cheese in Cheese Grits, but I thought the Nacho would give a nice mexi flavor. This is the recipe I ended up with:

3 cups water

3/4 cups quick cooking grits (I used white)

2 garlic cloves, put through a garlic press (roasted garlic would probs be alot better)

salt

2 green chilies from a can, chopped small

2-3 T nooch

fresh ground pepper

1/2 t red pepper flakes

Teese nacho cheese sauce (a 1/4 of the small tube...maybe 1/4 cup?)

I boiled the water, the lower heat to simmer and put in the grits, salt and garlic. Whisk, leave uncovered and stir occasionally for about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and top with hot sauce if desired.

Personally, this isn't my favorite. I think I would prefer it with a non-nacho cheese, but I am going to try it again tomorrow because I believe time will make the flavor better. It's not bad, but it's just not something I'm excited about. Perhaps it could also use some baking? The cheese has an odd smell to it, like an artificial smell, that I found a bit disconcerting. But it didn't taste weird. I would like to try it as a melted queso sauce and will perhaps try other things with my leftovers of it. Do you have any suggestions?? Also, suggestions for the mozzarella?? I'm thinking of stuffing mushrooms with it..

Update, next day: I just ate a delicious breakfast burrito that consisted of the chili cheese grits, avocado, sauteed Gimme Lean sausage, green pepper and onion. So yum!! Also, the grits do taste better with a little aging (doesn't that look misspelled?)!

Butter Pee-can

2010-03-10T00:43:00.000-08:00

I came across Soy Dream's new flavor, Butter Pecan, at Fred Meyer's tonight and I was feeling old (have you ever heard a 5 year old ask for some Butter Pecan ice cream? I didn't think so...), so I bought some. My sister, our housemate Helena and I usually watch the new episode of Greek on Tuesday nights together, so I thought ice cream (I mean, non dairy frozen dessert*) would be a nice accompaniment. Helena was missing, but Kim and I dug into the pint of Butter Pecan. We thought it was good, especially when you had a lot of pecan pieces, but it wasn't great. I don't think it's something I would buy again unless it was very on sale. It's just that with the greatness of Trader Joe's/Double Rainbow Soy Very Cherry Chip, you feel ripped off when something else you bought just doesn't make you as swoony. It makes me wish they had more flavors at Trader Joe's. The problem with the Butter Pecan was the soybeany aftertaste and the ice cream didn't have the luscious creaminess that Double Rainbow's has.

I give this 3 out of 5 stars.

* Did you know that in America, your product has to be at least 10% milk fat for it to be legally called "ice cream"? Stupid. To me, that's like saying you can't call a vegan sausage a sausage because it doesn't have real meat in it. I've encountered people who have gotten up in arms about the ice cream thing (I'm talking to you, commenter dude, on Grant Butler's vegan blog!). I sorta get it because you want ice cream to mean literally iced cream...but no. Actually, I don't get it. As long as it's labeled correctly, with either "non dairy" or "vegan" before the words "ice cream", why does it matter? Those words describe what it is, or trying to be. "Frozen dessert" could be anything; push pops, fudge pops, creamsicles....Ok, rant over...

Eggplant Product Review

2010-03-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

So a few months ago, I received some coupons to try out Dominex products. They have several products, but don't expect something without eggplants, their logo says Dominex "The Eggplant People." I'm not a huge fan of this vegetable, to me it's like cats or celery, if they disappeared from Earth, I wouldn't be upset. Ok, actually, I know quite a few cats now that I like and would be sad if they disappeared and celery is a vegetable I actually dislike, so I wouldn't say it's in the same category as eggplant, which I neither like nor dislike...So really, ignore that whole sentence...It's all to say, that currently none of my favorite things involve eggplant. But see...now that I'm thinking about it, I do enjoy some baba ghannouj, the stuffed mini eggplants from Ya Halla's are so good, and breaded eggplant is yum. Though the last doesn't count, because have you ever had something breaded and fried that you didn't love?

Which brings me to the first product I've tried: The Eggplant Cutlets. Aka breaded eggplant. The way I cooked them was on the stovetop and in the oven. The stovetop ended up being the preferred method. The oven ones took longer than instructed. Which is probably just the fault of the oven, but I'm not sure what the deal was and why it took so dang long. The above picture shows them (stovetop cooked) with a Cluckphrey "chicken" patty (I will blog about those soon) and whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and nutritional yeast. They tasted good, they tasted like you think they'll taste. I added some salt on top of mine. Because I dislike making breaded eggplant myself, I would possibly buy these. If they were on sale. My friend Jess quite liked them.

I still have yet to try the Vegan Burgers that are in my freezer. I never have buns for burger-shaped foods and have this mental block where I don't like using pieces of loaf bread for burgers. Also, it doesn't seem like the type of burger that you should eat breadless. So...eventually, my dears, I will get to trying those out.

Higher Taste are makers of yum.

2010-02-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

Last fall me and the GetSconed chick were gifted with a large amount of goods from Higher Taste, a local company that is known for it's buzzitos and hippie-healthy (for real, they put a shit-ton of shredded carrots on them and use hearty whole wheat buns) sandwiches.

Included was the buzzitos, hummus, their deli salads, and one of their sandwiches, the Spicy TLC. The deli salads are served in various grocery store deli's and not available in the self-service area like the buzzitos and sandwiches.

Jess took the hummus and let me have all the deli salads. Unfortunately, I got all these goodies at a time where I was unable to get to everything before their expiration date. I don't remember what was going on, but for some reason I ended up having to throw some of the stuff out. But I did try at least a bite of it when I first got it. My favorite deli salad was the Vegetarian Chicken Salad. The only thing I didn't like about the (vegan) mayo based salad was the celery. I'm a hater of celery. It has to be very finely chopped or cooked to death for me to be ok with it. They use chunks of very firm tofu as the "chicken." I enjoyed the curry goodness of the Curried Rice salad. I'm a sucker for those curry rice salads that have a nice sweet kick that comes from the addition of raisins. The Spicy Yaki Soba is just that, spicy. But as a person who's a bit of a wuss when it comes to spice, it wasn't too hot. Also, it's labeled vegan, but technically not since it's got honey in it. I'm a honey-eatin' vegan, so I didn't mind. Then there was the German Potato Salad. I thought it was...ok. Nothing to write home about. I would eat it happily if served it, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

The salads are sold at the following places:

1. Both Food Front locations (NW Thurman & SW Capitol Highway)

2. Zupan's (W Burnside, SW Macadam, SE Belmont) However, at Zupans they list them as "Zupan's insert name of salad here Salad"

3. Fred Meyer's Hawthorne

4. Ross Island Deli

5. First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis

6. The Kiva in Eugene

I don't have anything bad to say about any of the buzzitos I had. The standout was the new Ya-hoo BBQ. The yummy BBQ sauce, the soycurls....yum! If you still haven't had soycurls, you need to get to it! Like tofu, they aren't flavored so they soak up whatever flavor you give them and they have a delightfully shredded chicken texture. (If you know me at all, you know that I love going to Taqueria Los Gorditos and order a burrito, torta, taco, whathaveyou with soycurls. They do an awesome job with the soy curls...and everything. but i digress...) The thai and teriyaki ones are sorta strange b/c it's like eating a thai or teriyaki dish wrapped in a tortilla...b/c that's what it is. Good, just weird.

My favorite sandwich is still either The Golden Slice, a fried piece of tofu with the usual shredded carrots, vegenaise, whole wheat bun, or the Bhima Power Burger, a hearty sandwich consisting of a tempeh burger with the same extras.

You can go check out Jess's review here. Do you have a favorite Higher Taste product?

Moving day quickly approaches...

2010-02-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of moving back to Vancouver, Washington. Because some may not know, let me explain that Vancouver is really just a suburb of Portland. You cross a river (the mighty Columbia) and booya, you're there. The river crossing is actually the most annoying part. There's only 2 bridges that go over there (the other is highway 205) and traffic gets really bad from about 7:45-9:30am going into Portland and then again at 3:00-6:30pm going back to the 'Couv. It's ridiculous. I forget about it when I'm in Portland, but whenever I visit (or today, when I took a car load of boxes) and I'm like, crap, this sucks. Today I left at 2:40pm and the traffic was already shitty. I believe this happened so early because of the 3 day (for some people) weekend. When there's no traffic I can get to my sister's house in about 15 minutes. Today it took 35 minutes. Blah.

My hours at work are pretty weird, so I hope to not hit traffic much on my commutes.

Remember awhile back when I posted what was in my fridge? Well, Jess reviewed the products a couple weeks ago and I'm about to. That shall be my next post after I've moved!

I shall miss this girl and this porch...

Favorite Bars

2010-01-23T01:33:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in Sarasota, Florida, my home town. The time here is 4:30am, but that's 1:30am Portland time and I'm still on Portland time...I just got here this morning (Friday morning) and I took a nap after arriving here on a red eye flight. But, yeah, kind of wide awake.

Note: LAX is one of the worst airports I've been to. I expected more since celebrities use it quite a bit. It's dumpy looking (ok, it's under construction, I think, so hopefully improvements are on their way) and the food choices suck. My sister and I shared a cheeseless veggie pizza at a California Pizza Kitchen Express. It was so blah.

Today I have eaten: hashbrowns with green peppers and onions, french fries, more french fries (mmm...Chick-Fil-A waffle fries), some white rice w/veggies that my mom got at a mall food place, pretzels, mom's homemade handheld cherry pies, Tempt ice cream, a piece of mom's cinnamon bread....and some Dr. Pepper and beer. Yeah, a real good healthy day...

Only 9 days left...

But back to the subject, me and Jess planned on doing this post during Vegan MoFo, but never finished it before the end of October. Well, correction, I finished it, someone else didn't finish it. ahem. Well, she posted it on her page, so I'm just going to link it. Please let us know what your favorite bars are and what's vegan there that you like! (this includes out-of-Portlanders!)

More Waffles...and some sausage

2010-01-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

This morning I was perplexed at what I would eat for breakfast. I was out of my English muffins that I normally eat, toasted with peanut butter and jelly. Then I remembered that I had bought these new waffles, Nature's Path's Flax Plus with Figs. I think they were on sale, I definitely bought them spur of the moment style. The inclusion of figs just sounded so delicious.

I haven't been in much of a waffle mood so I had forgotten about them. So when I remembered them this morning, I decided to give them a go. I also had Gardenburger's faux sausage patties in the freezer. I had gotten them a long time ago and hadn't been mad impressed with the two I had eaten so I hadn't finished the box. I really miss Morningstar brand sausages. Those are the best faux sausages! Unfortunately, they have egg in them so I had to stop buying them. I think I heard they are working on making more of their products vegan, so I look forward to see if that is one of things they are changing.

Anyways, I put two of the waffles in the toaster oven and then heated two of the sausage patties on the stove top. I topped the waffles with a little bit of maple syrup and had some ketchup and Chalula mixed up to dip the sausage in. I really liked the waffles! It was a lot like the other waffles I get from them, but with the addition of tasty fig bits. Frozen waffles are one of my main convenience foods. I do have a waffle maker but I used it only once, a couple weeks ago. My sister is the one that actually used it, I watched. It's a Hello Kitty one that I got from her a couple years ago (it was a presentfor her brother-in-law and he didn't want it, "too girly"). The waffles were tough to get out and....yeah, work....frozen waffles are cheap. Granted, they don't come in cute Hello Kitty shapes....

And the sausages. Well, they came out better than I remember! Not sure if I'll buy them again, but good to know they don't suck as much as I thought.

One of them Shout Out things

2010-01-12T13:16:00.001-08:00

Beauty in Everything

If you aren't already looking at Are You My Ghost's Tumblr, you should. Renai picks out the best things to look out. It makes me happy when I see the close up of kitten paws, cute kittens, many lovely pictures, -oh, did i mention kitty pictures? For reals, it makes me almost want a cat. She gets alot of her images from SkyInMyPocket, so thanks, Alethea for your lovely posts!

The annual New Years Meal

2010-01-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

I have posted my New Years Meal previously. I look forward to making it with my sister each January 1st. This year was no exception. We had it at me and missy's place and had some other guests as well. Instead of our normal Tofurkey beer brats, Kim made Isa's Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh. It was good, but I kinda miss the beer brats and think I'll bring 'em back next time (or at least make some of my own steamed sausages).

When I was at Grocery Outlet that day I spied the Kuhne brand Rotkraut (translated: Red Kraut). It's sauerkraut made with red/purple cabbage and there's a sweetness to it. I ate it alot when I was in Germany. I would say it was more prominent there then the sauerkraut that most people think of when they think 'Germany'. It got a warm welcome at our meal and I was excited to introduce something to my friends that they hadn't had before.

We bought Bubbies jar of sauerkraut and finished the whole thing! I like non-refrigerated a little better because of the softer kraut, but I'll take whatever I can get!

My sister Kim also made a batch of black eyed peas. I think she said she got the recipe from Kittee. They reminded me a lot of the ones from Bye & Bye, but better. I don't like the Bye & Bye's recipe. It's spicy and tastes weird. (Yeah, there's something I don't like at the B&B, crazy, right?)

I made Nava Atlas' Greens w/Black Eyed Peas recipe, as always, and then we had some mashed potatoes.

I have started making this meal during the year after realizing that I shouldn't be denying myself so horribly and only eating this meal once a year.

Do you have an "lucky" New Years meal each year? What's your favorite thing to do with sauerkraut?

Testing for Isa's New Book

2009-12-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

Isa, co-author/author of such awesomeness as Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Brunch, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and the brand new Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (good God, she can pump out cookbooks!) is currently in the process of writing a weight reduction/healthy cookbook. I tested previously for her for V'con and I hope to be doing a bit better (i.e. testing more recipes) this time around. So far I have liked every single thing I've tested, with a lot of love for some of them. My favorite definitely is the awesome Curried Corn Chowder. So! Good! Y'all should be in great anticipation for this new cookbook!

My most recent testing was for Pasta con Broccoli. With a whole head of garlic in it, this isn't for those who dislike this pungent vegetable. I didn't follow the recipe exactly since I didn't have all the ingredients, but I also added Gardein Seasoned Chunks that I had found on sale at a Safeway. I've had Gardein once or twice before and had just thought they were ok. I wasn't blown away like Ellen DeGeneres seems to be. I like that they seem to be made from all natural ingredients and healthy for you, but the texture is sometimes weird. So I tried them again. I added the chunks to the pasta recipe.....and they again didn't blow me away. I think I need to cook them longer so they get more firm.

This pasta dish turned out pretty good. I think next time I'll cook the garlic longer and use a little less. I ended up throwing out quite a bit of it because the garlic slices ended up kinda big and I didn't like the idea of eating it straight up. The only time I don't mind that is when it's been roasted, then bring on the whole cloves!

I used spinach bowtie pasta that I had picked up at Grocery Outlet. I love bowtie pasta and I love spinash pasta, so it's like a match made in my own private heaven!

Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree...

2009-12-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time Portland was buried in snow, my flight had just gotten cancelled and rescheduled for 5 days later, and I was in the start of a much-needed 2 week vacation from work. The times...they are a'changing....

I've got two jobs that totally 14-19 hours a week and no snow in sight. I'm going to Florida (aka home) the end of January with my sister and brother-in-law and very much look forward to the (Lord willing, since a couple years ago I went in January and there was a COLD SPELL!) warm sunshine..and, you know, friends and family.

I have been pondering going overseas again. I haven't gone to another country (besides Canada) since 2003 when I had lived in Germany for a year and done lots of roaming around. I had been thinking about it, but what really got me thinking of it for real was the book Eat, Pray, Love. I didn't really like this book, but it made me think. I remember when I was in Edinburgh, Scotland and I wrote down in my journal (or a letter...I don't remember...I don't normally journal much though) that I wanted to come back to this city some time and stay a couple months to work and play. I feel like right now is my chance. Technically this summer would've been a smarter time to go.....but right now I still don't have a "real" full time job, I'm not on a lease and I have a friend that could be move into my room while I'm gone. We, along with my roommate, had talked about getting a place together. So hypothetically, we would look for a place when I get back and until we find something, I could live with my sister. She's been wanting me to move back anyways. :o)

Does anyone know of any good programs/jobs in Edinburgh or Australia? (I've been thinking of going to Australia since I've never gone and a lot of my friends have and really liked it)

Foodwise: Last night I made 3 adorable small loaves of Pound Cake. I frikkin' love that stuff! When I was younger I would get my mom to buy the Sara Lee frozen pound cake and I would eat the shit out of it. I can't believe that I wasn't fat as a youngin'. I was a bit on the chubby side, but not quite. I ate a lot of veggie-less macaroni salad, hardboiled eggs (including deviled eggs), pound cake, McDonald's and Burger King, trail bologna, cheese, and lots of soda.

The pound cake I made was from Veganomicon (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romano). I don't know if I've ever made it exactly as the recipe states. I never have the citrus extracts and rarely do I have the zest needed. I use whatever flavor soy yogurt I have on hand and the first time I made it I didn't have the amount of arrowroot asked for, but it came out good anyways! This time I used Key Lime yogurt that had expired last week. (Previously I've also used cherry....really almost ever flavor would work) I had thought I would give them as small gifts to a couple people so I used my aluminum miny loaf pans Missy had convinced me to buy at Grocery Outlet. They turned out delicious and, dare I say, moist!

I just have to say, thank God for Isa and Terry!

ChaseNoFace...no freakin' way!

2009-12-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

I was reading one of my favorite pop culture blogs the other day and he (Rich) gave a link to a blog that follows the life of a 4 year old cat named Chase who was in a accident when she was 3-5 weeks old. The accident injuries eventually led to the kitty having no mouth, eyelids...face. She does have eyes, which is extremely odd since SHE HAS NO EYELIDS! According to the blog, the cat is in no pain and when she wants to sleep she usually goes under the bed or in a dark room. But, seriously, you have to see these pictures! On an empty stomach! It will blow your mind. It reminds me of Mike the headless chicken a bit.

Did I ever tell you that I love Jen Corace's art? Well, I do. I forgot that I used to follow her blog until I thought of her the other day (all my bookmarks got erased awhile back when my friend reset everything on my computer). She's the one that drew the infamous Cowhugger design that I can't get enough of (I have the sticker on my car, the long sleeve green and the deep v-neck purple, my favorite) and she used to do a lot of illustrations in one of Portland's alternative weekly papers, The Mercury. When I first found out about her art, I contacted her, saying I was interested in getting a tattoo designed by her. She said she was good with a trade, but I don't really make/do anything specific and soon after I heard she had an idea for me....I never heard from her again. I did meet her in person once when she was here for a gallery opening at Motel downtown. She was nice but I think we're both pretty awkward with strangers so we didn't talk much. (just so you know, I don't blame her for never getting back to me. She's very busy with her art and if I were her, I may have done the same...I just wish I could've found out what she thought of)

Well, I have a ladies night (theme: manly poker night) to get to!

WaffleWaffleWaffle....GranolaGranolaGranola!

2009-12-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so a loooooong ass time ago, I was given some frozen waffle products by Nature's Path foods. One was the Homestyle gluten free and the other was one of the fruity varieties. I accidentally left the fruit ones at work and my bosses and their kids ate them....so I didn't get to try them. :o) But from what they tell me, they were tasty!

So, I did get to eat the gluten free ones. I'm always skeptical about gluten free bready things. They usually end up with a weird taste and quite dry and crumby. So I was pleasantly surprised by these waffles. I toasted them up in my toaster oven, smeared a little peanut butter, drizzled it with maple syrup and ate them right up! There's no strange flavor, just a nice yummy waffle. I was wondering what to have for breakfast yesterday and I was wanting something warm, that's when I remembered I still had 2 of these in my freezer. After several months opened in the freezer, they were a little dry and crumbly, but the taste was still good!

A couple months I was sent 3 boxes of Nature's Path Granola. I had previously tried, and loved, the Pomegran Plus. It was some dried sour cherries in there, as well as coconut. So good!!

I'll review them in order from least liked to most liked.

The one I liked least was the Agave Plus. It had sunflower seeds in it and just had this weird taste to it. I like sunflower seeds a lot, but they tasted strange here. I would never buy this one. Even if it was 99 cents a box....

Second best/worst was the Vanilla Almond Flax Plus. I'm usually not a huge fan of vanilla flavored granolas, I think they end up tasting too cloying. It's like the vanilla flavoring is kicking you in the face, daring for you to ignore it. This granola was no exception to my rule. It had a strange flavor to it. I wouldn't say I hated it, I would eat it if given a bowl of it, but if I had other options (such as the Pomegran Plus!) I wouldn't choose it.

The best in the bunch was the Pumpkin Flax Plus. Of course, the name insinuates there's going to be a pumpkin flavor to it...it doesn't. It just has pumpkin seeds in the mix. Good ole pepitas! There is some cinnamon in the granola, which is maybe why I like it. I like this granola and would definitely buy it when the granola mood hits. Well...if they were out of the Pomegran Plus :o)

Oh, I just remembered that I've also had their Hemp Plus granola! I was on a kick for awhile, getting that stuff a lot. I think I stopped getting it after the Pomegran Plus hit the market. I'm a sucker for cherries, what can I say? The Hemp Plus has a sorta strange taste, which I think is due to the hemp seeds. Those little guys just have an odd taste, but I love them and have acquired a taste for them.

Thanks so much to Nature's Path for the samples to review!

DC Vegetarian makes good sandwiches

2009-11-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

mmmmmm......

No, shit, this thing is delicious. This "thing" is the Vegan Steak & Cheese from the downtown Portland food cart, DC Vegetarian. There is only one thing I would change (yes, I know, I'm never satisfied, but I'm not saying it wasn't good, just hear me out!): the seitan pieces. I would like them to either be smaller cubes or, preferably, chopped up. Those chunks are sometimes as wide as a quarter and just makes it a bit awkward to eat.

The sandwich consists of a toasted wheat sub hoagie, grilled onions and peppers, Follow Your Heart white cheese, and some kind of mysterious sauce. It rocks my mouth. Also, it's only $5. I would say it's not as good as the one I had in Philly, but at almost $3 less, I would choose it over the Philly one with no hesitation.

This food cart's been around for a few months and since it's on the West side I don't get there very often. This was my second trip there. The staff is always friendly and since they've opened they've gotten more vegan options. They also carry Dr. Pepper, which always gets bonus points from me. The day I got the above sandwich they were doing a food bank drive and were giving 50% sandwiches if you brought some kinda of nonparishable in, so I got this sandwich for only $2.50. A freakin' deal! I did drive there and spent 50 cents on parking, so really $3, but still, good deal.

You can find all their options here. I've had nothing else besides this sandwich so I can't suggest anything else, but let me know if you have one for me! Though, really, I doubt I'll want to get anything else since I get there very often. It takes about 10 minutes to get your food after you order it, so I would advise calling ahead if the weather sucks, you're in a hurry, or you just already know what you want and want to make it snappy. Their contact info is on their website.

Fashion, i do so love thee...

2009-11-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

...even though i can't say that i'm very good at putting together something to wear. Or buying the clothes. I feel like I always end up with something a lot more boring than I intended. One of my favorite blogs is GoFugYourself. They discuss the clothes that celebrities wear, good and bad, with a humor and wittiness that I envy (I mean, I know I'm funny and all but I can't convey that very well in my writing). My favorite is when they do something they call Dialogues. They talk as if they were the people in the picture. Cracks me up, yo. I enjoy a celebrity blog that doesn't cut down the person themselves, just what they decide to wear.

Another thing I love to do is go on Flickr and type in "wardrobe_remix" in the search. There's a bunch of fashiony people (and lots of nonfashiony people that put up multiple pictures of the same damn outfit! Two is the max, people!!) that take pictures of their daily wears and put them online for all to see. Usually they will say where they got everything they're wearing, which is awesome if you see a pair of great shoes or jeans. It's mostly females, but there's a few males in there. Usually they're the ones that like wearing skirts, not like transvestites, but they're just guys wearing a skirt.

I also like fashion from books. The blog What Claudia Wore is a favorite of mine as well, though the author doesn't update like she used to. This funny blogger reads Babysitters Club books and takes direct quotes from the book of what the characters are wearing. It used to be just what Claudia, the style-y and fashionable one, of course, was wearing, but since the others wear humorous 90s-licious stuff she started including everyone. Man, those outfits were awful sounding...

I don't buy a lot of stuff online, since I like to try stuff on before committing to it. But there are a lot of good sites out there. Some of my favorites:

Lulu's (awesome vegan shoes to be had, my friends!)

She-Bible

Alternative Outfitters

Herbivore Clothing

I have been watching The L Word the last few years and the character Alice wears a lot of stuff I would *love* to have for my very own. I couldn't find any good images online of my favorite stuff she wore, but this dress ain't bad. The first couple seasons she didn't wear a lot of dresses, now that's all you'll see her in. There definitely a couple times when I've been, like, no, no, please take that off, it's AWFUL. But I don't think there will ever be a person who I'll agree with their choices 100%. Plus, that's a character...you know? I don't know who I'd pick if I had to choose whose celebrity closet I'd raid. I like a lot of Anne Hathaway's more recent dresses. Ok, maybe I lied. I just looked at some of her stuff and disapproved. I normally dislike Chloe Sevigny's taste in clothes, but her dress for the Emmy's was awesome and I want. Drew Barrymore has been wearing a lot of crazy shit, but I actually liked this dress, though I would prefer it in a color that's not screaming at me and her hair is bad. Also that it doesn't look like there's teeth where your vaheena is.

I frikkin' love tulle! The laciness is dreamy. I couldn't find a lot of images that really captured my love for it, but oh well....I spent way too long on google images just for those two examples...

I hate shoulder pads and they've come back. In 6th grade I didn't know any better and I thought whatever The Limited Too sold was the Shit. I heard them called Power Shoulders or something, but that doesn't make them look any better. No, no, no, no!

Do you have favorite fashion blogs?

Empire State of Mind and other songs

2009-11-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

Another post that has nothing to do with veganism. I do have posts in the works for food related stuff, like Nature's Path granolas and the Higher Taste goodies and eventually I'll talk about Dominex products but I haven't gone to New Seasons in a really long time so I haven't been able to pick up their stuff....

Oh, first! Good news, y'all!! Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints are back for the holidays!!! I was at Target and had gone to pick up a favorite chocolate bar (Chocolove's Almond and Cherry Dark Chocolate) and then realized I had heard that the vegan holiday Junior Mints were back, so I went to the Christmas section of candy and lo and behold, there they were! I was so psyched, I got two 99 cent boxes of them. Yum!!

Ok, so back to music. I was picking up my friend Amanda and noticed she had Jay-Z's newest cd. Her domestic partner had checked it out of the library, lucky for me, so I grabbed so I could download it while at the coffee shop. I've become a big fan of the song, Empire State of Mind. Give it a listen:

Every time Alicia Keys sings "in Neeeeew Yorkkkk" it makes me happy. Love it.

Then there's the new Lady Gaga song, Bad Romance. I saw it for the first time when I came across a post on Jezebel.com that broke it down into 20 stills. It amused me and Lady Gaga continues to amuse me with her ridiculous outfits and songs that don't seem catchy at first ("Paparazzi" is a prime example of this. The first time I heard this I was, like, people like this, really?! But now when I catch it on the radio I don't change the station, I sing along.). I also started liking her more after seeing her performance on Saturday Night Live. I think it was the second performance and she started out by singing a song while in some crazy mechanical circles that moved around her body and then she sat down at the piano and sang. I wasn't crazy about the song she sang at the piano but I thought she did well and it seemed so out of character for her.

After watching the video a second time when I was looking at Mercury's Blogtown, I've become a bit attached. It's just so entertaining: The shoes she wears! Her multiple outfits! The crazy makeup/head get ups!

Check it:

What are you listening to/enjoying?

Hallow's Eve

2009-10-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm vegan, so technically this is a "vegan" post, but it's not about food. It's about the costumes I've had the past couple years. I am friends with people who LOVE party themes and getting dressed for said themes. The few years I've gone to a college party, dress-as-your-favorite-christmas-character party, halloween (obvs) parties, and my favorite (possibly because it was my idea and all) Onesie party (this is when you wear something that is a one piece outfit that gathers at the crotch, as in, not a dress! I need to do another one of those because that was fun and I feel like I could've done better with my outfit).

A couple years ago I was going to a Halloween party and my friends balked at the idea of me going costumeless. My friend Kathleen had a wolf mask so I went with it.

As you can see, all I did was wear all black and then wear my new bright pink plaid shirt I had been wanting to wear. I can't remember what I told people I was. I was, more like, dude, I have a wolf mask on! Obviously, I'm a.....girl wolf. Or something. If I had known about the Twilight series I would've said I was Leah...

Last year was my first Halloween as Missy's roommate and we wanted to go as a duet. We decided on a favorite duet, Popeye and Olive Oyl.

As you can see, Missy went all out. She whipped this awesome outfit up in one night and I think she did a hell of a job. She helped by sewing on my lace to a red shirt of mine and the yellow ribbon on to my black skirt. I wore some white socks rolled down and a pair of shoes that I had. I wasn't happy with my hair, but I wasn't about to spend money on a wig. What's ridiculous is how long it took me to remove the ribbon and lace from my clothes. Months! And more months! Seriously....I think it was in the spring...

So what are y'all dressing up as tomorrow? I'm not totally sure as of yet. Me, Missy and my friend Corinn were going to go as TLC (I was going to be Left Eye Lopez), but we're no longer doing that.....

The Portland Vegan 100

2009-10-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

So these lists have been all over the place. I did the generic vegan one awhile back. Jess has compiled, with the help of friends and fellow vegan bloggers, a list of stuff from Portland.

You're supposed to bolden the ones you've done or cross out the ones you'll never do. Since I don't know how to cross out words HTML style, I'm just going to do it my own way. I'm sure you'll figure it out....

1. Fries with spicy tofu sauce at Dots- yes
2. $1 Corndog from Hungry Tiger Too- oh, hells, yes!
3. Chick-o-Stick doughnut from Voodoo Doughnuts- i think so
4. Tiramisu from Portobello- yes
5. Vegan Mulita from Gorditos or Gorditos II- yup
6. Nanotear Ham and Cheeze sandwich from Tube- oh, hell to the yes!
7. Milkshake from Sip- yup
8. Gnocchi from Portobello- yes
9. Caramel Nut Bar from Sweetpea Baking Co.- yes
10. Soft serve from Blossoming Lotus- yes
11. Local cherry tomatoes from a farmers market-yes
12. Dong Po Tofu from Bay Leaf- i don't think so
13. Jerked chickun from Assase Ital- no
14. A Big Big Lunch Special from an Indian cart- yes
15. Soy latte made with Stumptown espresso- yes
16. A crappy tofu scramble- yes
17. Cornmeal pizza from Dovi Vive.- yes, mmmm
18. Weeping Tiger sandwich from Bye & Bye- no
19. Bye & Bye or Floor Punch from Bye & Bye- yes!
20. A Bowl meal from a cart- yes
21. vegan nutella from freddy's hazelnuts- no
22. soy curls in bulk from food fight or proper eats- yes
23. buffalo wings from Vita- yes
24. the weekday vegan pancakes from Laurelthirst- yes
25. Maple vegan sausage waffle from flavourspot- yes
26. Drunken noodles with pepper steak from Thai Food Cafe- no
27. Macnocheeto from Homegrown Smoker- no
28. Veggie platter from an Ethiopian restaurant- yes
29. Blackberries picked from a public place- i think...
30. Baba Ganouj from Ya Hala- yes!
31. Coconut Mashed Yams from Papa G’s- yes
32. Butternut Squash Wontons from Hungry Tiger Too- mmmmm, yes
33. Vegan slice from Bella Faccia- yes
34. Apple pie from Whiffies- yes
35. Chili dog from Zach’s Shack- no
36. Vegan poutine from Potato Champion- yes
37. Missionary Chocolate Truffle- oh, hells yes!
38. Apron Activists 4-Course Dinner- yup!
39. Hot Wok at New Seasons- yeah
40. Che Guevara Burrito from Laughing Planet- yeah
41. Bryan’s Bowl from Por Que No?- yes
42. Pad Thai from Pad Thai Kitchen- yes!!
43. Cupcake from a stand at Last Thursday- no
44. The Giant Pancake at Hungry Tiger Too- yes
45. TLP from Red & Black Cafe- yes
46. Cornmeal tempeh plate from Proper Eats- no
47. Tofu Po Boy at Palm State Gumbo- yes
48. Maple Walnut Scone from Back to Eden- no
49. Vegan Mezza platter from a Lebanese restaurant- yes
50. Crispy eggplant from Fujin- no
51. Lemongrass Tofu Sticks from Van Hanh- no
52. Tofu Salad Bun at Pho PDX- no
53. Cocktail made with local liquor- yes
54. Biscuits and Gravy from Paradox- yes
55. Smoky soy curls from Homegrown Smoker- mm, yes
56. Field Roast sausage- yes
57. Secret Aardvark Hot Sauce- yes, too spicy for me!
58. Toddbot's Triangles- yes
59. Local microbrew- yes
60. Hot Lips soda- yes
61. Herb Crusted Tofu with Mushroom Marsala from The Farm Cafe- yes
62. had a picnic in Laurelhurst Park- yes
63. burrito from Shelley's Honkin Huge Burritos- yes
64. Eggplant tibs from Bete Lukas- no
65. Tator Tots before noon or after midnight- of course!
66. Lone Ranger from Chaos Cafe- no
67. Sunday brunch at Sweetpea!- yes
68. Tofu at a BBQ place (for example Derby Mustard Sauce Tofu at Russel Street BBQ)- no
69. Mint Fava Falafel at Nightlight Lounge- no
70. An unexciting hummus plate at a bar.- yes
71. Vegan meatball sub from Aalto Lounge- no
72. Koi Fusion spicy tofu tacos- yes
73. Veggie dog from the Vegi dog stand- yes
74. Sesame chicken from a vegetarian chinese restaurant- yes
75. Bagel with Bacun Scallion cream cheese from Sweetpea -yes
76. Vegan savoury crepe- yes
77. Veggie kibbeh- maybe, i have a hard time knowing the names of the lebanese things i eat
78. Club Vegan at Backspace- i think
79. ice cream sundae from Back to Eden- yes
80. Raw fudge from Blossoming Lotus- yes
81. Tempeh reuben- yes
82. Pause vegan burger- yes
83. vegan ribs- yes
84. something baked with local marionberries- yes
85. Veggie bento box- yes
86. Dave's Killer Bread- yes
87. Higher Taste Buzzitos- yes
88. Thai food that the server swears is vegan, but you taste fish sauce.- heh...
89. Elephant ear from the Saturday Market- no
90. Dovetail sticky bun- oh, yes!
91. savoury pie from Nicholas restaurant- yes
92. Salad rolls from the Just Thai cart- no
93. Vegan torta from Gorditos II- heck yes!
94. Nutritional yeast on your popcorn at a movie theater- yes
95. Vegan grilled cheese from The Grilled Cheese Grill- yes
96. Pasilla burrito from El Nutri- no
97. Something from the vegetarian menu at Andina- no
98. Vegan Steak and Cheese from D.C. Vegetarian- yes
99. Dragon Noodles at Red & Black Cafe - no
100. Falafel from Wolf & Bears- no

Yeah, i just pretty much answered yes or no...

Stuff I ate

2009-10-26T13:52:00.001-07:00

This past Friday I was at Sweetpea and Katie told me that some biscuits and gravy were just about to be ready to eat, so I waited patiently and soon I had some pretty Bacon Chedder Biscuits & Gravy in front of me.

or should I say, Bacun Cheder?

That's some Daiya cheese (well, I assume, I wasn't told, but Daiya has a certain shredded look about it, wouldn't you say?) and some Bac'uns on top. It was also in the biscuits themselves. I do so love a white, peppery Southern gravy. I have yet to really be impressed by Daiya cheese. I don't notice a flavor to it and haven't had it on pizza to see meltiness of it.

These biscuits and gravy were good, but I think I do prefer sausage rather than bacon in my biscuits and gravy. Also, neither the biscuits or the gravy were hot, more like lukewarm. (Note to Katie who may or may not be reading this: don't roll your eyes at me! I love you and Sweetpea!)

On Saturday I went to Sweetpea, as per usual, with my beloved roommate Missy. They had apple fritters again so I went with that. Missy got the Glazed. We both ogled the Chai Spice.

mmmm....fried dough with apples in it....

Apple fritters are a bit greasier tasting than the regular donuts. They're delicious!

Today I'm hanging out at the New Cascadia, a gluten free bakery in the SE (near the big Goodwill). My friend Leila works there and she told me I needed to come in and try one of the vegan cupcakes she decorated special for Hallow's Eve. So I did. (I take instruction pretty well. Like when Katie told I had to come to Sweetpea on a Wednesday, a day I normally don't go, and she had made Pigs in a Blanket. So much delicious pastry dough that day....)

I chose the chocolate with vanilla frosting. (Other choice being chocolate frosting)

oooo.....a mummy!

The cupcake itself was good. You could still taste the glutenfreeness of it, but as these go, it was good. The cake was moist and the frosting was tasty. The other vegan option had a spiderweb with a spider on it. Leila says she plans on doing a vegan one with a bleeding brain on it as well.

You know you love Clueless!

2009-10-22T16:57:00.001-07:00

But if you don't agree we might not be close friends. (ok, that's not true, two of my good friends, Corinn and Missy, aren't big fans....I find we don't have a lot of the same taste in movies)

Last night at Powell's downtown Alicia Silverstone showed up to speak about her new book, The Kind Diet. Around 5pm I had met up with Maeve, Jess and Maeve's friend Sarah at Blossoming Lotus. We were hoping we would run into Alicia there, as it's only a few blocks away from Powell's and it's an all vegan, very healthy restaurant, but alas, she didn't show. We ended up getting to the speaking area more than an hour early, but we hung out and chatted and before we knew it we were sitting in the front row listening to Alicia talk about her journey to a macrobiotic vegan diet. Prior to her appearance we were all warned not to ask any questions about anything other than the book, no posed pictures with her and she wouldn't sign anything other than the book. I was disappointed, but I suppose it makes sense.

Alicia had also gone to Portobello (the only all vegan fancy restaurant here in town, it's Italian) for dinner before the event and said she enjoyed it.

She spoke for about 20 minutes or so and then had a question and answer segment, which I thought she did well on. Jess reminded me that she's probably getting the same questions repeatedly and has them down pat. There was one family (mom and dad -both in their late 40s or so- and a twentysomething son with his girlfriend) that was a self-proclaimed 'meat and taters' family and they asked her how do people like them start making the change. (I can't remembered exactly the question asked) I just thought it was amazing that they were open to it. I think of the meat and potatoes people I know, and I can't imagine.

I was really glad I went and got to see Cher in person. (That's her character's name in Clueless for all you....clueless people. heh...see what I did there? Yeah...) She was funny and cute and wore shoes I didn't like.

Maeve getting her book signed

Aww...Jess's classic hand to heart

I like Alicia's facial expression here.

What ruins these pictures: That ugly ass tablecloth and the dude who's watching over the book signing.

Happy Belated 100th Post to Me!!

2009-10-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

Last post was my 100th. Should I buy myself a drink or something to celebrate? I probably should, but it'd be even better if you did the honors. I kid, of course, after all, this blog was my doing, you didn't *ask* for it. Unless you're Jess, and then, yeah, you did ask...I'd say you owe me a drink, but you've more than made up for it. And I owe you $5 right now....

So, guys, this new job as a waitress has been kinda kicking my ass as of late. Today and yesterday I did my first (and second) a.m. shifts. These start at 7:30am and I'm scheduled to 3pm, which I work til (well, technically the a.m. shift person doesn't end up leaving til 3:30) unless the call-in shift person comes in because it's busy and then if it gets slow the a.m. person leaves....which is what happened today. I was happy for it though. I got to leave almost 2 hours early. Last night my feet were totally tired and I pretty much watched tv the rest of the day in my bed. (There's no digital convertor box in the living room) It was nice and lazy and my feet felt much happier by evening time.

I love working part time like this. I wish I could always do this. The French consider 25 hours a week part time, right? They are so right....

So, let's see....let's talk about vegan stuff....Me and the aforementioned Jess will be doing a joint post soon, so look for that. Maybe Friday?

Actually, I think I will just talk about the restaurant I work at. Just to give it some love, since I didn't include it in my favorite breakfast places. I work at Paradox Cafe. It's been around for years here in Portland, but the current owner has owned it for only a few. Paradox and Vita Cafe were owned by the same people, but sold to different people, which is why they share a lot of the same menu items but now differ in decor and new menu items. Paradox's owner worked there before buying it and she's a nice lady named Bonnie. She seems to be honestly interested in our (employees) welfare and she reminds me a bit of a couple of my other former bosses. This is diner food, but she wants to make it as healthful as possible, which is one of the reasons corndogs are no longer on the menu. She said the corn outside could squeeze out about a 1/2 cup of oil after being fried.

Before working here, I maybe had eaten there once for lunch or dinner. I always ended up with breakfast food. Usually the #1 (tofu, potatoes, and a wheat biscuit with added side of almond gravy to go atop the biscuit) or I'd split the #5 (biscuits and gravy, vegan sausage, tofu and potatoes) with my sister. The tofu is not the most flavorful, but with ketchup and your choice of 4 hot sauces (Srirachi, Chalula, Green Tabasco, Aardvark), it's good. It is marinated tofu, I just can't really taste it. The seasoned breakfast potatoes are some of the tastiest in town. A few times we ordered them (before I worked there) they were lukewarm, but I think when you go and it's busy they do a whole bunch of them at once instead of per order like they normally do, so you have a chance of getting some that may have been sitting around awhile.

Their homemade wheat biscuits and almond gravy were the first vegan biscuits and gravy I ever had, so I have a special place in my heart for them. Even when the biscuits aren't soft or even warm, I can deal. I do wish they would be replaced with a more "buttery", less healthy version. You can get the gravy with their homemade herb and onion bread (cutely called the H.O.G.), which is pretty tasty.

Their vegan sausages used to be from Morningstar, but they now make their own. I would say they're a lovechild of the Morningstar real-like sausage patty and Laurelthirst's very hippy, not-like-real-sausage-at-all sausage. They have something I don't like in them. I think it's fennel seeds, but it doesn't infect the whole patty and so I can eat still them.

One other item I used to get on occasion is their corncakes. Those things are damn tasty! I've not seen a person able to eat the two cakes in one setting. They're very filling and wheat free! You can get them solstice style with nuts and....something else. Can't remember what it is...Or you can get them Mexican style (but they're not on the breakfast menu -which doesn't matter since everything on the menu is served all day- and they're called Tamales, but they're not in corn husks or anything, some people get annoyed by that) with salsa, guacamole, sour cream (you can get vegan sour cream!) and jalapenos. So good! Those jalapenos are hot, be warned!

So when I started working there, I started trying various things on the menu so I would know what it was like and since I really hadn't eaten much besides the items above. (Warning- I may forget a couple of ingredients) I really enjoyed the Thai Stick Salad: spinach leaves, almonds, button mushrooms, red peppers, crispy tempeh sticks, all tossed in a spicy thai dressing. I would get it without mushrooms next time. Not a huge fan of uncooked mushrooms.

The Tempeh Gyro is a favorite among customers (including my friend Jacob- hi, Jacob!). It's tempeh with lettuce, tomato and a special vegan yogurt sauce in a pita. The Treehugger is Dave's Killer Good Seed, vegan cream cheese, guacamole, tomato, lettuce and Tofurkey slices upon addition. I think I'm missing some ingredients in there....I think next time I would sub hummus for the guacamole. I haven't tried our hummus yet but a customer asked for the recipe, so I assume it's good.

The specials vary morning and evening, it's the chef's choice and sometimes they make dang good choices. Like today. The boss lady was working and she had made a killer good cashew gravy. The herb and onion bread were topped with grilled onions, tofu, spinach and mushroom and then covered in the cashew gravy. So! Good! Y'all! A big plate of that for $6.50. Their specials usually are well priced so make sure you take a peek or ask the server what it is.

Their homemade soup is also tasty. Boss lady's been trying out Soy Curls and she made a real yummy soup with those the other day. It was like a Beef Vegetable and there was one lady that I gave a sample to that actually thought it was beef (the soup was called Rosemary Potato & Love).

Almost everything on the menu is vegan. What's not vegan: hamburger (duh! but the veggie burger is vegan even though it doesn't specify that), chicken sausage (another duh), cheddar cheese, real sour cream, Swiss cheese that's on the Reuben and their waffles. Everything else is vegan and there's probably a substitute. They don't have vegan cheese slices, but their two cheese sauces are so good. There's a nacho cheese sauce and another one called Mac & Cheese sauce that's used on the benedicts and on the mac & cheese that's no longer on the menu but can still be ordered. They can do a scramble upon request if so desired but there's none on the menu.

Remember that green onions come on top of just about everything (and margarine if it's that kind of item, i.e. pancakes and toast) so just request them to leave off if that's not your thing. During the week, before 10am, items called numbers, as in the #3, are $1 off.

The service used to kinda suck, but I feel like it's gotten better (after all, I work there...heh) but because it can be so slow with only bursts of busy, there may be only one server if you're there during the week and the food is cooked to order and can take some time. If you're rushed for time, a good bet is the regular biscuits and gravy (herb and onion bread is thick and can take a long time to toast up, keep that in mind if you order soup b/c it comes with it).

Go check it out!

Out for a drive

2009-10-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was picked up by Jeff along with Maeve and Jess to go to lunch at Green Wok, a new vegetarian (well, everything's vegan except the cream cheese in the Crab Rangoons, but that's possibly changing to vegan cream cheese- yay!!) Chinese restaurant out on Capitol Highway. I was skeptical since my true love is Thai food and I've never had anything that great at a Chinese restaurant. The menu is quite massive and I hear it's similar to Vegetarian House, for good reason since the cook used to work there. The ambiance is that of any Chinese restaurant I've been to. The music was of the hmm-they're-playing-that-here? variety. Not that we complained, who doesn't like Weezer while they're drinking Chinese-Restaurant-Tea?

I ordered the Chicken Bird's Nest, which was the dish with the best presentation. A fried shredded potato nest! So cute! The sauce though was not crazy good. It was....ok. Not bad, but this is probably something I wouldn't order again. Jeff got the Orange Chicken, Maeve got the Sesame Chicken and Jess ordered Crispy Bean Curd Pocket with Greens, but instead got what looks like to me Moo Goo Gai Pan with uncrispy bean curd pockets. The breaded and fried pieces of "chicken" were my favorite part. I could definitely eat a whole plate of those, which if you order what Jeff or Maeve did, that's what you get. But since veggies are good for me and I'll eat them (eventually, after picking out the pieces of "meat" first) if they're on my plate, I would prefer them to come with the chicken pieces. Both the Orange and Sesame dishes had a delicious sauce on them. I think they were equally delicious. Jess's was my lease favorite. I was intrigued by the bean curd "pockets" (it's like they had stacked up layers of the tofu pockets used in inari and then cut them into blocks), but the sauce was that weird clear, but slightly opaque-ish gelatinous stuff. The side order of broccoli in tangy sauce was quite good.

All the plates we could handle...Maeve, Jess, Jeff's tattooed atm

All done! Jeff got into the spirit of things (aka pciture taking)

Bird's Nest in the background, Jess's dish in the foreground

After that delicious meal, we headed over to Sip! cart to pick up a seasonal favorite, Pumpkin Milkshakes! They made it with pumpkin puree, Vanilla soy ice cream and spices. It was good! I didn't take a picture of the shake itself, but Jess did!

Favorite Veg Celebrities

2009-10-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

1. Carrie Underwood

I love when someone you wouldn't expect doesn't eat meat. Prime example is people who are in the country music world. Those people (stereotypically of course) love them a good steak! Or at least eat a ton of chicken. You can try to say I'm wrong, but you'd then be wrong. (booya!) The girl doesn't have the best choice in clothes sometimes (as proven here and here), but she's vegetarian!

2. Bob Barker

You know he wants you to spade and neuter your pets, but did you know he also doesn't think you need to eat animals? He can even cook!

3. Joaquin Phoenix

He won't wear animal products for his movies or any other job and he was the voice for Earthlings, the documentary that deals with the issue of "human independence on animals for pets, food, clothes, and entertainment." I've never seen it because I don't like watching that kind of stuff, especially since I already agree with what they're saying and already eat/live vegan.

4. Coretta Scott King!!

Oh, man! I just found this out and I think this is so awesome!

5. Ellen DeGeneres (and her wife Portia de Rossi)

I was wondering when she would go veg because she is constantly talking about her love of animals. I think Portia nudged her in that direction, so thanks Portia! (who I heard is coming out with a line of vegan shoes!)

There's tons more celebrities out there that are veg, who's yer favorite?

Today I made...

2009-10-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

...a casserole! Oh, and roasted russet and sweet potatoes! I wanted to make use of some deteriorating veggies and thought of the comforting goodness of a casserole. Of course, I don't have pictures...that would be more fun. I hate fun....

But I did end up using this recipe, loosely. I used hempmilk instead of soy, a tad of lime juice instead of any lemon, no celery (I'm a hater), shell pasta (two sizes because I'm crazy like that), added sauteed greens, some jalapeno, and frozen peas. Also instead of chips I made breadcrumbs out of toasted bread, Earth Balance, dried basil and oregano. It turned out....ok. Once I added more salt, nooch, and some hot sauce I thought it was good. Not awesome, but good.

I had some potatoes that needed using so while the oven was on I thought I would roast 'em up. I tossed them with olive oil, s & p, and some fresh rosemary and thyme. They turned out really yummy. I probably used too much oil, but I figured it's still not as bad french fries....

Do you have a fall back recipe for when you need to use up some aging veggies? What's your favorite website for recipes?

Want to see what's in my fridge?

2009-10-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I thought so.

it's like i'm at the grocery store! the selection!

cutest little muchacho ever!

The kind people at The Higher Taste gave me and Jess a whole bunch of products to review, so look for that upcoming review. They have 2 new products (including the one with the adorable sombreroed fella) that uses soy curls, deli salads I haven't seen before (Curried Rice, (Faux) Chicken Salad, Yakisoba Salad and German Potato Salad), and hummus (not pictured) that I've never seen before in a store. I'm excited to get to try all the other wraps that I've noticed at the store.

Today Kittee, SisterKim (aka MamaKim) and I went on some errands. We drove out to the Sellwood neighborhood to check out the new location of Sock Dreams and then went on to Bob's Red Mill and Dave's Killer Bread and NatureBake's 'The Healthy Bread Store.' I had coupons for both from the Chinook book. The one for Bob's was for 50% off any of their organic products. Last year my sister bought a 25 lb of all purpose flour and she still had a lot left so we searched around the store looking for something else we would want a lot of. (None of those wussy 1 lb bags for me! You gotta make 'em hurt, as my brother-in-law's friend says...) There wasn't a lot of selection really. No 25 lb bags of organic sugar, nor beans (they get most of their beans from other companies or they're not organic, which the coupon specifies) and, sadly, their Vital Wheat Gluten isn't organic....So after much consideration, we went with the Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. I do a lot of baking and so thought I would go through this faster than, say, a 25 lb bag of Golden Flaxseeds. So the 25lb of pastry flour was only $11, good deal, eh? Well, if it gets all used up. :o)

Nothing too exciting about the bread store. I got two frozen loaves for $2.80 (normally frozen loaves are $2.80 a piece. You can also get them 12 for $2.00/each.)

My 25lb bag and an early Christmas present from SisterKim!

5 Favorite Breakfast Spots in Portland

2009-10-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, another favorites...You like these, right? I thought so!

1. Sweetpea Baking Co- Their doughnuts on Saturdays, danishes on Wednesdays, and Kettleman's bagels with their Tofutti schmears (Bacun Scallion! Chipotle! Veggie! Strawberry! Black Olive!)! It's not always the most nutritious breakfast, but you can't always be looking to eat healthy, right? If you happen to be looking for that though, there's soup! Homemade, yummy soup made by Jesse "I hate you (but not really)" Ives. If you happen to see him (he's the average-height boy with the bandanna on that stays in the middle of the kitchen the whole time), tell him you would love to see piroshkys or vegan ham and cheese sandwiches as options!

mmm...donut....Missy and her sweet love

2. Juniors- First off, let me just put this out here: I dislike their potatoes. Many of my friends, including the girl above with the glazed doughnut, thinks they're great. I don't. I can't really place my finger on what turns me off, but it's somethin'. So I end up asking for the Vegan Potatoes, sub tofu for potatoes. This gets me: scrambled tofu, mushrooms, zucchini, onions covered with spicy tofu sauce. Yum! I remember that Juniors was one of the first places I remember seeing "sub tofu for egg for free" on their menu. This made me a happy girl since all over town I was paying extra. Their eggs there are of the nice free range (and I think it's actually free range, none of that open the barn door for 5 minutes shit that farms can get away with) so I think the cost is more similar than, say, when you go to Holman's....The main reason I love Juniors is the interior. It's very cute! Google it for images if you don't believe me!

3. FlavourSpot- the home of the Dutch taco! aka a waffle sandwich. I have only tried one thing here and it's so good that I dare not try anything else. Another reason being I don't get out to either of the North Portland locations enough. It's usually months in between visits and I'm normally ready for some delectable maple sausage goodness in my piehole. (aka wafflehole) The food cart (one on N. Lombard and the other at Mississippi and Fremont) makes a fresh circular waffle, spreads some maple "butter" on it, puts two vegan sausage patties on it and folds it up in some foil and hands it your eagerly awaiting hands....mmm.....so warm, so tasty....

Me and my sweet love

4. Hungry Tiger Too- I really love this place. I've mentioned them before many times. The only problem I have with them is their prices are somewhat ridiculous. (Except on $1 vegan corn dog Wednesdays!!). The club sandwich, while being big, is around $10 and if you want tots instead of coleslaw, make that $12. Yeah, $2 extra for tots...$1 extra for french fries. If you share it with someone it doesn't sound as ridiculous. But of course I tend to compare prices with what I could be getting...like $5 at Los Gorditos will get me a huge delicious torta. But anyways, we're talking breakfast right now! They have humongous vegan fluffy pancakes for $3 a piece, large plate of biscuits (or you might end up with some of their thick toasted bread, which is good, but yeah, not a biscuit) and gravy for $4, scrambles for around $8 that comes with awesome hashbrowns (think: rectangularly shaped Waffle House hashbrowns...less greasy), and homemade tempeh bacon slabs for around $2. Yum! For reals...I think their gravy is my favorite in town. It's a little too herby for my tastes since I like a peppery sausagey white southern gravy, but there's sausage (I think the last time I got it there wasn't any) and mushrooms and it's good! Please note that they don't open til mid morning during the week. Also, their coffee sucks (and this comes from a girl who sugars and milks her coffee and wouldn't know good coffee if it hit her in the face.).

Katie and her ginormous pancake

Foreground: biscuits and gravy and tempeh bacon slabs

5. It's a tie for 5th! Jam and Tin Shed- I hear Jam's veg gravy is the best in town, but I wouldn't know since it's not vegan. Also, they don't have biscuits to put it on (?!), so I don't care. What I do love about Jam is their Blueberry Chai Pancakes. Chai spice-alicious! Like Hungry Tiger Too, they have delicious hashbrowns. They have a couple vegan scrambles but I'm not terribly crazy about either. This another restaurant where I mainly just love their ambiance with no real explanation. Tin Shed has vegan grits and Earth Balance available and their pesto is made vegan, all things which endears me to them. The grits, however, need salt and more EB because the taste is quite plain. They do have vegan cheese you can get on them but I normally pass since it doesn't really do anything flavorwise. My favorite thing to get here is the pesto tofu scramble (it has a name that I think has the word "goat" in it) with no cheese.

How about you? Where's your favorite?

The Accidental Awesomeness

2009-10-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of items out there that I didn't have to stop eating when I went vegan. And thank goodness for that! It's nice to have a few nostalgic things to nosh on occasionally.

Hot Tamales!!

Gummy! Hot! Delicious!

Junior Mints!

well, the holiday (above) and deluxe (below) versions anyways.

For some reason they won't take out the gelatin in the regular version.

Swedish Fish!

So good!

The little guy makes a tasty vegan crescent roll!

Well, it's arguable if it's *really* vegan. Chemicals can be tricky...

BUT! if you don't mind that, you should bake them with weiners in them for Pigs in a Blanket

or some vegan cheese for Puffers....mmm...

What's some of your favorite accidentally vegan items?

Cakes of my past...

2009-10-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

The past two summers I have made lots of yummy cakes. The reason being my two bestest friends, Corinn and Missy, both have birthdays, as well as some other friends! I actually really like making cakes and cupcakes. Especially for my friends and other loved ones. I am not very artistic, only the occasional photograph being something I'm proud of. Baking kinda fulfills that artistic hole in my heart.

So here's a round up!

My sister's Black Forest Cake from last year

Corinn's S'more cake from this year

Jessica's Cake from last year, Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream

My roommate Missy's Birthday Cake from last year.

We had a nonvegan VooDoo donut on top!

My first cake! Corinn's birthday cake last year. Probably chocolate with Vanilla.

I look to Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romano's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for almost every cake recipe I need (just double the cupcake recipes for cakes) and their Buttercream frosting is freakin' delicious! If you make only one recipe from that book, do the Coconut Lime with Lime Buttercream frosting, unfreakinbelievable delicious!!!

Yeah, another question thingie...i know...

2009-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a procrastinator....big time....therefore I end up doing question thingies that I find because it's faster than thinking of something to write about (feel free to request stuff, I would love it!). This one I found on Steffers page who got it from Vegan Food For Thought.

1. What single thing most inspired you to take the leap from being an omnivore/vegetarian to being a vegan?

---------I don't recollect what initially made me think to become vegan. I've been semi-vegetarian for years and went fully vegetarian (I finally gave up seafood) when I moved to Portland in 2005. I had sorta decided to become vegan but had forgotten why I wanted to do it until I read Erik Marcus' book Meat Market and John Robbins' book The Food Revolution. A lot of vegetarians question why vegan if you're not killing the cow or the chicken (or goat, etc) and then you have to explain how dairy cows have to give birth on occasion to keep up the milk supply and those calves usually go into the veal industry and how male chickens are pretty much useless so some places just throw them, alive, into trash bags where they die of suffocation and really their living arrangements suck and the amount of feces all these animals produce are destroying our environment......ok, i'm done with my spiel. Read those books for more eloquent explanations!

2. Are you 100% vegan (food wise at least) or do you sometimes eat non-vegan food, and if do so, under what circumstances does it usually happen?

---------I am not 100%. When I go home or visit other people's homes (usually older people, I normally force people my age to feed me vegan. they're usually more understanding about diet restrictions) I am more lax and tend to eat vegetarian. I have a hard time eating raw veggies around the holidays and normally that's the only option when I'm at my sister's in-laws. I do need to get better at making food for gatherings. I don't like cooking in other people's kitchens so that's where I get lazy...I also will eat food that is brought to me at restaurants that accidentally has dairy/egg in them. I just feel like since I'm not grossed out by it, I might as well eat it since otherwise it will be thrown out. However I can't do that with meat.

Also, I will eat bee products.

3. Where do you stand on the whole B12 thing? Do you take supplements, eat fortified foods, do you even care? (not to preach but you really should!)

------------I do take B12 sublingual supplements. I'm surprised I don't take them more regularly because they are tasty little suckers! They have so much in them that it's not necessary that I take them daily.

4. Which rocks – Tofu, seitan, or that other stuff, what do you call it, Tempeh?

-----------They all rock! They are each good for different things. My favorite usage for tempeh is in a reuben. Tofu is awesome in thai food. Seitan makes a mean cheese steak sammie.

5. What are your top 5 vegan meals?

--------I'm going to include stuff I don't make myself:

1. Pad Thai Woon Sen from Pad Thai Kitchen

2. Bowl of goodness (like Sweetpea's Happy Bowl or Bye & Bye's BBQ Brussel Bowl): Brown rice, bean/tofu, greens

3. Sauteed veggies on top of a grain with Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream and Sriracha (similar to #2, I know)

4. Pizza!!!! Favorite toppings: faux sausage, sauteed greens and mushrooms, corn.

5. New Years Meal!

6. Are you vegan and proud, get used to it! Or do you sometimes keep it quiet? You know what i mean!

---------I don't always advertise it but I have no problem talking about or telling people. And I'm not a big animal activist like some of my vegan friends.

7. What is your all-time favourite vegan cookbook?

---------Probably Veganomicon. It holds a special place in my heart since it's the first cookbook I helped test for (I did a terrible job because I didn't test very many). Some of the recipes I make regularly are Low Fat Banana Bread (add choco chips!) and the Spicy and the Smokey Tempeh marinade.

8. What is your favourite vegan food blog?

---------So many favorites! But I'm going to go with Let's Get Sconed! because it's one of the best.

9. What is the most annoying thing about being vegan? Come on, you can have a good rant if you want, you’re amongst friends!

--------Not being able to order anything you want, wherever you go. Which is why I love all vegan places! You don't even have to think about stuff like, do they know what vegan really means? Is there whey in the bread? Eggs in the pasta? Casein in the nondairy creamer?

10. What food do you really hate (vegan food that is)?

--------Hmmm...I think I'll eat most anything really. I dislike a lot of stuff but really if it's in something I can usually deal. I don't like cilantro (therefore coriander as well), celery, kalamata olives, rye, really sourdoughy sourdough, fennel (I hear from my co-fennel hater that it's good roasted), and anise.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2009-10-06T22:27:00.001-07:00

I'm running low on time for today's post, so this one will be a quickie! I thought I would just give a shout out to my five favorite food blogs. Most likely you're probably looking at least one of them already!

In no particular order....

1. Get Sconed! - Jess, the young lass who runs this delightful vegan blog, is a friend of mine. She talks mostly about food, but occasionally will veer off into other subjects, like, you know, her cats....She's actually the only food blog that I keep on the top of my bookmarks bar. Feel special, JD!!

2. Awesome. Vegan. Rad. - I believe this girl's name is Allison. I'm about 91% sure...She doesn't say her name alot....Anyways! She usually blogs pictures of what she and her fiance have made and she does it with a sense of humor that I enjoy.

3. Joanna Vaught- The woman behind Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook and the upcoming Potluck Zine. Also the mother of the cuteness that is Milo Bear. She's a sassy lady with a great blog!

4. Cake Maker to the Stars- My friend Kittee isn't actually making cakes for stars, but don't let that stop you from checking out her blog. She is a recent transplant (to Portland) from New Orleans. Her cute zine Papa Tofu, that includes Indian food and pumpkin pretzels recipes, is available at Herbivore. Go buy it!

5. Stumptown Vegans- Webly and Jess go around to Portland eateries looking for all the vegan friendly options. They go at least twice and then blog about it with pictures and how they rated it. It's been so handy to have as a resource!

Thanks to all those who keep a blog! It's been very informative and, most importantly, so much fun to read and look at!

Farmers Markets and Me

2009-10-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Me eyeing some red bell peppers

I've done a post about farmers markets before, but since it's MoFo there's a lot of people who haven't been to my site before and who haven't read through it(and most likely won't....unless they become totally enamored with me....or are bored silly.).

There's a farmers market (henceforth they shall be called FarMar) in Portland State University's park blocks in the southwest quadrant of Portland every Saturday. The hours are 8ish-2ish, I can't quite remember the hours even though I used to work there at a Hot Lips booth a few years back. This is my favoritest FarMar ever! I love the feel of the place, the location is beautiful and there's tons of booths. In my hometown of Sarasota, Florida there is one FarMar that i know of. I rarely went and I'm not exactly sure why that is. Perhaps because the selection isn't as exciting and pretty?

In general, I love grocery shopping. Love. It. If I could grocery shop (for myself) for a living, I think that would be my dream job. Going to the farmers market is just as fun. Maybe even more so because it makes me feel so wholesome and healthy. There's rarely anything unhealthy there for you to buy. Local peppers, leeks, lettuce, beets, corn, carrots, artichokes, broccoli, kale, chard, spinach, peaches, cherries, plums, cilantro (if you're into that sort of thing), tomatoes, apples, potatoes, strawberries....you get the idea. It's a beautiful sight to behold. You get to meet the farmers that planted and harvested your veggies and fruits. There's a sense of community. I've started learning what produce is seasonal. Growing up I wasn't aware that vegetables and fruits had seasons in which they didn't naturally grow.

There's also food vendors selling tamales (there's one vegan option and it's so yum!), soup, breakfast burritos, fire grilled mini pizzas and bagels, and more.

Pretty, pretty produce

My favorite vendor is Dave's Killer Bread. It's still the best bread I've ever had and there's always some friendly kids (or Dave) at the booth with samples of everything, including any new items. Make sure you try the Sin Dawg! It's the most nutritious cinnamon roll you'll ever put in your mouth!

At this FarMar they also have a chef doing a demo every week at 10am. There's also music and usually some special ingredient of the week as well that they do a tasting of. I urge you to check online to see where your closest market is!

Composting, our way...

2009-10-02T11:35:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my post yesterday that me and my roommate compost our scraps. In the comments I was asked what I did with them and, conveniently enough, I had already decided to write about it because it came up in a writing workshop that I went to last night as something that maybe I should expound on. (Yeah, I used the word "expound"....don't think i ever have before....feels good)

When I moved into my current 2 bedroom apartment, my roommate Missy already had a composting procedure set, so all that I do is because of her. The only other time I had composted was at my sister's house and we would just throw stuff on a pile in the backyard (she now has a more detailed plan).

One thing I should say first is that composting isn't as hard as you think it might be. Granted, it can be....it depends on how into you get really. But what me and the roommate use is one of these giant black composter bins.

Pretty, right?

It's situated between our house and the neighbor's house next door. The best location for it is somewhere where the sun will hit it the most......unfortunately, that's not where ours is. But I think it's the only place Missy and her ex could've put it since the backyard isn't for their use and the front yard isn't somewhere you'd want to put it.

Since we live on the second floor of a house it's inconvenient to have to go chuck scraps in after every meal we make, so what we do is put the scraps in a container that we keep in the freezer. When it's full we take a trip down to the composter. You're supposed to cover your scraps with straw or old dry leaves. This warms up the compost and helps it decompose faster.

Last year we used our compost for our garden. It was so wormy and buggy!! It was freaky! I wish I had taken a video of it since pictures don't do it justice! The word that probably best describes it is "teeming."

Missy and the top of the great beast

Me trying to not think of all the creepy critters and how I might splice into them with my shovel....

See the worms??

If you don't have a compost bin and don't have room for one (or live in an apt complex), you may want to check around your neighborhood and see if anyone has one you can use. Kittee will probably talking about the community one she discovered recently on a walk. I had heard about it recently because I have a friend that lives right near it.

Let the MoFoing begin!!

2009-10-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, October is Vegan Month of Food. For this first post I'm going to do what a lot of people (including Miss Whoa Wren where I saw it) are doing: questionnaire!! I love filling these suckers out and I may have filled this out for last year's MoFo, but my answers have changed for some of the questions and...oh, well...too bad, so sad....I may also add some questions of my own....

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
I was doing Silk for awhile, but since they've been bought out they aren't using American organic soybeans. Oh, and Trader Joe's is more convenient. I get their unsweetened organic refrigerated one. Which is actually Silk anyways.....

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Braised Cabbage with Seitan, Spicy Black Eyed Peas with Greens, and Spinach Linguine with Pesto.....all tester recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming weight loss cookbook. So far everything I've made has been fan-freakin-tastic.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Nooch

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Seitan.....i can't get that recipe right to save my life....

5. Favorite pickled item?
Beets!!

6. How do you organize your recipes?
Loose recipes? A lot of them are on my Stickies application on the computer, in order of when i made them. Others are written in no particular order in my special (because it's shiny blue with silver shiny stars) recipe notebook.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
compost and trash. me and the roomie keep a container in our freezer for compost stuff and so we make a trip down to the composter every few days.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
does this include dishes? if so, pad thai woon sen w/tofu and veggies, a big salad, Trader Joe's Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
my mom makes delicious cherry hand pies. they're moonshaped and the crust is a yummy flakey pie crust very lightly dusted with sugar. mmmm....

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
see #8

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
toaster oven

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Salt

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Vegan with a Vengeance was probably my first. either that or i have a bad memory....

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Strawberry, but i rarely have it. Probably because i haven't found any that's close to my mom's freezer jam...

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
cupcakes/cake

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
tofu

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
dinner

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Hello Kitty waffle maker, liquor, pyrex, too much stuff really...

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
blueberries i picked, compost, Trader Joe's Soy Nuggets

20. What's on your grocery list?
tamari, lemon juice, veggies

21. Favorite grocery store?
Grocery Outlet because you never know what you're going to find!

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
i usually leave the veganizing to others

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Get Sconed!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
i really like the one Ricemilk chocolate bar that has the cream-type center

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
the vegan steak and cheese from DC Vegetarian food cart. it was $5 and i was planning on getting Just Thai because $5 will get me enough food for 3 meals. that sandwich only lasted me one. it was soooooo good though. also, Just Thai was closed due to family emergency and i was starving...

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?

agar agar, it's kind of a bitch to me

27. Favorite food cart?

so many to choose from these days! i'm looking forward to Julie Hasson's that's opening tomorrow at Mississippi and Skidmore (i think that's the right cross street). Right now my favorite would probably be Just Thai, SW 3rd and Stark.

MoFo....yo...

2009-09-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's the third year of Vegan Month of Food. This is when blogs from all over tarnation write about vegan food (anything relating to veganism really) for a whole month. It starts October 1st and the goal is to blog about 5 times a week. I did this last year but only ended up writing 12 posts. I always start with the best intentions but then totally slack. Kittee has started a public RSS feed to keep up on them all. So far there is 265 participants, so you'll have tons to read! Most likely we'll have stuff to read for months to come.

If you want to do it, just click on to the Kittee link and tell her! There are threads on the Post Punk Kitchen (PPK) with ideas on what to blog about.

Homegrown Smoker

2009-09-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

A few months back I remember thinking, Man, I wish I could get some vegan BBQ! And, seriously, only days after I found out about Homegrown Smoker, an all-vegan BBQ "cart." It's current location is outside on a lot on NE Alberta and 23. It will be moving 4 blocks east next week, or something, where Spud Locker was. They promise there will be a covered area and heat to protect customers and workers from the winter time chill.

It has taken months for me to get there, but it's definitely been on my mind. In the beginning they didn't have smoked tofu, so I mentioned it to them on their blog and a few weeks later I noticed they had added it to their menu. I'm not going to say it's because of me that they have it, but, yeah, I'll take the credit...

So finally I made it there yesterday. Me and my vegan friend Kenny went for lunch. We both got the 2 protein/2 sides that comes with a piece of gluten free cornbread. I chose smoked tofu, soy curls, mac-no-cheese and beans. Kenny got tempeh ribs, chipotle sausage (I believe that's from Field Roast), cole slaw, and beans. We shared so that I got to try the stuff I hadn't gotten (except the sausage, which I didn't care to try) I had heard bad things about the Chronic Tempeh Ribs, that they were too dry, but they were great! Perhaps they've worked on the dryness factor, but I thought they were tasty.

The coleslaw was good, nothing very exciting. I think I prefer the cole slaw from Hungry Tiger Too though.

As for the soy curls I had heard such good things about, they lived up to their fame. Yum! Another nonvegan friend got them and was questioning their veganness, saying their texture was very convincing.

The baked beans were....baked beans. No real excitement. Perhaps if there was fake bacon involved they would get more exciting, but they were fine...just nothing to write home about.

I LOVED the Mac-No-Cheese. Some people had mentioned it was dry, but I guess I got a good batch because they weren't too dry, weren't too sauce-y. They were totes Goldilocks style, just right. I can't tell what's in there, but it's some good shit.

Smoked Tofu.....sigh....This made me sad. I had high expectations for this. The outside looked well smoked and they put BBQ on top. Unfortunately, the tofu innards hadn't been touched by the heat. The tofu must not be a very firm kind. They probably use Ota, a local company that doesn't make Extra Firm (how come that's not as common out here in the Pacific Northwest??). It was a bit mushy in the center and very white still, so if it was marinated first, it hadn't gotten to the center of the "steak."

The Gluten Free (I should add that a lot of their stuff is gluten free, look on their site for more info) Cornbread was all right. They use flax seeds, which you can plainly see since the brown specks are all through it. I would suggest they use golden flax seeds. I just think it would look better and more like cornbread. It kinda looks like banana bread.....It was good, there was no graininess like a lot of gluten free stuff tends to be.

Old Picture from Get Sconed Jess (cornbread looks different now)

I was very sad because they were out of the Stuffed Jalapenos. Those sound sooooo good! They also have corn on the cob with a special butter blend, frito pie, Macnochirrito...or some such crazy burrito combination.

I definitely hope to go there again soon. Get me some more Mac-No-Cheese and Soy curls.....yummm.....

Vega brings all the boys to the yard...

2009-09-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well, holy crap! I haven't posted in September yet. Where does time go? Summer's just about over and I'm really ready for fall. I think. I'm sure when fall actually does start it's thing I'll be yearning for the sunny, warm days of summer. And, sure, I'll be hatin' laugh come winter. But then again, I always go home for Christmas (and hope this year isn't an exception), which is in Florida.

So I was asked by the Vega people if I wanted to try out there smoothie nutrition powders. At first I hesitated. I'm not big on those powders and I don't make smoothies that much. I always have frozen banana and other fruit in my freezer, but for some reason the idea of making a smoothie in my easy-to-use-easy-to-clean Magic Bullet just never seems like fun. There's a mental block there and I haven't found a way to get around that.

In any case, I decided I would like to try them out. For future reference, at least. Who knows, maybe I would fall in love with it and actually get into making smoothies. My friend Corinn has been making smoothies a lot and has been using a rice protein powder, so I thought she'd be interested in trying the powder with me.

I was sent packets of Vega's Whole Food Smoothie Infusion and a booklet with recipes with various ways of using it. I made a green smoothie with mine, but I only used a half packet because I already was using greens in my smoothie. It wasn't awesome, still had that slightly chalky flavor that protein powders have, *but* it's definitely the best one I've ever had. It wasn't as Smarties-tasting as the VegLife's Supreme Meal is. The girl from 'Awesome.Vegan.Rad.' (<----love this blog) used the brownie recipe they gave and made her own adjustments to it and said they were great. It seems like an excellent way to help you pretend that brownies are good for you. It's like when I put pom juice in my cocktails....

Corinn told me that she liked the powder as well, by the way.

Greeeeeeen Smoothie

I mixed it with orange juice, frozen banana, a little agave, teeny bite of vanilla extract, spinach and kale.