Friday Flashback

This week was really busy for me, and I didn't get the chance to cook anything very exciting for dinners. I did get to go to Udi's vegan supper club on Monday night though, and it was amazing! It was the first time I've been to something like this. If you live in Colorado you need to check this out - they have it once a month! It was so fun to be able to eat everything there.

Here are a few pictures of the delicious food from Udi's.

1. Tabouleh Salad, Falafel, Hummus, Assorted Udi’s Artisan Breads
2. Brocollini pizza with romesco (my favorite!), corn salad with arugula, braised leeks, scallions, almonds, ceasar dressing and Spanish paprika  
3. Creamy chickpea ravioli in tomato basil sauce with pickled enoki mushrooms and micro greens
4. Flourless chocolate cake with peanut butter

 Yum, can't wait for the next one! 


What's your favorite place to treat yourself to a dinner out?

French Toast

Just a quick little recipe post for today - vegan french toast! I made this on a lazy Saturday morning. I had mine with Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter and some strawberry jam. My husband tried it as well, but stuck with syrup and butter on his. I'm just happy he's not too scared to try my cooking creations!

Vegan French Toast
Adapted from MadeJustRight

Serves 2 to 3

1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1/2 T sugar
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/2 cup of your favorite non-dairy milk
4 to 6 slices of stale bread (I used sourdough)


Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk until smooth.
Preheat your pan over medium high heat.
Dip your slice of bread into the bowl and then flip over to coat each side with the mixture.
Place on your heated pan and cook each side about 2 minutes or until crispy.

Serve with jam, syrup, or just cover it in chocolate like i did! :)


What is your favorite weekend breakfast to make?

Crockpot Pantry Soup

Pantry soup is a way to clean out your fridge and pantry and use up those vegetables! My version is basically a Minestrone soup, but feel free to substitute or add anything to suit your preferences. Just throw in whatever you have to make your own delicious version!

 

Crockpot Vegan Minestrone Pantry Soup


1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can corn, not drained
1 can diced tomatoes in sauce, not drained
1 can tomato sauce
3 cups vegetable broth
2 medium carrots
1 medium zucchini
4-5 celery stalks
1/2 C pasta






Drain both cans of beans and dump into your crock pot. Add in a can of corn and a can of diced tomatoes (not drained). Slice the carrots, zucchini, celery, and any other vegetables you'd like into small bite size pieces, and add those in. Pour in the tomato sauce and vegetable broth.

Cook in crock pot on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours.
One hour before it's done add in 1/2 C pasta if desired. Depending on your vegetable amount you may need to add in more broth or water at this stage.

Enjoy!

Friday Flashback: Eating Out

As my 3rd week comes to an end I wanted to discuss eating out. It is probably the aspect that has been the most challenging for me, but I don't think it's too hard once you get used to what to look for on menus. Colorado in general is fairly health-conscious so there a lot of options where something will work for vegans.

There are a lot of great websites that you can look up restaurant chains and see what items are vegan, and I also found a great Colorado specific one complete with a vegan restaurant list - Vegan Coloradical.

Another thing that has been helping me out is that we signed up for Mile High Organics, which is a home produce delivery service. It's easy and convenient with our busy schedules and it forces me to eat a variety of vegetables! You can have them deliver each week, every other week (what i do), or on any schedule you'd like. Thumbs up! (I guess this is not really eating out, but oh well!)


Here are a few snapshots from my week...

1. A delicious salad from modmarket. I love this place because they label everything (vegan, dairy free, gluten free, etc).
2. My creation from a Mongolian Stirfry. I like these type of places where you can go through the line and pick whatever you want, it makes it easy to customize.
3. Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. This stuff is amazing!! They are a Colorado company, but I hope you can find it wherever you are.
4. Starting a new embroidery project!

Have a fun weekend!

Peanut Noodles with Bok Choy and Edamame

This was kind of a thrown together dinner, but it ended up being very tasty. I just tossed in some vegetables I had on hand, so you could use almost anything in this dish. Yes to easy weeknight cooking!

Overall Grade: 
A

Would I make it again? 
Yes

A few notes: 
The original recipe called for bell pepper which would be awesome in this, but I didn't have any. Also, the finished amount of sauce seemed like way too much so I would say to pour on a little at a time and stir in until your desired noodles-to-sauce level is reached! You can then save the rest of your sauce for other things... it's really good.



Peanut Noodles with Edamame and Bok Choy
Serves 4, adapted from Peas and Thank You

1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup canned diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
3 tbsp soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp agave nectar
sriracha, to taste


8 oz udon or other noodles
2 heads baby bok choy, chopped
2 cups frozen edamame
2 medium carrots, chopped (I used purple carrots!)

1. Combine the coconut milk, tomatoes, peanut butter, soy sauce, lime, garlic, and agave in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add sriracha if you'd like, or you can just let everyone add their own at the end.
2. Set a pot of water to boil for the noodles. Cook until al dente, following directions on the package. Drain and set aside.
3. While the pasta cooks, spray a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high.  Add the bok choy and carrots (and whatever other veggies you'd like) to the pan, cooking for about 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Add the frozen edamame and cook until heated through.
4. Add the noodles to the pan and pour the peanut sauce on a little at a time, tossing to coat.  Serve warm or you can refrigerate and serve cold.

Please join in on the #greenslove for the month of March 2012 with your greens recipes.

Happy Spring!

I'm so happy spring is here! There are a few others around here who are happy to be sleeping in warm, sunny spots again...

 

More cat photo session on my flickr.

Friday Flashback

Week 2 done! I feel awesome. I even talked my family into eating a vegan meal with me.
Here a little glimpse into my week.

1.  Bikini Blonde Lager by Maui Brewing Company (My favorite beer from our Hawaii vacation - found in Colorado!)
2. Dinner one night: Meatless sausage, broccoli, and this yummy quinoa salad.
3.  Peanut Butter Chocolate Muffins
4. The most amazing stuffed peppers EVER. Seriously, make them now.




Have a great weekend! <3

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I made these chocolate avocado cupcakes, but I wasn't sure about the avocado frosting. These were for potluck so I thought maybe chocolate would be the way to go. I compiled from a few different resources to make this recipe.
It tastes delicious!

Overall Grade:
A

Would I make it again?
Yes!


 
Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from The Dainty Squid

2 tbsp vegan margarine
1 1/3 C powdered sugar
1/3 C cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp almond or soy milk

In a medium bowl, soften the vegan margarine. Cream the sugar into the softened margarine using an electric mixer. I did this by slowly adding in the powdered sugar and mixing so it wouldn't make a huge mess everywhere. 

Add in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and almond milk. Mix well.

Too thick? Add in more almond milk

Too runny? Add more powdered sugar

Enjoy!

What are your favorite vegan cookbooks?

The internet has a plethora of great recipes for vegans, and pinterest is one of my favorite go-to sites to look up a quick idea. Sometimes you just need a book though, for the pretty pictures and the convenience of having tips all in one place. I have bought two books so far.

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

The Kind Diet

 

Does anyone have any great book recommendations?
What's the one vegan resource you can't live without?

 

Some delicious broccoli from my kitchen

 

 

 

 

Friday Flashback

Well, I successfully lived through Week 1. I'm feeling some effects of detoxing from meat and dairy, I think, but it's nothing too horrible.

I don't have a new recipe to share today, so I figured I'd post up a little photo montage of my week.

1.  SUSHI! I just wanted to post it because it was a meal that was very easy to make for both meat eaters and non-meat eaters. The Asian Coleslaw was delicious too.
2. Roasted Brussels Sprouts.
3. Fried rice experiment with mangoes.
4. Minnie, my adorable cat.


Thanks for stopping by!

Veganized Banana Bread

I decided to take my standby banana bread and veganize it.

Overall Grade: 
A

Would I make it again? 
Yes

I'm pretty picky about my banana bread. My family made it all the time when I was growing up, so i know how it is supposed to taste!
In modifying my Mom's recipe I used the applesauce in place of an egg, and earth balance in place of regular butter. I wouldn't say the result is exactly the same, but I don't think anyone but me would notice. Overall, a pretty good veganization.



Veganized Banana Bread
2 lg bananas (very ripe)
1/2 C melted vegan butter (earth balance)
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 tsp Salt
1 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 C applesauce + 1 tsp baking powder
nuts or chocolate chips (optional)






Mash bananas with a fork in a small bowl.

Mix applesauce and baking powder together in medium mixing bowl.
Add in sugar, melted butter, and bananas. Mix well.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix.
Add in nuts or chocolate chips if desired.

Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake for 35-40 min at 350F.

Carrot Cranberry Muffins

Approximately 2 days after I decided to try to eat vegan, I needed to come up with something for a bake sale. I was getting frustrated because none of my old standbys were going to work. I actually really love to bake and was already thinking that my vegan attempts were doomed before they even began.

Then I found this recipe for Carrot Cranberry Muffins, and my hope has been restored!
I did a little research and discovered that I could swap out the eggs in this recipe and use applesauce instead to make it vegan.

I made these with what I had on hand, which meant leaving out the zucchini, and using dried cranberries instead of fresh, but they still turned out DELICIOUS! Plus by the end of the bake sale these were all gone. I can't wait to try out more vegan baking.

Carrot Cranberry Muffins
Adapted from Tender Crumb, Original recipe from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook by John Barricelli
 makes 12 muffins

2 C AP flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 C sugar
1 C canola oil
1/4 C applesauce (I used pear sauce)
1 C finely grated carrots (approx 2 medium)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C dried cranberries





Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla until combined. Mix in the grated carrots.

Fold in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until combined. Fold in the cranberries.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Rotate the pan mid way through the baking time.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temp.


 YUM!

Welcome

Welcome to VeganFling, my little space on the web where I can post about my attempts at adopting a vegan diet, share fun recipes, and post other cool things.

I began eating vegan in March, 2012.


I am hoping to learn as I go. I hope you'll follow along!