WIAW #30 Round Up

Hi Friends!

It's been so long since I've done a What I Ate Wednesday post. I mean I'm always sharing my yummy eats but I miss joining the party and linking it up over at Peas and Crayons. Time to change that! I've got lot's of yummy photos to show you so let's get started!
I took a week off of work while my mom was in town so that we could spend more time together.  My mom spent the weekdays at my brother and sister-in-law's house watching my niece and nephew.  So, during that time, I would come over every day with some yummy food for us to enjoy over lunch.  Once or twice we would take my niece in the stroller (when my nephew was at school) and walk over to the store to pick up some veggie ingredients. Here's a look at the delicious food we enjoyed over that week (or rather, the food I remembered to take pictures of!):

Lunches...

Salad, salad, salad!  Clockwise from top left: We used yummy greens, made croutons from a baguette, and added a veggie burger to make a fab Salad Plate.  By the way, you can never use to much sriracha!;  Seven grain salad medley on top of arugula, cherry tomatoes, avocado and topped with homemade dressing;  Leftover pakoras and samosos added some yummy texture and flavor to the arugula, cherry tomatoes, sprouts and pepperoncini's;  Dessert from Sweets From the Earth!  Peppermint nanaimo bar and a brownie.  So yummy!;  My mom's famous Bread Salad.  I love it!  Chopped baguette with multicolored tomatoes, parsley, green onions and dressing.  Delish!

Dinner when my mom stayed over at my place...

Clockwise from top left:  Tacos!  Veggie ground round with lot's of spices added,  Daiya shreds, sprouts, avocado, green salsa, sriracha and of course, nutritional yeast; Portobella Burger... read all about it here; Veggie Burger, sweet potato fries and a green salad from a pub we ate at during a visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake; Bruschetta appetizer from the same pub, no cheese; Farmer's Market Dinner!  Kale salad, sweet potato English muffins, mixed greens salad and a sweet potato salad.  All from the farmers market.

Food Truck Food!

We went to Holy Food Truck Tuesday again while my mom was here and brought along my sister, sister-in-law and the little ones.  My mom and I split the meals you see above from the vegan food truck karma chaMEALeon. From the top: Jackfruit Tacos with a mango salsa (I added sriracha after I took the photo); Philly Cheeze Steak with fried onions and a side of coleslaw.  Both were pretty tasty but my mom preferred the Philly Cheeze Steak.


I hope you guys enjoyed the food porn.  I'm drooling over the photos and can hardly wait to publish this so I can go and make dinner!  This will certainly teach me to write a post on an empty stomach. Ha!

Happy WIAW everyone!
Love,
Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #10: The Ultimate Vegan Cheese Sauce!

Hi Friends!

I have an amazing Cheese Sauce recipe to share with you today.  Let me tell you that I have tried so many different "cheese sauce" recipes and none have come close to this one.  It's thick, creamy, and oh so yummy.  I've adapted this recipe from one that I found on the interweb.  I was so intrigued with the use of potatoes and carrots that I had to investigate but, the rest of the recipe seemed a little too plain for my taste so I jazzed it up a bit.  The result was nothing short of amazing.

Remember, there is no actual cheese in this sauce so don't expect it to taste exactly like cheese.  But, do expect to add this to everything you eat!  You may even find yourself licking the blender.  Don't worry, you're not alone.

Ultimate Vegan Cheeze Sauce
Ingredients
2 cups peeled, boiled, and mashed potatoes (I used 3 medium potatoes)
1 cup peeled, chopped, and boiled carrots (I used 3 medium-large peeled carrots cut in 1 inch pieces)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup vegetable stock (water will work, too)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Herbamare
1/2 - 1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp mustard
1 tbsp Sriracha (optional, but adds amazing flavor)

Directions:
Boil your potatoes and carrots until they are fork tender, measure them in their mashed form (that step is more important for the potatoes than it is for the carrots) and add them to your blender.
Place the rest of your ingredients in your blender and process until smooth.  You may have to scrape down your blender a couple of times.
You can serve this immediately or store it in an air tight container in the fridge until you are ready to use it.  The sauce can be reheated on the stove or in a microwave.  Just  make sure you stir it really well.

I chose to try out the sauce on a Tofu 'Egg' Sandwich.  It was amazing!  I can't wait to smother this sauce onto a plate of vegan nachos!  Yum, yum!

TGIF and have a great weekend y'all!

Love,
Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #9: Cheezy Kale Salad

   Well my friends, you are super lucky today because I am posting twice!  That's right, two posts in one day and this one is a recipe post.
  I'm really doing this for my mom at her request.  She loves this kale salad that I make, and asks for it anytime that I buy kale.  So, here's the recipe... I hope you guys love it as much as she does.  Oh, and if you've ever read Kim Snyder's Beauty Detox Solution you'll notice that this salad is similar to one that she makes.  It's the bomb.

"Cheezy" Kale Salad
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
1 head kale
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tomato, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 - 2 tbsp hemp seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:
Wash the kale thoroughly and tear it away from the stems.  Add it to a salad bowl along with the lemon juice and sea salt.  (You can save the stems and juice them later.) Using your hands, massage the kale while simultaneously tearing it into bite size pieces.  Continue massaging until the kale is soft and slightly wilted (about a minute or two). Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the hemp seeds) and continue to mix until everything is incorporated.  Garnish with the hemp seeds, serve and enjoy!
The best part about this salad?  You can save the leftovers for the next day without worrying about wilted lettuce!

Stay tuned tomorrow for an amazing cheese sauce recipe.  You won't believe how amazing it is until you see it and try it for yourself!

And last but not least, I leave you with a video that my brother sent me a few days ago.  It's actually a haunting preview of a game called Chipotle Scarecrow.  I really hope this game (or even just the preview) reaches millions of people.  Check it out:

 
By the way, I may have cried while watching this video... and it may be because I watched it at 6am OR it could be Fiona Apple's rendition of "Pure Imagination" OR it could just be that I am Miss Sensitive... either way... you have been warned.

Love,
Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #5 Healthy Brownies to LIVE For

   Hi Friends!

   So this weekend my nephew played a championship soccer game and won a trophy... then again, so did all of the other players! Ha.  Did I mention that my nephew is not quite 3 years old yet?  It was a riveting game, nonetheless.  And my nephew was a scoring machine.  I'd post some videos to show you what I mean, but I don't want to be too obnoxious...

My Godson with his soccer trophy.

   I also got to spend a lot of time with my mom this weekend, too.  She likes to divide her time between us "kids" and her grand-kids... the grand-kids get her more though, of course.  Us kids have to fight over the leftover time!  That's okay, I don't mind sharing.  This weekend was pretty low key.  We went for walks, did a little bit of shopping (she wanted to go to Target... I mean, who doesn't want to go to Target?), watched some movies with my sis and munched on yummy food while sipping on some yummy wine.  It was really quite the relaxing weekend.

An assortment of veggies, crackers, hummus, pickles, cheese, and Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages.

   We also went to visit my Aunt who had stopped by Kelly's Bake Shoppe in Burlington and picked up an assortment of vegan cupcakes.  It was really nice to try vegan cupcakes made by someone other than myself and they were actually pretty good.  My favorite was the Lime Mojito one.  I'm not sure if that's the actual name of it but it's the bottom one in the photo. 

Vegan Cupcakes from Kelly's Bake Shoppe

   I also happened to do a bit of baking myself this weekend.  My sis-in-law requested that I make a batch of Black Bean Brownies for us to have after my nephew's game.  I seem to be making them a lot lately so I thought I would share the recipe here.  This recipe comes from Chocolate Covered Katie.  I usually play around with it to suit my taste but I'm posting the original recipe here.  I love it and I know you will too!

Black Bean Brownies
Makes 9 - 12 Brownies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups black beans (1 15-oz can, drained and rinsed very well)
2 tbsp cocoa powder- dutch or regular
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup pure maple syrup or agave
1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup chocolate chips
optional: more chips, for presentation

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all ingredients except chips in a good food processor, and blend until completely smooth. Really blend well. (I did this in my Vitamix because I do not have a food processor) Stir in the chips, then pour into a greased 8×8 pan. Optional: sprinkle extra chocolate chips over the top. Cook the black bean brownies 15-18 minutes, then let cool at least 10 minutes before trying to cut.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Love,
Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #4 Holy Food Trucks Batman!

Hi Friends!

So I finally got my butt in gear this evening and headed out to Ancaster for Holy Food Truck Tuesday.  I'm so glad I did!  I really only made it out there to try the food from the karma chaMEALeon food truck (Ontario's first vegan food truck) but, it was so amazing to see 15 different food trucks lined up!

It was really hard to get a picture of all the trucks in one shot so I focused on the ones that were on my side.  My mom, however, took a picture of every single food truck with her camera.  I can't wait to go through those pictures later.  

When we were done gawking at all of the food trucks and the people, we were finally ready to make our way to karma chaMEALeon to check out the menu and place our order.

Thankfully the menu was short so we were able to decide quickly! (The menu items are rotated so the same items may not be available every time.) We decided to share the Sunshine Burger as well as the Bueno Burrito.  

Sunshine Burger with Rosemary Fries

Bueno Burrito

Both the Burger and the Burrito were super delicious!  I don't think I could pick a favorite... okay, well maybe I'm leaning towards the burrito but only just slightly!

This was my very first food truck AND karma chaMEALeon experience and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed.  In fact I loved it!  I can't wait to go back and order something else off their menu. Have you had the pleasure of trying karma chaMEALeon's food?  What did you think?

Love,

Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #3 Hello Jackfruit!

Hi Friends!

   TGIF, right?!  I'm thinking the same thing.  What a busy week it's been.  The first week of school is over and everyone is starting to establish somewhat of a routine.  Unfortunately (fortunately?), I'm back in vacation mode because my mom is in town visiting.  Although I'm not technically on vacation for another week, it kind of feels like it now.  I LOVE having my mom here.  It's my turn to spoil her!  So... if you're wondering why I didn't blog on Wednesday or Thursday, now you know.  Well, that and I've been staying late at work.  I don't often blog ahead of time so when things get busy in my life, it shows on the blog.  Today's post will be a quick one but I'm sharing a recipe so it's also a good one! ;-)

   I've been experimenting with Jackfruit lately and I'm absolutely loving it!  I've been meaning to try it for a while but it's a little hard to find around here.  I finally found it a few weeks ago at an international market and have been having fun with it ever since.

   If you are unfamiliar with jackfruit, this South Asian fruit is sweet when eaten fresh and ripe, with a prickly exterior.  However, in this recipe I'm using the young green jackfruit found in a can.  It's best to purchase the kind in water or brine, rather than syrup because although it doesn't have much flavor, it will be more meaty in texture.  Don't worry, it's kind of like tofu, in that it takes on any flavor that you give it.

Jackfruit Tacos
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 can of young green jackfruit , in brine or water, not syrup
1 medium sized onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons chile powder
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon oregano
½ teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
12 ounces salsa sauce*
1 tbsp coconut oil
juice from one lime
*(I strained my salsa to use for another dish and saved the sauce to use here.  You can use regular salsa if you don't feel like going through the trouble of straining it.)

Directions:
Drain and rinse the jackfruit thoroughly. Squeeze the moisture out of each piece and set aside.  Meanwhile in a sauce pan over medium heat add a touch of coconut oil and saute the onions for a few minutes until translucent.  Add the garlic and saute for a minute more until fragrant. Add the jackfruit and then add the chile powder, cumin, oregano, paprika and cayenne pepper, stirring to coat each piece.  Cover the seasoned jackfruit with the salsa sauce and lime juice, making sure to cover everything.  Bring everything to a boil, then simmer on low, covered for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  If the mixture sticks, add a little more salsa sauce or water.  When finished, most of the liquid will be cooked out and the jackfruit will be soft and slightly shredded, giving it a meaty appearance and texture.

 I served the jackfruit taco meat on top of sauteed peppers, stuffed in corn tortillas, and garnished with some chopped green onions.

By the way, I'm in the middle of reading an awesome series called the Mortal Instruments.  I'm on the third book and I love it!  If you're not familiar with it you can check out the first book in the series: City of Bones.  The movie just came out last month but I've been hesitant to see it.  I've heard that it doesn't do the book any justice.  Have you seen it?  Thoughts?

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Ves xx

Blog Every Day # 4... 5, 6 and 7 Coming Soon!

Hi Friends,

   I'm a little behind on my blogging challenge so I will use the rest of this week as a kind of "catch-up".  I've been recovering from my super busy weekend as well as dealing with some craziness at work.  By the time I get home I just want to hop in a bath and then chill out with Patchie and watch some TV or read a book.  I know, I know... it sounds boring, but it's exactly what I need!

Day 4: Something/Someone that makes you happy.

The beach at Mavillette

   There are so many things that make me happy, but the first thing that comes to mind is this:  In exactly 2 weeks I get to go on vacation and visit my parents in Nova Scotia.  I'm so looking forward to this time away from work and "real life".  But mostly, I'm just looking forward to spending time with my mom, visiting the farmers markets, hanging out at the beach, and walking everywhere and anywhere!  I love my parents' little corner of the world and can't wait to enjoy a bit of the quieter life.  That's a kind of joke as I think my parents are busier now than they were before they retired.  It's a good busy, though, and they are only doing what they love.  I am so happy for them and the life they are living right now.  They picked an amazing place to retire and I absolutely LOVE visiting them.

By the way, Patchie also makes me super happy!

Stay tuned for days 5, 6 & 7... hopefully tomorrow!

Love,
Ves xx

By the way... What makes you happy?

Hey Special Lady

Hi Friends!

I thought I would do a little dedicated post today about a fabulous woman named Mom.  You may have met her?  She's really sweet, always smiling, has the biggest warmest hugs of anyone you know... ring any bells?  Well, let me just say that mine is better than yours.  In fact, I think I'll be bold in saying that I have the BEST mom in the whole world.  Oh, you think yours is?  Okay, let's not argue.  You have the best mom, I have the best mom... let's agree to disagree.  But, just so you know, this post is about my mom... not yours.  Ha.

 Mom... Mommy... Marmi... Ma... Mama... sometimes even Mother but only when I'm being funny.

These are for you.

 This is the first year that we won't be celebrating Mother's Day together.  Boo.  No, I'm not saying that so that you can start crying! Ha. But, it's definitely weird.  I feel like we should walk around with our laptops on Skype all day just so that it feels like I'm following you around and wondering aloud what I can do next for you.  Because, if we were celebrating together, I would make sure that your day would be full of pampering goodness.  You wouldn't have to lift a finger at all and I would make you delectable meals all day...

Like these, perhaps:

Coffee, Maple Glazed Walnut Pancakes, and a Chocolate Shake for later.

A Green Smoothie in the middle of your day so that you have plenty of room for dinner.

A glass of wine, a salad with Swiss Chard, apples and a vinaigrette dressing, and Sweet Potato Lasagne for dinner.

 

And the Pièce de résistance would have to be these Lemon-Lime Cupcakes for dessert.

Remember Mom, all of these are vegan, which means that they are mucho healthy and also... calroies don't count on Mother's Day!

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to say that you are my best friend, the person that I can tell pretty much anything to.  You always listen to me even when I am being estupid... which, let's face it, can happen quite often, and you never judge.  You are supportive of everything that I do and you are my BIGGEST cheerleader.  I know I say that a lot, but that's because it's true.

When I grow up I want to be just like you.

I know I'm squishing your face but I love this picture.  Don't hate me for adding it!

Love you mom!
xoXOxo

My mom really is better than yours... It's my blog and I can say what I want! Ha.

Lemon Pistachio Cookies + Crazy Weather

   Hi Friends!

   I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely spring day we had yesterday.  Or as I like to call it, my California winter day.  We reached an insanely out of season temperature of 15C here in Hamilton.  I wore my spring coat but wrapped a scarf around my neck because I didn't believe the weather people on TV.  I promptly removed my scarf as soon as I got outside.  How is it possible that it was 15 degrees yesterday with rain, and Monday my school was closed due to a snow/ice day?  I officially live in crazy town.

   In honor of the spring weather, I thought I would finally share this fabulous cookie recipe with you.  I got this recipe from my mom who made it for her baked goods stall at the farmer's market in her town.  The original recipe calls for oranges but the organic oranges at my local store looked really sad around the time that I wanted to make these cookies so I subbed in lemons.  At some point I will have to try this recipe using oranges, but for now, I absolutely love it with lemons.  I am offering this up as a "springy" type recipe because lemon's remind me of springtime (even though I consume them all year long).  Plus, I promised to share this recipe around the holidays, which is when I made these cookies, so I figure it's about time.

On to the recipe...

Icebox Lemon Pistachio Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Earth Balance Coconut spread
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. Chia seeds + 3tbsp water
1 tbsp. lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios (I took a ziplock bag, put the nuts in there and then pounded them with my rolling pin.)

Directions:
Whisk together chia seeds and water in a small bowl.  Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 15 min. 
Cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes, then beat in the chia mixture, lemon rind, and vanilla. 
Whisk together flour, arrowroot and salt and add to the butter mixture and blend on low speed until combined. 
Divide dough in half and roll each piece into a log about an inch in diameter and roll the logs into the pistachios to coat.  Wrap in plastic and put in freezer for a few hours.

Preheat oven to 350.  Slice each log into cookie rounds and bake for 10 minutes.  They should remain light colored on top but a little golden on the bottom.

For Frosting:  2-1/4 cups icing sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 tsp melted coconut oil or Earth Balance butter.  Blend together and ice the cookies when they've cooled.  Decorate with a little chopped pistachios.
Enjoy!

I didn't really change the recipe except for making it vegan.  So thank you, mom, for sharing it with me so that I can share it with everyone else!

Love,
Ves xx

Vegan French Onion Soup - Vegan MoFo #21

   Hi Friends!

   I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was good in spite of the wet weather that has been gracing Southern Ontario for the past five days!  My Saturday morning was spent in bed watching Will & Grace reruns with my cat curled up next to me.  That's totally out of character for me but I definitely enjoyed the indulgence.  I think Patchie was way more thrilled that I was vegging out, though.  I'm hardly ever home and when I am, I'm rarely sitting down in one spot so I think she thought she won the lottery having all of my attention on her.   She may have attachment issues... I'm looking into a specialist for her.

See what I mean?  Stucklikeglue.

   Moving on...  This week, because of the wet, cold, gray weather, I'm craving soup!  I made a couple of batches yesterday, and one of them was French Onion Soup.  I love this soup and I'm so glad that I was able to find a recipe that actually worked and tasted good.  A while ago, when my mom was making French Onion soup, she made a vegan version for me.  I was going to ask her how she made it but she was a little busy this weekend doing this:

My mom's baked goods at the Digby Farmer's Market! 

   So I decided to look up some recipes on Google.  I found a few good ones but I decided to use the one from The Inventive Vegetarian.  This recipe was awesome and I only tweaked it a little so I won't post it here but I will include the link.

   

   Since I'm not posting a recipe I will share my tips for staying tear-free (almost) while cutting massive amounts of onions.

1. Light Candles - As you can see in the photo above, I lit a couple of them.
2. Open your windows - let the fresh air in and let the onion fumes out!  I have two windows in my kitchen and they were both open.  I was freezing but at least I didn't cry (that much)!
3. Wear some sunglasses! - I know that one seems like a crazy tip but I really do think it helped me.
4. Use a Mandoline - I sliced those onions in no time!  Everyone knows that your eyes start to water as soon as you cut into an onion.  The faster you can get it done the better!

Those are my tips for staying almost tear-free while cutting onions.  I can honestly say that I only had a few tears.  Normally I would be crying like a baby after cutting into half an onion - but after FOUR onions I hardly had any tears.  I did leave my sunglasses on for a little while after I was finished with the onions, just in case.

On to the soup...

My beautiful bowl of onions!

In the pot, ready to get cookin'!

Here are the very minor tweaks that I made to this recipe:

Instead of using Mushroom Stock I used vegetarian "Beef" Bouillon cubes.  First, I hate mushrooms.  I know 'hate' is a strong word and I always advise children against saying hate about food... BUT, I'm an adult and I know I really, really, REALLY do not like mushrooms!. So it's okay if I say I hate them!  Ha.  Plus, I had the cubes in my cupboard so it was a no-brainer. 

For the wine, I used a Pinot Grigio because that's what I had on hand.  Plus I love it, so I knew it would be good in this recipe.  Don't cook with a wine that you don't like the taste of!

For the cheese, I obviously did not use Swiss.  Instead, I used Daiya Mozzarella Shreds and it was perfect for this dish.

For the bread, I used a whole grain baguette instead of white French bread.

I also did not bake this soup the way that she does in her recipe.  I simply ladled the soup in the dishes, added the toasted bread and cheese on top, and put it in the oven on broil until the cheese melted.

Here's how it turned out...

   This soup was delicious which made me so happy because I miss my mom's French Onion soup.  And, my sister came over for dinner and loved this soup.  Yay!  Oh, and the cute dishes?  I found them at the Dollar Store for $2 each.  And they're oven safe.  Bonus! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's soup recipe.  And in the meantime, please stay safe if you live in and around the 'Storm Watch' areas for Hurricane Sandy.

Love,

Ves xx