Bow to the Devil Dog!

I'm about to show ya'll somethin' crazy awesome. And I have Jewbacca of Pain in the Ass Vegan to thank for it all. Behold, my new favorite food — the Diablo Dog:

This monstrosity of a veggie dog dish contains a not one, but two Yves veggie dogs, Amy's vegan chili from a can, nacho Teese sauce, my Granny's homemade dill relish, onions, jalepenos, Frank's red hot, horseradish sauce (made from mixing horseradish with a little vegan mayo), and fake bacon bits. And it's all nestled inside a homemade whole wheat hoagie bun, which I made using HappyVeganFace's Whole Wheat Bun recipe.

Jewbacca's sinfully delicious delicious dog was inspired by an episode of Strangers with Candy, and as a huge Amy Sedaris fan, I think that makes it taste even better. You must make this dog. You won't regret it. For instructions (and a little diablo dog preachin'), check out Jewbacca's step-by-step picture post.

On the side, I knew I'd need something a little more healthy to make up for all the processed, cheezy sin I'd be stuffing into my mouth. So I boiled a little local corn on the cob and covered it in the Garlic-Miso Dressing from Vegan Soul Kitchen:

Another winner from Bryant Terry! This dressing is so much better than butter. In fact, I doubt I'll ever slather Earth Balance on corn again. This recipe is healthier and tastier.

Now, go make yourself a Diablo Dog. You can atone for your transgressions later.

Veganstock, Part Two

Last night, I posted pictures of the delicious food we ate at the PPK Veganstock campsite in Asheville, North Carolina this past weekend. Tonight, I've got more Asheville shots from the times my boyfriend Paul and I ventured out on our own to explore this awesome vegan hippie mecca in the Smokey Mountains.

On Saturday, most of the PPK-ers went to a waterfall and natural waterslide, but Paul and I had plans to meet up with my vegan buddy Leslie in downtown Asheville. Leslie used to live in Memphis, but moved to Asheville last year to go to herb school and to study to be a doula. She's actually pregnant right now and getting a hands-on approach in her mid-wifery studies. Here's Leslie outside City Bakery:

Leslie, her man Arthur, Paul, and I stopped into Rosetta's Kitchen, the best little vegan soul food joint on the planet, for lunch. I had the Family Favorite Plate:

It's peanut butter tofu, steamed kale, and smashed potatoes with deserves-to-be-eaten-straight-off-a-spoon noochy gravy. I also ordered a cup of their Mac & Cheeze:

It was a little dry, but still tasty. I'd order it again.

After lunch, we shopped around at the Belle Chere Arts and Crafts Festival downtown. There were hundreds and hundreds of vendors selling art, jewelry, and crafts. Paul stopped into a Port-a-Potty and found this little guy trapped inside:

We found safe not-so-icky new home for the praying mantis on a plant outside an office building.

On Sunday, Paul and I decided to play catch-up and check out the Looking Glass Waterfall in Pisgah National Forest that everyone else had gone to on Saturday. Isn't it lovely?

The water was super-duper cold though and we didn't go in past our knees. We also checked out Sliding Rock, a natural waterslide that involves brave folks sliding down a slippery wet mountain into a lake of ice-cold water. Here's some lady plunging into icy misery:

There was a huge line for the slide, and the water was too cold for us, so we just watched other people slide down.

Sunday night, most of the PPK gang ate at Laughing Seed Cafe, a fancy vegan restaurant that I'd like to have tried ... but it was really too expensive. So we joined Mr. and Mrs. Poopie Bitch at Green Sage, an eco- and vegan-friendly coffeehouse. I had the Tempeh Reuben with Sweet Potato Fries:

Yum, yum! Now that I'm back in Memphis, I really miss the mountains and all those vegan dining options. Check out this mountain behind Paul:

We come from very, very flat land, so the mountains were crazy amazing to us! And I've never visited a city with so many restaurants that cater to vegans. Then again, I've never been to Portland. Hmmmm....maybe we should hold the next Veganstock there!

Veganstock, Part One

After spending what feels like a million hours in my car yesterday, I finally made it back home from Veganstock 2009, a PPK camping trip in Asheville, North Carolina. I had a great time, and I have tons of pics, so I'm splitting the Veganstock post into two days.

Check out the official Veganstock banner, created by the awesome Pandacookie (check out the tofu pirate in the corner!):

Paul (my boyfriend) and I arrived at the campsite at Lake Powhatan in Asheville around 8 p.m. on Friday night, just in time for dinner! Poopie Bitch made some delicious Italian and Chipotle Sausages from Vegan Brunch, which we ate with corn on the cob and zucchini kabobs:

The theme of the weekend was "summer of smlove," so I brought the official Smlove Pie from the Veganomicon:

That's a chocolate tofu pie in a graham cracker crust topped with peanut butter caramel, candied pecans, and chocolate ganache. Decadent!

Don't Have a Cow brought this adorable (and delicious) Gay Cake:

She'd originally promised vegan donuts, but didn't place the order at the bakery in time for the trip. Since DHAC's avatar on the PPK forum is a rainbow peace sign cake, everyone requested a similar "gay cake" as a substitute for donuts.

Saturday morning came really early! We spent the night in tents, and the sun woke us by 8 a.m., which was totally okay because we woke up to these amazing Cinnamon Rolls, also created by DHAC:

And sugar-queen Poopie Bitch made the world's biggest Apricot Cardamom East Coast Coffee Cake from Vegan Brunch:

It was much larger, but this is after lots of it had already been inhaled by hungry Veganstockers.

After breakfast, we got ready for the day. Here's Poopie and I all fresh-faced and ready for fun:

Note that this picture was taken after only one day with no shower. By day four, we weren't so fresh-faced anymore.

Paul and I spent Saturday exploring downtown Asheville with my buddy Leslie and her man Arthur. Leslie moved to Asheville from Memphis last year. The rest of the Veganstock gang hit up a waterfall and natural waterslide (which is what Paul and I did on Sunday ... we were a day behind everyone else). I'll share pictures of our downtown experience tomorrow.

Unfortunately, it started raining all crazy-like on Saturday afternoon, and the campsite was flooded. Bryophyte's tent collapsed! So everyone regrouped to dry blankets and eat Tater Pigs (which I do not have photos of ... but they're veggie dogs stuffed into baked potatoes and topped with chili!) at JohnP's house in Asheville.

Here's the whole gang in JohnP's dining room:

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures of the food I ate in Asheville restaurants, as well as pics of our waterfall and downtown experiences.

We Have a Winner! And Some Hot Wangz ...

Let's cut to the chase and announce the granola contest winner before I start showing ya'll everything I ate today. Last week, I hosted a MixMyGranola $20 gift certificate giveaway, in which the lucky random winner gets a chance to personalize his or her own granola from MixMyGranola.com. You guys posted great comments about what you'd include in your mix if you won.

This morning, I used a random number generator to choose a number from the comments of participants. And that lucky ducky winner is ..... (drumroll, please) ...Melisser of The Urban Housewife (#5)! Congrats Melisser! I'll shoot you an email with further instructions!

Now, on to the foodiness. Last night's dinner (and today's lunch) featured these Seitan Hot Wangz, a recipe I'm working on for my cookbook:

I've made these before, but they were much better this time. I've tweaked my seitan recipe to make it more tender and less chewy. Also, I used smaller seitan chunks than usual because this was some leftover seitan that I'd originally made for a seitan beef stew.

On the side were the Green Beans with Shallots and Walnuts from Vegan Soul Kitchen:

I got these beans in a CSA share that I'm sharin' with my friend who is currently in Germany. I knew I didn't want plain old green beans, so I found this tasty recipe. The beans are lightly boiled and then tossed with roasted shallots, a tangy mustard vinegarette, and garnished with walnuts. I think this is my new favorite way to eat fresh green beans.

I also had some Jalepeno-Basil Watermelon Salad:

This recipe is also going in my cookbook. It's super simple though — 2 cups chopped watermelon, juice of one lime, 1 Tbsp. finely minced jalepeno, and six leaves of chopped fresh basil. Oh, and salt to taste. Yummy-nummy!

This will be my last post until at least Tuesday night. I'm headed to Asheville, North Carolina for Veganstock, a big ole' PPK camping trip that involves lots of communal cookin' and something called tater pigs. I'll share plenty of pictures when I return, of course!

To Health and Wealth!

Last month, I received an awesome sample box of Intention Cookies from the folks at Bountiful Vegan. I've been reviewing each cookie as I try them out. Today I sampled the Prosperity Cookie:

These gigantic all-natural, all-vegan cookies are laced with love and good intentions. Each flavor is said to bring a different positive aspect into your life, and as the name implies, this Choco-Choco Chip Prosperity Cookie is supposed to bring about a little extra moola.

I can always use extra cash, so I ate half of this fudgey cookie with a glass of soymilk and repeated the phrase "I appreciate my increasingly growing wealth" over and over. Each cookie comes with a magic phrase to recite while you nosh. We'll see if it works!

As for taste, this cookie reminded me of a cross between a brownie and a milk chocolate Easter bunny! It had a super fudgey taste, but there was something about it that seemed reminescent of milk chocolate ... and that's a great thing for a vegan that misses decent candy bars. There were a few small nut pieces in the cookie, and I would have liked to see a few more of those.

Overall verdict — Delicious, comforting, and indulgent. I feel a bit wealthier already!

Order your own Intention Cookies (or enter their variety pack giveway) on the Bountiful Vegan website. These would make awesome gifts!

Wednesday morning update: Entry is now closed for the MixMyGranola contest. I've just used a Random Number Generator to select a winner (ha, I know who it is, but I'm keeping it a secret!!!), and I'll announce when I post tonight. Stay tuned!

Green Monster Bagels!

Until last night, I'd only made bagels once. And that time, it was pain in the butt. The recipe I'd found online (which I've totally lost now) called for lots of unnecessary steps. I swore I'd never make bagels again — until I saw Isa's simpler recipe in Vegan Brunch:

These were so easy! Just make the dough, let it rise, shape into bagels, boil, and bake. That's all there is to it. I used whole wheat bread flour instead of all-purpose, so mine were more like mini-bagels. But that's okay. It just means I can eat two instead of one!

This morning, I made a Green Monster Bagel, spread with avocado and a dash of salt:

This idea was inspired by Shelby of La Belle Vegan and Emily of Curly Top (who refers to these as Green Monsters). I used half an avocado spread over 4 bagel halves (that's from two small bagels). Thanks to the generous dose of healthy fats and whole grains, I stayed full well past noon (and that never happens!!). As for taste, I think plain avocado tastes a bit like eggs, so this was perfect for breakfast. I'm having the same thing again tomorrow!

CSA Sharin'

I've never signed up for a CSA share, mainly because I fear receiving a mystery box of produce each week would take away my freedom of choice at the farmers market. I like choosing which fruits and veggies to buy rather than having them picked out for me.

That being said, for a couple of weeks this month, I'm sharing a friend/co-worker's CSA share while she's in Germany. I picked up my first bag of produce from Downing Hollow Farm last Wednesday. Inside the bright green reusable tote were potatoes, shitake mushrooms, slicer tomatoes, multicolored heirloom cherry tomatoes, green beans, Swiss chard, basil, mint, and dill. Maybe this CSA business is alright!

On Friday night, I used some of the cute little tomatoes for this Swiss Chard and Rainbow Tomato Whole Wheat Pasta Toss:

This is one of my favorite quick summer meals — whole wheat spaghetti tossed with steamed chard, raw heirloom cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and cracked pepper.

Tonight I used the shitake mushrooms in this Tom Yum Soup:

The soup base is from a jar of veggie tom yum paste I picked up at an Asian market. Other ingredients included fried tofu, dried lemongrass, shitake mushrooms, bok choy, carrots, and rice noodles. Yum yum!

On the side, I had a Whole Wheat Steamed Bun:

I was so excited when I found whole wheat steamed buns at the Asian market by my house. I love these things, but so often, they're made from nasty old white flour. This wheat roll tasted so much better, and it was much healthier.

Vegan Deviled Eggs ... Yes, I Did!

When I first opened the black salt I'd purchased to make the Tofu Omelet from Vegan Brunch, I was knocked out by the intense smell of deviled eggs. The salt even tastes exactly like those cold yolk-stuffed eggs of Thanksgiving dinners and family reunions gone by. I knew at that moment that I had a mission — to create a vegan deviled egg.

And without further ado, I give you Tofu Deviled "Eggy" Bites:

Yes, I know eggs are egg-shaped, and these cuties are square, but shaping tofu into eggs seems like a waste of good tofu. Who cares what shape they're in if they taste awesome?

The base is plain ole' extra firm tofu, which shares a very similar texture and tastelessness with boiled eggs. The topping is made from silk tofu, black salt, turmeric, pickle relish, red onion, and love. I swear to god, these bites taste just like the real thing — or at least from what I remember. To be honest, I haven't had a deviled egg in over four years, but this is how I remember them tasting.

The recipe is most definitely going in my cookbook's appetizer section, but I'm so proud of this one that I need to share it with the world right now. Here goes ...

Tofu Deviled “Eggy” Bites

Black salt, commonly found at most Indian food markets, is the magical ingredient in these babies. It tastes EXACTLY like eggs, so don't skimp on it. Order it off the Internet if you cannot find any, but don't make these guys without it. I promise it will not be the same.

1 pound extra firm tofu
Half 12.3-ounce package of firm silk tofu (about 1 cup)
1 cup cooked white beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. vegan mayonnaise (like Vegenaise)
1 Tbsp. yellow mustard
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. black salt (plus about 1 Tbsp. more for spreading on “egg whites”)
1 Tbsp. dill pickle relish
1/2 Tbsp. red onion, very finely minced
Black pepper, to taste
Paprika, for garnish
Fresh chives (optional, for garnish)

Drain water from the extra firm tofu. Wrap in several layers of paper towels and place on a plate. Put something heavy on top, like a jar or book, and allow to press in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

After extra firm tofu is pressed, cut it in half. Then cut each half into four quadrants or squares. Slide a knife on the side of each quadrant to cut three squares from each. In the end, you should have about 24 little squares. If these instructions are too confusing, just cut into bite-sized squares and aim to get about 20 to 24. Set aside.

Place the silk tofu, beans, mayonnaise, mustard, turmeric, and one teaspoon black salt into a food processor. Process for about a minute or until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in relish, onion, and black pepper. Set aside.

Pour the other tablespoon of black salt into a small bowl. Using your fingertip, rub a touch of black salt on each white firm tofu square. Top each square with a dollop (about one teaspoon) of the yellow silk tofu mixture.

Sprinkle with paprika and top with chives.

Makes about 24 bites.

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If you haven't already entered, don't miss your chance to win a $20 gift certificate to create your own granola mix from MixMyGranola. See this post for details.

Hello, Dal-lin!

Lemme just say, I LOVE Indian food!!! It was Indian food that inspired me to go vegetarian almost 15 years ago, and the spicy, hearty cuisine is still my very favorite food in the world. Last night, I made the Masoor Dal from The Vegan Table:

As much as I adore Indian food, can ya'll believe I've never had red lentils until now? I know, crazy, right? The dish is simply red lentils, onion, garlic, coriander, and cumin. Easy and so, so tasty. Red lentils are my new fave — they cook faster and taste better.

I ate my lentils with a batch of Puliogare Rice (or Tamarind Rice) with local squash and zucchini:

Puliogare rice sounds all fancy, but it's actually just brown rice mixed with a bit of this instant tangy, spicy rice seasoning powder I picked up at the Indian Bazaar store in Memphis:

And yea, I know squash and zucchini aren't exactly Indian food, but I had some local veggies that needed usin', and I felt like the rice could use a little color. Here's my whole satisfying plate:

By the way, if you missed yesterday's post, I'm hosting a MixMyGranola giveaway. Check out this post and leave a comment about your dream granola. I'll choose a random winner next Wednesday.

Mama's Blackberry Cobbler & a Granola GIVEAWAY!!!!

Every year about this time, my buddy Aaron brings me a big ole bag of fresh, hand-picked blackberries from his family's berry bushes. Last year, I froze most of them for smoothies, but this year, I was cravin' cobbler — my Mama's Blackberry Cobbler to be specific:

It's naturally vegan, and since it's a family recipe, this one is definitely going in my cookbook. It's really quite simple — fresh, juicy blackberries and sugar are baked under a whole wheat crust topped with chunky turbinado sugar.

As it cooks, the berry juice creeps over the top crust. Just look at that gorgeous juice!:

A warm slice of this was perfect with a scoop of Soy Delicious Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream on the side.

Now for the giveaway: Remember my MixMyGranola post from a few days ago? I won a $20 gift certificate to create my own customized granola, and now the nice folks at MixMyGranola want to give another such certificate to one lucky random commenter from my blog.

At MixMyGranola.com, you can choose your granola base (don't get the French vanilla ... it's not vegan ... I learned the hard way ... but the regular organic granola base is vegan), dried fruit and nuts, candy, and health powder supplements to create your very own personalized granola.

How do you win? Just head over to the MixMyGranola site and look through their customizable granola options. You can make a mix without going through the checkout. Then report back to my blog with a comment on your dream granola combo. In one week (next Wednesday, July 22nd), I'll use a random number generator to pick one lucky winner. Happy Granola-ing!!!

Sausage Pancake Tacos

Ever seen those Jimmy Dean frozen sausage & pancakes on a stick? Well, even in my meat-eating days, I don't recall ever trying one. But for some weird reason, I got a craving for sausages rolled up in pancakes. Using a couple of Vegan Brunch recipes — Cherry Sage Sausages and Perfect Pancakes — I attempted to create a vegan version of the classic sausage pancake roll-up ... but they look more like Sausage Pancake Tacos:

See? Tacos. I can't even begin to describe how awesome of an idea this was. Isa's Cherry Sage Sausages, made with the classic Julie Hasson steamed gluten sausage method, are amazingly good! And the simple Perfect Pancakes recipe complements these little dudes so well. I made both mini-sized sausages and smaller pancakes to create an easy-to-hold roll-up. I dipped my tacos in heated maple syrup. Mmmm-mmmm.

By the way, I'm entering these in Chocolate-Covered Katie's Pancake Challenge, a vegan food blogger contest challeging folks to create delicious pancakes recipes. At first, the contest was actually for dessert pancakes, but Katie later said savory flapjacks were okay too. There's still a week to get involved, so join up if you haven't already!

Since I made enough sausages and cakes to last all week, I get to eat this meal again and again. Damn, now I can't wait until breakfast....

What I Ate Last Week

So I'm a little behind posting a few dishes. I don't like to include too many meals in one post, so I saved a few of last week's eats to post tonight. I worked on my BBQ Black-Eyed Pea Burger recipe for the cookbook last Tuesday:

That's Tofutti cheeze atop my burger and a homemade pickle on the side. The burger still needs work though. This is the second time I've experimented with a black-eyed pea burger, but I think I'm using too much gluten flour. I like to add a little gluten to help the burger stay together, but the gluten flavor actually overwhelms this burger. I mean, don't get me wrong, it tastes good. But I feel like it needs to be just a tad tastier to be included in my cookbook.

Instead of my usual chips or fries with burgers, I made Boiled Squash and Onions to eat on the side:

My mom used to make this all the time when I was a kid, and though boiling often zaps the flavor of veggies, it does something magical to squash. I simply boiled 3 or 4 sliced summer squash in water with minced onion, salt, pepper, and a generous pat of Earth Balance. Then I seasoned the squash with Cavendar's Greek Seasoning and green hot sauce on my plate.

I also made a deeeeelicious recipe from The Vegan Table last week — the Penne Pasta with Fresh Veggies:

The recipe calls for quite a few veggies — broccoli, red bell peppers, spinach, squash, olives, and fire-roasted tomatoes — tossed with whole wheat penne pasta. And it also calls for vegetarian sausage. The recipe recommends using Tofurkey sausages, but I opted for Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo. Though the chorizo sausage was crumbly and not sliced, it really added a tasty element to this fresh summer dish.

Also, if ya'll saw my last post about MixMyGranola, you should know that the French vanilla granola base I chose is apparently not vegan. Boo hiss! Tanuki.gao commented on that post that I should check the ingredients on the company's website, and sure enough, it contains honey and whey. But all the other granola bases they offer are vegan! I should have checked that out first. Oh well, I'll finish what I have because I don't like to waste. But next time, I'm gonna pick a different granola base.

Mix My Granola!

A few weeks ago, I was randomly generated (ha!) as the winner in Chocolate-Covered Katie's MixMyGranola giveaway. MixMyGranola is a customized granola-makin' website, where folks can choose any ingredients — like nuts, dried fruits, health powders, and even candy — to go into their crunchy mix. My prize was a $20 gift certificate, so I went on the website, created my own mix, and promptly received this cute tube in the mail:

Twenty bucks will pay for a crap ton of granola extras! Here's what I put in my Coco-Banana Lickety Split Granola (they also let you pick a name and include it on the label) — French vanilla granola, dried strawberries, banana slices, walnuts, chia seeds, Brazil nuts, hemp seeds, organic coco shreds, oatbran flakes, organic quinoa, organic pomegranate powder, hazelnuts, goji berries, dried bing cherries, and dried pineapple.

Each ingredient costs around $1 to $3. As you add items into your cart, the website generates a nutrition label so you always know how many calories, fat, protein, etc. is in your mix. When they ship the granola, the nice folks at MixMyGranola include that nutrition label and ingredient list on the back of the package.

I've been enjoying mine with soymilk for breakfast every morning, and I think I'll definitely be heading back to MixMyGranola.com to order more when I run out!

Note to cookbook testers: I finally posted some more recipes to the tester site — fried squash and boozy beer beans. Check it out!

Raw Food Fun!

Yesterday, I did my monthly raw food cleanse, and for the first time in the year or so I've been doing this one-day, all-raw cleanse, I didn't crave cooked food all day! I'm attributing this to the super hot summer temps, as well as the tasty eats I noshed on throughout the day. Breakfast was a Green Machine Juice:

Inspired by Jessy's ACT green juices at happyveganface, I juiced half a bunch of kale, half a pound of carrots, two stalks of celery, half a red bell pepper, a handful of parsley, and a bit of fresh ginger. All that stuff made this little jar of juice! And it was quite tasty, but not so filling.

Luckily, I brought plenty of snacks to the office, like these bell peppers and Raw Satay Sauce from Alive in 5: Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes:

This peanut-free satay gets its tastiness from miso and tahini. It was so good with these pepper strips. I ate a whole bell pepper with the dip at around 10 a.m. And of course, I was starving again by lunch, so I ate this yummy-nummy Live Gazpacho from Vegan Fusion:

The recipe was a raw variation on an otherwise cooked recipe (the original called for fire-roasted tomatoes and roasted jalepenos). I believe this may be my favorite raw meal to date. All the summer goodness is combined into one awesome bowl and spiced with cumin and chili powder!

I ate this Cucumber Salad with Mustard Seed Dressing alongside my soup:

The dressing recipe is from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I've made it several times, and I think it's my favorite uncooked salad dressing — just olive oil, apple cidar vinegar, agave, and mustard seeds.

Due to the lack of carbs, I was hungry again by 2 p.m. So I snacked on fresh strawberries, blueberries, and some O.N.E. Coconut Water at my desk:

The coconut water was kinda weird. It was just straight, unsweetened coconut water, but I guess I'm used to the creamy coconut milk. That was what I was expecting. It was fun drinking out of a juice box though.

Before my afternoon workout, I hungrily downed this Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar:

Now, I know this isn't technically raw, but the label says it's 60% raw and that's enough for me. I'd been dying to try this flavor since I'm not able to find it in Memphis for some weird reason. I bought this one in Nashville a few weeks ago. And I gotta say, this is the BEST Larabar flavor ever! Even better than my previous fave, Coconut Cream Pie.

Dinner was the Save the Tuna Pate Wrap with Garlic Cashew Aioli from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

It was just okay. I never liked real tuna, so I'm not sure why I made this. I think I just wanted an excuse to use the dulse flakes in my spice rack. The "tuna" is made with sunflower seeds, carrot pulp (from my morning juice), celery, dulse, and some other stuff. I subbed romaine hearts for the collard leaves because I'm not crazy about raw collards.

Finally, I snacked on these Mini-Pecan Pie Date Wraps for dessert throughout the day:

My raw friend Judith made these for her Summer Solstice party a few weeks ago, and they were so yummy I had to make my own. It's simply a date, pitted and sliced on one side, and then stuffed with a raw pecan. Since I rarely finish an entire raw pie or other dessert, these bite-sized treats were perfect!