Let's Squash That Beef

Okay, so I don't really have beef to squash with anyone, but I like how "squash" trumps "beef" in this turn of phrase. Squash always trumps beef in my book. Doesn't this Spaghetti Squash with Fried Tofu look tastier (and healthier) than some old dumb beef spaghetti?

Although it's more Italian than downhome cookin', this recipe must be included in my cookbook. It's one of my favorite ways to eat stringy, baked spaghetti squash. Plus, it's pure comfort food, and what's more downhome than that?

Little bits of fried tofu, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and soy margarine combine to make a simple yet delicious topping for this low-calorie, fibrous twist on traditional wheat-based pasta.

I get so much joy from pulling the baked spaghetti squash strings out of the soft skin. At first, it looks all solid, like squash you could cut into cubes. But once you stick a fork in, the little "noodles" separate like magic. Winter squash is by far one of fall's (and winter's) best gifts.

Question: What's your favorite winter squash and how do you prepare it?

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Three Angels Diner

When I went vegan in 2004, I could count maybe three restaurants in Memphis with a decent selection of vegan options expanding beyond the typical veggie burger/salad fare. How far we have come! Today, I can name a pretty decent list of restaurants that not only offer vegan items by request, but actually print the word "vegan" on their menu.

One such place is the new Three Angels Diner in the Broad Avenue Arts District. This kitschy little cafe opened a few months ago, and though they have several meat dishes, their vegan options are impressive. I met my buddy Pat there for lunch today and ordered the Momma Veggie Sandwich:

That might look like plain white tofu, but it was actually baked and quite flavorful. It was complemented by roasted red pepper, thinly sliced red onion, vegan mayo (yes, they had vegan mayo!), olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. So, so tasty. And the perfect size for lunch — not too big, not too small.

Sandwiches at Three Angels typically come with a side of chips, but they're happy to switch those out for a fresh vegetable dish for an extra $1.50. All of their veggie sides are vegan, and today's offerings ranged from mashed potatoes to sauteed snow peas to arugala salad to these yummy Roasted Carrots and Butternut Squash (my choice of side):

These were lightly cooked in oil and seasoned just right. The thin slicing ensured that all pieces were thoroughly cooked.

Pat ordered a meaty main dish, so I won't show you that. But her Cucumber Salad side looked delightful with its cute little sliced radishes:

Next time I go to Three Angels, I'm totally ordering the mock egg salad sandwich (made with tofu and vegan mayo). I've heard it's delicious!

Three Angels Diner is located at 2617 Broad Ave. Call 901-452-1111. They have a website, but it's not so great yet.

Vida Vegan Blogger Conference

It's finally happening! For years, I've been dreaming about a magical vegan food blogger conference where I would finally get the opportunity to meet all my bloggy friends in one place. We'd all hold hands and sing songs and stuff our faces with tofu and just generally be BFFs.

Well, the Vida Vegan Blogger Conference is a real deal, and it's happening August 26th-28th, 2011 in Portland, Oregon (of course!) Who do we have to thank for making this happen? None other than Jess of Get Sconed, Janessa of Epicurious Vegan, and Michele of Vegtastic Voyage.

Turns out that hand-holding and sing-a-longs aren't on the agenda (thank god, because it turns out I'm not really into those things after all). Instead, vegan food bloggers will be speaking on a variety of topics ranging from food photography, ethical dining, vegan parenting, podcasting, writing for non-vegans, and much, much more.

I was honored to be invited to speak at Vida Vegan, and I'll be joining some of the best vegan bloggers on the planet like Lindsay of Happy Herbivore, Dynise Balcavage of Urban Vegan, Kris Holechek of nom! nom! nom! blog, Laura Beck of Vegansaurus, and so many others. Check out the list here (and scroll down to see a picture of my adorable cat!). By the way, Isa Chandra Moskowitz will be hosting!

The event will be held at Portland's University Hotel & Conference Center. Registration begins on Friday, Oct. 15th, and the first 50 folks to sign up are eligible to win a $50 gift certificate from Food Fight Grocery. For registration and speaker info, here's the Vida Vegan website. And here's the Facebook group. And the Twitter.

Vegan DOFO Nashville, Part Two

If you missed the previous post, you might be wondering what DOFO stands for. That's "Vegan Day of Food," a clever (if I do say so myself) play on November's Vegan MOFO (Month of Food). I rode with Stephanie (Poopie Bitch), her husband Richard, and their new Poopie Baby Peter on a three-hour drive to Nashville on Saturday for a Nashvegan Post Punk Kitchen potluck. You can read all about our overindulgence at the picnic in my last post.

Our potluck picnic took place at 1:30 p.m. in Nashville's Centennial Park. But we probably didn't start eating until 2 p.m. After we'd crammed as much delicious vegan food into our bellies as would fit, we started talking about where to go for dinner. That's the true sign of a group of vegan foodies. We never stop talking about eating. For some crazy reason, we all decided to meet up at Wild Cow Vegetarian Restaurant at 6:30 p.m., only about 4 1/2 hours after lunch!!

I've blogged about Wild Cow before. It's an amazing all-veg cafe in East Nashville. We don't have any 100% veg restaurants in Memphis, so knowing I can order anything on the menu sort of blows my mind. And Wild Cow serves my kinda food — sandwiches, salads, and comfort food sides like spicy kale, sweet tater hash, and hummus. Despite not being the least bit hungry when we arrived, I ordered the Buffalo Grinder Sandwich:

This spicy buffalo tempeh sandwich was topped with vegan ranch, tomatoes, and lettuce. It was so very, very tasty, and I really wished I could have enjoyed it more. But I was just too full. I only ate half and saved the other for leftovers. On the side, I ordered the Mango Coleslaw:

Um, not impressed. This is the first dish I've tried from Wild Cow that didn't blow me away. But I prefer the cabbage in my slaw to be finely shaved and these were more like large strips of cabbage. And I didn't see a single mango. There were some small orange bits that might have been mango, but they were so tiny I couldn't tell. I wish I'd have gone for the hash side instead.

Stephanie's breastfeeding right now, so she says she's still eating for two (excuses, excuses). She had no problem polishing off this whole Tempeh Reuben with hummus and chips:

John P and his partner Tim had the right idea. They stuck with salads (Tim even left his dressing off because he was so full!) and a platter of crudites with cashew dip. I sampled John's dip and it was yummy. Somehow I forgot to photograph their food, but here's Tim and John.

My boyfriend's sister Sheila and her daughter Samantha live in Nashville, so they joined us even though Sheila isn't vegan or vegetarian:

Sheila tried her first seitan sandwich — the Philly Cheezesteak — and she said it was really, really good. Aw, see we're planting those vegan seeds.

Lisa (Panda Cookie) skipped dinner and ate Stephanie's baby instead:

Just kidding! Lisa actually ordered some sort of tasty-looking plate with tofu and sides. She didn't eat the baby. Or did she?

We left for Memphis after dinner, and I swore I'd never eat again after all that gluttony. But alas, I had my leftover Buffalo Grinder sandwich for lunch the next day. Now I'm ready for the next Nashvegan DOFO, only next time I'm not eating quite so much. Aw, who am I kidding? Of course I will!

Vegan DOFO Nashville, Part One

So November may be Vegan MOFO (month of food), but this past Saturday was Vegan DOFO (day of food) in Nashville. I joined Stephanie (Poopie Bitch), her husband Richard, and tiny Peter (the new Poopie Baby) on a three-hour road trip from Memphis to Nashville on Saturday for the Nashvegan Post Punk Kitchen Potluck.

I call it a DOFO because the whole day was all about food. We stuffed ourselves silly at the potluck, hit up Nashville's massive Whole Foods store and Trader Joe's, and then met for dinner at the all-veg Wild Cow restaurant. I think I ate enough calories on Saturday to sustain me for at least a week. In fact, we ate so much that I've decided to break this post into two days because that much food in one post would be positively sinful.

Let's start with Nashvegan Potluck. We gathered in Centennial Park, near this massive replica of the Parthenon:

Lisa (Panda Cookie!!) drove all the way from Asheville, North Carolina to join us. And she brought Poopie Baby Peter a homemade monster! But Stephanie said she may steal it from her kid. I mean, he's only a few months old. He'll never know the difference, right?

John P was there with his partner Tim, and so were Crystal (formerly Vivicious Vegan, now of That Vegan Blog) and her dude Marty.

Even though there were eight people, we brought enough food to feed an army of hungry vegans. John P and Tim brought this crazy-awesome salad with Israeli couscous, fried tofu, fried onions, and a fantastic creamy dressing:

John P and Tim also brought my new favorite guilty pleasure — Okra Fries!!! These thinly sliced bits of okra are deep-fried and seasoned with a spicy stuff. Best thing ever!

Crystal went with an Ethiopian theme. The yemesir w'et from Kittee's Papa Tofu was so, so delicious. In the background is Lisa's yummy macaroni salad (I took home the leftovers!):

In keeping with her Ethiopian theme, Crystal also brought some African azifa made with brown lentils. Crystal made that recipe up all by herself! All that was missing was the injera to scoop it up. In fact, Crystal's homemade Ethiopian food is far better than any I've had in a restaurant:

I brought my vegan Pimento Cheeze Spread with little whole grain bread triangles for finger sammiches, and someone (not sure who) also brought some delicious sesame rolls:

Stephanie went all out with this Caramelized Onion Quiche from Vegan Brunch — one of my fave dishes from that book btw. Look how Martha her fall leaf crust embellishments are!

No proper PPK potluck could go without dessert! Stephanie apparently thought she would be feeding millions with her big ole tub of mini Java Chip Muffins from Vegan Brunch:

She also made about 60 Cowboy Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. She sent us all home with a bundle of leftover cookies because not even 8 hungry vegans can finish off 60 cookies in one sitting. Here I am about to tear into cookie #1:

I made a coconut pie and Lisa made some butterscotch oat cookies, but I forgot to photograph them in my haste to stuff my face. Oops! Here's my plate, stuffed with as much as would fit:

Check back tomorrow for the rest of my Vegan DOFO. Can you believe we ate a whole dinner only 4 1/2 hours after this one? Yep, we did. Check back tomorrow for more vegan gluttony.

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Fuel Cafe

Long, long ago, the building 1761 Madison in Midtown housed some sort of automotive repair joint. But somehow, over the years, it's morphed into a restaurant. Yet the building maintains the facade of a garage ... only with tables and a fully-functioning kitchen. And it's clean, much unlike a real garage. Within the past year, the eclectic American eatery Fuel Cafe opened in this spot, replacing the former Petra Cafe (a Middle Eastern joint).

When Fuel opened, I kept hearing about the amazing vegan options. But when I glanced at an early version of their to-go menu, I only saw a veggie burger and a vegan soup of the day. So I guess I wasn't in a hurry to try the place. But then last Saturday, our local vegetarian society Food Awareness had our monthly meeting on Fuel's spacious patio ... and OMG! I think I'm in love. Wouldn't you fall head over heels for this platter of Vegan Quinoa-Chili Cheese Nachos?:

Turns out, Fuel has quite a few options. I must have seen a really old version of their menu the first time. This plate of tortilla strips was piled high with Follow Your Heart cheddar (I didn't ask, but I can tell by the taste and texture), to-die-for quinoa chili, and Tofutti sour cream.

Since we called ahead to warn that about 10 to 15 vegans were coming, they bought the sour cream just for us. But I hear the vegan cheese is a regular item, and they are certainly not stingy with it. There's a whole thick layer of vegan cheese under all that chili. By the way, I ate every chip on that plate even though it was clearly enough food to feed three people.

My friend Greg ordered their famous homemade Veggie Burger, which is clearly listed as a vegan patty on the menu so you don't have to ask questions (I love that!):

I made him give me a bite (okay, two bites), and I think it's the best veggie burger I've ever had. I used to think Huey's, a famous Memphis burger joint, had the best veg patties. But Fuel beats Huey's into the ground. Sorry Huey's. They even had vegan cheese slices to top the burger! And our awesome waiter knew all about casein and informed us that we should specify vegan cheese because they also carry soy cheese slices with casein.

Since we called ahead, the chef went totally out his way and created a Vegan Quiche that wasn't on the menu:

Now, they always serve a vegetarian quiche, but he made this one with tofu just for us. I took a picture of my friend Barbara's plate, but I was so involved in my nachos that I forgot to try it!

After dinner, our server announced that the chef even cooked up a vegan dessert for us — Apple Yum Cobbler with a scoop of Rice Dream!!! Unfortunately, I was too busy experiencing food ecstasy to remember to photograph it. But I don't think I've ever, ever, ever had a dessert that good. In fact, I was really too full to order dessert, but I took one bite of my friend Vaughan's dessert, and I made him give it to me. He had to order another. Seriously. I stole my friend's food. That's how good it was (or how bad I am).

By the way, we were there at lunch time, but the dinner menu looks pretty impressive too — vegan chili mac, vegan pasta of the day, and vegan tofu Thai curry! I see a dinner date in my future.

Thank you Fuel for changing my life. I will be seeing you again and again and again. XOXO!

In case you're in town, Fuel is located at 1761 Madison. Call 'em at 901-725-9025 or check out their menu online. Oh, and this place is Project Green Fork certified, which means they recycle, compost, use green cleaners, and commit to sustainable business practices.

More Kale Love (and Cookbook Winners!)

First things first – we have two winners in the 101 Things to Do with Tofu giveaway!! I used Random.org to select two numbers and they belonged to Radioactive Vegan and Kelly from La Vida Vegga! Congrats guys! Papa Crunk will have your books in the mail asap!

Now onto the food. Yesterday, I may have conquered raw kale, but tonight I enjoyed the calcium-rich leafy greens baked into crispy kale chips. I super-puffy-heart kale chips!

I wish photos could convey the crispy texture, but photographed kale chips never look as delicious as they taste. Trust me, if you've never had kale chips, you are in for a treat. These were the perfect alternative to tortilla chips with my Cheezy Un-Chicken Quesadilla for dinner tonight.

There's a million recipes out there for kale chips, but I think my nooch-covered ones are pretty swell.

Crunky Kale Chips
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Yields 2 servings
4 cups torn kale leaves, washed and stems removed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Sriracha to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the kale leaves in a mixing bowl. Pour the olive oil over the kale and gently massage into the leaves.

Add the nutritional yeast, salt, and as much sriracha as you like (I use lots and lots!). Massage the seasonings into the leaves.

Place the leaves onto a baking sheet and place into the oven. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until crispy.

By the way, Kelly at La Vida Vegga has a pretty cool giveaway goin' on through October 15th. She's giving away a fall-themed care package with Nava Atlas' Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, some pumpkin spice tea, apple butter, and lots of Larabars.