Spreads for Breads

Somehow, I've acquired a buttload of spreads lately. And it just so happens that one of my favorite go-to breakfasts is bread schmeared with nut butter and other yummies. Here are a few of my current spreadables.

There's this homemade White Chocolate Peanut Butter that I purchased from Amber of Almost Vegan at Vida Vegan Con. She lugged, like, 30-something jars with her from Kansas City so her partner Matt could peddle them while she attended the conference. Paul and I both bought a jar, so we have plenty ... for now. But Amber, I'm gonna need your recipe. ;-)

Then, there's this cute ass jar of Maple Cream that I received last week in a care package from Rick of the Health Sleuth and his partner Sabrina. Imagine maple syrup that's thick like butter. Oh yes, it's delicious.

And my buddy Stephanie brought me back this GIANT jar of Marmite from her recent trip to the U.K. Any long-time readers have certainly read my gushings about Marmite in the past. I love this yeasty spread, and although our Whole Foods sells it, it's way overpriced there.

Last week, Whole Foods did have at least one thing seriously underpriced though. Ricemellow Creme! It was only 94 cents a tub, and this stuff usually runs around $4 per tub. There were only two left, so I grabbed both. Not sure why they were marked down so low. They're nowhere near expiration. Hope they're not phasing it out. There is no greater pleasure that a fluffer-nutter sandwich made with peanut butter and Ricemellow Creme. Take that, marshmallow fluff. Nobody needs you and your dumb old melted-down animal skin and bones. Ick! How can people eat gelatin knowing what's in it?

Paul and I each got a squeeze pack of nut butter in our Vida Vegan Con dorm room gift bags. Mine was Artisana Raw Almond Butter!

And lastly, this isn't new, but it is delicious. I'm still working on this jar of homemade Blueberry Jam from Megan of Vegan Whore. She sent it to me in a care package swap last year, but I already had so many jams open at the time that I opted to hoard the jar for later. Well, now it's later, and I am tearing this stuff up! Yum!

I bought a Italian Country Loaf from Shoaf's Loaf at the Memphis Farmers Market on Saturday, and I've been spreading a couple slices with spreads each morning this week. Monday, I had a Fluffer Nutter slice (Ricemellow Creme and White Chocolate Wonderful PB) and a Maple PB slice (Maple Cream and crunchy plain PB):

And this morning, I had a taste of sweet and savory. One slice was spread with the raw almond butter and blueberry jam and the other with crunchy plain PB and Marmite (best combo ever, by the way):

What do you like to spread on your bread?

Chili Weather!

So I sort of hate this time of year, but I also sort of love it. I hate that summer is coming to an end. I hate knowing that in a few months, I'll be wearing a damn coat everyday and shivering at my desk. I hate that the Memphis Farmers Market only has a few more weeks before closing for the season. I hate hibernation (which I totally do ... I don't go out nearly as much in the winter).

But fall means my October birthday is almost here, and I love presents. And cake. I love pumpkins. And Halloween is the very best holiday of all, followed closely by Thanksgiving. Fall also means Gay Pride Month in Memphis (we have ours in October because it's too hot during actual pride month in June), hoodies, and most importantly, CHILI!!!

I love chili. You can eat it with cornbread or tortilla chips. You can put beer and/or chocolate in it. You can slather it on your hot dogs, your fries, your mom, whatever. What's not to love? Since the temps temporarily dropped into the 70s last weekend, I cooked up a big ole vat (okay, it was really just a medium-sized pot, but I wish it'd been a vat) of Texas Chili from the Sunny Days in Texas vegan cook zine:

I bought the zine at Panda Cookie's booth at Vida Vegan Con, and the proceeds benefit the Sunny Day Farm Animal Sanctuary in La Coste, Texas. The 36-page zine is a collection of downhome recipes from my favorite Texas bloggers: Krys of Two Vegan Boys, Kristen of Sugar Skull, Mo Martin from Mo Betta Vegan, and Food for Lovers Queso makers Chris and Chrystal Tate to name a few.

The chili recipe was submitted by Molly Frisinger of Lone Star Plate, and it features bulgur in place of the more traditional TVP or veggie burger crumbles. The bulgur has a similar texture to TVP, but it's more filling since it's a whole grain.

On top of my chili are onions and a healthy scoop of Nacheez sauce, which I picked up at Food Fight Grocery in Portland. It's a nacho sauce made from red bell peppers, cashews, chilis, and jalepenos. Yummy! I served my chili with plenty of Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues chips for dippin'.

If fall weather means I can eat like this, well, bring it on.

What do you love/hate about fall?

Checking In with the 30 Day Vegan Challenge

Remember how I said I was taking the 30 Day Vegan Challenge in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's book of the same name? In case you missed that post, I'm reading a chapter a day in Colleen's new book. The book is designed for newbie vegans, and each daily chapter provides valuable info on the essentials of veganism.

Yes, I'm already vegan. But I'm reading along for the sake of review. So far, the book has gone over stocking your healthy vegan kitchen, shopping for vegan items in the grocery store, packing vegan lunches, delicious vegan breakfast ideas, and eating vegan on the road.

I'm on Day 11, a chapter titled "Rethinking Meat Cravings: Salt and Fat Taste Good." But despite the meaty theme for today, I chose to make a few veggie-based dishes from another chapter in the book.

I made use of some leftover Labor Day charcoal to grill these Marinated Portabella Mushrooms:

The oil-free marinade is simple: fresh or dried herbs, balsamic vinegar, tamari. I let the caps sit in the fridge for a few hours in the marinade, and then I grilled them for about five minutes on each side.

For my side dish, I made the Herbed Scalloped Potatoes from the book:

Now I realize this looks like a food photo straight out of the '80s. But it was already dark outside, and my indoor lighting situation is less-than-awesome. The flash photos made the taters look weird, so this is the best I've got.

Anyway, unlike most scalloped potato recipes I've made, this one doesn't call for any kind of vegan cheese stand-in. Not even nutritional yeast. Instead, it relies on a broth made from boiling and steeping herbs, like sage, bay leaves, and rosemary. The oil drizzled over the top gave the dish a butter-y texture and flavor. Delicious!

Here's my plate:

I sprinkled a little nooch over my taters because I couldn't help it. I also tossed together a simple salad of romaine, tomato, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and Vidalia onion/tomato vinaigrette.

I realized after I planned this meal that it was mostly void of protein, except for a teensy bit from the sunflower seeds. But that's okay. I eat plenty of protein (too much probably) throughout the day. Sometimes, it's okay for veggies to be the star of the show.

What's your favorite veggie-based entree?

Muffins and Care Packages and New Blogs! Oh My!

I'm still trying to eat healthy, but muffins can be healthy, right? As I'm working my way through Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Vegan's Daily Companion, a daily affirmation book with weekly recipes, I'm trying to make as many dishes as I can. Every Saturday/Sunday (she combines those days in the entries), there's a new recipe. Last week's was Blueberry Lemon Muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking:

I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for half the all-purpose called for, and though that lends the muffins a stickier texture, I feel better about eating them for breakfast with some whole grains in 'em. Also, I always bake with evaporated cane juice instead of white sugar. There's also frozen blueberries and lemon zest. A couple of these with a cold glass of So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk and a Zevia cola made the perfect breakfast this morning!

After starting my morning off awesome with these muffins, I didn't think the day could get any better. But it did when my care package arrived from Rick at The Health Sleuth! We agreed to do a package swap months ago, but I asked him to hold off sending it until I got back from Portland because I didn't have money to buy stuff for his package until after my trip. His package is in the mail, but check mine out!

There's two packages of organic King Soba ramen! One is Edamame Miso and the other is Chili Miso! Y'all know how I love ramen, and this is the healthy kind made with brown rice noodles and buckwheat noodles. I can't wait to try these.

Also in the package: habanero linguine, blueberry butter, maple cream (this stuff is like butter made from maple syrup!), salted pistachio chocolate (delicious! I opened this first!), fresh tortillas, a Texas BBQ Primal Strip, an assortment of bars, homemade eucalyptus hemp & tea tree soap, shea butter body cream, and some cute little Amish people magnets (Rick's from Pennsylvania). Thanks Rick!!

And finally, I have some great news! My best friend in the whole world ever, Sheridan, has started her own vegan blog! She went vegan in January, but she was vegetarian for several years before that. We've been best friends since the 8th grade, and we're still as tight as ever. She lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, so her blog is appropriately named Vegan In Arkansas. Check it out!

Let's Talk About Healthy!

At Vida Vegan Con, I had the pleasure of meeting Blissful Chef blogger Christy Morgan. Her Blissful Bites cookbook hit stands just in time for VCC, so I purchased my very own autographed copy at the conference.

When Christy sat down with me to sign the book, she said, "You know it's all healthy food, right?" Ha! I love my that deep-fried reputation precedes me! But really, folks, as much as I love biscuits & gravy and country fried tempeh steak, a lady's gotta eat some uber-healthy stuff sometimes if she wants to keep her girlish figure (whatever that means). It's all about balance, and after one too many Voodoo Donuts in Portland, I assured Christy that I was going to need her healthy recipes. Bad.

The glossy, full-color book is filled with macrobiotic, raw, and cooked vegan foods — all based on whole foods. Nothing processed. I love me some fake meat, but as today's tip in my Vegan's Daily Companion book suggested, we should all be eating whole foods as the foundation of our diet with processed foods playing a more minor role. Christy's Blissful Bites helps re-establish that whole foundation.

Her recipes are organized by season, so for starters, I chose two from the summer choices. I used fresh summer tomatoes from the Memphis Farmers Market for this raw Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho:

Confession: I bought regular tomatoes instead of heirloom, even though the recipe specifically calls for heirloom. At $2 or more per tomato, I just couldn't afford enough heirlooms to make this soup. Regardless, the regular tomatoes tasted fine — juicy and sweet, just like a tomato should be at the height of their season. The tomato is complemented by blended red and green pepper and balsalmic vinegar. Tangy, sweet, salty, delicious.

For my protein, I made Christy's Curry Chickenless Salad and served it with Back to Nature Multi-Seed Brown Rice Crackers:

Wow! I've tried several recipes for chicken salad over the years, but this one takes the cake. It combines both steamed and cooled tofu and tempeh, and there's a little almonds, celery, and currants for crunch. All mixed up in a curry-Vegenaise dressing. Yum!

How do you sneak more whole foods into your diet?

Taking the 30 Day Vegan Challenge

I'm already vegan, so I guess I'm not really taking Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's 30-Day Vegan Challenge. But for the sake of her new book of the same name, I'm pretending I am. I was given a review copy of The 30-Day Vegan Challenge at Vida Vegan Con. I have all of Collen's books, and I was more than happy to offer my opinion on her latest.

But unlike most of her books, which are aimed at people already familiar with veganism, this new book is designed for people who are considering going vegan. Much like with past vegan challenges via Oprah or the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, the program follows the thinking that if a bad habit is broken in a month's time, maybe 30 meat-free days are all it takes to make a permanent change.

It worked for me! When I went vegan in 2004, I initially only gave up dairy, eggs, and other by-products for a trial run of 30 days. And when that time was over, I realized there was no way I could turn back. Vegan food was tasty, and non-vegan food was cruelty. Why contribute to violence when I could live happier on plant proteins?

I wish I'd had a book like Colleen's back then. I had a few rough patches during those 30 days, and I really could have used her advice in chapters on reading labels or finding vegan food on the road. Each short chapter is intended to be read in a day, and each focuses on one small aspect of veganism: baking without eggs, getting enough iron, compassionate fashion, and surviving the holidays.

Interspersed are recipes for Colleen's favorite dishes from her other cookbooks — The Joy of Vegan Baking, The Vegan Table, and Color Me Vegan — such as chickpea burgers with tahini sauce, French toast, no-queso quesadillas, and apple cobbler.

For the sake of the review (and because it's fun!), I'm reading a chapter a day and making at least one Colleen recipe from each week's worth of recipes. I'll post about each one. So far this week, I've read about determining which ingredients in your pantry may be accidentally vegan, the best way to find vegan items in the grocery store, and common animal ingredients to look out for.

The first recipe I made was located in the first week's choices, which were mainly breakfast foods. Even though she included recipes for tofu scramble, tempeh bacon, and blueberry pancakes, I opted for the easiest option — the Blueberry Smoothie:

Now I'm not typically a smoothie-for-breakfast kinda girl. I usually prefer hearty, savory breakfasts. But post-Vida Vegan Con, I wanted something super healthy. And this is no ordinary smoothie. It's filled with blueberries, strawberries, banana, soymilk, orange juice, almond butter, and flax seed. It honestly kept me full until lunchtime! Colleen also includes recipes for her mango smoothie and green smoothie.

If you're not a vegan, BUY THIS BOOK. If if you're already vegan, The 30 Day Vegan Challenge would make an excellent Christmas gift for that veg-curious friend or family member. Check back throughout the month for more food photos and thoughts on the book.

Cleanse Vacation

So I realize it's a little soon after Vida Vegan Con to take a cleanse vacation, but it's Labor Day! It's the last official grilling day of summer. And that means burgers and beer, right?

We celebrated with WAY TOO MUCH grilled food! Here's my friend Greg manning the flames:

We started by placing some marinated tofu and asparagus on the grill:

And then we charred some zucchini and squash, some Boca burgers, and a few portabella mushrooms. I like my food a little burnt, but Greg doesn't. So I got to eat most of the grilled veggies in this batch:

We also grilled corn (yum!!), and I dressed my veggie burger with Miso Mayo, Nacheez Sauce (which I picked up in Portland), tomatoes, and lettuce:

And Greg made vegan potato salad! He was too cheap to buy Vegenaise, so he used a mixture of soymilk, silken tofu, lemon juice, vinegar, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, and a tad bit of soy sauce to make his own. Plus, he added cooked onions. Yum!

What did you eat for Labor Day?