Taco Tuesday!

Actually, it was Taco Monday with leftover tacos for lunch on Tuesday. But Taco Monday doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Either way, I had these delicious Baja Lime Tempeh Tacos with Fresh Steamed Squash and Zucchini:

This quick weeknight meal that came together so quickly, I almost felt guilty about it. You see, the Baja lime flavor was courtesy of a bottle of Amy's Organic Baja Lime Marinade. I picked the stuff up at this crazy-awesome discount health food store in Asheville, North Carolina called Amazing Savings. It was only 99 cents!

Amazing Savings is a cheap health foodie's dream come true. While in Asheville for Veganstock, I bought Oat Dream oat milk and Hemp Dream hempmilk for $1.50, vegan gravy mix for 69 cents, Organicsville pomegranate salad dressing for 99 cents. Some of it was past the date a bit (like this marinade ... it expired in July), but none was old enough to actually have gone bad yet. For the record, the milks were all within their expiration safety dates. But I digress.

Anyway, I marinated some steamed tempeh in the lime marinade overnight. Then on Monday after work and the gym, I sauteed it with green bell pepper and garlic. I tucked the tempeh into corn tortillas with Nacho Follow Your Heart vegan cheeze, tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, and tequila lime salsa. So, so good.

Ode to PB&J

There are few things I love more than peanut butter and jelly. I love them more than rainbows. I love them more than unicorns. I may even love them more than my cats ... well, maybe not. But I certainly wouldn't eat my cats. I will eat peanut butter and jelly, for any meal of the day.

This morning, I had the most amazing PB&J treat for breakfast — Peanut Butter and Jelly Quick Bread from Have Cake, Will Travel:

Celine, the lovely author behind the Have Cake, Will Travel blog, is my new hero for developing this delicious recipe. It's so simple and so, so tasty. The bread is made with ground oats and spelt flour in place of regular flour, so it's kinda healthy and whole grain-ish. And it contains a half-cup of peanut butter (I used chunky) and a little over a fourth cup of strawberry jam (I used my homemade, organic strawberry jam).

As you can see, I spread mine with even more jam because that's just how I roll. I'd also planned on drenching it with more PB, but the nut butter taste is so strong in the bread, it didn't need extra. Here's the whole loaf, waiting to cool on my bakin' rack:

The recipe is here. Go make it. Don't eat your cats.

Hey Testers: I FINALLY posted more recipes on the tester site ...

Happy Birthday Sheridan!

Saturday was my best-friend-in the-whole-world Sheridan's 29th birthday! We've been BFF's since 8th grade! But now Sheridan lives in Little Rock, a two-hour drive from my home in Memphis. Not bad, but we don't get to see each other nearly enough. I drove down to celebrate with her this weekend. Here's Sheridan and her boyfriend Drew (wearing his fake mustache):

Yes, Drew wore a faux 'stache to Sheridan's birthday celebrations. We went to a tapas bar and a dance club with an awesome group of Sheridan's friends. But first, we noshed on Butterscotch Vanilla Cupcakes:

When I asked Sheridan what kind of cuppies she'd like, she requested butterscotch. I didn't have a recipe, so I just made the Sexy Low-fat Vanilla Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added chopped butterscotch chips (the Food Lion brand is vegan). Then I topped them with a basic buttercream, a butterscotch ganache (made just like the chocolate ganache in VCTOTW but with melted b-scotch chips), and toasted pecans.

A few of Sheridan's friends read my blog (hey, Joel, Kayce, Ashley, Lauren, and James!), and when they heard I was coming, it was requested that I make a post-birthday vegan brunch for the whole gang on Sunday morning. Of course I was stoked (yes, I'm bringing that word back) to cook up brunchy yummies for everyone.

I spent the night at Sheridan's apartment on Saturday night and Sunday morning (well, more like afternoon), I whipped up Tofu Scramble, Steamed Sausages, Hash Browns, Biscuits & Chocolate Gravy:

The scramble was my own recipe for cheeze "eggs," and everyone seemed to really like it. That's a good thing because I'm including it in my cookbook. Personally, I like my scramble better than most others I've tried. I think every vegan likes their scramble recipe the best though. Here's my recipe.

The sausages were the Cherry Sage Sausages from Vegan Brunch minus the cherries. I've made them with cherries before, but this time, I opted to leave them out since dried cherries are like $5 a bag. I don't think I even missed them. They were still as tasty as ever.

The hash browns were the Individually Baked Hash Browns from Vegan Brunch, and honestly they weren't my fave. The texture just wasn't right. Even though we squeezed all the water out, as the recipe instructed, the potatoes were still too starchy. They weren't bad, just not my fave.

And the biscuits and chocolate gravy are also from my own recipes, and they're going in the cookbook. This is one of my favorite breakfast treats, so I'll leave ya'll with a close-up:

A Day In the Crunk Life

I always love reading what other people do and eat for a full day's time. Maybe that makes me creepy and stalker-ish (I also love to slyly check out what the folks in front of me at the grocery store have in their carts). But for the other weirdos like me, I thought it'd be fun to share a typical day in the life of Bianca (with food photos, of course!).

On work days, I wake up around 7 a.m., typically surrounded by six kitties who've likely been attempting to will me awake for hours. My 80-pound mutt Datsun, who gets the other half of the bed, sleeps way past the alarm though. I shower, wash my face, and settle into a tasty breakfast.

This morning, that brekkie was two slices of Whole Grain Toast with Marmite and Tofu "Cottage Cheeze":

I love this breakfast!!! I make my tofu cottage cheeze by mixing plain firm tofu with a few tablespoons of vegan mayo, a splash of soymilk, and a pinch of evap. cane juice. I washed this down with iced green tea. And I typically read magazines — Rolling Stone, VegNews, Vegetarian Times — while I eat breakfast.

After breakfast, I clean up the dishes, get dressed, put my face on, and straighten my hair. Then I head to the Memphis Flyer office, the alt-weekly newspaper I write for. This morning, I arrived around 9 a.m. and immediately made several phone calls to gather information for my stories that are due on Monday. Then I checked my e-mail, which always takes FOREVER. I typically get over 100 messages everyday, many of them are folks asking me to list their art show or gala in our paper's calendar of events, which I'm also responsible for.

At noon, I left the office to drive back home for lunch. I usually go home to eat lunch since I live about 10 minutes from work. And I typically eat leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Today that was a tasty Green Bean & Tofu Sesame Stir-fry:

I'd marinated some tofu in the basic Asian marinade from Veganomicon on Tuesday night. And for dinner on Wednesday, I tossed that tofu with some cornstarch, fried it in a little sesame oil, and added fresh, local green beans and bella mushrooms. I served it with some delicious smoked spelt that Mihl of Seitan Is My Motor sent me from Germany in a care package. The leftovers were just as tasty as the night before.

After lunch, I drove back to the office — worked on entering calendar listings, conducted several long phone interviews for stories, and blogged about this delicious vegan pizza I ate for the Flyer's Hungry Memphis food blog. I ate a piece of dark chocolate with almonds around 3:30 p.m.

Around 4:30 p.m., I snacked at my desk on some assorted veggies — cherry tomatoes, celery, radishes, and cucumbers — with black-eyed pea hummus. And then at 5 p.m., I left work for the gym. On Thursdays, I typically go to a Fight Club boxing class! It always kicks my ass. Tonight, we did over 100 lunges before hitting the boxing bags with gloves. I'm like Mike Tyson.

After boxing, I drove home, walked my doggy, and heated up this delicious Big Ass Veggie Burrito from Skinny Bitch In the Kitch:

This is obviously a pre-rolled picture. I made these for dinner on Sunday night, and I've been re-heating the fillings for fresh burritos all week. The fillings were made up of black beans, brown rice, nacho Teese sauce, and a veggie mix of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, and more. Tonight, I ate my burrito with a few Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos (a guilty vegan pleasure!). Oh, and I watched L.A. Ink on TLC while I ate my burrito.

After dinner, I always clean up and sweep my concrete floors. With seven fuzzy animals, daily sweeping is a must! When that was over, I whipped up this amazing Strawberry Watermelon Slushee from Vegan Soul Kitchen for dessert:

Wow, people! If you have VSK, please make this (if you don't, the recipe is here)! It's simply frozen watermelon juice ice cubes, frozen strawberries, agave, and lime. And it's so perfect! I've been having such a good time with Bryant Terry's watermelon chapter.

I enjoyed my slushee while driving to East Memphis to hit up Target and Whole Foods, about 20 minutes from my crib. I shopped around and headed back home. Here I am at 11:25 p.m. making this entry. Blogging is typically my last task of the night.

So there you have it....not all that exciting. And not really very crunk. But hey, it's a Thursday. I'm sure Saturday and Sunday will be way more exciting, but you'll have to wait 'til my next post on Sunday night to find out!

Lots of Salad, No Lettuce

Today was my monthly raw food cleanse, and I ate a ton of salads without crunching down on a single piece of lettuce! Nothing against lettuce, but sometimes it gets boring. I get stuck in salad ruts with the same old veggies on the same old romaine.

My morning didn't start with a salad though. I woke up to this delicious glass of Made In Mexico Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

This was amazingly tasty — almonds, dates, carob, cinnamon, and vanilla bean — and surprisingly creamy. I'll certainly be making this again!

Of course, I knew a little ol' glass of nut milk wouldn't satisfy me for long. So I brought this Tomato & Watermelon Salad to work as a pre-lunch snack:

The recipe comes from Mark Bittman's "101 Simple Salads for the Season," a New York Times article with plenty of vegan salad ideas. This one contains fresh watermelon, tomato, basil, and a basalmic vinger/olive oil dressing.

Lunch was this crisp Raw Corn Salad with Zesty Lime Dressing:

The recipe is here. I found it on a quick internet search for raw corn recipes. I had some delicious local Silver Queen corn that needed usin', and it was perfect paired with crunchy radishes and tangy lime.

I also slurped some Harvest Soup:

This creamy raw soup recipe came from Kristin Suzanne, but I found it on Gena's post about blended salads on her blog, Choosing Raw. Ever since Gena waxed poetic on the wonder of blended salads (basically just veggies whirled in a blender until creamy), I'd been wanting to try some. This one contained zucchini, tomato, carrot, celery, and flax oil.

I was starving by 3:30 p.m., so I snacked on a fresh plum and these local veggies — heirloom cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper strips, and cucumber slices:

After work, I scarfed down this Raw Revolution Cashew & Agave Nectar bar before hitting the gym:

These huge bars contain 280 calories and 16 grams of fat, so I certainly wouldn't eat the entire thing on a regular day. But on raw day, I figure I need the fat and calories. This is one of my all-time fave bars!

After my workout (45 minutes on the treadill while reading Twlight), I rushed home to cool off with this Fresh Watermelon Popsicle:

My mom recently bought me popsicle molds, and I filled them with fresh watermelon juice from a local melon I picked up at the farmer's market last Saturday.

For dinner, I had Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms:

I was inspired by Voracious Vegan's Summer Stuffed Mushroom post a few weeks ago. But hers were cooked, so I googled "raw stuffed mushrooms" and found this recipe. It calls for dehydration, but I don't own a dehydrator (sometimes I borrow my parent's though). Instead, I placed the stuffed baby bella caps in the oven on its lowest setting for an hour. They didn't cook, but they did get dehydrated-ish. I'm sure they're not techinically raw now, but whatever.

Alongside the mushrooms, I ate this Carrot Avocado Bisque from Choosing Raw:

Yes, I know it looks quite similar to the Harvest Soup (and both recipes came from Gena's blog), but the taste was totally different. This soup is made from carrot juice, avocado, ginger, and flax oil. The avocado gave it a crazy creamy texture that was almost like pudding!

Finally, for dessert, I had the best raw treat ever — Raw Banana Soft Serve with Carob Syrup:

Also from Gena at Choosing Raw, this dessert blew my mind! It's simply frozen bananas whirled in the food processor until creamy. That's it. And it may be the creamiest thing I've ever eaten, far smoother than any ice cream I've had. I think I may start making this every raw day and even some non-raw days in between.

The syrup is simply a pinch of carob powder mixed with a little agave and water. It's tasty, but not totally necessary. The banana cream is pretty sweet on its own.

By the way, my kitty Polaris had fun trying to chase the banana chunks as they spun around in the food processor!

Harvest Time

On Sunday night, a few of my friends and I held a little gathering/potluck to celebrate Lammas (also known as Lughnasadh or loaf-mass). It's an ancient Gaelic holiday honoring the first harvest, and folks traditionally dined on feasts of fresh bread and seasonal fruits and veggies. I contributed this Mediterranean Olive Bread from The Joy of Vegan Baking:

I'd been eyeing this recipe since I bought the book last year, and now I'm not sure what took me so long to bake it. This delicious quick bread is flecked with some of my favorite things — black olives, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, and walnuts. I subbed whole wheat pastry flour for all the all-purpose called for in the recipe though.

I almost brought some of my Black-Eyed Pea Hummus for spreadin'. It's one of the recipes I'll be featuring in my cookbook. This is an old picture because I forgot to take another yesterday.

And for dessert, I brought another cookbook recipe, Old-Fashioned Coconut Pie:

The pie is actually my Granny's recipe. She veganized her old recipe for coconut pie and it is amazing! My version didn't turn out quite as delicious as hers, but I think I know why. She calls for sweetened coconut, and since I only had unsweetened in the house, I subbed that instead. Apparently, it makes a big difference because the pie didn't seem sweet enough to me. It wasn't bad, but I'm used to Granny's perfect version. Next time, I'll know better than to make substitutions.

Our gathering wasn't strictly vegan, but some friends brought vegan bread. So I ate loads of bread, and my friends Monica and Kelly contributed tasty cherry tomatoes, cantalope, and fresh okra (which we fried) from their garden.

Healthy Eats

After gorging on sweets and snacks at Veganstock and downing many a Diablo Dog for dinner last week, I needed a little healthy food to balance my diet. So I started most mornings last week with a comforting bowl of Carrot Cake Oats:

I got the idea from Shelby at La Belle Vegan, but my recipe varied a bit from hers since I didn't have all the same ingredients on hand that her version called for. Here' s what I did:

1/4 cup steel cut oats
1 carrot, shredded
1 cup water
splash of Oat Dream maple brown sugar milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. agave nectar
1 Tbsp. Mighty Maple peanut butter (by PB & Co.)

I always soak my dried steel cut oats the night before, so they're practically instant the next morning. I place 1/4 cup oats and the cup of water in a pot (and in this recipe, I also put my shredded carrot in the night before), bring it to a boil, and then remove from heat and cover overnight. The next day, all you have to do is add a splash of soymilk (or in this case, oat milk) and re-heat for a few minutes.

While at Veganstock, I'd planned to make this Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango from the Veganomicon:

I brought my dad's little campstove and I thought it could be my contribution to group dinner on Sunday night. But everyone ended up going into town for dinner that night, rather than cook at camp. So I brought the ingredients back home to Memphis with me and ate the salad for dinner several nights.

It was the first time I'd tried this recipe, and though I'd read mixed reviews on various blogs, I really, really liked this! The mango really adds something special to a plain ole' black bean quionoa salad.