Flashback to the 90s!

I'm fairly certain Taco Bell still offers Mexican pizzas on their menu. But I haven't had one since the 1990s, so for me, this is a very 90s recipe. I used to order Mexican pizzas with no meat — just beans, cheese, the fried tortillas, olives, tomatoes, and green onions. That was my favorite menu item.

Now, as you probably know, Taco Bell has a number of veganizable items on the menu these days. The Black Bean Burrito is vegan when ordered fresca style (they even use vegetarian chicken flavor in the beans!), and the good ole refried Bean Burrito Fresca is vegan. The Seven-Layer Burrito (minus the cheese and sour cream) is vegan. Plus, they have those fancy new Cantina Bowls (the black bean flavor is vegan if you leave off the cilantro dressing).

Anyway, all that is to say, you won't starve as a vegan at Taco Bell. But the Mexican pizza ordered vegan-style would just be beans on a tortilla with some sad veggies falling off the top because there'd be no melted cheese to hold them on. Enter the vegan Mexican Pizza:

I created this for my latest cookbook project, Vintage Vegan (which highlights veganized versions of trendy foods from the past century). I don't know when Taco Bell began offering Mexican pizzas, but I do know that fusion cuisine was hot, hot, hot in the 90s. So I'll include this in the 1990s chapter.

It's a simple concept — two multi-grain tortillas stuffed with refried beans and enchilada sauce, then topped with more enchilada sauce, Daiya pepperjack cheese, olives, tomatoes, and green onions. The only thing homemade is the enchilada sauce, which I'll include a recipe for in the book. But if you're feelin' lazy or pressed for time, a jarred enchilada sauce would do just fine.

On the side, I made some Jalapeno Hominy from Cookin' Crunk:

It's also very simple. Canned hominy is fried up in Earth Balance with some fresh, chopped jalapeno. I added a habanero for extra spice though.

On a side note, my blogger friend Rick, formerly at the Health Sleuth, is now blogging at the Health Sensei. Rick is all about uber-healthy eating and investigating health claims (his recent posts have tackled the agave controversy and whether or not synthetic or natural vitamin sources are best). Check it out!

Cookin' Crunk Aprons!!

Remember when I hosted the Keep On Crunkin' campaign in February? I posted recipes and Southern tips all week long and held daily giveaways for cookbooks and Cookin' Crunk aprons. Well, the aprons were printed by Zazzle, and they sent the three winners' aprons to my publisher for distribution.

And then they sent my publisher ANOTHER additional three aprons to my publisher. Oops. But rather than send them back, my publisher has asked me to try and sell them on my blog. We're not making a profit, just making up the extra charge from Zazzle to the Book Publishing Company. So I have three crisp, white Cookin' Crunk aprons for sale!

During the Keep On Crunkin' promotion, my daddy ordered aprons for myself, my mama, my Granny, and my Me-maw. Ours are yellow because that's the color I requested my dad order from Zazzle. Here's my Me-maw modeling her apron.

Unlike my crunk cookin' Granny, my Me-maw doesn't really like to cook. But she LOVES to eat. She wore her apron at daddy's birthday dinner in place of a bib. You see, Me-maw is a messy eater, and she always, always spills something down her shirt at family dinners. This apron kept her sweater clean (and yes, she spilled cheese dip on it as soon as we started eating).

So whether you're a cook or a messy eater, you can find a good use for a Cookin' Crunk apron. Keep in mind, the ones that are for sale are WHITE, not yellow. But they look quite snazzy.

They're $21 plus $5.60 flat-rate shipping. So that's a total of $26.60. If you're interested in an apron, shoot me an email at phillipsbianca[at]gmail[dot]com, and I can send along a Paypal invoice. First come, first served.

In other vegan news, the folks at Vegan Cuts have launched an Indie GoGo campaign to raise $10,000 to start a special edition care package series, through which you can have a box of vegan products from different spots all over the world shipped right to your door. The first such package is the Taste of Oregon care package, which includes fun Oregon-based products like Missionary Chocolates Salted Vanilla Caramel Truffles, Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce, Blue Lotus Chai Masala Chai Tea, and so much more. Head over to their fund-raising page to learn how you can get a Taste of Oregon box or simply support their new project.

Happy 59th Birthday, Papa Crunk!

I thought my daddy was turning 60 this year. But no, he's only 59. My mom always adds a year to my age when telling people how old I am, so I think it's starting to rub off. Anyway, Papa Crunk turned 59 last Wednesday, April 3rd, and he let me know that he was still a year away from the big 6-0.

Daddy's friends had a big party for him on his actual birthday, but I came down to visit this weekend to do the family celebration. Every year, for my daddy's birthday, he requests that my mom make French Fry Po'Boys. It's a bit of a tradition now, ever since my daddy and I fell in love with these carbolicious sandwiches in New Orleans years ago.

Yes, that is French fries on a sandwich, folks. It just doesn't get better than that. Mine is dressed with Daiya cheddar (it's melted to the underside of the bun, so you can't see it here, but it's definitely there), tomatoes, lettuce, and Nayonaise. My mama stocks up on vegan sandwich fixins for me!

On the side, the rest of my family had my mama's recreation of Pancho's cheese dip. If you grew up in the Mid-South, you grew up loving Pancho's cheese dip (the dip served at a regional chain of Mexican restaurants and is also sold in stores here). It's like no other cheese dip on the planet. But you know what? The secret is cumin. And my mom makes an at-home version that supposedly tastes just like the dip at Pancho's. Well, this year, she made that dip, but she also made a vegan version of Pancho's Cheese Dip for me!

She combined melted Tofutti cream cheese and Daiya cheddar with canned Ro-Tel tomatoes, cumin, and some other stuff. And wow, it tastes just like the Pancho's dip that I remember! My mama is a genius.

She also made Guacamole:

And we had salads for good measure. We had to get something green into this carbo-loaded meal!

After our dinner settled, it was time for birthday cake and pie! I made Peanut Butter Bombs!

My friend Stephanie makes these by combining three recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World  — basic chocolate cake, peanut buttercream, and rich chocolately ganache. I decided to try making them too! Mine weren't as pretty as hers. But they tasted great! Underneath that thick layer of ganache is a creamy peanut buttercream. It's like biting into a Reese's peanut buttercup on top of a cake!

My Granny brought her delicious Old-Fashioned Coconut Pie:

This recipe is included in my cookbook, Cookin' Crunk. So if you have a copy, you can make this at home! It's so good. Like pretty much my favorite pie on the planet. And when Granny makes it, it's always better than when I do. Buttery, coconutty goodness.

Anyway, we had a lovely day. And I'm stuffed and exhausted. Happy birthday, Papa Crunk!!

Secret Supper Club

I've always wished someone around here would start a vegan secret supper club. It couldn't be me, as I have far too many critters in my house to actually cook for any strangers who may show up ("Hey, why is there cat hair in this soup?" I can just hear it now). But you know, I wish someone else would host one and I could just show up and eat.

There is (or at least there was ... not sure if it's still going on) a non-vegan supper club in Memphis, and they did have one vegan dinner night with a menu prepared by my friend/co-worker/fellow blogger/cookbook author Justin Fox Burks of The Chubby Vegetarian. That was awesome. But I want that every month!

Until then, at least I can dream with my copy of the new Vegan Secret Suppers: Bold & Elegant Menus from a Rogue Kitchen by Merida Anderson. Merida has been hosting vegan secret suppers since 2008 in East Vancouver, Montreal, and Brooklyn, and these are her collected recipes from her time in the rogue kitchen (a.k.a. her walk-in closet-sized kitchen in her tiny East Vancouver attic apartment).

She doesn't have any fancy culinary training. I like that. I get a little annoyed when people are all, "I trained at Le Cordon Bleu" or whatever. Cooking is an art, and you don't need schoolin' to tap into that creative power. I'm sure you learn fancy tricks in cooking school, and I bet it's a load of fun. But it's not necessary to create delicious, gourmet meals. Merida proves that.

Now y'all know "gourmet" isn't really my bag. I'm a home-cookin' kind of girl with a penchant for deep-fried tofu, cornbread in cast iron, and simple slow-cooked collards. But sometimes, a girl needs to impress. And this is the book to pull of the shelf when you've got to put on your good dress and clean up a little. Dishes like Blue Corn Empanadas with Pecans, Black Beans, Mole Pipan, Red Cabbage, & Avocado or Yam & Walnut Croquettes with Coconut Sour Cream, Ancho Balsamic Beet Reduction & Wilted Pea Shoots are sure to impress.

Guests are always more impressed when a recipe has a long name with all the ingredients in the title, right? That's always how you can tell a gourmet recipe from an everyday one. Many of the recipes have multiple steps, as you might expect. And since I wasn't cooking for anyone but little old me tonight, I went with one with a shorter name that sounded easier — Caramelized Onion Bisque with Roasted Garlic Toast:

Despite the shorter name, this recipe still took lots of love and care. The onions are caramelized in vinegar, white wine, Dijon mustard, red pepper flakes, and thyme for a good 20 minutes before adding the roasted garlic (which you roast yourself beforehand) and stock. But it was well worth the effort. The onions are so sweet and delicious, and the stock is delightfully spicy (I added extra red pepper flakes).

The toast was what really drew me to this recipe though. That yellow stuff on top is Merida's Coconut Melting Cheese. It's a homemade cheese paste that is like no other vegan cheese I've ever made (and I've made LOTS of homemade cheese). Coconut oil and almond milks are blended with tomato paste, nutritional yeast, roasted garlic, and some other spices. It's liquidy right out of the blender, but when you refrigerate it overnight, it gets thick and spreadable (probably due to the cornstarch thickening and the coconut oil solidifying). It's spread over crostini and baked until bubbly. Perfect complement to the soup.

I can't wait to explore the dessert chapter. There's a Peanut Butter, White Chocolate, & Brownie Cheesecake! And Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze & Avocado Mint Ice Cream! Oh, and that reminds me, there's an entire chapter on homemade ice cream! And there's a chapter on tea and soda with a recipe for homemade Ginger Beer Syrup and Lavender Lime Soda Concentrate!

Now if only someone around here would take this book and start a vegan supper club. Anyone?

Kaeng Raeng Detox

Last month, the folks at Kaeng Raeng emailed me to ask if I'd like to sample their all-natural, vegan detox program. Typically, I jump at the chance to review vegan products that may come my way, but Kaeng Raeng scared me. The 3-day beginner program requires you to drink three fruit smoothies a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Judging by my past fails at juice cleanses, I assumed I'd starve to death on Kaeng Raeng.

So I emailed the nice lady back and expressed my concerns. Never fear, she assured me. You can eat all the raw veggies and fruits you want on the Kaeng Raeng cleanse, and the smoothies are very filling. Okay, I'll bite. Or, well, sip through a straw.

My detox box arrived about two weeks ago:

Inside were nine smoothie powder packets, three of each flavor —Daybreak (Glai Roong), Joyful (Reunn), and Into the Blue (Juu Juu). My instructions were to drink one smoothie for each meal, plus I could have all the raw veggies and fruit snacks I wanted. I would also work in some fresh pressed juices as snacks just for fun.

I finally had time to try the program this week, and like with all detoxes, I started off with a bang. I always get super-excited before a detox begins. On Monday morning, I whipped up the Daybreak Smoothie (mango, peach, pineapple) with a cup of almond-coconut milk, a cup of water, frozen mango chunks, and a frozen banana:

The taste was light and creamy, almost like a mango-flavored creamsicle. There's a slight gritty texture as it goes down the throat, but I find that to be common with many protein powder-based smoothies. Each smoothie powder is made with freeze-dried fruit, non-gmo soy, psyllium husk, probiotics, and vitamins. They have a whopping 15 grams of protein each!

As for my concerns about starving to death, well, seems I had nothing to worry about. These smoothies are so filling! So much so that I wasn't really hungry when I had a morning snack of carrots and bell peppers. But I ate it anyway because I missed chewing.

Lunch was the Joyful Smoothie (strawberry, raspberry, and pineapple) blended with coconut-almond milk, water, and frozen strawberries:

Tasty. I liked this one better than the morning smoothie. It had a tangy, powerful strawberry flavor.

This made me so full that I felt like I'd eaten a big ole veggie burger and fries. I was full for hours and hours.

But I was finally hungry again for this dinnertime Into the Blue Smoothie (blueberry and banana) blended with my homemade blueberry kombucha, frozen bananas, and frozen blueberries:

This was my favorite flavor of all! Blueberries and bananas just belong together.

And so went Tuesday and Wednesday as well. I had the same exact smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days (more on that in a few).

Although the smoothies would have probably been sufficient since they were so filling, I like to eat. And I really missed the act of chewing, so snacks were mandatory for me to feel happy even if I didn't need them to feel physically satisfied.

Over the three days, I had Baby Carrots and Mini Sweet Peppers:

And Celery and Mashed Avocado and Cherry Tomatoes:

But mid-way through Monday, I started to get bored with raw veggies. And fruit was out of the question since I was drinking fruit for all three meals. So I hit up Balewa's Vegan Gourmet, the raw cafe by my house, for his Spicy Kale Chips. These really hit the spot! I was missing greens!

I also picked up a few of Balewa's sprout salads to snack on for all three days. I ate the Hot Chick Salad on Tuesday (sprouted chickpeas, beet powder, walnuts, and some other mystery ingredients that taste delicious):

And today, I had some of Balewa's amazing Phyre Salad (sprouts — maybe mung beans? — with spirulina, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and I detect a hint of nutritional yeast, but I could be wrong):

By Wednesday night, I was simply dying for some cooked food. But I decided to stay strong and push through the finish line. I had this Romaine Wrap with Raw Aged Cashew Gruyere (leftover from when I made Miyoko's recipe last week) as a nighttime snack:

So what did I think of the cleanse? Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:
* Smoothies are tasty, and they help me get my fruit servings, which I've never been good at.
* I feel light and airy after the 3 days!
* Totally TMI, but my colon is cleaned out. Like, there is NOTHING in there.
* I never felt hungry or weak during the detox, as I typically do with juice cleanses. Smoothies were very filling.
* Although my Kaeng Raeng program was offered for free, it's fairly inexpensive for a packaged cleanse program. It's $69.99 for the 3-day beginner program. Many fresh juice cleanses cost anywhere from $150 to $300 for a 3-day program.

Cons:
* After day one, I wanted more variety. I would have preferred nine different flavors instead of three of each flavor. Kaeng Raeng only makes these three flavors, but they should make more. I got bored very quickly.
* I also got very sick of fruit. I'm a savory person, so I prefer the taste of veggies over fruit. I got tired of all my meals being sweet. Thankfully, the snacks between smoothies helped balance things out.

If you're friends with me on Facebook, I should probably apologize for my whining about being sick of fruit smoothies over the past few days. Don't blame Kaeng Raeng. It's a great detox program, and let's face it: No detox is all fun and games. If detoxes were supposed to be fun, we'd be detoxing with beer and French fries.

Ah damn, beer and French fries would be so good right now! But alas, I have a few hours left before I can have cooked junk food. Don't worry. I'm not going to go all retox crazy tomorrow, but I do have a few hearty, hot meals planned. And I'm certain an Abita Spring Pale Ale will be in my cards.

Juice Boost

Since Monday, I've been doing the Kaeng Raeng detox, which is basically three smoothies a day, plus all the raw fruits and veggies you want. I'll be posting a full review of the cleanse tomorrow when it's all over.

But throughout this three-day cleanse, I'm also enjoying lots of fresh juices. They're not required on the Kaeng Raeng detox, but I figured if I'm cleansing, why not? Plus, it's a great excuse to review Juice Boost: Juices, Smoothies, and Boosters for Supercharged Health by Chris Fung.

I've been looking for a good juicing book for years. I love my Jack Lalanne juicer, but I tend to fall into ruts, making the same tired old juices over and over. Most of my juicing books are from the 70s or 80s and contain way too much stuff to read. I want recipes, not narrative!

And Juice Boost delivers just that. There is a small section on the health benefits of juicing, but it's cleverly designed with lots of charts to keep things visually appealing. The rest of the full-color, photo-heavy book is recipes for juices, smoothies, and boosters (info on healthy add-ins, like spirulina, ginseng, or aloe vera).

Since my detox requires me to drink three smoothies a day (and they're made from pre-packaged powders), I opted to mix things up with juices from this book. Yesterday, I tried the Veggie Invigorator Juice:

Tomatoes, celery, carrots, ginger, and lemon. I love veggie juices the most, and this one was perfect. Like a really healthy V8 minus all that sodium. I love that Juice Boost tells you which nutrients play the largest role in each juice. This one is loaded with B vitamins, beta carotene, magnesium, manganese, and phosphate.

Today, I made the Apple Strawberry Cooler, so I could try something fruity:

This is made from apples, strawberries, and coconut water. You juice the apples in a juicer, but then that juice in blended in a blender with the fresh strawberries and coconut water. I loved how the coconut water gave this juice a cool, refreshing flavor. This would be perfect on a hot summer day. Unfortunately, today was stupid cold again. But I sipped on this and pretended I was at the beach. But if I was really on the beach, I'd probably spike it with some coconut rum.

There are so many more juices and smoothies I want to try from this book! The full-color, glossy pictures on nearly every page make me want to make everything! I'll definitely be using the smoothie recipes to jazz up my bi-weekly Vega smoothies.

Nuts for Nutty Steph's!

Two things I love — chocolate and granola — have come together in a magical concoction. Purely magical. I'm talking about the kind of magic only made by unicorns and fairy godmothers. I'm talking about Nutty Steph's.

Nutty Steph's is a little company started in 2003 by Jaquelyn Rieke (a.k.a. Steph), a former math teacher with superhero-esque granola-making powers. Rieke made the right career shift. This woman can make some damn good granola, especially when that's combined with sweet 'n' bitter dark chocolate. I know because her company sent me samples to review on this blog.

First, I tore into the Dark Chocolate Vermont Granola Magic Chunks:

I think the name says it all. Chewy chunks of maple-sweetened granola are covered in a layer of 71 percent cacao chocolate. It's like a candy bar, but it somehow seems healthier as you bite down on crispy granola under those layers of chocolate that just melt in your mouth.

I thought for sure that the plain chocolate flavor would be my favorite. But I guessed wrong. These Black Forest Magic Chunks really took me by surprise:

Same concept as the dark chocolate flavor, but these have bits of dried fruit like in one of those granola bars that have raisins and cranberries. I couldn't tell what the fruit was, since it was covered in chocolate, but I'm guessing it was one or the other or both. Also, I should note that these were sample bags, so they weren't all the way full. If you order some, you'll get more chunks!

Next, I decided to sample Nutty Steph's Vermont Granola on its own:

A few handfuls of this crunchy, sweet granola was the perfect tide-me-over-til-dinner driving snack on a trip across town to pick up my cat's medicine at the pharmacy. It doesn't clump like some granolas. Instead, each small piece is separate from one another. This stuff would be great with So Delicious Greek Coconut Milk Yogurt.

Nutty Steph's also included some samples of their chocolate bars:

The Blackbird Dark Chocolate was loaded with sunflower, pumpkin, and flax seeds. But they were mostly ground up, so you'd get all the health benefits of eating seeds with all the deliciousness of dark chocolate. Yet there was still a hint of seedy crunch. Delicious!

But the Lemon Ginger Pecan Dark Chocolate!!! There are no words to describe how awesome this was. Hands down the best sample of all the bunch. I don't even like crystallized ginger, which is used in this bar. But somehow, when combined with lemon oil and pecan chunks, it just works. Maybe I just love all things lemon so much that it overpowers my dislike of crystallized ginger. I will be ordering more of this from Nutty Steph's for sure!

By the way, these are just a small selection of Nutty Steph's products. Their website is full of all kinds of goodness. There's a cherry-pine nut-popcorn-walnut chocolate bar, peanut butter Magic Chunks, mint Magic Chunks. The list goes on.

I have a few bites of each sample left, but sadly, I'm not allowed to have any chocolate until Thursday!! I'm doing a three-day detox (more on that tomorrow and Wednesday), so I'm counting down the days until I can savor my last bites of lemon chocolate and fruity chocolate-covered granola.