Soups Forever!

Just a couple days ago, I did a soup post. And here's another one! I'm telling y'all, soup is what gets me through the winter. It's like the only bright light in a sad, dark, cold hole. On New Year's Day, I made my traditional Blackeyed Peas & Cabbage with Cornbread. I wouldn't dare let a New Year's Day go by without this meal for fear I'd be stricken with misfortune.

Here's a recent meal from Lulu's Bakery & Cafe. I got the Breakfast Sando on the everything focaccia bread. It typically comes on a sourdough bun, but I wanted to mix it up. The sandwich has tofu egg, cashew cheese, and smoked beet bacon. They change the "bacon" veggie up based on what's in season. Sometimes, it's carrots. Other times, it's mushrooms. On the side, I had a delicious cup of Turnip Soup. I love turnips!

I had a cold the week of Christmas, and I made a comforting bowl of Gardein Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup with a Grilled Cheese.

And here's the 20-Minute Ramen from Oodles and Oodles of Vegan Noodles cookbook, which I really intend to review soon. But this is the only thing I've made so far. The recipe is just a super-simple broth with noodles, scallions, and chili-crisp. But I added tofu and some frozen veggies.

Christmas Taco Bowl & Beer!

I'm still catching up from Christmas on these posts! Right now, in the second week of January, I'm doing the two-week Plant You Revitalize plan. And I'll do some posts about that soon. But for now, here's a look back at a few weeks ago when I met up with my BFF Sheridan and her partner Drew at Native Brew Works in Jonesboro. 

Sheridan lives in Little Rock, and I'm in Memphis. But Jonesboro is our hometown, and it's kind of like meeting in the middle. Plus, the town's only brewery, Native, is awesome and they have vegan food!

I usually go with their sweet potato or barbecue cauliflower tacos, but you can also get any taco as a cauliflower rice bowl. Now, I'd rather have real rice, but cauli rice is nice when it's done right. And Native gets it right! This is the Sweet Potato Taco Bowl. It doesn't come with black beans, but I got those on the side and added them on top for more protein and carbs.

And of course, no meal at Native is complete without Chips & Guac for the table!

Soups, Stews, and Grits

It's soup season! I'm not a fan of winter, but I do love cozy soups and stews. So, I'm trying to make the best of the cold months by eating plenty of those. One of the coziest meals I've eaten lately was this Skipper Stew from The Little Book of Hygge. 

I've been trying to create more hygge (coziness) in my life, and this book includes all kinds of cozy tips and a few recipes. They are Danish recipes and 100% not vegan. So I've been trying to veganize them. This skipper stew (the American nickname for skipperlabskovs) is made with beef brisket, so I used seitan that I'd made awhile back and froze. Other than seitan, it's just potatoes, vegan butter, spices, and scallions. Really hearty! It's traditionally served with rye bread and pickled beets, so that's what I had.

Here's the Tahini Chickpea Soup from Nava Atlas' Soup for All Seasons. The broth is made with a bunch of tahini, and it's loaded with chickpeas, cabbage, and mushrooms. That old Atlas book is a classic that I pulled down off the shelf for fun!

Another recent soup was Tabitha Brown's Broccoli Cheese Soup from Cooking from the Spirit. The cheese is actually melted vegan shreds, so this was a super cheesy soup. She recommended topping with Kelly's Croutons, which are a staple in my house, so I had to try this!

And another Tab recipe: Cheesy Grits with Sausage. This was a simple and warming breakfast made with grits, vegan shreds, and Field Roast breakfast sausages. I love grits, and I always forget about them as a savory breakfast option. 

Stuffed Squash, Stuffing Casserole, & Game Day Snax

I’ve been steadily working my way through Tabitha Brown’s Cooking from the Spirit book, which is filled with recipes that don’t have measurements. She lists out ingredients and loose instructions, but the rest is up to you. And I love that! I’m a bit of a free spirit, but I’m also very Type A. So when measurements are given, I tend to follow them. But really, I just want to be free!

I made this Stuffed Spaghetti Squash recently from the book, and it was as good as it looked! The squash was baked and then topped with a mix of sauteed Field Roast sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and marinara, and that was topped with shredded vegan cheese and Kelly’s vegan parm (she uses that a lot, and it’s my fave).

For Yule, back on Dec. 21, I made the Chicken & Stuffing Casserole from the Sabbat’s Almanac. The recipe wasn’t vegan, but it included vegan suggestions, including using vegan chicken (I used the Dare chicken pieces), dairy-free cheese (I used Chao), and vegan stuffing mix (I found that at Sprouts). The combo of chicken, cheese, and stuffing sounds a little weird, but it was actually super good. On the side, I made the Garlic Roasted Veggies from that book.

And finally, here’s a pre-Memphis Grizzlies game day meal enjoyed with friends at Slider Inn. Last month, our friend Melissa flew over from Florida for a girl’s night out at the game. We gathered at Slider first, and I got my usual Tofu & Cauli Wings with vegan ranch. We ended up losing that game, but we lucked into courtside seats, so the experience was one I’ll probably never have again. I’ve never been so close to NBA players!!

Cookbook Review: Living Vegan for Dummies

It's Veganuary! And that means thousands of people are pledging to give up meat for the month. Or maybe forever. And it's never been easier go vegan, thanks to all the plant meats and dairy-free cheeses and restaurant options. But newbies still have lots of questions: How much protein do you need, and where do you get it? What supplements do you need to take? How do you handle social situations? And most importantly, what do you eat?

My OG blogger friend Cadry Nelson of Cadry's Kitchen has you covered with her book, Living Vegan for Dummies. It's one of the Dummies series books that really breaks down every little thing you need to know to give up meat, cheese, eggs, and other animal by-products. I've known Cadry for years, and we've met in person back in the Vida Vegan Con days. I couldn't think of a more qualified vegan to write this book. Her recipes are so approachable and delicious. 

This book has plenty of recipes, but it's also packed with information. Each chapter covers a different aspect of veganism, and it's really the only guide you'll need to walk through the transition. She's got a section on how to enjoy the holidays as as vegan with alternatives to Easter eggs, planning a vegan wedding, accidentally vegan candy for Halloween, and how to survive your first vegan Thanksgiving. She's also got a chapter on substitutions for things like eggs, milks, cheeses, and meats in cooking. And there's a chapter on staying vegan while traveling — whether that's a flight, a road trip, a cruise, or a camping trip.

As for the recipes, Cadry keeps it easy with both whole food, plant-based dishes and a few that call for some plant meat staples. I tried one of each to give you an idea of what you'll find in here. I started with Black Bean Tacos. These simple, healthy tacos are made with seasoned black beans and all the fixins. I used crunchy shells, but soft corn or flour tortillas would work, too.

I also made Cadry's Classic Vegan Cheeseburger. This uses Impossible burger, but it's blended with seasonings before cooking for extra flavor. I'd actually never blended seasonings into my burger meat, and it made a big difference. 

The recipes are broken down into breakfasts, main courses, kid- and dorm-friendly dishes, sides and dressings, and desserts. A few other things I plan to try include the Eggy Tofu, the Dressed-Up Ramen Noodles, and the Eggless Egg Salad Wrap. 

So, if you're trying out veganism for the first time, this book is a must-buy! 

Christmas Recap!

On Christmas Eve, Paul and I each went to our respective parents' houses — his in Nashville, mine in Arkansas. I got there just in time for Christmas Eve dinner, which was Vegan Chicken & Dumplins with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans. 

We don't have a traditional meal every year for Christmas Eve. It's just whatever my mom wants to cook, but I love her dumplins so much! And I was very excited for this meal!

Here's a family photo by the lake.

What is traditional for us is Christmas breakfast. When my Granny was alive, my dad's side of the family (plus, my Me-maw; that's mama's mom) would gather at her house, and she'd make a big ole breakfast. She always burned the biscuits. That was a tradition, too! Since she died, my mom has taken up the breakfast tradition, though it's just the three of us now. Me-maw is still around, but she lives an hour away from my parents now. 

This year, Christmas Breakfast looked like this. 

There seems to be a national Just Egg shortage, and my mom and I couldn't find the bottled eggs anywhere. I did find the folded egg patties in Memphis though, so I brought those for us to have. They're good, but I still prefer the bottled kind for meals like this and the folded for sandwiches, but having them was better than nothing. We also had biscuits and gravy, Impossible sausage biscuits, Field Roast sausages, and hash browns.

After breakfast, we opened presents. I got a bidet! And then I headed back to Memphis. Paul got home around 6 p.m.-ish, and then we opened gifts with each other and the pets. Check out this Funko Pop that I had made to look like Paul!

Maynard got new chew toys and this Nylabone that he hasn't touched since he opened it. Ha!

I hope you had a merry Xmas!

Goodbye Forever, Pho Binh!

Y'all, Memphis has lost a local legend. Pho Binh, a locally famous, family-run Vietnamese place best-known for its "Memphis-style tofu," closed its doors on Christmas Eve. 

Pho Binh opened in 2000, just a couple years before I moved to Memphis in 2002. I ate there for the first time in 2004, with my friend Greg. Greg was a brand-new friend then; today, he's one of my best friends of 19 years. Greg and I were headed to see Rent at the Orpheum, and we stopped in for a quick dinner. He told me to get the Green Bean Tofu, his personal fave, so I did. And I kept coming back. 

On that first visit, we were there for dinner, but I soon learned that Pho Binh had a $5 lunch buffet with all-you-can-eat tofu! Remember this was 2004, so $5 went further back then. But Pho Binh's lunch buffet soon became a staple for me. I quickly learned that Pho Binh was a meeting place of hipsters and office workers, families and artists, weirdos and normies. Everyone came together for Memphis-style tofu. And though that Green Bean Tofu was good, the Lemongrass Tofu quickly became my favorite. That and the Curry Tofu, the Tofu Pho, and the Mushroom Tofu! (By the way, Pho Binh served meat, too, but they were famous for their tofu.)

During the pandemic, Pho Binh closed the buffet and became a takeout-only spot, and that continued until this past weekend. A few years back, I interviewed Tam Nyugen, one of the sisters who owned the restaurant with their mother and brother, for Edible Memphis magazine. And she told me then that Pho Binh would probably close when their mom was ready to retire. And well, that day has come. 

On Dec. 23, Pho Binh posted that they would close on Christmas Eve "when the tofu runs out." I made a quick and desperate order of Lemongrass and Green Bean Tofu — both chosen for old time's sake. And I saved that for my Christmas dinner.

I have enough tofu left in the fridge for one more meal tomorrow, and that's it. Goodbye, dear tofu. 

As for what's next, Pho Binh sold their space to another Vietnamese restaurant, and the family shared their recipes with the new owner. So hopefully, they'll keep some of the old faves on the menu! But no matter what, it won't have the same Pho Binh love cooked in.