Burritos and Bonnaroo!

Hey everybody! I'm about to depart for a four-day camping trip at Bonnaroo Music Festival on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. NOFX, Eminem, Lil' Wayne, Wanda Jackson, and the Scissor Sisters will be there! And the best part — my all-time favorite filmmaker John Waters will be performing in the comedy tent.

But first, let me share my meal from last night — Potato & Cauliflower Burritos from the June issue of Vegetarian Times:

These were so yummy, and totally veggie-based. I typically need protein with every meal. But these bean-less burritos were so satisfying thanks to potatoes, local cauliflower, and a fire-roasted, chipotle tomato-garlic sauce. Oh, and they're topped with the new Daiya Pepperjack Shreds.

On the side, I roasted some local Beets & Baby Squash:

Now beets take FOREVER to roast, and tender baby squash takes no time at all. So I coated each with olive oil and roasted them on separate pans. Then I mixed them together upon serving. I love this time of year, when fresh veggies at the farmer's market are in abundance.

Alright, well see y'all later. I'll be back from Bonnaroo on Sunday, but I doubt I'll blog again until Monday night.

Peanut Butter, Meet Marmite

About two summers ago, I had the pleasure of meeting one awesome PPK-er, Panda Cookie, at Veganstock 2009. You can see her little monster crafts (and her new zine Baggin' and Ballin') on her blog. I have a wee blue monster and one of her tofu pirate tote bags, and I think about how swell Panda is every time I look at them. By the way, I really wish someone would buy me Panda's Tofu Scramble Plush Pirate Set! OMG!! Just look at it!! An asparagus, a mushroom, and a tofu pirate!!!

But scramble plush set or not, there's at least one other time that I think back to hanging out with Panda at Veganstock in Asheville, North Carolina. That would be every time I eat Peanut Butter with Marmite:

All-natural, salted chunky PB swirled with smidgen of yeasty, salty Marmite. It may be the second best Marmite combo on earth. The first would be my fave tofu cottage cheeze with Marmite, but I've blogged about that before.

But one night (or was it a day?) at Veganstock, we got on the topic of things to do with Marmite, as all vegans do from time to time. Panda mentioned combining it with peanut butter, and though the combination sounded strange at first, I had to try it when I returned home. So glad I did! Thanks Panda!

How do you eat your Marmite?

The Elusive Country Fried Steak

In late April, Imagine Vegan Cafe, Memphis' only totally-vegan eatery, opened in Cooper-Young to satisfy the appetites of comfort food-craving vegans. I did a massive post (with loads of photos) a few weeks ago.

The menu at Imagine is huge! I actually printed a copy, and I've been highlighting each dish as I try it. Sort of an Imagine bucket list, if you will. But almost right after the cafe opened, it sold out of the one item my friends and I have been dying to try — Country Fried Steak!

A few of us started a little Imagine Vegan Supper Club on Wednesday nights, and every time we'd ask if the steak was in, co-owner Adam would give us a sad, knowing look and shake his head. There was some issue with the supplier not being able to re-stock, and Imagine co-owners Adam and Kristie were as saddened by the delay as their customers.

But when I arrived at Imagine for our Food Awareness meeting (our local veggie social club) on Saturday, I was thrilled to see the little "sold out" sign missing from the space next to Country Fried Steak on the menu. So guess what I ordered?

Oh yea. Every bite of this meal was pure bliss. The steak was a thin seitan-based patty, breaded, fried, and smothered in creamy white gravy. You can choose your own sides, but the only proper sides for a country fried steak are vegan mac & cheese and green beans. Am I right? By the way, Imagine's vegan mac & cheese is out-of-this-world too. Um, I totally devoured that plate and finished the meal off with a shared slice of Imagine's Flying Elvis Cake (layered peanut butter, chocolate, and banana cakes iced with buttercream).

So if you live in Memphis and you too have been anxiously awaiting the country fried steak, heed the good news. Just save some for me.

Latin Vegan Love

First of all, thanks for all of your awesome comments on my last post on my vegan philosophy! This is why I love blogging. Interacting with like-minded vegans from across the world is just amazing. It's nice to know that so many folks share similar vegan values.

Now onto the food. I got a crap-ton of vegan cookbooks for Christmas, and I'm slowly working my way through each one. My original plan was to read each book front to back and make stuff from whatever book I was on. But it's June, and I've only finished reading two of about 10 cookbooks (that would be Color Me Vegan and Appetite for Reduction). So now I'm just cooking out of all of them before the new wears off.

So I pulled down my unopened copy of Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero from the shelf and flipped through for a yummy idea. The Arroz con Seitan jumped out at me:

I already had some homemade seitan in the freezer, so that part was easy enough. This rice dish is made with sliced seitan, green olives, capers, tomato sauce, and spices. And the best part? Mexican beer! I'm such a huge fan of cooking with alcohol. Beer adds such a depth of flavor. I used Corona and it really stepped the dish up a few notches. I also subbed brown rice for the white in the recipe and increased the liquid and cooking time.

Served with steamed local broccoli and a salad, this was a pretty healthful, satisfying meal. I think next time, I'll try Terry's Cubano Sandwich.

If you have the book, what's your favorite recipe from Viva Vegan? I could use some recommendations.

My Vegan Philosophy (and Some Delicious Olive Cream Cheeze)

I was planning a simple post tonight. Just a photo of some yummy olive cream cheeze spread and a few words on how tasty it is. But a few anonymous comments on my last ramen post inspired me to explain why I'm vegan and what my priorities are.

One comment warned me that a wax coating on some ramen noodles can cause cancer. This claim originated from a hoax email and the claim has been dis-proven (see the Snopes article here). But just so you know, I've never been one to stress over negative health claims, whether research backs them up or not.

Another commenter claimed that Morningstar Farms chick'n strips were not vegan because they contained GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Just because a product contains GMOs doesn't make it un-vegan. It may make it bad for your health and the planet, but so long as the food is animal by-product-free, it's vegan. And those strips are definitely vegan.

You see, I am a vegan because I love animals. I don't eat animals or their by-products because I practice a life of compassion for all living beings. I believe eating meat is immoral. That is the ONLY reason I'm vegan. I do care about my health, but I also care about enjoying life and eating things that make me happy. Occasional fried foods, processed junk food, candy, sweets .... these are things that make me happy.

But don't get me wrong. Ninety percent of time, I eat uber-healthy — whole grains, no high-fructose corn syrup, no soda, as little refined sugar as possible. But when I want to splurge, I do. If I spent all my time stressing about this health claim or that health claim, I'm fairly certain it would suck all the fun out of life. And we're only here for a short time, so let's live it up. Laissez les bon temps roulez, right?

That being said, I do also try to avoid GMOs most of the time. Not for me, but for the planet. But I'm not going to deny myself a treat because it MIGHT contain GMOs.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I totally respect health vegans. I get it. But that's just not me. It's a big topic, but I didn't want folks to worry when I post photos of processed food or healthy no-no's.

For example, my breakfast had a little processed food thing going on. I had some leftover Tofutti Cream Cheese, but I didn't want plain cream cheese on my bagels. So I looked for mix-in ideas in Vegan Brunch and found this idea for Olive Cream Cheese:

It's schmeared all over a Whole Foods brand sprouted wheat fiber bagel. Olives may seem weird for breakfast, but I love those salty little things so much, it doesn't matter what time of day they end up in my mouth. It was like cheeseball for breakfast!

What's your vegan philosophy?

The Art of Ramen

I love ramen. I can't count the number of times I've uttered those words on this blog. But it's true. Ever since I was a little kid, I've considered ramen noodles my very favorite food. You can whip up the fanciest, gourmet vegan meal in the world, but it will never be better than soft, fried wheat noodles simmered in a salty, garlicky broth.

It wasn't until watching my now-favorite movie Ramen Girl with the late, great Brittany Murphy that I realized cooking ramen was considered an art form in Japan. There's even a ramen museum in Yokohama. Some day, I will make a pilgrimage.

Out of sheer laziness, I mostly eat instant ramen. But all I needed was a little push to try making my own broth. And that came from one of my favorite bloggers, Annie Shannon of Meet the Shannons. When I saw her post on Vegan Garlic Chicken Ramen with a Vegan Hard Boiled Egg, I knew that soup had to be mine:

Here's the recipe. I made it tonight, and it really does taste worlds better than the instant stuff. The broth is made with vegan chicken-style bouillon powder, soy sauce, garlic, a little lime juice, and rice wine vinegar. I bought plain ramen-style noodles at my neighborhood Asian market, and as the recipe suggests, I loaded the soup with baby corn, water chesnuts, carrots, pea pods, and Morningstar Farms chicken strips.

But the coolest part is the tofu egg! After watching Ramen Girl, I started doing research on traditional ways to make ramen, and I remember seeing photos of hard boiled eggs atop noodle bowls. Now I can do that too! The tofu egg is stuffed with mashed tofu that's been seasoned with cumin, nutritional yeast, and other spices. It was fun to break it up with chopsticks when I was eating!

And now I'll leave you with a poem I wrote about ramen in 1997 (when I was a senior in high school!) from my zine Frenzy. I stumbled across it the other day when looking through a binder of my old zines that I used to type, print, and hand out to the kids at school:

My Ode to Ramen Noodles

Long, graceful
Swirling
Out of your
Rectangular
Block as the
Water boils you
To deliciousness.
Mixing in the
Packet of flavor
Your tan becomes
Darker
And Spicy.

Weiners and Nachos!

This past Saturday was my best friend Sheridan's bachelorette party in Little Rock. She's getting married in June, and although nothing is really changing (she lives with and has dated her boyfriend for 10 years), we pretended like this was her last night of real life.

Here's Sheridan and me hanging out on her balcony:

By the way, check out my new "Some dudes marry dudes. Get over it." tee! I ordered it from fckh8.com, and it came in just in time for the bachelorette party!

And here's Brittany and Leslie during our living room dance party:

Though we had a small gathering, the four of us had a blast. After watching Bridesmaids, we got the party started with a Vegan Nacho Bar! Chips, vegan cheese sauce, Tofutti sour cream, homemade guacamole, black beans, black olives, and jalapenos:

Believe me, these nachos were delicious both before imbibing ... and later on in the night after we'd had a few too many glasses of wine. For dessert, I baked some Hearts and Weiner Cookies!

Ha! When I said "weiner" in the post title, you probably thought I meant "hot dog." No ma'am. These are a different kind of weiner. I used the Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar for the first time, and I was really impressed. Too often, sugar cookies get all crunchy after they cool, and I hate crunchy sugar cookies. These were soft and chewy. This will become my go-to sugar cookie recipe.