Stir-Fried Vegetarian “Duck” with Chili, Bell Pepper and Black Beans July 1, 2008

As I said  in my previous post Sunday was my birthday, one of the gifts Kala gave me was the book Authentic Chinese Cuisine: for the Contemporary Kitchen By Bryanna Clark Grogan. The first recipe we made from it was Stir-Fried Vegetarian “Duck” with Chili, Bell Pepper, and Black Beans.  It called for the old stand by a can of mock duck and we tweaked it a little bit adding a little more chili, maybe next time a bit more than we did on the first run through, and substituted yellow bell for the red bell.  It was a very tasty dish and very very easy. We had it with black jasmine rice.

–Shane

Photos: Kala

Birthday Candy!!! Fairhaven Candy Crumblz July 1, 2008

Sunday was my birthday, and one of my gifts was a bag of Fairhaven Candy Crumblz, the chocolate peanut butter to be specific. Kala ordered them from Food Fight Grocery, they are amazing.  They taste like the innards of a Butterfinger on steroids. They are in smaller chunks of course, but it had a perfect blend of peanut butter  crunch and a hint of chocolate. Its a blend of crunch and melt that will make your eyes roll back! They could be a seriously addictive snack if they were easily available in the Twin Cities.

–Shane

Photos: Shane

Vegan ice cream madness and sadness. June 27, 2008

We stopped by Izzys Ice cream shop today, we knew going in that they were a little on the sloppy side with dairy traces on the equipment, so Kala would be feeling very sick and very sad if she sampled some, but with her urgings I had a cone and here it is soy chocolate with an Izzy scoop (a baby scoop of another flavor ontop of the main flavor) of soy blueberry. First off I think i should have had it the other way around the blueberry really was the star of the show, so  smooth and creamy and the flavor just popped. The chocolate was good but had a lot of ice crystals in it, more than usual in their chocolate. All in all super tasty.

–Shane  Photo: Kala

Hemp Shake - of doom and sorrow June 21, 2008

 

I don’t even know how to start this post.  You know how you bring home something new from the store with all sorts of hopes and dreams of yummy delight and then you try it and it tastes like a potting soil smoothie?  Yeah, that about sums it up.  The terror in question is the Organic Chocolate Hemp Shake from Nutiva.  The instructions say you can just mix it with some soymilk, but when I did that it was still a chalky gritty mess so I went to the blender and added in a frozen banana, which it also suggests.  

 

 

The taste is bad, but the texture is even worse, it’s like gritty gel, bleh!  I can’t say it’s the worse thing I’ve ever tried, but it’s definately up there in the top 10 and I definately won’t be trying the other flavors.  I’m so glad I only bought a single serving packet!

-Kala

Lunchy McStir-Fry June 18, 2008

 

I’ve been on such a stir fry kick lately, and today for lunch I had the urge for the yumminess yet again.  I love it because it’s one of those things you don’t really need a recipe for, you can use whatever you have in the fridge or pantry.  Today it was red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, cilantro, green onions, mock duck, and a soy based sauce. 

 

 

-Kala 

When in doubt, make tacos June 14, 2008

 

Do you have foods that are your “go-to” fast meals that you make when you are either out of food or don’t really feel like cooking?  I do, and mine are tacos.  Soft tacos, crunchy tacos, tacos made with corn tortillas, those made with flour, I love them all!  Tonight I wanted something fairly quick and easy so I made mock duck and chickpea tacos garnished with chopped onions and cilantro.  There’s not really a recipe, I mostly just use what we have in the house, tonight the veggie was red bell pepper.  Very easy and very yummy! 

 

-Kala

Honeymoon in Duluth June 8, 2008

 

Hey, Shane and I got married last week!  There will be lots of pictures of wedding food later when I get them from the various people who were taking pictures that day.  But for now I thought I’d share some of the honeymoon food from our trip to Duluth.

First up, Burrito Union.  Super awesome and very vegan friendly, Burrito Union is a restaurant that specializes in - guess what???? - burritos, very good.  We went with the build your own burrito option and had ours stuffed with a veggie medley, Spanish rice, black beans, guacamole, jalapenos, salsa, and olives.  We also had a side of their “hot” salsa, very yummy but not hot.  Ok, it’s Minnesota hot. 

 

 

I really wish they had a Burrito Union in the twin cities, we will defiantly be back the next time we’re in Duluth. 

We also had a lovely meal at Pizza Luce but I was so hungry that night that I didn’t take any good food pics.  So you’ll have to settle for me drinking water, mmmmmm water. 

   

 

 

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Whole Foods Co-op (not to be confused with Whole Foods market) for breakfast.  We got a banana muffin that was pretty good if not a wee bit dry and we loaded up on the salad bar:

 

 

There was a tofu dish, some tasty beans and onions, garbanzo beans, olives, peppers, and sweet potato fries.  It was really good all mixed up in the box. 

More to come later!

-Kala

The not so Crispy Cat May 27, 2008

The other day Kala and I were in the uptown area of Minneapolis doing wedding stuff, and stopped at the Wedge Co-Op.  Kala had pointed out the Tree Huggin’ Treats Crispy Cat candy bar specifically the dark chocolate and peanut variety. Kala could not try it her self due to the product being made on shared equipment with dairy and the unpleasant reaction that would follow, so allergy sufferers beware.

On to the candy bar itself. The Crispy Cat is a smallish bar, the chocolate is not very dark in appearance looking more like a milk chocolate, and the taste leaves a bit to be desired no real richness or depth do it, its a bit like chocolate in some vegan energy bars, you can tell its chocolate, its just sort of mediocre at best. Inside the chocolate is the peanut rice filling. It had a good peanut taste but no real crunch to it (I was promised crispy!), it was very chewy. On the whole the bar reminded me a bit of the Whatchmacallit candy bars that were around in the 80’s in my child hood/pregan days.

I can’t give this product a glowing recommendation, but if you want a candy bar that is vegan it would be ok in a pinch.

–Shane

 photos: Kala

The Lazy Vegan: Frozen Burrito May 24, 2008

 

Today was kind of a long day so Shane and I decided to pick up something frozen from The Wedge for dinner.  He also got a peanut butter cup shake that I stole some sips off of, soooo goooood.  And I got an oatmeal pecan cookie.  Ok, back to the burrito.  This was the first time I’d tried this flavor, Red Hot Volcano from The Old City Cafe.  It promises to be “extra spicy!” and “red hot.”  Well, it’s Minnesota hot.  It’s good, it’s just not spicy. 

 

 

For a frozen burrito, it’s also not completely horrible for you, coming in at only 4 grams of fat and 8 grams of fiber.  All in all, I liked it and would have it again when I got that frozen burrito desire.   

 

-Kala   

Scramble-licious May 20, 2008

 

Tofu scramble, what’s not to love?  I adore tofu scramble but I’m usually not awake enough in the morning to make it, I’m sooooo not a morning person.  So it’s usually a lunch or dinner item around here.  But I slept in a nice long time today so I had the pep to scramble me up some tofu.  I’m not going to include a recipe because there are a lot of things that go in that I don’t measure, but I’ll list some of the ingredients:  tofu (duh), mushrooms, zucchini, green onions, turmeric, spices, hot sauce, lemon juice, soy sauce…. lot’s of stuff.  Some people put nutritional yeast in their scramble but I’m not a big fan of the stuff so I don’t put it in.  I like mine with a nice whole wheat tortilla and a good amount of chili sauce. 

-Kala