Veggie fried yum yum
I can’t say enough about the awesome that is Vegan Yum Yum by Laura Ulm. The latest recipe we tried was the vegetable fried rice with tofu. Fried rice is one of those things I can’t get enough of and this is an amazing recipe, tasty and easy to make. There are a wide array of veggies involved: zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, snow peas, and carrots along with tofu and sesame seeds (we used black sesame) and a very simple yet tasty sauce.
Really everyone should just go out and get the book, we are seriously going to break the spine with the amount of use we have gotten out of it in just 14 days. It just might be the best cookbook out this year.
–Shane Photos by Kala
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Holy crap this stuff is delicious! Last Tuesday at my knitting group, someone brought a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread that smelled heavenly. It wasn’t vegan though so I didn’t get to try any, but she told me where she got the recipe so I could make some of my own. The recipe is from Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchenand it was crazy easy to veganize, all I had to do was use Ener-G instead of the eggs. I also used nutmeg instead of allspice because allspice is evil and gross 
I totally recommend this recipe though, the bread is so moist and delicious and not overly sweet, it’s also a great way to use up zucchini!
-Kala
Muffin Quest
Muffin Quest, the eternal search for the perfect blueberry muffin. Every once in a while, I loves me a good muffin, and that good muffin is usually blueberry. But I haven’t really found a recipe that I love yet, not that I haven’t tried many of them. Last night I made two batches, first I made the Bakery Style Berry Muffins from Vegan Brunch and then I made a batch of the Blueberry Lemon Muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking. First, the ones from Vegan Brunch:
Good texture, pretty good flavor, but there could definitely be improvements. The flavor just isn’t quite there for me. And the ones from The Joy of Vegan Baking:
I really don’t like the texture of these, they’re weirdly smooth. The flavor is good though, I like the lemon with the blueberry, it’s a nice combo. So maybe the perfect muffin is somewhere in between, more experimentation is needed! Do any of you have a great go-to blueberry muffin recipe?
-Kala
Gluten Free Goodies
Today before work Shane and I decided to take a walk over to Cooqi, a gluten free bakery in Saint Paul, for a little treat. Their vegan selection is limited to say the least but their pumpkin chocolate chip bars are pretty good. Would I go out of my way to go there if it wasn’t in my neighborhood? Not a chance, the service isn’t great and the atmosphere is lame, but a vegan pumpkin bar within walking distance gets me every time!
-Kala
Anniversary Eatin’
Yesterday was our one year wedding anniversary (yay for us!) so of course there had to be some fancy eatin’ going on. Well, as fancy as Ecopolitan can be For those who aren’t local, Ecopolitan is an organic, raw, vegan restaurant in Minneapolis that serves all sorts of yummy goodness. I had the Not-Cho Cheese Plate which is pine nut “cheese” on greens with bell pepper, cucumber, marinated mushrooms, onion, cilantro, cashew sour cream, and hot sauce:
Shane had the Pesto Pasta which is pine nut pesto on zucchini noodles with tomato, marinated mushrooms, and walnuts served on balsamic dressed spinach:
It was all crazy delicious and usual! We had planned on getting a dessert there but we had a super sucky waitress so we opted for Oatscream shakes at the Wedge instead (I got strawberry, Shane got mocha.) Yay for yumminess!
-Kala
Eden Pizza
Today for lunch Shane and I decided to try someplace new, well new to us anyway, we went to Eden Pizza in the Midway area of Saint Paul. Since I found out that they had a pizza called “Vegan” I had to go and see if it was any good. Since we weren’t crazy hungry, we split a Vegan personal pizza which comes with a thin crust brushed with garlic infused olive oil, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and green olives. The crust was quite crunchy which isn’t my favorite thing in the world but overall the pizza was pretty good. Next time I think we’ll get something with more of a sauce though, if you ask, they have a marinara that’s vegan (their standard pizza sauce has cheese in it). The also have a Thai pizza that sounds really good, the Thai Mock Duck that’s topped with Thai sauce (we asked and they said this was vegan), mock duck, onion, broccoli, swiss (we’d leave that off of course), cilantro, and crushed peanuts. It’s a tiny place and the service isn’t exactly stellar – no waiter while we were there, just the pizza chef – but I think we’ll be back or at least have a pizza delivered.
-Kala
Portobello Burger
This isn’t the prettiest picture ever, but it’s all I could manage this afternoon! This is my breakfast, leftovers from last night’s portobello burgers, and it’s great! The recipe is from Jae Steele’s book Get It Ripe which Shane and I scored this week at Half Price Books for only $8, muah ha ha. We let the leftover mushroom caps sit overnight in the marinade and I think I might like them even better on the second day.
One more thing, I’m writing on the Veganetsy Team blog every Friday now so check out my first post and show it some love, it’s full of owl-tastic goodness :)
-Kala
Spicy Tahini Stew
Isn’t it pretty? And it tastes just as good as it looks! This was our dinner for tonight, the Spicy Tahini Stew from the Swell zine. I ordered this cute little zine recently and just had to make the stew, it has all of my favorite ingredients: chickpeas, tahini, tons of veggies… and the recipe did not disappoint, it was super easy to make and was really delicious. The only mod I made was that I added garlic, but then I add garlic to pretty much everything savory.
If you haven’t bought yourself a copy of Swell yet, you’re really missing out, it’s got a bunch of really tasty looking recipes and it’s only $3!
-Kala
Mint Galactica
Mmmmmm, minty! Mint chocolate chip might just be my favorite ice cream flavor so I was very excited when I saw this new item at Whole Foods. As I’ve whined about before, I can’t have most vegan ice creams because they have traces of dairy (I can only have Tofutti, Oatscream, and Temptation) so I’m always happy to see something that’s both vegan and lactose-intolerance friendly. This pint of awesome is the Mint Galactica flavor from Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss and its organic, vegan, and made with certified fair trade ingredients, you can’t get much better than that! Oh and it’s soooo yummy, and ever so creamy! We’ve also tried the hazelnut flavor but that didn’t last long enough to take a picture
-Kala
Worst. Nuggets. Ever
Seriously:
Shane and I spotted these Cluckphrey vegan Chic-A-Roos at Whole Foods last night and had to try them, I’m always up for trying something new and vegan from the freezer section, and I love me some nuggets. Big mistake! These are by the far the most worst nuggets I’ve ever tasted, they’re the kind of thing that make people think vegan food is sad and gross. They looked pretty sad coming out of the oven, pale and unappetizing, and their looks did not deceive. They manage to be both bland and icky, dry and mushy, and they even smell nasty!
Big waste of money, yuck!
-Kala
