Vegan donuts, I love you.

I think that every once in a while, a good person deserves to buy a pack of peanut butter Newman O's and eat them all within like 2 hours, tops.

Anyway...

Oh yes, donuts.

Oops. I mean DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I had the time to make donuts everyday. These were so crispy on the outside, so soft and melt in your mouthy inside. The recipe for these can be found in My Sweet Vegan. I am also anxious to try the donut recipes from the current issue of Vegetarian Times. Check it out: French Toast Donuts. Apple Cider Donuts. Good Lord. But I need a handy donut pan which I can't see myself buying anytime soon (the tuition! It aches!)

And a couple of this week's dinners:


This is going to sound lame but we really just started buying beets this summer. I don't know why-they are wonderful. I like them plain or with a little maple syrup/tamari mixture drizzled over them. The kale is from our garden. We have been living off of these sausages since we bought Vegan Brunch. The bread was homeade (by Andrew), brushed with olive oil and rubbed with a clove of garlic. Rustic.



Pesto pasta. The lemon basil is from the garden as are the tomatoberries (cherry tomatos shaped like strawberries-and ohboy are they sweet!)

July Schmuly!

Yesterday my family came over to celebrate my mom's birthday which was a few days ago and baby Brennan's first birthday, which was yesterday, but had already been celebrated. So the birthdays kinda cancelled each other out. Anyway, Andrew took pictures.

So...everyone showed up before we were ready because we spent a good part of our afternoon searching for skewers...we were dashing about the kitchen and grill like mad. Me making the marinade for the veggies, Andrew chopping, me making the ice cream, Andrew making the dough for a flatbread that he would later "bake" on the grill, me making cupcakes, Andrew lighting the charcoal... anyway, look how pretty these skewers turned out. They really stimulated the old taste buds too. The recipe was from the August issue of Vegetarian Times .

Baked beans! I threw this together, don't even remember how exactly...hm, sauteed some onions, added them to the beans, mixed in some tomato paste, maple syrup, onion powder, molasses...yeah, that's about it. Never made this before but it worked out nicely.Raspberries and blueberries, fresh from the farmer's market. Mandarin oranges, fresh from a can. When in doubt, make a fruit salad.

We Fell in Love with the Place...

Our hotel room at the Jupiter. My mom thought the mural was a window. What a loon.

Our first night in Portland-We walked to Hungry Tiger Too and I ordered the corn dog basked while Andrew got the BLT (both vegan-a course) and then we shared. It was a satisfying meal after a day of waking up at 4am and then trains and planes and more trains. Tater tots are truly comfort food. This was the first time I had them in waaay to0 long.

We were so excited about Voo Doo Doughnuts. It was neat inside and there were people filming something there-a camera's dolly set up outside the place...anyway, the doughnuts! We had the girl pick a dozen for us-lots of vegan options they have. My fave was the one with the purple pixie stick like sugar on top, it was all grape-y and raised deliciousness. There was also a chick-o-stick topped doughnut and a voo doo doughnut a course-with cherry red filling and pretzel pins.

Stumptown coffee is truly perfect!!!!!! Wish we'd have brought some home with us...

At Rocco's Pizza they appeared to be only selling pizza by the slice. We were hesitant to order because we like to indulge ourselves on whole pies and didn't think one slice would be enough food after a day off walking around the city, riding the streetcars, and hours at Powell's. The vegan pizza is called The Compost Pile-which wasn't the most enticing name but this stuff was great-had just about every veggie on it and I was full about halfway into this.

We had been dreaming about this place for so long and finally we are here! A vegan strip mall, kids! Food Fight was just as awesome as I expected, this is Andrew outside of the grocery (he was chewing in most of the pics I took of him-a good thing!) We got some Dandies marshmallows (that were snacked on during our travels and later melted into amazing rice krispie treats). Sweetpea Bakery was our breakfast stop, got some Stumptown coffee a course and some muffins-we were most surprised by the nutritional yeast shaker at the cream counter-maybe that was what made us realize that we had to LIVE in Portland. We also went to Herbivore Clothing where Andrew picked up a hoodie and I got a T-shirt dress with an elephant on it that says "I'm Vegan and I Love You" across the chest. We didn't go to the tattoo parlor...maybe next time.


Our last full day in Portland was spent on our hotel-rented bicycles and I seriously rode to the end of my physical capacity (so many hills!) We were weak and sweaty as we hobbled our way up and down Alberta looking for an ATM machine...not in that bohemian neighborhood. We did eventually find a health food store that let us get cash back on our purchase so then we crawled over to The Homegrown Smoker BBQ, which was basically a big smoker in a corner lot with a couple of picnic tables. We shared this meal of Tempeh "ribs" and soy curls and coleslaw and macaroni and cornbread and went back for some barbequed beans. The picture does it no justice because I was playing with the functions on my camera when we took this...but mmmmmm.

So now we really want to live in Portland. Nice people, vegan food, mild winters, beautiful landscape, art and culture, perfect coffee, vintage shops on every block, serious farmer's markets...I'm going to cry.

Food to eat!

Didn't I mention this mac and whatever? (I say mac and cheese but I realize it's not cheese and words like chreese or cheeze are just silly.)

okra from this recipe:http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8908.0 but I did not deep fry it- just a little saute action. The chickpeas were influenced by a chickpea salad that the Earthen Jar serves, it's just chickpeas and peas and onions and a little cumin and we have sooo much dill so I had to throw some of that in as well.

And more from Vegan Brunch! (what did we ever do without it?)

Andrew has been making these bagels regularly. We use them for Tofurkey sandwiches and as toasted buttery goodness in the morning. We eat the hell out of em.

Vegan omelet?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just made these. Just. For the first time. I have a feeling that I'll be making them all the time. Really, really, really, really, really good.

Cough Cough

I have a nasty cold.

That means chili. Last night Andrew made some and I had like 3 bowls because it made my throat feel so good and it tasted great. I don't know how he did it but it was smoky and hot and beany.

On a rainy day there are biscuits and tea. Sweet Cornmeal Coconut Butter Biscuits and tea. Oh these were good. We ate them all within a day.

The recipe is from The Vegan Soul Kitchen which I bought recently along with Vegan Brunch. We love these books, the recipes look amazing and so far have been decadent.

And this morning for breakfast...Okay, our waffle iron gets a decent amount of use (usually making pumpkin waffles) but this morning Andrew made yeast waffles from Vegan Brunch. They were sweet and crispy and different but still good in that way that makes you feel a little bad about eating dessert for breakfast. But yum. And no, I didn't feel bad, I just made that up.

Lot's of cooking the past couple of days. For din-din, Andrew made beer battered tofu (Vegan Brunch) which was like eating in a bar-something we haven't done since pre-veg times. It was greasy goodness.

And the next day...

SOUP. Andrew made this, of course, as he's still been taking care of me while I'm feeling blah. It was made with kale from our abundant garden and leeks from the farmer's market...he made the croutons from his homemade bread. This soup seriously made me feel better. I'm getting used to relaxing.

eleveneleven

Foodwise, what's been going on? Andrew made pizza recently. I had my fam over for dinner. Cooked some Shepard's Pie (excellent recipe from the Chicago Diner cookbook) and some macaroni and cheesi, which was so good!!! gotta give it up for this recipe I found on vegweb.com: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8295.0 My 8 year old brother and 6 year old niece actually ate it! They didn't know that it wasn't real cheese! So good (and guilt free as no suffering went into it). I made strawberry shortcake for dessert and topped it with some coconut whipped topping and Trader Joe's vanilla ice cream. But none of that was photographed.


Last night I made some peanut butter bars. They aren't what I expected but they're not bad at all. Chewy like rice krispie treats and very rich.





Recipe also from vegweb, modified very slightly:

1 cup brown rice syrup

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter

1 bag vegan chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix peanut butter and oatmeal in medium bowl with hands. Boil rice syrup & sugar in a medium saucepan and then pour over oatmeal mixture. Stir quickly to combine. Press into greased 13x9 inch pan. Pour chocolate chips on top. Bake for 1 minute. Cool. Cut into bars, obviously.

Today began our 3 day weekend and what did we do? We drove a couple of hours to IKEA!

Bought a couple of these chairs...

And a shelving unit that we're going to squeeze betweet the stove and coffee cart and fill with our cookbooks, which will free up some much needed space in our book case (speaking of books, I'm reading So Big by Edna Ferber right now. It's amazing, I can't pull myself away. It won the pulitzer in 1924. Not that that means anything these days but I guess they knew their stuff back then. It's a very good book so far.)

We also got these lovely pillow...

and some other cool stuff.

We were in Canton, Mi and we couldn't be so close to Ann Arbor and not go to the Earthen Jar...so with our bellies roaring we drove another 15 miles. Oh, it's the best. I got vegan lasagna and spicy okra and squashy curry and black eyed peas with indian goodness about them. Drool.

Long day. Good day.

And I recieved my Lush order today so maybe I'll go take a bath in Vanilla Fountain.

Michigan Maple Walnut Cookies!

I tweaked this, made it a bit healthier and veganized it from an omni recipe, it turned out fantastic, these were buttery and maple is my favorite flavor in the world...oh god, the frosting... Andrew said this was one of the best things I've ever made.
Cookies:
1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup quick oats
1/2 cup coursly chopped walnuts

Frosting:
3 Tbsp vegan cream cheese
2 Tbsp earth balance, softened
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted, to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees beat earth balance and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until creamy. Beat in maple syrup. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually beat into sugar mixture. On low speed, beat in oats. Stir in walnuts.

2. Drop dough by rounded Tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are a soft golden brown. Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely.

3. For frosting, beat cream cheese and earth balance in small bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in maple syrup. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Spread frosting on cooled cookies; top with toasted walnuts.

SO GOOD.