Vegan Mofo 5: Good Vegan Eats

Some snapshots of what I've been eating lately:

Ridiculously amazing vegan pizza from Whole Foods: thin whole wheat crust, extra garlicky sauce, roasted tomatoes, artichokes, kalamata olives, squash, zucchini, spinach and Daiya. This may be the best pizza I've ever had. And it was $3.

Curry noodle soup (rice noodles, spicy curry broth, kale, sprouts, cilantro, basil, carrots and edamame) with spicy tofu from Java Green. The perfect lunch!

Brown rice sushi with cucumber and avocado.

Tofu bibimbob (brown rice, mixed veggies, pickled radish, baked tofu), also from Java Green

Butternut squash ginger and orange soup from Color Me Vegan, topped with cilantro, orange zest and green onion

"Tropic of Tempeh" from Vegan on the Cheap: rice topped with coconut curry tempeh, carrots, red pepper, onion, pineapple and a yummy sauce.

I've eaten these things AND lost 8 pounds in two weeks. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Vegan Mofo 4: Sunday Night Dinner

I am a football widow. During neglect season...I mean, football season, my Sundays are pretty empty. Jesse joined a fantasy football league this year, which means that unlike previous years where he only watched Saints' games, this year he has a reason to see them all. I decided that because of that, I'm bringing back the Sunday dinner. It gives me something to do and ensures that I get to see him for at least a little bit on Sundays! This past week we had:

Roasted brussel sprouts. We love them, so I make enough that we can have leftovers. I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and baked them on 375 until they were brown and soft.

For the first time ever, if you can believe it, I cooked with tempeh! The Buffalo Tempeh recipe from Appetite for Reduction just looked too delicious to pass up. I used the already cooked tempeh from Trader Joe's. Here it is marinating.

Then you cook it in a pan with a little non-stick spray while reserving the marinade.

In the last five minutes, you add the marinade to let it cook down.

I also made this Lemony Kale Salad recipe that I found in the Oprah magazine. I know how healthy kale is. I've tried it baked and I've tried it in soups. I just don't really care for it. This salad is the exception. When kale is massaged, it gets a new texture that I find much better tasting. Since this recipe calls for hemp seeds, you get an extra protein boost as well! It's amazing and I highly encourage you to try it out.

Dinner is done!

Vegan Mofo 3: Choco-Chai Coffee Cake

Oh my goodness. When I saw this recipe in The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holechek, I could not resist giving it a try. After all, I am a serious fan of anything that includes this:

Seriously, I am a chai fanatic.

And at the end, you get this decadent but airy cake topped with some chocolately goodness. It would be perfect to take to a brunch or to give to someone that needs some chai chocolate amazing cake in their life. Next time I might try adding some more spices to mine since even with soaking five tea bags in the warm soy milk, the cake only has a mild chai flavor.

Warning: It makes a LOT. And your house will smell amazing and you will be tempted to eat it all. However, if you are trying to get healthier like me, have a tiny piece, give a big piece to your boyfriend and then gift the rest to a vegan co-worker!

Vegan Mofo 2: Pumpkin Spiced Pancakes

The weather finally shifted this weekend in the greater Washington, DC area. The air was cold and crisp. While on a grocery shopping trip at Trader Joe's, I saw a huge display of all things pumpkin. I grabbed a can of plain pumpkin puree (okay, so I grabbed a few!) because I like to put it in just about anything this time of year. When we returned home, I hit up my cookbooks to find something delicious to make. The winner? "Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes" from Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner. I've owned this cookbook for several months but I haven't made anything from it just yet. If all the recipes are as good as this one, I need to get moving on making some more!

The recipe called for a mix of ground ginger, all spice, nutmeg and cinnamon. You really can't go wrong when you mix these with some pumpkin.

First you mix together the dry ingredients. In the background, you can see my cookbook stand, which felt frivolous at the time, but is by far the best $24.95 I've ever spent.

You mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then combine the two.

Voila! Autumn-y spiced pumpkin goodness. These will be making many repeat performances in my kitchen this fall!

Vegan Mofo 1: The Newest Mofo on the Block

Today begins Vegan Mofo! You can read more about what it is here, but basically this means that for the month of October, I'll be blogging a lot. And each of those posts will include something about vegan food, whether that be a new recipe or a review of a cookbook, product or restaurant.

Since this is my first time doing this, there won't be any sort of theme, other than the fact that we just made a commitment to keeping a vegan kitchen (which really only meant getting rid of the eggs that Jesse, my boyfriend, likes to make French toast with and the parmesan cheese I was sometimes cooking with). I'm excited to get back in the kitchen and create some yummy looking stuff. I'm also excited to use more of my many, many cookbooks. This past month has included a lot of introspection and evolution in my thinking on veganism and I'm hoping to include some of that as well. If you are new around here, some of my favorite things include my Vitamix, the Food for Thought podcast, avocado, yoga, Latin American film, Sweet and Sara marshmallows, reading lots and lots, Boston Terriers, and traveling anywhere and everywhere. I live with my boyfriend and I'm currently trying to get healthier.

So please, come along on this journey with me. I promise to try to post a wide array of things if you promise to read it. Happy cooking!

Weeknight Meals

I often post my culinary experiments on this blog. However, the truth is that I only post the ones that I think are blog-worthy, meaning that they took a lot of work or are pretty to look at. Since I decided to reignite my mission to get healthy, I thought I would show you a typical weeknight dinner.

Here is last night's meal: a 365 brand fajita-sized tortilla from Whole Foods (I think it was red chile flavor...?), topped with Cava's spicy hummus (can't get enough of this stuff!), cucumber, red bell pepper and baby spinach. I made roasted brussel sprouts as a side. I never liked them until I had them roasted! Here's how you do it: Cut off the hard ugly bottoms, cut the large ones in half so that they are all roughly the same size, cover them in just enough oil so that they don't stick to the pan, sprinkle with your topping of choice (garlic powder and black pepper, though I've also used fresh garlic, lemon, a veggie spice mix and parmesan cheese at different times) and bake on 375 until they're soft. Perfection! This was a great, quick meal that left me more than enough time to get in a trip to the gym!

DC Vegfest 2011

This weekend was DC Vegfest! It's one of my favorite events to attend each year. Fantastic eats, lots of amazing organizations represented and thousands of like-minded people. What's not to love?!

Jesse and I arrived right as they opened at 11 and each got a tote bag of some goodies (coupons, flax seed, Vega, lip balm, Parma, etc.) Then we immediately headed for the Vegan Treats table. Every year it seems as this is the hot spot, so we like to get there early. Above is a small sample of some of the wide variety of treats they brought with them all the way from Bethlehem, PA.

This, my friends, is a vegan donut full of pumpkin-spiced cream and topped with a cinnamon glaze. Ohhhhhh yeah.

We hung out for a few hours, so we eventually got hungry for some lunch. I finally got to try the Fojol Bros. food truck! They called themselves a traveling culinary carnival and they aren't kidding. There are two trucks. One truck claims to be from the imaginary land of "Benethiopia" and the other from the land of "Merlinda". They play fun music and are dressed up in crazy costumes.

At the Merlindia truck, you could choose from such Indian-inspired delights as pumpkin curry, a delicious eggplant mix, mixed veggies, lentils, and spinach and cheese. They are served over rice.

Here is Jesse's Benethiopian lunch: Collards, lentils and a mix of carrots and green beans over injera.

My Merlindian lunch: curried mixed vegetables, lentils and eggplant over rice.

Doron Petersan was the emcee for the Sticky Fingers Bakery cupcake eating contest. Doron's cookbook comes out in February.

The contestants getting their cupcake on. The first to finish five cupcakes (without using their hands!) won!

Highlight: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau talking about The 30 Day Vegan Challenge. If you've never heard her podcasts, cooked from one of her cookbooks, heard her speak or had her garlic and greens soup, I suggest you do all of these things immediately. I really believe that she's changed my life.

Colleen signing books immediately after signing mine! I left Vegfest inspired to keep a vegan house (we were very close anyway, but we're getting rid of the few things that remain) and to do more for the animals. I'm in awe that I get to live in such an amazing community.

Autumn Wishes

It's finally here. The best season ever has arrived! It was a long, extremely hot and humid summer here in the D.C. area. I'm so looking forward to cooler weather, the leaves changing colors and all of the fun and excitement that the last quarter of the year brings. Here are my wishes and happenings:

~Nationals vs Braves game

~DC VegFest

~Brad Paisley concert

~Ray LaMontagne concert

~Get back into my yoga practice

~Apple and pumpkin picking....make an apple pie afterward

~Trip to Texas in October to go to the Texas State Fair and Texas State Veggie Fair

~Meaningful and inspiring Jewish high holidays

~Lose 25 pounds

~See Ron White do a comedy show on October 15th in NJ

~Regular exercise schedule

~Possible trip to Peru for work in November

~Lots of quality time with J's family over Thanksgiving

~J gets into the grad school of his dreams (still unclear which one that is, ha!)

~Amazing, once-in-a-lifetime 10 day trip to South Africa in December

~Lots of quality time with my family in late December

{Image via Denis Collette...!!!!}

A Season of Change

For me, September has always been about new beginnings. For 20 years of my life, if we include college and graduate school, it was the start of the school year, complete with a new schedule and new school supplies. It's almost the Jewish New Year, which is a time for reflection on the past year, as well as a time to set intentions for the upcoming year. As the weather changed and the leaves turned colors, it was always the best time of year for me to make changes in my life as well.

In the spirit of new beginnings, I'm back on the wagon in terms of healthy living. Jesse and I had a date at the gym on Sunday (and I am still sore from lifting weights!), we've been taking walks on Shabbat, and I have other workouts marked in my planner. Our fridge is stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables. I'm incorporating a lot more leafy greens into my lunches. I am getting back into a regular yoga practice if it kills me. I'm going back to spinning and Zumba. I'm going to try to get more sleep and journal more often.

This time around--because, let's face it, there have been many times around--I'm focusing on being healthy in a way that is sustainable for a lifetime. Previously, I have wanted to be perfect. One slip up and I was convinced I would be a fat failure for life. I used to refuse invites to hang out with friends if they involved food. This time, I'm focusing on living life but in a better way.

One. day. at. a. time.

Scenes from the Kitchen

Provencal Vegetable Soup from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I LOVE Dorie's recipes. They are always thorough and great to cook with, as well as accompanied by great stories. This soup had it all! Zucchini, green beans, white beans, small pasta, tomatoes, carrot and a ton of fresh herbs. The cherry on top? It called for making fresh pesto and putting some on top. I prompty stirred mine in after taking this shot and it took this soup to a whole new level.

Leftover pesto turned into wheat pasta shells, pesto and fresh tomatoes for lunch the next day.

I also tried my very first vegan lasagna this week! It was from The 30 Day Vegan Challenge by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (a fantastic book, by the way!). I chose this one because it didn't call for nutritional yeast. I'm ashamed to admit that, despite knowing how good it is for you, I really just hate it. Anyway....this lasagna was awesome! It came together very quickly with the help of the food processor and, due to the tofu, has lots of protein. If you make it, definitely use the fresh basil it calls for rather than trying to substitute dried. It makes the whole dish.