A Mission for a Long Weekend

Jesse and I drove up to New Jersey this weekend to visit family and friends. My Mom and I hosted a Pampered Chef party on Saturday. It was so much fun! It started at 3 pm and the last of my friends ended up leaving around 11. I am excited about all of the kitchen goodies I was able to order too.

On Sunday we ventured out to the bookstore to get a guide to San Francisco and the wine country areas of California. We are heading there for about five days in late May to play tourist and visit some friends. So far our wish list includes (need to do some editing!): winery tours and tastings, Tartine Bread, Gracias Madre, San Francisco Museum of Art, Chinatown, Girl and the Fig and Muir Woods. I'd love to add Milennium and/or Chez Panisse to that. If you have any suggestions of things to do, see or eat, please let me know.

On Sunday night, we decided to complete a mission. You see, for the past few months, Jesse and I have been obssessed with the Food Network show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Unfortunately, we can't eat about 85% of their picks since they contain meat, but we still make a note of the dishes they mention and their locations for anything that we can eat. A few weeks ago, the coconut cream pie from Ritz Seafood in Voorhees, New Jersey was raved about. Jesse asked if we could go the next time we were visiting my family, since they live about an hour away from Voorhees.

So we went. Here were are waiting for our delicious desserts. Jesse looks less than thrilled in this picture, but I assure you he was excited.


It turns out that the peanut butter banana cream pie was also featured on The Food Network. Since I don't care for coconut, I decided that this would be the dessert I would try. After all, it's famous! And for good reason. The peanut butter was baked into the crust and the whole thing was just spectacular. Even Jesse admitted that my dessert was the best. Don't worry--I shared mine. And it's back to green smoothies and healthy eats as of this morning.

And lastly, the reason we made this trek: the famous coconut cream pie. It was topped with toasted coconut and white chocolate shavings. Jesse loved it and said it was every bit as good as the show said.

If you go, you should know that it is located in a strip mall, you have to bring your own alcohol, the decor is a little "eh" and the tables are close together. However, the seafood is delicious, the servers know the food inside and out, and the desserts are amazing. You need to make a reservation (even for a Sunday night). It's totally worth it for the great eats.

Vegan Kickstart: Day 3

Turtle Mountain Foods, thank you for being awesome! Last night I got the So Delicious Coconut Milk Minis. So delicious indeed. They are a smaller cousin to a dairy-free Dove bar. They are super rich from the coconut milk but since they are half the size of a regular one, they come with only half the guilt! I liked that the chocolate was pretty thick and the ice cream itself had a slight coconut taste. An added bonus is that their products have both coconut milk and soy milk varieties, so you can mix it up if you aren't crazy about getting a lot of soy in your diet. I also spied mini ice cream sandwiches at the store that I think I need to try next.

My absolute favorite ice cream is their Purely Decadent Mint Chocolate Chip. If you are craving ice cream or chocolate, I highly recommend you check it out!

Have you tried any Turtle Mountain products? If so, what did you think?

Busy Bee!

Last night I was the most productive I think I have ever been in my entire life! I left work and went straight to Whole Foods for groceries. I was in dire need of produce and anything other than pasta or couscous. When I got home, I saw that the new bag I ordered from Matt & Nat was here! Yay! Isn't she a beauty? I personally think this is the perfect birthday present.





Then I made two different recipes. The first was the Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies from Veganomicon (on page 234). They were super easy and pretty delicious, if I do say so myself. I am betting that some amazing Turtle Mountain So Delicious Purely Decadent dairy free or coconut milk ice cream, which has been my favorite dessert by itself since I had my gall bladder out, in between two of these bad boys would be the ultimate dessert.





The second recipe was a veggie burger recipe (with not a lot of emphasis on the burger aspect--they are much more like patties of yummy-ness). There is a cafe near my Mom's house in New Jersey that makes these sweet potato black bean burgers and I was on a hunt to find a way to replicate them. Then I stumbled upon this recipe from Cupcake Punk:

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burger

2 tablespoons oil
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, grated finely
2 cups black beans, cooked
2 baked sweet potatoes, scooped out of skin
2 cups red quinoa, cooked
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon adobo sauce

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and lower heat. Cook until lightly browned, several minutes. Add carrots and beans and cook an additional 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat. Mash slightly in pan, until beans are half crushed.

Place skillet mixture in large bowl with remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. If mixture is too moist, add more breadcrumbs. Form into 15-20 patties. Cook what you need on a George Forman Grill, in a skillet with a little oil, or in the oven at 350 degrees. Wrap the rest in saran wrap and freeze until needed!

So with a whole lot of mess and a whole lot of dirty pans, I now have dinner for the next 20 nights or so! I haven't tried them yet but the whole house smelled delicious when I was making them. I didn't take a picture for you all because they aren't the prettiest things out there but just look at that ingredient list! They are bound to be good!

After that I cleaned my whole apartment in anticipation of Jesse's arrival today and did some reading for my last grad class. If only I could be this productive every night.....

Have a great weekend!

Delicious dishes.

Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

From The Joy of Vegan Baking

Ingredients

1/2 c firmly packed light brown sugar

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 c quick-cooking oats

1/2 c non-hydrogenated, nondairy butter, softened

3/4 c raspberry (or any other fruit) preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil one 8 or 9-inch square pan on all sides.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats.  Add the butter and, using your hands, create a crumbly mixture.  Press two-thirds of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.  

3. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge.  Sprinkle the remaining one-third of the crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.

4. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

{Photo credit: tofutti break, who used the same recipe}