hot for food

I am so happy and proud to announce that hot for food blog will now be featured on Dream.Love.Cure. This new site is a part of Skate4Cancer and its initiatives to educate and engage youth in cancer prevention and awareness. I will be a contributing as a guest blogger to the Cure in You Are What You Eat. I live by that statement so I’m thrilled to be able to remind people of this message and the tireless work of this organization from here on out.

Skate4Cancer and its founder Rob Dyer believe in knowledge. The cure for cancer is knowledge and knowing how to live a healthier lifestyle is a huge part of that. My main reason behind becoming vegan is illness (and cancer) prevention and I made that choice to better my life and well being. But there are many ways you can do this for yourself – not necessarily becoming vegan. You Are What You Eat is one part of the Dream.Love.Cure mission that outlines many other preventative measures to keep you informed and help you make the right decisions. Please go take a thorough look and connect with Skate4Cancer and spread the message via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, myspace or your very own blog.

This is what my boyfriend has decided to call MY year. As of Dec 31, 2010 I decided to give up refined sugar, caffeine, and alcohol and get serious about my vegan ways. I don’t believe it’s the year of no fun or anything that tastes good, but that’s the kind of reaction I get from my friends and family when I tell them my new goals. This isn’t a DIET. As I’ve always mentioned about my decision to go vegan, it’s not about weight. It’s purely about feeling good inside and that’s always been a constant struggle for me. I went vegan Jan 1, 2010 and I’ve noticed major changes in my mood and over all well being. How I feel after I eat has come a long way. But I felt there was still more tweaking that could be done.

I got this new motivation from reading The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone right after the holidays. This book is not new, but I’ve been meaning to read it for a while. I finally got around to it – I received it as a gift (THANK YOU!). My decision to transition into veganism came from reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma and watching Food Inc. And one year later, I felt no matter what I decided to read/watch I needed to reaffirm why I was doing what I was doing, when it came to food. Alicia’s book is great for anyone who is even just in the thinking stages of becoming vegan/vegetarian. And likewise, it is also good for someone who is already a vegan looking to go that extra step. She takes things to what she dubs the “Superhero” level. It’s based on a macrobiotic lifestyle/diet. Whole grains, vegetables, legumes, beans, miso, sea vegetables, and no refined foods 95% of the time. I actually learned about a wealth of ingredients that were never on my radar before. But after a few days of trying to be VERY strict with it, I almost gagged myself. For the most part, sea vegetables are not my thing. I can tolerate nori every now and then, but other than that I kind of freaked. Not to mention I found a snail on a leaf of seaweed after re-hydrating it. It suggests having miso soup in the mornings to cleanse your system and set your body up right first thing in the morning. And that I can do – not everyday – but it has replaced that warm comforting feeling I was getting from coffee. Ya coffee. I can tell you right now, I have the same if not more energy than I did when I was drinking 1 cup of coffee a day. Plus my gut is not rotting. I didn’t realize how it made me feel until I eliminated it. So it’s all ginger tea and twig tea over here now. The pain – withdrawal and headaches – only lasted a week. Can you believe it? Just from having 1 cup a day!

I spent my new years eve at a beautiful indian wedding with a bunch of friends and didn’t have one drop of alcohol, and I had the best time ever. I danced all night long!  Normally I wouldn’t step foot on the floor without a buzz going on, but I embraced my choice to not drink and it was fine. I’m not saying I’ll never have a drink again, but I need to see what it’s like not to do it. Plus I’m not one of those troopers who can deal with a hangover on a Saturday morning. I am MOST unproductive.

In less than a month I have started to reinvent my life and learn more about balance. Being vegan is constantly about balance, and trying to keep things balanced. Sometimes I go way off track and get lazy – especially with getting my new job last November. But I find with my new “rules” I am able to stay on track a lot better. I’m not adopting the macrobiotic/Superhero lifestyle 100% because I feel that it too is not balanced. There’s almost no fruit, and it’s missing great foods like nuts, avocado, raw cacao and other elements from a raw food diet. I am still figuring out what works best for me. But one thing is for sure, eating white flour, white rice, refined sugar, and other packaged foods with chemicals and additives makes me aggravated and tired. I REALLY feel it, even with the smallest amount. And a small amount is all I would ever have, once and a while. Now I have to be ultra strict and deny myself of things like movie popcorn, bottled sauces with sugar, and processed vegan foods like daiya cheese. If I can pass on ONE major thing I learned from The Kind Diet. It’s that “evaporated cane juice” is exactly like white refined sugar. It’s an ingredient us vegans see in every packaged/processed convenient vegan product and it was making me sick. I didn’t realize it. So buyer beware! Do you get a lot of headaches? Me too… and that ingredient was one major factor.

I just have to remember that my body knows best, and every day is a new day. Starting this vegan journey is the best decision I’ve ever made. I would love to hear your experiences and trials on a vegan diet. If you have any other tips for me they would be most appreciated.

What are you going to be for Halloween? I don’t know that I’m going out, but if I WERE I would definitely go as my hero of 2010, Antoine Dobson. I have a feeling there will be a lot of Antoine’s out this year.

Anyway, I made chocolate pumpkin brownies for a pot luck dinner last week. And I just NOW realized they make the perfect Halloween treat! They are yummy yummy and not overly sweet since they  use pure pumpkin puree, raw cacao powder, and unrefined sugars. The recipe was passed along to me by a friend, but it’s from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Of course they don’t quite look like the ones from VCTOTW, because whenever I follow a recipe it’s never the same as the picture I’m  following. The only difference is I used raw cacao powder instead of dutch process cocoa, and cornstarch instead of tapioca flour. Don’t get me wrong, they were still deliciously chocolatey and pumpkiney!

Also this will be the first Halloween where I don’t eat commercial halloween candy, since going vegan in 2010. And I’m ok with it. I have lost my desire for candy, it’s weird.

YAAH! Let’s celebrate the fact that a vegan food blog has made it this far in Project Food Blog 2010. Could a vegan win this entire competition? That would be pretty epic. You be the judge after feasting your eyes on this luxurious vegan dinner party menu.

Serving a vegan menu to non-vegans is easier than you might think. Not that this was an EASY challenge! But I get to work with ingredients I know very well, while my guests are impressed by the creativity, tastes, and textures of food that they rarely, if ever, eat or cook with themselves. These are everyday staples in my vegan diet but they appear exotic and experimental to the regular diner. Things like kale, miso, cashews, dates, fennel, nut flours, pomegranates, and quinoa make this menu luxurious and eliminate the panic attack I would otherwise have about wowing my friends! There’s nothing typically vegan or vegetarian about this menu and that was the one thing I wanted to avoid… tofu. It’s an easy “go to” and everyone I know thinks that’s all vegans can eat!

The key to creating a dinner party menu is to make it as easy as possible on YOU the day of the party. Plan it so that the dishes can have components prepared in advance… not a few hours before your guests arrive. You need time to look fabulous! The worst would be to have your guests arrive and there you are, hair a mess, standing frazzled in your apron in the kitchen trying to pull this all together. I was able to make the quinoa stuffing, miso gravy, cheesecakes, the dip and crostini’s, the drink, and the crisp kale for the salad all on the day prior. The rest of the warm apple fennel salad only took about 20 minutes to prepare before the dinner.

I should point out this was sort of a lunch/dinner party. I work nights and it’s impossible for me to get together with anyone after 6 pm. So this was a mid afternoon sort of thing. Kind of like how seniors eat dinner at 4pm! A food blogger can only take luxurious food photos in day light (in case you were wondering) so this worked out perfectly. Otherwise they wouldn’t look this great!

To add “luxury” to my vegan menu I concocted an aperitif (which I’ve never put much thought into before) because it seems like a rather posh thing to serve your guests. The Crushed Pomegranate Punch is made with REAL pom and cran juices, giving you a healthy dose of antioxidants. It’s sweetened slightly with agave nectar, flavored with lime and mint, and garnished with pomegranate seeds. You could serve this alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Either way it’s the perfect way to rev up your palette before eating!

Most of the dishes are from recipes I’ve been storing away on the computer to make when the time was right! I have to give credit where credit is due for these inspiring dishes. The Maple Date Cannellini Dip is from Healthy Food for Living, the Warm Apple Fennel Salad is courtesy of (never)homemaker, and the cheesecake was discovered (and adapted) via Foodbuzz.com on Tasty Eats At Home. These are dishes I’ve never made before, which some would say is a big no no when preparing for a dinner party, but I have worked with all these ingredients and methods before so I felt confident pulling it off. More importantly, I did!

If there’s one thing that will pull you away from your guests and good conversation, it’s having to plate and serve each course. No thanks! So I had the appetizer on the table to be self served, and served the salad and main on the same plate. It’s much more comforting to have a selection of foods on the plate, anyway, and this way your guests can have what they want and no one gets distracted during the meal.

The final course, dessert, was probably the most rewarding part of the meal for me and my guests. You know how everyone feels guilty eating dessert and they rrrreally want to eat a big piece or have seconds, but they don’t want to look like a pig. Well, I realized what an impact my cooking can have on people because my friend Jeffrey was going to be modest and eat half a cheesecake, but when he clued in that it wasn’t cheese and it contained healthy nuts, unrefined sugars, and “good” fats he went for the whole thing. No flavor was compromised in the least and they loved it! In fact, I don’t think my friends would even eat REAL cheesecake, but they had no problem devouring the vegan alternative.

Because the dishes are vegan I had to get creative so that they still felt familiar to people who aren’t used to eating a plant based diet.  I wanted comforting foods and textures that smell and taste the same as non vegan dishes. I wanted the meal to feel whole and each dish to compliment the other. My friends Rayanne, Ryan, and Jeffrey (all omnivores) said if I didn’t mention to them that this was a vegan menu, they wouldn’t have known the difference! They said they felt good and satisfied after eating… and the word “inspired” was even tossed around! That was the goal and I did it. Whether I make it through round 3 or not, I won. Not to sound TOO profound or anything, but Veganism won. I’m not out to change the world, but if I can impact people’s eating habits and prove that there is no sacrifice when it comes to eating this way, then that’s all I want. Well, and $10,000 would still be nice too!

I made my first vegan burger this weekend. I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately…eating the SAME things over and over again and not really wanting to cook. But cooking for friends is always the best way to get your imagination going again. I made dinner for my friend Dee last night. She’s g-free and I’m vegan, so I have to get savvy if I’m going to cook for the two of us! I’m not saying veggie burgers are the most inventive things to make, but they are versatile and you can essentially put whatever you want in them. These are lentil walnut patties. They turned out amazing… probably because I didn’t follow a recipe! You’ll notice the burger is actually used as the “bun” allowing for a plethora of filling ideas. I stole this GENIUS idea from 101cookbooks.com. Man, I so wish I thought of this myself. I mean I could of. Isn’t it great!

I’ll tell you what’s in these burgers, but I do not know the amounts. Geez, how would I ever make a recipe book? I need an archivist or a scientist or something to keep track of me while I cook.

Ingredients for the burger patty/bun:
Green lentils, toasted walnuts, carrots, green onion, nutritional yeast, cilantro, parsley, cumin, paprika.

I cooked the lentils in veggie broth, boiled and drained the carrots, toasted the walnuts, and whizzed everything together in a food processor. I ended up with the exact consistency I needed. Not too soft and mushy and not too dry and hard. I made the patties into a thick enough size, thinking I would pan fry them and then slice them in half to use them as the bun. But after a trial run of that, I decided it was better to slice the patty in half first then pan fry either side. You could also just make thinner patties first. You can make the patties in advance and refrigerate them until you’re ready to cook and assemble them. So the possibilities of what to put inside these babies are endless! I did homemade cashew pesto cream, caramelized onion, a tomato slice, avocado, and baby spinach.

After devouring 2 mini burgers each and a pile of yam fries, Dee treated me to a piano serenade of Take Five by Dave Brubeck. Best ever! And we ate ourselves into chocolate chip peanut butter cookie comas.

I attempted to make crepes for the first time in my life. What a crappy experience. Well crappy is a little harsh, but I definitely don’t have a natural talent for making crepes. I actually made 2 whole crepes out of an attempt at probably close to 15 or 16 times. These are the only 2, yet beautiful and tasty results.

Vegan Asparagus Mushroom Brown Rice Crepe with Hollandaise

Vegan PB & Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat Crepe with Maple Syrup

The recipes for the crepe batter, asparagus, and vegan hollandaise sauce are from VeganYumYum. I made some modifications, trying brown rice flour and buckwheat flour for the crepe batter. Which also make these g-free as well as vegan! These 2 lonely crepes worked out perfectly and tasted amazing. You can’t even imagine how incredibly close the vegan hollandaise sauce is to the real thing; at least from what I can remember of eating eggs benedict! The buckwheat flour crepe is quite a full bodied flavor – perhaps too nutty for some. You could use only half buckwheat flour with another type. But I thought the flavor of buckwheat was great, especially paired with peanut butter, apples, cinnamon and maple syrup.

The whole crepe creation problem is a combo of having an old non-stick pan, burners that are very sensitive and difficult to regulate temperature on, and the fact that I’ve never done it before. While I even followed the very helpful video tutorial Lolo posted, I think that I kept fiddling with the pan temperature too much. Ultimately, this recipe requires patience… hmph. I’m just glad I didn’t attempt it with a room full of starving brunchers!

hot for food has recently become a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher. Being recognized by this foodie community is very exciting! You may remember when my Carrot Cake Muffins were featured on Foodbuzz.com’s Top 9 back in March. Well, it’s time I try and get myself back in the Top 9 again!

In trying to raise awareness and money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Foodbuzz is going to donate $50 for every banana split post by a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher. Then this Monday July 19 the Top 9 on Foodbuzz.com will be a Top 9 Takeover  featuring the best photos of scrumptious banana split sundaes! Tasty treats for a good cause are A-OK with me. You can find out more about the cause and how you can get involved too by clicking here.

This is my original Vegan Banana Split…

I’d like to think this is a “healthier” version of a very indulgent treat! Sure, of course it is. The “ice cream” is So Delcicious Coconut Milk non-dairy Vanilla Bean and Chocolate frozen dessert. I made my own non-dairy chocolate fudge, and even attempted to make soy-free whipped cream from Ricki Heller’s recipe. It didn’t quite work out, in that the whipped cream ended up too runny and didn’t stiffen like it should have, but it tastes great!  The banana split is sprinkled with vegan chocolate chips, vegan colored confetti sprinkles and shredded unsweetened coconut. Looks pretty sweet to me!

I’ve never made or eaten a banana split in my life, so this was a fun challenge. Even now, I’ve only had 3 bites. I think that’s enough for me!

Ever since I’ve turned vegan you know I’ve been trying to experiment with versions of mac & cheese. I tried one recipe from VeganYumYum and another from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. One was tofu based and the other blended from raw cashews. They were pretty good… at the time. But now I’ve perfected the recipe and I feel this tastes much better. It’s milder in flavor and quicker to make… which is the whole point of mac & cheese, isn’t it? I feel as though this is a perfect vegan mimic of my fave mac & cheese (made from real cheese) that I USED to eat at The Drake. If you’re not vegan, you must try their dish! If you are vegan, you must try my Easy Pea-sy Mac & Cheeze.

Ingredients:
1 package Rotini noodles
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp each of lemon juice, olive oil, white miso, nutritional yeast, tamari
finely chopped cilantro
1 clove of garlic, minced
black pepper

In a dish mix together the ingredients for the sauce including tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, white miso, nutritional yeast, tamari, cilantro and garlic. Rinse peas under water to defrost. Once pasta is cooked and drained, add in your peas and half the sauce. Mix to coat noodles. You can add more sauce as you like, but you’ll probably find you have extra.

I prefer the texture of rotini noodles (and of course I used brown rice pasta) because macaroni tends to feel worm-ish and slimy. The measurements I outlined make more than enough for 4 servings of pasta. If you want to make more you can just double the recipe. I had left over sauce and I find it also makes a great dip for crackers or veggies!

Ice Cream equals summer, if you ask me. I used to eat ice cream… lots of it… all summer. Problem is, I wanted to die every time. That’s not a fun summer. You know, having to pre-plan my entire ice cream excursion (making sure I could get to a err uhh… bathroom). How ridiculous is that?! Now that I’m a changed woman, I no longer have to worry about such silliness. Though I still can’t have that spontaneous ice cream on a nice summer stroll, I can deal. I just go home and fulfill my cravings with my trusty food processor. No freezing required!

You know I’ve raved about frozen banana ice cream before, but I recently saw a new creation on (never home) maker. Great blog, by the way! If you want to be way jealous of someone’s house, go check out the pics of Ashley and Steven’s, here. Anyway, recently they posted a recipe for a variation of this frozen treat. Check it out…. peanut butter chocolate banana vegan ice cream… awesome!

I used natural peanut butter, so I added a bit of sea salt as well. I bet if you used the “not so good for you” PB it would be a bit tastier, or sweeter. Maybe even add a drizzle of maple syrup. I’m going to try some other versions of this too. Jennifer of sweetonveg pointed me in the direction of this Banana Caramel Pecan version just the other day. That’s next on my list of to eat’s!

Of course, I can always go for a bowl of my favorite Fruity Summer Sorbet. Probably the easiest, healthiest treat one could eat while still feeling indulgent! This is just frozen raspberries, mango and 1/4 of a banana with a drizzle of lemon juice. No added sugar! It’s SO friggin good.

I just want to point out that you don’t have to do this in a food processor. A blender works too, but it might take a bit more fiddling with a spatula to get everything well blended.

Last Sunday I went to S.C.E.N.E in St.Catherines. Fun… yes! Food…no! Tell me St. Catherines, why would you hold a music festival throughout your downtown and keep all the businesses closed?! This is a tourism no, no… isn’t it? With only a Tim Horton’s and a Pita Pit in sight, what’s a vegan to do! I was not a happy scenester after eating a sandwich from said open vendor of lettuce and tomatoes, oh ya, and some yellow mustard… geez! Well here’s where the point of this blog entry comes in. I was elated to see The Niagara Vegan Baking Militia set up in the merch marketplace with a huge spread of yummy vegan treats!

That guy there is Dylan Powell of The Vegan Police. Thanks for saving the day! I love what these guys (and one gal) are doing and since I don’t live anywhere near the Niagara region I NEED to find something like this in Toronto… or perhaps I will have to start my own militia!!

Whoever made that vegan black & white cookie is a genius! And in case you’re wondering… I did not eat all those treats myself. They were shared with the peeps at the S4C tent.