hot for food

I eat fake meat… so! Look I’m really not one for imitation vegetarian/vegan food. I also think its deceiving and mega disappointing when a food item is called something it really isn’t. Even worse when vegan/vegetarian meat substitutes or imitations taste like paper, cardboard, rubber or some other man made material that doesn’t resemble food. I don’t eat meat and sometimes, as much as I DO NOT want to eat meat, well I kinda want to eat meat. Make sense?! But I won’t and luckily Gardein has come out with a line of perfect replacements for those moments of weakness. The products are all non-GMO and organic.  They taste amazing. And they are starting to pop up at grocery stores everywhere. Just recently we received the expanded line of products in Canada that had previously only been available south of the border. Honestly, Gardein makes it easy to become vegetarian without compromising taste, satisfaction, and health. I mean, just like meat, I wouldn’t live on this stuff. It’s still a processed food, but nothing is slit in the throat or submersed in feces to get it to your plate. Just saying. Check out these deceiving vegan meals I made using Gardein, and another incredible product, Daiya.

Beef & Veg Stir Fry
Ingredients: Gardein Homestyle Beefless Tips, various veggies, stir-fried in sesame oil, ginger, garlic, hot sauce and tahini, on a bed of soba noodles.

Meat & Cheese Pizza
Ingredients: Gardein BBQ Pulled Shreds, Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds, gluten free pizza dough, tomato puree, yellow bell pepper, green onion

Chicken Finger Dinner
Ingredients: Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers, homemade maple mustard dip, broccoli, smashed sweet potatoes with nutmeg and basil.

Tell me your mouth is watering?! Even my carnivorous man friend I occasionally feed was all over that Beef & Veg Stir Fry and he can hardly tell the difference between Daiya and real cheese. So go ahead and fake it, even for just 1 day a week. Besides these products have far far far less saturated fat then the real thing. Meat and cheese might just be the death of you… but not me.

There are so many vegan and vegetarian friendly restaurants opening up all the time, and I’ve noticed more options being added to menus at restaurants that still serve your typical fare. Which is huge. But finally Veggielicious is here! This is the first community restaurant event of its kind and it’s hitting Toronto from April 9 – 24. The cities best vegan/vegetarian restaurants will be offering special deals on meals to encourage people to get out and try eating great food that is free of animal products, heart healthy, compassionate, and eco-friendly.

So if you think you could never eat vegetarian or vegan food – even for just one week – now’s your time to challenge yourself. Trust me, rather than go out and spend lots of money on groceries you might not be familiar with or start experimenting with cooking vegetarian/vegan, just get outside and try one of the Veggielicious restaurant offers and see just how delicious and satisfying this way of eating can be.

If you enjoy the menu items at places like Rawlicious, Live Organic Food Bar, and Vegetarian Haven maybe that will make a change in your mind and jumpstart some motivation to experiment with plant based meals at home. I’ve linked the restaurants listed above to my Yelp reviews for you to check out. While I eat at some of these places regularly, I’m so excited to venture outside my neighborhood and try some new places. Veggielicious is great excuse to do so! Most of the participating restaurants are in Toronto but I love the inclusion of Kind Food in Burlington and Brooklyn’s Restaurant in Thorold. I’ve heard amazing things about both and I plan on making a trip out there during this event.

If you go out to a yummy resto during Veggielicious please share your reviews with me or post to yelp.ca so we can spread the word and change the world, one eater at a time! For a full listing of participating restaurants and other info check out Veggielicious.ca

I bet you had NO idea you could make a vegan quiche. It’s not just my imagination. I know, I know, a quiche is a savory baked egg tart. BUT I figured out a way to mimic the taste and texture without the use of dairy or eggs! I sort of remixed a couple of recipes I’ve seen, and improv’d a little. So as per usual I didn’t follow a recipe and what I’ve listed below might not be EXACT, but its all about mixing and then tasting. Maybe you want it tangier, saltier, spicier etc. So PLEASE do with this what you want and create your own personal vegan quiche!

Vegan Mushroom Leek Quiche

Dough:
1 cup pastry flour OR all-purpose flour
3-4 tbsp Earth Balance
2-3 tbsp cold water
pinch of sea salt

This is a very simple tart/pie crust. I eyeballed the whole thing and only had 1 cup of flour in my cupboard. This made 5 tarts in a muffin pan. So if you’re making a dozen you should double this recipe. Using a pastry blender or your fingers cut the cold Earth Balance into the flour so it becomes crumbly but don’t over mixed. Then add the water a bit a time and mix with your hands or the pastry blender until you’ve got a ball of dough. The texture is pliable but not really wet or dry. Roll out on a floured surface and cut rough circles out approx. 3-4 inches wide. Just using your hands form and press the round of dough into lightly oiled muffin pan cups. Make a couple of stabs with a fork into the bottom of the crusts. I DIDN’T bake my crust in advance, but I should have. Bake these at 350 F for approx. 10-15 minutes until they are very lightly browned. Allow to cool before pouring in the filling.

Filling:
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 leek
1 cup mushrooms
8 oz silken tofu
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp tamari or shoyu
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
fresh ground pepper

Put all the ingredients, except the leek, mushroom, and onion in a blender or food processor and mix until well blended. Again some of these ingredients can be eliminated or replaced with other herbs and spices depending on your tastes. I made this all by eye balling and tasting as I went along until I got the right taste I wanted. However, the cornstarch should not be altered, only increased if you make more of this recipe.

Chop the onion, mushroom and leek into fairly small pieces. Saute everything until cooked through. Add the vegetables to the quiche mixture and fill each tart crust just before the top edge. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until the filling is browned on top and bubbling.

I am still in awe of the versatility that tofu has. I encourage you not to shy away from incorporating it into your diet even if you’re not vegan or vegetarian. Yes, some people are allergic to soy. But the reason that happens is because people are eating a lot of packaged food and therefore eating a lot of processed genetically modified soy. You had no idea did you! Whole organic soy (Wildwood is a great brand) is good for you and the possibilities and uses for it are limitless.

Tonight was one of the best! I went to the soft opening of Hot Beans in Kensington (160 Baldwin St.). It’s a new vegan takeout restaurant specializing in latin-inspired fare and it is SCRUMPTIOUS! It’s owned by long time friends and foodies Scott McCannell, Ross Corder, and Madeleine Foote. A special shout out to Ross (veganeastblog.com) for inviting the boy and I because I’ve been anticipating this food for over a month ever since I heard it was happening.

First of all, there is NO place like this in the city, and its about freakin time! The menu is the perfect size and not overwhelming, the location is hot, and the food is fresh and all handmade (including the seitan).

I want to try everything – and I will – but tonight I tried the TVP “Beef” Burrito as well as a Yuba “Chicken” Taco and Jackfruit “Pulled Pork” Taco with the most delicious homemade coleslaw I’ve ever had on the side. This was all shared, BTW. I had been dreaming of cashew sour cream for days leading up to this too, because I knew it would be like the one they serve at Live (where the chef’s worked prior), and my dreams were fulfilled tonight! Excellent.

The strips of bean curd used in the “chicken” taco and the jackfruit “pulled pork” tasted amazing and both something I’ve never seen done before. The “Beef” Burrito was the best vegan “beef” I’ve ever had and I’m not the biggest fan of “mock meat” or TVP (textured vegetable protein) for that matter. But Hot Beans preps and cooks it right. The burrito is massive, stuffed with garlic-annatto rice, refried black beans, pico de gallo, cashew sour cream, and a fresh cilantro-jalapeno salsa. YUMMO!

If you can believe I had more room, I also had a chocolate cinnamon donut. I know… vegan donuts!! YES. The selection may vary from day to day, but also look for a cafe con leche and coconut-lime variety. You will die! Hmm the only thing I didn’t eat and should’ve were the hot beans! Next time.

It was great to see so many friends out to support Hot Beans and I can tell it’s going to be a huge hit. But you need to go and see for yourself! The official opening is Friday Feb 25, 2011. They’ll be open at noon that day and until 2 am every Friday and Saturday. I’ll see ya there!

(NOTE: photos of food were provided by Hot Beans, all others were taken by the author)

On a daily basis I am faced with all kinds of comments about how “radical” my diet/lifestyle choice seems. It really isn’t, at least I don’t see it that way. So look… if Oprah can influence 378 or so members of her staff to go completely vegan for a week (including herself), I’m pretty sure you can too. I’m just happy momma O has devoted an entire episode to talking about veganism. To me, this is monumental. If Oprah is talking about veganism to ALL of America it therefore can’t be that “crazy”.  Here’s a chunk of the show that aired Feb 1, 2011.

So it’s been just about a month of my new updated version of my diet. I haven’t had any white bread! But I do know some other refined sugar has snuck in, in small small amounts. I had some vegan chocolate chips that I was NOT about to throw out! (I’ll post those baked goods another day) No alcohol and no coffee. Not NO caffeine, I’ve had maybe 3 black types of tea. But that’s a HUGE step. I feel better. But I’m still working on it. I still haven’t kicked the movie popcorn!!

I made a Barley Risotto recently that was really good. I actually prefer it to using Arborio Rice which is a white starch. Barley is a whole grain and good for the immune system. I just cooked it slowly, the same way as a risotto, and added hot water and stock in small amounts stirring constantly until absorbed and the barley looked creamy. I added sauteed mushrooms and peas to the mix as well, AND lots of black pepper. Delicioso!

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.

A whole lot of non-food related stuff has been going on lately and I haven’t been able to blog for a while. Mainly, I started a full time job. Which is wonderful, but it means I’ve had to cut back on my leisurely cooking time. I’m all go-go-go now. At least until I adjust to this new lifestyle and figure out a balance. The whole reason I started this blog was mainly out of boredom. I was a freelancer for a couple of years. I did things on my own terms, when I wanted. And I somehow found a joyous outlet in cooking, taking photos of what I cooked and then blabbing about it to you, in my vast amounts of spare time. There was a time when I was making something inventive 3 times a day! However, everything I’ve eaten in the past 3-ish weeks has mainly been done in haste. However, this post is to show you how one vegan can still be healthy in hurry.

Luckily purchasing a Vitamix blender with my new found income has made it awesomely easy to get my fruit and veg intake in a jiffy. I’ve heard this machine is life changing, and now I know. It’s really quite incredible that it can whiz up a whole apple, 2 carrots, a 1/2 cup of berries, spinach, fresh ginger, and a shot of pure pom juice in the time it takes to sneeze. Or how about a sweet re-hydrating protein smoothie with raw almonds, rice milk, dates, banana, and coconut water.

I can also whiz up raw pesto cream in the Vitamix and store it in the fridge for the week to use as  a veggie dip, or as a tangy base for a pita pizza. I am slightly addicted to this at the moment. As a vegan I’ve missed pizza, but this is a million times better than anything I ate in my past life with cheese. The pesto is super easy: 1 cup raw sunflower seeds and almonds combined, 1/2 cup olive or sunflower oil, 2 cloves garlic, juice of one lemon, lots of basil, sea salt. I add water to make more and make it smoother, but you can also get a really dark green, chunkier pesto dip without water and run it through a food processor.

My comforting go-to is always brown rice pasta.  This is a Spicy Kung Pao Tofu dish I whipped up by just stir frying veggies and tofu and tossing with the noodles in a sauce of natural peanut butter, chilli garlic sauce, hoisin sauce, lime juice, brown rice vinegar, sunflower oil, and freshly grated ginger.

And I always have a pile of brown rice made up in the fridge so I can make stir fry and pair it with other things. If you bake up these acorn squash – I lightly coated in melted Earth Balance and a bit of maple syrup at 400 F – in advance you can stuff them with all kinds of things. In this case, it’s a simple and quick rice dish I did in a cast iron pan and just added cranberries, corn, walnuts, red pepper, and kale. I added some tahini for creaminess and a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg which gave it the perfect flavor to go with the squash.  I made this up on the spot and it’s a keeper! Also the seeds of the acorn squash were SO delish lightly seasoned and baked. I was going to put them in with the rice mixture, which would have been tasty, but I ate them all before everything was complete!

So if you want to keep eating right in more hectic times, it just takes a little bit of pre-planning and time to make sauces, grains etc.  in advance. If there’s good stuff in front of you when you open the fridge, you’ll be less compelled to resort to packaged foods. And seriously, looking at these pictures don’t you want to put in that extra effort

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.

I am late posting this. I had to “get over” not making it past round 3 of Project Food Blog 2010. So I ate a whole caramel apple tart (which was supposed to be my entry for Challenge #4: Picture Perfect). All better!

This is a delicious vegan caramel apple tart. It was perfect for thanksgiving weekend, but definitely a staple for the fall season. Make this after you go apple picking.

For the Crust you’ll need:
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup whole pecans
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
Pinch of sea salt
3 tbsp Earth Balance
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Blend the almonds and pecans into a course meal in a food processor. Then add the remaining ingredients. I still found I had to mush the mixture together with my hands before pressing into the fluted pie pan. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes and allow to cool.

For the Filling:
3-4 Cortland apples
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp vegan brown sugar
1 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
Peel and thinly slice the apples and coat in lemon juice. Toss with the remaining ingredients and place the filling in the pre-baked tart crust.

For the Crumble:
1 cup oats
1/4 cup vegan brown sugar
1/4 cup un-bleached all-purpose flour
pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon
6 tbsp Earth Balance
Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend together with your hands until it resembles “crumbs”. Pour over top of the filling in the tart crust and make sure the topping is even all over. Bake the tart at 375 F for 30-40 minutes.

For the Caramel:
1 cup vegan brown sugar
3 tbsp Earth Balance
1/4 cup milk alternative (rice, soy, almond)
1/4 tsp sea salt
Over med-high heat melt the sugar, Earth Balance, and sea salt until it starts to bubble. Stir constantly for 5-8 minutes. Remove the sauce pan from the burner and stir in the milk alternative. Let is rest a few minutes to thicken. Drizzle over the cooled tart and serve.

Ok, so I didn’t actually eat the ENTIRE tart to myself. But I could of. Imagine?

I shared it with friends, of course. And I do want to say THANK YOU to all my friends and hot for food blog followers for voting and supporting the blog/me during Project Food Blog 2010. It was totally fun and I liked having a new and different motivation for blogging. It definitely got me photographing more too, which is good. Good luck to the remaining bloggers in the contest. It’s pretty crazy that it started with over 1800 contestants and now there is less than 100!

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!