May 10th, 2012
I started this blog back in October 2010, so it’s taken me awhile to get to 100 posts. There have definitely been periods where I’ve found it hard to blog regularly, whether due to being too busy or just a lack of motivation, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
I thought it would be fun to go back and take a look at some of my most popular posts along with some of my fav recipes.
Most popular posts
Three posts clearly show up as my most popular posts. And it really wasn’t much of a surprise!
Pizza rolls!
Cheeseburger Poutine!
and…
Butterfinger cake!
Travel posts
I guess I’ve actually done a fair bit of travelling since I started the blog. I’ve blogged about my vegan eats in: Toronto (here, here, and here!), Vancouver, Cuba, Montreal, Wellington, Auckland, and San Francisco (part 1 and part 2). Here are some highlights.
Quinoa battered onion rings from Fresh in Toronto
Fries Supremacy from Hogtown Vegan in Toronto
Chocolate midnight cake in Auckland
Vegan donuts in San Francisco
Ice cream from Holy Gelato in San Francisco
Vegan waffles at Aux Vivres in Montreal
My fav lunch recipes
Here are my go to healthy lunch recipes!
Chickpea taco salad
Balsamic chickpea kamut salad
Orange beet and almond salad
My fav recipes
These are some of my favorite recipes that I make all the time!
Red lentil sloppy joes
Coffee smoothie
Amazing banana oat muffins
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March 30th, 2012
Sorry for being a bad blogger! I did some work for the Green Party over the past few weeks so life was a little busier than normal.
We had a little taste of summer last week and it sort of felt like coming out of hibernation. All the snow melted, I put my winter boots away and broke out the flip flops. It was blissful (at long as I didn’t think about the looming devastating effects of climate change….). With the warm weather I was craving all things cool and creamy. I’m a big fan of banana ice cream and I sometimes like to play around with other fruits. Mango is one of my favorites as it always blends up nice and creamy. I’ve always loved the combination of mango and coconut so I put the two together for this incredibly yummy treat. I used reduced fat coconut milk since it was all I had on hand and it was still lusciously creamy. But I’m sure it would even better if you used the cream from the full fat milk.
Mango Coconut Ice Cream
2 cups frozen mango cubes
⅓ cup + 2 tbs chilled coconut milk (from can, can be full or reduced fat)
2 tsp maple syrup or agave (can be replaced by stevia)
Put your coconut milk in the fridge an hour or two before you want to make the ice cream. Add mango and sweetener to a food processor fitted with the s blade. Start the food processor and slowly pour in the coconut milk while it’s running. Start with the ⅓ cup and add more until it’s light and creamy but not at all liquidy. Enjoy! (I’m sure a squeeze of lime juice would also be yummy!)
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February 29th, 2012
I’m always trying to come up with healthy and filling lunches that I can prepare on the weekend to last all week. Dave and I have also been on a bit of a seitan kick, so last week we made Vegan Dad’s veggie lunch meat. The result was delicious. He mentioned in his original post that he found it a little dry and he suggested using a little less gluten and baking it for a bit less time. We took his advice and added about 2 tbs less gluten and baked it for 10 minutes less. Don’t be scared off by the long cooking time, it actually came together very quickly. The recipe made the perfect amount for 5 lunches for 2 people. We had it on a sandwich with sprouted grain bread, lettuce, onion, bell pepper, pickles and a bit of mashed avocado instead of mayo or butter. Yum!
On Friday we were both home for lunch so we cut the leftover slices of lunch meat into strips and sauteed them along with the bell pepper and onion. Extra yum!
Loaf of veggie lunch meat. I suppose it's not very yummy looking on its own!
Sandwich with veggie lunch meat
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December 26th, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone!
So I didn’t end up blogging as much as I hoped while I was travelling. It turns out that it was harder to blog on my Android tablet than I was anticipating and then my brand new tablet broke a few days before I came home (sigh). But I had a great time on my trip and ate loads of yummy vegan food! I’ve already posted about the vegan food in Vancouver and Wellington and posts on Auckland and San Francisco (!) are on their way!
I was only back in Ottawa for 6 days and was super busy trying to see friends and family before leaving for Halifax so I didn’t get any Christmas baking done. But I did make the pumpkin cheese cake from Vegan Pie in the Sky and I wanted to share a few notes about it. There is a discrepancy between the recipe in the book and the recipe online. One calls for 1 ¼ cup pumpkin and the other calls for 1 ¾ cup pumpkin. I decided to go with the 1 ¾ cup since I was using a 10 inch spring form pan. I also left out the orange zest and extract as a bunch of comments suggested and I was glad I did. Overall I was very impressed with it. But I did find I could really taste the banana a lot stronger than I was expecting. So next time I think I will just leave the banana out or replace it with more pumpkin.
OK, on to the latkes! I’m now in Halifax celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah with my parents. We’ve always celebrated both holidays and it’s our tradition to have friends over and fry up a ton of latkes. I’ve had a hard time finding a vegan latke recipe that replaces our family recipe. In my mind, it has to have matzo meal for it to be a real latke recipe. Most of the recipes out there seem just like hash browns. I’ve tried using a flax egg in my traditional recipe but it didn’t turn out so great. So last night I tried Isa’s recipe from the PPK. With a last name like Moskowitz I figured she knew what she was talking about and I liked the fact that the recipe called for 2 cups of matzo meal!
Overall, these were the best vegan latkes I’ve made. They were a nice cross between hash brown and pancake and they were super crisp and crunchy on the outside. Mine were actually too dry so I would suggest starting with 1 cup of matzo meal and adding more as needed.
Hope you are all enjoying the holidays!
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December 13th, 2011
After spending a week traveling through smaller towns in New Zealand and living off luncheon tofu sandwiches (more on that later), I was super excited to arrive in Wellington for some real food. I headed straight for Cuba St and instantly fell in love with its upscale hippy vibe. Full of nice second hand clothing stores, veg friendly restaurants and cafes and cute specialty shops you could easily spend the whole day there. All of the restaurants I went to are within a few blocks of each other on Cuba St.
I went to Aunty Mena’s for dinner the first night. It’s a completely vegetarian Malaysian restaurant which a lot of fake meat options. I had the dumplings to start and a pineapple fried rice dish with gluten pork for my main dish. The meal was delicious, fresh tasting and not at all too greasy.
The next day I went to Midnight Espresso for lunch and had a tofu sandwich and a soy mocha. Both were incredible! It was one of the yummiest lunches I’ve had in awhile. Then I went to a health food store a few blocks away on Cuba St and had a vegan ice cream mixed with frozen fruit. It was amazing! But sadly they said they wouldn’t be carrying the soy option for much longer because it was too expensive.
That night for dinner I ended up going back to Midnight Espresso . I had the vegan nachos which were piled high with beans, hummus, salsa, homemade vegan mayo and avocado slices. That may sound like a weird combo of toppings for nachos but it was delicious! But be warned – even the small was so large I could barely finish it! They also had a bunch of vegan desserts but I was too stuffed to try them.
There is another restaurant near by called Olive cafe that looked promising but the two days I was there they didn’t actually have anything vegan on the menu besides hummus and pita. But it may be worth checking out.
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December 5th, 2011
For some reason, my trip to Auckland included a 10 hour layover in Vancouver. I wasn’t complaining though because this meant going downtown to find some yummy vegan food and having lunch with a friend. As a bonus, it was nice to get in some walking before my 14 hour flight to Auckland.
I met my friend for lunch at Greens and Gourmet, a vegetarian pay by weight on Broadway. The inside was a lot larger than i was expecting but still felt warm and welcoming, like you could stay and chat long after you’re finished eating and no one would mind. There was a large selection of cold salads and hot dishes and a make your own salad bar. Most of the items were vegan and everything was clearly labeled. There were a lot of tofu and seitan dishes which is great because it can be hard to get a decent amount of protein when eating out. Everything I tried was great and the miso tofu and samosa were particularly yummy. I found the cost to be quite cheap – cheaper than the pay by weights that I’m used to in Ottawa. They also have a student discount.
After lunch I walked down to a vegan bakery a few blocks away called Edible Flour. They have an amazing selection including some gluten free options. Everything looked absolutely amazing – fancy cupcakes, cinnamon buns, cake donuts and cookie sandwiches. The cinnamon bun was probably the best I’ve had. My friend had the chocolate brownie cookie and said that it convinced her that vegan baking can be as good as its egg and dairy laden counter parts (she’s had a few vegan baking disasters). I also had a chocolate caramel cupcake to go which I ate later at the airport, to the envy of all those around me, and it was delicious.
And, because you can’t really go to Vancouver without getting sushi, I got some sushi takeout to bring back to the airport for dinner. I found this great Japanese place called Shizenya that uses a lot of organic ingredients and brown rice. I’m sure it’s way more expensive than most sushi places but I think it’s worth it for brown rice and rolls that are packed with veggies.
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November 26th, 2011
I left bright and early this morning for a trip to New Zealand. I know a lot of people (including me) struggle to eat healthy while travelling so I thought I would show you what food I’m bringing along.
I probably went a little bit overboard in the food department. For the first week of my trip I’m going to be travelling around to small towns and doing a lot of hiking so I wanted to have lots of ready-to-eat food handy. For the second week I’ll be at a conference in Auckland so I’m sure i wont have any problems finding good food there. But, i usually find getting enough protein with breakfast can be a challenge so I really wanted to bring enough protein powder to have some with breakfast each day.
So here is what I brought:
- Vega Shake and Go Smoothie in chocolate flavour
- 20 servings of Sun Warrior brown rice protein in chocolate flavour (I find this one is actually palatable when mixed with water)
- Dried mango and golden berried
- Almonds and pistachios
- Chia seeds
- Cliff, Builder, Luna and Lara bars (4 of each)
- Kale chips
- Raw chocolate banana bites (a modification of Gena’s recipe)
As I mentioned above, I plan to have a protein shake with breakfast each day. I’m going to make chia pudding with the chia seeds and Vega. I brought along an empty nut butter jar and a spork for mixing and serving the shakes and puddings.
I have a 10 hour layover in Vancouver today so check back later for some vegan food highlights from Vancouver!
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November 15th, 2011
I have a love / hate relationship with parsnips. OK, it’s really more of a hate relationship. I really want to like them because they’re one of the few veggies that I can get locally in the winter, but no matter how I cook them, I’m just not a fan. Not even the
legendary nut butter parsnip fries could make them palatable for me. So, needless to say, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to see that the
Sweet or Savory challenge ingredient for this month was parsnips. I was planning on throwing in the towel and sitting this one out. But then, I happened to be watching Chuck’s Day Off on the Food network and he made a risotto that just featured root vegetables, no rice. One of the vegetables was parsnips. It looked so intriguing that I though, OK, I’ll give parsnips one last chance. So here is a rice-free, root vegetable risotto and my entry for the
Sweet or Savory Challenge. I decided a use another local vegetable that I’m trying to love – Jerusalem artichokes, or sunchokes. I included some potatoes to balance out the stronger flavours of the other two. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this dish. I liked it a lot more than I though I would. It was also a lot quicker to make than I was expecting. However, I still would have liked it better if it was made with all potatoes!
Sunchokes, potatoes and parsnips
Diced up root veggies
Creamy root veggie risotto!
Root Vegetable Risotto (inspired from this recipe)
1 tbs olive oil
1 bunch leeks
2 medium parsnips
4 small potatoes
4 Jerusalem artichokes
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tbs Earth Balance vegan butter substitute
Finely dice the leeks and rinse them well. Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat and sautée the leeks until tender, approximately 5-7 minutes. While the leeks are cooking, dice the root vegetables into 1 cm pieces. Meanwhile, heat up the vegetable broth in a small pot and keep it simmering. When the leeks are soft add the root veggies to the pan along with 2 ladle fulls of broth and stir frequently. Keep stirring often and add more broth as soon it has absorbed. Do this until the veggies are just tender but not falling apart. This should only take 20-25 minutes and you probably won’t need to use all the broth. Stir in the nutritional yeast and Earth Balance. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed.
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October 28th, 2011
I don’t have much time for a real post today. Dave and I are going to see Matt Good tonight. We have front row tickets and backstage passes – I’m crazy excited!!
Dinner is left over borsch. I don’t have a recipe for you because this is one of the few soups that I actually use a recipe out of a cook book for. I just wanted to share my love of borsht. I’m not sure if it’s because I went to a Ukranian babysitter for a large chunk of my childhood or because borscht is the one of the few meals I can make with local produce all year round, but I love it!
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October 23rd, 2011
I had some good friends over for brunch this afternoon. Even though I’ve been dying to try making banana coconut french toast, I decided to do a fall themed brunch showcasing some amazing local and organic produce. It’s shortly after 5pm as I write this and I’m still stuffed, so I think I may have over done it! It was impossible not to, all the food was so good! Here’s what I served.
Pumpkin French Toast from the PPK – I made this recipe a few weeks ago and it turned out so good that I decided to make it again! I just keep them warm in the oven until they were all cooked.
Maple Cranberry Topping for the french toast – I combined 1 cup french cranberries with ½ cup maple syrup and ½ cup water along with 2 cinnamon sticks and boiled over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes. This went really well with the pumpkin french toast!
Smokey Maple Breakfast Sausages – I made this recipe from the PPK and made 12 small sausages instead of four large ones. Then I fried them in a tablespoon of Earth Balance just before serving. I think these were the best vegan sausages I’ve made yet. Even the omnivores liked them!
Scrambled Tofu with Peppers and Spinach – I always use this recipe from Bittersweet Vegan and use bell peppers instead of the mushrooms and zucchini.
Baked Home Fries – Simply chopped potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika then baked at 400 F for 50 minutes.
Lemon Cranberry Scones – I used the basic scone recipe in The Complete Vegan Kitchen and added ⅓ cup dried cranberries and 1 tsp zested lemon. The trick to great scones is to cut the Earth Balance into cubes and chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
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