I'm alive (and went to Grasshopper)!

…I promise.  I've been meaning to post for so long, but the universe has gotten in the way.  So many things have happened in the last few weeks and so many awesome food experiences I missed blogging out on!  Dang it!

In the last few weeks we've seen many friends, had an emergency trip to the ER for my eye, was temporarily blinded in my left eye for a couple of days after that, survived parent/teacher conferences, had an unexpected snow day, my husband had a show (he's in a black metal band if you can believe that) and so much more.

Now I'm back here and cooking on this Saturday night.  It feels more like Sunday since we didn't have school yesterday.  You should have seen me yesterday, I was cooking up a storm.  I was definitely in my happy place (also mimosas were in the picture so that helped).

My husband had a show last night and they were awesome (if you like that kind of music…I am bias).  I of course played the role of the supportive spouse/groupie and came along.  Luckily for me the show was right down the street from my all time favorite vegan restaurant, Grasshopper.  Grasshopper is an all vegan Chinese food restaurant in Allson, MA.  It's amazing.  Everyone who works there is super nice and it's so liberating to walk into a restaurant where you know you can order anything on the menu.

And it's definitely some feel good vegan comfort food for sure.  There are so many amazing choices on the menu and we have a few favorites that I will share with you.  It's definitely not the healthiest food in the world, but you never walk out of there feeling gross like you can with other Chinese food restaurants.

I brought my husband here for his first birthday that we spend together.  I think it was his first taste of heaven.  In case you visit (and I hope you do) we always order…

• The No Name-it's a fried gluten dish that resembles General Gao's chicken.  It is not good for you at all but it is so so good.  
• #69 (Black Pepper Beef)-this is my favorite.  It's a seitan dish sautéed with greens and this amazing sauce.  It's so good.  When I lived closer I would made a trek just to pick some of this up along with some some fried rice on a Friday night.  
• House Fried Rice-  I believe this is #101 on the menu.  This fried rice dish gives you a taste of all the vegan "meats" on the menu including shrimp, fish, chicken and beef.  Sometimes they seem to run out of the shrimp but we were lucky to get some in our rice last night.  
• Chicken Fingers- more like cake chicken fingers.  They are delicious and sweet and one of my hubby's favorites.

So those are our go to items on the menu.  They do have a buffet on certain Sundays a month which I've never been to but I've heard good things.  Please give this place a try even if you're not a vegan or vegetarian!  Everyone can enjoy it!

Weekend Warrior (Not)

 This has been a weekend of complete generosity and kindness.  My mother-in-law watched the boy so we could attend our friends' awesome post-Christmas ugly sweater party (they're spectacular hosts), my parents stored all our Christmas decorations in their basement AND made us soup, and my husband earned some major hubby points.   He always takes good care of me (and I like to think I take pretty good care of him!) but this weekend he did so much.  He cleaned and organized our entire apartment (it looks amazing), he drove us everywhere (we did a lot of driving), and he didn't mind that I bought myself a $32 water bottle at Whole Foods.

I've mentioned before that I would love to be able to do all my grocery shopping at Whole Foods.  Now I do love that place, but I don't know if my frugal self could ever buy something I know I can get cheaper other places.  I do love to wander around Whole Foods and they will have deals if you look out for them.  I bought Gardein chicken scaloppini (I can't find it anywhere else) and that was $3.99 which is an excellent price (obviously it was on sale).  However, there are some item I get at Whole Foods that I can't find anywhere else…

The Beast Burger:  My husband and I tried the Beast Burger awhile ago so I can attest that it is amazing.  It's not your average veggie burger.  It's juicy and honesty it tastes like real meat.  It was so close to meat that as a vegetarian it was almost concerning.  I recommend this especially if you're a meat eater who is looking to be a little bit healthier, I think it's a better alternative than a turkey burger, especially if you love that beef flavor.  One burger is 260 calories and 23 grams of protein.  

Seitan.  Dining out at vegetarians restaurants has introduced me to seitan.  I've had some delicious dishes (black pepper beef at Grasshopper in Allston especially).  I've a little surprised it is not as easy to find as tofu and tempheh.  Seitan is wheat gluten, the main protein in wheat.  It's a great alternative if you want to get away from soy based alternatives.  I'll make sure I post what I end up doing with these.

Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Flavor Squares.  I grew up on Cheez-its.  Well not really, but we always had them in the house.  I'm pretty sure my parents have a box of reduced fat Cheez-its in their cabinet right now.  They are delicious and the ultimate snack food if you ask me.  As a vegan, however, they are off the table.  I love Earth Balance, and I always have their butter in my refrigerator.  Their cheddar squares are great, and I will always want to munch on them, vegan or not vegan.  

I also bought a new basil plant since my other one was not successful.  Still getting the hang of this whole "gardening" thing.  Here's to another healthy week!  

English Muffin Bread

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I had a wonderful first Christmas as a married lady with my hubby.  As much as I love Christmas, I'm a little bit relieved the holidays are winding down.  I enjoy the whole month of December, with all the decorations and parties, but it is a lot of work (and spending money and not eating so great!).  

One of my gifts this year to coworkers and family was English muffin bread.  If you haven't had English muffin bread before you are missing out.  My gift to you is that I will share my (veganized) recipe for you to enjoy yourself.

I used to beg my mom to make me a loaf of English muffin bread.  It tends to disappear quickly.  My mother's recipe is not vegan but the other week she gave us a loaf…a vegan one!  I didn't think it was possible, but it was so good, and my husband and I polished off half the load before breakfast time.  All it took was two simple substitutions and you too can have a (vegan) loaf of your very own.  

I'll admit.  It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to make and messy.  Well maybe I'm just messy.  Dylan had to clean the kitchen after I was done…flour everywhere.  Once you get the hang of it it's really not so hard to make.  Here's what you'll need…

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups four (spoon cups with a spoon to pack lightly)
• 2 packages of active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups unsweeted soy or almond milk (be conscious of allergies!)
• 1/2 water
• cornmeal
• vegan butter (for lining pans)

First you're going to combine 3 cups of flour, the yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda into a bowl.  Heat your milk and water in a separate pan until they are warm.   Since I was making these for coworkers I used soy milk because I wasn't sure if their kids had any nut allergies.  You have to be careful these days.  The soy milk came out fine and I used almond milk for my family at it was perfect as well.   After your water and milk are heated add this to the dry ingredients and stir in more flour to make a stiff batter.  I would recommend using an electric mixer for this.  Grease two 8.4x4.5 inch pans with vegan butter and sprinkle cornmeal on the sides.  Next you spoon your batter into the pans.  Cover your pans and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  I don't have too many warm spots in my apartment so I keep it in the oven on the warm setting.  

Next cook your breads at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and you're done!  Remove the bread from the pans right away and let the loaves cool.  Make sure you toast this bread before you eat it!  I recommend slicing it nice and thin.  I've also used this bread to make garlic bread.  Yum.  

I have a couple more packs of yeast calling for me to crank out some more loaves of this bread while we are on winter break.  I think I'm in trouble.  As you can see from the meal above, we've been eating very well this holiday!

Sophie get's some mashed potatoes as well!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Review: Gardein Chipotle Line Crispy Fingers

Review time.

So lots of things have happened since the last time I posted…the Patriots almost gave all of New England a heart attack, my husband and I discovered Game of Thrones, and I've been sick.  It's that time of year and it comes with the job, but I've been down and out and it's never fun.  

I'm finally starting to feel better and I realize we have so much frozen food in our kitchen.  I'm making it a goal this week to use up as much of our frozen food a possible, which brings me to my review this evening.  Gardein's Chipotle Line Crispy Fingers.  Yummy.

We picked this baby up at Whole Foods when my husband and I went there pretending to be rich.  Well I guess we deserve a trip there once in awhile…What kills me about Whole Foods is I can find a lot of the food their cheaper other places (such as Gardein products) but they carry things I can't seem to find anywhere else, such as these "chicken" fingers.  

My mom made us a vegan pumpkin bread this weekend (amazing!) and also sent me home with some minestrone soup (I have yet to confirm if it was homemade or not).  So tonight I made a soup and salad combo.  

So back to the "chicken", it was good!  There was a subtle southwestern taste to the chicken, and it was nice and crispy on the outside.  I loved it on the salad but I think it would be great in a wrap as well with some vegan sour cream.  

I heated up our minestrone soup and stuck some Daiya cheese and bread crumbs on top.  Then I put the  bowls under the broiler for a minute or two.  Soup is best served on a rooster tray.  

Happy end of the weekend!

Review: Tofutti Cuties

Growing up we always had ice cream sandwiches.  Well maybe not always, but it seemed that way.  I'm not a huge dessert person but I always can appreciate an ice cream sandwich.  

I've found a vegan alternative that reminds me of my childhood.  Tofutti Cuties.  

And they are exactly that.  Cute.  They come 8 to a box and are "snack" size (aka the perfect size according to my mom).  

If you appreciate a good ice cream sandwich, but can't do dairy (or are vegan) I recommend these 100%.  They honestly taste just like the ones I had as a kid. I really love the Tofutti brand, so many vegan alternatives can be pricey, but I always find their products to be very reasonably priced.

Enjoy!

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night.   It's a good night.  It's almost the weekend (emphasis on almost), the husband and I went for a nice walk since it was beautiful outside, and we had a delicious dinner.  

Here's Soph begging for some tofu...

We had a ton of fresh vegetables in our fridge so I decided to make another round of veggie lo mein.  I was feeling a little adventurous (and thin) so I decided to cut my veggie "noodles" with real pasta noodles.  No regrets.  

I cannot praise sesame oil enough.  It really made this dish.  If you're going to cook with an oil you might as well cook with something that's going to provide a lot of flavor.  Sesame oil is the way to go if you're cooking an Asian-inspired dish.  

I served our dinners in giant Fiestaware bowls my mom gave us to add to our collection.  My theory is you don't need portion control when you're consuming 80-90% vegetables.  

My one regret of the evening was with my chili paste.  Not for me but for my husband.  Sometimes I forget that I am genetically superior when it comes to consuming spicy food compared to Dylan.  He still tries to keep up with me though.  His first round of veggie lo mein was spice-free, the second round he added some chili paste.  He needed a couple of cans of seltzer water after that...  All in moderation my friends.  However, if you are a fan of spicy food I suggest you buy some chili paste.  It's spicy and it's zero calories and most importantly tasty!

We ended the evening with some fresh air popped popcorn.  If you don't have a popcorn maker you're missing out.  My brother got me this one years ago and I love it.  It's a great healthy snack.  I added some melted vegan butter and nutritional yeast to ours tonight.  Better than the movies!

International Coffee Day

So apparently it's International Coffee Day.  As a part-time Starbucks barista, I should probably have marked this on my calendar.  I've worked at Starbucks part-time for the last five years.  It's been one of my favorite jobs and I've met some great people.  Also, over the last five years I've been supplied with a free pound of Starbucks coffee every week.  Needless to say, my hubby and I never run out…

So working at Starbucks has made me a bit of a coffee snob.  Now for me, an eight dollar bottle of wine borders "fancy," but I can't cheap out on coffee.  I like to think I kind of know what I'm talking about here.  In honor of International Coffee Day I wanted to share with you my favorite iced coffee you can make at home.

First, you need to arm yourself with a French press.  As a Starbucks baritsa, I cannot recommend a French press enough.  Throw away your K cups please, French press is the way to go.  Once you go French press you won't go back.  Trust me.  Plus it makes you look super classy.  

I currently have a smaller French press, as a loaner from my parents, because my graceful self broke my bigger one.  This one is is from Starbucks and was not expensive.  I've also seen inexpensive presses at Homegoods as well.  

Now you need some coffee beans.  Use your favorite, obviously all of my coffee for now comes from Starbucks.  My husband and I (okay it might have been just me) registered for an air tight container for our coffee beans.  This is your best bet if you want to keep your coffee at it's prime freshness.  You want to keep your coffee whole bean and grind as you go, and please please never freeze.

When you are grinding your coffee for a French press make sure your setting is coarse, or else you'll be drinking coffee grounds.  

So now you have your French press and your favorite coffee ground.  Next you need to follow the scoop and water measurements for your French press.  Mine calls for 4 tablespoons of grounds.  However, since this is an iced coffee recipe, I use an extra scoop considering the coffee might be watered down by ice.  Add your coffee to the French press and at COLD water.  This is the beauty of the cold press, you do not need to heat water, the coffee and water will be absorbed overnight.  Stir your coffee and grounds and let it sit in the fridge for 8-12 hours. Do not press until the morning when you're ready to serve it.

Make sure to place it next to the beer in your fridge.  That makes it better.  Enjoy!

Veganized Cornbread

I love taking everyday food and making a vegan version of it.  I see it as an experimental and tasty challenge (the best kind of challenge).  There's a lot of food out there people may not realize is vegan and there's a lot of food you can easily make a few amendments to to "veganize" it.  Here's one of them…

My husband loves cornbread, but obviously unless we are at a vegan restaurant he's not able to eat it.  Trader Joe's has an amazing cornbread mix, the mix itself is vegan, however the recipe calls for milk and eggs.  

I substituted the milk for almond milk, which is an easy switch.  However, the egg is where it gets tricky.  I'm not a huge fan of PETA but they have a great chart online for egg substitutes.  For the cornbread egg substitute I used two Tbsp. of water, one Tbsp. and two tsp. of baking powder to substitute for one egg.

This worked wonderfully.  My family loved it.  I baked it in our cast iron which added a rustic feel to eating cornbread.  It was a Monday morning breakfast win.  

A word about peanut butter...

This post is about two epiphanies.

First...If you haven't tried Peanut Butter & Co.'s line of peanut butter you are missing out.  I don't usually get excited about something you spread onto a sandwich or coax your dog with, but this peanut butter is different. 

My husband introduced me to Peanut Butter & Co. when we were dating.  He made me a sandwich with cinnamon raisin swirl (my current favorite) and I was hooked.

So what was preventing me from filling my cabinets with this delicious spread?  Well unfortunately at the time the only place I could find this peanut butter was at Whole Foods, and it was selling for about $6.  Quite a splurge for something I pair with grape jelly.  Now one of my long term financial goals in life is to be able to do about 80% of my food shopping at Whole Foods, however that it not the reality right now.  Then I made an amazing discovery…

Second...When I was a little kid (before my appreciation of seasonal decorative paper napkins)  my mother would always drag me to the Christmas Tree Shop.  If you're not familiar with the Xmas Tree shop my adult self loves it, but little kid self was not amused my discounted lamps.  It's a great place to buy decorations, kitchen gadgets, curtains and more.  They even have a food section.  Now, my little kid self thought it was pretty sad to be buying food at a store like this.  I often overlooked this section as an adult, until one day I thought I'd look around.

What did I find there?

Peanut Butter and Co. galore AND for $3.69!

So yes, I do some of my food shopping at the Xmas Tree shop and my cabinets are always stocked with delicious peanut butter.  Give it a try, you won't regret it.