The Vegan's Hundred

Today was an awful day that ended with a silly car squirmish (I'm ok, but severely annoyed) so we ordered Vege Thai (which I stuffed my face with) and watched the Biggest Loser. I am not lost to irony, but I am at a loss for a post. Here's to copping out with the Vegan's Hundred.

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Cole Slaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup I don't eat soup?
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera This is something that my grandmother fed us regularly when we were kids...
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream (not store bought)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet (habanero) pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut the pizza place my mom worked at had sauerkraut pizza. Gross.
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings ---> This sounds really effing good.
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice…with Extra Ginger
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna (raw optional)
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate--how high quality? like $7 a bar high quality
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless ‘Pixie’ Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought Ice Cream Renaissance in Vancouver, WA has the best sorbet!
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

The man behind the blog.

So this isn't totally about food. Well, it kind of is. It's more about my drive to keep myself and my husband healthy and happy and that means food, right?

He may be embarrassed if he finds me writing about him, so nobody tell him, 'kay?

I will be the first to tell you that I'm one of the most bitter women on Earth. Years of solitude and rejection will do that to ya. What I find in Jeff is a realness, an understanding, an ability to see through to someone's soul. Cheesy, right? But it's totally true. This boy doesn't put up with shit, and that's one of a million reasons I love him.

broke and happy in Edinburgh

When I first decided to go vegan and worried about all the stuff I would need (oh, the naivety!) he was the first to suggest we make a special trip to Food Fight. He happily tried all of my creations and always steps in to help out in the kitchen when I ask.

stirring up vegan mac, with a smile!

He was the one that introduced me to the world of beer. Before him, all I thought when I thought beer was Coors or Budweiser or piss in a can. Now I'm obsessed with Belgian Ales. Of course, the skunkier the better. he tried so hard to get foam on his beard

He doesn't always take himself seriously and while we do fight on rare occasion, we're too annoyed at being annoyed to stay mad for long. We share the same views on children (yeah, no thanks) and both have a wanderlust that must be taken care of.

Because of all these reasons and the insane hours he's put in at work lately, I made him his favorite dinner Sunday night: Chickpea cutlets from VCON, bechamel sauce from YRR and sweet potato fries. With a beer, of course.

Poor Girl's Biscuits

So, before I get into the blast from my past, lemme show you what I had for breakfast yesterday morning.

Drop biscuits and Gimme Lean sausage crumble gravy.

You see, my friends, my husband is finally back to working 50 hour weeks. His work is completely dependent on the economy, so this has been a rough year for us. My getting laid off in May (and not finding a job) only increased the stress. We had one month where absolutely no money was coming in and I was scared to death. In my 10 years of being on my own, I've never had that happen. Luckily, unemployment FINALLY kicked in and we did a massive landscaping job for my mother in law and were able to pay our rent. What does this have to do with biscuits and gravy? Well, the downside of his working so much is he isn't able to claim unemployment and his last check paid our rent so we've got measly dollars on us until Thursday. We did one last grocery run while we could and picked up the sausage so we could have biscuits and gravy. Oh, yum. The sauce was (freaky) meaty and it really filled me up. I'm seriously glad I only used half the package!

We also spent a paltry $8.50 to pick up leeks, carrots, potatoes, garlic, thyme, corn and an onion so I could make the Leek and Bean Cassoulet for dinner.


I made some interesting changes to the original version...instead of Yukon gold potatoes I used reds (cheaper), instead of frozen peas I used a fresh ear of corn (also cheaper). I didn't have vegetable stock so I bagged up the ends of the veggies, boiled them in water and soy sauce and used that. I was out of soymilk so I "curdled" 1/4 cup soy vanilla creamer mixed with a 1/2 cup of water with apple cider vinegar...lucky for me this made a ton for lunches and such.

This dish was special to me. Growing up my little family was waaaaay under the poverty line. Not homeless, but definitely not able to make it on our own. My dad left when I was 4 and by the time I was in third grade we had no choice but to move in with my grandparents, who were also struggling, but they owned their house outright and had acreage. My grandmother cooked every meal from scratch and we truly lived off of the land. We had enormous summer harvests of every veggie you could think of, plus more! One of my grandmother's go to meals was chicken and dumplings and it was my favorite dish. I haven't tried to recreate it until tonight and just thinking about everything she and my mother sacrificed for us brings me to tears even now. Sadly my grandmother passed 3 days before our wedding last year so I'm unable to make her my version of her dish, but I know she's with me in spirit.

I just want to add to everyone that's struggling out there, I'm with you. Hold on as tight as you can and smile. I don't when this shit storm economy will pass, but I definitely won't let it get me down. As long as I have flour and oatmeal, we'll be fine.

Some of my favorite places....

I thought I'd spend today's post highlighting some of my personal favorite places to eat in Portland.
#1 - New Old Lompoc. Yes, it's a brewery. Yes, it's not even close to being exclusively vegetarian. But their hummus plate is my favorite in the city and their house salad - without cheese, of course - consists of mesclun greens, roasted beets, strawberries, hazelnuts and a lemon garlic vinaigrette. No crappy iceberg lettuce with a side of slimy tomatoes here! The NW location carries a portobello mushroom burger that can easily be veganized and the location on SE Division, the Hedge House, carries a lovely veggie sandwich with hummus and all the fixins. Oh, and their beer ROCKS. We usually visit after finishing my weekly paper route, which happens to be Miser Mondays....pints of their awesome beer for $2.50 all day!

#2 - Cricket Cafe. No pictures, but when we first moved to Portland, we visited this place within a week of settling in and it was fantastic. They have plenty of vegan options for breakfast and you get unlimited Stumptown while you wait and while you eat. I strongly recommend arriving before the hipster hour of 11am, it'll be really easy to grab a table and take your time with your massive plate of goodness.

#3 - Cellar Door Coffee Roasters Before we visited this coffeeshop, my standby favorite was Fresh Pot on Hawthorne. I find the coffee here is so much richer in flavor and bonus, the building houses Portobello Vegan Trattoria at night. This is the only place I'll get hummus on a bagel.
#4 - Just Thai Thanks to Jess and her never ending adoration of this cart, this is our go-to place for Thai food. Look how much you get for $5! Everything on the menu can be easily veganized, and if you're shy like me and request only part of the meal vegan, they will happily jump in and ask if you'd like the whole dish vegan. They also make vegan Thai iced tea, one of my favorite drinks ever!

#5 - Bye & Bye. This place is on every vegan Portlander's list, and for a good reason. Portions are pretty big and very tasty and their drinks are creative and fun. It's a good place to meet up with friends. They also have Hopworks on tap, which make me happy.

Bonus picture of cats cooking dinner...

Daiya in Portland

Thursdays are my busy days. When I say "day" I mean the last half of the day...I have a silly little shift of 2-5pm and then have class 6-10pm, which interrupts prime dinner making hour.

Yesterday I also managed to sign up for a gym at an awesome discount thank to a friend who works for a very successful, national coffee chain with a mermaid as its logo (hint hint!). I did 30 minutes of the elliptical and came home starving. My first instinct was PB&J, but then I thought about all the work I just did and decided on roasting up my acorn squash.

Now, my mom used to make us acorn squash when we were kids. It was always a holiday treat and she would scoop butter and brown sugar into the squash and mash it all in there. Heavenly. But, as it was roasting, I remembered Sarah's post and the leftover ginger-peanut sauce from last night. Hmmmm...
The combo was rich and filling and just what I needed!

When I got to school, I wandered to the cafeteria for something to accompany my sad Clif bar dinner. I grabbed some coffee and walked to the cooler to check out the fruit cups. Some burritos were lined up and this caught my eye:A vegan burrito with Daiya cheese! I almost jumped up and down but instead paid for the burrito and found the microwave, which was broken. No matter, this baby was good cold. It's made by The Higher Taste, a company that also makes this tasty veggie burger a friend of mine is obsessed with. Hooray for not starving before class!

Vegan Soul Kitchen

Yeah, I promised a series on squash. But after I got home last night from the grocery store, it was 6pm and the husband was working and I didn't want to eat squash all by myself. So I decided to make two cookbook challenge recipes from Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen instead. I chose baked sweet potato fries with ginger peanut dipping sauce and rosemary roasted tofu.

The sweet potatoes take 50 minutes to bake into yummy goodness. And I was starving. So I had this:
Almond milk's favorite cookie! Definitely not the best snack I could have had. But I had been thinking of it all week and my body wasn't saying no! When I first went vegan, I had a day of mourning when I thought that Oreos would be banished from my life. Thank god they're just a bunch of man made chemicals and fats!

Anyways, back to Mr Terry. Here's my dinner plate.
I hate getting off of work at 5. By the time dinner is done, the sun has disappeared and I'm left holding my food up to the lamp with no shade, hoping that I'm not shaking. And then all the pictures turn out awful anyways. I'm trying to start up a photography business, but obviously I won't be focusing on food!

Dinner was awesome. The ginger peanut sauce was definitely a yummy kick and the tofu cubes were addicting. My poor tummy is not liking the soy so much these days, but I'll trade a little discomfort for some yummy goodness.

Today is a pretty hectic day, so I'm not sure what kind of post tomorrow will bring....stay tuned!

Carnival Squash Risotto

My mission:

Use these lovely vegetables up this week! This last time I participated in Weight Watchers, I had the best leader. She was always pushing farmers markets and whole foods eating. One time during a meeting, one woman exclaimed how expensive it would be to subside solely on a diet that revolves around fruits and vegetables.

Really? I mean, I can get 5 bananas across the street for 90 cents. Yukon Golds for 88 cents a pound. And that lovely carnival squash pictured up front for 99 cents each.

My goal this week was a series on squash. Today I focus on last night's dinner, Carnival Squash Risotto. My recipe is adapted from the basic risotto recipe from 125 Best Vegan Recipes by Maxine Effenson Chuck and Beth Gurney. It's simple and just waiting for squash to join the risotto party. Total cooking time is around 45 minutes.

Carnival Squash Risotto - 4-6 Servings

3.5 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, diced
1 cup Arborio rice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp each of dried basil & oregano
1 roasted carnival squash (method to follow)
basil leaves (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Split the squash in half and scoop out the loose flesh and seeds. Rinse seeds in strainer and set aside. Spray squash with cooking spray and place open side up on baking sheet with parchment. Toss seeds with salt and spread out on parchment. Roast squash for 40 minutes, removing the seeds halfway through.

In a pot, heat stock over low heat and keep warm.

In a heavy pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add shallots and cook until softened. Add rice and stir until rice is coated in olive oil and heated through. Add garlic, basil, oregano and 1 cup stock. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add stock 1/2 cup at a time until mostly absorbed. When stock is mostly absorbed, scoop roasted squash into pot and stir until stock is completely absorbed.

Top with basil leaves and roasted seeds and enjoy! I've included a small pictorial for your viewing pleasure.