Vegan Eating in Yosemite!

Just got back from a week in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite... We brought a lot of food with us, and also checked out some of the vegan options up there.

Most days we'd head out for a little hike, bring along a lunch, and then enjoy our lunch and a few hours reading and playing in the water. Here's a typical lunch for me: baked tofu sandwich, some almonds and dried apricots, and a Luna Bar. Mmmm, those sandwiches always taste like the best thing I've ever eaten...

For dinners, we ate lots of veggie burgers! We brought along Amy's Bistro Burgers from home, and cooked them over the campfire. You can see I burnt this one a little, but it was still delicious. Especially when served in my special cow bowl!

For dessert, I brought along all the supplies to make vegan S'Mores!!! YUM! I don't have any idea how many years it had been since I'd eaten a s'more. Man, they are GOOOOD. I brought Terra Nostra rice milk chocolate, Dandies marshmallows, and graham crackers.

You can see that the Dandies roasted up beautifully! Golden, bubbly, caramelized, gooey... scrumptious!

The finished product! mmmmm. How delightful it is to have such great tasting vegan options that our whole family could enjoy these together. I'm pretty sure it was my little nephew's 1st time eating s'mores, so that was super special. :)

The Tuolumne Meadows Store has a pretty surprising amount of vegan options - lots of Lightlife products (Gimmee Lean sausage, hot dogs, fakin bacon), 4 kinds of Wildwood Baked Tofu, soy milk, countless hummus varieties, lots of good vegan snacks (Veggie Booty, rice crackers...), Alternative Baking Company cookies... Overall, I was really impressed with their offerings.

They even had two flavors of Tofutti cuties!! Yeah! My grandparents used to enjoy a frozen treat after a long hike, so we bought a package of these cuties and scarfed them down in loving memory...

One thing the Tuolumne Meadows store DOESN'T carry: veggie burgers, or vegan buns. In fact, they also don't carry any vegan wheat bread. So, luckily my dad was coming up a few days later and he brought along more veggie burgers. When we ran out of our hamburger buns from home, we switched over to sourdough bread! Not quite traditional, but still delicious after a day on the trail.

One night we ate the Tuolumne Lodge... which is famous amongst our family for its dismal vegan offerings. This restaurant is right there where the tent cabins are, but is run by a company called "Delaware North." The offerings are *really* pricey, and there is almost nothing vegan. My brother and his son got hamburgers, while the other 7 of us ordered baked potatoes. Some people ordered the "mixed vegetables" ($3) and got a HALF an ear of steamed corn. Lame. The baked potatoes were good, but it took an entire hour for us to be served. We were joking that they had to run out and plant some more potatoes. Overall, it wasn't a very satisfactory experience for us vegans. They bring loads of rolls, but they are clearly not vegan, so the 5 vegans in our group didn't indulge. The one good thing worth mentioning was the delicious salad they served: fresh baby greens, a FEW artichoke hearts & cherry tomatoes, and a nice balsamic dressing. They used to use a cream dressing, so we were all happy for this new vegan dressing. The salad was very good, and served family style. After we finished off the first huge bowl, they brought us another, which was also devoured. So, that was definitely the highlight of eating at the Lodge.

On my last day there, my two aunts and I hiked from Tenaya Lake to Cloud's Rest - 15 miles! This was a hike that my grandpa did when he was 85 years old!!!! We were hiking in his memory, which was inspiring and poignant. So amazing. It was a long, beautiful, and demanding hike. We saw SO many beautiful creatures and wildflowers and vistas along the way. I was so happy to reach the top and dig into my sandwich. Off on the left you can see Half Dome, and Yosemite Valley stretching below.

Up on top of Cloud's Rest was a friendly and inquisitive little Golden Mantle Squirrel, who clearly has scored food off people in the past. I caught this super cute little picture of him leaping from one rock to another...

And this cutie one of him peeking up over the edge of the summit. Sooooo cute.

Gluten Free Baking!

Yesterday was my maiden voyage into gluten-free baking. My cousin was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a couple days ago, which means no more gluten for her, but I wanted to be sure that she wasn't left out of dessert on our family trip to Yosemite.

Internets to the rescue! Seriously, I am so grateful to the online community of vegan bloggers and message boarders. I was totally undaunted. "Oh, now the cookies need to be gluten-free AND vegan, no problem! I'm sure they'll be delicious!" I'd never done gluten free baking before, but thanks to so many bloggers, and the PPK, I knew it wouldn't be hard.

First up, I made the "Gluten-Be-Gone Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Dreena Burton's book "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan." I had to cook them a bit longer than she suggested (13 min instead of 11 min), but the flavor is great and they are delicious. I even had a bag of special GF-chocolate chips in my cupboard for the past many months - finally, a perfect use for them!

Next up, I turned Dreena's "Super Charge Me Cookies" into GF cookies. Instead of the spelt flour that the recipe called for, I used the same flour mix she prescribed for the chocolate chip cookies here. I tweaked it a little: some amaranth flour, some chickpea flour, some brown rice flour, + tapioca starch + 1 tsp xantham gum. Easy! (Also, a big shout out to my local natural food store, Staff of Life, which had ALL these things in the bulk section!!) These cookies turned out SO well. Totally perfect, totally vegan, totally gluten free!

Finally, I made the "Brownie Bites" from Babycakes. I found the recipe in an old thread on the PPK (scroll down). They are SO GOOD! Wow. Moist, and chocolatey and cakey... and perfectly morsel-sized.

I'm really impressed with the results, and I look forward to experimenting with more GF baking in the future... Meanwhile, we're off to Yosemite with lots of GF Crackers, GF veggie burgers, bean salad, tofu eggless egg salad, and Lara Bars. Fun! I'll try to document my eats in the High Sierra and report back next week.

:)

Recent Culinary Highlights!

Highlight #1: Ginormous Fresh Figs
Yes, that fig is bigger than that nectarine. No, that is not a mini-nectarine. It's just a SUPER AWESOME FIG. I love fresh figs. Love, love, love. Love. Over at my aunt's house, the first fig harvest of the season yields the most stunning beauties. Then, the birds catch on, and soon they've eaten all the big ones, and we're left picking figs prematurely in an attempt to beat the birds. I only picked a few of these big King Figs this year, but man-o-man, they are lovely. Smooshy and delicious.

Highlight #2: Breakfast at Wimbledon
Lately, this is my most favorite breakfast. Homemade granola + fresh berries + fresh almond milk = great way to start the day. I go to bed at night looking forward to my delicious breakfast. Sooooo good. Some days I use a mix of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries... but this day was the finals at Wimbledon, so in keeping with the tradition, I stuck with plain strawberries. Congrats Roger!

Highlight #3: Casual Weeknight Dinner
"Corn Flan over Tomato Compote with Spicy Grilled Nectarines" from "The Artful Vegan." Believe it or not, I made this for dinner on one of the nights that I don't get home from teaching until 9:00. The flan was made in the morning, and everything else came together quite quickly. It looks very fancy, but unfortunately, it was sort of a dud. I was just so damned proud of myself for making it in the first place that I felt compelled to blog about it. The flan was lacking in flavor - excessively mild and subtle. I think the recipe could easily be rescued with a bit more punch from the flan recipe. The most wonderful surprise of the meal was the Spicy Grilled Nectarine - wow! Totally unexpected. Somehow the sweet and the heat really added a perfect element to the overall recipe.

Hightlight #4: Cookieeeeees!
I am working on a cookie recipe to share with you. It will be good. I am exploring a few different manifestations of a core concept. Details soon.

Highlight #5: BBQ Shish-Kabobs for dinner!
So colorful, so pretty, so yummy! These are the BBQ Tempeh Kabobs from "Vegan Fusion Cuisine." I've made them before and I really love them. The homemade BBQ sauce is quick and has great flavor, and I love the summery combo of all those bright veggies with big chunks of tempeh. Mmmm. Perfect.

Now I'm off for a week in Yosemite, lots of trailmix and sandwiches on the trail! Have a great week!

ps. Francesca, yes! I'd love to do a swap. Send me an email: ameyfm at yahoo dot com

Father's Day Feast

So, it was a couple of weeks ago... but better late than never, right?

Even though my dad couldn't think of anything in particular to request, I know he loves Bruschetta... and with fresh tomatoes at the farmers' market, I couldn't resist. Alongside the bruschetta is some Grilled Herb Tofu (from Real Food Daily), one of my favorite ways to eat tofu of all time. It was a great combo.

I first learned about Bruschetta when I was 18. We had an Italian exchange student the previous year, and I went to visit her and another girl I had met through the program. Here is how Veronica and her father taught me to make bruschetta:

Good bread, toasted or grilled
A big clove of garlic
Olive oil
Fresh tomatoes, chopped up 1/2 inch dice (seeded if you are not too lazy)
Fresh basil, chiffonaded

Take your slices of toasty bread, and rub them on one side with the fresh garlic clove. It has to be crispy enough that it "grabs" the garlic... almost like a zester would. Brush or drizzle on some olive oil (good stuff, y'know). Mix your tomatoes and garlic together in a big bowl. Heap them onto your bread slices. Eat. Yum!

Grilled Veggies are another of my dad's favorite summertime foods... simple and delicious. I used a very simple marinade: a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.

Fresh corn, of course. Still steamy hot! Totally perfect as is.

For dessert, I made the blueberry nectarine crisp from "Fresh Food Fast." I lightened up a bit on the topping, on the sugar, and on the oil, and it was totally fantastic. When you have such decadent fresh fruit from the farmers market you really don't need so much sugar. This was such a lovely and super tasty summery dessert!

Unrelated, but cute: I leave you with this picture of Snoopy sitting on my bum while I read my Yoga Sutras books. Such a cutie pie! After we snapped this picture, he just settled down and took a nap. :)

Vegan Carb Party!

Waffles, Crepes, French Toast, and Cinnamon Rolls.

All of them. In one morning. Is there any better way to start the day!?

Some local vegan pals from the PPK and I were chatting and came up with this delicious and gluttonous idea for a brunch party. We used lots of recipes from "Vegan Brunch," so now I have tried even moooooore delicious goodies from that heaven-sent book.

A huge mound of Chelsea Waffles.

A huge mound of Crepes. But I'll tell you what, I should have made more! We ran out, even with a double batch. So good. We had homemade jams, lemon wedges, powdered sugar, and even Chocoreale spread for the crepes. mmmmm.

Max and Sophia making the Pumpkin French Toast, also from Vegan Brunch.

Pumpkin French Toast. I loved this recipe! Pumpkiny, and full of pumpkiny spices, but not overwhelmingly so. Moist and delicious.

Coldandsleepy brought some super delicious cinnamon rolls. I have seriously been thinking about cinnamon rolls for about 1 year now. I was super happy to eat one at last! Plus, I totally scored when she left two extras behind for me... yummmmmmy!

Marzipan was really thinking ahead - something savory! Homemade Tempeh Bacon, which was thoroughly devoured. So delicious. I'd never had homemade tempeh bacon before, but I know I will have it again. It was great to have a nice protein boost, and something so savory after all the sweet treats. Also, it was super fun to have pals cooking in my kitchen!

Everyone assembling their brunch plates of carby treats.

My plate, resplendent in its brown-ness. Oh, it was good alright!

Little Snoopy was totally hilarious. He did Lap-laps... walking across our laps - from lap to lap, around the circle, enjoying each person's lap for a spell. Max seemed to have the best lap of all, as both times around, Snoopy settled in for a good while with Max.

It was a fun way to kick off the 4th of July weekend... Hope you had a happy weekend too!

Tomatoes!!! I Eat Them!!!

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 1:

I Heart Tomato Season!!! Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes...

Fresh Corn Polenta with Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes, with Spicy Bean Salad with Vinaigrette. From "Fresh Food Fast." That bean salad was good, but that polenta with cherry tomatoes was totally phenomenal. The polenta had fresh corn kernels in it - sweet, crispy bites that were a perfect accent to the garlic & herb cherry tomatoes. Wonderful!

Viccolo prepared cornmeal pizza crusts with garlic, loads of fresh basil, and loads of tomatoes. Sooooo good. We ate the pizzas with some bean salad:

Bean Salad with Arugula & Citrus Vinaigrette, from the Millenium Cookbook. A quick and very easy salad, that I loved! I think it took all of 10 minutes to put together... and the leftovers made a perfect summery lunch this afternoon.

Tomato season is just beginning... so we've got a few more joyful months of tomatoey goodness!

Cookies for New Neighbors

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 2:

We got new neighbors! This is nice because the house next door was empty for 2 months... which was lonely. Now we got super cool new next door neighbors. I'm old-fashioned this way, so I brought them cookies on their first night in the house: thumbprint cookies with homemade apricot jam or homemade raspberry jam. New neighbors need homemade cookies!

While The Cat's Away...

...the Mouse Will Eat Health Food!

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 3!:

Recently, Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats went away on a trip. I decided to use this time to try to make a dent in my overly stuffed freezer (exhibit A) and in my pantry, which possessed a number of random impulse purchases needing to be eaten (exhibit B).

Exhibit A. Embarassing.

Exhibit B. Too many random items.

A few years ago, I started getting more and more healthy with my cooking, and poor Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats uttered this now-famous plea: "Can we please have something with a little more FAT in it?" ha! Mr. VE&T will eat just about anything, so, when he's around, I have this lingering fear that if he doesn't like dinner, he will run out and buy a bunch of beanies and weenies, or boxes of mac and cheese - and eat that instead. In order to prolong his health (and lifespan), and in order to protect the animals, it is in my interest to make sure dinner is pretty tasty.

In his absence, however, I am happy to cook up a big pot of giant beans in the crock pot, and eat it for lunch. Lunch and dinner.

Well, the other thing about Mr. VE&T, is that he will not eat leftovers. This is crazy and crazy-making! So I celebrated his absence by making a giant pot of dal (using lentils from the pantry!), and eating it for days on end. Lunch and dinner.

I also made a huge batch of Kittee's Peanut Butter Granola, which I love. Mmmm. In fact, now I am all out, and suffering. I need to make more, pronto!

One night I made a half-batch of the delicious omlettes from Vegan Brunch, and used some KooKoo Sabzi filling - defrosted from the freezer, and left over from Persian New Year a few months back. One for dinner, and one for lunch the next day. VERY GOOD. And of course, lots of kale. Mr VE&T doesn't much like kale, so there was a lot of kale eating while he was gone.

The only hitch in my plan? Well, I can only eat so much on my own. Then, Mr VE&T came home two weeks early... and I hadn't made much of a dent in my freezer OR my pantry. Well, now the challenge is mine to continue on with freezer- and pantry-emptying project while still managing to keep him out of the Mac & Cheese aisle at the grocery store! Wish me luck! It's great to have him h