Winner Dinner & Giveaway Winner!

First - the big news!

Congratulations to TofuCat for winning a copy of 

Whole Grain Vegan Baking!

~~~~~

Tomorrow I'll be hopping on a plane (with my awesome mom!) to go to the VidaVeganCon vegan bloggers conference and I CANT WAIT. It's going to be so much fun to see old friends and meet new friends and meet old friends I've never met - if you know what I mean!! :)

One thing I am really looking forward to is Eating Myself Silly while in Portland. However, that does mean that I've been making an effort to keep things light around home this week. :)

Did you even know that a salad could be one of your favorite dinners ever?? I don't think I knew that. Over at the PPK Forums, I've so many rave reviews about the Salad Nicoise recipe from Appetite for Reduction, but I hadn't ever made it. But, inspired by pre-VVC week, I finally did, and I AM IN LOVE. Seriously, this isn't just one of my favorite salads ever, it's one of my favorite dinners ever! Light, filling, flavorful, beautiful, easy, delicious... it's a hands-down winner!

Plus, look at my amazing baby potatoes that I got at the farmers market: I was so happily surprised that the red new potatoes were red on the inside too! And the purple potatoes were so purple! So much fun. In fact, almost everything in the bowl is from the farmers' market - my favorite way to eat!

Breakfast Lunch & Dinner

 I started off my day with a super yummy waffle. This is not my typical breakfast, but Mr VE&T and I were seized by a glorious moment of Waffle Possibility, and we went with it. Usually, if I make waffles, I make them from scratch, but I had ordered a box of gluten-free, vegan waffle mix from Vegan Cuts, and I was curious to try it out. I loved this waffle! It was hearty and nutty and flavorful and just the right size. Filling and great. Such a special treat.

Mr. VE&T certainly ate his waffle, but he expressed a clear preference for the naughty all-purpose refined flour waffles I usually make. I saw his point, but I really loved this waffle for what it was.

This is the mix I used. I bought some for my cousin too, and since it comes two boxes per order, I gave one to a GF student of mine. I hope they like their waffles!

After such an indulgent breakfast I wanted to have a super healthy lunch. Steamed broccoli rabe, carrot sticks, and sugar snap peas with a bowl of Food For Lovers Original Queso. I am currently having quite a little love affair with FFL Queso. That stuff is just so delish!! This was actually a really satisfying lunch. The veggies left me pretty full, and the savory queso made it feel more like a meal and less like a snack.

For dinner I made the Tempeh Chimichurri from the PPK Blog, over a bed of steamed asparagus. I loved this dinner! I really like tempeh a lot, though Mr. VE&T is sometimes a bit iffy about it. He was sorta freaked out by the intense flavors of the chimichurri sauce at first - but once he got his head around it, he enjoyed his dinner too. The sauce packs a mighty punch, so it was perfect to pair it with tempeh (which can soak up a lot of flavor) and with asparagus (which isn't too assertive). It was a great dinner.

Not pictured in this line up are the occasional handfuls of chocolate chips and nuts that I nommed on during the day. I just can't stop myself! 

also! don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a free copy of

Whole Grain Vegan Baking!

I'm drawing the winner tomorrow!

Cookbook Review: Allergy Free Cook Bakes Cakes and Cookies

A while back, I was sent a copy of "The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Cakes and Cookies" to review. The name of this book is a bit insane, but the recipes seem to be pretty great. All the recipes inside are Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, and Soy-free. She also tells you which ones are Nut-free. So there!

I'm not gluten-free, but a lot of people I love are -- including my excellent cousin and a few of my beloved yoga students and friends. So, I like to have some reliable GF recipes on hand so that I can bake for them. Plus, if you think about how rarely people ever bake vegan treats for you, just imagine how the GF folks feel, and especially how the Vegan GF'ers feel. My goodness. Just imagining that sad state of affairs is enough to inspire me to go bake someone a cake.

Of course, it's not like I need to be eating cake all the time, so it took me a little while to get around to writing this review. Recently, though, our excellent friends B&D invited us over for dinner, and B is one of my special GF friends. So, I seized the moment and made - not one, but TWO cakes to bring along! Ha ha!

The first one I made was the Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake. It's a super orangey cake, with chocolate chips inside. Can you even believe how perfect and beautiful it is?? I cooked it a little longer than the recipe called for and still it was just a touch too moist. I would definitely make this again, because it is beautiful and had a CRAZY delish orangey and chocolatey flavor, but next time I'll bake it another 5-10 minutes more.

Here it is all dressed up for the dinner party! This cake has TWO glazes: first a super orangey glaze that you drizzle or brush on, and then a dark chocolate glaze that you drizzle. So yumz! Also, though, the double glazing added a lot of moisture, so I would suggest doing it right before serving -- and that's another reason to bake the cake a little longer.

I also brought along this really interesting Tahinopita cake. We all thought this one was really more like a breakfast cake. Kind of like scones or something. It was so good and tasted very sophisticated. We made coffee after dinner (decaf, of course!) -- and this one paired really nicely with the coffee. The rich, roasted tahini flavor really came through and was lightened by dried fruits, and nuts. Mmm. I really liked this unusual cake.

Then, last weekend I was teaching a weekend-long yoga retreat, and I have a tradition of always bringing along a big batch of cookies so everyone can have a sweetie after lunch. There are usually a few GF folks on the retreat, so I decided to turn to this book again for help. After much consideration, I chose to make the Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies. They were great! The only fat in these cookies comes from tahini - how cool is that? Naturally, I used roasted tahini for extra deep flavor goodness! I think I over baked them slightly, but no one seemed to complain - and that was probably my fault for multi-tasking while they were baking. All the same, they really came out well, and I look forward to trying more GF cookie recipes from this book.

Overall:

If you're a vegan GF person, or if you have any GF folks in your life that you enjoying baking sweeties for, I think this is a really good book to have in your collection. There are a wide variety of recipes (cakes, cookies, and bars) -- with an array of flavors, so you're likely to find a number of them appealing. Also, lots of the recipes are really creative (like the Tahinopita cake) - not just the same ol' recipes you've already made loads of times.

Lastly, I really appreciate that for each recipe the author specifies which types of flours to use (tapioca, brown rice, sorghum, etc) - and not just "1 cup gluten free flour mix." That sort of recipe drives me nuts because it seems so unreliable. These recipes are clear and specific.

A Vintage Pyrex Miracle

A True Story.

Last week, I was washing some dishes as I was waiting for my coffee to brew... when tragedy struck. The double risk of wet, slippery hands and pre-coffee-alertness-levels meant that I accidentally dropped  one of my beloved vintage Pyrex bowls. It broke into one hundred million pieces, which woke up Mr. VE&T, and brought all the pets in to investigate - and I had to rush them out before they cut their little feetsies. 

As I was sweeping up all the shattered debris, I thought, "At least this means I can buy another one."

Later that very day, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Who could it be?? Why! It's my auntie Laura, with a cardboard box tucked under her arm... apparently she had a little surprise for me: TWO VINTAGE PYREX BOWLS! Friends, it was truly a Pyrex miracle.

She'd found these bowls at a yard sale months ago, and knowing my love of V.P. picked them up me (for only $8!!). But, the green bowl didn't have its lid, and the guy said to come back later. She was persistent, and finally found him at a good time, and they tracked it down. I love that green casserole dish so much, and I especially love that it has its matching vintage lid!

vintage Pyrex love!

Also, don't forget to enter my contest to win a free copy of Tami & Celine's newest book :
Whole Grain Vegan Baking
Enter the contest Here

Whole Grain Vegan Baking: Blog Tour (& Giveaway!)

Welcome to the next stop in the 

Whole Grain Vegan Baking Blog Tour!

Celine Steen (Have Cake Will Travel) & Tami Noyes (Vegan Appetite) 

have come out with a wonderful new book : Whole Grain Vegan Baking

Their last book, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day was probably my favorite vegan cookbook from last year. I love it so much. So, when they asked me to participate in a blog tour for this new book, I jumped at the chance. Their publisher, Fair Winds Press, offered me a copy to review, but - uh - I had already bought myself a copy! So, lucky for you all, I've got a copy to give away.

The first thing I made from WGVB was this Hearty Barley Fruit Bread, based on an old family recipe from Celine. I loved, loved, loved this bread so much. I want to eat it every day for the rest of my life. It truly is hearty, and filled with walnuts, dried figs, candied orange peel, and warming spices. It's dense and totally delicious. I really look forward to making it again soon. 

Bonus: I got to use up some of my homemade candied orange peel. That recipe really made a LOT of candied orange peel!

Next up, I made the Lemony Spelt Scones (notice theme of using my homegrown citrus! - these called for lemon juice and lemon zest!). I really enjoyed these scones, especially since I hardly ever make scones. The texture was just perfect: dry -- but not too dry, dense -- but not too dense. They were perfectly crumbly and went great with my morning cuppa joe.

All of the recipes call for whole grain flours (obviously!), but also un-refined sugars, and generally quite wholesome ingredients. I suppose if you are on a super tight budget, or don't have any good natural foods stores around, this could be a bummer. But, I've been happily surprised to easily find every ingredient I've needed for these recipes in the bulk bins at my local hippy store. These scones, for example, call for Whole Spelt Flour, Brown Rice flour, Sucanat (unrefined sugar), and other more standard ingredients. Nothing too hard to track down!

Finally, I made a beautiful batch of Hidden Treasure Muffins! I love that name. These are super lemony whole-grain muffins with secret jam hidden inside! What fun. I used some apricot jam that a friend gave us. :) I made these for my mom on Mothers' Day. They were so great - a little bit sweet and naughty, but also hearty and wholesome. I'll definitely make these again!

Besides all the great recipes, there are a lot of great things to love about this book:

~ Beautiful layout: glorious pictures (taken by Celine!), one recipe per page, super cute fonts, and even the paper is smooth and matte and super fun to feel. This sort of thing really affects how much I can groove on a cookbook.
~ Recipes give weights AND measures. I really love that.
~ The recipes are totally awesome! I have so many more marked down that I want to make:
Whole Grain Artisan Bread, Lemon Ginger Rolls, Pesto Knots, Garlic Naan, Nectarine Topped Oatmeal Cake... and on and on!

Yes! YOU CAN HAZ A COPY!

Fair Winds Press is offering one copy to a winner (open to U.S. & Canada only, sorry!). Just leave a comment here on this post, and you'll be entered to win. Be sure to leave your blogger contact or email, because I am not going to spend hours hunting you down! I'll pick a winner in one week - next Wednesday, May 22nd.

Chipotle Tofu Sofritas

I hardly ever eat out. Most of the time I feel like I can cook a better vegan meal than I can get in a restaurant. Plus, I'll know what's in it (which won't be 1/4 cup of oil and 2 tablespoons of salt, or whatever). In fact, I almost only ever end up eating out when I am Too Tired To Cook. It happens sometimes that I have noble visions of preparing some promising new recipe that I've never tried, but suddenly it's already 8:30 pm and I feel like I will either pass out or start eating the junk mail if I don't get some food in me pronto.

That's where Chipotle comes in. Chipotle is basically semi-fast food, but you get to watch as they put your food together and you can specify "just a little salsa," or whatever. Plus, they are super vegan friendly. They have brown rice. The guacamole is free when you get a veggie burrito. Friends, for real. And, just recently, they introduced a super awesome new vegan option in Northern California: Tofu Sofritas. It's a spicy crumbled tofu pan-fried with roasted poblano peppers, and it is GOOD. I was so happy when I finally got to try it, and now I think I've already had it 3 times (important note: guacamole is not free with the sofritas option, only with the beans-and-rice option).

I always get the burrito bowl - which is like all the burrito stuff without the tortilla - and I always ask for extra peppers and onions. Plus, if you are counting calories like I am, you can even look up all their nutrient stuff online here. I didn't see the Sofritas info online yet, so I emailed the company and got a response the very same day! What! I was really impressed.

Here's what they sent:
Sofritas Nutritional Info:
(for some reason, protein wasn't included?)
Size - 4oz
calories - 145
cal from fat - 90
total fat (g) 10
sat fat (g) 1.5
trans fat - 0
cholesterol (mg) - 0
Sodium (mg) - 850
carbs (g) - 9.5

Have you ever eaten at a Chipotle? Have you tried the Sofritas? 

What's your I'm A Zombie back-up plan?? 

Quizza

See the toasty goodness?

I've blogged about Ricki's delicious Chickpea Quizza before... but just in case you missed the memo, here I am to blog about it again. I love this recipe so much. It's simple, practically effortless, and full of nutrition. Recently I made a big double batch of quizzas - with zucchini, chard, and sun-dried tomatoes as my veggies. After they were perfectly baked, I cut each one into quarters and froze them.

Along with some fruit and a cuppa joe, they make a really perfect breakfast. Savory, filling, high-protein, and yummy! I just take a slice out of the freezer and warm in my toaster oven for 15-20 minutes, and I'm good to go. I just finished the last slice, so it looks like it's time for me to make some more.