Sunday Morning Pumpkin Pancakes and Life Lessons

I woke up yesterday with a one-track mind: must. make. pumpkin. pancakes. A craving like this is one of the only things that can break through the wall of laziness and exhaustion that currently surrounds me at all times. I haven’t cooked in like a month, but this was an emergency.

I broke out Vegan Brunch and set right to mixing and measuring. Almost immediately, I noticed that the batter looked a little thin.

But I got my griddle nice and hot, sprayed my cooking spray, and added the first scoop of batter. When I eventually tried to flip it, however, it basically completely crumpled, and started to tear. Even after cooking for a few more minutes, it was really hard to get it off the griddle and onto the spatula, and it still seemed kinda gooey.

Immediately I started running through possible causes for the problem. Did I somehow not measure my ingredients correctly? Is my flour too old? Was the first pancake too big?

For round 2, I tried making two smaller pancakes. Still no dice. I ended up with these too-soft, crumply messes:

At this point, I figured I had just done something wrong, but I was determined to finish cooking the rest of the batter (waste not!). And I decided that I was NOT going to settle for mediocre pancakes. I would keep trying different tweaks and approaches. If they turned out mediocre anyway, at least I’d know I tried.

My first fix was to switch out Earth Balance for the cooking spray the recipe recommends. I noticed an almost immediate difference in the way the pancakes were cooking. The edges were getting golden and crispy and, while still very thin, they were much easier to flip over without crumpling.

Second fix was to use slightly less batter. Third, let them cook longer than I had previously been doing.

I ended up with a plate stacked with beautiful pumpkiny goodness, which I served with a dab of vegan cream cheese and some dried cranberries. It was absolutely perfect.

At some point, I realized that this pancake-making process was like a little analogy for so many of the things I’ve experienced in life so far, and so many, many things that I will experience in the near future when I become a parent.

Life lessons, people. Sometimes you just have to adjust your approach. Follow your instincts. Sometimes the instructions you are given aren’t the be-all and end-all.

Adjusting your approach won’t always necessarily yield the result or reward you initially were going for, but maybe you will be pleasantly surprised when you find that you end up with something just as good, or maybe even better, than what you set out for.

Bottom line: don’t be so hard on yourself if things aren’t perfect, but also don’t just throw up your hands and give up–take action and make it better!

WordPress Issues?

Hey all, happy Friday!

I’m just checking in from mobile to let you know that I haven’t posted this week because I’ve been having a ton of problems trying to access, let alone log into, wordpress.com. It’s super-frustrating because I actually have a bunch of blogs ready to go, but no way to post them at the moment.

Is anyone else having a similar problem?? Or know how to fix it??

It appears to be a security issue, where Chrome says it can’t connect to the “real WordPress,” while Explorer just won’t connect to the page at all.

I thought maybe it was caused by the security settings on my work computer, but today I’m on a public computer and having the same problem 😦 WTH??

Anyway, enough bitching from me. I hope everyone has a terrific weekend! I will be spending mine on Cape Cod with my handsome husband, perfect fur-babies, sunshine, and cherries. All. The. Cherries.

The Pitfalls of Dining Out in Boston

Happy March, kids!

I had another low-key but productive weekend.  Sunday involved tons of cleaning and house organizing, while Saturday was more eventful.   I started the day with my new standard breakfast:
Sprouted Ancient Maize Flakes with banana, hemp seeds, and unsweetened almond-coconut milk.  And coffee!

Turns out it’s great fuel for running!  About an hour and a half after having this, I set out to do 5.5 miles around town.  I finished it in 54:42, which I was pretty impressed with considering that I was constantly having to stop to walk or hop over giant patches of ice.  I know spring is coming but man does it still feel far away.

As soon as I got home I cooked up a great big tofu scramble with red bell peppers and lacinato kale and ate it with toast.  I was starving!

Then H and I headed over to Boston College to watch the men’s hockey team take on Notre Dame.

Unfortunately the Eagles lost in overtime, but it was still fun to get to take in a game.  We had awesome seats, too!

After the game, H and I fought our way through city traffic into South Boston to have dinner with his brother and sister-in-law at the Lincoln Tavern.  I do not recommend it. 

The rest of this post is going to get a little rant-y so you can feel free to skip it if you’re not into that sort of reading material.

Here’s the thing: I eat at omnivore restaurants all the time.  I am married to an omnivore, our families and all of our friends are omnivores (and usually pick the restaurant), and I live in a metro area that really kind of sucks for vegans.  Nevertheless I feel like I usually can get something decent to eat, and it’s usually not too painful of a process because I am a seasoned menu reader and modifier, and I go out of my way to be pleasant and appreciative when asking for accommodation.

Besides, even places that mainly cater to the wings and steak tips crowd usually achieve the bare minimum of veg-friendliness by including a veggie burger, right?

Well, not Lincoln Tavern.  I looked at their dinner menu online before H and I went into the city and my heart sunk a little.  But I figured I’d just have a salad or something (hold the inevitable cheese) and then eat a real dinner when I got home.

Except that I was really, really hungry by the time we got there.  So I decided to order a cheeseless pizza with veggies.  The vegetable pizza on their menu says that it has ricotta and pesto.  So when I ordered it, I asked whether they could do it without the cheese and pesto, basically just make a pizza of red sauce and vegetables.  I was told this would be no problem (and why should it be?).

Our food initially took a really long time to come out (but whatever, it was a very busy Saturday night), then two of the four entrees arrived, followed several minutes later by the other two (which btw, as I recall from my time waiting tables, is a big mistake).  And there was my pizza, covered in cheese.

I was so hungry at this point that I actually for a moment considered just eating it.

But instead we flagged down the waitress and I told her (pleasantly, as always), “I’m sorry, but this wasn’t supposed to have any cheese.”  And rather than just apologize, take it away, and replace it, she decided to argue with me, saying “You said no pesto, you didn’t say anything about cheese.”  Wtf?  If you misunderstood or didn’t hear me (it was loud as hell in that place), that’s okay, but don’t tell me that I didn’t say anything about the cheese when by this point it’s clear that that was something important to me.

They did replace it…
…but the waitress was incredibly rude and refused to acknowledge me the rest of the meal.  Seriously, after I ate half the pizza (intending to take the other half home) and put it to the side with my silverware on the tray (indicating I was done), she cleared everyone else’s place at the table except for mine.  She came back 2 more times to bring drinks to the others in my party and still the pizza was left on the table.  Finally, exasperated, I got up and left the table, asking H to please ask for a box for the pizza because maybe she’d listen to him.  And sure enough, only when I was gone from the table did she finally clear my place.

It actually was a really tasty pizza (even though they left off the olives), but it was not worth being treated like a second-class customer and a troublemaker, especially when I wasn’t even angry or making a big deal about the mix-up.  They will never have business from me again.

It wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered this kind of attitude at a Boston restaurant (nor will it be the last), and I truly cannot stand it.  Why is vegetarian or vegan food somehow beneath you?  Just because you’re trying to cater to the growing gentrified “foodie” truffle-mac-n-cheese-and-kobe-meatballs component of Southie, doesn’t mean that you can’t treat all of your customers with a consistent level of respect and professionalism.  After all, I’m still in your establishment, paying you full price for your food even though you are actually saving money on me by omitting ingredients.  And in the age of Internet reviews (and BLOGS–hello!) are you really so sure that you can treat your customers like garbage and still stay in business?

For the record, I’ve never had this problem in New York.  God I miss New York.

In Conclusion
Experiences like this make me even more appreciative of places that at least make an effort to accommodate different dietary choices and restrictions.  It’s one of the reasons that I include select omnivore restaurants on my Vegan Eating in Greater Boston page.  If you’re planning a trip to Boston, do me a favor and patronize one of those, and not Lincoln Tavern.  Please and thank you.

Moving On

Well, it’s Tuesday morning.  The Patriots’ season is over and it’s time to move on.  Go ‘Hawks, I guess.

I know, I know, it’s just football and it’s entertainment and not a real life problem.

“I just want to tell you that some people have war in their countries.” 

But yesterday I spent my day off from work basically in mourning.  Normally I would be so excited to have an entire day available to spend in the kitchen making yummy stuff.  Instead, I made exactly one thing and I did so only in the interest of stuffing my face with sweets.

Rice Krispie treats!  I got this ultra-simple and delightful recipe from Becky of Glue and Glitter.  The coconut oil totally elevates it.  Try this; you won’t regret it.

With that, here is the complete, unabridged list of what I accomplished yesterday:

1) Made coffee.
2) Turned the knob of the dishwasher to “on” (probably the most useful thing I did actually)
3) Melted some stuff in a pan and called it “cooking” (seriously though it’s a fab recipe and I recommend it) 🙂
4) Ate a whole bag of baked Tostitos scoops.  Also almost an entire jar of salsa, plus my lazy bastardized version of guacamole where I take an avocado and mash it with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
5) Watched five movies.  Actually almost six, but one of the free movies On Demand that I started was too scary and also stupid to continue.

And no, I never got dressed.

But like I said, today I am moving on!  Step one:This one was a real winner: 1 cup water, 1 frozen banana, 5 frozen strawberries, 1 tbsp. hemp seeds, and 2 collard leaves, plus 1 cube of coconut water that I had frozen in an ice tray.  I cribbed that brilliant idea from Kathy of Happy Healthy Life.

Step two: tonight I actually will make dinner for myself and my dear, sweet, loving, patient husband.  I’ve got this Black Eyed Pea Curry with Collards and Potatoes from the PPK on my mind.

See you next season ❤Yes, I do have a calendar of “Football All-Stars” that you color yourself.  This was a Christmas gift from my sister, whose ingenuity in gift-giving knows no limits.

Tempeh Sweet Potato Curry. Or, Adventures in Tempeh Land

I know that I’ve previously alluded on this blog to the fact that I have a weird relationship with tempeh, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really offered an explanation for this.  [Don’t worry, there is a recipe at the end of this post!]

In my pre-gan days I had always been a fan of faux meats as well as other meat “stand-ins” such as tofu.  So although I didn’t learn about tempeh until after I had become vegan, I was excited to try it and figured it would become something I ate regularly, just like tofu.

So imagine my surprise when, the first time I tried tempeh, I HATED it.

I don’t remember the first time I had most foods, or what the first vegan dish I cooked was, or anything like that.  But I vividly remember the first time I tried tempeh.  It was after making the Smoky Grilled Tempeh from Veganomicon (and actually I blogged about it in one of my earliest blog posts!).

A round of applause for the blurry 2008 blog photo please!

Those nice-looking triangles were in fact inedible.  The texture–simultaneously chewy and crunchy–was unexpected and unpleasant.  The flavor of the liquid smoke overpowered and really I just hated it.  [As a sidenote, this was also the only time in my entire life that I have made a recipe by Isa Chandra and not liked it!]

This experience scarred me in several ways.   For one, ever since that day I have been extremely stingy with liquid smoke.  I decrease the quantity by at least half in any recipe that calls for it.  Only recently, nearly 6 years later, have I started to become a bit braver with the smokey-smoke.

Additionally, it was a long time until I tried tempeh again, and I was only brave enough to do it in the form of bacon (I think the tempeh bacon from Peace o’ Pie I described in this post was actually the first time I tried it since the above-described debacle).  And even then, I didn’t like it much.  [As a sidenote, this is the only thing I can remember that I ever ate at Peace o’ Pie that I didn’t like.  Are we sensing a theme?]

I only FINALLY started to enjoy tempeh after having it at Good Karma Cafe in Red Bank, New Jersey, near where my parents live.

Sweet mustard tempeh Love Bowl from Good Karma Cafe

I don’t know what kind of magic the crazy elves who work at Good Karma work on the tempeh but holy hell is it delicious.  I often crave specifically THIS tempeh, but sadly I can only get it when I go down to Jersey.  Even my sister M, who has no love for tempeh (but is definitely on Team Seitan!), is a big fan of this stuff.

At some point, I also acquired a liking for the Tofurkey folks’ maple tempeh bacon.  I don’t buy it often because it can be pricey and because I am pretty good at convincing myself that I should eat less storebought stuff, but I do like it.

The other night, as part of my ongoing but recently revitalized effort to scourge our pantry and freezer, I used some overly long-frozen tempeh bacon to make a “California burger.”  [Isn’t that what restaurants always name a burger with avocado on it?]

Of course, you can’t see the avocado in this photo, but it was there, under the lettuce.  The patty was a Quorn vegan burger that was also floating around the freezer.  [Sidenote: these patties are mediocre at best and they also smell really strongly, and not in a good way, if you microwave them.  I don’t particularly recommend them.  Also, Quorn, why is like 99% of your stuff not vegan?  Possibly take a look at the market and reevaluate who your core audience really is.]  The bun was from Trader Joe’s and also had been living in–you guessed it!–the freezer.

Anyway, it was a very tasty burger, and I was really pleased with how well the tempeh bacon froze and reheated in my cast iron skillet.  And I think I should buy some more of it.

Finally, the other day I made a curry because, also in line with the kitchen cleanout, I had the following items that needed to be used ASAP: a sweet potato, a red bell pepper, one broccoli crown, and a package of…wait for it…tempeh (the SoyBoy 5 Grain variety).

And whaddya know, I liked it!  A rich, silky curry recipe like this could warm me up to just about anything.

Tempeh Sweet Potato Curry, adapted from a free recipe for “Tempeh Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans” I once picked up in a Whole Foods somewhere
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Easy variation for gluten-free and soy-free 

Ingredients
1 + 1/2 cup vegetable broth (or water), separated
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp. curry powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 package of tempeh (8 oz.), cubed (and pre-steamed if desired…see recipe note)
1 13.5-oz. can light coconut milk
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 crown broccoli, cut into small florets (use the stems too!)
1 red bell pepper, diced or cut into small strips
1/4 tsp. sea salt
(optional) a few tablespoons of chopped cilantro
(optional) a few dashes of cayenne pepper (how much will depend on your personal tastes plus how hot your curry powder is)

Directions
Bring 1/2 cup vegetable broth to a simmer in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until onion is tender (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Stir in curry and cumin and cook for 1 minute.

Add coconut milk, potatoes, tempeh, and remaining 1 cup broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook 10 minutes.  Stir in broccoli and bell pepper and return to a simmer, uncovered.  Cook about 5-10 minutes longer, until potatoes and broccoli are tender.  Stir in salt and optional cilantro and cayenne.

Serve over cooked brown or basmati rice.  Enjoy!

Recipe note: Some people like to steam their tempeh before adding it to a recipe like this, to draw out some of the bitterness.  To do this, simply cut the block of tempeh in half and place in a steamer basket over a pot with a little bit of boiling water in it, cover, and steam for 15 minutes or until tender.  Remove tempeh and set aside until it is cool enough to cut into cubes.

Variation: You can also make this recipe with tofu in place of tempeh (keeping in mind that you won’t need to add it until near the end of the cooking process), or with veggies only!  This would be useful for those avoiding gluten and/or soy.

How do you feel about tempeh?  

What foods you have tried and struggled to like?

Spilling the Greens

Get it?? It’s like beans but…green.  Except not green beans.

I’m tired.

And I’ve been spilling stuff non-stop for the past two days.  This morning I knocked over my bag of chia seeds and they went all over the floor.  Just a minute ago I knocked over my coffee mug at work and it spilled onto a case I had been reading (thankfully just a print out and not an actual court file!).

But yesterday’s spill was the king.  I had hoped to get in to work a little early, so I set up my coffee and prepped my smoothie ingredients the night before.  I was totally jamming and making great time.

I made my pretty purple smoothie:

1 cup frozen organic strawberries, 1 cup chia gel (1 tbsp. chia seeds + 1 cup water soaked overnight or longer), 1 cup fresh blueberries, 1/2 fresh banana, 1 large collard green leaf, 2 leaves of kale.  [Pause: If I made this again, I might add a touch of liquid sweetener, because my berries weren’t all that sweet.  Resume.]

As I was filling my smoothie cup, I knocked the blender bowl into it and I spilled half (okay maybe like a third) of the smoothie onto the floor.

It was disgusting and surprisingly hard to clean up.  I was not early for work.

Anyway!  I’m getting pretty pumped about Vegan MoFo (that’s the Vegan Month of Food) this year.   I’ve never participated in anything like it before.  And, as is probably crystal clear from scrolling down a few inches on this blog, I don’t publish anything close to 20 posts in a month, ever.  But I have a fun theme in mind, and I’m really excited to challenge myself to be creative and to post very frequently.  It’s starting September 1st this year, and the deadline to sign up is August 28, in case anyone else is interested.

I don’t want to reveal my MoFo theme just yet, but I will say that it does NOT focus on green foods.  I, along with many other herbivores, eat so many greens each and every day that it wouldn’t be all that daring or interesting to do a whole month on green food.  They’ll be there, of course, but not *featured* is all.

To that end, I’m doing a photo dump (or “spill” if you will…see how good I am with themes??) of some yummy green stuff I’ve eaten lately, to get ready to fill my camera up with MoFo pics.

Green Smoothies: nothing new in the blogosphere, but somehow they never get old.  I made this one at home (fresh pineapple, frozen banana, hemp seeds, kale):

And bought this beautiful thing at Whole Foods:

My wallet may never forgive me for discovering that Whole Foods has a smoothie and juice bar.  This one is called the Mighty Green and it has unsweetened non-dairy milk (you can choose from coconut, soy, almond, or rice), banana, kale, spinach, avocado, and your choice of fruit (pineapple, mango, strawberries, or blueberries).  The one pictured above was coconut milk and pineapple.  The one below was almond milk and blueberries.

SO GOOD.

Despite all of the Halloween decorations you are seeing in stores, it’s still summer, dammit, and basil is calling my name.

Half the time I go into a store (well, really, a farm stand) with no plan to buy basil, but then its aroma wafts over to me and it’s game over.  I mean, it’s never going to go bad as long as pesto is a thing.  My favorite recipe (and everyone else’s I’m sure) is the Classic Pesto from Vegan With a Vengeance.

I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and die happy.

I had a buttload of corn and black bean salad leftover from a barbecue H and I hosted at our house.  The original, ultra-simple salad recipe (by Maria Guadagno) can be found here.  I ate some of the leftovers on tortilla chips, and cooked up the rest with some onion, red bell pepper, garlic, and tomato, and added a little lime juice, fresh cilantro, and some additional cumin (because I can never have enough cumin).

For 3 days I ate it over steamed collard greens, topped with chipotle hot sauce.  Talk about cheap and cheerful!

I also have discovered this:

If you like hummus (or “hommos,” I guess?), and you like spinach artichoke dip, you have to try this.  Trust me.  It is creamy and tangy and best of all, dairy free. My favorite way to eat it is spread on crostini (also leftover in droves from this storied barbecue), but regular bread or toast would do just fine.

I want to write a little more about the barbecue H and I had, because I served up a whole lotta vegan food to a bunch of omnivores and it went over pretty swimmingly.  I also found a restaurant in the Boston suburbs that has actually heard the word “vegan” before and I want to give them a write-up too.  I’ll try to get a post on both of these topics up before Vegan MoFo begins.

Make sure you get out and enjoy the last few weeks of summer!!

Go Easy

Well, I’m sorry to say that I have little to report that is very interesting from my weekend away.  Failed veganventure.

H and I and our two travel companions began our trip south early Friday morning.  The first leg of the trip consisted of snow, freezing rain, ice, and fog.  And traffic.  Not pleasant.  I had packed a whole giant bag of food for the ride, knowing that there might not be many roadside options for me.  The bag contained: bananas, two PB&J sandwiches, a bag of original flavor Pop Chips, a baggie stuffed with pretzels, another baggie full of Oreos, and a container of Very Simple Blueberry Muffins from VegWeb (see below for recipe and pictures).

The entire journey took about twelve hours and was very pleasant in terms of company and conversation.  Biggest problem for me was being hungry for alot of the time.  I don’t know what it is about my body/preferences/metabolism (?), but I can’t just subsist on snacky food.  I wanted to eat something real after all that time.  Unfortunately, our three stops for food consisted of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and KFC.  No thanks.

By the time we got to Charlottesville my body was practically begging for some real food.  Before we checked into our hotel, we stopped at a veg-friendly Chinese restaurant called Ming Dynasty.  I got some sort of veggie-pork with vegetables and brown rice.  I didn’t take a picture because my camera was packed somewhere in the car and I was too hungry to wait until we got out and unpacked and everything.  So no picture…sorry 😦  However, karma repaid me for being too greedy to do my blog duty, because after a few bites, my food then spilled all over the car floor, and got filled with grit and who knows what else so that I couldn’t eat it anymore.  But from what I remember, it was tasty.   And it smelled pretty good in the car the next day, since the sauce got into the carpets (sorry again!!)  So, go Ming Dynasty, I guess.  (I was extremely upset about this whole incident, by the way.)

I didn’t eat or do anything for the rest of the weekend that I’d care to share on this forum.  What I can tell you is that I had a muffin and banana for each of Saturday and Sunday breakfast, and on Saturday, I had a salad from Chipotle (with all the vegan trimmings) while the rest of my friends chowed down at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then Saturday night I had a similar dinner (rice, beans, hot sauce, veggies) from Qdoba.  Again, not my best weekend.

So there you have it.  A failed veganventure.  Hey, we can’t win ’em all!  And anyway, the muffins were delicious!  I made another batch that had blueberries and strawberries in it and those were good too (though I preferred the blueberries-only version).

Here are some pictures, and the recipe is here.  I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk in both of my batches.  I also added about 1/4-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and 1-2 dashes of nutmeg to each.  Just my personal taste preference, but I was happy with how it came out.  These are super-easy and very quick.

A beautiful blueberry muffin

The whole batch (I made four giant ones and one smaller one [seen top left–cute, right?]…you could definitely get at least 8 cupcake-sized muffins out of this recipe)

I thought this was cool…the one blueberry that didn’t burst in the oven! Here you can see the cakey texture, too.

Back soon with a positive attitude and more delicious vegan eats!

Happy Birthday J!!

Today is my little brother’s 21st birthday!  I’ve had this recipe for Jagerbomb Cupcakes for months, planning all along to use it for this occasion.  It’s from omnomnom.com.  For those who don’t know, a Jagerbomb is a drink that consists of a shot of Jagermeister liquor (that has sort of a licorice/Dr. Pepper flavor) dropped into a glass of Red Bull energy drink and then chugged down.  My brother loves these, hence the perfection of finding a vegan Jagerbomb cupcake recipe.

However, this recipe was kind of a SFS situation.  Sorry For Sucking.  I am sick with a gross cold which sucks, and I think my brain isn’t working that well so that could be one explanation.  Another explanation is that Jagerbombs suck so the cupcakes suck by default.  The final possibility is that the recipe sucks.  But I’m fairly certain that it’s one of the first two.  And probably the first one.

However there is still a possibility that J will in fact like the cupcakes (since he hasn’t tried one yet) so there is still hope that I am not a sucky sister.

I post this so that anyone who looks at my blog will know that not all of my baking efforts are successful, or even attractive.  This blog keeps me honest!

Here are the little beasties

Green Eggs and Ham?

I invented the icing shown in the second picture in an attempt to improve the taste of the finished product.  Note that the authors of the recipe included a frosting as part of the recipe, but I didn’t use theirs, so shame on me.

Sigh. SFS.