Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Vegetarian Chilli: A food cliche


Is there anything more overdone in the vegetarian world than veggie chilli? Hellz yes, it's name is the veggie burger. The only thing though, is that chilli is warm, homey and easy to make. There is a reason it's repeated at nauseum. On the chopping block for this evening was Field Roast Chipotle Sausage. If you've never tried Field Roast, you haven't lived. It is way, waaaaaaaay better than any other fake meat I've ever tried (I'm looking at you Tofurkey-gag). It is in no way a diet food, with roughly 20 grams of fat per link. That's why it taste so delish, fat = taste. They come in Italian, apple sage and chipotle-all of which we tried and loved in a borderline obsessive way. I've been so congested lately that spicy was in order. For this little ditty, I used garlic, red pepper and frozen corn. I also cooked up a mixture of chickpeas, pinto and black beans. Making your own beans is easy peasy and cheap. They usually say to soak overnight, but it seems like every time I do that it's epic fail. So, just a rinse and then boil them until soft-usually a few hours. I added all of those things to a pan with two chipotle sausages, plus a can of organic tomato sauce and a can of water. I then added salt to taste and about 1-2 tbs chilli powder. I simmered for about 30 minutes while I whipped up a batch of Jalapeno cornbread biscuits. Costco has these dehydrated jalapeno pieces that are the bomb for cooking with. *swoon* The recipe for the biscuits came out of " Vegan Brunch" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Isa is my vegan superhero. I'll save my love fest for some other blog because I need more room, but if you need a good place to start your vegan cookbook collection-start with hers.
I added some lime to my chilli to replace the sour taste I once got from sour cream. A little cilantro and this bitch was dreamy.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Lunch, the meal that says "meh".

Let me tell you something. It's no secret, but it may be the most important thing you hear today. I LOVE sandwiches. (See, I told you in was monumental) Reubens, clubs, tuna, chicken salad and egg-I could go on for days. When I became vegetarian, my lunch routine changed from meat-tacular to cheese-tastic. Grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese and various other dairy delights. When I became vegan, lunch left a vast wasteland in my repertoire and officially became my sworn enemies. I would ride into town on my trusty steed with a belly full of hunger and a dream in my heart. Lunch would stand there with guns drawn ready for a showdown. I couldn't figure out how to call a truce and fix this problem. I needed something fast, super easy and filling. Enter "T". It seems the vegan lunch is her specialty. She has been my vegan partner in crime, and can give a food orgasm like nobody's business. By this I mean "there's a party in my mouth and everyone is invited" vs. where ever your mind went first. T has taught me so much about how bad ass lunch can be, and it's now my favorite-ish( I can't let breakfast, brunch, dessert or second lunch hear me say that). Lunch is most fun with lots of options and delicious plating. Turns out 3/4 of how things taste is how they look-so put in an effort peeps! You'll find you can't help but want to take pictures of your own food porn!

The above bad ass vegan lunch is: Pita Pal organic hummus on whole wheat pita. Fresh pineapple salsa with cilantro and blue corn tortillas. Potassium rocket.

This glorious plate you see below contains: Pan fried pita breads (try it- omgeeeee), veggie sushi, tofu "egg salad" and red pepper hummus.
What is your favorite lunch?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Dudes that do veggies and other perverse plays on words



Hey, did you hear that story about the girl that wanted to get a license plate reading "I heart TOFU" but was denied? When you read it on a license plate, it looked like"I heart TO-F-U". I think it's pretty freakin brilliant, but then that's probably why they don't let me approve license plates. That really has nothing to do with where I'm going with this particular blog entry, but I just love when tofu can be pervy, so get used to it. This blog is really the story of two veggies.
The first of which is my wonderful husband "Bean" (I know, clever right?) As I'm sure you guessed, Bean is not his real name. It seems that all the cool bloggers have fun monikers for their family, probably so that once your blog goes viral the stalkers won't know how to find you. Frankly, my friends are the ones most likely to participate in the obnoxious pranks that one would play on a vegan-so I'm not terribly afraid of stalker antics. Noelle, I'm looking in your direction. But I digress. Bean is what some would call "The reluctant Vegetarian". When I first announced my intentions three years ago, he was less than thrilled. And by less than thrilled I mean deadpan. Bean was a hunter, fisherman, Philly Cheese steak aficionado and person voted "most likely to write a love sonnet to cheese" in high school. Since I did most of the cooking, this change just meant that Bean would get his meaty kicks outside of our home. I was told "I will NEVER be a vegetarian" so I dropped it. He humored me though, attempting to read "Diet for a New America" and even watching "Earthlings" but still nothing changed. Fast forward two summers and Mr. Meatypants wants to do cage fighting-BADLY. He talks about it night and day, and day and night. My response is "over my dead body". He starts to get desperate and trying to make bargains to get my permission. Finally he brings out the big guns, he will go vegetarian. Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Now Bean will hate me for putting this out on the interwebs, but his one and only fight did not end in his favor. For some reason though, he didn't go back to eating meat. To this day I don't know why, as he maintains that he cares not for the environment, chemicals in our food or animal suffering. Maybe he saw how happy it made me, or that it avoided the awkward conversation with our yet-to-be-monikered 3 year old about why Daddy has cow on his plate. The real reason I think though, is that people told him he couldn't do it. Bean happens to be my soul mate in this regard-if someone says "you can't do it", his answer is "watch me." So big shout out to all those people that harassed Bean about it, you helped fund this epic vegetarian win.
On the other side of 'The Reluctant Vegetarian' is the Hegan. This article is actually pretty good, so ch-ch-check it out.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2010/03/24/men_leave_their_own_mark_on_veganism/?page=1

Bean is pretty far from a Hegan, but I still hold out hope that someday soon he'll want to take up Brazilian-ice-sword-slashing, Death wrestling or some sort of weird body mutilation. On that day my friends, it's Vegan time.

Monday, March 22, 2010

First Blog!

How exciting! I want to apologize right off the bat for excessive use of exclamation marks-though those that know me would probably agree that I'm easily excitable. I've started this blog because I want a place to put pictures of my food porn and share some meatless recipes with others. I know the vast majority of people have no clue what Vegans eat-believe it or not it's more than tofu and Universe juice(fans of Kung Fu Panda will get that one). A good friend once told me that every Vegan she had ever met smelled of vitamins and patchouli, which is the inspiration for my blog title. I like to think I more frequently smell of body odor and crepes thank you very much! Despite this, people still want to hang out with me-turns out I'm a pretty bad ass Vegan cook. So, I hope you'll hang out despite the hippie in my kitchen. She can be funny, opinionated, frequently Canadian and possibly reeking of patchouli. You've been warned.