I want to marry this sandwich.

*sigh* I love Field Roast. In my opinion, the very best analog (and soy free) products out there. Analog simply refers to a product that resembles meat in texture and flavor. I often get asked why a vegetarian or vegan would want to eat something that pretends to be meat. First, not all of us do. Second, because meat tastes good-duh. I don't know many veggies who stopped eating meat because of flavor. This product is nice because it has a short ingredient list (all of which are real food) and amazing flavor and texture.

Unfortunately, I can no longer get Field Roast products at a store anywhere near me. We will be reunited again soon. When that day comes, I will be making this Vietnamese sandwich while crying tears of happiness. Image: Field Roast

In the mean time if you could just make this for yourself, and tell me about it detail by painful detail-that would be awesome.

Best video eva! Pad Thai, yum!

Today I share with you possibly the most amazing cooking show you've ever seen. I present to you "Vegan Black Metal Chef". Brilliant!

The day I discovered my Vitamix made ice cream

Image: Kawaii

Also known as the fourth best day of my life. I've made no secret about my obsession with my beloved Vitamix. Over the three years that we've been together, we've had some fun times, sweet times, bittersweet times, saucy times, and some explosive times. We've had boozy times, crepe-y times and blendy times. But until today, we've never had ice cream-y times. For those of you that have never eaten vegan ice cream, I'm going to tell you something. It's both insanely delicious and stupid expensive. For that reason, it's rare in this house (someone also told me that it's metabolic suicide-and I have a hard time forgetting that). So today when Biggest was sent home with a raging fever, it called for some serious TLC. Our family shares one car and after a walk home in the rain I wasn't expecting that TLC to come in frozen form. But there he was, begging for ice cream and me not having any. Then I remembered the Vitamix Costco demo that sold me on it in the first place. How had I not tried this until now? Into my Vitamix I threw

Mango Lychee Soft Serve
1 cup ice
1/2 cup organic soy milk
1/2 cup cashews
5 dates
1/4 cup frozen mangos
1/4 cup frozen lychees

Using the plunger, keep forcing the ingredients towards the blade until it's relatively smooth. I was really careful to blend it just enough, as the Vitamix will quickly melt that ice. I used an ice cream scoop to dish it out and we all thought we went to heaven. Seriously. No sugar, check. Healthy ingredients, check. No metabolic suicide, check. Not $7.99 a pint, double check. Amazing! I have had a soft serve maker all this time?!? Le sigh. Though that just means that I have to make up for lost time. So for my dinner ice cream I made: (keep in mind with measurements that I'm guesstimating)

Raspberry Chocolate chip Soft Ice Cream
1/4 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup organic soy milk
1 cup ice
2 handfuls cashews
6 dates
1 small handful vegan mini chocolate chips

Repeat same process as above. Except keep chocolate chips out until the last few seconds. I loved this one! The raspberry was really tart with a little sweet, reminiscent of frozen yogurt. Biggest had two cones of this-it's nice when I can say "yes" to more treats sometimes. Stay tuned-I'm already planning tomorrow's ice cream binge. Dear Vitamix, thank you for giving me a reason to wake up tomorrow. Ice cream for breakfast.

The People Project

Two posts in one day! I swear, the world is not coming to an end. My friend Shannon told me how addicting watching the stats on your blog are. She couldn't be more right. Essentially it tells you how people are finding their way to your blog (turns out I have a large Latvian audience! Sveiki visiem maniem latviešu auditoriju! Paldies par apstāšanās ar, un parādot man jūsu mīlestība! Pazemīgus, lai aplūkotu vegāns ziņu izplatību tālu un plaši. Daudz mīlestības! Thanks Google Translate :) Anyways, it's how I found out that Isa Chandra gave this blog a shout out on twitter (squeeee) and how I learned I'm face number two on the Veganvoice.org People Project. How awesome! Essentially it's purpose is to show the many faces of veganism (which by the way are both normal and very attractive haaa). It's really really cool-if you're vegan, go check it out and add your bad ass self and story! And if you're not, it's great for people watching!

Happy Easter! Vegan creme eggs holla!

Veganizing things makes me feel powerful. Like a cooking ninja if you will, sneaking in under the cover of darkness to make delicious treats previously off limits to junk food junkies like myself. Omni-tastic Christina used to eat copious amounts of creme eggs right around this time of year, almost guaranteeing an extra 5 lbs of flab going into bathing suit season. Everything is explained now that I have seen the ingredients that go into them.
Now let's make no bones (haaa punny) about it-these are horrible for you. Yet they taste amazing and they instantly transform you away from that weird vegan in the corner eating the only side dish without bacon.

Since it was my first attempt at making candy, they weren't a total home run. I would have been more effective with multiple candy trays, as I was doing them one at a time hours apart (which was hard to keep the chocolate from solidifying). Also, I overfilled the chocolate molds not wanting to

waste the filling. But otherwise-smashing success. Really easy so give it a try! Happy Easter everyone!

Whipped Creme:The Holy Grail

There are some things that are (in my humble opinion) unduplicatable. Brie. Deviled eggs. Whipped creme. UNTIL NOW! Now don't let my shouty capitals alarm you, but feel free to let them excite you right down to your undies. Vegan whipped creme is here, and it's so flippin amazing you'll want it to take a bath in it.

It comes, of course, from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who has come up with pretty much every one of my very favorite recipes. I was going to blog about something else tonight, but when my new buddy Shannon found out there was a recipe for vegan whipped creme-there was no other choice. The recipe for Rad Whip, in all it's glory! Don't let the complicated steps throw you off, it doesn't take more than about 20 minutes of active work and the results are out of control. Get ready for all kinds of whipped creme madness!

Feeding picky jerks vegan food

Let me walk you through a timeline of dinner at my house:

4:00-the natives start to get restless, what's for dinner?
4:15-ingredients assembled, preparation begins
4:20-boiling, chopping, sauteing and measuring all being done while simultaneously keeping Mini out of the fridge (which she always violently protests), keeping Mini away from the oven, cleaning up pasta shells Mini has dumped onto the floor, rescuing playdough from Mini's mouth and trying to have a rousing debate with Biggest about why now is not the time for snack.
4:30-Pingu saves the day
4:33-Biggest takes up where we left off about negotiating for snacks
4:35-Settling for a glass of rice milk, Biggest now takes up a petition for the family to play Super Mario brothers together. Melts down when dinner preparation wins. Glass goes zooming across the kitchen and shatters. Clean up said glass while Mini tries to dance in the shards.
4:40-Turn off oven timer and instead program in a time out
4:45-Forget about oven items while talking to Biggest about why he had a time out
4:50-Oven treats burn. Rescue Mini from imminent death(she's jumping on the top bunk because the door was left open to their room).
4:55-Dinner's ready. Shut up and eat.
5:00-Mini may be a jerk, but girlfriend knows how to eat. She shovels it in while Biggest complains that it's too hot/cold/brown/cooked/not plain bread

I'm going to tell you a little secret, kids are assholes at meal times (and bedtime for that matter). One second they are dying of hunger, the next they could starve you out for weeks. Vegan kids are no different (though I do feel that my children's palate is probably more keen on dark leafy greens than most omniorious adults). Nothing pisses me off more than spending and hour in the kitchen to have them refuse to touch it. A few of Biggest and Mini's current no fail favorites:


1. Garlic bread. Whole wheat toast, earth balance buttery spread, dehydrated garlic powder and nutritional yeast. Bam, breakfast is served.

2. Smoothies! I'll save my secret smoothie recipe for another post-but biggest chooses two fruits and two vegetables. 60% of the time, it works every time.

3. Tortillas. Put anything in them, or nothing.

4. A loaf of bread/plain bagel. Carbs carb carb carb carbs! Who doesn't love carbs, and lots of em? Ask any 4 year old.

5. Mini loves soups of all sorts, Biggest is indifferent.

I'll end with a magical, life changing, super delicious, can never make enough, family favorite recipe. For hummus. That tastes like pizza.

Pizza Hummus
Servings: Never enough

1 can (or 1.5 cups cooked) chickpeas
3 cloves garlic (or less if you're wimpy)
2 tbs-1/4 cup olive oil
juice of a lemon
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes to soften
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs dried basil

Rinse your chickpeas if using canned variety. Add all ingredients to food processor(start with smallest amount of olive oil, and drizzle in until you get your desired consistency) and process until smooth. Salt with smallest amount first, then taste and readjust as necessary. Next, drain the water off of your sundried tomatoes, add them and your spices. Blend again-Bam! Dinner is served. Pictured with roasted veggies, and pita (to roast, oven at 400-450c, a little olive oil, a little salt, keep your eye on them until brown!)


I served it with a fruit salad. The syrup is made of equal parts flax oil (for omega fats) and maple syrup. Dinner FTW! Now if I could just find guest that wear pants to the table....