The Fabulous Five + Scroll Down for Food

I've been tagged by A-K from Swell Vegan, Linds from Chocolate, Coffee, Kitchen, and Liz, aka Kamutflake Girl to post five facts about myself. I admit I've been putting this off for a while. While I love to talk about my food adventures, I don't really like to talk about myself. But I feel honored that people thought of me, so of course I am going to participate in this survey! So here you go, five facts about Ruby Red:

1. When I was really little, I liked to parade around in clothes from the dress-up box at my day care. My favorite outfit from the costume box was this scratchy taffeta tutu and matching ballet slippers. One particular day at day care, we were watching a movie with the "big kids," and two older boys started making fun of me. I got really mad and literally chased them out the front door of the day care! So, yeah, I've "ran away" from day care before. (They got away, though, and I came back and got in trouble.)

2. I hate commitment. When I feel like someone is getting to know me too well, I tend to get really anxious, shut down, and shut them out. I am trying to get better about this, but I think it's my sort of automatic defense mechanism. So if boys are interested, they really have to be persistent with me -- I don't chase after anyone.

3. My one-year vegan anniversary is in August! I've been a vegetarian about 17 months now -- since January 2007.

4. I did a couple spelling bees in elementary school. Though I feel like my brain cells are diminshing as I age and I'm just getting stupider, I've always been a good speller. I got 4th place in my school-wide spelling bee when I was in 4th grade and 7th place when I was in 5th grade. I was also really mad about not doing better because I can get really with academic games, like playing Jeopardy in a classroom setting.

5. My birthmark is on my buttcheek, haha! The mark is really, really big too. I used to be so embarrassed by it and would always wear shorts when going swimming. I also have another birthmark on my side -- two dots that look like a colon [:] -- only several people have asked me if the two dots are shark bites. (Well, if they were, I probably wouldn't be alive today, would I?)


Another thing that inspired me to post today is the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Spelt Cookie recipe Celine posted on her blog.



I posted about a similar-tasting cookie here, the peanut butter cookie from the Chicago Diner. It's one of the most astoundingly tasty cookies/desserts I've ever had, and Celine's cookies taste just like them. Only Celine's version has chocolate chips, which translates to an even better cookie. She posted a mini-recipe that produces two large cookies, so one was for me and one was for my sister. They were humungous, but I made sure to make my cookie bigger than hers. I deserve it, since I did all the work of baking them up! Please, everyone, do yourselves a favor and make these cookies asap.

To celebrate Memorial Day, I dusted off my Cuisinart ice cream maker and made my first batch of ice cream for the summer. I know it's not green, but it's still Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.



I got the recipe from Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. I really like her recipes, but I want to give Isa and Terry a fair chance and try a Veganomicon ice cream recipe, too. I think I want to make chocolate espresso (aka mocha) ice cream next!

I promise I don't eat all sweets! I am not yet employed for the summer, so I have all day to cook up fancy things for myself. Here are some of the meals I've made in the past few days:









Finally, I'm working on a new, original breakfast recipe. I'm going to test it for the next few mornings until I post it, but I'll give you a hint. It has a "ruby red" element. I know, I know, how appropriate for the Ruby Red Vegan blog!

 

 

 

Okay, fine, I'll show you a picture of it! Geez!



 

It's in the Bag!

I've been talking forever about making some homemade seitan, but for the longest time, it's just been all talk. But guess what I finally did yesterday?



You guessed it -- I made some seitan. I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I am aware there's a simplified one in Veganomicon. Here's my freshly-kneaded seitan 1/2 log:



And after boiling, waiting to cool down in the strainer:



I had the hardest time deciding how to prepare the seitan for my lunch, but since I am a peanut sauce addict, I finally settled on Cold Udons with Peanut Sauce and Seitan from Vegan with a Vengeance. P.S. The noodles in the picture are actually spaghettini, not udons.



I was worried that the peanut sauce wouldn't be up to my standards, but I should have known: Isa Chandra Moskowitz sets the standards. Her peanut sauce blew me away and I will now compare all others to hers. I bow down to her culinary awesomeness.

I also undertook two other projects in the past two days. Having failed before, I am ecstatic to report that I finally worked out the kinks and successfully produced Homemade Larabars!



I finally got them to stick together! Before I had been trying to construct the bars out of Deglet Noor dates, but after doing some research on dates, I learned that Deglet Noors are a semi-dry date and are not ideal for a Larabar recipe. Medjool dates are the juiciest, softest dates, and I used these to make my Larabar. Hopefully this technique will save me a little money, because I've been buying Larabars at the store left and right for the past week or so.



I used bunnyfoot's Larabar recipe. One pitted medjool date made up the base of my bar, and then you are free to choose three tablespoons of mix-ins. My Larabar had 1-1/2 tablespoons of raw hazelnuts and 1-1/2 tablespoons of raw walnuts. Lately I've been enjoying a Larabar right after I finish at the gym. I work out at night, so this particular night I came home, made my Larabar, threw it in the freezer, changed into my pajamas, and then ate my Larabar. Yum.

I also made a mocha with my espresso machine to enjoy with a storebought Larabar the other day, too - look at the awesome design I poured!


Can you see the apple shape in the foam, or am I imagining it?




Yummy Snickerdoodles

Celine posted a snickerdoodle recipe on her blog that makes 7 cookies, so I whipped up a batch for my sister and me to split. I liked the recipe a lot - this is the one I'll make from now on; and I'm not sure if snickerdoodles traditionally have more spices or if snickerdoodles even come along with a tradition, but I think I'll add some freshly grated nutmeg and a speck of ground ginger to the recipe next time. They still tasted great, like little fluffy pillow clouds of goodness, and the recipe calls for a stand mixer but I'm all that and got the dough down and dirty with a whisk.




These three items have been on my kitchen to-do list, so I'm glad I finally conquered them. Three cheers for successful food projects!
 

Lara, Where Are You?

Because my sister and I were still away at college on Mother's Day, my mom and I decided we would postpone the holiday until we could all be together at home. So my mom received her own private Mommy's Day this past Saturday. Since we hardly ever have a sit-down meal together at home, I decided to cook breakfast as my gift to my mom (and I gave her a little card too!). What did I make, you ask?



I ended up waking up early to prepare Banana Coffee Cake from the FatFree Vegan blog. I also served raspberries, and I made soy lattes for me and my dad. My mom and my sister had juice. But this coffee cake is very good! It was a little mushy, but maybe that's the way the cake is or maybe my cake would have benefitted from a little more time in the oven.



I couldn't get my picky sister to eat much of her slice - she really didn't give it a chance because she "hates" fruit when it's warm. But I didn't care - I just gobbled up her piece for her!!

We drove into Austin, Texas that day, and the stop I requested was Dhaba Joy. Dhaba is an almost-all-vegan coffee shop that also serves pastries and sandwiches. They also serve Oatscreme, a vegan soft-serve ice cream. I had a feeling the espresso wouldn't be up to my standards, so I skipped that and went straight for the pastries. I couldn't decide what to get at first -- they had raspberry chocolate chip bars, almond butter cookies, mint chocolate cupcakes, lemon bars, living blueberry cheesecake, wee cupcakes, and so, so, so, so much more. The pastry case was absolutely packed with goodies, and they were all vegan. The cashier gave me a sample of almond butter soft-serve, and I liked it a lot but also wanted cookies. So she suggested an ice cream sandwich.



For $3.35, I got almond butter soft-serve sandwiched between two big, fluffy snickerdoodles. I was in heaven! The snickerdoodles were amazing. I've already done some experimentation with one snickerdoodle recipe since eating at Dhaba Joy, but I didn't like it so I'm going to keep looking to find a close match - their cookies were that good! My dad had a Spelt Oatmeal Raisin cookie and it was divine - soft and well spiced! (His soy mocha wasn't too good though - I'm glad I skipped the espresso drinks.)

My parents also let me get a vegan Tempeh Reuben Sandwich - my first Reuben ever! It had tempeh, 1000 island dressing, vegan cheese, and sauerkraut, and was served on rye bread. It even came with a side salad. Unfortunately, the sandwich did not photograph well - it was totally white, every last ingredient of it - but the taste more than made up for it. I wouldn't call it amazing, but all the flavors were so interesting together that I just wanted to keep eating and eating it! Now I'll have to try the Tempeh Reuben recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.

But Dhaba isn't the only vegan-friendly establishment I've visited this week - yesterday I had to revisit Green Vegetarian Cuisine, a restaurant in my Texas hometown, where almost everything on the menu is vegan. But I was not thinking straight when I ordered my meal:



What the heck?! I ordered the Raw Deal Wrap, a new addition to the menu since I lasted visited, that is prepared with a raw cashew/brazil nut hummus. Green lets you pick two sides with this entree, but I am sooo silly and ordered the fresh kale salad and a side salad with orange vinaigrette dressing for my two sides. When they arrived, I was like, "Oh my goodness, how am I going to eat all these vegetables?!" My three plates took up half the table! (I should have ordered some brown rice as a side, but then I wouldn't have had an all-raw meal!!!) To show you an example of my appetite, I ate everything on all three plates, except half the dressing -- it was only okay but got more tasty the more I ate. The kale salad was my favorite - the kale was raw and I could taste the Bragg's in the marinade, but I'm not sure if anything else was on it. The nutty hummus didn't taste too different from chickpea hummus.



I also went back for some chocolate soft-serve. It wasn't as good as Oatscreme, but it's still yummy and they didn't have any desserts baked for that day.

Now for Ms. Lara. I have been plotting to make my own Larbars for the last two weeks and have gotten rather addicted to these guys recently - the Cashew Cookie, Pecan Pie, and the Chocolate Coffee Jocalat are all more amazing than words can describe. I only wish nuts weren't quite so filling and the bars could be 2x larger so I could enjoy them longer... Anyway, I followed bunnyfoot's recipe for homemade Larbars, and here's what I ended up with:




Yep, all I got out of my experiment was a big fat mess! I guess I need some new dates? Mine definitely aren't moist enough to handle this recipe. Sooo sad. I know some of you may be disappointed with my failed homemade Larabar, but I'm even more disappointed! Hopefully my wallet can keep up with my storebought Larabar addiction. For the rest of you looking for an awesome raw treat, I have tried these incredible raw brownies. They taste kind of like a Larabar, but I couldn't get them to stick together in the past either. But the powdery dust that came out of my blender was still darn tasty.

And finally, my delicious lunch from today:



This yummy meal hails from Jen the Veg Triathlete. I am obsessed with her website -- all her photos are beautiful, and she's got a healthy balance of meal and dessert recipes. The meals are perfect for me because they're healthy and are great fuel for those with an active lifestyle. The meal I made is called the Greenie Tahini Bowl.



It's so good! I posted about it before and I had to make it again! I sense a tahini obsession coming on, and now I'm thinking...tahini banana oatmeal? I just might try it for breakfast tomorrow!
 

A Visit to the Spiral Diner

After reading Katie's post about a month ago over at Chocolate Covered Vegan, I vowed to make a stop at Spiral Diner on my road trip home from college.



Well, I'm finally back from college, and I am happy to report that I did indeed eat at Spiral Diner for a late lunch yesterday! My dad agreed we could stop there, but we both know that my sister is an incredibly picker eater -- we didn't tell her our vegan dining plans until we pulled into Spiral's parking lot. Even though she's 18, we knew my sister would throw a hissy fit if she found out we were planning to eat at a 100% vegan restaurant. Here are just a few clues about how picky she is: She hates vegetables, she hates whole grains, she hates anything healthy, and she loves plain cheese quesadillas but claims she hates vegetarian food. She "hates" reading menus and she loves fried food. Her staple foods are pizza, French fries, hash browns, cheesy nachos, trans-fat-laden Keebler cookies, and who knows what other crap. But all this is beside the point.

The point is that my dad and I enjoyed our meals at Spiral, even though the whole time my sister gave us hell that we were there. I don't get to go to all vegan restaurants very often, and this is the place I requested to go on our trip. It sucks that my sister felt like she had to ruin it for me. Here's what my dad ordered:



According to the menu, The Big Taquito is "a heaping helping of our tofu scramble with diced sausage, onions, red bell peppers, potatoes, and avocado - all wrapped up, grilled, and sealed in a tortilla, served with a side of fresh salsa." He chose the potato salad as his side. I didn't try any of his meal, but my dad kept saying it was really good.

My sister ordered the V-L-T: "bacun bits, lettuce, and tomato served on grilled multi-grain bread with mayo." She ordered corn chips for her side item. She told me she doesn't even like non-vegan bacon, so it beats me why she ordered this sandwich. She didn't like the texture of the "bacun" bits and said it reminded her of a "cat litter sandwich." I'm not joking. She just scraped them off the bread and ate a vegan mayo/lettuce/tomato sandwich. I tried some of the bits from her plate and thought they were pretty addicting. Later she admitted she liked the bread.

Since it's not too often that I can eat absolutely anything on the menu, it took me forever to decide on my entree. I'm not much of a sandwich or wrap girl -- I like plate-style, fork-and-knife entrees -- but the wrap and sandwich section makes up the bulk of Spiral's menu. Finally I chose the Crispy Spring Wrap, which was "grilled seitan, carrots, cucumbers, red bell peppers, red onion, and salad greens topped with our homemade agave mustard dressing," rolled inside a flour tortilla. I had orange wedges for my side.



The wrap was pretty good -- I haven't had seitan since January and really wanted some. I also thought the agave mustard sounded good, but the wrap definitely was smothered in the mustard sauce. I still enjoyed it, and the seitan was grilled and had a different texture than I'm used to. The seitan was my favorite part, for sure.



I would definitely like to go back to Spiral to try some other menu items, but I know that won't be possible with my sister around. (Plus, the diner is 4+ hours away from my parent's house.) I couldn't decide on dessert either, so I decided to be boring and get a Chocolate Chip Cookie. It was a crispy kind of cookie. I liked it, but I think Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies (with spelt flour) are better!





If any of you have ever visited Panda Express in the past, you know about the phenomenon that is Orange Chicken. Well, you can't even get anything vegetarian at Panda Express (it's all cooked in chicken stock, even the rice and vegetables), but I did finally recreate orange chicken by using frozen tofu and combining two different recipes. It was absolutely, positively delicious: Orange Tofu is one of the best things I've ever made!



I thawed some frozen lite firm tofu (I use 1/3 block for one serving), cut it into moderately thick and squat triangle shapes, wrapped it in some paper towels, and pressed it on a cutting board topped with a lot of heavy objects. After 10 minutes, it was ready. I filled a bowl with 1/4 cup of cornstarch, put the tofu inside, covered it, and shook it up. The tofu was still slightly moist, so the cornstarch coated the outside really well. I browned each side of the tofu triangles in 1/2 tablespoon of peanut oil. Meanwhile, I sauteed a chopped green onion in water in a non-stick pan, and heated up Dreena's Orange Sesame Tofu sauce from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. I used 1/4 of the recipe to make my single serving. The only part I made from Dreena's recipe was the sauce -- I put it in the pan with the green onions, heated it through, and then thickened it up with a little cornstarch.

Next, I dropped the browned, breaded tofu triangles into the orange sauce and stirred gently to completely coat them. I plopped these babies on top of some reheated leftover brown rice and steamed broccoli, and then sprinkled the tofu with sesame seeds and more green onions. Ohhh man, this meal rocked! (Using juice from freshly squeezed orange wedges makes the most amazing sauce!) Try it, seriously. This fills the void in my life created by a longing for vegan orange "chicken."

My homemade Larabar post is coming soon! In the meantime, I will be enjoying my time at home cooking in the family kitchen, making waffles and pancakes for my family, relaxing, and maybe even embarking on my first homemade seitan adventure until I have to start summer school in a couple of weeks. Yee-haw!

A Quickie

'Ello there, mateys!

I said I'd post more frequently, and at the risk of being called a liar, I was thinking I had better stick to my word.

I have a final tomorrow morning for history, and then my final final (as in, the one before I am set free for the year) is Monday morning. And it's chemistry. At least I have all weekend to study up!

That little muffie up there is none other than the famous Double Chocolate Muffin concocted by none other than the Happy Herbivore. I won a wee little contest on her blog and she ever so kindly mailed two of these babies as my prize. They were so good! And I haven't seen the recipe, but I imagine they are super healthy too. I ate it ever-so-daintily with my mini plastic fork. (I wash it off and like to reuse it for special occasions because it's just so fun to eat with!)



And I tried a Larabar - the cashew cookie kind - and loved it! I'm going to make a homemade version this weekend.



I sense a new addiction coming on... I have been looking at Veg Web a lot recently, and I signed up for an account today. What convinced me? This recipe. Oh my, it's so freakin' tasty, I want to make it again and again. Try it. You won't regret it, especially if you are a sugar-lover. General Tao's Tofu is actually Veg Web's most popular recipe.

And "eh" about this. It's the Asian-Style Scrambled Tofu, one of Isa's variations on scrambled tofu in VwaV. It was good, but her traditional recipe is better.

And to end this barely coherent, rambling post, more sweets are at your service:





My university started carrying a new line of products by Moo Moo's Vegetarian Cuisine. Justice and equality for the vegans - finally! You can find their website here. The Toasted Almond Peachana is the third product of theirs I have tried, but this was their breakfast entree. I have to say, I would buy it again. It's an absolutely gigantic oatmeal bar sweetened only with peaches and bananas. That's it. It's garnished with toasted almonds and cinnamon, and it's enormously healthy - though the fruit-sweetening (I suspect a little juice here) adds a lot of sugar to the nutrition facts label. It's still a perfectly acceptable breakfast, and it's just the right size for my purposes if you serve it with a glass of soymilk (hempmilk is quite the rage these days too) or a decaf soy latte. Mmm!



Today I also made Lolo's Brown Sugar & Peach Muffins (the spelt flour variation). They turned out just okay - I probably won't make them again, but the spelt flour does add something really special.

All righty now, this Ruby Red Vegan needs her beauty sleep for her 8 a.m. test tomorrow morning - wish me luck!

Lentil Happy

I went lentil happy this week! It's been fun figuring out what to do with a big old can of lentils. Here is what I have come up with so far:



Red Lentil Dal from Happy Herbivore's blog.




Sloppy Lentils, adapted from a recipe by Robin Robertson.


Both were very good! And before you say it, I know I need to try the Snobby Joes from Veganomicon. I just don't have all the ingredients to make it this week. :( The following are other food highlights from my week...

I had to show off this picture!



My friend made the Mocha Chip Muffins (from VwaV) and surprised me with one this week. This baby was oozing with chocolate lava goodness after a very brief pop in the microwave. This was such a freaking good muffin, and this is going to be my staple muffin recipe when I go home for the summer - my mom loves double chocolate chip muffins!



And peanut sauce with tempeh satay, kale chips, and a hunk o' cherry walnut bread from work. What a fabulous dinner it was - and the kale chips are wonderful and incredibly addicting! Did you know that kale is loaded to the gills with calcium?! Yep, it's true. So chew up and build strong bones.

Ruby out!