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!