Back to school

Like a lot of you, I started school again this past Monday. I met up with another blogger this week, Sara of onlywannacook. This was the first time we had met in person, and it also marks the first time I've gotten to meet another blogger! We had a fun dinner at Whole Foods, which we have been planning for a couple months now.



We both love love love to eat at Whole Foods and deciding what to get was really hard. I immediately knew I wanted the Red Curry Seitan I saw at the hot bar and then paired it with a cranberry-walnut roll from the bakery and a salad with argula, yellow bell pepper, jicama, edamame, beets, marinated mushrooms, and Bragg Liquid Aminos (which is basically my favorite salad combination ever). The texture of the seitan was excellent -- not too dense. I am impressed -- Whole Foods should serve seitan at their hot bar more often, as far as I'm concerned! I had no complaints about this part of my meal. The roll I got is also one of my favorites. I know I was stuffed at the end of this and I'm pretty sure Sara was too but we had to get dessert. It's pretty much required when eating a meal at Whole Foods and there are so many yummy options!

Brownie? Vegan carrot cake? Bakery cookies? In the end we each got a pint of the new Snickerdoodle flavor of the Purely Decadent ice cream line. What a fabulous choice! I normally really don't care for Purely Decadent, but the Snickerdoodle was the die for -- Sara and I especially liked the chunks of snickerdoodle cookie dough, which were interspersed in a perfectly-spiced snickerdoodle flavored ice cream base. Mmmm. The texture of this ice cream is delicious too -- not icy or tofu-y like certain other soy ice cream flavors. This is a must-try!



We certainly enjoyed ourselves -- more Ruby and Sara adventures are ahead! We were trying to find someone to take our picture together but for some reason no one would walk by our little bench! So Sara had to take it.



I have my own apartment now, so I'm basically cooking all my own meals. Thank goodness I don't have to throw money down the drain any more due to unused dining plan meals. Here's a visual. Now you can have a mind's-eye picture whenever I talk about what I have been cooking and eating!



Here's my fabulous table and my itty bitty bed...



My collection of vegan cookbooks and my dressing area...



And my cute little bathroom!



For those of you going back to school this week, good luck! Have a great week, and I'll try to get back to you all soon. Start looking forward to a post on a visit to a vegan restaurant (I won't tell you which one yet...I am evil) and on my new favorite breakfast!
 

My First Cuppies Say Hi

My little sister's birthday was this past week, which gave me an opportunity to do something that I've been wanting to do all summer: Make cupcakes!

I've had the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook for quite a few months and hadn't done anything with it until now. If you have read my blog before, you may have heard me speak of my incredibly picky sister, who will not eat anything vegan unless it contains lots and lots of sugar. It bugs me to no end, though I do realize she's entitled to her food choices...but closed-mindedness gets to me. She was open to the idea of me making her cupcakes, but she gave me many "requirements": The cupcakes can't have warm fruit, the cupcakes can't be chocolate, I don't know what ganache is but it sounds icky and I don't want that, I want "real" icing (because we all know vegan icing is fake). In the end, I kept what I decided a secret from her. I knew she would like the cupcake once she tasted it, but she might have rejected the idea if she heard it beforehand.

And this month is my one-year anniversary of being a vegan. So I guess they were kinda a little sorta a treat for me too.

So Teddy Graham cupcakes it was! While the cinnamon Teddy Grahams are indeed vegan, I would use Annie's Chocolate Bunny Grahams if I were making them for myself... and maybe do a chocolate cupcake base (the non-chocolate Annie's grahams contain honey). Annie's graham crackers are organic and don't have partially hydrogenated oils, like the wee Teddies. But I caved for my sister, since I know she loves Teddy Grahams.



I made a subtle cinnamon frosting for the VCTOTW Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. I've never been a straight vanilla girl, but Isa and Terry's vanilla cupcakes are incredible. My sister claims to hate cinnamon, so I told her the frosting was a brown sugar frosting and she never guessed the diff. She ended up loving the cuppies, though, so thank goodness! We had a pretty good time on her birthday, too.

We went to the movies and saw Mamma Mia. The beginning was cute, and I was into it for a while... But then it started dragging and the downright awful singing really started to get to me. I used to be a theatre major and am really critical of plays and musicals. The girl who played Sophie was a great actress, though. Too bad Meryl Streep annoys me... I used to love her and I did like her in The Devil Wears Prada, though, but the more movies I see her in, the more I realize everything she does is the same! I don't know about you, but I like for actors to surprise me.

For dinner that night, we went to Chili's, which I groaned about. I've hated that restaurant all my life, even before I was vegan. Normally I will sit and whine and not eat when I am forced to go there, but I decided to make an effort this time and came away with a surprisingly delicious vegan meal. I would even go as far to say it was a small feast. Here's what I ordered:

• Corn tortillas (request plain and dry - I think they're supposed to make them in the microwave when you order this way)
• Steamed vegetables (request steamed, plain and dry) - they gave me broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers
• Black beans
• Pico de gallo
• Guacamole

So there are actually some edible and rather tasty goods at Chili's for vegans, and our server was really nice and accomodating. I made my own cute little corn tortilla fajitas at the table by spooning some of everything into the tortillas. I was satisfied, and I busted out the cupcakes for our family after!



We ate them at the table at Chili's, and I think our server was kind of amused, haha. Yum! They were really delicious. But not as delicious two days later when eaten from the fridge. The teddy's head got soggy and I had to replace him with a new teddy from the box. And I may have snuck a few extra teddies onto my plate, too. I really hope my family eats the rest of the box before I do... I'm going to get cancer from those evil addicting bears.
 

Yeah, it's my first time

I've been waiting to post until I had a few of those "lightbulb" food finds -- you know, when something's really yummy and it gets you all fired up to post. Thankfully I finally had a few of those moments this week!



Just this morning, I tried a new waffle recipe. Normally I never make a basic waffle recipe -- just because I never had one -- but I remember a really old post here and got to work on making some nice basic vegan waffles. I topped the waffles with peanut butter, raspberry preserves, and ground flaxseed, and had them with a glass of Silk Unsweetened Soymilk (it's my favorite!). The recipe turned out pretty well. I cut Veggie's recipe in 1/4's to serve one, which was a little too much batter for my waffle iron. It actually started oozing out the sides of the iron. (The oozy stuff tasted yummy, by the way.)

But lately my waffle iron just hasn't been the same. I own a restaurant-style Waring Pro Belgian Waffle Iron, but I was reading reviews about it on Amazon.com and it seems like it typically has a relatively short life. I make waffles a lot and hope to get a lot more waffles out of it, especially since I got it just this Christmas as a gift! Hopefully my baby decides to stop acting up so I don't have to become waffle-deprived. Because then I will cry and cry. Oh, and I decreased the baking powder by one-half in the recipe.

I've also been absolutely, positively obsessed with Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. They are so amazing! I purposefully didn't buy tofu this week, thereby forcing myself to eat more beans and lentils, and this chickpea recipe has been keeping me really happy.



The other day I had said chickpeas over the Sesame-Lime Soba Noodles (from the same cookbook) with steamed zucchini (which is sooo good steamed, by the way). Yum. I decreased the sweetener in the sauce -- it really doesn't need that much agave to be yummy!

I also made wheatberries for the first time! I soaked them overnight in a 1:3 ratio (wheatberries:water), brought them to a boil this morning, and simmered them uncovered for about 50 minutes. They are so yummy and spring and chewy! I love 'em. I love how they smell, too. I had the last of my tamari-roasted chickpeas over a bed of wheatberries for lunch, surrounded by some steamed swiss chard seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed up with some Annie's Goddess Dressing (another one of my newer obsessions).



By the way, these chickpeas are all fresh! I finally cooked up some dried chickpeas instead of buying canned. The price and taste cannot be beat. Fresh cooked chickpeas are the best, and I stored a few servings in the freezer until I was ready to use them.



I fear my newest obsession is the infamous Microwave Brownies from VegWeb. They got a lot of bad reviews, but a lot of good reviews, too. I spent a lot of time going through what people wrote about them so that I would be prepared and they would come out yummy. I made 1/4 of the recipe tonight and changed it up a little. Here's what I did:

Microwave Brownies



3-1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tablespoon raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsweetened soymilk (Edit: use 3 tablespoons!)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons dutched cocoa powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

squirt Ah-laska chocolate syrup (about a teaspoon)

I mixed together the wet ingredients in a bowl (not including chocolate syrup) and sifted in the dry ingredients. After mixing them well, I sprayed a small microwave-safe dish with canola oil spray and I transferred the batter into the greased dish.

I heated the batter in the microwave on high for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and then added the squirt of chocolate syrup to the top of the brownie. Then I heated the brownie for 15 more seconds. My mom and I split this.

It was great, even without chocolate chips; the heated chocolate syrup on top was absolutely perfect in terms of taste and temperature. Next time I will add 1 to 2 tablespoons soymilk to the liquid ingredients and I will try microwaving for only 3 to 3 minutes and 30 seconds initially. The brownie tasted great but it was too dry. It would definitely benefit from a little more gooiness, which can be attained with a more liquid-y batter and less heating. I was pleased that the finished brownie was very easy to remove from the baking dish. (Edit: I made these again and 3 minutes worked well in my super-powerful microwave, so the brownie was just fudgy enough instead of dry! Just experiment, but start with less time because you can't undo it once you've gone too far.)

Yay for silly baking experiments! I want to try again tomorrow, so hopefully I can find someone to split the brownie with me. I can see myself quickly becoming obsessed with this recipe... Even if they aren't the best, most gourmet-fabulous brownies ever, this is probably going to be one of my guilty pleasures and something I'll have fun making for friends in my apartment next year. Yay.



Oh, and these are pretty yummy, too! But they only give you three in a box! What's up with that?! I'm used to even-numbered items in boxes. Three is kinda random. And a final discovery: click here for your ticket to heaven. I won't even describe it, just go to your nearest Whole Foods or wherever and get one. Mmmm. Seriously good.