Welcome, everyone! It's my one year vegan birthday today, and I'm glad you're all here to celebrate with me. It's been an amazing year of new experiences, new flavors, and new priorities. When I first set out on this adventure, I was so excited, and so.. determined. I was nervous, but I kept speaking to myself positively ,and without pressure. We are, afterall, our own worst critic, so I always remembered that these were my changes to my diet. If I wanted to eat a dessert without regard to what was in it, so be it. If I wanted a piece of pizza, I ate it. That's my advice to anyone looking to eat vegan... or any diet, really. (and by diet, I don't mean Atkins or South Beach, or eat your weight in cabbage, or eat 100 calories M-F and go shithouse on Saturday and Sunday.. no, none of that. By diet, I just mean, simply, what you eat on a regular basis). If we put too much pressure on ourselves to conform to guidelines, and we consequently "fail", the experience has lost something. It no longer becomes an endeavor or an adventure. Instead it becomes work.. something else on the "To Do" list.

Listen, if there's one thing I learned becoming a yoga teacher, it's to be present in our experience daily - keyword: daily. I didn't begin to eat vegan with dreams of becoming a size 0 (didn't happen), or having bountiful energy like a Tigger (though I do have a ton more energy), or thinking this was the answer to all of my problems (it wasn't). There's nothing wrong with wanting all of that, but if it doesn't happen.. then what? As a wise guru (for real. he's a guru) told me, "You cannot put conditions on your happiness." These are my words to live by. In other words, you can't live your life constantly telling yourself, "I will be happy when... I'm a vegan... I make more money... I lose 10 lbs... [fill in the blank]" Because you will very well reach those points in your life, but how did you feel getting there? Or more honestly yet, how do you feel once you get there? Probably the same as you did when you started. Therefore, work towards positive changes, but don't miss out on the good in the every day, waiting for what may or may not result in happiness or rather, fullfillment. You dig? This is your life on your terms. Who else are you living it for? Whose terms are you conceding to?

Alas, I digress. You want more of that? You come to my yoga class. In the meantime, on to the birthday celebration! I have loved so many of the recipes Joe and I have made this year, and it'd be hard to pick one favorite, but I'll do my best. Here are some year 1 favorites:

Bread/Appetizer/Side Dish: Apple Cinnamon Toastie from Babycakes (vegan, sugar free and gluten free!)
Soup: Isa's White Bean, Quinoa and Kale soup from Appetite for Reduction
Main Course: Chloe's Black Bean burgers with Mango Salsa and Guacamole with Sweet Potato Fries
Dessert: Moosewood's Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting
Restaurant: Vegitteranean! Although an honorable mention must go to my local hangout - Treehugger's (especially for their Scarlett Maccaw salad)
Cookbook: Gotta go with with Real Food Daily by Ann Gentry

Now, on to today's recipe. What's more appropriate for a birthday than cupcakes?! Ok, maybe an entire cake, but that is like, soooo 2009... although I've heard that cupcakes are soooo 2010, but I digress. I made these in 2010, so that still counts as being fab. I love these. Fluffy and moist chocolate cake on the bottom, fudgey chocolate frosting on top. Vegan what? Thank you, Isa!

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup soymilk
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract, chocolate or more vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with liners.  Set aside.

Whisk together soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.  Add the sugar, oil, extract to soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add your drey ingredients to the wet and beat until no lumps remain.

Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way.  Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack, and let cool completely.

Thick Chocolate Fudgey Frosting
1/2 margarine, softened at room temperature (I use Earth Balance)
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup soy milk powder (I found this at Nature's Bin, so I bet you could find these at a Whole Foods)

Beat margarine and agave with an electric mixer at medium speed till smooth.  Whisk in vanilla, then slowly fold in the cocoa powder.  Slowly beat in the soy milk powder at low speed.  If it seems too firm, slowly add in some more agave.

When I was in middle school, Friday nights always meant pizza and a video rental. yes, a video. VHS. I remember setting up the TV trays, getting out the napkins, and having some laid-back family time. I always enjoyed it. We're not a fancy family. We're snuggly. To this day, I find great comfort in dinner and a movie with the hubs. Plus, Joe and I make some mean air popped corn with Earth Balance butter and nutritional yeast. yum! Admittedly Joe makes it better than I because he's not afraid to use a lot more topping than I am, and I quite happily turn a blind eye to this.  Last night, for example, we whole-heartedly enjoyed a bowl 'a corn and Easy A (a flick I LOVED, btw.)

These days I no longer order delivery from "The Pizza Dude" (really, that was the name of the pizza place!), and more times than not we make our pizza and calzones at home.  It does take a bit of work.. well, not so much work as just planning ahead to allow time for the dough to rise.  I always feel it's worth it, and I never feel the guilt or well, grossness, that I do after eating store bought 'za.  As Jim Gaffigan says, "Did I just eat that or rub it on my face?"  Now, who wants that?

This is a dough well-suited for calzones or a thinner, denser crust for a pizza.  I like it for calzones because it's not too thick, and it doesn't over power the filling.

Calzone Dough
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (not hot, but not quite lukewarm either.  if you want to get techy, 110-115 degrees)

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a medium-large sized bowl, and let sit for 10 minutes.  You want to see a sort of foam happening on top of the water mixture so that you know your yeast has activated.

Add in some seasonings here.  You really can't go wrong.  I typically do:
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil

Also add in some oil, and mix well:
2 T. olive oil

Time for the flour!  I like to do about half and half unbleached white all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, but do what you like.  It might take some time to figure out what kind of ratio you like - if any.  To begin, mix in:
2 1/2 cups of flour

On a clean surface, sprinkle some flour, and turn your dough out onto the surface.  Knead in additional flour until the dough is no longer sticky.  Keep kneading - about 10 minutes all together, until the dough is elastic.  Don't be intimidated about kneading the dough!  Just push with the heel of your hand, fold the dough in half, turn it 1/4 turn, repeat, repeat, repeat!  Easy peasy!

Oil your bowl, and place your dough in there.  Cover with a cloth, and allow to sit and rise at least 1 hour.  After the hour (or more), punch the dough down to form a tight ball.  Let it relax a little (maybe 10 minutes), and then get ready to roll.  Cut your dough into equal sections - about 6.  Then roll out those individual sections for your individual calzones. 

Lay your filling on one half of the circle, fold, and poke some air vents!  Place on a greased baking sheet, or even better, a parchment paper lined sheet for easy clean up!

Bake at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes - until crust is golden and center is heated through.

*A Note About Fillings:  If you're using veggies, saute them up just briefly before stuffing the calzone.  Just with a little bit of oil, or boil the broccoli, etc. 

Enjoy!

Book to store to table to blog. The fastest turnover in amateur vegan blog history. That's because I freaking love this stew! I had originally planned on posting the recipe for a, coincidentally, quinoa vegetable soup, but we made this tonight for the first time, and I just loved it, and I wanted to share immediately!

This comes from Isa's just released book Appetite for Reduction, and I finally received my copy from the library hold line. I've only had it for a week, and we've already cooked up 4 recipes, and I have every intention of having it for my own. It's awesome. The idea is to provide healthy, low fat, vegan recipes.. oh, and they're incredibly tasty, and so far, super easy. This lady just never disappoints.

Anyways, back to the rock your tastebuds stew. Joe and I ventured out to the Akron area today in search of the bakery that supplies the treats for the restaurant Vegitteranean. Sadly, our 40 minute trek lead us to a "closed for vacation" sign. What are the chances?! Don't they realize people NEED their delightful bakery fix?! Oh, the humanity! Fortunately, just down the street, there is a Breadsmith bakery. They have amazing bread. There is one in Lakewood just a block away from Nature's Bin, and it's oh-so yummy. We picked up a nice, cracked wheat french boucle, and headed a little further down the street to Mustard Seed Market to get our goods. If you live in that direction, check them out for all your vegan groceries. They got what you need!

One of the things I love the most about this recipe is the inclusion of kale. This is such a super veg, and I admittedly don't eat it enough. Adding it to a soup is a really easy way to incorporate it into a diet. Kale is packed with Vitamins A, C and K plus dietary fiber and protein, just to name a few benefits.

Without further ado, I present Isa's Quinoa, White Bean & Kale Stew!
Also, since I have them available from the book, some nutrition facts for you: only 300 calories per serving, 14 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber, 210% of your DV of Vitamin A, and 150% of your DV of Vitamin C. pretty awesome, huh?

Quinoa, White Bean & Kale Stew
Herb blend
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper

Everything else
1 tsp. olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (about 1 average sized leek)
1 tsp. salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, peeled, cut into medium dice
1 large parsnip, peeled, cut into medium dice
8 cups veg broth
1 1/2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into medium dice
1 cup dried quinoa
1 (15 ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch kale, coarse stems removed, torn into bite-sized pieces

First, prepare the herb blend by stirring all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Saute the leeks and garlic in oil with the salt for about 3 minutes, or however long it takes you to prep your carrot and parsnip. Add the carrot and parsnip, along with the herb blend, turn the heat to high, and saute for a few seconds.

Add the veg broth, potatoes and quinoa. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, until the potatoes and quinoa are tender. Add the kale and beans, and cook, stirring frequently, until the kale is wilted. Cover and simmer over low heat for 5 more minutes. Taste for salt.

Enjoy!

Last but not least... dessert!

What's Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?! Well, Vegansgiving dare not disappoint!

So here's the thing. I suck at making pie crusts. I don't know why. I have a bevy of culinary skills in my repetoire. Pie crust making just isn't one of them. Bagels? check. Donuts? Check. Cakes and cupcakes? Check. Sugar cookie cut-outs? yep, that too. I've tried a few times, and they come out fine, but it's always a hassle, and not worth all the effort. I'll keep working on it, but for dinners that involve a lot of other dishes, I'll just stick with the pre-made crust of the vegan variety. I used Immaculate Baking Co.'s crusts, which I found at The Bin, and they worked out well, and tasted good too. Especially with a pumpkin pie, who cares about the crust? It's all about the filling.

I could have drank this filling.

I found this recipe on the VegetarianTimes website, and it had a lot of rave reviews, so I thought I'd trust the VT folks on this one. It is also tofu-free, which is cool. No fermented beans in MY pie, dammit! Okay, so I don't really have anything against tofu, but yanno, soy is in a LOT of stuff, and I think too much of any one thing is no good, so if I can avoid using soy sometimes, I take that opportunity. Oh, and some of the reviews said this one was better than ones they had made with tofu.... but it's TOTALLY about the health thing too, guys!

We also made an awesome apple pie with a gingerbread crust courtesy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and pumpkin donuts, but we gobbled those up before we had a chance to document their greatness in digital history. We'll just *have* to make them again... such a chore to eat spicy gooey goodness!

Pumpkin Pie
2 cups canned pumpkin or homemade pumpkin puree
1 cup soymilk or rice milk
3/4 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
1/4 cup cornstarch (I used arrowroot)
1/2 T. molasses
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground or fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients until nice and smooth. Pour into prepared crust, and bake 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Continue baking until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Set on a wire rack to cool completely, and refrigerate overnight before serving.

Enjoy!

When we were kids, my sisters and I would traditionally eat cranberry sauce (the deliciously gelatinous canned variety), and then drink milk directly afterwards. If you've ever done this, you know the torture that ensues. I don't know what happens when those two things combine in your mouth, but it is downright wretched. I'm pretty sure it was one of the things that got Guantanamo shut down. Check out this sweet picture of me enduring the ritual way back when...



and, just to answer the question I know you ALL have.. no, I wasn't a full time model in high school. I know, it's shocking. ha!

Fortunately for me and my sisters, Thanksgiving this year didn't include canned cranberry sauce or milk, so the tradition had to finally come to an end. Our cranberry sauce is Joe's special dish each year, and it's deeelicious. Fresh cranberries, orange juice, and a spice sack (no, not THAT kind of sac. pervs.) It's super simple, and you can make it a day or two ahead of time.. in fact, I suggest you do for better flavor kapow-ness!

Cranberry Sauce
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 whole cloves
2 1/2 whole allspice berries
1 1/2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup sugar

Place fresh cranberries and water and OJ in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Wrap cloves, allspice berries and cinnamon sticks in a spice bag (like cheesecloth). Place the bag in the water with cranberries. Cook until cranberries begin to burst, about 10 minutes. Stir in sugar and reduce heat to low. Continue cooking 5 minutes, or until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Discard spice bag. Chill in the refrig 8 hours, or overnight.

I think the 2 biggest hits of the savory side of Thanksgiving were the potatoes, both came out so great, and I was so glad. I think the potatoes are a huge part of the meal, and I've always kind of been obsessed with getting them exactly right. I think I've tried a new regular mashed recipe every year, and while they've been tasty in the past, they've been loaded with milk and butter and cheeses, twice baked, had bread crumbs on top, etc. This recipe from Real Food Daily is vegantastic, and there's no butter! I freaking love that.

The other potato dish is a sweet potato mashed with bananas, and a brown sugar and pecan crumble on top. It's one we've been making for a few years, some years more successful than others. I think it was last year that I let myself be confused by the orange colored "yams" vs. the yellowish "sweet potatoes" at the store. I mean, wtf? I have googled this, heard explanations on the Food Network, and it still confuses me. Why are all sweet potato recipes made with the orangey colored veggies, but yet those are labeled as yams? Sigh. I digress. I skipped the name calling this year, and just bought the orange guys, because I knew that's what I needed, even though they weren't called "sweet potatoes." I made sure they were good and roasted, and I think that made all the difference. They were supremely sweet and smooth.

So let's break 'em down. I'll start with the garlicky mash from Real Food Daily. After dinner my sister commented on how much she liked them, but was sad because they must have been so bad for her, calorie wise. I was so pleased to tell her that they only additives to the dish was garlic, soymilk, S&P.



Garlicky Mash Potatoes

3 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/4 cups plain soymilk
2 T olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Combine the potatoes and the garlic in a large saucepan, and add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, and boil over medium-low heat for 18 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Drain, then return the potatoes and garlic to the saucepan and mash until smooth. Mix in the soymilk, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

As much as I tried to force my oldest sister to try these sweet potatoes, I couldn't get her to do it. She has never liked sweet potatoes, and I have to agree. I'm not bananas about them in their traditional form. I love this recipe, and I love sweet potato fries, but I just don't like to eat them like I would a traditional baked potato. Everyone was raving about them, and I threatened to withhold dessert until she took a bite, but we let it slide... this year. :) Plus, that just meant more leftovers for Joe and I! can't complain about that.

The idea of this mix is kind of odd.. sweet potatoes and bananas? But you roast them both, and it's just really sweet and yummy. dessert-like, even.

Oh, and if you want to save on calories with a potato recipe, this isn't it. Choose the former.

Sweet Potato Mashed with Bananas
Tyler Florence

5 sweet potatoes, roasted (took me about 1.5 to roast)
4 bananas, unpeeled, roasted (about 10-15 minutes)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and roast your sweet potatoes. Add the bananas the last 10-15 minutes of roasting. They should be very soft. When cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and scoop out the flesh into a large bowl. Add the bananas. Add 1/2 cup butter and the honey to the mixture and whip with a wooden spoon until smooth. Spread into a pan (9x13ish is good).

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, and pecans. Add the remaining 1/2 cup butter to create a crumble using your hands, forks, or pastry blender. Spread this crumble over your potatoes and bake, 20 minutes.

You can make the potato mixture ahead of time and just keep it refrigerated. Then just make the crumble before you bake it, and bake a little longer - about 40 - 45 minutes, or until heated through.

Enjoy!

It's been so long since my last post, but have no fear! I have a vegan extravaganza coming your way in the form of Thanksgiving. Please contain your excitement. Thanksgiving has been a tradition for the hubs and I for the last 5 years, and it's something we really love to do. Joe's not into other holidays... like, not even birthdays (yeah, I know. total bummer.), so this is a holiday we can get into, especially since we both love to cook.

This year was a bit of an experiment since it was the first year I have been eating as a vegan. We decided to have a turkey for the omnivores, which I was kind of having heebie jeebies over, but we just made sure we bought a happy organic, free-range, raised on an Ohio farm, turkey, and that appeased my squeamishness about the whole thing. So there was the turkey, and then all the sides were vegan. For a couple weeks leading up to the big day, we were doing some taste testing. My hope was that we could find a turkey substitute to present to everyone, and ideally they would poo over it, and next year we could forego the turkey. ha! It didn't quite happen. We made a couple good faux turkey dishes, but I'm not sure they could replace the deep-seated love for the holiday bird. We'll keep working on it.

In the hustle and bustle of dinnertime, we didn't get as many pics as I would have liked, but Joe managed to capture the highlights.

The full menu... drum roll please...

Apple + Cinnamon + Toastie = snuggly deliciousness. Oh, and it's gluten-free! Bonus!


This is my first recipe from the Babycakes cookbook. Are you familiar? Babycakes is a famous bakery in NYC that is vegan, gluten-free, and mostly sugar-free. Their cupcakes are award-winning, and the author, Erin, has been on Martha Stewart's show. I think that's pretty cool for a vegan chef! I just love when any vegan chef gets some press and makes veganism so people-friendly! We're not scary! Just... restrictive ;)


I checked the cookbook out from the library first, and had one of those moments where I just wanted to make every last recipe in there, and got so excited and immediately set out to find all the ingredients. I even ordered coconut flour online, which I've never done before... errr, ordered food online, not ordered online. geesh! How old do you think I am? (shut it.) Anyways, when I went to buy the book for myself, I read the reviews, and they were just awful! It seemed like everyone had total failure when they made the recipes, felt the ingredients were too pricey, and basically felt like the whole thing was a big sham and waste. I was so worried to buy it! I had only made the apple cinnamon toasteriffic, so what if I just got lucky? In the end, I decided that all those people must suck, and I'm fab, so I bought it, and I have yet to be disappointed.


Welllll, that's not entirely true... In the library edition, the banana bread called for 6 bananas. Now, at the time I thought this seemed exorbitant, but alas, this is slightly different baking since it's gluten-free and all that, so I trusted the recipe. That, in fact, was a mistake. It was a hot mess. Literally. I took it out when I thought it was done and when I flipped it out of the pan it was a big blob of half-cooked smushy nanner bread. I looked on the website, and it turns out this happened to others, and they corrected the error. They apparently were under the impression that we'd be cooking with bananas from the land of Oz, farmed for minature people. In my newer edition book that I purchased, this has since been amended to 1 1/2 cups of banana. I remade the bread before our Asheville trip, and it came out lovely and tasty. All is forgiven, Babycakes!

This is a super bread, kind of dessert-y, and extra awesome when it's served warm.

Apple Cinnamon Toastie

1 cup garbanzo-fava bean flour
1 1/4 cups raw sugar
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. xantham gum
1 tsp. salt
2 T. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 T. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups hot water
1 cup roasted apples

Preheat to 325. Lightly grease a 7 x4 x3-inch loaf pan with coconut oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup of the evaporated cane juice sugar, the potato starch, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xanthum gum, salt, and 1 T of the cinnamon. Add the oil, applesauce, vanilla and 1 cup of the hot water to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth, then fold in the roasted apples. Transfer 1/4 cup of the batter to a small bowl, and add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 T. of cinnamon, 1/4 cup hot water. Stir until creamy.

Pour the apple batter into the prepared loaf pan. Carefully drizzle the batter from the small bowl down the center of the loaf. Use a spoon to swirl the topping into the loaf pan, moving the spoon up and down. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with evaporated cane juice sugar.

Bake the toastie on the center rack for 25 minutes, remove from the oven, and brush the top with a generous amount of coconut oil. Return to the oven and bake another 15 minutes, until crunchy and toothpick comes out clean.

Let the toastie stand in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert the cake onto a board. Turn right-side up and cut and serve warm.

Roasted Apples:
1/2 lb. granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced into 1-inch cubes
1/2 lb. pink lady apples ( I just used all granny I think)
1 T. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. In a medium bowl, toss together the apples, cinnamon, agave, and lemon juice. Spread the mixture over the prepared sheet. Bake the apples on the center rack for 35 minutes, rotating the sheet after 20. The apples will be soft. Let the apples stand for 30 minutes, or until completely cool.

Enjoy!

Last week the hubs and I hopped in the car to drive south to Asheville, NC for a few days of fall foliage and funtastic food. While we were about a week early for the loverly colors of the season, the city totally delivered on the food. kudos, AVL!

When we arrived, we checked into the most adorable Bed and Breakfast, The Lion & the Rose, and decided our first destination would be the place I had been dreaming about since we planned our vacation... Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria!


What's so special about this place, you ask? They have soy cheese pizza on their menu! ON their menu! Not like you have to ask and they do it special, or I have to order a regular pie without the cheese and then sprinkle my own fake cheese on it. Nope, none of that. I ordered it up, and it came piping hot and gooey. It was fantastic. Joe and I decided to pretend we were training for a marathon and ordered a large pizza that would have been better suited for twice as many people, but you can never be sad about pizza leftovers! We chose the whole wheat crust that was really tasty - firm outside, chewy inside (just how I like my men... wait, what?) with fresh spinach. yum. check it out:









Now, no trip to a vegan foodie wonderland would be complete without dessert! Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. rar! We took a coconut cream tart home with us from Laughing Seed, and it was really amazing. I plan on scouring the veg-web for a similar recipe, and then I'll share MY version. The other dessert we picked up was on our way out of town. We picked up a couple cupcakes from a bookstore/coffee shop, made by Take the Cake! I chose the vegan vanilla with chocolate frosting, and it was fan-freaking-tastic. I felt like Stephanie Plum with my own personal birthday cake. It was delicious. It was swoony. It was something I shouldn't have eaten in the car because I almost drove us off the road. ha!

So I know what you're thinking.. you're like, "Hey, you stayed at a B&B! What about the breakfast?" Well, this was awesome. The Lion & the Rose happily accepted my dietary restrictions and served me up a special vegan brekkie each morning, and each one was really delish! I will say my favorite was the cornmeal and soymilk waffles with sauteed apples and pomegranate syrup. Yup, you read that right. I would have taken pictures, but we ate breakfast with the other vacationers, and I do have some moments of social paranoia where I don't want to be perceived as weird as I *really* am.

All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, and it was refreshing to have so many uncompromising food choices in the city. It was a great reminder how awesome it is be vegan, and how freaking delicious it can be. It's also so great to see such a thriving city with such a big vegetarian and organic population... if only more cities could be like this!

and if only more pups could be like this! Check out Joe and Cedric, the resident pooch at the B&B.

oh, and freaking delish sweet potato fries. word!


When I decided I was going to post this recipe this week, I realized I haven't told you guys about my new vegan goddess! outrageous! If you're an avid Food Network viewer like I am, you might even know who I'm talking about. She was a winner on Cupcake Wars. If you haven't seen this show, let me recap it for you. It's a cupcake competition where 4 cupcake makers compete for 3 cupcake eating judges, and they give the cupcake competitors little cupcake challenges to compete to see who has the best cupcake. They all say "cupcake" about a bajillion times. I love watching this show, but you pretty much want to banish the word from your vocabulary by the end of the hour. When they do the contestant interviews, and he/she is saying what they are going to make, they always say it with the word "cupcake" like, in case we didn't know. For example: "I'm going to be making a red velvet cupcake with a cream cheese frosting, a lemon cupcake with buttercream icing, and a chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing." I know you're making a cupcake!! sheesh. Now, whenever cupcakes come up in conversation with Joe and I, I go on a tangent coming up with as many cupcake flavors as I can, listing them off like I'm a contestant. He loves it. (not really.)

ANYWAYS. You should watch the show. It's fun. So my new vegan goddess won on her episode, and she's just the cutest little thing ever! Her name is Chloe Coscarelli. Check out her site! She has great recipes on there, and um, well... she's adorable. This burger and fries recipe is actually on her site, and it's freaking delicious. I couldn't believe how closely it resembled a regular burger, but it is even better because it has guacamole (sweet, sweet guacamole), and this unique sun-dried tomato and mango sauce. It's without a doubt one of my favorite dishes I've made, and really good for you! yay!

Black Bean Burgers
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, small dice
1 14-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small carrot, finely diced or shredded
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 bunch cilantro
1/4 cup water
1 T. chili powder (to taste to your spicy level)

In a large skillet, saute onions in 2 T of the olive oil over medium heat until tender and slightly carmelized, about 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, use a large spoon to mash together beans, carrots, cornmeal, breadcrumbs, chili powder, salt, cilantro, water, and the carmelized onions. If mixture is too dry to hold together, add more water 1 T at a time.

Using your hands, form your burgers to the size of your buns (regular or mini).

In a large non-stick skillet, heat 2 T of olive oil over med-high heat and fry patties. Let each patty get browned and slightly crisp on each side (about 3 minutes on each side).

Mango Sauce
1 mango, peeled and cut
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, whole or sliced
1 garlic clove
1 T. vinegar (apple cider, but any kind will do)
1/8 tsp. sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. ta-da!

Guacamole
3 ripe Haas avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled
1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 cup salsa fresca
sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mash together the avocado and lime juice, then fold in the salsa fresca. Season with S&P.

Enjoy!