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!

You heard that right. Vegan peanut butter cups. You might as well just get a shopping list together now, because trust me, you want to make these.

This was actually one of the first recipes I made, and have made them a few times since. While they are vegan, they still have sugar and butter in them, but y'know, it's a sweet treat, so it's cool. Plus, they're very rich, so you feel satisfied after 1. I think I tried to eat a second one once and had to find a happy place afterwards. Let me tell you though.. if you're trying out this vegan thing, these will get you through a crisis moment when you're trying to eat your feelings and freaking lentils just won't do it. They've saved me a couple times, and reminded me that not eating animals does not equal not eating delicious sweetness.

This recipe comes from the lovely Alicia (or Ci-ci, if you will, and I will.) and her The Kind Diet book.

Peanut Butter Cups

1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
3/4 cup crunchy (or smooth) peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (look for a naturally sweetened kind and low in sugar)
1/4 cup sugar (I use raw sugar, and this works well)
1 cup non-dairy chocolate chips or carob chips (the non-dairy variety taste more milk chocolatey, and the carob is more of a dark chocolate taste)
1/4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk (I like to use almond milk)


Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in PB, graham cracker crumbs, and sugar, and mix well. Remove from heat, and evenly distribute to your 12 cups - about 2 T./cup.

Combine chocolate and milk in a saucepan over low heat or in a pyrex (my preferred method) and melt that up in the microwave. Evenly distribute this delicious choclately mixture over your cups.

Chill in the fridge for at least an hour or until set. If you can't wait that long, then they'll just be a bit gooey in your hands, but hey, who cares?

Enjoy!

On more than one occasion, I've had a head shaken at me when I divulge my culinary adventures. Usually it's the homemade dish that elicits this reaction - homemade donuts (pumpkin to be exact. they are so. good. I'll put that recipe up in a month or so), pretzels, peanut butter cups (don't worry, I plan on these being my next post. they are even better than the donuts). Basically, anytime I make a junk food at home. I never really ate fast food, and now that I'm vegan, it's ridiculously hard to eat out period. You just never know.. is there egg in this? milk? unicorn tears? you get the picture. Plus, I always liked what Michael Pollan said about junk food: “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” It's a lovely rule of thumb.. and tastier too.



In a separate, large mixing bowl, mix together the all the other ingredients, including the remaining 2 T. of sugar. Add the yeast mixture and knead for a good 10 minutes. The dough should be neither dry nor wet but nicely tacky (kinda like that sweet sweater you wore at Christmas).

Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let sit for an hour or so. It won't rise much but it should be nicely springy.

Reduce your boiling water to a gentle simmer, and add a couple bagels. Simmer for one minute, flip, and simmer another minute. Remove the bagels with a slotted spoon, and place them on a baking sheet covered in parchment. Now is the time to add any topping to them that you'd like - sesame or poppy seeds, cinnamon-sugar, etc.

Bake the bagels for 18-20 minutes , until nice and amber brown. Remove and let sit for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

yep. It's as tasty as it sounds.

One thing I could never really enjoy when I was a non-vegan was a good sammy. I was never a real meat eater, and I'm admittedly picky, so I just couldn't get down with the lusciously stacked sandwiches I would admire. I found this recipe in Real Food Daily, and I was pumped to try it. I was pumped even though I shy away from a "pesto," and to be honest, I shy away from "sun-dried tomatoes." Look, I don't have a reason for these things, okay?!


If I have any one bad thing to say about this dish, it's the texture, but that is kind of a given since it's tofu. I'm a weirdo when it comes to texture, so the softness of the tofu was a little cringe-worthy for me, but the crusty ciabatta bread combated that. I def recommend serving this on a nice bread that you like - ciabatta is my fave.

You'll need to marinate the tofu for at least 4 hours so plan ahead - this lack of reading has burned me on more than one occasion. Oh, reading. such a hassle!

this is the original recipe - Joe and I cut ours in half.
Grilled Herb Tofu
2 (12 oz.) containers water-packed extra-firm tofu
1/2 cup evoo
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced garlic
2 T chopped fresh dill
1 T fresh ground pepper

Drain the tofu and save the containers. Halve each piece horizontally, and pat dry with the paper towels. Cover a large baking sheet with more dry paper towels. Place the tofu in a single layer on the baking sheet and let drain for 2 hours, changing the towels after 1 hour.

Whisk up your marinade, and pour some into your saved tofu containers. Place 1 tofu slice, top with marinade, layer another slice, etc. with the remaining tofu and marinade. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Prepare a medium-hot grill or pan or skillet if need be. Grill the tofu, brushing with the marinade from your containers, for 4 minutes on each side, or until the tofu is heated through. OR, you can bake your tofu at 400 degrees for 10 minutes on each side.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
2 cups water
1 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
3/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup nuts (okay, it calls for pine nuts, but I'm pretty sure we used almonds)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan and add the tomatoes, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain the tomatoes, reserving the soaking liquid. Combine the tomatoes, basil, nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper in a food processor (or blender) and blend until the tomatoes and basil are minced. With the machine still running, slowly add your oil. Blend in about 3 T of the reserved soaking liquid to form a thick and creamy spread.

Add the toppings you'd like - sauteed red onions and greens are what the book suggests. Serve warm :)