Family Dinner

Summer classes have been keeping me busy. Cooking has been limited to tasty but functional meals. Thankfully the summer semester is just about over, and then its a whole month off. I can't wait!

This past weekend was lots of fun! We had our monthly veggie meetup, this time at the beach. Sounds like fun, but it was really cold and overcast and windy. I LOVE weather like that, but not when I'm wearing shorts and a tank top and looking forward to splashing around in the water! It was a good time though. On my way home, I stopped by 118 degrees for one of their awesome raw chocolate smoothie shakes - chocolate supreme. It didn't disappoint!

Went over to my aunt and uncle's house on Sunday for a family dinner. My aunt cooked an AWESOME vegan meal. My aunt, uncle and cousin are omnis, so I was really surprised and touched that they went out of their way to have a really good vegan dinner for the evening. We had wheat pasta tossed with toasted pine nuts, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli, oil and a few other ingredients. For appetizers we had 2 types of hummus - an olive hummus and an asparagus hummus, as well as an artichoke tepenade. I was really blown away with how good everything was, and to top it off, my aunt made a Spanish raspberry iced tea with tea that they got on their recent vacation in Europe.

While we were waiting for dinner to be ready, I played some Mario Cart with my cousin, on his Wii. That's a fun game, but its so strange to get my butt kicked by a 9 year old!

Our absolutely delicious dinner! I forgot my camera, so I used my uncle's, and he ended up taking the photos to a developer, so I had to scan the prints back onto a computer, hence the slightly lower quality of the picture!

On Tea

I just had a delicious cup of Masala Chai Tea. I'm not used to high-caffeine drinks, so when I have even a bit, I'm bouncing off the walls. I can barely sit still at work this morning. Thankfully, I'm sitting on my yoga ball, so I'm putting my energy to good use.

Ingredients to make the best Chai tea EVAR:

Chai tea (of course)

Silk vanilla soymilk creamer

Generous helping of raw agave nectar

Something to munch on....I've got almonds (this is optional!)

My most favorite tea in the whole world:



Jasmine Pearl Green Tea

I drink this pretty much every night. Just the smell of it puts me in a coma, its that good. I put a dab of raw agave in it to enhance the flavor, and that's all it needs. My family calls me Mr. Tea whenever I make a pot. I pity the foo who's never tasted this tea!

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and a safe one! I drove out to my friend's house in Riverside to enjoy the holiday. We were treated to 2 different fireworks shows, all from the comfort of his backyard! Great conversations, great company and great food.....didn't leave their house till 2 in the morning.....late night for me, I'm usually in bed by 10 pm!

What does this statue have to do with 4th of July? Absolutely nothing, but I love it and had to share it =)


While my friend and his wife are omni, they were very considerate in providing vegan options for me and also for my friend Matt, and so I had a vegan boca chik'n burger (which Matt brought) with hummus, avocado, onions, and corn. Sooooo good! It was getting toward night time, so the pictures of the patties on the grill didn't turn out very well but I got some good shots of the condiments....and fireworks!

Festive Casserole

Festive Casserole......great for festive occasions! Today is indeed a festive occasion: I finally got a food processor! Yes, I've entered the 21st century. I made this recipe once before, about a month ago and let me tell you, grating/shredding the beets was HORRIBLE without my handy dandy food processor. It took about an hour to shred everything. With my food processor, it took about 10 minutes. Food processors really are cruise control for AWESOME.

So.....on to the dish. I found this recipe on the Yogi Tea web site. It is a fairly ayurvedic-friendly recipe (garlic is a no-no in the ayurvedic diet), but I veganized a few of the ingredients. The vegan cheez is what makes this dish so great. I pretty much use the Follow Your Heart brand exclusively. The key to making this cheez taste really good is to melt it till its bubbly.



Ingredients:

• 4 beets of assorted colors (I did 2 red beets and 2 white beets)


• 1.5 lbs carrots


• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped


• 3 onions (I chopped one onion normally and food processed the other 2 until they were minced)


• 3 cloves of garlic (I like mine fairly large, but you can mince the garlic if you want)


• black pepper to taste


• Braggs Aminos, sprinkled to taste (this is a healthy and low-sodium soy sauce)


• 1/4 cup olive or canola oil (for use when you sautée)


• 2 packages of vegan jack cheez

Directions:

1. Scrub beets and carrots, but don't cut off stems or roots.


2. Steam whole beets for about 15 minutes, then add whole carrots and steam until tender/firm


3. Rinse in cold water and remove the skins (I use one of those hand skinner tools)


4. Separately grate the beets and carrots (in your handy food processor!)


5. Marvel at how bloody your hands look from the red beets


6. Place in casserole dish, mixing lightly so the colors are distinct.


7. Sautée onions and garlic in oil until golden brown


8. Gently mix the onions and garlic with beets and carrots, layering cheez in as well


9. Sprinkle with pepper and Braggs Aminos (or soy sauce if you want to go the less healthy route)


10. Cover entirely with the grated cheez


11. Cook in the oven at about 400 degrees for around 5 minutes, then broil until the cheez is bubbly


12. Enjoy!

OC Veggie Meetup

Tonight was the June OC Veggie meetup. My friend and co-organizer, Alia, is in Guatemala right now, so I wanted to keep this meet low-key. Haha, nice try! Ended up having about 30 people attend. Great crowd and everyone was friendly and having a good time.

This meetup was held at Au Lac, a very popular vegan/raw restaurant in Orange County. Their raw menu is incredible, and the presentation is very artistic. I had the curry "chicken". I'm addicted to curry; I couldn't help but order it...again. Good times and good company! Next month, Alia will be back and we are going to have a potluck. That'll be a great opportunity for everyone to mingle a bit more.

Raspberry Chocolove

My latest routine has been to have 3 squares of chocolate after dinner. I'm not much of a dessert person, but this chocolate has me hooked. Its gotta be the best chocolate I've ever had. I especially like the Raspberries In Dark Chocolate. All organic, vegan, and fair-trade. And I love the added touches they include in the wrapping. It not only looks visually appealing, but on the inside is an excerpt from Don Juan, by Lord Byron. How cool is that? Being an English Lit major, I find it to be one of the coolest things I've seen on packaging in a long time.

So if you see this in the store and are wondering if you should try this brand, I have to highly recommend it!

Rustic Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Tempeh "Bacon"

I've been really busy with the beginning of the summer semester that I haven't had much time to cook. Well, I've been cooking plenty, but I haven't had very much time to actually take quality photographs of the stuff I've been cooking. But anyway......

These pancakes were really good! Rustic chocolate chip pancakes. The "rustic" means that they don't look too pretty, but they are very good, and they'll really stick to your ribs! I'm not sure where that expression came from originally, but I saw it on a Disney cartoon a long time ago and I always say that when I make pancakes. So anyway, they have chocolate chips in them, chopped hazelnuts and some grated and chopped almonds.

Ingredients:

1 cup pancake mix (I used Arrowhead Mills)

1.5 tsp. egg replacer (mix with 2 tbsp. water)

1 tbsp. canola oil (organic....the non-organic kind is very very bad, most likely genetically modified)

1 tbsp. agave nectar (the raw version is my favorite, as I've mentioned before)

2/3 cup soy milk (this is more like a minimum, I ended up using about a cup of soy milk, both the normal and vanilla variety for extra flavor)

1/4 tsp. sea salt (if desired)

hazelnuts, almonds, dark chocolate or carob chips (add as much or as little as you like; I tend to be fairly heavy-handed)

Directions:

1. Stir all ingredients until lumps disappear


2. Let batter sit for one minute


3. Cook on preheated lightly oiled griddle or pan, turning when bubbles form on surface and edges begin to dry.


4. To ensure they cook all the way through, I usually use my spatula to poke a sliver in the center of the pancake, so that heat can move through a little better.


5. Enjoy!