October 2011 – Page 5

Iron Chef Challenge #2

October 14, 2011 Katie Comments 40 comments

Last week, we dipped our toe into the pool with chickpeas, a very common ingredient in vegan cooking. This week, we are shoving you in the deep end with an ingredient combination! That means you use them both together, not that you get to choose. I think this is definitely a hard one, but I know you guys can pull out some amazing stuff because you are vegan champions.

A quick review of our few simple rules/guidelines:

1. Whatever you come up with has to be new, nothing from a cookbook or a blog, not something you posted last week that happens to involve the secret ingredient. It’s fine to use a recipe for a jump-off point, but make it your own!
2. Entries are due at 3 pm on Sunday (but it takes me awhile to read all of the entries so if you’re a little late it’s no big).
3. Have fun and be creative!

And the secret ingredients are…

BANANAS AND COFFEE!

Isa came up with this combination idea. As usual, you can use any form of the ingredients that you want: banana extract, banana chips; coffee extract, espresso powder, whatever. This may seem like a dessert challenge, but I would love to see some savory applications! Bonus points if the coffee is just an accent flavor for those of us who don’t like it that much.

Allez Végétalien Cuisine!

Happy VeganMoFo HUMP DAY!

October 14, 2011 jess sconé Comments 3 comments

Congrats, MoFo-land! We’ve now made it to the halfway point of VeganMoFo, and vegan blogging continues to be unstoppable. YEAH, WE’RE NEVER GONNA STOP.

In celebration of this amazing month, vegan wonder-woman Leslie Hall is here to share a little song.

Get ready to break out the gem sweater and shake some booty, y’all.

VEGGIES

Lyrics:

I eat the finest cuisines, in the finest of places Stuff my mouth full and always say thank you. But if it’s raised in a cage, and it can’t even move, if it’s hormone filled and in a bad mood. I’m gonna pass on that. Reach for something better. The only milk I’ll drink comes from the nipple of a soy bean. Veggies make you live forever, and they seem to taste much better. when they’re cooked and grown with love. So give a chef who knows what’s up a hug. Momma just can’t seem to get it, Papa he just rolls his eyes. When I tell them I’m much healthier, they just say that it’s all lies. But beans, nuts, fruits and veggies can really fill the belly. Get you vitamins you need, shiny hair and extra speed. Don’t take that meat-wich any further, I want a marinated, deep fried, hand-tied mushroom burger. I like it! We gotta stand strong for our feathered furry sometimes scaly animal friends and their little babies. ‘Cuz I wouldn’t want to live in a cage in a dark warehouse killed at an early age. Pumped full of hormones, sleeping in my feces. Never met my mother, raised by machines. Never get sunshine never get green, but that’s just me. [That girl loves fruit leather.] So ask us what we’re eating. Delicious and repeating, fruits and veggies are so nice. With a slice of tempeh, yes, I’ll have that twice. Don’t forget the legumes!

Image by Kittee Berns.

Chewy, Cheeky, Chesty Chia.

October 13, 2011 kittee Comments 59 comments

Are you surfin’ the chia wave yet? I know lots of folks have been chewing on chia for years, but I only recently had my first chia pudding. I dug it. My lateness to the chia game is crazy, because I’m a big fan of wobbly, chewy things–especially in my beverages. I am one of the biggest bubble tea cheerleaders, ever. In the world.

Chia and tapioca shouldn’t really be compared, though. They’re very different animals. Or at least, my comparisons shouldn’t be taken too seriously…Boba/tapioca reminds me of candy and desserts, squishy boobs and the age-old adage, “CHEW BEFORE SWALLOW!” Chia, on the other hand is a much smaller and delicate choking concern and more reminiscent of frog eggs than breasts. I’m not alone in this sentiment either, just read Vegtastic Voyage‘s hilarious experience with her first “chia in kombucha.” Her story is replete with frog egg pictures, which I’ll be kind enough to leave off of my message today.

Chia is also an insane nutrition power-donkey, and if you get bored with eating it, you can spread it on objects around your house and grow it for novelty! I wish bubble tea had the same virtues.

The generous folks at Mamma Chia heard about my recent chia conversion and were nice enough to send me coupons to try each of their four flavors. These classy drinks are filled with organic juice, organic chia and a little bit of agave. They’re super-healthy, refreshing, have a bit of protein (4g per serving), omega-3s, and they’re fun to eat or drink (you can’t really drink a beverage you need to chew, and you can’t really eat a drink–so that’s confusing). After sampling each of these very scientifically in my test kitchen, my favorite flavor, far and away, was Cherry Lime. It’s tastes like cherry jello and required considerable restraint from me and my lab partner to keep from adding vodka straight into the bottle.

Mamma Chia wants to spread their chewy, healthy love with you, too. Today we’ll pick three winners; each of you will win a coupon for a free bottle of Mamma Chia (you pick the flavor), plus another coupon for a buck off of two bottles.

To win, just comment with your best chia alliteration, write about your general love of chia, or if you have any experience incorporating chia with booze, tell me about that. Winners will be chosen at midnight tonight–East Coast time, so that’s 9PM for you lefties.

The winners are alliteraters Emily comment #18, Candice comment #39 and Beth comment #51. Please email veganmofoblog at gmail dot com and send us your addresses!

xo kittee

Wednesday Round-up: Let Them Eat Cake!

October 13, 2011 Luciana Comments 4 comments

After swearing I heard two engineers at work discussing installing doughnuts in a wall, I realized that I have dessert on the brain. I’d just watched last week’s Top Chef Desserts, where they made doughnuts, so I must have still had them on the brain. So, I decided to see what sweet treats folks were baking up for Mofo.

I love pineapple in my carrot cake, and over at Alien’s Day Out, there is a lovely carrot pineapple cake with tofu cream.

Anchors and feathers cooks up a different, but still just as delicious looking carrot cake.

I’d also love to cozy up with a nice cup of tea and the Coffee Cake with Prunes over at Emmakant.

This Triple Apple Cider Bundt Cake at OMG Veg! looks absolutely heavenly.

These cake pops aren’t baked, but I love raw desserts, especially when they’re coated in chocolate. I certainly wouldn’t turn down a few of the cake pops at barefoot and frolicking!

With so many choices for great desserts, I’ll be distracted for a while before I start thinking about doughnuts again!

So Delicious Giveaway!

October 12, 2011 Katie Comments 126 comments

Here are the winners and the flavors of ice cream they made up:

Andrea: Buckeye ice cream!! I looooove buckeyes! I think that would be So Delicious!!
Tiffany: Yum. I love coconut milk-based ice cream. A concoction of rocky road meets chocolate fudge brownie would be amazing.
The Saucy Coconut: It’s simple, but delicious: strawberry ice cream – could be either soy or coconut-based. (Though I love coconut, obv.)
Vegan Linda: I’m on a huge chai kick so I say a chai flavor would be awesome.
Cathy: That’s easy Pumpkin Pie! My second choice would be ‘nog.

Check your emails tomorrow, everyone!

Turtle Mountain (more commonly known as So Delicious) has been cranking out dairy-free treats for 20 years, that’s back when we had to hike five miles uphill (both ways) just to get a block of tofu. With that in mind, it’s no surprise at the sheer amount of products they have today. I went to the website and counted, they have 21 flavors of soy ice cream and 17 flavors of coconut ice cream! My favorite is the Coconut Cherry Amaretto, personally. I have trouble finding more than plain vanilla or chocolate around here, but I have been known to take a cooler with me when visiting people so I can bring back a few pints to tide me over.

They also have a ton of frozen novelties, creamer, sorbets, yogurts, and coconut-based beverages. And here is the exciting news, the beverage line is about to get a little bigger…

That’s right, So Delicious is bringing us a soy-free option for the holiday beverage season! This isn’t great just for people with soy allergies, I know some people don’t like the taste of soy milk at all, flavored or not.

So Delicious has offered to send five lucky people each two VIP free product coupons – good for ANY of their products. To enter, simply leave a comment letting us know what flavor of So Delicious soy/coconut ice cream you would invent if you had the chance (here is their product page so you can see what they already have). Winners will be chosen tonight at midnight, CST, because I took a nap instead of posting this earlier. Open to US residents only.

All-Night PB Party Giveaway Starring Peanut Butter & Co!

October 12, 2011 isachandra Comments 138 comments

Update! We have our winners. Alyssa, who said “”I would definitely have to go with Dark Chocolate Dreams and strawberry preserves. I haven’t actually tried that yet because I’m most likely to just eat the chocolate stuff straight out of the jar, but now that I’ve thought of it I need to make it.”

And Lisa H. who said “I’m so in love with Dark Chocolate Dreams. It’s my ultimate guilty pleasure. As for a jelly, it’s raspberry or nothing.”

Looks like Dark Chocolate Dreams is the most popular with everyone! We’ll contact the winners with details. Thanks to everyone for playing!

Peanut butter! Is there anyone who doesn’t love it? I mean, besides the severely allergic.

I remember heading through the West Village on my way to somewhere or other about a million years ago and stumbling across a huge sign that said “Peanut Butter & Co.” Who wouldn’t sidestep their destination and check that out? Inside were tables and tables of grown people eating peanut butter sandwiches! So basically I am describing paradise. I had myself a pressed PB & banana that I remember to this day.

Peanut Butter & Co. has come along way since my inaugural PB&B sandwich. You can pick up luscious flavors such as Dark Chocolate Dreams and White Chocolate wonderful. Or go for autumn combinations like Cinnamon Raisin Swirl or Mighty Maple.

We’re calling tonight VeganMoFo’s All-Night PB Party! Peanut Butter & Co. is giving away two jars of peanut butter to two lucky winners. Any kind you like!

~~To enter the contest, just visit Peanut Butter & Company’s peanut butter page and pick your favorite variety*, then tell us what kind of jelly you’d pair it with in a sandwich. Simple!~~

Winners must be US only to win (sorry rest of the world!) and supply a valid email address. We’ll choose two winners randomly on Wednesday morning. Good luck!

*The only non-vegan one is the Bee’s Knees, everything else is vegan! So as usual, please keep it vegan for VeganMoFo, gracias!

Tuesday Roundup: Amalgamation

October 11, 2011 lazysmurf Comments 9 comments

Sometimes when you put two very different ingredients or styles of cooking together for the first time it is like magic. Beautiful partnerships can be formed like peanut butter and chocolate or you can get dishes like chili mac. Other times you end up with chocolate ice cream and olives or Christmas Hot Dogs and wonder how you ever got to that point. Today’s round up is dedicated to combining what might seem like un-mixey things.

First from Scissors and Spice we have Italian enchiladas. This combination makes a lot of sense to me, I know plenty of Mexican-Italian people so why not combine the two culinary traditions. They both use tomato sauce and delishiousness so I say manga mi amigo!

Next I kind of fell in love with the idea for the Vegan Cookie Connoisseur’s Bloody Mary Biscuits which were inspired by Milwaukee’s Comet Cafe. This means Kelly added olives and vegan bacon into the delicious pastries. I want some!

I also loved Vegtastic Voyage’s idea for Thai Pesto, basically trading out basil for cilantro and pine nuts for peanuts. Along with some other finagling this simple no-measuring recipe sounds like a great idea for those of us that love cilantro in particular and Thai flavors in general. I am going to try it for sure.

Have you checked out My Zoetrope this mofo? Michelle is doing the most wonderful paintings of rescue animals and auctioning them off to raise money for animal sanctuaries. I am in love. I also couldn’t believe that she made a Graham Cracker Cake which is like smores in cake form! The recipe is from Celine and Joni’s Hearty Vegan and is even more reason why I have to get this book!

I saw Manifest Vegan’s post about Apple Nachos and I almost didn’t want to look since I was picturing apples covered in queso with salsa. Lucky for me, I opened up the post and was astonished to find a beautiful plate of easy desert-y goodness.

But my favorite post for today’s theme is indeed the vegan mac and cheese pizza. Not just because of the brilliance of this concept of comfort food meets comfort food but because it supposed to be served with a side of mac and cheese.Thank you Kelly Garbato for this inspirational post and for your a wonderful combination.

Why does mofo come only once a year?

Monday Round-Up: Happy Vegan Thanksgiving, Canadians!

October 10, 2011 Gabrielle Comments 11 comments

MoFos! I drive all of my American friends up the wall talking about Canadian Thanksgiving—one of my favourite holidays—but they’re just jealous that we don’t have to wait until November to get our Tofurky on. Since I’m currently embarking on an amazing and terrifying house-sitting gig in Victoria, BC, I’ll probably be having toast for dinner, so we can all be jealous of the following Canadian Thanksgiving dishes perfect for channelling your inner hoser.

While those of us out on the West Coast on getting reacquainted with our closest friend—the rain—lucky Nicole in sunny Southern Ontario is taking gorgeous outside shots of these birthday lemon tarts over at at A Dash of Compassion.

I’m a little out of sorts that my Thanksgiving weekend didn’t kick off with these perfect pumpkin waffles from you can’t eat the air!

Is there anything better than apple pie? Evidently, yes, there is apple pie CAKE.

Not only did Jennifer at It Ain’t Meat, Babe discuss vegan Thanksgiving celebrations with on Canada’s prestigious CBC radio, she also found the time to suggest we try her Sweet Potato Bread Pudding. I’ll take advice from anyone with Dylan-inspired blog name.

You’ve seen Bryanna Clark Grogan’s World Vegan Feast making its rounds around the MoFo-sphere, so clearly we knew BCG wouldn’t leave us hanging on Thanksgiving. Try her Mediterranean mashed potatoes, and don’t fret if you find yourself eating them straight out of the pot.

I’m patriotically practising my French by reading Vegan à Montréal, and we all know that Les Français are masters of the crêpe, but it looks as though the Québécois can also hold their own with a Swiss-style chickpea omelet.

Finally, MeShell, I am begging you to invite me to your Thanksgiving next year. Her spread includes cornbread muffins, onion gravy, smashed garlicky potatoes, grapefruit black pepper cranberry Sauce (fancypants!), stuffing in acorn squash, salads, pies, lentil loaves, and gosh, probably more. I’m met that girl. She’s a wizard. And her partner made a freaking pumpkin cheesecake!

Congrats on ten days of blogging, MoFos!

Monday Giveaway: ecoVegan Blissful Bits

October 10, 2011 lazysmurf Comments 70 comments

The two winners are Kate who admires Ellen DeGeneres and promises to use the Blissful Bits for something Ellen inspired and Leslie who picked cookbook author (and dog lover) Sarah Kramer. Thanks everyone for your well thought out responses, they made my day!

It is so nice to get frozen meat from a proudly vegan-owned company because they understand that we don’t want eggs, honey, duck feathers, or any other weird animal byproducts in our delicious fake meat! I also like that ecoVegan uses all natural. non-gmo ingredients and even sources vegan sugar. It is all right there, very clearly, on the label. I wish they could teach the whole rest of the world how to make clear vegan labels so I don’t have to look up really long words on my phone while I am standing in the grocery store aisle. EcoVegan has lots of products like Ocean’s Delight and Spicy Bits that are sure to add a little excitement to your regular rotation so check out their site to see where to pick them up.

If you are interested in trying the Blissful Bits meat alternative ecoVegan is kind enough to send a package to two different lucky continental US residents. All you have to do is tell me who your favorite loud and proud vegan is, they can be someone you have known for years in “real life” or that you just learned about during veganmofo or some sort of vegan superstar…. or maybe even a smurf, just kidding! No sucking up because I will pick the winner at random by 8pm CST time. And yes, you are welcome to pick more than one! Just remember to leave an email address!

Happy Mofo!

Sunday Round-Up: Warm & Cozy

October 10, 2011 jess sconé Comments 3 comments

Hello, MoFos! Jess here, swapping places with Gabrielle today. My favourte Canadian is out foraging wild mushrooms or knitting cat sweaters while on a ferry, or something else that sounded that adorable. It’s been a misty fall day in Portland that just makes me want to simmer soup, hug biscuits and warm up under a blanket on the couch with a cat or two. I wouldn’t mind if any of the following bloggers were my personal chefs today, they seem to really have the warm & cozy autumn theme going on…

First up, a South American-Style Hot Chocolate from Bryanna Clark Grogan, as part of her Holiday Brunch Menu. Decadence!

Next up, Fancified Tator Tots with black truffle oil, inspired by Violetta , by Emma Kat. Gourmet tots for the win.

What better way to spend a chilly afternoon than a cooking project? As usual, Julie knows what’s up, and has some awesome looking Quick Dill Pickles to share:

Another great project is some fiery homemade Sriricha, ala Olives for Dinner. Bonus points for cutest hot sauce photo ever.

AstroNOMZ welcomes fall with a PUMPKIN tofu scramble. Enough said!

Fall brings forth Oktoberfest and I am digging the German vegan blogs – check out think. care.act.’s celebratory meal and stop in Bavaria, featuring homemade pretzels:

Over at Thoughts of Life and Dark Chocolate, Steffers heads to France for inspiration on this warm bowl of Seitan Bourguignon. I can practically smell it, warming on the stove…

I’m one of those crazy people that prefer ice cream in the colder months, and this creamy, fall-spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream from Vegan Fazool fits the bill perfectly:

Lastly, Cook.Vegan.Lover reminds us that we’re vegan, and therefore, kale is always in season.

Good night!

VeganMoFo

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