the TLT deluxe

for a person who has historically avoided tomatoes like the plague (i love tomato sauce, ketchup, salsa, and all kinds of tomato-y things, just not Actual Tomatoes), and who has never actually eaten “real” bacon in her life, i have become weirdly obsessed with vegan BLTs over the past several months. i really, really like them, and so i keep trying them at restaurants when i see them on the menu. today, my husband decided to whip some up for lunch, and they were delicious!

these weren’t standard TLTs so much as they were TbsTs with extra fixings, but, you know, same diff. on the left, we have vegenaise, baby spinach, and pretty yellow tomatoes straight from our garden… and on the right, avocado and tempeh bacon. the bread is toasted, which he must have done in some fancy-pants griddle-based fashion, because we got rid of our toaster when we moved to this house and we keep forgetting to buy a new one. anyhow, this little sandwich was super tasty. i would definitely eat another one, given the option.

aveda comforting tea

so, i’ve been using aveda products forever, because the girl who cuts my hair is a friend from high school, and when i started going to her about 13 years ago, she worked at an aveda salon. she got me hooked and i’ve been pretty staunchly loyal ever since. i often say that my hair is an aveda snob.

my friend doesn’t work at an aveda salon anymore, so i have to actually go to an aveda store to buy my goods these days, and there are a few nearby. the one i end up at most often is at a mall about 10 minutes from my house, and it’s a mostly-outdoor mall. that doesn’t really matter so much, except that when i tell you the entrance to this aveda store (technically a salon/spa, whatever) has a small foyer, it makes more sense. so i’ve gone to this particular location about… oh, let’s say about 34 times, conservative estimate, and somewhere in there i noticed that they have tea in the foyer. it’s in one of those insulated pump-type canisters, and they have a ginormous pile of disposable cups, and a little sign encouraging you to have some tea. until yesterday, i walked past it every time, sort of half-considering giving it a try but never bothering.

this is partly because i’m a total novice when it comes to tea, and i am also really really picky about flavors. so if you offer me a hypothetical tea, my brain is automatically going to assume that i probably won’t like it, and then i’ll just move on to something else. but for whatever reason, yesterday i decided to try it on my way out of the store.

at first i poured myself just enough to take a sip, and when it came out super dark i was worried; i assumed it would have a bitter taste. but then i smelled it, and it (hilariously) smelled exactly like you might think tea in an aveda store would smell. i gave it the ol’ college try, and at first it just didn’t taste like much… but as soon as i swallowed it, i was sold. i immediately filled the whole cup and took it with me to sip. it leaves this amazing sweet taste in your mouth… so much so that i suddenly worried that i was drinking honey or something. when i got home, i googled and as far as i can tell, it’s not sweetened with anything beyond what’s in the tea itself (licorice and peppermint). it’s also apparently outrageously expensive, so it looks like i’ll just be drinking it out of the aveda foyer whenever i can.

has anyone else ever had this stuff? i definitely recommend giving it a try if you have the chance, even if (maybe even especially if) you don’t normally like tea.

veganism as a gesture

no pictures today, just a story and some happy squishy feelings.

awhile back i was invited to give a presentation to a women’s group at a bank across town. my stepmom helps run said bank, which is how they got my name. they do an event several times per year called “for women, by women” and the topic varies (pretty widely). sometimes it’s about finance, sometimes it’s about other general-interest stuff. they usually host about 50 women and serve them dinner (they always call it “a light meal,” but it’s at 6pm so it’s basically dinner) before the presentation starts. so anyhow, they asked me to do a presentation on interpersonal communication stuff, and i said sure thing.

in the interim, i found out that they were planning to make the meal they served that night totally vegan. i was blown away; such a sweet gesture! as it turns out, they did a lot of work behind-the-scenes to make it happen, and i was so touched by their thoughtfulness. my stepmom has always been extremely supportive of my veganism, and i’m sure she had a hand in this, but the woman who was actually in charge of the event did all the legwork and really went above and beyond (including driving 40 minutes to one of my favorite restaurant/cafes to pick up ‘vegan groceries’ and get chocolate peanut butter cake!).

so, the presentation was last night, there was a great turnout, and the meal went over extremely well. they didn’t make a big deal over its vegan-ness; they just said “we’re having chili, eat up!” and let everyone dig in. they ordered an enormous pot of chili from a local restaurant (who just happens to use a vegan recipe), and then they had avocado, red onion, and sour supreme for garnish. there was elbow macaroni on the side in case anyone wanted to add that in, and then they had a bunch of delicious bread with earth balance, a fruit salad that was gone before i even got a chance to check it out, and the aforementioned chocolate peanut butter cake for dessert. people loved everything, came back for seconds, and eventually the word just spread quietly that it was a vegan meal. it was so awesome; a non-issue in the best way.

i’m not sure if anyone’s ever made a sort of grand gesture like that on your behalf before, but i have to say, it was pretty amazing, and i appreciated it more than they’ll ever know. i thanked them about 19 times, though, just to try and get it across.

it’s here! it’s here! pumpkin silk is here!

okay, how awesome is my husband? he’s pretty awesome. and here’s the proof: this is what greeted me tonight when i opened the refrigerator:

can i get an amen? pumpkin silk has hit the stores, which means it’s officially pumpkin chai season. woo! i love pumpkin silk season, and i love snuggly autumn chai. tomorrow morning will be the first one of the year, and i can’t wait. i feel like it arrived early this year… it seems like i usually whine early in november about not being able to find it yet, so hooray for small favors. pumpkin silk almost makes up for the fact that canada stole all of our chocolate peppermint vitasoy. almost.

while we’re talking about things that make me feel all warm and snuggly, i’ll present this adorable picture without comment (mostly because i took the picture in secret and i hope i don’t get in trouble):

awwww.

chocolate chip banana bread

this morning, before i even had breakfast, my beloved michelle got me all excited about hummus with her simple little tweet. i decided to eat my bowl of apple cinnamon morning o’s as planned, but decided to aim for hummus as second breakfast. i was pretty excited about it, too, but then my husband magically appeared out of thin air with some freshly-baked banana bread. hummus postponed!

oooh, pretty, right? his go-to recipe is the lower-fat banana bread from veganomicon, but he makes a few adjustments (he likes to make things his own, har har). he cuts the oil and the sugar in half, and he replaces one-fourth of the flour with ground flax. then, he adds chocolate chips (“that’s where all the fat and sugar come back,” he says). he always makes a double-batch, so we get to eat it for a few days. this time, he even used fancypants home-made applesauce in the recipe (made by my sister). it was super-delicious, as always.

yum, you can even see the melty chocolate chips. warm banana bread right from the oven is pretty awesome, i have to say. but it’s been a couple of hours now, and i think i might finally be ready for some hummus…

cheezish macaroni, the best in the universe

okay, i just did a search on my own blog and realized that i have apparently never blogged specifically about the wonder of cheezish. i am flabbergasted. how is this even possible? anyone who knows me in person (and even a bunch of people who don’t) know that it’s like my favorite thing in the entire world, so how have i never blogged about it? yikes, i’m slipping.

so, i love mac & cheese. like, LOVE IT love it. i think kristen and i could have a really good time planning some kind of mac & cheese-inspired road trip, is what i’m saying. anytime i see a new vegan mac & cheese on the menu anywhere, it is automatically what i’m ordering. mac & cheese is love.

i have always been partial to the stove-top style rather than the oven-baked style. i was raised on kraft, what can i say? i’m not fussy about what i eat, i love it all, but my preference is for a very smooth, slightly tangy, a little orange-y, bowl of mac. behold, the amazing, the beautiful, the insanely delicious, cheezish macaroni:

this recipe was created by my dear friend summer and can be found in her adorable cookbook, the glad cow cookbook. it’s slim and accessible and packed with a bunch of great recipes i return to again and again… but none more than cheezish. <3

this stuff is magical, you guys. it has pimentos (or roasted red peppers, if you’re greedy like me and want to make bigger batches and buy larger jars) and nooch and tahini and lemon juice and a wee bit of hot sauce, and i love it so much that these days, i can never stand to make only one batch–i make two at a time, then freeze half for a future cheezish emergency. this is my ultimate comfort food, what i always want to make when i find myself with a lazy couch day, what i always crave when i’m feeling sorry for myself. perfect color, perfect texture, ridiculously perfect taste. let’s look at some more pictures, shall we? we shall!

i usually like to make it with those squirrely squiggles (cavatappi), but sometimes i make it with shells or rotini, if i can’t find the others. anything that gets the cheezish sauce to my mouth is a winner in my book. i love this picture because you can see the sauce just pooling in the shells. yum. let’s see another one!

i mean, you get it, right? it’s sublime. i want to eat it every day. buy summer’s book! i guarantee it’s worth it just for the cheezish alone (but also check out her recipe for dip, an awesome oven-baked mexican chip-dipping extravaganza… and i am also a huge fan of her scones). oh cheezish, i’m so sorry i’ve been lax in making my love for you all official, blog-style. i hope you can forgive me.

more white frosting pictures, anyone?

so, my last mofo post featured a giant picture of a white-frosted cupcake, and now this one includes a picture of 18 white-frosted cupcakes. can i pick compelling subjects or what?

so… these guys were actually what screwed up my amazing and fantastic mofo streak. boooo! allow me to explain.

on saturday we spent a big chunk of the late morning/early afternoon at the annual fundraising event for our greyhound group, the “greyhound gala” (air quotes because it involves neither formalwear nor fancy appetizers). maia got to smell at least 89 greyhound butts, she got a high-priced charity nail trim, she got a gorgeous fancy new fleece coat, and she got to run in the always-entertaining radar run, which is essentially a fenced-in corral where a greyhound waits at one end, their person runs to the other end, and then we make a huge fuss (with a squawker and a radar gun) to get them to run the length of the corral, and we find out how fast they are. most greyhounds think this is the Most Fun EVAR, but some of them hilariously just amble on down as slow as you please, and this year the guy two ahead of maia stopped to take a giant poop during his “run.” awesome. anyhow, she had an absolute blast, although she got a little confused and slowed up toward the end, then wandered sort of between us without getting too close, turned around, and zoomed just as quickly back to the start. hilarious, maia, real class clown stuff there.

anyhow, she was clocked at 29 mph, which is not the fastest by any means, but definitely no slouch. she’s only done the run one other time, the first year we had her (three octobers ago), and then she ran 35 mph. after all that excitement, she was super duper tired, and she came home and conked on her bed.

meanwhile, we were plotting to get some delicious food from chicago’s vegan food truck (ste martaen), who are generous enough to venture north now and again to feed the grateful vegans of our fair city. we loaded up on food (chicago cheesesteak + bbq wings for my husband, chik’n pita + mac & cheese for me) and headed back to our house to eat, and i didn’t get pictures of anything except this bite of creamy mac:

by then, it was something like 3.30pm and we were gearing up for a lunch par-tay the next day. we were hosting my family to celebrate my brother-in-law’s birthday, but we still needed to clean and grocery shop and cook and bake, and before you knew it, it was 12.17am and i was putting cupcakes out to cool… and i realized that meant i’d missed my mofo for the day. curses! i was pretty bummed, but i forged ahead and made the frosting and decided to get over it. so up top there you can see the little punks: i made a dozen carrot cake cupcakes (from the carrot cake recipe in how it all vegan), and a dozen chocolate cupcakes (from vegan cupcakes take over the world), and then a mega-batch of vegan cream cheese frosting (from kittee!) to frost everything… and i still have enough left over that i plan to make more cupcakes this week. yay!

so there you have it: how my saturday got a little out of control and ruined my mofo streak. then sunday happened (including a giant lasagna feast made by my husband, the aforementioned cupcakes, and so on) and i got a little lazy. but now i’m back on track. yes sir or ma’am! i will finish strong!

happy cupcake surprises

i love stumbling upon happy vegan accidents; finding vegan treats where i wasn’t expecting them. tonight we decided to swing through classic slice for some pizza, and when we walked in there was a cute sign on the case up front advertising vegan pumpkin cupcakes. the word ‘vegan’ was huge and prominently featured, and that always gives me a thrill. sadly, though, there was only one lonely cupper left… and of course, we pounced.

the cupcake itself was dense and moist, pumpkin-y without overdoing it. the frosting was a vanilla cream cheeze frosting, and it was extremely tasty. i also really loved how the top almost looked like a giant rose, the way it was frosted. so cute! thanks, classic slice. vegan desserts are the best.

seven years

it’s technically the next day as i write this, but i haven’t gone to bed yet so in my mind, it’s still october 13th. and that’s my vegan anniversary! this year i am celebrating seven years of being blissfully, head-over-heels vegan. in some ways it feels much longer, and in other ways i can’t believe it’s already been seven years.

we celebrated by going out to lunch at one of our favorite spots, and i have a feeling i might try to extend the celebration a little over the course of the next few days, if i can get away with it. if i can score an extra cupcake here and there, what’s the harm, am i right?

this past year has been perhaps my easiest and most comfortable of the seven, because somewhere in there my husband went vegan, too. i’m not actually sure when he flipped the switch (he’s a sneaky one), but i think it was over a year ago already(!) which is kind of amazing. anyhow, i’d be lying if i said it didn’t make me over-the-moon happy, and that i feel really good about us “being on the same team” in this respect. we tend not to talk about it all that much, but i think he knows how i feel. or at least he does now, because he reads this crap. *waves*

the past twelve months have also included a gorgeous snuggly pile of new vegan friends (as well as some reconnecting with old friends from the days of yore), a couple of trips to vegan fantasy lands (i.e., austin and portland), and my discovery of trader joe’s sea salt & turbinado sugar dark chocolate almonds. all in all, a wonderful year. thanks, veganism. you rock.

and, as is my custom… big ups to ryan at vegblog, who is my vegan wonder twin. we went vegan on the very same day, before we even knew each other. holler!

vegan anniversary lunch

today i celebrated seven years of veganism, woo hoo! more about that later, but for now i’m down to the wire on a mofo post, so let’s talk food, shall we?

my husband was in meetings a big chunk of the day, but eventually he came home and we decided to go out for a late lunch to bask in my seven years of veganity. i had looked online and beans & barley had an amazing-sounding soup today (pumpkin peanut), so that’s where we headed.

the joke was on me, though, because by the time we got there, they had sold out of the soup. sad trombone! in its place, they were offering curried cauliflower soup, and that sounded pretty good as well, so i gave it a whirl:

it was flavorful and slightly spicy, with lots of veggies and even some chickpeas. not what i was expecting, but i’d definitely have it again. (i hope i get to try the pumpkin peanut at some point, too!) next up, i ordered one of my standard all-time favorites, their black bean burrito. i tried to cut it so you’d be able to see the guts, but it tore so it looks kind of funky. oh wells:

black beans, rice, guacamole, and some pico, wrapped up in a tortilla and grilled for just a bit… served with chips and a really great salsa. LOVE this burrito. then, of course, we had to have some dessert… what is a celebration without cake?

this is the chocolate peanut butter cake i’ve mentioned previously, and it did not disappoint. by this time it was getting stormy and weird outside, so the lighting is pretty freaky, but the cake is amazing so i need to share it anyway. oh, so delicious. definitely a tasty way to ring in seven years.