Naturally Lindsay

Vegan Mofo #19: Vegan Wines

October 22, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 4 Comments

wineslanding_zin

french-rabbit-home-feature3 As a vegan you become accustomed to checking the labels of everything you eat, drink, and wear and are always asking if something is vegan before letting it touch your lips. However one of the most difficult things to determine whether or not it is vegan is wine. You might ask what makes it not vegan? Well, some wines are clarified after fermentation and some of the ingredients used include:

– edible gelatins (made from bones)
– isinglass (made from the swim bladders of fish)
– casein and potassium caseinate (milk proteins)
– animal albumin (egg albumin and dried blood powder)

yellow-tail As we all know wines don’t usually have an ingredients list on the bottle (or box) as other products so we can’t just go to the market and pick up a bottle without doing a little research. A great site to find out which wines are vegan is http://www.barnivore.com/ – here you can find a list of wines, beers and liquors and details as to if they are vegan friendly, mostly vegan friendly or not vegan friendly. If you click the name it brings you further so you can find out if ones is “mostly vegan friendly” which specific wines are.

Some of my favorite vega sm_FishEye_beach_bot n wines are:

Bota Box wines- not only is it vegan but it is environmentally friendly with it’s recycled box UPDATE: as of January 2010 Bota Box is no longer vegan friendly for more info check out Barnivore

French Rabbit- another great variety of vegan wines that are also enclosed in environmentally friendly packaging

Fish Eye- great and cheap

Yellow Tail- ONLY reds are vegan- which is fine with me because I love red wine however my hubz and I usually go for one of the above brands if we are sharing as he is a white wine drinker.

Vegan Mofo #18: Winter Food Basket

October 20, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 8 Comments

For those of you who have been following me for awhile now you know that last year my husband and I participated in a Winter CSA through Pete’s Greens of Craftsbury, VT. This year my husband’s work is subsidizing a Winter Food Basket that we get every 2 weeks starting November 9th. All the produce comes from local Vermont Farms:

Adam’s Berry Farm

AH Mushrooms

Arethusa Collective Farm

Jericho Settlers’ Farm

Rockville Market Farm

Sreamin’ Ridge Farm

Stray Cat Flower Farm

Sugarsnap Farm

Valley Dream Farm

Willow Hill Farm

What I love about this share is 1. it is vegan!, our share last year was a vegetarian localvore share and so we split it with an omni couple who took all the dairy and eggs, 2. not all the produce is coming from one distributer, 3. it’s cheaper than last year and still gives us the ability to pick up other items and stay on budget. My husband and I are both so excited to see what we will get- it’s like a new challenge each week to use all of our produce in new and interesting ways. Below is an example of what we can be expecting (does not show last week of share):

Winter Vegetable $395 (which breaks down to an average of $24.50 a week)

This share showcases the abundant Vermont winter vegetable harvest. You will recieve a variety of vegetables, ranging from fresh salad greens, mushrooms and potatoes to winter squash, carrots and onions. This share will also include apples and cider.

Nov. 9	Nov. 23	Dec. 7	Dec. 21	Jan. 4	Jan. 18	Feb. 1
mesclun	mesclun	mesclun	mesclun	mushrooms	carrots	mushrooms
spinach	spinach	spinach	spinach	carrots	beets	carrots
mushrooms	kale	mushrooms	kale	shallots	cabbage	celeriac
kale	brussel sprouts	kale	brussel sprouts	cabbage	potatoes	cabbage
fennel	carrots	fennel	carrots	potatoes	onions	potatoes
brussel sprouts	beets	carrots	beets	rutabaga	rutabaga	shallots
carrots	cabbage	napa cabbage	cabbage	turnips	turnips	rutabaga
napa cabbage	potatoes	potatoes	potatoes	celeriac	parsnips	turnips
potatoes	onions	onions	onions	winter squash	winter squash	winter squash
onions	shallots	rutabaga	turnips	garlic	garlic	garlic
parsnips	rutabaga	winter squash	parsnips	apples	cider	apples
celeriac	turnips	garlic	winter squash
winter squash	winter squash	leeks	garlic
garlic	garlic	apples	cider
leeks	cider
apples

Vegan Mofo#17: Creamless Potato Leek Soup

October 20, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 7 Comments

I picked up some beautiful baby leeks at the market on saturday along with some red potatoes. I was going to roasted them up together and then my husband said “would it be okay to potato leek soup” and of course I jumped at the chance to make soup especially when it was my husband requesting it (he isn’t so hot on soups usually). So tonight after an amazing dinner of roasted butternut squash and braised collards I decided to whip up batch of Creamless Potato Leek Soup.

You can get the recipe here.

Vegan Mofo #16: Canadian Thanksgiving

October 19, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 7 Comments

As many of you know my husband is Canadian so this year I decided that I would cook up a Canadian Thanksgiving, kind of a test run for the “real” Thanksgiving. However, last week my husband was really sick so I have been postponing making dinner. Finally last night everyone felt fine and I had everything I needed to put together our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

For dinner I made a Thanksgiving Tart, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Japanese Yam and Roasted Noochie Purple Cauliflower. The best part of this meal (besides eating it) was how easy it was to make. I turned my oven on to preheat to 400F and put everything together.

For the Thanksgiving Tart:

(I adapted from this recipe)

Serves 4

What You Need:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup onion, diced

3/4 cup celery, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 14-ounce can white kidney beans, rinsed (reserving 1/4 cup)

3/4 cup walnuts

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons shoyu

1-1/4 cups frozen chopped spinach

3-1/2 tablespoons apple juice sweetened dried cranberries

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 9-inch prepared spelt pie shell, thawed

1/2 tablespoon olive oil (for brushing)

1 teaspoon shoyu (for brushing)

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, garlic, salt, and pepper, and cook for 7 to 9 minutes until onions soften and begin to caramelize. Set aside.
In a food processor, add white beans (except 1/4 reserved cup), walnuts, lemon juice, and shoyu, and pulse to lightly chop (do not purée). Remove half of chopped mixture from food processor and transfer to a large bowl.
Transfer sautéed onions to the remaining mixture in food processor. Purée until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Transfer purée to bowl with lightly chopped beans and walnut mixture. Add spinach, cranberries, thyme, and cup of reserved beans. Stir to combine and transfer to prepared pie shell, spreading evenly.
Combine oil and tamari, and brush on top of pie and crust. Bake for 35 minutes until lightly browned.

This weekend I also made Happy Herbivore’s Low Fat Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts.

Don’t forget to sign up to participate in the Vegan Care Package Swap Here

Also there is a great Wild Garden Hummus Giveaway going on as well- Find out how you can win HERE

Vegan Mofo #15: Giveway- Wild Garden Hummus

October 18, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 18 Comments

WINNERS: NORA AND TAHINITOO

One of my favourite snacks is hummus and to end Vegan Mofo I am doing a Wild Garden Hummus Giveaway. Also since Halloween is around the corner it only seems appropriate to have a Halloween based question for all of you competitors to answer.

For the chance to 2 chances to win one (1) jar of Wild Garden Hummus please post a comment that answers this question: If you could veganize any halloween candy which would it be? This post will close on October 23rd at midnight and 2 people will be winners!

Once you have answered the question above you can add to your odds by doing the following:

Become a fan of my Facebook Page (leave me a comment)
Follow me on Twitter (leave me a comment)
Re-tweet @cookveganlover on Twitter
Add me to your blog roll (leave me a comment)

Dining at The Black Door

October 16, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 1 Comment

Last night my husband took me to a new spot for dinner, The Black Door on Main St in Montpelier, VT. Now we had been here before for drinks but never have had a chance to do dinner. Neil called to make reservations and check on vegan options and the hostess let him know that the Eggplant Bucatini without the shaved cheese was vegan and the Cumin Spiced Tofu was vegan. After hearing this I went on to check their wine list to see which ones were vegan and to my luck a variety of their wines, both red and white, were vegan.

blackdoor

We showered and got dressed up (it’s pretty nice and a bit pricey) and headed on our way. We were sat at a nice table for two and had great service and great wine and beer. Our meals came and everything was delicious! The meals came (we got one of each to share) and they were great. The Eggplant Bucatini was very good however the shining plate was the Cumin Spiced Tofu which was just amazing- my husband said it was one of the best meals he’s had in a long time, even better than anything I’d made! (I had to agree).

Our only issue with our meal is that they were particularly small and we were very hungry after having had a small lunch and working out we were ready for something filling. We came to the conclusion that this was the type of place you do appetizer, entrée and dessert- not just an entrée as we had done (oh well it was our first time). Just when we thought we’d have to go home and have a snack our waitress comes back to let us know that there is one vegan dessert tonight, our ears perked up, it was apple cinnamon sorbet. We ordered a bowl to share and let me tell you this was one of the best vegan desserts I’ve had. It was like apple pie in sorbet form without the crust. Overall our dining experience was great- great food, good service, great atmosphere. We’d definitely go back and the best part is they have a seasonal menu so we will hopefully get to experience a new and amazing meal once again.

Vegan Mofo #11: Giveaway & Review- Crofters Organics Superfruit

October 16, 2009 by Lindsay Ingalls 9 Comments

Crofter’s Organic has come out with a great line for 4 different fruit spreads using super fruits from around the world: Europe, North America, South America and Asia. The Europe superfruit spread is filled with pomegranates and black currants blended with red grapes and morello cherries and is delicious the black currants give it a great flavor. North America superfruit is filled with wild cranberries and blueberries blended with red grapes and morello cherries (this is my giveaway so I haven’t tasted it but I’m sure it is great). The South America is really yummy with its maqui berries and passionfruit blended with red grapes and morello cherries. Lastly, my favorite Asia which have raspberries and yummberries which are “are native to East Asia and have been used historically for maintaining and restoring health”.

Since I was lucky enough to be chosen by Crofters Organics as the winner of their 4 Superfruit Spreads to review I decided that I would give one of my readers a chance to review the North America Spread.

To win this giveaway leave a comment stating your favorite jam or jam recipe.

For extra chances to win you can link back to this post on your blog, tweet it @cookveganlover and/or add me to your blog roll (if you do any of these extra chances make sure to let me know by posting in a comment)- so lets see 4 chances to win? why not try?

The winner will be announced on October 16th.

The Winner is………..

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 4 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Amy Lynn // 13/10/2009 at 12:24 PM | Reply (edit)

I make a mean loaded oatmeal – flaxseeds, berries, nuts, soy or almond milk, etc – and top it off with a scoop of jam. It’s the morning equivalent of a bowl of ice cream.