Vegan Mofo #8: Raw Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

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This week we have been attempting to eat high raw and have been doing pretty well with it.  For breakfast and lunch yesterday we had some really great juices, squeezed fresh from our new juicer (which I am in love with).  However, by dinner last night we were ready for solid food and I decided to make one of my favorite raw dishes: Raw Polenta with Mushroom Ragout and we had a purple cabbage, yellow tomato and spinach salad dressed with balsamic and olive oil.   The polenta is amazing and very sweet, creamy and garlicky which is great and the mushroom ragout goes really well with it. This recipe came from Ani Phyo’s Raw Book and I recommend you try it.

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Vegan Mofo #7: Chili & Food Should Taste Good Review

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I have been enjoying a variety of Food Should Taste Good Chips and am loving them.   First, Food Should Taste Good has some of my favorite packaging it is simple, clean and  yet eye catching.   Food Should Taste Good makes a great variety of tortilla chips that are all natural, gluten free and lactose free, and GMO free.  Once you have picked up a bag of these flip it over and you will see that there are very few ingredients and all of the ingredients are very common and all natural.  I haven’t tried all of them yet but I have tired Multigrain, The Works!, Sweet Potato, Potato & Chive and Cinnamon all of which are delicious and I am sure the other 6 I have yet to try are just as tasty.  

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Great Pairings:

Mutligran and The Works! go great with savory salsas 

Potato & Chive is yummy with a nice french onion or ranch dip 

Cinnamon would go great with a fruit salsa 

Lastly the Sweet Potato is my favorite and goes amazing with chili, it is a great balance of sweet with a spicy chili.  My favorite chili recipe to go with these chips is:

Ingredients:

  • 1T canola oil
  • 1 Large yellow Onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 T of ground cumin
  • 1 T paprika
  • 1 T Chipotle Chili Powder 
  • 1T Goya Adobo
  • 1T nutritional yeast
  • 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes
  • 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can of brown lentils, drained and rinsed
  • 1T Pure VT Maple Syrup (inspired by Happy Herbivore)
  • 1T Chalulua Hot Sauce
  • 1/2 cup frozen organic sweet corn
  • salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy bottom pot heat the canola oil on high and add the onions and garlic, sautee for a minute, then turn down to med high and sautee until onions are translucent.  Add the spices (cumin-nutritional yeast) and stir together and cook for 1 min.  Add the tomatoes, beans and lentils and maple syrup.  Stir well and cook on medium for 10 minutes.  Add the hot sauce and corn and cook until heated through.  

This makes a very thick chili so if you like yours thinner then add a little vegetable broth.

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Also checkout this great Zen Soy giveaway contest here http://luckytastebuds.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/soy-i-giveaway-magical-froyo-biscotti/

Vegan Mofo #6: (almost) Raw Dining

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Last Friday our new juicer was to arrive, however, to our disappointment it did not make it to our house (which confuses me as it arrived in the next town over the night before according to the tracking.)  So we had to make the best of our no longer juice fasting weekend and decided to eat a lot of raw dishes and will continue to this week as well.  We both work outside the house so have a juice fast during the week isn’t something that we are able to do and this coming weekend we have dining plans both Saturday and Sunday so we will have to hold off on our juice fast until the following weekend.  Although we will be unable to juice fast this week we will be having juice for breakfast and dinner and eating a raw dish for lunch. 

 

We did not eat all raw this weekend but we did have a lot of meals that were.  The first of which was breakfast on Saturday; we enjoyed (almost) raw breakfast crepe with coconut cashew pudding and bananas. 

The raw crepe was from Ani Phyo’s book and is great it is made up of 1.5 cups flax meal, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 1/8 cup water, ¼ cup agave and a pinch of salt.  I topped these with Ani’s coconut cashew pudding which was super easy to make all you have to do is blend 2 cups cashews, 1.5 cups water, ½ cup shredded coconut, and ½ cup agave. I then placed sliced bananas on top of this and drizzled with maple rice syrup.  It was delicious.

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The Maple Rice Nectar Came from Suzanne’s Specialities which has a variety of all natural, vegan and organic sweetners.  I have always loved the ricemellow – being a fan of fluffernutter as a child it was great to find something similar and vegan.  However my favorite product of Suzanne’s that I have tired so far is the Maple Rice Nectar- it is sweet and delicious and when you are out of maple syrup it is a great alternative- mind you it doens’t taste the same but it is very yummy.

On Sunday morning we enjoyed the remaining coconut cashew pudding in the form of a parfait- I layered sliced strawberries coconut cashew pudding and  Feed Bittersweet-ness Granola.  This granola is great we also received a few other varieties and have used them on top of yogurts, with soy milk and just a handful as a quick yummy snack.  Most of their granola is vegan and I was actually sent one with honey in it but I am putting it in a care package for a friend because I’m sure she’ll enjoy this granola as much as my husband and I do.

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Sunday dinner was (almost) raw tacos in honor of National Taco Day (actually I didn’t plan it that way it just happened).  The only none raw item was our sprouted tortillas.   The tacos were made up of Ani Phyo’s nut meat, baja cheese, red pepper corn salsa and some shredded purple cabbage.  I really would have liked to put some avocado on as well but mine weren’t ripe enough.  I have to say I didn’t love the “meat”, “cheese” and salsa on their own but all together the flavors were wonderful. I can’t wait to make more raw eats and juices this week. 

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Oh and of course we enjoyed a lovely raw dessert of Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake it was delightful!

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Things to come this week: Raw Polenta with Mushroom Rague, Green Salad with Sweet Miso Dressing, lots of raw juices and Kristen Suzanne’s Harvest Soup.

 

I have to come up with something to bring to the Raw Potluck Meetup on Sunday….still not sure what to bring yet.

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VEGAN MOFO #5: Product Review: Fruitabu Smooshed Fruit Twirls

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Organic Smooshed Fruit

Organic Smooshed Fruit

First off, I will introduce myself to those who may not be familiar with me.  I am the “lover” from “Cooking for a Vegan Lover, often referred to as the hubby or hubz.  I’ve decided to help by lending a hand in writing reviews for products or restaurants for the blog.  I may even write a summary of what we’ve cooked for the night on those rare occasions that I am the one cooking dinner.

I was always a huge fan of fruit roll ups, fruit by the foot and that “fruit leather” when I was younger.  So, it’s fitting that my first post to this incarnation of Cooking for a Vegan Lover is a review of FruitaBu’s Organic Smooshed Fruit Fruit Twirls.

Fruitabu was kind enough to send us coupons for two free boxes of their products.  I decided to go with the Strawberry fruit twirls to pack in my lunch or bring on our trips with us as snacks.  The fruit twirls had a great taste.  They weren’t too sweet and tasted like real fruit.  The consistency was just what you’d expect for a “smooshed fruit” snack.  It was soft and chewy and did not stick to your teeth like those chewy, plasticy “fruit flavoured” snacks that I enjoyed as a kid.

I am also still a kid at heart, so I definitely enjoyed eating the snack bite by bite as I unrolled it.

Having never had these before, I can definitely say that I will be buying them in the future to bring on my lunches or for hikes.  These are a much healthier alternative as they have no added sugar, contain 1 whole serving of fruit and have just 80 calories.

Check our their website for more information on their products including nutriotional information and information on the company.

http://fruitabu.com/

Vegan Mofo #4: Review- Gnu Bars

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I tried Gnu Bars for the first time and they are good.  Now you can’t go in expecting your standard granola or cereal bar but rather it is a heath bar.  It is filled with fiber which we all know is great for us and is what I like most about these bars.  There are so many different flavors for anyone to enjoy such as peanut butter, espresso chip, cinnamon raisin, lemon ginger, orange cranberry, banana walnut and chocolate brownie.  My favorite is the peanut butter because well it taste the best.

Vegan Mofo #3: Autumn Salad and Tofurky-Avocado-Bac'n Sandwich

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One of my favorite dinners lately has been my Autumn Salad and Tofurky Sandwich- yummy and hearty.   The Autumn Salad has green leaf lettuce, green apple, pepitas, raisins and maple balsamic dressing.  The gigantic delicious sandwich was yummy sesame wheat bread, vegenaise, avocado, tomato, lettuce, tofurky, tempeh bacon, and rice cheese which is then grilled to perfection!

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Vegan Mofo #2.1: All the Mofo's Are Doing it

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1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
It’s a toss up between Vermont Soy Unsweetened and Organic Valley Unsweetened

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
I am planning to make juices, Kristen Suzanne’s Harvest Soup (http://kristensraw.blogspot.com/2007/09/kristen-suzannes-harvest-soup.html), and Pecan Nori Rolls YUMMM- we are going High Raw this week

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
a little melted Earth Balance and lots of Nutritional Yeast and a little Goya Adobo

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

Grilled pizza. The crust burnt before anything else was cooked.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Spicy Dilly Beans

6. How do you organize your recipes?
Organize??????

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Trash and Recycle.  We were composting however it got too hard at our apartment- can’t wait to have a house.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
avocado, tofu and bread

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Moneky Bread my mom used to make

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Coconut Bliss Chocolate Peanut Butter

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

Does my knife count? If not I love my food processor.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
cumin

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
vegan with a vengeance

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Raspberry with the seeds.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
ummm- spring rolls, fried rice and stir fried veggies

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
tofu

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Chili

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
there is a cabinet above my fridge

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
corn, broccoli, vegan meatballs

20. What’s on your grocery list?
apples, carrots, kale, cucumbers, lemon

21. Favorite grocery store?
Healthy Living

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
My Gram’s Cider Donuts

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Happy Herbivore , Another One Bites The Crust , Choosing Raw

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Go Max Go – Chocolate bars
25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
ummmm I don’t think I have….

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
cactus