Chip Dip

I mentioned I was going to try to replicate the Cactus Cut potatoes from Boston Pizza the other day. Well, I think I did it pretty good...except I burned the potatoes so I just used plain potato chips and it will still really good.

The recipe isn't exact, I just kept adding things until it tasted good so I don't actually know how much I put in, these are estimates.

Ingredients:

1 tub of Tofutti sour cream
4-5 sprigs of green onions, sliced
a few dashes of Cayenne pepper
3 tsp's of chili pepper flakes
a squeeze of lime juice (hides the weird flavour in the sour cream)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp garlic powder

To make, just mix it all together in a bowl. Add less or more spices depending on your mood. Enjoy!

Bye, Bye 2009

Tonight me and Jason are going to a friend's house for board games. It should be a nice quiet evening and a good way to ring in the new year. I made six layer dip so I'll have something to eat too, I'm so excited to gobble it up.

Today I cut my thumb open, and bruised the bone, with a knife while trying to get a very stubborn pit out of an avocado. I'm very clumsy.

Have a happy, and safe night everyone! Hopefully 2010 will be good, except for the whole Olympics thing, ugh.

Nonsense

Ugh. So, I booked an appointment to get my hair cut later...but I just looked in the mirror and actually liked my hair so now I am thinking to just not show up haha. I guess I'll have to dodge some salon phone calls because I feel awkward phoning and cancelling when I just booked it an hour ago haha. Oops!


Maybe I'll wait until it's at chin length, so another month, and then decide. I am definitely going to dye it red on the weekend though...I need to do SOMETHING to it.

I am going to attempt to replicate the Cactus Cut Potatoes from Boston Pizza, which I loved pre-veg, later today. I also have to make a 5 layer dip for New Year's eve. I haven't made it in awhile and it's so good that I'm considering making two, one for today and one for tomorrow haha.

I want one of those mandolin graters. I was originally going to buy a large stock pot as my next kitchen thing, but lately I've been into slicing things (particularly potatoes) and it's annoying with a knife.

My diet has been horrid the last 3 weeks. Basically fried foods and chips and orange juice. It's so bad. I feel so lethargic haha. I have eaten good so far today though! I had a smoothie and a bowl of Bob's Red Mill oats with agave nectar and blueberries in it. I'm most likely gonna make spaghetti for dinner, so at least today will be healthy. I need more greens though. Frig.

Anyways, off to the store now. See you!

Crockpot Stuffing

I didn't take a picture of the stuffing I made for Christmas, so I stole that one from the internet hahahaha. Anyways, this stuffing was absolutely delicious...next time I make it I might add a cup of diced apples too.

If you are wondering why I cook this stuffing in a crockpot and not on the stove or in a casserole dish, it's because the crock pot simulates the moistness that you get when you cook stuffing inside the turkey. I HATE dry stuffing, and this made the moistest (is that even a word?) stuffing I've ever had.

For the bread cubes, I just used a big loaf of white bread and cut it up and let it sit on a cookie sheet overnight. Then in the morning I just baked it at 300 degrees (stirring every so often) until all the bread was hard. If you have squishy/soft bread it will just turn to mush in the stuffing...I made that mistake the first time I made this.

Ingredients:

12 cups of bread cubes
2 cups diced onions
2 cups sliced celery
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup Earth Balance
2-3 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper
2 tbsp's or so of "poultry" seasoning

To Make:

Melt the butter in a big frying pan, saute the onions and celery for about ten minutes over medium heat until they are soft (do NOT brown them).

In a crock pot mix together the bread crumbs, cranberries and seasoning. When the onion mixture is finished add it to the crockpot and stir everything together. Add about 2 cups of vegetable broth and mix it around until everything is moist.

Cook it on low for 4-5 hours. If it seems to be drying out you can add more broth but be extremely careful not to add too much or it turns to mush.

It's a pretty basic recipe which I just sort've made on a whim, but it turned out absolutely delish. I'm definitely going to make this more than once a year!

Jokerz chocolate bar

Thank goodness Christmas is over. Although, I just went to the mall to use a giftcard I got and the parking lot was RIDICULOUS!!! I don't even try to park near the entrance in those situations, I have legs for a reason....walking an extra five feet isn't going to kill me.

There was however, this "battle" going on between this old guy and this Indian girl. It was absolutely ridiculous. There was one parking spot right at the front and neither would move to let the other take the spot, so they just sat there (blocking all traffic) honking at each other. It was funny. When I left I saw the old guy's car in the spot...so I guess he won lol.



I mentioned awhile ago that I had ordered some of the Go Max Go chocolate bars from vivagranola.com. I put the Jokerz one in my stocking and it was amazing!! Jason said it tasted like a Mars bar but I've never had one so I don't know if it actually does or not. I definitely recommend Jokerz to anyone, vegan or not, because it's so friggin tasty. It wasn't overly sweet like the Mahalo bar either.

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

Last night I hosted my vegan Christmas dinner and everything tasted delicious. There are no leftovers except some buns and stuffing so that's lunch for me haha.

I'll post the recipes for the pot pie and the stuffing on the weekend.

I'm off to do my gift-baking now!

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls..."

Hello virtual world,

It's been awhile I know. I've been busy with exams but my last one is Friday! After that I promise to update more regularly again.

Here is a video I found, it sums up all the reasons I went veggie pretty nicely. I even learned some news things like in some farms 40% of the fish die before being sold as food! That is fucking disgusting and cruel. Why would you want to eat the same fish that were raised in conditions so horrid that they killed 40% of their friends? Gross.

I like the quote at the end too, "It is only prejudice that allows anyone to think there’s a difference between abusing a cat and abusing a chicken, or abusing a dog and abusing a pig. Suffering is suffering no matter how you slice it." - Paul McCartney

Here's the video:

My life is so interesting

Not.

I'm at school right now, my bus got here freakishly quickly...I guess when it's final exam time less people take the bus, so less stops, so it gets here faster. Although, the 701 was really busy...so I would think that would even it out.

There was an extremely irritating man on the bus sitting in the front. EVERY time and for EVERY person who got on the bus, this man would practically scream "Merry Christmas" to them. It was so distracting and pissed me off to the maximum.

I have my first exam in 30 minutes. I'm quite excited, when you finish the first of your finals it feels like the semester is that much closer to finishing. Sure, class ends but it doesn't seem like the end until you actually write an exam. I finish next Friday!!! I don't know what I am going to do next weekend in "celebration", probably just clean my house and gorge myself on fatty foods haha. I guess I might go buy Jason's Christmas present.

I was trying to calculate my textbook cost for next semester...most books aren't posted/are custom course packs but I think I'm looking at about $600 or $700 bucks. I hate buying textbooks!!!

I won't be posting any new recipes this week, we are eating boring food that I've made 100 times because I don't have time to experiment and then if I fail to remake something. It's sad, really.

Anyways, I'm gonna go read news websites or something. I might go buyback my textbook actually.

See ya.

Pierogies

These are incredibly tedious and bitchy to make, but totally worth it. You can't buy vegan pierogies at the store so I had no other option but to make these. They taste delicious and for my first time making homemade pierogies ever, they turned out great. Make a fun afternoon out of making these. This recipe made 30.

Dough:

1 cup warm water
3 tbsp canola oil
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Filling:

4 red potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup canola oil
1 small onion, diced
salt and pepper
1/3 cup Daiya cheddar cheese

To make:

Cook the potatoes in boiling water and strain. Saute the onions until clear (do NOT brown them). Mash the potatoes together with the onions, canola oil and salt and pepper. When sufficiently mashed mix in the cheese. Set aside.

Here's the "fun" part. Mix together the warm water and canola oil in a bowl. Mix in the flour with a fork and when you can't anymore dump it out on a clean counter. Knead together with your hands until nice and dough-like.

Divide the dough into quarters. Roll out each quarter until it's pretty thin and then take the top of a cup (3-4" in diameter) and make the circles. You will have to roll out each quarter multiple times until you use it all up. After you've finished the dough lay them all out on wax paper.

Here's a picture of the rest of the process:



Put a walnut sized amount of filling in the pierogi. Wet the edge of one half of the pierogi and fold it over and pinch very firmly. You can also pat the top of the pierogi before pinching to release any air. The first few will probably "leak" but after that it goes pretty quick. It's fastest to lay out all the pierogi's and then put the filling in all of them so then you just keep folding and pinching. But, you could do one at a time as well if that's your thing.

I froze most of mine by laying them out on a cookie sheet until frozen then I put them in a bag. To cook, just boil until floating and saute them if you want.

That's it for new recipes! Enjoy them. I have my last day of class tomorrow and exams begin Wednesday. They are expecting 2-4 cm of snow Thursday night and 10cm of snow on Friday. I have an exam at 8:30am on Friday...and if there is snow there will be double the snow on Burnaby Mountain which SUCKS because now my exam will probably be canceled and rescheduled and everything gets messed up. I hate rescheduling exams. Actually, I just hate the fact that some idiot decided to put a University campus on the top of a mountain. The mountain isn't even that high, but it seriously gets a tonne of snow. Every year students get trapped up there (last year I caught the LAST bus down - took 3 hrs to get home and it usually took 45 minutes) overnight and every year multiple days of classes are canceled because the buses can't run. Last year a bus crashed and the driver had to be flown to a hospital because her entire face got smashed in!

At least all my classes are at the Surrey campus for the spring. My distance ed exams will be at Burnaby but they will be late enough that snow issues shouldn't be a problem.

I think I am going to play Sims now. I made the True Blood cast (Eric, Sookie, Bill, Jason, Hoyt, Jessica, Tara and Sam) and just finished furnishing their mansion. Eight people is really hard to manage but I can't wait! I'm such a nerd, but I am going to make Sookie and Bill get engaged, then Sookie falls for Eric and then there is major dramz. They all live together too, so it will be extra dramz. HA HA! Hey, at least I don't play WOW anymore...so I'm not THAT nerdy.

Hummus Avocado Pita

I know this doesn't require a recipe, but sometimes people don't know how to make something easy like a pita without meat or cheese or something. I can assure you this is extremely filling, tasty and healthy! This makes a great lunch and can be made ahead of time too. If you keep the pit in the avocado, you can save the other half in the fridge without it going brown.

1 whole wheat pita
half a tomato, diced and seeded
half an avocado, sliced
half a red pepper, julienned
half a large carrot, julienned
2 huge spoonfuls of hummus (Recipe Here)
handful of greens (I used a prepackaged "spring mix")

To assemble, cut the pita in half and smear in the hummus on each side. Place your veggies in and then cram as much greens as you can fit. When full, warm it up in the oven for optimal tastiness.

If you've been reading my blog you would have seen my post of our makeshift bookshelf tree, but now we have a real tree! Well, fake, but it's still a Christmas tree. Doug still had his old one from when he lived in an apartment so when we are my moms on the weekend we got to take it. It's small enough that the kitties aren't as interested as last year too. I had to spray citrusy perfume all over the bottom branches though because Charlie still wanted to eat it.

It's so cute!!!

Alfredo

Alongside the Daiya cheddar I ordered, I got two bags of the Italian variety as well. As a vegan you get tired of tomato sauce, or "pasta primavera" and just want a creamy thick pasta sauce like the old days. Today I had that desire and decided to make an alfredo recipe and boy did it taste fucking delicious! (yes, swear words must be used to describe the sheer tastiness of this recipe)

Make this. You won't regret it!

Ingredients (makes 2 servings - leftovers won't keep as the butter will separate):

1/2 cup soy creamer
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbsp Earth Balance
1/2 tbsp flour
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
salt
pepper
PINCH of nutmeg
1 cup or so of Daiya Italian Blend cheese
Whole wheat linguine noodles for two servings
Veggies

To Make:

Melt the butter until it's bubbly, whisk in the flour for a minute. Add in the soy milks, garlic and spices. Bring up to a very low boil while constantly whisking. When it boils lower it to a simmer until it is nice and thickened. Remove from the heat when thick.

While you are making the sauce, cook the linguine according to the package. I used some frozen vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot blend) and added them to the boiling water in the last 5 minutes which worked great and made less dishes.

Strain the veggie/pasta and return to the pot. Remove the garlic chunks from the sauce and mix into the pasta. Serve immediately.

YUM!!! Enjoy the recipe.

Black Bean Enchilada's

I basically slapped this recipe together on a whim. It turned out really delish, and was my first time making enchilada's in over a year!

(Ignore the ugly factor, mushy food really doesn't photograph well!)




According to Jason (who got the leftovers) these taste even better the next day. I might pre-make them next time.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans
1/2 can refried beans
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 jalepeno's, diced (with seeds)
1 cup salsa
8 corn tortilla's
1 can enchilada sauce
Daiya cheddar cheese
cumin
salt and pepper
olive oil

To make:

Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly grease a casserole dish.

Saute the onion in olive oil until clear. Add in the jalepeno's and green pepper. Saute for a few minutes then add the spices and salsa. Saute for another few minutes and set aside.

Warm up your corn tortilla's so they don't break when you roll them up. Spoon some refried beans into the middle of a tortilla, spoon some of the filling on top. Roll it up and place seam side down in the casserole dish. Repeat for the rest of the tortilla's until the dish is full.

Pour the enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle some cheese on. Bake for 20 minutes covered and 10-15 uncovered.

Enjoy! These will definitely become a new staple in our meal line-up.

Uncle Eddie's and Go Max Go

I picked up my order of vegan goodies on Saturday. I was so excited! I now have a four month stash of vegan candy! Awesome, right?

I ordered some of these chocolate bars by Go Max Go. On the chocolate bar front there isn't anything for us vegans to buy except plain dark chocolate bars, sometimes with nuts or fruit...but nothing full of artery-clogging-sugary-goodness like a kit-kat or snickers.

I tried the Mahalo one first. YUM! It tasted exactly like a Bounty (my pre-vegan fave), only better. It has a rice chocolate coating, a coconut middle and almonds on top. I could only eat half of it in one sitting though, it was definitely very sweet and rich. But who cares, if you can only eat half in one sitting that makes more for later!

Here are some pics, isn't the wrapper cute?





I also ordered Twilight and Jokerz which I will be trying later. If Mahalo is any indication though, the other flavours will be just as delicious. I think you can only order these online, which makes them a pain....but if you "stock up" like I did (candy addiction here!) then you can have vegan candy bars on hand for when you get a craving.

I also ordered a bag of Uncle Eddie's Peanut Butter Cookies. I had heard they are really good, though expensive. It was $6 for a bag, but totally worth it. Again, it's difficult to find pre-made vegan cookies...so the convenience factor totally makes up for the price. I would definitely order them again. They are REALLY rich and filling though, and you definitely want a glass of soymilk to go with them!

I have been busy lately and haven't updated with any new recipes lately. I'm going to post a few after this post. Now, go order some vegan goodies! Get them for Christmas stocking stuffers or something.

Epic Fail

My pumpkin pie was an epic failure. Balls.

Daiya Mac and Cheese

I tried out my Daiya last night. It was amazing!!! I tried a bite of the cheddar variety just on it's own and it tasted almost identical to real cheddar.

I veganized a mac and cheese recipe. Look how CREAMY it is!!!!



Amazing, right?



Jason gorged his down and finished mine because I was full, he said it tasted like regular mac and cheese too.

Here's what I came up with:

3/4 soy creamer
3/4 cup soy milk
cayenne pepper
pepper
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 cup daiya cheddar cheese
3 tbsp Earth Balance
3 tbsp flour
2-3 cups dry pasta either shells or macaroni

Melt the butter and mix in the flour until nice and thick. Add in everything else but the pasta and cheese. Whisk over medium heat for about 10 minutes until it's bubbly and thick. When thickened, stir in the cheese until it's creamy and entirely melted. Meamwhile cook your pasta. When everything is done, mix the two together.

It took me like 15 minutes to make, and was great. Jason want's "snobby joes" tonight, but I want to try another thing with cheese haha. I might make some black bean enchiladas instead. Yum.

I'm off to eat my leftovers!

Daiya Cheese

I got my order from Viva Granola today. It took 3 days to get here (well technically 4 because I wasn't home when they tried to deliver it) so my cheese was still cold. I ordered Daiya Cheese, Primal Strips and a pin that says "vegan" on it with a baby chick beside it for my backpack.

I opened the box and they included a handful of dark chocolate peppermint patties, some business cards to other vegan things and a note on my receipt that said "Thanks very much, Michelle :)". It was so nice, nobody hand writes on things anymore! I will definitely order from them in the future despite the $10 shipping.

I was absolutely stunned when I opened the bag and the Daiya smelled identical to cheddar cheese!!! It was amazing.

Here is a picture of the two flavours of Primal Strips I ordered. I will be testing them out at school tomorrow and Thursday:



and my 2 pounds of cheese! Yay!! I hope it's good.





My bread crumbs are in the oven drying out right now and it smells absolutely fantastic!!!

It's Charlie's Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE!!!!!!!!!

He turned two today. He's so big now!!! And all grown up!!! Now both my babies are two and it's really sad, I think I need another kitten haha.

Haha, I just noticed you can see my nose in that picture. It's kind of funny, the only way Charlie likes to be carried is if you wrap him up like a baby...I guess he feels more secure or something haha.

Random Life Things

First I would just like to say I find it hilarious when people justify saying a member of the opposite sex is good looking with "I'm not gay, I just think they're hot/sexy/good looking/etc.."

Seriously, who cares if you were gay anyways? I would say stupid American's, but people do it here all the time to haha.

I weighed myself today and was 176.8 pounds. I lost 6 or 7 pounds this month! I didn't even exercise!

I have new goals this month:

- weigh 169 pounds or less
- pass all my finals (well 4/5 should be A's...but philosophy I had 50% and 47% on...so I need to pass one of the exams!!!)
- start my food log again
- stop buying and eating candy/sugary things - I have a sugar addiction and a crunchy addiction
- wear fun eyeshadow at least 3 days of the week (This sounds retarded, but I enjoy applying makeup, esp. eyeshadow...and lately I haven't worn any at all)
- from the 18th onwards do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except bake goodies, play video games and dance around my apartment

So basically, lose weight and be less stressed this month. Good luck to me!


Here's a quick recipe you could make for dinner! Pasta Primavera:



Well, I don't really have a recipe....but I think this is what I generally use.

2 cups vegetable broth
1-2 tbsp's corn starch (depends how thick you want the sauce)
oregeno
basil
olive oil
salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 cups of cut up veggies - i always use broccoli, carrots and onions. Zucchini and mushrooms would be great in this too. Or those snow pea things.
1 tomato, diced
Cooked Spaghetti for 4 people

Saute your garlic in some olive oil until it's fragrant. Add in the spices and the vegetable broth. Bring it to a boil and add the veggies...cover and cook them for a few minutes until they are mostly soft. Then stir in your cornstarch and simmer (while stirring) until the sauce is nice and thick.

When the sauce is thick and the veggies are cooked (but have a slight crunch, yum) dump the sauce in the pot with the cooked spaghetti noodles. Add in your diced tomatoes (the best part) and mix it all up. Serve with crunchy french bread.

Now I must go put a hat on (my hair is at a really awkward length, so all I can do is wear a hat haha) and get my DAIYA CHEESE! WOOT! I will be back later to post my first success or failure with it.

I'm also test running my stuffing recipe tonight for Christmas. I'm excited, I haven't had stuffing in over a year. (I wrecked my Thanksgiving stuffing lol)

Bye!