Phew.

I'm so glad the holidays are over with!! I can eat normal again! I seriously think this headache that I have had for the past two days is a result of sweets withdrawl too.

AAAAANNNNNNNNND...I got a Vitamix!

*happy dance* It was love at first sight.

So far, I have only experimented with smoothies, hummus, and soup (it really comes out steaming hot! Watch the video on their website!) I'm going to the Co-op tomorrow to buy some bulk nuts to make some nut butters. Ohhhh Nutella, here I come!

This is a soup not made in the Vitamix (I made a creamy potato-carrot soup yesterday in it, and while it was super-yummy, it wasn't so pretty). I used homemade veggie broth (yeaaaah), tempeh sausage crumbles, a bit of leftover lentils, potatoes, carrots, and onions. It was a mega-flavor soup. Yum!

I couldn't NOT play around with the Vitamix tonight, so I made edamame hummus! I took one can of cici beans, one whole lemon minus peel (I get a kick out of throwing the whole thing in. Take THAT old blender!), maybe 1/2 cup of edamame beans, and a bunch of olive oil, salt, and white pepper. Smooth and creamy in a minute. Amazing. Served it with toasted pita bread!

Annnd a detox-gimme-raw-fruits-and-veggies salad, with a slice of whole wheat bread, from the other night.

Chocolate-covered EVERYTHING

For real. I covered everything with chocolate this holiday season.

Chocolate covered cherries:
Choc.-covered mixed nuts:

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peels (from My Sweet Vegan):

Chocolate Almond Biscotti (recipe from Vcon, but Almonds instead of hazelnuts):

Sparkling Ginger Cookies (from Vwav):

TRUFFLES!

Chocolate, grand marnier, olive oil, with cocoa, sea salt, powdered sugar

Chocolate with Kahlua, covered in cocoa, powdered sugar, cinnamon

Chocolate covered in coconut:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate covered in pecans:

I made the spekulatius Butter from Seitan is my Motor's blog! I read this entry and then found these cookies at the Union Square Holiday Market (there is a little german booth that sells sweets and cider). I thought that it must be meant to be, so I promptly bought some. Yum!



Happy holidays everyone!!

Pizza and cutiecakes

I made some pizza the other day, so that I could bring it to work on friday for my secret santa holiday party (they were having pizza and i didn't wanna feel left out). This is the first time I have been super-proud of my crust too. I used the VWAV recipe and I managed to get it real thin and yummy. Funny enough, I think the mega-radiator heat that was going on in my kitchen might have had something to do with it. I didn't even let it rise all that long after the initial rising time. Maybe a half hour before I started rolling it out and stretching. Miracle heat! I put some roasted broccoli, carrots, scallions, garlic, spinach, and tofu ricotta on it. Mmmmm. My pizza looked way better than work's pizza. Hmpf!


I also made some mini cupcakes to bring in for the shindig. They are the chocolate VCTOTW recipe with raspberry preserves spread on the top and some piped fluffy buttercream (with a pretty pink stripe!) and some dark chocolate raspberry shavings on top. They were so cute! Mini cutey-cake army!



Tomorrow, I have the day off, so I'm gonna super-bake lots of cookies and other yummy things to give to people and to bring home to my family. I leave tuesday morning and am gone until sunday. Yaay spending time with the family! I'm also REALLLLY looking forward to not working for nine days! Huzzahh!!

Num Num

I was really craving some kind of loaf + mashed taters for dinner, so I thought I give that "Magical Loaf Studio," a whirl ( I can't believe this exists!!)


This was yummy, but didn't stay together at all. Also, crispy lentils on the outside aren't that good, but the inside was!

Magical Lentil Loaf ( I wasn't too concerned about being exact with ingredients, as it was a total made-up recipe to begin with. And I added way more spices, 'cuz that's how I roll)
Ingredients:

2 TB olive oil
One onion, diced
One large garlic clove, minced
One large carrot, peeled and grated
One cup mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
a few big leaves of chopped kale
2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup crushed cereal flakes
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable broth, as needed
1 heaping TB flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB ketchup
Several dashes vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. salt
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice. Slather with Ketchup!




Ice Pumpkin cookies! I made these last week, to use up some of the leftover pumpkin I had. I veganized this recipe, by replacing the egg with egg replacer and a tsp or so of flax meal (to maybe make them chewy. I'd just use a flax-egg next time around, as they were a bit cakey-but still yummers!) and the milk with soy milk, butter with earth balance. They came out really, really good, and I would def. make these again.

2 things that don't go together, but are both totally yummy

YEAH. I made the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk, the other night and Nik declared them the best cinnabuns EVER. Mmmhmm, I agree. They are obviously gone by now.



And I've just recently discovered that I really, really love roasted brussel sprouts. Just roasted with olive oil, garlic, sea salt, pepper, and some nooch. For real.


Why oh why are there never enough hours in the day?!?

Sister!

So my sis left yesterday, and I must say, we had a rockin' time. Stomp was awesome on friday night and I had the most AMAAAZING ice cream sundae afterwards at Lulu's Sweet Apothecary, the new all-vegan sweet shop in the East Village. Seriously, a scoop of homemade Cinnamon Pecan and a scoop of Chocolate Toasted Coconut, topped with hot fudge, rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream, and a Cherry. Sorry for the lack of picture on that, but just trust me on its deliciousness. I was daydreaming about it the next day! Must go back soon; so much to try (aaand they sell vegan white choc. chips there!?!)

I took her to Enid's, near my apt (they make the best veggie burgers ever, Curly's Vegetarian on friday night, and Taco Chulo on saturday night. Yeah!

Saturday we were tourists for the day, walking down 5th ave and looking at the fancy holiday window displays. We peeked in St. Patrick's Cathedral for a bit to warm up (cold!!) We went up on Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center right before sunset, to get the best of the day/night views.









I haven't food porned in awhile! I made polenta tonight, with broccoli, carrots, turnips, and collards in it, and topped it with Newman's Fire-roasted Tomato sauce. MMmmm. I always forget about making polenta; and it's so easy!



Pancakes with cranberries! The tartness of the cranberries is pretty awesome paired with some pure maple syrup.

Knishes! Potato + onion, and Potato + Spinach (from VWAV)

Village

I'm so excited! My sister is on a bus on her way to visit me! Apparently, it was the inaugural trip to NYC for Megabus, and the local news crew showed up at the bus stop and interviewed her and a few other passengers. She'll be on the local news tonight; too funny! It was a steal though, $40 roundtrip from Rochester, NY to NYC! I'm taking it home for xmas (although they jacked the price up around that time, but still super-cheaper than any other mode of transportation.) Highly recommended. I actually have a bunch of Megabus trips planned. Philly next weekend for a friend's Bachelorette party, home for xmas, Philly again for friend's wedding (i'm in it; it cost $2.50 roundtrip 'cause I booked super-early), and then to DC in January for the Presidential Inauguration (soooooo excited). Yeah! Hooray for Mega-bus!

But yeah, this weekend will be fun. We're going to see Stomp tomorrow night and gonna hit a few craft fairs and go see the tree/top of the rock on Saturday.

In other news, at work yesterday I learned that I can add dental and vision onto my insurance for the new year. Whoaaaa was my reaction. I haven't been to the dentist in an embarrassingly long time and I am so excited to finally be able to go (and be able to afford it). I know, excited for the dentist, what a sad state our health care is in this nation.

Shop Update!

New prints available in the shop!

Robot Cone:


Morning Stroll:


This painting isn't new, but I now have prints available of it in the shop!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I spent mine sleeping in (yessss), cleaning a bit, chatting with my mom, and making a yummy dinner. Nik and I had a nice dinner and we are suuuuuper-full now.

I made Bryanna's Seitan Tofurkey roast, that was waay delicious. I made it last year and loved it, but I did the stuffing roulade variation this year and it was even better! Totally the way to go. I stuck with classic bread stuffing, just like my mom makes. Nik smashed the potatoes and added lots of garlic. I had made the cranberries last night, so they were all gelled and chilled and perfect tonight. I'm not a huge brussel sprout fan, but I think if you roast them with lots of olive oil and sea salt and garlic, they become downright addictive.

Fat-free Vegan's Pumpkin Cheesecake was for dessert. It was super-pretty looking with the layers and all that, but it was kinda meh. It wasn't very "cheesecake"-like, or pumpkin-pie-like either. Too inbetween. It was okay, but not mind-blowing like all the reviews I read would lead me to believe.

I'm all relaxed now with some Adult Swim on. Yaay good food and cartoons. :)

New things and Shop Update

So I went to a concert a month or so ago, and I was feeling rather down and sad and frustrated, and was hoping one of my favorite bands, Broken Social Scene, would cheer me up. Of course they did. Kevin Drew has this cheesy way of saying things that most people don't say (because they are corny/cheesy sounding), that actually make you feel good. Charles Spearin performed his "Happiness" project, where he recorded his neighbor, Mrs. Morris, talking about happiness, and played it to the audience. And then he played it again, but this time with a saxophone accompaniment that played in the same tones as Mrs. Morris' voice. It was amazing and the "happiness is love" part she said kinda stuck with me. Later in the night, Kevin Drew was building up to a loud part in one of their songs and he kept saying things like "just let out all your frustrations and angers and sadness" and "just scream as loud as you can." The crescendo happened and at the final climatic horn-blasting part, everyone in the room just screamed and yelled as loud as they could and it felt damn good. I needed that and it completely inspired me and that is what this series is based on.

A lot of crappy things are happening around the world right now, that can't be solved in a day, or a week, or even years. Wars, genocides, environmental disasters, economic downturns, corruption, layoffs, fights, injustice, unfairness, prejudice, hate, ignorance, sexism, and on and on and on. Sometimes you just have to step back and remind yourself and others that there is still some good in the world around us, among the bad, and that it is good to take a deep breath and think something positive. Not to be corny or anything, but sometimes you just have to tell yourself or others to relax, or to be happy, or godammit, just let it all out.

These are watercolor, dyes, and pen/ink on paper. Click for a more detailed view! All roughly 8.5"x11" Prints are available in my shop!