Yay Daiya cheese, Boo Morningstar Farms.

This blog outlines a happy and a sad.

Happy.

It doesn't take much to make me happy. It's the little things sometimes. Coffee? Happy. Mexican candy? Happy. Yesterday's happy came in the form of a yummy grilled cheese sandwich and a mug of tomato soup. Reason # 358 I love Daiya cheese. It reunites me with the true love of my life, grilled cheese sandwiches. Not to mentions it's gotten very popular in the vegan world, so it is now available at the Mother's Market near my house (walking distance actually) AND it's affordable! YAY! I didn't take pictures, but it was a simple meal. I didn't even make the soup it was a can of Campbells.




Sad.

I recently learned that Morningstar Farms, maker of a wide range of veggie and vegan options, has decided to put egg and milk in many of their formerly vegan products. Not I already preferred the Boca brand for my veggie patties, but where this really affects me is their veggie crumbles aka veggie ground beef. It was good for tacos, sloppy joes, cheeseburger casserole, stuffed peppers, etc. I just bought a bag last week before I heard about the change, so when I was told about this, I checked my bag and yup, milk and eggs. So now I have a $5 bag of unusable veggie beef in my freezer (I didn't keep the receipt). They didn't even put "all new recipe!" on their ingredients or anything like that. The rats. Luckily there's other brand I can buy, but I preferred this brand.

So I guess it's a trade off. Hello grilled cheese. Goodbye Morningstar Farms.

The amazing burrito story, or a boring day with me. With lots of pictures.

In this case, amazing = boring. Amazing also means picture heavy.

My lovely friend Jess recently posted a blog about an average day in her life in West Virginia. I find things like this interesting. Perhaps that is why I watch so much TLC. I like to see how others live, even if they are crazy stage moms or little people or whatever. Anyway, I decided last Saturday would be picture blog day. If you have been paying attention to my other blogs, you know what Saturday is: grocery day. My favorite day of the week, believe it or not. I like shopping, even if it is for food. I like knowing the house is stocked. It makes me feel spoiled. Maybe that's why I also like paying bills. I do not like HAVING bills, but I like paying them, knowing that I don't have to worry about it for a whole other month. I'd pay all my bills in one day if I could.

Anyway, for everyone in Southern California, please bear with me. I have friends in WV and Canada and stuff, so I took lots of pictures of things we've seen 1000x for their benefit :) Yes, I love them THAT much.

Saturday starts off like any other Saturday. I wake up around 9 ish. I look at my phone. I try my damndest to stay awake.



It never works. Bonus points if you can name everything on my husbands nightstand. And by nightstand, I mean the crate Sophie sleeps in.

Time to get out of bed. Rupert does not approve.


Sophie is enthusiastic about the day.


I step into my messy living room and already want to dive into bed again.

One of these days, I will have matching couches. And an entertainment center.

I can't jump back into bed though. It's grocery day. I have a list and everything!


That's my menu up there at the top. The TJ's are the stuff I get at Trader Joes.

So off husbinator and I go into the real world. It's a cool Autumn day in Southern California.


And my chariot awaits.

Yes, that is my toaster. Every reputable nerd has one. It hasn't been washed in about a year.

First stop: Big Lots!



I buy my coffee here because the brand I like is only $5 here. It's like $8 in the grocery store. Screw that, yo. I live cheap stuff. While browsing the shelves, I did see a box of 100 calorie dog treats. I regret not taking a picture. WHY? I did not realize so many dogs were on Jenny Craig. What's next, low carb wet food?

We do have a detour on our trip. Husbinator is brewing beer with my awesome cousin, and today was bottling day. So off we go to Oshea's for some bottles.


Neat little place. Lots of equipment and kits and stuff. Too bad beer brewing takes up so much space.


Mission accomplished.

At this point, we are hungry. Husbinator, being the awesome man he is, obliges my whim for some yummy vegan food. So we head for the Irvine Spectrum.



And head for Veggie Grill for some amazing vegan noms.


I cannot express how much I love their food. Carnivores even like it (well, ok, they tolerate it, but much better than other veggie stuff). I chose a Southwestern Chick'n Sandwich with Sweet Potato fries and a root beer. Heaven on a plate.

That little cup? Vegan chipotle ranch dip. I could drink it by the gallon.

Properly stuffed, we continued on our way to grocery shop. It was a light grocery day, only 2 stores.

First was Albertsons. Albertsons is boring. I forgot to take pictures, it was so boring. You didn't miss much though.


Next was Trader Joes.

Can I point out the stupid BMW that parked crooked? I swear, people with money do not know how to park. It's like when I go to South Coast Plaza and the parking lot is pure chaos. Why bother painting lines?

Anyway, if you don't live near a Trader Joes, I feel sad for you. Where do you get your veggie chicken, your soycutash, your kettle corn, your awesome salsa, your potstickers, your curry, or your beer bread mix? And no tiki themes and cartoon characters? That's just sad.


Note to Adam Culver: I don't know if you can tell, but there's Superman sign in the back corner that says "Not even kryptonite can foil our plans to bring you the tastiest produce." I thought it was silly.

At this point I feel like a weirdo for taking a picture in a Trader Joes. Time to go home.

I get home and remember "oh yeah, my kitchen is a mess too."

Told you I am a disaster in domestication.

So what's a girl to do? I start beans for dinner. Burritos tonight, with avocado cucumber lime salad.

Say hello, beans.

Like my big pot? It was my mom's I wonder if we will all get lead poisoning one day.

And while the beans are cooking, I clean my kitchen.

Yay! Btw, underneath that white towel on the counter, there is half a loaf of beer bread that's supposed to be croutons by now. I think it's too far gone now, so it shall reside in my trash bag soon :( Point is, that's not a random white towel, it was there for a purpose damn it.

Rupert and London celebrate the clean kitchen with a kiss.


Did I mention London has a mohawk?


Clean kitchen. Beans simmering. Dinner is a few hours away. What to do now?

Easy choice.

Make a soy iced latte with the coffee I bought at Big Lots.


Settle down with the kids.


And play a video game.


Time goes by. OK, a couple hours go by. The moment we have all been waiting for is here: dinner time!

My beans are ready! Rejoice. Way better than canned.


Time to make my cucumber lime avocado salad. It's exactly what it sounds like. Lettuce, avocado chunks and cucumber with lime squeezed on it. At this moment, I have a big sad. Out of THREE avocados, only 1 is good :( The others have big black gross stuff in them.

This is my only avocado. Out of THREE stupid avocados.


Not very fabulous at ALL.

So, plan B. Use avocados for burritos. Make salad a boring salad with vegan dressing. Not as amazing, but whatever. Shred some carrots, slice some cukes, and we are back on.

FINALLY! Dinner! Wanna see?



Yay! A lovely beans, rice, (daiya) cheddar, avocado, and sour cream burrito with a side salad.

And that my friends is my amazing aka boring burrito story. Or another boring day in my life. In my opinion, boring is very very good most of the time.

On the menu tonight: Stuffed Peppers

You know, I don't think I've ever eaten stuffed peppers until tonight. I've had chile relleno, which is similar in regards to being a chili pepper stuffed with something, but I guess that's where the similarity ends. I made them once a long time ago for husbinator, but since I made them with real beef, I did not partake.

Earlier this week, I was looking through my little recipe binder for dinner ideas and came across the printout for the stuffed peppers I had made. Intrigued, I decided to put it on the menu for the week, with veggie beef of course.

I made them tonight, and it wasn't too hard to make. The only annoying part is that they take an hour in the oven, and that doesn't include prep. So while those were roasting away, I thought about a side. We had lettuce that was starting to wilt, so I made a simple salad with red onions, but I wanted more, so I made cheesy (Dayia) garlic bread.

I LOVE garlic bread. Want to know a trashy secret about me? I kind of came up with a shortcut. I am THAT lazy. Get a small glass pyrex bowl or tupperware or whatever. Add a stick of butter or margarine. Microwave on low until softened (I usually do 20 seconds on 30% power for margarine). Add some minced garlic (I usually cop out and buy already chopped or minced garlic from a jar). Mix. Stick it back in the fridge until you want garlic toast. Then the next time you want toast, you just stick some bread in the toaster and spread on your garlicky spread.

ANYWAY. That's basically what I did for cheesy garlic toast. Sandwich bread, garlic spread, and daiya cheese in the oven.

Lo and behold, tonight's dinner:


Looks kind of plain just sitting there like a lump, until you cut into it.




Yummmmmm.

Recipe changes: I mixed diced red pepper in with the beef instead of onion powder, and I omitted the Worcester.

Three new recipes, or three new uses for noodles

A few weeks ago, while still on my "expand my food horizons" kick, I decided that I wanted to try some new recipes for the week. After doing a google search for "vegan menus," I found a great little site called Veg Cooking. It's run by PETA, and while I don't 100% condone everything PETA does, I do like that they are a great resource for vegetarian/vegan information. I browsed their menus and made my shopping list for the week. Anyway, as I think I mentioned before, I do all my grocery shopping on the same day, which requires trips to at least 3 grocery stores. I think it's easier that way, although the food might not be as fresh as it could be. At least I know what I am going to be cooking for the week and I don't have that moment standing in front of my fridge thinking "crap, what should I make..." Anyway, as I was shopping for these new recipes, I was proud of myself for buying stuff I rarely ever cook with, like artichoke hearts, green onion, fresh bell peppers. Yes, this is out of the ordinary for me.

So the first recipe I tried was Creamy Pasta Salad With Artichoke Hearts.

I've never made pasta salad before, but how I known how easy it is, I would have started a lot earlier. Super easy, fresh, lemony. I made it for lunch on a hot summer day so it was perfect. I tried recreating it the following week with some chopped up frozen bell pepper strips instead of the artichoke hearts, but I think the chokes add to the flavor much better.

My second recipe that week was a Hamburger Macaroni Casserole.

Now this recipe I was skeptical about. Tomato soup? French fried onion strips? And what does corn have to do with hamburger? Still, it sounded kind of good. And it WAS. Not just kind of good, it was really good. We did make one addition to the recipe. My sister had some leftover Daiya Cheese, so we sprinkled it on top. Now, the thing with vegan cheese is, one it is hard to find a good brand that really tastes and melts like cheese, and two, it is expensive. Daiya cheese is about $10 a pound, so it's too expensive to make a ton of cheese enchiladas with. It is so creamy and yummy though. (edit: It's November and since this original post, Daiya has become much more affordable and accessible to me! Yay!) If I could only find a good bacon substitute that is fatty and greasy like real bacon, I would be set. But really, I loved the recipe. I'm assuming it's a vegan hamburger helper knockoff. I did use 2 cans of tomato soup instead of one (it looked like it might have turned out dry with just one), and a whole can of corn. Another bonus: it makes a lot, so everyone in the house had leftovers for lunch the next day.

The last recipe of this blog is "Better than Beef" Stroganoff.

Looks kind of gray and bland huh? I will admit, I had high hopes for this recipe, and it wasn't bad, I just don't think I would make it again. It tasted OK, but I think the canned mushrooms mixed with the canned gravy just made everything taste like it came out of a box. Lots of sodium. I was also out of onions, so they didn't make it to the pan. On the bright side, the sauce was creamy and the recipe was super easy.

So those are my three recipe reviews. I would definitely recommend the first 2, even if you use real mayo and beef instead of the vegan stuff, and if you think you can dress up the Stroga-not, let me know how it goes.

Quick project: Quick blog

Oreos + Chocolate chips + double boiler + sprinkles + cupcake liners = this

I love you, mushrooms. Not the drug kind, the food kind.

Ever get tired of cooking the same thing over and over? I do. I'm not an expert chef by any means, so I lack creativity in my weekly menus. And by weekly, I do mean weekly. I usually plan my meals for the week, and buy the ingredients to make them on Saturday or Sunday. It helps us save money grocery shopping. I make the list and I stick to it, that way I'm not grabbing as many impulse "maybe I can make this" types of purchases.

Last week was a big week for me, cooking wise. I wanted to branch out and try to cook new things, add more to the rotation. After looking at a few sites, I decided my new dish attempt would be mushrooms. I usually don't cook with mushrooms, and when I do, it's the plain white button kind. Anyway, I know there's a million ways to make portabella mushrooms, but I wanted something foolproof. Enter my vegan cookbook and their roasted potatoes & carrots with mushrooms. Seemed easy enough.Well at my weekly grocery shopping trip, I picked up some lovely looking portabella mushrooms. Huge suckers. I also picked up an eggplant for the first time ever, but that's a different post. I also grabbed a marinated tri tip for my husband. What a lucky guy. :p I had leftover potatoes anyway, I picked up some carrots and I was good to go.

It went pretty well. I didn't have little red potatoes, so I used regular peeled russet potatoes. I made it earlier this week with little dutch potatoes and it was equally good both ways I think. I also didn't have rosemary (rosemary is a "fancy spice" so I don't own it yet) but all in all, it was easy and yummy. Wanna see?

With tri tip:


Vegan style:


For dessert, we had some yummy macadamia nut kahlua coconut drinks. I know I mentioned them multiple times on facebook, but I thought you might wanna see how yummy they look.

Blended:


After settling. Pretty :)


Hope I made you hungry!

A tribute to mac and cheese

Oh mac and cheese,
I love you so,
although with ease
you make my belly grow.

My poetry skills are a bit rusty.

One of my lactose intolerance casualties is macaroni and cheese. I love this stuff. It used to be in my regular dinner rotation (which wasn't much a year ago, and still isn't huge now), so having to give it up was a bit of a blow. I mean, I wasn't fancy with it, it was normal kraft shells and cheese, usually mixed with broccoli or some potatoes to make it a bit heartier. It's a total comfort food though, and even better, a cheap one. I mean, sure you can do the whole mac and cheese with real cheese and melted butter and all that and bake it in the oven, but I don't have that much time after work, and sometimes I'd rather have the processed stuff.

Vegan mac and cheese does exist, but it can be kind of hit and miss. I've tried 3 different mac and cheese recipes from 3 different locations and they've all varied.

Mother's Market has a mac and cheese in their food bar. I think their main "cheese replacement" ingredient is almonds and maybe nutritional yeast flakes. For the record, nutritional yeast flakes are pretty common in fancy vegan recipes, especially as a cheese replacer, but I've never tried it. Heard they're a yummy seasoning though. Anyway, not a big fan of this mac and cheese. Not sure why, but the time I had it, I added some bacon salt to make it better. It just wasn't cheesy. Maybe it was because it was reheated. Dunno.

When I went to San Francisco, I hit up a fabulous vegan cafe called Herbivore. My sister recommended it, and I am so glad I went. I had a deeeelicious mac and cheese plate. It was so yummy, look!

Just beautiful. They even did broccoli, like I used to do, except they weren't lazy like me and didn't do Kraft shells and cheese. If you look behind my plate, you will see husband's portobello mushroom sandwich (and his belly) and my root beer. I've become a root beer fan. This picture makes me sad that Herbivore is 6 1/2 hours away by car.

Lastly, we have homemade mac and cheese. I've made it twice at home using this recipe from vegweb. It's pretty easy and makes for some yummy cheddar-y results. If you try this recipe, make sure you follow the sauce directions: heat soymilk first, then add cheese. Last time, I forgot and dumped everything in the saucepan. It was still pretty good, it just changes the texture a bit. I usually add margarine too, because I'm a fatty like that.

You will notice breadcrumbs on my mac and cheese. I had a french baguette that I was saving to make breadcrumbs and I FINALLY did it for this dish. Why you ask? Store bought breadcrumbs are not vegan. Did it taste better with the crumbs? Eh, about the same. Did it make it look all fancylike? Yup. That would also be a fancy salad on my plate, with the red onion and carrots and vegan creamy garlic dressing. What can I say, I'm easily impressed.