Summer Adventures Must Come to an End

 This summer has been filled with more cooking and baking than ever before...and my bank account can account for this.

As many of you know, I was asked to cater a wedding. My task was to make around 300 cupcakes with three different flavors. After some consultation with the groom and bride over a delicious vegan lunch a couple months back, I had decided on the flavors. What would everyone be feasting on? Chai-scented cupcakes with a brown sugar buttercream topped with a candied walnut. Originally, this one was my favorite. I just like the spices and, of course, the candied walnut. Also, there was a dark chocolate-blueberry cupcakes with a lemon buttercream. Many people responded with an odd, disapproving expression when hearing about these, but I reassured them that the blueberry would play well with the dark chocolate and the lemon frosting was what was going to set the flavors off---all this with confidence from a person who hadn't tasted chocolate (let alone dark chocolate) in 14 years. And, finally, a orange cupcake with an apricot-raspberry filling with a whipped orange icing. This slowly turned into my favorite. So refreshing.

The week of the wedding was when the fun began. I headed over the grooms house to start baking. After 8 hours of mixing batters, making messes, whipping up frostings we had 25 dozen complete. The day of the wedding, I spent around three hours actually decorating all of the cupcakes. The picture below is how it turned out.

I got so many rave reviews from everyone. Many people came back for seconds and thirds, which of course was the biggest compliment that I could get. Especially knowing that these people were NOT vegans. I got the business cards of the venue space's owner and that of the food caterers. It was hit overall. A lot of work, but definitely an experience I would never want to have missed.

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Besides baking up vegan cupcakes for my friends' wedding, I have also just been experimenting with different techniques and ingredients. Here are some:

Scallion "chicken" with sesame green beans and orange noodles

Sticky buns

Lemon cheesecake with a blueberry-rose water topping

Also, to make my summer (and my life) even BETTER, I got a Vitamix blender!!! This is a raw vegan's dream!!! So, one of my first dishes I made was for a friend's birthday. They were my raw vegan tacos that you may remember posting about that I won a university-wide competition with. Well, because I had a vitamix, they were even better! Especially since I improved my cheez sauce recipe. 

 

My summer has been amazing, but it's time to go, my cardamom-scented blueberry-peach cobbler is ready! 

Jacking Around with Jackfruit

First and foremost, recently the gool ol' United States of America celebrated its independence for the 200th and some odd time (my anti-patriotic sentiment is showing through here). Although I rarely eat processed vegan meat analogues, my roommates wanted to grill out, one being a meat eater and the other a newly-enlightened vegetarian. Because of the novice of grilling without meat analogues, my roommate purchased some vegan brats. We ended up grilling them and serving it up with the tried and true Kansan way with (organic) ketchup and, of course, some (organic waffle) fries. The brat tasted a lot like a corn dog without the corn. It was interesting but this started a downward spiral, although brief, use of fake meat in some dishes. 

Also inspired by my roommates recent eating habits, I wanted to imitate the cream cheese pizza that they have consumed day in and day out, both sober and intoxicated. But, of course, knowing me, I wasn't satisfied with just a cream cheese pizza; I made a buffalo chik'n cream cheese pizza instead. It was really simple, just some Gardein buffalo chik'n prepared as normal on top of a scallion garlic cream cheese spread. Then I drizzled it with buffalo sauce and green peppers. Done. It was really good too!

The next thing that I ate was Gardein's pulled pork. (I also made a vegan chorizo sweet potato hash as a side.) It was actually not that good at all. The poor experience of their pulled pork in addition to its expense and fakeness, I decided to go on a search to make my own vegan version of my favorite childhood meal. I was really tired of, more or less, eating horribly. As you compare the pictures, obviously my homemade version is much more healthy. Not only that, it is more rewarding to cook everything from scratch and say it is your own. 

 In order to make this pulled pork, I simply sauteed onions, garlic, mangos, oranges, and jackfruit. As that was browning, I mixed together the BBQ sauce of doenjang, agave, orange juice, soy sauce, and ketchup. I deglazed the pan with mushroom stock to give it that rich, meaty flavor. Then added the sauce. I let the mixture boil until the sauce was reduced. Then smashed everything with a potato masher. Served with homemade BBQ sauce (family secret recipe), baked beans, and a mango pecan mixed green salad.

Really the point of this post is two things: 1) jackfruit is a great meat substitute (even though there isn't much protein), and 2) I hate eating vegan meat analogues unless necessarily and this proves you never have to. So the idea is simple: eat whole, as close to nature, foods as possible and do not regret any of it. It tastes so good and is so good for you. Meat analogues are good as a beginner veg*n, but I feel as one advances throughout their evolution as a veggie, they should stay away from them. They are expensive, not very tasty, and just as processed as an oreo.

Orange You Tofu?

Orange glazed tofu with asian broccolini stirfry and rice noodle. The end.

Summer, I love thee.

Lately the weather has been extremely beautiful. Well, some would say it has been hot, I say 90 is my favorite temperature. A wave of nostalgia washes over me at the beginning of every summer. I just get these memories of grilling for the family, eating fruit salads, and having strawberry shortcake for dessert. Of course, all of this while sitting under an umbrella with my cat lazily sprawled out on the patio. I never cared about the juxtaposition of a relaxed, privileged dinner in the middle of urban streets of Kansas City. I love to try to recreate this feeling as much as possible. I have really lamented the disappearance of grilled foods. I grew up on grilled shrimp, KC strip steaks, pork tenderloins, and potatoes, charred to crispy deliciousness. Ever since I became a vegan and the desire to have that charred taste back in my mouth as the summer heat waves starts to creep upon us, I have tried to resurrect the tastes and feeling of my upbringing. So, I came up with a meal that is just the start. It combined a refreshing crunch with an herbaceous fruitiness along side a charred, almost-meaty flavor. It sufficed the craving that has been haunting me since the weather took a turn for the better.

What is this meal you may ask. Well, it was a pineapple jicama salad with a coconut lime dressing. Now, it may sound sweet, but it is really a perfect balance between sweet and savory. The jicama created a savory balance to the pineapple. The dressing in and of itself was a harmonious balance between the two tastes. Coconut milk is kind of sweet and coupled with the lime juice, a sweet flavor was created. The balancing flavors came from the garlic, jalapeno, cilantro and salt. The salad was walking the line of perfect. And don't forget, super healthy too. Raw vegan salad that could satisfy anyone.

The wrap was simple. Tamarind and sesame-marinated mushrooms were charred on an indoor cast iron skillet. It caramelized the the sugars in the tamarind and the added agave to create that smokey flavor that was accentuated by the tamari. The mushrooms acted as a meat analogue and satisfied its role as well. Just add some carrots, red bell peppers, and arugula all wrapped in a multi-grain tortilla and you have a delicious wrap.

This meal was able to satisfy the two things that I wanted: a refreshing salad and a charred flavor. This meal was full of flavor, vitamins and minerals, and was practically fat free. And you might be wondering, what's for dessert? Chia almond pudding with walnut cranberry goji berry topping. It too is raw vegan packed full of some of the most amazing nutrients: omega fatty acids, antioxidants, essential minerals, anti-inflammatories , amino acids, cartinoids, and many other micronutrients. It turns out to be a lot like tapioca pudding with many more health benefits.


I hope you enjoyed. I know I did. ;)

Eating Fud

The pictures say it all....

Organic Sunset: Apples, Carrots, Beets, and Greens

Jack Phish Nachos

Jack Phish Chalupa with side salad

Bread Pudding

*These dishes are from Fud, an all-vegan organic dive, in downtown KCMO.

Pizza Mia

A fairly simple recipe that finally satisfied that craving for pizza after weeks and weeks of complaining. It has a lot of parts, none of them complicated, but it is super simple to make after you combine them. It is a great balance of sweet, salty, savory, crunchy, chewy, doughy and saucy. I'm not going to say more, but make it for yourself. (Note: this makes two pizzas; I just like the recipe math easier.) 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Crust:

• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 tbsp (2 packets) rapid yeast
• 1 tsp sugar, agave, honey
• 2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp italian seasoning

BBQ Sauce

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp liquid smoke
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

BBQ Chicken

• 1 pkg seitan "chicken style"
• 1/3 cup BBQ sauce
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• salt
• grill seasoning
• oil, frying

Garlic Bechamel Sauce

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp flour 
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1 cup non-dairy milk (soy)
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• salt, to taste
• 1/4 chopped parsley

Crispy Onions

• 1 yellow onion, slice extremely thin
• 1/4 flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch 
• oil, frying

Garnish:

• diced scallions
• raisins 
• extra BBQ sauce

Method:

1. Make the pizza crust by mixing the water, sugar and yeast. Do not mix salt in yet, it will kill the yeast. After the mixture has become frothy, whisk in oil and salt. Add to the flour and italian seasoning. Mix until pulls away from sides. Throw onto a cutting board and knead with flour until elastic and smooth. Cover in oil and place in a bowl. Let raise while preparing other ingredients.
2. Make the BBQ sauce by mixing all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Make the BBQ chicken by draining the seitan and patting it dry. Then toss in the flour, cornstarch, and spices mixture. Deep fry until crispy. Then toss in the BBQ sauce. Place on a baking sheet and bake on 425 for 8 minutes or until caramelized. 
4. While the BBQ chicken is baking, make the béchamel sauce. In a pot, melt the butter and saute the garlic. Then add the flour and cornstarch. Cook for a couple of minutes until browned. Then slowly add the liquids, whisking well, until thickened. Once thickened, turn off heat, and add the parsley.
5. Place the pizza dough on a greased pizza pan. Throw in a 425 degree oven for 5 minutes. Then place the béchamel sauce and BBQ chicken. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. While baking, fry the onions by tossing them in the flour and cornstarch mixture and placing them in oil.
7. After 15 minutes, top with the onions and cook for 5 more minutes.
8. Once out of the onion, throw on raisins and green onions. Add more BBQ sauce if desired.
9. Enjoy!

It is definitely a lot of steps and can take awhile, but it is totally worth it for a really flavorful, fairly, healthy vegan pizza.

ENJOY!

Nouveau Vegan Colombian Food...huh?

Pulpusa con tofu y ensalada citrica con chile verde crema

A picture says a thousand words. In this case, it doesn't even come close to the deliciousness. In all seriousness, the best thing I've made all year. It is an pulpusa (thick corn tortilla) topped with a green chile sour cream topped with fried lime tofu and a chipotle citrus slaw. I think I was most addicted to the crema. I will provide it below. The crema with the sweet corn pulpusa was so good. The citrusy, crunch salad created texture and a bit of flavor. The orange juice and chipotle played well together and added just the right of amount of picante flavor. I just thought I would update really quickly. I hope you ate as much as me! 

Chile Verde Crema

1/2 cup toffuti sour cream

1 small can green chiles

3 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1/8 cup tomatillo salsa

1 lime, juice

salt, to taste

Whisk together. Serve. THAT EASY. THAT TASTEY!

ENJOY!

My mom would be proud...

I made my weekly meal today. It is an original recipe, but for some reason, I feel like someone would have come up with this a long time ago. Nevertheless, I made whole wheat farfalle pasta with chipotle sausage in a pumpkin cream sauce. It was so simple to make. I sauteed vegan sausage with chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, and garlic. I then added a can of pumpkin puree, light coconut milk, paprika, a touch of cinnamon, and a dash of ancho chile powder. Let that reduce, add the pasta with some salt and pepper to taste. Tah dah! It was delicious. Full of protein, healthy fats, and full of vitamins A, C, K, and beta carotene! Also, because I am crazy (and I actually like them) I added a side of oven roasted brussel sprouts. Tossed lightly in oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. It added a tangy counterpart to the creamy pasta. Also, you always need a vegetable! Plus, brussel sprouts have a bad rep; they have tons of vitamin C and B and even some protein! Like broccoli and other cruciferous veggies, it contains anti-cancer properties. So, please eat your brussel sprouts!

Of course I had to have dessert! I made a quick raw vegan dessert. It is strawberry creme pie!! First, I needed to make the crust. Simply, this is a half cup of walnuts and another half cup of pecans. I pulsed this with a teaspoon of orange zest. Once the nuts reached a course texture, I slowly added 1/3 cup of raisins. Processed that until a sticky crust was formed. I placed the crust in a muffin tin to make the cups and put in the freezer to let set up. In order to make the filling, I added one cup of cashews to the food processor. This must be a FINE powder. We are trying to make a cream and we don't want any pieces of nuts. Once the cashews reach a fine powder consistency, add a pint of chopped strawberries. This will create a thick paste. Then slowly add the juice of one orange with a dash of vanilla. Once rich and creamy, add two tablespoons of agave or honey. Finally, slowly drizzle in two to three tablespoons of melted coconut oil. This should result in a very smooth and creamy filling. Place two spoonfuls in the prepared nut cups. Place in freezer until set. Serve with some left over chopped strawberries!

This was so good! I wanted to eat three. And really, that is the best part. Although this is raw vegan and has little to no sugar and is packed full of fruit, it is high in fat. Albeit good fats, it still can be kind of damaging to that summertime waistline. So, the small portions are GREAT! This was a perfect end to a filling meal and added the acidic fruity finish to a heavy meal. This dessert has a ton of protein, thiamine, folate, manganese, omega-3 and -6 acids, vitamin C, and have anti-inflammatory properties.

Until next week, I hope you enjoyed this post!!!

Emaciated to Plump: A Long Wait

I apologize for starving everyone of any new recipe or update of any kind for a couple months. My life has been beyond busy and hectic. I have had no time to blog let alone cook a meal! But wait no more, as I have a great meal that will fill your desires!

The meal (left) is a recipe that I just thought of one day (when I was hungry, of course). It started with the wild rice salad to the right. It is a Wild Rice and Blueberry salad (recipe fallows). I love the idea of sweet and savory. While flipping through several raw vegan blogs, many sprouted wild rice dishes kept popping up everywhere. I wanted to take my spin on it....and this was the result. The mild sweetness juxtaposed with the saltiness from the rice, almonds, and the savory mild onion flavor from the spring onions balance perfectly on the tongue---no flavor taking over another. It was perfect. I wanted to play with textures as well and the almonds added the subtle crunch that my palate craved. It is one of the best salads that I have made.

After this salad recipe formulated in my head, I was trying to think of a way to incorporate it into a meal. Granted, it could be a meal in itself, but I wanted something more substantial to fuel my over-exercised body. It did not want tofu, seiten, tempeh, or really anything made out of beans. After searching through all of my mental culinary encyclopedias and recipe books, I thought that potato cakes would go well with it. They are blank canvases that can be flavored in anyway to match the meal. They have a bit of crunch with a soft interior. I thought it was perfect. Plus they're filling! However, my mental recipe alarm went off telling me that that would be too startchy and oily in order to be satisfied. Of course I knew the solution to this: add an acidic sauce. This cuts through the grease and starch and revitalizes the palate. Luckily I had some red bell peppers that were starting to turn bad and I wanted to charbroil them anyway. What was this taste bud-awakening sauce? A lemony roasted red bell pepper chipotle sauce! Not only did it add the needed acid, but it added some spice, which also revitalizes the grease-laden taste buds and give them a jolt of spiciness.

Overall, this was a great, original meal to start off my long hiatus of not cooking. But, now I must go to the gym in order to prevent those carbs from turning into fat. The recipe for the wild rice salad follows. Enjoy!!

Wild Rice and Blueberry Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wild rice, uncooked
• 2 cups filtered water
• 1/2 cup wild blueberries, thawed and drained
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup spring onions, sliced
• 1/2 tsp raw honey, raw agave, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup (any liquid sweetener)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

Method

1. In a rice cooker (or follow package directions), place wild rice and water. Cook until rice cooker is done.
2. Chill the wild rice.
3. Then add the remaining ingredients until well combined.

ITS THAT SIMPLE!!!!

I hope you enjoy. Also, you can make this version raw by just sprouting the wild rice for about 2 days. I wasn't that patient. 

Washing off the Dirt

I have not written here for quite sometime, so I have decided to write a quick entry to update recent events. In terms of exploring food or experimenting with raw veganism, I do not have much to say. However, recently I had an experience that I feel as though I should share.

I recently ate at Fud, an all-vegan and somewhat raw vegan restaurant in downtown KCMO, and it probably had the best vegan food of my life. I ordered Jackphish Tacos with a side salad and for dessert a White Tiger shake.

The restaurant itself was a fairly small venue that maybe seats 15-20 people. It is located in a fairly off-the-beaten-path manner. It is only a couple of blocks from the Power and Light District, but yet is in a neighborhood tucked away by distribution plants. Nevertheless, it was staffed by indie, gay-friendly staff that really loved what they did.

The food was absolutely spectacular. Not only was it the best vegan food I had ever had, it was the best meal I ever had. It trumped the previous reigning champ, Eden Alley's Eggplant Parmesan. The guacamole was a perfect accompaniment to the meal, which was, by the way, one of the best guacamole that I had ever had including Latin restaurants. The taco was made from jackfruit. That's right, jackfruit. None of that texturized soy protein or anything that is bullshit and unhealthy. It was topped with a goji berry-cashew cheese and a cashew sour cream. The side salad was of mixed greens, pecans, blueberries, and a basil-lemon dressing. It was absolutely superb and I did not feel guilty for ordering the shake for dessert (especially since I only had one taco). The shake was a cashew ice creme with ice and a raw caramel sauce. I have no idea how they make their caramel sauce but I was HOOKED! I wanted a glass of the caramel, forget the shake. I will definitely be going back soon for more!

I just recently got back from a week-long trip to Youngstown, Ohio for Alternative Breaks to the Mahoning Valley LBGT Center. It was a challenging week culinarily, especially with a group of seven must battle a modicum allowance for food and small town mentality while trying to balance a vegan, vegetarian, and 5 omnivores tastes. This resulted in a dead and unhealthy, although completely vegan, week of food. Don't get me wrong, the food tasted good, was filling, and got me through the week; however, there was little to no live foods, raw foods, or anything that wasn't packed full of soy, chemicals, preservatives, gluten-laden and other antinutrients. I practically relied completely on my daily vitamin supplements to offer the a percentage of the vitamins, nutrients, minerals, probiotics, and other life-sustaining goodies to which I had been accustomed. As I enter into a week following the trip, which was one of the funniest times ever, I have entered into a hyper-nutrient diet with a liver detox. I am trying to bombard my body with the nutrients that it was lacking and cleanse it of the chemicals in in-took. Not only did the diet not support nor promote healthfulness, but my week was void of any exercise beyond lifting furniture, going up and down stairs, and the occasional booty-shaking at the clubs.

As part of this detox, I am drinking a LOT of water (without inducing hyperhydrosis), every meal includes a green of some sort, increased probiotic intake such as homemade raw vegan yogurt and kombucha, increased fiber, no gluten, no processed foods, decrease in sodium intake, and exercise every day.

I am now off to try a shake made from homemade almond milk, hemp protein powder, maca, and powdered multi-probiotic!