I saw @leslieconn make Ropa Vieja from Viva Vegan on Instagram and I couldn't get it out of my head so I made it using the No Evil Foods Prepper Seitan, which is packaged a little differently than most seitan because it's sort of spun together and seems like its more shreddable. I remember how I tried to shred my homemade seitan last time I made this and I didn't have great results shredding it so I was psyched to find this seitan because it was perfect for this dish. It gave it a true pulled-pork texture, even more than with jackfruit. If you can find it I would suggest trying it out with this recipe or with another shredded seitan or pulled pork-style seitan recipe because the texture was great. It did require some time to stand there and shred it but it was well worth it.


More #pastaproblems, I have made this pesto mac from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen a few times in the last couple months because it's pretty much a template of the kind of food I always want to eat. If I haven't had pasta in like.. 3 to 4 days, I start to get a little twitchy. I even start to smell it when it isn't cooking. Just wondering, what's wrong with me?


My best friend's daughter just turned 2 last month! She's really into Minnie Mouse so she had a Minnie-themed birthday party and I made these Minnie cupcakes for her.


Cupcakes with cookies > Cupcakes without cookies.


I got some makeup while out shopping with my mom when I was visiting home. I wanted to try out the Born This Way foundation by Too Faced after I saw a lot of people using it in makeup videos like Rhian on WifeLife and Tashina on Logical Harmony. I like it pretty good, I use it with the Primed and Poreless Powder which is sooo silky and nice. I have been using the Becca corrector in pistachio to cover up my red spots, as my face has been extra obnoxious in growing zits all the time. I just dab a little over each red spot after primer and then apply the foundation over it. I really like the Kat Von D Ink! liner in Trooper, it makes it really easy to draw a straight line and the point never needs sharpening like pencil liners, and doesn't smudge too easily like liquid brush liners. I gifted the eye shadow primer because my eyelids get real weird when I wear shadow primer, even cream shadows, it makes the skin of my lid get sort of grainy and gross. Anyone else have that problem? I know I described that beautifully, but I think I've heard people say that shadow primers irritate their lids too.


I was having this conversation with my mom about how to get calcium from vegan sources, and I named things like oranges, bok choy, tofu and quinoa, then realized that they are all in this dish from Isa Does It. It's called something like, "Grilled Citrus Tofu Quinoa Bowl with Tahini" or something similar. I've made it once before but sort of forgot about it. I love the citrus tofu and will use that marinade again soon.


I finally made the Creamy Tomato Soup from The Oh She Glows Cookbook after hearing so much good stuff about it. It pretty much transported me back to being a teenager at Panera Bread getting the creamy tomato soup. I really liked the chickpea croutons, and at first I was skeptical because they looked dry and burned but really they are just crispy and awesome. It's always all about the croutons any time there's croutons.


Here's another buffalo tempeh salad with Terri Ranch, my new obsession. It kind of does all the stuff Hidden Valley Ranch says it does. I'm sure you have all seen this commercial, but in case you just steal your TV shows off the internet like a normal person, the commercial is set in a huge carnival/fair where the people are all selling vegetables instead of fries or cotton candy and there's a vegetable-eating contest instead of a hot dog-eating contest, and the kids are all fighting over each others' veggies, all because of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing and because it's so good. Anyway, Terri ranch is that good for me.


I have been waking up early for the past several months to "work out" but instead I mostly just sit on my radiator and have breakfast. My breakfast was particularly glowing on this morning, and I couldn't resist snapping a pic of my 197th smoothie bowl with coffee.


Another thing I got while I was out makeup shopping was the Pacifica Coconut Power Shampoo and Conditioner. I had been using the Alba Botanica Mango Shampoo and Conditioner but my hair was getting so dry and greasy so quickly, and after switching to this stuff it really made a huge difference in my hair. I definitely feel more moisture and can go at least one extra day without washing my hair again. It lathers really nicely, smells amazing and the packaging is gorgeous, as always.


I was thinking of doing an "Empties" video like I've seen some people do, where they show you the products they just finished up, whether it be stuff they purchase all the time or stuff they tried out for the first time. Either way, it's only after having used the whole product, so their opinion is fully formed on whether they would use it again or go for something else next time. If I do something like that, I'll be including this Kona Coffee scrub from Pacifica because I'm almost done with it. I have been loving it and would definitely buy it again. The smell is so amazing and it leaves your skin so silky with a tiny layer of moisturizing coconut oil. Sometimes after I use body scrubs my skin feels so dry and damaged immediately after I step out of the shower, but this really helps to lock the moisture in.


Back to food- I made the Cauliflower and Pesto soup with pasta shells from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen, which was super amazing. The only thing I would do differently next time is puree the soup in the vitamix instead of using an immersion blender. I also added more broth than called for because there wasn't really enough to simmer the cauliflower. But I think it would benefit from a silkier base than what you get with an immersion blender because when you use one of those it just can't get to that silky level.


When I ran out of Terri ranch I used the Follow Your Heart one, not quite as good but certainly does the trick when you're in need of a ranch dressing like now. I used to exclusively make my own dressings but it just takes time and this bottle is easy to grab and even bring with me to work, and I just am a lazy person I guess. Stop making me apologize for not making my own dressing!


It's not summer yet, and I'm happy about that, but I made summery food recently, with salad, BBQ Tofu, and potato salad. Alex made rice-a-roni because he wanted to help. He tries.


We visited Maresa at her new shop on E 9th over the weekend and got some macarons. It's right near Tompkins Square Park so we took them to go and ate them there. This one is Peanut Butter Brownie, dare I say my favorite flavor of Maresa's Macs. Can't be sure though.


Her shop is also right by Superiority Burger, which we had yet to try until then. It was really amazing. Alex got the burger, which he deemed so-so, and I got what was called "the new creation" which was tofu skin cooked in a way maybe Philly Cheesesteaks are cooked with some aioli and pickles. That was so great! I loved it and would order it next time again for sure. We got the Burnt Broccoli salad to share and then after we were done we ordered more food, the sloppy joe, which we devoured before taking pictures.


The main event was the Ice cream. It was Rhubarb Sorbet and Labne. The top has the rhubarb and the bottom has the labne. I haven't had ice cream this good since.... I can't remember. I don't know if I have ever had ice cream this good!


That same day we had been to NYC Veg Fest and had a great time hanging out with our friend Belinda, who has come to VegFest with me a few times. We got lots of great food, saw a few talks, and tried lots of new products. Some highlights were Ponycakes in orange-blossom-tahini-black sesame-something, Love Beets juice who also had some great balsamic marinated beets, and the Sex Kitten eye shadow palette that 100% Pure was selling for about 1/2 price! I think they're normally $45 and I got mine for $27 or something like that.


Alex's favorite kind of meal is a simple stir-fry. This worked out especially easy for me on this particular day because I had all of the ingredients I needed to make the Cast-Iron Stir Fry from Isa Does It, which is rare that I would actually have everything I needed. There's always at least one thing you didn't get or don't have. So yeah I was especially proud of myself for remembering this recipe existed and realizing I had everything I needed for it. This is so simple and awesome and I don't know why I don't make more stuff like this all the time.


At VegFest, there's always a guy doing a Vitamix demo. I have the Vitamix, and I think I bought it after the first demo I saw there, but it's still just too fun to watch the guy make all the stuff and do his demo. He always makes soup that is so fast and a bell went off in Alex's head that he could make that some night for dinner. So on monday night I came home from work and he had this soup almost ready and it was just as good as the one from the demo <3.


 The May Vegan Cuts Beauty Box came and it's one of the best so far! I pretty much deem every box that has a makeup brush in it the best. So this brush is the softest brush ever and it's from an all-vegan and cruelty-free makeup company called Terre Mere. It had a mini body scrub, a toner and a face oil. It also had a lip gloss, but I'm not really a bright-red-lip-gloss kind of girl and I saw a bunch of people get blushes and bronzers instead and got really jealous again!!!!! The cycle continues.

I mostly just care about the food for Superbowl parties. If my team is playing, I'll of course pay more attention and get excited for touchdowns, but I usually prefer to be in the kitchen and bringing out the snacks. As soon as everyone sees me come out they look so excited to see me, but really they are just excited for what I'm bringing for them to eat. This time I made the Life-Affirming Nacho Dip from Oh She Glows, a dish that I constantly see on my friends' blogs getting rave reviews. It did not disappoint! I ate quite a lot of this, even using carrots to dip -- which is strange since it's made from a carrot base.



I also made the BBQ Chickpea Snack from The Abundance Diet. These were gone pretty quick, since I only made about 1 1/2 cups, or 1 can's worth of chickpeas. Can't exactly go wrong with something called BBQ Chickpea Snack.


I tried the Kite Hill Ravioli the other day. I got the spinach ricotta flavor. I swear there's only about 10 ravioli in each package, so basically one package feeds one person. I threw away the receipt, but I think I paid $8 each. They were good, but not mind-blowing. The price was too crazy to buy again. It made me want to make my own ravioli more often. I think I could make them just as good, and the labor of love makes them just a little more tasty. Nye mean?


The ravioli reminded me of when Alex and I first moved away, we used to eat frozen ravioli all the time. Such formative years! A few years later I was making my own tortellini by the hundred and selling vegan cupcakes to everyone I knew. It feels like a million years ago.


Last night it was windy and chilly and Pot Pie was speaking loudly to me. I made the Vegetable Pot Pie from Thug Kitchen 2, using their recipe for Coconut Oil Crust, leaving out the sugar, adding a little salt, and some dried basil. It's a whole wheat pastry flour crust with tons of coconut oil, so it was super flaky and delicious.


I loaded the filling with leftover veggies and even roasted some cauliflower and broccoli to sprinkle over the top. Roasted cauliflower is like butter. It's so amazing! So toasty and nutty, almost like nothing else, at least no other vegetable I can think of.




Dip Night!! Okay, my mom used to make what she called "dip night" for my brother and I when she didn't feel like cooking. She would make some frozen nuggets or something we never usually ate, leftover cucumber slices,and celery sticks and then pour different salad dressings into little silver "dip dishes" and we got to dip different veggies into different sauces and it was so fun! We begged for dip night all the time, which was a strange win for my mom, because it was virtually no work. Now I have translated much of this tradition barring the "no work" aspect. One night, the night of the big snow storm where we got 3 feet of snow(!), I got dip night in my head and I just couldn't let it go. So I went to the crazy mobbed store for vegetables and tofu, the only types of food left. I got home and made tons of dip! Left to right is the Roasted Red Pepper Dip, Creamy White Bean Pesto Dip, Roasted Garlic Dip, and Spinach Artichoke Dip, all from Thug Kitchen 2. I also made the Cornmeal Roasted Potatoes from the book, breaded tofu cubes, and had veggies and triscuits for dipping. Dip Feast!


The following night Alex was sick of dip, and demanded pizza. He is so spoiled! I made this pizza inspired by the In Ricotta Da Vegan pizza from Paulie Gee's that I love so very much. I used tofutti ricotta, which I immediately regretted, since making my own from cashews and tofu is soooo much tastier, and some spicy sausages from my freezer. Not the same as the restaurant, but still good.



A few days a week, Alex walks half way to work with me and we stop at Coffeed to sit and chat before I go off to work for the day and he stays there and works. I have been getting Matcha Soy Lattes a lot, and this time the barista made it pretty for me! It always makes it more fun to drink when it is pretty like that.


Another weeknight dinner was the Queso-ish-dillas from Thug Kitchen 2. The queso is made from butternut squash, and the filling is pinto beans, tomatoes and cabbage slaw. They really sing when you hit them with a big scoop of guac. Who wouldn't sing when hit with a big scoop of guac??



Since I am childless and in my late twenties, it's prime time to make #irresponsbilepurchases. Such purchases include 8 Sleater-Kinney albums with limited-edition presses with 7" singles and autographed posters and hard-cover alternate-artwork-deluxe-2-disk-white-180 gram vinyl .


I spent many snowy hours reading while spinning these new beloved purchases. My life is dope.


After having a bad experience at Roberta's this fall, I vowed not to return. I like Paulie Gee's just as much, and now I think even better, and they have so many vegan options there. Roberta's just got a little old to me, waiting 2 hours to get a tomato pie with mushrooms for $15, and don't forget the $9 beer, sometimes even in a can. And if you have bad service just once, it should probably be enough to keep you away forever. Alex, however, did not share the same opinion, and the pizza was calling his name one afternoon after the shop-up. We walked over, and the wait for 2 (at 3pm on a saturday) was already 60 minutes. We hung out and played Street Fighter while drinking delicious, albeit overpriced IPAs while we waited in the lovely snowy backyard. The pizza was very good, even though I think Alex ate most of mine. I am not really a pizza fiend, totally on #teampasta but I understand that Alex needs pizza to live, in the same way that I need pasta to live, so I understand.




 I made both Kebob recipes from Thug Kitchen 2 which were both involving grilled tempeh and veggies, but one had pineapple with sweet & sour sauce, and the other had chimichurri sauce. I made their Twiced Baked Spinach Potatoes to go alongside. Fun, but time-consuming if you're not using an outdoor grill. I'm living that #apartmentlife so I'll always be grilling on a mini grill pan with a standing fan blowing the smoke out the window. Classy.


I feel like this was the bro-iest meal I ever made. I feel like I will see this meal on all the weight-lifting people's instagrams later. I made it for the deliciousness, which was imminent. It was the Blackened Broiled Tofu from Appetite For Reduction and the Roasted Parmesan Asparagus from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen.  And a Fireside Chat to drink!


One night I was feeling like pasta, and nothing else would do. I made some angelhair with red sauce and the Italian Chopped Salad from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen which was very nostalgic of the kind of food we get to eat when we visit my father-in-law in Florida. I can't wait to go this year!

I didn't have any chilled coconut milk to make the icing out of so I just made regular, standard, cinnamon roll icing. started off by doing a drizzle. Then I got real with myself and just dunked the doughnut in the icing like a normal person.

Overall, a decent breakfast doughnut. It's not like I'd swear off Dunwell or anything. I mean, these doughnuts will help you out when in morning doughnut need. Basically what I'm saying, is they're okay. A tough sell to someone who is a yeasted, fried, sugary doughnut fan. Alex wouldn't touch them. But they're small, so I ate two. The end.