This isn't from Vegan Bowl Attack, but I decided to make the Orange Chicky Seitan from the stir-fry section of Isa Does It. I actually had opened The Great Vegan Protein Book to make their Fake-Out Sesame Seitan and Broccoli, but then realized that the version of Orange Chicken in Isa Does It was way less complicated, and I had everything I needed on hand for it. Also I just realized that I put mushrooms in there. How did that happen?
 At one point last week, my fridge was overtaken by various tupperware containing miscellaneous leftover pieces of dishes I'd made. What to do with them all? Make a bowl of them!! Here I have some white rice leftover from my stir-fry, leftover lentils from ravioli night, some butternut squash pureé, also from ravioli night, and a sad-looking sweet potato left all alone in my produce basket. After everything was piled on, I sprinkled on my leftover parsley, then topped it all with Hampton Creek's Just Sweet Mustard. Y'all know I love mustard.


Back to Vegan Bowl Attack! Next I made the Cashew-Crusted Tofu Stir-Fry. Alex loves stir-fries, and I love that he loves them, because they are so amazingly easy to make. The cashew breading was easy to do, just pureed the nuts, mixed them with rice flour, pressed the tofu into the coating and pan-fried them. By now, us vegans can basically make a stir-fry while we do our nails, so this dish was a piece of cake to make. Making cake is much harder than this. You get my point.


In other news, I got a job! Woot Woot! The day I accepted my offer, Alex took me out for happy hour at Front Street Cafe. Everything is so cheap during happy hour, so we split a bunch of stuff. It's a great place to bring anyone, because at least half their menu is vegan, and there's plenty for vegetarians and the omnivores in your life, too. The food is also amazing.


I'd been wanting to try the buffalo cauliflower for a while, but I never ordered it, since they give you so much that it's almost enough for your entire meal. But since we were just doing Apps & Zerts, it was the perfect opportunity to seize the cauliflower. It was super crispy, great buffalo sauce, vegan ranch, and even Alex ate them. He "hates" cauliflower, so it was a win for everyone, especially this underappreciated vegetable.


We split the vegan cactus taco, which had sweet potatoes and slaw and other good sauces and condiments, the blood and soul of any taco. After all this, potato wedges and a few beers, we'd had ourselves an extremely pleasant Tuesday.


Next from Vegan Bowl Attack, I made the Mezze Fusion Bowl. Toasty pita triangles are included in this lovely medley of quinoa tabbouleh, olives, artichokes, hummus and tofu feta. The recipe called for homemade baba ghanoush, but I went for store-bought hummus because Alex is an eggplant-hater. The tofu feta was almost no work to make, it just required some marination. Not much to argue with here, everybody loves a mezze-platter. Also, don't be a dringus and buy your artichokes in a glass and not a can. These canned artichokes were the pits. Sorry for talking about pits on my food blog.


Once I start working, I'll miss spending sunny afternoons out on my patio with my very good-looking husband.


One time I ate seitan tacos for all three meals in a day. Since that day was yesterday, I chose to start this morning with this apple pie smoothie bowl from Vegan Bowl Attack. This was a perfect use for my many apples I still have from apple-picking. I might have made too much... But I topped it with lots of chopped almonds and pecans and a little maple syrup because I had no time or sense to make the actual topping that goes on this, and my hunger is a serious thing. I think I was just sad that I couldn't top it with my granola, which contains hemp protein, which I was afraid would make me fail my drug test. I think it won't. I dunno, can never be too careful!!


Oh look, some of the tacos I mentioned! So I think I've mentioned this before, but Barcade has a special on Fridays, from 12-5pm wherein you can obtain 2 vegan tacos, chips and a beer for $10. The chips usually have cheese on them, so we left it off, but the bartender brought us over some salsa for them because he was so nice and concerned about our bare chips. These were great, as always. I'd probably keep coming back for them even if they weren't great, because it's so damn cheap.


We went to Pabst Fest this weekend at Electric Factory. There were a lot of great bands playing, and it was a really great deal, moneywise, because it'd cost sooo much more to see them all separately. They had all sorts of activities outside in addition to the bands, such as a van to spray paint, arcade games, dancefloor, a Philly photo set (a doorstep that looked like Rocky's with a 215 on the door and other Philly things), and all the PBR you could fathom. I fathomed none.
The first band we caught was Diarrhea Planet. I've been told to check them out many times, but never had until this show. Not really sure if it's my thing, but it's good for what it's trying to be.


 Next, we saw Beach Slang, a Philly band that Alex has been into. The singer reminded me so much of someone I used to know who played music in our hometown and I could barely pay any attention because I was thinking of that the whole time. Dude obviously likes The Cure a lot though.


The main reason we got these tickets was to see Guided by Voices. They played 20 songs in one hour as promised. Obviously very lucky to have an opportunity to see them play.


We saw Mac Demarco and Hop Along play afterwards, but I failed to document them. They were both great, even though Frances took some digs at NYC... I forgive her. Kind of.

Vegan Bowl Attack has an extensive and impressive salad section. The first one to catch my eye was the Walnut Chorizo Taco Salad! I am so obsessed with the chorizo taco salad from byChloe that I knew I had to make this one asap. It was super easy to make the walnut chorizo, just dump walnuts and spices into a food processor and then sauté it for a few minutes. You can just chop all your accoutrements while your chorizo is toasting. I didn't make the sour cream, even though that would have been easy too, I just drizzled some Just Ranch dressing from Hampton Creek over the top of mine. Alex required a vinaigrette instead, so I figured the sour cream would just go bad before I could eat it all anyway. I opted to leave out the tortilla bowl, and by opted I mean I had no large tortillas. This salad was awesome regardless of the lack of edible bowl.


For dessert I thought I'd better get on the giant apple haul I have in my kitchen before they go bad, so I made Apple Crisp from Vegan Pie In The Sky. I topped it with So Delicious Cashew Cream Ice Cream, my favorite vanilla-style ice cream. You can't beat the creamy texture, not icey, doesn't melt too fast, exactly what you need in a vanilla ice cream. It may be a tie between them and Van Leeuwen's in NYC. They make seriously amazing vegan ice cream, too!


I am anxiously anticipating vegan mofo coming up for the month of November!! I plan on participating on Instagram and on this blog, so let me know if you are also participating and I'll make sure to visit your site during mofo!
Sending all my good vibes,
xo,
KZ

I've been making my smoothies almost exclusively from Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet and had yet to try any of her other recipes! This is the "Rawkin Rainbow Kale Salad" which has kale as the main lettuce with a red pepper dressing, some cabbage, carrots and avocado. Oh! and jicama! I spiralized my jicama to make it fun. Then I covered up the pretty spirals with cabbage. The spirals are under there. Swear.
This is the BBQ Tempeh and Dilly Slaw Bowl from Salad Samurai. I've made this one before but came back to it last week when I was craving something more hearty than kale and tomatoes. It calls for BBQ chips to be sprinkled on the top, but I didn't have any, nor do I think it would be a good idea to pick up a bag to just have hanging out in my reach while I stay in strict salad-mode. I did have some pita, so I tossed some pita triangles in some cayenne and chili powder, toasted them and made like they were bbq chips. The bbq sauce is also from Salad Samurai, which I like, because sometimes I can't read the ingredients on bbq sauce bottles because they are all chemicals. What gives?


We went to Central Park last week and saw Father John Misty on a beautiful summer night. It was the most gorgeous night and seeing outdoor shows on nights like those is exactly what summer is for. We are getting a little old for the pit and are thinking we might become "lawn people" pretty soon, but we managed to hold our ground and threw some elbows at bros trying to come at us and push us out of our spots. Though my feelings on FJM are mixed, he put on a great show and the music was totally amazing. I love shows like these.


The very next night we had tickets to see Desaparecidos at Webster Hall. While I hate Webster Hall, the upstairs room is the nicest and most tolerable. I was completely fine with not drinking at this stupid venue. The week before we went to a show in one of the downstairs rooms and Alex was going to get a beer but it's $9 for a beer and they expect a tip, so I asked for tap water after waiting in a long line and the bartender said they "don't do tapwater." You have to buy a $5 10oz bottle of water instead. I asked if he was joking, but he was not. I hate Webster Hall. End of rant. The So So Glows opened, who are great, so we were happy to see them before Desaparecidos came on. It's always nice to see Brooklyn or other NYC bands play local. Sometimes it seems like there is no real "local scene" here, which is a shame. This band represents NYC the way I wish others would.



Desaparecidos were great. I am old and tired and after 2 nights in a row of standing at work and standing at shows, I was wiped out and it was hard to fully enjoy the show. I was also thinking about all the other stuff I have to do, what with a wedding to-do list a mile long and getting paperwork straightened out to register for classes in the fall, my mind was kind of elsewhere. The show was still great, and I realized I hadn't seen Connor Oberst at all since 2007 when Alex took me to see Bright Eyes in Boston for our three-year anniversary. Such nice memories. Anyway, he doesn't seem to have changed, still smarter than most people I know despite not going to college, and leading the way in the indie rock field of what would inspire a most gigantic wave of bands for at least a decade. I always equated him and Isa, maybe because they're both Omaha-based, chose their passions over school, and came out pioneers in their fields. Both very inspiring people that have shaped different sections of my life and personality.


Back to food. These are two salads from Salad Samurai, the Fiery Fruit and Quinoa Salad, and Pesto, Pea and Potato Salad. I used the pasta variation using veggies elbows made with squash and carrot. The quinoa salad has grilled peaches, my fave, grilled onions, and grilled corn with herbs and a chipotle-chia-citrus dressing. I brought these to a party the next day and both were all gone by the end. Someone asked me for the recipe of the quinoa one, and I started by saying "it's really easy, it only has..." and then I realized it has far too many components to be considered "easy" to your average person, and so I stopped listing ingredients and shoved some more quinoa in my mouth. The pesto one has toasted pine nuts too, which I managed not to burn for once.


Glamour shot of my Apple Pie Green Smoothie, my favorite from The Abundance Diet.

On Sunday I made this Pepperoni Tempeh Salad from Salad Samurai, with a tomato-y dressing that was kind of like tangy pizza sauce with balsamic vinegar, and the tempeh had a tomato/soy sauce/paprika glaze to make it taste like pepperoni. Then it's topped with croutons and kalamata olives. Overall it was wayyy too salty for me. The olives are probably responsible for the overkill but I really couldn't eat too much of it without drinking a full glass of water alongside each bite. I think I made this one before and don't remember any salty issues, so don't judge this just based on me. Maybe I should have sprung for the low sodium soy sauce and low sodium tomatoes? I am not sure.


Now here's a salad that can do no wrong. This is the Backyard Buffalo Tofu Salad with Cashew Ranch. It has croutons, romaine, slaw mix, and Buffalo Tofu. Alex doesn't like his tofu Buffaloed so I concede every time and make it BBQ for him. I'm nice. I have nothing bad to say about this salad and feel like I could go for some right now even though it's 8am.


My Italian customer brought me some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from his garden yesterday, and I knew immediately that I should make this recipe from Salad Samurai. It's just a cashew and pea puree with garlic over fresh ripe summer tomatoes dressed with some balsamic vinegar and fresh ground black pepper. I don't get tomatoes like this almost ever, so when they are gifted to me I truly appreciate it. Last year he brought me a giant haul and I made some fresh sauce, which was the best sauce I ever had. The tomatoes at my local place are always a let down, so it was such a great treat to have these huge beautiful tomatoes for a change.


For some reason I made all this food for a Monday night dinner...

More from Salad Samurai, This is the Plums Love Arugula Salad. This was great the night I made it, but the next day the plums were no good. Also the five-spice must have amplified overnight and all I could taste was star anise the next time around. I say if you don't love star anise, don't put five spice in this salad, and put something different on your almonds and in your dressing instead. Or you could make the sriracha & smoke pecans instead! I love stone fruit, you guys. Cheers to stone fruit season.


Okay this picture is from BEFORE the salad and smoothie challenge began, so everybody just CALM DOWN and look at my knishes. I was at a bookstore while visiting my hometown this summer, and of course made my way to the vegan section of the cookbook rack, and saw the 10th anniversary edition of Vegan With A Vengeance which I didn't plan to buy, since you know, I have way too many cookbooks, and I shouldn't buy another that I already own, but as I flipped the pages and saw all the new beautiful photos and re-vamped recipes, I sunk into a nostalgic state and knew this book was coming home with me. I remember making her Fettuccine Alfreda and loving it as a newbie vegan, and as I flipped through, each recipe triggered a memory of being 22 and moving to New Jersey, and beginning to cook with vigor and backbone for the first time in my life. I shed a tear, and paid the twenty-something dollars. The book had bought me.
The biggest stand-out picture for me was the knishes. I am not Jewish and have no history of sampling Jewish foods, nor do I understand what they are based on their descriptions, so was really important to have a visual for this one. I had never had a knish before so I wasn't sure I had nailed this one, but I brought a bunch of these in to my boss, a "native New Yorker", who had had knishes many times over, and he proclaimed them to be as authentic as any! Knish Success!! I'm sure Jewish food is the best food now. After all, isn't Rugelach Jewish?? Enough said.


This is Modest Mouse! We saw them at the Bandshell at Prospect Park. We've been going to summer shows there for the past few years, and each year they have someone amazing. It was also my first time seeing them live! I can't believe I hadn't before, since they've been one of my favorite bands, especially in college. It's a shame that the people who attend shows are so awful, and have no respect for any other human beings around them, but I was able to enjoy most of the show nonetheless, despite their best efforts. It's hard for me to believe that those people have anything they can identify with Modest Mouse. Enough complaining. The show was great. They have so many good songs that it would be impossible for them to play all the songs I wanted to hear. The show definitely reignited my love for them.


I went through a kale phase. I had kale in smoothies, kale in salad for lunch, and kale for dinner. For weeks. I realized it was the best salad green, what with all its texture and ability to soak up good dressings. This is the Deviled Kale Salad from Salad Samurai with added tofu. Alex loves his breaded tofu and couldn't live without it. They could have served as the crouton, but I added croutons anyway, and had the best kale salad ever.


Last, but not least, a kale-less salad from Salad Samurai, this is the Creamy Corn Salad with cashew-lime dressing. It's supposed to be like mexican street-corn in salad form. I loved it, especially since I put "half" an avocado on top of my bowl. Let's just say Alex's "half" didn't seem to measure up to mine. This had spiciness from jalapeños and creaminess from cashews. It was the best kind of salad, pretty much. It's only salad since it's cold food in a bowl, mostly made of vegetables. Still counts right??

Alright everybody, I've got 11 days left in Salad and Smoothie world and as a single woman on paper. Pretty soon I'll be eating Ethiopian food and lots of vegan cake. Hang tight, enjoy the rest of the summer and I'll see you all on the other side.

I know it's January but I have been making salads like it's June. I have been making all the salads from Salad Samurai, aiming to make all the ones from the Winter chapter by the time the season leaves us. This one is actually from the Fall chapter, and it's called the Collard Sweet Potato Crunch Bowl. It called for cubed sweet potato but I had roasted mine whole and it was too soft to cube. So I just scooped it on top and it was none the worse for it. Those Sriracha and Smoke Pecans are really addictive. I had extra from this salad and I totally ate them all at work the next day. I shared. Swear.


I got Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen for Christmas and have made a few things from it already. This is the White Lasagna with Butternut Squash. It was really good. It has tofu ricotta, an alfredo sauce and pureed roasted butternut squash. Alex is really not into any of those things so I had this all to myself the whole week. I shared with my coworker, who as of late has had vegan aspirations!


Alex does, however, really like Mexican food and he helped me make burritos the other night. I made spicy lentils with some taco spices and tomato sauce, some sauteéd diced onions and peppers and rolled them inside along with some avocado slices. Some brown rice and black beans on the side, and other than the large quantity of food, there's not too much to be ashamed of, healthwise. Not that it has ever really stopped us before, but I have been aiming for healthier alternatives.

 Speaking of appropriate winter gear, I received some new winter boots today! They are from Native Shoes, a Canadian company based out of Vancouver, and all of their products are vegan! I was in search of a vegan "bean boot" and these looked to be a good fit. They are similar in style but without the leather and shearling. They had a bunch of colors but hardly any that were left in my size. This color combo seemed acceptable enough, and after trying them on I love them!!



While in curry-mode I made this sweet potato curry with adzuki beans and cauliflower from
Isa Does It. It was a thai-inspired curry with red curry paste and lots of lime. It was very seasonal and delicious.


I made this salad from Salad Samurai but this is actually from the Spring chapter. It's the Green Curry Lentil Salad. It was super spicy but good. It was sweet from the pineapple and crunchy from the toasted coconut. I added Lemongrass Tofu to the salad even though it didn't call for it because it was dinner. Everybody wants a little tofu in there when they eat a dinner salad. If they don't then tell them I said Yes they do.


Okay this one is definitely from the Winter chapter of Salad Samurai. It is called Sesame Noodles In The Dojo. I have been to Dojo in the West Village on Terry's recommendation and was not a fan, but then after reading the intro to this salad recipe learned that they overhauled their entire menu and the restaurant sort of fell flat. The Dojo she once so highly recommended is now just a really generic pan-asian sort of place. These sesame noodles are a tribute to a dish once prepared so well by the restaurant back when. Plus noodles? In a salad? I'm there. I added Beyond Meat but this really didn't need it.

 
Speaking of noodles in salads, here is the Pad Thai Salad with Asparagus and Tofu from the Spring chapter. I know, I can't stick to the right season! What gives? This salad was pretty good but the asparagus didn't shred into ribbons the way I thought they would and were a barely noticeable addition to the salad for a pretty good amount of work. It took forever to shave the asparagus spears, and most of the asparagus was left behind once they couldn't be shred anymore. Maybe the really big husky stalks would have worked better for this, but I always find the skinny ones in the store. The salad overall was good, but benefitted from some Golden Mountain Sauce drizzled on top!


I've been doing my best to keep making smoothies, which is really no problem, aside from the time it takes to peel chop, blend and drink. I have been kind of in a protein-shake-mood lately. I have finally been able to work out again after my shoulder injury healed. Well -- it didn't exactly heal. I got shot up with some concoction of steroids at the doctor and was put on a high dose of anti-inflammatory drugs. It feels pretty good most days by now. I am hoping by the time I go back I will not need any further treatment. In the meantime I have been cranking out the Chaturangas and planking until I drop. I made Alex do a 45 minute Nike Training Club workout with me this morning. It was fun to work out together yet funny. Do couples work out together? Or is that supposed be separate?


In conclusion I have been keeping busy this winter with my favorite activities, like cooking, yoga, seeing shows, and playing bass. And making ravioli. These have a lentil & ricotta filling. Putting my ravioli pan to use!


Enjoy the rest of the season! There's much more fun to be had before it's over <33

I bought 365 Vegan Smoothies by Kathy Patalsky, which I loved, and was making a smoothie a day from. I had been on smoothies for about 2 months before I started getting sick. It was always in the morning, about 20 minutes after I drank my smoothie. I originally traced it back to a bunch I had bought, thinking it was a non-organic bunch, and maybe that's what happened. But even with the next batch, I got super nauseous about 20 minutes after drinking my smoothie.


I was trying to be healthier and eat something better for me in the morning, and the smoothies in Kathy Patalsky's book were great. I stocked up on all the smoothie essentials. But after a few months, I just couldn't tolerate the bananas anymore.  I tried forcing myself to eat them, insisting that if I just kept eating them, my body would stop rejecting them and we could live in harmony again. I kept thinking I could "beat" it, and that it's just a banana, how could it be making me so sick?


After puking for a week straight, I gave up. Almost all the recipes in her book include a banana, and the smoothies I've made without them just aren't anywhere near as good. I like using coconut yogurt instead sometimes, but I can never keep enough of it on hand to make a smoothie a day. Everyone keeps posting pictures of banana ice cream and their smoothies and everything but I'm so mad that I can't eat them without getting sick! It makes no sense!

The smoothie that ended it all was this chocolate banana date smoothie with peanut butter. It was delicious. Then it ruined the rest of my night. Can anyone help me? Has this happened to anyone else? I have done a little research and nothing seems to apply. I don't have fructose malabsorption, I eat lots of other fruits with no problem, it's not a gluten thing, and the nuts aren't bothering me either. Someone said it was potassium overdose, but according to what I've read, I'd need to eat about 30 bananas a second to reach those kinds of levels, and even so, the symptoms don't match up. Until further notice, I am on vega chocolate protein shakes for breakfast. And man, they do not taste good.