This is breakfast?

Why, yes. Anything can be breakfast. And if you are breakfast resistant like I can be sometimes, why not just eat what you feel like eating instead of forcing yourself to eat a traditional breakfast food, or worse, avoiding the whole breakfast thing. Eating a good breakfast is really important, and I know that, so when the cereal/fruit thing doesn't appeal to me, I eat something that may be weird, but as long as it's nourishing and appealing, then why not? If I want broccoli and Shan tofu over rice with a spritz of sriracha, that's what I have. I can't tell you how often I crave broccoli in the morning, but we always have a big bag of it in the fridge so I can accommodate my desire. Sometimes oatmeal just seems gross and broccoli sounds delicious.

When I saw a pudla post on Cakemaker to the Stars, I thought I was too lazy to make these delicious savory pancakes for breakfast, even though she insists the pancakes are for lazy people. Yes, I love chickpea flour pancakes in any form and in any language — socca, besan jo chillo, pudla, cecina — but like I said, I'm resistant to cooking in the morning. Morning is when I'm most likely to use the microwave. But, I just happened to have a bag of shredded cabbage, sliced radishes and green onions leftover from the previous night's salad, so mixing chickpea flour and water with some already prepared veggies and spreading the batter on a griddle seemed doable even for me. It was so good I made some the next day, too.

If I'm in the mood for a more "breakfasty" meal, I might go with Bob's Red Mill creamy buckwheat cereal, cooked with raisins and sprinkled with cinnamon, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and frozen cherries — or whatever fruit appeals to me at the moment. Sometimes the fruit might be kalamata olives.  Creamy buckwheat cereal has been my standby breakfast for much of the winter.

I didn't photograph yesterday morning's breakfast — leftover jicama, cabbage, radish and satsuma salad. What do your typical, or more unusual breakfasts look like?


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Miss E and her little brother

Everyone wants to be part of the new baby team — especially when it involves lying in front of the new gas fireplace!

Miss E's birthday dinner

Miss E, my wonderful granddaughter, was born on Valentine's Day, and yesterday was her 5th birthday. I baked her a banana chocolate chip cake with chocolate ganache, and delivered it to her her house. While I was there hanging out with her, her parents and her brand new brother, her Mom told me that earlier in the day Miss E's Papa had taken her to the co-op to pick out two things to be part of her birthday dinner. Did I want to see what she'd chosen?

Uh oh ... Miss E doesn't have just one giant sweet tooth — she has a mouthful! And there's a snack monster in her pocket that "makes" her consume more snacks in a day than I eat in a month. I was having a little trouble imagining what two things she'd pick that could be made into dinner. Her Papa told me she'd perused the entire store very thoroughly before selecting her two items, and what were they? She grabbed a bag of organic Brussels sprouts and an artichoke! Who wudda thunk it? Good job, Miss E! I guess roasted Brussels sprouts hit the spot even with picky eaters.

Sweet (birth) day | Stuffed shells | Frosting with cake

Miss E prepares to blow out the candles. Note the chaos in the background.

Valentine's Day has changed for us — it's now officially known as Miss E's Birthday. That's right, the charming Miss E (our little granddaughter) was born three years ago on Feb. 14, and the day now belongs to her. Completely.

Yesterday afternoon I baked a heart-shaped cake, and we headed to Miss E's house for a birthday dinner and an orgy of present unwrapping. Too bad all the relatives who sent gifts couldn't be there to hear the shrieks and squeals. I'm talking to you Grammy and Big Poppy, who sent a pretend wooden birthday cake AND a wooden pretend pizza with all the toppings. And Uncle Lenny and Aunt Ellen — I was summarily handed the old, hand-me-down-excuse for-a-Dora as soon as the new one emerged from the box, and the usually accommodating Miss E would not trade with me. She always gives me whatever toy I want, but she wouldn't give me the new Dora.


Is this not the cutest kitchen you've ever seen?

And what did we bring her? Why, a pretend kitchen, of course. Miss E loves to do both real and pretend cooking, and she's now set to turn out delicious pretend meals whenever she wants. She can make pizza, cake, cookies (a previous gift) or anything her very active imagination dreams up. I'm sure we'll be enjoying many pretend meals with her, along with the real ones.



Miss E's mama made a delicious, real dinner that included scrumptious, creamy stuffed shells with homemade tomato sauce, and a tangy kale and cabbage salad. She got the recipe for the shells from a friend, Brenin Williams, who generously agreed to let me share it with you.

Stuffed shells or manicotti

• 1 cup cashews
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 splash soy sauce (too much will affect color)
• 1 teaspoons black pepper (or to taste)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 8 ounces silken tofu (soft)
• salt to taste
• 14 ounce to 1 pound firm tofu, quartered
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cups steamed spinach (or can be cooked frozen) or sautéed mushrooms
• cooked jumbo shells or manicotti (about 12 ounces)
  
• vegan cheese, as desired
  

1. In a food processor, grind the cashews until smooth. Add the oil, garlic, oregano, soy sauce, pepper, vinegar, soft tofu and salt, if using. Blend until smooth. Add a little water, if necessary, to incorporate.
2. Steam the firm tofu three to four minutes.
3. In a large bowl, crumble the steamed tofu into the cashew mixture with 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes. Stir in the spinach or mushrooms.
4. Stuff into manicotti or jumbo shells and place in a large casserole dish.
5. Cover generously with your favorite tomato sauce and a sprinkle of vegan cheese, and bake at 325˚ F, until hot, about 20 minutes.

Serves six to eight.

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Frosted with WHAT?

You can tell I made the cake by the lame decorations.

Now I have to say a few words about the cake and its frosting. Actually, this will be mainly about the frosting. I want to work on the cake recipe measurements and post it at another time. I got the frosting recipe here, on Diet, Dessert and Dogs. It's made from — hold onto your spoons — sweet potatoes! Well, there's other stuff in there, too, but not big globs of margarine and powdered sugar. I can't say I followed the recipe exactly, no, I can't say that, but I never would have thought to make anything like this without Ricki's inspiration. I wanted more volume, so I actually doubled the sweet potatoes but kept the other stuff pretty much the same. Ricky specifies coconut sugar, and I used jaggery* that I had purchased in an Indian grocery store, and which may or may not be the same. I used a little extra jaggery instead of stevia. And I used cacao powder instead of carob, because for some reason carob gives me a headache. I also used 56 grams of semi-sweet baking chocolate instead of 65 grams of unsweetened chocolate. I had to make the frosting in the morning, then refrigerate it all day before using it, so I whipped it with an electric mixer and added some soymilk and a tablespoon of agave to help it whip to creamy perfection when I was ready to spread it on the cake. In spite of my changes, the recipe worked wonderfully, and I loved it. Thank you, Ricki, for being so impossibly clever.


Jaggery — the pieces are about two inches high

*Jaggery is an unrefined form of sweetener that can be made from the boiled sap of sugarcane, sago palm, arenga pinnatasago palm, date palm, sugar date palm or coconut palm, with date palm being the most prized. It is usually found as a large solid cone, or as rectangular chunks, but can also be found in a granulated form. Jaggery is the most popular kind of sweetener in West Bengal, South India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Also known as known as gur in India, panela in South America, piloncillo in Mexico, hakuru in Sri Lanka, it comes in various shapes and sizes, varies in color from light to dark brown, and can range from dry to sticky. It has a rich, caramel-y flavor that is less sweet than white sugar. Coconut sugar is low on the glycemic index. The information available about the sources of jaggery is a little confusing, so I've done my best to summarize and present what I've uncovered. Coconut sugar is the latest "healthy" sweetener to hit the natural foods market.

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I made this


I've been crocheting again, and Miss E received a hat for her birthday. I made the hat, crocheted a flower and attached it, then added a bit of elastic thread around the bottom so the hat would be a little more snug. I almost wanted to keep the hat — not to wear but to look at — but I managed to part with it and hand it over to its sweet new owner. Am I proud of my handiwork? Yes, in this case, I am.



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Test recipe of the week for Urban Vegan


Hot and sour carrots and lentils

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It doesn't seem like it today, but could spring be coming?



Last week I took a walk with a friend, and it was a sunny, warmish, photo-friendly day. We walked the 2.8 mile path around Green Lake, which is about a block from where I live.



When we arrived back at my house, we noticed the crocus growing in my next door neighbor's terrace garden. This week the temperature is colder, it's raining, and the possibility of snow is predicted for Thursday. But still ...

Makeup | Takeout | July 4 | Vegan omelet #3 | Awards

Vegans don't just think about food, you know. It's an on-going search in an animal-consuming world to find vegan-friendly, ordinary, everyday products that other people take for granted. Say ... cosmetics, for example. I know, I know, vegans aren't vain like omnivores. (:D) Vegans go forth unwashed and natural, never worrying about finding a shampoo that leaves their hair full and shiny, or the right shade of blush. Well, smack me with an organic tomato but I worry about those things, and more. Call me shallow, but sometimes I feel a little pale, and need some color. And I want my ultra fine hair to have some body. I'm going to share my favorite vegan cosmetics of the moment. I've been using Zuzu Luxe blush, eye shadow, and foundation powder and I really like them. The blush and powder are very natural — goes on smoothly and is never weird or cake-y. The shadow (vegan and gluten-free) comes in cool colors that are beautiful. I've got silver (vixen) and deep mauve (dusk) and both are either subtle or more dramatic depending on how much you use. I prefer a natural look on myself because I'm much too shy to draw attention to my appearance. I'm not trying to look dramatically different or "made-up," — just add a little evenness and color to my complexion. Though I'm pretty conservative when it comes to my own makeup, I appreciate verve and daring in others, and there are lots of gorgeous colors in this vegan collection. (Don't forget to seek out vegan/cruelty-free brushes, too. I love my Eco Tools blush and eye shadow brushes, though I wish the eye shadow brush were smaller. The kabuki is a different brand that I can't remember the name of.)

I've also been enjoying Aubrey Chamomile shampoo and conditioner. The consistency of the shampoo is a little weird — kind of gelatinous and loose — and it doesn't suds much, but it does leave my hair clean and shiny. The creamy conditioner seems to leave my hair with a good amount of body.

If you want other ideas for the most super pure cosmetics and bodycare products, look at Kristen's Raw blog. She's much more picky about her bodycare products than I am. She thought the Aubrey shampoo was a compromise, and I respect her opinion. (I did try the Morrocco Method products she recommended, and the shampoos and conditioners absolutely did NOT work for me, but I love the spray-on styling products.)

Full disclosure: I did not receive samples, compensation, or encouragement of any kind.

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Takeout happens

Sometimes cooking is just not going to happen at our house, and takeout seems like the only option except for going hungry. This happened to us recently, and our takeout restaurant of choice, a vegan Chinese establishment, was CLOSED for vacation. Our second choice (which is sometimes our first choice) was a vegan Thai restaurant. I ordered several appetizers and one entrée, and you can see in the photo that they all looked pretty good. I don't know what went wrong in their kitchen that night but everything was horrible. I nearly gagged on the gooey doughy vegetable dumpling, and the tofu satay was a strange, florescent yellow color and nearly tasteless. The broccoli was rubbery and nasty and the rice, gummy. Horrible.


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Vegan omelet #3

Vegan omelet #1 was a disappointment to me but I vowed to try again. I had a lot of omelet mix to use up so I tried a second version and then a third. I'm skipping right to the third because it was the best one so far. This one had asparagus and seitan inside, and leftover artichoke-and-zucchini tomato sauce on top. Plus it had a dollop of pickled jalapeños and carrots.

It was good but I'm still not a true fan. There's something about the texture I don't love. I can't get it dry enough, and it reminds me too much of the kind of eggs I would never eat — moist ones.


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July 4th family dinner
We had the whole family over for a July 4th dinner but most of the food was stuff that's been on the blog before so I didn't photograph it. The dessert, however, was a little different. I wanted to make something unexpected, and I think the guests were surprised. I made peanut butter s'mores with Amaranth graham crackers, Dandies marshmallows and bittersweet chocolate chips. I spread a thick coating of peanut butter on the bottom crackers, then sprinkled them generously with chocolate chips. The Dandies went on top of the chips, then the top crackers were put in place. The s'mores were all next to each other on a plate, and stored, covered, until dessert time. Then the plate went into the microwave for about 1 minute to melt everything before serving. The treats were nearly gone when I remembered to take a picture.

Here's the reaction of one of the guests. By the way, I also served fresh local organic blueberries to balance the food groups. :D

I had one little problem. The Dandies were all stuck together in their bag, and I ended up grabbing wads of marshmallow blob from the bag. This was the first time I've had Dandies. Have you had this happen?
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Birthday shirts

My husband recently celebrated a birthday, and he received some vegan-themed t-shirts from Andrea's Tees Etc. (He also received a Lost t-shirt but so what.) It's hard to see in the photo but the t-shirt above is covered with "Vs" with the word vegan in purple. He wanted a vegan t-shirt but he's a little shy so it had to be just a tad subtle. (If you click on the image you'll be able to see it bigger.)

This shirt is rather self-explanatory.

And here's a pink butterfly shirt just for the little s'more-eater. She gets things even when it's not her birthday.


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Awards and stuffI've been honored to receive an award and other recognition for the blog, and I'd like to express my gratitude. From Kiersten of Vegan Awakening, I received my second sunshine award. Thank you so much Kiersten; you made my day! (I just love reading Kiersten's blog — it's filled with not only great cooking ideas, but honesty and thoughtfulness about life's issues — both difficulties and joys.) Especially here in Seattle, sunshine can be very scarce! I'd love to give this award to all of the wonderful blogs I read. Each one brings sunshine into my day.

Also, I'm honored to have this blog included on two "best of" lists, 100 Best Blogs for Healthy and Delicious Recipes and Top 50 blogs for Eating and Cooking Healthy. Check out the lists for blogs you may not yet be familiar with.

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