Vegan MoFo 4: One Year Veganversary!

Vegan Month of Food continues and today is a really really significant day in my vegan life because it was one year ago today that I had my first intentional and somewhat tentative day of all-vegan food. I don't remember exactly what I ate, but it almost definitely included oatmeal:

The original plan was to educate myself about veganism, give it a try for a month, and then go back to my regular vegetarian lifestyle, but I loved it too much. One year later, there's been no looking back. 

Here's just a few of the many awesome new meals I've had since I started eating this way:

How about you: If you're vegan, how long has it been? If you're not, have you ever tried it or wanted to?

Vegan MoFo 3: Cooking Time Audit

First off, welcome to all the new readers. Whether old or new, introduce yourself. We're all one big Vegan MoFo family here.

One of the topics I wanted to cover this Vegan Month of Food is "Just how accurate are those time estimates in the cookbooks?" When it says 45 minute recipe, is it really? Does a 2 hour recipe actually take half the day?

I will find out. And report back, and then we will all know. I'm hoping to do this weekly, so here's #1.

In order to assess whether you can make a comparison of time for my cooking vs. yours, let me just break down my cooking experience:

- Easy non-cookbook "Yes EasyMac IS a reasonable meal for a college student" cooking experience: 13 years

- Recipe cooking experience: 3 years, with a steep increase in the past 1 year. 

- Baking experience: 1 year

So I haven't been really cooking that long - maybe you'll be faster than me. 

The first recipe to audit: 

Veganomicon Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes with Pecans and Raisins

I have a passionate love for the Veganomicon. If Fiance John's Girlfriend #2 is his iPad, then my Boyfriend #2 is the Veganomicon. And Ryan Reynolds.

I've never made this recipe before, because it seems like cheating to time audit something with which I'm already familiar, so here goes. 

Stated time estimate: 1 hr 15 mins total. 15 mins prep. 1 hr baking. 

Actual time spent: 1 hr 18 mins total. 18 mins prep. 1 hr baking. 

Proof:

Pre-oven.

Post-oven.

Considering the simplicity of this recipe, it was startlingly good. I'm pretty sure I'd like to make it a staple in my Thanksgiving or Christmas menu. It tastes like warm holidays, cinnamon and Grandpa's bad jokes around the fire. 

In terms of the time comparison, I take a little longer to prep than our brilliant cookbook authors estimate, but just a few minutes. It'll be interesting to compare in a recipe that has a longer prep time. Technically I took 20% longer to prep than estimated, so we'll see if that increases proportionally in a recipe that takes, say 30 mins to prep. Stay tuned for #2 coming soon. 

Any recipes you'd like to see time audited?

Vegan MoFo 2: Veggie Grill Review

Happy second day of October, and more importantly the Vegan Month of Food. 

Fiance John lives in Irvine where he's working on his Masters of Engineering, and one of the perks of visiting him there, besides the obvious fact that I like him, is that eating out for vegan food in Irvine is a lot more diverse. Here it's pretty much Mexican (ordered without lard-laden beans, chicken-stock rice, cheese or sour cream) or Thai. 

In Irvine not only is there a nearby Whole Foods, Mother's Market and other health food stores, but there's a raw restaurant, 118 Degrees, though I haven't been there yet, Veggie Grill and Native Foods, both of which are all-vegan. 

Recently we went to Veggie Grill twice in two days, and it was great. Grilled chicken wrap and Tuscan chicken soup on day one. 

Tempeh Burger and Quinoa Pasta Mac & Cheese on the second day. It is in fact good enough to go that often. 

Vegan eating out: have a favorite?

Vegan MoFo 1: Celebratory Breakfast

First things first: It's Vegan Month of Food! To start it off, I wanted the first meal to be something that felt celebratory and unlike my usual breakfasts (oatmeal and yogurt bowls). I also wanted it to be kind of healthy. And not overwhelming in size because I don't always trust myself to eat only one portion as opposed to the whole pan/batch. 

Growing up Saturday mornings were special because if we were feeding ourselves, it was Toaster Strudel. Not Poptarts - I never ate a Poptart until high school - Toaster Strudel. Warm, sticky, almost nothing nutritional to redeem them. They were a maybe once-a-week treat. 

Even better though were the mornings when we were actually running on time to Church, and Mom had a chance to make pancakes. Mom's chocolate chip pancakes were like jumping on pink clouds, playing with a fluffy puppy and eating chocolate all at the same time. That good. One of those happy childhood memories I want to keep forever - until I remember my sisters smearing syrup in my hair, running crazy circles around the kitchen and trying to liberate various necessary Church garments from my closet. Then I want to be certain I never forget. 

So this Saturday morning I decided nothing would suffice but chocolate chip pancakes. Since I didn't have a go-to chocolate chip pancake recipe, I used the Peas and Thank You Apple Cinnamon Pancake recipe, but cut it down to 1/4 batch to serve just me. I used the whole wheat pastry flour option because that's what was on hand - I also cut the cinnamon and replaced the apple with 1 tbsp chocolate chips per intended pancake (2). 

Ingredients, bowl, food scale, recipe-master AKA laptop. 

Baking powder, cinnamon, salt, whole wheat pastry flour, soymilk, chocolate chips, sugar.

Dry.

Plus wet.

Equals pancakes.

Less than 20 minutes later, I had 2 fluffy chocolatey still-a-little-healthy pancakes. Topped with half a banana, 2 tbsp maple syrup and a pinch of powdered sugar. 

I couldn't have asked for a better meal to usher in this Vegan Month of Food.

What was your favorite childhood breakfast?