New York City, Day 3

Yes, I got back from NYC almost a week ago... the posting is a little belated. Oopsie. I was doing pretty good with writing in the morning before Amber got up, but I didn't want to get too behind with Central Florida Veg Fest and CAAN organizing, so I worked on that instead. Sorry, Vegan MoFo! So, here is Day 3...

Walked to Strictly Vegetarian again today. We were way too proud of ourselves that we walked the 8(?) blocks to there, the bank and the post office without Pj! I had sorrel, a veggie patty (empanada with beans and veggies), and a piece of carrot cake.

Dinner was pizza made by Pj, and assisted by Amber and me. We made: margarita, Pineapple & Onion, Radiccio,  and Spinach. Pj made her own crust, and her own *magical* cashew-based cheese, which was given an “aged” taste with vegan probiotics. Her (all non-vegan) family was there, and they all loved the pizza. 

- Jessi

Pippi's Recipe Review: Quiche A Week Lasagna Bites

     Each week my Sister in Law- Heidi, my mom, my cousin -Jasmine and I choose recipes to experiment with. We have been picking 2 main courses and a sweet treat. But there are no rules that it has to be this way. Click -> to read More about our weekly recipe project. To participate, leave a comment with your own review and recipe suggestions.

Vegan Lasagna Bites a la Crustless Quiche A Week & Everything Inbetween
Recipe Link: http://quicheaweek.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/vegan-lasagna-bites/

I changed this recipe up all over the place, all the while, sticking to it's basic concept. Does anyone want to guess what I put inside? (Tob, Heidi, Mom, you know you know!)

• First, the ricotta. I cannot afford pine nuts. And if I could, the hospital would come and take them away in lieu of payment towards our outstanding balance. Instead, I used tried and trusted cashews. I think walnuts would have been good too. I did add basil to my batch. Easy peasy!
• My filling consisted of sauteed kale (I shredded it into tiny morsels), grated zucchini (ding ding ding!), diced onions and garlic.
• I used jar pasta sauce.  
• Unlike Heidi, who uses no oil (Engine2 diet), I did spray my sheet pan before I assembled/baked. Although, I suspect that may not even be necessary. Even with out a silicon baking sheet.
• Assembly was pretty straight forward. Deceivingly simple. I did use a touch of water at the corners to help them stick together. I did not brush the tops with olive oil, nor did I spray them with oil. They browned up just fine. 
• Verdict: This recipe was really good, really pretty simple, versatile; You could pretty much put anything in these bad boys.  I would like them with some Italian sausage (Tofurkey or Field Roast). Two thumbs up, we will make this again. I may just stick them in a cupcake pan and fill them and bake them instead of folding them, for an even speedier version!

Pippi's Recipe Review: The Vegan Stoner Chocolate Mousse

     Each week my Sister in Law- Heidi, my mom, my cousin -Jasmine and I choose recipes to experiment with. We have been picking 2 main courses and a sweet treat. But there are no rules that it has to be this way. Click -> to read More about our weekly recipe project. To participate, you can join our group on facebook {www.facebook.com/groups/recipeteam/} or leave a comment with your own review and recipe suggestions. We recently created this facebook group so that we could share with friends outside of our family group.

     This week's sweet treat was Chocolate Mousse. Use your own recipe. I have made vegan chocolate mousse in the past, but while I was making Falafel Pie a al The Vegan Stoner, I noticed that The Vegan Stoner also has a recipe for Chocolate Mousse. I figured I would just make this The Vegan Stoner week! 

Chocolate Mousse a al The Vegan Stoner
Recipe Link: http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/2012/02/chocolate-mousse.html

Gonna get right in to this...

• For some reason, I can't keep a bag of chocolate chips in the house without someone busting into them almost immediately and without me being in the room to bust them.  I made up the difference with some super dark chocolate that I had in the cupboard. (Why couldn't the thief just eat that?) I don't own a microwave, so I use the double boil method. Slow and low. 
• Meanwhile, I blended the tofu with milk. The recipe calls for soy cream, but I used Blue Diamond Almond Coconut milk. The recipe also calls for coco powder, and even though I have that, I opted for the Dark Hot Chocolate mix that I have. 
• The last change that I made was this: When blending the mousse, I added 1/2 of the melted chocolate to the mixture. 
• After layering the vanilla graham cookies on the bottom, then the sliced strawberries, and drizzled the agave (just a touch), I added the mousse, then the melted chocolate on the top. 

Verdict: Oh my goooooooooey goodness! This was so incredibly rich and delish! One change that I would make is that I would maybe not layer in the strawberries, as they leak and the next day the cookies are a soggy mess. That isn't entirely bad, I know, but not too appetizing. I would also make these in smaller portion sizes b/c it is so rich! All in all, a BIG hit and two thumbs up from chef mom.

Pippi's Recipe Review: Oh She Glows 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

Each week my Sister in Law- Heidi, my mom, my cousin -Jasmine and I choose recipes to experiment with. We have been picking 2 main courses and a sweet treat. But there are no rules that it has to be this way. Click -> to read More about our weekly recipe project. To participate, you can join our group on facebook {www.facebook.com/groups/recipeteam/} or leave a comment with your own review and recipe suggestions. We recently created this facebook group so that we could share with friends outside of our family group. Please join us!

15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta a la Oh She Glows

recipe link: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/31/15-minute-creamy-avocado-pasta/

I started this weeks kitchen adventure with the 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta. I admit, this one left me skeptical. I mean, I like me some avocado. But that is usually as guacamole, or chopped in salad with a zingy dressing. But as a pasta sause base? I wasn't too sure I would like it. However, I went forth as a brave young (ha!) soldier.  

     I followed the recipe with no changes. I used regular {wheat} shell pasta.

• Blending the lemon, garlic and basil, touch of sea salt and the olive oil. I'm with Heidi on this one. With the richness of the avocado, the olive oil could easily be replaced with water. 

This review is as quick as it was to make this recipe. It was a breeze to make. Only took as long as the pasta took to cook. Everything was tossed together and served right away.

The verdict: DEEEEELISH! This pasta was outta-sight tight! Before I got a chance to try it, the hubby was exclaiming it's awesomeness. He had a huge serving and wanted me to make it again the next night. Even the littles ate their generous portions. The avocado disappeared into the lemon, garlic and basil and just became the creamy in the creamy goodness of this dish. This recipe is quick, simple and can easily become one of the redundant meals that we add to our rotation. If I had more than 2 thumbs, they would all be up! 

New York City, Day 2

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We started out in super touristy Times Square, stopped at St. Patrick’s to get my mom a souvenir. After a few wrong turns, we found the Cinnamon Snail food truck.  All vegan, sandwiches, chili, amazing baked goods. I got the portobello  sandwich, with capers, olive tapenade and arugula on chibatta. Olives are the only food I generally avoid, but the sandwich, olives and all, was amazing. If you live in New York, this and all my posts this week will probably be very boring to you, but I am a practically professional seeker of delicious vegan food, and I have been crazy excited about all the choices here.

We took our food to Central Park. The park is beautiful, but all those carriage horses suffering made me sad and angry. Here is a list of what is wrong with the carriage horse industry in NYC. I knew I wouldn’t want to stand by and do nothing about it, so before I left for the trip, I printed out copies of the list to give to people that looked like they were thinking about taking a ride, but we did not give out very many. We’ll be back on Saturday to give out the rest. WAR is going to send me a file with a better brochure to hand out. Let me know if you go to NYC and want to do some leafleting.

Next stop was Tom’s Restaurant, the diner that Seinfeld and his friends supposedly went to all the time. Of course, it didn’t look the same inside, since the show was filmed in California, and the menu was so NOT vegan-friendly, so we booked it back over to Midtown to Fashion Ave, which was also a bust. Pj, our friend that’s getting married and we are here visiting, didn’t find the accessories she wanted for her wedding outfit.

Then we took  the subway Chinatown – Vegetarian Dim Sum Restaurant. I had no idea what to order, I’ve only gotten dim sum once in my life, so I just picked out 6 things.  Most of them were kind of weird. I’m a pretty adventurous eater, my motto is generally “if its vegan its for me!” so I liked everything except one thing. I think we ordered: monk rolls, rice with Chinese kale (this was the yucky one), spring rolls, dumplings, and.... other dumplings.

After that we hauled over to Lula's Sweet Apothecary in East Village. I was ridiculously sad that their soft serve machine was broken and they had to order a new one. So, I sampled the butterscotch, peanut butter & maple, and strawberry flavors of their regular ice cream. They make their own cashew-based ice cream. I got a cone of the butterscotch kind, though I wish I also tried the orange blossom kind first.

We managed to do almost everything on our list for the day, except hit up Trader Joe’s. There’s no Trader Joe’s in Orlando, and we’ve heard that the new one in Sarasota (closest one to Orlando, 2.5 hours away) is sold out of stuff all the time.

- Jessi

New York City, Day 1

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Ventured out of friend’s apartment about  9:00pm. Went to Strictly Vegetarian, a Jamaican vegan take-out place in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Got a big to-go container of: rice and peas (AKA lentils), black eyed peas, green beans, mixed veggies (carrots, broccoli, etc) and collard greens. Plus a Jamaican patty. It was all SO good.  I tried to cook collard greens for the first time last week, and they didn’t taste that great. I don’t know what the secret is, but I need to find out!

I still have some of the container left over, it was a huge portion for $7. I think it’s normally $9, but we got there right before they closed. I would eat that for breakfast, but I think our host is making something right now…

I didn’t take a photo because it was a mess by the time we took the subway to the fancier part of Brooklyn to eat it.

We forgot to buy drinks, so we stopped at a – YES – Five Guys Burgers to get some. So the joke of the evening was “three vegans walk into a burger joint…”

We sat on the stoop of a church to eat, then we oogled  all the expensive brownstone houses/apartments. (Not the church in the picture, it wasn't as fancy!) It was very New York. I think. What do I know… I live in Florida. Either way, it was a good time.

Coming Up Soon!

Exciting things coming up on the Peace to All Creatures blog!

Vegan MoFo during the month of October. That's right, we'll be posting at least 20 times about vegan FOOD.  Some of the topics will be...

• Two of your fair editors, Jessi and Amber, are going to New York City for a (vegan) wedding, and to EAT, shop and see the sights of course! So, we'll be talking about our adventures in vegan wedding cake making, cool things we saw, restaurants we ate at, etc. etc.
• Jessi will be posting about her weekly meal plan project. Every weekend, she cooks up a storm for herself and three friends to have already prepared lunch and dinner through out the week. 
• Pippi will be posting about her weekly recipe review project. Every week, she and some of her family (throughout the U.S.) choose three recipes to experiment with and/or veganize, then they share the results with each other, and with us!
• If you need some new ideas for meals, motivation to get in the kitchen, and/or encouragement to save money on food – stand by – help is on the way!

AND, November 10-11 will be our second Online Bake Sale Auction, to benefit four charities (one for each editor). You bid, and we mail the goodies to you! In March we raised over $1000, so we're doing it again! Mark your calendars!

- Jessi