Happy Thanksliving!

We are late to the party as usual... :)  We had our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday instead of Thursday so we could have some extended family and friends join us.  It was so nice to have a house full of people relaxing and celebrating!  Over the last month we have had a multitude of changes in our lives, I recently went back to work and we are currently in the process of moving (Staying local just moving about 5 minutes from where we were), but going back to work means my daughter had to go to enroll in preschool which is a big change for her and add all the fun and jitters of a new job for me and stress of moving... Ugh!  It was so nice to set all of that aside for one day and just relax and hang out, even if I did have to go sifting through unpacked boxes for my potato masher and the kids had to eat picnic style in the living room because we don't have furniture in that room yet... it was all good!

So on to the feast!

 
I made a homemade seitan roast similar to this one from the PPK  and silly girl that I am I was worried it wouldn't turn out and we would be left with nothing to eat so we picked up a store bought Tofurkey roast,
for a back up, as it turns out I worried for nothing the roast I made was delish and even pleased the palates of our non veg friends.  The Tofurky roast was bland and over chewy in comparison to the delish homemade one... lesson learned!



I was lazy with the gravy and just went with the store bought Tofurkey brand gravy which was so good over my garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing and the roast.  Big fluffy dinner rolls were perfect for dipping the the yummy yummy gravy.

I did roasted veggies to go with the roast which were brussel sprouts, cauliflower and carrots they were tossed with bunches of minced garlic, seasonings and olive oil and then roasted until soft, about an hour. 

My special occasion green beans are always included at holiday meals and were so easy to make vegan, simply sub the butter for Earth Balance.  Take about a pound of fresh green beans, you put 1/2 a stick earth balance into a large heavy skillet and once melted and bubbly throw in a 1/2 cup shaved almonds and 1/2 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) toast those for about 5 minutes and then toss in your beans combine them really well so the earth balance is well distributed and let cook for around 5 more minutes or until the beans are as soft or as crisp as you like them, add salt to taste.

Candied yams are a Thanksgiving staple and were crazy easy to make vegan, just sub the marshmallows for vegan Dandies brand marshmallows and you're done!

My sons' birth father was in town and this was the first time in about 5 years that he has gotten to spend Thanksgiving with his sons so it was important to us to put off our feast until he could join us.  He is DEFINITELY not vegan, though when he is here he does try to be supportive of his sons' choices.   He made us a delish tart homemade cranberry sauce and whipped up a vegan cornbread stuffing with tempeh in place of his usual choice of sausage. 




For dessert I made my traditional chocolate pudding pie,  I've been making this pie every year for Thanksgiving since I was like 14.  For years I have made this pie using an Oreo cookie crust, Jello chocolate pudding mix and Cool whip on top.  But this like just about everything else is so easy to veganize.  I couldn't find a cookie crust at the healthfood store I was shopping at so I just decided to  go with a traditional pie crust and found some that were vegan in the freezer case.  I used organic chocolate pudding mix, and mixed with Silk's organic soy milk, topped with Soyatoo stick it in the freezer for 2 hours or so and then... revel in the amazing simpleness that is my favorite pie :)
 



I also made this crazy simple pumpkin pie from The Lunch Box Bunch that disappeared quickly and a raw vegan cheesecake , we were not in love with the cheesecake.  I used almonds instead of walnuts for the crust as my little dude is allergic to walnuts and it was just too nutty for us.  The texture of this cheesecake was spot on, it just didn't have enough of that "cheesecakey tang" so I want to try to work with it some more.  We are not raw by any means so I think pairing this filling with a vegan graham cracker crust and maybe doubling the lemon juice in the filling and we will get that "tang" we were missing.  






It was a great evening, we all ate way too much, enjoyed some drinks, card games, the company of friends and family and the spirit of being thankful for all that we have.  I am thankful for my beautiful children, for my furry babies, for my amazing husband, for the best friend a girl could wish for, for my wonderful new friends to make new memories with, our new home and that I was able to find a job easily and quickly to ensure we will not struggle financially to keep this roof over my family's heads. I am also thankful that my family is vegan, that we opened our eyes and our hearts to the millions of animals that suffer daily for our choices and that I have learned that I can put on a spread like this... made with love without causing harm to anyone.

Wishing you all the the warmest wishes this holiday season.

Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo - VEGANIZED!

Kinda slacking here I just realized I never posted the Vegan Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo dinner I made for my husband for Fathers day, yikes!  I promised a few people this recipe, so sorry it's late but here ya go!

I make it my mission to keep my husband a happy vegan, when eating out that is often not possible because he thinks he requires more than just a veggie sandwich or side salad and here in our town vegan eats are slim, although looking up with the recent opening of not one but TWO very vegan friendly spots! Anyway... aside from eating out, when we are at home I think I've got it nailed down pretty good.  As I said a few posts back there has not been one meal  from our prevegan life that I have not been able to successfully veganize, that does not mean there have not been a few misses here and there, there have definitely been some misses! But you know... if at first you don't succeed and blah blah all that jazz...  So I try try again and in the end I almost always end up with exactly what we were trying for.  Vegan fettuccine has been one of the misses for me in the past, I tried several different versions and none of them had that creamy, saucy, fettuccine taste I was looking for, so it's been on the back burner for a while.  Well this Fathers Day I wanted to knock my hubby's tastebuds right out of orbit!  So... I got to thinking about things he loved before we were vegan that I have not tried to make yet or have not perfected yet... fettuccine popped in to my head and then, you know because figuring out how to fix something you failed at in the past was not a challenge enough, I remembered about the Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo he used to order all the time and quickly devour at our fave Italian place.  If you have never had this before it's popular at a lot of Italian restaurants, basically it's fettuccine alfredo served with a chicken breast that has been blacked with cajun spices and some of the spices sprinkled on top of the noodles as well.  It was one of my husband's absolute FAVORITE dishes so it was time to give it the vegan treatment.  

I set about googling vegan alfredo sauce to get some ideas and I found lots of recipes that looked an awful lot like the ones I had tried in the past, I wanted something new... something I hadn't failed at in the past and then I found one that used cashew cream as a base instead of soy milk and I knew I had a winner!  I love cashew cream, it makes EVERYTHING fabulous and it's so easy to make.


I made a HUGE batch of this because I knew my husband would love it and I wanted him to have leftovers for lunch the next day.  The recipe below is going to give you enough for dinner for a family of five with fairly large portions (hey it was Daddy's day... let em eat!) and seconds (and eat... lol) AND to have some left over for lunches the next day.  If you don't want that much food cut the recipe in half and you should have just enough for dinner for a family of 4 or 5 :) 

This recipe uses a Cashew Cream identical to the Cashew Cream from the Vegan Fried Chicken post.  You will need some presoaked cashews for this. 
Cashew Cream Recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups raw organic cashews
• 2 1/2 cups water

Soak cashews in water overnight or bring the cashews and 4 cups of water to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let soak 1 hour.  Drain and rinse the cashews. 

This makes like 5 cups of cashew cream, you will need need all 5 cups for the alfredo sauce but if you make up a double batch you can save it and use it to make vegan fried chicken! The cream can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.

 *TIP* I keep presoaked nuts of all kinds in gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  I buy nuts in bulk and soak them in large quantities over night, then rinse and fill up the bags and freeze.  When I need some I just take out what I need they are presoaked and I'm all ready to go without waiting for the nuts to soak.

You will need the following:

• 2 packages vegan fettuccine noodles *I dream of making my own pasta some day like these... but for now store bought noodles will have to do*
• 2 packages Gardein Chick'n Scallopini
• 5 cups of premade Cashew Cream from above

Blackened Chicken Spices:

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder 

Mix all together in a bowl and set aside.
*Note this is only enough spice to cover 1/2 of the chicken patties (4 of them) and sprinkle a bit on the grownups plates because I didn't put the spices on the patties I was serving to the little ones.*

Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce: adapted from munchin with munchkin

• About 1/3 cup evoo
• 1 lb sliced or chopped baby bella mushrooms (the little portobellos) *how small you chop em up depends on whether or not you have to hide them from your kiddos!*
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 smallish or 1 large leek thinly sliced
• 1 large shallot chopped
• 1 head of minced garlic 
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper 

I served my main course with oven roasted asparagus and crescent rolls brushed with vegan butter.  If you want to do the same you will need:

• 2 bunches of organic asparagus
• 1 head minced garlic *yes! we like garlic here!* 
• Salt
• more evoo for drizzling
• 2 packages of crescent rolls *yes they are vegan* we used the ones from Trader Joes
• some melted Earth Balance or other vegan butter for brushing on the tops of your rolls

If you are anything like me and you are obsessed with making sure everything comes out of the oven/off the stove at exactly the same time to serve everything piping hot and perfect you are going to be a busy bee in the kitchen for the next 45 minutes or so :) Get the kiddos set up with a Disney movie, baby yoga dvd... coloring books or whatever will keep them out from under foot for about an hour, gather all of your ingredients on to your counter and...  

Ready?  Set. GO!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 (or whatever your package of crescent rolls calls for).
2. Blend your cashew cream as stated above.  Set aside.
3. Premix your blackened chicken spices and set aside.
4. Wash/chop/dice/mince all your veggies set aside in small bowls.
5. Drizzle some oil on a baking sheet, wash and chop off the bottoms of your asparagus and place in a single layer on baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 head of minced garlic set aside.
   
   
6. Prepare your pan and roll your crescent rolls per the package instructions, and set those aside with your asparagus pan.
7. Set a large pot of water to boil for your noodles. 
8. Put your asparagus and and crescent rolls into the oven with the asparagus on the top rack and the rolls on the middle.  Set a timer to bake these for 15-20 minutes, or whatever the instructions on your package of rolls says.
9. Drizzle a large skillet with some additional evoo and heat to med.  Pan fry any of the Gardein you are not going to put the blackened chicken spices on according to the package directions, and set aside on a plate near or on your stove to stay warm.
10. Sprinkle most your blackened chicken spice on a plate.
11. Moisten the Gardein patties you are going to blacken with a little water and then coat them with the spices, then pan fry according to the package directions.  Set aside with the other ones to stay warm.  *If your little ones are as sensitive to hot spices as mine are you may want to put them on a separate plate or put a paper towel in between them so none of the spices rub off onto theirs*
12. For the alfredo sauce:  In a large stock pot heat a little less than 1/2 the evoo over med heat and saute your mushrooms until they are tender, deglaze the pan with 1/2 the white wine.  Scoop out your mushrooms and set aside. 
13. In the same pot heat the rest of your evoo over med heat and add your leeks and shallots.  Saute about 5 minutes, until tender.
14. Right about now the water for your noodles should be boiling, so while the leeks and shallots are sauteing add your noodles to the water and cook according to your package instructions. 
15. Back to the alfredo sauce... Add your head of minced garlic, and then drizzle with the remaining white wine.  Cook for a minute or two then whisk in your 5 cups of Cashew Cream, stir well.  Add lemon juice, onion and garlic powders, pepper flakes and nutmeg, stirring well.  Let it come to a simmer stirring CONSTANTLY until it thickens.  You will be able to tell right away when it is thickened, add in the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper to taste, add back in the mushrooms.
16. Your noodles should be done, drain and then pour the noodles into the sauce pot.  Use tongs to toss the noodles and coat with sauce.  
17. Your timer on the asparagus and rolls should be beeping at you so take them out.  
18. Plate your masterpiece!  Twirl fettuccine into nests on your plates, sprinkle the grownups noodles with some of the blackened chicken spices, rough chop 1 chicken patty on top of the noodles, add some asparagus spears and a crescent roll or two and you are done! 
19. Sit back and enjoy your meal and bask in all the ooohhhs and ahhhs of all your hard work :) a glass of wine would be great right now too!
20. Get someone else to do the dishes!

My husband's face when he saw the special meal I had veganized for him was soooo very worth every minute I spent over the stove making this for him!!

Kiddo sized portions

For dessert we had brownies ala-mode with chocolate ganache brownies, served over homemade almond ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce... can you say vegan dessert heaven!

 
   

Mabuhay! or Hi... in Tagalog :)

I have not fallen off the face of the Earth, I promise just been CRAZY busy over here.  April-May is always a mad dash in my life... both of my sons' birthdays are within a 2 week span. I have already thrown one massive Star Wars Jedi Training Academy party and an equally massive blog post with all the deets is planned!! I still have one birthday party coming up, the oldest is crazy about Beyblades this year so we are having a Bey battle tournament for his party.  Of course we also had Easter, then the boys had a Cub Scout camping trip and last we had the most epic community garage sale you have ever dreamed of.  So I've got lots and lots of blog fodder... just no time to do they clickity clackety thing at the keyboard.  So please... Stay tuned!!

Vegan Chocolate Easter Bunnies, Vegan Reese's Bunnies, Coconut Eggs w/ Photos

Photos as promised from today's vegan chocolate Easter Bunnies post. 

See the previous post for specific instructions.

Gather your supplies:  Molds, vegan chocolate chips and fillings if desired

I thought I would give the peanut butter filling the same ziplock process and see if it was easier and created less of a mess, and IT TOTALLY worked!  Simply add all the peanut butter filling ingredients to the baggie, make sure it's sealed and then dip into hot water and knead.  Repeat as needed until everything is melted and fully combined.

Once everything is combined snip off one corner of the bag and pipe your filling into the molds.  If you are using chunky peanut butter be sure you cut your corner a little bigger for the chunks of peanuts.

Chocolate chips in ziplock, dip into hot water and knead.  Repeat until chocolate is totally melted.

All melty and ready to go!

Fill your molds, lat down a bottom layer of chocolate then filling.

Fill the rest of the mold with chocolate

Repeat with all your molds

Experiment with fillings!  Coconut!

Those ones on the left got a little too much chocolate on the bottoms so there was not enough room to put a second layer of chocolate... oh well they are still DELISH!

After an hour in the freezer... I want to eat my screen right now!!

That poor bunny didn't make it, I was forced to eat him.

This poor lil guy didn't fare so well either but I spared him and wrapped him up for tomorrow.

Be more patient with your larger molds than I was... just leave it sitting upside down for a few minutes and give it a tap every now and then and it will release from the mold without making the mess mine did.

Mmmm... vegan chocolate coconut Easter Eggs!

These pretty eggs and baskets are chocolate covered peanuts

Vegan Chocolate Easter Bunnies

If you are vegan and you buy into the commercial Easter hoopla like we do, chances are you have scoured the Easter Candy aisles in search of that elusive, perhaps mythical vegan chocolate Easter bunny to be the centerpiece of your little one's basket this year.

I have heard tell of a Lindt Gold Bunny in Dark Chocolate that is accidentally vegan but after scouring every Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and grocery store around here I have never come across one.  Of course they can be ordered online but I never think far enough ahead for that kind of brilliance.  There are some online retailers that offer specific vegan chocolate bunnies but they are usually of limited quantity (meaning order EARLY) and at $22 and $27 quite expensive in my honest opinion.  For me to buy bunnies for each of my three kids we are talking $70-$80 plush shipping for chocolate Easter bunnies?  No thanks. 

My answer with everything I just can't find to suit my needs is to make it myself.

All you need are vegan chocolate chips (or your own homemade vegan chocolate, which I will share in the future), molds and if you want to fill them with say peanut butter or caramel sauce that too.

So first for vegan chocolate chips:  They can usually be found in the bulk section at your local health food store or even at Winco if you have one near you.  Look for semi-sweet and check the ingredients to make sure there is no milkfat, whey, casien or other dairy ingredients.  Ghiradelli semi-sweet choclate chips are accidentally vegan and if you stock up when they are on sale pretty decently priced.  The bulk section at Winco is the cheapest option I have found for chips.

Molds:  I found this super cute bunny mold at Target the other day and a simple deviled egg display tray at the Dollar store.  You can use cupcake pans, mini cake pans sometimes called cakelets, cookie cutters, candy molds just all kinds of things for your molds.

Fillings:  If you so desire you can fill the chocolates with caramel, or peanut butter or even MARSHMALLOW!  There are a bunch of recipes out there for vegan caramel, peanut butter cups and even marshmallow. Here are my favorites:

Caramel:  http://www.sheletthemeatcake.com/2010/01/gluten-free-and-vegan-caramel/comment-page-1/#comment-6593

Peanut butter:  http://www.thekindlife.com/post/chocolate-peanut-butter-cups  (just do the peanut butter filling part)

Marshmallow:  http://veganmarshmallows.blogspot.com/2009/04/vegan-marshmallow-recipe.html **These do require some rather obscure ingredients and the author does not recommend making them unless you have a stand mixer or are secretly Superman.

Once you have all your stuff together (fillings premade) you need to melt your chocolate.  The easiest, cleanest way I have found to melt chocolate chips for doing things like this is to heat a pot of water to not quite boiling and then take it off the heat.  Put your chips in a ziplock bag (I use the freezer ones because they are the thickest), make sure it is closed and then dip it into the water.  Hold it there for a minute or so and then pull it out and knead the chocolate with your hands, do this 3 or 4 times until the chips are all melted and you have a bag full of melted chocolate sauce.  Now take a towel and dry off every drop of water from the outside of the bag, chocolate and water don't mix!  Once you have it dry snip off a tiny corner of the bag and use it to pipe the chocolate into your molds.

If you are going to be filling the molds only lay down a thick bottom layer, then use a basting brush to cover the sides of the molds.  Spoon in your filling, and then cover with more chocolate.  If you are not filling them with anything just fill your molds with chocolate all the way.  Gently tap your molds on the counter to settle the chocolate into all the little crevices.  Place molds into the freezer for about an hour.  Then turn them upside down on a piece of parchment paper, gently tap them on the counter to release the chocolate from the molds.  Silicone molds require a little more hands on actually popping the molds inside out to get them out.  You can wrap them individually in foil, we did some like that to put in the Easter Eggs we mailed away to our family members.  You can put several in a cellophane bag and tie it up with a ribbon.  However you present them you can be assured that the wrapping will be destroyed and the chocolates will disappear so fast you will wonder if making them was all just a dream :)

Sorry I did not take more photos of the process, I was covered in kids and chocolate and having a grand old time.  I am going to make some larger ones tonight for their baskets, I will try to snap a few more photos while I'm being the sneaky bunny!

Wherever You Go Whatever You Do... May The Luck of the Irish Be With You

I have had past lives, I don't mean like I was Cleopatra of Egypt, or Besty Ross in a past life... I just mean my life was not always what it is today.  I have led 6 different lives so far:

Life #1 was my childhood

Life #2 was that of young bride to a very controlling older husband

Life #3 was a CRAZY single in the city in my early 20's kind of life

Life #4 was me as highly stressed very anxious new mother

Life #5 was me as an even more stressed, single working mother to 2 young boys

Life #6 is me now, married mama to 3 babies

If you had asked me when I was a single in the city girl if I would have ever moved out of California and my beloved San Francisco to the often dull and dreary city of Spokane I would have laughed my ass off at you, "Um... you're like outta your mind!"  Those days were days of excess, of spending way too much money on partying, clothes and mostly SHOES.  Though I was single I had a very passionate love affair with shoes... oh how I loved them and I swear they loved me back... me and my shoes we were very happy together.  

Things have changed so much since those days, I often look back at all the wasteful spending and wish I had known better, had cared about saving for the future.  When I think about having spent as much on a pair of shoes as I now spend on 2 weeks worth of groceries for my family I cringe.  I work hard to help my children understand the value of money I have on occasion pulled the cash needed to pay the rent out of the bank and let the kids count it. They get excited handling a large sum of money but then when I tell them we have to give it all away to pay for our house they are amazed that it cost that much just to have a house to live in.  I tell them how much I make per hour and we do the math to figure out how many hours I have to work to pay for our home.  Once I tried to explain to them rent was only one of MANY expenses we have as a family; car payment, power, water, cable, internet, cell phones, groceries, clothes, gas.... the list went on and on and they soon got overwhelmed and lost interest.  So now I just talk about things in terms of how much I have to work for something.  When they ask for a new Lego set that cost close to $100 I tell them to figure out the math to see how many hours mama would have to work to pay for that.  They understand more and more as they get older and they are starting to value second hand shopping and saving money which I think are VERY valuable lessons.  

So these days when we want to spruce up our place for the holidays we try to do it as cheaply as possible using as much secondhand and repurposed as possible.  I was browsing Pinterest and was getting inspired to put up some St. Patrick's Day decorations.  I saw this pin and LOVED IT so I went to Michaels all set to buy wood letters to paint and decorate but after I saw that the wooden letters were $3-$7 each depending on size, and then I would have to spend another $5-$10 on paint and ribbons it would have been about a $30 project, way more than I was willing to spend.  So I bought a couple of fake potted flowers on clearance for $2.50 each, 2 little signs also on clearance for $2.50 each and a package of little leprechaun hats from the Dollar Store.  Then I came home to search for things I had to make decorations with.  I have a craft room packed with crafty things so I pulled out a roll of craft paper, some green construction paper, scrapbook papers and ribbons.  Then I raided hubby's packing supplies (he sells on ebay so we always have a bunch of shipping boxes in the house).  I sat down with the kids and we created this display with the things I found around the house and the $12 I spent at Michael's and the Dollar Store.

Do you ever cheap out on your decorations?  I find that I love and cherish the stuff the kids and I made so much more than things we buy :)  Don't you?