Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Vegan Cinnamon rolls are a rare thing to find, but are so easy to make. I had forgotten about their deliciousness until I was in Vancouver earlier this year at Edible Flours. Then again a few weeks ago at the Donut Co-Op in Minneapolis we both enjoyed some the size of our heads.

Sunday Dinner

Sunday Dinner

Tonight’s dinner was inspired by Genevieve over at TwinCitiesVegan. She wrote about how much she loved Chipotle and how she was making some of the raw ingredients at home. Coincidentally, we had Chipotle for lunch yesterday. I had never thought about making the black beans or cilantro lime rice. We headed to the store to procure a few missing ingredients.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner

This thanksgiving I spent with my family, and it was entirely vegan except for a small turkey breast. He claimed vegan food “tastes like sawdust and cardboard.” It made us all laugh. Especially when he in-haled the Brussels sprouts and potatoes.

Whole Foods Takeout

Whole Foods Takeout

My wife brought us home a surprise last night. On her way home, she stopped at Whole Foods and bought some tastiness from the deli.

We split the beet burger (upper right). It was ok. She liked it a lot more than I did. The texture was nice, but the flavor didn’t appeal to me. In the upper left, was the wild rice and cranberry roast. The pastry crust was awesome as was the “meat”. The cranberry/wild rice middle was just ok; I thought a bit of a let down with how awesome the crust was. The roasted harvest vegetables were awesome. She asked the girl for extra Brussels sprouts too. yum. The veggies were my favorite from this takeout expedition.

After dinner we dove into one of the FOUR vegan pumpkin pies she bought. Apparently, there were only five left, so she bought four. LOL. Into the freezer they go. The pie was tasty.

Vegan Cupcakes at Ethique Nouveau

Yesterday, we went to a Meetup to enjoy some tasty cupcakes at Ethique Nouveau which claims to be the only 100% vegan store in the area. I would have to agree with them on that one. I can’t think of another.

Vegan Cupcakes at Ethique Nouveau

Funny Comic

I think this comic is funny: lurking variable

PS: I have no idea how many days it has been for me. :-)

Veggie Enchiladas

Veggie Enchilada While I was browsing the web the other day, I stumbled across some black bean sweet potato enchiladas. They sounded really good, so I set about creating my own recipe. The result is delicious vegan enchiladas with lots of flavor and texture.

Carrot Cake with Walnuts

Carrot Cake from Chicago Diner

This weekend my wife was craving cake. It also happened to be the third anniversary of my motorcycle blog. We set out to find some vegan cake, as I wasn’t in the mood to heat up the house while baking.

Extra Bananas? Make Bread!

Ripe Banana

After our regular weekend shopping we had some extra bananas in the kitchen. The ones from last weekend were getting very ripe and just begging to be made into something. Have extra bananas? Make bread of course!

Sunday Brunch

Sunday Brunch

On our way to lunch on Saturday, my wife and I were talking about which restaurant to go to as we were driving to Minneapolis. Neither of us had strong feelings on where to go, so we just listed restaurant names at each other until we ended up at one. 

One of my first suggestions was French Meadow. Just the name made my mouth water thinking about the classic vegan breakfast with crispy hash browns, tofu scramble, and crumbles. We decided to skip it because of traffic concerns with the uptown art fair in progress. However, the thought of those tasty hash browns sat in my brain like a splinter.

Foxy Falafel Grand Opening

Foxy Falafel Grand Opening

Foxy Falafel has transitioned from a tasty food truck to a tasty restaurant. Yum! The grand opening of the restaurant on 791 Raymond in St. Paul was this past Friday. It felt very well attended. My wife and I enjoyed every scrumptious bite.

Nut Meat Tacos

Nut Meat Tacos
While browsing the web the other day I stumbled upon some delicious looking raw nut meat tacos. I loved the photo and most of the ingredient list, so I added it to the pile of recipes to try. I modified the original recipe to suit our tastes. We used a fresh cooked roti instead of the lettuce for the wrap. I know roti is from India and tacos from the south, but the combination is quite tasty. It was so easy to prepare. I can see these becoming a regular dinner item.

Preventing Leading Causes of Death

According to the science presented by Dr Greger, 15 of the 16 leading causes of death in America can be reduced or eliminated with a healthy diet.

I’ve been following NutritionFacts.org for a while, and I am a huge fan. I enjoy the regular videos that summarize the current peer-reviewed nutritional science. A big thanks for all their hard work. I hope you enjoy the video as much as we did.

YouTube: Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death

 

Salsa Chili

Salsa Chili

Similar to the three bean chili I posted last year, this chili uses three beans. I changed up the bean combination and added salsa and some Field Roast grain meat sausage to give it a different flavor. This is a quick recipe to get some hot tasty food with minimal effort. The longer you cook it, the better it tastes. We enjoyed it with tortilla chips. The entire pot was gone in two days. I just love the initial sweet flavor from the corn and tomatoes while the heat from the salsa and sausage builds in the background. It was very good.

Galactic Pizza–The Old School

Old School from Galactic Pizza

My wife likes to spoil me as much as I her. She brought home a surprise the other night. She stopped at Galactic Pizza and bought some of my favorite pizza: The Old School. Vegan of course. My Old School was covered in tasty toppings: tomato sauce, daiya mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, black olives, green peppers, and red onions. Normally they come with mushrooms instead of black olives, but the olives taste a lot better.  Yum!

Plum Bistro

Plum BistroDay 28 of my Everyday for 7 Weeks trip found me in Seattle picking up my wife from the airport. To celebrate our reunion we went out for a nice dinner. A quick search on HappyCow lead us to Plum Bistro. A 100% vegan and organic restaurant. Reservations were recommended, but we decided to risk it. We were lucky and got the last table.

Crispy Brown Rice Treats

Crispy Brown Rice Treats

I’ve been enjoying the tasty Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice cereal for the last few weeks. While I was at the Twin Cities Veg Fest, I picked up some Dandies Marshmallows for very cheap. The plan was born to make something tasty. These taste great!

Erewhon Cereal

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of receiving a box of tasty cereals to try from Attune Foods. I received the Erewhon Raisin Bran, Crispy Brown Rice, and Corn Flakes.

Erewhon Cereal

They have been making cereal since 1966, but I’d never heard of them until I received my box. During my next trip to the local co-op, I searched for them and found them right in the cereal aisle next to the other brands I recognized.

Erewhon Cereal

Their slogan of “simple ingredients. simply made.” really resonates with me. It is generally the approach I like to take when preparing food, so I was eager to try their Erewhon line of cereals. Look at the ingredients list below: three, four, and three ingredients respectively and all organic. Nice!

DSCN2566.jpg

I’ve now had the chance to try all three, and I am enjoying them. I don’t normally eat cereal for breakfast, but I might have to make an exception for Erewhon. It meets my goals of tasty, healthy, and simple.

Twin Cities Veg Fest 2012

veg fest bag 4859

I woke up early to make sure I was one of the first in line for the special vegan treat in the 1st ever Twin Cities Veg Fest. When I arrived at 10 to 10am there were about thirty people in front of me.

Twin Cities Veg Fest This Weekend

Twin Cities Veg Fest is this weekend! I’m looking forward to the tasty food.

The Twin Cities Veg Fest will include speakers, resources, a kids area, and of course, excellent vegan food! The first 200 to come to the festival will get extra goodies in their swag bags.

See you there!

Lunch Snapshot: Cat-man-do

Cat-man-do is one of our favorite restaurants. I've written about Cat-man-do before. Today, we had the buffet: tofu veggie stir fry, veggie pakora, potato and okra, and basmati rice. All washed down with some delicious kalo chia, which is a spiced black tea from Nepal.


Common Knowledge Tea House

Common Knowledge Bookstore and Tea House is an organic café located in Sandpoint, Idaho. The café specializes in vegetarian dishes. I enjoyed their food while I was on Day 5 of my Seven Weeks of Tastiness trip.

Common Knowledge Tea House

For lunch, I ordered the Vegan Taco.

Common Knowledge Tea House

While I was waiting for my food, a I noticed a couple other tables were also enjoying the same thing. The vegan taco has a brown rice tortilla at the base and then is covered with beans, brown rice, cabbage, carrots and sprouts. On top of all of that were scallions, avocado, and a very tasty seed-based cream sauce.

Common Knowledge Tea House

The food took a few minutes to make since it was assembled from scratch. I enjoyed my soy chai and their free wi-fi while I waited.

Common Knowledge Tea House

If you are in Sandpoint, I would recommend paying them a visit. The food was good and filling.

Chomp Vegan Eatery

Chomp is a trendy little vegan restaurant that has a great artsy café vibe. I liked all the natural light from the large windows. It is located just east of Vancouver in Port Moody. In addition to all their food being vegan, it is also gluten-free. This suited me well as I was visiting a gluten free friend, so this eatery made us both very happy.

I visited Chomp on Day 26 of my Seven Weeks of Tastiness trip.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

I went there for brunch, and it was so good, I decided to go back for dinner.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

For brunch, I had the Mexi Scramble with cheese. It is a tofu scramble with spice. Chili powder, jalapeños, red bell pepper, and tomato round it out. They have Daiya cheese on hand, so I asked them to put that on top. It was a nice blend of mozzarella and cheddar.  For sides it comes with some roasted potato and buttered toast. I will have to make a variation of this when I get back home. A great combination of spices and flavors.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

I washed it down with a Coconut Chai latte. The scramble was fantastic, but the latte was really weak and tasted like colored water. I couldn’t taste the tea at all. Dang.

The free wifi and good selection of music had me hanging out for a while though.

For dinner we had three dishes: Chomp Sliders, Full-afel,  Poutine.

The full-afel was a bit dry and came as a wrap. We expected it to be more traditional falafel. They tried to work with the dryness of the tortilla and garbanzo bean by adding lots of sauce, cucumber, and tomato. This was my least favorite dish I had.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

The chomp sliders were fantastic however. With a name like that, we couldn’t resist ordering it. They were very tasty and slid quickly into out mouths. They are made from white beans with a creamy sauce on top. There was also sprouts and avocado. Very tasty!

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

Our unanimous favorite however was the poutine. Poutine is a classic french-canadian dish usually made with fries, gravy, and cottage cheese. Chomp’s version is much better tasting and healthier. They used baked wedge fries, gravy, and blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The result was fantastic. We all loved it, and nearly ordered a second helping. However we spotted the Chocolate S’more cookies in the bakery case and got those instead.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

Vegan, gluten-free chocolate s’more cookies? Yes please! Marshmallows and chocolate are always a great combination – almost as good as chocolate and peanut butter.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

I really enjoyed Chomp, and will visit it again the next time I am in the Vancouver area.

Chomp Vegan Eatery, Vancouver, BC

Lunch at 3G Vegetarian Restaurant

3G Vegetarian Restaurant is 100% vegan and located on Cambie Street in Vancouver, BC. They serve a tasty blend of Chinese and Thai cuisine. The 3 G’s is for Graciousness, Gratefulness, and Generosity. Admiral qualities.

I ate lunch there on Day 25 of my Seven Weeks of Tastiness trip. I found easy street parking right out front with a parking meter. When I entered, I was warmly greeted and offered a seat by the window. I had just missed the lunch hour rush, so it was a bit empty with only one other table occupied. By the time I left three other tables were full.

3G Vegetarian

I ordered the Yam and Potato Tempura. I know it’s not very healthy since it was fried, but it tasted decent. I didn’t care for the sauce, but the tempura was nice. I liked the yam more than the potato and would just order them next time instead of the blend.

 3G Vegetarian - Yam and Potato Tempura

for my entrée I had Chili Tofu with Sesame Sauce and rice. The rice costs extra and was not a large amount for the price. The serving of tofu was very large, and I didn’t even finish half of it. I would think it would work best to serve two people with a vegetable side.

3G Vegetarian - Chili Tofu with Sesame Sauce

I enjoyed the flavor of the tofu. The chili wasn’t too spicy; it was just the right amount of heat. I loved the sauce. It went especially well with the tempura.

3G Vegetarian

Since they don’t have a website I took photos of their menu which was something I really wanted to see before I decided to go. The reviews on happycow were very positive, so I went. I’m glad I did. The food was good.

 

Main Menu Page 1:

3G Vegetarian Menu 1/3

Main Menu Page 2:

3G Vegetarian 2/3 Menu

Main Menu Page 3:

3G Vegetarian 3/3 Menu

Dim Sum Menu:

3G Vegetarian Dim Sum Menu

 

3G Vegetarian Restaurant, 3424 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 2W8. 604-568-9008

Breakfast at Jungle Juice Company

Day 25 of my Seven Weeks of Tastiness trip had me staying in Hope, BC, Canada. I picked to stay in Hope because of it’s proximity to Vancouver and because there was a vegan restaurant called Jungle Juice. When I arrived, they were closed for the Victoria Day holiday, so I had breakfast instead.

Jungle Juice Company in Hope, BC, Canada

My first choice after looking at the menu online was to get the Berry Blast Smoothie and Raw Power Bar, but when I got there they had a granola special that just sounded better. I was happy with my choice. It was prepared from scratch while I waited looking at the antique collection of musical instruments.

The granola was good and filling. It was paired with fresh cranberries, raspberries, and covered in hemp milk. The moist sweetness of the berries complimented the drier granola nicely. It did indeed fill me up and the conversation with the owner while I ate was also enjoyable. If you are in the area, check out Jungle Juice.

Jungle Juice Company in Hope, BC, Canada

Seven Weeks of Tastiness

Seven Weeks of Tastiness

In a few days, I will be heading off to tour North America on my motorcycle in search of tasty food. I plan on writing about what tasty vegan and vegetarian food I find along the way on this blog. If you are along the route, I’d love to meet you. Send me a message. If you have suggestions, please send me a note as well!

I will be blogging daily during the trip over on my motorcycle blog: Everyday Riding.

Here’s a short video announcement about it. See you out there!

YouTube: Everyday for 7 Weeks – San Diego by way of Alaska.

Tofu Scramble

Tofu Scramble

I’ve been making a variation of this Tofu Scramble for some time now. I swore I had posted this before, but when I went to show someone the recipe I couldn’t find it.

You can add or change this recipe as you see fit. It is very flexible and a great starting point for experimentation. Add some peppers or some fresh onion/garlic. Maybe you like mushrooms. There are dozens of versions on other sites. Go crazy. Experiment. It is all good!

This goes great with baby kale, spinach, or wrapped up in a tortilla. Make a double batch as it will go fast. Hot or cold, it is tasty.

Ingredients

  • 1 brick of extra firm tofu, squeezed
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoon fat free soymilk
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
  • fresh ground sea salt to taste

Method

  • Drain the tofu and then place in a cloth napkin or cheese cloth. Twist the cloth to force the tofu into a ball and squeeze out as much liquid as you easily can. This step is critical to good texture.
  • Heat a large skillet over medium heat and then add the crumbled tofu. Stir until warm.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to gently stir for another 7 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Bread The Easy Way

Whole Wheat Bread
I make this bread several times a week. It is very easy to make with only four ingredients and requires very little time. A few minutes for each loaf. The cost of the materials is also very low less than $0.40 a loaf. The fact it is 100% whole wheat means it packs more nutrition than a standard loaf. My friend used to hate bread until I made this for him. He eats my bread regularly now.

Baked Tofu

Baked Tofu

We love tofu. We like it fried, sautéed, fresh, mashed, scrambled, blended, and of course baked. This latest creation filled the house with an amazing smell with hints of caramel, and it had me licking the bowl afterwards.

Avocado Tofurky Sandwich

Avocado Tofurkey Sandwich

A quick sandwich I made for my wife. She loves avocado and tomatoes. I started with fresh whole wheat bread I made the day before. I put on a few slices of hickory smoked tofurky, some fresh baby spinach, a slice of tomato, and a generous helping of sliced avocado. She loved it.

Avocado Tofurkey Sandwich