May & June MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! The theme for the May & June MiniMoFo was “food with friends,” which I expanded to “food with friends and family” because the biggest event in June was that my sister got married! There was some really good vegan pasta at the reception, and I brought home lots of leftovers, which made for easy lunches!

pasta with olive oil, spinach, broccoli, garlic, and mushrooms

And I got to spend some quality cuddle time with Blu while Alena was away on her honeymoon...

For my dad’s birthday, my family met up for lunch at Franconia Heritage Restaurant; they have a separate vegan menu, and four of us ordered from it. Zach got the black bean & corn quesadilla (as did my mom), Alena got the vegan tortellini, and I got the chicken parmesan (Beyond Meat chicken strips with pasta sauce and Daiya mozzarella; it came with a salad but I gave that to my dad haha).

(photo by Zach)

(photo by Alena)

Here’s Cringer being her cute little self...

In garden news, I’ve continued to harvest snow peas, but now I have a bunch of golden wax beans coming in, too!

And here are some more flowery affirmations...

flower with original eight colors of the rainbow flag

jasmine (original photo)

snowdrop (original photo)

Peace. :)

Bethlehem Vegfest 2016

Hi everyone! Today was the Bethlehem Vegfest, and it was lots of fun, though really hot! We had a nice group this year: me, Zach, Zach's brother Ben, my sister Alena, and Alena's boyfriend Alex. When we first got there, we did a loop through the vendors to scope everything out (it definitely seemed like there were fewer vendors compared to past years), and then decided it was time for food. At Freakin' Vegan, I got mac & cheese and a broccoli & cheddar empanada. The mac & cheese was the best (I'd gotten it last year, too!) and the empanada was good, though the broccoli was a bit overcooked/soft for my liking.

my view from where we sat under a tree to eat lunch :)

At the Grape Cat stall I bought this cute Herbivore shirt and got a free little button.

After that, we got free samples of veggie chips; this year they had a new sriracha variety. Next stop was the Franklin Hill Vineyards stall, where I tried a sample of the Crush (pomegranate peach) wine; it was really good, so Zach & I bought a bottle of that, as well as a bottle of the Fainting Goat wine (the one I liked last time). 

After that, we got in (the long, long!) line for Vegan Treats, where I eventually got a peanut butter cup brownie and a chocolate peanut butter drizzle donut to bring home.

Then I got a strawberry lemonade ice pop from Mompops, and we visited the pigs from the Pig Placement Network and the beagles from the Beagle Freedom Project one last time. On the way back to the car, someone from Beyond Juice mentioned that they were giving out free samples, and since the store was right across from where we'd parked, we stopped in. They made a fresh "yellow juice" (carrots, orange, pineapple, and apple) for us; I'm not big on juices, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was!

happy little vegan, post-vegfest :)

For the cute cat pic of today's post, here's Blu, Alena's kitty. She just had surgery yesterday to remove a few teeth that were causing her pain, and she's already bounced back; she was chirping and rolling around on the floor like her silly little self when we stopped by after the vegfest!

This was the only picture I could get of her standing still, all the rest turned out super blurry, haha!

Peace. :)

Blackbird Pizzeria and Vegan Tree

Hello everyone! Today Zach and I visited my sister Alena in Philly, and it was a lot of fun! We went to Blackbird Pizzeria for lunch, ordering a large pizza (half pepperoni, half plain) to share. The pepperoni (made with seitan) was great, and Zach enjoyed the plain pizza. 

Alena also got a cheesesteak (Blackbird Pizzeria won this year's Best Vegan Cheesesteak in Philly contest)... 

...and Zach got a side of fries (not pictured, but they were good; I made sure to grab some hehe).

After that, we walked along South Street, checking out a comic book store, and then heading over to my favorite bookstore -- Wooden Shoe Books -- but it was closed for the day.

Alena had recommended that I try the banana strawberry smoothie at Vegan Tree, so she and I each got one, and it was amazing (a bit messy because it got overfilled and then a lid squished on, but absolutely delicious and well worth the sticky fingers haha). Here's a pic of Alena's, almost finished... 

And here's some nice art we saw on our walk... 

P.S. I got to see this cutie, the sweet little Blu!

Peace. :)

Kids Menu Chicken Fingers

Hello everyone! Today's prompt is "Re-create a restaurant meal" so I figured I would veganize a nostalgic favorite... 

As a kid, going out to eat at Angelo's (now A&N) was always something to look forward to. Before we got to the main meal, though, something essential had to be determined: What were the soups of the day? If one of the options was chicken noodle, we knew it was going to be a good day. (A close second was chicken rice; sometimes we also got beef vegetable or beef barley.) While my parents were a bit more adventurous with what they would order for dinner, my sister and I always got the same thing – chicken fingers – from the kids menu; a drink and dessert were included. Eating at a restaurant was one of the few times we were allowed to drink soda, so we'd each request a glass of Sprite. While we waited for our chicken fingers, we would enjoy our cup of soup, which came with saltine crackers. 

with Tofurky slow roasted chick'n (lightly seasoned)

The chicken fingers were served with french fries (and a pickle, too, if I'm remembering correctly). I think there were usually around 4-5 chicken fingers, but they were bigger than the Gardein ones I used to re-create the meal. And of course we would have ketchup for our chicken fingers and fries. 

Finally, for dessert, we would order ice cream or sherbert, which was served in a cute little metal serving dish like this:

(image source)

So Delicious vanilla bean coconut milk ice cream

In other food news, I used the leftover tofu and "yolk" mixture from yesterday to make a tofu scramble, complete with little grape tomatoes from my parents' garden. 

(I visited home yesterday and hung out with my mom and this cuddly cutie, Blu.)

And as always, here are Buttons and Leela...

Peace. :)