Fall Treats Plus Mac & Cheese

Hi everyone! So, one of my favorite fall treats this year is a vanilla So Delicious yogurt to which I add allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, making it into a pumpkin spice yogurt!

I also placed a little Vegan Essentials order to get some Halloween goodies; these are Sjaak's white chocolate skull pops and chocolate bites; the orange ones are orange-flavored, the black are peanut butter...

I also got these new-to-me items to try...

This pumpkin spice cookie that I got with my last Kimberton Whole Foods grocery order was really good...

And a friend picked up a chocolate cookie sandwich for me from Crust Vegan Bakery; it was delicious!

And finally, some mac & cheese (using Miyoko's cheddar slices) with some chick'n tenders (the chick'n tenders were just OK, so I doubt I'll get them again)...

Some pictures from my outdoor walk with friends...

And Daisy's face as she realizes that with the weather getting cooler, being a pillow for her sister is going to be her life now...

Peace. :)

Some Goodies, Firebird, and Easy Meals

Hi everyone; I’m doing a photo post today. I’m still missing Leela, and I didn’t get around to trying a new recipe this week. 

brownie batter dessert hummus from Aldi, dipped some pretzels in it, quite tasty

a friend took me to V Marks the Shop; here’s my haul

plus more pierogies

Zach got me vegan ham and Swiss cheese from Luhv Vegan Deli

Firebird Festival

head of the firebird on fire

a nice drink after the festival

with peppermint Dandies marshmallows

a dinner of Field Roast mini corn dogs, tater tots, and Annie’s vegan mac

a lunch of a toasted bagel with vegan ham and Swiss cheese, served with homemade pickles

my D&D friend who bakes made me a box of vegan sandwich cookies (I took this pic after the game, so there are some missing lol)

a dinner of Mac ’n Chao with broccoli, tater tots, and Morningstar buffalo chik patty

Here’s Rogue being a cutie, sniffing the lamp on my desk… 

Peace…

November MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! After cooking something new pretty much every day of Vegan MoFo, trying only three new recipes in the past week counts as “lazy” to me.

Last Friday night, I made pumpkin cookies for an early holiday party with Zach’s family. They turned out really well; here’s some of the leftovers since I forgot to take a pic right after I made them. I couldn’t find the recipe online to link to here; my copy of the recipe looks like it was scanned from a cookbook. The ingredients were brown sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and raisins. 

On Wednesday, I made the sweet potato cheese sauce from My cat loves Daiya! It turned out really well; my only change was using soy milk instead of canned light coconut milk. 

And then last night, I made pumpkin applesauce (inspired by Tracy’s Living Cookbook). I peeled & chopped five Granny Smith apples, boiling them in a little more than 3/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. I turned it down to simmer, added ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and stirred it every now and then. I added ½ cup canned pumpkin and ½ tsp vanilla near the end. It turned out pretty well.
 

So those are my “lazy” (and quite orange) new foods I’ve tried since MoFo ended. I’ve also been keeping busy with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), motivating myself, of course, with Victory Smarties.

Here are the kitties this morning…

Leela

Daisy

Cringer

Peace. :)

Holiday Sugar Cookies

Hi everyone! Today begins Vegan MoFo's Holidays theme with the prompt: Holiday Bake Day! – What are you planning on baking over the winter holidays? Do you make cake, or cookies? Or something savory? I decided to make holiday sugar cookies tonight and test out eight different shapes to see which ones work best. 

1st tray, unbaked

1st tray, baked

2nd tray, unbaked

2nd tray, baked

My favorite shape is the Christmas tree, followed by the star and the gingerbread person, so if I do make cookies again, those will be the shapes I'll use.

(The snowflake shape looked like an asterisk to me, and the snow person was OK, but I feel like it's one that would need icing on it to emphasize what it's supposed to be? Same for the wreath shape; it doesn't really work since it's not hollowed out in the middle. The candy cane shape turned out a bit too thick, and the "biscuit" shape wasn't all too holiday-y.)

Here's Buttons and Leela in the sunshine...

Peace. :)

Halfway There: GoFundMe for My cat loves Daiya!

Hello everyone! Last night I made the salted triple-chip cookies from the June 2016 issue of VegNews. 

Overall, it's a good recipe; the cookies are delicious! My only gripe with how the recipe is written is that it tells you to preheat the oven as the very first step, and then in the end of step 3, to chill the dough for 30 minutes! It's a bit silly to have the oven on for that long when it's not being used, especially in the summer, so I only started the oven when I took the dough out of the fridge. 

In awesome news, Hillary's GoFundMe has already hit the halfway point! Woo-hoo! :D Please keep spreading the word, and be sure to donate if you can! And check out her blog if you haven't already; she's been introducing readers to each of her cats, and they're all so sweet! So far, we've met Stevie, Afro, and Etta!

Peace. :)

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies

Hi everyone! Super quick post tonight since today was a fun but busy day (Zach, Alena, and I visited Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue)! Here are the yummy cookies I made on Thursday. I used this recipe from House Vegan but left them as cookies instead of making them into cookie sandwiches. Delicious, and I think I might try adding cranberries the next time I make them. I always think of raisins in oatmeal cookies, but cranberries seem like they would be more fun with the pumpkin. 

P.S. Here is something I did to motivate myself for my NaNoWriMo writing, using some leftover Halloween candy – I have one after I've finished my writing for the day... hehehe! 

Peace. :)

Fall Foods

Hello everyone! Halloween is just a couple days away, and I can hardly wait! Here's some of the fall foods I've enjoyed this month...

First up is "best snack ever" aka pretzel sticks with melted chocolate chips...

Next is the Simple Baked Sweet Potatoes from The Raw Project (I added cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice as the seasonings)...

Here's the awesome food from when I visited my sister Alena in Philadelphia. We went to Blackbird Pizzeria for lunch...

Alena had a slice of pepperoni pizza.

I had a slice of veggie supreme pizza.

We also decided to share a seitan "chicken" parm...

...and a seitan cheesesteak.

(Of course, we couldn't finish everything, so here were my leftovers.)

I bought a kitchen sink cookie (chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzels, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, and oats) on our way out, which we shared later at Alena's place with tea.

We passed this adorable mural (on the side of the building for an animal rescue).

And I got a free copy of Slingshot from Wooden Shoe Books, which I read on the train ride home.

Centerfold.

When I got home, I made sure to harvest my little garden before the frost.

Next up is the Greek Lemon Soy Curls and Potatoes from The "V" Word (I left out the olives and parsley)...

And here's something new I tried, but wasn't too fond of; it was too sweet, more like a pumpkin pie puree...

Yesterday I made mashed sweet potatoes (with ½ T vegan butter, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice), a sprinkle of sugar, and some cranberries on top)...

...And baked Halloween cookies... I used the following cookie cutters, but the cookies expanded a bit too much while baking, so they morphed but are still delicious, haha!

Once Halloween is over, it will be that most magical time of the year, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! It will be my 6th time participating, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on my progress throughout the month.

Here's Cringer and Daisy, being silly...

...And Buttons and Leela briefly sharing the sunshine until Leela decides, "nah, nevermind"...

Peace. :)