Bethlehem VegFest, Vegan Treats, and More

Hi everyone! Bethlehem VegFest took place on July 14; I was totally out of the loop and only found out the night before. With such late notice and plans later that day, I figured I’d skip this year, but Zach made sure we got there on Saturday for a bit. For lunch, I had the buffalo chick’n mac & cheese from Freakin’ Vegan – there was a long line but it was definitely worth the wait – and Zach had a grilled cheese & pineapple guava lemonade. 

Then we picked up some desserts at Vegan Treats; I got the triple berry cheesecake and Zach chose the s’mores cheesecake. 

In other news, I harvested my first ears of corn on Sunday!

And then on Wednesday, after we made a delicious batch of lemon spinach pasta, my sister Alena gave me the grand tour of the new Aldi near her, so of course I grabbed some fun vegan stuff – hashbrowns, two types of meatballs, and chicken patties. 

I also sketched some more fruit…

nectarine (original photo)

pear (original photo)

And here's Cringer; she takes the most dramatic cat naps... 

Peace. :)

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. :)

Rainy Day Potatoes

Hi everyone! Today’s another rainy day; I threw some stuff together, and it ended up being pretty good, so I have another contribution to April’s MiniMoFo…

Rainy Day Potatoes

Ingredients:
2 medium gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
¼-½ cup diced frozen onions
1 tablespoon canola oil
¼ teaspoon each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika
8 stalks asparagus, cut into ~1 inch pieces
12 pieces Morningstar vegan chicken strips

Directions:
Combine potatoes, onions, canola oil, and spices in a small baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes, uncover to stir and add in the asparagus, then cover and bake for 30 minutes. Stir and then cook for a bit more, uncovered, if desired (I did about 10 minutes). Microwave the chicken strips, combine with the potatoes, and enjoy!

Here’s Daisy enjoying a sunnier day… 

Peace. :)

April MiniMoFo: Rainy Day Food

Hi everyone! This month’s MiniMoFo theme is rainy day food, which was perfect for this week! I made this simple vegetable soup, which was warm and comforting…

(It was basically the soup I made for Easter but with rotini instead of farfalle.)

…and this spicy tater tot casserole, which was really good, with a manageable level of spiciness for me… 

(Instead of the usual can of corn, I added ½ cup crushed Blaze Doritos because they were way too spicy to eat plain out of the bag and I’ve been trying to use them up.)

Here’s Cringer after she finished “helping” me do yoga on a rainy day… 

Peace. :)

March MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! “Go green!” is the theme for the March MiniMoFo, and all the new recipes I’ve tried so far this month have included spinach – Brown Rice With Lentils, Mushrooms, and Spinach Stir Fry (AfroVeganChick); Marinated Tofu with White Rice and Spinach; and Creamy Raw Spinach Sauce (Vegan Vittles). This week I tried making the creamy spinach dip from Vegan Vittles, but it didn’t quite work out (*shakes fist at my food processor*), so I gave up and just threw all the ingredients into a saucepan with a bit of water, heating it up and mashing the beans as I stirred, ultimately mixing it in with some fettuccine. So, both a recipe fail (didn’t work as the dip it was supposed to be) and a recipe redemption (was very tasty mixed with pasta). 

Cringer loves using her sister as a pillow…

Peace. :)

February MiniMoFo: Food is Love

Hi everyone! February’s MiniMoFo theme is “Food is Love,” so I have two similar dishes here. The first is what I made for a quick Valentine’s Day dinner for me & Zach. He skipped the peas & carrots and only had the Gardein porkless bites and the white rice.

more veggies for me = love

The other dish I thought I’d include here is one of my favorites that I’ve mentioned countless times – the veganized orange chik’n from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food. I love this recipe, but every time I make it, I try to do something different to make it a little more mine, so I added some turmeric to the sauce when I made it earlier this week.

orange tofu = love

leftovers = love

In other news, our ancient furnace died this week, and we were thankfully able to get it replaced yesterday. But we had a chilly Thursday night; here are where the kitties had settled in as I was getting ready for bed…   

Cringer still wanted to sleep downstairs like she usually does, so I tucked her in with Buttons’ favorite blanket.

Upstairs, Leela was already in the bedroom, hanging out close to the space heater that Zach had moved in.

And Daisy had curled up tightly on her folded comforter nest.

Peace. :)

January MiniMoFo: Chickpea Noodle Soup (VegNews)

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! January’s MiniMoFo prompt is “Creating Warmth,” so I made the chickpea noodle soup from the most recent VegNews. (My modifications: I used vegan chicken broth instead of the water and miso paste, shallots instead of the onion, and dried parsley instead of fresh. I also left out the caraway seeds.) It came together really well, and was perfect for the snowy, blustery day we had on Thursday. The leftovers were really good, too!

Here are Leela, Daisy, and Cringer, always finding their spots in the sun...

Peace. :)

December MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! The theme for December’s MiniMoFo is “Festive baking!” – I took a short-cut and went to Vegan Treats, hehe! I got the chocolate chip cheesecake-on-a-stick, shaped and decorated to look like a Christmas tree, which was good…

And the cookies and cream cake with a reindeer design; this one was even better and definitely my favorite of the two… 

Colder weather means more kitty cuddles; Daisy is a very patient sister and lets Cringer use her as a pillow… 

And Leela continues to lay claim to the warm corner by the heating vent… 

Today I got a photo of the three of them all in a line in the bedroom… 

Peace. :)

Lazy Mac and Thanksgiving

Hi everyone! My posts this month keep getting lazier and lazier; I guess I’m just really embracing the November MiniMoFo theme! For a quick lunch on Wednesday, I tried the Upton’s Naturals Ch’eesy Bacon Mac. I really liked the sauce, but the noodles themselves could have been better; they were a bit too chewy for me but were still OK overall.

And here was my Thanksgiving dinner last night…

Onion potatoes, corn & mac, green beans, crescent roll, Tofurky, and butternut squash

This morning, I found the sisters sharing the cat tower; Daisy was being rambunctious on the lower level, and Cringer wasn’t quite sure what was going on…

And here’s a goofy photo of Leela that I caught with hilariously perfect timing; if you look closely, you can see the tiniest little blep…

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. :)