Vegan MoFo 2014 Wrap-up

Hello on the 30th day of the Vegan Month of Food! This month has flown by so fast! So much cuteness and so many great themes! Tonight's final Vegan MoFo post will include my five favorite dishes, as well as a super long list of the bookmarked recipes I want to try! But first, here was today's lunch...

Mac & cheese with potato chips and pickles.

...And tonight's dinner.

Avgolemono (with added broccoli, diced red onion instead of shallots, and vegan chicken broth instead of vegetable broth).

Five Favorite Dishes I Made This Vegan MoFo:
 
Garlic Green Beans, Smashed Potatoes, and Spicy Corn
 
Classic Cornbread and Down-Home Chili
 
French Toast
 
Burger, Fries, Veggies, and Spice
 
Meera's Avgolemono

Recipes I've Bookmarked to Try:
 
Banana Breakfast Rollup from A.Cook in the Making

Chilly Monkey Biscuits from Adventures in Vegan Bento

Miniature Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels; Easy Apple Nachos; and One Minute Flourless Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Brownie from AfroVeganChick

Thai Chicken Laksa from Alien on Toast

Pizza Rolls from Bake Eat Love

Broccoli, Cheese, and tempeh bacon pot pie; Jackfruit Chick’un Noodle Crockpot Soup; French Onion Soup; and Chamomile Lavender Cupcakes from Banana Curl, Vegan Girl

Fabulously Fruity Muffins from Cat and Ju Vegan Cooking

Sesame Sriracha Noodles; Vegan Jackfruit BBQ; and Harvest Wild Rice Salad from Danielle Atkins

Easiest Weeknight Pasta Ever from East Meets West Veg

Carrot gnocchi with fennel en papillote and Chickpea flour pancakes with cumin and fresh coriander from Eating with the Rabbits

French Fries and Drown Your Sorrow Waffles from Evolution of Jill

Super Cheesy Easy Mac & Cheese; Popcorn Chick'n; and Cinnamon Sugar Bagel Chips from Floral Frosting

Grandma's chex mix; Toasted Walnut Maple Buns; Vegan Cheez Its; and Country Fried Seitan with Homemade Seitan Cutlets from House Vegan

Rosemary and Potato Focaccia from iheartcrapkitchen

Vegan Stovetop Mac and Cheese and Easy Broiled Breakfast Sandwiches and the Best Tofu Ever from Jessicat Cooks

Polish Potato and Cheese Pierogi Made Vegan and Aloo Paratha from The Judgmental Vegan

Potato Cheese Soup from Just the Food

Apple Cranberry Hand Pies from Kim Cooks Veg 4U

Pretzels from KZ Cakes

Onion Cake from Life by Six Mile Creek

Broccoli Corn Chowder and Apple Muffins from Lisa's Project: Vegan

Vegan Buckwheat Tabbouleh and Vegan Orange-Glazed Tempeh from Odd Little Vegan

Garlic Knots from Peabrain and Nosewhistle

Cream of Mushroom Soup from Plant Base Living

RAW LEMON, LAVENDER, VANILLA, PISTACHIO BITES from REAL FOOD + TRAVEL

Cawl; Welsh onion cake; Creamy leek soup with garlicky bagel croutons; and Leek and cashew pizza pie from Rosie's vegan kitchen

Runner Bean Pie; Couscous Stuffed Vegetables; Asparagus Pea & New Potato Pakoras; Homemade Tomato Sauce; and Courgette & Lentil Loaf from Self Sufficient Cafe

Buttermilk Dill Smashed Potatoes and Sprouted Chickpea Hummus from soy division.

Pureed Broccoli and Cheezy Soup from Sprouts and Chocolate

Chikn Noodle Soup with Rosemary Bread Rolls; Smokey Potatoe Baycn Bisque with Dark Rye Bread; Italian Wedding Soup with Gluten Free Basil Crackers; Cheezy French Onion Soup with French Baguette; Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup with Roti; and Mushroom-Burger Soup with Soft Pretzels from stairway to vegan

Split Pea Soup from the sunflower kitchen

Vegan Orange and Pecan Rooibos Teabread from Tea and Sympatico
 
Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate from Thistle and Yellow Rose

Biscuits and Gravy; Lentil Loaf; Peanut Sauce with Super Easy Tofu-and-Broccoli; Vegan Chicken N' Noodle Casserole; and Rich Brown Gravy from Tofu Mom

Five-Cheese Baked Pete-aroni and Cheese and Deep Dish Mac & Cheese Pizza from V for Vegan

Cherry Buckwheat Breakfast Salad from Veg Fiend

Chick'n pot pie and Chick'n noodle soup and A Bac*n sandwich the TbLT from Vegan Knyquol 

Sweet Rolls and Sweet and White Potato Pancakes with Mushroom Sauce from Vegan Sweet and Simple

Lemony Risotto with Shiitake Shrimp from Vegan4One

Vegan Ham Cheese Stromboli from veganopoulous

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies and Chocolate-Orange Chia Pudding from vegga

Golden Gravy; Dijon Mushroom Potatoes; and Cheezy Baked Macaroni from VeggieSue's Veggie Adventures

Jewelled Rocky Road Bars from veghotpot

Smoky Chickpea Stew from Walk, Talks and Eats

Sweet & Easy Dessert Rolls and Squirrely Cookies from x means no onions

Pizza Burger from Zsu's Vegan Pantry

New Blogs I've Started Following:
I've updated my “Blogs I Follow” in the sidebar, so check it out! (Some, like House Vegan, Sprouts and Chocolate, and Panda With Cookie won't show up because Blogger keeps rejecting them when I try to add them to my list, but I'll keep trying!) I know I'll be adding more in the coming weeks; I still have a bunch of Vegan MoFo blogs to visit and read through!

Some More Vegan MoFo 2014 Highlights:
Buttons on the Round Up,
Winning the Vegan MoFo mug giveaway,
33 posts,
And nearly 6,000 pageviews!

And finally, an addendum to my favorite themes (how did I forget this one yesterday?): Soup & Bread by stairway to vegan.
 
I hope you all have had a great time this Vegan MoFo! Here's to an even better one next year, and lots of cooking, baking, and blogging in between! 

Buttons and Leela enjoyed meeting everyone this year, but they're going to rest up now; they're all worn out from having their pictures taken so much! 

Peace. :)

Favorite Vegan MoFo Themes

Hello on the 29th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today's wrap-up post is a list of my favorite monthly themes this Vegan MoFo. Quick post of my dinner before we get started... 

Tonight I had my peanut butter brown rice and broccoli, along with carrots and bottom-of-the-bag scraps of lentil chips. Simple and delicious. 

And look who I found making his way along my sink after I'd finished dinner...

Cute little green caterpillar. :)

Wouldn't have been a Vegan MoFo without a picture of an insect (Vegan MoFo 2013, Vegan MoFo 2012)!

OK, on to the wrap-up as promised...

I always admire the bloggers with monthly themes, so I'd like to acknowledge some of my favorites here. Three cheers to all these blogs for having such awesome themes!

Favorite Vegan MoFo Themes:
 
Entertaining Me at Detroit Made
 
Food Friends at Food Feud
 
Bizarre and Outdated Cookbooks at Hasta La Vegan
 
Robin Robertson Rocks at Kittens Gone Lentil
 
Recipe Roundup at Lisa's Project: Vegan
 
Vegan Finds At Target at MissMuffcake
 
September Harvest at Self Sufficient Cafe
 
Tea at Tea and Sympatico
 
Vegan Month of Food... & Gravy! at Tofu Mom
 
Carbs & Recreation at V for Vegan
 
Food from Harry Potter at Vegan Knyquol
 
Vegan Nom Noms Does America at Vegan Nom Noms
 
Vegan Around the World at Vegan Sweet and Simple
 
International Cheese & Chocolate Month at vegan.in.brighton
 
Will My Kids Eat It? at Veganopoulous
 
But where do you get your protein?! (And calcium, and iron, and…) at vegga

Vegan Month of Burgers at Zsu's Vegan Pantry
 
Next, here's my quick Cuteness Addendum to yesterday's post: Check out Chewy over at East Meets West Veg and Marco at Self Sufficient Cafe. What cuties!

And, finally, this one fits under both cuteness and favorite themes: Food That Looks Like My Cat, which took place on Thursdays at Panda With Cookie.

(I'm sure I missed some awesome themes, so let me know in the comments if you had a favorite that you didn't see on my list!)

Buttons wanted to play hide-and-seek today with Leela.

Leela agreed to count slowly to one hundred, but she refused to close her eyes in case Buttons was playing a trick on her. 

P.S. Bonus post coming later tonight!

Peace. :)

Cuteness during Vegan MoFo

Hello on the 28th day of the Vegan Month of Food! These last three days will consist of wrap-ups; today I've compiled a list of some of my favorite Vegan MoFo posts with cute animal photos. But first, I want to quickly post a meal that I threw together last night for dinner. 

I wanted to use some stuff up, so the ingredients were as follows: What remained of the creamy mushroom soup (1/2 cup?), water (1 cup?), miso, broken fettuccine, and some frozen broccoli. The soup turned out surprisingly well for me not bothering to measure. (Not pictured: I also had two strips of Beyond Meat chicken, which I dunked in ketchup.) 

And another similar version that I had for dinner tonight: Miso with noodles, broccoli, and Gardein beefless tips. 

OK, on to the main event, here are 20 links to just some of the cuteness I saw this Vegan MoFo! (Some blogs have had multiple posts with cute animal photos, so I've just linked to the most recent post I could find.)  

Adventures in Vegan Bento

Cat and Ju Vegan Cooking

Danielle Atkins

Detroit Made

Food Feud

Hasta La Vegan

House Vegan

In Rad Taste

Kittens Gone Lentil

Lazy Smurf's Guide to Life

Melon Collies and the Infinite Sandwich 

Popcorn and Nooch

Rock My Vegan Socks

Rosie's Vegan Kitchen
 
The “V” Word  

Thistle and Yellow Rose

Vegan Crunk
 
Vegan Sweet and Simple

Walks, Talks and Eats

Zsu's Vegan Pantry

Of course, Buttons and Leela wanted to make a (sleepy) contribution to the cuteness:

P.S. Bonus post coming later today!

Peace. :)

The Apple Man's Apples and Red's Peaches

Hello on the 27th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today's final Veganlist is short & sweet, featuring two fruits – apples and peaches – that have appeared on The Blacklist.

The apples, of course, are those of the “Apple Man,” the one who was conducting surveillance on the Keens. Sitting at his desk, he munched on an apple, watching the footage taken from multiple cameras inside their home. In “Anslo Garrick (No. 16) Conclusion” (Season 1, Episode 10), Liz discovers the surveillance site, and we meet Mr. Kaplan when she arrives to “clean up.” (Mr. Kaplan is one of my favorite minor characters & I really hope she will feature more prominently in Season 2.)

The peaches hail from “Berlin (No. 8) Conclusion” (Season 1, Episode 22), when Red goes to the Russian ambassador's place, sitting down to eat while holding the ambassador's dog and going on and on about how good the peaches are and how freestone peaches are so ideal. The ambassador warns Red to not hurt his dog, to which Red replies, “Oh my goodness, no! I'm not a monster. You really think I'd harm a dog?”

Bonus quote from “Berlin (No. 8) Conclusion” (Season 1, Episode 22):

Red: Tell me your story. I'm not leaving here without a story.

Here's two more pictures of Buttons and Leela from yesterday.

Peace. :)

Meera's Avgolemono

Hello on the 26th day of the Vegan Month of Food! On today's Veganlist is Meera's avgolemono.

I was a bit nervous at first because avgolemono sounded quite non-vegan from her description of its ingredients... 

Donald: I mean, it looks like some sort of serial number...
Meera: Or an atomic number, something from a periodic table.
Donald: Why do you think that?
Meera: Because the only word I know that contains the letters “v-g” together is avgolemono.
Donald: I don't know what that is.
Meera: It's a soup. Chicken stock, egg yolks, and lemon juice. What? I cook. The point is, maybe Xiaoping Li is trying to send us a message.
 
...but when I looked up recipes online for vegan avgolemono, I was pleasantly surprised by all the results. I chose to use this recipe. It was easy to prepare; the only changes I made were using one shallot (instead of two), a darker miso, and one tablespoon of dill (two tablespoons seemed like it would be too much).

It smelled so good, and tasted even better.

I'm so glad I made the full recipe because now I have leftovers!

This has definitely become my favorite Veganlist meal, and it's something I know I'll make again, for sure. 

Bonus quotes from this episode (Season 1, Episode 19, “The Pavlovich Brothers (No. 199-122)”):

When they finally figure out Xiaoping Li's message... 

Meera: I beg your pardon?
Aram: Archimedes' formula! You know, uh, the naked guy who shouted “Eureka!” 

Meera: Why would she write down a mathematical formula?
Donald: Maybe it's some kind of a code or a language they don't understand.
Aram: Archimedes' principle indicates that the upward buoyant force, which is exerted on a body immersed in fluid, whether fully –
Meera: Aram.
Aram: Um, water displacement. Boats displace water.
Donald: She's trying to tell us how they're getting her out of the country.

And when Liz tells Tom the truth about pancakes:

Liz: If you're looking for sympathy, you might want to start with honesty. Here's an example of honesty, Tom. You've been making me pancakes for two years. I hate pancakes.

Whoops. So much for that.

This morning, Buttons decided to plop down underneath my desk, on top of my feet, so I had a comfy footwarmer who snored and made my feet fall asleep.

When Leela entered the room, Buttons got up close and personal with her, sniffing her face while Leela leaned back slightly and then just held still. As Buttons sprawled out on the floor, Leela looked up at me like, "What just happened?"

“I'm adorable!”                                  “You're a dork.”

Peace. :)

Red and Dembe's Yogurt Pretzels

Hello on the 25th day of the Vegan Month of Food! For today's Veganlist, I figured I'd try to make yogurt pretzels.

In an attempt to convince Craig (Christopher) to talk, Red takes him out on a “field trip” to look at some art. When Christopher realizes that harm will likely come to his mother if he doesn't cooperate, Red wraps up the visit.

Red: Well, let's go back to the hotel. I think I saw some yogurt pretzels in your mini bar. 

Liz returns from working the case to find Red and Dembe snacking as they watch TV in the room, Christopher still refusing to talk. After something rather sudden and shocking...

...Red decides it's time to leave, and Dembe stays behind to clean the place of any sign they were there.

Red: Dembe, I'll get her downstairs. After you're done, grab the pretzels.

To make the yogurt pretzels, I mixed together vegan yogurt and powdered sugar, into which I dipped the pretzels. I wasn't sure how well they'd turn out, so I wanted to try making them two ways: Some I put in the freezer; for the others, I warmed up the oven for a bit, then turned it off, placing the tray of pretzels inside with the oven door cracked, leaving them to hopefully solidify.

Well, this wasn't quite what I pictured when I heard “yogurt pretzels.”

Never having had them before, I guess I'd been expecting something that looked similar to (white) chocolate-covered pretzels, but the yogurt was not nearly thick enough for that to work. (Maybe I should have done more powdered sugar? I don't know.) But regardless of them just looking like shiny, sticky pretzels, they smelled delicious and tasted nice & sweet. I'm not much of a sugar person, so maybe it was good that there wasn't a super thick coating.

Notes: The ones I put in the freezer didn't get as soggy/soft as the ones in the oven. More of their yogurt/sugar coating was visible, in patches, but it melted rather quickly.

Buttons rested on her blue bench today while I made the yogurt pretzels.

And Leela is back to curling up on my jeans.

Peace. :)

Red's Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Hello on the 24th day of the Vegan Month of Food! For today's Veganlist, we have Red's pimento cheese sandwiches.

Liz, determined to find out the truth about her husband Tom, has set up shop in her investigation room. Red comes in, now the second guy this episode to talk excitedly to her about food, even though she is clearly uninterested and preoccupied.

To make the pimento cheese, I combined one pimento, diced; one spoonful of vegan mayo; and Daiya cheese (mostly cheddar, but also a bit of pepperjack). Blended and mixed it up, did a taste taste: Yuck. Put it in the microwave and heated it up so the cheese got melty. Mixed and taste-tested again: OK, better. Added some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Toasted two pieces of bread, cut off the crusts (seemed a waste, so I saved them; for what, I don't know, I'll figure it out, haha). And then spread the pimento cheese on the bread to make the sandwich. 

Served with potato chips and pickles.

It was pretty quick and simple, OK overall but a bit odd, so not something I'll likely make again. But still a fun experiment!

Cheese majorly spilling out, haha!

Bonus quotes from this episode (Season 1, Episode 18, “Milton Bobbit (No. 135)”), when Liz has been trying to interrogate Tom's “brother” without much success.

Craig/Christopher: You didn't exactly think this through, did you?
Liz: Actually, I did.
...
Red: (to Craig/Christopher) You must be the brother-in-law.
Liz: (to Red) Ressler called. I have to step out. He isn't cooperating.
Red: Oh, hell. Dembe, get the hacksaw. We're gonna have to take him out of here in pieces.
(pause)
Red: (laughs) I'm just kidding. We'll get old Christopher to talk. Who's up for a field trip?

Buttons decided to “help” while I was preparing the ingredients. As I chopped the pimento, she leaped up onto the counter and kept trying to get to the cheese. I was able to block her, and she eventually gave up, instead exploring the area around the sink and the stove, which thankfully I wasn't using for this recipe.

*stares intently at the noms*

Leela, for her part, has not attempted to get up on the counter, yet. Her newest obsession is the pair of jeans that I laid out on the bed Monday night. Since then, whenever she's napping, she's napping on it. Here's a picture of her from last night:

"These are my jeans now."

P.S. Look what I got today! I'm so excited; I've been seeing so many people post the awesome stuff they've made from Isa Does It, and now I finally have a copy. I love the layout and design, and the pictures are great. I'm looking forward to trying out some recipes soon! 

Peace. :)

Tom's World-Famous Pancakes, Gluten-Free

Hello on the 23rd day of the Vegan Month of Food! Up next on The Veganlist is Tom's world-famous pancakes, gluten-free.

I have to say I loved this scene because Tom was so puffed up about his pancakes...

...and Liz could clearly care less, and then Tom asks her to marry him again, to renew their vows... (C'mon, man, you've only been married two years, dial it back a bit, haha) ...and then when he leaves for the day, Liz just loses it, smashing the plate before tearing the house apart. 

To make Tom's pancakes, I used the gluten-free pancake mix from Bob's Red Mill. The recipe on the back of the package was: 1 ½ cups pancake mix, 1 egg (I used 3 T mashed banana), ¾ cup milk (I used soy), and 1 T oil (I used canola). Mix it all together, and get making your pancakes, pretty simple. Mine came out a little thick; I think the recipe was supposed to make 8 pancakes, but I got 6 out of it.

I added the rest of the banana, sliced, as well as some blueberry syrup to three of the pancakes (and saved the others as leftovers for tomorrow).

I say, YUM!

They turned out pretty good, probably would have been better thinner, but other than that, everything was good.

Bonus quotes from this episode (Season 1, Episode 18, “Milton Bobbit (No. 135)”):

Liz: What?
Dembe: This paint – what color is it?
Liz: It's called “Chicago Skyline.”
Dembe: Nice.

(Sorry, I just loved that bit for how random it was.)

Just as I was sitting down to write this post, Buttons spotted a cricket by one of the heating vents, and she chased him around until we were able to intervene. While I held Buttons back, Zach scooped the cricket up into a cup and held a piece of cardboard over top. We took him outside and set him free; Buttons was a bit grumpy about it.

"Really?! How dare you take my crickets away from me?"

Leela, on the other hand, doesn't quite get Buttons' fascination with bugs.

"You and your silly crickets."

Hope anyone who watched The Blacklist last night enjoyed it. I'm still thinking through what happened, but I think two of the best things were: A) Liz's reasoning regarding her name, and B) the developments regarding Harold's character.

Hot chocolate in my Vegan MoFo mug last night while I watched The Blacklist.

Peace. :)