Fries, Risotto, and Gummies!

Hi everyone! On Sunday, I used the last of my potatoes to make a big batch of oven fries; I had some with green beans and an Asian veggie burger from Aldi…

Yesterday I made butternut squash risotto, which I enjoyed with some Aldi vegan meatballs… 

And I found these cute gummies today when I went out on a quick grocery run…

Here is a picture from a walk that Zach and I took yesterday. It was raining, so there weren’t many other people out, making social distancing easy! 

Schuylkill River

And here are Cringer and Rogue hanging out together… 

Peace. :)

Chester County Vegan Festival and More

Hi everyone! On the 25th, I went to the Chester County Vegan Festival with Zach and my sister Alena. We hadn’t been there for a few years, but decided to try it again. It used to be a picnic buffet, which was really cool – you got to pick what you wanted to eat and fill up your plate from the great variety of food – and it used to cost $10 (or $9 if you brought your own place setting). This year it was in a different park, catered by El Burrito, and more expensive ($15, or $13 if you brought your own place setting, which we all did). Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, you ended up with less food. At the start of the food line, you were asked to pick either a vegetable tamale or a mushroom tamale. Both sounded good but you could only get one, so I went with the vegetable and Zach got the mushroom and we ended up sharing them between us. I would have loved to be able to get both because they were amazing! The mango salsa was pretty good, too, but the corn was just OK (I’ve been spoiled by the corn I grew in my garden this year haha) and the salt didn’t stick to it (they rubbed lime over the corn before sprinkling the salt on). Additionally, the whole mango was a) a bit redundant since we’d already been given mango salsa and b) way too sweet to eat all of it. 

I felt bad that there was no compost nearby (or at least not one that I could find, maybe I missed it) for the corn husks (from the tamale), corn cob, and leftover mango; it felt like such a waste throwing all that out. As for the rest of the festival, which we explored after lunch, there weren’t as many vendors as in the past, and only two offered free samples (one had small pieces of Violife cheese and one had bread topped with a vegan cheese and also cups of potato salad, which were awesome). There was a food truck there (Self Love), and their menu seemed nice; I don’t know if I plan to go back to the Chester County Vegan Festival next year, but if I do, I think buying from the food truck makes more sense than paying for the catered lunch. All in all, though, it was still a nice day; we got to hang out and see cute dogs that people had brought with them, and we got some free snacks to bring home, too – these were pretty good… 

Some other fun things I’ve enjoyed this week include these ice cream popsicles…

And these veggie burgers from Aldi… 

Here are some of my sketches from this week…

bell pepper (original photo)

potato (original photo)

snow pea (original photo)

spinach (original photo)

And here’s Leela… 

See you all tomorrow for the start of Vegan MoFo!

Peace. :)

Veggie Burger

Happy Friday to all on the sixth day of the Vegan Month of Food!

I've yet to make my own veggie burgers completely from scratch, but I did recently try using a veggie burger mix, and it turned out nicely. It's definitely something I'll make again.

Veggie Burger

 

 

Ingredients:

--1/4 cup Fantastic World Foods Nature's Burger mix

--1/4 cup boiling water

--olive oil (optional)

Combine in bowl, stir well, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Form into patty and fry in pan (I added a tiny bit of olive oil), flipping occasionally until both sides are nicely browned.

Serve on a bun (I prefer to just use two pieces of Ezekiel bread) with lettuce, tomato, and desired condiments (I like both ketchup & mustard). Enjoy with steak fries and baby carrots on the side. 

the veggie burger, a couple chomps in

Here is Mystery, closing out today's Vegan MoFo post with an adorably grumpy squint.

the cute little grumpus

Peace. :)