The Farewell Feast

So, the time we knew was coming has at last crept up on us, and Bailey has to get on movin'! We sent her off with the grandest and vegan-est of all feasts and a whole lot of love! We were lucky enough to have the festivities documented by the most wonderful professional photographer in town, Vicki Palombo from Photographic Memories. (http://www.vickipalombo.zenfolio.com/ and http://www.vickimichael.blogspot.com/) This is what was on the menu for our vegtastic extravaganza:

• Nori Rolls with Sweet Potato, Tempeh, and Avocado and Sweet Brown Rice
• Lentil-Walnut Pate with Garlic-Herb Crostini
• Marinated Portabello and Eggplant Napoleons with Cashew Cream and Pesto
• 3-Spice Potatoes
• Apple-Cider and Brown Sugar Brussels Sprouts with Pecans
• Kale Salad with Roasted Daikon and Sweet Miso Dressing
• Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Pecan Streusal Topping

We went to Whole Foods in the morning and started cooking around 3. We served it around 7 and the sore feet and chaos paid off! The recipes came from 3 different vegan cookbooks as well as the magic of creativity and improvisation. All these recipes will be up under the recipe section soon.

Enjoy these snapshots! Bailey, I love making memories with you! And remember to chronicle your new (slightly colder) adventures! Love you!

Vegtastic Luck

The Chrismaka spirit has brought me some good luck! Look what I won in this past week's giveaway from HealthyVoyager.com!
http://healthyvoyager.com/2.0/2010/12/06/so-nice-holiday-giveaway/

I'm so excited for my organic treats! These vegan blogs are always giving away goodies, so remember to enter whenever you can, and you just might be surprised with something delicious!

P.S. I don't usually win things, so this made my week. I literally screamed and jumped up and down in my kitchen.

Good news and bad news...

Good first:
I just discovered that Publix sells vegan ice cream.

Bad news:
Publix sells vegan ice cream!


Will power= not buying it every week.

Pumpkin Muscuits & First-time VOO.

The night before Thanksgiving, I tried to create a recipe for pumpkin muffins. I was planning on getting up early to be a cheerleader for Danielle as she did a 6K on Thanksgiving morning, and I wanted to bring some vegan muffins. However, I was still sick when I woke up and decided my body needed more sleep. Anyway, they turned out tasting like pumpkin bread/biscuits instead of muffins. I didn't use any sugar, so they weren't sweet, but I did add vegan chocolate chips to half of them and that provided enough sweetness for me. Here's the recipe (really roughly):

Pumpkin Muscuits:
1 can pumpkin
2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 jars organic apple sauce baby food
1/4 c brown rice syrup
cinnamon & nutmeg to taste
1/2 c pumpkin spice soymilk

Before they were muscuits...

Fully baked muscuits!

VOO: Vegan Overnight Oats 

DElish.

Back when Danielle and I went to Daytona Beach, we visited a really cool little health food store. I bought this Chia seed mix (chia, buckwheat, hulled hemp seeds, dehydrated apples, raisins, cane sugar, cinnamon & sea salt), thinking the nutritional value looked great but I didn't really know much else about them. So when I found several recipes for VOOs on Angela Liddon's Oh She Glows which make use of chia seeds, I was really anxious to try one out. These oats were SO decadent. They tasted like dessert for breakfast. Dan, you would love these!! The only thing I did differently was add a few pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg. You can find Angela's really easy recipe here.

They were surprisingly creamy almost like yogurt.

This is how I felt after devouring them.

Christmas-like smells & Elf jigs,

Bailey

An Early Thanksgiving with Mom's Vegan Stuffing

Greeeeetings!
So, my family had our Thanksgiving early this year, on Sunday. I woke up the day before with an awful head cold and so was confined to the couch for most of our Thanksgiving day. I was excited to make a few vegan dishes for my family to try and pretend they love, but I was just too sick. So I was super excited when my mom dragged me off the couch and to the corner of the kitchen and opened a casserole dish full of a delicious vegan surprise. She had combined quinoa, lentils, sweet brown rice, green beans, mushrooms, cranberries and poultry seasoning, covered the grains with water and baked it in the oven. It was sooo yummy and Thanksgiving-y too!

I know it was super easy to make because I'm pretty sure it was an after-thought (haha), but if I were to re-create it, I would have definitely added more green. I've been living off of the leftovers all throughout the week and made a great lunch from it yesterday! I used full leafy kale leaves (cleaned & stems removed) and steamed them in my Pampered Chef veggie steamer. Then I took a couple of spoon-fuls of Mom's stuffing, a slice of tomato, and rolled 'em up into great little power-bites! Quinoa, lentils and brown rice are all packed with protein :)

And in response to Danielle's post, here is a link to help further motivate you to fight against your holiday temptations...
Dr. Fuhrman's Holiday Challenge

And if you haven't already, read his book, Eat to Live..you won't be sorry!

Happiness, health & sparkly things,
Bailey

I'm Thankful for...

I'm thankful for kale.
I'm thankful for pumpkins and squash.
I'm thankful for crunchy leaves.
I'm thankful for coffee and tea.
I'm thankful for cranberries.
I'm thankful for brussel sprouts.
I'm thankful for cabbage.
I'm thankful for broccoli.
I'm thankful for beans.
I'm thankful for quinoa.
I'm thankful for apples and pears.
I'm thankful for soup.
I'm thankful for garlic.
I'm thankful for fresh herbs.
I'm thankful for cinnamon.
I'm thankful for laughter.
I'm thankful for friends, family, and love.
I'm thankful for pecans.
I'm thankful for figs.
Mostly, I'm thankful for kale.


This Thanksgiving and holiday season, let's remember that there's no need to give into temptations of sugary, processed foods! Just remember what delicious and nurturing foods nature has provided us! Who needs anything else? Eating anything else with only bring feelings of regret, guilt, and failure. Be strong and we'll be able to enter the new year with renewed confidence and inner peace.
Love!

For my first post, I want to tell you about what I made for dinner last night. I promise I will include pictures from here on out, but I don't want to forget to tell you about this one! The idea was from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance: Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes that Rock by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It was a fantastic stuffed pepper recipe. I used 4 green bell peppers and the filling consisted of quinoa, black beans, mushrooms, tomato sauce, fresh rosemary, garlic, chili powder, and cumin. After cooking the filling on the stove and boiling the peppers, I stuffed them and topped them with panko crumbs and popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes. They turned out delicious! I was full after just one, making it the perfect hearty fall meal! I left our the salt, onions, and maple syrup in the recipe and added the rosemary and cumin, and they were still perfect! You should definitely try this one next time you have beautiful bell peppers on hand! It's one of those dishes you could vary a thousand ways and would be almost impossible to mess up :)