Vegan Crispy Rice Treats for Halloween

Ohhh dear, I have not been the best MoFo poster, but I'll try and be a long-term once a week poster. :)

This past week, I have been helping turn up raffle prizes for the Triangle Vegetarian Society's 2011 Vegan Thanksgiving Feast.  For this reason, I was on the Whole Foods website several times and turned up this recipe for Pumpkin Crispy Rice Treats that are vegan.  And oh boy, they are sooo tasty! BUT, I did not really get them to stick together. That doesn't really bother me because they taste great and I'm just as happy to eat them with a spoon. But they probably wouldn't work for a kids birthday/Halloween party at all.

I also was turned on to bulk herbs this week! I have a great herbal remedies book by Rosemary Gladstar and was looking for some herbs, not sure where to go. Very excited to find bulk herbs (this was also from Whole Foods)!

We have been exploring Appetite for Reduction the past few weeks - really enjoyed the Caulipots with Chickpea Gravy, especially since it's gotten cold this week!  This week we are making a wonderful sounding Fava Bean Salad from vegan homemade, Veganomicon's sushi (DH cannot get enough!), roasted root vegetables and Spanakopita. Looking forward to it all!

I hope you find some hearty Fall themed meals to fill your belly and satisfy your soul this week!

Succesful Raw Kale Salad (and Pizza!)

Had to write again this weekend because I am so excited that we harvested some kale from our fall garden and made a raw kale salad that DH and I both loved!  Reading online I learned a secret to making it work - add olive oil to the washed, torn kale with midribs removed, and massage the oil into the leaves. The effect is almost that of lightly steaming the kale, it's just a bit less raw tasting. :)  So, below is my official recipe:

Raw Kale Salad

1 cup kale leaves (about 10 small leaves)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup almonds, chopped and lightly toasted
1/8 cup raisins
1 carrot, chopped

Place the washed, torn kale leaves (minus midribs) into a medium bowl with the olive oil and salt. Massage the oil into the kale leaves for about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice, vinegar, carrot and raisins, stir well and let sit for 5-10 minutes for flavors to mingle and raisins to soften. Just before serving, add toasted almonds and stir again. Enjoy! Note: this served us two small salads, so scale up accordingly.

Our pizza was superb, too!  DH asked for a cornmeal crust, so I found this recipe online. I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and 3 cups all purpose flour. We froze 1/2, made 4 small breadsticks and one big pizza from this recipe. I made the Vegan with a Vengeance pizza sauce, and we added green bell peppers (last of the ones from the garden!), red onion, hot banana peppers and some veggie crumbles. It was delicious and really pretty with all of the colors!  DH's half had organic mozzarella on top.

Very successful dinner in our house. We are both very pleased with it. Great way to end a beautiful fall weekend. Cheers!

Fall Saturday - Farmer's Market and Banana Bread

Incredibly beautiful Fall day here in NC - blueblue skies, yellow leaves blowing, and it's about 70 degrees!  Finally wrestled my DH from bed this morning when I mentioned the Farmer's Market. :) We got, of all things: raspberries, field peas, beets, turnips, mums and a pumpkin!  The mums and pumpkin are for decoration out front - already in place! I love quick and compostable decorations!

I think I'll boil up the field peas for lunch and add some of our summer frozen corn to them - we love the two mixed together with salt and pepper. Maybe a small dab of margarine.

We are planning to roast the beets and turnips.

Best part of this morning is that I wanted to clean out some of the freezer and found three individually wrapped bananas that had gotten soft and I had been saving up for ?? months just for this moment!  Found this awesome banana bread recipe from my favoritest cookbook author, Ms. Isa Moskowitz.  It's baking now. Smells lovely!

Hope you all are enjoying the day as much as we are!

Happy Vegan Month of Food!

Hi folks,

That's right, it's the Vegan Month of Food! And this is the first time this month I have posted! :P

Tonight's quick Mexican meal warrants no space on the page.

I didn't post for a bit because we traveled two weekends in a row. The first weekend in October was our wedding anniversary! We stayed in Winston-Salem (NC) where we ate at Mary's Of Course, with a couple of nice vegan options.  We also hit Foothills Brewing Co. and Mellow Mushroom.  Overall, very lovely anniversary.

The second weekend in October, we visited family in the DC/Maryland area. I rode the Amtrak train from Cary, NC to Washington, DC and found that my dining car had TWO vegan options! One nice salad with a couscous side, and a vegan veggie burger (labelled as vegan on the menu.) Go Amtrak!

This morning I made the Wheat-Meat Stroganoff from Vegan Planet... Nom!  My husband doesn't like mushrooms, so I have to saute them on the side and add them to my half. We made the seitan last night at home using a small box of wheat gluten.

This vegan month of food for us will most likely include an apple pie, several winter squash recipes, chili, soups, sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, roasted fall vegetables, and more!

Cheers to you all and many a delish fall meal we wish you! Don't forget to buy local and seasonal when possible!