Vegan Brunch! ("Quickie Too", in Tacoma)

I swear I still cook, I've just been doing a lot of repeats lately so I don't have much in the way of original ideas to post.

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That said, the boy and I decided we were tired of the standard Puget Sound-style drive-thru coffee-stand breakfasts (as you can see, we're BAD about that!) and we decided to venture out for some "real" breakfast food.

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We decided to do Sunday Brunch at "Quickie Too" over in Tacoma, and as always, the food ROCKED!

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Quickie Too is an all-vegan cafe owned by the same people who have Hillside Quickie and Hillside Quickie Sandwich Shop in Seattle. They call their food Vegan American-Soul Fusion which pretty much translates into GOOD! If you're ever in Seattle, or Tacoma, check them out!

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We started with these incredible melt-in-your-mouth blueberry muffins, tea and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Totally tasted as good as it looks!

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Our Brunch platter came loaded with tempeh "bacon", a seitan "steak" with gravy, grits, fried plantains, fluffy biscuits, scrambled tofu, cinnamon apples, homefried potatoes, something with sweet potatoes...

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I'm serious, ALL of that!! And even though we've been here before, we dug in so fast, we didn't THINK to take a picture, it was that good.

Hope you all had a restful, enjoyable weekend.

Happy Earth Day; And Let Me Rant A Bit...

I suck at remembering special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, even Earth Day. But just so I don't sound like a totally unprepared slouch, I'll try to make it appear as if I planned something special...

Let's see... To celebrate Earth Day:

• I ate vegan, significantly reducing my carbon footprint - more significant, some statistics say, than driving a Hybrid car (of course, I've been vegan every day for the last five or so years)


• And I used my new reusable grocery bags instead of paper or plastic. (I've had the bags for months, in the trunk of my car... forgetting to use them!)


• And we carpooled (my kids and the neighbors', trading rides to and from school as we've been doing all year).


• We've reduced our household trash output by 75%! I set out the recycling and trash this AM and I realized I am down to one small can a month of 'regular' trash (our neighborhood has a great recycling program, I can say that, but we've also reduced what we use drastically.)


• I air-dried a load of laundry (which I have done with shirts and things for years, I have a dryer phobia, I don't know.)


• I used my own travel mug at Starbucks this morning rather than a paper cup.


• And I purchased three organic hemp shirts today, in my slow attempt to use less cotton. (Don't even get me STARTED on cotton, it's the latest Earth-saving bandwagon I'm jumping on...)

Did you know:

Using 4.5% of the global land area, cotton requires 22.5% of the world's insecticides and 10% of the world's chemical fertilisers. Globally, the World Health Organisation estimates 3m instances of pesticide poisoning and 20,000 deaths each year, mainly among poor cotton farmers in developing countries.
The simple act of growing and harvesting the one pound of cotton fiber needed to make a T-shirt takes an enormous toll on the earth’s air, water, and soil, and has significant impacts on the health of people in cotton growing area.
United States farmers alone applied nearly one-third of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for every pound of cotton harvested, and this amount is significantly higher in less regulated countries.
Cotton crops are grown in 19 states, and account for twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the entire U.S. Some of these chemicals are among the most toxic and dangerous ones classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet environmental impact studies estimate that 90% of those chemicals end up in the soil, air and water around the fields and not on the crops themselves.
(Organic cotton is slightly better; it doesn't use the pesticides, but still leaches nutrients out of the soil, and uses a great deal of water and land inefficiently).

But enough ranting. Think about it though.

To top off the day, my daughter made vegan cookies. (recipe here).

Happy Earth Day!!

Green and Red

OOooohhh "Cheezy" Chile Rellanos and Tempeh (not-Carne) Adovada.

I dared make these pretties for my good friend Shaun, red-blooded, lifetime New Mexico resident and extremely picky chile critic...
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He was impressed.
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Actually, I was too. Yum.
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Sometimes I worry needlessly that stuff won't turn out right...
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Now, dear blogger-readers, if you're thinking this looks familiar, you're right, this is a repeat. How un-original am I?
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Anyway, the recipes are here: Chile Rellanos and here: Tempeh-Not-Carne-Adovada. Only this time, I topped the chile rellanos with panko breadcrumbs and skipped the sauce over them, oh man... they were cheezy inside, crispy on top... perfect!
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Here the chiles are before I baked them; aren't they cute, all lined up in the pan, before they bubbled and ooozed everywhere?

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Enjoy. Hope everyone has a great week.

My Newest Favorite Restaurant

While Shaun was here, I took him to breakfast at my new favorite Restaurant here in the Seattle area.

Squid and Ink.

This funky little place is not far off the freeway in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. If you're passing thru, check it OUT!

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Oh, man, I LOVE LOVE them for so many reasons; 1) it's got that whole indie/punk/DIY vibe, 2) it's open late, and 3) the food is delicious, VEGAN and hearty. Oh, and 4) it serves breakfast till 4 p.m.

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The menu is full of warm, cozy vegan yumminess; we certainly did our best to sample plenty of it...

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First up, to explain this scary picture; that Canadian (more specifically Quebec) favorite "Poutine"; which is basically a dish consisting of French fries, topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy.

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We dug right into the vegan version (which may explain the messy photo) which was quite deelish.

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Admittedly, neither of us have ever had the"original" to compare, but who cares? Fries, gravy and creamy melting curds of vegan cheese... sounds pretty dang good to me. Rich and decadent too, we brought lots home!

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I probably shouldn't admit how much we ordered, but I'll say we also brought home leftovers of incredible vegan fish and chips, and perfect crispy, salty sweet potato fries.

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On previous visits I've had the seitan-fried steak and gravy, one of my all-time favorite meals EVER!

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More fun restaurant food to follow. (Just what I need!).

Happy weekend!

LightLife Score and More!

OK, so waiting on my front porch today was a NICE size box filled with every wonderful looking sort of goodie from the generous people at LightLife foods...

Seriously, they said they were sending me a "few samples" which I thought was cool; I don't have access to many of their products, and am always curious about the ones I do see, but don't want to waste precious grocery money on something I may not like...

But WOW! I am delightfully overwhelmed. A insulated box FULL of Gimme-Lean and tempeh and bacon-like stuff and... I don't think I've ever seen 3/4 of these things. And yes, while I realize they do have calories and processing, and sodium and plastic packaging and whatever fault you may wish to find, I am happy and would say nice things regardless. (BTW, they actually are a pretty "green" company, which is even better!!)

You see, even if it ends up we are not crazy about their products (which I doubt!) you just can't imagine how much I appreciate this unexpected boost to my tiny little grocery budget!

That said: Tonight I used the SmartBacon, fried it up a little crisp (yes, I said FRIED!) and made BLT's (which were really GBLAOT's - hmmm, sounds appetizing, yes? Grilled, with avocado and some mild Walla Walla Sweet onions).

Well, can I just say that my "faux-meat-skeptic" children inhaled several delicious bacon-y sandwiches in the time it took me to photograph one... that in itself should be proof enough. Definitely a keeper.

Veggie Gyros with Tzatziki

So, since the Boy was visiting for a few days, and since it was almost his birthday, and since I knew he LOVED Gyro sandwiches, and since I knew he had been dying to try this vegan version, which they don't sell in Albuquerque... well, what can I say? I decided it was a good reason to treat him (and me!) to something fun and different.
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The product is a nicely seasoned strips of some seitan-sort of veggie "meat". I have to admit, I was skeptical that these little bits would have any spectacular flavor as I tend to pooh-pooh commercially made seitan products. They never seem to be seasoned enough for my "salt" tooth, or flavored to my liking. Well, it certainly didn't impress me when they all stuck together in a funky blob when I dumped them into a fry pan to warm them up. (There are no cooking instructions on the package.) I admit I raised my eyebrows.

But, after they warmed up and simmered in the bit of "sauce"...Wow!
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Let me give them a total thumbs up review!!
The flavor was RIGHT ON and the texture was great, not as rubbery as seitan can be, and yet not squeamishly meat-like either. Probably one of the best faux-meats I've tried.
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We made these really cute little sandwiches, (because mini-pitas were the only vegan ones I could find). Sorry for the unusually bad light but I was in a hurry, dammit.
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We loaded them with tasty bite-size amounts of Gyro "meat", lettuce, onion, Greek olives and some chunky homemade Tzatziki sauce and oh, my gosh... they were delightful! Perfect! Definitely will have to make them again! I'd say one package feeds two generously, because we were quite stuffed.
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As for the vegan Tzatziki sauce? One of the first recipes that came up when I Googled, was a great looking one from Vegan Dad's blog. I went with a similar idea I confess, but since I changed up the recipe quite a bit (due to having different ingredients and I don't like dill) I thought I'd post it. For the record, his looks excellent too - in case you don't have the ingredients for mine!

Vegan Tzatziki Sauce
~ About 2/3 of a carton Tofutti Sour "Cream"
~ 1/4 a tub of water-packed tofu (you probably don't even need this)
~ juice from 1 lemon and a few tiny shreds of the peel
~ 2 cloves of garlic
~ 1/2 - 1 tsp salt
~ freshly ground pepper
~ 20 - 30 leaves fresh mint (small handful)
~ about the same amount of fresh parsley
~ pinch of cayenne
~ 1 English cucumber (because I like them and the peel isn't so tough)
~ 1/2 a very sweet (Maui, Vidalia, Walla Walla) onion

Cut onion and (peeled if you want) cucumber into chunks. Put fresh herbs, cucumber and onion in bowl of food processor. Coarsely chop vegetables and herbs in food processor by pulsing off and on just a few times as needed. (I like it chunky).

Remove vegetables from food processor and set aside.

Put Tofutti Sour Cream, tofu, lemon juice, garlic, and spices together in food processor and blend until creamy. If too thick, add a splash of soymilk, though the cucumber will "juice up" and make the dip thinner as it sets.

Mix vegetables with creamy mixture. Serve. If waiting a while to serve, stir well before serving.

The Tzatziki is GREAT as a salad dressing the next day, though it will tend to separate, just whisk it a bit and it's fine. It really makes far more than you need for two people...

Hope you all have a great night, and "Kalispera", which loosely translated, means Good Evening in Greek.

Teapot Vegetarian House; Seattle

Had to post a few pix. I know I've blogged - and raved - about this place before, but it's just that good...

My friend Shaun was visiting for the week, from the dry, dusty wilderness (not really) of Albuquerque.

He loves all the awesome vegetarian places in Seattle (who wouldn't) but Teapot is one of our favorites! It's fun to actually have another real-life, honest-to-goodness vegan to share favorite places with sometimes, you know?

No worries about whether they'll "find anything they like" and no turning noses up at those "funny" (?) ingredients like tofu and seitan...

OK, so Teapot is one of Seattle's best known vegetarian restaurants, all vegan actually. They call themselves "Pan-Asian" which is basically a little bit of everything Asian/Thai-ish. Insanely deeee-lish!

Naturally we dragged a couple friends along for the experience, (yeah, they were complaining) and made sure we ordered our favorite dishes including the Rose 'Chicken' Drumettes, Pad Thai and Almond Fried Tofu with Gravy. We also ordered several interesting teas. Even the non-veg people were impressed!

My youngest had a few issues with the chopsticks, but otherwise, all was predictably wonderful!

If you're EVER in Seattle, you MUST go. Call me, I'll meet you there!

VegFest II; The Rest of the Story.

OK, it's been a week, you'd think I could finally get the rest of the VegFest post done, but no.... I've been on Spring Break and being lazy and doing... well.... not much... visiting with friends, cooking, going out to eat with my friend Shaun and a couple Dr.'s appointments. I'll post gratuitous food porn shots another day.

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So last Sunday.

VegFest in Seattle.

What a blast.

Yummy food and great information and interesting presenters... You all just need to come next year.

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I guess it's the largest (or 2nd largest? I heard both statistics) event like this in the country.

It's pretty big. Yeah, like sensory overload. But worth it.

A group of 6 of us went together, 2 vegans (my friend Shaun, and myself), 2 vegetarians (my 2 'Sprouts') and 2 "sometimes-a-tarians"(my friend Sheryl and her son) ...yes, yes, calm down, I know the term is FLEXatarian or whatever, (insert eye-rolling here) but they like this better and I suppose they can call themselves whatever they want, I'm not that into labels.

It was nice to have perspectives other than mine when it came to trying new products. My kids tend to be picky, it was nice to let them try new things without buying an entire BOX and then wasting it... I discovered my littlest Sprout LOVED Nancy's Soy Yogurt and the Bumble Bars. Items I haven't boughten simply because I'm not a fan. My not-quite-vegetarian friend Sheryl loved several of the burgers and the Tofurky sandwich slices, as well as meat-free Potsticker dumplings, all items she hadn't had before.

I think I sampled every available vegan sample - I was stuffed, but what FUN!! (OK, except for the reeeeally green hemp butter. Just a little too "green" for all of us...).

There were a few lacto-ovo items that I wish had been labelled better. The event is run by volunteers and even though they do an INCREDIBLE job, unfortunately, sometimes their product knowledge is limited. I LOVED the Bella Diva Raw almond/coconut oil (I think?) spread or "butter" too. So creamy and slightly sweet. It'd be nice instead of Earth Balance once in a while, I think.

And did I mention we all voted the Field Roast booth our favorite? Well, of course.

My only disappointment was the "Purely Decadent" people - what was up there? Last year was so awesome! Not to fear, there were several other vegan ice-"creams" to sample.

Matthew, my friend's teen-age son, so typical, tries to act like he's seldom impressed by much, but he was our "guinea pig" and volunteered to try anything. He really loved the "Cavi-Art" vegetarian "caviar"... I saw him return for several samples there. Surprising.

It's fascinating and fish-egg-like, but a little TOO caviar-like for me.

Oh!! And Bryanna Clark Grogan was one of the presenters!! So exciting. A REAL celebrity!

She gave the best demonstration for Banana Cream Pie, which I unfortunately don't have a recipe for - think I'll go look on her website. It was fun to see one of my cookbook heros in action though, even if I was in the w-a-y back! She's very entertaining and informative in real life, not that she isn't otherwise, but you know...

Here's HER blog notes about VegFest for a slightly different perspective. We were gonna stop by for an autograph in my "Nonna's Italian Kitchen" book a little later but my kids had had enough of the crowds by then. It WAS crowded. Very.

Speaking of crowds - I saw someone who recognised me from the PPK forums as well, but I didn't have time to stop and ask THEIR name... (kids needing the bathroom don't wait for veggie chit-chat I'm afraid.) So, {sigh} whoever you are, I wasn't being rude, I swear it!!

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A good time was had by all.

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My not-quite vegetarian friends learned a lot about products they hadn't heard of or tried; my kids got adventurous and sampled new things; And my friend Shaun - also vegan - got to try lots of items he can't find in the stores in his area of the world (Albuquerque).

As you can see, we came home LOADED with "loot" like vegetarian trick-or-treating; PETA stickers, Odwalla bars, tea and coffee and LARA bars!

After VegFesting, my 'Sprouts' were getting a little stir-crazy with the crowds, so we did a little Seattle sight-seeing (*Ooooh, the big city - skyscrapers - traffic - pollution - street people - oh my*) and then went to Whole Foods which, for us, is a treat; almost 2 hours from my house. I go about once a YEAR!

My friend Sheryl, a small-town girl like me, had never been. She was awestruck at the variety, selection and typical Whole Foods "pretty stuff". I SOOO enjoy sharing favorite places with my friends.

Here's hoping each of you had a great weekend and spent time with people you love.