Vegan MoFo: Whimsical food always tastes better....

There are all kinds of vegan cheeses on the market these days - from Vegan-Rella to Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet to Sheese, Teese, to Dr Cow and and Daiya Cheese, the sheer range is often bewildering. We really do seem to have gotten beyond the necessity of stealing the milk from baby cows to make our mozzarella!

And so with that in mind, there is no longer any reason to omit cheese from that one dish that seems to demand the gooey stuff: pizza! Unless, of course, you are eating a pie like this one:



This beautiful pie was just loaded with mushrooms, baby spinach, fire-roasted red peppers, zucchini, and tofu riccota and was good beyond words. My savvy little sister managed to snag this baby off the menu when My Beloved and I visited her in London earlier this year to celebrate our mother's birthday. The pizza was her choice from the menu of the Root-Master - a retired London double decker bus which now serves as a fantastic vegan restaurant.

Healthy, delicious, cruelty-free and whimsical...what more could you ask for?

Stay vegan, friends!

Monday MoFo: Food Group 'Pizza'

It's a Monday evening stand-by: pizza.

It *was* going to be roasted garlic and white bean soup but, to be honest, after work today I really wanted some junk food comfort! So, I went to Curves, sweated around the circuit, and then came home to help in the making of this:



This was an adobo chili base with sliced vegan sausage, onions, garlic-roasted tomatoes and Vegan-rella (mozzarella). The second one we made* didn't photograph well, but in essence it was mushrooms and onion with a dried black bean and cucumber base. I really must post the recipe for that base thingy at some stage because not only is it great on pizzas, but also as a side dish, in paninis, in quesadillas, etc etc etc

With a nod to 'the other food groups', I also made a huge salad of green leafies, heirloom tomatoes, avocado, red onions, radishes, cucumber and kalamata olives. My Beloved whipped up a balsamic vinaigrette and we were good to go.

And now, it being Monday and me already yearning for the weekend, it is time to go.

To bed.

With a nice cuppa tea.

And a book.

So, until tomorrow, Stay Vegan, Friends! :)

* My Father-in-Law is vacationing with us right now - hence the duplicity of pizzas. Hey - is that a collective noun? - a duplicity of pizzas?????

TGI....P!

Yeah!, it's Friday!

There were times this week that this evening just could not come around quickly enough. Man, oh man, it's been...shall we say...'challenging'. However, here we are at last.....and in Massachusetts it is a holiday weekend: Columbus Day! Hurrah.

So, in celebration of having made it to this point in the week, I am making a pizza.

OK, it's a weak excuse, but I'm feeling that way tonight.

Weak.

Burnt out.

And generally tired of it all.

Work, that is.

So what is better, I ask you, than a cozy Friday night in with My Beloved, our pound puppies and a large vegan pizza? Especially as this particular vegan pizza is loaded with diary-free homemade pesto, thinly sliced potato (a la Vegan Joy), onions, jalapenos (well, My Beloved wanted them even though technically I suppose they're not super-compatible with pesto....sigh) and diced chunks of Vegan Dad's buffalo chickenless wings. And, as I type, a smattering of Vegan-rella is melting all over the top.

An aside: evestirs...did you try the Vegan-rella yet??

OK, so I hear the little timer beeping away meaning that the long-awaited pizza MAY be ready. Am off with the camera.....be right back!





And there's the finished product. Pix are hastily taken, but I am too hungry to bother with 'styling'. Let the munching begin!, says I....erm...anyone need a beer???

Oh, and Stay Vegan, Friends!

On Being The Vegan in the Room

You may, or may not, know that I am a member of Curves. Well, our club recently changed ownership and the new owner, Bonnie, held a potluck today as a way of getting the members together and celebrating our new start. So, accompanied by My Beloved (yes, spouses were specifically invited), I went armed with some great vegan offerings. The general theme, being so close to Valentine's Day, was Romance - with a capital 'R'!

So, having taken this to heart - ho ho! , we sped up to Northampton with a vegan heart-shaped pizza, topped with heart-shaped peppers of various colours, egglant, tomoatoes ('love apples'!) and no cheese...well, that's heart-healthy! And three trays of quinoa with eggplant, peppers, onions, green and yellow squash, corn and edamame. OK, I'll hold my hand up and admit that I somewhat overdid it on the amount of quinoa, but I hate worrying about there not being enough. Especially when I'm being 'the vegan in the room' if you know what I mean! Oh, the pressure to perform....!

Anyway, to finish it all off, there was also a blueberry and orange bundt cake - the second one I've made this week, as it happens and it met the self-same fate as its predecessor. Of course, this was from The Joy of Vegan Baking and was - without any shadow of a doubt - the very highlight of the potluck. If I was asked once, I was asked a couple of dozen times what was in it and how the heck it could be so good if it was 'vee-gun'.

I just smiled and explained how the silken tofu took the place of the eggs, bypassing all of the cholesterol and battery chicken hell. The sweetly seductive scent of freshly squeezed oranges, 
the still warm pop of the whole blueberries, the lightly moist crumb, the fine dusting of powdered sugar....Suffice to say, not a single slice came home with us! 

Naturally, having spent so much time baking and cooking (I was at it at 08:30 this morning, and as you know I am not a 'morning person' - especially not at the weekend!!!!), no photos exist of this bacchanalia. I left My Beloved in charge of the camera and he was waaaaay more interested in slicing the pizza than in performing his 'documentary' duties. So I guess you'll simply have to take my word that these wonderous things happened.

But they did. Oh yes, indeedy!

Stay Vegan, Friends!