Gardein Crispy Tenders

If you're on Facebook you can hardly miss someone posting the the photos of the mysterious pink mechanically separated meat. If you want all the fun without all the grossness, check out Gardein's Crispy tenders.  It's been awhile since I've had an actual McNugget, but these make a pretty good substitute.  Mmm bbq sauce...

  

I'm working my way through trying all the Gardein varieties.  I've found them frequently at regular grocery stores, but you can find them at Whole Foods as well.  There are some varieties in the fridge section and some in the freezer.  Also may randomly appear in the fresh fruit and veggie section.

Westchester Vegan Eat-Up at Haven in Pleasantville

Awesome blogger JL Goes Vegan hosted our local Veg*an Eat-Up meet-up event at Haven in Pleasantville, NY.  Vegan friendly American cuisine focusing on fresh, organic, market driven foods.  There are several vegan dishes on the menu at all times so between the Ninja and I we ordered them all.

First up was butternut squash soup  

Then a nice mixed greens salad (I confess this photo is JL's)

Crispy chickpea fries with a spiced black cherry cream.  This sauce was delicious.

Chef made cauliflower broccoli squash ravioli just for our vegan group.  The Ninja really enjoyed this and didn't really miss the non-vegan item he wanted to order...

 I had the soba noodles with white bean meatballs.

Dessert was a super delish dairy free chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.  Yum!

JL got a pic of the whole group.

Totally fun night meeting new people and eating awesome vegan food.

Cheers!

New Year's Rancheros

Resolutions schmesolutions.  Blog worthy or no, I'm bringing in 2012 with an old classic.  Scramble rancheros.  Tortillas, a little salsa, a little tofu, and voila breakfast of campeones.  Fresh salsa makes it super awesome, and I just wouldn't be me if there wasn't a little chipotle vegenaise on the side.

Happy New Year's ya'll.

 

Super easy meaty weeknight ziti

Sometimes I wonder why anyone bothers writing pasta recipes since it's so easy just to throw stuff in that you've got in the cupboard, freezer, and fridge.  Here's an easy weeknight pasta recipe anyway.

Beefy 'shroomy ziti - serves one with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow

1/4 bag/box pasta or whatever you've got open in the cabinet 

1 totally freezer burned vegan veggie burger

Hand full of frozen mushrooms covered in frost that you saved from the summer farmer's market/CSA

Any remaining wine from wine glass from the day before when you fell asleep watching TV

Sprinkle italian herbs/garlic

2-3 big dashes of Tobasco

Any remaining Ragu or similarly jarred spaghetti sauce you find near the back of the fridge

Cook pasta.  Saute everything else together in pan and add pasta when done, then let cook another 5 minutes to absorb the sauce. 

Seriously and I wonder why I neglect the blog.  Clearly I need to cook more interesting stuff.  Me thinks it's time to make some vegan cupcakes...look out!

Mofo 15 - Sexy Vegetables! - Daikon Radish

I picked up this well hung daikon radish at the Farmer's Market in Lewes this morning. 

Daikon food porn...

The daikon was quite a bargain at $3.  It took up half the back seat.  I'll make something Japanese with it tomorrow.

The Lewes Farmer's Market.  Nestled in the wooded grounds of the Historical Society in downtown.

Now I'm headed to my High School reunion like Zach & Miri and Romy & Michele with a little Grosse Point Blank.

Candle Cafe at home (or work) Seitan Piccata!

I was grabbing a few vegan Kashi frozen meals for the office when I spied a familiar logo at the bottom of the Whole Foods freezer.  Can this be?  It's Candle Cafe's seitan piccata in frozen form!

I made it for lunch today.  I don't have a microwave at home, but they're pretty darn handy at work.  Five minutes later, I enjoyed my haute cuisine at my desk.

Sure it's no substitute for the lovely ambiance of Candle Cafe or Candle 79, but as far as freezer food goes this was DELICIOUS!  At only 210 calories, this is some serious lean cuisine.  I think they're usually about $6, but they were 2 for $9 with $1 off each coupon, so I got a super deal going on here.  

Mofo 3 - OMG the awesome juicer is the funnest invention ever!!

Sure it's a little messy, but it's so freakin' fun!  I almost feel bad for the vegetables as I smash them to their doom.  If you have the means and want to make your own juice, definitely spring for the uber fancy model.  It's easy to clean you can make a whole lot before it needs to be cleaned out.  You don't even have to cut the vegetables up that much.

Left is super green with kale, spinach, celery, apple, parsley, lemon.  Middle is carrot, apple pear.  Right is all beet.  I'll probably mix them together, but they're so pretty alone!