Awesome Saturday! Vegan Dining at Thuyen Vien in Anaheim CA!

Holy smokes Thuyen Vien in Anaheim California is freakin AMAZING! I want to go back tomorrow for realzzz people! Take a seat and embrace yourself for some food porn and if you're ever in So Cal, get your fanny over to Thuyen Vien. Almost everything is vegan except like five "fish" dishes... kinda wonder why they even bother...

So my amazing step mom treated me to lunch today and this is what we had:

Thai Iced Tea... Solid

Spring Rolls... Wrap these in the lettuce leaf with some of the mint and double dip your heart out in the sauce

Banana Flower Tacos... Plain ingredients that somehow become heavenly

Fried Rice Thailand Style... Loved it! Tofu chunks, fake meats, cilantro, delicious short grain rice... Add some chili paste and now we're talkin :)

Soy Chicken Garlic with Special Sauce... Good, standard TVP chunks with some good sauce and green onions, no complaints

Eggplant Claypot Sensation... Eggplant is the new love of my life, this melts in your mouth, I will be fantasizing about this tonight <3

Vegan Flan... First vegan flan experience, epic, no difference!

Vegan Cheesecake... Solid, no complaints

Get your ass to Thuyen Vien HERE IS THE MENU.

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 11

I have decided I will continue the "Massive Unload" theme... I had a week full of eating bizarrely paired leftovers and a crazy weekend... Here are some slop worthy photos for real foodies haha:

 Slop Style #1: Indian Potato Cauliflower dish, Teriyaki Baked Tofu, Roasted Broccoli, all smothered in Miso Gravy with minced baby bellas added while heating the gravy leftovers (Why did I not think of the shroom addition earlier?!)

Slop Style #2: Roasted Broccoli, Creole Roasted Carrots, Indian Potato Cauliflower dish, Indian Eggplant Potato dish, and remainder of the Miso (And now baby bella) Gravy smothered on top.

I did do a bunch of cooking and food prep yesterday (Saturday) and today (Sunday) to kind of calm my nerves for the remainder of the week. I have food to eat for the entire week in my fridge ready to go so I can relax! I made some Vegan Ranch and prepped a huge container of salad base (Romaine, cabbage, and carrots) and have containers full of prepared add ins: Kidneys, sliced black olives, corn, green onions, cilantro, and cubed teriyaki baked tofu so that lunches will be a breeze! I also made VWAV's Black Bean, Mushroom, and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, VW's General Tao's Tofu, Brown Rice, Calrose Rice, Life Enchanting Lentil Soup (Recipe received from the Mother unit, I will see if I can find a link), Spicy Eggplant with Tofu, and Maple Glazed Brussels. I do plan on making a batch of Crock Pot Seitan for an easy "Meaty" item to pair easily with items for din din.

Today I made Vegan Nachos, but subbed some almond pulp (Moist from just making plain almond milk) for the cashews. I also used almond milk instead of the usual soy for this recipe and it worked out beautifully! I will be doing this now indefinitely as I have an indefinite supply of almond pulp! These bad boys had the "Cheeze", VW's Sausage Crumbles, homemade refried beans, black olives, homemade guac, tomatoes, vegan sour cream, and green onions as toppings... Score!

I also made a huge pot (12 cups of just liquid homies) of Life Enchanting Lentil Soup. I love soup, maybe it's a vegan thing? I just love how warm and comforting it is and how many healthy ingredients you can jam pack into one serving :) Soup for me all this week... Squeeee <3 I will probably jazz it up with some additional spices and throw in some precut kale.

Lastly, I had a huge 2 pound bag of brussels from Costco that needed to be roasted and slathered in something. I have been reading Leafygreensandme for awhile and this lady is such an amazing cook that it scares the crap out of me quite frankly... I can only aspire to be such an amazing cook and recipe writer! Her recipe for Maple Glazed Brussles Sprouts was right up my alley, read: 4 INGREDIENTS THAT I HAVE ON HAND! I love her technique though with cooking down the maple syrup! My stupid ass would have just tossed the brussels in maple syrup without cooking it down so that it coats the sprouts ever so perfectly! I COULD EAT THESE ALL DAY EVERYDAY!

Go make some!

Peace, Love, and Veganism <3

Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

LA has like a million vegan restaurants, it is overwhelming to have so many options, seriously. I chose Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't want the typical Asian or American themed vegan food, I wanted something different and this Latin food did not disappoint 4 out of 5 stars! 

We split the Empanadas that were served up with some salsa. The filling was TVP for sure, sinfully fried and delicious!

I had the "Chicken" Mole with Refried Beans and Spanish Rice. The "Chicken" had a texture and taste I wasn't too familiar with and the little pieces were even presented on a fake bone which kind of creeped me out, for realz. It was pretty good, I really liked the Mole sauce and the refried beans and homemade whole grain flour tortillas that came with!

My step mom got the Stew in Green Sauce with Black Beans and Spanish Rice. I liked the texture of the "Beef" or whatever they were trying to mock in the dish, the taste was decent.

I also enjoyed a glass of Horchata which was very yummy! I haven't enjoyed this yummy drink since going vegan almost 3 years ago :)

The reason I went up to LA was to see my "friend" via the internet vegan community, Quintess (Author of Radiant Health Inner Wealth), do a cooking demo and book signing. I love meeting online friends in real life and this chick is so healthy she freakin glows people, no joke! She made some kale salad and lemme tell you... It actually tasted good! I rushed to the store and bought all the ingredients I didn't have on hand so I can make it tomorrow! I tried making kale salad once and it tasted like ass. I knew I did something wrong if so many other people seem to enjoy it. I won't post pictures of me and Qunitess cause I look semi-gooberish :) The kale salad is so easy though it's just kale, lemon juice, crushed garlic, sea salt, agave nectar, olive oil, raisins, and kalamata olives... Like a perfect mix of sweet (raisins), spicy (garlic), and sour (kalamata olives)!

Gravy and Indian... Yup

^ Not together, though I am not guaranteeing this will never happen... I will welcome you to my bizarre world of food pairing, seriously bizarre peoples... This is one of the reasons I usually just show the dish alone and not the actual plate I eat. Ha! I will let you in to my world, just this once for my gravy posts:) Kidding...

So first, I had potatoes, which grew into parsley garlic mashed potatoes, these mashed potatoes felt a little nakee (Yup that's how I say it) and wanted a good slathering of gravy. I made two different types of gravy, both from VegWeb and my nakee mashed potatoes were satisfied.

First off was Vegetarian "Chicken" Gravy. This was very good gravy! I used the Superior Touch's No Chicken Bouillon which is good stuff! I am happy that this is easy to find now that Mother's Market stopped carrying No-Chicken Broth Powder in the bulk bins :(

(Mashed Potatoes with Vegetarian Chicken Gravy, Creole Seasoned Roasted Zucchini and Poblano Peppers, and Tofu Scramble)

Next off was Miso Gravy. This was alright, I used white miso and I think I would have liked it better with red. I added some poultry seasoning and a few extra tablespoons of flour to thicken it more. Not bad but not insanely good. I was happy to use up some of the miso paste that has been parked in my fridge for the past few months.

(Mashed Potatoes with Miso Gravy, Baked Teriyaki Tofu, and Easy Elotes)

On to the Indian! Manjula's Kitchen is such an awesome resource to learn how to cook some easy and tasty Indian Food. I've made both these dishes before but this time around I tweaked them a little!

Aloo Gobi with green peas added this time as she suggests and I doubled the green chili's, diced them, and added them in with the "paste". Loved it!

Aloo Baingan was much better this time around! I doubled the spice/ paste ingredients except for the salt which made the dish so much better since last time this was really mild and bland in my opinion.

Peace, Love, and Veganess <3

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 10

Randomness:

When it comes to food, I can be a mad scientist these days... I am totally weird as well when it comes to matching flavors and pairing dishes... No matter what, I always take a little bit of each item to make 1 bizarre condiment laden bite... It takes me forever to eat sometimes, concocting my yummy bites with just a little of everything :) I am done rambling folks, on to the food...

I've been hitting up the 99 cents store and they have some goodies, for reals... I picked up a big bag of poblano peppers and of course had to figure out what the hell to do with them: Stuff them of course with leftovers! Duh :) I stuffed one pepper with leftover mashed potatoes and sprinkled on some green onions and Daiya Mozzarella. The other pepper was stuffed with some leftover black bean and quinoa mixture from the Mini Wet Burritos and covered with some leftover canned tomato sauce and Daiya Mozzarella. Not bad for bizarre food combination's!

I had these stuffed peppers over the next few days paired with Homemade Refried Beans (Sans the "Smoke" just pickled jalapenos added instead), some "Spanish" Rice dish that was inspired by a friends suggestion on VegWeb (1.5 C White Rice + 2 T Annatto Infused Oil + 1 3/4 C Veggie Broth + 1 C Minced Spinach and Pepper added at the end). I even poured vegan gravy on these suckers (Next post).

 (Quinoa Stuffed Pepper with Spinach "Spanish" Rice and Homemade Refried Beans)

(Mashed Potato Stuffed Pepper smothered with Gravy paired with Spinach "Spanish" Rice and Homemade Refried Beans)

I also made a few pizzas with french bread (One of my new favorites!). One pizza was tomato sauce, green bell peppers, onions, olives, and jalapenos. The other was barbecue sauce, onions, olives, red bell peppers, and jalapenos. Both lightly covered with Daiya Mozzarella and baked for about 10 minutes at 400F and dipped in homemade Vegan Ranch.

Lastly, my beloved Gma took me grocery shopping at the Costco in Irvine! They had so many yummy vegan goodies there: Gummies, Soba Noodles, Seaweed Salad, and TOFU! To name a few... I think we vegans have arrived now that Costco of all places carries TOFU! It's about time! They also had these vegan Potato Knishes which were pretty tasty, probably not something I would bother buying again. These are like mashed potato stuffed pockets... Way too carb heavy and filling for me, I could hardly eat one!

Peace, Love, and Veganess <3

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 9

Recipe Reviews and Links:

Manjula's Kitchen's Aloo Baingan

I thought this dish was alright. I decided I only like Japanese eggplant... Regular eggplant just has an off putting texture and I like the eggplant to be over cooked (Cooked just right for me and kind of falling apart). I really think with some more heat this would have been better, I added Sriracha and it was good.

VegWeb's Melty Cheese 

This is my go to Nooch Sauce. Don't screw with the recipe follow it and use plain soy milk!

American Vegan Kitchen's Poblano Macaroni Salad

I am not so sure I like this salad anymore... Too much chipotle in adobo for me and I like spice! Black beans as suggested were a good addition, but still I tossed half... Sigh  

Spicy Eggplant with Tofu

I love this recipe so much and I suggest you make it now and just sub vegan oyster sauce and squirt on some Sriracha at the end!

Vegan Mouse's Mini Wet Burritos

I love these burritos! Make them now as well peoples! I expect batch cooking from you this weekend!

Peace, Love, and Vegansim <3

More on Convience Food... The Shame

Yep, I whore it out convenience food style sometimes... Here's some more on that! 

I suck at baking, for the record, but premade cake mixes I can do, thankfully. Here I used some premade cake mix and frosting (Seems vegan enough ingredient-wise for me) to make some delicious "Fall Inspired" cupcakes. I did have to leave off the sprinkles that came with the frosting as they are made out of Confectioners Glaze, a fancy word for Bug Secretion :) I subbed the eggs for Ener-G egg replacer eggs and that was my only change! 

I also buy this prepackaged Archer Farms Spinach Dip Mix at Target, good stuff! Just make your dip out of the vegan versions of mayo and sour cream... Awesome with crackers, pita chips, veggies, toasted bread, you name it!

I love pizza! Daiya (Vegan cheese) is growing on me only when it comes to lightly added to pizza. This pizza had green bells, spinach, onions, Daiya, and jalapeno, served up with a slathering of my Vegan Ranch. I bake my pizza at 400F and broil for a little towards the end (Takes less than 10), I always seem to forget about the damn thing and burn it a smidge so watch carefully when broiling!

Lastly, I have a huge package of thin Japanese soup noodles still needing to be using up. These noodles cook in minutes in boiling water. Here I added the cold noodles to garlic, crushed red chilies, SBL (Smart Balance Light), dried parsley, salt and pepper. Easy peasy and pretty good (I added too much crushed red chilies here).  

Peace, Love, Vegan <3

Veggie Grill

I hit up Veggie Grill  for an APRL event on Thursday last week (Half of the meal price was donated) and I was not disappointed! It seems to be kind of similar to Native Foods, and I've heard there is a connection between the owners so it makes sense... Sorry, VG, Native Foods "Chicken" Wings with Chipotle Ranch hold an unbeatable place in my little vegan heart. 

I tried the Buffalo Wings which were phenomenal! But the Ranch was a bit thin compared to Native Foods (And if you are a vegan ranch whore like me make it at least double serving seriously)...  The "Chicken" was definitely the same recipe as Native Foods, which I need to get my hands on ASAP!

I also got the Nachos, which were good as well. The cheesy nacho "cheese" sauce was definitely nut yeast based and I could have duplicated these at home, but yummmmmm!

"Milk" Making Adventures

I was outta funds but brainstorming foodie ideas as usual... I heard on VegWeb that you can make Oat Milk and was given this BAD RECIPE LOL for like Oatmeal Milk... I thought it was similar to drinking slime, though I've never actually drank slime though :) I say skip this recipe, though one VW user swears by it, I do not concur.

 (Plain Oat Milk)

(Chocolate Oat Milk ((Just added chocolate syrup)) was bearable when blended with some ice to make it shake-like)

Then I tried Rice Milk. First I attempted it in my Soyabella "Milk" Maker and it was a fail... Gooey mucous slime... 

 Then I tried This Recipe, with totally expected success cause this chick seems to know her shit, and slimy failure once again :( This could be my fault? I dunno.

 I've had a Soyabella "Milk" Maker since Christmas and finally decided to bust it out after months of dust collecting (First attempt at Almond Milk sucked cause you really need to purchase a Nut Milk Bag or it will be gritty). I had a shit ton of raw almonds in the freezer and some PURE VANILLA EXTRACT so I went for it. Epic SUCCESS! Here's what I did/ do:

Vanilla (Or Plain) Almond Milk:

1 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight and rinsed.

6 cups purified water

2 t PURE Vanilla Extract (Not cheap stuff!!!), omit if making plain "Milk"

1/4-1/3 cup white sugar (I like sweet "Milk")

1/4 t sea salt

Directions:

Follow Soyabella's instructions, this recipe is slightly adapted from the recipe book provided with the machine. Make sure you strain this through a nut milk bag once the milk has cooked and cooled.

(Vanilla Almond Milk served up with a toasted Pumpkin Bagel and Tofutti "Cream Cheese")

(Pumpkin Pie with crappy crust and modified version of Cashew Cream)

You will have leftover almond pulp/meal/flour if you strain through the nut milk bag... I didn't want to waste the pulp cause nuts are expensive homie! I tried making a pie crust which was an epic fail (Fell apart, my first attempt at using the pulp, I think it was too moist). The Pumpkin Pie was still good though, I just picked the crust off and dolloped some Cashew Cream on top! For the Cashew Cream, I recommend soaking the cashews and using "milk" in place of water and less.

To get the almond pulp less moist, I decided to bake it at 350F I believe for an hour or two, depending on how much pulp you have. One it loses it's moisture and cools a bit, I whiz it around in my food processor to make a flour like substance.

I also used VWAV's Pancake recipe to sub some almond pulp. I think I over did it though and subbed too much (I hear you can sub half for regular flour, I did like 3/4 cause I'm an idiot)... The pancakes were still very yummy with some cheapy "maple syrup" and powdered sugar :)

Feel free to send me some ideas on what to do with this abundance of almond pulp, I'm swimming in it.

I also tried Cashew Milk and strained it through the nut milk bag and got slime... Enough with the slime!

Peace, Love, Vegan <3

Spicy Eggplant with Tofu

Spicy Eggplant with Tofu is my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant Thai Garden in Foothill Ranch. I really want to recreate this dish sooooooo bad! This recipe comes close. The technique used for baking the tofu is a new technique for me that I plan on using often! The only substitute I made was to use vegan "oyster" sauce. 

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1774278

Recipes I've Posted On VegWeb

Here are pictures of a few of the recipes I've submitted on VegWeb. The first 2, I make ALL THE TIME... The last one, Pico de Gallo, I've only made once but it was heavenly :)

Vegan Taco Soup 

Nowadays, I omit the vegan ground "beef" crumbles and saute the onion and garlic in water to eliminate needless fat. I also add TVP usually towards the end of cooking (The fine granule kind, not chunks), about 3/4 cup and mix in to incorporate, as it cooks quickly.

My go to recipe for Potato Salad... Yummmm, think I might have to make some again this weekend!

Lastly, Pico de Gallo!

The recipe still hasn't been fixed on VegWeb but basically forget the liquid part in the directions! Just chop everything and mix it together, the tomatoes will omit enough juices on their own.

Peace, Love, Vegan <3