Celebrate Vegan by Dynise Balcavage

I’ve been reading Urban Vegan for years, but just recently had the pleasure of meeting the amazing person behind the blog and cookbook. Attending Vida Vegan Con in August brought the opportunity of connecting with Dynise Balcavage in person. Shortly after, Dynise released her second cookbook called Celebrate Vegan and so kindly sent me a copy to review! I read through it several times, marking the recipes and menus I’d like to create.

Celebrate Vegan contains two hundred recipes carefully organized into menus that correspond with every holiday and get together you could imagine. Dynise created menus for New Year’s Day, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but also provides recipes and background information for celebrations like New Year’s Day around the world, Guy Fawkes Day, and Diwali. Don’t forget Snow Day and Girls’ Night In! These ready-made creations take the guesswork out of menu planning, which is certainly helpful during stressful holiday seasons. The deal gets sweeter for new vegans! A clear answer to the question, “what ever am I going to make for _______ Day without meat, cheese, butter, and eggs?!” is a lifesaver. She even includes wine pairings! I really enjoy how Dynise completely reinvents traditional holiday fare into something unique, rather than simply and straightforwardly veganizing these traditional dishes. In the Thanksgiving chapter you’ll find Seitan with Quince, Apple, and Onion, not tofurkey!

Since the basis of this cookbook is creative holiday menus, I thought making a complete menu would be the best way to stay true to Dynise’s vision when approaching the recipes (though if you would like to mix and match, the recipe index in the back of the book is divided into traditional categories!).

I decided to make the New Year’s Day Good Luck Brunch menu which includes Lucky Soba Noodles, Hot-and-Sour Carrots and Lentils, and Hoppin’ John. Dynise explains that the ingredients in this menu center on a fresh start and good luck. In Japan, soba noodles are traditionally eaten to represent a long life, and legumes and lentils evoke money, prosperity, and eternity.

Here is the spread:

The Lucky Soba Noodles with fresh veggies, bean sprouts, edamame, and tempeh were so refreshing and healthy-in-a-good-way. The tempeh bacon imbued the Hoppin’ John with a lovely smokey flavor throughout. This dish paired perfectly with the Hot-and-Sour Carrots and Lentils, which had a bit of sweetness, a pleasant tartness from the lemon juice, and a bit of spice.

Since this was a brunch menu, I accompanied the meal with a Bloody Mary.

This meal was so full of color, texture, and flavor that danced around the taste buds, all while being healthful and packed with nutrients. It was a wonderful meal for the middle of the day, and to start the year. I’d love to try out the other New Year’s menus in Celebrate Vegan (though the Sick Day menu might be appropriate for me and my never ending cold lately!).

Thank you for a fantastic cookbook, Dynise!

P.S. You can find a couple items from Celebrate Vegan on my Thanksgiving menu as well!

ExtraVeganZa eats

As much as I’d like to say I live off cupcakes and frosting, I do cook real food sometimes.

I recently got my hands on a copy of ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthias and I’m so glad I did. The flavor combinations Laura employs are creative, delicious, and a step out of the tofu scramble/nooch mac n cheese/chocolate cake box (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those). When I was flipping through the pages, I found myself bookmarking recipes left and right because they all sounded SO good.

Here’s a few that I initially tried out:
Sundried Tomato Olive Spread (page 11) and Lemon Lavender Blueberry Muffin (page 123)

The sundried tomato spread is a coveted variation on the standard kalamata tapenade. The Mediterranean flavors of the sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives are complemented by earthy pumpkin seeds, and a yummy blend of herbs.
I love baking with lavender. Working with floral flavors is a welcomed deviation from the same old desserts. It stands out perfectly in this sweet lemon lavender muffin studded with berries.

Spicy Peanut Coconut Sauce (page 57) over stirfried veggies and tofu

The coconut and peanut butter cut the strong flavors of one another in this smooth, flavorful sauce with a bit of a kick. It was yummy over tofu and veggies stir fried with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Almond Burgers (page 72), topped with Ste Martaen vegan cheese

I’m a big fan of the sweet potato black bean combination in burritos and enchiladas, so it was nice to see it in another application, spiced a little differently from the norm. Side of mashed potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VwaV.

Chocolate Jalapeño Cake (page 155)

I’m no stranger to the sweet and spicy combination with baked goods, but this was my first time baking with jalapeños. This cake was moist, rich, chocolatey, and had a mild pepper flavor throughout. It takes a bit getting used to, but I’m in love with peppers in baked goods now!

There’s many more recipes I’d like to try out of this book! Laura’s approach to flavor combinations is the way to my heart!

Jalapeño Mac N Cheese recipe and new WholeSoy flavors

WholeSoy just released two new yogurt flavors, plain unsweetened and key lime! I was able to try both these flavors right before they hit the shelves and was quite impressed. I’m a key lime fiend, so naturally I loved this new flavor and look forward for it to become a regular WholeSoy flavor.
I had never tried an unsweetened soy yogurt, so this new “flavor” intrigued me. The amount of sugar in soy yogurts can be off-putting sometimes and a sweet yogurt just won’t do when you are using it in a savory sauce or curry, so luckily there’s now another option for an unsweetened yogurt. At first I was just eating it with cereal and adding fruit, nuts, and agave to adjust the sweetness to a perfect amount that wouldn’t be overwhelming for breakfast, but I definitely wanted to be more creative and try using it in sauces and entrees. I was making spicy jalapeño mac n cheese one day and remembered the yogurt in my fridge and thought the tangy coolness would complement the hot peppers, so I decided to make a different version of this dish a few nights later using soy yogurt as a base. The result was a Tex-Mex style mac and cheese. I added roasted red peppers, and I think the addition of black beans, avocado, and black olives would also be great to make this dish a well-rounded main course.
Speaking of mac n cheese, my friend Kristen (as did Kerstin!) tested this recipe. She just started a blog all about mac n cheese called The Noochy Noodle where she reviews mac n cheese recipes from books, restaurants, online, and her own. She already has an extensive guide of recipes up on the blog. All mac n cheese, all the time. That is serious dedication, so go check out Kristen’s blog!

Without further adieu, the recipe:

Jalapeño and Roasted Red Pepper Mac N Cheese
Serves 4-5

1 lb pasta, any kind

1 medium onion
2-3 jalapeños
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
cayenne pepper, to taste
black pepper
salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon tahini
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons spicy brown mustard
½ cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup salsa, any kind
½ of a jarred roasted red pepper, diced
1 cup unsweetened soy yogurt

Put a pot of water on the stovetop boil the pasta, and cook while preparing the sauce.
Dice the onion, jalapeños, and garlic. Use more or less jalapeños (or leave some of the seeds in) to adjust the level hotness to your liking.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the onions, jalapeños, and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes, then add all the spices and the salt and peppers. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onions sweat and begin to caramelize.
Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice, then stir in the tahini, margarine, ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, and nutritional yeast. Stir until the tahini and margarine melt, and the mixture is combined. Add in the salsa and roasted red peppers, then remove from heat and stir in the soy yogurt.
Drain the pasta when it is done cooking, then pour the sauce over it, and stir to coat the pasta. Adjust seasonings, salt, and pepper to your liking, then serve immediately.

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan: Avocados

I confess: I have a horrendous habit of not planning ahead. When it comes to cooking, I’ll remember a recipe in so and so’s book that I really wanted to make while on my way to the grocery store, then realize I probably should’ve looked what I needed and made a grocery list BEFORE I left, which usually results in not cooking from recipes very much, or altering them to oblivion.

Throughout the semester I was waking up to an alarm every day, even on weekends, running out the door to whatever I needed to do, coming home, working some more, and falling asleep. Not doing nearly as much cooking as I’d like. But I have a month off, so I’ve gotten back into the swing of things, kicked my garlic powder habit (gasp!), and am going to commit to plan ahead. For everything!

I’ve decided to do a “cookbook challenge” type of deal throughout the months of December (well now December’s practically over…) and January where I pick a few books to cook from and review. It seems like a feasible goal, and focusing on one book at a time won’t result in being overwhelmed with a billion recipes I want to make from 50 different books. I’ve got a month off, a bookshelf that’s bursting at the seams, and a brand new kitchen, well for me. I moved into a studio apartment at the beginning of December with an adorable kitchen and dining room that is basically half the entire apartment, which I’m certainly not complaining about! Maybe a kitchen photo tour is in the near future.

The first cookbook I tackled during my break is Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I’m a big fan of Vive le Vegan and the Everyday Vegan, but ED&BV is brand new for me. Around the same time, I bought a couple avocados to take to my parent’s house to cook with, and found an entire bag of mini avocados waiting! I live off of guacamole. Naturally, that was the first thing I made and promptly devoured, but when one is faced with over 20 avocados, it’d be sort of lame and uninspired to use them ALL for guacamole or just eating. And you know, I didn’t make plans of what to make so I had to scour my cookbooks for recipes that I actually had the ingredients for, with an avocado theme.

I was eyeing the Smoky Avocado Sauce, and liked the idea Dreena presented in the book-Mexican pizza. Perfect! I could make the sauce and the pizza was all up to the imagination.

I found a quick and easy pizza crust to make, then picked some veggies to load it with. Chili powder spiced sweet peppers were roasted in the oven, as well as some onion:

While those were roasting, the pizza dough was rolled out, and I rubbed it with some oregano, chili powder, olive oil, and roasted garlic (the garlic was roasting with the peppers).

Assembled on the pizza dough was a can of refried beans (doctored with some of the roasted onions, salsa, olive oil, and spices), cheddar Daiya, the roasted peppers, black olives, and the avocado sauce:

Baked:

Yum yum.

The avocado sauce was mild and smoky. I may add a little more spice next time, but it was so good and cooling as is.

Avocados were also used in the Avocado Pinto Bean Enchiladas.
I don’t think cilantro tastes like too terribly like soap, but I’m also not a big fan of it. What kind of soap is it supposed to taste like?

This dish doesn’t have avocados, but it is the Blackened Tofu from ED&BV stir fried with curry spice kale, onions, and sweet peppers. I threw the dish together at last minute so I’d have something to eat at Christmas dinner. Bah. I just want to cook everything one of these holidays!

MoFo #14: Editorial Spread

As you may know, I am a photography major at school, but also a communication design minor so I can learn my way around design programs, creating logos, spreads, and make my blogs and future endeavors have better design. Right now I’m just in an introductory design class making layouts and spreads, and I’m using the opportunity to create vegan-themed designs, since that’s what I’ll be using that skill for, and I can apply it to my blogs and anything I’ll need to make basic designs for in the near future.

This assignment was to create an editorial spread, so I decided to make it in the style of an interview, so I made did the interview for real with Melisser, and used a photo from the shoot we did for Vegetarian Times earlier this year. I had to cut some questions for the sake of creating the design for class, but the full interview is posted here!

MoFo #9: Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale

Here’s what I brought home from last weekend’s Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale:

Cookies, pretzels, scones, and truffles:

Spicy Dilly Beans:

Some sort of banana cream chocolate scone sammich!

I’m going to let the rest of the pictures from the bake sale speak for themselves, but let me just say…the bake sale made $866! Holy shit. We got donations from vegans and non-vegans alike, who were all ecstatic to be there and support the Urban Ecology Center (where the bake sale was held) and The Hunger Task Force.

Here’s all the baked goods that nearly sold out:

I baked Autumn Clouds Pumpkin Cookies and Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies:

The Urban Ecology Center is a really awesome place!

Winner of the American Vegan Kitchen Giveaway!

The winner is…celyn!
I giggled a little when I saw who comment #2 is because she is doing giveaways with each of her MoFo posts on Miso for Breakfast all month. Karma? She totally deserves it!
celyn, email me your mailing address and I’ll send you your book this week! Congrats!

(This isn’t the entirety of this MoFo, I didn’t cheat! I’ll update later or tomorrow with a post about the Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale that happened over the weekend!)

MoFo #8: American Vegan Kitchen [GIVEAWAY]

I first noticed Tami Noyes when she joined the PPK and began posting photos of the gorgeous entrees she creates. Just take a look at her blog, Vegan Appetite, where you’ll find a vast array of dishes that will make your mouth water. I’ve wished Tami could cook for me on a regular basis on multiple occasions! It was great news to hear she was coming out with her cookbook, American Vegan Kitchen. The book is a huge collection of recipes: brunch, starters, soups, salads, sandwiches, main dishes, sides, and desserts. With recipes like Incrediburgers, Southern Fried Seitan, Margherita Pizza, Fried Avocado Wedges (I realllly want to make these soon!), and Apple Pie, ’nuff said.
From cookbook testing to Food Network Fridays to her own creations, Tami does it all! She was a cookie tester for me, and has also tested for numerous other vegan cookbook authors. I was also able to meet Tami and her husband Jim at the Chicago Diner over the summer!

Last night I made Chocolate Chip Quick Cake from page 187 to bring to Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale tomorrow, but I cut it into big slices and didn’t really tell people not to eat them, so I’m not sure if they’re going to make it til tomorrow! This cake has a rather scone-like consistency and is quite delicately flavored. Each bite delivers a modest but perfect amount of sweetness, and bursts of flavor come from the chocolate chips scattered throughout the dough. Yum!

**In the spirit of MoFo, I have an extra copy of American Vegan Kitchen to give away! Get your hands on your very own copy of this awesome book (and matching pen!) by commenting on this post. Describe a really amazing sandwich: one you’ve made, ordered at a vegan restaurant, or a sandwich that only exists in your dreams (so far). The winner will be randomly selected at 5pm CST on Monday November 15th, so you guys have this weekend and Monday during the day to post about sammiches!**

UPDATE: Contest is closed. Comment #2 is the winner: celyn!

MoFo #1: Anatomy of my MoFo posts

MoFo MoFo MoFo!

This may be the 4th year of Vegan Month of Food, but it’s my first year participating (I know!). I’m at school 40+ hours a week and working on homework and photography projects on weekday evenings and weekends. The rest of the time, I’m a cookbook author and blogger, taking care of all the work that goes along with that, writing constantly, and attending vegan events! Sometimes, actually most of the time, all these tasks overlap, so I’ll be answering emails on my breaks, or PPKing while doing homework (AKA, procrastinating).
Being super busy, I still decided to take on Vegan MoFo…and I’m going to be persistent throughout the whole month and keep up with blog posts. No dropping out! I planned out my ideas ahead of time, so having designated prompts for each day will definitely help with staying on track. Creating a plan that would be doable was also important.
So, here is my plan thus far:
*I will have weekly themes: Writing, Events, Reviews, and Cookbook or Craft. The empty spaces will be filled with Vlogs.
*I booked every weekend and some days with vegan events! The first weekend I’m attending the Milwaukee Vegan Meetup group’s lunch, I have a book signing the next week, The Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale the next weekend, my New York trip and book signing, Thanksgiving, and the last event of the month will be a book signing at Boswell Books Company. This is going to be an eventful mofo-in’ month, and I’m looking for more events to squeeze in anywhere!
*Writing (as well as vlogs) will consist of a few different prompts such as Barely Legal Vegan MoFo: Doing Your Vegan Thang at a Young Age, kitchen disasters, and more!
*Reviews will be simple product reviews or restaurant/bakery reviews.
*Cookbook or Craft: these two don’t really have much to do with one another, but each week will alternate between cookbook and crafts. Cookbook will be picking a new recipe from my collection, making it, and reviewing it. Crafts will be vegan-themed projects! One is a secret, and the other one is going to be an editorial spread about an interview I did with a kickass vegan cookbook lady (you’ll just have to wait and see who it is!) that I’m making for my graphic design class.
*I’ll have a giveaway or two thrown in there too, so stay tuned!

Happy MoFo and Happy World Vegan Day!

I leave you with a picture of a cute bunny:

Comet Cafe, Milwaukee and Mail Order Cookies

I’ve blogged about Comet Cafe before and referred to it as “the Chicago Diner of Milwaukee”. Every time I go there, it just keeps getting better and better. The first time I went there I was eyeing this sandwich called the Open Face Meatloaf Sandwich that could be made vegan. The description read that it was Comet’s homemade meatloaf with a scoop of chive mashed potatoes, all on top of rye bread and covered in beer gravy. I was finally brave enough to try it last week when I went to lunch with my friend Chris.
I was expecting it to be absolutely ridiculous, but WOW. At the bottom of the plate there are two slices of rye bread, topped with two huge pieces of seitan meatloaf, a scoop of mashed potatoes, a really thick beer gravy, and fried onions and tomatoes. It was sooooo good.

Also, Tuesday, July 27th is the last day to order your assortment package of cookies! $18 (free shipping!) will get you a package of 18 total Hypnosis Cookies, Thin Mints, and Chai Cinnamon Roll Cookies! A collection of gourmet cookies for yourself or a loved one without turning on your oven this summer! Click here to order through PayPal.

YUM!