May - Pet Cancer Awareness PSA

Mar giving the middle claw to cancer! 

May is here again, time to talk about companion animal cancer. Please read up on the facts, check your companion animals for any sores that are not healing or bumps. I cannot stress enough that we just thought Mar had a boo boo on his tail, we thought it would heal and it was cancer.

Mar is a cancer survivor! Donate now and help other kitties and doggies stand up and win the fight! You can donate at Petco or online at Blue Buffalo.

Pile Of Reading Material

I have been on a lifestyle book kick lately. I have bought a handful of them and like at a salad bar it is easy to pick and choose the advice you want to take away from the books. I can't get behind all of the advice and while the books are plant based they are not 100% vegan. Oh and quinoa is a major book trend! I hate you quinoa! Food is trying to kill me!

Here is a rundown of the books, what I liked mostly. The points I did not care for in the books are all very similar: restrictive, stuff that is necessarily good deemed bad and way to much emphasis on detoxing.

My favorite out of the bunch is Relish by Daphne Oz. I did not even know who she was till I saw her in  Cosmo (I think) and liked her plate collection and her popcorn with coconut oil snack idea. I started watching The Chew (I was not aware of the show - though I do know the other hosts from various shows!). Relish is more like healthy, happy and fun living rather than diet and green smoothies. Daphne comes off as a way less pretentious Martha Stewart who also is a lot hipper. There are a few noted vegan recipes, some that would be a cinch to make vegan and day to day advice that puts a smile on your face.

Undiet by Megan Telpner was a purchase after I seen it on a blog tour. I like that it includes some beauty info - though the DIY beauty recipes are not vegan, and would not work the same if made vegan. It is a good source to show you how to clean up your routine in the kitchen and outside it.

Kimberly Snyder's The Beauty Detox Foods is good at showing you food to consume to address skin, hair and nail needs. It looks like a mighty book but I feel there is so much more that could have be said. This is the most 'diet-y' of the books and a lot of the food advice is not something I would live on day to day. There are a lot of salad and dressing recipes - perfect for upcoming warm weather eating!

Also over the weekend I got the new issue of Marmalade Umlaut - I skimmed through it in the car and read it on Monday. If you want to get your own copy or check out some vegan food action head on over to Food Feud today!

I have more books to talk about later. Then I am going to try to say no to books for a bit to cool my credit card! Books are so tempting - like vegan brownies!

Chipotle Sofritas & Tofu Tacos

After doing a walk through of the local Earth Day celebration as we chatted up some people/friends and I held a snake we headed out to Chipotle to try the new sofritas tofu concoction on the menu. I used to love me some Chipotle but I always felt shy (and I am not a shy person!) about asking them to wipe down the line and change their gloves due to contamination issues. I put my anxiety behind me and we ordered some food!

I got a salad bowl (minus the dressing of course! it is not vegan FYI) and had the corn salsa and fresh tomato salsa all up in the mix!

Matt got a burrito bowl with a flour tortilla on the side! He asked for extra tomato salsa and brown rice.

Verdict: it is good! The taste of the sofritas is something like a cross between a tofu scramble and soyrizo. Nice kick and texture. I hope this option stays around. A few years ago Chipotle tried out another vegan meat sub and it was very limited in release and did not stay long. I did not get to try it, but even if I could - it was Gardein so chances are I was allergic.
I know some people are complaining about not getting guacamole for free now on the veg burrito, this whole argument is dumb and kinda makes me mad. People stop being cheap, or simply do not eat out at places if you only can complain. If you are getting the tofu you are getting the good stuff, not some unknown GMO block  but Hodo tofu from Oakland. I heard on the news that the development for the sofritas took awhile to perfect and I hope it does stay around - another option.

 

Inspired by Chipotle I made  crumbled tofu tacos on Monday night for dinner. One block of the high protein extra firm stuff, crumbled and sauteed with a diced red bell pepper and one packet of taco seasoning prepared as directed from the package. I added salsa from the neighbor's garden, hand smashed guacamole and a side of rice! Not the same but a nice meal that was easy to make and not to pricey!

Vegan Carne Asada Frichos

To keep on the PMS food wagon this week I was craving salty and something Mexican inspired. I decided on vegan carne asada strips (seitan steak strips marinated in spices & citrus) but when I went to get tortillas my mind was like funk that! I walked over to the freezer section and grabbed a bag of thick cut steak fries. I believe I was inspired by something I saw online but made it vegan of course and added more fresh stuff. 

Fries topped with vegan carne asada strips fried with red bell peppers, 2 different types of salsa (hot red and verde), fresh smashed chunky guacamole, cheeze sauce and hot sauce! You needed to use a fork to eat this bad boy up! Dig in!

PMS Peanut Butter Comfort Bowl

Vanilla coconut yogurt, topped with a sliced banana, sprinkled with peanut butter granola and drizzled with a peanut butter - agave reduction is what went into my mouth for dinner last night. PMS has me craving the sweet and salty stuff, and this did the trick and was healthy to boot!

Pumpkin Mac, Baked Tofu And Broccoli

 

I have had the pumpkin cheeze sauce from Oh She Glows in my to do recipe pile for awhile now. I finally got around to it and was not let down! It is really creamy and satisfying. I did not really get a pumpkin taste, the nutritional yeast does come into play though. I was hesitant to give it to Matt because well, it's pumpkin based and he is often odd about things like this. He liked it though and he said it went well with the broccoli. I also made baked tofu from Appetite For Reduction - since I am trying to cook along with the cook book challenge over on the PPK.

The broccoli is easy. Take a few cups of broccoli heads, steam in a pan with a lid and a few drops of water, till the water is gone ( a few minutes) on low heat. Add a bit of lemon olive oil to the pan, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a pinch of S&P and a nice sized pinch of red pepper flakes. Toss and cook for 2-3 minutes and serve!

This is a pretty fast meal - one of those 30 minute meals, if you do not count the tofu marinating for a hour. However that is down time and does that really count?

Sweet & Spicy Stir Fried Noodles

Fast Sunday night dinner...Basically it is a package of baked tofu (Teriyaki flavored), some left over frozen veggies and fresh pineapple with fresh rice noodles. I cooked the veggies with tofu while boiling the water/noodles. I added the noodles to the oan, the pineapple and the sauce. Sauce: a dash of Sriracha, a tablespoon of fresh pineapple juice from the pineapple chunks, a squirt of Braggs and about a teaspoon of rice vinegar. Dump it over the mix and let it heat up and serve. 

Note: The fresh rice noodles from TJ's are hard to work with. They turn into a huge clump once cooked. I tried my hardest to break them up with no luck!