Date Night for 40$

For our 8th Anniversary this year Kris and I decided to go to Blossoming Lotus in Portland. We have heard great things about it but for some reason haven't made it there.

We hit up the Happy Hour.

Holy Freaking Tofu this shit was good. There is a ton of raw and live food if you are into that sort of thing. And a great selection of cocktails.

But what really blew our little minds were the tacos. The raw one in particular was excellent. We also ordered the White Bean Pesto and chips. That's it 3 tacos that we shared and some Chips and Dip and we were stuffed. Like didn't finish it all stuffed.

Cocktail - I had the Ginger Fizz. If you don't like Ginger, don't get this. But if you do, get ready to find a designated driver. Kris is drinking the Vaporizer from Double Mountain Brewery. It rocks if you like beers hoppy.

Eats -

Total spent - 25 dollars (Including tip)

Then we scooted to the Kennedy School. We got a pitcher of the Copper Moon seasonal beer and saw Men in Black 3 because we are really super cool. And shut up, so what if we cried at the end. Don't judge.

Kris decided to pull a face. That'll teach him. This shit is on the internet now honey.

Total spent - 15 dollars. (two tickets and pitcher of beer)

That brought our whopping total to 40$!!! Now that is a date night I can get excited about.

(A good thing to not is that we had to do this pretty early in the evening to cash in on these kinds of deals. But that left plenty of time to come home and watch movies with swear words, which is a pretty novel thing when you have an almost 5-year-old hanging around your house.)

Hostess HoHos Are a No Go

Kris and I were perusing the prepacked donuts on Saturday morning. Sometimes you get a hankering for an Old-Fashioned that is kinda waxy and artificial tasting. I don't know why but stranger things have happened to us all.

So, as is tradition, we were reading the back of the packaging to see if any of them are vegan. They aren't. We wen't down to the Hostess section. Not only are they not vegan, they aren't vegetarian.

There in the list of ingredients - BEEF FAT. It actually says beef fat. Not even trying to dress it up as lard.

Now when something savory contains beef fat, sure, it's gross animal fat that is destroying your organs but when your snack cake has it that is down right gagtastic.

Lazy Vegan - Salad for Slackers

This salad falls under the "It's-too-muggy-too-cook-and-I-don't-want-to-think-but-it-needs-to-taste-good" category.

Here is how to make a salad - 

1. Take some greens - (I really like a big thing of baby spinach)
2. Dump the greens in a bowl.
3. Take some Trader Joe's Chicken-less Strips
4. Dump them in the bowl with the greens
5. Add some Follow Your Heart Vegan Ranch to the bowl
6. Toss it up with Edward and Son's Organic Onion Garlic Croutons (only eat these if you like garlic breath)

All of these can be purchased at your one stop shop Food Fight!!

It is tasty, it takes about 4 minutes to make and if you don't go crazy on the croutons on dressing it is damn good for you. Now you could do this the hard way. Season some seitan, make a cashew cream ranch, twice bake some Dave's Killer Bread, and go to your garden or local urban grower for greens. But remember, it is too muggy, and you are in no position to think about dinner. So grab these four ingredients, grab a beer, or a or a People magazine, or a "bodice ripper" and indulge. You now have the time. You are welcome. 

(Don't even think about doing the laundry with your free time...I see you, put the basket down.)

Camping and Scramble

Our first camping experience not eating animal products has just passed. Pretty successfully I might add, with maybe only a little dairy involvement. 

Normally camping food consists of bologna/lunch meat sandwiches with cheese and mayo. And of course obscene amounts of hot dogs.

Ours was no different  - just ya know way better and far less gross!!  We also prepared this ass-kickin' scramble so we could have an awesome breakfast!

Check it out!

 Meat without meat

Cheese without Cheese

Scramble without Eggs!!

Here is the Breakfast Scramble Recipe-

2  14oz packages of Extra Firm Tofu

1 Yellow Pepper -diced

1 Orange Pepper -diced

1 Large Yellow Onion -diced

2 gloves of garlic - minced

Seasoning -

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cumin

In a separate pan start cooking your veggies. Make them nice and soft and yummy. Use as much oil as you feel necessary.

In the other pan (I would use a dutch oven or something large like that). Pour a little oil and then crumble your tofu into little crumple bits and add it. (Medium Heat) Then sprinkle the seasoning over it and mix it all up. Add the softened vegetable and continue to mix and heat until it looks and smells good! 

Pretty easy right? Great with tortilla and hot sauce (Tapatio or Aardvark are the faves here!!) We just dumped it in a massive container and packed it in the cooler to heat up for breakfast. 

Press That Tofu

Ahhh tofu. If you are new to tofu, here is something you should know - It has a lot of excess water in it. So in order to not get overly mushy tofu (when you don't want it) you need to drain and press your tofu before you prepare it.

You can do that several ways - Two heavy plates with a can, two large books that you hate, or a tofu press.

I have been using plate method. I don't really like it because my tofu always ends up getting more pressed on one side.

As mentioned in my previous post, I got a Tofu Press on my birthday from my lovely friend Jessica (and Tim).

So here is picto-demonstration (that is a trademarked term of G.Hoyt Inc- so back off or pay royalties) on how to use it.

I marinated in teriyaki sauce this time and then I used it in a stir-fry with amazing greens from my friend's garden, red bell peppers, garlic, scallions and noodles. Delicious!

Check back soon as I am going to go over my favorite kinds and brands of tofu. 

Back to Life - Post-birthday-post

I celebrated my 30th birthday last Saturday with several of my closest friends. In fact most of them were there. It made me feel ridiculously lucky.

We had a taco/nacho bar which was extremely easy to do vegan (we also threw in some real cheese for the non-V's) and a keg of Kirin. Which in no way relates to Mexican food. I just like it a lot.

I got the coolest stuff -

Check out this Vegan purse my lovely SIL bought for me. -

I also got some amazing cookbooks, a book on Food Politics, a couple books about dogs, cookies, a handmade necklace that puts anything at Anthropolgie to shame, a mix-tape and a Tofu Press! (Just to name a few - I don't want to brag or anything) The Tofu Press is getting it's own post later this week.

But it is now time to come back to the world with regularly timed blog posts! Now I know you are excited. I can tell.

So stay tuned because in two days you are going to learn how to press the shit out of your tofu. Intrigued? Grossed out? See ya Wednesday.

Bits of Not Bacon

Bacon bits are a great way to salty up a salad or a potato but since we don't want to kill anything, try these!!

Gretchen's Bits of Not Bacon - 

1/2 cup TVP (you can find it in bulk at Winco)

1 T. Soy Sauce

1 T. Vegan Worcestershire 

1.5 tsp Liquid smoke

A nice dash of chipotle powder

3 T water

Cracked pepper and salt (optional)

In a small sauce pan, boil everything but the S&P and the TVP. It is going to start boiling very quickly so be ready. Turn off heat and add TVP and mix. Dump mixture in to a frying pan. I used non-stick because I didn't want to add oil. Cook until they are dry and crispy. Add S&P as needed.

* If you aren't concerned about you waist line, then fry them up in a little oily. They will be more bacon-y.

I love them on a baked potato with caramelized leeks. They are also and ridiculously good topper for the Potato Leek Soup. Um I like leeks, apparently.