Vegan Invasion

Switcheroo

2008-10-08T15:56:00.002-04:00

Moving this little blog over to Wordpress!

Follow me at my new address: veganinvasion.wordpress.com

Thanks!

Wow.

2008-09-30T15:12:00.005-04:00

Holy crap it's been a long time since I've posted!!

I will post a real update soon; I miss cooking new things and writing about them on here (and especially checking out everyones blogs for recipes and inspiration).

Currently I have a few things going on (besides being obsessed with bike riding), such as putting together another vegan potluck picnic! It's going to be held on Sunday, October 26th, at 1:30pm in Candler Park (the picnic area). It's going to be Halloween themed, as evidenced by the below flyer I put together for it:

So if you are in Atlanta or just happen to be visiting here at that time, please join us! We would love to have you! The last potluck picnic was so much fun and everyone brought insanely delicious items - I know things will be the same this around if not better! I've already sent an email out to the attendee's of the last picnic and Cosmos Vegan Shoppe has posted it in their store blog (Thanks Leigh & Ken!). I plan on dropping some flyers there tomorrow afternoon and at a couple other spots around town, to help get the word out some more.

I'm also in the process of creating a vegan resource site for Atlanta, where folks can see in one place listings and information on our vegan restaurants (as well as vegan-friendly and vegetarian), groceries, bakeries, events, organizations, links to vegan-owned/vegan-friendly businessess in Atlanta, etc. I'm also putting together a discussion board for the site so the Atlanta vegan community can keep in touch and share information on upcoming events, potlucks, etc.

It's not fully up and running yet, still have a lot of content to add and some design work to do, but hopefully by mid-October it'll go live! I'll be sure to post the details here when it is, for anyone who is interested.

That's all for now!

Eats from last month and recently...

2008-08-26T23:07:00.004-04:00

Just a quick blog post showcasing some meals from the last month, in no particular order. Hopefully once things settle down around here I can get back in the kitchen with some new energy and start posting regular blog entries. For now, I hope you enjoy!

Sauteed Rainbow Chard w/ Garlic & a side of roasted cauliflower, green beans and grape tomatoes

Pre-cooked; Sauteed Leek, Mushroom & Spinach Tofu Quiche

Had some friends over, made lots of Tempeh Wingz, Roasted Potatoes and plain ol' Corn

I made them vanilla cupcakes w/ vanilla buttercream frosting

Can't remember what was in this, but it was damn good!

Just some Collard Greens, Spanish Rice, Pinto Beans & Guac

I've been making a lot of peanut noodles for some reason and a TON of collard greens w/ a side of baked sweet potato. I think that has to be my new favorite quick meal. I checked out Ani's Raw Food Kitchen from the library, so I see raw meals in our near future...

Sorry for the lack of updates, but this is important

2008-08-20T09:00:00.015-04:00

First it started off with me just slacking on updates and more recently it's become dealing with other major problems, mostly dealing with our house (which has been broken into twice now). But this is extremely important and I know it has nothing to do with food, but I volunteer with a local animal rescue group every week (www.animalactionrescue.org) that takes in dogs all the time (dogs at kill shelters, dogs from animal control facilities, strays, dogs found in dumpsters & chained to trees, etc etc etc) and they rely solely on donations and receive no funding whatsoever. So please take a minute to read the below and if you can, donate a few dollars to help.

Thank you bloggers!! xoxo Ashley

**please crosspost**

One of our volunteers found a dog almost drowning in a ravine in Avondale Estates Sunday (08/17) evening. When the volunteer got the dog out of the water she saw a huge hole in the dog’s foot, it was obviously broken, and a hole on her back and side. She would not move her back legs, and thought she might be paralyzed. The dog just looked at her in the sweetest way, not an aggressive bone in her body. She was rushed to our ER vet, given meds for the pain and x-rayed. As it turns out she did not fall in the ravine and hurt herself. She was shot in the back, side and leg and most likely thrown in the ravine to die. She was operated on immediately to remove all the broken and shattered bones in her leg, back and side. We had no idea how long she had been laying in the dirty water.

AAR, Animal Emergency Center of Decatur, & The Village Vets-Decatur, desperately tried to save this girl, unfortunately, Gracie went downhill a couple of nights after rescuing her, lost all reflexes and feeling in both back legs, and in general was beginning to suffer. Evidently there were serious internal and spinal cord injuries. Sadly, we had to make the decision to let her go and not let her suffer any longer. We are just thankful that she didn’t die a slow, painful and lonely death, had pain management and a volunteer was with her to say goodbye. She was lovingly buried in the volunteer’s backyard with a few other special pets that have crossed the rainbow bridge.

However, Gracie’s fight is not over! We are now working with the DeKalb Animal Cruelty Investigators to find her killers! Channel 2 (wsbtv) has agreed to cover Gracie’s story and we have opened a “A Voice For Gracie” fund account that is strictly going towards a reward to catch the low life(s) that murdered her. Even though she is no longer with us we are going to continue her fight and WE are now her voice.

So please send around this email to help donate towards the reward fund. Folks can use the paypal link and just designate it as “A Voice For Gracie” reward fund. All funds will be transferred directly into her account.

http://www.animalactionrescue.org/donate.htm

Or you can contact Decatur First Bank about direct donations:
1120 Commerce Dr., Decatur, GA 30030, (404) 373-1000‎
www.decaturfirstbank.com

And especially, if anyone has any information or recognizes this dog, please email: avoiceforgracie@animalactionrescue.org

Playing catch up, plus a vegan cake!

2008-07-15T20:01:00.004-04:00

Been awhile! Friday, July 4th, was my birfday and I was greeted that morning to a surprise birthday cake that Mondo ordered for me from Dulce Vegan! A delicious vegan mint chocolate (my fave combo) cake w/ a frosted yellow rose (I'm from Texas); the cake never stood a chance, it was gone in 48 hours! Yeah, so I'm pretty much on no sweets right now (which I always say and can never seem to stick to).

We had a really fun day and kept it very low-key; I bought some sewing supplies that were 50% off at Jo-Ann's, went to see Wall-E (and loved it!), ate at our favorite vegetarian Chinese restaurant, Harmony, and sweated our asses off at the botanical gardens before heading home. The next day I got my hair cut super short (and I love it!), spent time with some friends from Miami at The Earl and saw a band I've been wanting to see for awhile, Boris (who were absolutely AMAZING). Sunday morning we ate at Ali Baba's in L5P and went to see Gonzo, a movie about the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson. All in all, it was a super fantastic weekend filled with yummy food, friends and fun!

Delicious steamed leek dumplings from Harmony, mmm...

Here are some photos that Mondo took from the botanical gardens and I've posted a couple more on my flickr. We had so much fun, despite it being so hot and yucky out. We can't wait to go back once the weather cools down a bit. There is so much to see!

This past weekend, Mondo was at a Motorcycle Safety course so I pretty much had the house to myself and decided to make a spicy tofu scramble for breakfast Sunday morning after a kickass bike ride the night before. I bought this Louisiana hot sauce at the farmers market for a recipe and have become seriously addicted to it. I use it on everything now! I really love the taste of it on garlicky collard greens, mmmm. I didn't actually eat the jalapeno shown on the plate, I can't hang that tough! I've got plans to use it some black eyed pea croquettes.

Blueberry Muffins, Biscuits, Vegan Sushi, Soy Curls w/ Peanut Sauce, Hummus and Yuca Frita!

2008-06-29T11:10:00.004-04:00

It seemed like it was going to rain pretty hard all afternoon yesterday, but of course I was wrong and it only lasted about 1.5 hours. It was enough though to make me feel bored, so I made blueberry muffins to busy me while I did some sewing and other things until the rain stopped.

The last time I made blueberry muffins I forgot to add baking powder and it was a disaster. These were absolutely marvelous!! Mondo really enjoyed them, I believe he proclaimed "Damn, these are good!" after eating one and then went for a second.

After cooling for a bit, slathered with some EB.

P-Bo trying to keep an eye on them, to make sure they don't burn.

Last week I saw a recipe for some biscuits on Vegan Explosion! and decided I had to make them right then and there. I'm glad I did. My dad always made the most awesome biscuits for breakfast as a kid and I figured I could do the same and failed at doing so a few other times. Well, now I can! I think all recipes for biscuits are typically the same but something magical happened and these came out so fluffy and big and AWESOME. I see biscuits and gravy in our near future...

We went out to Sushi Avenue last Tuesday afternoon (we took the day off). We first went here with Lori and Jared and were so pleased at how cute the interior is of the restaurant and how yummy the rolls are.

Here is our first order (oh yeah, we totally did a second order with the same as below minus the avocado roll. We rolled ourselves out of the door after that).

From L to R: Avocado roll, Asparagus Tempura Roll, Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Tempura roll

We feel in love with the soy curls we picked up at Cosmo's during the ice cream social. They are so versatile and taste great! I first used them in a 'chicken salad' wrap and decided to use the rest of the bag to make stir fried soy curls (w/ garlic and onions) topped with a spicy peanut sauce and broccoli. The result was one of the beast meals I have ever made. This came out perfect and still perfect after eating it for dinner that night, lunch the next day and then for dinner again the next night. (It ended up making A LOT). I'm not a fan of rice, so I served it over some red quinoa and it paired very well.

Just some roasted red pepper hummus I whipped up. The recipe is from YRR (I just add extra garlic...as I do with everything!). It turned out much brighter than this, but the color looks so muted in this photo! Very very yummy hummus.

Finally, last night's dinner! I found frozen yuca at Publix for less than a dollar per bag and grabbed 2 bags to keep in my freezer! I've had a hard time finding it here and thought I had bought some before at the farmers market but couldn't find it again the last time I went. I remembered all the yummy yucca dishes we'd eat while living in Miami and decided upon making Yuca frita (fried yuca). It was so much easier to make than I thought! You just boil the yuca chunks for about 30 minutes (I did less, because I didn't want it mushy), cut then into pieces and de-stem them (they have a hard little string on the inside that you can very easily pull out with your fingers). Pour some oil in your pain, turn it up to med-high and fry them on both sides until they look a little brown. I drain them on a plate with some paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt. These are extremely tasty, kind of like a giant french fry (since yuca is in the same family as potatoes).

I did a simple salad on the side: romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, broccoli sprouts and sliced (Florida) avocado. On the side is some goddess dressing for the salad.

Happy One-Year Anniversary, Cosmo's!!

2008-06-22T19:52:00.007-04:00

Last night was the Ice Cream Social at Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the retail store. Turn out was INSANE!! I never knew there were so many vegans in Atlanta; it was amazing! Saw a lot of familiar faces and hung out with friends while stuffing ourselves full of delicious ice cream sundaes. I chose a few scoops of Purely Decadent (made w/ yummy creamy coconut milk) Coconut ice cream, a scoop of fresh strawberries and blueberries, some crumbled vegan shortbread cookies, ricemellow, chocolate sauce and soyatoo whipped cream. Mondo had scoops of Purely Decadent Cookie Dough ice cream, ricemellow and crumbled vegan shortbread cookies. There were homemade vegan waffle bowls and cones at the social, too! SO MUCH BETTER TASTING THAN IT LOOKS IN THIS PHOTO!

Everything in the store was 10% off and a portion of the profits are being given to the Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary. I grabbed a shopping basket and walked the aisles in search of new things! This is my take below: Tings (for me), Soy Curls, Mimic Creme, Dulce Vegan Cinnamon Roll (for mondo), Teese, Rasberry filled chocolate bar (for Mondo), Vega Smoothie mixes and Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe shirts for Mondo and I. Such an awesome and delicious haul...I can report that the Tings are already gone!

We had bundles of fun and can't wait for the bake-off in December at Cosmo's. It's so great to hang out with such rad folks in our favorite store in Atlanta. Congrats Ken & Leigh, here's to many more years!

(For more photos of the Ice Cream Social, there are some up on the store's blog now!)

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't..

2008-06-21T11:50:00.009-04:00

I like cookies. A lot. I think I enjoy cookies more than any other kind of baked good out there. So I tend to make them more often than a lot of other things. I wanted to make a cookie out of things I needed to use up in my fridge (and sounded like a good combo in my head). I added chopped pecans, shredded coconut and dried cherries. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew they looked SO good coming out of the oven. I sat patiently, kept myself busy picking up why they cooled off and then finally couldn't take it and sunk my teeth into one. MMMM. So soft and full of flavor, something different each bite...a pecan here, a dried cherry there and an allover coconut flavor. Mondo liked them a lot, too...but he is still talking about the cookies I made last week (Chewy Chocolate Rasberry w/ pecans and dried cherries) and how awesome they were.

Earlier in the week I was really in the mood for roasted cauliflower and sauteed garlicky greens, so Mondo picked up some BBQ peach seitan from Whole Foods to add to the mix. I really love cauliflower and roasting it takes it to a whole other level. Just a little pepper, salt and olive oil and I'm a happy gal! I mixed purple kale and collard greens together along with some sauteed garlic, nooch, salt & pepper and vegetable broth. I'm trying to incorporate more veggies into our meals each night and this was a great beginning!

We're heading over to the one-year anniversary Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe is having this evening, where we will stuff ourselves with the delicious ice cream sundaes that'll be there!! A portion of the profits tonight are going to be donated to the Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary. Awesome store, ice cream sundaes, fun people and a great cause...it doesn't get much better than this!

Update, Cookies & a Quick Meal

2008-06-10T10:07:00.017-04:00

Sorry for this boring update, I felt like I've been seriously neglecting this blog that I have just started! I've been taking a kickass sewing class at Beehive Co-Op, which is keeping me pretty busy (and happy with all the wonderful ideas swirling through my head of future creations!). I also made some appetizers, as I mentioned before for the ICE pre-party. I didn't make as much as I had hoped to, but managed to make 2 good sized bowls worth of Tofu Spinach Dip (w/ diced water chestnuts and scallions) w/ tortilla scoop chips, a Cheezball (w/ lots of liquid smoke added and then rolled in chopped almonds) w/ Late July crackers and a LOT of yucca/black bean/yellow pepper/Vegan Gourmet monterrey jack quesadillas. I only heard positive things about everything I brought, so I am very pleased with the outcome! I only wish I would've gotten some photos of everything in presentation mode but I was running behind and completely forgot; it looked so beautiful sitting in its neon green serving dishes! The girls behind the party made gift baskets to say thanks for bringing food and mine contained a little potted plant, 2 adorable mushroom stuffies things, a headband, 2 pairs of earrings, 2 tea bags, a demo of the band playing that night and a thank you card! So super sweet!!
We came home, got spiffy and went back over to Youngblood Gallery for the par-tay and it was jam packed!! We watched the preview for the documentary Handmade Nation, listened to a band jam, drank some beer and walked around the store and looked at all the amazing things for sale. Mondo bought a big vinyl sticker he fell in love with (some zombie hand or something) and a magnet for me since I love magnets.

The next day was ICE and boy was it HOT and SWEATY out (I seriously think it was 103+ out that day). I wore a tshirt (bake and destroy!), skirt and flip flops and was dying. I forgot to wear sunscreen (yah, I know, so dumb especially when I have a tattoo sleeve) so I am super tan now. We had SO much fun. I bought a stuffed cactus in a terra cotta pot that I named Tex, A beautiful and colorful crocheted Day of the Dead sugar skull that I named Sugar and a mug (mine is a pretty pale green) from the rad Jeanette (behind Vegan Dish) that I have used like 12x since Saturday and I have plans to buy so much more from her. She is such a talent and she's vegan, which makes it all the more awesome. We bought lots of treats from Dulce Vegan, too. Yumm!!

I haven't been cooking that much lately, besides quick lunches and dinners but am feeling the bug to get back in the kitchen now that things have calmed down a bit. So I am looking forward to trying out all the recipes I've been drooling over.

Oh, the cookies at the top are some that I threw together last week when we were craving chocolate. They are the Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry cookies from Veganomicon but with added dried cherries and chopped pecans. Mouthwatering, I tell you...especially warm. I don't even want to imagine what they'd be like with a scoop of soy ice cream on the side.

I saw the other day on Leigh's blog this recipe for this. I had to try it that night because it sounded so good. I failed. I apparently used like 2x the pasta required for the recipe, so I did not get the ooey-gooey effect. It tasted good, though. I really like the idea of not using tofu or vegan cheese or nooch in the recipe and it was so simple to make! I'll get it right next time around for sure. I made some yummy collard greens to go on the side (I could eat greens for every meal, mmmmm). Eating the two together all in one bite was even more delicious.

At some point we went to World Peace Cafe again, I don't even remember when but it's been within the past 2 weeks (my brain must be melting from the heat). Meh. It wasn't very good this day...my tempeh reuben wasn't all that great (I make a much better one) and I think I found a piece of plastic in it. Not fun.

These were really the only things we enjoyed from our meals...the beverages. You can see my tattoo more than my drink, but I had a Guayaki Yerba Mate iced tea and Mondo had a cream soda. So refreshing.

This coffee was really bubbly.

Hopefully my next post will much more interesting!!

Busy Busy Busy

2008-05-28T21:39:00.007-04:00

The chiweenies are at another foster home now; I could only commit to three weeks right now because of our hectic schedule, but it was GREAT to have them with us for a little while and I know I'll see them on Sundays at adoptions (plus their foster mommy only lives five minutes from me)!

Mondo had his friend Gio over on Monday to talk motorcycles (Mondo has a 1973 Honda CB350F), so I baked a huge batch of cookies for them to snack on and for Gio to take back to his awesome wife Kim and their daughter Caoilinn.
Later on I finally made the Curried Eggplant Soup from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Wowza! We had 2 bowls of this stuff and folks were asking us for the recipe the next day at work (we brought leftovers with us). It definitely ranks as my favorite soup now and Mondo said it's right behind his fave, Pumpkin Leek from Vegilicious.

I'm so PUMPED for the Indie Craft Experience at Centennial Olympic Park next Saturday, June 7th. I missed it last year and am so not going to let that happen again! The most awesome Becky from Glue&Glitter has asked a few Atlanta vegans to donate some of our tasty vegan food for the ICE pre-party, being held at Youngblood Gallery on Friday, June 6th. Idalys from Dulce Vegan, Lori from Pleasantly Plump Vegan and myself are providing the treats and snacks for the event and I am spending most of my free time trying out recipes to find the right ones for the party. So far I've narrowed it down to four dips, some stuffed mushrooms, a cheez ball (yeaah, you know what i'm talking about!) and some mexican tortilla cups.

I tested out one of the dips tonight, a spinach-artichoke dip that I found on VegWeb. So. Good. No fake cheese in it (like every other recipe called for). We killed about half of it tonight and Mondo wants to take some with him tomorrow as a snack. I'm so pleased it turned out well. I added five cloves of garlic vs. the three listed, along with some red pepper flakes and only put in half of the artichokes called for. I used marinated artichokes, so it helped make the dip extremely flavorful. I can't wait to test out more recipes this week and next! I'm taking off a 1/2 day from work next Friday to finish preparing everything I can't make in advance and then dropping everything off at Youngblood at 6pm (an hour before the party) so I can rush home, get ready and head back for the par-tay!

I had some very ripe bananas about to go bad and what better way to put them to use than to make banana nut bread? Or muffins, in my case. I used the recipe from the Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide and added an extra mashed banana and some chopped walnuts. Superb. These were fluffy and so banana-y (not a word but I don't care) with just the perfext taste and texture. I'm going to share some with the receptionist/office assistant at work, since she has to put up with so much from the arrogant jerks we work with.

Oh, here's my pretty new bike! Her name is Gypsy and she is going to take me around town and hopefully to work (after taking MARTA halfway). I'm hopefully going to have some time Saturday to take her to some bike shops and see about getting her converted to a fixed gear. I'm psyched to go bike riding and I have much thanks to give Lori's husband, Jared, for helping me know what to look for, reading craigslist ads I sent him, etc. Woohoo! I owe you baked goods!

Spanish, Chinese & kinda Cajun

2008-05-14T10:32:00.016-04:00

To answer your question, yes, these are the best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever. Best chocolate chip cookies of any kind, really. I've made the same recipe before (from Vegan with a Vengance), but they've never turned out this good. They're sitting pretty in my cake stand.

Last week I was craving some Spanish food and took a peek at what I had in my pantry and fridge. I had soaked black beans the night before and just needed to cook them. So I got them in a pot and let them boil until tender and tasty (especially after I added a little salt and garlic powder to them). I grabbed some short grain brown rice and before I started cooking it, I noticed a little recipe on the back for Spanish rice! Killer! So easy, too. Just had to saute for a minute an onion and garlic (3 for me!) w/ some bell pepper I diced, then I added 1.5 cups of the short grain brown rice, a vegan bouillon cube, pinch of cayenne pepper and 3 cups of water. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes. I added a can of fire roasted dice tomatoes at that point, stirred it in and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

Yes. Total Success. I was eating it right out of the pot and had to stop myself to save my appetite for dinner. I made tostones (fried plantains) after the rice and beans were done and plated it up with a little lettuce and tomato to eat along w/ everything. We cleaned our plates. Tostones don't reheat very well, so I try just to eat them as soon as possible. I still have another plantain I need to use and I'd love to find a new recipe for them other than the typical frying or baking. I'm really interested in incorporating them into something. Any suggestions?

Later in the week, after a hectic morning which resulted in my lunch being left at home, I decided to order up some Green Sprout since I have the puppies with me at work. Thankfully I'm within their delivery area or else I'd be stuck with lame not tasty choices for lunch. We used to order from Green Sprout once a week when we lived in Midtown! Now that we're further away, we try to eat there whenever we're in the area. I decided on the mango bubble tea and the vegetable lo mein. MMM, everything was delicious as always and I just love that everyone who works there is super friendly.

I was feeling very uncreative this past Sunday night, so I sat down and flipped through my cookbooks and decided it was high time I make the Cajun Tofu out of YRR. I had to cut down on the cayenne pepper it calls for, since Mondo can't hang with the heat. It turned out fantastic and it reminded me of a cajun fried fish type meal so I made some tartar sauce to go on the side (or top, as pictured). It was more of a sun dried tomato tartar sauce, since I had made sun dried tomato couscous (which was just way too easy, btw) and worried that a traditional tartar sauce wouldn't work with the sides I served.

I double battered the tofu and Mondo liked it so crispy, but it had one coat too many for me. Next time I'll do a batch of one batter coat for me and two for him. We were so full after we ate that even while we were lying in bed hours later we were talking about how stuffed we were!

OMG PUPPIES!!

2008-05-13T12:57:00.004-04:00

Their names should be Trouble. I can't get mad at them because they're so cute, but ohmygosh are they are a handful and a half! It's the dachshund in them, so mischievous! Thankfully I can bring them to work with me so I can keep an eye on them (and play with them)!

This was fantastic. I made TJ's '17 Bean and Barley Soup' one night last week (I like soup, who cares if it's hot out). I decided to split the soup up for lunches for us to take to work and it worked out well, the soup kept us very full in the afternoon and was delicious!

It was super easy to make and I really enjoy meals like that. I soaked the beans and barley overnight and sauteed some onions, red bell peppers, garlic and carrots (I left out the celery it recommended, because celery is evil). Added the veggies to the pot of beans, tossed in some vegan bouillon cubes added 8 cups of water and a can of diced tomatoes and let it cook for about an hour + over medium heat. I didn't care of the look of the soup and didn't want to deal with trying to fit a variety of beans on my spoon when it came time to eat it, so I blended that soup like there was no tomorrow (I love you immersion blender!). Excellent idea. Creamy beany goodness. It tastes great (almost chili like) and has an insane amount of fiber in it.

Just some steel cut oatmeal I made last week. I chopped up some dried apricots and medjool dates and added it to the oatmeal along with some walnuts, agave nectar and spices. This was my first time having steel cut oats and I am such a fan now! I'd love to have this for breakfast during the weekend (rather than stuffing our faces with the delicious, but not super healthy, brunch at Soul Vegetarian).

This past weekend was uber crazy. The weather fluctuated from a disaster to beautiful to weird. I got SO MUCH stuff done around the house, it was insane. I cleaned the entire house and re-organized the kitchen and set aside a bunch of items to be donated. It felt so good to get the house in order (especially when my life doesn't feel like it is) and to get the week off to a good start. Saturday afternoon I met up w/ my pals Lori (thanks again for the awesome mix cd!!) & Jared at SOPO Bicycle Co-Op. I'm in the market for a bike because I'm so done with driving to work. Mondo takes public transportation to work, so I'm going to ride along with him and take a train as close as I can get and bike the rest of the way. I'm really appreciative of them coming out with me Saturday, as I know nothing about bikes and Jared knows a lot. I didn't have much luck finding anything (except a bike that was already on hold for someone) so I'm searching craigslist and other websites.

Mondo wasn't feeling well (due to eating a pan full of espresso chocolate chip cookie dough brownies), so I made something fairly simple for dinner (in my mind at least). I sauteed some kale with garlic, olive oil and sea salt and served it alongside some Chickpeas in Red Lentil and Eggplant sauce served over some barley. Wowza. Soo good. I have some with me for lunch today and can't wait to eat it again!

I wasn't in the mood for dinner last night and had way too much energy, so I decided to bake. Well technically this is a no-bake pie, but whatever. I made the No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I couldn't believe how ridiculously easy it was to make and it was set in less than 2 hours (although I'd recommend waiting overnight to have a little slice, as mine wasn't cold enough for my liking). I really enjoyed the texture and flavor of it (like a peanut butter cup!), so this will definitely be on my go to list of super easy desserts to make again.

While that was chilling in the fridge I got the idea to make the zucchini muffins from Yellow Rose Recipes using the zucchini that was about to go bad in my fridge. Yeah, too late. So, I had already started mixing the ingredients (I don't prep beforehand, maybe I should?) when I realized there would be no zucchini for these zucchini muffins and decided to turn them into Coconut Lime Raisin Walnut muffins! I'm glad I made them because they turned out delicious!! I followed the YRR muffin recipe and subbed coconut for the zucchini and lime for the lemon zest (and added some lime juice). YUMM!! It's like biting into awesomeness (yeah, I suck at descriptions). *I forgot to mention that I subbed spelt flour for all-purpose flour in this recipe*

Oh and here are some shots from the bird sanctuary we visited Sunday morning. We happened to drive by it one day while wondering around Atlanta and figured it would be something small (since it was basically a median between two roads) but WHOA we were not expecting creeks, waterfalls and bridges! It was so beautiful and tranquil and we can't wait to go back! We didn't snap any photos of birds (we were probably being too loud running around chasing each other) but hope to next time!

Flying Saucer Attack!

2008-05-03T16:50:00.008-04:00

Wooooo, what a week!! We've been going non-stop this past week and things are only getting busier with the addition of 2 dachshund/chihuahua (chiweenie?) puppies we're fostering for a few weeks. Their names are Cora & Penelope; I'll make sure to take some cute pictures of them to post soon!

Thursday was a frustrating day, so I felt like making lots of food that night to take my mind off things. I decided to make pad thai because it's so easy and there is always enough left for lunch the next day. I subbed oyster mushrooms (mmm) for tofu and kept everything else the same. It was sooo tasty; Mondo tried to go back for seconds, but I had already packed everything up for lunch!

Saturday was the final day for a furniture exhibit at MoDA (Museum of Design Atlanta) that we've been wanting to go to for awhile. We finally made it down there and although it was very small, it was pretty cool!

We were STARVING afterwards and headed over to Ali Baba's for some yummy mediterranean food. We both had the same thing (Mondo copied me), falafel wrap and a side of dolmas. SO good. So so good. We sat out on their covered side patio and enjoyed our meal while watching the rain fall.

I have developed a serious sweet tooth since meeting Mondo. He is a sugar addict. We have been trying to cut back a lot, but sometimes we just go overboard. Case in point: Mixed Berry Chocolate Chip Blondies. SO. GOOD. I had never made the Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondies from Vegan with a Vengeance before and decided that I had to try them. I only had a bag of mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries) in the freezer, so I used that. Amazing. I made them Saturday afternoon, and embarrassingly, we polished them off by Sunday night. I've sworn off sweets for the week but am already thinking about what baked goodies I want to make this weekend!

Not to mention the fantastic strawberry muffcakes (part muffin, part cupcake) I made early last week (pictured at the top). They had such a yummy strawberry flavor with a delicious creamy icing. It totally hit the spot.

I've got some pretty healthy coconut apricot date balls on the menu this week. I'm really excited to finally make them myself, instead of paying an arm and a leg to buy them at the store!

Snapshot

2008-04-28T23:17:00.004-04:00

A quick shot of some meals and whatnot that we've had in the past week (plus some shots of my dogs, because I love them)!

Tofu tacos w/ refried beans, lettuce and tofutti sour cream (plus a small side salad w/ spicy mustard dressing)

Red lentil and green pea curry w/ barley & pappadams

Not food, just P-Bo being himself

Grilled Teese w/ Spinach Pesto & Tomatoes

Seitan fajitas w/ Mexican Sheese spread, lettuce and avocado (plus small side salad w/ spicy mustard dressing)

Ruby Lynn in deep thought...

Seasoned Tomato Sammich on Rye bread w/ Toffutti Cream Cheese (plus a small side salad w/ yummy Miso Tahini dressing)

Dark Chocolate covered Joe-Joe's

Teese Pizza w/ Tofurky Hot Dogs

Hello!

2008-04-28T22:17:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; we've been so crazy with work (and the fact that i'm getting harrassed at work more so than ever for being vegan, yay), taking care of the yard and having a large out of pocket expense come-up recently that it has left very little time for proper cooking.

We've eaten a lot of junk during the past week; vegan burgers, fries, pizza, tacos and so forth. I did make a yummy veggie curry and barley dinner one night (which made enough for many lunches!!) as well as salads and tasty low-fat fajitas...so hopefully that has offset some of the bad stuff we have had!

I'm hoping to post again tomorrow some photos of the better dinners we've had and hopefully some of the delicious items i'll have scored at the farmers market tomorrow night!

BZZZ!!

2008-04-21T21:57:00.016-04:00

I must be a glutton for sleep deprivation, drinking 2 shots of espresso at 10:00pm on a work night.

I've had an awesome jam-packed weekend and even though today was pretty hectic, I had an excellent night!

I attended the Gene Baur reading & booksigning at the Borders in Buckhead this evening. It was the first animal rights related reading i've been to (the last one I planned on going to was canceled a few days beforehand), so I wasn't sure what to expect. I enjoyed every moment and was so glad I went. Gene Baur is obviously very knowledgeable on the subject and was so well spoken and just a delight to listen to. There were quite a few folks there, including a class from Morehouse college, so it was really a great turnout. Some good questions were asked afterwards and I left feeling very elated and ready to tackle the world (I also came home to some pamphlets I ordered from COK - so anyone who wants to go leaflet with me sometime here in Atlanta, let me know!).

I purchased his book beforehand and he signed it with a very nice message! It was great to talk to him for a little while and thank him for coming to Atlanta.

I didn't realize until the last moment that I had my camera with me, so I didn't have time to adjust the settings...so please forgive me for the dark, out of focus shots I took.

As for our weekend, we were out and about for most of it, so I wasn't doing too much cooking or baking at home (though I did make 2 dozen peanut butter cookies from the Damn Tasty Vegan baking cookbook Thursday night). We ate out at Soul Vegetarian Friday night and as usual, left completely satisfied and very full. I had my favorite meal there, BBQ cauliflower w/ macncheese and collard greens. YUMM. Mondo had the crispy tofu cutlets w/ sweet potatoes and collard greens. We both had some of their delicious vegan chocolate ice cream afterwards. I don't have any photos of what we ate, since it's kind of dark in there in the evenings, but trust me - it's amazing.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Organic market being held behind Sevenanda and stopped by the booth that Dulce Vegan and Cosmos Vegan Shoppe were sharing. I kicked myself after we left for not getting a photo of Howell from Dulce Vegan and Leigh from Cosmos together! I bought a SUPERB lemon scone from Dulce Vegan and Mondo got some scrumptious ginger lemon cupcakes. We contemplated buying more but decided we shouldn't overdo it! I bought some tasty Pure bars from Leigh along with some vegan jerky bites that we hadn't tried before. We cruised around East Point later, then went and bought some flowers to plant in the front yard and came home and used up the last of our Teese for pizza!! I really need to go to the farmers market, so our pizza consisted of what we had on hand: roasted peppers, tomato sauce, spinach pesto and teese. It was so simple and delicious that we made 2 and polished them off that night!

Sunday was adoptions and we had a few new dogs looking for their forever home. This is Bean, she was found by a police officer on the side of a busy road in Decatur. Doesn't she look like a pinto bean?! She looks a little scruffy in this photo, but this was taken when she was first brought into the vets office that helps the rescue group after being found. 4 weeks later she now has a beautiful, shiny coat and healthy teeth. She is very sweet, playful and loves to give kisses! Don't you just wanna take her home?!

I hope everyone out there had a lovely weekend, too! Spring is definitely sticking around here in Atlanta, so i'm looking forward to spending more time outdoors and more time trying new recipes in the kitchen!

I <3 Teese

2008-04-16T16:01:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Leigh at Cosmos Vegan Shoppe for saving me the VERY LAST pound of Teese in their stock (don't worry, she said there will be more in by the end of the week for your fix). Thanks Leigh!!!!

I just love living in the same city as this rad store. I'm always so happy when we go there and I always find something new to try. Along with the Teese (which came in a very phallic shape that makes for plenty of jokes at home), I picked up their new tote bag (so cute and roomy!), a copy of The Damn Tasty Vegan baking guide, multivitamins, tartex (we love it on water crackers), a dark chocolate bar w/ raspberry filling (I can't recall the brand, but it was for Mondo) and a Sweet & Sara's s'more (for me).

I did some gardening when we got home (which resulted in an eye injury, haha). I was a little beat after that and had about 75% of my vision, so I got started on dinner a little later than usual. We had planned to start simple with the teese, to get a good taste of the flavor before going crazy and using it on everything. We had bought some tasty lookin' sourdough bread earlier in the week and decided on Grilled Teese on Sourdough sandwiches. YUMM.

The Teese isn't so great on it's own...meh...but melted in between two slices of sourdough breaded slathered with EB... phenomenal. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. As you probably already know from 50 million other blogs, it melts very well. It was so nice biting into the crispy, buttery sourdough and creamy teese. Oh yum yum yum, I can't wait to try it on pizza and use it in dishes that call for a vegan cheese.

I knew that we couldn't take a grilled sandwich to work for lunch, so I also made the lentil soup from YRR. I love to make soups (and cannot wait to try the Curry Eggplant Soup from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen) and lentil is one of my favorites because it's SO EASY and tastes great. I didn't get a photo of it, certains soups don't photograph well and this is one of them.

I did, however, get some photos of a fantastic pasta I made for dinner this evening. It was very simple and came out just right. The only thing that could have made it better would be the addition of some fresh diced tomatoes, mmmm.

Everything came together so easy; it was just Orecchiette pasta, sauteed garlic w/ cannellini beans and spinach pesto (I never add salt or lemon juice: spinach, walnuts, garlic, nooch and olive oil). I did add some small chunks of teese to it, to make it creamy. Mondo gave it the thumbs up between 'mmmm's'. We don't eat pasta that often (like once a month if that), so I don't feel too guilty that this is pretty high in fat. The taste made it so worth it!

Is anyone else going to Sevenanda this weekend, for the ORGANICA! '08:Spring Harvest Market? We're going to be there, while trying to see what Criminal Records has on sale for Record Store Day.

I love spring; always something to do!

World Peace can be done, Cro-Mags

2008-04-14T12:58:00.026-04:00

Early Saturday afternoon, the hubs and I went out to eat at World Peace Cafe. It was our second time eating there and we thoroughly enjoyed it! A little pricey, I think, but our meal (and desserts) were excellent!

We both had the 'World Peace Burger', which is made fron savory organic vegetables and organic oats. Mondo had his plain (lettuce, tomato and vegannaise) and I had mine the same but with a slice of vegan cheese. It comes with a side of roasted potato wedges (which were a little underdone this time around). I ordered their 'Mock Mint Julep', which had an excellent taste and flavor, and Mondo had a bottle of Virgil's Cream Soda (which he proclaimed the best cream soda ever). We usually only drink water (and a lot of espresso/cuban coffee), so it was nice to mix things up.

I was stuffed by the time I finished my meal, but there was still dessert to be had (I swear I'm cutting back on sweets this week). I chose the Chocolate Almond cake and Mondo had a slice of their Strawberry cake. Oh boy, so delicious. I could only find room for a few bites, so I decided to take the rest home with me and to enjoy all over again later that night. Yumm!!

Yesterday was dog adoptions (I volunteer every Sunday for about 5 hours with a local animal rescue group, Animal Action Rescue) and by the end of the day I was pooped. I drove over to Cosmos (and got lost 2x, even though I know exactly where they are) and arrived 30 minutes too late. No worries, I will be there Tuesday night after work to pickup some Teese(!!), their new tote bag and some other vegan goodies! I was too tired to cook last night, so Mondo warmed up some of the tofu scramble I made that morning and stuffed it into some pita pockets (I love everything in a pita). Very delicious!

I'm pretty excited about seeing The Goonies and Eraserhead on the big screen next month! Plaza Theater is so amazingly awesome. Seeing Pere Ubu perform a live underscore there last month for 'X - The Man With X-Ray Eyes' was fantastic and every single movie we've seen there since moving here has been fun (with the exception of the awful Diary of the Dead, but Mondo loves horror/zombie movies).

I'm lovin' Atlanta so much right now!

Gene Baur, Baked Goods & Two Dinners

2008-04-10T23:35:00.005-04:00

I am really excited about attending this! Anyone else going?

Well, I ended up making blueberry muffins last night as opposed to Tuesday night. I was really tired and wanted to finish watching 'Night of the Comet' with Mondo. I think the muffins turned out sucky, but Mondo ate 2 last night, then 2 more in the middle of the night and 2 this morning. I guess he liked them. I wasn't paying attention while making them and forgot to add baking powder, so they ended up being short and dense. I tried to salvage them by making a fattening topping, which consisted of EB, brown sugar and a little flour. It helped, apparently.

There was some purple cabbage in the fridge that I had forgotten about and looked like it was about to go bad. I searched for a yummy recipe in a cookbook I checked out from the library and found a wilted sesame cabbage dish. Amazing.

It turned out so nice that I couldn't stop snacking on the cabbage while I was preparing the tofu. It was a really simple to make too and was dressed with just sesame oil, rice vinegar, grated ginger, tamari and sesame seeds. Mmmm! I started to cook some cranberry beans, but I have a short attention span and was chasing my dogs around the house and let them burn (the beans). Oh well. I pan fried some tofu I had been pressing for an hour and then let it chill in some peanut sauce for awhile. Very tasty!

Tonight I decided to try out a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies that involves Tofutti Cream Cheese. And then I wonder why I keep gaining weight...hmm.

These turned out so awesome!! They were very soft and rich, yumm! I wish I would've added walnuts, but I completely forgot I had some in the freezer. I will definitely make these again. Luckily I live with a food vacuum, so I'm sure he'll have eaten all of them before I can eat anymore.

I really think this will be one of the last things I bake for awhile (I've packed on some pounds). It's a good thing they turned out so well; I can go out with a bang!

On to dinner! We were craving tempeh wingz so I decided to make that tonight, but with BBQ sauce in place of hot sauce. I realized I didn't have a lot of panko bread crumbs left, but that's cool - make do with what I've got! They turned out tasty as usual and we had some basic sides: mashed potatoes and corn.

Ahhh. A very satisfying 2 days worth of food. I leave you with another shot of the cookies and another shot of my sassy little Ruby Lynn (I swear P-Bo, my dachshund, is going to hate me if I don't put a photo of him up here soon!).

Quick Dinner

2008-04-08T20:41:00.006-04:00

I had a crazy day (and I work with annoying people) so the last thing I wanted to do tonight was make a big dinner. Just something super simple that required as little of my time as possible (because i'm going to make blueberry muffins later, woohoo!!).

We swung by Trader Joe's on the way home (I haven't been there in forever it seems like, months at least). I grabbed some hummus, tabouli and these yummy looking 'vegetable masala' burgers. Oh, and a chocolate bar...because i'm addicted to sweets.

I made a small side salad to eat before the burgers. Some romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, sliced avocado topped off with a creamy ceaser dressing I made last week.

Then came the burgers - they were so cute! I wish I would have taken a photo of them before I cooked them. They were really golden and filled with veggies and just smelled great. The burgers are made from potatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, bell peppers and "indian" spices. I panfried them, my fave way to cook a burger. Mondo and I differed on how we wanted it plated. He wanted it on a hamburger bun, we had none I soon realized, so he opted for some ciabatta rolls we had from the farmers market. He liked his plain, with just some vegannaise slathered on.

I wasn't in the mood for that, so I opted for mine on pita. I sliced it in half and spread some hummus on the bottom portions, chopped up the veggie patty a bit and stuffed it in there and piled some tabouli on top. I suppose I could have used a chutney or yogurt sauce to keep it 'authentic', but I was really craving this and it tasted perfect!

Usually I make my own burgers from different ingredients (beans, lentils, etc), but I would love to keep these on hand for nights like these! Such a wonderful flavor and texture! I kind of get grossed out by meaty looking vegan burgers, because they look so real and have a similar texture to meat. These reminded me of a potato cake or something similar.

Dinner was good and is now out of the way, so on to making blueberry muffins! I'll be sure to post the results later. I leave you with a funny picture of one of our dogs, Ruby Lynn. She's trying to help out with the recycling by cleaning out the empty peanut butter jar. Such a helper.

Soupity soup

2008-04-07T21:08:00.008-04:00

Good soup sure puts a smile on my face! It seems like such a simple dish, but it can be so flavorful and filling. I enjoy making soups even more now with my new trusty immersion blender!!

I made yummy Pumpkin Leek soup tonight, from the recipe Vegilicious! posted on her blog awhile back. This is my second time making it and it came out so much better this time around. Last time I peeled the potatoes, because I wanted the soup to be creamier - but this time I left the skin on (for the extra vitamins) and it came out so thick and wonderful!

I also pureed the leeks I had sauteed seperately into the soup, because Mondo asked me to last time. That made a difference, too. This became one of the most flavorful soups I have ever made; Mondo declared it to be 'the best soup ever'.

We had some coconut milk leftover from a lentil dish I made last week, so I was interested in swirling a bit in to see how it would taste. I don't think i'll do it again; it wasn't bad - I just don't think the flavors jive so well. Plus it didn't make a pretty swirl like I had hoped it would!

Another great thing about making soup is all the leftovers it leaves you! We always brown bag it for lunch at work in order to save some dough, so this made enough for 2 days worth of lunch for both of us. Score!

I think Mondo is pretty pumped about me having a blog. He already wants to make his amazing (and sugar filled) Café au lait this weekend and photograph it for the blog. He can make some pretty rad cinnamon designs for it! I can't wait to see what he comes up with now!

Atlanta Vegan Potluck!!

2008-04-07T11:33:00.027-04:00

This was so much fun. Look at how much fun we're having! I love meeting new people and everyone who came out was so rad and brought an amazing dish!

I know I've sent e-mails and all that, but I wanted to say thanks everyone for coming out yesterday! I can't wait to have another one :-)

My dish was the Goddess Pasta Salad from Yellow Rose Recipes. I think it turned out really well (the last time I made it I thought it'd be cool to put 6 cloves of garlic in it. not cool whatsoever). My favorite dish though was the macncheese that my friend Lori from Pleasantly Plump Vegan brought. So delish. Laurie from The PPK brought 4 dozen cupcakes: Pink Lemonade, Root Beer, Chocolate (super super chocolate) and Chick-O-Stick!!

Idalys from Dulce Vegan brought the most awesome Pineapple Upside Down cake EVER. I think everyone was in agreement, as evidenced by the photo above.

I think we had about 25 folks out and that was the perfect amount to fit at the picnic tables! The weather was perfect too, not too hot with a nice breeze. I was so worried that it was going to rain or that the pavilion would be taken by someone else; but everything worked out in my favor for the day! Success!

I was up until 2am with a sugar rush from all the desserts I ate!! That was pretty fun and it was totally worth it. Next time around I want to see if people would be interested in bringing copies of the recipe for the dish they bring. There were so many yummy things there, like the super tasty broccoli cauliflower salad that Leigh brought (along with the strawberry no-bake pie). I'm so glad she posted the recipe on her blog!

Here are some cute photos of the lovely people who attended the potluck followed up by the dishes they brought. We had tempeh w/ a miso-tahini dipping sauce, citrus rice, a mango rice dish, assortments of pasta dishes, potato salad, hummus (saba hummus, killer!) & chips, 7-layer dip, chickpea salad, sliced fresh fruit and so much more!! I look forward to more potlucks and to hanging out with all of these awesome Atlanta vegans!

Night of the Comet

2008-04-07T10:41:00.005-04:00

Hi! My name is Ashley Nicole (or Ashley, whatever floats your boat). Umm, welcome! I've been vegan for about mmm, almost 3 years now and will never look back! There is way too much awesome vegan food to ever want to eat boring old meat & dairy!

I live in Atlanta with my hubs Mondo. I like him a lot, we go together like ricenbeans. We moved here about 1.5 years ago from Miami. Atlanta has been good to us so far and keeps getting better as time goes on (with the exception of our house getting broken into, but whatever, right?).

Anyways, I really enjoy cooking and experimenting with new foods. I'm very open-minded and try to stay pretty positive - so even if I ruin a dish I don't let it get me down, I keep trying until I get it right!

So yay, welcome to my blog! I promise to post at least a few times each week (I get pretty busy and have a subscription to netflix). I have cute dogs, so you'll see photos of them pretty regularly.

I organized a vegan potluck here in Atlanta yesterday, so I will be sure to post the details of how it went (awesome) and the photos (sexy) later.

Thanks :-)