Vegan in the Carolinas

Ever wanted to make your own vegan mayonnaise at home.  Well now you can.  Just as tasty as my favorite brand Vegnaise, but at a fraction of the cost!!

New post up today on the website for Maple Cornbread Muffins.  These are delicious for breakfast or with your favorite dinner.  They would be a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving or Christmas menu.  

So, I know I posted about Kale Chips once before, but this is an alternative recipe for making them that is faster and easier.  Kale is so very good for you so make these for a snack or a side to go with your lunch.
Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir frying do not result in significant loss. Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells.  Kale is also a good source of carotenoids. (courtesy of wikipedia)

Yesterday I was so bored!!!!! 

William commandeered the television to watch football and I didn't have any money to go do anything.  So I started cooking.  I woke up and decided first think to make my favorite Whole Wheat Vegan Waffles.  

After that I paced around for a while cleaning up around the house and decided it was time to use those vegan chocolate chips I bought 2 months ago.  So I broke out my copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and made a go at their recipe.  I have to say they were delicious.

More time passed and I still felt restless so I went back to the kitchen and simultaneously made a batch of Seitan and a batch of my Whole Wheat Tortillas.

For dinner I sliced and pan fried the seitan I made earlier in the day.  I also decided to try and make a new recipe for mac and cheese I found in the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.  It was good, but I don't think it was as good as my recipe for Mac-N-Cheese.

So, I cured my day of boredom by cooking all day.  My husband was a very happy, well-fed man!

This week we celebrated Townes's 1st birthday.  I made a Vegan Doggie Birthday Cake.  It was delicious and the dogs loved it!  Check out the recipe here:

http://vegan-in.com/vegan-doggie-birthday-cake/

As we made our way from Louisiana to North Carolina we stayed a night in Savannah, GA.  We were starving and wandered around downtown until we found a restaurant called Saigon located at 4 W Broughton Street.  They were extremely Vegan Friendly and would make almost anything on the menu Vegan if you wanted it including the soups.  William ordered the Tom Ka Soup and it was absolutely delicious.  I had the Bun Ca Ri which was a curried noodle salad bowl.  Mine was good, but I have to admit I liked his better and decided I had to learn how to make it.

So sorry for the lack of posts.  As I mentioned before William and I have moved back to NC.  We just got our internet connected today so I should be able to resume posting shortly.  We love our new house and are very excited about our new town.  I started my new job this week coaching at Carolina Gymnastics Academy and William starts his new job next week teaching at Cape Fear Community College.  There are lots of really good places to eat here and I will share them all with you very soon.  Again sorry for the lack of posts and I hope to speak with you all again soon.

So things have changed a little since my last post.  We now have a house lined up.  We will be living on Carolina Beach about 4 blocks from the ocean.  William got hired teaching developmental English at Cape Fear Community College.  I still don't have a job, but I sent my resume off to all 3 gymnastics clubs in Wilmington and I hope to hear something from one of them.  That is what I really want to continue doing for work, but if all else fails, I will wait tables if I have to.

Hi everyone, sorry for the lag in posts, but it has been a pretty busy time for us.
William and I both graduated from McNeese State University last month which is what we came to Lake Charles to do.

For the past few weeks I have been working out really hard. I started doing P90X which is a real butt kicker. That combined with the fact that the temperature outside is already in the high 90's is changing my eating habits a little. So for lunch today after my workout I wanted something light, but satisfying. I have seen lots of recipes for eggless egg salad in the past, so I decided to take my favorite aspects from a couple of them and combine that with the ingredients I have on hand. Here you have my version of:

Ingredients:

12 Ounces Extra Firm Tofu
1 tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Amino
1 Celery Stalk, diced
1¼ Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1½ Tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp Sweet Relish
½ tsp Turmeric
¼ tsp Curry powder
¼ tsp Garlic Powder
¼ tsp Black Pepper
3 Tbsp Veganaise

Directions:

This is a page I found recently containing food additives in some of your favorite junk foods that are animal derived.  There were a couple that I was unaware of, but for the most part, we don't eat any of those foods anyways.  The one that did bother me the most was about Guiness, since that is one of William's favorite beers.  According to the inquires done at Barnivore.com, only the Guiness Extra Stout is Vegan in North America.

Does anyone else have foods that you only like when your mom makes them?  This is a recipe from my Mom's collection that I decided to make Vegan.  It was a little bit of a challenge since the main ingredient in hers is ground beef.  Since I am able to make a pretty tasty beef substitute I thought I would give it a try.  It turned out really good.

These are perfect for a breakfast on the go, or a late night munchie.  Each Muffin contains about 188 Calories and 8 grams of fat if you use these ingredients. If you wanted to cut the calorie and fat count down even more, you can substitute 1/4 Cup Applesauce for the Oil.

Got a bit of a sweet tooth late last night and decided to try making some peanut butter cookies.  I used to work at a restaurant in Wilmington, NC that had a bakery in it and we made these really easy peanut butter cookies, only they used egg.  So I changed up the recipe a little and used more healthy versions of the ingredients like raw sugar and organic un-salted peanut butter.  You can use whatever peanut butter you have on hand, but I feel like the un-salted PB balances out all the sugar :)

So, not too long ago I decided I needed to get rid of all of my makeup and trade it in for the Vegan versions of it.  Finding most of it was pretty easy.  Wal-Mart even carries the "Hard Candy" products line of which, many are vegan and all are cruelty-free. I purchased several of them and will be posting those reviews a little later.  I was not very impressed by their vegan mascara selection, so I decided to go online and search around.  After reading many reviews and comparing prices I settled on:

*Excellent for sensitive eyes. 

*Gluten-free. 

*Fragrance-free.

Cons:

*Takes a little longer to dry than other mascaras

*Not very waterproof, don't cry when wearing :)

I am feeling like my good old self again since the kidney stone ordeal.  I still don't exactly know the cause of it, but I am glad it is over for now.

Today we are leaving for the weekend to go to Old Settler's Music Festival in Austin, TX.  We are going to celebrate William along with our friends Brendan and Stacy, who all just successfully defended their MFA Thesis'. We will all be graduating in May and can not wait to be finished.  Spring Break is still a week and a half away for not for McNeese State University, but we are starting it off early.   We are hoping to find some awesome vegan eats while we are in Austin to bring back and share with you along with some fun festival pictures.

I apologize for the current lack of postings. I spent the last week in agony with my first kidney stone.  If you have never had one then consider yourself blessed.  They are the most painful thing I have experienced.  I have since passed the stone and am awaiting the results of where it came from.  I consider myself to be a rather healthy individual and I am very curious what I am doing/eating/drinking that could have brought this on.  I suppose in the end it could be a hereditary thing.  My mother does not get them that I am aware of, but my Aunt does.  Since my father died so young, I do not know if that is something that could have run in his family.  Oh well,  when the results come back I will know and make adjustments accordingly.  Until then, I will try to get some posts up really soon.
:) Missy