Vegan MoFo 2011: NOT your hippy aunt’s vegan meatloaf ;-P

EZ Comfort Food for Tired Wenches Remember those souless lentil loaves from the 70's pretending to be healthy meatloaves? No? Well, let me describe one for you: brown, pasty, tasted like cardboard, squishy, gross and h-e-a-v-e-y. Yeah, that one lentil...

Vegan MoFo 2011: EZ Tuna (free) Salad Sandwiches

EZ Comfort Food for Tired Wenches For Vegan MoFo 2011, I am focusing a large part of my posts on Allison Rivers Samson's recipes she developed for her VeganizeIt! column in VegNews magazine. Her recipes are wonderful vegan versions of...

Product Review: Vege USA® Vegan Lamb Vindaloo & Vegan Chicken Tikka Masala

Handy little discovery can make mealtimes quicker, easier and tastier. You're running late, so hungry you don't want to cook, and it was a rough day. Some comfort food would be...well...comforting. If only you had something you could heat in...

VidaVegan Con: Thursday lunch at Hungry Tiger Too was insanely awesome!

If you're going to Portland Oregon and have time to grab lunch, AND you crave old American classics, you have to try Hungry Tiger Too. Thursday I had lunch with three groovy gals: Fran Costigan @goodcakesfran, JL Fields @jlgoesvegan, and...

Baked Eggplant Ziti with Spinach

Remember baked ziti from those super cheapo fast Italian food places? Well, now that we finally have meltable and gooey vegan mozzarella that works (Daiya®), a vegan version of this classic is now possible and it won't suck. And it's...

Dashboard chocolate chip cookies! The ultimate eco cookie.

When the summer heatwave rolls through Chicago, all most of us can think about is staying indoors with the AC cranked up. This year has been no exception. The heat index on Wednesday of this week was expected to reach...

Meatless Monday on July 4th this year!

I love an excuse to have DH fire up the ol' grill. Yeah, he's in charge of the fire around here. That grill freaks me out because it's so old. So, what do vegans eat on July 4th? Here's my...

Hail damages Garfield Park Conservatory to the tune of $5 million.

It's truly unbelievable. The worst damage in the history of this 105-year-old American institution. While there has been hail damage in the past, it only ever amounted to a few panes of glass. This is totally different. DONATIONS They need...

Can’t get rid of that queen of invasive weeds: garlic mustard? Eat ’em!

Garlic mustard is one of the most invasive weeds tormenting our parks and yards, able to take down an entire maple forest. What to do? Eat it! Yes, there are many recipes available if you want to use eat your...

Seeds of Change: The sowing millions project!

Just a few mere days ago, Seeds of Change launched their Sowing Millions Project with the intent to outfit home and community gardeners with enough free organic seeds to encourage organic gardening and eating. Luckily I heard about this in...

Seeds Available for Swap

I have the following sees for swapping. Leave a comment if you're interested in trading. I'm looking to trade for tomato, eggplant, pepper, herb, leafy green or perennial seeds. squash, Delicata Honey Boat, Botanical Interests, 2011 squash, Delicata Honey Boat,...

Vegan Twigs and Leaves Casserole Recipe

This is in the oven right now and it–is–smelling–YUMMY! It will be ready just in time for dinner in 6 hours. Why 6 hours? Well, that's because it takes about 6 hours to slow cook the twigs since they're rather...

Finally, SnarkyVegan’s Pistachio Pesto

Yes, you may have seen pistachio pesto elsewhere but I contend that this stuff is highly personalizable. That said, make sure you use GREAT pistachios with good flavor. I use salted roasted pistachios and then only add salt at the...

Curry Tater Tot Casserole

Why not? I mean really? That said, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped but it works in a pinch. I need to work on the ingredients a bit and cut way back on the salt. Snarky's Curry Tater Tot...

First experiment with mostly whole wheat, no-knead bread.

For anyone who's been following my desperate Tweets about bread making, you know by now that my past failures were due to insanely old (spec. 10-year-old) flour in the kitchen cupboard. So before you try this recipe, go buy new...

List of seed swaps and what I’m planning to swap this year!

Tis the season for swapping seeds and making more gardening friends. There are three upcoming swaps that I know of and gardeners are already organizing their stashes to prepare: February 12th, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, The Lurie Garden, includes...

Team Eggplant for the Win!!

I've thought long and loose about which seed would get my vote for the 2011 One Seed Chicago seed competition and I tell ya, it was close. For those not yet in the loop or not in Chicago, the three...

My orchids are liking me this year.

I've had a love/hate relationship with my orchids for over 10 years now. I love them and they hate me. I've tried everything: special orchid fertilizers, creating micro-climates using giant cement mixing tubs filled with water and elevating the orchids...

Peter’s 2010 Christmas squirrel song!

It's finally done! Peter's added one more squirrel Christmas song to his roster:  

Recipe: Avocado and Veggie Relish

I dare say anything can be made awesome with avocados! It's really hard to go wrong with something like this little relish and you can use it with chips, on a burger, burrito, or as a side dressing. It's not...

Testing Isa’s Fronch Toast with Black Salt

Lots of talk these days about that eggy-tasting/smelling salt, black salt, a.k.a., kala namak. This stuff is supposed to be like magic, transforming tofu into smelly scrambled eggs right? Well, I was wondering what would happen if I put it...

Ice Cream Review: Is coconut milk ice cream worth $1 more than soy?

Maybe I'm the last to notice but Turtle Mountain now has their fabulous pomegranate chip flavor available in both regular soy and coconut ice creams. I've always been a huge fan of the pomegranate chip soy ice cream but stopped...

How to restore an old and grody cast iron skillet.

[PHOTO NOTES: I've saved images very large so you can click on them to see the details close up. It's important that you understand the textures of the cast iron during the shopping and restoration process. If you want to...

A vegan is coming! A vegan is coming! Holiday Field Roast, Roasted Veggies with EZ Gravy for omnivores in need of a quick solution.

OMG you've got a vegan coming to Christmas dinner. What the hell are you gonna serve? Let's assume that in the spirit of the holidays, you want to make sure the vegan feels welcome. You do right? Ok, so go...

Vegan MoFo: Quick list of caramel recipes found on Vegan MoFo

I know there are more caramel recipes on 2010's Vegan MoFo, I just can't find them at the moment. If you know of any, please leave a link in the comments and I'll add to the list. Thanks! Earl Grey...

Belated Post: Thanksgiving Day Pancakes

When I want pancakes, there's only ONE recipe I trust! Really, just one. Page 31 of Isa Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance. You've really got to get this book. It's my most dog-eared, written-in, stained, bookmarked book. See? So anyway,...

Vegan MoFo: Emergency Breakfast Survival Bento

It's been a long day and I remembered late this evening that I have a 7:00 am meeting tomorrow morning at a restaurant that appears to only serve eggs for breakfast. UGH! What to do? Well, scrounge around the kitchen...

Vegan MoFo: Pastrami Reuben with Special Sauce

First let me address your immediate question: pastrami? Yes, pastrami. Evidently there are reubenites who prefer pastrami to corned beef. Who knew? Until Google, I certainly did not. Anyway, I was lucky enough this summer to score the last package...

Vegan MoFo: Gooey yellow cake with chocolate frosting and melty doodads.

Behold! The gooey-est, yummiest, chocolaty-est yellow cake ever! I don't know about you but I LOVE that classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting! If the yellow cake has that old-fashioned caramel flavor, all the better. I will sniff this stuff...

Vegan MoFo: Quick Make-Your-Own Muesli

Have you seen the latest prices for fancy muesli these days?! Holy granola batman! Needless to say, I thought there's a better way and that it really wouldn't be that difficult. Here's a photo of my homemade—and I use that...