New York! New York!

My best friend took me to NY for the day on Saturday to celebrate me getting my Doctorate in Physical Therapy and becoming a Certified Yoga Instructor. We had such an amazing time. It was a full day of firsts, exploring the city, shopping and a Broadway show. We arrived early and hit up Canal street right away. Then strolled around china town where we had some delishious vegan tofu ice cream (didnt get a pic), A got some dried sweet potatoes, and i picked up some Jumbo chestnuts. Back to 5th avenue for shopping before the 2pm show.

Legally Blonde-very cute, my personal favorites were the dogs. It was a broadway first for both of us. Then was dinner- she chose an all Vegan restuarant for me called Zen Palate on the corner of 46th and 9th.


It was hard to choose but I had the Sesame Mediallions- Seitan in an Asian BBq sauce with steamed broc, red and brown rice and 2 spring rolls with a ginger soy dipping sauce. The BEST seitan meal I have ever had.

Amy got Fettuccine rice noodles with beansprouts, snow peas, other veggies and Zenham.

We had a banana pie dessert but we ate it so fast i didnt get a pic. To burn off all the calories we hit the streets shopping again- then both tired we returned to Penn station to catch the train back. What a great day. Thanks again!

Peanut Butter and Jelly cake

I had an idea and went with it. I usually use a vegan recipe and transform it into my own but i couldnt find any for this so i created my own. The first trial i thought was a flop because i accidentally bought whole wheat/all purpose flour mix. I turned that into 2 orange glazed cakes in loaf pans which were actually a BIG BIG BIG hit. The actual PB and J cake was a hit at work---well the jelly side mostly.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
3/4 cup oil
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
4 teaspoons vanilla
3-1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup strawberry- or grape whole fruit jam if you prefer

1/2 cup natural no salt added peanut butter

Directions:Preheat over to 350 deg F. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together dry ingredients in another bowl and sift together well. Add the dry mixture to the liquid and mix well with either an electric mixer or by hand till all lumps are gone. Let stand 5 minutes. Add in PB and jelly.

Pour into a 13x9x2 baking pan coated with vegetable oil spray, or cupcake tins (fill 2/3 full). Do not bang air bubbles out of this cake. Bake about 40 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean, the cake springs back, and tops are slightly golden.

i didnt have a mixer or the entire thing would have turnned out better but heres how it went with a wire whisk

Strawberry jam
1/2 cup jam with equiv. of egg replacement

PB frosting

1/2 cup PB with confectioners sugar and soy milk to desired consistency

Here was the delish screw up orange glazed cake- Same cake as above without the PB and J with whole wheat flour- tasted more like a bread.

Glaze was OJ with confectioners sugar poured over top.

2 Dinners!!!!

Saturday we spent in Chestnut Hill walking around in the nice weather. Followed by lunch and a hike in Fairmount park. Most of our time in Chestnut Hill was spent at Kitchen Kapers and Penzeys spice shop. Great store where they put their spices in jars and you can smell each of them. I always like to try something new and purchased an Indian Balti spice. For dinner I attempted my first try at Indian cooking. Lots of veggies, tofu and spice sauce over Basmati Rice. Although not authentic the spice was perfect.






'A' was over for dinner on tuesday for our weekly dinner and taste tester. Boy is she brave but she gets a nice dinner out of it and a chance to spend some time with ME. I was craving some BBQ so i cooked up some Veganomicon's Backyard BBQ sauce with some changes.

BBQ sauce
1 onion chopped fine
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
28 oz can of crushed tomotoes
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup vinegar
2 tbsp brown rice syrup or maple
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp Vegan Worcheshire


Brown the onions in a suace pan. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add all other ingredients except for the mustard and liquid smoke. Cook up to an hour to let thicken. Add mustard and liquid smoke to taste and cook 5 more minutes.

I made BBQ tofu and eggplant, polenta fries, with roasted eggplant, mushrooms, onions and chickpeas.

Ihave been wanting to make the polenta fries which turned out quite simple and quite delishous.

Make firm polenta with 1 cup polenta (corn grits) to 2 cups water in a saucepan. Cook until no longer hard and just tender. Scoop polenta into a oiled dish or baking sheet and Refridgerate 30 minutes until well firm. Take out of fridge and cut into slices. Place onto oiled baking sheet add salt and pepper and bake 20-30 min until crispy and brown. Should look like this

My Corny weekend

Since Mondays are usually very boring...at least in my world i will sum up the weekend. Fridays yoga class was on hold due to increasing back pain. I watched the Simpson's Movie instead- talk about mind captivating. A guilty weakness- reminds me of childhood watching with bro and dad with mom saying how stupid it was but secretly laughing.

I made Susans Mini crustless tofu quiches from FatFreeVegan on sat morning for breakfast- mine were filled with portabellos, orange pepper, and onion. They were delish. The recipe said it would make 12 but mine only made 8. I think i should get those silicone thingies because mine stuck pretty bad---but still good. They are light and airy so you can eat a bunch- we polished them off with fruit, coffee, and freshly made OJ.

Lunch was at Azure in Northern Liberties.

Review- Seitan Enchiladas with black beans and rice----flavor was great but could have used more filling the CORN tortillas could have used more stuff.

-The mojito was weak and the mint was not muddled--but they were $4 on the

brunch menu

-Seitan tips were delishious with an aoili sauce and flour tortillas

- Wait staff and service was slow and VERY opinionated.... telling us we have K9 teeth!

I would reccomend it and would travel back again if in the neighborhood.

Sat night was Helium comedy Club with the funny RODNEY LANEY

You know my saturday was creating this amazing blog, Corn waffles, chickpea patties ..... With a dinner of leftover Tamales from Veganomicon that me and MOM made last weekend. Boy that recipe made a whole lot of tamales almost 25 (3 dinner with company). AND they are spicy- filled with Masa corn meal.

Followed with a Movie of Kite Runner and PopCorn.

By the way if you hadnt noticed I have recently been craving corn all the time and cant get enough of it.

Corn waffles with blueberry sauce and chickpea cutlets

Breakfast this morning was corn waffles with blueberry sauce. It was from VwaV minus the lemons cause i didnt have any. They were very good otherwise. The blueberries were Jersey Blueberries frozen from last season. I cannot wait until they are fresh again. Yum.

T and I cut them in half because we wanted to eat together and are too impatient to wait for the waffle iron to cook them up. Plus I like them really crunchy and the blueberry sauce was ready. I finished off 1 whole one and he finished off 2. With some coffee-decaf for me- with almond milk breakfast was complete.

After the gym I was starving and had an overwhelming desire for one of my favorite recipes from the bible- Veganomicon. CHICKPEA PATTIES. Of course with a mound of Dijon mustard. I love the stuff- could eat it on everything. I have a bottle in the fridge, one in my desk at work, a few on the shelf and have been known to have it in my purse. I stole a pressure cooker from my mom's closet and have been obsessed with the fast cooking times. Who would have thought 15 minutes for a sweet potato. I had to begin to use these up i bought 5lbs for $1.25 at produce junction last week. Hmmmm what to make for dinner tonight........

My first post!!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time and i am finally getting to it (with the help of a Greek cutie). I have been addicted to reading others blogs for quite some time now and now i have my own space I am so excited. I dont know where to start!!