Vida Vegan Con Tix & Stuff

It looks like summer has made its way back to Portland for a visit after a week of rain and grey skies.  Woohoo!  Things have been a little off around here lately with odd work schedules, moving family members, and the comeback of seasonal allergies.  Food has been of the quick and easy variety.

Smoothies, smoothies, smoothies.  This one was some sort of raspberry almond butter concoction.  Yum.

And the standard, but never tiresome, bowls involving quinoa, greens, avo, and sriracha.  I could really eat this for every meal and be very content.  

So, next week is a big week from me.  I'm looking forward to some awesome news and I have a new project in the works that I'll finally get to tell you about!  Oh, and this:

I stalked registration for VVC 2013 this time around and got my early bird ticket 4 minutes after they were released!  (Last year I waited too long to buy a ticket and they sold out.) Is anyone else going?  OMG I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

My Week: Farmers Market Scores, Pizza, & Wraps

best coffee shop name ever

Portland has decided to give Summer a wet welcome complete with gloomy skies and and a grey shadowy blanket a la The Killing.  I have no complaints.  It's Saturday morning and I'm still cuddled up in bed with my boyfriend, cat, and laptop, listening to the downpour via open window.  The rain is what keeps Portland pretty and green, as well as washing away some of the pollen that's been feeding our seasonal allergies.  Welcome, showers.

Here are some Instagram photos I've posted over the past week:

Gluten free, vegan cookies with oatmeal, pistachio, and dark chocolate inspired by the recipe in Babycakes Covers The Classics.  They were a little greasy so I plan on using less oil next time.  But overall a really nice cookie recipe.

Some non-produce purchases from the Portland Farmers Market:  A raw vegan fig bar from Eatin' Alive and a gf/v strawberry shortcake whoopie pie and cinnamon roll with icing from Petunia's.  So many options in Portland, Oregon!

I've really been into making wraps.  This was a breakfast wrap with daiya, spinach, saffron quinoa, avo, garlic aioli, and sriracha.

This one with avo, aioli, quinoa, and kale.

A work lunch with left over saffron quinoa, cucumbers, tahini kale (hiding), and black sesame seeds.

Pizza night!  Always the best night!  Have you made Romesco Sauce?  It's a red sauce with toasted hazelnuts in it.  We love it on everything, including pizza.  This one with soy curls, green beans, crimini mushrooms, and daiya.

I finally made it to Loving Hut for lunch with my mom.  Loving Hut is a vegan chain with over 200 locations.  Each location is individually owned with a unique menu.  The food is tofu/soy heavy at the Portland location with only a few gluten free options, but our meals were very tasty and the service was super friendly.  I'm  glad that places like Loving Hut, Veggie Grill, and Native Foods are offering vegan dining options to the masses.

With warmer weather comes more smoothies.  This one was spinach, strawberries and almond butter.

And last but not least, my most favorite summer kombucha drink, cherry chia.  I could drink one every day.

It's been a good food week around here.  With the farmers markets in full swing we're eating lots of delicious local scores.  I had an exhausting work week and look forward to plenty of relaxation over the next few days.  Hooray for rain.  

Smoked Paprika Lime Tacos with Jackfruit, Quinoa & Black Beans

Sometimes adjusting back to reality from vacation mode is kind of rough.  I could have stayed in sunny Austin for at least another week or two.  So, in an attempt to bring some of that vacation feeling home to Portland I made tacos, one of our favorite Austin meals.  

And not just any taco.  And by no means a traditional taco.  But a jackfruit, black bean, quinoa, smoked paprika lime taco.  Let's start with the jackfruit.

Julienne one can of jackfruit, drained and rinsed well.  Add enough of your favorite taco sauce and seasonings to cover.  Simmer over medium heat until soft.  This takes at least 30 minutes.  Use a fork to mash and break up the jackfruit. 

Jackfruit taco filling is a real palate pleaser because it's sweet, salty and spicy.  While your jackfruit is simmering and making your kitchen smell like heaven cook a pot of quinoa.  Add a little lime juice, cumin, and sea salt.

Put on a pot of black beans or black refried beans.  Add some salt and lime and hot sauce.  Keep them warm while you saute crimini mushrooms with garlic.

Every taco must have avocado.  Mash up an avo with some lime juice, black pepper and sea salt.  Add some chopped onion, chopped tomato, and garlic.  

Ok, the last prep step before we build our taco is the smoked paprika lime cream sauce.  In a high speed  blender combine 1 cup cashews, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika and sea salt to taste.  Blend until smooth and creamy.  This sauce is so good!  You'll have extra, so keep it in the fridge and use it as a veggie dip and salad dressing.

Ok, it's time to build a taco!  First, use a dry cast iron skillet over medium high heat to soften the corn tortillas.  Heat on each side until warm, soft and starting to brown.   After heating each tortilla put it on a plate covered with a towel to keep it warm until you're ready to eat.

Now, for each taco I use 2 tortillas on a plate about 3/4 overlapping each other.  Start with a spread of beans down the middle and some quinoa.

Next up, jackfruit taco filling. 

Pile on sauteed mushrooms, guac and the smoked paprika lime cream sauce.

Top with shredded cabbage, fold and eat.

This may seem like a lot of steps, but it doesn't take much time. Each step is quick and simple and the final product is totally worth it.  Of course you don't have to go all out taco crazy like I did.  You can make your own version using any of these components, but I highly recommend the smoked paprika lime cream sauce.  It's really yum.  These would be great on lettuce leaves if you don't do corn tortillas.  

You will most likely have left-overs.  I put them on a bed of spinach and cabbage for awesome work lunch salads.

Taco night was a big hit!  I have so many ideas for flavors and fillings.  We'll have to do it again soon.  

Hope you're having a nice Sunday!  Today's agenda includes a trip to the farmers market and pizza night.  I love Sundays. 

This Blog Is Going Gluten Free!

Hello!  In my last post I brought up going gluten free.  Well, turns out I feel about a million times better when I'm not eating gluten.  Things that I thought were "normal" like cramping, bloating, and extreme fatigue after meals became non-existent after a month of being gluten free.  I'll admit I had some suspicions about gluten for quite some time before I did anything about it.  I just didn't want to give up bread!  But once my system cleared out and I started feeling the real "normal" sans gluten I found that I didn't even want the stuff.  Why eat something that was obviously making me feel like crap?  And finally, my decision to go gluten free was validated yesterday....

That's me, in Astoria, about to visit the Goonies house!  I grew up on the Oregon coast and have 2 friends that lived in the Goonies house at different times and I was a huge fan of the movie when I was a kid.

Do you recognize it from the movie?  Anyways... what does this have to do with my gluten free experience?  Well, while in Astoria we ate lunch at a cute little cafe that offered vegan and gluten free options.  Finding a place along the coast with vegan options isn't always easy, let alone vegan and gluten free.  What happened next is totally my fault.  I ordered something that I assumed was gluten free even though it wasn't advertised as such because I didn't want to annoy the person taking my order with more questions. Part way through eating we guessed that the injera (Ethiopian flat bread traditionally made with gluten free teff flour) was made with a combo of teff and whole wheat flour.  Like I said, I should have known better and I could have saved myself a lot of pain if I would have just inquired about the ingredients.

My second mistake was finishing the bread, but can you blame me?  Look at that pretty plate of food!  I kept eating, thinking "Ok, so I'll be a little bloated after this".   And sure enough, the bloating happened, plus more.  Waaaay more.  To the extent of missing the next day at work.  It was a miserable experience and a valuable lesson.  First of all, I'm committed to staying gluten free.  No bread is worth having to go through that again.  And second, I really should have just asked about the bread.  Sheesh.  Another thing I've been pondering is this:  If having gluten made me feel this terrible, what has it been doing to my body all of this time?  I'm happy to be rid of it.

So, from now on this blog is going to be gluten free too.  The food nerd in me is super excited to experiment with new ingredients and see what I can come up with that's tasty and makes me feel the best.  A good handful of my blog friends and blogs that I read are already gluten free, but if you know of any awesome blogs, books, or websites please leave me a link in comments.  I'm soaking up all the info I can get my hands on right now.

Sweet Saturday: Chocolate Almond Butter Cup Cookies

Drizzly overcast days are great for spending in the kitchen with a buzzing dehydrator.  I was in the mood for something chocolate and gooey and full of good nutrition.  These cookies were just the thing I needed to make my sweet tooth happy.  Especially when eaten warm from the dehydrator.

Chocolate Almond Butter Cup Cookies

1 cup raw pecans
1 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup agave or maple syrup
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon maca powder
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
4 medjool dates, pitted

Mix all ingredients in your food processor until well combined and starting to form into a ball.  Drop by tablespoons onto teflex dehydrator sheet.  Make a well in the center of each cookie with your finger.  Fill each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon Almond Butter Filling:

Almond Butter Filling

1/3 cup almond butter
2 Tablespoons agave or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon maca

After all of the cookies are filled with the Almond Butter Filling place the tray in the dehydrator for 2-3 hours or until cookies are warm.  Share with friends.  Make them ooh and ahhhh, then tell them that what they're eating is living nutritious vegan food that will make them feel amazing. 

Hope your Saturday is sweet!

Light Lunch: GF Pistachio Pesto Wrap

I'm trying my best to get caught up on some things around the house today, but wait... I'm here watching twitter and blogging about my lunch. 

I was in the mood for something quick and high raw so I wrapped up spinach, tomatoes and some pistachio pesto that my bf made earlier in the week.  Yummmm.  The wrap is gluten free, made with teff flour.  It was ok, a little chewy, but not bad in flavor.  The pesto was super flavorful so the teff wrap was really just a vessel for the filling's goodness. 

Ok, back to my chores.  I have a few announcements to make tomorrow about projects I'm starting in October.   Can hardly wait to share! 

Hope you're all having a nice lunch today. 

Lunchbox 9/14/11

Hi-ho, hi-ho....

Clockwise from top left:  grapefruit, kale salad (purple kale, avo, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, hemp nuts, sunflower seeds), chia pudding (chia seeds, coconut milk, coconut shreds, currants), banana.

Have a great Wednesday!  What are you having for lunch today?
.....

Dinner Two Ways: Veggie Bowls, Raw & Cooked

Sometimes we don't want the exact same thing for dinner.  Our taste buds are in different moods or one of us wants to eat more raw.  Whatever the reason,  it's easy to please everyone with a veggie bowl.  And they're both packed full of vegan, gluten free, nutrient dense goodness.  Here are two that I had on the (coffee) table in about 20 minutes: 

Left = Cooked, Right = Raw

More Cooked Veggie Bowl

 Arugula

Quinoa cooked in Miso Broth

Steamed Kale

Sauteed Mushrooms

Tahini Sauce

Avocado

Green Onion

More Raw Veggie Bowl

Arugula

Raw Kale Salad with Tahini Sauce

Avocado

Green Onion

Both bowls have kale, avocado, green onion, arugula, and tahini sauce, but were just different enough to satisfy both appetites.  I'd like to note that this particular Raw Veggie Bowl is much lighter than my usual dinner would be because I wasn't feeling very hungry.  Normally I would make it more hearty by adding hemp or sunflower seeds, raisins or dates, nut pate, raw hummus, and more veggies.  That's the beauty of the Bowl, it's so easy to customize.  My tahini sauce is super easy to whip up and is good warm or cold.

Quick & Tasty Tahini Sauce

1/2 cup raw tahini

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon miso

1 teaspoon liquid sweetener of choice

salt & pepper to taste

Whisk up in a bowl, adding more water if needed to make a creamy, pourable consistency.  Use as a dip, dressing, or sauce.

Voila!  Two happy eaters in 20 minutes or less.  I love whipping up food that makes everyone healthy and happy.  How do you deal with differences of diet or appetite?