Tampa Bay VegFest 2011

Last Saturday, October 15th, was the second annual Tampa Bay VegFest. I'm happy to say, this year's was bigger and better than last year. And unlike last year, I remembered to take pictures of the food I ate. Bonus.

The boyfriend and I started out by making a lap of all the booths. We ended up eating a ton of free samples that way. Gardein, Dandies vegan marshmellows, So Delicious vegan ice cream, Field Roast sausages, and more. It was pretty fantastic. So by the time we made our way over to the food vendors we weren't actually super hungry. So we both got a $3 veggie dog. Turned out to be a good choice. I had mine on a whole wheat bun with ketchup, onions, and relish. It was just the right amount of food after feasting on samples.

Of course, we couldn't skip dessert. One of the vendors was a vegan ice cream truck, selling soft serve style ice cream made from bananas. I ordered a medium with chocolate sauce and graham crackers. It was really, really good. The texture was spot on and the combination of banana, chocolate, and graham cracker is just about perfect.


I also made new friends at all the different animal rescue organizations. But my best friend, the one who tempted me the most to make an impulse adoption, was Myla. She's about 2.5 months old and a collie boxer mix. She was as sweet as can be. Many of the other dogs seemed pretty bored with being petted and adored, and pretty much ignored me when I pet them. But Myla kept licking me and nipping my fingers. Oh my goodness, I wanted her so bad. It was really hard for me to walk away. I mean, look at that face!


All in all, it was a successful VegFest. The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the animals were adorable (and not on the menu). I'm not sure if I'll still be living in Tampa this time next year, but if I am, I will certainly return for round 3. And this Saturday I'll be going to the Central Florida VegFest in Orlando. It's hard work, going to festivals made especially for me and eating all this food, but someone has to do it!

My Day of Pumpkin Puree

I participate in a pretty awesome local, organic buying club. Unlike a regular CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) instead of paying for an entire season up front, we buy per week. For $25 I receive between 10 and 15 pounds of local, organic produce from a family farm. I can cancel or change my weeks at any time. I usually buy every other week. I started participating in the club last March. It went on hiatus during the summer due to Florida's growing season, but it just started back up last week. I love the club because it really forces me to be creative in the kitchen. I receive fruits or vegetables that I've never heard of before or that I don't normally cook with. So one exciting item we received in our box last week was an entire calabaza pumpkin, a tropical variety. The pumpkin had a lot of potential, but I decided to turn the pumpkin into a giant batch of pumpkin puree.


First, rinse the outside of the pumpkin to get any dirt or grit off. Then cut the pumpkin in half. For this job you'll need the biggest, sharpest knife you have. And be very careful. It took a little maneuvering but eventually I got my pumpkin into two halves. Once the pumpkin is split in half, scoop out the guts and the seeds. Rinse and save the seeds for roasting later.

Then go ahead and slice the halves into slices about an inch wide. You want all your slices to be roughly the same size so they cook evenly. Line the slices of pumpkin on a baking sheet (I ended up needing two baking sheets). Roast the pumpkin in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. I didn't drizzle the slices with any oil or salt because I wanted the puree to be simple and pure.

Check the doneness of the pumpkin by sliding in a knife. If it slides in easily then they're done cooking. Take them out of the oven and let them cool. Once cool, use your knife to remove the peel. When all the peels are removed toss the slices into the food processor. Blend until smooth. You'll need to do this in batches. My pumpkin yielding 7.5 cups of pumpkin puree.


Now, you can store puree however you want. But unless you plan on using a crazy amount of pumpkin in one week, I recommend freezing it. I also recommend freezing it in pre measured portions. I placed one cup of puree into a ziploc bag. I squeezed all the air out and then sealed the bag. This allowed for easy stacking in the freezer. For a quick way to defrost, fill a bowl with hot water. Place a bag of puree in the water for a few minutes until defrosted.

If you live in the Tampa Bay area and are interested in buying local, organic, seasonal produce click here.

Bluebbery Waffles with Lemon Glaze

Every Thursday I have a standing brunch date with my friend Sammi from Vegan Pandamonium. This started out as a going out to lunch date. But one week, when I was trying to save some money, I asked if she would like to come over and I would make brunch instead. And since we're both still trying to save money, and we love cooking for each other, brunch has stuck.

This week we both went all out trying new recipes. I really enjoy waffles but have never really found a recipe that turns out the way I want it to, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Well today I finally found a recipe that did just that. It came from VeganYumYum with just a few small adjustments on my part. This will now be my go-to waffle recipe. You can definitely change it up with the fruit of your choice.

Blueberry Waffles:

• 2 cups all purpose flour (I prefer unbleached)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup vegan sour cream
• 1 1/3 cup almond milk
  
• 5 tbsp water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1-2 tsp lemon zest (optional)
  

Preheat waffle iron. In one bowl combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients. Then add dry to wet in 2-3 batches. Gently fold in blueberries. Use about 1/2 cup batter per waffle. My waffle iron cooks the waffles in about 7 minutes. Place finished waffles on a baking sheet in the oven to keep warm.

Lemon glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• Zest of half a lemon
• 3 tablespoons of almond milk
  

Sift powdered sugar. Add all other ingredients. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over waffles.

***A good tip from VeganYumYum. If you use frozen blueberries, reserve two tablespoons of the dry ingredient mixture. Toss the frozen blueberries with the dry ingredients, then fold into the batter at the last minute. This keeps the batter from turning a greyish purple color.
***I subbed vegan sour cream for soy yogurt in the original recipe.

Chocolate Cherry Smoothie

Let me begin this post by saying that I never measure ingredients when making smoothies. It just seems unneccessary. I taste and add as I go. So the measurements given for this chocolate cherry smoothie are imprecise and are definitely allowed to be adjusted based on your taste preferences.

I had the idea for this smoothie originally when I bought 2.5 pounds of cherries one week when they were on sale. It turns out that me and the boyfriend can't eat that many cherries by ourselves before they go bad. So before the cherries could take a turn for the worst I popped them in the freezer and began brainstorming on what recipes I could make with them. For some reason the idea of doing a healthy take on the Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia flavor stuck with me. I'm not really sure why, because I don't think I've ever actually had the Cherry Garcia flavor. But this is what came out of my brain and into the blender (figuratively, not literally).

Chocolate Cherry Smoothie:

• 3/4-1 cup frozen or fresh cherries
• 1-1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• Drizzle (maybe 1-2 tsps?) agave nectar
• 1 cup almond milk

Place all ingredients in the blender. Blend until smoothie consistency. Add more milk if the smoothie is too thick. Drink up!

Vegan Chocolate Silk Pie

So what's the excuse this time? School, work, thesis? Regardless, I've been slacking. But I'm here with a recipe for a kinda sorta healthy chocolate pie. And it's vegan. So that counts for something, right?

I believe I found this recipe during one of my many Foodgawker stalking nights (that counts as busy, right?). As soon as I saw the recipe and realized I had all the ingredients on hand I knew I had to make it. And I'm so glad I did. It couldn't be easier and it couldn't be more delicious.

You can use any pie crust you prefer. I made a graham cracker crust, but I also would not judge you at all if you used a store bought crust. I also won't judge you if you don't make a crust put simply spoon the chocolate silk into your mouth straight out of the food processor.

Chocolate Silk Pie:

• 1 package silken, extra firm tofu (I used mori-nu)
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp almond milk (or soy, rice, whatever)
• Pinch of salt
• About 1 1/3 c vegan chocolate chips
• 1.5-2 tbsp agave nectar

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave (your choice, I used microwave). Then throw all of the ingredients into a food processor. Process until completely smooth, no chunks of tofu. Pour into a pie crust of your choice. Place in fridge, chills for a few hours. Devour. I garnished mine with fresh raspberries. Strawberries or bananas would also be good. I'm also thinking next time I might add a tablespoon of cooled coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor. Enjoy!

Costa Rica: Parte 3

Casado, meaning "married" in Spanish, is a typical meal in Costa Rica. Traditionally, it comes with a meat of your choice (chicken, beef, or fish), a salad, rice, beans, and sometimes plantains. This meal was fairly easy to have vegetarian as I would simply order the "casado vegetariano" or the "casado sin carne" (vegetarian casado or casado with no meat). This is the very first casado I had, served at the cafeteria of the institute where I was studying Spanish. This meal, complete with an iced tea or fresh fruit drink of the day, set me back about $4 American. Needless to say, I ate this meal quite often for lunch while I was in Costa Rica. It really was a whole lot of food for a very small price. It was fairly healthy and kept me full for a long time. My only complaint about this plate of food was...it only had two pieces of plantain!

Costa Rica: Parte 2

When I left for Costa Rica I expected that I wouldn't have a ton of food options as a vegetarian. I left fully expecting to be eating rice and beans for three meals a day for 28 days. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out not to be the case. Don't get me wrong, I did eat a fair share of rice and beans but I was also lucky enough to stumble upon a few vegetarian restaurants. My favorite was the Veggie House. I ate there twice and ordered the same thing both times, it was that good. Both times I had the wrap. It came with your choice of garbanzo or soy patty. I chose the garbanzo. Hummus was spread on the tortilla and then filled with numerous veggies including lettuce, carrots, beets, tomatoes, and avocados. On the side they served fresh, homemade salsa and chips. I know this doesn't sound super exciting, but it was incredibly delicious.

I've been making a similar wrap since I've been back. I spread a liberal amount of hummus (usually roasted garlic hummus) on a whole wheat tortilla. Then I add spinach, thinly sliced onion, grated carrots, and grated beets. I then add a good sized handful of chickpeas. A few times I've also made baked falafel to replace the straight up chickpeas. It's a healthy, satisfying lunch. I make it the night before and grab it on my way out the door to work. And it's perfect at room temperature.