phosphate free!

It's starting to cool down now and as much as I like the fall/winter months..I really do not like being cold, at all, and I'm cold all the time. it's a bummer..but at least the leaves will be changing and it'll be beautiful. :)

So I bought lentils because I lovvved the snobby joes from Veganomicon I made over the summer, and I really want to make them here. But I wanted to make something new with the lentils, so with half of them last week I made a lentil salad. It came out pretty good.. I could eat it just by itself, but I found it to be more substantial and delicious on top of lettuce with a bit of italian dressing.


Lentil Salad:
1 c dried lentils
1 diced medium sized carrot
6 thinly sliced green onions
1 diced red bell pepper
1/2 c chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 c chopped italian parsley leaves
1 minced clove of garlic
1/3 c lemon juice
1 T olive oil

Bring 3 cups of water in a large saucepan to boil over high heat. Add the lentils and bring to medium low. Cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Drain the lentils well and spread them out to cool quicker. Toss the rest of the ingredients with the lentils aside from the lemon juice and oil in a large bowl. Drizzle oil and juice on top. Eat then or ontop of lettuce with a bit of dressing as i chose :)

So we also have a new addition to our family! Meet Ziggy!:


This cute little kitten is soo hard to get a picture of! He will never stop moving! I can't even find him asleep to get a good picture. One day :) But we adopted him on Monday from PAWS (the animal shelter in philadelphia) and he's so adorable. Usually I'm not much of a cat person, I prefer dogs, but he's so cute so it's okay. :)

you don't have to say a word to me

Okay so the cooking is still not going so well, but with classes and work and homework..it can get difficult to find time to go to the store and get the stuff and make something delicious.
this past weekend i went up to Syracuse, New York for a football game. The football game was the downside, since syracuse lost, however, I did find my possible new favorite vegan restaurant?
I looked up on happycow before I left to see if there were any vegan places in the area..and only a few showed up, one being the Strong Hearts Cafe. I looked over the menu online and it looked really good, not to mention they had quite a list of flavors for milkshakes as well! Soo I wrote down the address and we luckily got a chance to go there after the game.

The cafe was inside of a building, which looked to be perhaps an old office building? I'm not sure really..but it was a good size, and had a bunch of tables for eating in. The menu when you first look above the cash registers and such was for all of their beverages..they had hot cocoa, brewed teas, many different coffee drinks(think cappucinos and machiatos with tons of different flavor shots!), and an extensive list of milkshakes, which i'll get to :)
The food menu was on the other wall across from when you come in, with a few salad options, a bunch of sandwich options including options like seitan, blt's, chicken and chickpea salad sandwich, etc. Not to mention an impressive looking breakfast menu, which is served all day, including french toast, waffles, pancakes, tofu scramble..etc..
I knew that after I ate I would want a milkshake, so I didn't want to fill up too quickly, so I chose a "chicken" caesar salad.

I was really excited to try the dressing, since I used to really enjoy caesar dressing. It was a darker color, but absolutely delicious! It had just the right amount of garlicy-ness to it that made it taste great. The croutons were also really crunchy and delicious. The chicken strips on top were very familiar to the morninstar chickn strips...I'm not sure if that's what they really used though, but I love morningstars so I loved these! The only thing missing is it would've been sweet to have some vegan parmesan on top, but hey..it was really good without.

This is the sundried tomato seitan sandwich with tomato and vegan mayo on it. I only had a bite, but it was really good! And the toasty-ness of it made it perfect.
So after eating, and trying to decide on which milkshake flavor to get, I decided on a favorite, Chocolate Peanut Butter

I've had a lot of milkshakes..before being vegan, but actually I haven't had one since being vegan. But this by far was the best milkshake, vegan or not, that I've had! It was soo perfect. I also got to try the chocolate coconut milkshake, which was also really good..especially if you love Mounds bars or just the combo of the two in general..it was really coconut-y but not too overly fake sweet coconut tasting. just right.
They also had plenty of baked goods at the front that the guy told me they make most of them there, such as mocha cupcakes, mint chocolate cupcakes, scones, whoopie pies, etc.
So if you're ever in the Syracuse area, definitely make a stop at the Strong Hearts Cafe. You will love it, i'm sure :)
Oh, and the best thing? On Fridays & Saturdays, they're open until 2 AM. oh I would kill for a vegan milkshake at 1 in the morning ;)

soo its been a bit...

OKAY so i'm finally somewhat situated into the new apartment and the internet is FINALLY up and running.. soo i'm excited to get back on here. unfortunately, i have yet to cook anything post-worthy (ex:tonights dinner was banana peanut butter on toast..exactly, however quite delicious) but i have had some awesome vegan sandwiches and such ...but forgot to have my camera with me...guess ill just have to get them again ;)

by the way, ive moved to main street in manayunk in philly, if anyone knows where it is. and its seriously completely perfect. i'm so excited to be here.

expect lots of restaurant reviews ;)

i'm super excited to read everyone's blogs again though. i just wanted to update just to say i havent completely dissapeared..just moved..and hopefully ill be completely situated shortly. a much better update will be coming soon, promise!

now off to read everyone else's wonderful blogs. :)

you only see what you want to see, nothing less, nothing more

So I leave tomorrow to go back to philly. I'm really hopeing that I'll be able to cook and blog as much..I'll definitely be reading everyone else's though, so i'm sure that will inspire me to get in the kitchen. My classes for this semester start up on Monday.. not to mention on my 20th birthday unfortunately.. haha but hopefully they won't be too bad this semester :)

So I went to Vitamin World the other day to look for a new vitamin. I ended up getting the Vitamin Code ones. They're all raw and they seem to be a good pick. Only down side of it is that you have to take four of them a day..that seems a bit odd to me, but we'll see. Also while I was there I picked up two raw nutrition bars. One was the Raw Revolution brand, in chocolate cashew. I wasn't a huge fan.. it wasn't bad, I could eat it..but it was just very bland and boring. I also got a Raw Organic Power Bar in the chocolate coconut, and I did prefer this one over the other. But still, nothing too fabulous. I'd rather stick to Luna bars. :)


Okay so yeah my vitamins are in the background. But in the glass is pure awesomeness. I was thinking the other day about the new Starbucks drinks, the chocolate banana energy one..and thinking that without the whey, and plus the soy milk, it could be vegan. Welll... also realizing that I had all the ingredients on hand already, I made one myself and it was soo good.

Banana Chocolate Drink
1 banana
1 T cocoa powder (more if you want it chocolateyy)
1/2 cup soy milk
5-6 ice cubes
Sweetener, if you so desire.. i didn't and it was fine.

Put it all in a blender and pulse to blend the ice cubes. Add sweetener if needed, or even some peanut butter if you're feeling super fancy ;) Not to mention, the way written above, is all about 100 calories...depending on what kind of soy milk you used! (i used light 8th continent..so 1/2 cup was only 30 calories)
It's just such a simple drink that I love and found really refreshing.

Let's see, also for dinner the other night I made TLT's(tempeh lettuce tomato!) using Fat Free Vegan's "bacon" tempeh recipe.




I would like to ask for a bit of advice though. This is the second time that I've tried to cook tempeh and marinate it and such. The other try was using Veganomicon's hot sauce glazed tempeh. And I mean, the tempeh is always quite delicious. But honestly, I don't really feel like it marinades correctly for me. I never really taste the marinade distinctly..more just like plain tempeh. The recipe on fat free vegan was to marinate it for at least 20 minutes, which i did for about 25-30 minutes just in case. Also, I steamed it at the beginning for 15 minutes, which she said would let it marinate better.. but i still feel like the taste isnt that distinct. Any ideas? :)
Dont get me wrong, these sandwiches rocked though!

you're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no

So it's been over a week and that's a while for me to not blog about anything.
I haven't really been making anything lately though.
The other day for the boy I made the tried and true cornmeal pancakes (minus the blueberries) from Veganomicon for breakfast..and he really liked them. They seemed a lot easier to flip and make without the blueberries in them this time, so that was a bit easier for me.


Oh yes, and the other day I finally got a bike I really really love! It's a baby blue color, and is a "beach cruiser" and it's so adorable. I can't wait to ride it around everywhere. ;)

Today I made some oatmeal cookies that I found. I was originally going to make the ones from Veganomicon, but I didn't have any brown rice syrup, nor do I know of a place around here that carries it. Soo I found a recipe on Vegweb.com for a lowfat low sugar recipe, and honestly..you can't even tell the difference! these cookies are awesome!




I made half and half of chocolate chip and just cinnamon. For some reason, I'm not a huge oatmeal raisin fan..soo those were not included at all.

Oatmeal Cookies (low fat, low sugar):
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (i used a little less than a tsp..)
1 1/2 c oats
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (i used 2 tsps in the half without chocolate chips)
1 egg replacer (i used flax seeds)
1/2 c mild oil
1 T molasses
1 T agave nectar
3 T water
1 tsp vanilla (oops i forgot to add this...guess its not that necessary!)
1/4-1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour-cinnamon) in a large bowl. In another small-med bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (egg replacer-vanilla). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add the chocolate chips. Roll into little balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Flatten out with a fork so they cook nicely. Bake for 13-14 minutes. Should make about 24 cookies...

although mine came out to be 21, but hey whos counting. ;)