the bays got stories that we don't know

It's Friday!! :)
Even when I don't have plans for the weekend..just getting up to friday is always such a satisfying feeling...but luckily this weekend is jam-packed with things so I'm especially excited!

I had quite the dilemma this week though! On such a simple task - finding a heart shaped cookie cutter
And what irked me the most was that my parents got me this HUGE thing of a million different cookie cutters, including many heart ones, but I left it at home :(
Thus, I went to about 7 stores looking for one..and couldn't find one at all! It was quite ridiculous, especially so close to the big V-day!
Luckily I was at the mall wednesday night, and my friend helped me find one in this cute little kitchen store!
Problem solved ;)

So I present to you my special cookies for Valentine's Day





So scrumptious! I used the same sugar cookie recipe i used for my Halloween Cookies from the fabulous Joy of Vegan Baking.
I also used the Royal Icing recipe from the book, which i've never used before. But all it is was 1 egg replacer (I used Ener-G) a tsp of lemon juice, 3/4 c powdered sugar, a tsp of vanilla. it came out really well..although i spilt a little extra lemon juice in it on accident, and you could kind of taste the tart-ness in it..but still good! haha oh well ;)

The guys at work approved..and thursdays have now become "Tasty Treat Thursday"
haha they do get dissapointed when I don't have anything for them on thursdays... but I love when people love the stuff I make, so I definitely love bringing stuff for them!
all this talk about love..

hopefully people at our party tonight enjoy them as well..i mean seriously, what college party can you go to and expect vegan baked goods??? haha mine! :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

realization is key

Happy Tuesday! :)
Hope your week has been going good for everyone so far. I had quite an interesting and fun weekend so the school/work week has kind of been in the back of my mind.
I'm really excited for this weekend though, already, I know.. ;)

But Friday night is Friday the 13th as well as the day before Valentine's day, thus we're having a party at our apartment to celebrate! Should be quite a fun time, and the "I need a perfect outfit" dilemma is already sorted through, so no stress there.. just a fun time coming up!

Also for Valentine's Day, this is the first time in 4 years that i've been not only single, but also not with the same guy! So this is quite a self-empowerment/new/fabulous experience for me! :)
I know during the day the roomie and I have a lunch date at this moroccan all vegetarian restaurant in the city! So I'm super excited for that, and I will definitely have a review for it ;)

Okay! On to some eats!
Last week after grocery shopping, I got all the ingredients to make the Curried Tempeh-Mango Salad Sammiches from Vegan with a Vengeance. This is the first recipe I've tried from it since I got it from Emily's mom for Christmas.. (so sweet of her!!) and they came out sooo tasty!!

I used a yellow onion instead of red for the sandwiches afterwards, but for the rest of the recipe I followed it to the T. I loved the sweetness of the mangos and the spicyness of the dressing..soo perfect. Although I'd probably add some more curry powder, since that flavor was what I was REALLY expecting..and it wasn't too strong.

Heres the recipe since its just so-o delicious and really easy to put together.

Curried Tempeh-Mango Salad Sammiches (VwaV)
1 8oz package of tempeh
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup mango, peeled and chopped into 1/4" chunks
1/4 cup scallions, chopped
For the dressing:
3 tablespoons of vegannaise
2 tsp curry powder (might wanna up this one!)
juice of 2 limes
2 tablespooons of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp hot sauce (i upped this one too..but i love hot sauce)
For sammiches:
2 large pitas, cut in half to make pockets
thinly sliced red onions
lettuce
extra mango slices

Tear the tempeh into bite-sized pieces and place in a small sauce pan. Cover with water and add the soy sauce. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and transfer tempeh to a bowl to cool.
Meanwhile, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
Add the mangoes and scallions to the tempeh. Add the dressing; mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Serve in the pitas with the lettuce, onion, and mango. Delish!

I'm already falling in looove with this cookbook. I have another recipe lined up for next week that i'm pretty excited to make! :)

Oh, and just to share my new favorite/weird snack..


I bought a box of Cinnamon Puffins a few weeks ago to try something different since I had only had the peanut butter ones before (which are fabulous)
they're really quite tasty, but I think I prefer the PB puffins. Butttt when you add a handful of them to your coffee...the mix is perfect! The puffins get tender and coffee-tasting...and your coffee gets cinnamon deliciousness tasting! perfect combo, no? ;)

your life is hype, your love is hype

It's slightly snowing outside, nothing too bad luckily, but nothing good enough to cancel classes. hopefully tonight we'll get something good ;)
I did however have my afternoon class cancelled today, which was nice, and gave me some time to finally do laundry as well as get some delicious sushi (yes i love cucumber rolls, as boring as they are to regular sushi-eaters, i find them fabulous!)

This past weekend I found a new place to go for lunch/dinner. My roomie and I have decided that we are experts at finding awesome, new places! And it seems pretty good so far!
I found this place called The All Live Cafe
which I saw on the website, they did not have a menu on there, and that they were only open on saturdays and sundays during the day and at night for dinner. So I called and asked what their menu was like, and she told me that it was 85% Raw and all vegan! sounded perfect, no?

So the roomie and I headed out with the address, according to mapquest it was only about 3 miles away..awesome!!
We drove down the street it was on and passed the address, and did not see a restaurant..at all. just lots of houses! So we called again, and she said it was inside the building through a fence...... nervous.... haha but we went inside and I'm so glad we did!!


Isn't that just the cutest eating set-up ever??!



The menu was typed up on the papers that you picked up at the door, and she said that it changed a bit every weekend. They're only open on weekends, but they do a service for $100 a week where they deliver you a whole weeks worth of meals!! That's an awesome price, for AWESOME mostly raw, vegan food! I really think that'd be a great idea to do once in a while.



We were STARVING when we got there, so we decided to start with a bowl of the Chickpea Chili. It was VERY delicious! It had a hint of cinnamon in every bite, which really made it different, and very savory. perfect way to start the meal.

For your meal, you can choose 3 items on the menu for $10 and they are served in portions over a bowl of spinach mix. we both ordered different things to try a little of it all.



My bowl.. It consisted of Sangi, which was mixed veggies cooked with mild indian spices, No Meat, Nutmeat, which was walnuts, onions, and savory herbs, and Wild Rice, which was sprouted wild rice with fresh kale, peppers, onions, and herbs.
At first bite, i LOVED them all. However, after a few more bites of the No Meat, Nut meat, I was not that impressed with it, and left it in the bowl afterwards. The other two were so delicious, and blended well together!



Emily's bowl, It consisted of Marinated Cabbage, which was green cabbage marinated in savory herbs, Quinoa Salad, which was quinoa with fresh vegetables and cilantro, and Forbidden Black Rice, which was black rice with kale, marinated onions, peppers, and herbs. All of hers were really delicious too, and I wasn't sure how I felt about cabbage, but it tasted awesome! I might've liked her combo better ;)

After the delicious meal, we knew we had to try the raw desserts they had! There were a choice of three, the raw cheezecake, the raw carob cheezecake, and the apple pie. We talked to our server, and she said the apple pie was the least heavy, even though the carob cheezecake definitely sounded good...we were getting pretty full.
So we decided on the pie.



We already started eating it before I remembered to snap a picture ;) Yes, it was that good!
It was fiji apples and sweet spices in a date and almond crust.
It was perfect! Raw desserts just taste SO much better and less processed and fake tasting than regular desserts.
perfect way to end the meal.

Needless to say, we will definitely be back in a near weekend! It was amazing, the woman that worked there was very very sweet and it was just a wonderful experience. Oh, how I love finding these small little places of awesome vegan-ness. ;)

i wake up every evening with a big smile on my face

Thursday classes are done... meaning its soo close to the weekend!! :)
its been a bit icy and snowy lately, so the roads have been a bit tricky to drive ..or just walk on, without moving around a bit. hopefully the sun today will melt it all and ill be able to walk normally without making sure i'm not about to slip on ice! :)

So yesterday I went to Acme to get some chocolate chips because I knew I wanted to bake. Usually I can find a store-brand semi-sweet that are vegan, which is always lovely, but if not then I go for the Ghiradelli, which is fine too, a bit pricier, but they taste great. Unfortunately, all of Acme's had milk in them and they didn't even have Ghiradelli! Ugh, Acme is not cool.
But I finally got my chocolate chips..not sure what brand they were, it was one i'd never seen before..but on the packing it said "Dairy & Gluten Free" so I was happy :)

Anyway! What I really wanted to bake was BIG chocolate chip cookies. I'm a huge fan of the regular sized homemade ones, but I wanted those that you buy from a store that are always so big and mushy and delicious. So since I didn't have too much of a reason for baking (i'll get to that later ;) ) so I decided to half the recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking (my favorite cookie recipe!!). The regular recipe said it made one dozen...but I halved it and made them pretty big and I got 6 of them out of it...doesn't make much sense, does it? ;)



delicious. absolutely delicious.
this was the first time I had baked cookies using Ener-G...and it worked magically, of course :)

share your knowledge

So I've honestly not posted in what..2 weeks, i believe? ridiculous! :(
But i've really not been making much that has involved more skilled baking/cooking than using a microwave. i know, it's shameful. but living on your own in a college apartment, you just don't want to cook fancy foods! convenience and cost is where its at.. which sums up what i've been eating, i mean aside from eating food from restaurants, I've been eating a lot of Amy's foods (the shepards pie is definitely one of my favorites!!) Dr. McDougall soups, Lightlean "turkey" sandwiches, etc.

however, my roomie made this DELICIOUS vegan sausage soup last week (using the tofurkey brand spicy sausage links) and it was soo amazing. i did not snap a pic or anything, but take my word for it ;)

We've also made another hungry girl recipe, her Sassy Salsa Soup. Which was awesome!! Who knew putting pumpkin in a mexican-ish soup would be so fabulous??
(I definitely recommend everyone to get this cookbook, even though majority of the recipes are not vegan, it's SO easy to veganize them!!)

Yesterday though, I made the Moroccan Lentil Soup from Happy Herbivore's blog. My mom made it for me while I was home for winter break and feeling a bit under the weather.. and i loved it so much! The curry powder and cumin in it really make the soup, and blending half of it in a blender and then adding it to the rest of the soup really makes the consistency SOO perfect!
I definitely recommend making this soup ASAP!


Deliciousness in a bowl..although when my mom made it, of course it was better ;)

Oh and I must talk about my most recent food obsession. Not so new, but for me, it's really hard to find a bar that I REALLY like.
I'm a huge fan of eating Nature Valley granola bars for breakfast and stuff..they're really delicious and most of the flavors are vegan..which is rare for granola bars that they sell in most supermarkets.



But I've seen the Gnu bars on SO many blogs and the 12 g of fiber with low calories REALLY made me excited to try these! And they're awesome! I've tried all the flavors, with the banana walnut bread or the chocolate brownie being my favorite, and the orange cranberry one not being one that i'd get all the time (something about orange flavored things just don't work for me!)

oh and the cinnamon raisin one of course is delicious too! :)

Oh, and ANOTHER awesome new food obsession - Trader Joe's Fruit Floes!
I'd take a picture, but the 4 bar box was gone in 2 days between my roomie and I! We tried the Carribean flavor, and with every bite we kept saying "oh my gosh these are sooo good"
we will definitely be stocking up and trying the different flavors on our next TJ's trip!

Well back to classes tomorrow, this is the first FULL week of classes..all 5 days..ugh! haha i'll make it though.
and hopefully it wont be two weeks till I blog again!! haha of course it won't! :)