Vegan Chipotle Seitan Tofu Scramble

One of Monster's favorite things to eat for breakfast when he was consuming them was eggs. Since becoming vegans, he hasn't. When we discovered tofu scrambles, he was hooked. Personally, I am not an egg person by nature. I never care for the taste or smell (Yes, the smell). I promised to make him tofu scramble for his birthday...6 months ago and well....life happened and I didn't make it. Better later than never, RIGHT!

So I got up yesterday and make him this amazing chipotle seitan tofu scramble. It was packed with yummy veggies and tons of protein. I'm normal not a huge lover of a tofu scramble simply because I feel the tofu taste like tofu. I don't normal pick up on seasonings in it but today I did. I added from Sweet Earth, their chipotle style sliced seitan.  Holy boomerangs Batman, it was tasty!

Vegan Chipotle Seitan Tofu Scramble

• Diced red onion (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 1/2 of a green bell pepper, diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 4-6 baby bella mushrooms, sliced thin
• 1 huge handful of spinach
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• dash of salt and pepper
• 1 block of organic firm tofu, pressed, drained, and then mashed 
• turmeric, to taste
• nutritional yeast, to taste
• Tamari or Braggs' liquid aminos, to taste

First, start of with draining and pressing the tofu and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Here's a great how to video about it. While the tofu is pressing, chop and dice the peppers, onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Next heat a pan and saute the garlic, onion, mushrooms, peppers, and spinach. Make sure you place the mushrooms down in the pan first because mushrooms release water while you are sauteing. Meanwhile diced your tomato. Grab a mixing bowl and begin to crumble the tofu. Mash the tofu with a fork or I used a potato masher to get the consistence you like. Add you seasoning of salt pepper, turmeric, nutritional yeast, and liquid aminos. Mix it together.Your tofu should look yellow, like an egg. Fold into the scramble the seitan, sauteed veggies, and tomato. Scoop the mixture then into your baking dish. I used my pie pan. Cover your pan with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes covered. After 15 minutes, remove the over and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes. Remove it from the oven, plate, and Enjoy!!  Happy Cooking everyone! I'm off to my brother-in-laws to watch some football and grill with the family. Say what!! Yes grill time- I'll write a post about it for you as well later. 

When life gives you lemons, make Lemon Lentil Soup

Life gave me lemons this week and I am recovering from the flu. Both Monster and I got sick over the weekend. I will say this, while I may get the flu it is no where as serve as what it use to be when I consume dairy and meat. I still have minor aches in my muscles but I do feel much better. 

Right when we returned from the business trip, I saw a recipe online for Lemon Lentil Soup. Yesterday, in my hot mess I was, I got up from the couch and made a large pot of this. It was so tangy and hit the spot. I based my recipe off this one from Vegangela.com. I didn't take any pictures and I am sorry my beloved readers. Next time!!!

Bunny Pops take on Lemon Lentil Soup

8 cups of veggie broth

the juice of 5 lemons

the juice of 5 limes

1 whole head of garlic, chopped

1 chopped yellow sweet onion

5-7 baby bella mushrooms sliced

1 cup carrots either shredded or chopped

pinch of salt and pepper

several handfuls of dill

1.5 cups of dried red lentils or yellow lentils

First measure out 1.5 cups of lentils. Wash and rise your lentils to remove any debris. Next chop your garlic, onion, and mushrooms while you are warming up your soup pot. After your soup pot is hot, add the mushrooms first, then followed by the onions and garlic. Saute 5-8 minutes and add water if needed to help with the cooking process. Add your lentils, broth, the juice of the limes and lemons, salt, pepper, carrots, and dill. Cook 30-45 minutes until the lentils are done. Enjoy and Happy Eating!! 

**Note, you can use more or less of the the seasonings and lemon/lime juice. I added more because I wanted my soup to taste more like citrus. 

Ethos Vegan Restaurant Review

Monster and I recently just returned from a business trip to the Orlando, FL metro and had the chance to eat at one of the local vegan restaurants, Ethos. What a wonderful dinning experience this was.

Ethos Vegan Kitchen is located in downtown Winter Park, FL, which is just outside of downtown Orlando, FL. Ethos offers a variety of yummy treats from soups, salads, sandwiches, calzones, and pizza. Not to mention, cookies and milkshakes made from soy milk.

I got an awesome Vegan Philly with Slaw. The philly is made from seitan with grilled peppers and topped with vegan cheese from Follow Your Heart. This was pretty spot on. Monster got a "Meatball" sub for his lunch. I couldn't get a picture before he ate it. The meatball are made there in house. I got to try a bite and the flavor was great.

We also got the Healthy Trio, which was hummus, homemade mango salsa, and olive tapenade. It's served with this yummy local vegan bread and veggies for the hummus. It was great! We also got to go two bowls of their soup of the day, Fiery Chili. That chili was so flavorful. It had large red kidney beans with peppers, onions, and other basic chili ingredients. Now, in my opinion, it wasn't fiery. Because I love to consume HOT and flavorful food, I thought it was average. It needed hot sauce for me but Monster thought it was great.

Prices of food compare to potion size: I feel the restaurant was spot on. For what we paid for the potion sizes was good. I have been to some vegan restaurants where they charge more money because it's 100% organic vegan raw and the portion size was tiny. Not here! If you leave hungry, it's your own fault.

This is a restaurant I truly feel I can bring my family and friends to who are not vegan. We will be back in that area again the in the near future and look forward to going back to get more yummy food. I plan on taking my parents, who are not vegan. Something tells me this will get my father's approval. Until later, happy cooking!

Cranberry Loaf

Earlier in the week, the Monster and I were at Costco. We were picking up some fruits and veggies in bulk when we saw that they had 2lbs of cranberries for $3.00. I was shocked that they had them so earlier in the year in bulk, that I become hypnotized to buy them.

Well fast forward to now and I am trying cook with them. I have already made Rum Cranberry Sauce but still have plenty of left overs. I started looking for recipes online for desserts with cranberries. I kept seeing things with orange juice, lemon zest, and orange zest. Well I don't have any of those in my pantry presently. Back to the drawing boards I went and found a recipe from Mlive.com, where one of their writer made a recipe from the Happy Herbivore cookbook. Luckily, I had everything in the pantry and I went on my way baking.

Overall, I am beyond satisfied with this and may have just found a new holiday dessert to make. I have modified the recipe from 1/4 cup of sugar to maple syrup. You could use honey. Also, I found in my oven it wasn't ready in 38 minutes, so I let it go for an additional 20 minutes. Here is the original recipe and my modify one below. 

Cranberry Loaf 

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of dairy-free milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup or honey
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 cup of fresh chopped cranberries-wash them first before chopping

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour mixture into bread baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes depending how your oven runs. Happy Baking!!! 

Coffee

Coffee is essential in my morning. It's what keeps me going throughout the day. Its that one cup each day that make everything better. With fall here, I find thing I crave the most is Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSL for short). Sadly, at Starbucks their Pumpkin Spice syrup isn't dairy-free. Talk about crushing my soul here. 

The LA Times back in September 2013, wrote an article about this issue. I agree, this is a first world problem we have here. But truth be told, Vegans do want a PSL dairy-free option! So what is a vegan girl suppose to do when her beloved Starbucks failed her...find alternatives!

If you have the time, stop by here and sign the petition on Change.org for a vegan PSL option

I am happy to report that Whole Foods offers PSL with a dairy-free syrup that they can make with many kinds of dairy alternative milks, like hemp, soy, almond, and more. Now, if you are trying to save your pennies below are three recipes you can make at home. Happy PSL making :) 

Kblog's Vegan Pumpkin Spice Latte

PETA'S PSL recipe

Popsugar's PSLSt