Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe Ice Cream Social

How awesome is it that Atlanta's one and only vegan store, Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe, is having an ice cream social saturday night to celebrate their first year on Highland Ave anniversary.
They are the coolest.
We'll be there, will you? Hope so. You should be.



<3
Lori

a weekend of two anniversaries

It was this weekend last year that I moved from Tampa, Fl to the Atlanta, Ga area. It has truly been one of the best years of my life. Mind you, I do miss living near our families, but it was always a dream of mine to move to Atlanta, and Jared and I made it happen. We are close to the mountains (my favorite scenery) and we actually had four distinct seasons instead of just two seasons in Florida (too hot and not as hot). I got to enjoy snow for the first time in my life (at least that I can recall . . . I was, after all, born in Indiana). In this year, I decided to make a career change by going back to school, something I probably wouldn't have done in Tampa because I had a comfortable job there. I got to experience life as a homemaker on accident since finding a job here has proved to be almost impossible. Lastly, one of the biggest things this year has brought was a complete lifestyle change by becoming vegan.
This weekend marks my one-year anniversary of being a vegan! Deciding to live a cruelty free life has been one of the most satisfying changes in my life. I don't miss anything about being an omnivore because I have exponentially improved my cooking and baking skills by recreating my old favorites. I had a 40 drop in my cholesterol levels, love that I am no longer tempted to eat at 99% of the restaurants I would have in the past and maybe most importantly, my soul just feels so much better knowing that I am not contributing to any suffering for our gastronomical cravings or fashion needs.
Jared helped me celebrate my one year vegan anniversary by taking us out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta: Soul Vegetarian. We rarely eat out now that we are savings for school costs, so when I get to eat at Soul Veg, I do it up right.
Most meals here start with a nice little salad with their famous Prince Dressing (which is what I loosely base our homemade house dressing on).

Jared also got a small bowl of Orange Lentil soup with his salad.

For my main meal (not the greatest picture), I got what I affectionately call, the "brown plate" which includes BBQ cauliflower (deep fried battered cauliflower drenched in BBQ sauce . . . trust me it is sooo good) and 2 sides. I almost always get their famous mac and cheese with onion rings. I could be less naughty and get collard greens or broccoli for a side but it's hard to pass up the mac and cheese and the BEST onion rings on the planet.

Jared got his usual tofu sandwich with onion rings. This sandwich kinda has a fried fish thing to it since it's dredged in a cornmeal batter and then placed on a bum with their homemade tarter sauce. You can't go wrong with this!

If lunch at one of my favorites places wasn't enough, Jared also took me to Abbadabbas and bought me pair of new flip-flops. I love shoes, generally, but I almost always wear flip-flops. I had my last pair for so long and wore them so often that the bottoms were completely slick. It feels weird breaking in these new flip-flops but I love them so much!

What's the best way to celebrate two anniversaries? Ice cream, of course! I have an ice cream maker but didn't have time to make a base to chill and then freeze, so we went to Whole Foods and picked up some Purely Decadent, my favorite brand of soy ice cream. They were on sale too! I was in a chocolate mood but they were all out so I tried a new flavor called Turtle Trails, which has caramel sauce, chocolate covered pecan pralines in vanilla ice cream. YUM!!!

Very Berry Vodka Sorbet

It got kinda hot here in Atlanta today, upper 70's (just the day before it was in the 30's, so that's a big change) and I was wanting a fruity/icy but not at all creamy treat. I wanted something to appease my sweet tooth and cool me down in the rising temperatures both trapped inside the kitchen and outside with spring fully upon us. First thing to come to mind: SORBET!
I learned that the trick to keeping a sorbet less icy and keeping it from forming into a solid rock, alcohol can be added since alcohol doesn't freeze and allows the mixture to remain a bit soft.

Very Berry Vodka Sorbet
1 cup of water
1 cup of natural sugar
12-14 ounce bag of Frozen mixed berries. My mix almost always has strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. If you wanna use other frozen fruit like peaches or cherries you could, you'd just need to adjust the sweetness depending on those fruits.
Juice from 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon high quality Vodka

First, make simple syrup in a small sauce pan by combining the sugar and the water together. Heat over medium heat until sugar is totally dissolved. Do not boil the simple syrup since it will take longer to cool. The point here is to just dissolve the sugar into the water.
In a large mixing bowl, add the frozen berries (not thawed) and pour lemon juice over the berries, stirring to ensure an equal coating of lemon juice hits each fruit. Next, pour the simple syrup over the lemoned berries. This will slightly warm the frozen berries, but the berries will have a frozen center still. With an immersion blender, blend everything (EXPECT the Vodka) together until all the skins are pulverized. With a fine mesh strainer, strain out the seeds from the base into a bowl and refrigerate until it is nice and cold (a couple hours for best results).
Once mixture is cold, follow your Ice Kream machine's suggested instructions for sorbet. My machine ran for about 20 minutes and then I drizzled in 1 tablespoon of vodka into the base while it was spinning. I let it spin for about another 5 minutes to ensure the vodka was mixed in well.
Eat it right away or store it in the freezer in a bowl with a tightly fitted lid so it doesn't get freezer burn.

it was a good day!

My sister had her baby today! His name is Gabriel and he is adorable. He is the first grandbaby for my dad and step mom, so he is one popular kid right now. I've only seen him in pictures but I love him already and get to meet him this weekend. On Saturday, I'm going to Tampa for a week to hang with my family, especially the newest member.
I know it's gonna drag until then!
In honor of such a great day, I made some awesome Triple Berry Ice Kream. I made this sweet (but healthy) treat while listening to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (on vinyl of course and really loud), dancing around, so happy!
Happy Birthday Gabriel!

Triple Berry Ice Kream
1 box of Mori-Nu tofu (I had extra firm, but I think firm or soft style would be better)
1 cup of Vanilla Soy Milk
1/3 cup of Maple Syrup
1 tablespoon of Strawberry Preserves or Jam
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Strawberry Extract
1-1 1/2 cups of Frozen Berry Mix chopped a bit (I used the rest of the strawberry/blackberry/blueberries I used in the muffins in the previous post. I probably used half of a 10 oz bag)
A couple drizzles of Agave Nectar

In a food processor, blender or with an immersion blender (what I used) blend the tofu, soy milk, maple syrup, strawberry preserves/jam and extracts together until very smooth. Place in your ice kream maker and follow the instructions for your machine. It took about 20-25 minutes in my machine. In the last few minutes of blending, add the chopped mixed berries until well incorporated. I also drizzled in some agave nectar in the last few seconds of blending since the berries cut the sweetness of the ice kream base.
Eat right away for soft serve style (my fave) or store in an airtight container in the freezer. It gets really hard; so let it sit out for a few minutes before serving if you plan on freezing and eating it later.

Soft Serve Style:

cheeze "steak" plate, homemade ice kream

Tonight's meal was really, really great. We picked up three new items this week: "Philly Style" Steak Tofurky Deli Slices, Vegan American Slices and 123'z and Chreese. We were mad impressed with all three products, especially the 123'z and Chreese. We found accidentally vegan "steak" rolls at our supermarket, which was also pretty great. I sautéed a sweet onion in olive oil, sea salt and natural sugar until the onions were caramelized. I added the "steak" slices in with the onions to heat it through. Next I toasted up the rolls and added Vegenaise and Vegan American slices on the rolls. What resulted was a pretty darn close version of a Philly Cheese Steak, minus the green bell peppers since we aren't a huge fan. We had a side of the 123'z and Chreese and steamed broccoli. Well rounded and awesome!

Jared and I got one another this ice kream maker for Christmas and couldn't wait to use it.

So, I made a Maple Brown Sugar Buttery Pecan Ice Kream that had soymilk, soy creamer, arrowroot powder, Earth Balance margarine, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla extract and chopped pecans. So good!
Before the pecans were added and still spinning:

After the pecans were added and still spinning:

Final product:

dawgs in a blanket, sundae

I couldn't call these pigs in a blanket since they are pig free and using the correct spelling of dog just didn't seem right either, so I opted for the Georgia way of saying things and called these Dawgs in a Blanket. These were just a quick lunch of veggie dawgs wrapped in crescent roll dough (which are vegan!), one sprinkled with sesame seeds and sea salt and the other just with sea salt. I also made an Agave Dijon mustard sauce for dipping. They only took about 15 minutes in all to make/bake and boy were they good!

And to satisfy a sweet craving I made sundaes out of better pecan soy ice cream with homemade caramelized pecans on top. Yum!