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!!!

Farewell Village Pizza (just kidding)

UPDATE! From several sources, I have heard Village Pizza is back in business. Yeah!

When I heard that the only place to get a vegan pizza in Atlanta (at least that I know of), Village Pizza, went out of business, I was kinda bummed. It was so nice to have a place actually have vegan cheeze and 3 vegan "meat" toppings including veggie pepperoni, veggie sausage and veggie ground round available. They had a great crust and pretty decent atmosphere. Unfortunately it was across town for us and in my opinion, a bit on the pricey side. A medium pizza, which could feed 2 comfortably, was around $20, after drinks and a tip, about $30. I guess that might be standard, but it always seemed a bit too expensive for pizza. Since they did offer vegan toppings, we tried our best to support them, knowing full well I could make a pretty awesome pizza at home, for a lower price that didn't require driving across town.
Like most towns, restaurants that offer vegan options are slim. Atlanta does have a good handful of places to eat but now we were minus a pizza place which meant I had to master pizza at home. I have always used my dad's pizza crust "recipe" (he doesn't measure) but decided to give Isa's pizza dough a try from Vegan with a Vengeance. MAN, is this a great crust. After mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, kneading by hand for 10 minutes, letting the dough rise twice for about an hour each time, I was able to stretch this dough thinner than usual. Isa's dough wasn't sticky and kept its shape fairly well with little effort.
I think the way to an amazing homemade pizza is a really hot oven (500 degrees or more) and an equally and pre-heated pizza stone. After the dough was stretched out, topped with tomato sauce, veggie pepperoni, FYH cheeze, fresh Roma tomatoes and dried oregano, it was baked for only about 8 minutes and broiled for another 2 minutes. It sucks that Village Pizza is out of business but I am happy to say I have made a pizza that hit the spot!
Before being baked:

Right out of the oven:

(I would have taken better pictures but I was too hungry!)

Pesto Bread, Blueberry Muffins, Mac & Cheeze Plate

I have been fascinated with bread making ever since I was a kid. Between my Grammie's yeast rolls and biscuits and my Dad's pizza crusts and breads, I have been around good homemade breads my whole life. I mentioned before that my Dad found me a bread machine at a garage sale and I have been a bread machine girl every since. I still love the idea (and practice) of mixing, kneading and forming dough with my own hands, but the bread machine does provide a consistent product. This week I merged the use of my bread machine and my own hands by making a pesto spelt and whole wheat bread. I got the general idea from one of my fellow bloggers, Have Cake, Will Travel! I added both spelt and whole wheat pastry flours with some water, vital wheat gluten, brown sugar, sea salt, pesto and yeast to the bread machine and used the Dough setting. About 2 hours later, after a thorough kneading and long rise, I formed the dough into 4 loaves and baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes until they were golden brown. The bread turned out chewy and full of flavor between the 2 nutty flours and the bright (and mind you, leftover) pesto.
Baking in the oven:

Right out of the oven and cooling:

With steel cut oats becoming a bit boring in the mornings, I decided to make some muffins. With trying to stay in line with my healthier eating, a low fat muffin was in order. So, I turned to the Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide and made the Blueberry Streusel Muffins but cut the oil in the recipe with apple sauce. They did indeed taste healthier, but very delicious nonetheless.

Tonight I made one of my favorite things: Mac and Cheeze! I used quinoa shells instead of a traditional white flour pasta. The quinoa pasta wasn't as good as what my palate is use to but I think over time I will eventually get use to non-white pastas. I used the Soul Veg Mac and Cheeze recipe (the one they use at the ATL restaurants) I found online here, which is very naughty but between portion control and using a healthier pasta, I didn't feel as bad eating it. To go with the Mac and Cheeze I roasted some very sweet (and cheap!) asparagus and made a salad with mixed baby spring mix and cherry tomatoes.

I <3 the Farmers Market

I think I am seriously in love with the The DeKalb Farmers Market. It is a warehouse sized building packed to the brim with loads of wonderful things. They do carry meats, fish and dairy BUT they also carry a huge selection of soy milks/yogurts/margarines, faux meats, organic produce, loads of international foods and the name brand grocery items you'd find at Whole Foods for way cheaper. Basically, it’s my version of heaven (you know, when you take away the non-vegan stuff). They also have several kinds of nut butter machines (such as cashew, almond and peanut), a very lovely cut flower section, fresh coffee, a deli with olives and various pickled items, a bakery with lots of vegan breads/muffins/bagels and a wine/beer section with quite a few organic choices. One thing I really, really love about this Farmers Market is the bulk items they have. Think of just about any dried fruit, nut, seed, spice, grain, bean or snack you'd like and they have it already bagged and reasonably priced (and most of the time organic). Another cool thing is that they have a HUGE recycle center in the parking lot so I always bring my recyclables and drop them off before shopping! So, if you are ever in Atlanta, this is a must go to place. The best time to go is in the mornings or the afternoons during the week (the weekends are PACKED). Oh yeah, and they have a fantastic cold salad bar and hot bar with lots of vegan items for lunch and dinner (open 11 a.m til 8 p.m.) but a lot of people go there during lunch. I had lunch there at about 1 p.m. today and it was still full of people on their lunch breaks. I got a plate full of salad and some tofu from the hot bar and it was under $3! Now on to the groceries!
The veggie items I got included white creamer potatoes (20% off), fresh herb packet with rosemary, thyme and sage, cauliflower, zucchini, green onions, an English cucumber, garlic, shallots, a red onion, daikon radishes, Roma tomatoes, asparagus (really cheap!) and carrots. All of the veggies were about $15 and mostly organic!

The fruits included organic bananas, Granny Smith apples, Empire apples, Gala apples, Fortune apples, a lime and a few lemons. All of these fruits added up to about $7 (all the apples were discounted by 20%).

Finally, the bulk/grocery items included organic pearled barley, organic dried kidney beans, organic almonds, nutritional yeast, Herbes de Provence (for 68 cents!), garlic salt, red Thai curry paste, organic canned whole peeled tomatoes, organic canned tomato sauce, organic canned diced tomatoes, dried cranberries and organic dried garbanzo beans. This stuff was the priciest coming in at around $25 but most of these items will last a very long time.

As you can tell, today's trip to the Farmers Market was basically to restock my pantry, counter tops and fridge. I think I did pretty good coming in at around $50 and I got to have a delicious meal before I shopped.

Harmony, Bake Off

After reading about Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant from Luminous Vegans' blog (who I actually got to meet today!) we have been there 3 times and it gets better every time. It is on the outskirts of Atlanta and takes a bit to get there but it so worth the drive. One of my favorite things they have there is actually something they give to use at the start of the meal. I eat it as both a salad and palate cleanser and it is made out of grated carrot, daikon radish and cabbage marinating in a sweet rice vinegar. I am gonna start making this at home because it s that good.

I got the General Tso's "Chicken" (my new favorite thing there)

and Jared got the "chicken" with sting beans, which also rocked!

Today was the 2007 Holiday Bake-Off at Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. I ended up making an Amaretto Cheezecake with a cinnamon graham cracker crust. It actually turned out really good . . . But not good enough to win : (
Here are some pictures of the bakeoff goodies:


Jared and I at the bake off

It was a lot of fun being in a room full of like-minded people. It was especially cool to meet fellow local vegan bloggers (check them out Luminous Vegans), who we hope to hang out with in the near future.

eatin', hangin' & a bread machine

Jared and I went to Florida for Thanksgiving and it was a whirlwind trip. We got to Ocala, Fl to spend Thanksgiving Day with my grandparents, dad and step mom. We left Atlanta so early that by the time we got to Ocala, I was delirious and forgot to photograph the food I brought. We had garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, green beans, corn and banana bread. It wasn't the best spread I ever put out but it was more about having a meal with my family. After we ate, we headed down to Tampa and stayed with my dad and step mom. Besides all the good eats at the house, we made a trip to one of Jared's favorite restaurants in Tampa called Trang (sorry, no website), which is a Vietnamese place with two full pages of vegan options!
I wasn't super hungry so I got three appetizers including wonton soup, sesame lemongrass "beef" and spring rolls (which weren't very pretty).


On Saturday, my sister Erin had her baby shower. The shower was at a Mexican restaurant called Red Mesa. The menu was lacking vegan selections but I spoke with the staff and they made me a bean burrito with enchilada sauce on top and a side of roasted corn, red peppers and spinach. I also added some guacamole and it was very tasty! I was so wrapped up in the shower activities that I forgot to take a picture of my food but I did happen to snap a picture of my step mom and sister.

Besides hangin' out with all my family, I also scored a barely used bread machine my dad bought at a garage sale. He got it a while back and has been teasing me about a kitchen gadget he had for me when I came to visit. I was totally thinking it was a garlic press or something small like that and then he brought out this super fancy bread machine. I am one happy girl!

As soon as I got home I made a loaf of whole wheat agave sunflower seed bread. Yum!!!

Village Pizza, Cookies

I haven't felt too much like cooking lately. I think because it's been kind of cold here in Atlanta (30's-60's) which a big change from Tampa, Fl. My warm and cozy comforter has been too seductive to want to get out of bed. So, in times like this, we are thankful to have, Village Pizza, an awesome pizza place that offers up an incredibly delicious vegan pizza. This pizza has vegan mozzarella, faux sausage and pepperoni, onions and green bell peppers (it also comes with black olives and mushrooms, which we skip since I don't like them). Despite some of my food intolerances, I do sometimes eat things that don't always agree with me. Luckily, I didn't feel too lousy after eating this pizza, probably because I rarely eat these things now. Sorry this isn't a very good picture, our camera has been acting up. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

Even though I haven't felt like cooking, the baking bug has bitten me. I made two different kind of cookies. The first batch was the Apple Butter Cookies from The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. These scream cold weather, so if you have this book, give these a try.

I also made up a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I based off of a few different sources. My version is very naughty. They have Earth Balance buttery stick margarine, turbinado sugar, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla extract, unbleached all purpose flour, baking soda, sea salt and loads of chocolate chips. Next time I will add some pecans or walnuts to these.

good times

Jared and I had a lot of fun with Erin and Mike the past two days. Out of four of us, no one remembered to bring the camera out until dinner last night where I snapped this picture of my sister (the table is hiding the baby bump) and brother-in-law at Soul Vegetarian.

We had a full weekend including eating dinner at Noodle (in Decatur) and shopping at Ikea on Saturday night. On Sunday we went to the Atlanta History Center, had lunch at Olive Bistro, dinner at Soul Vegetarian and ending the night with my sister and I watching really bad TV (we watched Desperate Housewives, as our husbands rolled their eyes and left the room). It was a whirlwind weekend filled with laughter, story telling and good eats. Oh, and they loved the muffins!

When in Atlanta, go to SOUL VEGETARIAN!

We first went to Soul Vegetarian with our friends Katie and Russell back in August and absolutely fell in love. While it is called Soul Vegetarian, don't let the name full you, it is all vegan (although, I think a few items may have honey in them, which we don't eat). It is a traditional soul food restaurant and it rocks! They have a lot of homemade items like Kalebone (a wheat gluten item that kinda looks like a chicken fried steak), the most amazing garlicky salad dressing and last but not least, they make their own soy ice kream! Depending on the day, they may have vanilla pecan, chocolate, vanilla and our personal favorite, mint chocolate chip! They have a vegetable plate where you can choose from the traditional sides like collard greens, sweet potatoes and corn on the cob, just to name a few. Today though, we went exclusively for their tofu sandwich platter, which comes with a generous side salad (with that amazing dressing) and either french fries or onion rings. We opted for onion rings . . . I mean, when are you going to find vegan onion rings that you don't have to make yourself?! The tofu sandwich is a tofu steak battered and fried, served on a whole wheat bun with tomatoes, sprouts and a homemade tartar sauce.
The only down side is the serve is a bit slow, but if you bring your patience and your appetite, you won't be disappointed. Seriously, drop in for a great meal (and VERY reasonably priced) when you are in Atlanta. They have 2 locations, but we always go to Soul Vegetarian II at 652 Highland Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30306
Sorry the picture is so bad. We left the house so hungry, I forgot to grab the real camera and Jared had to take the picture with the cell phone camera.

fried green tomato sandwich

Pre-vegan days, I loved a good ol' BLT. One of my favorite BLTs was from The Flying Biscuit called the Fried Green Tomato BLT Sandwich that had turkey bacon, fried green tomatoes, lettuce, cashew-jalapeno relish & goat cheese. We do still go do The Flying Biscuit with out of town guests since they do have some vegan options but I have now been forced, happily, to make my own fried green tomato BLT at home.
To make my version I heated up three slices of fakin' bacon. Once the fakin bacon was very crisp, I thinly sliced green tomatoes and coated them in flour, corn meal and a seasoning blend I made from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan! (Veganica.com's Cajun Spice, pg 303). I shallow fried the tomatoes in canola oil. I also sliced up avocado and red onion and opted to skip the lettuce. Flying Biscuit's version has a jalapeno cashew relish that contains honey, ground cashews, cilantro and jalapeno. So, I made my own sweet spread that had Tofutti cream cheese, whipped Earth Balance and agave nectar (whipped together with my hand mixer). While my spread wasn't the same as their relish, it did give me a sweet contrast to the rest of the sandwich and a creamy texture that goat cheese or mayo would have given. The bread was just a toasted everything bagel from the farmers market. This was pretty awesome and filled me up after playing tennis (if you could call it playing) with Jared this morning.

Veggieland

Jared and I were going to try this all vegetarian but VERY vegan friendly place on my birthday but it was closed on Sundays, so yesterday we finally made it out to Veggieland. Like a lot of restaurants around here, Veggieland is in a strip mall. The menu was vast, ranging from veggie burgers with loads of toppings, salads and hot dishes. PLUS, at least 5 vegan desserts! Despite being in the richy rich part of Atlanta (Buckhead area) the prices were incredibly reasonable.
Jared decided upon the daily special of Potatoes and Veggie Curry with Brown Rice. It was very tasty and was only $5.95.

For me, there were too many choices and I panicked. I got the chili hot dog that came with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. It was good but not great. This is something I could have made at home. I will say the coleslaw was awesome and made with vegan mayo! The sweet potato fries were a bit under cooked. Luckily, this whole plate of food was only $4.95, so at least I didn't feel ripped off.

What we will go back for was the vegan desserts! Jared and I shared the strawberry cake. It was a two layer yellow cake with vanilla icing and strawberries in the middle and a strawberry glaze on top. It was so good that I talked two other customers into getting a slice. The cake was the priciest menu item coming in at $3.95 but I love that a restaurant has vegan desserts and well worth the price to encourage them to continue making lovely vegan treats.

All and all, we will go back to Veggieland. I will take my time with my menu choice and pick something I couldn't make at home way better. Jared was very pleased with his dish and we both are in love with the dessert!
Veggieland
211 Pharr Rd Ne # B
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 231-3111

spicy corn chili, crazy bread

We ate at Raging Burrito this past weekend and I finally tried their vegetarian chili atop a lovely salad with lettuce, spinach, carrots, red onions, corn chips, guacamole and salsa fresca. It inspired me to make chili tonight. I made my chili with TVP granules, yellow corn, pinto beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, cocoa powder, garlic, sea salt and agave nectar. I blended some of it with my immersion blender and topped it off with a few corn chips. The smokey chipotle and rich cocoa powder is a surprisingly awesome addition! The texture is sort of like a Cincinnati style chili, which I suspect would be amazing on a hot dawg as a left over meal.

My dad pointed out that this bread I made looks like monkey bread. After some research, most of the recipes I found for monkey bread calls for a refrigerated canned biscuit with loads of butter. Since I made my own yeast bread, skipped the butter and balled it up myself, I decided to call this crazy bread instead. I made another batch of yeast bread as I did a couple posts back and rolled the dough into 21 balls in four different sizes and strategically placed the balls in the loaf pan for a second rise. They were topped with an olive oil and agave glaze and baked until brown and beautiful.

Besides the taste, the best part is pulling apart the pieces.

It's my Birthday!

So, it happened. I turned 28 today. First things first. My lovely husband bought me these birthday presents. I got a really cool tea press, which worked really well and a new garlic press since our old one was dead. He also got me cute stickers, a cool vegan cookbook called ExtraVEGANza by Laura Matthias and the August edition of VegNews magazine (which I now hope to subscribe to). Jared did an awesome job!

Since I needed to use the mung bean sprouts I grew last week I decided to make a miso noodle bowl for lunch today. I made a homemade broth out of celery, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, fresh parsley, black peppercorns, soy sauce and mirin. I strained the broth and added miso paste. I cooked soman noodles in a separate pot. I added raw zucchini, snow peas and mung bean sprouts to a big bowl, added the miso broth and noodles and topped it off with a bit more veggies.

A big bummer having a birthday on a Sunday means having a nice vegan meal out was very difficult. Both of the places we tried going to tonight, Cafe Sunflower and Veggieland, were both closed on Sunday! Turns out a lot of places we like to eat at are closed on Sunday but since we usually only eat out on Saturdays, we never knew. Anyway, we ended up trying a place called Top Spice which is a Thai Malaysian place. It was pretty good and they had many things to chose from. We of course made sure no fish sauce was in our dishes.
Jared got Spicy Basil Tofu:

And I got Garlic Tofu (Sorry the picture is dark. We turned the flash off):

Originally, we were just going to get dessert out at Cafe Sunflower or Veggieland so we didn't make a birthday treat at home. Since those plans fell through and we didn't have time to make something, Jared and I bought an apple pie from our local health food store along with Soyatoo Whipped Soy Cream (which was absolutely AMAZING!).

hummus, lentil soup, shakes

Today was filled with yummy eating! Jared and I decided to get out of the house today to go look for bikes. We finally got out of the house in time for lunch and decided to go get some Mediterranean food. We went to the Olive Bistro in Atlanta but the falafel pitas weren't as good as the last time. We did order the hummus small plate which came with whole wheat and white pita that was pretty fantastic.

For dinner, Jared made his AWESOME lentil soup. He put carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, red lentils, veggie stock, sea salt, black pepper and ground coriander. He also toasted slices of ciabatta bread to dip in the soup. I love love love this meal.

For dessert, I made "milk" shakes out of chocolate hazelnut soy yogurt ice cream, better pecan soy ice cream and chocolate soy milk. I don't even need to tell you how wonderful this was.

Chinese Buddha

After a failed attempt to see The Simpsons Movie today we decided to go
out to lunch. Jared and I aren't huge fans of Chinese food but we love
this place in midtown Atlanta called Chinese Buddha. They have a meat
eaters menu and a vegetarian menu which is cool but a lot of their
vegetarian food does have eggs in it so we still have to ask a lot of
questions. This is a place we would take our parents to when they come
to visit since it would please a lot of palates.
I got Sesame "Chicken" with steamed rice.

Jared got "Beef" Satay with steamed rice.

Athens, GA: The Grit, Clocked

So, Jared and I decided to check out Athens today, which is about an hour from where we live. We researched places to eat and decided upon The Grit for brunch and Clocked (couldn't find a website for them) for a late lunch. I was a bit disappointed with both meals over all, although they had good points to them.
My dish was very exciting on paper. It was Potatoes and Veggies with grits and biscuits . . . ALL VEGAN! The grits were creamy and delicious and the biscuits are some of the best I have ever had (except for my Grammie's). The main dish had way to many green peppers, which I am not super wild about anyway, the potatoes were not cooked enough and the whole dish was too heavily powdered with nutritional yeast.

Jared had better luck with his plate, which was Tofu and Veggies. He had potatoes on the side with his and they were seasoned nicely but again, not cooked enough.

All and all, The Grit has a lot of potential. We would try them again, but maybe for dinner instead.
On to Clocked. This was a diner style place. Just about everything on the menu could be made vegan, which is cool in theory.
Here is a picture of Jared (he didn't know he was being photographed) waiting for our food. Very cool decor. I mean, they had velvet wallpaper!

I got what was promised to be a Philly Cheeze "Steak" which when I think of a philly cheese it has thinly sliced "meat" and a cheesy sauce. I know a cheeze sauce would be kinda hard but the cheese on this wasn't very good. The "steak" was just a veggie burger. I felt cheated. There were peppers and onions too which were okay. The french fries were pretty good as they were actual hand cut potatoes. I got mine with this amazing Basil Jalapeno "cream" sauce to dip my fries in. Pickles were pretty good. Dills, sliced thick.

Jared got a Patty Melt which had a veggie burger, grilled red onions, Russian dressing and some kind of vegan cheese on a marble rye. He said it was good but something he could have made at home. He also got french fries.

I'm not sure I would repeat Clocked . . . Maybe for some fries and that creamy Basil Jalapeno "cream" if we were out late.