Vegan Cooking 5/21 - 6/2

For some reason I thought I'd cooked more in the past two weeks as I always take pictures of my food. But I only have five pictures on my camera, so what have I eaten recently?

Coriander and cumin-scented spinach with red Thai curry tofu. Both of these recipes came from cookbooks, or were at least inspired by them. The spinach came from "Fast and Fresh Vegan," and it's basically just sauteed spinach, with coriander and cumin, though I added some sauteed onions as well. I think the original recipes has more elements then that, but I was really just looking for a way to use up some spinach, and needed something to go with my tofu. Now the tofu on the other hand is almost exactly made the same way the recipe is, which comes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "Appetite for Reduction," which is currently one of my favorite cookbooks. It's tofu, peppers, and onions, in a not-too-spicy curry sauce. It's very good! I own all of Moskowitz's cookbooks, and this is one of my favorites.

Sloppy Joannas This is from Yellow Rose Recipes, which is now out of print, but it's a wonderful vegan cookbook, with lots of more comfort food-type recipes. I've made a delicious strawberry-almond cake from it as well. Miss sloppy joes? I do did. This is a wonderful alternative. Though I used the minimum amount of tomato sauce, and next time I would use more since the textured vegetable protien (TVP) absorbs it rather quickly, and it wasn't as "sloppy" as a sloppy joe should be.

Caramelized Tempeh Wraps From "The Vegan Table" by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. This was the second time I had made this. The first time I had made it, I followed the recipe exactly, and while it was very good, I was lazy this time, and just spread some hummus on the tortilla instead of making my own tahini sauce which the cookbook has a recipe for. The end result was basically the same. It's actually a very simple recipe, with just the hummus, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, (which I let sit in some lemon juice while I was preparing the tempeh,) and the caramlized tempeh, which the first time I made, I didn't think sounded that great, (maple syrup and soy sauce together,) but it really is wonderful.

Ohana's stir-fried noodles.  I got this recipe off a Disney website; http://www.allearsnet.com/ Which is probably the best Disney planning website on the web, except for maybe http://www.wdwinfo.com/ which has a huge message board and online community. But anyway, this recipe is from one of my former favorite restaurants, and I say former because I don't see myself eating there again, since it's really meat-fest there, but the noodles are really good (and vegan) so I tried to recreate them at home. Eh, they were good, but they weren't that close to Ohana's. If I make them again I'm going to use less peanut butter, and it needs something else, I can't decide what, but definatly less peanut butter.

 Korean barbecue tempeh and green beans. Finally, something I made that I didn't use a recipe for. Though I did use bottled sauce, because I had it, and I thought it would be good. The sauce is Annie Chun's, which makes a lot of all natural and vegan products. I simmering some tempeh, (which is essential to get rid of that bitter flavor,) then brushed it with some sauce, grilled it, and that was it. I also mixed some of the sauce with frozen green beans, and then threw them on the grill as well.

Planning My First Disney Trip as a Vegan

I originally wasn't going to go to Disney this year, since I had a long (expensive) trip last year, and was going to wait two years until going again. However, I really miss it, and not having a trip to plan was kind of depressing. Then Disney released some room discounts a few days ago, and since I already have unused park tickets from a previous trip, I decided to go.

My trip isn't for a few more months, but I already have some advanced dining reservations, (ADR,) in place. Here's what I have booked; Liberty Tree Tavern, Tusker House, Sanaa, Brown Derby, Kouzzina, and La Hacienda. All of these restaurants I've been to before, but I'm sure going to them and eating completely vegan meals will be an entirely new experience.

I also am already starting to think about where I can eat my "filler" counter service meals. I know I have some options at my resort's food court Everything Pop, and since I'm only spending one day at each park, and at the Studios and Animal Kingdom I have two table service meals booked each of those days, so don't even need to worry about counter service, so that just leaves Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Which really doesn't require much planning, I'll probably end up eating at Columbia Harbor House and Sunshine Seasons. That's almost too easy.

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello everyone! I'm starting this blog to talk about my experiences as a vegan. I'm a relativly new vegan, it's been almost exactly five months now, since New Year's actually. I still have some stumbles sometimes, mainly on baked goods and cheese, and some family cooking over Easter. But that's all behind me now, and I don't let myself feel bad for too long since I'm doing better every day. And I used to eat a ton of dairy, especially with cheese, which I ate at least a pound a week of.

I think I'll be ending up blogging about several different things; my cooking, dining out / traveling as a vegan, though be forewarned most of my travels take me to Disney World in Florida, so if that's not really your thing, this blog may not have a lot to offer you, and my personal life as a vegan, as well as some random ramblings I have that go through my head. I'm one of those people who will, either when upset or pissed off, write down all my feelings, and feel exceptionally better afterwards.

I hope you all enjoy my blog!