Pesto Paradise

Hello fellow popsicles of America!

Today I left my class ravenous, as always, day dreaming about what I would make for lunch as the cold air threatened to take my extremities on the walk to my car.  I remembered I had some tofu left over from the other day.  And if you are new to tofu there are three things you should know:

1. When you first open it, put it between two plates with paper towels on the bottom plate, and something heavy  on the top.  You need to squeeze most of the liquid out so when you cook it the rest of your food doesn't drown in tofu juice.
2. If you don't eat it all at once, save some of the juice it came in for your tupperware when you store the leftovers in the fridge.
3. Tofu does not last long once opened, you need to finish it within a few days or so.
4. (BONUS!) Only buy organic tofu, GMO's are NOT your friend.

As I was saying, I realized I needed to cook that tofu and I came up with a delicious idea!  I made grilled cheese (with vegan Daiya cheese), homemade pesto, onion and this tofu I had.

Here is how I mad the magic happen:

First I cut the tofu up into long, 1/2 thick pieces (this is just an estimate), and I fried it in some olive oil with a bunch of spices I found in my cabinet.  I actually used a "Montreal Steak Seasoning" that my roommates have (a bit ironic don't you think?)

While that browned and spiced up, I made my pesto.  I have no measurements for you because I just kept adding stuff to my new food processor (so amazing) until I liked the taste and had enough.  In this pesto I put a handful of walnuts, a handful of basil leaves, a clove of garlic, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast.  It was great but would have better if I had some parsley to throw in there; I need to remember that for next time.

 So once the tofu was done, I made 2 grilled cheese with sour dough bread smeared in pesto (on the inside obviously), a slice of Daiya provolone in each,  a little bit of sweet onion, and then I put the tofu in one of them.  It was really hard to keep the sandwich together while cooking so I only tried it in the one sandwich.

The results were a delicious melody of complimenting flavors snuggling up to my taste buds in the most savory way possible.

I even told my mom I felt sorry for her because she wasn't here to experience it all.

On the left is the sandwich open so you can see how I put the tofu in... now looking at it, it doesn't seem very appetizing but I promise you it really was and I will definitely make it again.
On the right is just the plate turned around to better see the tofu and pesto.

This meal is a good substitute to grilled cheese and french fries because it has a bunch of good green pesto, protein packed tofu, and it is much healthier than using a deep fryer.

Let me know if you try it out, and any changes you make so I can try them myself!

Frozen Pizza Worth Tasting

I told you I'd be back!

Last night's meat-free Mexican margarita Monday was a great success!  All my friends loved the food and we had a wonderful night.  Sadly, I couldn't get any pictures because we demolished the majority of the food in minutes.

Today, I had this frozen vegan pizza I found in the grocery store for lunch because when I got home I was starving AND it was so freaking cold out I just wanted to sit, curled up in a blanket on the couch.  At first I thought my house was so cold because it was about 12 degrees today, but after a while I looked at my thermostat and decided there is no way the house should be about 10 degrees colder than I have it set at.  So, I called in a work order and the maintenance man told me my heater was broken!  He fixed it for now and had to order some parts.  But now my house is livable and I am as snug as a bug in a rug.

Anywho, back to the pizza.  For a frozen pizza this was actually quite delicious... AND I ate the whole thing...by myself.

 So this is what the box looked like, so I was expecting something a little closer to cheesy-bread.  However, this is how it came out, much more saucy than the box picture.  The crust was amazingly yummy yummy in my tummy.

I sprinkled roasted red pepper flakes and some garlic powder on top and it was magical.  Definitely the perfect quick meal for a freezing cold day.

Haitus is Ova

Hello fellow Earth lovers!

Sorry about my extended hiatus; between finals in Spain, coming home, the holidays, moving back to Virginia for school, and starting my interterm class I have been a bit neglectful.  But do not call child protective services yet, I promise to pay more attention to my blog in this new year.

For Christmas I got a blender and food processor so be on the look out for some yummy dips and sauces.  So far I've just made fruit smoothies but they rock my socks.
I also got 5 vegan cook books, which is actually a lit bit daunting because now I feel like I must impress people with fancy recipes when I get home.
 
Anywho, I grew up with a strong love connection to mac and cheese from a box; preferably Annie's and NEVER Easy Mac (how that is even considered food I do not understand).  I always add peas to my mac and cheese because I love peas and they always fit into the little shells like they were wearing helmets.  It was great because you got cheese, pasta and pea all in the same bite.  Becoming vegan obviously meant no Annie's.

While I was in Spain my mom found this: Road's End Organics Dairy Free Shells & Chreese.  While it is not the same as Annie's, it was pretty good!  I put peas in it, obviously, and added some black pepper, roasted red pepper flakes and topped it with nutritional yeast.  It was a really nice easy meal for me to have on a freezing cold day where I locked myself inside. 

This cold weather is really on my last nerve; I am a woman of the sea, not of the Arctic tundra.

In spite of the cold, tonight I am hosting a Meat-free, Mexican and Margarita Monday for my friends!  I am going to make lentil tacos, a giant pot of my mom's secret Mexican rice, homemade tortillas (fancy), guacamole, salsa, vegan raw chocolate fudge (for dessert) and my friend Katie is making the Margaritas. 
I wish I had one of my sombreros here (I have multiples at home from claiming it was my birthday every time we went to Chevy's growing up).  But even without the sombreros it will still be a fiesta!

Adios amigos!

Reasons to be Vegan

Hello hello,

I should be working on the mountain of essays I have due within the next week, BUT sometimes a blog idea comes to mind that you can just not ignore.

Tis the season of giving, receiving, having and sharing (Friends reference obviously).  What a better way to give to the earth, receive health benefits, have new lease on life, and share new delicious food with the ones you love than by becoming vegan?!

Still not convinced?  Alright, let me give you some other awesome vegan reasons.
(I won't even use animal cruelty as an example because everyone's heard all of that before)

1. For those of you who like numbers and statistics:
840 million people in the world do not have enough to eat
Hunger causes the death of more than 5 million children a year


A varied vegan diet requires around 1/3 the land needed for a "conventional Western diet"
Overgrazing is linked to 35% of soil degradation
Agricultural expansion accounts for over 60% of worldwide deforestation
Farm animals now outnumber humans more than 3 to 1
*all these facts were taken from The Vegan Society's website
** lots of other great facts on World Watch

2. For those of you who like pictures and graphs:

3. For those of you who think it would be too hard:
There are hundreds of companies making vegan substitutes, hundreds of blogs with free recipes, and no one said you had to change over night!
And here are some more pictures to help you out!

4. This is possibly the biggest reason of all:
Beyonce and Jay Z just started a 22 day vegan challenge!  If the king and queen of hip-hop can't convince you than I have no chance!

Well I hope all of you non-vegans out there take this list into account and consider a vegan life style.  Everything is "too hard" until we actually try it!

See you stateside in 10 days <3

Stocking Stuffers and Such

Hello lovies,

I hope Santa does not put me on the "naughty list" because the last post I wrote I promised to write another one that week and now it is over two weeks later.  Sorry Santa!
The end of the semester is basically academic slaughter time.  In Spain their fall semester does not end until mid/late January (I am not sure of the exact date).  However, I leave here in 12 days, which means I need to finish some assignments a whole month before my classmates.  It really is just the bee's knees squeezing two months of work into two weeks.

So let's see, since we last spoke I have:
1. had food poisoning
2. went to Ireland to visit my favorite red head Rita (her blog is really great)
3. "celebrated" Thanksgiving in class because we do not get off for American holidays here
4. did a headstand in yoga (with the assistance of my teacher)
5. went to a vegan cooking class here
6. visited Montserrat
7. took two exams worth 60+% of my final grades (one orally because my professor thought that would "be fun")

I've done some other things as well but I thought those were the most mentionable.
Currently I should be writing my paper for Urban Sociology but I wanted to give you all some vegan-friendly Christmas ideas that you can give to non-vegans too!

1. Heavenly Organics Products

 These little guys are hand and foot lotions that I bought at VegFest back in October.  They are solid lotions, which I had never seen before, but they actually work!  I keep the hand one in my bag for daily use and I really love these little suckers.  And they look like flowers, how freaking cute is that?!

2. Butter London Nail Polish
I have the gold sparkly variation and it lasts for so long!  All their products are vegan and come from vegan sources which means there was absolutely no animal testing done in the making of any of their products!  Hooray hooray!!!

3. Dark Chocolate
Who doesn't like chocolate?  Honestly it's probably like 0.000000001% of the world population, including animals.  Dark chocolate is SUPPOSED to be made without milk so make sure you read the labels first.  Of course any kind of chocolate that uses plant based milks are acceptable!

4. Naturally Made For You

I also got these at VegFest.  I constantly have issues with my feet, mostly pain related.  I had a podiatrist tell me that I had "oddly shaped feet."  My high arches put a lot of stress on my heels making long days on my feet extremely painful.  While that may be more than you needed to know, what you should know is that every time I use this wonderful duo my feet feel brand new.  If their other products are any bit as wonderful as these peppermint foot miracles I suggest you stock up. 
As a side note their website says they do not ship to the states but I am almost positive the representative I spoke to at VegFest said they would.

5. Lush Products
I love Lush because all their products are hand made, free of animal testing, and their ingredients are fair traded.  A few of their products are not vegan (some have milk and honey), but they will help you in the store find what you need.  They are always alarmingly friendly and helpful.  Everything I have ever bought from Lush has lasted a freakishly long time.

I hope this list gave you some good Christmas ideas that are cruelty free!  I know this post seems a bit feminine because it focuses mostly on cosmetics but men need nice shaving cream and moisturizer too!

This semester has flown by, hopefully I finish strong!  I can't wait to get stateside so I can cook up a storm and then have interesting things to post for you guys.  Plus I will finally see my dogs, friends and hunky man candy (don't tell him I said that).

Lisbon Portugal

I SWEAR I have not given up my quest,
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of busy-ness, and now I have 4 weeks abroad and tons of school work to do.  That being said, I solemnly swear I am up to vegan good (this was a Harry Potter play on words for those of you not in the know).
So since we last spoke I have been to Lisbon, Portugal (AMAZING but more on that later), then I had midterms, and then my dad and sister came to visit all in a span of less than two weeks.
On top of that I have been running around trying to see everything I have not yet and get all my shopping done.

Anywho, I thought I should use this post to talk about my time in Lisbon in case any of you plan on venturing out there.

First you should know that Lisbon is absolutely breathtaking and one of the friendliest and cleanest cities I have ever been to, which was amazing.  It is also very hilly and all the streets and sidewalks are cobble stone so do not try and be cute and explore in stilettos.  Even though I looked like a major dork my feet were so happy I packed my running sneakers.

I used the website Happy Cow to look up vegan restaurants in Lisbon but we never ended up going to any of them because they were all far away from wherever we were when we got hungry.  I had my friend Alex with me and neither of us felt like dishing out for a cab to go outside of the city for a meal, and then come back in when there are so many restaurants.

That being said, we did not have difficulty finding things to eat in the city.  One secret to European vegan success are kebob restaurants.  You order a pita felafel meal for around 5-7 euros with fries and a drink and you are sufficiently full until your next meal.  The amount of felafels I have eaten since coming to Europe is probably ten times the amount I have in my life before this trip, but I am not complaining; they are a cheap, delicious, and a somewhat healthy meal that keeps me alive.

So on our journey we had a lot of pasta, two restaurants with pasta meals and I made a giant pasta dish at our hostel that lasted us two meals each.  Then on our last night as we tried in vain to find a vegan restaurant I saw on the internet we stumbled upon this place.
Now this is not a vegan restaurant, but they allowed me to make adjustments to an item on the menu and thus I received a vegan meal.  While there are no pictures to prove it, Chapitô à Mesa's theme is circus so they have a really cool ambiance and a juggler walking around.  We sat in the outside part, which was a bit chilly, but it was under a mock circus tent!

I had already eaten half of it when I remembered to take a picture (whoops!).  But what I got was two giant pieces of toast with olive oil, avocado spread, cherry tomatoes, oregano, and a mixed salad.  The original menu option was with a Portuguese cheese instead of avocado but they let me do a switcheroo.  It was really good, and I plan on replicating this when I finally get back to my own kitchen.

One of my biggest struggles abroad is not being able to make the meals I want.  My host mom allows me to use her kitchen but she likes to watch me very closely which makes me uncomfortable.  And it is strange asking her to buy me things to make just for my self.  Host families for vegans are weird experiences but I am near the ending stretch.

I still have to do product reviews from VegFest UK so keep an eye out of that, good Christmas gift ideas!

Gopal: Vegan Oasis

Hello fellow veggie lovers!
I found an amazing vegan place in the Gothic area and felt I could not keep it secret any longer!  It is called Gopal and their patatas bravas will change your life.  I took 2 meat eaters there and they both have requested to go back because they loved the patatas bravas so much!  Obviously I went back with them (twice this week).  Not only is the food here amazing, the prices make you want to kiss the lady behind the counter.
So everyday they have new food, AND they make all their own veggie burgers.

THESE ARE ALL VEGGIE BURGERS!

Anywho, they also have fantastic desserts, I had the coconut and purple donuts before, both chocolate filled, both amazing.  I am partial to coconut though so I would recommend that for a first timer.

I have yet to try the cakes or cinnamon buns so I cannot tell you about those, however I do know everything I have tried here has been fantastico!  They also sell vegan cheese and sausages and more here!  Really this place is the bee's knees of Spanish vegan food.
Finally, my meal.  For 7.25 euros you get a massive veggie burger, a huge plate of patatas bravas, and a choice of any of the drinks they have; this was what I got (mucha comida!)

I couldn't even finish it all!  This burger was about the size of my face.  As a side note, I hate pickles and didn't know they were on it because I didn't know "encurtidos" meant pickles.  Lesson learned, either ask what things are on the menu, or don't be a pompous idiot and read the English menu.

As a completely unrelated note, I am going to the capital city Lisbon in Portugal on Friday for the weekend! If you know any good vegan friendly places there please let me know!