Pumpkin Ziti, and the Irritated Vegan

Happy Halloween!

(my little sugar pumpkin)

I definitely meant to post last night, but time got away from me. 

I tried to run my 7 miles on Sunday, but it was rough. One of those runs where it feels like you’re running through sand. Then my ankle started to give me a little trouble towards the end, so I walked the rest.

Then today we had a fire drill, and we had to walk down 15 flights of stairs! I’m the fire warden for our floor, so it was my responsibility to make sure everyone got out, and shut the doors behind them.

Then at lunch, one of my coworkers had us all try these ‘kiwi berries’. They were like grapes, but if you sliced it open, they looked like kiwi inside. Tasted just like kiwi, too! Very interesting!

I made something amazing for dinner last night. It’s from the Veganomicon. It’s called:

Pumpkin Ziti with Carmelized Onions and Sage Bread Crumb Topping.

So good! Creamy, pumpkiny.. mmmm. I think it's pretty much what I'll be eating from now on.

Cashew Ricotta (make this first)

½ cup cashews

¼ cup lemon juice

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves fresh garlic

1lb Firm tofu, drained and crumbled

1 ½ tsp basil

1 ½ tsp salt

-In a food processor, blend together the cashews, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic until a thick, creamy paste forms. Add tofu to the processor, little by little. Blend in the basil and salt. Put in Large bowl.

Pumpkin Ziti

¾ lb uncooked penne pasta

2 onions, sliced thin

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 recipe Cashew Ricotta

1 Tbsp brown sugar

¼ tsp nutmeg

1- 15oz can pureed pumpkin

¼ cup veggie broth

-Add the pumpkin, broth, sugar, nutmeg, and cooked pasta to the ricotta.

-Heat up 3 Tbsp olive oil (med high heat)and add sliced onions to the pan. Sautee onion for about 10 minutes.  Stirring around every 3 min. or so. When onions are nicely browned, they’re done. Add to the ricotta bowl.

Sage Bread Crumbs

2 ½ cups bread crumbs (I put 1/4 stale baguette in the food processor)

1/3 cup walnut pieces (chopped in food processor until they resemble crumbs)

2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp oregano leaves

½ tsp paprika (I used cayenne pepper. Need to remember to get more paprika!)

¼ cup margarine

-Melt margarine in sautee pan. Pour in the crumbs, and stir constantly for about 3-4 min. Til crumbs look toasty.

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cooking spray a 9x11 pan, and pour the ricotta pasta mix in it. Spread evenly with spatula. Sprinkle bread crumbs over it. Bake for 30 min. Wait 10 min. (Torture!) Then dig in! It's frustrating that it looks like a pile of breadcrumbs. Trust me, it will blow your mind.

Also, I wanted a treat for Halloween so I bought a bag of dark chocolate Reese’s pumpkins for the trick or treaters and looked for a candy bar for me. Sadly, I couldn’t find any without milk in it. Fascists.

 Chocolate by itself doesn’t have milk in it. But we tend to add milk to it, because it makes it creamy, delicious and cheaper!

Fortunately most semi-sweet chocolate chips do not have milk in them. So it’s some extra effort, but I’ll get a treat! I figured on the last day of Vegan MOFO, I should make the extra effort not to slip up.

Tonight, I’m going to hand out candy, watch The Walking Dead and Ghost Adventures.

Ha! Okay, so this is what happens when you irritate a Vegan.

That’s right, a peanut butter cup blown WAY out of proportion. It’s more like a peanut butter litre, am I right?

It was very easy! I lined my ramekin with foil, sprayed it with cooking spray. Melted chocolate chips in the microwave in 45 sec. intervals. Spread it on the bottom. Melted peanut butter in the micro, and added the layer. Then more chocolate chips..  Chill in the fridge.   Take that Reese’s!

I am convinced that some of the best food in the world has been created by a vegan with their nose bent out of joint.

Being a Lazy Bum and Bliss Cafe!

I have been a lazy bum this week.  It could be the weather?  Nah. I’m just being a lazy bum. I missed my run on Monday and Thursday. I was supposed to run 7 miles this morning. But I was cold, so I decided not to.  I think the cats were a bad influence.

This is what happened after I took the picture.

Yep, a sure sign that the best thing to do is put my paw over my head and go back to sleep. I promise I'll do it tomorrow though. No really, I swear!

I did get some stuff done, though. Look, my apology book came in the mail!

This week is going to be a full week of meals from this book. I chose some meals, and made my grocery list. One complaint I have about the book: No dessert section. Harumph. But, I am all about Fresh and Fast. However, today, I’m all about as little effort as possible.

I suppose I can muster up the effort to tell you what Bliss Raw Café was like. :)

It. Was. Awesome!

I loved the atmosphere. Hanging lights, huge photos of delicious food on the walls, pumpkins. It was cozy. And the food was great!

There were all kinds of elixirs, and I didn’t know what the heck they were supposed to taste like. So we got a combo of:  Hemp Horchatta, Goji Paradise and Chocolate Bliss. I thought I’d like the chocolate bliss the best, but the Hemp Horchatta was amazing! It’s made of: Smooth hemp seed milk with cinnamon, mesquite, and agave nectar.  It was almost eggnog like in flavor and texture. So I got a big one!

Then the main dish. I had no idea what to order. I wanted to get something I couldn’t get anywhere else, but didn’t know what I was in the mood for. I thought a noodle bowl sounded good, but I’ve had Pad Thai, sooo… This is the Vietnamese bowl. Ugh, I didn’t get such a great picture of it. But it was spicy, and the noodles were amazing! Nick got the ‘Amigo Wrap’. Which came wrapped in a lettuce leaf. He said he really liked it. I could tell, too, because he pretty much inhaled the first one. Vietnamese bowl had: Kelp noodles tossed in almond sauce garnished with crispy bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, jalapeno, lime slices, cashews.

 The Vietnamese bowl was really filling, too. I was surprised how filling it was! So I probably shouldn’t have ordered dessert. But I had to… in the name of research, right? Turns out they had a brownie! I was hoping to try ‘raw cheesecake’, but this was pretty good, too. I was a little disappointed at how small it was. But the texture was like eating a block of fudge, so it was probably for the best. In fact, I ended up eating some of it before I remembered to take a picture for the blog. Bad blogger!

I would DEFINITELY go again. I would love to try ‘raw pizza’ and their ‘rawko tacos’.  Maybe they’ll even have ‘cheesecake’ next time! :)

RAWR FOOD!.. No, really! Raw food!

Booo, rained out of my run!

Oh the other hand, yay rain!

My recipe for tonight is off of a raw food blog called 'Raw Food Nation'. The Raw Food movement is pretty interesting. I tried to dabble at one time, but the “cook”book I had was just… Ahhh, everything took so much time and effort. You wouldn’t think that Raw Food would require more effort than Cooked Food, but there is a lot of chopping.  Lots and lots of chopping. And food processing. And then refrigerating for hours. Eh.

But doesn’t this salad look good?

It’s called the Spinach Power House Salad

·  6-8 cups of baby spinach

·  1 cup of spring salad mix

·  1 cup of cabbage slaw (sliced raw cabbage & shredded carrots)

·  1/2 red bell pepper

·  1/2 red onion

·  1 cucumber

·  1 avocado

·  parsley flakes

·  splash of olive oil and lemon juice

Chop everything up. Put it in a bowl. The biggest bowl you’ve got!.. Splash olive oil and lemon juice.. maybe a splash of whatever flavored vinegar you might like.

Yum! This one really didn’t take TOO much chopping. So definitely worth it!

Speaking of the Raw Food Movement, Nick and I are going to a Raw food Restaurant this weekend! It’s called Bliss Raw Food and Elixir Café.  It’s funny, but Nick was actually the catalyst for me looking into raw foods. Something about it is very appealing to him. I like it too, but.. Oy, the chopping. It’ll be nice to have someone else do it! 

Okay, so it wasn’t a completely raw meal. It was Leftover lentil loaf,  Baked red potato fries w/ mushroom gravy and a delightful salad! mmm gravy fries!