MoFo Day 31 Post 26 What Can I Say?!

But Boo! And Well ..

It has been a journey worth taking. I have so appreciated meeting all of you. Thank you for reading and commenting and laughing with me. It has been an absolute joy to read other blogs and get to hang out with more of the vegan community.

A Journey is Nothing If I Don't Remain Teachable
The Bump in the Road- Stupid camera acts out 
The Aha- Take Pics of Leftovers

The Bump In the Road- Ice Creme Maker is Very Mean
The Aha- Use As Blender

The Bump in the Road- Raw Food Is Not the Same As Baked. It Is Not Always As Pretty.
The Aha- I Can Bake and I Don't Have to Eat It, But Raw Does Taste Good!

The Mime- Know when to be silent and Detach With Love, know when to stand up for your rights even though it could make you feel a lot of raw emotions.

Count Your Victories

1. 26 Posts

2. Stayed on the E2 Plan Throughout MoFo

3. Read A Trillion Blogs

4. Have Not Used That Many Hyperboles

5. I Married the Right Guy!

6. We Are Still Married After MoFo

The Brownie we are holding is Adapted From Gratitude Cafe's Marbled Fudge Brownie.

Look forward to our continued journey. See you in November. After I snooze.

In Gratitude and Love,

GiGi 

Dessert in the Raw

If I ate as many dried fruits and nuts and seeds as I would like to it would be in the pounds and I would be one hefty vegan. That's not to say I don't partake in a rolled coconut date once in a while. When my body craves dried papaya, or dates, or figs, or roasted pumpkin seeds I give in and give moderation a whirl. I'm not particularly fond of moderation, myself. Doing everything in moderation is extremist and once in a while I'd like to gorge myself on nut butters.
On the way home from LA  last week, we bought some dried pineapple rings.They looked like pineapple. They smelled like pineapple. They tasted like a pizza box. We soaked them in OJ which kind of killed the dried fruit thing they had going, but at least the rings were edible, and we upped the "C". 

I love me some raw food. Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley still rocks my boat. Their raw Caesar salad made with nut Parmesan and raw croutons is delicious and fresh and their cashew coconut  almond shakes are tasty and not too sweet. The cocoa nib truffles although delicious are the size of a thumbnail and one would have to trade in their solar powered car to buy a satisfying amount. Last time we were at Gratitude their service sucked. I think we waited an hour for my salad and none of the wait staff ventured near our table to tell us what was up. What the hell takes so long, anyway? Everything is served at room temp. Maybe the dehydration machine was on the blink.


I could never be a raw foodist or nudist foodist all the time. I like high temperatures and blackened broccoli and hot coffee and baked goods that are well uh baked. Those dehydrators piss me off too. I get too thirsty as it is. Still I had to give making raw food a shot. I will definitely make this again.

Me and Mo made these raw brownies on the one sweltering day we had recently. Look how the Rice Dream ice cream is melting.

In The Raw Brownie Adapted From http://therawtarian.com/

1 C walnuts

1 C dates

5 T cocoa powder

4 T shredded unsweetened coconut

2 T agave nectar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1. Place walnuts in food processor and process until the walnuts become small and crumbly.

2. Add dates and process again until the mixture sticks together and the dates are well processed.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and process until the mixture turns a dark chocolaty brown. Stop processing before it gets too buttery. (There should still be air between the small bits so that you will be able to press them down into your brownie pan.)

4. Dump the mixture into a brownie dish or 8 by 11 cake pan and press down firmly using your clean hands.

5. Refrigerate for an hour or more. You do not have to refrigerate it, but it's much easier to slice when chilled.

Remember summer is coming , and it'll be hot so you'll want to eat these brownies in the raw, I mean... Oh you know what I mean.

PB Swirl

9/10ths of the time I've got some gratitude going on. Even if I have to drum it up and eek it out. I'd rather be happy and dopey than a pitiful slug. A lot of people like to step on slugs. Vegans aren't even that fond of them. Not that we would intentionally step on anything. I won't even step on a crack because I don't want my mom to suffer.
The 1/10th part- you know, the grimacing gastropod part hit me upside the head this week. It all started with an honest mistake. I sent out caved in cupcakes. I tried covering the offending grand canyon cakes with mounds of icing. The client wouldn't have it. Of course I replaced them, apologized profusely and offered them a free trip to Arizona. Water under the bridge, as they say. Lalalala. I let it go and moved on. It's not good to stress. So I mosied over to my Etsy account. Yep I'm in treasuries everyday, but the sales are bupkus this week. In an effort to make myself feel better I decided to check out other vegan bakers sites to see if perhaps their sales were down too. I consoled myself with, "oh well maybe it's a slow week".  350 sales on one vegan baker's site and 450 at Megaprettyvegan's online account. I just wanted to clear my 60 sales this week.  I tried to let it go. I really did. And just when I was thinking of packing in all my cupcake liners, blue icing and Swedish fish I received a convo on my Etsy account. Nope it didn't make me richer, or even get me past 60 Etsy sales but somehow it kept me at this baking gig for one more day. Here is the letter and our correspondence. Thank You Bakado!


Hi there,

I get mine (pb lovers voopee) at catahoula coffee in Richmond, I'm using them for motivation while training -they are my "cheat" meal (I'm assuming somewhere around 600 kcal for a whole pie) and plan my day's meals accordingly. So far it's been working - down 20 lbs with 5 to go. So thank you for making these pies.
Only problem - is they are too popular at catahoula lately, and I haven't been able to get one for at least a week and a half - and I am feinding FEINDING I tell you!
I would order through easy but the danger of a 6 pack of these sitting on my freezer ( they freeze well right?) scares the dickens out of me - as at least having to get to catahoula stops me from eating these every day of the week.
So please, please please I beg of you - deliver more to catahoula - you can always complain to me via email if they aren't moving and I will make sure everyone I know gets some...
Thank you for your time and voopies
~ ~
Hi Bakadoh (ha ha)
Thanks for your nifty letter of PB Love. If you are picking up this message now 1:45 Friday some Fresh PB voopees should be in your local Catahoula by 2:00 today. I just sent some out.
PB in a jar often calls my name from an undisclosed location, so I can understand your voopee in the house predicament. They do freeze well, by the way. But A freezer never stopped anybody!
Down 20 pounds, that's terrific. What are you training for? You can always order a batch to bring to a friends (just convo me) and I can drop them off at Catahoula sans shipping of course. I'm not sure about the caloric content, but be assured the calories are much less than a whopper, a better source of protein and cruelty free.
Would you mind if I used your letter on my blog today?

Run don't walk to Catahoula now.

Thank you again. Always happy to motivate. (I'm an ex-athlete and coach)
Keep pedaling.

GiGi
Head Honcho of Veganville
~ ~ ~
Of course you can use my letter in your blog. I'm at catahoula right now - buying three... But I love how many there are here.

I won't bore you with my life story - but I'm training to see how fit I can be. Even when I was body building many years ago I never was able to get under 190 for very long. Now I'm hovering between 180 and 177 steadily losing since January 31st.
Sorry chocolate all over my iPhone from the vooper... I'm good for another week- I'm going to try to addict two people for you today, by sharing.
I love your idea for drop ship at catahoula

In honor of the lovely letter I received I am creating a PB Lovers Box that will include PB Voopees, Vanilla Cupcake with PB frosting and PB Swirl Brownies. 60 Etsy sales here we come.

Wanna add some swirl to your brownie now? Make your fave brownie batter and place in prepared pan. In a separate bowl make the PB mixture.
Mix together:
2/3 C PB
2 T canola oil
2 T organic powder sugar

Place dollops of PB mixture on the panned batter. Swirl with knife. Bake according to your favorite brownie recipe directions. Feel free to write me a very nice letter.