MoFo 16 Sweet Potato Bowl and a Meteor

Crazy Boy aka Psycho Boy usually makes something on Wednesday nights. He went shopping for his ingredients and he even took a photo I call, "Still Life With Knife".

He had an allergy attack earlier today, slept a little and then met me on my run tonight. On our walk back from the track,Crazy Boy pointed up at the sky and said, look a meteor! Sure enough it was a beautiful star burst that we got to experience together. Crazy Boy can often see things that other people can't. He can often find the miraculous in the ordinary. I probably would have missed my first meteor if my hero had stayed home. I've probably seen a meteor before but somehow everything always seems more special with C.B.

We watched it fall from the sky and journeyed home, but again my hero was weakened by allergies. Perhaps what we witnessed was not a meteor at all, but a nugget of Krypton.

 

Psycho Boy tries to regain strength from warm towel.

Alas, he could not recover in time to prepare something so his sidekick took over.

Riffin' on Engine 2 Rip's Sweet Potato Bowl (changed up a bit).
Feeds one out of commission super hero and his sidekick.

2 medium sweet potatoes cubed and roasted
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper seeded and diced
10 ounces pineapple chunks drained
1 handful of fresh spinach chopped
1 avocado pitted and diced
juice of one lime
2.5 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp of pink Himalayan salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Scrub and cube sweet potatoes. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with canola oil. Lightly spray sweet potatoes. Roast for about 25 minutes until lightly browned. Place everything in large salad bowl and toss gently.

Today:Look for the miraculous in the ordinary. Maybe wish upon a star, or be someone's super hero, you never know who's day you might brighten, just by being you.

Your Toast or You're Toast

Today I will attempt to explain some unkind things to you. I don't want to necessarily make your day suck or anything, that's all up to you and your lonesome. Remember, we can always change our days around by taking positive action, so your day never really has to suck that much. Even making tiny changes can be so empowering.

Anyway, this post is rated PG for PG, partially gruesome. I'll give you a recipe at the end of the post so if you want, you can just bypass the graphic stuff. Hey speaking of bypass, you do know that eating animal products can cause quadruple bypasses, right? Yep. Thump, thump, stop! So if you wanna keep that heart a pumpin' and a thumpin' it might be time to eat more of a plant based diet.

Today let's take a glance  at one of the animals you might still be putting on your plate. I applaud you if you've give up red meat. It's a start but don't think you are totally in the clear, buddy! This isn't just about your health any more. It's about compassion. Like I've said before, comapssion is good for your soul, hence your heart.

Let's take a look at chicken, shall we. Let's imagine what the chicken feels like when confined to a battery cage.
WARNING!!!! DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! Just imagine How it Feels! I repeat! Don't Do This At Home! I take no responsibility for burnt toast.

Imagine this scenario:
You take your favorite morning multi-grain bread out of the frig and place it in the toaster. You savor it, and say to yourself, (because you always talk a lot to yourself in the morning), this flax seed toast is going to taste so good especially if I put some softened Earth Balance on it! 
You, get some organic coffee brewing, plug in the toaster, place the flax seed spelt bread in the slot and press the highest, darkest toaster setting. You pour yourself a steaming cup of joe,  and consider getting baptized even though you are Jewish.
You shout Thank you baby Jesus for free trade caffeine!
You sip your morning java. Ah java.
The world is a beautiful place.This is better than the 70's. Peace. 
Yes this is a beautiful life, it's such a beautiful world I might be able to share the earth with Ann Coulter.

Uh oh is that toast burning? OMG! And just like that you are Snapped out of your disgusting Ann Coulter revery. Thank Goodness.

Crap. Just when you were going to catch up on all your Vegetarian Times reading too and live in placid co-existence with Tea Party folk, the revery ends. Oh no! The smoke alarm in your tiny digs is crazy loud. Your moron next door neighbor the one with the "don't save the dolphins unless they have beer" trucker hat is pounding on the wall of his trailer. Your freakin' toast is stuck and won't pop up. You grab the nearest knife, the one that was going to spread your softened Earth Balance on your whole grain toast. You stick the butter knife in the slot. What?! Don't tell me. You didn't unplug the toaster! Expletive. Expletive.

Zap! Jolt! Hey bub, you still with me? Oops. Sorry about that.

Hey! Now you know that this is how a chicken confined to a battery cage feels everyday of his existence. These poor chickens never even get to experience their morning coffee. Yep, these poor creatures are debeaked too, so they never ever get to wake up and smell the coffee. Yep, these poor chickens are toast!

Please think about what you eat before you eat!

Hey! Let's have a real life breakfast!!! You deserve it.

I heart the new marinated tempehs from Turtle Island Foods Inc. At least the ones I've tried, like Smokey Maple Bacon and Coconut Curry.

The Smoky Tempeh Bacon is perfect in a tofu scramble with tomatoes and peppers and onions. They are already pre-sliced. Of course the tempeh is perfect in a BLT as well. I know I promised breakfast, but really who wants it after the toaster ordeal. Let's do lunch instead.

BLT Taco Salad with Broken "Tortilla Flats"
with a nod to John Steinbeck

Half-Assed Recipe Because I'm Toast Today (serves 4 "Big Baby" salads or 4 baby salads)
For the Salad

About 16 ounces of butter lettuce
8 cherry tomatoes
package of the tempeh featured up there cooked according to package directions
2 T canola or olive oil
About a C of your choice of your favorite shredded Daiya
Crispy corn tortillas as many as you can handle

For the Fake Blue Cheez Dressing
1/2 a block "tofu life" lemon garlic smoked tofu crumbled
1 C vegenaise
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp sea salt




Directions: Plate it so everything looks pretty. Decorate with broken tortillas while you nosh on some.

Dressing Directions: Whisk all ingredients together except the crumbled tofu. Fold that in last.
Serve over your pretty salad.


Enjoy tomorrow's breakfast.

Time Warp Salad

Way back when, in a land of 8 track cassettes, iron on band tee shirts and bands called Iron Butterfly...back when tiny sawdusted hippie granola stores were the only places this veggie kid could slop together something kind to eat... mostly fresh peanut butter and carob rice cakes... Yeah way back when, my sister Heidels and I turned orange. And No... our orange tint wasn't from some Timothy Leary- Jerry Garcia sunshiny thing either. And no one of those primordial QT tan tubes didn't do it either. Remember those things? My mom tried QT on her tennis tan- white feet first. This gave her George Hamilton tootsies. Boy oh boy fake tans have come along way. No sirree no QT for Heidels and me. And still one day we woke up looking like a couple of tangerines.
We put our two noggins together and explored our furnished Los Angeles apartment for the culprit. Hmmm- no radiation leak. We had traded our screwdrivers and "tango" in for tequila so orange juice wasn't the problem. Where were we last night anyway? Our detective work didn't last long. We needed some strong ass coffee fast. Besides we reasoned, maybe everybody looks like "Tang" in LA.  Grab your shades, Heidels, my heads pounding let's go get some Joe. We got in Heidel's bug with the sunroof and were off.

Breakfast
GiGi: We'd like a pot of the strongest coffee you got.
Heidels: And a couple of margaritas.
GiGi: Ooh look they have carrot juice.
Heidels: Oh yeah and 2 large carrot juices. We're dehydrated.
GiGi: And look this is the place with the best carrot salad ever. Lets get 2 quarts to take home.
Heidels: Here's to vitamin D.
GiGi: And A.
Heidels: Gotta stogey?
GiGi: Yeah. Here you go, you grub.
Wow I forgot how much I love carrot salad. Really. Let's reinvent the decade!

I paired the carrot salad with a kashi and bow tie recipe from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet,(great book), and topped the kashi with vegan sour cream. The flavors all really complimented each other. You're delicious, said the carrot salad. No, you are scrumptious, said the kashi. The bow ties remained mum. Yuk. Yuk.

Flashback Carrot Salad
Ingredients:
•3 cups grated carrots
•1/2 cup raisins
•1/2 cup vegenaise
•2T agave

•1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple

Add all ingredients except fruit to a large bowl and stir until combined well. Chill. I mean really. Just chill, man.

Hail Vegan Caesar

Wipe away those tears my little vegan. There will be no more undressed salads. No more pining for tasty Caesar salads. Now you can save those itty bitty spiny fish and bypass those baby ingredients found in Worchestire sauce. Let's all hail vegan caesar. The Vegenaise stands in for the egg. Serve it to your carnie (meaty) friends and they'll be very surprised. Might even get a convert, who knows.

All Hail Breaks Loose with Vegan Caesar

1 head or bag of Romaine
1 tsp lemon
11/2 tsp mustard
1/8- 1/4 C olive oil
1/2 C Vegenaise
2 T capers
2 T nooch
1/2 tsp hickory smoke
sea salt to taste
choppped tomato and croutons optional

Whisk lemon, mustard, hickory smoke, vegenaise and olive oil in large salad bowl. Add romaine. Toss. Add nooch, tomato, sea salt and capers. Toss again! You can adjust ingredients to taste. It's great served with crusty bread or we served it with an amazing pot pie (I'll post that soon).

MoFo 24 Be Grateful Day Dinner

Did you know that mashed potatoes are not very photogenic? Especially if they are almost naked or only dressed with some whipped soy milk and Earth Balance. They look better in real life. And portabellos stuffed with brown stuffing even if they are topped with melted Daiya don't do much to liven up the white blob in the food picture either.

Can you tell that I'm leading up to a photo excuse? We all agreed that yesterday's "Be grateful Day" dinner rocked 5 stars. The photos don't do the dinner justice. Sigh. I must confess that our pictures were hurried because everything looked better in person and we couldn't wait to eat.
The spinach salad, (the most photogenic of the bunch), is tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, comice pears, dried cranberries, and pecans and is to die for. But please don't do that. Cancel Cancel. I want you to come back tomorrow so I can give you a recipe for stuffed portabellos and a little dessert.

MoFo 22 Thanksgiving Menu and Stuff

I know blogging is way different than school, but is anyone else cramming for their blog? Or downing loads of coffee and herbal no-dose to turn their daily MoFo in on time? Or is everybody whipping up 5 course dinners and giving us our daily dose of food porn?
Hmmm. There is only one way to find out. I'm going to search out the tight lipped, bad camera, too busy to budge last minute MoFoers so I can get a little dignity back. Be back in a sec.
Took me longer than expected. Sorry I got caught up reading other people's blogs. Truth is I couldn't find any MoFo slackers or even MoFo wannabes. Well there was one vegan girl named Squeeky but I think I'll cut her some slack. They don't have many vegan options in the slammer and she got tired of blogging about gruel.
Anyway, we've got our Thanksgiving meal planned. It'll be me, the hubby, two good friends and our felines.  

                                 

                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spinach, pear, cranberry and pecan salad with vinaigrette

Larry's famous "cream sheese" and chive biscuits

Stuffed portabello mushrooms

Horseradish mashers & carrot brown gravy                                                             

Marcia's Apple Strudel/vegan whipped cream

                                                                                                                                                                                   

 I'm not clear on what the appetizer will be yet. We'll probably just put out some noshables. In the meantime, so we don't fill uptoo much before Thanksgiving we've been eating little plates. Let me tell you ceramic is not always easy to digest, bahahaha.

Above is an example of what I mean by a small plate. Sliced fresh fruit with tofu nuggets. The tofu is crispy on the outside and cooked just right on the inside and filled with lots of B-12 too. It's based on a recipe from "You Won't Believe it's Vegan".

1 block firm tofu drained and pressed and cut into cubes

1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

1 T soy sauce or tamari

1/2 C nooch

2  T 21 Salute

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment and coat with 1 T of olive oil.

Place the cubes in  a medium bowl and port the oil and soy sauce over it and toss it. Sprinkle with dry ingredients and toss again. Spread the cubes on the parchment bake 25 minutes turning once half way through baking time.

These are great in a sandwich, a salad, over grains.

And the book is a favorite of mine. See you tomorrow. Turned in on time without a moment to spare. Phew.

A Sicilian Welcome, A Sicilian Goodbye

Two Guys Salad

The priest didn't know the deceased but he had heard she was very loud. The priest said that a lot of people must have loved the deceased since a lot of people were weeping. My right eye drips uncontrollably whether I am happy or sad. Once my right eye started, my left eye joined in. If I continue to go without this eye operation I could probably make a good living as a professional mourner.The deceased is up there laughing at my dripping eye. Did the priest mention how funny the deceased was?
 The first time I met Lynn was on her 38th birthday.


"Before I introduce you to Lynn, I have to tell you something," Larry said.
"Okay."
"Lynn is very loud." 
"Is she deaf? My family is loud... how loud is loud?" I asked.
"Lynn is loud-loud."


And off we went.Twenty-five Sicilians and one jovial Irish guy were all seated around a long kitchen table.They squeezed me in between Tony, Tommy and Eddy (the Irish guy) who married the lovely Mariella. I sat under the gold framed eight foot picture of the Italian patriarch. Everyone kissed me hello like I was an old friend. Once they understood that I did not eat pork, ham filled calzone, or chicken parm, the family welcomed me with artichokes, pastry, espresso and potato pie. Beautiful broken English came at me from all sides.
"Want some baccala?" Tommy Sr. asked.
"No thank you, I don't eat fish."
"No fish??? Whatddya mean no fish?" Tony said.
"Fish is not sausage." Tony and Tommy Sr. said in unison.
"No, no thank you."
"How 'bout anchovies? Whaddya mean, no anchovies?"
"Um no thank you. I think those are tiny fish," I said.
Someone yelled, " Get GiGi some more potato pie."
Nina, Tony's gracious wife jumped up to get me some. And then like a volcanic eruption, the second coming, or Jurassic Park dinosaur,  I heard ...


"WHADDYA WANT TO DRINK? JUICE, SODA, WATER,  BROWN OR BLACK COFFEE?"
TOMMY- ANDREW- STEVEN ( Tommy-Andrew-Stephen is all one word) GET LARRY'S GIRLFRIEND SELTZER AND BLACK COFFEE."


"THANK YOU!" I bellowed back and then I heard my soon to be sister-in law's hearty contagious laugh.
Larry and I left New York for way too long. Life has a weird way of stirring things up. Sometimes life takes away the things that make it possible to do the things you need to do. Until life happens again and finally you do what you gotta do and should have done all along.
Births, deaths, marriages, restaurants, graduations, and always food went on while we were gone. It was Lynn's tragic, unfortunate and premature passing that brought us back to that kitchen table last week.
Amidst all the sadness and loss, those crazy Sicilians still found a way to feed this crazy vegan. About 80 people feasted at Nunzio's Pizza Town after the funeral. 


"Can I help?" I asked.
"No don't go into the kitchen, GiGi".
Tony went into his kitchen without me and brought me out a steaming voluptuous mixed vegetable dish.Yep, I was served before anybody.
The day after the funeral Gina, my nephew Stephen's wife had us over for a BBQ so we could meet the adorable twins (our great niece and nephew) and the rest of her family.
"Can I do something?"
"No, you sit. " Gina said.
"But I'm really good in the kitchen", I  said.


I proceeded to put the steak knives away in the wrong knife stand, (maybe so they wouldn't eat steak again).
Tommy Sr. and Kara (Andrew's girlfriend) made stuffed artichokes and marinated eggplant and zucchini for me. Stephen made potatoes and string bean salad.Tommy Jr. brought homemade vegan baked beans. I'm salivating now.
Before Andrew took us to the airport Larry, Andrew and my niece Dawn Marie went to see Tommy Jr. at the other family restaurant, "Two Guys" in Hicksville. Ziti in marinara, potato wedges with fried onions and olive oil, mixed greens with oranges and cracked olives, grilled NY Italian bread with grilled red peppers eggplant fresh basil and drizzled balsamic graced our table. This was Tommy Jr.'s first foray into complete vegan chefdom. I was more than impressed and couldn't stop eating. Delicious!
"Can I help you in the kitchen, Tommy?"
"No, you sit."
"But I'm good in the kitchen." I said.

Then I went to clear the plates and I dropped three forks.
 I would love to mention every kindness and generosity extended to us when we were back in NY, but there isn't enough space here. I realized I don't know how to finish this blog because I just don't want to say goodbye again. Since this is a vegan blog, I want to tell you something else about Lynn.
In addition to her vivaciousness, Lynn adored all kinds of animals almost as much as she did babies and QVC. In reverence to Lynn and this beautiful family, this week my blog  will be devoted entirely to Vegan Italian cuisine. Grazie Mille!
If you are in New York and want some great food prepared by great people please visit:

Nunzio's Pizza Town  

    751 Route 109 West Babylon New York

  631-957-3365

                          Two Guys Pizzeria                         

94 West Old Country Road. Hicksville. New York

  516-932-8489

Cavatelli with Fava Beans (Two Guys)

  Lynn, the table will never be the same without you. We love you forever. xoxoxo