Margherita Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

So I guess it's about time for me to update this blog. I haven't really been cooking lately, which sucks, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I went up to Berea a while back to the Treehugger Cafe. I got something that I think was supposed to taste like a fish patty. It was made out of chickpeas. Actually I think it was a "Chickfree" sandwich. Anyway, it looked pretty but kind of made me want to gag. I don't think I'll be going back there.

Next up is the margherita pizza I just made from American Vegan Kitchen. OMG delicious. The recipe made two pizzas so it should last me for awhile.



Okay bye.

What can a vegan eat in the Smoky Mountains?

The answer: in Gatlinburg, TN (hugest tourist trap I've ever seen), I had a veggie burger without cheese at Smoky's Pub & Grub. This was literally the only vegan fair I could locate in the vicinity. I forgot to take a picture before I ate it, but that's okay because I'm pretty sure it was just a Boca burger.

In Asheville, NC I forced my family to go to an all-vegetarian restaurant called Laughing Seed Cafe (there website has been down for the past week, I'm not sure why). There was an all-vegan restaurant there but it wasn't open on Sundays. Here are some pictures of what we all ordered.







And if the website were up I could actually describe what these things are. My parents ordered the Havana Cuban. I ordered Mercury Not Rising (mock fish sandwich). My brother got a giant Laughing Seed Salad. We shared some corn fritters and some sort of Asian dumplings for appetizers. The drink is a Melontini I think.



Next stop was the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, where they made me a vegan pizza, which was just red sauce and veggies... and yukon potatoes, which was kind of odd to me.



From there we went to Boone, NC, home of Appalachian State. And also the The Coyote Kitchen. I got the Pineapple Tempeh Melt, without cheese. They even asked ME if I wanted a substitution for the cheese, instead of me trying to convince them to give me one for free. I picked mushrooms. Yeah I know that's kind of gross. But it tasted delicious.



Anyway, I am tired of updating, more updates regarding American Vegan Kitchen to come soon.

Eggplant Parm

So I decided to try cooking eggplant. Things to remember for next time: cut the slices thinner and use breading. Other than that, my eggplant parmesan turned out alright. I fried the eggplant in canola oil with some sprinklings of salt, turmeric, and crushed red pepper. Put that in a pan with some marinara sauce topped with Teese (yes, I know Daiya is better) and cooked it til it melted (well sort of... I got impatient). Sorry about the obscene blurriness of the picture...


Oh and here is a picture of a cake I made a month or so ago that demonstrates my complete and utter lack of decorating ability. The cake is the basic chocolate cake recipe used in the German Chocolate cake previously mentioned, and the icing is the chocolate buttercream frosting used for the strawberry cake.

Wednesday Lunch... and Dinner

So I decided to give in a try out Field Roast. I bought the smoked apple sage sausages and while good, I think they had a bit too much seasoning. I also had some steamed asparagus and a baked potato topped with Earth Balance, Tofutti Sour Supreme, and Bac-os (yep, vegan). And I even packed my dinner so that I don't have to get Chipotle for the millionth time this week while I'm at work.

Cake Porn

Look at mah cake! Recipe found here. All my dear friend Katie and I did was substitute the raspberry preserves with strawberry preserves and we topped it with fresh strawberries. Be jealous.

German Chocolate Blob

So I made my second cake yesterday for my Grandma's 87th birthday. I used this recipe. Of course after I was already mixing the ingredients together I realized that my roommate had used nearly all of my sugar, so I had to substitute most of the refined sugar with turbinado sugar which definitely tasted a little different. To sweeten my fresh coconut I tossed it with powdered sugar because I was too lazy to boil and evaporate sugar (oh wait I didn't have any anyway). Also, I attempted to move the cake without letting it cool completely and so it kind of broke... a lot. I covered most of the mess up with icing. It tasted just fine and all the omnivores at the birthday party liked it. My grandma was also happy because she is diabetic and the lack of refined sugar made it a little bit more acceptable for her to eat. :)

Tommy's

I forgot to upload these pictures from last month when my friend Katie (VeganNoms) and I went up to Cleveland Heights to Tommy's.



Katie, pictured at the top, ordered the Veggie Burger, which was huge as you can see. I had the Seitan Sub without cheese. Delicious! We also split a giant order of fries and each had a Tofutti milkshake. And then we both could not move. It was glorious. And there were leftovers!