Vegan Faves - P.F. Chang's

I'll be honest with you - we don't eat out much. Me and my boyfriend are recent college grads on a pretty tight budget, and since restaurant eating often ends with me either having to order something sub-par, or being forced to complain and send back food they've obviously tainted with animal products (butter, parmesan, once I was given actual chicken after telling our waitress I was vegan), it's not really our number one activity. Usually kept to one weekend night each week, if that.

But this week my parents stopped through town to visit and we went to P.F. Chang's, where I was pleasantly surprised.

I have this app (I'm an iPhone addict) that tells me what's vegan at a bunch of average chain restaurants, and when I looked them up there were like 20 choices-way more than I usually have. The best part? What I had was AWESOME.

So here are my P.F. Chang's recommendations:

Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps - The meat eaters were convinced they were better than the chicken!

Spring Rolls - Really good, although not necessarily on my diet...one was totally worth it though.



Spicy Green Beans - Again, YUM. I shared these with a few other people.



Ma Po Tofu - My boyfriend even ate this, and he's a tofu hater in general. Actually, my feeling were a teeny bit hurt when he said "I'd like tofu if you could cook it like this!" But I tried to let it roll of my shoulders and decided to just be glad he liked SOME form of tofu.

So yeah, I know it's a chain. And as far as restaurant recommendations go, it's not the most creative thing. But we don't live in San Francisco, L.A., or New York City, so we'll take our good vegan food where we can get it!

Plus, in the non-health related category, they make a really yummy pear mojito. : )

Thai Curry Soup

Now, I recognize that this is going to seem counter-intuitive. It is the 4th of July, and I'm sitting in my house eating coconut curry soup. But we partied ourselves out for America all weekend long, and by today, all I wanted to do was sit on my couch, in my newly decorated living room, and eat soup. So I did.

Plus, I'm on a bit of a kick with this soup - it's seriously good. Maybe my favorite ever.

The ingredients can be a bit of a pain in the butt to find - I got almost everything at either Whole Foods (seitan, tamari) and the Global Foods Market (thai basil, coconut milk, thai red curry paste).
So here's a cheat sheet: seitan can be subbed with extra firm tofu, tamari is basically gluten-free soy sauce, & thai basil can be plain old basil. However, coconut milk & thai red curry can't be substituted, so if you don't have at least an Asian grocery nearby, you may be out of luck. Thai red curry & coconut milk are actually canned though, so if you ever see a store out of town, just run in because those things aren't temperature sensitive.

It might be weird, but to me, this is perfect wild-weekend recovery food.

Thai Red Curry Soup

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 6-8

1 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

1 container button mushrooms, chopped

8 ounces seitan, chopped

4 Tablespoons vegan red curry paste

2 heaping cups peeled and diced russet potatoes

2 cups green beans, trimmed

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk

5 cups vegetable broth

1 Tablespoon tamari

salt and pepper, to taste

heaping 1/4 cup fresh thai basil, chopped

Sriracha sauce, optional condiment

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Saute bell pepper and mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Add seitan and red curry paste. Stir to distribute curry paste, about 2 minutes. Add potatoes and green beans and saute about 1 minute more. Add coconut milk, broth, and tamari. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are done. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in fresh basil before serving. Garnish with Sriracha sauce for a spicier taste.

Untraditionally American

As a new-ish vegan, I've appreciated (more than I could possibly say) all the vegan bloggers out there who have recommended recipes and tested the best vegan food offerings out there.
I live with an omnivore, and my biggest concern when I decided to take the plunge was whether or not I'd be able to keep him happy, since I do ALL the cooking. Not that he makes me or anything - I just really like to cook.
Thanks to all those with links on the right, it hasn't even been an issue, and my omnivore guy has lost 30 lbs without even really trying!

I make no promises about where this blog is going to go - I'm hoping to make it into some kind of collection of recipes, product discoveries, tips for non-vegan food situations, and an all-around praise of all the fantastic things about being vegan - but we'll see!

Today I'm going with a recipe. It's 4th of July weekend, and we are going to a friend's house for a pre-outdoor concert & fireworks dinner. In general, when I go to somebody else's place for a meal I always ask if I can bring something, and then make sure to bring enough for everyone because otherwise I might end up with nothing to eat - and then I feel insanely rude. I immediately leaned towards something Asian - by far the easiest and yummiest thing to cook when you're vegan since they don't eat much meat and ANY dairy at all. However, my boyfriend pointed out that it was "weird" to bring Asian food on a 4th of July weekend and I needed to come up with something more "American" to eat. So I got out the stack of vegan cookbooks I've acquired recently and started to flip through. Darrell ended up picking for me - Vegan Chicken Salad from Tal Ronnen's "The Conscious Cook," (a rather traditional chicken salad just made with Gardein instead.) I picked this yummy concoction I made last week after finding it on one of my favorite food blogs.




Tofu Feta, Watermelon and Basil Salad
adapted slightly from Healthy Happy Life blog
serves 6-8

14 ounces firm tofu, drained/squeezed dry
2 cups fresh watermelon, cubed
1 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tsp cayenne
several grindings of fresh black pepper
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (found at Whole Foods in the grain bin aisle)

Tofu Marinade:
2 Tbsp white miso paste
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil

garnish: basil leaves, pepper

Directions:

1. Prep your tofu - drain, squeeze dry with paper towel, slice into cubes.

2. In a tall glass, briskly stir your white miso marinade until the miso paste blends into the liquid.

3. In a large bowl, toss the tofu with the miso marinade. Place in fridge to chill and marinate overnight or for at least 2-3 hours.

4. Toss your tofu with your diced watermelon cubes and finely chopped basil. Add spices and nutritional yeast flakes. Top with pepper.

recipe & image courtesy of healthy happy life