happy halloween!

i decided to make a post since today is the last day of vegan mofo and eric and i spent most of the day in the kitchen.
i wanted to get together some easy foods to take to work with me, and first up was bran muffins.


these are from "how it all vegan", and really easy to make.


earlier this week i saw some vegan pumpkin raisin scones and knew i had to make them. except replace the raisins with chocolate chips!




they turned out really good and it is taking a lot of willpower not to eat a second one.


we also cooked brussel sprouts for the first time. eric was a fan, i was not.


and finally i made some peanut butter cups. i don't have any pictures right now, but hopefully tomorrow!

i hope everyone has a happy halloween! we just finished carving pumpkins and plan on watching the phillies game then going out and doing something. eric and i have an awesome costume, so hopefully the rain stops and we go out.

eats

i'm sad that vegan mofo is almost over, even though i didn't post vegan stuff every day, it was fun, and made me blog a lot more.
but here are some random things eric and i have been consuming.


salads. lots of salads. we actually ate all of our produce in three days, produce that normally takes us seven days to finish.
and i was excited to see that whole foods had single beets you could buy. i don't think i had ever had a beet until eric and i went to san francisco last december. but beets were on everything! when they arrived on my first salad i just pushed them aside and pretended they didn't exist. the second time beets arrived on my plate i decided to try them, and really liked them. i haven't tried them cooked, just been eating them raw.


i have a dark chocolate problem. i usually buy a few bars and my favorite has always been green and black's dark chocolate. i bought a bar last week, and just as i was about to open it up, something on the ingredients caught my eye. milk powder was now listed there. my heart broke a little. about further investigation it seems like they now list milk powder as an ingredient for allergy reasons from cross contamination from the production line.
i decided to start trying out new dark chocolates and chocolove was my first. it was pretty good and i definitely plan on buying another in the future.


the other night we made eggplant fries. eggplant is a vegetable that i really wish i liked. i try to, but just can't seem to like it unless it's fried.

so while this is not the healthiest way to eat eggplant, it is delicious.


and finally, the dessert of the week! this week i made pumpkin chocolate chip brownie cake from have cake will travel. i don't know what it is about pumpkin desserts, but i am never sure if i like them/if they turned out alright until my second or so piece. so while i had my doubts about this dessert, i can now safely say it is delicious and almost gone.

bits of the weekend

i don't have many photos from the weekend, but it was a fun one. eric took a half day on friday, which was really nice. he wanted to go to lunch, but wouldn't tell me where. we rode our bikes downtown and he surprised me by going to mi lah. mi lah's an all vegan restaurant we had both been wanting to try.



the food was really good, and i really want to go back for their all you can eat brunch. after lunch we stopped by lush and h&m, where i successfully bought nothing, and eric successfully bought a pair of pants.

for dinner friday night we decided to make curly fries!



check out how long this one was all straightened out.



i really can't remember much else from the weekend, but the cats were definitely being cute.



and i finally bought the babycakes cookbook and can't wait to start making stuff out of it.

bits of the weekend

i'd say we started the weekend off right because we went shopping. actually we just stopped in one store on our way back from UPS, but we did find some clothes.
eric ended up getting a jacket and a shirt, i got a cardigan. one day eric will be dressing like chuck bass...one day.



and then andy carr came over! and we went to el camino real because eric told us it was happy hour, except it wasn't.



we spent almost all day saturday out in the suburbs of philly. we went to king of prussia mall because i wanted to try on these pants from j. crew that looked really cute. they weren't. shopping fail.

eric had found a raw foods restaurant nearby, so we stopped by there for lunch. it was really good, even though i just got a salad, which is usually raw already. definitely making a trip out there again, hopefully soon.



eric got a sandwich made out of raw bread.



we then stopped for some beer. um pennsylvania has crazy alcohol laws. like crazy crazy. i still get confused by it. if you want, you can read about it here.



eric and i spent the rest of the day hanging out with his car friends. and i listened to them talk about cars for hours, and hours.

on sunday we went to whole foods and made foods. decided to try two new things for dinner. eric made baked eggplant. it was good. i've tried eggplant a few times and never really liked it, but this time it turned out alright.





and i decided to make kale chips. they turned out excellent.



and this is sort of backtracking, but last week i made red velvet cake. the icing turned out disgusting, but the cake was good. eric actually said it was my best dessert yet. but i've got something special planned for this week because eric's birthday is thursday!

cupcakes and falafel

i promise i'm not trying to turn this into a food blog. but when you are unemployed and at home most of the day, sometimes you just need to make something new to eat.
so i made cupcakes.


actually, mini-cupcakes. these were alright, yep, just alright. something tasted off in the batter. oh well.


but i had HUGE success when i had my first go at making falafel the other night. i've gotten really into falafel lately, but i have yet to eat some that is amazing. so i took matters into my own hands, and made it myself.

i followed this recipe , but instead of frying, i baked the falafel at 400 degrees until it started to brown. put it in some pita with hummus, lettuce, quinoa and pickles, and you have yourself a mighty fine sammich. or pitawhich. whatever, it was good.

besides baking and cooking a lot, my day usually consists of a pretty good workout. i've been waking up early and running 3-4 miles, then coming back and doing Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. I'm around day 15, and it's still kicking my butt. but the cats love when i put out the yoga mat.


oh, and then i look for a job.

cinnamon-walnut coffee cake

this coffee cake is good. real good.
so good, that this is the first dessert i have ever seen eric actively eat. and eat. and eat. i even caught him cutting off a large slice at 6:30 am tuesday morning.



well my mom wanted the recipe, and rachel wanted me to start posting recipes, so here goes!

cinnamon-walnut coffee cake from la dolce vegan

topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegan margarine
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup faux sour cream (i used tofutti better than sour cream)
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup soy milk (i used almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract

preheat over to 350 degrees. lightly oil an 8x8 inch baking pan and set aside. in a small bowl, stir together topping ingredients and set aside. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. stir in the "sour cream", oil, "milk, and vanilla. pour evenly into baking pan then sprinkle topping evenly over the top. bake for 30-35 minutes.