Late Thanksgiving Post.

Hello there!

I'm getting back into the blog swing of things and I tend to forget to make posts right after I have delicious meals. I'll get better. I promise! So with that out of the way I wanted to share my first ever Thanksgiving meal... even though I've been vegan for 3 and 1/2 years! (I usually just get drunk with my little brother and laugh my head off!)

Clockwise from the left: Tofurkey roast, garlic kale potatoes
with mushroom gravy, collard greens, sweet potatoes, white
rice and Mom's homemade green bean casserole in the center.

Everything was so delicious! I actually strayed from being a holiday lazy ass and cooked a full meal! Well, I cooked some of it. I had planned on cooking a lot more but then my mom informed me that she'd be making plenty of vegan stuff so I'd have lots to eat.

Garlic/Kale Potatoes


Homemade Green Bean Casserole made by my Mom!

And no get together is complete without my favorite coconut lemon cake from Veganomicon. Can't seem to get enough of it! I usually make a bundt but I forgot it at home and had to settle for my mom's springform pans. Note to self: Get some of those!

Coconut Lemon cake w/Lemon Glaze topped w/ Coconut.


Vegan Chocolate Chip Pumpkin muffins (made by my sister!)

Was glad I got to eat something this year. I also took home a crapload of leftovers! Lasted for like 4 days! Thats all I ate! I would eat this way daily if I had the time. It'd be worth the weight gain! Hahaha...


-Lee

So long to Atomic #7...

It's strange how I worked on this blog for a few years and then all of a sudden stopped. Let's see if I can end this craziness right here and now!

I'd like to dedicate this blog post to a place I will dearly miss. About a year and a half ago a friend texted me that there was a new ice cream shop in town that did made to order vegan ice cream. I couldn't believe it! How exciting! The only shop of it's kind and it was about a mile from my job. Here are some of the wonderful vegan creations I was lucky enough to enjoy:

Peanut butter banana flavored almond milk ice
cream w/penguin coat, aka chocolate shell.

PB Coconut milk ice cream w/ cookie dough, vegan caramel and
penguin coat. My favorite creation of them all!!!



PB Coconut milk ice cream w/ Penguin. Can you tell I love PB?



Magda's Mango coconut almond milk ice cream w/peaches.



Vanilla almond milk ice cream with hot fudge.

AND NOW, CUPCAKES!!


Samoa cupcake (the best ever!)

Double Chocolate cupcake.



Vanilla almond sugar cookie cupcake and chocolate peanut
butter cupcake.



And finally, My birthday cupcakes from my good friend Amy.
Coffee flavored cupcake and chocolate mint cupcake. So good!

Goodbye to Ginger and all of the wonderful girls of Atomic 7. I am so thankful that I had a place to go to, even for a short amount of time. Maybe one day Atomic #7 will re-open and I can continue my trustworthy treat addiction. I hope I see you all around!!!

Seriously?

Check out this Quarry Girl post!

You would think that a magazine strictly for vegans would know better.

Another Trip to Red Velvet Cafe.

A few posts back I gave a follow-up to a comment about Red Velvet Cafe here in Las Vegas that an anonymous reader expressed. I didn't have the same experience at the Cafe that they did. I'm bummed they didn't get the treatment that I get. The last time I went, they were still pleasant, but I felt forgotten. So, my roommate asked me to go along with her for lunch a few days ago.

Spicy "Chicken" Wrap:

Again, we received good service, our food came fast, the people that worked there were really nice, we joked around, la la la... It seems to be hit or miss on when they will disappoint. The one thing that I've noticed is that if it's not busy they seem to handle themselves well. I've been there when it was jam packed and almost dead. They don't seem to be very well off if there are too many people looking to eat. Like I said before... I'm not going out of my way to go there, but I won't write them off completely.

Vegan Red Velvet Cake:

I will say this... This cake makes me want to head my ass over there every damn day. New mission: Find vegan red velvet cake that tops this!

My Trip to Washington!

In early May I hopped a plane and headed to Blaine, WA to visit my good friends Langley and Yahtil. First, let me just send out another giant THANK YOU to them for allowing me to come stay with them for 8 glorious days. I cannot wait until I take another trip up. You guys are AWESOME!!!

Now, on to the food and the reason I gained weight while away. (So worth it!)

Potato and Leek soup in a sourdough bread bowl... YIKES! ::drool::

Yahtil made this from scratch and it was absolutely amazing. I had this the second night I was in town. My first time ever having leek. Must have more often.

Potato/onion soup:

Yet another wonderful creation by Yahtil. I think I'm now addicted to bread bowls. I always appreciate my meat eater friends that go out of their way to make something that I can eat. That's some serious love right there! Some seriously tasty foodage as well. I wish I could re-live these 2 soups.

Need I say more?:

A nice, hot soy latte from Woods Coffee. Nice place! Apparently it's a Pacific Northwest chain. Wish we had it here.

Soy Latte:

And look how cute it is from the outside. This location that we went to was right on the ocean. We sat and drank coffee on the water and it was magic!

Woods Coffee:

I love you, Clif Bars!:

I hate to say that I live on Clif Bars, but some days I am so wrapped up in the crazy that I have to have these just so I have something to hold me over until I get a good meal in. Well, while I was in WA I was able to find these 4 flavors that I didn't even know existed! I bought like 3 of each and brought them home with me.

Black Bean Burgers:

These weren't too bad. I've had some nasty vegan burgers before and these weren't a total disappointment. I still prefer my homemade black bean burgers over these any day though.

Vegetable Soup:

This was yet ANOTHER Yahtil vegan creation. No bread bowl, but I ate it so fast I barely noticed.

BLOOM!!!:

This I was insanely excited for! This was my first trip to an all vegan establishment. Langley had told me that there was a vegan restaurant in Bellingham and I was so grateful that I finally got the chance to go!

Hummus w/ Veggies and Flax Crackers:

This was some good hummus. I don't usually have hummus as thick as this, but that mattered not. The veggies were clean and fresh and delicious. The flax crackers were also a great addition to this spread. I want to re-eat this!

Aaaaaaaand... the one food I had that thoroughly surprised me...

BBQ Tempeh Sandwich:


Closer shot:

Why did it surprise me? Not because it was one of the best ever tempeh sandwiches I've had so far, but because it had beets on it. BEETS! I HATE BEETS! At least... I thought I hated beets. I remember hating beets my whole life. Turns out if they are made just right I really do enjoy them! They accompanied the tempeh quite well in this case. Look at that! One more food I am allowing back into my diet.

My new addiction... HARD CIDER!:

I was introduced to hard cider during my trip to WA. I must admit, I wasn't sure I would like it because it looked like beer and sort of smelled like beer. MUCH better than beer. Beer I don't really have a taste for. Cider has a new place in my heart. Woodchuck brand and Wyder's brand are both vegan friendly. I've tried Raspberry, pear and apple flavored and Pear is most definitely my favorite. Thanks guys!

La Fiamma Pizza:

Pre-pizza Salad:

We all know I'm a sucker for a good vegan pizza. And this contained yet another food I have hated my whole life... OLIVES! I barely noticed the olives on this one. there were plenty of flavores to even out the taste so I was extremely happy.

Well, that's the majority of my pictures of the food I ate. There were many other meals that I just didn't get the chance to photograph mainly I inhaled my food before I remembered to take the pictures. I'm dying for another visit to WA.

-Lee

An anonymous comment.

I received an anonymous comment on a recent post that I was kind of surprised to get. It was on a post that I put up July 20th 2009 and was referring to my visit to Red Velvet Cafe. This was the comment(following the comment I will reply):

Anonymous said...

We have been eating here since this place opened.

At first, we were thrilled to have the kind of food so readily available to us in other big cities in which we've lived on our side of town; as a vegetarian/vegan couple it certainly seemed to most number of menu offerings in the city!

Unfortunately, despite developing an affinity for certain favorites (the taco salad, pizzettas, certain wraps and the red velvet cake are all extremely tasty), the rest of the menu is fairly uninspired and the grilled panini sandwiches kind of mushy and flavorless. (or I should say, the flavor of the mushy bread overwhelms the ingredients within).

The specials are ridiculously overpriced for what they are, and the prices in general are a bit high considering the scant use of organic ingredients, the overall starchy nature of most everything, and the reliance on commercial soy products for mock meats.....these things are of questionable nutritional value (other than being lower in saturated fats, cholesterol, maybe in calories) because they're highly processed forms of soy......which at that point yields a substance that may taste salty and chewy but is regarded by the body as something akin to plastic.

In a place like L.A., only the cheap quick vegan eateries do that. It allows them to keep prices low and find a middle ground on taste, texture, and presentation. Red Velvet Cafe, however, charges up the wazoo for these things ($15.00 or more for some soy fish on brown rice with some overcooked until shriveled, thin, bland asparagus? Really?).

Nevertheless. For the times when we were very busy and didn't want to deal with food prep (sometimes veggie food takes a lot of ingredients!) or when friends and family were in town we happily continued to frequent the place, and spent quite a lot of $$ along the way...especially when ordering the food in bulk for a party! WOW!!!$!$!$!

What has finally killed it for us, no matter how delicious that darn cake is, or how much I long for a turkey wrap that isn't Tofurkey (much as I love and should own stock in that stuff), is the absolutely appalling service!

NOT just when it's busy!

ALL THE TIME!

Starting with the chef/owner. While her husband is gracious and engaging, helpful and affable, she has never once smiled at me in all the times I've been there (what has it been now, nearly 2 years now?), which, as a fellow industry person, loyal customer, and part of what was keeping the lights on, thinks is a pretty poor excuse for manners.

I'm in a customer-service based industry; you don't get to be crummy towards your patrons unless they get crummy with you -- and even then sometimes you're expected to take it, with that whole "customer is always right" nonsense! ;-)

It's a bad vibe, and it's a bad look for her. I know she works long hours and has a lot on her shoulders, but that's no excuse for thinly veiled hostility or at best, diffidence to one of your early adopters and strongest supporters!

The service there is a real paradox! The actual people are perfectly pleasant and seemingly quite intelligent. How then does a new group sit in your station after strolling through the front door of your fairly small restaurant and not get menus, water, or service for up to 15 minutes?! It's ludicrous! And, it's costing them money......a small group I'd brought walked out.

You have to wonder after 10 minutes or more who has left RVC in a huff as my group did? That is money down the drain. If they do stay, they might not come back.

And most tragic of all, even those of us who have tried to get used to it are despairing and MOVING ON.

The food is not THAT spectacular to have that poor of a customer service experience, sorry.

I will miss the grub, and even some of the people, but I will not miss being made to feel like somehow they were put upon to have to sell it and serve it to me.

We're taking our restaurant business elsewhere.

May 9, 2010 6:42 PM

I wish I could have known who posted this, but they had a right to be anonymous if they chose. I posted my trip to Red Velvet last year in July. The day I went it wasn't very busy and the service we got seemed to be quite good! I left there very happy with the food that I ordered and the service we had. This was back during the renovation.

HOWEVER... I went back a second time during November of last year and things were a bit different. The food was pretty good still, but the restaurant was jam packed with people and it took forever (and a day) to get us seated. I noticed an older gentleman walking around and making sure people were OK and being very nice. I'm assuming he's one of the owners that you mentioned. When we finally got a table we had to wait with it a bit dirty for about 10 minutes before someone cleaned it for us. I didn't want to miss getting the table, who knows how long we would have had to wait otherwise.

It was just me and my friend Heather. We figured out what we wanted and when they did come to take our order, 20 minutes after the table was cleaned, it seemed to be another 30 minutes before we got our food. I felt dumb because I talked her into going to this place and she liked the food OK but was upset with the service, as was I. I didn't didn't decide not to come back or anything, just decided I would only go if I was in the area and hungry.

I attempted to go there for breakfast one morning because I was out at Red Rock with my friend Magda at around 9 am and it was pretty close and had food I could eat. They claim to serve breakfast, yet don't open until 10:30. That kinda bugged me. If you are serving breakfast, you should be open a bit earlier than that. Luckily we were on that side of town anyway so I didn't have to go out of my way to be let down. I found out they were closed on Sundays the hard way. I live in Henderson and it isn't just a short drive to what's practically Summerlin. The menu I had in my hands I got from there said they were open Sundays. Ugh...

My roommate and a friend of hers decided yesterday to go have lunch and picked Red Velvet. I was off and had no classes so when she invited me I accepted. Luckily when we got there it wasn't busy, we got seated, got our drinks and had pretty good service this time around. I swear, Red Velvet is extremely hit or miss. It's a huge bummer to have to go through all the crap that you did with them. That really sucked and you shouldn't have been treated wrongly.

Hit or miss places suck. I'm not writing them off completely, just not going out of my way for them. They haven't proven themselves worthy.

Thank you so much for the comment!

-Lee

Veggie Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen.

I don't live in the most vegan friendly city. We all know that. Luckily I have a little help finding safe places to have food thanks to VeganXpress iPhone app. The roommates and I wanted a day out and about and we ended up in a big shopping area here in Vegas. Someone suggested California Pizza Kitchen. I hadn't been there in about 3 years or so for obvious reasons. Luckily I used VeganXpress to find out if there were any options for me. I was happy to find that the Neapolitan crust (thin crust) is vegan, so I ordered the vegetarian without cheese. On this pizza we have:

-Baby broccoli

-Grilled Japanese eggplant

-Roasted corn

-Sliced red onions

-Mushrooms

-Sun-dried tomatoes

-Tomato sauce.

It was light and pretty good tasting. It was the exact opposite of the kind of pizza I use to eat. I think had I tried I might have been able to put the entire pizza away all by myself! But it was too good not to share. Maybe next time I'll give it a shot. :o)

-Lee

Miso Soup, my way.

I never really got into having Miso soup until I started making it myself. I played around with a bunch of different recipes. Some I liked, some I didn't. Eventually I found what I liked. I like cubes of super firm tofu and tempeh in my miso. This was perfect when it was really gloomy here in Vegas last week.

-4 Cups Water
-3-4 tbsp Miso Paste
-1 sheet Nori (cut into small squares)
-1/2 block Super Firm Tofu (I used Wild Wood brand)
-1/2 block Tempeh
-2-3 cloves fresh garlic or 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
-1 stalk green onion (optional)

Bring the water to boil and add miso paste. Allow the paste to fully dissolve into the water. When broth is ready add tofu, garlic, tempeh and nori. allow to simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes to allow tofu and tempeh to soak up the flavors of the broth. Add optional green inion last after you turn off the soup.

LOVE!!!

-Lee

Just a quick post.

It's getting hot out. Hot sucks! Especially in Las Vegas. Fortunately this is my last year living here! I'm moving back to CA in October. I'm excited! I miss L.A! However, until I leave this place I must endure it's evil temperatures. Those of you who know me well know that I live for smoothies when it's hot out. When it's hot out there is nothing I want more than a nice, cold fruit smoothie.

Strawberry/Blueberry Smoothie

I'm not a huge mock-meat fan but I found this to be quite good. Perfect for slicing up and having it as a snack on crackers.

I think I'll buy this again and use it as a pizza topping. It honestly tastes better than any pepperoni I remember. My roommate and I ate half of it pretty quickly. Well, I mostly ate it. Couldn't help myself!

Fire Roasted Tomato Grain Meat

And finally... the only food that I've had all month that I could not get out of my mind...

The highlight of my month:

Amaretto is quite possibly my all-time favorite flavor. Coconut milk is pretty high up there also. I almost lost it when I walked down the dessert aisle at Whole Foods and found this. I opened the frozen case and this actually felt like it was staring back at me.

This was a pretty pathetic post. I know. But better than not posting anything, Right?

-Lee

I Want Tea and Black Bean Burgers!

My favorite thing to drink is tea. I absolutely love tea. My mom is a huge tea drinker. I remember always seeing her with a cup of tea the whole time I was growing up. Guess I got it from her. I have a cup sitting in front of me now as I type this. I also love mugs. I love wacky and fun looking mugs. My current favorite is my monkey mug. I have loved it since I first laid eyes on it. It was only 5 dollars. I couldn't pass it up. There's also a zebra, a giraffe and an elephant. I'll be sure to show those off in a later post.

Another favorite of mine are my black bean burgers. I make amazing Black Bean Burgers. I topped these off with sauteed mushrooms, avocado spread, lettuce and mustard.

I went over to my friend Heather's house to cook dinner for her again and decided on these because they are just amazing. I blogged BBQ black bean burgers, however you can add whatever kind of sauce you like to the mixture. I've done Dijon mustard, bbq sauce and I've also done ones with salsa. These I used a tomato based sauce (it was what was available). If using this recipe, replace the amount of bbq sauce with whatever sauce/salsa that you wish. That's the best part about black bean burgers. They can be so versatile! They worked out extremely well when I made Panko Friend Black Bean Patties.

Creamy Veggie Potatoes

These were tasty. Very filling. Hit the spot.


Zucchini/Bell Pepper tofu

Probably one of my favorite things I've had for breakfast lately!

-1 Bell Pepper, diced
-1 Zucchini, diced
-1/2 tub firm tofu, crumbled
- diced onion
-1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- garlic (fresh or powdered)
- salt and pepper to taste

Quick and easy. Dice veggies and cook them in 1 tbsp olive oil until softened. Add crumbled tofu and spices. Cook until water from tofu is evaporated. TA DA!