Happy Early Thanksgiving to anyone who sees this! Bae sadly has work tomorrow so we decided to do Thanksgiving dinner a day early, so I spent all day today in the kitchen, with a bit of help from him 🙂

Y’all. I have been DREAMING of a vegan Thanksgiving since I was a sophomore in high school. My family was always staunchly anti-vegetarian(which to this day I still don’t understand anti-vegetarian sentiment in general tbh) and never even attempted to accommodate at least one dish to my needs, especially after I went vegan in high school. I actually looked forward to having to work on Thanksgiving day because it meant I could buy a vegan Amy’s Kitchen meal and eat that when I got home instead of having to be mocked and asked a million questions and have people tempting me to eat stuff I didn’t want to eat. I’m sure if you’re a vegan reading this you know the deal.

And now that I’m an adult with my own income and place to live, I finally got to do this. LOOK AT IT I’M SO PROUD OH GOD

So, to sum up what bae and I had for our first ever #VeganThanksgiving:

+Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk’y with Gravy
+Earth Balance White “Cheddar” Mac and Cheese(with lots of Earth Balance butter and Califia Unsweetened Almond Milk)
+Whole Foods Multigrain Stuffing that I made with vegetable broth instead of water
+Homemade Garlic Mashed Potatoes(also with lots of Earth Balance butter and Califia Unsweetened Almond Milk)
+Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts(my boyfriend actually made these all on his own! SO GOOD)
+Canned Corn with Earth Balance butter, salt, and LOTS of pepper(I know I know, too simple, but it’s one of my favorite ways to eat veggies, no shame in my game!)
+Crescent rolls with Pumpkin Butter and Pecans

Man, y’all. It’s so good. I was so stuffed by the halfway point of this plate. But of course, that means plenty of leftovers for tomorrow 😉 And of course, since we all know desserts go into a different stomach, check this out!

That, my friends, is a pumpkin pie slice and a sweet potato slice(bottom and top slices respectively if you’re curious), made MOSTLY from scratch(minus the VERY breakable pie crust and the purees), topped with So Delicious brand Coconut Whipped Topping.

All in all, everything was delicious, I’m stuffed to the brim, I’ve got a nice glass of So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog, and I’m gearing up to see if I have enough cash leftover to sponsor a turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone except Christopher Columbus and I hope y’all have a great one!

and for those curious, I will have reviews of all the non-homemade items up as soon as i can 😉

keep it vegan,
dia.

So I actually got these a few days ago(I mentioned one of the flavors in an earlier post), but I wanted to wait until Thanksgiving to try these. Alas, I couldn’t wait(SO HYPE!) and had to try them now.

I initially ordered two, French Style Winter Truffle and Double Cream Chive, off Miyoko’s website. I wanted more but a lot of the flavors were sold out. However, I spotted a few other flavors at Whole Foods, and decided to also pick up Aged English Sharp Farmhouse.

Online, I also ordered some of Miyoko’s ready-made Alfredo Sauce, but that’ll be for a later review 😉

For reference, I am tasting these atop Multigrain Wheat Thins. I’m not 100% sure they’re vegan(I believe they are though), but I am in the process of transitioning and they’re all I had, so they’re what I’m going with.

Here’s all of them on crackers!

So first up is Double Cream Chive.

So the website describes this as a “buttery, savory, mild herbal garlic flavor”, and lists that it would be good on crackers and as a sandwich spread. I’d definitely agree! it’s definitely not mild to me, very strong garlic chive tasting. Very savory! It’s something I’d have to get used to but I think this would be INCREDIBLE on toast or an everything bagel or in a breakfast burrito.

Next up is Aged English Sharp Farmhouse.

Miyoko describes this flavor as “a hard, aged sharp round with complex flavors”. In addition to also being good on crackers and in sandwiches, it is also recommended to melt it with nondairy milk into a sauce for pasta and veggies. I really wanted to like this one but it’s almost TOO sharp for me, way sharper than a dairy cheese and a very “off” flavor in my opinion. It has a very smokey aftertaste that I imagine would go well with a vegan bacon substitute, maybe even making a vegan bacon queso dip? That being said, I do like the aftertaste but by itself I don’t think I like the cheese itself very much. I will have to try it in other situations and see if it’s better in sauce form or some other way.

Last up is French Style Winter Truffle!

So this is the one that I was kind of looking forward to the most since I love anything with truffle! The site calls this flavor “elegant, woodsy, and earthy” and recommends it on crackers, tossed with pasta, or mixed with risotto. I actually really enjoy this one, probably the most out of all of them. It’s got a lot of flavor without being over the top, and I love that it does taste like a high-end nonvegan cheese. I would LOVE this accompanied by sauteed onions and mushrooms and I definitely agree that this would be incredible in a risotto. I will say though, however, the aftertaste is very strange and not something I’m a fan of.

So that brings us to the end of my review! Please keep in mind that I am a fledgling vegan, and I still have the memory of dairy cheese fresh in my mind. Your taste buds may differ from mine and you may find you have a differing opinion from mine. I definitely recommend trying these for yourself and making your own informed decision! Let me know if you’d like me to try other flavors from this line! And stay tuned for a vegan thanksgiving post later this week 😉

I had never been to Whole Foods before today. I am a fool of a Took.

My boyfriend and I were both off work today and doing some shopping, and I asked my boyfriend if we could finally check it out, and he was down with it. It was EVERYTHING I’ve ever dreamed of in a grocery store.

As someone who’s always been more on the hippie-dippie, crunchy side of normal, this place tickled just about every fancy I have. My boyfriend is very much a foodie and was completely enamored by the amazing quality of the products there. I was floored by the vegan options. So many options now! The only thing in that picture that they had when I was vegan in high school were the Dandies marshmallows. Earth Balance and So Delicious were still fairly new companies, and nothing else was around to my knowledge! It actually made me really emotional. I had planned to buy a lot more(like an unreasonable amount more), but my lovely bae reeled me in a little. This is what I relegated myself to for the time being, but I will be back and I will be trying a lot more items.

Also, I’m SUPER stoked they had Miyoko’s products there! I actually do have an order of Double Cream Chive, French Style Winter Truffle, and their Ready-To-Eat Alfredo Sauce on its way to my house! I did want to get a wheel of Sharp Farmhouse, but the website was actually out, and lo and behold, it was here at my local Whole Foods. I also ordered a Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk’y online because Gardein’s site showed me that nowhere in the area carried them, but they lied, and there were some at Whole Foods for far cheaper than I got on veganessentials. I’m mildly annoyed, but at least I know where to get more if I like them.

So I tried two of the above products today, the first being the Kite Hill Artisan Almond Milk Yogurt in Vanilla flavor. I really wanted to like this, and the flavor is really good, but the texture was a bit strange(although that may have been bc I didn’t put it back in the fridge for a bit before consuming), and there was a strange… Gritty? Aftertaste? It tasted almost powdery and I sadly couldn’t finish it. I will definitely try more flavors and products from Kite Hill as I’ve heard a lot of good things about their brand, but the Vanilla yogurt was a miss for me.

The second thing I tried was the Earth Balance Vegan Aged White Cheddar Flavor Popcorn, and holy shit you guys.

When I was in high school, a lot of extracurriculars at my school would fundraise by selling $1 bags of popcorn that most teachers would allow you to eat in class(food or drinks other than water typically weren’t allowed in class). There were a lot of flavors but my all-time favorite when I was still vegetarian was the white cheddar flavor, I would bring so much of my allowance money to buy bag after bag. And these taste JUST like that. That sharp, yet soft, salty and crunchy flavor was to die for, and this tastes so similar and is a lot cheaper overall. I even gave some to the boyfriend and he was worried that we may have accidentally grabbed a nonvegan bag, it was that convincing. I would have KILLED for this when I was transitioning to veganism in senior year, because while unbuttered popcorn with nutritional yeast sprinkled over was a decent holdover, this is on another level entirely.

So Earth Balance, keep it up. You’re my favorite vegan butter and now my favorite cheesy popcorn, and I can’t wait to try the mac and cheese either!

AW HELLLLLL YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

just so you know, yes. yes i am posting this 10 minutes after my last post. but this is really important, so hold onto ya butts.

so i’ve actually had these in my freezer for about two months, because i’ve been terrified. these were my first foray into nonmeat fish options, and i’ve seen some scary looking stuff out there. it was actually my boyfriend who finally convinced me to make a vegan fish fry and try them both at once, bite the bullet and get it over with and so on and so forth.

so i did. i got some extra crispy crinkle-cut fries, popped the filets and the fries in the oven and my boyfriend cooked the cakes. (he also burned them but that’s neither here nor there.) and we served them with some Whataburger-brand spicy ketchup(listen man, i’m a native Texan. Spicy ketchup is a way of life here).

they were INCREDIBLE.

i grew up eating fresh-caught fish, fried expertly by my fisherman dad, and chowing down with some ketchup and tartar sauce. this is VERY close to that experience. the fishless filets are a little dryer and more chewy than flaky, but the taste is dead-on and the texture is very close. the breading was flaky and delicious and had an amazing crunch. the crabless cakes are really good too. however, bell peppers are the fucking devil, and if i had any real criticism with Gardein products(THEY’RE BAE SORRY NOT SORRY), it’s that they put bell peppers in fucking EVERYTHING, and i am NOT about that life. luckily, the pepper flavor was very mild in the crab cakes, and the taste and texture were more or less exactly like real crab cakes i’ve had in the past. once again, the breading was great, even mildly burnt.

also, everything passed the omnivore boyfriend test. his motto is “i don’t care if it’s not real meat; if it’s good, i’ll eat it.” he REALLY liked the crabless cakes and urged me to buy more.

i will definitely be buying both again. i’m thinking fishless baja tacos next time! HELL YEAH

keep it vegan,
dia.

Six fucking years!

i was not vegan for a good portion of that. i stopped being vegan right before 2012. i actually went back to eating animal products entirely. i went through a really shitty breakup, and nobody but him ever supported my veganism irl(and tbh he didn’t support it a whole lot either). i felt completely defeated in a lot of ways and went back on a lot of my morals to fit into an unsafe environment, not solely because of the veganism. it was a lot of things. but i’ve finally been out on my own for a bit and feel safe being myself again, including returning to a vegan lifestyle and outreach.

i’m going to try to get back into posting recipes and maybe even add some product reviews in there. idk how much preaching i’ll do on here though. i know there will be some discussion on animal rights(and i also hope to intersect with marginalized groups, but i need to find a way to do so without being problematic – to any vegans who read this, comparing factory farming to slavery or the Holocaust may seem logical to you, but it’s actually really offensive, please look into why! you are not doing anyone any favors with that kind of rhetoric!), but i’m much older than i was and i’ve realized that maybe screaming at people isn’t the best way to get my point across.

sometimes, anyways.

but yeah, in the last six years the vegan world has gotten so much more mainstream and so many new and interesting things have been made, and i can’t wait to try it all!

 

keep it vegan,
dia.

Stay tuned 😉

 

so, i think i may have a new favorite recipe: Baked Barbeque Tofu!

serves four, or two really hungry people
+one block firm tofu, drained and pressed
+one cup of your favorite bbq sauce(i have two that my dad made, brown sugar and mesquite… mixed them and it was heaven in my mouth :)) (eventually, i may put one of these recipes up!)
+a roll or two slices of bread
+condiments of your choice(i stuck with a simple dill relish)

preheat your oven to 325. cut the tofu into 8 “cutlets” after it’s been drained and pressed. line a baking pan with aluminum foil and cover the bottom with about half of your bbq sauce. put the tofu in the pan and cover it completely with the rest of the bbq sauce. bake for about an hour.
when it’s done, take a roll or two slices of bread. take two of the tofu pieces and put them on the bread. top with your choice of condiments, then chow down!

what i’ll be working on next is a six-part series, in a bigger series of vegan cooking things and stuff. basically, i want anyone who reads this blog to get down some vegan cooking basics down. vegan food is so often falsely labeled as “rabbit food” or “sticks and leaves,” and i’ve been surprised to meet many vegans and vegetarians over the past few days whose food actually fits this stereotype! it may be unfair that we, as vegans, should be expected to improve our cooking(even if we don’t want to) just so that people don’t think the above of vegan food(and write off veganism as impossible as a result), but it is our duty as animal rights advocates to promote veganism in the best light possible. therefore, over the next few months, my writing will be dedicated to helping other vegans learn how to cook.
my first lesson will be about vegan flavorings, and it will be a six-part series, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

-dia.

i’m back! with a recipe to boot! 🙂

Vegan Fried Rice With Ginger Sauce! (super simple)
serves 4 super hungry people
+two cups of precooked long-grain rice
+veggies of your choice, chopped to your desire(i diced up onions and carrots into bite-sized pieces because that’s all i had, scallions and broccoli would have ruled in this too)
+2 tbps soy sauce
+1 tbsp oil/vegan margarine + 4more tbsp oil/margarine(reserved) +1 moretbsp oil/margarine
+your choice of vegan meat!(i used gardein beefless tips; “chiken” or tofu would be good too!)

for the ginger sauce…
+1/2 cup soy sauce
+1/4 rice vinegar
+1 scallion
+1/4 tsp ground ginger(or 1 small piece ginger root)

take a big frying pan or wok. put the first tbsp of oil/marg in there and let it heat up. throw in the veggies and let them cook through until softened(obviously throw in the more delicate ones later). when the veggies are all softened, throw in the 4 tbsp of oil/marg, then the precooked rice, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. stir it while it’s cooking, until it gets slightly browned. add the soy sauce and stir through. turn it off and get out another pan.

take all the ingredients for the sauce and put them in a blender. blend until well-mixed. take your vegan meat or tofu and marinate it in the sauce for 5-10 minutes. then, melt the remaining marg/oil in the new pan, and cook the tofu/fake meat until browned on all sides. take the leftover marinade and pour it into the rice. pour the tofu/”meat” into the rice as well. mix, plate, enjoy 🙂

Sorry for my absence! i’ve been busy with other stuff. i’m actually planning on taking a trip to florida next week, to see some vegan friends! i’m really excited. 🙂

in other news, my friend is starting a cooking blog/cookbook & i agreed to test his recipes. so, when his project gets off the ground, expect a lot more posts from me! i put him in my blogroll, but so far nothing’s up yet.

anyways, more later!

keep it vegan,
dia.

so, i was GOING to get my car inspected today, but i had the wrong(expired) insurance. oops. and i don’t know where the other one is… NO BUENO D: so i’m going to have to find that & do it tomorrow.

other than that, the highlight of my day has been watching Michael Jackson music videos on fuse, & waiting for Ray William Johnson’s new =3 video. i love him!(Michael too, but especially Ray) i want to start a video blog, but i need a new camera first. & since the only part of my camera that’s broken is the video function, that’ll be a while. still, i want to do it at some  point.

in other news, i’m going to my very first pride parade saturday! i’m going with my bestie & her gay friend. it’s going to be a shitload of fun, & i hope to get a lot of pictures.

that’s all for today!
keep it vegan,
dia.