I suck.

Yep, you heard it from me first. Though I am kickass at making delicious desserts and am sensitive the chemistry process required to make said delicious desserts, I usually suck balls at baking bread. I think it might be the yeast part of it. It also might be the mixing part of it (kneading, etc.). I really don't know what I do wrong most times, but I'd say that it might have to do with not following the directions PRECISELY in one way or another. For instance, I made whole wheat focaccia:

It baked up ok but subbing whole wheat flour for white was NOT the right idea. So lesson learned: When baking bread, follow the damn recipe, Norine. Follow it, I says!!

MN Vegan

Stuff I've been eatin'.

(Pssttt...all my entries have links to the places I'm talking about...yep. Just scroll your mouse over a restaurant name and it'll take you to the website. I'm helpful huh?)

H'okay.

First up. Look at what happened to my muffin!!

What the crap?! Actually this was totally my fault. I put it in my backpack with a bunch of other items and unfortunately it got smashed. I got the muffin at Caffetto, a really great coffee shop in Uptown Minneapolis. They have vegan baked goods that come from Hard Time Cafe so you can have delicious pastries with your delicious coffee.

Manfriend and I also had dinner at The Depot again. I got a salad this time!

This salad was covered in a coconut curry dressing and was super tasty. I think it might be the only vegan salad on the menu but it's pretty darn good.

I'm working on some freelance writing jobs for a news source in Richfield currently and sometimes I like to swing over to Edina (about 5 miles away) and go to People's Organic (the restaurant!) I LOVE their coffee-French Meadow serves it. But they also have a cute new restaurant that has a delicious veggie burger among other vegan items. It's a bit pricey, but good! Here's a what I got.

The veggie burger was SO good. So so good. It's a homemade patty with a bunch of different spices, is a bit fall-y apart-y, but nonetheless AWESOME. The chocolate raspberry tart thingy left much to be desired. This was also way fall-y apart-y and though it had good raspberry flavor, the flavor was not matched by a savory butteryness which is how I like my desserts. There needs to be a careful balance between savory and sweet and this definitely overloaded the sweet. But I ate it all. Teehee.

Finally, Zakia Deli!! This place is over yonder in the NE Minneapolis neighborhood. I could bike there if I wanted to, thats how close it is. They make kickass Lebanese food, most of which (if you ask) is made vegan! Woo! Here's what I got:

In the container from the top left and going clockwise: red pepper hummus, this tomtatoey rice dish that was excellent, majaddra, tabouleh and chickpea salad. I also got pita bread and (on the far right) some sfouf. My two favorite parts of this meal were my friend Zeina (she's awesome) and the mujaddra. Holy balls! This lentil/rice dip was buttery and delicious. I even made it at home and it is so simple to make, your head will combust. The sfouf...well...it has star anise in it. Star anise is not my favorite, but the little sugary bread was good. It was made with semolina flour and a handful of different spices. The tabouleh is like no tabouleh I've ever had! True Lebanese tabouleh has less grain and more green I guess, which in my opinion makes the dish better.

So. That's where I been in literally the last week. Good times. Everyone should check these places out! They have more delicious vegan stuff on the menus that I did not try, so get your butt over to one of these awesome places and stuff your face.

MN Vegan

I...am A (HEALTHY) PANCAKE GENIUS!!!

Seriously.

My favorite breakfast in the world is pancakes. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out they're not the healthiest thing for you.

I cried for extended amounts of time yelling to the heavens "NOOOOOOO NOT YOU, PANCAKES!!! FIRST DONUTS, NOW THIS?! HOW COULD YOU DECEIVE ME?!?!?!?"

And then I got over it and realized something AWESOME. I can make my own fucking pancakes and they don't HAVE to be unhealthy either. Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture for these guys because I ate them all. This is a single-serving pancake recipe and requires little in the way of mixing and eating. These are also low in calories (just under 300, including the agave-even if you add 1 T of chocolate chips to these babies, they're still under 300 calories...REJOICE!), have protein, oats and omegas to get your ass outta bed and on time to that marathon you're about to run. Am I right?!!

H'okay!

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup soymilk

1/2 T of ground flax

1/4 of a banana, mashed

FIRST! Dump the oats in a food processor and grind until mostly powdery. Then mix all the other stuff in.

This should yield about two medium pancakes or 3 small ones. Mix that shit up with your hands, not some lame-ass mixer. You want the flax to get gel'in so use lots of arm power.

You don't even NEED fucking leavening in this if you don't want it. But for a little bit o fluff, go ahead and add 1/8 tsp baking soda right before you throw em on the griddle.

GRILL THOSE SUCKERS. But make sure you add a little coconut oil to your pan (less than a tsp) and spread it all around. This shouldn't add too many extra calories but last time I checked, coconut oil helps you crap so why not add it. If you don't like bananas, you're fucking nuts. Pumpkin and applesauce would work fine too I guess.

Et voila! I am a (healthy) pancake genius. Thus, the title of this post. Enjoy!

MN Vegan

Well, let's see...

I've been super duper busy!

1. Been interning for Midwest Vegan Radio and I'm having a freaking awesome time doing it. Check them out on the facebook and be sure to "like" us!

2. Just finishing up school here (one more class, yusssss) and then onto better things!

3. Done with the state job. Hopefully I'll get another one here soon. *crosses fingers*

4. Going to be moving in two months! To where, I'm not sure yet.

5. Been writing for Richfield Patch and it is really great experience for what I (kind of) want to do eventually.

Haven't been eating out too much because of the current financial sitch, but...

I have, however, been to Galactic Pizza in the last week and it was pretty delish, as always. We had a half vegan pizza bianca and half vegan bbq chicken pizza with Daiya on top. Yum! It was also pretty fun because their menu was 3D.

Galactic Pizza is an environmentally-conscious pizza joint with outside seating and is wind-powered! All of their delivery guys drive in electric cars too. Preeetttty awesome.

Anyways, that's been my life in the last week. Currently trying to find a jorb-I'm hopeful one will come along soon!

MN Vegan

Forks Over Knives!

Midwest Vegan Radio, this really kickass vegan podcast that I'm interning for received tickets from Paramount to see Forks Over Knives for free. They made this wonderful opportunity possible by letting us have a code that got each person that used it two free passes to get into a sneak screening of the movie. I just biked home from the sneak screening in Minneapolis and let me just say...

IT WAS AWESOME. But let me explain...

I do want my family to see it-like EVERYONE in my family. I really think that it makes the idea that many vegan-centered films tried to communicate so much more simple, this being the idea that a plant-based diet is effective in reducing and in most cases reversing chronic health problems caused by the standard American diet.

I'm really glad I went. I got to hang out with my vegan posse, chat it up with my date-Dave-who's a pretty kickass person that I'm very glad to know and basically watch a film that only solidified further my reason for eating the way I do.

Everyone should see this movie! Go see it now! I mean it, fucking NOW!

MN Vegan

Holy crap, an update! Part 3: WWVBS!

So proud...

This event was Melissa's and my (pictured above in all of our sugar-fueled happiness) baby. It was held on Easter Sunday at Ethique Nouveau in Minneapolis. We organized the event details and set up an email account for the applications to come flowing in, and voila! We ended up raising over $600 for Animal Rights Coalition! It was wonderful, such a great learning experience AND we had a kickass time looking at and eating all of the awesome baked goods people brought in for the event. Have a looksee-

I don't know how it could have been better than it was-everything went much smoother than I thought it would and I had loads of fun. Thank you to everyone that baked and helped out with the event in any way. Here's to next year's vegan bakesale!

MN Vegan

Holy crap, an update! Part 2: Florida

Since the weather here in the Twin Cities is drastically improving and getting to be warmer, Sarah has been very happy. But! There are times in the long Minnesota winter when you need to step outside the coldness and fly somewhere south, where the sun shines! Like...

FLORIDA!!!!

I love Florida. I hadn't been there in a couple of years but every time I go, I have a great time. This time was no exception.

That picture directly above is a Florida farmers market! We hit the tail end of it, but it was pretty nice. A good selection of produce, nuts and even pickles! Yummm.

Ok! So we were staying in Fort Meyers beach. I had to scope out the area for delicious vegan eats, and boy did I find some.

Cool Hand Luc's!

This place, though tiny, has several selections of vegan home-made ice cream available on a daily basis. I could NOT get enough of their almond-based peanut butter ice cream. Excellent! So smooth and creamy. I think it may be the best pb ice cream I've ever had. I also tried their chocolate chip cookie dough flavor and it was ok. It didn't have chunks of cookie dough in it like I wanted. The chocolate chip cookie pictured above was EPIC. Gooey and buttery. Yummm I want to go back NOOOOOWWWWWW.

Ok next up! Pizza Fusion.

This place does not have Daiya cheese but it did have Follow Your Heart, which is pretty tasty and was Manfriend and my vegan cheese of choice before Daiya reared it's delicious head into the vegan world. We built our own pizza and it was freaking huge!

I got a delicious salad beforehand with these interesting crunchy pieces of bread on top (like a crouton, only thin!). Awesome. I also may have had the best gluten free brownie I have ever had in my mouth, BAR NONE. Better than Pizza Luce's even.

Next up! *drumrolls*

LOVING HUT!!

I had never been to a Loving Hut before but people have raved about them since, well, forever. It was AWESOME. All Asian inspired dishes, my family (yes, even my dad and brothers) could not get enough. Have a looky!!

Yep, I even had a vegan flan for the first time ever. I'm sorry, but if a place can make my dad like healthy vegan food, then I am all for it. Awesome! I would definitely come back to a Loving Hut and word is that all of them have a different menu. So cool! I think the closest one to MN is in Chicago, so there's more than a good enough reason to take a midwest road-trip. Woop!

MN Vegan