swingers diner

awesome food!!! i have barely started dinging out, since dinging out as a vegan means spending a little more, BUT this diner is friggin' awesome and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg! they have a very well rounded menu, vegetarian and vegan friendly. from boca burgers to pancakes and nachos, vegan chocolate chip cookies, etc etc etc. absolutely delicious.

they have two locations in the LA area, one in santa monica and one in LA by the beverly center. check out their website here for more info.

soyrizo!

growing up in a mexican house, when i went vegan, chorizo was one of the first things i thought of when i decided to no longer eat meat. BUT! i've found soyrizo! i think i always knew it existed but for some reason it glossed over my subconscious, but i had some soyrizo on nachos @ veg restaurant i went to, and immediately (Well, the next day) went out to buy some @ whole foods. the brand i bought was "el burrito" but there are a few others, like the "melissa" brand, as well! :)

i like to make the soyrizo with scrambled tofu, and/or hash browns. YUM. and a whole wheat tortilla.

Daiya Vegan Cheese

Absolutely delicious. The best vegan cheese I've found!!


click here to visit the website for more information and to find where to buy! :)

Spread the word about Food, Inc.

Follow the link below to spread the word about the message presented in the film "Food, Inc" - haven't seen "Food, Inc" ?? see it!!

Watch the trailer here.

From the website:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. "Spread The Word"

amazing vegan pizza

Whole Foods once again has come to my rescue. I was craving pizza last night, and instead of buying pre-made pizza from the Whole Foods deli I came across vegan dough and vegan Daiyan cheese, shredded! I went home and found a recipe for pesto, which I kind of turned into my own.

Pesto recipe:
In a food processor, combine

-Fresh leaves of basil
-Walnuts or pine nuts
-Soy milk
-Olive oil
-Salt
-Garlic cloves
-Pepper

and blend until creamy! Add all the ingredients to proportions that you like, and until the thickness and creaminess is to your liking as well.

So after I made the pesto and rolled out the dough, I lathered the pesto on and threw on these ingredients:

-Sliced tomatoes
-Fresh spinach
-Walnut bits
-Vegan shredded mozzarella (or any other vegan cheeses)
-Meatless and Dairy-free meatballs, ground up

Popped it in the oven set to 450* for 18 minutes. and YUMMM!!!!

omg chocolate chip cookies

I found some recipes online for chocolate chip cookies and ended up creating my own by mixing some recipes together. Yum!!

The proportions and layout of the recipe, I'm borrowing from The Post Punk Kitchen's recipe, which makes about 30 regular sized cookies.

You will need two bowls, measuring cups/spoons, and a baking sheet.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup Silk's Very Vanilla Soy Milk
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
3/4 cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*I used Ghiradelli, read ingredients carefully for any milk
I also added flaxseeds and walnuts. Yum.

Preheat oven to 350*

In bowl #1 mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In bowl #2 (should be a pretty big bowl) mix together oil and sugar until creamy. Then add the walnuts, flax seeds, vanilla, almond and soy milk.

Slowly add the dry mix into bowl #2, until eventually you'll have to mix with your hands. Add chocolate chips and continue to hand mix. Take mini scoops and lay on ungreased cooking sheet, flattening out to 1 1/2 inch discs and about an inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes, let cool for 5 minutes, and enjoy!

Not so simple, but you'll get the hang of it. :)

the best sandwich ever

The picture should speak for itself!! I'm totally a sandwich guy, and no lifestyle choice would be sustainable for me if I couldn't have sandwiches, so I came up with this. It's nothing special, it's just simply vegan :)

Toasted wheat bread, with mustard and vegenaise. On one of the slices I like to sprinkle flax seed for an added crunch, plus it adds some fiber :)

Inside the sandwich:
- Sliced tomato
- Chunks of sliced avocado
- Baby springs
- Spinach
- Sprouts (brussel or brocco)
- Slices of vegan cheese*
- Slices of Tofurkey*

* When toasting the bread I also like to grill the Tofurkey and cheese! Follow Your Heart's Cheddar Cheese melts a little too well, so what I'll do is get 2 slices of tofurkey, slab a slice of cheese on it, and get 2 more slices of tofurkey, sandwiching the cheese and throw it on a frying pan (no oil or anything needed) until the cheese is all gooey, flipping both sides.

Be careful! The cheese gets very hot and drippy. I've learned to kill the flame and let it cool down for a minute before I transfer it over to the sandwich, otherwise while it's resting on the spatula being transferred, the cheese will drip off and burn my arm. Okay, it only happened once but I learned!!

Eat with tortilla chips and *drool* so friggin' good!!!! My post might make it sound a little complicated but basically, just read the ingredients I use and make a sandwich out of it! Voila! Simple!