Vegetable Puree Lunch

I am so excited that I finally got to make this.  Thank you, Nadia!

Here's my version (with, of course, a salad!):

Perfection.

I love the narrative quality of these pureed vegetable balls on my Alice in Wonderland plate.

The broccoli was my favorite!

My spinach salad, garnished with sunflower and broccoli sprouts in my citrus vinaigrette :)

The carton I packaged my leftovers in kind of reminded me of a bento box!

Anita's Kitchen

First off, I apologize to you, loyal readers, for neglecting my blog yesterday.  I hope you all will forgive me.  I'm back.

I actually meant to post this post yesterday but, well, life happens.  On Sunday I went to Anita's Kitchen with my mom after seeing The Artist.  Both the dinner and the movie were phenomenal.  Because this is a food blog, though, I am going to focus on the restaurant but I would highly, highly recommend you all see The Artist.

Now getting to the good stuff:  THE FOOD!  I went to Anita's Kitchen with my mom, as I mentioned.  The restaurant was very cozy--softly lit and very homey.  At the same time, though, it had an upscale/chic New York-y feel to it.  I think the bowl of lemons on the counter, the few pieces of large wall decor, the globular lightbulbs, the chalkboard of wine selections and the hipster crowd contributed to this.  

I ordered the "Falafil Platter" (baked) and ate EVERYTHING except for the rice...I already had about four pieces of pita chillin' in my stomach so I didn't really need that.  The patties looked different than any other falafel (I don't know why Anita's spells it with an "i"--I'm going to use an "e") patties I've had because they were quite flat and usually falafel patties look like large golf balls.  Oh well!  They were great--wonderful spice blend and the texture had a nice chewiness.  Because they were flat, too, and because I ordered mine baked instead of fried, I told myself that not only were they smaller than "normal" patties but healthier too and that was enough justification for myself to eat them all.  And I did.

My dish also came with rice, as I mentioned, tabbouleh (not too oily), hummus and tahini sauce.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  The hummus and tahini, in particular, were just divine.  I could order a plateful of hummus and be a very happy, although perhaps sick, camper.

For dessert my mom ordered baklava and I ordered a Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookie from Pinwheel Bakery.  I would like to say I have a photo of this cookie to share with you but, alas, that cookie arrived and vanished too fast for me to even get my camera out of my purse.

Breakfast Ideas!

I am a TOTAL breakfast person.  I tried coconut oil on my Ezekial Sprouted Grain Muffin this morning and it was magical.

So when I found this, I knew I had to try it, and I will be.  Thanks, Urban Vegan, for sharing :)

REVIEW: Yumnuts Toasted Coconut Cashews

Today's product:  YUMNUTS TOASTED COCONUT CASHEWS

Actually, the first part should read, Yesterday's product, but I thought that sounded too weird so for my own, selfish, purposes I titled it [falsely], Today's product.  Do you care...????

Anyway, I saw these Yumnuts at Whole Foods (where else?) and the bag's graphic design-y-ness caught my eye so I decided, what the hell; I'll spend four bucks on a little bag of cashews.  I do like cashews (as of late, I'm realizing I really like cashews) and coconut?  Uhh, yes please.

When I got in my car I was all ready to tear the bag open and begin stuffing my face with cashews, but then I realized I wanted to review these cashews, which meant taking pretty pictures (not on my lap in a car).  So I waited to get home, then I took a picture, then I tore open the bag and ate a cashew...then another...then another, critiquing them with every chomp.

TASTE:  **

Well, my taste buds had very high hopes for these nuts both because they enjoy cashews and they worship coconut.  Additionally, the "Yum" in the product's title sort of sets up a level of expectation.  Alas and alack, though, my taste buds were disappointed.  The coconut was barely discernable and there was not even the eensiest bit of salt to be found.  I have read, in places, that salt is bad for you.  I think this applies to people who consume gross quantities of the stuff.  With cashews--and with other food, for that matter--some salt can really amp it up!  Yumnuts Cashews DEFINITELY could have benefited from salt.  They could even appeal to people by advertising their product as "lightly salted."  Also, there was an odd aftertaste.  I would like to expound on what I mean by "odd" but, regretfully, I cannot...which is somewhat disconcerting, as I don't know how to describe the taste...

TEXTURE:  ***

The texture was definitely better than the taste.  Unfortunately, like Simon and Garfunkel, you can't have one without the other.  I could not just eat the texture of these cashews, I had to "eat" the taste (why do my sentences sound like those of a cyborg from the 28th century?).  Getting to the texture, though, which I give three stars to, the cashews were very crispy, which I liked.  When I bit down, the nut did not mush into my molars, as cashews sometimes do, but rather, they crunched and broke in the chasm of my mouth, which allowed me to continue chomping and crunching.  The experience was kind of fun for my mouth!  So good job here, Yumnuts.

APPEARANCE:  ***

This was a tough rating because the bag is super cute, and I mean, SUPER cute.  I love the eye-catching but simple logo, the natural colors chosen for the design elements, and the ease in locating all important information on the bag.  Additionally, there are little stick figures on the back of the bag, which are precious, as well as easy-to-understand "Gluten-Free," "Kosher," "Certified Vegan," etc. labels, which, as a vegan, I appreciate.  The nuts, however, are rather dull to look at.  I kicked the saturation up a notch for my photos (I want my blog to look pretty, after all), but the actual nuts are kind of a diluted taupe color, and the "dusting" of white-colored coconut only makes the nuts look drabber.  Hence, my difficulty with rating this category:  bag = frickin' adorable, cashews (ie: the PRODUCT) = meh.

PRICE:  **

Keeping it short and simple:  These cashews were too pricey, especially since they weren't great.  

OVERALL:  **

I love the bag these cashews come in and I like the name of the product line, Yumnuts, but the nuts aren't so yummy.  And that's what matters.  Because they're so expensive, too, I hesitate to give another flavor a try.  I would like to give Yumnuts one more chance but before I rush back to try another Yumnuts flavor, I think I'll first scope out new products altogether.

Quinoa Cookies: Update

Well, these quinoa cookies were definitely better than the first.  They still need some tweaking though.  Once I change the following things I think I will have a hit on my hands (<--is that the saying or did I combine two sayings??)

1.  More prunes/prune juice
2.  More cinnamon
3.  More salt
4.  Add walnuts

And that should just about do it.

Quinoa Cookies: Take Two

Alright, so for those of you who lost sleep over how my second batch of quinoa cookies turned out, here they are the second time around, pre-oven:

Yup.  They look very moist.  Like, too moist.  However, I have the utmost confidence in my oven's ability to work miracles and I think it will transform them into things showing some semblance of cookies.

I will try one, have my mom try one, and report back with the results and which, if any, tweaks I have to make to this recipe in order for it to work.  I am DETERMINED to make a good-tasting, healthy, protein-packed quinoa cookie if it KILLS me (well, actually, I don't care that much but I am stubborn).

Until soon!

Kale Pizza with Sweet Potato Crust

THANK.  YOU.  RAWXY.  I seriously love your recipes.  Tonight I made this pizza for myself and my mom (which took me forever, as do most *new* recipes, but hopefully it will go faster next time), and it was PHENOMENAL!

"Yum" is all I--and probably you--can say.

I loved, loved, LOVED the sweet potato crust and I even made my OWN quinoa flour, which the recipe gives the option of doing.  The pesto I put on the pizza was not a part of the original recipe but was my own creative addition.  I also opted for organic fire roasted diced tomatoes over sliced Camparis, as was listed in the recipe.

The raw parmesan the recipe calls for is soooooooo good too.  I almost didn't make it because I was getting sick of cooking and thought, my pizza will be good enough as it is, but I would have been wrong.    The "parmesan" made it.  I must say that I liked it better than Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "Almesan," which I find too moist/lemony.  That said, I still idolize and worship my Veganomicon as the Holy Grail, I'm just saying, I, personally, liked this "parmesan" better ;)

As I said, the pizza took damn near forever for me to make (it did not help matters that my pesto was not pre-made, nor was my "parmesan," nor were my sweet potatoes) but, two hours later, typing this, I have a very happy, very FULL tummy.

Just look at that "cheese."

Close-up number two.