Banana Bread Smoothie

I love having smoothies for breakfast.  They save me time in the morning because I don't have to sit down to eat before I head out and keep me from wolfing down food in the car.  Instead, I take a smoothie in a to-go cup and finish it some time mid-morning at my desk.  But even on the weekends when I'm not rushing out I still like to enjoy a tasty smoothie while I read or lounge around.  With the added time, sometimes I'll even get more creative with my morning meal, like putting together this Banana Bread Smoothie that really tastes like dessert for breakfast!

 

Banana Bread Smoothie

 

1 ripe banana

1 1/2 cups vanilla almond milk

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co mighty maple)

 

Blend everything together and enjoy!

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth everyone!  Or should I say, Merry Independence Day!  I'm definitely planning on a patriotic viewing of the movie Independence Day later today, mostly just to watch the best presidential speech ever delivered.  Yay 'Merica!

 

But of course this day wouldn't be complete without a little red, white, and blue to celebrate too.  And what's the most delicious patriotic treat out there?  That's right ... Craisin and white chocolate scones sitting in front of a blue background ... erm ...  Well, two out of three isn't bad.  And that just means these would make a great Canada Day treat too :) 

 

I adapted these delicious vegan scones from a scone recipe I'd been using for years.  But needless to say they require quite a few vegan replacements.  Fortunately, the end product tastes just as great and seems to have just the same consistency as the original.  Science wins again. 

 

Craisin and White Chocolate Scones (Vegan!)

(makes 12 scones)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar + 1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tablespoons vegan butter, cold
1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup vegan white chocolate chips

1/2 cup vegan sour cream

1 vegan egg

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Combine first five ingredients, then cube butter and mix into dry ingredients by hand until you achieve a coarse meal texture. 

Stir in craisins and chocolate chips.

Whisk together egg and sour cream in a separate bowl, then mix into dry/butter mixture until the dough comes together.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two balls. 

Press each ball into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. 

Sprinkle each disk with the 1 tbsp sugar. 

Using a sharp knife (to cut through those chocolate chips and craisins), cut each disk into six triangles. 

Transfer the triangles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, at least an inch apart (they won't expand much). 

Bake 15 minutes, until golden. 

Searching for the Right Vegan Hollandaise Sauce Recipe

I was kind of a weird kid.  Whenever we went out to brunch, my go-to meal was always Eggs Benedict with no Canadian bacon and no yolks in the eggs.  I never liked the idea of ham, even when I ate meat.  And egg yolks, of course, are gross.  Runny egg yolks are even worse.  My mom joked that our server would think I had a heart condition.  But mostly what I was going for was the Hollandaise sauce.  Everything else was just a delivery mechanism. 

 

When I got a bit older I found that rather than nixing everything out of an order of Eggs Benedict, at some restaurants I could order asparagus with Hollandaise.  Or better yet, I could make my own sauce at home and whip it up myself in minutes.  Which I did.  Over and over and over again. 

 

When I became vegan it may not have been the thing I missed most, but every once in a while it would cross my mind.  And as I thought about it, I figured it should be easy enough to make in vegan form.  So why not give it a whirl? 

 

As a starting point, I followed this recipe from Vegetarian Times.  Unfortunately, I got a bit cocky and estimated all my measurements.  When I tasted round 1 the sauce had way too much lemon and a bit too much spice.  I promptly added more tofu, more salt, more oil (I used olive rather than corn) and tinkered around until I got a version I liked.  When I sat down to really eat the sauce on asparagus and toast, I found it was still too lemony for my taste, but it was definitely a decent approximation of real Hollandaise.  Definitely a good place to start, at least.  I enjoyed my asparagus, toast, and Hollandaise literally for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not all on the same day).  This is definitely a recipe I'll continue tinkering with until I find the right balance.  And when I do I'll be sure to share the results!

Blueberry Muffins and Thai Arroy Dinner

Last week I managed to score a last-minute dentist appointment Monday morning (yay for cancellations!).  Unfortunately, I scheduled said appointment with my dentist up in Baltimore (I'm too lazy to look for a new dentist).  And now that the dentist isn't walking distance from my apartment, but instead a good 1 1/2 drive away, I asked Josh's parents if I could stay at their place Sunday night to make the Monday morning drive a bit an hour shorter. 

 

They were heading out to dinner for the evening, which would leave me alone with their cable TV, the dogs, and to fend for myself for dinner.  Fortunately, that gave me a great excuse to head to Thai Arroy on my drive up Sunday night to pick up yummy drunken noodles - which Thai Arroy will make vegan for you on request.  I haven't had these in forever and they were truly delicious.  Plus the serving was so huge I had leftovers for the next day too!  Dog cuddles, TV binging, and tasty food ... definitely a great night.

 

Of course I didn't realize I'd have drunken noodles left for breakfast the next day, so I still wanted to show up prepared.  Plus I always like to bring a treat with me when I visit Josh's parents to share the vegan love as much as I can.  For this visit I made a small batch of blueberry muffins.  I followed Chocolate Covered Katie's recipe for a single-serving blueberry muffin, so I actually had to quadruple the recipe to get the eight I ended up with.  (My muffins were a bit on the small side to stretch to eight.  If you wanted really big muffins you'd probably end up with five or six.)

 

I've made these muffins before with mixed success, but I knew that they would be a hit this time if I did it right.  They really are best made with coconut oil, with the applesauce version declared to be "gross".  Since I had leftover Thai food, I ate one little muffin at breakfast and then snagged another to go for a snack the next day.  I left the other six behind for Josh's parents.  And though I left before they got to sample them, the muffins were definitely a win in my book ...  Hopefully they agreed!

Muffin Mania

I guess it's no surprise by now that I'm a bit all over the map when it comes to my food choices.  One minute I'm talking about how I want to eat healthier, eat more green vegetables, and make sure I incorporate protein into my meals ... and the next minute I'm off baking up some indulgent treat again.  I'm definitely food bipolar. 

 

But I guess most of us are to some extent.  It's almost impossible to go through life without the occasional treat.  It's just that my treat occasions seem to pop up a bit more frequently than they do for other people ...  I also find that when I get bored I tend to turn to the kitchen.  Either I want to eat something or I want to make food.  It's a way to pass the time, and making food at least means I'm not consuming it ... until it's done. 

 

And apparently I've found myself bored a lot lately.  Because I've been turning to baking over and over again in the past couple of weeks.  To combat the resulting onslaught of baked goods, I've done my best to partake in just a few of the resulting goodies and haul the rest off to work to watch them disappear from the office kitchen.  Which usually manages to happen quite quickly and wins me all sorts of new friends at work too. 

 

Three times in the past two weeks I've brought muffins to work - the first two batches were supposedly cupcakes, but without the frosting (I followed the accompanying recipe for cream cheese frosting with disasterous results - it was sickly sweet glaze rather than frosting, though I followed the recipe to the letter) I figured these hummingbird cupcakes were really more like "tropical" muffins. 

 

I'm not sure if there's a definitional difference between "cupcake" and "muffin" other than the presence of frosting, but no one at work seemed to think they weren't muffins.  In fact, they were so popular that people actually said they hoped I would make them again soon - which is how I came to make a second batch less than a week later.  It also helped that I was quite taken with them as well.  Plus the recipe was so simple to follow it really wasn't much effort to make a double batch the second time. 

 

Then just two days after I brought in round two of tropical (hummingbird) muffins, the last day of Maryland's legislative session arrived.  The last day of session is always a long and exciting day, and lots of people bring in treats to share.  I certainly couldn't sit there with all sorts of non-vegan treats surrounding me all day.  I knew I'd go crazy if I didn't have an opportunity to indulge a bit too. 

 

Which is where the Caramel Apple Muffins came in.  I'd seen this recipe a while back and was eager to try it.  (Plus I couldn't very well bring in a third batch of hummingbird muffins!)  While this recipe wasn't quite as simple and quick as the hummingbird cake, it wasn't too difficult.  Following the recipe measurements, I ended up with 16 muffins to share at work. 

 

And I probably ended up eating 1/4 of them myself ...  The crumble topping made these a bit messy to eat, and I wouldn't really say there was any genuine "caramel" element to them, but the apple cinnamon flavor combination is always a winner in my book.  These also managed to come away with high praise, though nothing so enthusiastic as the hummingbird cakes. 

 

Maybe my coworkers were just a bit muffin-ed out.  I know I am ... for now ...

In Search of the Perfect Vegan Pancake

Happy very belated Christmas!  Hope you had a wonderful holiday and didn't go too overboard with the treats.  I took quite the blogging vacation over the holidays, so there's plenty to catch up on. 

 

Leading up to Christmas I worked really hard to find a good vegan pancake recipe, because Josh's family has a Christmas day pancake breakfast tradition.  While Josh's dad said he would make two separate batches of pancakes, I was really hoping to find a vegan pancake that everyone could enjoy so he wouldn't have to do double duty.  While I knew I could make delicious banana nut pancakes or chocolate chip pancakes, I knew Josh's dad wouldn't want to make anything but a "normal" pancake, so I search high and low on the Internets for a recipe that wouldn't have too many odd ingredients and would taste delicious. 

 

My first go around was to make this recipe for Snickerdoodle pancakes.  I tried it first without the cinnamon (thinking even that was too "odd" for a standard pancake), and they were quite good, but when I tried adding the cinnamon in they were amazing!  Josh, my handy pancake tester, loved them too.  They were so good we could have gobbled them up without even adding any syrup. 

 

And that's probably because the recipe called for sugar.  That's right, I managed to read and follow the recipe without noticing that Katie added "you can use much less [sugar] if you’re planning to top with syrup".  So I decided I really needed to make another batch sans sugar to be sure before sending it off to Josh's father to seek his approval.  I followed the recipe again, but subbed out vanilla almond milk for plain and nixed both the sugar and the cinnamon.  The results weren't quite as stellar as the original (hey, less sugar ... what do you expect?) but with syrup they were definitely good enough to seek the approval of a non-vegan.  They were still light and fluffy without too strong of a baking soda flavor - which usually seems to be the culprit in less-than-tasty vegan pancakes.  After my lengthy pancake testing, I finally decided to send the recipe off with my vanilla almond milk and no sugar modifications, but add back in half the cinnamon for that extra something special. 

 

I sent the recipe off to Josh's father and fully expected a delighted crowd on Christmas morning.  But alas, the fear of a vegan recipe was too much for him.  He made two batches of pancakes on the big day - one for Josh and I, and the "normal" version for the rest.  Which was probably for the best, because for some reason the vegan pancakes turned out pretty badly.  They were definitely low on the cinnamon, but that wasn't the culprit.  Maybe they weren't cooked long enough on either side?  Or maybe my non-stick pan was a better method of cooking them than the sticky pan filled with oil?  (That's my personal guess.)  Of course I ate every bite, but I'm glad everyone else wasn't subjected to them.  That definitely would have turned them off of vegan pancakes forever.  Instead, I can hold out hope that they may still enjoy them in the future.  In the meantime, I've found my own perfect pancake recipe and squirreled it away in my Paprika app for safekeeping.  While I don't eat pancakes often, I definitely know what recipe I'll follow the next time the mood strikes. 

Vegan Brunch at Muse Cafe

This post has been several months in the making now, but it was pretty much worth the long delay.  It all started in mid-October, when Josh's parents sent me a gift certificate to Muse Café for my birthday.  They had read about the chef's special vegan Sunday brunch, where Todd Gray puts together a delicious vegan brunch buffet for the prix fix price of just $25 per adult - definitely not a bad deal at all when you see the huge spread.  Plus you sit right in the Corcoran Gallery in a beautiful atrium enjoying live music!  Lovely Sunday morning ambiance.

It was such a thoughtful gift, but of course it took me until early November to set a date when Josh and I were free.  They recommend reservations, and once we saw the small seating area fill up that definitely seemed like the right way to go.  Luckily, I picked a beautiful day and we metroed into DC with no issues at all.  The weather was so great we even walked around like tourists for a bit afterward, taking in the White House and a bit of the mall before heading home. 

The buffet is set up in the center of the seating area, and they give you a menu so you know all there is to offer - and there was plenty.  I got one of each of the savory options except for the soup, because it was such a warm day I didn't feel like I needed the warm food.  (But Josh did have it and said it was great.) 

It may not look like it, but I genuinely did try to exercise restraint when loading up my plate.  I got just a little of everything, but everything turned out to be quite a lot.  Both our favorites was the truffled macaroni and cheese.  I mean, what's not to like?  Truffles - yum.  Macaroni - yum.  Cheese - yum.  I really wish I could figure out how to get that recipe.  But really every single thing was so delicious.  It's a wonder I had room to try the sweet treats. 

But somehow I managed ... That's right, I got one of everything off the sweets table too.  Actually, I got two pieces of French toast because they looked so small and innocent.  And apparently because I'm a glutton.  It was a real struggle to finish the plate - but finish I must because it was soooo good.  The only thing I didn't eat all of was that little muffin - it was too dry and not very flavorful.  When you're getting ready to burst, any food that isn't perfection must be left by the wayside! 

My favorite of the sweets turned out to be the lemon poppy seed cake trifle with fruit compote.  Maybe if I hadn't gone so crazy getting everything else I would have had room for seconds of it ...  But then again, if I hadn't gotten everything then I wouldn't know if really the baklava or chocolate chip macaroon was my favorite.  That's right, no regrets! 

AAAAANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDD .... our brunch didn't quite use up the gift certificate.  So we will just have to return to sample the Muse vegan brunch again soon! 

Pumpkin Bread

I'm so delinquent on posting, it's ridiculous.  I don't even actually remember now when I made this pumpkin bread.  It was definitely a Friday.  Not last Friday ...  Maybe the Friday before?  I really have no idea.  If I gave it enough thought I could probably figure it out, but I won't bother.  What I do know is that before I actually got around to using this mix, it had been sitting in the cupboard for probably almost two years.  Can pumpkin bread mix go bad? 

It was a gift, and it was one of those things that I never bothered to actually make because I figured it would keep and I'm always scouring the Internet for all sorts of other tasty and fun dessert recipes so this always managed to fall by the wayside.  Needless to say, since it came into our house before I was concerned about veganism it isn't an entirely vegan mix - the dry mix itself had buttermilk.  But I did go about veganizing the rest of the recipe by making using vegan substitutions for the add-ins.  And I think it came out quite tasty indeed.  Especially warmed in the microwave and with a little Earth Balance spread on top ... Yum!  This definitely became both dessert and breakfast for a few days straight.  Maybe I'm a pumpkin bread convert now ...  Which means I'll have to go back to the Internets to scrounge up a vegan version of this fall treat.  Not a bad homework assignment. 

Birthday Dinner 2.0

Saturday morning Josh and I slept in pretty late, then headed out to Einstein Bros. Bagels for breakfast/lunch - not really extensive enough to warrant "brunch".  Thanks to the Internet, I quickly found out that the bagels are all vegan unless they have some obvious ingredient to the contrary - the asiago cheese bagel = not vegan.  And I got my bagel topped with peanut butter, rather than cream cheese.  It was actually a really yummy topping, and I think a lot better than fake cream cheese would have been. 

 

A little while later we decided to head to Whole Foods to try to find the ingredients to make a recipe in my new vegan cookbook, Great Chefs Cook Vegan.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find any of the tricky ingredients so we had to scrap that plan for now.  In it's place, we decided to raid the bakery for vegan goodies and came out with yummy cowvin cookies and carrot cake cupcakes. 

 

They were both good, but the cookies are probably the real winner of the two.  The cupcake frosting was allegedly "cream cheese", but it really just tasted like vanilla frosting.  Creamy, perhaps, but not "cream-cheesy".  I'm starting to think it's really just impossible to recreate that tangy flavor of cheese.  Maybe I'm destined to live a life without it. 

 

When we got home we snacked on our treats while drinking wine and playing Karaoke Revolution on the Xbox - one of Josh's birthday presents to me.  Super fun, though it gives you a hard dose of reality as to your singing ability!  Josh only wanted one cupcake because they weren't the "real deal", so I ended up eating cupcakes for the next few days to finish them off.  Not exactly a bad problem. 

 

Later Saturday night ... once we were pretty far gone from our wine ... we headed out to dinner at Pacci's Neapolitan Pizzeria.  We had spotted this place a couple blocks from our new apartment and had been meaning to try it for a while - and I'm so glad we finally did!  We both love Neapolitan pizza, and though this place isn't guild certified, it seems like the genuine article.  I ordered the marinara pizza, which normally comes sans cheese - so no awkward ordering!  It was simple but delicious, topped with marzano tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, and basil.  Plus it wasn't even that expensive.  Delicious, gourmet pizza, walking distance from our apartment, for not a lot of money?  Yes, that makes for a very happy birthday!

Relaxing Saturday

Saturday Josh and I caught up on some much-needed relaxation.  We both slept in late - Josh a bit later than me.  While Josh still slept, I sat out on the balcony enjoying a vegan scone (I made a batch Friday afternoon) and reading.  Can you believe I'd never read The Sun Also Rises?!  I finished it in less than a week - awesome book.  Though it does make you a bit irritated at the rich characters who have no real obligations and just spend their lives eating, drinking, and traveling.  Talk about entering another world when you read!

 

After rock climbing mid-day Josh was in a dumpling mood, so we headed out to China Bistro for lunch.  They had good reviews on Yelp, were particularly known for their dumplings, and (most importantly) were close to the climbing gym. 

Naturally, we ordered vegetarian dumplings.  We also grabbed an order of scallion pancakes (Josh's favorite) and some General Tso's tofu - which we promptly gobbled so fast I didn't even snap a picture!  It was sweet, but good.  The scallion pancakes were average (I can probably make better, but they're a bit of a hassle).  They're also not exactly good for you, so they should only be eaten very occasionally. 

The dumplings lived up to the hype.  I think the only place we've had better is actually in China.  Fortunately, one of the few things DC has over Baltimore is the abundance of delicious Chinese food.  We'll definitely be having a lot more in the future. 

Exciting Food and New Toys

Monday morning started with my favorite indulgence - a chocolate banana protein shake made with Silk PureAlmond in Dark Chocolate flavor.  There's just something about the dark chocolate that's so much more rich and sinful-seeming than regular chocolate soy or almond milk.  I love this stuff. 

When I got home from work I had an exciting package waiting for me at home.  I needed to buy some things from Amazon to use up a credit that was expiring, so I used the excuse to buy a few random things off my wish list - the kind of things I wanted but would probably only really buy when I needed to round out a $25 purchase for the free shipping. 

First exciting acquisition: a Firefly keychain!  Obviously, this is my favorite TV show, so it's nice to have little reminders of it around.  I'm always just a bit happier when I wear one of my Firefly bracelets, so I thought it's always good to bring a little more Firefly into my life :) 

Second acquisition: yet another cookbook ... Great Chefs Cook Vegan.  From the Amazon description:

"Great Chefs Cook Vegan includes recipes from 25 of the greatest chefs, including Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud, Charlie Trotter, and many other James Beard Award-winning chefs.  Each chef provides a delicious three- or four-course vegan meal, complete with beautiful photography of mouthwatering dishes like Baby Beet Salad with Pistachio Vinaigrette and Chickpea Fritters, Sweet Pea Ravioli with Sautéed Pea Leaves, Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers with Sunflower Seed Risotto, and Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Truffle Molten Center."

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet - they do look awfully complicated! - but I will be sure to update when I do! 

For dinner I made something a lot simpler than anything out of that book is likely to be.  I used leftover cashew cream from Friday's dinner to make pasta with asparagus, peas, and sun dried tomatoes.  Even Josh, who's not a fan of asparagus, said we should add the recipe to our usual repertoir.  Not the healthiest, but definitely simple and delicious!

Baltimore Weekend

I am so incredibly sad that I had to list "travel" as a tag on this post about this past weekend spent in Baltimore.  Baltimore shouldn't be travel ... Baltimore is home!  But not anymore :(  Now Silver Spring is our home, so when we had friends visiting Baltimore from out of town last weekend, we spent Saturday night at Josh's parents' house so we could hang out both Saturday night and Sunday morning without killing ourselves with the drive. 

 

On the agenda for Saturday night: dinner at the Helmand.  Josh and I love this place, so we were really excited to share it with our friends.  Unfortunately, the restaurant seemed to be having a bit of an off night (smaller portions than normal, etc.), so I'm not sure they got to see the best side of it possible.  Hopefully they enjoyed it anyway!  In addition to the pumpkin appetizer (always a must-order item), I ordered the Mushroom Lawand - Whole mushrooms sauteed with spices, fresh tomatoes, corn and green pea sauce, (minus the yogurt dressing), and served with spinach and challow.  It was quite tasty, but for some reason I got quite ill from it later in the evening.  :/  Not good ... A particularly off night for the Helmand. 

 

Luckily I was all better by the next morning when we met up with our friends again to grab brunch at The Food Market in Hampden.  When I asked the waiter about vegan options and the possibility of creating something, he didn't make it sound like they were too open to making something off-menu for me, but did let me know that one item on the menu was indeed vegan, so that's what I ordered - the "Veggie Delight". 

 

It was strangely described as "appropriate veg, crispy rice, and spicy soy".  Also oddly, it was the most expensive thing that anyone ordered.  $16 for what you see at left.  That's right, $4 more than the shrimp and grits, and $5 more than Josh's French toast.  "Appropriate veg" is apparently edamame, red peppers, spinach, tomatoes, corn, and some other small green.  It really wasn't bad, but it definitely did wow.  It seemed like the most random, thrown-together dish, that was really just an attempt to make sure there was something vegan on the menu.  Though I suppose that's better than not making sure there's something vegan on the menu. 

 

After brunch we walked around Hampden with our friends for a bit, having a blast checking out all the cute shops in the area, before bidding them adieu as they head off to go climbing this week.  Hopefully we will see them again this weekend before they head home (to California). 

 

Later in the afternoon our stomachs started to rumble again, so while we were out doing errands we stopped into Potbelly for a sandwich to tide us over until dinner.  I was definitely excited to get the Mediterranean minus feta again after having it at Dulles Airport.  Since it was only a few hours until dinner, I got a "skinny" sandwich rather than a regular, but it was just as good! 

 

Even though our friends had left, we'd made plans to stay in Baltimore through the evening so we could watch the Breaking Bad finale at Josh's parents' house Sunday night (we don't have cable, and of course we couldn't wait to watch it until Monday night when it would be on Amazon - too many spoilers!).  Since we would be hanging around, Josh's parents took us out to dinner at Orchard Market and Cafe, a little Persian restaurant that is so tucked away off Joppa Road that I don't see how anyone would ever know it's there!  Indeed, when we went in only one other table was occupied. 

 

Apparently Josh's parents had been there about twenty years ago, so they must have regular customers (even if they are few and far between).  Though it's tiny, the restaurant is nicely decorated and the staff was extremely friendly, including being very understanding about my vegan requests.  The menu has only one vegan dish, but it is clearly marked as such.  There are also several appetizers that can be made vegan on request. 

 

The one dish was Yazdi Khoresh, described as "a medley of vegetables in the chef’s Persian curry, tomato & garlic sauce."  Sadly, it tasted really more like a mish-mash of boiled vegetables with Chef Boyardee sauce - and absolutely no seasoning.  I seriously never salt my food, and found myself dumping a ton of salt and pepper all over this just to make it edible.  The veggie mix was cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions - nothing interesting or unique at all.  It felt like the kind of thing I could easily make myself at home, except that I would expect mine to be a whole lot tastier.  I ate about half before passing it off to Josh, who said it was "not bad".  Differences of opinion ...

I won't go spoiling anything about the Breaking Bad finale, but obviously if you watch the show at all it's a must-see.  Then again, if you're reading this and haven't seen it already, I'm sure everyone else in the world has already managed to spoil it for you!

Flip-Flopping on the Healthiness

Friday ended up being a bit of a mix of unhealthy and healthy.  I started the morning off with my usual protein shake (healthy), but mid-morning I snacked on some Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos (unhealthy) (aka, the only vegan Doritos) ... (aka, the only Doritos you really need - they're so good!). 

 

For lunch I whipped up a Mexican salad with romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, corn salsa from Trader Joe's (that is so amazing, I'm going to start buying this stuff all the time!), and some vegan sour cream.  I would definitely put this lunch in the healthy category, but it was so tasty you could hardly tell! 

 

The day got even healthier when I joined Josh at our new climbing gym, Earth Treks Rockville (our previous gym being Earth Treks Timonium), where we climbed for a couple of hours (mostly sitting around time ... but whatever). 

 

When dinnertime rolled around, though, I made a return to the unhealthy side in a big way ...  And it all started with my good friend, the cashew cream.  I'd soaked the cashews during the afternoon, then blended them up with water, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.

 

It's the perfect sauce for ... you guessed it ... the best pasta ever!  You can follow the link for the recipe in an old post, but a quick recap is: leeks + shallots + mushrooms + pasta + cashew cream = orgasmic.  If you're going to have an unhealthy dinner, this is definitely the way to do it!

Last Day ... And No Kitchen Stuff

It's finally moving day!!!! 

 

I can't believe it's finally here.  I'm sitting on the floor blogging on an ottoman now because the couch is covered in plastic and I'm completely surrounded by boxes.  It's definitely an interesting sight. 

The last few days have been pretty stressful, but yesterday was definitely the worst.  And to make matters worse, all our kitchen stuff had been packed up, so I spent the day teleworking from home but still had to eat with none of the home comforts.  To start, without my Cuisinart for a morning protein shake, I turned to a Naked Juice Green Machine instead.  It was pretty good, but once I'd drinken it half way down I added a scoop of vanilla protein powder and some vanilla soy milk and shook it up.  Then it was amazing!

For lunch I had a Simply Asia noodle bowl.  You still need a fork to eat this, but otherwise it comes with it's own little bowl and lid.  Just mix together ingredients, add water, and microwave.  Insta-meal combined with insta-dinner ware.  It doesn't get much handier than that!  I also snacked on an apple mid-afternoon - another helpfully self-contained food item. 

 

For dinner we checked the last item off our Baltimore Bucket List by heading out to Johnny Rad's.  This pizza restaurant and bar has a decidedly sports theme (focused on skate boarding, oddly), but it's also got some of the best pizza in Baltimore plus they offer tons of vegetarian meat substitutions like veggie pepperoni and veggie sausage (which I've never actually tried, but I'm glad they offer) and ... vegan cheese!  We even heard the people at the next table talking about the vegan cheese.  Clearly, it's a must-visit for the Baltimore vegan. 

 

Since we were trying to enjoy ourselves and not worry about the move, I ordered a Lambic Framboise to start the evening.  This stuff is so delicious, but also a pretty high alcohol proof.  It's probably the tastiest way to get drunk if you wanted to have a few of them.  But also a very expensive way compared to your average beer.  But hey ... it was a special occasion! 

 

 

Josh and I ordered a large 15 inch El Gato pizza, which normally comes with basil, olive oil, garlic sauce, ricotta, mozarella, and sea salt.  We also added sun dried tomatoes, and of course I got my side with vegan cheese.  Before our pizza came Josh ordered himself the huff puppies appetizer, which was one of the items I really enjoyed at Johnny Rad's in my pre-vegan days.  Sadly, they use eggs in the huff puppies, plus mayo in the sauce, so I just had to sit and be jealous.  Plus scheme of ways to make my own, vegan huff puppies at home!  Stay tuned ...

 

 

But even after all my austerity with the huff puppies, I cracked when it came time for dessert.  Josh ordered himself this amazing-looking Oreo pie and offered me a taste.  I definitely rationalized a ton on this one.  It was already ordered.  Someone was going to eat that bite ... it was either him or me.  And at least the Oreo part is vegan ...  Needless to say, I had the bite.  And it was delicious.  Does "hey, it was a special occasion!" work twice in one post? 

Baltimore Bucket List

Monday morning started off with a peach banana protein shake.  That's right, I had a can of peaches in the cupboard that needed to be used!  I don't normally think of peaches as a protein shake option, but it was delicious!  I'll definitely be having more of these in the future.  But maybe frozen peaches instead of canned next time ...  Seems healthier.  Plus frozen fruit gives you a nice, cold shake - more like dessert!

 

I had a lot of work to do, but also managed to spend a fair amount of the day stressing about the upcoming move.  It's hard not to think about it when you're looking at a growing pile of boxes in your living room.  Worse still when you're looking at all the stuff that still needs to go in boxes ...

 

Since we're emptying our house of all the spare food we can, it's getting pretty hard to cook meals for ourselves at home.  Fortunately, this means we can pack up kitchen stuff and eat out at some of our favorite restaurants before we leave Baltimore.  (I know we can visit, but how often will we really drive an hour just for dinner?)

 

For our last week in Baltimore, we assembled the following bucket list of eats:

 

1. Land of Kush

2. Cafe Spice

3. Johnny Rad's  

 

To start things off, we headed to Land of Kush Monday night for dinner.  It's a shame we haven't gone here more often while we lived within walking distance.  It's definitely a place we'll miss.  I ordered an entree plate with two sides - lentil burgers, macaroni and cheese, and kale salad.  It was all delicious, but the macaroni and cheese is always the best.  The picture here is actually of my leftovers in their to-go box.  Which were eaten just a few short hours after coming home.  Not leftover for long!