I am working on my new goals list for the year (this year it is 38 before 38 – I am OLD), and will hopefully also get around to posting a recap of last year’s goals, mostly as an excuse to post some of my photos and stuff from last year that I didn’t ever get around to posting. I also had a whole bunch of posts planned for the last half of October that I didn’t get around to, so hopefully they will make it on here, too!

Since I know that 99% of the reason that any of you read our blog is to see photos of the big guy, here is a recent one of him from Christmas Day.  I know it isn’t a nice, cute smile-y photo, but he is so hard to catch in focus these days and this one makes me laugh.  He is walking and talking and generally changing every single day.  So wonderful!

We made a new macaroni and cheese recipe this week that was pretty tasty.  This is the Cheesy Mac from Vegan Diner (which I talked about yesterday) but I already think of it as Smoky Mac.  It has a bit of a hit of smoked paprika and a noochy, cashew-based sauce, and her technique of melting in some Earth Balance and stirring in some nutritional yeast at the end is so reminiscent of making Kraft Dinner that I nearly shed a tear.  This got gobbled up like nobody’s business, and Sam had a great time eating the cheesy gemelli noodles with his fingers.

(As a side note, that sprinkling of smoked paprika on top was my own addition and was really unnecessary, and I actually wished I had left it alone. Try it and see if you like it, and if you really feel like it needs more smoke, then by all means sprinkle away.)

On deck for tomorrow, another vegan product that we love!  See you then.

10. Yellow Rose Recipes – Joanna Vaught
This book has my favourite seitan recipe in the whole world (mustard crusted seitan, so ridiculously good) as well as many other easy and tasty recipes.  It is also probably the cutest book I own, as the pictures in the book are all drawn by a friend of the author, whose drawing I really love.  Sadly, it is no longer in print.  :-(  (Further sadness: Joanna is not writing cookbooks anymore, although I do have her two follow-up Potluck Mania zines.) I am not sure that I can bear to risk lending it out, but I will share recipes if anyone is interested.

9. The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen – Peter Berley
This was an early purchase for me, and remains one of my favourite cookbooks.  It is arranged seasonally and is full of both simple and more complicated recipes full of fresh veggies and beans and whole grains.  I love the mustard green beans and the romaine with miso vinaigrette and the celery salad and the stuffed collards and… pretty much everything.  There is a crazy delicious recipe with Savoy cabbage in it in there, but I can’t find it right now to tell you what it is.  SO GOOD.

8. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian – Mark Bittman
This is my current kitchen bible.  There is a recipe for pretty much anything and everything, and all are simple, relatively quick, and highlight fresh produce.  Although the cookbook is vegetarian, there are many vegan or veganizable recipes.  He also has lots of great, easy bread recipes and lots of international flavours.  Highly recommended if you are looking for an all-around resource.

7. Vegan Soul Kitchen – Bryant Terry
I haven’t cooked as much out of this book as I would like, but what I have made has been fantastic.  In particular, there is a spicy tempeh recipe with cherry tomatoes and creamy polenta that is amazing (albeit not a quick recipe) and a great BBQ tempeh sandwich.  I was hoping to get to some of his peach desserts this summer but they will have to wait for fresh peaches next year. I also love that he pairs his recipes with music and writes a lot about his family and his food memories.

6. Eat, Drink and Be Vegan – Dreena Burton
Dreena writes great family-friendly and healthy recipes, and she is a local (from White Rock), which makes me love her even more.  We have a number of her recipes on constant rotation in our house, and I find that this book is one that I pull out when I am looking to make a great dip or appetizer for Book Club – they are all awesome, and there is a whole chapter on different hummuses (hummi?). She is coming out with a new book in the spring (I think) that I can’t wait for.

5. Vegan with a Vengeance - Isa Chandra Moskowitz
So this is where my list gets funny.  I love everything that Isa has ever written, and have never encountered a cookbook author with more reliable recipes. This was her first, and was probably my first vegan cookbook. There are so many things in here that I love, from the pumpkin muffins, to the pancakes, to the biscuits and tempeh sausage gravy, to the pomegranate BBQ tofu, to the chocolate pudding, to the peanut butter pie, I could go ON and ON and ON.

4. Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World - Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
This book is my birthday cake bible.  (Funny, since it is a cupcake book.)  I have never, ever brought leftovers home from a work birthday cake, and in fact, we are always challenged to slice ever thinner slices. There is everything in here – basic chocolate and vanilla, some lower-fat recipes, gluten-free basic flavours, and then lots and lots of fantastic flavour combinations and decadent frosting and toppings.  You will never need to make a non-vegan birthday cake again.

3. Vegan Brunch – Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Brunch is honestly my favourite meal – what better excuse to have both sweet and savoury breakfast options on the same plate, especially at dinnertime?  This book is full of all kinds of pancakes, waffles and French toast to go beside my tofu and tempeh scrambles, tofu bennies and tofu omelettes. It also has the best muffin recipes I have ever made.  There are so many things in this book that I still haven’t tried – cinnamon rolls! pierogies! bagels! I love brunch!

2. Vegan Diner – Julie Hasson
I have talked about this a few times on the blog this year.  It is a beautiful cookbook with simple, delicious recipes that we have had nothing but great success with.  A really good and easy chicken-style seitan recipe (steamed), homemade BBQ sauces (yes, two), chocolate chip cookies, banana pudding pie, and most of the components to make the Mississippi Bowl from the Native Bowl food cart in Portland.  I have lots on my list still to try, including at the top of the list the pastrami-style seitan (for a Reuben) and the chocolate cherry cake.  Highly recommended.

1. Veganomicon – Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
Probably my favourite of all, Veganomicon has a mix of everything – comfort food, international flavours, easy recipes, hard recipes, fancy recipes, simple presentations, lots of veggies and beans and grains, cookies, cakes, desserts.  I can’t even count how many recipes I have made from this book, and many are among my all-time favourites.  Tamarind lentils.  Chickpeas romesco. Smlove Pie. Chewy chocolate raspberry cookies. Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake. Chickpea cutlets. Chickpea noodle soup.  These are a few of my favourite things.

(*** I am about to cheat.  Appetite for Reduction, also by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (in case you are counting, that is five Isa titles) should really be on this list, but the book is in such high rotation that it isn’t even on the shelf with the most used books, it is on the cart in the kitchen, and so I missed it until I got the end and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t on the list. This is my go-to for quick, low-fat, easy weeknight meals that are tasty and healthy.  Definitely my most used cookbook of the year.)
(*** Since I didn’t give AfR a number on this list, it is still a Top Ten list, right? RIGHT?)

There are many, many other cookbooks that I love that didn’t quite make the list today, but maybe would have on another day.  Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero is full of delicious vegan Latin food that we love, and Hearty Vegan Meals by Joni Newman and Celine Steen is another book that is relatively new but holds a lot of promise (I currently need to be eating low-fat rather than full-fat, but I am hoping to be back to some full on hearty eating soon).  Two other resource-type books I would highly recommend are 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison (my first vegetarian cookbook, a gift from my RLM colleagues, including Chad, way back in the day).

It occurs to me that I should have included a photo of our cookbook shelf, but it is way too dark right now, so maybe I will update this post in the morning. And, on that note, off to bed!

We started cooking last night at 5:40pm and were eating dessert by 10:30pm, so I feel like we had a successful meal. We had decided ahead of time that we didn’t want to do anything too fancy, but that we did want to have the traditional components of our Thanksgiving meal.

This was actually really easy meal to put together – the only real difficulty was trying to juggle everything that had to go in the oven. It would have been easier if I had pan-fried the chickpea cutlets rather than baking them, but we prefer them baked. All of these recipes are tried and true for us, and I think are all in our past holiday cookbooks, if you have those.

Clockwise from the front left: Chickpea cutlet with punk rock chickpea gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted delicata squash and roasted garlic Brussels sprouts

The only new item on the plate this year was our dessert – I wanted something pumpkin-based that was quick and easy and didn’t require any soaking, chilling or lengthy setting times.  This recipe for crustless mini pumpkin pies fit the bill perfectly.  The one problem I had with the pies was that I found them overly spiced – I used a premixed pumpkin pie spice and I think that next time around I would mix up my own and gradually up the spices to taste.  But, I loved the sweet nutty topping, and the pumpkin custard was good too, so this will definitely make another appearance on our table.

Mini. Pumpkin. Pie. Toasted pecans. Yum.

In addition to it being Thanksgiving, Sam “turned” 14 months this weekend. Here is a quick photo of him enjoying a little bowl of macaroni and cheese tonight.  He is harder to catch with the camera these days – a combination of him being less interested in the camera and more interested in just about everything else around him.  Even when he is strapped in to his highchair, he would much rather be checking out other stuff than posing for the camera.  Luckily, I got this winning smile out of him before he dove right into the pasta.

There are so many things I am thankful for this year, but I saw this posted on a friend’s Facebook page, and, other than the obvious good stuff in my life, it sums up many of the general things pretty well.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone – hope you were all able to eat a delicious meal with family and friends over the long weekend!

A few years ago, I posted about my football shake, or smoothie, and although I still love me some peanut butter chocolate goodness, I have found that what I am about to share with you has really improved my energy levels and reduced muscle cramping when I am playing football, especially when we have double headers or when I have to play an entire game without subbing. It came about after a particularly awful pre-game warm-up a few seasons ago, when, after two coffees, an energy bar and no water, I did my warm-up jog and ran one pattern (actually one half of one pattern) and suffered for the rest of the morning with a terribly cramped up hamstring and for the second half of the game with a spasming back.  Something needed to change.

I remember reading about vegan overnight oats, and did some research, and the following weekend, I broke out my first bowl.  I haven’t gone back.  This takes about 5 minutes of prep time the night  before, and then up to 10 minutes in the morning, depending on how you choose to fancify your bowl or jar or fancy servingware.

Pretty layers. This was banana-cherry "soft serve" layered with the oats.

I start with a basic bowl of overnight oats (the recipe I originally worked from is found here) and then add some fork-smashed banana or, if I have a few extra minutes, a frozen banana and a handful of frozen cherries pureed up in my food processor until they are kind of a soft ice cream texture.  Then I grab a jar and alternate layering the oats with the banana or frozen fruit blend until it looks like a parfait.  I use an old brown rice syrup jar or a Vegenaise jar (I prefer the syrup jar because it has a metal lid that seals tighter) and throw it in my bag if I don’t have time to eat before I go.  It is pretty easy on the stomach, and I have eaten leftovers between games with no stomach issues.

My vegan overnight oats combo is as follows:

• about 3/4 cup rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not quick oats)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 scoops of Amazing Grass chocolate wheatgrass powder (you can really use any kind of greens powder, or just omit it, but I picked this up on sale at Whole Foods on a whim and have been slowly working my way through the can; Angela at Oh She Glows also suggests carob powder, and you could probably use cocoa powder as long as you add a touch of sweetener, like maple syrup or agave nectar)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup soymilk or almond milk (I use unsweetened plain, but you could use vanilla- or chocolate-flavoured as well)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl until well incorporated, add the milk and vanilla, and stir together for a few minutes.  I usually like to let it sit for a few minutes so that the chia seeds start soaking up the liquid, and then give it another stir before putting it in the fridge. Let it sit overnight and eat in the morning!  It actually probably only needs to sit for an hour or two, in case you are in need of a bowl on shorter notice.

A few notes.  This stuff looks like toxic waste sludge.  It tastes kind of like cold chocolate oats, which is good, and much better than toxic waste, but to be honest, it isn’t my favourite tasting breakfast (hello, waffles and fruit and soy whipped cream and tempeh bacon).  From a performance perspective though, it has been perfect.  The other interesting note is about the chia seeds.  I find that when I drink a couple of cups of coffee in the morning and then eat something with chia seeds in it, I pee way, way less than I would normally have to.  I’m sorry, is that TMI for anyone?  But, it’s true! And so, I actually think that it helps with some of my hydration issues as well, helping my body retain the water that I do drink before I play.

See, kinda sludgy. It tastes way better than it looks.

Chia seeds are expensive, but if you are only using a tablespoon at a time like you do here, they last a long time.  And, if you want to have more fun with the ch-ch-ch-chia (sing it out, you know you want to), you can make a really easy chia seed pudding, that is dead simple to prepare while you are travelling or on vacation and is really hydrating and good for you two.  I’ll post my favourite recipe for that at some point, too.

OK, off to bed so that I can play a good game tomorrow.  We are having a bit of a dismal season from a win/loss perspective, so I am really trying to focus on playing the best game that I can play, and doing things better every week, and working as hard as I can.  It also helps to remember that lots of people aren’t in any kind of shape or situation to be able to play women’s flag football at 36 years old, and so I try to remember how lucky I am to even live in a place like Vancouver and to be healthy enough to have the opportunity.  Yay, football!

This will be me tomorrow, ten minutes before warm-up starts. Mostly empty jar of oats (last week I had smashed banana, which was already all eaten), my cleats and a really crappy sports bag. Hopefully a decent attitude, too.

I thought that I would profile a couple of my favourite vegan products this month so that people could appreciate that I still eat junk food – it just doesn’t have animals in it anymore! (I actually had someone tonight suggest that my cookie must have carob in it, since vegans CAN’T EAT CHOCOLATE, and so I felt the need to confirm that yes, many vegans do in fact eat chocolate, and a whole other range of junk foods, too.)

The first product I would like to profile is what has saved me from my crazy Kraft Dinner cravings.  Although I got over cheese pretty quickly, I still sometimes think about “cheating” with KD.  Luckily, a few years ago, I met Leahey Gardens Cheese Flavoured Sauce Mix.  Leahey also sells a prepackaged macaroni and cheese, but I prefer to buy a big bag of the sauce powder when I can find it (which, unfortunately is not as often as I would like).

If you follow the package instructions, you can cook up some cheesy sauce in no time, and if you have some leftover pasta in the fridge like I did last weekend, you can have macaroni and cheese in about ten minutes.  Probably less.  This was delicious eaten in front of this week’s episode of Fringe (which I won’t spoil, in case Rob, who is on a TV hiatus, is reading).

Hopefully I will have something a bit more interesting for you tomorrow, but at the end of a long work week, I make no promises!

This week we will feature… Buffalo Tempeh Sammies!  Over the weekend, we piled the very easy, very tasty Buffalo Tempeh recipe from Appetite for Reduction onto toasted whole grain bread, with Cool Slaw (lower-fat cole slaw, also from Appetite for Reduction) and sliced, perfectly ripe avocado.  It required a bit of preparation time (steaming and marinating the tempeh and letting the cole slaw soften up a bit in the dressing), but it was very little work and was mega-delicious.  We are already planning to make them again this week.

Crappy lighting (sorry!), but look at all that good stuff in there. Mmmmm....

As a side note, I cannot recommend Appetite for Reduction enough.  So many easy and delicious recipes, and although they are lower in fat, you wouldn’t know it.  I am only three recipes away from my goal of making 50 before my birthday!

Outta here till tomorrow!

10. South Pine Cafe – Grass Valley, CA

This probably wouldn’t have made it into the Top Ten otherwise, but it was such a surprising find in such an old California gold mining town (Grass Valley was actually really amazing, and had lots of funky shops and bookstores, but I just didn’t have great luck with food).  There were a tonne of vegan options on the menu and the food was very good.  They had delicious house-made jam and good-size portions, and I was so, SO happy that I wasn’t eating a green salad hold the cheese, egg and bacon.

Sam at the South Pine Cafe, although you can't really tell. He enjoyed some blackberry peach jam with his cereal in that bowl.

9. Sage’s Cafe and the Vertical Diner - Salt Lake City, UT

So, I’m cheating here, but I am including both of these places in one, as from all we could tell, they are sister restaurants.  Vertical Diner was casual and had great food and even had vegan options on its kids’ menu – they were wonderful to Sam and he started to learn to use a fork eating their vegan banana pancakes!  Sage’s was fancier, and had two of my favourite food items of the trip – an appetizer with roasted shiitakes on bread with carrot butter (I have since recreated this at home to rave reviews) and… wait for it… tiramisu! This was my favourite dessert of the trip by far – it has been a long time since I have been able to eat  tiramisu, and this did not disappoint.

8. Magnolia – Burlington, VT

We ate at Magnolia several times while we were in Burlington, and it was a great choice for brunch/lunch.  Sometimes when we go for brunch in a new place, I really struggle to choose between sweet and savoury.  Well, luckily, I got to try both at Magnolia – sweet French toast and savoury chickpea salad sandwich on two different days.  Perfect! The service here was always friendly and the house-made jams were to die for.  It’s a bit hard to find, as it is tucked away below the level of the main street, but it is well worth seeking it out if you are in town.

7. Frida’s – Stowe, VT

Frida’s had lovely, fresh Mexican food and the most amazing, enormous bowl of guacamole. Sometimes fresh guacamole is all a girl needs.  (The rest of the food and drink was good, too.)

6. Aux Vivres – Montreal, QC

Holy moley, do I love Montreal.  We had about two hours in Montreal before we flew home (most of which was spent navigating through various construction detours), but we made it to Aux Vivres and had an amazing lunch.  I had a Choco-Classique smoothie and a Vegelox wrap (vegan “lox” with cream cheese and veggies all rolled up in a chapathi) and I was so full after, I could hardly get back in the car.  But, I got to order in French! And speak French to the waitress! And gaze at all of the French-ness of Montreal as we drove through on our way back to the airport!  Magnifique!!

5. Native Bowl - Portland, Oregon

In my previous post, I talked about the food cart scene in Portland and my bad food cart luck in Vancouver, but I didn’t mention that I have had equally bad (actually, worse) luck with actually eating at a food cart in Portland.  Our trip to Native Bowl this summer was our first successful trip to a food cart, and it was really amazing.  I ate the Mississippi Bowl (BBQ soy curls, rice, coleslaw and ranch sauce) and had a Chocolate Cup (warm chocolate cake and chocolate sauce in a little paper cup!) for dessert. I actually tried to recreate the Mississippi Bowl at home when we got back (using the recipes from the owner’s book, Vegan Diner, which I have mentioned here before). We were wildly successful in our attempts, but it wasn’t the same as eating the real thing at a little table in Portland with my boys.  Behold my photo series:

Sam and I in the seating area. Unfortunately Native Bowl is to my left in this photo, so you can't see it. But, we are cute, so hopefully that makes up for it.

Terrible photo, delicious food. Mississippi Bowl!

My Mississippi Bowl. A better picture, and although it wasn't as good as the real thing, still pretty delicious! Look at those tasty BBQ soy curls hiding under there.

4. Mint - Waitsfield, VT

So, I just typed Mint’s name with a bit of a lump in my throat.  We had a lovely, peaceful lunch at Mint at the tail end of our trip to Vermont – the food was fantastic (I had a tempeh bowl that was better than anything I have ever had at home, and the tofu sauce on that bowl was one of the best sauces I have ever had), the hibiscus cooler was deliciously refreshing in the heat and the restaurant space was so calming and bright and soothing.  The restaurant was located in a multi-level little commercial space beside the river running through Waitsfield and after lunch, we stopped and watched a couple of kids jumping off of a covered bridge into a deep pool beside the bridge.  It was a pretty nice afternoon.  Well, sadly, if you click through to Mint’s website, you will see that when Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast in August, the whole space was terribly flooded and they are now serving lunch out of a church basement while they try to rebuild their space (the pictures as you scroll down the page are really crazy). I really hope they are able to get back up and running, because this was such a beautiful space and amazing food.  Virtual hugs to them!!

3. A Single Pebble - Burlington, VT

This place wins for major underdog of the summer.  Although Chad and I like Chinese food, and there is almost always some kind of Chinese vegetarian option in most major (and not-so-major) North American cities, we NEVER go out for Chinese food. I think because when it is bad, it is so bad (oh, Chinese take-out restaurant in Park City, Utah, I am looking at you).  We had plans to go to a different restaurant, and it was closed for a private function, so we just kept walking around and when we walked by Single Pebble, I recognized it as being on a blog list I had read about good vegan eats in Vermont.  Well, I never.  The food was excellent – non-greasy, spicy in that gingery-garlicky-red pepper flakes way I love, and so so flavourful.  I still have dreams about their Salt and Pepper Tofu.  Dreams, people.  If you ever go to Burlington, you MUST go here.

2. Watercourse Foods - Denver, CO

The #2 spot was a pretty easy choice for me.  Watercourse was in a beautiful, bright, airy space in a lovely part of Denver, and it probably had my favourite menu of the summer.  A tonne of choices, including breakfast/brunch options at lunch, and all vegetarian, with lots of vegan substitution options.  I had a Po Boy sandwich on an amazing roll, with a polenta-encrusted portobello mushroom (WHAT), coleslaw and a chipotle mayo type dressing.  Ridiculous.  The menu here made me want to move to Denver so that I could try everything.  Including the VEGAN CHEESE PLATE.  Yes, that is for real. I am still kicking myself for opting for mediocre pub food on our first day in Denver when I could have been eating a cheese plate.

1. Millenium – San Francisco, CA

This was the easiest pick of the list.  I already wrote about our fabulous dinner here, but suffice it to say, the food was magnificent, the restaurant itself is beautiful and the service was impeccable.  Oh, and Vegan White Russians.  YES.

Black and White Russian.

There were so many honourable mentions (Zudaka in Boulder! VG Burgers in Boulder! Skinny Pancake in Burlington! Leaf in Boulder!), and I intentionally left off a few of our old standbys (Boundary Bay in Bellingham! Pepper Sisters in Bellingham! Vita in Portland!) in favour of new(er) places.

I also would feel remiss if I did not mention two of the very best meals of our whole trip that weren’t in a restaurant.  First, Ryan and Sonia Gallagher hosted us in their super cute house in Portland on our way back from California in June. We had lasagna and salad made with fresh veggies from their garden (so jealous!), we had an assortment of treats from Back to Eden bakery (LOVE this place) for dessert, and most importantly, we got to visit and catch up and show off Sam and see them before their lovely daughter, Naomie, was born in early August.

Sam all tucked in for supper at the Gallaghers. Bring on the food!

Then, on the way home from our travels through Vermont, we stopped in to see our friends, Gilles Barbeau and Lucinda Iglesias, in their beautiful new home in Sutton, Quebec.  We ate hearty bowls of grilled veggie pasta outside under the trees and finished off the evening with fresh, summer berries dripping with the lightest, clearest maple syrup you have ever seen (we even brought a few cans home with us and broke one out for Sam’s birthday).

We are so lucky to have such great friends, who will chef us up delicious and healthy food at a moment’s notice, and welcome us into their homes when we are weary from being on the road.

What an amazing summer of food! And, I haven’t even talked about all of the sweets yet.

(Phew, that was a long Top Ten.  I promise the rest will be shorter.  See you tomorrow!!!)

Many of you will know of my love for the food cart scene in Portland.  I have for many years talked about packing up shop as a lawyer and starting up my own food truck.  Imagine my excitement when, in the spring of 2010, I heard that the City of Vancouver was approving a series of food carts, mostly downtown!

Unfortunately for me, the carts weren’t set to roll out until July 31st, and I was supposed to have a baby on August 12th. I stalked the cart line-up for weeks beforehand, and on the first work day after the August long weekend, I wandered around to all of the proposed locations.  (At least all of the proposed locations within a few block radius of my office. I was 9 months pregnant after all.)

Nothing! Nada! Zero!  There was one lonely, closed-up cart, and every other street corner was empty. Never mind the fact that none of the carts I had previewed online seemed to offer any kind of vegan options, I would have ordered carrot sticks. Or fries. Or a freaking bottle of water! On my last few days in the office, I made some halfhearted efforts to wander around, trying not to look desperate while standing on (swollen) tippy-toes so that I could see if there was SOMEONE IN THAT CART WITH THE WINDOW LATCHED SHUT.  There wasn’t.

Of course, Sam arrived a few days early, and I never got to sample food cart fare.  Any time we made it downtown while I was on leave, we got sucked into spending every non-fussy minute in the office visiting with people and when we did stop for food, I made a point of going to my favourite downtown lunch spot, Gorilla Foods. (I am hoping to post about Gorilla later this month.)

Well, after a few botched attempts over the last two weeks, I finally, FINALLY got to eat lunch at a food cart downtown today.  And it was good!  And it was vegan!!  It was raining and I didn’t have an umbrella and I didn’t even CARE!!!

Food cart love.

The food truck was Off the Wagon, and to be fair, I knew that I was getting good food before I went there today.  They sell their delicious yam and black bean vegan tacos at the Kitsilano farmers market most weekends, and I devoured a pair of tacos for breakfast on more than one sunny Sunday over the summer. But, there was something super sweet today about sitting at my desk, working, and eating good, fresh vegan food for lunch, while it was a dark and wet and grey Vancouver day outside my window.  It isn’t easy to find good vegan eats in the heart of downtown, and on rainy days like today, the walk to Gorilla, or Nuba or La Taqueria a couple blocks further down, is just a little bit daunting (albeit well worth the wet pant legs, foggy glasses and flattened hair).

Look at those delicious tacos. The yellow stuff on top is wonderful, wonderful hot sauce.

I have a few more food carts picked out to try downtown with vegan potential, so we will see how that goes.  The one wrinkle here in Vancouver is that the carts are not allowed to park overnight, and so many of them change locations on a weekly or even daily basis. I got lucky today, as Off the Wagon wasn’t downtown my first week back in the office and so they were off my radar.  Hopefully they will stick around, as I would love to have their tacos as a regular lunch option!

However, my research has assured me that I can still participate, and so I think I am going to try to do it.  The (highly encouraged) commitment level is 20 posts in a month, which works out to pretty much every weekday.  Do you think I can do it? I would like to think so, but life isn’t always as predictable as I would like.  At the same time, I am feeling like I need to stop thinking about doing things, and at least TRY to do them, whether or not I think I may fail.  This is a really big step for me.

So, starting tomorrow, I am going to try to post every weekday.  My plan is to have some themed days of the week, but I haven’t actually settled on all five themes yet, so you will have to wait to find out what they are. I am considering including “Top Ten Tuesdays”, “What We Ate”, “Wild Card Fridays”, something about Sam and his food, maybe standard vegan ingredients, and also something about veganizing things that I ate “before”.  Some of these posts will be about things I have been working on before this month but just haven’t had time to share on this blog.  I am also open to suggestions – if you have anything at all that you are interested in reading about, let me know in the comments and I will try to work it in.  (Kori, if you haven’t given up on me, I am planning to write something about tempeh, but haven’t yet figured out if I have enough for a whole post just on tempeh!)

Wish me luck – I really do hope that I can pull this off.  In the meantime, I figure I should post something about food. So, here is something really wonderful that I ate when we were in Boulder, Colorado in August.  We were at a restaurant called V.G. Burgers that bills itself as vegan fast food – we had veggie burgers and fries that were quite good, but this hot fudge sundae was definitely my highlight. It was stink hot in Boulder this day, and this was pretty much exactly what I needed after lunch.  It was freaking amazing. Sam and I shared, and as you can see, he approved.

(As a side note, when we were at Millenium in San Francisco in June, Sam wanted nothing to do with the fancy schmancy ridiculously delicious mint brownie sundae that I had there.  This old school version two months later, however, was right up his alley. My kind of kid.)

This counts as a post, right?