Czech Vegan (in America)

Fiesta Kale Salad

2012-03-04T17:48:00.003-05:00

Fiesta Kale Salad

1 bunch kale (about 9-10 large leaves)

1 red bell pepper, core and seeds removed, diced

3 tomatoes, diced

1 cucumber, peeled and diced

1/4 red onion, chopped

Dressing:

2 large avocados, pitted and peeled

juice from 1 lime

1/3 cup water

1/4 tsp of ground chipotle pepper (or more if you like spicy foods)

salt to taste

Remove tough stems from the kale and tear leaves into bite-size pieces. Wash the leaves and drain excess water. Place the kale into a large bowl.

Put all ingredients for the dressing into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy, adding more water if the dressing is too thick. Pour the dressing over kale leaves. Rub the dressing into kale with your hands, making sure each leaf is covered.

Add the the rest of the vegetables and toss with kale. season with slat to taste.

Stash Tea Review

2012-03-03T22:38:00.005-05:00

STASH Tea company kindly sent me a few samples of three of their decaf and caffeine free teas to try. Here is my review:

Raspberry & White Decaf Tea

This tea is great! It smells like a raspberry jam and has a pleasantly smooth taste, with a beautiful raspberry aftertaste, and no bitterness. I really enjoyed this tea!

Lavender-Tulsi Herbal Tea

Tulsi is the most sacred herb of India. People also call it Holly Basil. It is a stress relieving, energizing tea that promotes healthy metabolism, boosts immunity and enhances stamina. In a combination with relaxing and anti-inflammatory lavender, this tea is a very healthy and holistic drink.

The aroma of this tea reminds me of my lavender bath salts. It has a very sweet, herbal taste with a slight minty aftertaste. However, the strong lavender aroma is a bit overpowering for me.

Red Berry Rooibos (Chanakara Tea)

This tea was inspired by Chakra 1. You can read more about Chakras and teas that help balance, energize and tune your Chakras here.

Uva Ursi is a wonderful herbal remedy for urinary track infections so this tea would be a good idea if you have problems with UTIs.

This tea makes a beautiful red brew with strong fruity aroma. It has a sweet berry, tangy and smooth taste.

STASH Tea company carries a wide selection of teas, teaware, gifts and treats. Learn more about their teas on their website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter

Your Daily Vegan Needs Your Help!

2012-02-28T21:53:00.003-05:00

Have you heard about Your Daily vegan blog yet? It is an awesome vegan online community with vegan news, recipes, events, reviews, giveaways, health info, shopping and much more.

The wonderful girl who runs this blog needs our help. In the beginning of February her dog Ollie got very sick. After several trips to an emergency room her doggie died. That tragedy was followed by her kitty Lakini getting very sick. In one month she had to deal with a serious illness in two animals and a loss of one. Lakini is now fighting for her life, but the future does not look very bright. My heart aches for KD and her family. KD is dealing with so much right now, including a very large vet bill for over $5,500 ! She did everything she could for Ollie and is doing everything she can for Lakini. I am trying to help her raise some money to cover some of her vet bills to ease her worries. You can read more about Ollie here . KD is selling shirts to raise money for her vet bills. Please, head on over to her YDV Souvenir shop and buy a shirt (or two). Or you can donate money directly without buying a shirt here. Every bit helps, even $1 helps! If you cannot donate any money, please, donate your time and share this with your friends and on your Facebook and Twitter. Dear vegans, let's help KD and show her that the vegan community is supportive!

Ensalada Catalana (Catalan Salad)

2012-02-27T23:01:00.002-05:00

I took a Mediterranean Cooking Class last month. All recipes were amazing, but the only recipe that I made at home so far, is this potato and bean salad. I made it several times already, it is sooooooo good! I will be making the other recipes soon. This salad is pretty easy to make and it looks beautiful! It is just cooked potatoes, green olives, onions, bell pepper, tomatoes, lima beans and some lettuce or mixed herbs as a base, and a herbal salad dressing.

When I first made it, I used the recommended amount of oil for the dressing, 1 full cup of olive oil blended with fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, basil and marjoram), vinegar and a liquid sweetener. The original recipe calls for honey but I used agave nectar instead. All that gets blended in a blender into a smooth, creamy green dressing. It smells divine! However, 1 cup of oil was too much for me so when I made it again, I used mostly water as a base and a tablespoon of oil. It was still very good, but not as greasy.

This is the original version

Healthy Eats

2012-02-26T12:14:00.004-05:00

Here are some healthy (or relatively healthy) meals that I have been eating lately. Enjoy!

Baked falafel with tzatziki sauce (garlic, cucumber, dill, lemon juice and plain-unsweetened soy yogurt), all made from scratch. The falafel was good, but I think that the deep fried, traditionally made, falafel tastes million times better :-) Falafel is usually served with some tahini sauce, but I like this refreshing Greek sauce better.

Brown rice with roasted chickpeas, Garlicky Cheezy Kale , and steamed broccolini.

Mashed potatoes with mashed Brussels sprouts blended together, and served with roasted chickpeas.

My first ever spinach strawberry salad with poppyseed dressing. The poppyseed dressing was creamy, but it was too rich for me.

Warm mashed polenta (homemade for the first time) with steamed chopped greens.

Brown rice spaghetti with homemade tomato and chickpeas sauce.

Sweeeeeet Life

2012-02-24T22:57:00.004-05:00

I made homemade vegan truffles for my husband for Valentine's day. I used Ikea's heart shaped ice cube trays for that. One truffle was chocolate cherry (a mixture of melted chocolate chips with chopped cherries that was solidified in the fridge), and the other was chocolate with creamy peppermint centers. The chocolate with peppermint centers took me about an hour to make. I melted some vegan chocolate chips with a dab of melted vegan shortening that I stirred into a smooth, creamy consistency. Using a food paintbrush, I carefully brushed a thin layer inside of each heart shaped mold. I placed that into the freezer for a few minutes to firm up the chocolate. Meanwhile, I made the creamy centers by mixing vegan powdered sugar, a bit of almond milk and peppermint oil. I carefully filled each heart shaped shell with the creamy peppermint mixture and placed that into the freezer again, until it was firm. Then I brushed the tops with more melted chocolate and put everything into the fridge. About an hour later I gently removed the truffles from the tray. The results were beyond my expectations :-) My husband loved it very much and I enjoyed a few pieces as well. I will make it again soon.

I was craving a banana pudding recently so I made my own. I used Czech vegan vanilla pudding mix that I prepared in almond milk. I topped the pudding with bananas and broken animal crackers :-) Soooooo good!

Exciting new logo and a blog color makeover

2012-02-24T22:41:00.007-05:00

I am so excited to share my new, custom made blog logo and a Czech Vegan blog official mascot with you. It is a cartoon version of my English Cocker Spaniel Shelly in an apron. She is holding Czech veganized kolache (traditional Czech pastry), and a teapot, which represents my love for baked goods and tea. Also her apron has some important details that are a big part of my life, such as vegetables and fruits, plus cooking and baking. I had a very detailed vision in my head for the past year and recently my friend's husband, an amazing artist, made my vision come to life! I could not be happier with the results! He captured my Shelly so perfectly I almost cried when I saw the final work. How do you like it? I also changed my blog color from green and red to pink, but I might go back to green or go with yellow in the future. What do you think?

Have a great weekend!

New Vegan Blog/Website

2012-02-12T21:24:00.003-05:00

I am so excited to share this wonderful news with you! My friends Elena and Seth started a very unique vegan website-blog with articles, videos, useful tips, events and their vegan culinary adventures. They cook recipes from cookbooks, magazines and other sources and then rate the meals. Please, check them out at Vegan ESP :-)

And check out Elena's informative article about tofu aka The Tofu Manifesto .

2011 Vegan Awards

2012-01-29T15:37:00.020-05:00

Here are the winners of my personal Vegan Awards for 2011:

Best legume/bean :

Chickpeas

Chickpeas are amazing and so versatile! I love roasted chickpeas in quinoa, spinach and cranberry salad, roasted chickpeas as a snack, or sauteed chickpeas with vegetables. I love falafel, hummus and The Sexy Vegan's mock tuna salad , and chickpea mock crab cakes.

Best Vegan Sausage:

Field Roast Frankfurters (picture courtesy of Field Roast)

These sausages are addictive! I can eat them hot or cold and never get tired of them. They remind me of my favorite Czech sausages.

Best Cookbook:

The Happy Herbivore by Lindsay S. Nixon

This was the most frequently used vegan cookbook in my kitchen in 2011. The recipes are low in fat or fat free, yet very flavorful, delightful and easy to make. I made almost all recipes from that cookbook, many of them multiple times.

Best Chocolate:

Chocolove xoxox (Orange peel in Dark Chocolate)

and Whole Foods Dark Chocolate with Coconut

Best Tea:

The Republic of Tea Apricot Decaf Black Tea

and Rishi Cinnamon Plum

Best Plant-Based Milk:

Whole Foods Unsweetened Almond milk

This milk is amazing! It has only 40 calories a cup and I use it for everything from Overnight Oats, puddings, creamy soups and sauces, baked goods to smoothies. I also enjoy a splash of this milk in my tea.

Best Meat Alternative:
Gardein's Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n
A tasty chicken alternative, with fantastic texture and seasonings.

Best snack:
Marinated Collard Greens! I make these very often and when I don't make them, I buy them at Whole Foods's deli bar. Here is my recipe.

My personal best recipe of 2011:
Vegan paella with Sophie's Kitchen vegan prawns. This recipe won me a Kindle in a recipe contest :-) I am very proud of this recipe and I make it quite often. I made the recipe pretty simple so everyone can make it at home. You can leave out the vegan sausages and the vegan prawns if you don't have them, but the recipe will miss them.

Best vegan pizza:

Mellow Mushroom pizza with some many options-I still haven't tried them all :-)

Best vegan friendly grocery store:

Sevananda Natural Foods Market because they only sell vegetarian and vegan products (with the exception of cat and dog food). They also make awesome baked goods and have delicious hot and cold bar options everyday.

Best drink:
Caffeine-free and decaffeinated tea :-) I have quite a collection and love them all for different reasons.

Best grain:
Quinoa (a delicious, versatile and nutritious grain with funny "tails")

Here is my favorite way to enjoy quinoa, in a roasted chickpea salad with raw spinach and dried cranberries.

I also love my quinoa tabbouleh salad

Best vegan friendly restaurant:
World Peace Cafe is a vegetarian restaurant that is run by volunteers. They offer a great selection of vegan and vegetarian foods, wide assortment of teas and delicious vegan cakes. I love volunteering in the kitchen there. The staff is very nice and when I volunteer there I learn so much about cooking and food and ways to keep my mind calm and peaceful.

And their Peace burger is the best vegan burger that I have EVER had! Here is a picture of the burger from their website. They offer meditation classes every Thursday evening. More info here.

Best vegetable:

Kale

I became a kale addict overnight. I used to hate kale and then one day I had some kale salad at Whole Foods and boom! A new kale addict was born :-)

I love my kale raw, but I do enjoy it cooked as well (or baked into kale chips)

Not sure what to do with kale?

Try my kale recipes:

Garlicky Cheezy Kale

Winter bulgur & vegetable medley

Lemon kale pesto

Kale with creamy avocado and lime dressing

Kale salad three ways

What are your 2011 winners?

Brown rice four ways

2012-01-29T02:08:00.002-05:00

I ate a lot of brown rice this week. I precooked the brown rice and then made easy and quick meals later in the week.

Brown rice and stir-fry made with fresh (not frozen) vegetables, and Gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n. I have been eating very little processed foods lately, but I was craving this fake chicken and since I already had some in the freezer, I used it in this stir-fry.

This lovely green dish is brown rice with raw spinach and cooked green peas.

Brown rice and black beans topped with tomato salsa, green onions, and crushed tortilla chips.

Edamame, brown rice and bell pepper medley.

Creamy salad dressing

2012-01-22T21:07:00.002-05:00

This salad dressing is tasty, oil-free, low fat, nutrient dense and easy breezy to make. I served it over my dinner salad.

Creamy salad dressing

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained

1-2 cloves garlic

juice from 1 lemon

1/2 cup of water (or more if you prefer thinner dressing)

4 Tbs nutritional yeast

salt to taste

Place all ingredients into a food processor or a blender and blend until smooth and creamy, adding more water until you reach desired consistency. Season with salt to taste. You can store this dressing in a refrigerator for up to three days.

Mediterranean Flavors Cooking Class

2012-01-22T18:15:00.008-05:00

Earlier today I attended my very first cooking class. This Mediterranean Flavors cooking class was held at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants "Cafe Sunflower" in Sandy Springs.

The restaurant owners Lin and Edward Sun, and their daughter Jenny Sun created a very nice atmosphere and a great cooking demo area. I attended this class with about 20 other people, mostly women.

The menu:

Meatless Harira (Moroccan Ramadan Soup) with Harissa

Tagine of Soy Chicken, Preserved Lemons and Olives served over Couscous

Ensalada Catalana

Chef Marc Jolis was teaching this class with the help of his assistants Jackie (a culinary school student) and Edward Sun. Chef Marc Jolis was amazing! I found his style of teaching style very informative, fun, and easy to follow. I enjoyed all the tasty tidbits that accompanied each recipe. It was really interesting to learn not just about the recipes, but also the origin of the dishes and other interesting information about many of the key ingredients. Besides the fact that I learned how to prepare these dishes step by step, I also learned how to preserve my own lemons, prepare fresh Moroccan hot sauce "Harissa", store ingredients before using them in dishes, press ginger in a new way, dress salad with vinaigrette, cut and dice bell pepper, peel tomatoes, and so much more.

Even though I cook often and know a lot of techniques and tricks around the kitchen, I still learned a lot today. It was a very inspiring cooking class and I cannot wait to make these dishes at home. I loved this food journey around the Mediterranean sea!

I was even able to take home a jar with a preserved lemon :-) It will be ready in four weeks.

Chef Marc Jolis stirring the Soy Tagine that was prepared in a traditional tagine dish with a unique cover. Words cannot describe the wonderful, strong aroma of this dish while it was cooking! All the lovely spices came together and created a very flavorful and aromatic meal.

The last touch of olives and preserved lemons.

And here is my bowl of delicious Soy chicken tagine. The flavors were very bring and they lingered in my mouth a long after I was done eating. The preserved lemons gave this dish a perfect touch.

A wonderful Meatless Harira soup accompanied by spicy Harissa condiment. This soup was fantastic!!! Just the perfect amount of heat, bursting with flavor!

I will be making this soup soon.

My bowl of Meatless Harira soup.

Chef Marc Jolis demonstrating the proper bell pepper cutting technique.

Peeling tomatoes for the Ensalada Catalana.

Beautiful Ensalads Catalana with arugula, drizzled with El Alino salad dressing.

I cannot wait to attend the next cooking class! If you live in Atlanta, or near by, you have to visit Cafe Sunflower! They have two locations, one in Buckhead and one in Sandy Springs.

They have some of the best vegan dishes that I have ever tasted! And they even sell a cookbook with many of their famous recipes.

Follow Cafe Sunflower on Twitter or Like them on Facebook

Healthy Eats

2012-01-19T22:49:00.003-05:00

Quinoa, dried cranberries, spinach and roasted chickpeas with roasted sweet potatoes. I used chipotle chili powder, garlic powder and onion powder for the sweet potatoes to give them a lot of flavor.

Raw kale salad with Happy Herbivore's Alfredo sauce (I added raw garlic and lemon juice to the sauce), steamed cauliflower and cooked chickpeas.

Brown rice, lentils, tofu, red bell pepper and onion medley with raw spinach salad.

The same as above, minus the red bell pepper and tofu.

Raw cauliflower and spinach risotto made in my brand new food processor :-)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

2012-01-19T22:41:00.003-05:00

Do you like books?

Check out my very first YA book review on a new BLOG

Bear loves reading dystopian books and gives this one 5 out of 5 paws :-)

Where is my home?

2012-01-14T21:23:00.010-05:00

The Czech national anthem starts "Kde domov můj, kde domov můj?" (Where is my home, where is my home? ).

I often ask that question myself. To me home is where my heart is, which means here in Atlanta with my husband and our furry babies. However, a big part of my soul is still back in the Czech Republic. People often ask me if I miss my homeland. There are things that I miss about living in the Czech Republic and there are things that I do not miss at all. I have lived in Atlanta, GA (USA) for almost 7 years now. All of my personal experience about the USA is based on this city. I have visited Florida and Louisiana though.

I made a list of things that I miss and that I do not miss. I think that you might find my observations interesting since it shows some of the differences between Czech and American culture and their standards of living. These observations and opinions are strictly my personal, even though it might seem like a generalization. I will be going back to edit this post when I get some more ideas in the future :-)

I miss:

*FAMILY (Yes, my whole family is still there and since my husband is American, I do not have anyone here from the Czech Republic besides my doggie Shelly and a few Czech friends that I met here).

*Czech friends

*Prague- I have been to most European cities and Prague to me is the most beautiful, magical and amazing city that I have ever been to. I was born and raised in Prague and I know every little corner of this fairy-tale like city. I have seen Prague go through changes but the spirit and the core of Prague stays the same. Prague's architecture is magnificent and her beauty is captivating. When you are in Prague you travel in time into the Midieval times, through the Renaissance, Baroque and back to the 21st century. There is always something to do in Prague-museums, theaters, coffee shops, clubs, river boat trips, feeding swans and ducks by the Vltava river, hanging out downtown, roller-skating in a park or spending a day in the main library. You never get bored there and you can have fun even with very little money. Nightlife there is so much more fun than in Atlanta, especially when you walk across the Charles Bridge at 2 am...........

*Public transportation-You can ride with your dog (as long as he/she has a muzzle) :-))

The bus, subway and tramway system in Prague is fast, convenient and reliable. You can get anywhere in Prague and most of the time you only wait 5-10 for a bus, tramway or a subway. The night buses are awesome, too and they are fun to ride. You often ride a night bus with bunch of drunk, singing and joking people :-) And you can ride for free after the midnight (because nobody checks your ticket late in the evening.) You can live your whole life in Prague without owning a car and you would be fine. Public transportation in Atlanta is horrible. The usual time I have to wait is 30-40 minutes for a bus in the middle of the day. The buses do not go into many parts of Atlanta so you still need a car or a taxi. And you cannot take your dog with you (unless he/she is in a small crate or you have a guide dog).

*Trains- Czech trains and buses are relatively cheap and get you anywhere around Czech Republic. You can ride with your dog as well. I used to take Shelly with me everywhere.

*Cheap beer and the fact that you can drink in public :-) Beer is actually cheaper than soda or water in Czech Republic, bizarre but true. And I like that you can buy hard liquor at any grocery store and at most bus stops (at the newsstand) . Until a few weeks ago you could not buy alcohol in Georgia on Sundays. And grocery stores only sell wine and beer, no liquor.

*I miss how close Czech Republic was to other countries so traveling was fairly easy and fun

*Three different kinds of mineral water- non sparkling, lightly sparkling and regular sparkling (no kidding) LOL

*Fresh produce-Red currants, black currants, porcini mushrooms, gooseberries and wild blueberries

*Mushroom hunting on the weekends

*Ground poppy seeds and poppy seed pastry

*I miss the fact that Czech Republic is very dog friendly compared to Georgia. You can bring your dogs almost everywhere in the Czech Republic, including most stores

*I miss shorter working hours and weekends spent camping, hiking, snowboarding or swimming in lakes and ponds

*I miss the "safe" nature without poisonous spiders and snakes.

*Swimming in lakes, ponds, and rivers with my dog

*Four seasons-I love how different the spring, summer, autumn and winter were compare to the seasons in Atlanta. We only have two seasons in Atlanta, insanely long summer and short annoying winter without snow

*Small bakeries, vegetable and fruit stores and other small shops

*Tearooms and Teashops

*The diversity in stores, unique shops

*Snow

*An abundance of English Cocker Spaniels

*My favorite tofu spread

*Free healthcare

*Czech humor

*Easy and fun traveling

*Warm and welcoming people (the ones that are like that, but many can be bitter and unfriendly)

*Czech movies and books (even though I watch Czech movies frequently online, or on DVDs that my family sends me)

*Czech castles and nature

*Hedgehogs

*Vending machines with hot soup, coffee and hot chocolate at every subway station

*Lack of censorship

I don't miss:

*Seeing children peeing and pooping in the middle of the street (no joke)

*Seeing men peeing at every possible corner in any city or village, usually near pubs. Peeing in public for men is a normal part of life even though to me it is quite disgusting. One reason for that is the fact that we don't have free restrooms. Not all men pee in public though.

*Being bothered by prostitutes and drug dealers in Prague, especially downtown in the evening hours

*Not having a dishwasher or a dryer. I used to have to hang my clothes on the balcony and let it air dry. That could take days depending on the weather. In the winter the clothes would freeze and become hard as a rock so I would have to hang them in my bathroom, above my bathtub.

*Pickpockets. I cannot even count how many times I had been a victim of these thieves, my wallet was stolen at least once a year, my cell phones, walkman, money and camera were stolen as well.

*No free water in restaurants- In the USA when you dine out or even go to a fast food, you can ask for free water, and many restaurants bring you a glass of water as soon as you sit down. In Czech Republic you have to pay for water. The reason for that is simple, they want to make money and Czechs are known for being cheap so nobody would order soda or a fancy drink if they got free water. With the exception of beer, most Czechs will have a beer with their heavy, greasy lunch. And since beer is cheaper than water, it is not that bad :-)

*Restaurants charging for a basket of bread or a bowl of almonds served with your meal. The bread is really funny. They will bring you a big basket of stale bread that has been passed around from customer to customer and before you leave they count how many slices you ate and they charge you for each slice....... And if you are a tourist and don't know about this and eat the whole basket..... well, for the price of one slice at a restaurant you can almost buy a whole loaf of bread at a store :-)

*Smoking! Smoking everywhere, including restaurants. When I eat, the last thing I want is to smell and inhale someone's cigarette smoke. My whole Czech family smokes and it drives me crazy! I love that America is so anti-smoking.

*Paid public restrooms. Every time you have to pee or wash your hands when you are away from home you have to pay (it's about 25 cents which for us is not cheap). Most public restrooms don't even have a free toilet paper. You get a tiny piece of toilet paper from the "Toilet lady" that collects your money. Many public restrooms even charge extra for the "washroom" if you want to wash your hands. That is just insane!!!! Even McDonalds restrooms are not free downtown Prague. But they give you a coupon to use for your next visit. And Starbucks restrooms are locked with a coded door. When you buy something from them they give you a receipt that has a number that you use to get into the restroom. No purchase, no restroom! This is mostly done in effort to keep all the prostitutes and druggies away from the public restrooms. Does it work? Heck no, prostitutes and druggies have money and 25 cents to them is nothing. The only good thing about all this paid public restroom thing is the facts that it keeps old ladies employed after they retire, and the restrooms are fairly clean. The worst part of all is the fact that most restrooms use bar hand soap, which is disgusting, so bring your own hand sanitizer (and some toilet paper).

*Stinky people who do not shower or wear deodorants, and wear the same shirt for a week.

Most Czech men take shower only every other day, or less often. Most of them do not use a deodorant or a cologne because they believe that "a real man should stink like a man". Also most Czech men think that taking care of yourself is for women or metrosexuals. This is an observation that I have done over 21 years of my life there.

*Seeing people drinking a beer at a bus stop at 7 am!!

*Many disgusting foods such as boiled pork knees, veal brain, stewed kidneys, baked livers and lard

*Gloomy autumns

*The way some men treat women there

*Harsh and loooooong winters

*Seeing bitter and depressed people

*Customer service, or rather the lack of customer service

*Listening to my constantly unhappy, complaining and bitter family and neighbors

This is Karlštejn, my favorite Czech castle

This is Liberec, a city near he German border

Shelly loves snow! She used to play in snow for hours and it was the funniest thing ever to watch her

A view over Czech, Polish and German borders

A small city where my great-grandma lives

Feeding swans and ducks by the Vltava river

Hedgehog eating his evening meal before heading back into the nature

Brown rice and edamame medley with spicy peanut sauce

2012-01-13T23:22:00.003-05:00

This was a tasty, easy and healthy dinner. I made brown rice and edamame medley and served that with a homemade spicy peanut sauce that gave it a lot of flavor. Unfortunately, I cannot post the recipe for the peanut sauce because it belongs to the World Peace Cafe where I volunteer. Try their Veggie Rice Bowl with a spicy peanut sauce next time you go there :-)

Raw Beet Burgers

2012-01-13T23:18:00.002-05:00

Raw beet burgers on Romaine lettuce buns (another recipe from the Raw Food-a complete guide to every meal of the day cookbook).

RAW Pasta with Pumpkin seed Parmesan and Quinoa Tacos

2012-01-09T21:10:00.003-05:00

Last night I made my very first raw pasta. The pasta was made out of raw zucchini that was peeled into thick strips using a potato peeler. The toppings were raw marinated mushrooms, tomatoes and raw pumpkin seed Parmesan cheese. The recipes were from Raw Food (A complete guide to every meal of the day) cookbook. The pasta with mushrooms and tomatoes was very good, and the pumpkin seed Parmesan was addictive! I ate most of the pumpkin seed Parmesan with a spoon, I could not stop..........

The only complain that I have is that the dish was not filling at all. I felt as if I ate a small bowl of salad and I was still hungry afterwords. Maybe the problem was that I did not have the sunflower sprouts that the recipe called for. If I added those, maybe my stomach would feel fuller.

Tonight's dinner was great! Quinoa tacos :-) Quinoa, shredded raw zucchini (leftover middle parts from last night's recipe), chopped sun-dried tomatoes, raw spinach and seasonings. And that was scooped into big lettuce leaves which made it look like green tacos :-)

Healthy, filling and delicious.

Soyummi giveaway winners

2012-01-08T00:00:00.005-05:00

Picture source

Thank you everyone who entered my Soyummi giveaway. I picked three winners using number generator on www.random.org

And the winners are:

Comment number 9- EmeraldandJade

Comment number 25- Jordan

Comment number 33- PurpleLarkspur

Congratulations! I will be contacting you via email to get your address.

Healthy Eats

2012-01-07T23:24:00.005-05:00

Here are some of my "Healthy Eats". I have to say, I am really surprised with myself. I was worried that I would not stick to this "whole foods, unprocessed" diet after I went shopping to Whole Foods and saw all the vegan junk food and smelled freshly baked Italian bread......I had to hold myself back from buying some of the stuff that I recently gave up. I was thinking, mmmmm, freshly baked bread, just a slice....Well, I knew in the back of my mind that one slice would quickly turn into eating the whole loaf. Some with vegan butter and jam, some with vegan butter and Marmite and some with Tofurky deli slices and vegan mayo. Then I would come back to the store and get a Tofurky pizza and a jar of pickles and I would be back right where I started, maybe even worse.

I have been reading tons of books about vegan nutrition and nutrition in general and I am learning something new everyday. I am not perfect and never will be so I am not making the best choices in my diet, but I am making better and healthier choices.

Black beans with onions, avocado, lime juice and roasted red pepper

Leftover black beans over baked sweet potato

Quinoa with chopped raw kale and spinach, seasoned with tamari and lemon juice

Five grain bread with avocado and spinach

Baby kale and spinach salad with dried cranberries and tomato-tahini dressing

Roasted asparagus seasoned with lemon juice, salt, black pepper and a bit of olive oil

Spinach salad with avocado, tomatoes, dried cranberries and raw pumpkin seeds and raw sunflower seeds

Spinach salad with quinoa, chickpeas and beets

Spinach, mango and pineapple smoothie

When I was craving apple turnovers, apple strudel and apple crumble, I made simple baked apples topped with raisins and walnuts, sprinkled with cinnamon. Yummy!

Quinoa with roasted string beans and onions, topped with toasted walnuts

Overnight oats with banana and strawberries

The Whole Foods Diet Challenge

2012-01-05T21:12:00.012-05:00

Over the past few months I have been having some health issues. Instead of freaking out and running to the doctor, I decided to try a different approach. I have been a "bad" vegan. For the past five years that I have been on my vegan journey I basically replaced all the omni and vegetarian foods with vegan versions that were often processed, refined and loaded with calories, excess sugar and oils. I veganized my favorite childhood foods and American foods and indulged myself in vegan junk food. When I look at my diet it was mostly "white" foods- white rice, white breads (I could eat a loaf of Italian or French bread in two days), seitan (made with white flour), white potatoes, dumplings, pasta and other refined carbohydrates with very little nutrition. And tons of processes soy products-vegan hot dogs, sausages, deli slices and fried tofu, fried tempeh and tons sweet soy yogurts. Yes, I would have some green salad or a soup and raw veggies, but the majority of my diet was refined carbs and processed foods. There were always some freshly baked goods at my house (muffins, cakes, brownies, etc) and for days when there were no baked goods I would have some store bought cookies in the pantry. The more I thought about my diet the more I realized how much damage I was doing to my body and how unhealthy I was eating. I slowly started adding big bowls of salads into my diet. Usually a baby kale, regular kale and spinach salads topped with avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, raw pumpkin seeds and drizzled with lemon juice. I started feeling better so I slowly switched to mostly unprocessed whole foods with minimum of oils and sugar. I switched my regular almond milk to unsweetened almond milk. I replaced white rice with brown rice and pasta with quinoa. I stopped baking goodies and buying vegan junk food. My husband is a huge help and an inspiration because unlike me he was always eating quite healthy. I also found a lot of inspiration and support on Twitter and many blogs that I follow. I started adding chia seeds to my diet and other superfoods. At first I was not feeling good at all, my stomach was cramping with all the newly increased fiber and I was craving sugary baked goods, pasta, fried fake chicken and fried tempeh, and other foods that I eliminated. I am not saying that I will never have a vegan donut, piece of cake, veggie burger or a candy. I will still indulge once in a while, but as my taste buds are changing I am craving those foods less and less. This is an experiment and so far I am feeling much better. I have more energy, I have better digestion, I lost some weight (especially around my belly) and I am generally feeling better. And some of the health issues are gone! Only TWO WEEKS of cleaner diet and I see all these results, I cannot wait to see myself in a few months. I will gradually add more exercise and hopefully I will get in shape faster.

A breakfast of sugary granola and vanilla soy yogurt was replaced with "Overnight oats" with chia seeds. My daily breakfast is inspired by a recipe from the new Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook. I add fresh fruit (such as bananas, blueberries or strawberries) or dried fruit to give them some sweetness without adding actual sugar.

I will still eat some tofu and tempeh, but baked or steamed instead of fried and I will not eat these everyday. Also sometimes I will have some plain,unsweetened soy yogurt, too. I will occasionally have some regular potatoes, because they are not that bad, but I think that sweet potatoes are healthier and more nutritious.

These are my main food staples now-kale, collard greens, oats, quinoa, lentils, beans, spinach, chickpeas, dried fruit, bell peppers, edamame, lemons, avocado, raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, chia seeds, German whole grain bread made with five grains

(Landsberg company-sold at most Whole Foods Markets and other natural food stores, in their international food section-even Publix and Kroger has them sometimes),shiitake mushrooms, brown rice, sweet potatoes and fresh fruits.

My Marinated Collard Greens made with green bell pepper. I prefer red bell pepper because of the beautiful color and nicer taste, but the green pepper is not that bad either.

Lentil salad made with mandarin oranges, onion and parsley

Kale, red lentil, shiitake mushroom, onion and carrot soup

Quinoa with roasted chickpeas and raw spinach

Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats breakfast with dried cranberries and raisins. Recipe from Shelley's blog. This is a very tasty and healthy breakfast that keeps me feeling full for hours and gives me energy until the afternoon.

Brown rice, peas, raw spinach, garlic, lemon juice and tamari sauce medley

Garlicky lacinato kale (recipe from Olives for Dinner blog ) served over quinoa and roasted chickpeas. I used much less oil than the recipe called for and it was still delicious! I wish I made two batches!

I love my German Five grain bread made with whole grains and no added preservatives or oils. Each slice has 6 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber, and zero sugars and only 1.5 grams of fat. I have one to two slices a day. I like making avocado, spinach and dried cranberries sandwiches with this bread. The slices are huge and the bread is very dense, rich and chewy.

Quinoa, raw spinach, dried cranberries and roasted chickpeas

Lentil, tomato, carrot, onion and spinach soup

Zhena's Gypsy Tea "Caramel Chai" herbal red tea

2012-01-01T19:29:00.005-05:00

Zhena's Gypsy Tea is one of my favorite tea companies, so I was very excited to get a tin of their new Caramel Chai Herbal Red Tea in the mail last week. I just ran out of my other chai tea so this was a great timing :-)

This tea is packed in eco-friendly tea sachets for convenient brewing. It's organic, fair trade and vegan. All Zhena's Gypsy Teas are vegan which makes me very happy :-)

Most chai teas are made with black tea that contains caffeine so I usually buy decaffeinated black chai tea or Rooibos chai tea. This tea is made with Rooibos so there is literally zero caffeine. This tea is full of antioxidants and health beneficial herbs and spices.

My first impression when I opened the tin of Caramel Chai Herbal Red Tea and smelled the tea sachets was "Wow!" The strong, sweet and spicy aroma was overwhelming and I could not wait to brew a cup of that tea.

This lovely tea has a quite unique taste compare to other chai teas that I know. I added a splash of unsweetened almond milk which resulted in a delightful, creamy, sweet and mildly spicy cup of tea. I love the addition of caramelized brown sugar which creates a sweet, caramel flavor that beautifully accompanies the warm and spicy chai blend. The pungent crystallized ginger gives this tea a nice, warm touch. Whole bean Bourbon vanilla adds a beautiful taste that slightly mellows down the spicy cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, cardamon and cloves, while the licorice root adds a touch of extra sweetness. The tea was sweet enough on its own, but a spoonful of agave nectar or other sweetener might be a nice addition, too. I loved that the tea was not overly spicy, but rather flavorful, creamy, and full of caramel taste.

*Check out Zhena's Gypsy Tea on their website

*Follow them on Twitter

*Like them on Facebook

Marinated Collard Greens

2011-12-26T16:58:00.004-05:00

This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite salads at Whole Foods hot/cold bar. Recently, I decided to start eating healthier and adding more unprocessed, whole foods into my diet. This is an amazing, delicious and pretty healthy raw salad. It is addictive :-)

Marinated Collard Greens

1 bunch of collard greens (about 8 large leaves), tough stems removed

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs Tamari sauce

salt and black pepper to taste

Cut collard greens into 1 inch thick, long strips. Place into a large bowl. Add red bell pepper and onion, and mix well.

In a small bowl combine lemon juice, olive oil, Tamari sauce, and minced garlic. Pour over the collard greens and veggies. Using your hands massage the dressing into the veggies well.

Refrigerate at least an hour before serving, or overnight.

Soyummi vegan puddings review and giveaway

2011-12-25T18:32:00.005-05:00

Soyummi Foods contacted me a few weeks ago to see if I would be interested in doing a review of their vegan puddings and a giveaway on my blog. I was happy to try their products and even happier to do a giveaway that will have 3 winners :-) Each winner will receive two coupons for free Soyummi puddings. I redeemed my coupons for dark Chocolate Pudding and Rice pudding which were the only two options that my local Whole Foods offered. Soyummi offers other flavors, such as Tapioca pudding, Cherry pudding and Lime pudding. Each box of Soyummi puddings contains 4 individual pudding cups.

Soyummi puddings are minimally processed. They are made with all natural and organic ingredients. They are GMO free, Vegan, Gluten free, low in fat, and they contain natural prebiotics and fiber. They are sweetened with beet syrup.

Pretty healthy snack or an afternoon treat :-)

The Dark Chocolate Pudding was very fluffy and tasted like a rich dark chocolate dessert.

The Rice pudding was my favorite! Creamy, thick pudding with nice pieces of yummy rice. The taste was beautiful, strong vanilla with a slight hint of lemon. I will be buying this pudding very soon.

I added some fresh pomegranate seeds to one cup of Rice pudding for a nice after dinner dessert.

Picture source

Do you want to win some delicious, vegan puddings? Soyummi has generously offered to give 2 free coupons to 3 giveaway winners. This giveaway is only open to USA addresses only.

You have several ways to enter this giveaway. I will pick 3 random comments on January 6th 2012, Friday evening. If you want extra entries, you have to leave a comment for each entry option to count, if you leave one big comment with everything in it, it will only count as one entry. The more comments, the better the chances are to win.

Mandatory entry:

# Leave a comment telling me which Soyummi pudding would you like to try the most.

Extra entries:

# Become a follower (member) of this blog and leave a comment that you did or that you already were a follower

# Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Follow Soyummi on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did (1 tweet per day is allowed). Include @CzechVegan and @Soyummi in the tweets.

# Like Soyummi on Facebook and leave a comment that you did

# Mention this giveaway, with the link, in a blog post, and leave a link to the post in a comment

# For extra 5 entries-make any recipe from Czech Vegan blog, and blog about it. Leave 5 separate comments for the entries.

Good luck!

I am crazy about tea!

2011-12-15T21:30:00.004-05:00

Tea, tea, tea! As you can see from these pictures, I am a tea fanatic :-) This is the majority of my tea collection. As most of my readers know, I don't do well with caffeine (you can read my story here), therefore I mostly have fruit, herbal, Rooibos or decaf tea varieties.

I love buying tea, exchanging tea with friends and getting tea as presents. I prefer tea bags since they are so much easier to deal with and more portable, but any good loose tea makes me happy, too. I drink hot tea all year long. I drink my black decaf and black decaf Earl Grey tea with a splash of almond milk. I also love my Pero and Teeccino coffee alternatives.

When I lived in Prague I used to hang out in Tea Rooms and Tea shops several times a week. Unfortunately in Atlanta I had to create my own Tea Room at home because there are no tea rooms around here.

Some of my favorite tea flavors that I have in tea bags are: Teekanne "Magic Moments" (fruit tea with rum-grape and orange taste), Teekanne "Raspberry Vanilla", Teekanne "Turkish Apple" (apple and fig tea), Teekanne "Peach and Passionfruit", Pickwick "Plum, cinnamon and vanilla", Teekanne "Granny's Finest" (eldeberry, vanilla and plum), Celestial Seasoning "Roastaroma" and "True Blueberry", Teekanne "Black Currant with lemon", Teekanne "Sweet Cherry", Loyd Tea "Mulled Wine", Twinings "English Breakfast Tea" and Earl Grey-both decaffeinated.

Do you like tea? What is your favorite?

Manna Organics Bread giveaway winner

2011-12-10T12:41:00.003-05:00

Manna Organics Bread giveaway winner was comment number 7 :-) Congratulations to Marissa Rath! Thank you everyone who entered the giveaway. Stay tuned for vegan puddings giveaway soon! Marissa, please, email me you address so I can forward it to Manna Organics and they will ship your prize. Enjoy the bread! czech.vegan (at) yahoo.com I used www.random.org to pick the winning comment number.

Winter Bulgur and Vegetable Medley

2011-12-08T20:38:00.005-05:00

This is an easy, healthy and comforting winter dinner that I sometimes make.

Winter Bulgur and Vegetable Medley

1 Tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

6-8 large kale leaves, stems removed and leaves torn into small pieces

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 large bell pepper (red looks pretty in this recipe), top removed, seeded and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup bulgur, uncooked

3 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp paprika

salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium hight heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add bell pepper and mushrooms and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, kale, paprika, bulgur and broth. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium low heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed and bulgur is tender, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Rishi Tea Review

2011-12-06T15:25:00.005-05:00

Since I cannot have caffeine I often enjoy fruit, herbal, Rooibos or decaf black teas.

I have been a Rishi Tea lover for years so I was very excited and grateful when I received a package with samples of their organic, caffeine free tea blends.

Their botanical and Rooibos teas are beautiful, delicious and aromatic. From my personal experience many of these botanical tea blends are great for digestion (especially as a heartburn and nausea relief), relaxation, or as a refreshing energizing coffee alternative. I like the addition of natural essential oils in some of their teas. The essential oils give the tea very strong aroma and flavor.

TURMERIC GINGER

The intoxicating, lemony aroma hit me as soon as I opened the sample bag. It made my mouth water. The aroma almost reminded me of fancy, citrusy bath salts that I love. This tea has a spicy, full-bodied flavor with pungent ginger, zesty lemon and sweet licorice notes. I love the addition of turmeric which is a great anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory herb. This tea woke up all my taste buds and gave me a burst of energy.

CHAMOMILE MEDLEY

This tea is full of pretty chamomile flowers, just like the ones that I used to gather and dry back in the Czech Republic. This is very calming, lemon and honey-like tea with a gentle touch of spearmint. A wonderful evening, relaxing tea blend.

CINNAMON PLUM

Wow! This tea is heavenly! This is how I imagine a fairy tale garden to smell like. Very sweet, aromatic, plum tea with a beautiful touch of succulent currants, warm cinnamon and a hint of rum. I wish I could capture the essence of this tea and bottle it into a perfume. This is a perfect autumn tea!

PEPPERMINT ROOIBOS

When I opened the bag, the strong minty aroma woke up my senses. While brewing this tea I noticed a strong, pleasant aroma from the essential oils of bergamot and peppermint. This tea was very minty, even thought the bergamot mellowed down the peppermint a bit. Very refreshing blend that made my mouth tingle with peppermint sensation.

ROOIBOS

Smooth, mahogany infusion with sweet, nutty and honey-like notes.

UNITY

This is a lovely combination of lemony, minty flavors, warm and pungent ginger, beautiful cardamon, sweet licorice and a a hint of spicy black pepper. This tea has a wonderful lemony aroma with peppery notes.

BLUEBERRY ROOIBOS

The candy-like aroma of this tea is amazing! Sweet, juicy berries with smooth Rooibos. I love the addition of real wild blueberries and schizandra berries. This luscious tea had a lovely blueberry aftertaste that stayed in my mouth for a while.

TANGERINE GINGER

Very strong, pungent aroma with lovely tangerine notes. This beautiful red brew was sweet, tart, and spicy, bursting with tangerine and orange flavors, and warm, pungent ginger.

MYSTIC MINT

What a beautiful symphony of flavors! Pleasantly sweet basil and licorice root, with refreshing peppermint notes and a lovely touch of cardamon and clove.

I loved the mint, basil and clove aroma while brewing this tea.

They also offer black, green, Chai, Oolong, Pu-erh, white and Yerba Mate teas, along with more options of Rooibos and botanical tea blends. I used to enjoy their Yerba Mate, black and green teas before I had to eliminate caffeine from my life.

You can buy Rishi Tea online, or at selected retail stores.

Follow Rishi Tea on Twitter.

Like Rishi Tea on Facebook.

The Earth Burger

2011-11-28T19:52:00.004-05:00

The Earth Burger (makes about 8-10 burger patties)

1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated (about 2 1/2 cups)

1 medium red beet, peeled and grated (about 2 cups)

1 large carrot, peeled and grated (about 1 cup)

1/2 medium onion, peeled and grated or finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, uncooked

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, shelled

3 cups hot water

1 Tbs olive oil

1/4 cup natural BBQ sauce

2 Tbs lemon juice

1 tsp chili powder

salt and black pepper to taste

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients, except for the oats and hot water. In a medium bowl mix oats and hot water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Place wet oats in a blender and blend into a thick paste. Stir the oat paste into the vegetable mixture. If you use your hands the mixture will blend together much better. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Let sit at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a large baking sheet with oil or spray it with cooking spray.

Form round burger patties with wet hands. Place patties on baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 15 minutes, flip and bake 15 more minutes. Flip again and bake 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with your favorite burger toppings. Enjoy!

Note: Spray your spatula with cooking spray before flipping burgers, it will prevent the burgers from sticking to your spatula.

Manna Organics Bread Review and Giveaway

2011-11-27T18:15:00.010-05:00

Picture source

Manna Organics company contacted me a few weeks ago because they wanted to do a giveaway on my blog. They kindly sent me 4 loaves of their artisan, all natural bread to try. I was quite impressed with their tasty, moist, dense and sweet sprouted breads and their pleasantly sour, dense Bavarian sourdough bread.

From left: Cinnamon Date, Fig Fennel Flax, and Carrot Raisin

All of these beautiful sprouted Manna Breads were super moist, dense, rich, sweet and delicious. The dried fruits made these breads quite sweet without added sugars. I would never guess that these breads were made without added sugar, salt, yeast or oil, since they tasted pretty much like sweet cakes. I served them as a breakfast treat and after dinner dessert. The Fig, Fennel and Flax bread had a slight hint of licorice and a pretty, crunchy seeds topping. I liked the addition of poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for extra health benefits. The Carrot Raisin bread tasted almost like a carrot cake, minus the icing.

There are 9 flavors of sprouted Manna Breads: Banana Walnut Hemp, Carrot Raisin, Cinnamon Date, Fig Fennel Flax, Fruit & Nut, Millet Rice, Multigrain, Sunseeed, Whole Rye – and 3 flavors of Bavarian Sourdough Breads: Bavarian Whole Rye Sourdough, Sunny Sourdough and Multigrain Flax Sourdough.

Frozen Manna Organics breads are sold in most Whole Foods Markets and quality independent health food stores nationwide and in Canada. They are also available online on Manna Organics website.

I enjoyed the Bavarian Style Sourdough very much! That was probably my favorite of all (that and the Carrot Raisin). It reminded me of German Rye bread that I buy at Whole Foods often. The slices are thin, but the density and great taste is just perfect. It only has a few ingredients: Whole rye flour, filtered water, sea salt, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds. Despite the fennel seeds, this bread does not taste like licorice at all which is a big plus.

I made an after Thanksgiving sandwich with this bread, leftover Tofurky roast and cranberry sauce. Yummy!

I enjoyed it toasted with vegan butter and Marmite.

And I enjoyed it with vegan butter and red currant jam.

Do you want to try 4 Manna Organics breads for free? Manna Organics has generously offered to give 4 loaves of bread to one giveaway winner. The winner can pick the flavors :-) They will ship 4 loaves directly to the winner. This giveaway is only open to continental USA addresses only.

You have several ways to enter this giveaway. I will pick one random comment on December 9th, Friday evening. If you want extra entries, you have to leave a comment for each entry option to count, if you leave one big comment with everything in it, it will only count as one entry. The more comments, the better the chances are to win.

Mandatory entry:

# Leave a comment telling me which Manna Organics bread would you like to try the most.

Extra entries:

# Become a follower (member) of this blog and leave a comment that you did or that you already were a follower

# Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Follow Manna Organics on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did (1 tweet per day is allowed). Include @CzechVegan and @MannaOrganics in the tweets.

# Like Manna Organics on Facebook and leave a comment that you did

# Mention this giveaway, with the link, in a blog post, and leave a link to the post in a comment

# For extra 5 entries-make any recipe from Czech Vegan blog, and blog about it. Leave 5 separate comments for the entries.

Good luck!

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Giveaway winner

2011-11-26T19:44:00.005-05:00

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Giveaway winner is a comment number 25 (via www.random.org). Congratulations to Tammy with the comment "I Follow Sophie's Kitchen on Twitter babymasongrant"

Tammy, you won 2 coupons for Sophie's Vegan Seafood of your choice. I will contact you via Twitter to get your address.

Thank you everyone who entered my giveaway. Stay tuned for a new giveaway next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T21:32:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all had a wonderful day and that you ate some amazing cruelty-free Thanksgiving dinner. I had a Tofurky Roast, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and peas. What did you have?

My sweet Shelly in her Thanksgiving bandana.

Vegan pumpkin pie (I cheated this year and bought one already made from Whole Foods). I made homemade coconut whipped topping that was better than any soy whipped cream :-)

The All American Vegan Review

2011-11-21T21:20:00.010-05:00

Several weeks ago my friend Seth showed me his video featuring Nathan Winograd, one of the creators of the All American Vegan cookbook, speaking at World Vegetarian Festival 2011. Nathan's speech was very interesting and I got curious about the whole All American Vegan project and their new cookbook. Nathan and Jennifer Winograd have been vegan for over 20 years (That's pretty impressive!). They both work in the animal rights movement, promoting the No Kill philosophy not only when it comes to farm animals, but also cats and dogs. They try very hard to end the systematic killing of animals in the American shelters. Thanks to Nathan, Tompkins County in New York became the first No Kill community in the U.S. history, saving not only healthy animals but all treatable sick and injured animals as well. That is wonderful! I have been volunteering at various cat and dog shelters for years and I care very much about the No Kill Movement. Nathan and Jennifer believe that if we end the killing of dogs and cats, the animals that are closest to us, we can get people to care equally about the welfare of other animals as well. I was very happy to receive a copy of their cookbook for a review.

The All American Vegan cookbook is not just a cookbook, it is so much more. It is a wonderful book full of awesome recipes, vegan substitutions to meat, eggs, and dairy, helpful baking and cooking tips, and other useful and fun information (such as important moments in vegan history, trivia, list of animal-derived ingredients, the No Kill Movement in dog and cat shelters, new vegan menu planner, and things vegans should never say when discussing veganism with non-vegans).

This book is written in a fun, informative, and easy to read way. I can see this book becoming the new vegan resource book for newbie vegans. I have been vegan for over 5 years and still learned a lot of new stuff while reading the All American Vegan.

The main mission of this cookbook is to make vegan versions of the most popular foods that Americans like. By veganizing traditional American comfort foods (such as tuna melt, lasagna, hamburger, pizza), fast foods, desserts and everything that people used to like growing up in the USA, they eliminate the biggest barrier preventing people from giving up the consumption of meat, diary and eggs-not wanting to sacrifice taste. Food is closely tied to family traditions and one of the issues that many new vegans have is that they feel alienated when celebrating holidays with their family or having weekend dinners together. Food is tied to memories and many people like comfort foods because it can wake up some of their memories and traditions that they used to love. Take that away from them and they can become bitter and sad. By veganizing their favorite foods they don't have to give up their favorite, familiar foods and will be more likely to stick to a vegan diet.

Let's face it, not everyone who wants to go vegan is a vegetable, seeds, quinoa, and other health foods lover. Yes, there are many people who become vegan for health reasons first and eat a balanced, plant based diet that is mostly raw or has minimum processed mock meats, fried foods, sugar, white flour and other ingredients that I used in most comfort foods. But many new vegans want to eat the same way they used to, minus the cruelty of animal products. I am personally in between. I love comfort foods, especially veganized versions of traditional Czech and American dishes and sweet baked goods, but I also love "healthy" foods such as kale, quinoa, fresh vegetable juices, seeds, nuts, legumes, beans and most fruits and veggies. I was not always like this though. I had to slowly build my desire and taste buds for "healthy", unfamiliar foods. I wish I had this cookbook when I first became vegan, it would make my life much easier when I cooked for my American non-vegan family. A lot of the recipes from this cookbook are something that I made in one way or another over the years. Some things are new to me and I was happy to try them and I am planning on making many more soon.

I am like a kid sometimes when it comes to books and cookbooks. I love pictures, not just photographs but illustrations, too. The inner child in me jumped for joy after opening this cookbook because it is full of beautiful, cute and funny illustrations. And the recipes are great! Imagine a vegan diner style recipes in a fun package :-)

Some of the recipes that you will not want to miss: Cinnamon Rolls (page 70), Danishes (page 72), Glazed Donuts (page 74), Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich (page 86), Corndogs (page 95). Matzo Ball Soup (page 104), Parmesan (page 126), Coconut Cream Pie (page 131), Golden Cream Filled Spongecakes-aka vegan "Twinkies" (page 136), Thanksgiving Menu featuring Stuffed Not A Turkey with maple Glazed Root Vegetables (pages 152-159) and the recipes that I tried bellow.

This is a lovely Banana Cream Pie (page 130) with Chocolate Sauce (page 146). This no-bake pie was amazing! Creamy, silky banana with smooth and decadent chocolate sauce. It was not overly sweet or heavy and it was made pretty quickly with no baking required.

I made Coconut Whipped Topping (page 148) but unfortunately I experience a major kitchen fail with the topping. Not because of the recipe, but the quality of my coconut milk. I usually buy one brand and make coconut whipped topping with great results, but this time I wanted to save a dollar and bought a cheaper brand that was full fat, same as the other brand, but for some reason the fat did not solidify in the fridge. That resulted in liquid topping instead of nice and fluffy whipped cream. Lesson learned there-stick to what you know that works, saving a few pennies on an ingredients that will ruin your recipe is not worth it. I did not throw the liquid coconut topping away, I made an ice cream out of it. I added orange flavoring and froze it. That created a nice orange-coconut ice cream.

Let's have breakfast! Blueberry Muffins (page 71) and a cup of hot tea, that is all I need to have a good breakfast. These muffins were very good. I used fresh blueberries. The recipe calls for maple syrup and I used mixture of half maple syrup and half agave nectar to cut down on the cost and they turned out great! Moist, sweet and dense. I will be making these again soon.

These Peanut Butter Cups (page 140) are a perfect vegan alternative to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I could not wait to try this recipe. The recipe calls for sturdy paper candy cups but I wanted more authentic look so I splurged on peanut butter cups candy mold and candy brushes. It was much more work but the results were worth it! And the taste was very close to the non-vegan peanut butter cups. Very good!

Fried No Chicken (page 96) was way better than the KFC chicken that I remembered from when I was a teenager. It was almost scary how realistic my seitan "chicken" tasted. The spices and herbs made this crispy fried no chicken a very flavorful experience. I wish I made some mashed potatoes and gravy at the same time, that would be perfect!

I love creamy soups so I made Cream of Mushroom Soup (page 103). Mmmmmm. Creamy, buttery and silky mushroom soup with a nice touch of thyme. I served it sprinkled with more thyme and a handful of croutons and it was awesome!

Some of my favorite quotes from All American Vegan:

"If it is edible, it can be made vegan."

"Some people may be uncaring, but most people are concerned about animals and will support efforts to improve their lives. make it easy for people to do the right thing, and they will."

"Quite simply, we can more effectively persuade people to be vegan if vegan food becomes as familiar, widespread, and appealing as the competition."

"Veganism can accommodate your palate and your appetite too."

"Had animal products not been available, our ancestors would have experimented with other sources that served the same purpose and end they were seeking and today those ingredients would be in widespread use instead."

17 Bean and Barley Soup

2011-11-18T20:49:00.002-05:00

Look at this beautiful assortment of beans! I love all the different shapes, beautiful colors and textures of this "17 Bean & Barley Mix" by Trader Joe's. It is a bag full of beans and barley, great for making stews or soups. There is no seasoning so I added vegetable broth, bay leaves, extra barley, carrots, leeks, garlic and spices and made a very healthy, comforting soup. It was the perfect dinner for this cold autumn evening.

Smokey White Bean Chili

2011-11-13T22:02:00.005-05:00

Smokey White Bean Chili

1 Tbs olive or canola oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 15-oz cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 28-oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes in juice (or regular)

1 cup vegetable broth

1-2 Tbs chili powder

1 tsp liquid smoke

pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Mash 1 can of beans in a bowl with a fork, set aside.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir chili powder, garlic and optional cayenne pepper into the onions, cook 1 minute stirring. Add broth and simmer 10 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juice, whole and mashed beans and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in liquid smoke. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with bread, vegan sour cream and fresh cilantro if desired.

Dirty Vegan Foods

2011-11-12T20:27:00.006-05:00

Few days ago I received a wonderful package from a cool vegan bakery "Dirty Vegan Foods" that was founded by two animal lovers with a goal to veganize all the snacky junky food that you loved as a kid. They make freshly baked "naughty Food with none of the Guilt!". I am very thankful for their sweet samples :-)

Winkies (photo source)

Do you miss Twinkies from your pre-vegan days? Now you can get a vegan version that is, in my opinion, much tastier and healthier than the popular American Twinkie. This sweet vegan miracle is called Winkie (Vegan Marshmallow Creme filled Canoe). The Winkie was born February 1st 2010. I wanted to compare the ingredients with Twinkies and I was horrified to find out that there are 37 ingredients in a Twinkie!

That is crazy! And most of the ingredients are horrible! Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy Whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40. (source Fooducate)

Bleached Flour? High Fructose Corn Syrup? Partially Hydrogenated Animal Shortening-Beef Fat? Eggs, Whey, chemicals and artificial flavors and colors? GROSS! As you can see, Twinkies are not vegan or even vegetarian.

On the other hand, Dirty Vegan Foods Winkies have only few ingredients: Unbleached flour, water, sugar, canola oil, corn syrup, non-hydrogenated shortening, tapioca starch, powdered soy, potato starch, barley malt, vanilla, baking soda, sea salt, natural flavors and gums.

None of these ingredients scare me or disgust me.

I loved Winkies! Super moist, dense, sweet canoe shaped cake that was generously filled with creamy marshmallow filling. I caught myself smile as I was eating these bad boys. I wish I had a whole big cake made into a giant Winkie!

Rocky Cookies Bites (photo source)

Oooooh, buttery chocolate chip cookies! A dozen of perfect little cookies with a generous amount of chocolate chips. I loved the balanced sweetness with a touch of salt that brought out the chocolate flavor. I put some in the microwave and heated them for a few seconds (20-30 seconds) and they came out almost like freshly baked out of the oven. They disappeared shortly after the Winkies.

Blizzard Balls (photo source)

This beautiful dessert was delicious! A dense chocolate cake (almost like a brownie), was filled with creamy vanilla filling, that was nice and fluffy, and frosted with marshmallow cream frosting and covered in coconut. I LOVE chocolate and coconut combo! Anytime, anywhere and in any form and shape. Blizzard Balls rock!

Between me and my husband the goodies were gone in two days............. I am still in a sugar coma now, a few days later :-)

If you want to find out more about this company and their delicious baked goodies, or want to order some freshly baked vegan junk food:

"Like" Dirty Vegan Foods on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter and visit their online store

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Review and Giveaway

2011-11-11T20:03:00.006-05:00

Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets with boiled potatoes, caraway seeds and fresh parsley

Vegan Prawns with cocktail sauce and lemon

Vegan Calamari with homemade vegan tartar sauce

When I first saw the selection of vegan seafood on Sophie's Kitchen website, I was thinking "No, way! This "seafood" looks way too real for it to be vegan......"

I grew up in a country that is so far away from the sea that we never have any fresh seafood. Seafood in Czech Republic is something foreign and we only serve it at fancy restaurants, or you can buy it frozen at specialty grocery stores. I had many opportunities to try seafood when I traveled around Europe as a child and as a teenager, but I never dared to eat any "creepy ocean crawlers".

I accidentally ate some fried Calamari when I was in Spain. I was about 11 years old and thought that they were fried onion rings or some kind of french fries.......But I liked it :-)

I had always wanted to overcome my fear of eating seafood, but by the time I got to the USA where seafood is plentiful I no longer ate meat and did not want to start eating meat. I make my mock tuna salad with chickpeas, but it does not taste or look like tuna salad. I never thought that there would ever be vegan seafood that would look or taste just like the real stuff. Well, recently, a miracle happened and Sophie's Kitchen revolutionary vegan seafood was born! Thanks to their little daughter Sophie who loves seafood, but unfortunately is allergic to it! Sophie's parents developed a line of delicious vegan seafood for her daughter and for the rest of us who are vegan, allergic to seafood or care about the ocean's resources and the environment (or all of the above). Sophie's Kitchen has the cutest website :-) By the way, they won the Best New Vegan Product award by VegNews magazine at Expo West 2011 :-)

Their line includes: Vegan Calamari, Vegan Shrimp, Vegan Breaded Fish Fillets, Vegan Squid Rings, Vegan Prawns, and Breaded Vegan Shrimp.

I was very fortunate to receive some coupons from Sophie's Kitchen for their awesome vegan seafood. I redeemed the coupons for Vegan Calamari, Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets and Vegan Prawns.

I liked the Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets a lot. I baked half of them at first, but the breading was not as crispy so I fried the other half and it was awesome! I served them with boiled potatoes and a squeeze of lemon juice. Yummy!

The Vegan Prawns had a bit rubbery texture, but a very interesting taste that I could not compare to anything that I ever had. I enjoyed them warm in my Vegan Paella recipe and cold with a cocktail sauce. I love how realistic the prawns look. I even fooled my family with them when I posted pictures of the Paella with vegan prawns on my Facebook wall.

I fried the Vegan Calamari and served them with my homemade vegan tartar sauce. Very good!

Vegan Prawns in my Paella Recipe

I know that you want to try this new vegan phenomenon so Sophie's Kitchen generously offered 2 coupons for their vegan seafood to one lucky reader. Yay!!!

So, who wants to win some cool vegan seafood? You have several ways to enter this giveaway. I will pick one random comment on November 25th, Friday evening. You have to leave a comment for each entry option to count, if you leave one big comment with everything in it, it will only count as one entry. The more comments, the better the chances are to win.

Mandatory entry:

# Leave a comment telling me what would you like to try from Sophie's Kitchen

Extra entries:

# Become a follower (member) of this blog and leave a comment that you did or that you already were a follower

# Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Follow Sophie's Kitchen on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did (1 tweet per day is allowed). Include @CzechVegan and @VeganSeafood in the tweets.

# Like Sophie's Kitchen on Facebook and leave a comment that you did

# Mention this giveaway, with the link, in a blog post, and leave a link to the post in a comment

# For extra 5 entries-make any recipe from Czech Vegan blog, and blog about it. Leave 5 separate comments for the entries.

Good luck!

Vegan Paella

2011-11-07T11:26:00.005-05:00

I wanted to create a paella recipe for a long time. As a child I visited Spain numerous times and liked this beautiful dish. Sophie's Kitchen, plant-based vegan seafood company, sent me a few coupons for their vegan products just in time for my Paella recipe :-) I used their vegan Prawns, but you can use their vegan Shrimp, or leave the vegan seafood out. The dish looks really cool with the vegan seafood garnish, even my family was freaking out asking me if I started to eat meat again because those prawns look very realistic. The sausages that I used for this recipe were Field Roast Frankfurters which are their newest creation. So far they are my FAVORITE vegan sausages! Nothing beats it! I am seriously in love with these sausages, they are awesome cold (they are fully cooked, ready to eat), or warm in recipes or in hot dogs. They remind me of my favorite Czech salami-sausage. Very flavorful, juicy, a bit smokey, but not too spicy. I can eat these everyday and would not get tired of them. By the way, Field Roast Classic Meatloaf is pretty awesome, too! I eat that stuff cold in sandwiches or hot with mashed potatoes and gravy :-)

Saffron is a very expensive spice that gives paella recipes beautiful yellow color, but you can use turmeric if you don't have saffron. Turmeric will give it a nice yellow color for much cheaper (or free if you have some at home already).

Vegan Paella

1 cup white rice, uncooked

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup white wine (or extra vegetable broth)

2 bay leaves

pinch of saffron or 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Tbs olive oil

1 small red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Field Roast Frankfurters (or other vegan sausages), cut into 1/2 thick rounds

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, drained

1 6-oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (about 1/2 cup)

1 cup frozen green peas

2 tsp paprika

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Prawns or Vegan Shrimp (optional)

1 lemon, cut into wedges for garnish

salt and black pepper to taste

Combine rice, 2 cups vegetable broth, saffron (or turmeric) and bay leaves in a medium saucepan with a tight fitting lid. Bring to boil. Turn heat to low, cover with a lid and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaves and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, sausages, paprika, red bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook 3 minutes. Add rice, 1 cup vegetable broth and white wine (or more broth), artichoke hearts, frozen peas and vegan prawns (if using). Cook 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with lemon wedges.

NEWS! I won a recipe contest with this dish recently :-) I won a Kindle :-)

Tiesta Tea Review

2011-11-06T19:38:00.013-05:00

I have been exchanging tea samples with several of my Twitter friends and fellow bloggers. My vegan friend Jenn at Cookin' Vegan blog is an awesome cook who shares my passion for tea (or I would dare to say a tea addiction). We exchange tea samples and some of the ones I received from her were from Tiesta Tea company. She mentioned to me that they started their company after visiting Prague (the capitol of Czech Republic). That got me very interested in Tiesta Tea. I started following them on Twitter and recently won one of their Twitter contests. My lovely prize was a tropical rooibos tea "Beach Bum Colada".

Tiesta Tea was founded in 2010 in Illinois after a trip to Prague the previous spring. They loved the fairy-tale looking city. After visiting a Czech tea house they fell in love with fruit tea called Granny's Garden and bought a few bags to take back to the USA. They realized how important coffee and tea shops were in Europe and decided to start something very beautiful, meaningful and fun in the USA, they started Tiesta Tea company. They provide high quality custom-blended flavored teas with a purpose.

Based on the main ingredients and health benefits their teas are divided into 5 groups:

*Energizer

*Relaxer

*Immunity

*Slenderizer

*Forever Young

All their teas are vegan :-) Their teas are beautiful and flavorful. I love that they use real pieces of fruit, seeds, veggies and herbs in their teas instead of artificial or natural flavoring.

Here are the teas that I tried. I liked all the samples that I tried.

There are many teas that are on my wish list: Peaches n' Cream, Chunky Watermelon, Fireberry and Red Rose Rooibos.

Follow Tiesta Tea on Twitter for cool tea giveaways.

"Like" Tiesta Tea on Facebook and receive 20% on your first order.

Gojiberry Superfruit (Forever Young) is a green tea with an extra healthy gojiberries and pomegranate seeds boost. The tea is mildly grassy with luscious fruity taste and a mild astringent aftertaste. I could only have a few sips because I don't do well with caffeine, but I wished that I could have the whole cup, it was very good for a green tea.

Beach Bum Colada (Immunity) transported me back into summer with the first sip. The aroma is very tropical, almost intoxicating. I love the large pieces of banana, coconut, pineapple and orange slices. All these tropical fruits together make a lovely addition to a rooibos tea. The banana and coconut are the dominant flavors in this fun tea. The only thing that is missing is a tiny beach umbrella sticking out of my tea mug.

Kiwi-Cherry Bonanza (Immunity) is an irresistible, refreshing, herbal blend that bursts with flavor. This tea is full of kiwi and cherry flavor, with almost lemony aftertaste. Some cherry teas can taste like a cough sirup, but this tea does not have any of this weird, fake cherry flavor. This tea also has a very slight ginger kick. The pleasant sour taste is very refreshing. It makes an excellent ice tea.

Berry Pear-adise (Relaxer) is a very nice melange of pear, apple, papaya, hibiscus, raspberries and acerola. It's like a garden in a cup :-) Very sweet, berry experience! This tea also makes a great iced tea.

Not-Salami Spread

2011-11-05T21:40:00.007-04:00

As a little girl in kindergarden I enjoyed eating there. We had free breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack everyday. One of the most memorable kindergarden breakfasts was my favorite soft salami "bologna" spread on a freshly baked bread. It was my dream to veganize this spread, but I was never able to find the original recipe, or even anything close. Most recipes called for hard-boiled eggs and farmers cheese blended with soft salami and mustard, but the original spread did not taste like mustard.

It was a Czech version of bologna, shredded and mixed with something creamy. I have been trying to recreate the taste and texture for years. I could never find the right vegan salami for this, until yesterday. I was thinking outside the box and used my favorite "Soy Boy" smoked tofu instead of vegan sausages and salamis. The results almost made me cry with happiness. The spread is really good, very close to what I remember from my childhood. And a cool thing is that it looks just like it, too :-) The garlic can be a bit strong so if you have a date the same day I would leave the garlic out........unless your date likes garlicky kisses.....

I apologize for the horrible picture, but my kitchen is really dark and this is the best photo I could make.

You can make this spread with your own baked and smoked tofu, or your favorite brand of smoked, ready to eat tofu.

Not-Salami Spread

1 8-oz package of smoked, ready to eat tofu (such as Soy Boy)

6 Tbs vegan mayo

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

salt and black pepper to taste

If you have a food processor, use it to shred the tofu finely. Place shredded tofu into a medium bowl.

If you don't have a food processor, use a hand-held shredder. In a medium bowl shred the tofu finely. I used the hand-held shredder with great results.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Season with salt and black pepper to taste and spread on your favorite bread. Rye bread or any white bread would be the best for this spread.

Serve with fresh tomatoes or pickles if desired.

Autumn Apple Crumble (Vegan MoFo Day 31)

2011-10-31T17:09:00.003-04:00

There is something magical about apples, raisins and cinnamon combination. To me it represents the end of summer and beginning of autumn in Europe and USA. Apples are cheap, nutritious, healthy, tasty and available almost anywhere. For this Autumn Apple Crumble you can use any apples that you prefer. You can peel them or leave the skins on, either way it will turn out lovely. I love to eat this crumble straight out of the oven, still hot, but it also tastes great cold the next day. You can serve it with a scoop of vanilla vegan ice cream if you like.

Autumn Apple Crumble

3 pounds apples, cored and diced, peeling optional

1 cup raisins

1 Tbs fresh lemon juice

2 Tbs cornstarch

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup old-fashioned oats, uncooked

1 cup all-purpose flour

1-2 tsp cinnamon

5-6 Tbs vegan butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Place apples into a large pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, add raisins, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 F. Coat 9x13-inch glass casserole dish or 9-inch round glass baking dish with cooking spray. Put apples and raisins into the dish and toss with lemon juice, cornstarch and 1/3 cup sugar.

In a medium bowl mix flour, oats and the rest of the sugar. Blend in softened vegan butter with your fingertips. The final mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Start with 5 tablespoons of vegan butter first and add the extra tablespoon if the mixture is too dry or does not stick together well. Blend in chopped walnuts.

Sprinkle the flour and oat crumbs over the apples and raisins. Generously sprinkle with cinnamon and bake 30 minutes, or until topping is slightly brown and apples are tender.

Sunday's dinner (Vegan MoFo Day 30)

2011-10-30T22:19:00.005-04:00

When I was volunteering at World Peace Cafe on Monday, one of the things that I prepared was Mango Salsa for their Jamaican veggie burgers. I have never had mango salsa prior to that Monday so I did not know what to expect. I was a bit scared or the jalapeno peppers, but the mango cooled the hot peppers down, and the cilantro gave it a nice touch. I liked it so much that I decided to make some at home tonight. I volunteered again today and when I came home I did not feel like cooking anything complicated. I had some tofu bathing in a lime, soy sauce and sesame oil marinade in the fridge since this morning. I bought the mango salsa ingredients yesterday so I just made the salsa while my tofu flowers were baking. I added lime juice to the salsa for extra zing.

I wore gloves when I was cleaning and chopping the jalapeno pepper and I am glad that I did because shortly after I made the salsa I had to rub my eye and if I had some jalapeno pepper on my hand it would not be a pleasant experience....... I served the baked tofu and salsa with raw avocado slices. What a tasty, flavorful, colorful, fresh and healthy dinner :-) Have you ever made mango salsa? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Rosemary dinner (Vegan MoFo Day 29)

2011-10-29T20:08:00.003-04:00

I made this dinner entirely from scratch, including the vegan Russian dressing. I roasted some potato wedges with olive oil, rosemary and garlic. And I prepared white bean rosemary puree (I am working on a recipe for that), and vegan Russian dressing from vegan mayo, ketchup, whole grain mustard and pickle relish. It was very good :-)

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook Review (Vegan MoFo Day 28)

2011-10-28T21:19:00.013-04:00

The Happy Herbivore (Over 175 Delicious Fat-Free & Low-Fat Vegan Recipes)

Lindsay S. Nixon created a cookbook that is a perfect example that a healthy, low-fat or fat-free vegan food doesn't have to be about eating cardboard and twigs, but rather enjoying delicious, comforting and beautiful meals and desserts.

I was very lucky to win this cookbook through a blog giveaway (on Jayedee's "Life in the lost world" blog), because I was not planning on buying it. I never though that I would EVER bake or sauté anything without the use of oil. I thought it was impossible and I was always worried that cooking and baking without oil would result in a major kitchen fail. That was the reason why I did not want to buy this cookbook, because I was skeptical and scared to cook without added oils and other fats. But shortly after I received the book, all my fears vanished. I am sure that there are other people who make a sour face when they see or hear the words fat-free or low-fat when it comes to a cookbook, but I promise you, you will not be disappointed with The Happy Herbivore Cookbook. I already pre-ordered Lindsay's upcoming cookbook "Everyday Happy Herbivore" .

I have made more than half of the recipes in The Happy Herbivore cookbook and I am slowly cooking and baking my way through it. I know some of the recipes by heart.

This cookbook has it all, from a vegan breakfast omelet "Nomelet" (page 17), autumn inspired Apple Crisp Muffins (page 40) and Pumpkin Bread (page 52), moist Black Bean Brownies (page 209), "meaty" Portobello Steaks (page 148), to comforting Fettuccine Alfredo (page 163) and decadent Strawberry Cupcakes (page 216).

Do you have a hard time getting certain vegan condiments, dressings or fake chicken and beef broth? No problem! You can make your own with The Happy Herbivore. Everything from Nacho Cheese Sauce (page 265), Tofu Ricotta Cheese (page 266), Vegan Mayo and Vegan Sour Cream (page 271), No-Beef Broth (page 279), No-Chicken Broth Powder (page 281) to Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (page 272).

The Happy Herbivore cookbook is full of recipes and great tips and advice for everyone from novice cooks, newbie vegans, to experienced chefs. Each recipe has little icons that suggest something special about the recipe, such as "Kid-friendly", "Omni-Friendly", "Gluten-Free", "Quick" and more.

I love, love, love cookbooks with pictures. The Happy Herbivore is full of colorful pictures :-) I eat with my eyes first and I get more motivated to try a new recipe when I see the picture first. Most cookbooks have few pages of pictures, but this one is full of beautiful pictures, which makes me really happy!

The Happy Herbivore features not only American dishes, but also Indian, Cajun, Ethiopian, Hawaiian, Mexican, and Italian dishes that will make your mouth water. Here are some of my favorite and most frequently made recipes so far.

Portobello Steaks (page 148) are so good that I always double the recipe. I have used them instead of burgers as well. They are "meaty", juicy, flavorful, and very satisfying.

I am very proud of my Czech vegan potato salad and very rarely make other potato salads, with the exception of this Lemon Dill "Potato Salad" (page 189). This salad is fresh, creamy and not too heavy. I love the idea of fresh dill and lemon, this combo gives it extra zing. I usually eat it just by itself, or as a side dish with grilled asparagus or other veggies.

When I first saw this recipe I though: "Yuck! Black beans in brownies?" Well, it turns out that Lindsay is a genius in the kitchen and this recipe is one of her best creations. I made it with oats and with flour and it always turned out nicely. I promise, you would never guess that there are beans in this chocolate brownies. When I first made it I used banana extract instead of vanilla extract and it was amazing, the chocolate and extra banana flavor together were perfect. It does not look thick but it is very filling.

This was one of the first recipes that I made. I saw the recipe picture for Fettuccine Alfredo (page 163) I was so excited to make this I could not wait and had to run into a store for a Silken Tofu that evening. This is soooooooooo good, I could literally bath in this sauce. I cannot even count how many times I made it. One time I even made Bacon Bits (page 137) on top of the pasta. I used crumbled up tempeh instead of TVP and it turned out wonderfully.

Traditional Stuffing (page 195) makes a perfect festive side dish. I served mine with fried seitan and a few times just by itself.

This are seriously the best Oatmeal Cookies (page 205) that I ever had! So moist, chewy and flavorful!

I wish this picture turned out as well as it looked in person, because this Frittata (page 15) was stunning! I used fresh spinach and fresh dill and it was very tasty.

Classic Baked Tofu (page 138) is a super easy and relatively quick way to prepare tasty tofu.

I brush mine with soy sauce so it takes a little longer to prepare, but if I marinade it overnight the flavor improves dramatically. I even add some lime juice or vinegar to the soy sauce for extra flavor experience.

Strawberry Cupcakes (216) are awesome! Sometimes I add some vegan cream cheese to the icing. I made it with raspberries, too. I used this recipe to make my dog's birthday cupcake and I did a guest blog post about it on www.happyherbivore.com. When I made these cupcakes for the first time, I made a mistake and over-stirred the batter resulting in doughy and dense cupcakes. I learned from that mistake and next time only stirred the batter until just combined (as the recipe directions suggest). The cupcakes came out much better!

Mexican Chorizo (page 147) quickly turned into one of my frequently used recipes because it bursts with flavor. I make it with quinoa and TVP, which both result in amazing taste and texture. The top picture is made with quinoa and served over Cajun Home Fries (page 30) and the bottom picture is made with TVP and served over Tofu Scramble (page 18).

I cook this uncovered so the liquid cooks off faster. I have to admit, I am crazy about the simmering broth for this dish! I make more broth since I always end up eating some of it before I add the quinoa or TVP.

Another dish that I make often is Chickpeas and Dumplings (page 119), but the picture never turns out blog worthy. I make mine with carrots and green peas instead of the suggested mushrooms.

These are all the kitchen tools (plus a knife, pots and pans, baking sheet and whisk) that you need when preparing recipes from The Happy Herbivore. Nothing fancy or expensive, no crazy equipment necessary. This picture is courtesy of Lindsay. This is actually a very authentic picture of tools that Lindsay used in creating this cookbook. How cool is that??!! I bet I could find these in most city kitchens, as well as in beach houses and weekend mountain cottages. I love simplicity in the kitchen and hate buying and storing tools that I only use once or twice a year. This cookbook also uses ingredients that you can easily find almost anywhere and that will not cost you a fortune.

I am so happy that I have this cookbook. Even though I did not totally give up oil and fats, I am cooking more fat-free and low-fat foods now.

By the way, Lindsay is not only a wonderful, talented cook, she is also a kind-hearted, strong, motivated, supportive, encouraging, smart, compassionate and fun girl. I am honored and happy that I became friends with her. She is kind of a life coach for her devoted Herbies. She has brilliant ideas not just about cooking and food, but about organizing your home, minimizing clutter and eliminating negativity from your life and dealing with mean and negative people. Her blog posts are very inspirational and though provoking.

3 Czech foods that I miss (Vegan MoFo Day 27)

2011-10-27T20:08:00.003-04:00

There are many Czech vegan foods and treats that I miss. I try to find American versions and alternatives as much as I can. I veganize many Czech traditional foods, too. Here are some of my favorites that I miss and cannot buy in Atlanta. sadly they cannot be shipped here either, two would not make it without a refrigerator and through the customs and a jar of pickles would break and the cost of shipping would be insane.

I LOVE this Tofu spread (paté)! I could eat this every single day and not get tired of it. The taste is unlike anything made with tofu that I ever tried in the USA. It does not compare to cream cheese spreads or vegan cheeses that I buy here. It has a slightly smokey flavor, but very creamy and delicate texture. It is very smooth and flavorful without any weird tofu aftertaste.

I will try recreating the taste in the future. The ingredients list only says mixture of spices but they don't say which spices. I might contact the company and ask them what they use. They have other flavors, but I like the original the best.

I LOVE red currant but cannot ever find it in Atlanta, Georgia. I had not had any in five years until last year. I miss red currant so at least I buy red currant jam here.

I LOVE Czech pickles! They are the best pickles, better than American dill pickles. The closest thing to Czech pickles that I found here are Polish and German pickles so I buy those.

The combination of bread, tofu spread and pickles in heavenly!

Kale salad three ways (Vegan MoFo Day 26)

2011-10-26T19:58:00.004-04:00

Here are three dressings that I use for kale salads when I am not making my favorite Garlicky Cheezy Kale. Each dressing will work for 1 bunch kale (about 9-10 leaves).

*Soy & Mustard Dressing

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 Tbs olive oil

4 Tbs yellow mustard

4 Tbs water

Blend until well combined.

*Lemony Dressing

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbs olive oil

salt to taste

Blend until well combined.

*Garlicky Lemon Dressing

Juice from 1 lemon

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

salt to taste

Blend well until combined.

Remove tough stems from the kale and tear leaves into bite-size pieces. Wash the leaves thoroughly and drain excess water. I used lettuce spinner to get my kale dry which made the dressing stick to each leaf nicely. Pour the dressing over kale leaves. Rub the dressing into kale with your hands, making sure each leaf is covered.