Mellow Mushroom Pizza (Vegan MoFo Day 17)

This is not your average American pizzeria. This place is rocking! It's eclectic atmosphere and psychedelic interior will transport you right into the Alice in Wonderland movie, except instead of Mad Hatter you will be waited on by friendly waitstaff.

I love how unique and funky this place is! And their pizza is AMAZING! This is not a place where vegans have to settle for boring, cheese-less tomato sauce and a few sad veggies kind of pizza (unless that is your thing). They have VEGAN cheese! Yes, ooey gooey Daiya cheese that melts perfectly on top of any pizza.

Mellow Mushroom (Midtown) offers some unusual vegan pizza toppings that I haven't seen in other pizzerias before. Some of these toppings are sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, artichoke hearts, several different flavored kinds of tofu and tempeh. I love building my own pizza with different toppings. By the way, the crust is always very good, too.

If pizza is not your thing, you can always dive in their hummus that is served with freshly toasted pita and garnished with paprika, basil and olive oil. Or you can try their avocado & sprouts hoagie, just leave out the mayo and cheese and you got yourself a vegan sandwich.

We come here on Mondays for trivia night with our friends. Luckily, our friends Lindsay, Spencer and Andy are also vegans. Some of our friends are omnivores but we blend in nicely.

The menu :-)

Look at all the different tofu and tempeh options :-)

Psychedelic interior

Beautiful and funky art

BBQ tofu pizza with vegan cheese

Teriyaki tofu, avocado and vegan cheese pizza

Mushrooms, spinach and vegan cheese pizza

Avocado and tofu hoagie

Pineapple, green bell pepper and vegan cheese pizza

Vegan "Chicken" Salad-Vegan MoFo Day 16

Vegan "Chicken" Salad

2 cups TVP (textured vegetable protein)

4 cups fake chicken or vegetable broth

(I used 2 Edward & Sons Not-Chick'n bouillon cubes and 4 cups of water)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning (optional)

1/2 medium onion, finely diced

1/3 cup vegan mayo

2 Tbs dill pickles, finely chopped

1 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs Dijon mustard

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

salt and black pepper to taste

In a medium pot bring broth to a boil (or bring water to a boil and dissolve bouillon cubes in the boiling water). Add garlic powder, onion powder and poultry seasoning. Stir in the TVP. Lower the heat to medium low and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain excess liquid using a stainer. Cool completely before using in the salad.

In a large bowl mix TVP with the rest of the ingredients and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This salad makes delicious and filling sandwiches. Serve with lettuce and tomatoes if desired.

Creamy Tahini Kale Salad with Chickpeas-Vegan MoFo Day 15

Before I talk about this recipe I have to share something silly and funny. I was typing the blog post title while my cat Bear was sleeping on top of my table, near by the keyboard. He likes to swing his tail when he sleeps on the table. Well, this time he swung his tail so hard that he hit the ENTER on my keyboard and posted the blog post before it was done :-)

I found this Creamy Tahini Kale Salad recipe on Your Daily Vegan blog. I used cooked and drained chickpeas instead of the original red kidney beans. And I left out the pine nuts. Other than that I followed the recipe step by step and used all the other suggested ingredients.

The salad was very good, creamy and flavorful, but I missed the cheesiness from nutritional yeast that I use in my kale salad recipe.

Olive and Caper Tortilla Chips-Vegan MoFo Day 14

I was craving tortilla chips with hummus and salsa the other day. I usually buy regular, plain and boring salted tortilla chips. But this time I felt adventurous. I saw a green package with the words "Olive & Caper" by Laurel Hill company. Wait a second, olives and capers in tortilla chips? That sounds crazy, right? Usually I consider capers and olives to be Mediterranean food and tortilla chips to be part of Mexican cuisine, but the combination of both spiked my interest. I am always up for trying new foods, especially the stuff that sounds weird, crazy or unique :-)

I was expecting that these chips would have some kind of milk ingredients (that is just my luck, all the cool and interesting looking chips have some milk in them) so I was really excited to see that they were VEGAN :-)

I loved them! I was not able to pinpoint what part of the chip was a pice of olive and what part was a piece of caper, but the symbiosis of both flavors was pretty awesome! The chips had the right amount of saltiness and I ate most of them without any salsa or hummus. I enjoyed them the way I would enjoy potato chips. Really good stuff. I will be buying them again.

Czech style Rice Pudding-Vegan MoFo Day 13

Czech rice pudding is traditionally made with milk and raisins and then baked with whipped egg whites on top. That is served with canned or jarred fruit (usually plums, peaches or strawberries). I skipped the baking step because I don't use egg whites so there was no reason for me to bake the pudding. I served mine with canned peaches. When I first worked on this recipe, I used a different method of cooking and different ratios of non-dairy milk and water which resulted in two fails. The first recipe fail was undercooked, tough, rice. The second was burned rice on the bottom of the sauce pan-from the sugar in non-dairy milk (when I tried to cook it in the non-dairy milk instead of water in the beginning).

Czech Rice Pudding

1 cup white rice, uncooked

2 cups water

1 cups soy, almond or coconut milk

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup sugar

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon

canned fruit of your choice, if desired

Combine rice and water in a medium sauce pan. Bring to boil. Lower the heat, cover with tightly fitting lid. Simmer 15 minutes. Add non-dairy milk, raisins, sugar and cinnamon, stir to combine. Cook uncovered,stirring constantly for about 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft and creamy. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or chilled, topped with canned fruit if desired.

Cold Peanut Ginger Udon Noodles-Vegan MoFo Day 12

I have made this dish several times from scratch, making my own sauce by mixing toasted sesame oil, ginger juice, soy sauce and spices. Recently I saw a bottle of Organic Soy Ginger Sauce at Whole Foods (365 Organic Everyday Value store brand) that had all the key ingredients for this dish, plus some extra spices and other things.

I cooked udon noodles, drained them and rinsed them under cold water. I mixed the noodles with Soy Ginger sauce, chopped green onions and chopped peanuts. Very good, flavorful and satisfying dinner that only took minutes to prepare :-)

Vegan eats-Vegan MoFo Day 11

I bought cheap, restaurant style condiment mini bowls and did not know what to do with them until a few days ago. I roasted potatoes and mushrooms, and pan-fried some marinated tofu cubes for dinner. I served that with ketchup, BBQ sauce and a homemade lemon curry dipping sauce. I made the curry sauce by blending vegan mayo, lemon juice and mild curry powder. The curry sauce was very good. I will be making more soon.

Did you make too much pasta for last night's dinner, but did not use it all up? That is what happened to me one night. So I sauteed some cooked chickpeas, garlic and fire-roasted canned tomatoes (drained) on olive oil. Then I added the cooked pasta and I got a new dinner :-)