Chili Lime Tofu, Mango BBQ Beans and Mashed Yucca

So I took a little under a week off from MoFo but I'm back. Life was getting a little hectic and expensive so the last real meal (and by real, I mean anything anybody may want to read about) I made was the Pumpkin Baked Ziti. Normally I do a lot of cooking on the weekends but this weekend I was feeling super lazy and I also have been at the bfs with all 3 dogs for a few days so cooking a big meal wasn't at the top of my list.

Speaking of the dogs, we took them to the park today. Before I get to the food, take a look at my 3 adorable vegan pups!

Gizmo - My little princess

Daine - The love of my life

Hero - She is a Dog Meat Trade Rescue and my little mountain goat

Since I wasn't super motivated to put energy into cooking but still wanted a good home cooked meal I wanted to make something super low maintenance but still healthy. My copy of Appetite for Reduction was laying around my guys kitchen so I turned to that for inspiration. I decided on Chili Lime Tofu, Cilantro Lime Yuca, Mango BBQ Beans and some wilted spinach.

When I got to the market I was super distracted so when buying the tofu, instead of grabbing a block of firm tofu I accidentally grabbed the pre-cubed kind. I didn't realize it until the beans had already been cooking for a  bit so I didn't have time to go back. I had to make it work. Initially, before I realized I had bought tiny cubes of tofu, I was intending on a 100% Latin American inspired meal but I modified things a bit and even though the tofu didn't have all Latin flavor, because I used some soy sauce, it was still fuckin' awesome and worked really well with everything else.

When I decided to make the Mango BBQ Beans, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them. I don't like mango. At all. My guys loves it so I decided to make them. I used to love mango though, in my early 20s (and pre-vegan days)I would make a Thai style mango sauce all the time to serve over non-vegan proteins. Even after I went vegetarian, and then vegan, I would still make the same sauce and serve it with tofu or fake chicken and I still loved it. I don't know what happened, the last year or two, my tastebuds have changed I guess. I did end up loving these beans though, probably because the mango wasn't the main taste in the dish. The sweetness of the fruit complimented what would have otherwise been a really tangy sauce

The yucca, oh the yucca, I love this starchy little tuber so so much. I have only ever had yucca fries with a cilantro chutney dipping sauce, but I could eat my weight in that shit. I already knew the cilantro in the recipe would be a good match but I wasn't sure how I felt about the lime so I made some changes. I did use lime, just a tiny bit though and added a little Earth Balance and a tablespoon or two of Galaxy Vegan Cream Cheese. I did cheat though, I initially had fresh yucca in my cart but once I hit the frozen section and saw a bag of it already peeled, I switched them out.

For the tofu, since I ended up with tiny cubes of tofu, I clearly couldn't press it or dry fry it like I wanted so I decided, after draining them, to toss them in a little bit of chili powder and bake them on a sheet for about 15 minutes to get some of the moisture out. Once they were done I tossed them in a pan with the sauce and cooked it until it was more like a glaze.

When I cook for my guy, I always give him his plate first so he can start eating while I am plating and photographing mine. After about 2 bites, he was hollering from the living room how fantastic it was! Success? Yes! I agree with him, I was super proud of myself when I finally sat down to eat mine. AFR has not let me down yet.

The Heartbeat at My Feet: A Furry, Four-Legged Love Story

It's Valentine's Day, might as well write a mushy ass post... 

Whether you know me in real life, from the ppk or just from the blogosphere, it's no secret that I love my little vegan dog more than anything or anyone in this world. Every day is an adventure with her and the unconditional love she gives is like no love another person can give. Here is our story....

Almost 2 years ago I was volunteering at a no-kill shelter and a girl I worked with found this adorable little Chihuahua mutt with a sick ass underbite roaming around a park in Quincy. She brought the dog home and was never able to find her parents so she kept her. Then it came time for her to leave for college and she obviously couldn't bring the dog with her and unfortunately(for her, not for me) she couldn't leave the dog at home with her family because she didn't get along that great with the other dog in the house. I heard her story and immediately offered to either adopt her or if the boyfriend I had (and was living with) at the time wouldn't let me, I could bring her to the shelter with no fear of her being put down. The girl brought the dog to the office so I could meet her. It was love at first sight, she had to be mine. I sent a picture of her to Jeremy and asked if we could keep her. Based on the few shitty picture texts I sent him, he said yes immediately. The thing was, we were living with his dad and already had 2 other dogs. We decided to tell him a little white lie, that we were temporarily short term fostering her until the shelter had room for her. The very next day we took her to get a name tag, food and toys, as soon as his dad saw it he knew we had no intentions of giving her up. Luckily for us, he was cool with it. She became our daughter that day and even though we aren't together anymore (we are still best friends) she is still our daughter and we both love her as unconditionally as she loves us. We have no idea exactly what mutt blend she is, except for the obvious Chihuahua in her or how old she is but it doesn't matter. The love and joy she has brought to both of us actually has me tearing up a little right now. (I know right, I actually have emotions?!) Even though she doesn't see him everyday anymore (I got custody in the split), as soon as I say, "Where's Daddy?" or "go get Daddy" her ears perk up, she starts wagging her tail and runs to the door to wait for him.

She is such an amazing little creature... She gives hugs on command, stands up and walks for treats, gives kisses even when you don't ask for them, sleeps in the crook of my arm under the covers every night with me and eats her vegetables with a wagging tail. In fact, I have never met a dog that loves vegetables, especially green ones more than her! Kale, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, beets and dried pineapple rings are her favorite things. I feed her Natural Balance Vegan Formula supplemented with VegeDog products and make batches of homemade wet food for her with rice, beans, steamed and/or pureed veggies. Half of the time she eats better than I do!

She is even learning Spanish! One of my best friend's, Jorge, is her "tio" (Spanish for uncle) and just as she knows "daddy" when I say "Donde esta tio?" she gets so excited! Seeing her reaction when her tio or dad walk into my apartment is priceless every single time. If it's been too long since she has seen either of them she will even let out a few little cries of happiness. It melts my icy black heart.

In the spirit of the "holiday" I hate the most, I decided to give my little baby some Vday love and make her pink pupcakes! But, before I get to the recipe, check out a few of the thousands (literally) of photos I have of her...

Hiding in a tree

Mother Daughter love

Gizmo and Gramps

Going for a ride!

Gizmo and Daddy

Gizmo and my nephew. I swear we did not coordinate their outfits!

Happy Easter

Tired rainy day

Gizmo loves her car seat!

Her favorite pitbull

We did the MSPCA walk

Gizmo and her Daddy

One morning I woke up to her laying like this on my arm. 

Okay now that I have relived some amazing memories going through these photos and killed you with the adorableness that is Gizmo, let's move onto the pupcakes shall we?

Pink Vegan Beet Pupcakes

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking pwder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup of canned sliced beets with the beet water

1/2 cup veggie broth

Pink food dye. I didnt measure, but not a lot. 

3 tblspns oil. I use olive. 

• Preheat to 350 and lightly spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray
• 
  
• Puree the beets with the liquid, then mix with veg broth oil. 
• 
  
• Mix wet and dry ingredients with whisk until combined. 
•  
• Pour 1 tblspn of batter into mini muffin reservoirs. Bake about 10-12 minutes until toothpick comes out dry. 

Makes about 36 mini muffins.  

This recipe is something I randomly came up with tonight. Gizmo loved them as is but I think next time I will play around with them a little more by leaving out the food dye, adding parsley and carob chips. Or maybe making a carob frosting? Who knows! The possibilities are endless!

Carrot Biscuits for Dogs!

Over the holidays my family and I did a Yankee Swap and I scored the Sur La Table gift card. I was stoked to go get some stuff that I wouldn't normally buy for myself, like really good quality vanilla or other flavored extracts. I had never been to a Sur La Table but I did know that one had recently opened in my local mall. I went in a few days after Christmas ready to spend the whole gift card and probably more on all the things I've lusted after but that didn't happen. The store is pretty well organized but everything is very close together and there is just so much to take in, I started getting a little claustrophobic. I did a quick walk through of the store and noticed the swivel rack filled with cookie cutters so of course I started digging through all the different shapes and sizes. As soon as I saw the picture for the dog bone cookie cutter I had to have it. Of course it was nowhere to be found so I settled for the fire hydrant, the dog house and a paw(which doesn't really look like a paw. See last photo). I also got some other ones for people cookies but I was more focused on the dogs. I went back about a week and a half ago and went through the rack again and there it was, the dog bone!

I've been wanting to make biscuits and all kinds of treats for Gizmo and the other dogs for awhile and now I finally had more reason except I couldn't really find any vegan recipes that really caught my eye. A ppk friend mentioned an all vegan dog cookbook that was for sale on Etsy. I immediately logged on and bought it. If you have a vegan dog or even an omni dog and like to cook healthy, yummy treats for them, I highly suggest you get your butt over to It's a Vegan Dog's Life and shell out the $3 for the PDF version. Word is that the PDF and book aren't going to be available forever. The book contains 75 recipes, 56 of them being mini muffin recipes all with the variations to make them into biscuits, cookies or bagels. There are even some special treats like a gravy, sweet potato chews and carob brownies!

I made my first recipe from the book yesterday. The original recipe is for Carrot Mini Muffins but I used the variation for biscuits so I could use my adorable new cutters! The recipe calls for 1 cup of carrot baby food but since there are no children in my house and it was way too freezing outside to leave the house for baby food, I decided to make my own. I peeled and roughly chopped a few carrots and put them in the steamer basket. I steamed them for about 15 minutes, until they were really tender. Once they were soft enough I threw them into the VitaMix with a few tablespoons of water and pureed the hell out of them. I am sure this could easily be substituted with steamed pureed pumpkin, sweet potato, apples or anything else that your dog loves. I made the dough and as the biscuit directions said, I added 1/4 cup of flour until the dough was able to be rolled without sticking to the rolling pin. I had to add a considerable amount of flour to get this to happen. I also used VegeYeast in place of the nutritional yeast.  Once the dough was all set though it was a breeze from there. I wish I could get pie or pasta dough to roll out that easy for me
.

One they were all cooked up and cooled enough I let Dain try a few, he was the only dog home this weekend to test them. He is extremely fussy when it comes to what he will and will not eat and he was gobbling these up like there was no tomorrow so they must be good!

Carrot Muffins

2 cups flour

½ cup nutritional yeast

½ cup wheat germ or additional water

1 Tbsp. ground flax

1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)

½ tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses or agave nectar

1 cup carrot baby food (about two small jars)

½ cup shredded carrot

¼ cup water (leave out if the batter is runny)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, nutritional yeast, wheat germ, flax, hemp seeds and
baking soda.

Add carrots, baby food, molasses or agave nectar and water, mixing well.

Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations:
Biscuits- Eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time
until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too
dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife
and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.
Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place
dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until
crispy.
Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in
water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel
shape. Bake until crispy.

(That one on the bottom right is supposed to be a paw, I don't think I'm going to use that one again!)

I'm glad I got my copy when I did and am looking forward to cooking up more paw lickin' good treats for my pups!