Iron Chef Challenge for November

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Katie

Hey hey!  Did you enjoy your two week break for blogging and cooking like mad people?  I know I did!  I got so many episodes of Teen Mom and Supernatural watched.  It was nice.  This month’s challenge was Isa’s idea, so you can thank her (or blame her if you hate it).  In case you missed the tweet, the second Friday of every month will be the Iron Chef weekend here on MoFo.

A quick review of our few simple rules/guidelines:

1. Whatever you come up with has to be new, nothing from a cookbook or a blog, not something you posted last week that happens to involve the secret ingredient. It’s fine to use a recipe for a jump-off point, but make it your own!
2. Entries are due at 5 pm CST on Sunday (but it takes me awhile to read all of the entries so if you’re a little late it’s no big).  Note, i’m extending the deadline a little bit since i’m posting this later than I usually like to.
3. Have fun and be creative!

And the secret ingredient is…

BREADCRUMBS!!!

It doesn’t matter if you’re coating something with them or binding something with them, if you use a wheat bread or a gluten-free bread.  Maybe even crumbs made from carrot or banana bread?  Since the US Thanksgiving is coming up, and some of us will be stuck with a few extra rolls or half a banana bread (does anyone else have a family where everyone shows up with an unannounced dessert or is that just me?).  I think this will be a great way to compile recipes for using up those leftovers.

Allez Végétalien Cuisine!

Posted in Iron Chef Challenge | 16 Comments

Tuesday Post-MoFo Round Up

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Gabrielle

How is everyone enjoying post-MoFo life? Me, I’m a little wistful, so I’ve launched myself deep into the sanity threatening world of NaNoWriMo to distract myself from MoFo withdrawal. Which is not to say I haven’t whittled away plenty of valuable writing time surfing the vegan blogs. I bring you some of my favourites from this past week!

So I married a vegan catered for 75 lucky guests. On the menu? Winter soup shooters, golden lentil dumplings, hummus and muhammara, roasted sweet & spicy nuts and more.

More in parties, Bianca from Vegan Crunk attended a Heathen Housewarming! The food spread looks great, but I’d be all over this homemade Grave Hill Vineyard Swamp Cider.

Over at Bonzai Aphrodite, the adorable Thanksliving Coloring Zine by Nathalie VanBalen is reviewed. As the type of adult who stares at children colouring in restaurants with envy, I want a copy!

MoFo’s own Jess still owes me an exclusive email review of all of this amazing food at the new Native Foods in Portland.

Thanks to Hipster Food, I’m making mashed potatoes tonight.

Hannah Kaminsky does everything from taking incredible photos, creating the best sweet vegan recipes, and—a girl after my own heart—growing oyster mushrooms in her kitchen. With them she created these vegan Oyster Mushrooms Rockefeller (including a recipe!).

Also no slouch when it comes to food photography (understatement of the year), Celine from Have Cake Will Travel posted these Raspberry Sour Cream Mini Coffee Cakes. I’ll take three with a cup of afternoon tea.

Americans! You must make this pumpkin cheesecake with pecan crumble topping for Thanksgiving. Everyone else: Make it now. If you’re still waiting for your copy of Vegan Pie In The Sky to fall from the heavens into your hands, you’re in luck with this freebie recipe. (edit: I thought American Thanksgiving was this weekend. Sorry! So maybe you should all just make the pie tonight)

And since nothing can top that, have a happy Thanksgiving (US), a sombre Remembrance Day (Canada), and enjoy all those other holidays I’m too ignorant to know about.

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World Vegan Day Post-MoFo Random Round-up

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Luciana

Yes, MoFo ended yesterday, but I’m glad to be back doing another round-up today. If you haven’t already, check out Katie’s post and do something nice and vegan for yourself or someone else in your life.

Even though MoFo was officially over yesterday, lots of folks are still going strong, cooking and posting.

Check out these amazing Tempeh Seekh Kebabs at Hobby and More. They look delicious and judging by the ingredients, they must be really flavorful.

Tempeh Seekh Kebabs

After the early first snowfall, I don’t want many cold salads, but I could go for this Warm Spinach and Fig Salad on West Philly Vegan. This looks like it would keep me feeling full and warm for hours.
Warm Spinach and Fig Salad

If you’re in Texas, check out one of the food carts mollyjade features on Lone Star Plate. Check out this Jerk Tempeh Sandwich with Plantains! I’d definitely leave my office at lunch way more often if that was waiting for me.
Tempeh Jerk Sandwich

I’d love to finish off my meal with this Thin Mint Andes Chocolate Cake over at The Vegan Version. I still haven’t spotted the So Delicious Coconut Holiday flavors in my area, but I’m all over this recipe as soon as I see the mint chocolate!

I’ve been trying to stay away from too many pumpkin recipes because I know we still have many months of official pumpkin season, but I just couldn’t resist this Pumpkin Spicy Praline Cheesecake from Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe. Pumpkin cheesecake with sweet and spicy pecans in the crust? Um, yes!

That’s it for now. See you soon!

Posted in Round Up | 3 Comments

Happy World Vegan Day!

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Katie

A lot of people have said that they don’t want MoFo to end…so you will be pleased to know that we are going to keep the blog going all year now! We haven’t worked out all of the details/schedules yet, but we should have a few posts a week comprising of round-ups, blogger features, and giveaways.

Since today is World Vegan Day, and i’ve seen how much effort so many people put into MoFo, I think we should all treat ourselves! The best way to treat yourself today is obviously to support vegan businesses!

If you’re in the US, go over to Cosmo’s (Georgia), Food Fight (Oregon), Vegan Essentials (Wisconsin) or Pangea (Maryland) and get yourself darn near anything, from chocolate to vitamins to clothing to stickers. The easiest way to pick a store is to pick the one closest to you, which is easy since they’re all over the country. In the UK, try Vegan Store. Australia, The Cruelty Free Shop. Canada, Boutique Viva Vegan or Karmavore.

If you want vegan beauty items, check out Vegan Beauty Market, no guesswork or reading labels because everything is vegan!
And here are some favorite items that I dug up today!

I found these adorable reusable sandwich bags via Vegan Etsy, they are so cute and useful! The Johnson Family Zoo also sells reusable produce bags and a few things for babies too.

Herbivore has two new shirts that are super-stylish and long sleeved, which is important because it’s getting cold. I love the cut of the Wings shirt, and the Kale thermal is unisexy!

It’s No-Shave November, which for me means that I will spend the month watching my husband’s beard get ridiculous and wild. If you or someone you know has wild facial hair that needs to be tamed, get some vegan mustache wax!

Christy has been making and selling her adorable handstamped necklaces for awhile, but they are still perfect for a pretty, subtle, animal-friendly message.

For a cozy accessory, check out Treewool Knits, all handmade and vegan knitwear! A lot of stuff is on sale too, I personally like this Afternoon Tea Cowl.

Now go out and buy yourself something nice! What did you do today to celebrate World Vegan Day?

Posted in News | 20 Comments

Spooky, Spooky Halloween Round-Up

Posted on November 1, 2011 by jess scone

Howwwwwwwl, MoFo! I know, I know, lots of folks won’t have their Halloween-themed posts up til tomorrow – those lazy bones – and perhaps some folks don’t care, but even I put on a half-assed, last-minute costume, so how could I resist making my final round up of the month Halloweeny?! There was just no way. The odds were stacked!

First up, who needs to go trick-or-treating when you’re the Three and a Half Vegans and now own a vast, edible Candyland set.

There’s an ice cream cone castle and a gingerbread house and marshmallow clouds and a colorful path and and and!

I know I’ve included this site before, but I can’t resist.

Oh, Ladycakes ends the month with an entirely appropriate, spiderweb adorned, chocolate pumpkin tart. I mean, how do you not decorate everything like this until Thanksgiving? Seriously, how do you resist?

DSC09990

A bunch of bloggers were organized by Snarky Vegan for a Halloween-themed cocktail round-up, and JenoJune really, really caught my eye with her spooky Graveyard Smash. Look at that glass! I’ll take one.

Now, the beet-based Shots of B+ on Raw for $10 a Day (or Less) are even more terrifying, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like one for breakfast tomorrow. It just may haunt my nightmares, no big.

Fork and Beans plates up a legitimate test tube of tomato soup and a friendly monster-faced grilled cheese accompanient:

2 more friendly Halloween pals from Easy Vegan: Casper style mini pizza. I heart them! I heart pizza! I miss Follow Your Heart!

2011-10-26 - Casper the Friendly Ghost Pizza - 0025

Back to endearing ghosts and Snarky Vegan, can you even handle her wonderfully spooky take on Allison River Samson’s veganized classic, the Ghoulish Shepherd’s Pie?!?

One of my favorite blogs to catch up on, Meet the Wikos, has been having a stunning month that concludes with a culinary visit home for a veganization of Adelaide’s infamous pie floaters:

And that now concludes my I-can’t-believe-it’s-only-Monday night round-ups….for now! It’s been an incredibly inspiring month, and I’m suddenly finding it very strange that I didn’t have anything with pumpkin today.

More to come, MoFoland. Indeed.

Posted in Round Up | 4 Comments

Cinnaholic Giveaway!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by isachandra

We have a winner! Becca who said:

“OMG! I’ve really been missing Cinnaholic since I moved 3,000 miles away.

The s’mores roll is calling my name.”

Thanks for playing, everyone!

 

The time has come, MoFo’ers. It’s the last giveaway of The Vegan Month Of Food, a bittersweet goodbye. Let’s go our separate ways and walk into the sunset with 80s alternative music playing. Wait, we can’t both walk into the sunset, or that would mean we’re not going our separate ways. I’ll walk into the sunset, and you can just watch until I’m out of sight. And to make it somewhat more bearable, why don’t you eat….a cinnamon roll! Or half a dozen cinnamon rolls since it might be a long goodbye.

Cinnaholic is an entirely vegan bakery located in Berkeley California. I was able to sample a few rolls earlier this month and they were a spiral of ooey, gooey, sweet and spicy…just about everything you’d want on a crisp fall morning. You pick your own frosting flavor and a topping, or you can go with one of their specialty rolls, like Apple Pie or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

This offer is for 6 of their original flavored cinnamon buns. But to enter the giveaway, visit the Cinnaholic website and tell us which flavor you would order if you visited the bakery!  A winner will be chosen tonight, probably sometime after midnight EST. You must have a US or Canada address and leave a valid email to win. Good luck, everyone, and have a safe and happy Halloween!

 

 

Posted in Giveaway | Tagged , | 189 Comments

Iron Chef #4 Roundup: Carrots and Oats

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Katie

Here in the states, pretty much everyone is dealing with being cold/snowed on/wet, so this cozy roundup is a perfect read for your Sunday evening! Not only do we have lots of warm, inviting foods, but the carrots make for some bright dishes to help fight the gloomy feelings you might be having.

As if you need another reason to bake cinnamon rolls, Danni came up with these Sweet Surprise Cinnamon Rolls…the surprise being that they’re full of carrots and oats!

Cara made a burger and carrot fries, both the burger and the buns both contain carrots and oats as well!

If you want something quick, light, and drinkable, go over to My Munchable Musings and try this Carrot Oat Shake.

Latkes are another food that I think you can never have too many variations on, so I was happy to see Farrah made Curry Carrot Oat Latkes!

Savannah made a 3 Layer Carrot Coconut Crumble, which not only looks delicious but sneaks another vegetable in!

Zoa used the Magical Loaf Studio as a jumping-off point to create Carrot-Oatmeal Balls.

Kristen made cute little Carrot & Chickpea Sliders with pesto mayo.

The recipe name really speaks for itself: Choc-Carrot-Chai Spice Pudding Pie With Oat-Carrot Cookie Crust by Munchin’ Mochi!

JL is bummed because of the snow on her porch, luckily she has this Oat, Amaranth & Carrot Porridge to keep her warm, made in a rice cooker for a ‘set it and forget it’ meal.

Mandy made these beautiful Carrot Curry Puffs, and I agree that everything is better wrapped in puff pasty.

Missy was absent for pretty much all of MoFo due to computer problems, but she makes up for it with this Carrot Crisp.

I try not to play obvious favorites, but this recipe for Carrot Furikake Granola Clusters is interesting and pretty! A savory granola, that has with Japanese flavors by Tiffany.

Rachel made homemade Carrot Cake Larabars, using raisins instead of dates which makes them even more affordable to make.

Over at The Crabby Crafter, not only do we get a recipe for Carrot Cake Waffles, but a lesson on how to tweak the recipe to make baby food!

Ali made Spiced Carrot-Pumpkin 3-Grain-ola that utilizes popped amaranth, something I had never heard of (insert ‘The More You Know’ rainbow here)!

Annie decided to really go all Iron Chef and make three dishes: Meatless Loaf, Mixed Grain Mushroom Pilaf with Glazed Vegetables and Oatmeal Carrot Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches. Impressive!

Kelly lives up to her book/blog name with Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cream Pies. Daaaaaaaaaaang.

Jackie also made waffles, but these are gluten-free and topped with a pretty red grape compote!

Gigi made a short video, a song, and Tropical Voopee Pies!

And finally, Kelly did double duty with savory Quick Oat & Veggie Pancakes for her and Cinnamon Cranberry Carrot Oatmeal for her dog, after Kaylee had some teeth pulled. What a lucky dog! For getting oatmeal, not for having teeth pulled and surgery.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated, and for those of you asking about challenges continuing throughout the year…you might see us again soon. Wink.

Posted in Iron Chef Challenge, Round Up | 3 Comments

Bob’s Red Mill Sunday Giveaway

Posted on October 30, 2011 by lazysmurf

The Giveaway has ended, congratulations to the winners  Becca (Waffles!!), Alec (Seitan Rubens! Great for Sunday night dinner during the game), Rachel (pancakes pancakes pancakes!!!), and Nobody (my favorite it a walnut lentil loaf with some roasted potatoes. YUM! )

Doughnuts, Pie, Biscuits and Gravy, Banana Bread, Cinnamon Rolls
Almost everything good starts with flour. People always say vegan diets must be so difficult. For me, ethics and environmental concerns aside, I can’t imagine anything more limited than being on the paleo plan. I’ll enjoy my poppyseed bagel, thanks, and don’t forget the Thanksgiving stuffing or Chicago style deep dish pizza! 

When I first started making homemade seitan I couldn’t get it right until someone told me to check out Bob’s Red Mill brand Vital Wheat Gluten. It truly made the difference, now I am completely free of any sausage making fear.

Bob’s Red Mill also has some of the best gluten free flours on the market. I know their all-purpose blend is the most popular one out there. Buying all those different flours can be expensive though, so I am sure you are all going to be stoked that Bob’s is giving away four 25 dollar giftcards! And they love you all so much that they are even going to pay for international shipping so today’s giveaway is open to anyone with an address!

To win just tell me what your favorite Sunday dish is. It can be anything from a long simmered seitan roast to a pumpkin pie, just make sure it includes some sort of grain or flour. Let me know in the comments by 11pm CST tonight and I will pick the winners then. Make sure you leave an email address that you check!

Posted in Uncategorized | 145 Comments

MoFo Swan Song: Sunday Round-Up

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Gabrielle

On my last MoFo round-up, I just have to say that it has been an immense pleasure being involved this year. Not only did I blog regularly during MoFo for my first year, I also had the honour of writing some round-ups and giveaways with the superstar MoFo PPK team. This experience combined with my time at Vida Vegan Con just makes me want to smooch you all in the least creepy way possible. Okay, cheezefest over. Here’s today’s round-up!

Starting things off with a spooky bang: Ghoulish Shepherd’s Pie from Snarky Vegan. I am a lazypants these days and had a boring old Amy’s frozen shepherd’s pie last night, but my day would have been infinitely better if I’d been served this one.

I like planning my food-tourism far in advance, and on my list when I finally make my way out to visit my sister in Boston and reunite with New York City, I plan on tracking down The Cinnamon Snail vegan food truck. Apparently these award-winning vanilla bourbon crème brûlée donuts (!) are frequently available when the Snail is in NYC.

I’m always sad about the fact that more people think they don’t love tempeh. Aside from the initial un-sexiness of “fermented bean curd,” what’s not to love? Check out this excellent tempeh primer and resultant balls of fermenty goodness from The Vegan Weight Watcher. Bonus: the tempeh wingz from MoFo’s own Katie are also recommended, and I can vouch for their deliciousness.

I’m obsessed with Colorado and I don’t know why! Okay, it’s probably the mountains, but it’s also the vegan-friendliness, exemplified by this vegan buffalo chicken roll from Sun Deli in Boulder. Once I embarked on an entire trip to visit a university in Boulder even though I was 99% sure I wasn’t going to go to grad school there. I wish I’d had Vegan Coloradical as my tour guide.

You’ve no doubt already experienced jealousy and resentment over those of us lucky enough to be testing for Terry Hope Romero‘s upcoming world food cookbook. I haven’t found near enough time to delve into testing, but I did spend a good few minutes salivating over this Tofu Bo Bun tester from Living Free. Veganized Vietnamese food is amazing!

Vegan Chai (sorry, vegan chai) hates capital letters AND tomatoes, but we’ll forgive her when she serves up this amazing TLT (sorry, tlt).

As she is also part of the MoFo team (and a special friend of mine), I couldn’t end my round-ups without gushing about Amey‘s MoFo theme: a spice a day! Today’s dried rose petals resulted in this gorgeous rose petal & almond tea, in a Tin-Tin mug!

For dessert, and leaning into tomorrow’s holiday (and the final day of MoFo 2011), feast your eyes on these lovely ghost sugar cookies.

Happy Halloween!

Posted in Round Up, VeganMoFo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Saturday Round Up: In Honor of Randomofo

Posted on October 30, 2011 by ameyfm

I really hope you already know about RandoMoFo.com. If not, you do now! It’s the coolest site, where you can just keep hitting the “next random blog” button up top and see the next MoFo blog. It’s such fun and a great way to discover new blogs. I sat down on the sofa and had some good QT (quality time) with RandoMoFo, and picked out some posts that piqued my interest – so, prepare for a Random Round Up!

Squash & Apple Jam

This week my apple tree finally kicked into full production, so I have my eyes out for any appley recipes… and imagine my delight when I saw this amazing Butternut Squash-Apple Jam!! Doesn’t that sound crazy good? And that whole blog think. care. act. is totally amazing – she’s doing a super great theme of food from different areas of Germany for MoFo. I can’t wait to go back and read all her other mofo posts!

other brown vegans

I also discovered Brown Vegan which features lots of recipes – like biscuits and apple slaw – but also this really cute interview feature called “Other Brown Vegans.”

Madhi Toor Dal with Cabbage

This week was the great Hindu holiday of Diwali, and I managed to find a few references out there to Diwali festivities. I loved the look of this cabbage dal from Happy Go Lucky Vegan. 

mini mochi balls

Another awesome blog I discovered with the help of RandoMoFo was Smooch Panda’s Sweet Creations – where she’s been featuring Japanese sweets all month for MoFo!!!! Check out her great tutorial on how to make mini mochi balls… then she has a whole other post with tips on yummy things to stuff inside your mini mochi balls.

I can’t figure out how to capture the picture, but I promise you that you need to go look at the photo and recipe for Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean & Kale Salad over at Swell Vegan. It looks so good, and is already bookmarked on my computer.

concord grape jello

This picture is sort of hilarious, but I’m not one to laugh at homemade concord grape jello. Hello!! Jealous!! I love concord grapes SO much, they remind me of my awesome grandparents who always grew concord grapes. Just look at that beautiful color. From Vegan Whore.

Bruschetta Pizza

Last but not least, my fun little nephew is coming over to spend the night tonight. We’re going out for pizza, then we’ll come home and carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds. I can’t wait! So, with pizza on the mind, a couple pizza links really popped out at me. First of all, there is a whole tumblr blog dedicated to vegan pizza, with the excellent name Fuck Yeah Vegan Pizza! ha ha! Check it out when you are in need of pizza porn. Then I also found Zombie Cats Eating Plants‘ excellent compendium of previous pizza posts and recipes… this bruschetta pizza with homemade cashew cheese especially caught my eye. Mmm, pizza! Have a great night… just two more days of mofo madness!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments