Author Archives: Jennifer

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 23: My Fall Equinox

September 24, 2015

Sorry for the delayed post, I had a very weird day yesterday. It was full of highs and lows, and by the end of the day I decided I needed to take a mental day off from blogging! I think after vegan mofo I won’t be posting much about food for October. Maybe a vegan candy post, and a pumpkin spice popcorn ball recipe. But I will probably spend October catching up on blog posts I started, mostly about exercise and a restaurant, and I think I am going to try and do a few horror movie reviews. I never really talk about movies, and I sure love them.

e946500e-c636-4b4e-8166-c253ae486f11

I started my morning with a very fall breakfast. I mixed a 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1/2 almond milk, some spices, 1 tbsp honee, and 1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds. I let it sit overnight and topped it with some chopped apples that were covered in sugar and blackstrap molasses. It was pretty awesome. It was quick to eat and very light which was a good thing because I ended up taking a really long run that morning. I’ve been trying really hard to get back into exercising, which has been hard since I fell out of exercising in our new home. I think things have gotten easier now that the weather has gotten cooler.

be369280-f4f2-4bcd-a095-94b4561633ba It ended up being 50 degrees outside so I got to wear my running jacket. I miss wearing it! I used my new iPhone to track my running, which is always kind-of fun to see new numbers instead of me thinking “I’m probably running slow…. I think I am making good time…” Since I was going for a long run, it meant exploring my new neighborhood. I was a little nervous because my old Haddon area was full of small houses, and old fashioned streets. That meant lots of trees and sidewalks. I never grew up in areas where you had closed off developments and the streets connecting them were very busy. So it was a learning experience of which roads are best for running.

I decided to run through the development across from mine, and round to the local park. I am not a huge fan of man made park, you know the ones with no trees, paved trails, and baseball fields, but this one is really close to us. So I ran through it, and found this guy! I wish I could run with my SLR camera because I could of gotten a cool photo! Ugh! But oh well. I think what makes long distance running so cool is that your world get smaller. Places you think are just too far to do anything but drive to, you soon realize your body can travel you there, and it is pretty rewarding. Is it practical to run to the grocery store? Probably not, well depending on what you are getting. I use to run to my CVS to pick up prescriptions. That wasn’t too weird.

Then when I got to work, my boss offered me some squash. He has been growing them on the fence, and these cashaw squash got huge! They are a variety of heirloom squash that is suppose to be a secret specialty in the south. They are kind-of like a mix of a butternut squash and a pumpkin. They make great pies, and desserts. My favorite was making Isa Chandra’s butternut alfredo with the cashaw plant. Very yummy.

b6982c7f-09bd-4a13-bf49-1777cd9732ef

Then when I headed back to my car it turned out my boss got my squash already to drive me home. Maybe I should start locking my car? Well, I will briefly go into the details of the “bad” part of the day. Basically a day or two ago my mother texted all of us that my dog Madison (the dog we adopted when I was in high school) was very ill. She is now hitting 15 years, and woke up unable to walk. After a nap she seemed fine again. Well yesterday I got a text from my Mom saying “call me when you get off of work.” So I though “I think Madison died…” then thought there was a 25% chance it was my Mom asking me something stupid and not just calling me after 5 pm. So I sat at work trying not to think about it, and got all worked up. Turned out she wanted me to come over and pick fabrics. UGH! When I told her what I thought she might be calling for she was “oh yeah, that makes sense, but no”

At that point I was happy to stop by Iron Hill Brewery on the way home and fill up my growler. Sadly, I don’t like stopping her often. They aren’t the most vegan friendly restaurant, and their menu gets increasingly smaller for vegans. But I do love fresh beer. So I filled up my growler with the pumpkin ale and brought it home. I think that is a great way to end the day right?

I originally was going to post a recipe for pumpkin spice popcorn balls, but I think I need to make one more batch to perfect the recipe. So you will probably see it after vegan mofo!

Posted by Jennifer in Health, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: beer, chia pudding, running, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

6 comments

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 22: Miso-Harissa Roasted Acorn Squash Tacos

September 22, 2015

harissamiso2

This was kind-of a weird prompt since I pretty much eat “seasonal” all year long. Why? Well my CSA gives out a LOT of food. Unlike most CSAs that just give you a basket full of food, my CSA is only one farm, that we go to each week. There they have some pre-picked foods and some we need to pick ourselves. There is a big board that says how much we are allowed to take. Some of it is a “pick and choose whatever fills this bag” sort of deal, others are you can pick one of various foods (for example I could of taken two heads of lettuce this week, two bundles of chard, or one of each), and some is take x amount of food. There are also other foods we can buy from other local producers, like pickles, coffee, meats, veggie burgers, and cheeses. Sometimes with the food we are allowed to pick we can take as much as we can if the produce is super abundant. And sometimes they sell some of the extra produce.

We get so much shelf stable food at the end of the year that we usually still cook with it in November and December. So I guess I stop eating seasonally from January to May when I don’t have any incoming produce. I could sign up for their winter produce sales, which I think they just store some of the fall crops but I usually just want to relax and skip it. For todays prompt I tried my best to use 100% all food I got from CSA. I used some other foods, but hey, it probably would be impossible otherwise, right? I mean outside of something like a salad.

092115-o

So this dinner is a nice mix of crops that are on their last legs, and crops that are just coming in. I started by making a freaking harissa paste with a bunch of red jalepenos. I used the recipe from Terry Hope Romero’s Vegan Eats World cookbook, but you can get the recipe off of her blog. Pretty much you just roast some peppers, peel them, and puree them with some spices, tomato paste, lemon juice, and garlic. So the tomato paste, lemon juice, and garlic aren’t seasonal. No biggie right?

harissamiso1

Then I proceeded to mix the harissa with some miso and olive oil and toss it in some acorn squash. It seemed a little early this year, but they were so cute and small. I grabbed three. I roasted them along with some peppers and onions (both were from this week at the farm!). I placed them on a flour taco wrap with some lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are pretty much on their last leg at the farm, which is nice and frustrating because they keep popping open! Ack! The lettuce isn’t something that is normally grown in the fall, but you can trick plants into growing.

harissamiso3

And I think that is what we all need to remember when buying local and seasonally. Sometimes you can trick crops and still get great results. I remember first learning about this when I was reading about growing peas. Sites suggested that you can grow them again in the fall by planting seeds and constantly spraying the seeds with cold water in try and “trick” the seeds that it is early spring. There are also foods that we don’t think about getting “fresh” like onions, garlic, and roots. And it is true, they don’t NEED to be fresh exactly. But my CSA divides these up through out the year. For example we get spring beets then again in the fall. We get a few heads of garlic when the pick them from the ground, then we get them again in the fall once they are done curing. Oh and the garlic scapes too!

harissamiso4

This dish was insanely easy and I was really excited how tasty it was! I will happily make this again (next week even if I get more peppers!) You can easily wrap it up in a burrito with some brown rice too!

So to sum it up, these are what I used that AREN’T seasonal produce

flour tortilla wraps (you could probably make raw corn tortillas though!)
1 tbsp miso
1 tsbp olive oil + some more
salt & chili powder
lemon juice + garlic + spices for the harissa

Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: acorn squash, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, csa, green bell pepper, harissa, lettuce, miso, red bell pepper, seasonal, tacos, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

4 comments

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 21: Stranded on an island aka an overview of koji

September 21, 2015

tumblr_npm5zgfoeq1utp0ioo4_1280

What 3 foods would you bring on a deserted island? It was in fact a tough question. We are always asked if we could bring only one book, 10 albums, and so on, but never which foods. This would be hard since I love variety, and I wouldn’t have anything to do on a island. Yes, there would be a lot of things to do to just simply survive, but surely that couldn’t take all day? So I thought about what could give me the biggest bang for my buck.

I thought that there would probably be some produce on the island like leafy greens, roots, and fruit. So I thought, about what I could bring for starches and proteins, and thought rice and beans. Complete protein, okay doing good. But what about the third item, then it hit me- KOJI! So what the heck is koji? It is a strain of bacteria (it’s scientific name is Aspergillus oryzae) that is purposly grown on rice and soy beans to help preserve them. It is a much more complicated version of our pickles.

The earliest documentation of koji goes back to 300 BCE in the Rites of Zhou Dynasty. This bacteria is so important to Asian foods, that it was named as the “national fungus” in Japan. There is even a story book character that is the koji bacteria. So what can koji make? Soju, amazake, soy sauce, miso, douchi, gochujang, huangjiu, makgeolli, and shochu. So while all you chumps thought to bring “food” to your desert island, I am able to get crunked!

There a few kinds of koji variations. White koji is the earliest version. It was easy to cultivate and it’s enzymes worked faster than earlier koji strains. Black koji is another early strain. It is rarely used and pretty much used in Okinawa just to produce awamori. It is most known for spreading spores very easily. Workers will often get their clothes black in spores by the end of day. This is why it isn’t as popular today. Yellow koji is used often in sake production but it is extremely sensitive.

So what can I make with my three items? I made a list, which might have to altered slightly to make it work with only koji, soy beans, and rice.

Miso*
Soy Sauce*
Sake*
Rice & Soybeans
Douchi*
Natto (cooked soy beans can naturally ferment into natto)
Amazake*
Tofu
Soy Milk
Rice Vinegar*
Tofu Cheese*
Rice Noodles
Mochi
Makgeolli*

Items with the * would use the koji spores. And depending on the island I could make maekgoli (with a starchy tubar), gochujang (with spicy peppers), miso pickled foods (with local veggies), coconut aminos (if the island had coconuts), miso soup (if I could cultivate seaweed), and tofu stir-fries with local island veggies.

I personally haven’t dabbled in making foods with koji. But you want to take a dive, you can buy some cultures from Cultures for Health, they have rice koji and barley koji. Each koji culture works better for certain types of foods. South River Miso Company sells koji, but only the rice koji. I think if I am going to be stuck on an island I would have pleanty of time to hone into my craft of koji fermenting.

Posted by Jennifer in All About the Ingredient, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: koji, rice, soy beans, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

1 comment

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 20: Apple Dumplings

September 20, 2015

appledumplings00

So I’ve made a cobbler that is savory instead of sweet, and now I am giving you guys a dumpling that is sweet instead of savory. I know I am complete confusing you guys. If you are lucky, you have heard about apple dumplings before. Perhaps from the movie The Apple Dumpling Gang which is a pretty old Disney live-action film. But this a very much “dumplings,” they are a dough wrapped around a filling, which would be brown sugar and apple. I guess this tradition is more common in the Asian sweet buns.

appledumplings01

Apple dumplings are probably more American than apple pie. I am sure most people outside of the United States have had an apple pie, but apple dumplings? The dish is a northeastern food, specifically a Pennsylvanian Dutch treat. Let me clarify a few things, Pennsylvanian Dutch isn’t aren’t the Dutch who immigrated to the United States. They are Germans, dutch is referring to Deutsch. There is a strong history of the Pennsylvanian Dutch, including a rich history of art (google up some Fraktur folkart), architecture, and birch beer (my favorite).

appledumplings03

Today a lot of the Pennsylvania Dutch traditions are associated with the Amish population as modern Pennsylvanians are more likely to eat a burger over schnitz un knepp. In fact I think most people try apple dumplings through the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia through Amish vendors. If you get one there they will serve it in a bowl filled with heavy cream. I personally never ate them that way when I was little but the cream down cools down the dumpling fast enough to quickly eat. I think we ate it either plain, with whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream.

appledumplings04

My Nanna and Pappy are probably further than what would be considered Pennsylvanian Dutch, but their food is heavily influenced by it. Reading wikipedia’s page of Pennsylvanian Dutch foods there are lots of overlap. I loved birch and root beers when I was little and anything gingerbread flavored. We also ate a lot of angel food’s cake (my sister’s favorite), apple dumplings, and gobs (the Pittsburgh name for Whoopie Pies). I think I was more interested in the traditional sweets than the savory (which consists of a lot of meat and cheese).

appledumplings05

Traditionally apple dumplings were a breakfast food. Which sounds decadent, but I guess not compared to some of the sugary french toasts I see out there. The dish is pretty simple, core and peel the apple, stuff sugar and spices in the middle, cover with pie crust, and bake. That’s it. In fact the original recipe my Nanna taught me is already vegan! Why? She uses Crisco. I decided to dress them up a little more by using a more sophisticated pie crust recipe that used applejack/apple brandy, but you can use whatever you want, olive oil or coconut oil pie crust!

appledumplings06

Now I am stopping to point out a regional difference between apple dumplings. There is the Pennsylvanian Dutch apple dumpling and the Southern apple dumplings. The southern version is similar, apples covered in dough, except people use canned crescent rolls. Okay technically vegan. Then you pour a melted stick of butter, sugar, and a can of mountain dew on top. Then bake. I shudder at the thought of how sickeningly sweet the whole thing is. I am sure it is nice in it’s own way, but I much prefer the simplicity of my apple dumplings.

appledumplings07

The cool thing is that you can freeze whatever you don’t bake. So our recipe made 8 medium sized dumplings (you may only get 5 or 6 if you use BIG apples), I baked 4 of them, then froze the other four in tin foil. That was in the middle of winter I can just pull out one at a time and bake. It might take as long as an hour to an hour and a half, so it is cool to pair it off with something, like roasted veggies.

appledumplings08 Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: apple brandy, apple dumpling, applejack, apples, blackstrap molasses, calvados, cider brandy, cinnamon, molasses, pie crust, sugar, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

2 comments

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 19: Project 365: Days 255-261

September 19, 2015

Day 255: Every week I cut and prep my husband’s veggies for the week. It isn’t that I don’t think he gets enough fiber or veggies in his diet, he just simply likes to snack on raw carrot and celery. In fact, I remember getting excited that Jon liked eating celery when we first started dating. I would also buy it and it would go bad since I only liked eating it cooked. I do it usually on Sunday night and get it out of the way. That way it is easy to grab them in the morning and usually takes about 10 minutes total.

091215-o

Day 256: Some days I just love boxed orange pasta! I made myself Earth Balance’s vegan mac and cheese. I can’t decide which one is my favorite, but I would have to say Earth Balance and So Delicious, especially the Pizza! I am super excited about the Annie’s vegan pasta that will be coming out. I still have a special place in my heart for the classic Mac and Chreese, but truthfully, they don’t taste like mac and cheese, but I sure do love them. Sadly most stores don’t sell the normal pasta, just the gluten-free.

091315-o

Day 257: Alexa came to visit and we drove an hour to Wildflower, an all vegan restaurant. Their food is super simple and very veggie heavy. Some foods were better than others. Like we got the vegan mint chocolate chip ice cream, which was good, but you could tell they blended up the mint leaves in the ice cream base. I think a steep would leave a nicer texture. But we got a tofu basil wrap, and Alexa got a seitan wrap.

091415-o

Day 258: I brought leftover beet and carrot soup into work. I use to eat soup all the time, but I find it is a little hard to eat and not get the place messy. So I kind-of stopped doing it, but occasionally it makes sense to bring it in.

091515-o

Day 259: This is when I realized photographing my lunches is dangerous. I just get so dang hungry! I kept opting for my camera phone over my SLR. I didn’t want to seem weird to my fairly older bosses, and I just wanted to dig in faster. XD Below is a sandwich with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, vegan mayo, and some field roast mushroom deli slices. They are great for sandwiches on the go!

091615-o

Day 260: Another quick photo day. I never photograph the fruit I eat, so I finally included them. I ate a peach and a plum. In the back is a burrito with white rice, and some leftover curry. What kind? I am not sure of right now. I am thinking a Japanese style curry which is close to a stew.

091715-o

Day 261: I felt boring if I photographed another burrito, so I made a smiley face with my peach and plum. The wrap? It was leftover chili, rice, and lettuce. It was pretty tasty, and eaten cold.

091815-o

Posted by Jennifer in 365, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: 365, 365 2015, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

1 comment

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 18: All in the family

September 18, 2015

Let’s just assume this is fake fur.

I remember loving my Grandmother’s food when I was little. I remember eating lots of junk food (the only real time I got a chance were at grandparents and friends houses) and pouring tons of gravy over my ham/turkey and mashed potatoes. But when I got older I figured out why I used so much gravy, the meat was always dry, in fact everything was dry. Heck even last Thanksgiving she dried the only thing I could eat that she made- Pillsbury crescent Rolls. I didn’t even know that was possible. So in someways it is better than I am vegan, I get to bring my own food.

But oddly my Grandmother always forget that I am vegetarian let alone vegan. She very politely says “Oh you shouldn’t cook next time, Grandma will take care of you” but it a double edged sword, risk getting a veggie lasagna filled with cheese and/or get a not so great dinner. I think at this point I stopped tell her and just bring food. The only downside of this method is that we get like 4 desserts for the end of the night, and I can only eat one (guess who is eating all that pie? ME!)

But whenever I do say I am a vegan, my Grandma talks about how my Great Grandma was vegetarian and wouldn’t eat meat. This was a surprise for all my family. They never heard about this before. And my Grandma hasn’t talked about how wearing onions on the belt was the style at the time, so I trust she is telling the truth. It is kind-of cool think that not eating meat is in my blood. And it probably was harder to abstain from meat 80-90 years ago than it is now. Of coarse, I don’t actually know much about my Great Grandmother, she passed away before I was born. Even my Grandfather passed away before I was born.

I like to think that I can pass on the tradition of being compassionate to animals to my potential children, and they will teach their kids the same.

Posted by Jennifer in The Girls, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: Jennifer, vegan, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

1 comment

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 17: Irish Potatoes

September 17, 2015

irishpotato00

Vegan Mofo is asking for us to share our regional dishes. Many people in the US will say this is a little bit of a tricky one. Yes, we do have foods we are proud of and only found in certain parts of the US, BUT we are a melting pot here. I think it becomes most obvious in places like New Jersey, where we are sandwiched between two major cities. It isn’t that we don’t have local foods, but it more like people say it is a “Philadelphia” food or a “New York City” kind-of food. It is more obvious to me, since I have went from North Jersey to South Jersey, and can see all the local foods get snatched by the cities.

irishpotato01

One very regional food is the Irish Potato. One might think two things- one that the food is really Irish and two that the food would have potatoes. I am not sure how this weirdo dish came to be, but it has no potatoes, and no Irish roots. The food gets it’s name because they resemble a small potato. And although they don’t have Irish roots, they are a seasonal treat with the Saint Patricks Day holiday.

irishpotato02

And if you are sitting here thinking “I’m from New Jersey and I’ve never heard of an Irish Potato!” then I am going to guess you are from Central/North Jersey. I never heard of these guys until I moved to Philadelphia. My roommates (one from Northeast Philly, the other from South Jersey) thought I was crazy that I never heard of these things. One told the story about how for class their assignment was to make a food from their heritage. So Italian kids made lasagna, German kids schnitzels, and Irish kids would make Irish potatoes. As laughable it maybe for a kid to mistake “American” food with “Irish” food they are a great food to make with kids. They are super sweet and super easy to make. You just need an electric mixer, or a really good potato masher.

irishpotato03

So what is an Irish potato made of? Well, they are like small candies on par with a fudge. They are pretty much just butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and coconut rolled with a cinnamon coating. As my roommate described it “They should be really disgusting, but you can’t stop eating them.” Oh I think I should note that most people use Crisco over butter in the recipe!

But I couldn’t just leave it be simple. I took another region dessert from the United States and mixed it. Needhams. These are a Maine treat that use potatoes, powder sugar, butter, and coconut flakes, that is covered in chocolate. The snack uses potatoes to balance all that sugar and fat, which is probably what Irish Potatoes need.

irishpotato04

I made the batch and sent to my husband’s work, putting it to the true locals test. Turned out that everyone loved it, and couldn’t taste the “vegan” parts of it. Plus most people liked how the potatoes cooled out the sweet parts.

I technically made this recipe almost 2 years ago before I “opened” the blog up. But I thought I should update the photos. I only had two pictures, and I remember taking it with a very-old not-so-hot camera. These are such a local food, that I think they need to be shared around more often.

irishpotato05

Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: candy, coconut, cream cheese, Irish potatoes, Philadelphia, potatoes, powdered sugar, South Jersey, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

3 comments

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 16: Gimmie Coffee

September 16, 2015

Jen – When summer starts I am so hopeful! I get so excited about my CSA, I think of all the things I am going to make, jams, pies, tomato sauce, up my veggie intake, it will be awesome. I think about all the ice cream I am going to make and eat. Ooh! And all those fresh herbs and juicy Jersey peaches. I’ll eat it all, nothing will go to waste.

Then when summer wraps up I wanna just curl up in a blanket and get as much Chinese and pizza take out and never cook again. Oh but I CAN’T do that! It is still really hot and I hate the heat, so no blanket curling. Oh and I am only half way through my CSA, until when? WHAT THE FUCK NOVEMBER! I curl up in a ball thinking about how many more Saturdays I have to go the farm and keep cooking. Then I think of the lack of ice cream I’ve eaten or made because the freezer is full of frozen tomato sauce.

Alexa – I can just never think of a favorite “summer” dish other than ice cream, which I loved year-round but there’s just something extra special about it when it’s hot out. I’m always just too hot to really want to eat anything besides a salad … or ice cream that it never dawned on me that I might have something that I love eating at this time. But I do know that as soon as it gets to be about 60 degrees and up there’s always one thing I yearn for more than anything else in the summer time…ICED COFFEE. It’s something I especially love in late summer because it’s always so gosh-darned hot and I am constantly sweating or craving something light and delightful.

So we turn to coffee. We don’t really drink it that often for the caffeine, just more for the taste (which is nice because Jen doesn’t let herself drink bad mud water like Folgers, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures for Alexa). The bad thing is we end up spending a lot on coffee. Jen likes getting the fancy drinks from Starbuck’s Clover Machine, and she will find herself getting coconut water lattes from Whole Foods. Why the major chains? Unfortunately the coffee scene is a little bleak in South Jersey. It isn’t bad, but not great. Some of it is possibly because Jen is close to Philadelphia, so they get the die hard coffee fans (she had a friend who drove ALL the way into Philly just to go to Ultimo Coffee). But there are a few good places that she’s found near her. Alexa has a coffee maker at home and has bought beans and concentrate from her favorite local spots, but then her family uses all of it and it disappears. So she cries in a corner all alone until she goes out in the morning and grabs herself a cup that she doesn’t have to share.

Grooveground

647 Haddon Ave, Collingswood, NJ 08108
website | facebook | twitter

Jen – Truth time, I’ve never had their drip coffee and I don’t come here often. I love Grooveground, but they are pretty far away from my work and home (even more reasons why I frequent Starbucks and Whole Foods). It is an interesting coffee shop because the owners really try and do something different. They sell lots of goods by local artists and have a used CD, DVD, and record exchanges going on. In fact, I recently bought a Cat Stevens album there. $4 for a vinyl record? Heck yeah!

They are also have a very vegan friendly menu. They have both almond and soy milk to choose from, and some edibles that are vegan. Okay, so you won’t be getting a cookie from there, but they have some savory options. Like you can get oatmeal or a bagel with PB & J for breakfast. Or for lunch they have a salads that can be modified, a hummus wrap, or (my favorite idea) a hummus panini!

But it helps that their coffee is good too. Even though I never bought their drip, their espresso drinks are pretty darn good. I usually just get a latté or iced espresso, until I noticed they sell caramelized espresso shots. What is that? It is when the barista puts a layer of sugar in the grinds and then pulls the shot. The sugar instantly melts and infuses with the espresso. It is amazing to drink the shot by itself, but then they decided to make a latté out of it. I TOTALLY recommend getting it with the almond milk. Most of the time I am disappointed by almond milk and coffee in part because most places actually buy unsweetened almond milk, making the drink too bitter. So the mix of unsweetened milk with sugary espresso make the perfectly sweet drink. So go and check that out!

Rook

10 White Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701
Other Locations: Colts Neck, Little Silver, Long Branch, Manalapan
Monmouth Medical, Oakhurst, Wall
website | facebook | instagram | twitter

Alexa – I think we have mentioned Rook a few times before but we never truly featured it on the blog yet. It is a little hard to since they are super simple. I mean their coffee is fan-fucking-tastic but they pretty much JUST sell coffee. And it’s not a sit-down kind of place. There aren’t many options for food that seem too vegan because most of it is baked goods (definitely not vegan) or granola bars (possibly vegan?), but their coffee is all that you need.

The ‘P’ definitely stands for Pumpkin!! And the ‘AL’ is because it’s mixed with almond milk. Gotta get that fall freshness going!

All of Rook’s coffee is fair trade and made in house, and they have distinct flavors that you wouldn’t be able to find at places like Starbucks or Seattle’s Best (which has been purchased by the Starbucks empire). We like it because the flavors are all very different from something you may find in another coffee shop as well. For example Jen loves the Turkish Coffee and hasn’t found a coffee shop yet that has it! Their coffee tastes very earthy or floral compared to a lot of the nuttier flavors out there, not that those are a bad thing! I also love that they have a list at the counter telling you all about the different roasts that they have. The staff are always very friendly and super knowledgable of each distinct coffee and if you’re like me, who frequents your favorite local spots at least 3 times a week, they pretty much know my order by now. Speaking of knowing my order…

Booskerdoo

793 River Road, Fair Haven, NJ 07704
36 Beach Rd #9, Monmouth Beach, NJ 07750
549 State Highway 35 North, Middletown, NJ
website | facebook | instagram | twitter

screen-shot-2015-09-16-at-6-36-29-pm

Admittedly, Booskerdoo’s bakery in the shop is not vegan friendly, at least not to my knowledge. However, I’m sure if you were to order something from them (they do a lot of special orders all year long, but especially around the holidays) they would probably have no problem in making something vegan for you. The coffee is delicious and they definitely have something that Rook doesn’t – and that is a much wider variety of lattés and teas to choose from. They have almond and soy milk at the ready and don’t mind altering a recipe if you need. The staff in there is amazing, much like Rook, but I feel a bit closer to them as they shop is down the street from where I work. They also have really great and flavorful fair trade coffee that they blend in their original location and sell in each store, and their drip coffee is pretty fantastic as well. I can’t even say if I have a favorite currently…everything is just really good. I would highly recommend stopping by if you’re a coffee shop connoisseur! You won’t regret it.

screen-shot-2015-09-16-at-6-18-13-pm

Posted by Jennifer in Food Review, Tour NJ, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015, Vegan Pitstop Tags: almond milk, Booskerdoo, caramelized latte, coffee, collingwood, Fair Haven, grooveground, latte, my vegan restaurant, red bank, Rook, Rook Coffee Roasters, soy milk, Tour NJ, vegan coffeeshop, vegan coffeeshops, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015, vegan pitstops

1 comment

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 15: COOKIE BUTTER PIE for OBAMA!

September 15, 2015

What a great question! It actually took me a good amount of time to figure out what I would be making for Mr. President. At one point I was talking about pie with Jen over the phone and that’s when it hit me… MAKE HIM A PIE. It’s delicious, it can be eaten at any time of the year, and they range from super simple to complicated while still being a crowd-pleaser. Obama is definitely worthy of getting a special pie.

I thumbed through the pages of a book that Jen had called Pies and Tarts with Heart, and I stumbled upon the Peanut Butter and Fluff recipe. The blurb about the recipe even stated that PB and fluff is just about as American as you can get…and that’s when the light-bulb went off in my brain! My friends always had peanut butter and fluff sandwiches from time to time while we were in school, but I was one of those kids whose parents wouldn’t buy it. No time like the present, right? However, we switched the recipe up a bit though, substituting peanut butter for cookie butter.

It’s been a while since I baked a pie since they’re usually saved for special occasions, and this being a VERY special occasion I wanted to make sure the crust was perfect. I got to use Jen’s food processor and that was a huge treat for me since I don’t have my own at home yet.

The only thing that we should have been on the look out for was the different consistency between cookie butter and peanut butter. When we were mixing all of the ingredients together for the filling the cookie butter started to ball up really quickly where I think peanut butter would have smoothed out a bit easier. We added a teaspoon of soy milk to help soften it and it didn’t affect the flavor at all.

Apparently I have a serious love of trying to make pies look as if they are picturesque, who knew? This recipe was so simple, but was such a great idea. We even thought that we could have pushed it further by getting gingerbread cookies to use as the pie crust, but I think the chocolate was still a great choice. The cookie butter and chocolate worked really well together. And the chocolate cookies were sweet, but not TOO sweet, so it balanced out the filling really nicely (which was almost surprisingly sweet with all of the added sugar that we probably could have cut out).

This recipe is so great because it’s very family friendly. It makes perfect sense as a dessert and the portion sizes can be easily controlled because it’s nice and easy to cut.

I still have a bit left over at home and it is definitely calling my name. I love desserts so much, and I felt as though that would have been something I would want to share with the President. While a meal is a great experience to share with someone I feel as though dessert brings everything together at the end and has so many different variations that could be brought to the table (literally AND figuratively!!!). Dear President Obama, I hope you would have enjoyed my choice for your visit!

I do swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth…this pie was AMAZING! And totally worthy of America’s taste-buds.

Posted by Jennifer in Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: cookie butter, fluffernutter, pies and tarts with heart, rice mellow, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

5 comments

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 14: Tomato Cobbler

September 14, 2015

tomcobbler0

My mother recently had some hip surgery done, so I stopped by to visit her and brought some food so she wouldn’t have to be in the kitchen. She already prepped some meals, but it better to have too much food, than too little. I made her a fresh dish of Pad See Ew from Vegan Eats World. But I also gave her some leftover tomato cobbler that I made earlier that week. I figured it would be a good dish to have to switch things up a little in her diet.

tomcobbler1

The name is a little deceiving. When I tell people about it, they get confused and think it will be sweet. It is probably more accurate to call it a tomato casserole, but there seem to be a lot of similar recipes that call this dish a cobbler. Oh so confusing! I am not sure what region this made in or the history, but it is pretty stinkin easy to make and it great when you have a cherry tomato plant that is making more than what you can eat on your salads.

tomcobbler2

The beauty of this recipe is that you can just toss the tomatoes in a bowl and cover them in the flour. No chopping. I might of chopped some of the cherry tomatoes in this dish since they were huge at my CSA. I also included yellow pear tomatoes, which were very awesome. Mix and matching the small tomatoes make the dish really yummy. So use cherry, grape, sungolds, or whatever heirloom tomatoes. It will be worth it.

tomcobbler3

I originally based my recipe on a dish that had caramelized onions in the filling. But I figured I should step up on the flavor and included some poblano peppers. This really makes the dish, giving a little bit of a tex-mex flavor. Seed the peppers, but if you want some heat, try to leave in the white fleshy membranes that the seeds are attached to. And if you want to kick the dish up even more, feel free to pulse in some daiya cheese into the biscuits!

tomcobbler4

I will leave on this note- a few days after bringing my mother the dish she texted me saying she loved it…. but she put cheese on it. Hey, I get it, you eat cheese and that is your decision, but it is a little insulting to put cheese on the vegan dish I am trying to share with you. Seems a little crazy, but I am also sharing my points of view and ethics when I share my vegan dishes. So omni-eaters, if you are eating a vegan dish that was made for you, don’t add cheese to it, and if you do, lie and say didn’t. XD

Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: cherry tomatoes, cornmeal, cornmeal biscuits, onions, poblano peppers, Tomatos, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015