Tag: Vegan

• Vegan Pumpkin Pie

  Posted at 12:44 PM by Brittany, on November 25, 2012

  A few of you (5 to be exact) asked for the pumpkin pie recipe I made a few days ago! I sadly have no idea where this recipe came from, and since I made some alterations of my own I think it’s safe to post it!

  Vegan Pumpkin Pie

  

  Ingredients:

  For the crust

  • 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 4-8 tablespoons almond milk (vanilla)

  For the filling

  • 1 (15oz) can of pumpkin (I ended up adding more as the taste testing went on before baking, not much maybe another half of a cup)
  • 15 oz firm silken tofu
  • 3/4 cup raw sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon (and then some!)
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves

  

  Directions:

  For the crust

  Preheat oven to 400F and get your pie plate out. In a large bowl sift mix together the flour and salt. Add in the oil slowly bit by bit stirring with a fork until it’s all added in. The flour should resemble coarse sand. Sprinkle in the almond milk 2 tblsp at a time and mix with your hands until you form a solid dough. Be sure not to over work the dough. Form the dough into a ball and set on a piece of wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper ontop and toll out the dough until it’s in a wide enough circle to fit your pie plate.

  The directions then say to poke all over the dough with a fork, and bake for 12-15 min before adding the filling. I did not do this step. I actually didn’t see this part until right now as I type this..oops. The pie turned out fine, but you may choose to include this step.

  For the filling

  Empty silken tofu into your blender of food processor, I used my blender. Blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until everything is combined well. Pour the filling into the pie pan lined with your crust and bake at 375F for one hour, or until a toothpick comes out smooth.

  

  I did have a piece right as it came out of the oven, and found that this texture holds up better when it’s cooled overnight or for a few hours. Once left in the fridge for the night, it solidified enough to be an exact replica of non vegan pumpkin pies. The tofu blends in well to the myriad of other flavors and adds some great protein to accompany the fiber from the pumpkin. Who said eating pie was bad!?

  

  Q: Have you ever made a dessert using tofu? Would you?

  

  | 45 Comments Tagged Dessert, Pumpkin, Recipe, Vegan

• Sweat and Satisfaction

  Posted at 1:51 PM by Brittany, on November 23, 2012

  Thanksgiving has come and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye. I was woken yesterday by a text message at 6 am (sad to realize I used to think 6 am was sleeping in!) In that message was a photo of my younger siblings dressed in workout gear, equipped with a running bib. I immediately felt bummed I was not partaking in a Turkey Trot of some sort. I let it go, and fell back asleep for a while.

  When I woke later on, I discovered my wonderful mother in the kitchen about to prepare some vegan rolls for her crazy vegan daughter. We were low on flour thanks to my adventure the night before making pumpkin pie, and this meant it was my turn to go get flour.  That’s when I was given the genius idea to run to the store to get the flour. It’s a little over 4miles round trip, so it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

  While running to the store I had another genius idea: Use the store bag to make my own running bib. I told this idea to the lady who rang me up for my flour and she looked at me like I was insane. Perhaps I was, I ended up having to run the two miles home with a 5lb bag of flour under my arm. I channeled my inner quarter back and alternated between arms. SO long story short I got a run in, and I played some traditional turkey day football.

  

  Uh yeah, so that looks more like a mug shot than a proud running photo. I’ll just stash that on in the “do not open” folder. 4 miles done with a 9:44 pace, yay. Moral of the story: If you miss out on a race, make your own! Moving on..

  Dinner couldn’t come fast enough. In case you’re curious what a vegan eats on T-day here’s my plate. It’s very similar to last years vegetarian T-day. The only difference this year was dessert. Pumpkin pie isn’t vegan friendly, so I ended up making my own.

  

  

  THE best part of the meal. Potatoes and cranberries ON the bread.

  My plate looks a little lacking in the protein department, but fear not my pie was full of protein. I’d be lying if I said I waited until after dinner to eat my pie. In fact I had a slice the night before, and that morning to fuel my run.

  

  The secret ingredient in this delicious masterpiece? Tofu. 

  
  There is nothing more satisfying than a skeptical outsider eating a vegan dessert and swooning more than you did.

  

  This pie definitely stole the show, and my heart. An entire 15 oz of tofu in this beast and you’d have no idea unless I told you. Spices are an amazing thing.

  

  Best part of the pie, the last few bites with extra crust.

  This was my first time making a pie completely from scratch (including the crust!) and it turned out amazingly. I may just have to find another excuse for pumpkin pie when this one is gone!

  So that was my day. I had satisfaction from running, and creating new foods, and I got sweaty while eating. Or maybe it was the other way around. Or maybe a combination of everything! To end this post right, I must share what I am thankful for. I am thankful for my family, my friends, my health, my body, my mind, and my motivation to create new foods and try new adventures! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Candy Cane Joe Joe’s calling my name..time to prepare for Christmas! 😉

  Q: What was the highlight of your Thanksgiving? If you didn’t celebrate, or you celebrated earlier in the year, what was the highlights of your week!?

  

  | 52 Comments Tagged Pie, Pumpkin, Race, Running, Thanksgiving, Vegan

• Black Bean Blender

  Posted at 9:51 AM by Brittany, on November 12, 2012

  What would you guess this pile of slop was meant to make?

  

  If I told you which setting I used would that help?

  

  What if I told you what was in the blender? Bananas, maple syrup, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, salt, oats, and black beans..yes..BEANS. What if I told you this combination made the silkiest brownies I have ever had? Would a picture help?

  

  Black Bean Brownies

  • 1 15oz can of black beans drained and rinsed (I used these ones because they are unsalted)
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup oats
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

  Preheat your oven to 350. Grease your 8in pan. Combine all of your ingredients into a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon. DO not blend the chips. Pour batter into your pan and bake for 30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean! SO easy! I also added a super secret ingredient for extra OOMPH..

  

  Instant coffee for extra flavor! Seriously, these brownies are SO silky. They don’t have the texture of regular brownies, but boy are they good!! High in protein, and high in fiber..I’m sold. Lets just look at that picture one last time.

  

  Swoon ❤

  Q: What’s your favorite bean recipe? Link it to me! Beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot! I LOVE BEANS!

  

  | 57 Comments Tagged Brownies, Recipe, Vegan

• Virtual Vegan Potluck: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

  Posted at 12:02 AM by Brittany, on November 1, 2012

  It’s that time of year again. Time to party til our tummy’s hurt with the Virtual Vegan Potluck! Big shout out to Annie for creating this amazing online party, and giving me another excuse to stuff my suck with sugar and chocolate!

  Who loves cookie dough? I love cookie dough so much, that whenever it comes time to make cookies I eat more dough than baked cookies. I usually eat myself sick, but it’s just SOOO good. Before I went vegan I still ate the dough!

  

  You can imagine my excitement when I discovered this deliciously easy recipe online!

  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

  

  Ingredients:

  • 2/3 c raw cashews
  • 1/3 c oats
  • 2 Tbsp Agave
  • 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 c Chocolate Chips

  Directions:

  Blend the oats and cashews until they make a flour like substance. Then add the agave, maple syrup, and vanilla. Blend it again. When the dough starts to ball up and bang around your blender, you have the right consistency. Then add the chocolate chips and stir by hand. This makes a small batch, so I call it a personal batch. You may choose to share ;).

  

  I made these twice. Once with my blender, and once with a food processor. The photos I have are from the food processor which didn’t make the bites as smooth. I also stirred the batter by hand because the food processor was small, this also made for a lack of smoothness. When I used the blender I used honey instead of agave (which isn’t vegan for some of you) and this made the balls smoother, but STICKY! Either way this recipe is quick and delicious!

  

  The white chocolate bites were for a non vegan. She loved them ;). To get a better idea of what these looked like when I used my blender, this photo is from the source of the recipe.

  

  So good.

  Alright..lets keep this party going! To see more from this potluck, you can either go forward or back from my page. Click forward to see a few more desserts, and click back to see more desserts, entrees, soups, breads, and more! Happy noshing!

  

  

  

  | 61 Comments Tagged Cookies, Vegan, Virtual Vegan Potluck

• Rain Run Fun

  Posted at 8:19 AM by Brittany, on October 29, 2012

  Saturday morning my alarm went off at 7am. I woke up to the one sound I didn’t want to hear on the morning of a long run. Rain. I wanted so badly to stay in my warm bed, with my cat purring in my ear to lull me back to sleep. Instead, I got myself up, gathered my things, and set out for the hour drive to my race destination.

  I enjoy running in the rain. I run better, I run faster, and I run happier. HOWEVER, I don’t like starting a run when it’s already been raining. When it’s already raining that mean’s it’s cold, and it’s wet. Basically I need to already be running before the rain starts. I say this now, but always end up loving the rain runs regardless. Naturally I wore something to protect me from the elements.

  

  Gloves and a headband. Oh and a short sleeve shirt..because I am probably the only runner in Washington that gets hot on a 40 degree run. The wait before the run was cold, and wet. This was going to be my first solo long race. I arrived early, got my running number, and couldn’t help but want to go home.

  

  Umm..wtf is this? Had I known it would have been such a hassle to print off running numbers without any identification of the race, I would have taped a piece of computer paper to my chest to save them the 2 bucks. I paid almost $40 for this race, you’d think the running ID’s would be a LITTLE better than just a 5 and a 6 slapped onto a white sheet of paper. If I were in charge it would have looked more like this.

  

  Much better

  Anyway, I grabbed my number and there had to be maybe 10 cars waiting with me. TEN..this was a race..WHERE were all the people!? It didn’t take me long to figure out this was a small race. I don’t like small races. I had over an hour to kill, and had to sit in my car watching the rain fall because it was wet, and there weren’t many people to talk to. Still kind of wanting to go home..

  

  I had one of two choices: I could either suck it up, run this race alone and be bored and soaked, or I could call and beg someone to come run with me, not be bored, and still get soaked. I chose the latter.

  My friend lives 4 miles from where the race was, and happened to have a free schedule for the day. He showed up and ran this race with me, and it was one of the BEST run’s we’ve had to date! I have to say, this was a very unorganized race..but we made the best of it and had a blast. Not only did we run 10 miles with a good amount of hills, but I cut 10 minutes off my previous 10 mile PR. We finished 10.2 miles in 1:45:46, and the 10 miles in 1:43:46.

  I didn’t care about the rain, I didn’t care about the hills, I didn’t care about the woman that had no idea how to run an aid station and had us pouring our own Gatorade, I didn’t care about the lack of organization, I didn’t care about the awful running ID, all I cared about was having a fun time.

  

  After the run we had to stop at the store to get food. I saw this meal on another blog and had my mind set on this post race carb feast. Please excuse the photo quality, I needed calories more than I needed a good photo.

  

  If you have access to a car, drive to the store right now. Buy a sweet potato and a can of baked beans. Your life will be changed. As if this meal wasn’t enough, I was later surprised with vegan ice cream and Oreo’s to make my own vegan friendly dessert. I swooned.  Whoa long post..almost done.

  So what’s the moral of this story? Don’t be a race snob like I was, a run is a run is a run. It doesn’t matter if it’s a huge event with 17,000 people (Disneyland Half) or if it’s a small run with 40 people. We are all coming together for a common hobby, and that is to enjoy a good, solid, hard run. Would I have enjoyed this race as much if I were alone? No, but I got lucky having someone right around the corner. Let’s be real though, this running number doesn’t really fit in on the running wall.

  

  hahaha

  Q: Have you ever been somewhere and wanted to leave, only to realize you needed to suck it up and either call for backup or enjoy the opportunity? I wouldn’t have left this race, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun had I been alone. 

  

  | 42 Comments Tagged Running, Vegan

• Love

  Posted at 8:09 AM by Brittany, on October 15, 2012

  Lately there have been a few things I have been loving. First and foremost would have to be my fall walks. I have been going on quiet a few walks the past few weeks, some with a partner and some alone.

  

  I don’t know what it is about the blog world, but I have never “met” so many people who love fall just as much as I do. It must be an unspoken rule that to blog you must love the season of pumpkins and crisp air.

  I went for a longer walk into town and back a couple days ago, and the walk was about 2.5 hrs. Nothing crazy, just another walk. The next day..I felt like I was hit by a bus. I can run 13 miles in 2.5 hrs and feel fine the next day, but walk for 2.5 hours and feel like I just gave birth out of my hips?? I have no other explanation other than I haven’t been eating/drinking enough. My appetite has been off so I haven’t been eating much, but there is no excuse for the water consumption.

  In an attempt to help with my energy levels I made myself a batch of the most amazing balls. I have been loving these for weeks, it’s damn near an addiction at this point. Please do yourself a favor and make these today. It takes 20 minutes of your time, and will “money back guarantee” balance your serotonin levels. I’d like to thank Gimmie Some Oven for this amazing recipe. For a coffee kick version of these click here.

  No Bake Energy Bites 

  

  • 1 cup dry oatmeal
  • 2/3 cup coconut flakes
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 1/2 cup ground flax-seed or wheat germ (both turn out equally delish)
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I tried Crasins too and they were great)
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1tsp vanilla

  *Note: Peanut butter also works in place of the almond butter, however both need to be creamy, and preferably store bought jars. While I love my self ground nut butters, they are much too dry for this recipe. If you must use fresh nut butters, try adding a little bit of coconut oil to ensure the end result isn’t too dry. Otherwise the bites won’t stick together!

  Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. Store in an airtight container and keep in the fridge up to 1 week..if they last that long!

  

  If you’re lucky, the last ball you roll will end up having twice the amount of chocolate chips. I am saving that one in the top right corner for last! These are great as bites on the go, but I have been eating them as a dessert as well. SO good.

  Sometimes if I am feeling really wild, I will make these with both chocolate chips AND crasins. Best of both worlds!

  

  Q: What’s your favorite no bake recipe??

  

  | 51 Comments Tagged Fall, Recipe, Running, Vegan

• Farmers Market Finds

  Posted at 6:03 PM by Brittany, on September 18, 2012

  September is half way over, which means the farmers markets are going to come to an end very soon. In order to start my last “hoorah’s” of the summer, I made a trip to the farmers market to get some inspirations for dinner. I didn’t know what I wanted, but as always I found more than I needed. I needed something to go with polenta. I have never made polenta before, so this was new for me.

  After walking a few laps around the market, I settled on a handful of hot peppers (like..cry your eyes out hot!!!!), a blue bell pepper, 2 beets, and a peach the size of my face.

  

  I ended up making a pico de gallo style mix with the peppers, some tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and salt/pepper.

  

  I pan fried the polenta into small disks, and topped them with the pepper mix.

  

  I have to say these turned out really good. I was surprised. I paired them with zucchini lentil boats.

  This was my first time making zucchini boats too, the zucch was grilled and then filled with lentils. Along with some marinara served on the side for extra flavor! Since no meal is complete without something sweet, that giant peach was then grilled with brown sugar and cinnamon!

  

  I liked the addition of the manly arm in the photo so I left it. Grilling and farmers markets! I also feel the need to mention that TJ’s has a new seaweed salad that is awesome.

  It tasted just like the ocean.

  On the running front, I feel a little lost now that my half marathon is over. I have been experiencing the post run blues. After working up to this since January, having it be over is sad. I need to find another half to run so that I can continue with my running schedule. I find myself having motivation only for 3mile runs. During a 3miler I had last week I discovered it’s best to run with your eyes shut.

  

  That would be a small fly. I had to run with it for about 2 miles. It wouldn’t come out. Gross.

  Q: Who’s ready for fall!?!?! I AM! 

  

  | 24 Comments Tagged Farmers Market, Running, Trader Joes, Vegan

• Balance

  Posted at 11:27 AM by Brittany, on September 12, 2012

  There’s been a lot of running talk on these streets lately, and for good reason. I just finished my first half marathon and am still jazzed about it. (And thank you all for your kind words on my half marathon post!) In order to live by my favorite word, I need to balance this blog with a post dedicated to some food! While I was in California I went on a last minute trip to LA (GIGI I LOVE YOU I’M SORRY!) I had my heart set on trying some of the famous cupcakes made at Babycakes NYC. I have been DYINGGG for a good cupcake, and being vegan tends to limit the options.

  

  This place is 100% vegan so I just haddd to try their goods. Driving around LA was sketch..I mean..SKETCH. There were transients everywhere and I was having a hard time imagining a cute cupcake shop in the parts I was driving through. Fortunately the location I made it to was less sketchy than the first. Once I arrived I was shocked by the prices..$4.75 for a cupcake the size of my pinky toe?! Then my hawk eyes found a two for one deal on day old cupcakes. Two cupcakes for $4.25…deal.

  

  Red velvet and Vanilla banana

  Visually I was not impressed. How hard is it to make the icing look nice? Foul number one. Texture was that of a muffin..UGH. All I wanted was a MOIST, fluffy cupcake! These cupcakes sucked, and were NOT worth the money. They flavor was mediocre, but my biggest complaint was the density of the cake. I could have made these at home for $0.25 each. Fail.

  

  Thankfully I found a cheap vegan restaurant that saved the afternoon.

  

  I shared a Pineapple “chicken” burger, and a Seitan wrap. Both of which were deeelicious, and the bill was a whopping $14.

  

  

  
  So. Good.

  That night I then feasted at the Spaghetti Factory to carb load for my half marathon. I got up the next day, ran 13.1 miles, went to the hotel to get cleaned up..and set out to find some more food. This is about to be my favorite part of this post. Prepare yourselves. After the run, I was walking like a wounded wildabeast. I was emotionally hurt from the cupcake experience the day before, and I was desperately needing something douched in chocolate.

  In order to prevent cramping or muscle tightening, we went to walk around some shops to keep the movement in our legs going. It just so happened we went back to whole foods for some more PB. This is where I saw it, the most magical sight I have ever laid my eyes on. The most gorgeous vegan cupcake with a simple, but CLASSIC icing job.

  

  

  The icing to cake ratio was perfect..simply perfect. The cake was MOIST, chewy and tasted just like a naughty grocery store cupcake! THANK YOU WHOLE FOODS! I have been gawking at these pictures for a week now, I just can’t stop thinking about this cupcake. I am lucky the closest WF is over an hour away, or I would purchase one daily. The moral of the story is, if you find a shitty cupcake don’t give up hope..just go to WF!

  

  Q: What’s one experience you’ve had with recently with food that left you with disappointment on your face and pain in your heart? Sorry Babycakes, your muffin cakes aren’t for me.

  

  | 29 Comments Tagged Cake, California, Food, Half Marathon, Running, Vegan, Whole Foods

• Black Hole

  Posted at 4:24 PM by Brittany, on August 16, 2012

  My blogging has been terrible lately. I feel like I have been sucked into a black hole of busyness. I am nearing the tail end of a week long house sitting adventure, and I am ready to be done taking care of someone else’s dog. The chickens are cool though, they require minimal attention, and I probably give them too much. I have officially trained them to run with me, or after me..all I have to do is carry some food and they run like savage cheetahs.

  In exciting news, I have harvested every last carrot from my wine box garden.

  

  The biggest one was about the size of my hand!

  

  Simply gawwwjus! I have incorporated them into a few meals, my favorite being a good ol BBQ style meal. I smothered the carrots in maple syrup and cinnamon before sticking them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

  

  With a cut up potato (french fry style), baked beans, and a vegan vegetable burger!

  The temperatures have been in the upper 80’s, low 90’s lately and that makes for some VERY hot runs. I tried to portray how sweaty I was after a 5miler the other day, but instead I just look like a deer in headlights. “A” for effort.

  

  Bottom line is, running in the middle of the day when it’s 80 plus degrees makes me hate waking up to work at 4A.M. even more than I already do. I want to run mid morning like all the cool kids! That yellow VHS on the door was one of my all time favorite movies when I was younger. Rugrats christmas movie. I finally stopped watching it last year.

  It’s finally my weekend, and I plan to sleep, eat..sleep some more..eat a lot more..and then run my first 9miler. Woof.

  Q: What were some of your favorite movies growing up?? Anything Disney, Rugrats, and The Berenstein Bears V-Day movie was my jammm! 

  

  | 26 Comments Tagged Carrots, Running, Vegan, Wine Box Garden

• Runner’s High

  Posted at 4:35 PM by Brittany, on August 1, 2012

  I ran 7 miles on Sunday. I ran 7 miles. I ran one more mile than my longest distance to date. I ran 7 miles.

  

  Days have since passed, and I am still on a high from this run. I ran from one town to another, and this run FLEW by. This was one of the best runs I have ever had. Lately I have upped my carb intake BIG time. I am really focusing on eating a lot of carb heavy foods on my run days, and so far I haven’t felt the usual fatigue I was used to feeling! This was the first run where I genuinely felt like I was ready for my half marathon.

  My only complaint on this run was towards my running shorts. There is a band of elastic around the bottom of the leg holes, and it’s never bothered me on my shorter runs, but this  time around mile 6 I felt it…the rash!

  

  Ewww..seriously…so gross (name that commercial.) This is nasty, and it hurt like whoa. I had a hard time focusing the last half mile because my shorts were grinding on my skin. I will def be needing new shorts for the longer miles. Anyway, to end on a positive note I am looking forward to my 8mile run this Sunday!

  A warrior meal was needed after this run. I channeled my inner frat boy while preparing this meal. Manfriend found some awesome vegan dogs, and I found this vegan macNcheezzee.

  

  Do you know where this is going..oh yes. Macaroni and hot dogs!!

  

  I couldn’t completely abandon my vegetables. Plus, I don’t know how to eat macNcheese of any kind without spinach. It makes the meal. I felt rebellious eating a meal almost completely packaged. It literally took 10 minutes. Needless to say I could run 10 marathons, sweat out all of my sodium molecules, and still have enough left over to go about my daily tasks after these packaged meals. Whooaa sodium!

  In random news: Lately I have been enjoying some coffee shop blogging.

  There is something about drinking tea, free wi-fi, and people watching while blogging that makes it feel like an adventure. I think next time I will bring a bed sheet to make a fort and my Buzz Lightyear cape to disguise me. Whenever someone drops a crumb from their muffin I will swoop in for the kill.

  Q: Do you like blogging in public locations like bookstores, or coffee shops?

  

  | 30 Comments Tagged Giveaway, Half Marathon, PDR, Running, Vegan

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