Easy food on Labor Day.

Taking it easy, nothing fancy at all. I made tofu scramble and vegi sausage for breakfast and finished my last donut. Lunch was homemade hummus with tomato salad, Daiya cheese and crostini.

Zankou falafel and breakfast,

Went to Zankou yesterday with my husband. He gets chicken. I get falafel! This is the falafel plate which comes with so much! 6 falafel balls on top of salad and pickles, hummus, tahini sauce and pita. We always get a side of their excellent muttabal (eggplant dip) and rice. And last but not least the best garlic sauce ever!

My breaky this morning trying out the Yves veggie sausage patties. I also made some cheesy tofu scramble with Field Roast cheese and toast. All very deliciously filling.

Eating vegan in England (London, Bath and Liverpool).

Hey all! Just got back from a mad 1 week trip to England. I was super busy running around seeing the sights that food was really the last thing on my mind! Weird! I'm usually eating all the time. Didn't have any issues finding vegan grub. Here's a quick run down of what I ate.

Pizza Express on Charlotte St. in Fitzrovia, London. They have a great pizza called Pianta pizza that has: Spinach, chestnut mushroom, pine kernels and artichoke on a spicy Arrabbiata base finished with rocket and extra virgin olive oil. No cheese. I asked them to make it "Romana" style which is a thinner crust. It was perfect.

The Coach and Horses on Greek Street in Soho, London. A vegetarian/vegan pub!

Tofu fish n chips!

This was my mom's burger. It's normally vegan but she got it with cheese.


A REALLY GOOD falafel wrap from Falafel Time at Camden Lock Market.


Crazy delicious passion fruit cheeze cake at Inspiral Cafe on Camden High St.


Melissa's patisserie had wonderful vegan pretzels. I tried the cinnamon pretzel and it was heaven in my mouth!

A couple of grocery runs when we didn't have time or energy to eat out. Some vegan items from Planet Organic on Torrington in Bloomsbury and the Sainsbury's Local at Euston. (The non-vegan items were for mom.)

Delicious thai food at Salathai in Bath. I asked them to make the red curry vegan by omitting fish sauce.



Delicious vegan carrot cake from Guildhall Markets in Bath.


Yummy samosa and potato dosa at the food stalls at Borough Market in Southwark.

What a treat! Kanom krok (thai coconut pancakes) at the "Kanom Krok" stall at Borough Market.

Went up north to Liverpool and had breakfast at Brasco Lounge at Pier Head. Vegan breakfast was just right.


Nando's at Queen's Square is known for chicken but they have several vegan options. I love the people in Liverpool. The owner/manager was super nice and chatted with us several times when we dined there. The guy at the register who was helping me out went out of his way to make sure what I ordered would be vegan. So nice!

This is their soya tomato burger. Ask for it with HOT sauce and no mayo. It's really good!
Here's an article about vegan options at Nando's: http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/24/yep-vegans-can-eat-at-nandos-heres-what-to-order-5773006/


Got a ready made hummus and roasted veg sandwich from a little bakery/cafe on Thurloe St. in South Kensington.

This was yummy!

Last night in London we ate at Chinatown at Canton Restaurant. Fried aubergine in garlic sauce and fried chinese broccoli. Asked for them without oyster sauce. My mom had chicken. I was glad that they could make my dishes vegan. They were very tasty.

Lovely day with a Lovely Lady.

Had a lovely day today with my good friend Cam. She and I love to get together at the local Whole Foods for coffee, breakfast and donuts. After a bit of nosh, we peruse the aisles for goods to go. We also went guitar shopping and came back home and had lunch on the patio.

Vegan chocolate donut and coffee. Mmm. They had other flavors like blueberry, maple, cherry, crumb...but I made myself only choose one!

The savory part of my breakfast from the food bar at Whole Foods: sauteed mushrooms, breakfast potatoes, falafel ball(1), garlic sauce, baba ganouj, quinoa, sweet potato, beet salad. So yummy.

Lunch at home. Tofurky, Follow Your Heart provolone style slices, arugula, tomato and red peppers on ciabatta.

Kim and Cam, happy together.

Buckwheat pancakes & Tomato Cashew Potato Stew.

Got this recipe from The Happy Pear over at facebook. Mini buckwheat pancakes with bananas, maple syrup and cinnamon. Pretty tasty.

A deliciously creamy stew with cashews, tomatoes, yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, leeks, mushrooms, carrots and parsnips! To make it creamy, I blended the cashews with a little water and also blended some of the soup. Recipe below. I made it up and never measure anything so you might have to fiddle a little bit with it!

Tomato Cashew Potato Stew
2 TB olive oil
1 leek, sliced
½ large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
herbs: thyme, oregano, basil (about 2 tsps fresh)
1 parsnip, sliced into bite size chunks
1 carrot, sliced
1 large sweet potato, cut into bite size chunks, about 2 cups
2 or 3 yellow potatoes skin on, cut into bite size chunks, 2 cups
1 portobello mushroom, chopped
1 cup green beans, cut into pieces
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 cups veggie broth
1 cup cashews that have been soaked in hot water for a half hour
1 TB soy sauce
pinch of cumin
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne

Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. Saute leeks, onions for a few minutes. Add garlic and herbs. Continue to cook a few minutes more. Add parsnip and carrots and cook until everything gets a little tender. Add sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, portobello, green beans, stewed tomatoes with juice and veggie broth. It should all cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, drain cashews and blend with about 1/2 water in a blender. It will blend easily and look like milk. If too thick, add a little more water. Add this to the stew. Stir and simmer for about 5 more minutes. Season with soy sauce, salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne. You may leave the soup as is or you can ladle some of the potatoes and liquid portion of the soup into a blender, blend til smooth and pour back into pot. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the potatoes don't stick to the bottom of the pot.

I just love saying "Pukkola"!

And I also love eating it. Jamie Oliver made up the word pukkola by combining the words "pukka" (which is hindi slang for "very good")and "granola". It's cute. I made a huge batch last night after shopping for some ingredients. The thing I love about this soaked muesli is that you can add what you like. I grabbed a glass jar and filled it with a mixture of instant rolled oats (I like my muesli mushy), dried apricots, raisins, cranberries, almonds, pecans and walnuts, a handful or so of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal and a little bit of chia seeds. I made a portion to soak overnight by adding about 3/4 cup of the mixture to my little tupperware and covering it with almond milk and adding cinnamon. I usually grate 1/2 an apple in there to soak but I didn't have any apples. In the morning, I added 1 sliced banana and more almond milk, cinnamon and agave to taste.

Pukkola and Fresh Spring Rolls.

Pukkola is basically bircher's muesli. I first found this recipe a few years ago in Jamie Oliver's cookbook, "The Naked Chef Takes Off." Soak oats, raisins, nuts and grated apple in almond milk and leave overnight in the fridge. The next morning everything has softened up and once you add your sweetener of choice and some cinnamon, you're good to go!

More fresh rolls for lunch today with yummy sauces.

A vegan Bisquick pancake.

I bought a box of Bisquick the other day in order to try out some recipes from a 1964 Bisquick cookbook that I have. I haven't yet tried any of those retro recipes but yesterday came across a recipe for vegan pancakes using Bisquick at Modern Martha blog. Link to recipe here. Yes, I know that Bisquick is not healthy and contains hydrogenated oil of some kind but I had to try this out! I normally use the Vegan Brunch recipe which is much healthier (and delicious) and uses "from scratch" ingredients. The Bisquick one was very rich and very fluffy. It was really good with some Earth Balance margarine and a drizzle of Lyle's Golden Syrup. I also made Lightlife sausages pictured in back.

Vegetable soup, Hummus avocado and chili jam sandwich, Granola bars.

I want to eat more veggies. Coming from a vegan, that sounds kind of funny. I feel like I've been eating way too many carbs lately. Toast, bagels, pasta, crackers have been my snacks of choice a lot. I made this soup because it has lots of veggies: cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, green beans and cabbage as well as kidney beans. It's so delicious. Always comes out great every time I make it. To flavor it right, I add veggie broth powder (homemade) and a touch of Marmite. Mmm...

I finally found a good chili jam that I could use for this sandwich recipe I found in Mary McCartney's cookbook. It's Braswell's Jalapeno Pepper Jelly that I found in the kosher section of Albertsons supermarket. It's so good! This sandwich was amazing. The hummus was homemade with chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and a little water. That's it. I hate store bought hummus that add all kinds of other stuff like cumin, ugh!

Another Mary McCartney recipe for Granola Bars To Go. Mine came out a little burnt but still good.

More weekend eating.

I made another snack from Mary McCartney's book FOOD. It's the Pan-Fried Cheese, Tomato and Onion Sandwich. I used yellow and red cherry tomatoes and Daiya vegan mozzarella style cheese. It was delicious.

Gooey Daiya cheese.

Here we have a breakfast specialty of mine, a scrambled tofu sandwich. I added mushrooms today. Usually I have it on white toast but all I had was a loaf of Dave's Killer Bread which is full of whole grains. Worked out fine and was very satisfying with lots of Vegenaise and ketchup!

Vegans love cake too! Here is a tried and true eggless, dairy free date cake that I make often. It's so easy and so moist and sweet. Perfect with a hot cup of tea in the afternoon. Recipe here. (Substitute almond milk for the dairy milk!)

Breakfast Burrito.

Scrambled tofu and onions, vegenaise/ketchup and homemade salsa. Cuppa tea not pictured.