Report back from Yosemite

Last week I went on vacation to Yosemite and San Francisco.  I had tons of fun!  I ate some great vegan food at a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant called Andy Nguyen's.  I love camping food so I got to eat lots of sandwiches, kabobs, veggie burgers and even nachos.  Here are some pictures from my Yosemite and Mono Lake visits.  

 

I think this photo is hilarious!  There were numerous little forest squirrels and chipmunks in Yosemite.  On one grueling uphill hike to Vernal Falls (it was mostly hard since I had been hiking for days) squirrels were posing all over for me.  It was nice to break for the uphill trek to capture their poses. 

This photo I took while eating lunch at a stream just past one of the famous waterfalls in Yosemite Valley.  It was such a tranquil spot to stop and take a break from the crowds, which luckily weren't too bad.

This is Half Dome from a distance.  With binoculars you could see what looks like little ants climbing up the mountain.  We didn't have time to attempt this.  Ha!  Like I would try.  My friend Deanna would have loved to, but hiking as much as we did was enough for me.

Most people spend most of their time in Yosemite valley where all the picturesque waterfall photos are taken.  The rest of Yosemite is quite beautiful as well.  The east side of Yosemite had many amazing mountain sights.

Mono Lake!  Wow, what a place!  I describe it as a photographer's dream.  This was all of our favorite place on the vacation.  The tufas (calcite rock) in the lake are so mesmerizing and reading about the unique ecosystem to the lake was fascinating.  

The weather was perfect for reflections on the lake.  It was hard to see where the lake ended and the sky began.  I couldn't stop taking photos of all the tufa formations, along with the clouds and blue skies.

Beautiful!  Can you ask for any more than tufas and mountains and clouds reflecting in the water?  Visiting Mono Lake is an absolute must!

Swallows and lizards could often be seen at Mono Lake.  We also saw a pair of osprey who may have had a nest on top of a tufa in the lake.  This little swallow was allowing me to get closer and closer to get the perfect shot.

I refer to these flowers as death flowers since they grow from decay.  They are actually called snow plants.  These were pointed out to me to take some photos since they are so unique and only bloom between May-July at certain altitudes.  We had just stopped to join the side of the road commotion of taking photos of a bear.  I got to see a bear!

Coconut Cloud Cupcakes

I went to a friend's wedding on Sunday and it was beautiful! The decorations were hand-made and so creative! On the tables there were magnets made from old scrabble tiles with pretty designs on them for the guests to take home. The centerpiece were white puffs that looked so cute! The cupcakes were displayed on color-coordinated and decorated tiers. I felt privileged to have my cupcakes among them. My friend is not vegan, but she is super vegan friendly and wanted me to bring vegan cupcakes and food for people to enjoy. When I was there I was worried she just asked me to bring the food so I would have something to eat, but then people started to come up to me asking for my Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Spread which I brought with marinated tofu, veggies and bread.

I was super excited for these cupcakes since I had never baked with coconut milk before and found that it allowed the margarine to mix better with the other ingredients and the cupcakes turned out ever more moist and soft than usual! I will definitely be using the coconut milk in my baking again.

Coconut Cloud Cupcakes

Vanilla Cake:
½ cup Soy Margarine
1 ½ cups Organic Raw Sugar
½ cup Silken Tofu
1 ½ cups Coconut Milk
2 tsp Vanilla
2 ½ cups Unbleached White Flour
1 Tb Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt

Coconut Frosting:
1/3 cup Margarine
2 cups Powdered Sugar
½ cup Shredded Coconut
2-5 Tb. Coconut Milk

Cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth.  Add the vanilla and blend, then the tofu and blend some more.  Pour in the coconut milk and blend until incorporated.  Add the flour, baking power and salt and blend until just mixed in.  Fill greased muffin tins, or cupcake cups about 2/3 full with batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  When cupcakes are done, the top should spring back when lightly touched.  

Frosting: Blend the powdered sugar and margarine together.  Add coconut milk, a little at a time, until you reach the desired texture.  Add in the shredded coconut.  When frosting the cupcakes, dip the frosted top in more shredded coconut.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Playing with Rhubarb

One of my co-workers brought in a lot of rhubarb from his garden for people to take home. I don't know if I've had rhubarb as an adult, so I was excited to grab myself a good amount of it to make a pie. I was going to a potluck that weekend as a part of Try Vegan PDX, so I decided to share. I had no idea if the pie worked out until I tried it and I loved it! I will definitely be playing with rhubarb some more. Often times there are people at the potluck who are gluten free, and I have another friend who is soy and cane sugar free as well, so I ended up making two pies.

Rhuberry Pie

Crust:

2 cups Unbleached White Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Margarine

8-10 Tb Ice Water

Filling:

3 cups Rhubarb, cut

1 cups Strawberries, sliced

1/3 cup Unbleached White Flour

1 Tb Lemon Juice

1 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter to pea sized pieces. Slowly add the water a tablespoon at a time to the desired consistency. The dough should not be sticky, but it should also hold together in a ball. Divide the dough so one ball is 2/3 of the dough and the other is 1/3 of the dough.

Roll out the 2/3 part dough to be a bit larger than a 9-inch pie pan. When the dough is placed in the pie pan, it should slightly hand off the sides.

For the filling, combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Place the filling inside the pastry crust and set aside. Roll out the reserved dough to a circle just a little larger than the circumference of the pie pan. Place carefully over the pie filling and side. Combine the top and bottom crusts with your fingers and design as desired, or just leave plain. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

Gluten Free, Soy Free and Sugar Free Rhuberry Pie

The insides of this pie were good, except it needed a little more thickener which I have already added to the recipe for you. the crust held the pie fine, but it was a bit tough and wanted to stick to the pie pan. I would recommend greasing the pie pan well.

For the dough, I used 1 1/4 cups Sweet White Rice Flour, 1/4 cup Organic Coconut Flour and 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour instead of the flour. I also used Spectrum Shortening instead of margarine so it would be soy free. The directions are mostly the same for the dough except that I used wax paper to roll out the dough.

For the filling, instead of sugar I used 2/3 cup Agave Nectar and Tapioca Flour instead of white flour. The dough pieces was harder to form together but it worked out fine.

A Refreshing Salad

I was first introduced to jicama when I was in college.  I was on a camping trip and a friend had brought some along.  I hesitatingly tried a piece of the jicama and fell in love.  Since then, I have been introducing it to many more people and have not found a single person who did not like it.

I went to a potluck recently and didn't really have time to make something so I just brought a bunch of fresh jicama slices.  A friend had never tried jicama raw and by itself, so I had to show her its true magic.  Someone else made something with jicama that tasted so wonderful I had to go home and try and make something similar.   I don't think it's exactly the same, but it tastes nice and refreshing.  

Mango Mint Salad

2 cups Jicama, diced

1 cup Mango, diced

2 Tb Mint, minced

1 Tb Lime Juice

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate before serving.  I used spearmint for the mint and the diced jicama and mango were cut into bite size squares.  If you want something sweeter, use more mango.

Vegan Potluck Meet ‘N Greet!

Baby rats gathered for a vegan meal at the Rhododendron Gardens in Portland.

This Saturday is a Vegan Potluck Meet ‘N Greet! It is all about connecting with other vegans and eating good food so it should be fun and yummy! There will be different activities which I know nothing about, but I am excited to see what it will be. I want tons of people to come since I’d love more interaction with other vegans. And the more people, the more food options!

Details: Saturday, May 30th from 6pm-8pm at Sunnyside United Methodist Church (3520 SE Yamhill St in Portland, OR).

This event is put on by Try Vegan PDX. This is a local organization which puts on Try Vegan Week which will be in August this year. The organization offers vegan mentorship and resources for the new and old to the vegan lifestyle (or even those just thinking about it). Get involved! Become a mentor, help with planning, or become vegan!

A Tasty Brunch

The girl I have mentored for over 5 years just moved into her own place and is about to turn 18 and graduate high school. I can't believe how fast the time and gone and what an amazing young adult she has become. I asked her to come over for brunch so I can show her some alternative foods to prepare.

I often make myself a tofu scramble over the weekend. It is a great break from my usual green smoothies which I have every weekday morning. Tofu scrambles can be so versatile. You can add different vegetables and different add ins to make every scramble unique. When I am not adding salsa to my scrambles, I usually use Braggs liquid aminos instead of salt to give the scramble more moisture. With the tomatoes from the salsa in the scramble, salt does better.

I am somewhat particular with my scrambles. I would be very annoyed if I went to a restaurant and ordered a scramble and the tofu came cubed. This is simply not a scramble. So make sure to crumble up your tofu for cooking scrambles. This does not need to be disintegrated though, which I have also seen. Having large parts of tofu crumble works really well.

Here is what we had for breakfast and both enjoyed.

Seasoned Potatoes

3 cups Red Potatoes, cut bite-size

1 Tb Olive Oil

2 tsp Fresh Thyme

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Garlic granules

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Spread out onto a baking sheet at bake at 400 degrees. Bake 10 minutes, toss potatoes and bake another 10 minutes.

Tofu Scramble

1 lb Tofu

2 tsp Olive Oil

5 slices Tempeh Bacon

8 Mushrooms, sliced

1 small Zucchini, halfed and sliced

1 cup Onion, chopped

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Onion Granules

1/4 tsp Garlic Granules

1/3 cup Pineapple Salsa

2 - 4 Tb Nutritional Yeast

Saute the onion in the olive oil in a large pan. Once the onions are golden, add the mushrooms, zucchini and tempeh. Cook for a few minutes to get the vegetables soft. Crumble up the tofu into the frying pan and cook for a few minutes. Use tofu that is meant for frying, but on the softer side. Add the spices, salsa and nutritional yeast. Heat until everything is warm. Serve with potatoes and toast if desired.

Asparagus is in season!

A friend was coming over for dinner and I was having cravings for spaghetti, which I don't eat too often.  I had a coupon for free sauce, so I decided to take advantage of it.  I had to include a vegetable, so I looked to see what was available at my local market.  I remember hearing asparagus was in season and I found some that was grown locally from a transitional farm.  This ended up being a perfect choice!

For the spaghetti sauce, I sauteed some mushrooms, garlic and sliced a tofurky beer brat I needed to use up.  After the mushrooms were browning and soft, I added the spaghetti sauce and lowered to heat to warm.  This was served on top of a thin spaghetti noodles.  

While the sauce was heating up, I prepared the asparagus.  Usually I just steam asparagus, but I wanted to try something different. The results were tangy and salty (but not too salty) and just right.  I could have eaten all of the asparagus myself, but I had to share.  Here is what I did.

Tangy Roasted Asparagus

25 Asparagus Stems

1 Tb Olive Oil

1 Tb Lemon Juice

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Salt

Rinse off and chop off the ends of the asparagus.  Spread the stems on a baking sheet.  Combined the oil, lemon juice and minced garlic.  Spread this on top of the asparagus and toss to cover all over the stems.  I used my hands to do this.  Sprinkle the salt and pepper on top and toss again to cover the stems well.  Place this in the oven at 400 degrees and cook for 15-20 minutes, tossing the asparagus to cook evenly on the sheet.

*Asparagus is also great raw!  Try some in your next salad.