Quick Post

This will be a quick post, but I just wanted to mention the amazingness of Joe-Joe's, the oreo alternative from Trader Joe's. Typically I love Joe-Joe's, but just the other day, my friend (I'll leave her name off the inter-webs) gave me a candy cane Joe-Joe, and I fell in love. They were so delicious and I couldn't stop eating them. Had a major sugar crash after that. Now I have to go get some more otherwise I may implode. For my friends too. =). Merry Christmas, Happy Hankukah (sp?), and Happy New Year to all our readers (the few of you that there are)!

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Many vegan chefs try to make vegan recipes distinctly different from non-vegan ones and uniquely vegan, and while this effort is appreciated by the vegetarian community, sometimes you just want the classics. The Joy of Vegan Baking by: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has many classic dessert recipes, my favorite being the Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are your true classic chocolate chip cookies, minus the eggs, milk, and butter, and adding simple replacements such as egg substitute, soy milk, and soy-based margarine instead. Here's to the holidays with this delicious classic!

Ingredients
the equivalent of 3 eggs in egg replacement of your choice (for this recipe, I usually use Bob's Red Mill All Natural Egg Replacer)
6 tablespoons of water
1 cup non-dairy butter/margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups nondairy semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional - I using opt out)

Preheat the overn to 375 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a non-stick cookie/baking sheet.

In a food processor or blender, whip the egg replacer and water together, untils its thick and creamy. Blending it in a food processor or blender results in a better consistency than what you could get if you did it by hand.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the egg replacer mixture to this wet mixture, and thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture until it begins to form a dough. When it is almost thoroughly combined, stir in the chips and nuts, if using.

Bake on the cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: 1 dozen cookies

This cookies are perfect for parties and gatherings, as they will shock vegans and non-vegetarianis alike! They taste just like their non-veg counterparts and are definite crowd-pleasers! Enjoy!

Preventing Animal Cruelty

Preventing animal cruelty is a big part of being vegetarian or vegan for many people. While each vegetarian is doing their part to reduce the demand and effectively end the cruel conditions in which livestock are kept, there are other ways you can contribute to the same cause. One of the easiest is donating. The only question is: who should you donate to? There are the big-name organizations, like PETA and Greenpeace, and there are smaller, local places (which may take longer to find, but it's worth it and a more rewarding feeling to know exactly where your money's going to help!). Have a local animal shelter? Donate food or toys to help care for the animals there. If you have a little more time on your hands and want to commit, offer to be a foster parent for a young and needy puppy or kitten. There are also good organizations that people close to me have worked with which always need more support, such as Best Friends, an animal society dedicated to giving pets deemed "un-adoptable" by shelters to loving homes, and Farm Santuary, which works to end cruelty to farm animals and has friendly farms for these rescued animals in both New York and California. But the simplest way to prevent animal cruelty is to recognize it and refuse to stand by and let it happen. The ASPCA has a page of the Top Ten Ways to Prevent Animal Cruelty. They are all incredibly easy and helpful things that everyone committed to stopping the cruelty towards animals can do.

Meatball Sandwich

When attempting to create a vegan sandwich, I've found that there aren't many options to put on it. We've got your basic lettuce, tomatoes, and other assorted veggies, but unless you really dig those fake deli meats, you're stuck with just veggies or a PB&J. While I've heard some tofu sandwiches are quite yummy, here's another option: a meatball sandwich.

There are non-vegan versions of these sandwiches at places such as Togo's, Subway, or Quiznos, and they are composed of meatballs, marinara sauce, and cheese. So I say, why not veganize it? Replace the meatballs with your favorite meatballs for pasta, mine being Whole Food's Whole Kitchen Vegan Meatballs, the marinara sauce with your favorite vegan version, mine being Rao's Homemade Marinara, and either taking out the cheese or using a vegan replacement you feel comfortable with.

Once you've got your ingredients, warm the meatballs and the marinara sauce, and then slap them on a slightly toasted piece of Ciabatta bread. Delicious! Its quick, easy to make, and tastes extremely yummy. I recommend it for a weekend lunch or even a quick dinner, with some veggies on the side.

Amici's

Last spring, in downtown Menlo Park there was a big opening. It was the opening of Amici's East Coast Pizzeria (website here), who serve New York style pizza, which means thin crust.

Not only do they have a wide variety of pizza types, they also serve a rare pizza item: VEGAN pizza! Not many other pizza restaurants serve vegan pizza, and those that do are just pizzas without cheese. Amici's has found a vegan cheese, that actually tastes decent, and used it as a replacement for cheese in any of their pizzas, if you ask.

They also have one dedicated vegan pizza, the Asante, which is very yummy. I just had it tonight and my stomach is still happy. Highly recommend Amici's to Vegans and non-Vegans alike.

Vegan Ice Cream

A couple weeks ago, while searching for a good dessert place in San Francisco my mom stumbled upon Bi-Rite Creamery. The creamery sells a couple of flavors of vegan ice cream (the selection changes daily). I tried one of the vegan flavors; the Strawberry Kiwi flavor, and it was so good. The vegan flavor tasted exactly like the non-vegan flavors and I was amazed (because before I’d never had vegan ice cream). There’s also the Bi-Rite Market across the street where they have the pints and gallons of ice cream. The Bi-Rite Market also sells free-trade fruit and other interesting fruits which I haven’t seen before.

Here's the address:

3692 18th Street (@ Dolores)
San Francisco, CA 94110

And the website: http://biritecreamery.com/

Anxious for Chanukkah!

This is a recipe for vegan matzoh ball soup.
http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=147
It is not a traditional food for Chanukkah (starting Dec. 11!), but it is terribly delicious on any occasion. I have too often turned down a bowl of matzoh ball soup because they are traditionally made with chicken, but now I can finally enjoy! I am very excited to try this recipe out and have had a lot of success with the author's other recipes. Latke recipes next week... :)