Double Review Day! Whole Foods frozen vegan lasagna and Trader Joe's frozen Bird's Nests

So, I have some good news and bad news.

Let's start with the good news! Today I'm doing a double review today due to my (yet again) long absence.

The bad news. The photo quality is going to be a bit lower here for a while. My external hard drive is dead, and boy did it die at the WORST moment. Not only are 4+ years worth of my photos gone, but now my current computer is completely full to the brim and I have no where to put any of my pictures. So using my nice camera, which produces big files, is just not possible. So for now you'll have to put up with sad little cell phone pictures.

Today I'm reviewing two frozen dishes (I needed to clear space from my freezer SO badly you guys - it was as backed up as my laptop) - the vegan lasagna from Whole Foods and the Bird's Nests from Trader Joe's.

First, to the lasagna.

So as I said before, I bought this from Whole Foods. I believe it's in their frozen entree section? They have other vegan options as well, like chick'n nuggets and such.

So, once you open the package you're greeted with this sight:

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was expecting. It reminded me of my old days of Lean Cuisine (which, p.s., can some beautiful vegan person create a vegan version of Lean Cuisine but with less sodium?), which could be a hit or miss experience.

Now, this DOES take a little bit of time to cook, so go do something while you wait. (I played Pokemon because ADULTHOOD.)

I added some stuff to mine because I guess I'm not a purist. I added some shredded Teese Vegan Mozzarella (which you can also find at Whole Foods) and some of my homemade almond Parmesan. (I feel like I link to that recipe a LOT.)

To give you a size comparison, here's my hand. I have tiny baby hands. So for that many calories (I believe it's like 440?) I kinda feel like I was getting ripped off. But then again, I have to remember that it's pasta and blah blah blah. Whatever. It looks like a snack from this distance.

So, what's the actual verdict?

Two thumbs down! There's not enough filling between each layer (seriously, it felt like I was eating pasta between pasta and that there was no vegan ricotta in there), and everything is bland. And it's so misleading and annoying because it SMELLS awesome when you take it out of the oven. BUT THOSE NICE SMELLS ARE LIES. Lies I tell you!

But, that's not all I'm reviewing today.

I dunno what it's like where y'all live, but here the Trader Joe's is relatively close to Whole Foods (like about five minutes away?) so I tend to hit them both up at once when I DO make the trek.

For dinner, I made these. I'll admit now that I was REALLY hopeful for these. That lasagna failure had made me sad and I wanted something awesome to eat that wasn't a waste of calories.

Well, still can't promise that. These are still high in calories (probably like 800 something for the whole package WHOOPSIE DOOPSIE), so that's uhhhh saying something.

Okay, this is looking hopeful. Don't get too excited Kate, you were burned before with this. JUST TODAY IN FACT.

But look at how cute and wittle and adorable they are. (And each one is about the size of my palm, which makes this a bit more filling than the previous dish.) And hey, it cooks a LOT faster!

And look at dat sauce.

And look at me being an awful person and eating on my couch (whoops). This is just a whoops-filled entry. A day of whoops.

However... these were AMAZING. HALLELU, they made up for the crappy lasagna! They not only smell DIVINE but they're so light and fluffy! The sauce that comes with it is PERFECT (usually they're waaaaaay too high in sodium but this was great!) and each bite of carrot, kale, and onion flows so well together. I was incredibly impressed and I honestly was hesitant to even share a bite with Eric before I scarfed these all down in about a minute.

Small miracles, am I right?

Oh, and just to give you an idea of what I've been doing with my life lately, I'm making curtains for the house at the moment! I bought some fabric yesterday.

This is what I'm using for my little craft room. (I also bought some fabrics for my bedroom and the basement.)

Naturally my little turdling Catsby wanted to help as well. By getting in my way. The whole time. (Although to give him a little credit, I was already a bit distracted from trying to teach myself how to use this new handheld sewing machine AND a three hour made-for-TV movie I was watching on Netflix. Soooooooooo.)

As a result of those distractions I only finished one panel ahahahaha. But I'm going to work on the other one as soon as I hit publish on this entry, so go productivity! Whoooooooo!

Hope you guys are doing well! If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to comment here or send me an email (address is on the left)!

xo, Kate

My first flea market/craft show and the wonderful drive-in movie experience.

So, as some of you may know, I used to be an art major. I miss art more than anything, but at the same time I can't seem to do anything artistic anymore without getting incredibly depressed.

My friend Michele, who has created beautiful work that can be seen here and here, invited me to go with her. Her boyfriend was flying out to California (I think for work? I forget) and she had an available table.

I hesitated to accept, as I didn't really find out about this until right after tax season and this work season EXHAUSTED me. I had no stock, I had nothing to sell. But because I'm a dumb overachiever that apparently likes to destroy herself, I said yes.

Guys, when I tell you this whole experience was such a nightmare, I mean it. It was devastating and sad and just a really weird experience.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's part of my table display.

(Sorry for the low-ish quality, I took these with my phone. I didn't want to bring my good camera to this kind of event, you know?)

My mom made the lovely stuffed animals in the back, and I made everything else. There are also two dozen cupcakes over on the side.

I made all of this in like, a week hahahaha. While trying to clean up the house and have people over.

I sold one cupcake.

One. Cupcake.

I spent nights staying up till 3 a.m., worrying about my display and how my things would look, and I sold a single pity cupcake.

Michele and her lovely work partner ShaunaRae (who I met yesterday and she's also a wonderful lady!) kept trying to tell me that it was just because of this area and that if we were in Philly stuff would've sold. And while part of me agrees, I can't help but think 'No it's because you're stupid for thinking people would like anything you have and this is what you get for going outside of your comfort zone'. And I think that's true, too. When you have social anxiety disorder, it's always hard to breathe. All of the time. I have a really hard time around people and I try my best to not let it show, but when it's physically hurting you, it's hard to keep going sometimes. It's like having a magnet on your chest and another on your back and they're trying to stick to each other by going through your body.

So going out in this crowd was so terrifying. And I was not rewarded. I made about 1/10th of what the table cost alone, let alone the gas and the supplies for everything.

It's just so sad. I can't even really write this eloquently because it's just too upsetting. Now I'm sitting here with vegan goods that no one wants and paintings that no one wants. Although a lot of people really liked mom's stuffed animals (though no one wanted to pay her really reasonable prices).

This was a weird crowd, too. There was a lady selling vibrators and dildos in one corner and another trying to recruit people to this thing that's basically Avon for sex toys (they were two different stands!) and another lady selling I-swear-to-God animal bones. ANIMAL BONES. Animal bones were more popular than my things.

I'm still devastated today so I'm going to move on from this topic and talk about the drive-in.

For Eric's efforts and help, I promised to treat him to a movie. So we went to our absolute favourite drive-in theatre, Shankweiler's.

I'll be totally honest when I say there aren't many things in this world that make me happy. I'm not a happy person. But when I'm here, I'm so happy I could cry. It just brings me back to a time where I imagine everything is better. I know things weren't, but I like living in my imagination of the old days being the good days.

We stayed for their double feature of Transcendence and Her. Oh man.

I'm not going to do a whole movie review (that's not what this entry is really about) but I will say I was pleasantly surprised by this film! In Transcendence, Johnny Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a man who wants to create a sentient machine and help humans transcend their abilities. While attempting this, a radical group fights his efforts and attempts to destroy his work.

It's been a while since Johnny Depp's done anything really good, so hurray Depp! I just wish Kate Mara had been in this more, she's so talented and it seemed a waste to put her in such a tiny role.

And then we saw Her! This was the movie I was honestly more excited to see, and this is the movie that completely destroyed my heart. It was THAT good.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a lonely letter writer that develops a relationship with Samantha, his computer's operating system (voiced by the talented Scarlett Johansson).

I was surprised by some of the cast! (It was cute to see a movie with Kate Mara and then a movie with her sister Rooney Mara, for starters.) And oh hi there Chris Pratt, had no idea you'd show up in here! And I was shocked to learn that Kristen Wiig did the voice for Sex Kitten, heh.

This movie gets deep when it comes to relationships, and sometimes that's a bad thing. It'll make you hurt. But there's a lot about love that's ugly and needs to be discussed but it's usually glossed over, and this movie was like "Fuck glossing over anything, let's destroy people!".

I was a wreck after the film, but I instantly sobered up when I saw that the people in the car right next to us (when, mind you, there were a max of five cars that night and a TON of open spots) were... doing the dirty dance. At least, SOME kind of dirty dance. I screamed and went "EWEWEWEW" like the mature adult I am, and we drove away.

So, overall it was a mixed day but in the end I'm still pretty depressed. Sigh.

Sorry for the long hiatus, by the way. I've been working non-stop since February but after May 10th I'll be free and I'll be able to post things again! Yay!

xo, Kate

Eggplant Parmesan with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Potato Wedges!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Or, in my case, happy St. Sick Day.

Yes, I'm sick again. Ugh. I'm miserable (I've had toast and orange juice today, and I'm almost out of orange juice) and tired. 

But there's a bright side! I can blog!

My dear friend Caroline (click her name to read her blog!) requested that I make a dish with eggplant. I was tempted to make baba ghanoush (which will definitely happen at some point anyway) but I decided on eggplant parm. In general I'm very nervous with eggplant (I tend to overcook it), but I tried!

I was tempted to make this with pasta as that seems to be the traditional route, but I wanted something a little healthier. I've been on an unhealthy binge lately and for a vegan blog, I'm lackin' some veggies.

So now I will deliver!

Caroline, I hope you like this! I was pleasantly surprised. 

I'm going to give measurements for this that'll serve two people (I made this for myself and my boyfriend) so feel free to adjust to your liking!

Let's go step by step and we'll start with the potato wedges. (Note: This can all be made at the same time. It's easier if you have a buddy to help you with prep work, but I managed to put all of this together in the oven at the same time. If you do that, move the middle tray up a little, put the potato wedges on the top tray, and the Brussels sprouts and eggplant parm on the bottom one. Then take out the potatoes and the Brussels sprouts and put the eggplant parm on the top rack so it can broil for a few minutes.)

ingredients:

• four potatoes (I used four Russets)
• extra virgin olive oil/EVOO
• your choice of spices (I used salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and a hint of cayenne pepper)

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahreinheit.
2. Cut potatoes to your liking. I cut mine in half lengthwise, then cut again four more times to make some nice sized wedges.
3. Lightly dry wedges with paper towels and put into a large bowl.
4. Coat lightly with EVOO and mix in spices. Stir gently with a wooden spoon.
5. Cook for 17 minutes. Flip wedges with tongs. Cook for another 16-17 minutes.

Now for the Brussels sprouts!

ingredients:

• one bag of Brussels sprouts (or a handful of two, depending on your appetite)
• extra virgin olive oil/EVOO
• about two Tablespoons of lemon juice
• garlic powder, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

instructions:

1. Cut the stems off the sprouts and peel off any yellow-ish leaves.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly coat the sprouts in EVOO. Add lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix.
3. Roast in the oven at 400 degrees Fahreinheit for about 18 minutes.

And now, the most important piece of all!

The eggplant parmesan!

ingredients:

• six slices of eggplant, about 1/4" thick
• 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 Tablespoon vegan sour cream (Tofutti makes a good one!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 cup breadcrumbs* (see note)
• your favourite tomato sauce
• a sprinkling of vegan mozzarella ** (see note)

*Note: A lot of breadcrumbs aren't vegan, so be sure to check the label!

**Note: For my vegan cheese, I used a homemade firm mozzarella from the wonderful cookbook The Non-Dairy Formulary! I highly recommend this book. Some of the ingredients are a little pricey but they last forever and you only use a little bit at a time so!

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to (you guessed it!) 400 degrees Fahreinheit.
2. Cut your eggplant and sprinkle a light layer of salt on the slices. This will cause your eggplant to "sweat". The salt draws out moisture from the eggplant, making it overall easier to coat and batter. Let it "sweat" for 20-30 minutes. 
3. While the eggplant is sweating, mix the batter. Pour the soy milk into a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the flour and vegan sour cream.
4. In a shallow dish or on a plate, mix the breadcrumbs with the salt, oregano, parsley, and basil. 
5. Once the eggplant has finished sweating, rinse off the slices with water and pat dry.
6. Dip the eggplant into the liquid batter, then cover with breadcrumbs. Pat each side to ensure an even coat, flip, repeat. Do this with all slices.
7. Put on a pan with parchment paper and cook for 15-18 minutes, flipping halfway through.
8. Take out of the oven and cover with tomato sauce and vegan mozzarella. Put under the broiler for 1-3 minutes depending on your oven/how melted the cheese gets.

Look at that!

Look at that beauty.

Hopefully you all enjoyed that! If you have any questions or requests, feel free to comment or send me an email!

xo, Kate

Chocolate chip & bacon pancakes!

Once in a blue moon, I'll crave breakfast foods.

When I wake up, I don't want bacon or a tofu scramble or anything like that. Oh no, I want some damn pasta or a slice of pizza. I'm one of "those" people. And when I DO eat breakfast foods, it tends to be for dinner.

Anarchy ahoy, here.

But this week I've been craving pancakes and/or waffles. I have a really cheap, crappy waffle maker at the moment though so I didn't feel like doin' that whole song and dance.

So, take this.

I KNOW right!?

Remember the Elvis sandwich I made that had "bacon" in it? Yeah, this is going to use the same brand that I used for that.

Sigh, rest in peace mise en place bowls. I'll try to get some new ones this week, I promise guys! This looks so messy and makes my skin crawl, ugh.

ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Ener-G egg
• 1 1/4 cup vegan buttermilk* (see note)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 4 strips of Lightlife Smart "Bacon"

*Note: For vegan buttermilk, the rule is to use one Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and fill the rest of the cup with soy milk. So for this I used one Tablespoon and one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and then filled the rest of the 1 1/4 cup with soy milk. Let it sit for about five minutes, then stir.

instructions:

1. Cook bacon and cut it into bits. If you want, candy it with brown sugar.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.

3. Slowly add in the Ener-G egg, vegan buttermilk, olive oil, and vanilla extract. Let mixture sit for ten minutes.

4. Mix in bacon bits and chocolate chips.

5. Spray a pan with canola oil and put on medium heat.

6. Cook quickly, flipping until both sides are a light or medium brown.

7. Serve with Earth Balance and your favourite kind of syrup!

Please use a bigger pan than I did. Please. You'll regret this. I would've used a bigger one but stuff was in the dishwasher or drying and I just... I felt lazy.

I hate when people talk to me or linger near me when I cook. It totally throws me off. So you can probably tell that my roommate chose this moment to talk to me and ask me random questions ("Do we have toilet paper????"). So try to make yours a little lighter than this.

Dry ingredients!

Added in some wet ingredients!

Chocolate and bacon. Nom nom nom.

This batter cooks QUICKLY. I mean, surprisingly quickly. So do not leave this unattended. Be prepared to flip. I think a batch took me two or three minutes, oh god.

I took a break from taking photos to go say hello to my little darling.

Plate o' pancakes!

Look at that lil' short stack!

Look at these lil' babies.

I hope you enjoy these! They're different than any other kind of pancake I've ever had. If you have any requests, feel free to leave a comment or email me!

xo, Kate

Hamantaschen

Hello everyone!

First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of updates. I work a seasonal job in a tax preparation office and it's incredibly stressful and tiring, and this year is worse than last because now I work during the day. Which means I wake up at six thirty in the morning. And I am not a morning person.

I'm determined to get some stuff done this weekend though!

Before I go any further, I may or may not have also cut my hair this week.

And given myself bangs again.

I still don't know how I feel about them. Usually I love it when I have bangs but this time, I dunno. They feel messy to me? (To be fair I DID rush them, so we'll see.)

Now, onto food!

I wanna start this off by saying I'm not a "real" Jewish person? It's really hard to explain but I've found that the easiest way is by saying I'm like Woody Allen. But better. Because I'm awesome. My dad is Jewish but only by birth I think. I dunno. Either way, we appreciate Jewish food and humour and culture in my house. Not speaking for anyone else, but I'm a hardcore Atheist. I appreciate and acknowledge other points of view though and I like trying new things, so I like eating foods from every culture! As long as they contain no meat or dairy products, heh.

So today, in honour of those of you who may be celebrating Purim tonight, I share this new recipe I've made!

(I'd like to point out that I think it's annoying that eggs, milk, cheese, etc. aren't ALL considered dairy anymore? Meh, whatever.)

I'm a part of some vegan groups on Facebook and someone put up a recipe for hamantaschen the other day. I was exhausted from work but I just... I had a mighty NEED for these cookies. I call them "old people food" because I feel like no one under the age of 80 really LIKES them. But thankfully I'm a fan of "old people food". (Speaking of, I'm craving rice pudding. So uh, that may be coming up soon.)

ingredients:

• 2 Ener-G eggs (see previous entries in regards to this)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 Tablespoons orange juice (or, if you want a stronger orange flavour, consider using a teaspoon or two of orange extract)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4-1/2 cup water (add as necessary)
• your filling* (see note)

My mise en place pictures aren't going to be super pretty for a while - all of my favourite bowls keep mysteriously breaking (hmmm), so I'm running out of places to put my ingredients. Sigh. 

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahreinheit. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the Ener-G eggs, canola oil, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
3. In a smaller bowl, mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon. 
5. Soon the dough will start to form. Go ahead and get your hands in to knead it around. If it's too dry, start adding in some of the water, a little bit at a time. You want this to be a tacky consistency. (Kind of like when you're using white glue and it starts sticking to your fingers?)
6. Flour your counter! Lightly coat the counter with flour and spread it around a big area.
7. Put the dough on the floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin until it's about 1/4" thick, although a little thinner works too.
8. Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circular shapes from the dough.
9. Place about a teaspoon of your filling in the center of the dough circle.
10. Fold that cookie! (See following photo tutorial.)
11. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet that has parchment paper on it.
12. Bake for about 20 minutes.

All of the whisked wet ingredients.

All of the mixed dry ingredients.

This is what the dough will start to look like. I added some water after this, though.

Roll it out!

I'm a cash-strapped college kid, so rather than go out and buy a cookie cutter, I was like "I'm not gonna follow your rules, USE A CUP."

And I mean, look at that lil' cutie.

Sometimes, though, those lil' cuties can get stuck to the counter. Even when you flour it. So I recommend having a baby spatula on hand. Look at my lil' baby! (Also kinda laughing a little cause um, Jewish dessert and it's a pig.)

*Note: I used this as my filling. Traditionally you fill hamantaschen with fruit fillings, specifically poppyseed or prune or apricot. I had none of those things in my house. So goooooo chocolate hazelnut butter! (After making them, though, I REALLY recommend the fruit filling. While these were tasty, they were a little dry. Usually nut butters are kind of high in oils which I thought would help this problem, but the chocolate one is apparently on the dry side. If you make these, let me know what kind of results you get!)

Onto the folding tutorial.

Step one: Put your filling in the middle.

Step two: Fold that.

Step three: Now, fold THAT. (See how helpful I am?)

Step four: Fold the bottom. 

Step five: Pinch the corners closed.

And that's the folding tutorial!

Now, with hamantaschen, you don't really need to worry about overcrowding the cookie sheet. The dough for these isn't mean to expand that much as you cook it, so you really could fill the cookie sheet more than this. However, I'm just so in the habit of being careful about that and this was my test batch so I just, I didn't care hahaha.

Some of them kind of, um, exploded. And by exploded, I mean I overfilled them and they expanded more than they normally would. Whoops. But hey, I never claim to be a pro, ha!

Like I said earlier, I really recommend a fruit filling. Or, if you use a nut butter, something other than this one. It was just a little too dry for my taste. 

Happy Purim, lovely Jewish people! And happy cookie day to anyone else!

If you have any food requests, feel free to email me or leave a comment!

xo, Kate