Sorry, but…

I give up for now.

Vegan Freak Radio

If you haven’t already, check out the Vegan Freak podcast. It can be a little ranty, but it’s quite entertaining. Bob & Jenna are great radio hosts and they answer a lot of their listeners’ questions. You can even leave voicemails for them on their website. It’s a lot of fun!

Note: there’s a lot of profanity, so if you’re offended easily, I’d stay away.

Congratulations, Brittany!

My friend (from the Pumpernickel’s post) just graduated college! Here’s the carrot cake with (tofutti better than) cream cheese icing I made her! I used the Vegan With A Vengeance carrot cake (replaced macadamia’s with walnuts, omitted coconut) recipe and just experimented with the icing. It was great (even though her mom bought 3 cakes from Sticky Fingers bakery.)

By the way, I used some kind of all-natural food coloring for the “green” icing, but it looks terrible, I know. Oh well.

End of the School Year

Reasons to celebrate:
By the end of today, I will no longer be a freshman at American University.
By the end of the week, my sister will no longer be an undergraduate.

Ways to Celebrate:

Pumpkin, Oatmeal, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Clusters

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies with Dried Cranberries

Recipes after the jump!

Product review: It’s Soy Delicious! PB & Chocolate

Never in my life have I been so happy to be sick to my stomach.

See, I’ve been sick since Tuesday. (Even had to give up that Arcade Fire ticket.) I haven’t really been eating solid food, but not until yesterday did it occur to me that ice cream isn’t technically solid food.

So this company that everyone raves about over at the PPK forums, Soy Delicious, has this line of ice creams that are “fruit sweetened” (which I’m sure is a total gimmick). The reason they’re so appealing to me, though, is that I don’t really like heavy, rich, stick-to-the-roof of your mouth kinds of ice creams. I like lightly-sweetened, fluffier kinds. So I figured something that touts a “healthy” sweetened would satisify my sweet tooth. And it totally did. I got the chocolate peanut butter kind. It totally blows my mind.

This is actually the first non-dairy ice cream that I’ve even liked. Most of them are way too grainy or fake tasting. This one isn’t at all. It’s smooth. The peanut butter part tastes like peanut butter; the chocolate part is kind of velvety and dark. It’s superb.

Next up: Matcha ice cream.

You Knew It Was Coming: The Obligatory Politics-Related Post

Technically, this is a D.C. blog, so I feel like writing something about politics is, like, required.

So did you know that Ohio state representative & 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Dennis Kucinich is a vegan?

He’s for a whole sleugh of things that I stand behind, but don’t go thinking I support him quite yet. Anyone that knows me well knows that politics stresses me out (how did I end up in D.C., again?), so this will probably be the first & last post about politics.

Also: did you know he’s actually a pixie? Take a look at his youtube campaign & tell me he’s not. I dare you.

This is why I’m not an activist…

I’m not saying activism is bad or anything (and maybe I’m biased because I’m totally weak in the knees for Ira Glass), but…

Why is Regina Spektor part of this clip?

I have to admit, he does kind of make animal rights activists out to be kind of crazy, but hey– what’s new? I say you can at least laugh at it, you know? Take it with a grain of salt.

Also, the vegan freak podcasters actually came to a positive consensus about the clip in last week’s vegan freak podcast. I’m with them on this issue — talking about his conversion in such a public forum is very cool. And he was skeptical at first, too, which makes it even better.

*Note: I’m for personal choice. I may make some vegans mad, but I’m not one to force my views on other. I’m happy to discuss alternate lifestyles with people interested in making the switch, but I want them to make the first step.

And YAY FOR IRA!! Now all three of my old man crushes are at least vegetarian!

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

I’ve been caught up in exams, but I have a whole bunch of buckwheat waffle & pancake mix, so I’ve been experimenting. This one, by far, has been my favorite.

I figured if I whipped up a batch of pancake batter (I always add a splash of maple syrup and a couple shakes of cinnamon to it), mixed about a tablespoon or so of it with some applesauce & cinnamon, and drizzled it on the pancake while it was cooking, it would turn out. I was right. It was so good with a little Earth Balance.

Here it is cooking…

Seitan O’ Greatness

So I attended my last three classes of freshman year today. Now all I have left is around thirty pages of crazy philosophical stuff to write. Woo-hoo.

So I’m bunkering down in my apartment (until Friday, that is. Arcade Fire on Friday I got sick & sad & sold my ticket.). I’ve stocked up on tofu and veggies and lots of brainfood.

I even decided to kickstart it all by making my first loaf of seitan. And I am so glad I did. Not only is this stuff delicious, but it took about 10 minutes to put together (minus baking time) and had minimal clean-up.

I adapted this recipe to make enough for one (and to my liking). Recipe after the jump!

Baking For Others…

…is quite possibly my favorite way to procrastinate.

In my writing class, we all had to pick semester topics to write like six papers on. So I wrote on alternative nutrition & health. I covered things like acupuncture, the corruption in the FDA, and of course, veganism. Since we had to do so much discussing about our topics, I think I got the reputation for being the annoying, pushy vegan (which I’m not at all. I’m not even 100% vegan). So I asked my teacher if it would be okay if I actually brought in some vegan muffins on the last day of class; she said that would be wonderful. So this is the return of the graham cracker muffin.

Blueberry

Chocolate Chip

I also participated in a cookie exchange through The Post Punk Kitchen forums. This is what I sent to my partner, Susie Tofu Monster.

Those are the wonderful pumpkin chocolate chip bars & homemade vegan chocolates!