Bagels in my belly

If you are lucky enough to live in the ATL, I urge you to try the bagels at Belly General Store. They are the best bagels I've ever eaten in my life-- and I have always been a bagel fan. My favorite kind is the "everything" bagel, because it's loaded up with garlic, rosemary, poppy and sesame seeds, sea salt, and black pepper. Don't be surprised if you find a huge chunk of garlic in there. Yum! To save money, I like to buy a couple bags of the day-old bagels and slice them before I put them in the freezer to keep. When I'm ready for a sandwich I just pop it in the toaster oven. Today I topped my sandwich with hummus, spinach, cherry tomato, and red onion. Thank you, Belly! (Maybe one day you'll start to make vegan cupcakes, too.. A girl can only dream!)

Vegan pizza at Mellow Mushroom

I was thrilled when I saw that my local Mellow Mushroom now serves Daiya vegan cheese. Artichokes, mushrooms, onions, light daiya. MM is definitely one of the highlights of living in the south. :)

Better than your average ramen.

While growing up, I always enjoyed an egg dropped into my ramen noodles.  Now I prefer crumbled tofu, and I always try to add something green such as seaweed or kale.  Instead of using the flavoring packets, which aren't always vegan, I keep a jar of vegetable stock concentrate in the freezer and make an instant vegan broth.  I like to add sesame seeds, a drop of toasted sesame oil, splash of soy sauce, and a couple red pepper flakes as well. 

Grilled Mock Chicken Salad Sandwich

My most recent vegan gotta-have-it food is the Mock Chicken Salad from Whole Foods.  It's good on sandwiches and bagels, spread on crackers, or mixed in a pasta salad.  Grilled sandwiches are my ultimate comfort food. 

Spiral Pasta

I have been slacking on my blog for the past few months but I think I might get back to it.

This is a veggie pasta that I whipped up with mushrooms, onion, red pepper, capers, olive oil, tomato paste, vegan pesto concentrate, and about 1/4 cup of vegan 'chicken' stock. I didn't want a full on "red sauce" but by just adding tomato paste and pesto concentrate the flavor was enhanced.

Flakey Spinach Pockets

For a Christmas appetizer, we made these savory pastries with phyllo dough, spinach, and crumbled tofu.

First, steam the spinach and chop it, then mix it with crumbled firm tofu (I just used a fork in a large bowl). Add salt, pepper, spices, garlic, etc. to taste.

Melt some Earth Balance vegan margarine and lay out the phyllo dough layer by layer. Brush the butter between each layer of phyllo dough (about 5-6 sheets per batch). Then we used kitchen scissors to cut the dough into little squares and put a spoonful of the spinach mixture on the filo square. Then pinch the filo into a little pocket and brushed more butter over the top. Just bake on 375 for a few minutes, until they turn a nice brown color.