Flippantly Vague Musings of a Quirky Vegan

I'm baaaaaaaack!


I had a lovely time in Lake Tahoe. Beautiful weather, great scenery, wonderful people....but, alas, I got sick. Sick as a dog (Why do people say this? Do dogs normally get really really ill?). Sick enough that I was out of commission for about 3 days, and then I pretty much lost my voice and ended up sounding like Harvey Fierstein. Not a lovely, feminine sound, mind you.

So, now I am back, healthy and ready to start blogging again. I know you missed me.

Here are a few meals I made before I left for Tahoe. First is a prepackaged meal from Tastybite. I love this brand name, it is just so....so....to the point. I made the Bombay Potatoes.



















And yes, they were tasty bites. I enjoyed them with some spicy spinach cheeseless "pizza" (more like flat bread) from Trader Joe's and some champagne grapes. Pretty good, but not fabulous.














Next are some vegetable potstickers by Ling Ling. Whenever I see this bag, I think of a non-vegan-friendly joke from the Simpsons that my husband loves to tell. The episode was "Lisa the Tree Hugger" and Homer makes a joke about Kentucky Fried Panda....it's finger ling-ling good. (go to link, scroll down into Quotes). Sorry....














Decent....good for an easy and quick meal. I wasn't really fond of the sauce though, I think it was a little too sweet.

















Now, traveling to Tahoe was my first real adventure into unknown parts as a vegan. We went to Tahoe for the Omni's family reunion (there's a ton of 'em). I brought a bunch of my own food and figured I would have to make all my own meals while everyone else ate the planned family meals. For the most part this was true, but there was one night where my cousin-in-law, Annamarie, made a fantastic Chinese-style salad with cabbage, green bell peppers, scallions, rice vinegar and ramen noodles (which I am pretty darn sure are vegan). Yummmmm. She did add chicken to it for the rest of the family, but made a special veganized bowl just for me. My brother-in-law, David, made a fantastic, albeit highly explosive, veggie chili one night. He cooks with a lot of spicy spices. I think that was the night my sinuses totally cleared up.

Next on the list of food stuffs are some Potato and Roasted Garlic Puffs by the Fillo Factory. I've had these in my freezer for a while now, hoping we would entertain a lovely vegan party or something, and I could whip these out and present them on a shiny silver platter, and everyone would "oooh" and "ahhhh". But no, we don't entertain much, and I don't have a shiny silver platter. Maybe one day.














These are damn good. Greasy and delicious, warm and oozing with garlicky potato goodness. See how the innards are creeping out of the fillo dough? That's some good stuff.
















And last on the list is what I made tonight for dinner. I decided to use up the rest of my Morningstar Farms Meal Starters chik'n strips that have been sitting in the back of the freezer. I used them once before in a stir-fry, and wasn't overly fond of them, but needed to use them up to make room for all the new vegan stuff I want to buy. I bought some accidentally-vegan creole batter mix by Luzianne and covered the strips in the batter, then pan fried them in some canola oil.














They turned out nice and golden and crispy. I made a dipping sauce out of Vegenaise, ketchup, cajun seasoning, prepared horseradish, cayenne and paprika. It was a little too sweet and needs a little more kick, but overall, not too bad! I really liked the strips, though. They remind me of the real chicken strips that I loved as a kid. But now they are tasty and humane!
















Oh, and VeganCyclist! I will post the rum seitan recipe tomorrow..... :-)