What the Blazes!

Good morning oh lovely readers! To cope with my most recent bout of insomnia, I decided to update you all on some of the adventures that I had yesterday. I actually went Black Friday shopping! No, I was not one of those get-up-at-some-ungodly-hour-o’-clock, stand-in-line-forever, race-around-with-coupons-like-a-mad-woman kind of shoppers. My friends and I spent most of our time meandering around bookstores at a leisurely pace, keeping an eye out for deals but not stressing about it too much. It was lovely.

Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a pizza place called Blazes Pizza. I know, what the blazes was I doing in a pizza place?! Getting vegan pizza, that’s what! Blazes has a vegan cheese option, as well as lots of yummy vegetables to load onto your pie. My friend Kim and I just split a simple pie, though. We each also got a blood orange lemonade. Both were absolutely delicious.

 

This was also an opportunity for me to introduce my friends the wonder that is Daiya, since the vegan cheese of choice was Daiya mozzarella. The cruelty-free choice was a success! Kim said that she actually forgot she wasn’t eating “real” cheese, and that Daiya tasted like a delectable version of “some pretentious cheese.” My friend Jimmy, a pizza connoisseur, declared that he was impressed. That’s a BIG DEAL – Jimmy’s serious about his pizza.

So, all in all, Blazes Pizza is a definite must-visit for any vegans craving a pizza pie fix. One word, my friends: yum.

Happy Tofurky Day!

Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone! Here at Life as a College Vegan I’m back in Pasadena visiting some friends and cooking up a maple-glazed tofurky. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

What delicious vegan meal are you making this Thanksgiving? Cruelty-free crockpots? Compassionate canapés? Share them with Life as a College Vegan! Recipes, pictures, and Thanksgiving stories welcome!

Click here to share on Life as a College Vegan’s facebook page!

1-2-3 Barbeque Mushrooms

Last night, I discovered a blissfully simple way to make delicious mushrooms: barbecue sauce.

Now, I realize that my “barbeque mushrooms” don’t exactly do justice to the true art of barbecuing vegetables, but hey, it was easy and they tasted yummy. Good enough for me.

The ingredients? It’s a 1-2-3-pow! for this dish:

1. 1 c baby portobello mushrooms

2. 2 tsp vegetable oil

3. 3 Tb of your favorite barbecue sauce

The directions? Super easy. Toss the mushrooms in the vegetable oil (have fun throwing them around!), then add in the barbecue sauce and coat the mushrooms in that. Put it all in a pan and sear on high for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Plate, and enjoy!

These are especially nummy served with a Thanksgiving yam! Mmmm 🙂

Thanksgiving

In a season that’s all about blessings and thanks, isn’t life something that we should be thankful for above all? So then why is the centerpiece of such a holiday a plate o’ dead flesh? Ew.

Thankfully (ha. ha. puns.), there’s a way to make your Thanksgiving celebration truly a celebration of the fruits (and vegetables) of the earth, rather than of the annual slaughterhouse mania: Tofurky!

Roast it, stuff it, braise it, even deep fry it – anything you’d do with a “regular” turkey, you can do with tofurky! My biggest tip for cooking your tofurky this year: marinate, marinate, marinate! Keep your tofurky moist! It’s honestly what makes the biggest difference.

Not sure exactly how you want to enjoy your tofurky? No worries! Turtle Island Foods, the makers of Tofurky products has recipes galore! Check them out here!

Comment and tell me what your favorite way to gobble down some tofurky is!

Polenta

So, I recently discovered polenta. And mushrooms. I know, a vegan who didn’t like mushrooms? Insanity. It’s okay, though. I’m making up for it 🙂

Anyhoo, my friend chef Barbara recently made an AWESOME polenta dish that I wanted to share with y’all. The ingredients? Blissfully simple.

1. uncooked polenta

2. your favorite meltable vegan cheese

3. kale

4. your favorite roasted red pepper sauce

The directions? Also super simple. Great for college cooking!

1. In a large pot, boil the polenta. Basically, prepare as directed by the package.
2. When the polenta has started to thicken, stir in about 1 cup of vegan cheese for every 1.5 cups of cooked polenta you’re making. I know. Math time.
3. In a separate, microwave-safe bowl, heat up the red pepper sauce.
4. Chop up the kale, stick it in another microwave-safe bowl, and heat for about 1 minute for every 1 cup of kale. (If I were being fancy, I would tell you to “wilt” the kale – but hey, you’re using a microwave. Not exactly iron chef-ing it here.)
5. Plating time! For a single serving, put about about 1/3 c red pepper sauce onto your plate, add about 1 cup of your polenta, and top with 1/2 c kale.
6. Lick lips hungrily. Enjoy!

 

This is how Vegalicious plates theirs!

The Beauty of Vegan

October, month of colors! I’ll be honoring the glorious visual display of the world by featuring some snapshots of life within it – namely, food, creatures, and the human animal.

To start off with, let’s celebrate the colors of the earth with the fruit of the earth!

Monday Night Mixin’s

It’s dinner time, and I’m hungry.

Instead of being a lazy college student and defaulting to cereal, I decided to make real food. There were actually multiple steps involved. I think that counts as cooking. Even if it did boil down to throwing multiple ingredients into a bowl. I promise, it was more complicated than cereal…

Anyhoo, tonight’s dinner features colors! I threw some kale in a bowl and microwaved it for a minute to wilt the leaves (I prefer my kale steamed to raw most of the time. Go figure.), added in half a cucumber that I’d oh so prettily diced up, plopped some cubed tofu on top (I prefer my tofu raw to steamed most of the time… Go figure…), and then added a gracious spoonful salsa and about two tablespoons of nooch.

Hello vitamin spectrum. Why yes, I will taste the rainbow 😉

Oh! And meet my friend Carson. He’s thwarting onion tears by wearing ski goggles. He’s pretty excellent.

Sweetness and Sprinkles

Happy Friday everyone! I’m giving y’all a flashback today and reporting on a most excellent vegan restaurant (and one of the few left!) that I visited while in St. Louis last week.

It’s name is Sweetart, a delectable play on words. The cafe displays the art of the owner, Cbabi Bayoc. This season, his art is all about fatherhood.

Every season, the food is all about delicious. I’d already started digging into their signature Sweetart Burger before I remembered to take a picture of it. Honestly, it was one of the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had.

And then there’s another oh so lovely aspect of Sweetart that I love so much – they make vegan cupcakes! (Not to mention vegan cookies, vegan brownies, vegan pizza… basically, all manners of vegan yumminess.) The flavors change year round, but the decadence is always the same.

My vegan Backwards Rainbow cupcake next to two non-vegan Red Velvet cupcakes.

This time ’round, I had to get a backwards rainbow cupcake. It had sprinkles. 🙂

Thanks for brightening up St. Louis culture, Sweetart family!

B-Squared Smoothie

Happy lunch time my lovely blog readers! I’ve just gotten back from a BUTI workout at yoga blue. Hardest. thing. ever. I left showered in my own sweat. A combo of yoga, plyometrics, African dance, and lots and lots of butti shaking, needless to say, BUTI was great!

Aaaaaand now I’m hungry. The workout left me definitely needing calories, but not wanting something too heavy. Smoothie it was.

Today I made a “b-squared smoothie,” or a blueberry-banana smoothie. To start out with, here’s whatcha need:

 

• 1 banana (fresh or frozen for more of an icee consistency)
• about 1/2 c blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• about 1 c non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
• 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (I used unflavored RAW protein)
• 1 packet stevia

First, I blended the protein powder, stevia, and some of the milk together. I detest when the protein powder doesn’t get blended all the way and I end up having chunks, so I make sure it’s all homogenized first.

Then I added the banana and another splash of milk and blended all that in. Next came the blueberries and the rest of the milk.

Delish. 🙂

Sambazon Smoothie

I was at Whole Foods today rambling around in search of a decent snack yesterday, and I happened upon a lovely discovery – Sambazon acai berry CHOCOLATE protein smoothie. It’s got chocolate, soy AND hemp protein, chocolate, acai berry, and oh, did I mention chocolate?

Yeah… I, uh, apparently really wanted chocolate.

But seriously, the smoothie is a fantastic balance of macronutrients and tastes amazing. Oh, and of course, it’s VEGAN. They even specifically point out in the ingredient list that it’s vegan protein they’re using. Way to go Sambazon!