Cookbook Project Week 14: Urban Vegan

It was another super busy week and I’ve learned a valuable lesson: don’t schedule things for 4 out of 5 weeknights. Especially not two weeks in a row. It left me completely, painfully exhausted. Rest and self care are just as important as eating healthfully, so I need to make sure I don’t do that sort of thing again. Next week will be dedicated to pampering myself and slowing down!

 

I ended up eating out several nights, but I did manage to cook a few meals and keep up with my cookbook project. This week’s cookbook is The Urban Vegan by Dynise Balcavage. The recipes in The Urban Vegan are organized by themes such as cafe culture, breakfast at the diner and lunch cart. They’re all creative and easy to make, and most are ethnically influenced. This is another two thumbs up cookbook! Dynise is working on another cookbook and I’m eagerly awaiting it’s release!

 

I started out with Blueberry Banana Bread, which I made into muffins, so we would have breakfast for a few days. I used all spelt flour instead of wheat flour because of my wheat allergy. They were really tasty.

 

I also cooked ahead and made a Cashew Curry Casserole for the week. I really love this dish and make this recipe often. I always use all of the add-ons that Dynise suggests and double the sauce recipe. This usually makes 6 servings.

 

I also made a big pot of rice and Cauliflower Chickpea Tagine. I swapped out the almonds with cashews because of my food allergies and I omitted the raisins because I don’t them in savory food. This was a really nice dinner, and we also got a few lunches out of the dish.

 

Cashew Curry Casserole used to be my favorite dish from The Urban Vegan, but I think it was just surpassed by this Spicy Udon Noodle dish. This was super quick and simple to make and really, really delicious. I added broccoli so I wouldn’t have to make a veggie side dish, and I made more sauce than the recipe called for. This was so good Dennis and both had to go back for seconds. I’m already wondering when I can make it again!

 

Kindle Cafe

Kindle Cafe is a “pop-up” eatery specializing in organic, locally sourced, plant-based cuisine located in Lambertville, NJ. It’s called a “pop-up” cafe because instead of having his own space, chef Vince Peterson uses local spaces that aren’t usually open in the evenings. What a great idea! The menu and location are posted early in the week, and then dinner is on Friday. Dinner is always a gourmet five course meal. Reservations are a must and the dinner usually fills up quickly. My friend Deana lives in the Lamberville area, so Dennis I drove down (in my brand new, super cute Mini Cooper!) last Friday to try Kindle Cafe for the first time.

 

The dinner took place at Rojo’s Roastery, which is a nice little coffee shop. The side of the shop is kind of industrial looking with shelves full of bags of what we were guessing were coffee beans, and there was what looked like a large roaster sitting next to them. There was even a little fork lift that Dennis was dying to give a try. The rest of the coffee shop was full of cute eclectic tables and mismatched chairs. The atmosphere is low key, yet elegant, and it was a nice and relaxing way to end a super busy week.

 

Dennis, Deana and I sat in arm chairs around a little copper coffee table.

 

The mouth-wateringly good menu

 

We started with root vegetable ravioli in cashew creme sauce. This little pasta pillow of deliciousness was just a hint of things to come.

 

Then on to bean soup with guacamole and tortilla strips. I found myself eating everything very slowly and savoring every bite.

 

Next up was portobello and rice collard wraps with a chipotle tahini sauce. I would have eaten a giant bowl of the sauce on it’s own!

 

The entree was a quinoa cake on a bed of greens with romesco sauce. I actually don’t know what romesco sauce is, other than delicious.

 

For dessert we had raspberry brownies. (I took about 7 photos of my brownie, and all of them were blurry!) Dennis doesn’t like brownies, but he liked these, which is a testament to how good they were. We also had rooibos tea.

 

When I originally saw the huge menu I thought I’d end up leaving super comfortably stuffed, but that wasn’t the case. It was more like pleasantly full. Lambertville is about an hour and fifteen minutes away, and this dinner was well worth the drive!

The First Annual NYC Vegetarian Food Festival

History was made in New York City on Sunday! We had our first vegetarian food festival. There are many cities and smaller towns around the country who have annual veg fests, but strangely New York City hasn’t had one. Until now.

 

The event was organized by Sarah Gross of Rescue Chocolate and Nira Paliwoda and was chocked full of incredible guest speakers and delicious food vendors. Thousands of people showed up, proving that a vegetarian food festival is a much needed thing in NYC. Unfortunately the space was too small for the amount of people that showed up and not everyone made it inside. I have friends that waited for over three hours to get inside! Fortunately Dennis, some friends and I showed up early and we didn’t have to wait too long to get in.

 

We started out by walking around and sampling some of the wonderful food offerings. There was Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss ice cream, Gnosis raw chocolate, Sweet and Sara marshmallows, Teese vegan cheese, Liz Lovely gluten-free cookies and Rescue Chocolate to name a few. I had a delicious kale and tofu salad from Sacred Chow, an amazing Philly “cheese steak” empanada from V Spot and super yummy mac n’ yease from I Eat Grass while I was walking around. (Yes, those were my snacks.) Sadly, it was so crowded that I couldn’t get any good photos of the tables or the food.

 

I spotted quite a few vegan celebrities! I saw Meat is for Pussies author John Joseph, photographer Linda Long of Great Chefs Cook Vegan fame, The Discerning Brute‘s Joshua Katcher and Bizzaro‘s Dan Piraro. At one point the woman standing next to me looked really familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out how I knew her. Then I realized that it was actress Marin Ireland who was in the play The Three Sisters, which I saw in February, and A Lie of the Mind, which I saw last year. I usually don’t say anything to actors when I see them, but I was feeling high on the vegan love that was in the room, so I told her how much I liked both plays. She seemed to be surprised to be recognized. I also ran into a few of my lovely colleagues from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which was a really nice surprise.

 

The main room got too crowded for us, so I went downstairs to the lecture room with Dennis and our friends Deana and Venkat. First up we listened to Cindi Avila talk about veganism and media.

 

Then Our Hen House‘s Jasmin Singer gave a great talk on winning people over to veganism through delicious food. That’s the type of activism I practice the most!

 

Kathy Stevens of The Catskills Animal Sanctuary talked about rescued farm animals and their emotional lives. I liked her talk so much that I bought her book Where the Blind Horse Sings. It’s going to be a Montclair Vegans reading club book in the future.

 

Unfortunately Terry Hope Romero’s food demonstration was at the same time as Kathy Stevens’ talk, so I missed it. But fortunately, she stuck around to introduce Victoria Moran I was able to see her anyway.

 

I first saw Victoria Moran speak at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and she’s really wonderful, so I was excited to see her name on the list of guest speakers for the veg fest. I have to admit I was a little star struck when I saw her standing on line for the ladies room line behind me. She spoke about veganism and self care. Afterward I had the opportunity to tell her how much I loved her talk, and she autograph her book The Love Powered Diet for me.

 

Deana and I then headed back upstairs in search of lunch. (Because all of that other food didn’t fill me up quite enough.) We bought sushi boxes from Beyond Sushi. We had to wait a little while to get our food, but it was well worth it. This is by far the best sushi I’ve ever had. Ever. And also the prettiest.

 

After lunch we watched Fran Costigan’s dessert demo and we got to sample some of her amazing chocolate cake and chocolate truffles. Fran and I got to chat for a few minutes, and she signed a copy of her book More Great Good Dairy Free Desserts Naturally for me. I liked Fran so much that I signed up for one classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute!

 

Unfortunately, Fran’s demo was at the same time as key note speaker Neal Barnard’s talk. Deana and I both saw Dr. Barnard talk when were were studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is why we opted for the dessert demo instead. We tried to peak in on the talk afterward, but it was too crowded. I was able to snap this really blurry photo of him from the doorway though!

 

Well, I didn’t really need any more books, but these are all nice additions to my collection! The only other thing I bought was a package of Liz Lovely Gluten Free German Chocolate Cookies. I have no idea how I was able to exercise such restraint in a room full of so much delicious food!

 

I’ve heard that planning for next year’s festival has already begun! Next year the event will be held in a larger venue and will probably take place over two days. I’m already looking forward to it!


May I Be Frank

 

A few weeks I ago I mentioned the screening of May I Be Frank that was coming to Montclair. Well, the screening was last week and it was a pretty amazing evening. The film is about Frank Ferrante, who is 54, unhealthy, obese and depressed. With the help of three vegans from Café Gratitude, Frank starts on a 42 day healing program, eating only raw foods, practicing gratitude, visiting a holistic doctor and getting weekly colonics. Frank gets more he expected out the plan, which transforms his body, mind and soul. This film had everyone in the audience both laughing and crying and I’m pretty sure everyone left vowing to take better care of themselves.

 

The film is pretty amazing, but the best part of the evening was meeting Frank himself and hearing him talk about his journey. His transformation is unbelievable and he barely resembles the man at the beginning of the film. He’s very charming and intelligent, and his talk was profound, hysterically funny and inspirational all at once. He even took a picture with me and a few of my friends from Montclair Vegans! What a great guy!

 

Frank and the filmmakers are currently on a grass-roots style tour of the country. The money raised from screenings goes to fund future stops on the tour. Please take a look at their schedule to see if they’re coming to your town, and go check the film out. If they’re not stopping in your town, why not plan your own screening?

 

 

Cookbook Project Week 13: Eat, Drink and Be Vegan

This was a super busy week for me so I needed a cookbook that contained quick and easy recipes. I chose Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I’ve cooked from this book many times in the past and have loved everything I’ve made. The book is full of quick, easy and tasty recipes that are family friendly.

 

I had things scheduled for 4 out of the 5 evenings this week, so I cooked a few meals at once that I could just reheat for dinner each night. On my one free evening I cooked a nice stir-fry and made sure I made enough so there would be leftovers for lunch the next day

 

Quinoa Chickpea Confetti Casserole is a dish I’ve made before so I knew I really liked it. I really need to cook with fennel more! (I say this every time I cook with fennel.)

 

Polenta Casserole is another dish I’ve made before and really like. I make it every once in a while, and I’ve tweaked the recipe a little so that the filling is more like chili. I add cooked peppers and chili powder.

 

I also made Puréed Spicy Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew with Chickpeas. How could I turn down a recipe with chickpeas and peanut butter?

 

Since I love broccoli, tofu and cashews, I couldn’t pass up this recipe for Broccoli Cashew Teryiaki Tofu Stir-Fry. It was so good!

Dr. Fuhrman