Monday Happies and OH MY STROGANOFF!

Happy  Monday everyone!

As Always, my weekend with VOMD was amazing. Have I mentioned that I love him and have the best boyfriend ever?

Here's a taste of one of VOMD's favourite meals recently. I had a huge craving for that stroganoff my ex-stepmom used to make when I was growing up, but I had no idea how to make it vegan friendly. I'm pretty sure her's was a lazy  version using canned mushroom soup, so I though, hey...mushrooms!


Johanna's Vegan Sort-of Stroganoff

Our cat friends like to supervise in the kitchen. Princess George was kind of annoyed that I didn't let her eat some. 

VOMD and I always try to buy as much of our food from the near-death racks at the grocery store - you know, the one's filled with over ripe bananas and weird bags full of mangoes, oranges, eddoes, and avacadoes thrown together as though you could some how make a meal with those four, completely random ingredients. About a month ago there were about fifty packages of slightly brown mushrooms  on there, so we bought about 10 of them and put them in the freezer for a rainy day. Well, last week not only did it rain, but we also ran out of food and so I was relieved to find we still had one package of these slightly brown mushrooms left in the freezer!

Ingredients
1 package of frozen sliced mushrooms (I guess you could just cut up about a cup and a half of fresh mushrooms, but all I had was the frozen ones!)
1 Large onion, halved and sliced
2/3 can Romano beans, rinsed well (I saved the rest and added it to bean dip the next day)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 cube of mushroom soup base (make sure its vegan! read the ingredients!)
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1) Sauté the onions on medium heat until they are translucent, then add the frozen mushrooms and cover with a lid or plate. You can add a little salt to get the juices flowing, but don't add too much because the soup base is probably super salty
2) In a bowl or measuring cup, dissolve soup base cube in warm water, then add flour and whisk away until its well combined
3) When the mushrooms are completely defrosted and getting darker brown, and the onions are golden, add the soup base mixture and stir it to combine. You might want to reduce your heat a bit to stop it from bubbling over or sticking to the bottom of your pan.
4) Add your romano beans and stir to combine. If it's too thick, add a little more water, if it's too  watery, sprinkle a tiny bit more flour over top and whisk it in to make sure you don't get clumps. Nobody liked clumpy gravy.
5) Add pepper to taste.  You probably don't need salt, you know, because of the super salty soup base.
6) Serve over the noodles of your choice. We didn't have ribbon noodles so I used some spinach rice spaghetti noddles we had on hand.


VOMD had two servings and we both licked out plates clean. No leftovers with this one!

Happy Monday!

-J

Monday Happies!

Today is the Civic Holiday, so instead of waking up alone in a sweltering hot room like I do most Mondays, I got to wake up with VOMD and eat breakfast (Toasted Tomato Sandwiches!) while watching Community. Oh gosh, I forgot how funny the D&D episode was!

This weekend, like most of our weekends, has been full of good food and awesome adventures. We went for a walk on Friday evening and ended up in a graveyard... that's not weird, is it?

It was very romantic, in a totally strange way. So many stones marking the resting places of people born hundreds of years ago. I can't imagine how many stories are buried  with them...

On Saturday VOMD and I went to Democracy and had Nachos and Pizza - amazing! Please go there right now and eat them... right now.

Yesterday we went to Ikea and had fun laying on fluffy beds and getting lost in the insane maze that is that ridiculous store.

And today...today we are going to nap a lot and relax and go for a nice long walk.

Happy Monday!

-J

Monday Happies: My best friends wedding!

So, last week was a bit  nuts. My internet went down on Monday  morning because a huge truck drove by  and tore down the cable. It wasn't up and running  again until Friday, but by then I was in Barrie helping my best friend prepare for her wedding day!

The wedding was on Saturday and it was probably the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen.  They rented out a barn at Lazy Dayz B & B in Coldwater, Ontario, and with all the tulle and twinkle lights in the world, the place was transformed into a magical country wonderland.

The front of the building had a big porch where they set up a buffet. We strung up the basement of the barn with twinkle lights as well, and  by 11pm that place was rumbling with the stomping of so many cowboy boots!


The wedding party was absolutely gorgeous, and so much fun!



The makeup artist, and the hairdresser (the bride's Aunt is a hairdresser and she was an absolute super star!) did an amazing job.

Posing for pictures makes you a little grumpy after a while!

We all wore cowboy boots in honour of the bride is is an absolute country queen. It's strange that my best friend and I are so completely different. But when it comes down to it, all the history we have together, the secrets we've shared, and all the amazing times we've had together has made us the type of friends that will be close until we are a hundred.

 Before she asked me to be her  maid of honour we had not spoken in a few years, and I am so happy and honoured that she asked me to be part of this day, and that it reconnected us. I will never let us slip that far apart again.

The night before the wedding, we stayed up in the dark, giggling about silly memories, talking nonsense, and thinking about happy, beautiful things to calm her nerves. It was like we were 10 years old again, laying in her single bed, talking about boys and planning the silly adventures we would go on the next day.

That's it for me. I will post something veg related later this week!

Happy Monday!

xo

-Jo

Monday Happies

This weekend was amazing, in large part because VOMD and I cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, but also because I got to tutor a new Canadian, meet VOMD's grandmother - who is such a lovely woman! I also met his great aunt, who apparently has lived here in Hamilton for 50 years, and is a total firecracker of a woman! We had no idea VOMD had family in the area, so it was pretty exciting.

Other than that, I really have not much to share today. But in the interest of my commitment to share happy thoughts now and then, here are a couple pictures of Lego sleeping like a weirdo:

Happy  Monday!

-J

Good Food Friday: Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup (and happy thoughts!)

It's Friday again, already! This summer is flying by. I feel like if I blink I will miss July altogether.

I didn't do a "Monday Happies" this week, so I thought I would share some of the things that make me smile today, for good measure before giving you the BEST recipe EVER for Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup.

I love my momma! 

First, last weekend VOMD and I went up North to visit family. We went to Temiskaming QC to see his parents and ended up loading up the car with free stuff they wanted to get rid of. As much as I am attempting to downsize and be less of a consumer, I can't say no to free things, especially if they are just going to end up in a landfill. We scored three comforters, three sets of sheets, a new (to us) desk and throw pillows! LOVE IT! But now, alas, we need a place to store all this stuff, and we don't have a linen closet so its basically going to sit in a  pile in our bedroom until we move  into a bigger place. Then we headed to Magnetawan to see my Mom for her birthday. We had a BBQ and a pool party, and I got to see two of my big sisters and some of my nieces and nephews. Being around them makes me desperate to move back up north again. I don't like being so far away from my family.

The most handsome man in the world, VOMD. Oh, and Coors is VEGAN, fyi.

 It was nice to actually just relax, lay in the sun, and hear the voices and laughter of my family around me. I often feel very disconnected from  them, being here in Hamilton, so this weekend was so badly needed.

My beautiful big sister and I! I miss her so much. We used to have girls' nights every Friday, so going months without seeing her is awful! 

I am so lucky to have such an amazing family. My mom bought veggie burgers for me and VOMD, and even made vegan pasta salad, and an awesome bean salad with carrots and broccoli, and one  of my sister's brought vegan taco salad (with veggie ground round!).



Now on to the vegan mushroom soup recipe I promised! Mushrooms are VOMD's favourite vegetable (I guess they aren't technically vegetables though...but saying they are his favourite Fungi just doesn't really hit home), and when he still ate animal products his  favourite soup was Cream fo Mushroom. I thought I would give it a try as a surprise because I found a bunch of mushrooms on sale because they were a tiny bit brown...but that just makes them more flavourful! It actually turned  out amazing!

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
2 cups chopped cauliflower florets
2 cups chopped white mushrooms
1 can whole mushrooms, unsalted preferably
1 large  onion, peeled and cut in quarters
4 large cloves of garlic, peeled

2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cube of vegetarian vegetable soup base (or a little spoon full if you only have powdered)
Splash of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded vegan cheese (optional, I used Vegan Gourmet mozzarella)
Fresh parsley to garnish (optional)
Deep fried onions to garnish (you can make them yourself or buy them...this is optional)

Start by boiling your cauliflower until it is literally falling apart. If you drop it on the counter from a couple feet, it should be mushed on impact. Strain and set aside. Then throw onions, white mushrooms and garlic into a food processor and pulse until well chopped but not so well blended that it isn't chunky any more. You want some texture in your soup. Turn on you cast iron pan, add a tiny splash or oil, and fry up this mixture until the onions are golden and the mushrooms juicy and darkened - you can add a little salt and pepper for flavour here. You can put a lid over it once its slightly browned to get the juices flowing, and add the canned mushrooms to the mix. While this is sizzling away, put your cauliflower in the food processor and blend until totally creamy. Add almond milk, soup base cube,  and sift in flour, and keep blending until totally combined. Once this is done, combine cauliflower mixture with onion and mushroom mixture in a pot and put on medium low heat and stir until thickened. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. You can also add garlic powder or onion powder if you feel like it could use a boost, but don't overdo it because natural fresh flavours are always best! IF it isn't as thick as you'd like, add a tiny bit more flour to a cup, whisk it with a tiny bit of water until completely combined, an stir it into soup. If you prefer not to use flour, you can make this soup flour free by using more cauliflower and less almond milk.

Serve garnished with onions, cheese and parsley and eat way too much!

Monday Happies: PIZZA

Happy Monday! 

In the spirit of continuing to find things to be happy about, I am about to share with you and awesome vegan pizza recipe. But first, can I please just rant for a moment? It has to do with watching television - something that I do far too often than I'd like to admit. I mean...I watch A LOT of television. It is a product of being unemployed and not having a desk to work at. I sit on the couch while working on my thesis all  day, and it is just too easy to turn on Netflix and power watch six seasons of Family Guy in one sitting. ...

The thing that gets me really riled up, though, is ease with which our culture throws around racism, sexist and speciesism. Given that the average North American probably watches about the same amount of television as I do, it sort of freaks me out that swathes of uncritical people are absorbing all this negative, bullshit information on the reg. It is presented in these seemingly innocuous ways - a funny character wearing a poncho, a joke about women being passive aggressive, the off-hand comment  about non-hunters being sissies. But even when it is done ironically, I don't think that the average television watcher gets  the irony. 

I know I can just turn off the television, and there is obviously a deeper problem here for me in terms of my obvious addiction to technology, but this doesn't take away the fact that I find myself constantly wincing, and actually just genuinely feeling like crap when I watch shows like American Dad when Stan casually murders dear, or a raccoon, or whatever he kills in whatever episode; or when I watch a show like Raising Hope, which is generally a pretty funny show, but has an entire episode where they raise and learn to love a pig, and then eat him. 

Watching crap like this kind of makes me understand why it is so hard to make the decision to go vegan, or even see veganism as a valid lifestyle choice. We are constantly told by television and other media that eating animals, degrading women, and making racist jokes are completely normal and actually not that harmful - especially if presented humorously. But humour is powerful and dangerous because behind this type of humour are messages of hate. When I see my young niece imitating television characters, or my friends' kids laughing at jokes told in racist faux Chinese accents I can't help but feel a little like a tiny ant trying to knock down a mountain of  hate.  I feel a little  hopeless. 

But, then I see some of the awesome vegans out there crusading for a better world, and I see that it really isn't all that hopeless. Media presents a skewed vision of the world in which we live, and while it has a huge  influence, it obviously doesn't ensnare us all in its shitty, hate-trap. 

So, I'm going to really work on switching off the television, and spending more time with my animal friends, and my awesome vegan boyfriend. 

Anyway, that is my little rant. And now for those Monday Happies I promised! I know that I shared a recipe already on Friday, but I had to share this  one too, and what is better than pizza to chase those Monday blues away? 

VOMD and I don't eat pizza very often. There is a Pita Pizza down the street that makes this awesome vegan falafel pizza, but other than that, we tend to go for sushi or Indian food before we go for  pizza. But  I had a huge craving last week and didn't really feel like spending money, so I decided to work with what we had at home. This is what I came up with!

The dough recipe I use is exactly the same as the one I learned from my mom's partner when I was a kid,  with a few minor changes. First, I use mostly whole wheat flour; second, I used maple syrup instead of sugar;  and third, its all about the pizza stone! 

 It's a pretty simple recipe. You should grab 2 big mixing bowls before you begin.

Ingredients:
2  cups of whole wheat flour
1 2/3 cup  of white flour
1/4 tsp salt
11/2 cups of VERY warm water (NOT HOT)
1 tsp maple  syrup
1 tbsp of active dry yeast
2 tbsp olive oil

You start by prepping your yeast. Put  the yeast in a large bowl and stir in maple syrop and warm water. Stir lightly and let sit until it gets all foamy on top. While the yeast is doing it's thing mix the whole wheat flour, salt, and  1 1/3 cups of white flour together (save 1/3 for later).

Once the yeast mixture is foamy, start adding the dry ingredients, and the oil, to the wet and once it gets too thick to stir, get your hands in there.

Once it is all combine, turn the dough onto a floured surface (floured with that extra 1/3 of white flour we set aside earlier). Kneed the dough for about 8-10 minutes until you have a nice stretchy firm ball and you can see some little puffs beneath the surface. Place in an oiled bowl, ans swish around until the ball of dough is coated. This will stop it from sticking. Cover with a clean, lightly dampened cloth in a warm place (like by a sun-lit window in the summer, or in an oven with the light on in winter). Let it rise until double it's size (about an hour or so).

Once risen, punch it down and break into 2 pieces. Kneed very lightly and form 2 balls. Cover lightly with that damp towel again and let rise until these pieces are doubled.

While that is rising(which should take about 40-45 minutes) you should start preheating your oven  if you are using a pizza stone. If not, wait a bit to conserve energy.

AND while the oven is heating up, start making your sauce.
Bruschetta Style Pizza Sauce (you will have leftovers, so plan to have bruschetta bread tomorrow! Just add a little olive oil, some chopped parsley, and a little splash of red wine vinegar to brighten it up)
Ingredients:
1 large onion, quartered
5 cloves or garlic (or  more or less, depending on your taste
1 large can of diced tomatoes (unsalted)
1 palm full of basil
1 hand full  of nutritional yeast
A dash of salt and pepper to taste

Put  the onion and garlic in the food processor and pulse until finely diced. Then add all other ingredients. Process until saucy (see picture).

Set that sauce aside and start chopping veggies and shredding your vegan cheese, if you want that. We  used tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and red peppers. Leggo was supervising. I find I always cook best under her watchful eye. Once the dough is risen,  roll it out until its as thin as you like (VOMD likes thin, crunchy crust, so I make it really thin, about 1/3 inch) And lay on a pan with parchment paper. If you don't want the sauce soaking into the crust, brush the crust lightly with olive oil before putting anything on it. Then, sauce it  up, lay out your veggies and toss some cheese or nutritional yeast on top. We put nutritional yeast on one  and Vegan Gourmet mozzarella cheese on the other.

Then pop those suckers in the oven. After about 3  or four minutes, the pizza will be firmed up enough to slide it off the pan (using the parchment paper) and then pull the paper out so it is resting on your pizza stone. DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT A STONE. It will be messy. Duh.

Let it cook for between 12-18 minutes (it depends on how your oven works, whether you have a stone, and how crusty you like it)

Then consume! My camera battery died before I could take the final pictures, so the last ones there are taken with my phone. Deal with it.

Happy vegan pizza eating!


-J