Kaya’s Kitchen

Posted on November 4, 2010 by jodie

A few months ago I stared dating the most wonderful vegan guy, who happens to be a huge fan of an awesome vegan restaurant, called Kaya’s Kitchen in Belmar, NJ. We’ve been there a lot! I don’t tend to do multiple posts about the same restaurant, unless they’re pretty far apart, so I’ve been saving up my pictures. I swear, I didn’t eat all this food at once!

Let’s start with brunch…

That’s my meal.

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His.

The sides that come with a brunch meal. Seriously.

And we can move on to a couple of lunches.

Veggie burger with vegan bacon, Daiya, and what I assume to be Veganaise. Do I even have to wonder why I’ve been gaining weight?

A cheesesteak type deal, again with Daiya.

An artfully decorated quesedilla (with Daiya, of course).

And some dinners…

Pizza with (duh) Daiya. They wouldn’t let us get half one specialty pizza with the other half another, which didn’t make me entirely happy, but plain “cheese” was just fine.

And what’s pizza without onion rings?

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Gluten steak.

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And chick’n cordon bleu with… Daiya, naturally.

Phew!

And in case you didn’t know… this post brought to you by VeganMoFo!

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A tasty lunch

Posted on November 3, 2010 by jodie

Lunch

I have a few photos now from this week, but I still have a few older ones that I want to post first, including this one. This a lunch from a few weeks ago, consisting of baked vegan chick’n nuggets, agave mustard, green beans, Heaven Scent Eco-planet Non Dairy Cheddar Cheese Crackers(also vegan!), and green beans. I’ve been frequently taking a bunch of frozen veggies with me for lunch, and then nuking them when it’s time to eat- so they taste good! I may not eat enough non-starchy veggies, but this definitely helps. 🙂

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention the Liz Lovely Mint O’s on the side! I could only eat one of them- they’re quite rich. That actually makes them a good choice for me, since I apparently won’t eat the whole box in one sitting. 🙂

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Shepherd's Pie

Posted on November 2, 2010 by jodie

Shepherd's Pie

Not the most photogenic meal, I admit. This was a quick to throw together meal I made a few weeks back. I used TVP chunks, soaked in vegetable broth, frozen veggies and topped it off with some fresh mashed potatoes. There is some type of “gravy” in there- namely veggie broth thickened with cornstarch. There’s spices in there too, namely garlic, minced onion (I was out of the fresh stuff) , salt and pepper. Nothing special, but a tasty meal nonetheless.
Happy MoFo!

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Vegan MoFo Begins Again!

Posted on November 1, 2010 by jodie

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Today is the first day of Vegan MoFo IV! For anyone who doesn’t know, VeganMoFo is where vegan bloggers pledge to post for most days of the month, and has varied in which month its held. For me, I am going to try to post every weekday during November (except Thanksgiving, most likely). The concept is based on NaNoWriMo, but instead of a novel, we share food. I’m hoping to share some recipes (yay!), but you’ll also see occasional shots of my lunch and restaurant meals, too. 🙂 I’m hoping to use this month to help revive my blog, and hopefully, you’ll be seeing a relaunch of my blog next week.
Happy MoFoing, everyone!
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Vegan Swap Number 3!

Posted on October 12, 2010 by jodie

First off, I must apologize to my swap partner, Jessica of Veggie Cookie, and to Lindsay of Cook. Vegan. Lover., the gracious host of the vegan swap, for my lateness of this post. Now, onto the package!

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This is the third time I’ve done a swap, and it’s always awesome to see what other people come up with! In this day and age, it’s easier than ever to find vegan food, be it online, at a Whole Foods or your local natural foods market. The trick to these swaps is finding some good local stuff that represents where the sender is from. Getting something you can’t just go out and buy yourself just makes it special- though it’s always nice to get treats that you could buy for yourself, too! 🙂
You can click through to the picture to see the notes in the photo, if you like.
First off- awesome bumper sticker! When I get my car back (long story), I’m totally putting that in the window!
Next come the local treats: Chocolate Graham Crackers and Ketchup. The graham crackers were just plain awesome! Nice and chocolately, filling and not too sweet. The ketchup is fab, too! I’m a big fan of non-HFCS sweetened ketchups, and this hits that mark. It’s cane sugar sweetened, I believe, but not overly sweet. Probably the way ketchup was supposed to taste before the 1980s!
Then there’s a couple of raw treats in the form of bars. I haven’t gotten a chance to try them yet, but I look forward to it!
Last, we have a few other treats. One, a bottle of vegan Wostershire. I’ve never seen a vegan brand other than Wizard, so I really look forward to trying it when my current supply runs out. Then, a Sweet & Sara Rice Crispy Treat, last lasted about 14 hours in my presence before I devoured it, and finally, a jar of Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams. It’s funny, a jar of White Chocolate Wonderfulalmost made it into the box I sent my partner, but I was afraid I’d eat it before I got a chance to send it. 🙂 I haven’t tried the dark chocolate one yet, but I’m looking forward to that, too!
If you haven’t participated in a swap before, I highly recommend it! It’s so awesome getting a box full of treats! Thanks, Jessica!
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Quick Italian "Sausage" Soup

Posted on September 5, 2010 by jodie

soup

I have a hard time taking pictures of soups. I’m not sure what the deal is with that. Sometimes they come out great, but other times the pics are really bad (like this one!). Someday I will figure this out. But, in the mean time, I have a method of soup for you (this doesn’t get an actual recipe- it’s too easy for that!).
Take one Italian-style vegan sausage (I use Celebration Field Roast, but I’m sure Tofurky or another one would be fine), cut it into slices and brown it in some olive oil in a small pot over medium heat. When the slices are nice and brown, add 2 cups of water to deglaze. Add a 1/2 cup of white beans, and some kale or escarole. You could throw in some onion/garlic when you’re browning the sausage, if you like. Add salt and pepper to taste at the end, and sprinkle in a few red pepper flakes, if you like. Serve. Makes 1-2 servings.
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Raspberry Lemonade

Posted on September 2, 2010 by jodie

raspberry lemonade

This was from when I was doing my raw week. It’s fresh squeezed lemon, filtered water and raw agave with some raspberries thrown in. You could certainly blend the raspberries in (make sure you strain out the seeds), but I really liked it like this!

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Raw Pad Thai

Posted on September 1, 2010 by jodie

Earlier in the summer, I tried a week-long raw challenge, which I failed miserably. I did make a few tasty things though, and this was one of them. I’ve also since tried it with spiralized beet, which is pretty good, too.

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Raw Pad Thai is awesome!

The recipe was something like this:

Raw Pad Thai

Noodles:
1 large carrot
1 medium zucchini
a few onion slices (to taste)

1. Spiralize with your spiral slicer (or use a peeler to make long flat noodles). Play around with the blades. I actually put the onion on the spiralizer, but there’s no need to do that.
2. (optional) Sprinkle salt over the zucchini and place in a colander to drain, to draw out the bitter water.
3. Place all in a bowl.

Sauce:
a few slices dehydrated tomatoes
a spoonful raw almond butter
raw apple cider vinegar (or raw vinegar of your choice)
bragg’s
a dash of agave, optional

1. Pulverize the tomatoes into a powder using a coffee/spice grinder
2. Mix rest of ingreediants together, using your judgement on the liquids. You want it to be thin enough so you can toss the sauce with the noodles, but not so thin it runs all over the place. Your mileage may vary on this one.
3. Toss the sauce with the noodles and serve!

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Squash Blossoms

Posted on August 31, 2010 by jodie

When I was visiting my mom earlier this summer, her squash was starting to come in, so I snagged the blossoms. I hadn’t make squash blossoms before, but it turned out to be pretty easy. I don’t have an exact recipe, but it goes something like this:

1. Clean the blossoms (both for dirt and the pollen, if you don’t want it).
2. Dredge in a cornstarch slurry.
3. Dredge in breadcrumbs, seasoned to taste.
4. Fry in a shallow pan of hot oil.
5. Drain on paper towels (or your preferred more environmentally friendly oil-absorbing alternative).

Then you have these!

squash blossoms

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Wild Ginger Vegetarian Kitchen

Posted on August 30, 2010 by jodie

My recent move has brought me much closer to NYC, so I’m hoping to get a chance to try out more of the awesome vegan food that NYC has to offer. I had to go for a training in the city last week, and I stopped for lunch at Wild Ginger Vegetarian Kitchen, which isn’t too far from where my training was.

I ordered an appetizer to start (of course, pictures were taken with my iPhone 3GS, so they are not the best):

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And then one of the lunch specials, soy chicken with mango:

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It was an excellent meal! I have another training in that direction it the fall, so I may get to go there again…

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