Homemade Vegan Hot Cocoa

So recently I have been down and out with a winter sinus infection. Yuck! However, very few things come close to the yummy warmth of a cup of hot cocoa, particularly when you are sick. I found this recipe online and had to try it. Turns out it was pretty good! Very chocolate-y! By far the best of the vegan hot cocoa recipes I have found so far, thus meriting a spot for it on my blog. Here are the ingredients for the stovetop version.

2 1/3 cups of non-dairy milk (almond, soy or rice)
I used almond because I like to cut out soy where possible.

3 Tablespoons of non-dairy cocoa powder (hershey's is totally vegan and what I grew up on)

4 Tablespoons of vegan sugar-you can also use agave nectar or stevia in their respective equivalent amounts-for instance, stevia extract would probably only require a few drops.

1/2 Teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of cinnamon (optional, but very yummy!)

Combine ingredients with a whisk and warm until just below boiling.
Serves 2.

Enjoy with a bit of soy whipped cream or vegan marshmellow cream for an especially decadent treat.

Ali Baba's Time Out Deli : a review

For the middle eastern food fan stuck here in Big Orange Country...aka: Knoxville, TN, we can offer you several options. One of my favorites is Ali Baba's off of Kingston Pike between Cedar Bluff and Gallaher View. One of the best falafels I have had outside of the middle east itself can be found here. They also have an entire vegetarian menu. Many of those items can also be classified as vegan. The veggie sandwhich is supposed to be pretty good but my favorite by far is the falafel pita. He steams the pita and stuffs it full of freshly homemade falafels, seconds out of the fryer. Then he tops it with lettuce and tomato. Finally, a drizzle of some of the yummiest tahini sauce finishes this delectable pita. The creamy sauce makes you think it has to have dairy, but it is completely vegan. You can also request other veggies such as pickles or his very own homemade olives. The warm, soft, pita and fresh, crispy falafel balls make this one of the best pitas you can get in K-town.
For those who are not so into the veggie thing, he also offers a variety of steamed deli sandwhiches which are often kosher as well. This place appears to be a little hole in the wall joint, but believe me, the run down building hides a jewel of middle eastern fare in Knoxville. There is also a little market in the deli with a bit of halal and kosher food choices and jars full of his homemade olives, fresh goat cheeses, medjool dates, and other staples of the middle eastern diet.

Chocolate Silkshakes

One of E's (my lactose intolerant little sib) and my favorite (and easiest) desserts since our venture into the dairy free world is Silkshakes. Smooth, creamy, and chocolatey, these are almost as good as the real thing, and in some ways better. For the Chocolate variety (our favorite) you will need:

*Chocolate Silk soymilk-or your favorite brand of chocolate soymilk (about 2 cups for 2 servings)

*1.5 cups of Chocolate Soy Ice Cream (we like So(y) Delicious that comes in the quart container-cheaper to buy in larger quantities and more silkshakes!)

Blend in the blender until smooth. If desired add more Choc. Soymilk for a thinner shake. I have also made Mocha shakes with Mocha silk and Coffee soy ice cream. Yum! You can also toss in whatever fresh fruit is available (strawberries, peaches etc.). Another idea is to add some dairy free chocolate fudge or df caramel syrup to the top of the shake with a little non-dairy whipped cream (which you can find at many health food stores). Enjoy. :)

Food Review: Vegan frozen pizza options

So today, for my first food review, I would like to talk a bit about vegan pizza. As one of the foods I miss most since my cheese consuming days, I have long looked for a suitable substitute for this staple of the typical American teen's diet. However, there are a few options to consider with vegan pizza. 1) make your own. If you can stand the funky flavors and weird textures of the available products out there, that is probably your best bet. You can also make your own cheese, but so far, I have found that mine is only palatable as a cheese alternative in macaroni and cheese. But I will save that for another post. 2) You can buy a frozen vegan pizza. Easier said than done. My rating scale for these are on a few different things. Cheese taste, overall texture of the pizza, crust, and overall taste. 1 is Inedible, 5 is Outstanding.

For those of you in the Knoxville area, Kroger, Earthfare, and most other health food stores carry Amy's pizza varieties. Your non-dairy options are cheese, or spinach pizzas. Both are gluten free and so, are made with rice crust. The cheese taste on these pizzas is about a 3. It is not terribly, but it leaves a lot to be desired with regard to typical cheese flavor. It is relatively bland. The overall texture of the pizza is a 3.5. The rice crust is super crispy and crunches very nicely when you bite into it. It does however, have a tendancy to fall apart. Overall taste on this pizza is a 3.25. It is somewhat bland as previously mentioned, and could use some more sauce. The sauce itself is good, slightly tangy in flavor, but it needs more of it as the pizza as a whole is pretty dry.

The other frozen non-dairy pizza I am aware of, available in this area is Tofutti Pizza Pizzaz. I found this brand at Go Nutrition, and thus far, nowhere else. I will keep looking however. The only flavor I have found so far is cheese. For this pizza, I would rate the cheese a 3.5. It proved somewhat creamy, with a parmesan type flavor. Not at all yeasty. I would still like to see a melty, gooey cheese in a vegan pizza, but so far, this is one of the best I have had. The crust is a pan crust that is chewy in the middle, and crispy on the edges, which is how I like it. No complaints on the crust, I give it a 4.5. It held together pretty well although with veggies, I don't know. This pizza overall rates about a 4. It had enough sauce and the cheese was creamy enough to keep the pizza from drying out. The flavor was good. The only major drawback to this pizza is the fat and calories. For roughly a 3" by 5" slice (it comes with 3), you are out 175 calories and 5 grams of fat (2 of which are saturated). This is not as bad as regular dairy pizza, but is somthing to keep an eye on since, if you eat all 3 pieces, you have just consumed 525 calories and 15 grams of fat in pizza alone. However, it is definately worth it for the occasional splurge. Bon appetite!

First recipe-Non-Dairy Ranch dressing/dip

Hi all, this is a recipe I came up with and family on facebook asked for the recipe so I decided to post it here as well. My meat and dairy consuming mom thought it was even better than the real thing. Enjoy. -Kate
For those of you who inquired, here is the recipe for the ND ranch dressing. :D It tastes more on the ranch dip side of things but since all of the ranch dressing mixes have powdered buttermilk or non fat dry milk, it has to suffice. At this point, I could care less. Ranch is ranch. Okay, so first of all, you need to get a ranch dip mix. DO NOT BUY HIDDEN VALLEY BRAND. It has buttermilk powder in it. Not good. I used Kroger's name brand but check your labels carefully. I only used about 3/4 of a package of the powdered mix.
Next you need:
*About 12 oz of Tofutti sour cream substitute (or other sour cream alternative)
*1/3 or so of a cup of light mayo, or Veganaise if you don't dig the eggs in mayo.
*1-3 oz. of milk alternative (soy, almond, oat, rice etc.). I used oat milk which works well in anything creamy. You could also just use water-this is used to thin out the dip to the consistency you prefer. If you want more of a dip, nix this part all together.
*A splash of dill pickle juice (totally optional, I just like the extra tang and dill flavor)
Mix well and let sit for a minute or two. Then just pop it in the fridge until you are ready to use. As some of you know, soy based products without dairy aren't always terribly strong on being homogonized (it separates) so I would suggest you shake it up if it has not been used in a few days. You could add some garlic or dill weed if you wanted to mix things up a bit, I might even try some cayenne. That might be yummy.

And so we began..........

Wow, my first post. First blog. Nice. So what I am hoping to make this blog about is being a vegetarian in the south. Specifically, Tennessee. That's right folks. A vegetarian in the BBQ and meat laden southern United States. Truly an oddity. Turns out that there are a few of us sequestered here and there. When my more carnivorously inclined friends find out that I am a vegetarian, the first thing I see sail across their face is a look. It is immistakable. "But you seem so..............NORMAL!" Yeah......uh huh. So I am not a PETA pushing vegetarian. Just one who is careful what she puts into her body. If they tease me, they can be sure I will tease them, with such beloved comebacks as....but you eat sarcomeres. Lovely. So for some basics. I have been a vegetarian since I was 13. In the past 2 years, I have been forced to cut out all dairy products due to an allergy to casein. I still consume eggs if they are cooked into mixes and things but try to use egg replacer when it is just as easy to do that as to crack an egg. It is better for you anyhow. In this blog, I hope to post some of my favorite recipes and things I come across as well as post some of the resources I have found for other "veggies" in the K-town area. I have certainly found other's blogs on this topic helpful over the years and so hope to be of similar service to my readers. Eat your veggies!