In the words of Win Butler - Sesame dressing

So the other day I woke up in the middle of an Arcade Fire song. Not Neon Bible, not The Well and the Lighthouse, it was Power Out. The power in my house was out. No lights, no computer, but most importantly, no stove. It's not like I was going to cook myself a breakfast feast, you know - pancakes and tofu scramble and berry sauce, it was just going to be some noodles and garlic but no, not even my 1 dollar, 3 min meal could happen. So what, a breakfast.... salad? All I have is cabbage. Guess it's a breakfast coleslaw. With.... salad dressing I don't have?

What I do have - 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs balsamic, 1 tbs sesame oil, and a pinch of SnP. It was a perfect and quick sesame dressing. You could almost call it an Easy Asain Coleslaw. But really it's just cabbage for breakfast.

Stir Crazy - Miso Tofu

Upon hearing about my limited diet, most people ask "Well what do you eat then?". I jokingly reply "rice and bok choy". It would be funny if it wasn't so true. The easiest and most cooked meal in my kitchen is a stirfry. I also work at a Japanese noodle house and cook stirfrys for 5 hours every evening for people who don't get the privilege to eat stirfrys everyday. All day. Nothing but. Rice noodles and bok choy. As repetitive as it gets, there is nothing easier to make and I won't lie, I'm tired and lazy most of the time. But I am a big girl. I work hard and deserve to give myself a little extra sometimes. So I surfed over to Vegan Yum Yum to help beef up my stirfry.

My basic stirfry: Rice noodles, red onions, bok choy (on sale for 29 cents a pound this week!), and tomatoes. Throw some garlic in a hot pan with oil, add the veggies, some soy sauce and lemon juice and balsamic and throw the pre-cooked rice noodles in. Why balsamic? Because it's always in my cupboard and it gives the dish a nice acrid taste with the lemon.

Now the Yum Yum - Smokey Miso Tufo. Minus the smokey.

2 Tbs Red Miso
2 Tbs Lemon Juice
2 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Tamari/Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Nutritional Yeast

I have a bad habit of not measuring my ingredients and just going by taste so I can't comment exactly on the above recipe, but my approximate use of all ingredients needed a touch less nutritional yeast and little bit of water for a more subtle taste. Baked the tofu and placed it on top of my stir fry. Making the tofu the center piece made me eat in a more conscientious fashion, cutting tofu, adding some noodles to the fork, rather than just shoving it all in my face. Ima defiantly do this again.

Montreal Mayo Madness

Two weeks ago I went to Montreal for the weekend to see my girl friends. Amidst the climbing gyms, photo exhibits and Pop Montreal concerts, I REALLY wanted some vegan cheesecake. My carnivorous friends were not so much in the know about where i could get my hearts desire, but thanks to google i knew there ws a few good places on St. Laurent. As our evening walk was nearing it's end, I got a little exasperated and flung my head tot he left dramatically. It's a good thing I'm so melodramatic because right there, on my left, amidst my anguish and cravings, was Aux Vivres, a great vegan resto with vegan cheesecake on the menu. Unfortunately the cheesecake wasn't in. I was satisfied however with a perfect vegan truffle and the best tofu burger I have ever had. The "burger" was on a bed of lettuce (keepin it g-free) with grilled tofu, caramelized onions, pickles, tomatoes and THE BEST chipolte mayo I have ever had. If they sold that mayo in liter pails, I would buy it like nobodies business. They don't however mass produce Montreal vegan mayo for fat torontonians like me, so I must make my own.

Garlic and herb mayo -

1 pack silken tofu
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp wine vinegar
1 tsp chopped garlic (1-2 cloves)
oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Blend that shit and put on anything and everything.

Happy Turkey Day!

One of the very first things my parents said to me when I became a vegetarian 7 years ago was “What about the turkey?” As delicious as it smells and as eventful as the carving of a 23 pound bird may be, I am thankful every thanksgiving and christmas that I’m able to help one small turkey have a happy holiday by not eating it. As glad as I am not eating one of North American’s most popular birds, the quality of my festive family meals have gone down since I caught the veggie train. Though I used to do the potatoes sans gravy and stuffing that wasn’t stuffed, my plate never looked as good as my fellow loved ones. This year was the turning point. Working 5 days a week as a dinner service “chef on duty” and getting paid to make peoples plates look good, I figured I could take 20 minutes out of big dinner prep and family chit chat to make myself something good to eat.


Dinner 1 - Sunday with the Fam and cousins

The Main Meal- two large pieces of extra firm tofu, lightly marinated in soy sauce and freshly chopped “poultry herbs” (sage, rosemary and thyme). Baked in the oven on top of rice,cranberries, apple and walnut un-stuffed stuffing. The rice stuffing was pre made by my aunt and was amazing. She used red rice, cooked it till is was well done the baked it with the other ingredients till it was just the right amount of mushy.

The Greens - broccoli and cheese sauce is the favorite at almost every family gathering I’ve ever been to. Unfortunately for me, broccoli means extreme flatulence and as much as my family loves me, I try to increase the amount of time they spend with me by decreases the amounts of gas I emit. Why broccoli in particular? I don’t know. But that’s the answer to most of my stomaches inner workings - I don’t know. Anyways, I picked up 2 dozen brussel sprouts for my own pleasure and surprisingly there was zero left overs. As a child I hated brussel sprouts but it seems that my 3 cousins aged 5 - 10 have much more cultured tastes then me when I was young. The brussel sprouts were boiled, then halved, lightly sauteed with garlic, salt and pepper and devoured.

Should our back woods family cabin had an extra stove or two, there would have been room for me to whip up some vegan cheese sauce but forests for stovetop burners is trade off I’d make any day. I saved my sauce recipe for leftovers the next day. It’s pretty standard, but simplified a little bit for cabin ease- a 1/2 cup of unsweetend soy milk, approx. 1 tsp garlic, 3-4 tbs nutritional yeast, 1 tsp onion powder, touch of flour/cornstarch for thickening and S’n’P to taste.

Dinner 2 - Monday with the BF and the best family a boy friend could have.

I happen to be really good friends with my boyfriends older sister and immediate family which makes dinners with them fun, delicious, and far less stressful to my delicate intestines. In addition, the younger sister is vegetarian which means I don’t have to tenderize tofu all alone!


The Gift of Salad - I brought over my favorite green as my meal contribution - arugula. Arugula with anything is good in my opinion but mixed with baby spinach, diced pears, pine nuts and a cilantro lime dressing from WineLand dressings was a particularly good combination.


The Centerpiece - a full skillet of rice, onions and bok choy was ready for soy sauce as I walked in the door. I had some extra tofu and mushrooms that I had previously sauteed with the above mentioned poultry herbs and they were stirred right in there long with some extra oil and soy-sauce for pleasingly large portion of easy vegan delights.


The Piece de Resistance - In my opinion the most essential part of any turkey centric feast, besides the cranberries, is the gravy. Why I have gone 7 years without making my own veggie gravy is unbeknownst to me, especially now that I can do it in 5 mins. Inspired by the best veggie gravy I have ever had (miso gravy w/ yam fries from Fresh), I quickly googled (capitalized? non capitalized?) a recipe and adjusted to my kitchen contents to form an easy and delicious gravy. I shared with the veggie sister to many a thumbs up. Thumbs get raised as follows (recipe for 2) - 1 cup water, 1 large tbs miso paste, 1tsp tamari (or preferred soy sauce), 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp garlic, and S’n’P to taste. Heat everything up in a small sauce pan, and add extra ingredients to taste. While constantly whisking, slowly add flour or thickening agent of choice. Once thickened, pour through a wire mesh colander or similar to remove lumps. Pour finished gravy over absolutely everything.