Pizza and Pumpkin Pie (Ice Cream!)

We had our usual Sunday Night Pizza Party last night. This was a special one though, because Aodhan got his very own mini pizza. He didn't seem to care too much about what was on his pizza, but was more interested in using the whole wheat crust to help his painful gums. It was a great meal, as usual made by Kevin. He is a pizza pro and spends the entire day getting his veg roasted to perfection before getting started on his dough. What a guy! We also made some really nice Apple Sauce yesterday, which I had for breakie this morning - much to Aodhan's delight.


Tonight's dessert, Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream, which followed a dinner of whole wheat pasta topped with the left over veg from last night, was in one word: heaven. My version of Wheeler's Pumpkin Ice Cream (from Vegan Scoop - great book), sent me into ice cream ecstacy - really. I have never tasted anything quite like it. Visually it looked like, well, baby poop. It smelled just like a pumpkin pie, and it was oh so tasty. Really, I can't recommend enough giving your ice cream maker the luxury of experiencing making this recipe. I could (and just might) eat it all night long.

Well, off to cuddle a feverish baby with hopes that his teeth come through this week and he can have a little relief before which ever milestone he is about to tackle next. Poor little vegan.

Home Baked Goods

Howdy!
Aodhan and his dad are off to the shop, so I thought I would take a few seconds and give a quick update. The last week has been fantastic, despite teething and crankypants! Aodhan is managing enough non-mommy time that I can actually do things, like: make food, clean the house and shower. I admit it: I have a high-needs baby. He wants to be held all the time, he wants to be cuddled always, and he isn't the kind of baby you can lay down on the floor and let play on his own. But, I am not complaining. He is firmly attached to his mommy, and the theory is that this will help him build confidence and self-esteem. Plus, who would trade in all the cuddles and kisses?

But, it has been nice to see him managing himself a little more. I am so excited to be back in the kitchen at a capacity that goes beyond opening a tin of beans and heating up some potatoes. During the days this week, much in the way of the ACT cleanse, I have been raw. This decision is multi-purpose.
1. I was feeling a little sluggish and blah after all the traveling and visiting of the holidays and the raw goodness helps me feel a little more perky and more like myself.
2. Someone incredibly close to me is experiencing some difficult health barriers right now and having to give up most foodstuffs until tests etc can provide some conclusive answers to a pretty terrible set of symptoms. So, I thought I would stand next to them in a metaphorical way and treat my body with the same kind of love and care as she is currently practicing.
3. I always love having an excuse to make raw Date and Cashew Balls and gorge on them until the sun goes down.

Yum.

The evenings have been some good home cooking! Chickpea Stew, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Carrots in Miso and Soya, Lentil Soup, and Bread!

I made two giant loaves last night of Herbey Whole Wheaty and they are divine. One is going to my bestie Kim, and the other is going to be gobbled up tonight with some Baked Tofu and Greens. I am also currently freezing some Chocolate Chip Coconut Ice Cream!!!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Ice Cream

1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
2 cups coconut milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Add the arrowroot to the almond milk and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the ice cream. Throw all of the other ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan and heat until boiling, making sure to whisk occasionally. Once you have a good boil going, and your chips are melted, add your almond milk and arrowroot. Mix and take off the heat. Let this mixture sit for about 30 minutes before tossing it in the fridge for 2 hours. Add to your ice cream maker and follow the instructions (we use one with a built-in freezing mechanism, but the other ones work just as well!)

I am also cooking up another blog, one dedicated to my adventures in attachment parenting - there just isn't enough information out there about the benefits of what makes up attachment parenting, nor are there enough resources. I can't wait for it be ready for sharing!

Well, that's about all from Chez VeganCowGirl.
I hope everyone is happy and healthy!

Coconut-Cardamon-Mango Icecream

Mmmmm....the weather in Brussels has actually allowed me to have the back door open all weekend (all LONG weekend that is....had Thursday AND Friday off....). Right now Kevin is fast asleep, and the kittens have abandoned my snuggles for their first love: back garden time!!! So, I am sitting in the kitchen, door wide open, bowl of mango and banana slices all finished up and I am writing REPORT CARDS! I am not one of those teaching-folk who (understandably) loath report card writing (like my husband for example). I actually really enjoy writing about the kids and having the time to process how far we have all come as a class. I have about 17 math comments left and then I am done. No, really - I am done - that's it. I have FOUR little days of work left (I had to take Thursday off for one of my last few midwife appointments). It is going to be really hard to let some of my kids go - the ones who I have taught for two years now, and who have gone the longest in making my wacky year a little more manageable. But - not to fear, I will find ways to stay in touch - they aren't getting rid of me that easily.

I have loads of food updates. I have just been busy nesting and buying the last few things for our scheduled (please keep your vegan fingers crossed) home birth (goggles, a tarp....just kidding about the goggles). But, yesterday, Kevin MADE me buy an ice cream maker that I have mumbling about for about a year. It is one of the models with the built in freezer, so you don't have to try and get the little freezing unit into your European sized freezer (never would have worked). So, yeah. After much deliberation, we decided on making Vanilla-Cardamon-Mango Icecream as our first batch. And OH MY GOSH. Yum Yum. Pretty easy too. I imagine this new kitchen appliance will be getting lots of use this summer.....how about Breast Milk Icecream? Anyone ever try that recipe???

Coconut-Cardamon-Mango Icecream

2 tsp of arrowroot
1/4 cup of soymilk
2 cups of coconut milk
1 additional cup of soymilk
1 mango (sliced and then pureed)
5 or less cardomon pods
1 tsp of vanilla
2 tbsp of maple syrup
1 kick ass ice cream maker

I mixed the arrowroot and 1/4 cup of s.m together - and let it thicken up. I added the coconut milk and 1 cup of s.m to a pot and warmed it up, letting it thicken on its own time (about 3 minutes), I then added the arrowroot and watched the cool chemistry project moment of the two bits combining to make a much thicker consistency. I added the rest of the goodies, including the mango puree (which I whipped up in my super wicked awesome new Cuisine Art Smart Stick - Thanks Mom!). I then stuck the whole concoction in the fridge, gave it some time to rest and then threw it in the icecream maker and let it do its thing. I am so excited to keep playing with this thing! Yummmmy. Chocolate is next.



But of course, this was our desert - dinner was super yummy too - and mostly the work of Kevin who found a great zucchini salad recipe in Green Parent. We topped the grilled and dilled zuch with our marinated tofu steaks and served this salad with a totally amazing Parsley and Eggplant Puree. Seriously fantastic stuff. Way to go Kevin.

All is well in baby-baking land - 37 weeks this coming Wednesday. The time is just flying by. One of these days you are all going to find yourself with an introduction to The Littlest Vegan. He is excited to meet all of you out there in BlogLand!

Be well!!!

Ethiopian Vegan Style: A lesson in many things

Yummy at Yummy's:

As noted in my previous post....I was having a bummer of a day. However, with the exception of some deaths in my family, my tummy has always saved me from the 'depths of despair'.

So yesterday afternoon while I was sobbing my way through a packing party I was asked:

Hand on chin: "Where would you like to go for dinner tonight?"

"sob, sob...Ethiopian?"

Perhaps it was my tears, or perhaps it was the idea of doing Ethiopian vegan-style, but all of the 'yeses' were on my side of the kleenex box.

I wasn't expecting too much. To be honest, the reviews haven't been that grand; I have heard both good and bad, hot and cold about this tiny little trinket of a restaurant that is on the SOUTH side of Queen Street, just west of Brock St. (which is just west of Dufferin).

After walking around for a bit, trying to find the food-hut and while swimming through a troupe of wedding guests headed for a privately booked ceremony/reception at the Gladstone Hotel (horse out front, crowds adorned with clothes that suggested that this could have been the wedding of George Stroumboulopoulis, or the lead singer of Radio Head), we made it to the mecca that I had been dreaming about since coming back to Toronto M and B Yummy's Ethiopian Restaurant.

The restaurant has a bizarre feel to it. The neon green walls and the plastic bakery boxes that line them aren't the most welcoming. Nor, are the thin wicker chairs that sit around the functional, yet wobbly tables. But, hey, good enough for me. I couldn't care less. I am a vegan for god's sake and you are telling me that there is a restaurant that wants to cater to my bizarre life style? Take me anywhere and give me your most neon green and most wobbly table! Onward!

The menu was so interesting - full of words and dishes that I had never really seen before. There was a mention of chickpeas and a couple of chinese-esque faux meat dishes to help me, but for the most part I was stumped (a suggestion would be to have a fully developed legend and glossary at the back of the menu)* I left the ordering up to the dynamite woman who served us (when I say serve, I mean that in the vaguest of manners - it was that 'sort-of' service, where you want more attention and you are constantly feeling like the super nerd who has put their hand up too many times in class and no longer gets called upon).

Our waitress brought me number 15 on the menu, otherwise known as the Vegetarian Combo (this is a little funny because I usually only see 'vegetarian combo platter' at pubs and restaurants that present their v-combos complete with a couple of pieces of cheese, a hunk of bread and maybe some deep-fried something - but here, everything was the vegetarian combo-platter and it was all so interesting.)

There were also orders made for the chickpea shiro wot and the red lentil missir wot, but I was sold on my vegetarian platter the second the HUGE ufo-style plate was plunked down in front of my eyes. Upon a massive bed of injera bread (leavened bread made from TEFF flour) lay the heads of five smallish splashes of different 'goops', while a large, red, burning sun-like goop was constructed in the centre of my injera. The goops were an assortment of beans, spinach and lentils. The flavours were all so earthy and dark that the bright green heat of the diced, and liberally sprinkled, chillies evoked a bi-polar response from my taste buds. (but, like all mental illness, departing from the bland reality of the same old chickpea and cucumber salad is a delight!).

I completed the meal with a vegan ice cream cone (at this point in the meal I actually became emotional - when was the last time someone held out an ice 'cream' cone for me? I felt like a member of a winning relay team who was about to run the last 200 metres with the tastiest baton EVER).

Nathan passed on taking home his chickpea wot, so I enjoyed it this morning (cold) for breakfast. Excellent.

Although I have less than three weeks left in the city, I plan on hitting this place at least two more times - they have a great brunch and breakfast menu that is well worth the neon walls.
Overall, the restaurant, and its host left me curious and wanting more.

The vittles were cheap and the atmosphere was way more interesting than the sterile nature too-often being offered by other vegan establishments in the city (Sorry, Fresh, I love your salads, but it is a bit too austere). My favourite part of the evening has to be a photo finish between: the food, the crazy downstairs bathroom that had no toilet paper, and included a trudge through a child's play area before finding the toilet, and the hilarious manner in which the hostess had to look at the menus twice: once when we were ordering to see what exactly was on her menus and a second time when we were paying and she had to check the prices. Excellent.


*Don't read this unless you feel like joining in some cynicism against the nouveau-chic style in Vegetarian/Vegan dinning:

So, okay - this establishment is lacking in any real sign posts to tell you how to figure out what it is that you might be ordering, sure. But, this lack of pandering to the whitey in the room evoked some interesting and important experiences for myself and my fellow dinners:

1. We broke through the 'do not look' at each other barrier that usually exists between tables of people at restaurants. This great couple sitting behind me gave us a whole bunch of suggestions and advice about what to order, and than looked admiringly over my shoulder when my platter found its way home. They also proceeded to share their vast amount of inside knowledge about TEFF flour and where one might procure it in Toronto.

2. We had the chance to be educated by the owner of the shop - she shared her suggestions in an off-the-cuff kind of manner - "10 and 15". She went out of her way to try and find some literature about TEFF for those of us with a curiosity at the table. I was gushing with an inappropriate amount of thanks by the time we left. I feel in love with this woman; her kindness and her smile was so heartwarming and I think that much of this would have been lost if there was a little "lonely planet" guide attached to the menu.

3. Vegetarian Haven has a little "this is Seitan" guide at the back of its menu and Keith and I had the crappiest meal of our Vegan-hunting experience at this location.

In my opinion, anything that is going to get people talking and questioning their surroundings (especially when it is four well-off white people in the middle of parkdale) is worth it. Long live signs in a different tongue!