Animal Acres

Over the weekend, we took a 3 hour drive to Animal Acres by Los Angeles, California. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The location is well kept, clean and beautiful. Almost all the animals that were there had been saved from horrific lifestyles, and many from the slaughterhouse itself. To see how well the animals responded to the workers truly showed the love they were receiving. They were no longer scared animals shying away from human hands, but enjoyed being around them. Of course making loud noises or running scares them, understandably, and others are still scared from the pain they have endured. The facilities were very impressive though, and I will for surely be coming back.

Here is a video I made of our trip:

The Breakfast Post and The California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act

I am horrible with breakfast. My normal morning deal is to grab some fruit or have a bowl of oatmeal, so when I actually make breakfast its a rare and magical thing. This weekend for some reason, I made a full breakfast twice. It really was a miracle for my boyfriend lol. He wanted pancakes so I prepared a blueberry pancake dish with tempeh bac'n with blackberries that were in the fridge. The pan was a bit too hot so it burned more than I really wanted it to, but they still were good. This was the first time I made tempeh bac'n and really it was soo good! It didn't taste too salty or have much of the same consistency of bacon itself, which is why I really liked it. I find the longer I'm vegan the more I am not a fan of fake meats because it just tastes too salty for me. I really look forward to making a BLT with this :)


I also made a Tofu Scramble which was pretty good. Next time I'm going to have to add mushrooms for some extra chew. The hashbrowns were great. I was able to test out my julian that I got for Christmas and a whole new world of cutting vegetables has opened up to me!


Sorry the pics are blurry!

I also wanted to bring up the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. According to this act, it would "prohibit some of the most egregious practices in factory farming, including packing egg-laying hens into wire “battery cages” and confining pregnant pigs and baby calves in crates so small that the animals cannot even turn around or extend their limbs."

Although it does not stop cruelty in farms, I believe this is a big step to open eyes about the treatment of animals. This website also gives great information on the act. If you live in California, please look into this act. Hopefully, it will lead to a better future for animals.

Goodie land!

Alright! This is going to be quite the post. I've been absent for a while, but have not stopped cooking! It's been a bit hectic with school starting again and getting into the habbit of things once more. Somehow I've also managed to get myself sick. Lots of vit c for me! Here is an update on the meals I've been making.



This is the Chile Cornmeal Tofu from Veganomicon. Amazing. The texture and taste came out perfectly with a bit of crunch from the cornmeal. I want to try this again with the mole sauce.


This is from, What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyways?
This was really good. It was a fried tofu with mustard cream sauce. I changed the recipe a bit and added a lot more Dijon for the sauce and fell in love with it. I didn't make the corn cake and spinach that was in the original recipe due to time. But I have to say, it was delish!


I've seen these in the store, but have been too afraid to go ahead and give them a try.
After reading Vicki's blog however, made me actually go out and buy a Cherrybrook cake mix. It was really simple to make and came out good. My boyfriend practically ate the entire cake by himself in one night. For the frosting I made the chocolate recipe from Vegan Baking. I have to say that it's the best frosting I've ever had in my life. I couldn't get over how good it was! The cake sadly didn't last more than two days do to its popularity. I could really use a slice right about now lol.


These are the Chewy Choco Raspberry cookies from Veganomicon. They're a little bit too chewy for my teeth, but the flavor is great! It's not too sweet and has a wonderful aftertaste.


Vegan Caesar Salad with fake chick'n. I had bought a botttle from Sprouts of the Spectrum Vegan Caesar Dressing. The dressing is really good and is great when you don't want to make your own dressing. The fake chick'n wasn't that great however. I've never been that much of a fan of fake meats, but I figured I'd give it a shot.


Masala Pears from La Dolce Vegan! These would have been better with vegan ice cream, but were still great by themselves! The sauce was the best part ;p


Finally, the classic Grill Cheese, now the Grilled Tofutti! I love this for a simple meal, it melts fairly well and at least holds the bread together. It still has the funny aftertaste of fake cheese, but all in all its pretty darn tasty.

Esme's Pasta

This dish was amazing. I was doing a search on Flickr for vegan foods (because that's apparently what I do on my free time) and this wonderful pasta popped up. It was so inviting I had to try it. I was a bit skeptical when I first put the sauce on, but then I added some pea's and bread crumbs and baked it for about 10 mins. When it came out, it was just amazing.

I suggest everyone try it :P

Here is the recipe I pull off VeganYumYum's website:

Esme’s Sauce
Serves two

2 Tbs Tahini
2 Tbs Miso (any, but sweet white is nice!)
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs nutritional yeast or mustard
2 Tbs Lemon Juice or Vinegar
A few cloves of garlic (I left this out)
2 Tbs Mirin (optional)

*All amounts are approximate, play around!

Boil the pasta, drain it, put the pot back on the warm stove. Make the sauce in the hot empty pot, then add the hot pasta back to it. The heat of the pan and the pasta helps melt down the tahini and miso.

Cheers to a New Year!

Welcome 2008!

I have a fever (which has put me out of commission for pretty much the whole day), so I didn't do a nice collection of images of the party last night, but wanted to go ahead and wish everyone a happy New Years!

I hosted a Tapas party for New Years eve and it seemed to go out a hit. We had bruschetta, artichoke, stuffed mushrooms, sushi, edamame, olives, artichoke dip, olive spread, and marinated mushrooms. The cheese spread to the left and the chocolate covered cherries were not vegan however, but were brought to the party.

For this years resolution, I'm going to try something new. I'm going to have 12 resolutions, one for each month. They're simple resolutions that will end up giving me more peace in my life, and I will add a new goal for each month that comes.

For example, January's resolution is to keep a daily journal. I need to do this for 30 days so it becomes habit. Once that has happened and the next month arrives I add on another goal to the list : Keep a daily journal and go to the gym three times a week. And the list will grow as the months pass and I will hopefully build good habits with this system. The mentality is start small and build big :)

Have a great New Years everyone!