Thanksgiving Who?

YAY! It's the day after Thanksgiving! That means it's officially Christmas time!! Is anybody doing the crazy shopping thing today? I'm staying away from all the insanity!

OK, let's talk Thanksgiving food first, I guess. It was just the two of us for dinner (don't feel bad, that's how we like it!), so I didn't have to cook for an army. Here's all our food on the stove top, patiently waiting to be eaten. Mr. Wing-it was patiently waiting to eat while I took the pictures.

Top row, left to right: yam slices, baked red potatoes with rice cheese, and whole wheat dressing. No mashed potatoes because we're just that rebellious! :D

Bottom row: individual meatloaves and green been/cauliflower/shiitake mushroom stir-fry.

I'm still on my weight gain quest, so my plate was as full as Mr. Wing-it's, and I almost finished the whole thing! Normally my servings are about half as big as his.

Here's a close-up of the little meatloaves, I was so proud of them!

And here's dessert, Mini Pumpkin Pies with butter cream frosting. The filling is a pumpkin and coconut milk pudding. I can work on the recipe if anybody is interested, but this one was big wing-it job. By the way, that fork isn't dirty, it's just the reflection of the crust! :)

Enough with Thanksgiving! I'm ready for Christmas and Christmas themed food, like these little Lamington(ish) Christmas Gifts! They are chocolate cake squares covered in shredded coconut (coconut milk holds the coconut in place). Yes, I like coconut.

The ribbons are thin strips of a Panda Raspberry Bar. I assumed the whole bar was going to be red, but it's only red on the outside and brown on the inside! Boo!

Anyway, I hope everyone that celebrated Thanksgiving had a lovely Holiday! I'm off to reading about all your awesome Thanksgiving dinners!

Oh wait!! I almost forgot I found two more veggie audition videos on the Next Food Network Star site:

Big Bad Vegetarian (I think his name is Arash)

Kristen the Gluten Free Baker - gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free, and nut free. Her video gets cut off at the end though.

**EDIT to add one more NFNS video: Joanie - Vegetables on Parade! I love her and I love her puppy! Joanie is my favorite now!

**EDIT... again! It just dawned on me that the ribbons for the Lamington Gifts could be made with fruit leather cut into strips. It would be easier than the other candy I used!

OK, now I'm done! :)

D'oh!-Nuts - Giant Shredded Veggie Pancake and Two Awards!

First things first! Thank you so much for ALL your kind comments on my previous post! I'm so glad I'm not as boring as I thought! :)

The awesomely lovely ladies, VeganView and Becks from I am not a Rabbit, have given me a Butterfly Award! YAY!! They wrote such lovely things about me and I blush just by thinking about it! Thank you so much! I feel like a little puppy that did something good and got a special treat as a reward!


OK, now I have to pay it forward and give the Butterfly Award to 10 blogs. That's impossible! How do I choose only 10 blogs? Well, here's what I'm going to do, I am giving the Butterfly Award to all the super cool veggie moms I know! There's something about veggie moms, why is it that all of you are so cool? Maybe it's all the veggie goodness that you eat. Maybe it's your compassionate souls. Anyway, here's to all you veggie moms who exude awesomeness!

A Place For Us
Cravin' Veggies
Disposable Aardvarks Inc.
Half Pint Pixie
Musings From The Fishbowl
Skint Vegan
The Balance Quest
The Cooking Lady
Tofu Mom
Two Vegan Boys
Vegannifer
Vegan At Home
Vegan Cowgirl (soon to be coolest veggie mom!)

If you would like to pay it forward, you can post the Butterfly Award picture on your blog and give the award to 10 bloggers you think are the coolest!

Another award! The gorgeous Allison from Green Dog Wine has given everyone on her blogroll a "Superior Scribbler Award". And guess who's on her blogroll? Oh yes! It's me! Thank you so much, I feel like a little Indy movie that starts getting all kinds of awards unexpectedly! :)

This little guy is left handed, like me!

Food time! I noticed that I've lost a few pounds lately, so I'm trying to gain them back. The thing is that I'm a hard-gainer, and I have to eat like a quarterback to gain weight. Or maybe I can just eat like Homer Simpson, hence my D'oh!-Nuts!

Coconut and cream filled doughnuts

Regular glazed, chocolate and sprinkles, chocolate and almonds

Aren't they purdy? :)

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, without the egg and using whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. Oh and I baked them instead of frying them. Of course they were more like a sweet bread than doughnuts, but they were yummy nonetheless.

Last night we had what I chose to call a Giant Shredded Veggie Pancake, and then Pinkberry (AKA aredcardigan on flickr) said it looks like a rosti. Duh! Why didn't I think of that before? Thank you Pinkberry! **UPDATE: Check out her new blog "A simple kind of life"!

Here he is on my skillet, I had already flipped him over.

Here he is on my plate with some green beans and cauliflower.

This was kind of an "everything but the kitchen sink" dish, so I don't have a recipe. Here's roughly what I did:

I shredded 3 medium sized potatoes in my food processor and transferred them to a mixing bowl. Then I shredded a large carrot and some celery and added it to the potatoes. Then I sauteed some chopped onion with some chopped frozen spinach while the potatoes released their juices. Transferred the potatoes to a large strainer and squeezed the liquid out, transferred them back to the mixing bowl, added the onions and spinach, about 2 cups of ground beef style crumbles, and some salt and spices. Next time I will use sausage style crumbles instead of ground beef style.

I firmly pressed the whole thing onto a well oiled/sprayed non-stick round frying pan, and cooked it over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes jiggling it from time to time. Slid it onto a plate and flipped it over the (re-oiled/re-sprayed) frying pan, and cooked for about 10 more minutes. You can make little mini pancakes if you are scared of the flipping.

See how well lit my pictures are, and I'm not complaining about no natural light for dinner time today? I must be on Santa's good list, because I got my Christmas present early and it was a photography lighting set, complete with two different light tents, awesome lights, tripods, and six backdrops! Isn't Mr. Wing-it the best Santa ever? *SWOON*

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by three different bloggers! Jeni Treehugger, Vegalicious and Veganview. So now I have to share 7 random facts about myself.

**Warning: Very boring facts about a very boring person ahead**. I included pictures so maybe you won't fall asleep while reading this.

1- I used to hate food and everything food related until I was 24 years old. My obsession with food started in 2003 when I went vegan. Before that, I don't think I ever took a food picture. Funny how now 90% of my thoughts seem to be about food! This was my very first homemade pie back in 2003. It was a vegan strawberry cream pie, and I was so proud of it!

2- We have a fish buddy named George. Before you panic and tell me that it's cruel to buy fish from PetNo, George was passed on to us from someone who couldn't take care of him anymore. Isn't he fabulous?

3- I am quite obsessed with vegan personal care products, especially eye treatments. These are some of my favorite products.

4- My coffee mugs need to be fun and/or cute, like my Monk mug, my Colorado Bear Hugs mug, my I Love Lucy mug, and my brand new Snowman mug. Yes, the age on my profile is correct! I still would like to have a "Luke's" mug (Gilmore Girls) and a "Friends" mug.

5- Speaking of Friends and Gilmore Girls, I like watching reruns of my favorite shows when I'm having a rough day. Reruns never change, so I can sit down and watch an old show and know exactly what's going to happen without any weird surprises. Oh, come on! Like you don't have any quirks! :)

6- And speaking of Gilmore Girls again, it was thanks to Rory Gilmore that I developed an interest in classic literature. This has been my book list for 2008, in the order that I've read them from top to bottom. My least favorite has been Madame Bovary at the very top, and my all time favorite is Jane Eyre. Jane is so awesome, this book makes me feel so good about everything whenever I read it.

7- I am painfully shy. I am extremely quiet around unfamiliar people, which often comes across as either rude or uninformed. Because I'm so quiet, I am very observant and I love taking pictures of whatever draws my attention. Like this dewy leaf I found while playing with our feline visitor.

Well, that's it. Now I have to tag seven blogs to do the same thing.

Vegan at home
A place for us
Show me vegan
Seitan is my motor
Te amo vegano
The happy vegan
Cupcake kitteh
Alice in veganland
Happy Herbivore
Diet dessert and dogs

Don't feel like you have to participate, play only if you're into the tagging thing. I tagged more than 7 blogs just because I'm a rebel and I wanted to tag everyone from my blogroll. Most of you have already been tagged but if I left you out it's not because I don't like you or because I think you smell, it's just that my blogroll is huge. So if you're in my blogroll consider yourself tagged!

Some Coconut Cream Frosting Pageantry and The Next Food Network Star

Oh the coconut milk frosting! I've developed an unhealthy addiction to it and I like it! Today I made myself a little coconut cream frosting pageant with different flavors added to the coconut cream.

Ladies, please enter the stage...

Thank you, ladies. First on the catwalk is Miss Coconut-Peanut Butter wearing a lovely chocolate sprinkles outfit. Miss Coconut-Peanut Butter is made with one part peanut butter, two parts coconut cream, maple syrup and vanilla. Thank you Miss Coconut-Peanut Butter.

Next is Miss Chocolate-Coconut in a crunchy crushed macadamia nut gown. Miss Coconut-Chocolate is made with coconut cream, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Thank you Miss Coconut-Chocolate.

Here comes Miss Coconut-Apple Candy wearing... wait a minute, is she wearing anything? Oh no, it looks like her crushed hard candy ensemble is melting revealing her naked frosting! Quick, switch cameras, let's get a close up on Miss Coconut-Pomegranate Candy!

It looks like Miss Coconut-Pomegranate Candy forgot to bring her long wear makeup, the thing is melting all over and it looks like she had an unfortunate shaving incident!

Ah, Miss Coconut-Mocha is next. Miss Coconut-Mocha is made with coconut cream, finely ground instant coffee and powdered sugar. It looks like she's wearing the same chocolate sprinkles outfit Miss Coconut-Peanut Butter is wearing! That has to be devastating, Ladies and Gentlemen. These cupcakes train and prepare their whole lives for this event and to wear the same gown as the front-runner is nothing short of a tragedy.

It's time to crown our next Coconut Frosting Queen! The winner is... Miss Coconut-Mocha! Her one of a kind flavor outweighed her not so unique gown. Congratulations Miss Coconut-Mocha, you are the new Coconut Frosting Queen!

Wow, that's a lot of silly in one post. Because of all the fat that's in coconut milk, I balanced it out with Happy Herbivore's fat-free chocolate cupcakes from her Pudge Free Holidays e-cookbook. These cupcakes kick some serious butt! Also from Lindsay's e-cookbook:

These are the best meatballs I've ever had. Seriously. Mr. Wing-it said I have a crush on Happy Herbivore! :P

OK, moving on to the Next Food Network Star. I'm not a huge fan of the FN, but I would be if they had a vegan, vegetarian or even veggie friendly show. Have you seen the video auditions for the next season? There's a super fun vegan girl that auditioned! Here are the three people I liked:

Melissa (vegan)
Jen (vegetarian)
Roni (Roni isn't vegetarian, but a lot of her recipes are)

And here is the main page with all the video auditions. I think it would help get the veggie friendly people noticed if we all post comments on their video pages.

Of course you know what would be really really awesome? If Kittee was on the Next Food Network Star! :)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this coconut cream frosting is made using just the fat from the coconut milk, like method #2 from my previous post.

Coconut Milk Love

Isn't it weird being without MoFo? After all the hectic posting and reading and commenting, I don't know what to do with myself anymore. All my food seems so boring without mashed potato ghosts and one-eyed monsters. At least Christmas is coming and there will be another chance to make themed food! YAY!

Look! Look! APLACEFORUS has given me an "Excellent" award! I don't think I had ever won an award for anything before! I feel like I should wear a fancy gown and write an acceptance speech! I don't own a fancy gown and I'm wearing my slippers, but it means so much to be recognized by one's fellow bloggers! YAY! My first award EVER! Thank you so much!! :)

I also won a free copy of Happy Herbivore's Pudge-Free Holidays e-cookbook! YAY! The book is packed full of awesome recipes for a delicious fat-free holiday season! One of her amazing recipes is the Southern Cornbread, which is the first recipe I tried! The cornbread is absolutely fantabulous! We had it with chili and the little bit that we managed not to eat with dinner was a great evening snack! YAY!

Now on to the Coconut Milk Love. I made some coconut milk whippy cream and took some pictures of it hamming it up on various foods. There are a couple of different ways to make coconut cream whippy cream, it depends on what you need it for.

For a soft cream that doesn't need to have a defined shape (it's the version I made), shake a can (14oz or 214ml) of cold coconut milk and mix it with 1 or 2 tablespoons of cold maple syrup or agave, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Use an electric mixer on the highest setting until smooth and creamy, it helps to chill the bowl and beaters before you start. One tablespoon of maple syrup was enough for me, someone with a sweeter tooth might want to taste it and keep adding syrup until it tastes sweet enough. OK, that one is a no-brainer.

For a stiffer version, let the can of coconut milk sit in your fridge for a couple of hours but do not shake it at any time. Open the can and scoop out all the fat that has separated itself from the liquid. Same thing, start with a chilled bowl and beaters, mix in 1/2 tsp of vanilla and powdered sugar to taste, mixing until smooth. Using only the coconut fat and powdered sugar instead of syrup makes this cream stiffer than the previous version.

Here's the coconut milk whippy cream (soft) on a slice of apple upside-down cake...

Here she is on my waffles...

Thanks to Ruby Red Vegan I found out that coconut cream on hot cocoa is probably what they serve in Heaven's waiting room. Here's a big blob of cream...

And here it is stirred in a little. Every sip was heavenly coconuty chocolate bliss...

Too much hot cocoa gives me heartburn, so I only made about 3/4 cups. This was so delicious that I will never have hot cocoa without coconut cream from now on, and I owe it all to Ruby Red Vegan!

I only used a little bit of cream for the cake, waffles, and cocoa, so I used the leftovers to make ice-cream. It was melting rapidly thanks to my under-cabinet light...

Don't freak out, I didn't eat all this food in one day... it was two days! I didn't eat all the ice cream though! :P

Are you guys proudly wearing your "I Voted" sticker? YAY for Democracy!!