Easy Vegan Pizza

Have a yen for vegan pizza?  Well, it’s easier than you think thank to some widely available vegan products that have become staples in my household.

Pizza Dough:  Don’t feel like making pizza dough from scratch, or even kneading the premade pizza dough available from Trader Joe’s?   A very easy and delicious alternative is the cornmeal pizza crust from Vicolo’s.  They’re sold as a two-pack in the refrigerated or frozen section of natural food stores.  The last time I checked, New Leaf in Half Moon Bay priced it at $5.09.

Vegan Cheese: This isn’t entirely necessary for a vegan pizza, but it does provide another flavor dimension.  There are quite a few commercial vegan cheeses now available as well as potentially making your own tofu ricotta style cheesey sauce.

The Follow Your Heart “Vegan Gourmet” cheese alternatives are the most widely available, even in small towns on the San Francisco mid-Peninsula.  With this brand, the trick is to broil the pizza for the last few minutes of cooking to help the “cheese alternative” melt. (Hey, that’s what they call it on their website; cheese alternative photo courtesy of Follow Your Heart)

Sauce: I’m rather simple in this manner.  I take a can of tomato paste (Trader Joe’s house brand), and add some water and herbs to it and use that as my sauce base.  For herbs, I use a generic mix called “Italian Seasoning” that I’ve bought from the herb & spices bulk section at Rainbow Grocery.  Another alternative is equally simple – instead of the dried herbs, I’ll use freshly crushed garlic.  Or maybe both.  Then a pinch of salt.

Toppings:  Everything tastes good on pizza.  My favorites are:  bell pepper, onions, olives, pineapple, corn kernels, and broccoli.

Pizza is a very fun food to play with.

Tags:cooking, follow your heart, pizza, review, trader joe's, vegan food, vicolo's

Joy of Ramen Noodles

I grew up eating Ramen noodles.  Now I buy a more expensive, organic and vegan flavor, but to me it’s still the Ramen noodles of my childhood.  I’m a fan of easy one-pot stovetop meals. so I enjoy dicing up slivers of tofu and diced vegetables to make it a hearty dinner. I’m such a Ramen fan, that the McDougall ramen noodle soup cups are the emergency food that I keep in my desk drawer at work.

One day, while thinking I wanted Ramen noodles but was too lazy to boil water in the pot, I decided to microwave it all.  Voila!  This has now become my new default Ramen noodle method.  And no pot to clean-up, so I’m saving water, too.  Here’s a basic version where I just added the seasoning packet, ramen noodles, water, and frozen broccoli to make a deliciously light meal.  Happily, it look me longer to eat it then it did to prepare it.

Because I’m really enjoying my relatively new camera, here’s the step-by-step photographic instruction on how you, too, can enjoy Ramen noodles.  Microwave not included.

……..

Tags:products, review, vegan food

Kiowa Vegan Boots Hike!

Many years ago I did the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, 28 miles of mountains and canyons in 3 days.  I wish I would have had my Garmont Kiowa Vegan hiking boots back then!  I remember how my feet ached and how my knees hurt after that hike.  Sometimes I think my right knee still aches from that hike.

Now that I’ve worn the Kiowa boots several times now, I thought I would post an update about how I like them. The first time I put them on, after just a couple of steps, I was impressed that I could actually feel the cushion of the shoe when I walked.

This last weekend my Kiowa vegan boots and I hiked the Montara Mountain trail, a 4.5 mile hike between San Pedro and Montara mountains, and then to Montara State Beach.

It was perfect weather for hiking — mild temperature, and slightly foggy, so we stayed cool. And, apparently many others shared our opinion.  We saw about 20-25 hikers and bikers and 1 dog on the trail.

As we gained elevation, we said good-bye to the eucalyptus trees and instead greeted some beautiful ocean views.

At the end of our trek, while my feet were tired from walking on them steadily for 3 hours,  I did not have any blisters or sore knees.  And, of course, the perfect way to end any hike in Montara is a picnic lunch on our beautiful beach.  My current favorite sandwich combination is slices of bread, tofurky deli slices (hickory smoked) with a layer of cucumber with Nayonaise.

I feel so lucky to call Montara home, even if the views are sometimes foggy

Tags:montara, montara state beach, montara trail, products, review, vegan

Vegan Pizza by the Slice: Bobby G’s

To the envy of all the people who live in San Francisco, the best vegan pizza is in the East Bay.

First, of the two entirely vegetarian pizzerias in the Bay Area, one of them is in the East Bay.   Oakland’s Pizza Plaza became an all-veg pizzeria a few years back and has a wide selection of vegan pizzas on its menu, or you can entirely create your own vegan combo.  They use Follow Your Heart vegan cheese and offer a wide selection of faux meats, too.  Tony Tutto Pizza opened more recently in Mill Valley.  However, while it is entirely vegetarian, it does not (yet) offer a vegan cheese.

Second, while there are a couple of mixed restaurants in SF that offer vegan pizza, I think for ease and choice of vegan pizza, East Bay wins the prize with 4 restaurants offering excellent vegan pizza choices:

Lanesplitter (which has locations in Albany, Berkeley, and Oakland), Fellini , and Bobby G’s Pizzeria.

After hearing favorable feedback about Bobby G’s, the newest in the preceding list to offer vegan pizza, I had to make a trip to the East Bay to try it out for myself.  And I was not disappointed.  It was scrummy!

Amazingly:

1) You can order vegan pizza by the slice, and each slice can be like a mini pizza (i.e. you can have whatever toppings you want on each slice!)

2) Vegan pizza is available in their lunch special, how cool is that.  I always hate going to restaurants and feeling left out when they don’t have any vegan lunch specials.

Anyways, provided with the first-in-my-lifetime opportunity to have vegan pizza by the slice with whatever toppings I wanted, I could not refuse.  I chose to have different toppings on each of my three slices:  first, olive and pineapples; then spinach (I figured this was in lieu of ordering a salad ); and being the fungi lover I am, mushrooms.

Overall, the proprietary tofu ricotta was yummy, and just the right balance of toppings too.   Let me repeat myself again:  totally scrummy!

You can also make your own mini combination, as my fellow pizza lover did, and they offer a vegan salad, too.  Note, while the combo pizza slices may look more festive, my singular topping slices were excellent and in no way lacking.  I think all 3 slices cost me about $10 + tax/tip.

I would definitely return again, and bring a large to-go container with me

Tags:berkeley, pizza, restaurant, review, vegan food

Trader Joe’s Vegan Foods

Trader Joe’s is a great place to shop,  for vegans and non-vegans.  First, they have great prices on staples, a large selection of which are organic, including tofu, jams/jellies, nut and seed butters, canned beans, bread products, frozen vegetables, and non-dairy milks, including soy-, nut-, and rice-based flavors.  (Hmm, now I’m stumped trying to think back to the basics of high school English to remember if that is the appropriate use of hyphens.  I think it is, but it’s been so long .. )

Recently I spotted a fairly new arrival at the Daly City location – a quadruplet of house brand faux meat products.  I’m not necessarily a big fan of buying faux meat products to prepare and eat at home, but they looked so darn appealing on the shelf.

Having a vague recollection of having brunch at Herbivore’s a few months back with friends, and hearing a rave review about stuffed cutlets purchased at Trader Joe’s in SF, I went for the fake meat in box number four.  Upon reaching home, it joined my other collection of vegan-foods-to-be-eaten-later in cold storage.

Flash forward to about a week later .. I’ve just been for a gorgeous hike on a late spring Sunday, didn’t feel like cooking, and so out came my home-frozen rice and O Organics broccoli, and my new stuffed cutlets.  Interestingly, the two cutlets were individually packaged, which is nice if you don’t want to eat both at the same time.

Well, I followed the instructions on the box and microwaved the cutlets (yes, in my tired and lazy state of mind, I microwaved them in the plastic bags).  It was simple to prepare, and when combined with the brown rice and broccoli, it made a decent meal.  The cutlets were good — the sauce had an enjoyable slightly spicy undertone, the fake meat tasted fine, the stuffing was okay.   I thought the cutlet on the package box looked more appealing than my actual cutlet though.

On a scale of one (low) to five (high), the average reviews from the two vegans in the household was a solid 3.0, which reflects our thoughts that while it was good enough to eat again, it seemed a bit pricey for what it actually was.

Anyways, if you’re looking for other ideas of what to eat vegan at Trader Joe’s, cheaply, check out Michelle’s recent video blog at Vegan Break.

Tags:cooking, food, frozen, products, review, trader joe's, vegan food

Vegan Brunch in the San Francisco Bay Area: Fellini

Brunch is one of my favorite meals.  Maybe it’s because so often during the week I’m rushing to work and my default breakfast staple is toasted whole wheat bread.  And on the weekends, it’s nice to have a more leisurely breakfast — especially when there’s no shopping, cooking or cleaning up required.

Living on the mid-coast Peninsula, if it’s not vegan brunch at home, then I have to travel further abroad, like the East Bay.  Brunch at Fellini’s in Berkeley makes that very easy, since it’s only a couple of blocks from North Berkeley BART.

Fellini offers 7 different vegan/vegetarian brunch items, ranging from french toast at $7 to scrambles to florentine or benedict at $9.  And, as a nod to the concerns of veg*ns, the veg*n dishes are prepared in pans dedicated to their veg*n food.

On past brunch visits to Fellini’s I’ve alternately enjoyed the florentine or benedict.  This time I decided to try the Tofu Veggie Scramble.  I would not make that choice again.  I found the scramble pretty boring, and a tad on the salty side, too.  It wasn’t a total disappointment, though, as the accompanying house potatoes were delicious.

Tags:berkeley, restaurant, review, vegan food

Making New Vegetarians

Well, I can think of two ways for this to happen:

1) Give birth to a new veg*n
2) Convince someone to adopt veg*nism

Well, #1 is definitely not for me and #2 is why I do outreach.  There are various strategies and discussions about what is the best way to do this.  My personal philosophy is to just decide on a strategy and do it.  As a direct result of my “doing” at Maker Faire 2009 at the San Mateo Expo Center, here’s some people reading their new PETA Vegetarian Starter Kits.  I hope this is their first step towards veg*nism.

Tags:advocacy, leafleting, outreach, peta, vegan, volunteer, vsk

Vegan footwear

I decided I need some new shoes (vegan, of course) but wanted more variety than I might find at local Pacifica stores selling vinyl or canvas shoes.  I also didn’t feel like running around the Bay Area for a wider range of stores and shoe selection and playing twenty questions.

I’d heard the online retailer Zappos had a good selection, and that others had positive experiences ordering from them.  So, I decided to shop online from my little coastside corner of the Bay Area.

It took a little bit of exploring, then I finally found my category — “vegetarian shoes“.  It was a pretty big selection, in a wide range of styles and prices.  The big downside to ordering shoes without trying them on is the uncertainty of whether they will fit, and then having to pay postage to return them.  I’d had a bad experience with this a few years ago.  Zappos, however, offers free return shipping.  I know this is factored into their selling price, but it is still a nice feature.

It was actually quite interesting to spend a few days reviewing all the shoes, reading the comments, comparing prices.  The Zappos website has excellent photos of the shoes, and shows different angles for them.  The shoe photos shown here are from the Zappos website.

When I finally narrowed down my selections then I had figure out what size would be my size.

In the end, I ordered two pairs of shoes — the Earth Lazer – Vegan and a Converse-style tennis, the Simple Satire – Hemp .  I decided to order the Earth Lazer shoes in two sizes to increase the likelihood of getting the right size on the first order.

The increasingly beautiful weather on the mid-Peninsula coastside and my current lack of hiking boots reminded me to look online at Zappos.  Within hours, I had placed my second order with Zappos for Garmont Kiowa Vegan hiking boots.

The ordering process through the Zappos website was very easy.  I could log-in to check the status of my order, and also get the tracking number for the packages.

My orders arrived quickly, and it was a bit like Christmas come early. My decision to order two different sizes of the Earth Vegan shoes was the right decision to get the right size.  However, I didn’t like the way the shoe looked. For the Simple Satire, the shoe was cute but didn’t fit right on my foot. For my second box, the hiking boots fit well and I decided to keep them.

The return process was as simple as Zappos said it would be. Log into my account, print off a (free) return shipping label, then drop it off. Once Zappos received and processed my return, they posted a credit to my credit card.

Now to inaugurate my new boots and take them out hiking!

Tags:products, review, shoes, vegan

Organic Tomatoes

The best tomatoes are homegrown, picked at their peak flavor.  By comparison, ordinary grocery store tomatoes taste like red water balloons.  Just ask any gardener who grows tomatoes, or anyone who lives next to a tomato gardener.

I’m looking forward to this summer’s tomato crop, and the wonderful dishes that can be made simply with fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs.   But until then, canned tomatoes, organic, of course, are a big staple item in my pantry.  I used to buy Muir Glen tomato products exclusively, then Trader Joe’s introduced their own organic tomato line, at their everyday low prices.

I’ve been satisfied with the organic Muir Glen and Trader Joe’s products.  I haven’t really done any scientific tests, just used them interchangeably, although I do favor the TJ brand since it’s Muir Glen counterpart typically costs 50% more.

A couple of weeks ago, within days of each other, I purchased 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes from Trader Joe’s and my local health food store.

The cans are the same sizes, but that’s not the only thing they have in common. They’re both stamped with an expiration date and some type of numbering code. I thought they were identical numbers at first.  Then, after close inspection, I noticed that on the second line, of the four sets of numbers, one was different.  It’s “0553″ on the Trader Joe’s can and “1624″ on the Muir Glen can.

I think it is far more than coincidence that these two cans of diced tomatoes have nearly identical numbers. I’d venture to guess that they’re being produced by the same manufacturing company, who then just sticks different labels on at the end of the production line. On my next shopping trip to Safeway’s, I’m going to have to check out the stamp on the O Organic 28-oz can of diced tomatoes. Until then, I’m happy knowing that I’m getting the same quality of tomatoes for 50% cheaper.

Tags:cooking, products

Signs of the Dog

The first sign made me smile. It’s original and cute. Although if I were to pick nits (which doesn’t sound like something a vegan should do, does it?), technically dogs can’t read so they will ignore the sign anyways.  Plus, the real behaviour that needs addressing here isn’t the dog’s actions .. it’s the human’s!  Or, to be more precise, the human’s inaction.

In a different yard on a different street, the second sign reflects the same sentiment as the first, just not as craftily done.

This third sign has got it right — urging humans to pick up after their canines.

Tags:dog, signs