Happy New Year! I'm Celebrating with Pancakes!!

Well Happy 2010 to you! I have been on a blogging break since just before Christmas, as I have been icky sick and have not really felt like eating, let alone blogging! But I am feeling much better now, btw, and am ready to be in the blog world again!! I am still not ready to put up xmas pics yet, as I got sick on Christmas and barfed up that whole meal. Sad, but true. And looking at the pictures makes me want to ralph again. So there ya go.

Anyway, after a long night of New Year's Eve celebrating last night, my friends and I went out to brunch at Succotash, a local Kansas City brunch place/diner, to ring in the new year right...with delicious food!!

I got the Vegan Pancakes...which are HUGE as you can see in the pic below!! Bigger than that plate, so it's at least 12 or 13 inches in diameter. I mean daaaaaang that's one big pancake! Luckily, I brought home about half of it to have for dinner tonight! Yay leftovers!! And I got some fresh fruit and coffee, just to make it a well-rounded brunch! Yum!! ps the vegan pancakes aren't on the menu, you have to ask for them specially, so do that! Thanks to Succotash for great vegan pancakes, even at an omni restaurant. Props!!

Pizza Fusion and More Test Recipes

The Kansas City Star, our main newspaper, did a big story this week on a new KC restaurant, Pizza Fusion, in honor of Earth Day. If you haven't heard of Pizza Fusion, it is a pretty new pizza chain that is all over the country, and it is all organic/natural and has TONS of vegan options, including FYH mozzarella! They make everything out of recycled materials and even have hybrid delivery vehicles! I was pretty sure that I needed to try this place, so we went there for lunch today. And, it was delicious! The vegan items are even listed as such on the menu AND our waitress was vegan, so she could make some good recommendations! I was veeeeery happy!We started off with the Fusion Salad, with Goddess Dressing... I had the Farmer's Market Pizza on Multigrain Crust (portobellos, red onions, zucchini, artichoke hearts, basil, tomato sauce, FYH mozzarella).....I really, really enjoyed this pizza.My mom had the Bruschetta Pizza on Organic White Crust (tomatoes, basil, roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar, FYH mozarella)....definetely a classic!For dessert, we had the Organic Chocolate Brownie!!! This was vegan AND gluten-free, and by-far the BEST gluten-free baked good I have ever had!!! OMG they served it straight from the oven, sprinkled with cocoa powder and powdered sugar, and garnished with strawberries! It was so flippin' moist and delicious!

If one of these joints is near you, I highly recommend you give it a shot!

I also went to the KC farmer's market yesterday with my friends Sarah and Fatima, which was a blast! I love seeing how there gets to be more and more vendors and patrons of the market every week! I didn't get anything too exciting this week, but we did stop and eat lunch at Succotash, the diner that is in the City Market square! I love this place!!!

I got the Lemony Lima Bean Hummus Plate, which was served with fresh, locally-made French bread! Amaaaazing! They even garnished it with some succotash! I was in hummus heaven.

Also this week, I did some more testing for Terry's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook! BTW this cookbook is going to blow everybody away with all of the creative recipes and fun flavors!

Mofongo, a fried plantain dish...

Mango and Jicama Chopped Salad...very light and refreshing
Mango and Jicama Chopped Salad, served with a new Soyrizo that I tried this week, made by Melissa's brand. The soyrizo was pretty good! Flavorful, spicy, chewy...I added some sauteed onions and green chiles to it for an extra kick.
Melissa's brand Soyrizo.... And, finally, the Cilantro-Lime Rice, which is my new favorite rice dish! It is so wonderfully limey and salty and cilantroy! It would be perfect with anything, really, but I served it with the Venezuelan Black Beans from Terry's tester recipes and some Chili-Sauteed Veggies (my own creation). YUM!

p.s. only three weeks until I graduate!! yay!

(No Animals) Sufferin' Succotash!

Yeah, cheezy title. sorry. This post is aptly named because I discovered a new vegan-friendly restaurant in Kansas City today: Succotash! This was the first Saturday of the season that I went to the farmer's market in downtown KC, which was exciting in itself, but while I was there, I of course had to eat lunch! So when I saw Succotash, it was obvious what my job was. I had heard it was great before AND my mom had a gift certificate AND I was at the City Market, where it is located....how could I not eat there?? The restaurant is in a warehouse-type space and it is decorated really cool, lots of bright colors, paintings, retro lamps, etc.....Also, they have great food! The Pitch voted them best breakfast in Kansas City! I wouldn't say this applied to vegans, as there weren't really many vegan breakfast items, but the lunch food was wonderful! About 90% of the people who worked there were really nice and helpful, but I guess you always remember the 10% that wasn't. Anyway, one of the girls who worked there was vegan, and she pointed out some options on the menu and substitutions and whatnot.

I had the Veggie Wrap: spinach tortilla stuffed with lemony lima bean hummus (subbed for the eggs and cheese. yuck.) , succotash, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach, served with a HUGE side of home fries! This was amazing! The succotash was really crisp and flavorful, with tons of dill in it, and the lima bean hummus was amazingly creamy and fresh-tasting. I am in love!My mom had the Veggie Quesadilla: spinach tortilla with grilled succotash, tomatoes, spring greens, sun-dried tomatoes, and lemony lima bean hummus (subbed for cheese again), served with also a HUGE side of home fries. She really, really liked this, too! It was a lot like the wrap I had, since we made so many substitutions to make the items vegan, but we both loved what we had! And it was really reasonably priced! Yesssssss!While we were at the farmer's market, we picked up some Sweet Potato Pasta from Pappardelle's, a local pasta maker/vendor. They had a wide selection of pastas to choose from, but many of them had eggs in them. Luckily, they were really helpful in picking out which did not contain eggs, and I knew which one I had to have when my eyes landed on the words "sweet potato" and "pasta" since I am a carb lover and proud of it! Now I just need to figure out a meal special enough to use this in!We also stopped by a local natural foods store, Green Acres Market, to pick up a few groceries. While shopping, we discovered they had a new vegan item in their bakery: Vegan Chocolate Chip Raspberry Bars! I was pumped, because I love the raspberry chocolate chip blondies from VWAV, and these were inexpensive and already made for me! Lazy points! These were really good...not even close to as good as Isa's, duh....but quite tasty for a natural food store's bakery section! The crust was nice and dense and there was just the perfect amounts of both raspberry and chocolate. Very nice. In unrelated news, we had Waldo Pizza for dinner last night! Waldo is a KC local pizza place that has Follow Your Heart Vegan Mozzerella as a topping option, toooooons of veggie topping choices, and several vegan crust and sauce choices! They even sometimes have vegan cookies and brownies, but only if you go on the right day. Figures. We had the standard Veggie Pizza with Vegan Mozzerella...I added some Italian-Baked Tofu I made once we got it home, you know, for a litte more protein. It was so freakin' delicious!! The traditional crust is just the right thickness and it is soft and flavorful and crisp on the edges and perfect! It is nice to know you can always get a good vegan pizza in Kansas City!

Also eaten this week was my Green Tea-Almond Noodles! It's a recipe I have been working on and thinking about (you know how it is....) for a while now, and I think it is pretty much "there." This Asian-style dish is basically udon noodles, toasted almonds, veggies, and the Green Tea Almond Sauce (below), and it makes for a pretty quick and filling meal on a busy weeknight! This was a perfect pre-LOST treat!

Green Tea-Almond Sauce (makes approx. 2 1/2 cups)

2 cups water plus 2 bags green tea

1/4 cup cold water whisked with 2 Tbs cornstarch

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 tsp ginger powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional for extra heat)

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 Tbs maple syrup or agave nectar

2 Tbs Dijon or spicy mustard

Bring water to a boil and add tea bags. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags return to medium heat. Add the cornstarch slurry and the rest of the ingredients and whisk constantly for about 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened to a honey-like consistency. Toss with noodles, veggies, and almonds, and then serve hot or cold!

p.s. Is everybody ready to make Easter dinner tomorrow? What are you fixing?