Bunco!

I hosted our bunco group in my basement pub the other night. It was a wonderful opportunity to flex my "vegan ambassador" muscles. Though I personally enjoy "freaky" vegan food as much as the next vegan, it's nice to show folks that vegan food does not necessarily need to be so very different from the food they are used to. Featured here are Alicia's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet, fresh dipping veggies with my avocado aioli, crostini with "butter" and olive tapenade and with artichoke spread. Here are my easy recipes:

Artichoke Crostini
Ingredients:
1 can artichoke hearts in water
5 Tbsp. Vegenaise
5 drops umeboshi vinegar
salt and pepper
1 baguette, sliced thinly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spread the bread slices on a cookie sheet. Toast the bread until lightly browned, turn the slices over and  toast the other side. Meanwhile, drain the artichoke hearts and press in a colander with a bowl and something heavy on top for several minutes to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Combine all remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until desired consistency is achieved. Top each toast with a spoonful of artichoke spread. I then garnished with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.
Variation: Butter each toast and top with olive tapenade. I bought mine at Costco. The butter is a nice compliment to the oily/vinegary tapenade. 

Avocado Aioli
3 avocados
6 Tbsp. Vegenaise
Juice of 1 lime
salt
Process all ingredients in a food processor.


I have featured this aioli several times on "A Midlife Vegan", and each time it is different. It's that kind of a recipe -- hard to mess up.  The proportions don't matter so much. This version was more avocado-centric than others. The lime is crucial.

It was so fun to get together with the girls and I love feeding friends healthy, kind food. After rolling the dice, I didn't personally win any money, but everyone loved my food so I still felt like a winner!

New Football Party Food

We went over to our friends' house last night to watch the Falcons game, along with a few more people. It was a tough game to watch after the first quarter. But no matter. I mostly enjoyed being in the company of dear friends, and eating delicious food.

The hostess had picked up barbeque, along with sauce, buns and cole slaw. So I volunteered to make a salad. This is something simple and delicious I came up with that is omni-friendly, i.e. sweet, no bitter greens. It turned out to be great. My preference would have been to throw the bite of arugula into the mix, but it's hard to find lately with the ice storm.  The salad is simply a head of butter lettuce, a head of romaine lettuce, some sliced strawberries and hearts of palm. I created a delicious dressing from a blood orange-steeped olive oil I received as a christmas gift. I used 2 tablespoons of that, along with 4 tablespoons of vegenaise and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. The flavor combo was really delicious, especially with the salad ingredients. I find the pairing of strawberries and balsamic vinegar to be a winner every time!

It would have been fine if I'd only brought the salad, since we were a small group and the hostess had provided plenty of carnivore food, but I was coming off a day of not much protein (tapas the night before, where the best I could hope for was bruschetta without the feta cheese). So I brought a bonus dish of Veganomicon's Quinoa and Chick Pea Pilaf. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it, and the pilaf is one of my tried-and-true dishes which has received accolades from friends and family alike. Though nutritionally superior in its protein and fiber content, Quinoa can be a bit of an acquired taste, unless you prepare it in an inventive way like Isa Chandra and Terry do in this recipe. The key is to infuse the grains with the flavor -- in this case, onion, garlic, olive oil, broth, tomato paste, cumin and coriander, rather than first cooking them in water and adding the flavor later. I am looking forward to looking into Isa Chandra Moskowitz' next book, Appetite for Reduction, which is coming out at such an appropriate time of year!

So here's the Quinoa and Chick Pea Pilaf:

Sorry the photo is a bit blurry -- I've got to go back to the Opthamologist -- it's been too long!

The food I brought was perfect for me, and a few of the others liked it too. Best, I had the opportunity, in describing the contents of the pilaf, to discuss the amazing protein punch that quinoa affords. I was the only one in the room going back for thirds (my husband felt bloated after his pork sandwich). The tastes were addictive and I knew my body was hungry for this healthy food, so I fed it! I love the very clear signals a vegan body sends -- they take all the guilt out of indulging.

Well, it was a bad night for Atlanta football, but a good night for delicious food and fun with friends. Stay tuned for my next vegan/omni-friendly recipes for bunco, which I will be hosting on Wednesday. I always like to be a vegan "ambassador" first, presenting something that anyone would love, but am also tempted to push the envelope just a little.

More Miami

This dish warms my heart. My very good friend, Maria Jose, (mother of my little sisters-in-law) prepared this vegan version of her stir fry in a separate pan as she was fixing another panful with shredded turkey for the others. This one has falafel. I didn't worry too much about being a good guest in the home of people I love, figuring I would have a car and I could run out to the grocery store if need be. I just didn't want to be a bother. But realizing that Maria Jose had given my dietary choices some thought on top of all the other things she had to plan for, I was reminded of what I already knew to be true of her character. She is lovely, generous and gracious throughout, and I am so privileged to have her in my life. The falafel stir-fry was wonderful.

Before Maria Jose and John got home from work on the day of our arrival, the girls ordered some very good chinese food for us, including an enormous veggie dish -- the kind that's very lightly cooked without a heavy sauce. There was also a wonderful clear vegetable broth soup with quartered baby bok choy and large mushrooms bobbing in it. I ate some of these leftovers whenever hunger struck while I was a guest -- there was a ton of food and I did not tire of it!

Among other food I ate was this veggie burger from Johnny Rocket's:

All of us walked around the mall one day and did a little shopping, working up an appetite. This burger was very agreeable. I wasn't crazy about the white bread bun and iceberg lettuce, but I was crazy about the burger, pickles, onions, tomato and mustard. Yum.

And now for the entertainment portion of this second Miami installment. Remember New Year's Eve? Well, fortunately for us, we were able to crash a wonderful party of friends of the family.  Here's our hostess, Vanessa:

Vanessa told us of her memory of my late father-in-law, Maximo, right after the earthquake of 1971 in Managua, Nicaragua, where they all lived at the time. As a little girl, Vanessa remembers looking at Maximo's bandaged head as he sat in her living room. So many amazing stories . . .

The party was very culturally rich. Instead of simply toasting the new year, Vanessa had each of us write  on a piece of paper what we want to remove from our lives, and on another piece of paper what we want to nurture and grow. Then we ceremoniously burned the negatives and planted the positives in her yard.

As midnight began to approach, Vanessa instructed us to "raise the vibrations" by beating on drums and shaking maracas. Here you can see Maria Jose and her husband, John, doing their part. It was all very joyful and tribal.  And then we danced . . .

Liana teaching Hans to dance

Maria Jose and John

Liana with Sabrina or Ariella - Wynne is in the background

Liana and Sabrina

Hans, Wynne and my husband, Andres, lovin' on Vanessa's pup

Vanessa's party was so much fun, and we are so fortunate to have been included. Stay tuned for a future post about the morning after!

Merry Christmas!

We had an hors d'ouvre party a few days before Christmas, and in my usual fashion, I created a big salad instead of an hors d'ouvre. I also had a few dips and chips, cookies and candies, but that is beside the point. The point is that I always like to provide plenty of nutritious food for myself and anyone else who would like to partake. I had recently seen a TV show featuring extreme diets and was intrigued by this one glowing, peaceful woman who ate a raw diet. She seemed to be quite a chef and actually taught raw cooking classes. I wasn't inspired enough to throw out my pots and pans, but I did resolve to include a bit more raw food into my already healthy repertoir. So here's the recipe:

Mostly Raw Christmas Gizmo Salad
Ingredients:
1/4 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
8 small zucchini, gizmoed or julienned
1 small yellow squash, gizmoed or julienned
1 stalk celery, small dice
1 carrot, shaved into ribbons with a peeler until you reach the core, dice the rest if you like
3 radishes, sliced thinly
1/2 c. broccoli, small dice
Dressing:
4 Tbsp. vegannaise
1 Tbsp. grainy dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. olive oil


I LOVE onions and garlic, but raw onions and garlic are too strong in party salads, in my opinion, so I cooked these first. Over medium heat, warm the olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until translucent and slightly crispy. Set the pan aside to cool. In the meantime, prepare the other ingredients and combine in a bowl. After the onions and garlic have cooled completely, they can be incorporated. Mix the dressing ingredients well, then dress and toss the salad. 
Serves 6-8


This salad went over very well at the party, and was still good the next day rolled in a sheet of nori. The water had settled a bit overnight, so I just drained it first. Delicious!

My family and I are thoroughly enjoying a cozy, lazy Christmas -- the first white Christmas in about 110 years in this part of Georgia!  The snow is gorgeous! We are so happy to count our many blessings. I'd like to acknowledge you, my readers, as you figure prominently on that list.  Thanks for reading! I hope you are having a very Merry Christmas or other holiday of your choice.

Are You Ready For Some Futbol?

For a week or so the energy in the air around here has been palpable. My husband is a HUGE soccer fan and The World Cup has been much anticipated. Yesterday we hosted a small group of friends for a viewing of USA v. England. Our little band of die hard fans was as entertaining for me as the featured event. I snapped this photo without warning shortly after USA scored. Moments earlier there was such a loud outburst of celebration I bet folks across the street could hear it, though it's hard to tell from this photo. Instantly, those who were most focused on the game snapped right back into form. The group here is mostly an athletic bunch, and there are some who are VERY competitive. It is very entertaining to be around these wonderful personalities. Regretfully, I didn't catch everyone in this photo as some had gotten up to refuel after the goal. For those of you who didn't watch the game, England scored first, so the energy of my little party was rather subdued for some time until USA made it's tie-making goal.  I loved witnessing the emotional shift in the room at that point.

Here's a shot of some of the food we nibbled at our futbol shindig.  Our friends and neighbors are always very thoughtful and generous, pitching in to help in times like these.  Nobody brought any meat products -- interesting . . . but there were a few dairy-based dips, and one lobster dip.  I enjoyed some delicious salt-and pepper potato chips someone brought, but I personally went dipless for those.  In the crock pot was what appeared to be a warm cheese dip that my dairy-eating friends enjoyed. I knew folks would be bringing food, so I provided mostly the kind of party food that I eat, but I put out plenty of that for everyone.  There was spinach-artichoke hummus with pita chips -- that was a big hit.  I refilled the bowl twice over the course of the party. I also put out some olive tapenade, little kosher dill pickles and large spanish olives.  I rounded out my party provisions with storebought cookies (I know, I missed an opportunity to make my own delicious vegan cookies, but I was too busy cleaning my house for the party to cook). I did put out a very small plate of sliced cheese with crackers.  It feels very strange for me to buy and serve cheese, but buying meat would have been worse.  I know that the vegan diet is healthier and more karmically sound than other diets, and it is, without a doubt the right choice for me, but I also honor the fact that food choices are highly personal.  All I can do is provide healthier alternatives for everyone and stand by my own choices for myself.

Go USA!