Easy Vegan Nachos

These nachos are super easy and damn tasty. Paired with beans & and salad they could be a complete meal or served as an app on Cinco de Mayo!

What you will need:
Tortilla chips
Vegan cheese shreds
Diced tomatoes
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Cumin
Vegetable oil spray

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Line a cookie sheet with foil and lightly spray with vegetable oil.

2. Layer chips evenly across the sheet. Sprinkle with cheese, tomatoes & spices.

3. Heat in the oven for 5-6 minutes (the chips can burn quickly so keep your eye on them!) until cheese is hot & bubbly.

I served mine with organic refried black beans. Sadly all my avocados had gone bad or else I would have sliced some of those up to go with it as well.

Hugo's Tacos

Hugo's Tacos is a taco stand in Studio City that is part of a bigger L.A. group of restaurants that are extremely vegan friendly. The husband and I often go to the Hugo's in West Hollywood for their great vegan breakfasts, but I heard that the taco stand had vegan soft serve, so I had to go.

All the Hugo restaurants have great menus and items are clearly marked if they are vegan or can be veganized. The taco stand menu is fairly simple offering tacos, burritos, nachos, etc. The husband and I opted for soy chorizo taquitos, mixed vegetable tacos, chips & guac.

The tacos were really good, mainly because they had potatoes in them (YUM!). The taquitos were pretty amazing too, crispy and spicy, just what I like! Even though I was pretty stuffed I could not pass up the ice cream and it was so worth it. Just thinking about it right now, I may need to make a trip to Studio City soon!

Vegan Taco Cups

I saw a recipe for these great little taco cups on Pinterest and thought they could easily be veganized! These would be awesome for a party or to bring to a pot luck!

What you will need:
1 pkg wonton wrappers
1 pkg meatless crumbles, taco flavor
Muffin pan & non stick spray
Your favorite taco toppings: vegan cheese, chopped onions, salsa, avocado, cilantro, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat muffin pan with non-stick spray. Press 1 wonton wrapper into each spot forming little cups

2. Heat crumbles in pan (or microwave) until warm and scoop a couple spoonfuls into each cup and sprinkle with vegan cheese.

3. Bake for 8 minutes or until cups start to brown on the edges. Remove from oven, let cool for a minute and then top with whatever toppings you fancy.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. I don't normally like to make a huge deal of it, but for some reason this year a lot of little celebrations are happening. I guess that is the result of my widening social circle :)

On Sunday I invited my family and some close friends to spend the day with me at The Gentle Barn, an amazing farm animal sanctuary in Santa Clarita, CA. We spent a couple hours hanging out with cows, horses, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, llamas, etc. And finished the afternoon with some delicious vegan cupcakes that my cousin Jana made, check out her awesome cakes at Jana's Fun Cakes!

My cousin & I with Buttercup, the sweetest cow ever!

 

Me and the llama...he's got his eye on me!

 

This is Portia, she was genetically engineering to be a fat Thanksgiving turkey,
and now she can't even hold her own weight :(
 

 

This poor pot belly is blind because his previous owner did not know how to properly
feed him, he had zero protein in his diet.

Husband, cousins, friends and me!

AWESOME vegan cupcakes, I think the best vegan frosting I have ever had!

It was so much fun spending time with my family, friends and all the animals! I couldn't ask for a better way to spend the day!

On Monday the husband and I drove out to Temecula where my mom and dad live and had an awesome Mexican fiesta with family complete with vegan tacos, homemade Mexican brown rice and margaritas! It was nice to have the immediate family all together, doesn't happen often.

I could eat Mexican food everyday.

 

Vegan chocolate cake with spider & pumpkin sprinkles!

SO good.

Mom, dad and brothers.

Husband and brothers

 

Tonight I think the husband and I are going out for a nice vegan meal (post on that later in the week) and then Friday will be another dinner with friends and karaoke! Super busy week, but it's worth it!

Vegan in San Francisco

Last weekend I went to visit my best friend in San Francisco. It was great to go back to my old stomping ground and spend some quality time with the woman who has been my friend since the first day we met back in 4th grade at the bus stop.

We had a blast with happy hours, wine tasting, and watching the entire first season of Girls, but in honor of Vegan MoFo I wanted to highlight some of the food I had over the weekend.

On Friday I worked in my company's SF office and one of the assistants was nice enough to walk over to the Ferry Building with me to get a vegan donut from Pebbles Donuts. I opted for the salted caramel and it was delicious! I wish I had taken a picture of it but I forgot. You can check out their donut porn on their website though.

That night after work we went to Off the Grid at Fort Mason which is basically a food truck extravaganza with live music. I know food trucks are necessarily known for being super vegan friendly, but I was SO happy to find a stand that offered a fried tofu vegan taco. I got two of those and they were like heaven in my mouth. I scarfed one down so fast before I realized I should take a picture, so here is the second one before I devoured it as well.

Fried tofu, cabbage & pure awesomeness

The next day we went wine tasting in Healdsburg. We stopped at Agave restaurant before hitting the wineries and I was able to get veggies fajitas free of dairy and it was ok, kinda of bland and not the best thing I had ever eaten, but at least I had a full stomach before embarking on lots of wine!

That night, back in the city, we went to one of my all time favorite restaurants: Gracias Madre. I have missed this restaurant so much since leaving the Bay Area, so I was grateful I could convince the omnis to go.

Cue angels singing...

There were four of us and we decided to order a few different dishes and eat them family style. We started with the Gorditas: potato masa cakes covered with salsa verde, avocado and cashew cream. Once again we torn into these before I had a chance to take a pic, but I was able to make everyone pause for a moment before they were all gone.

Try not to lick your screen.

For our other entrees we got a huge plate of sauteed kale with pumpkin seeds. Still the best kale I have ever had.

All hail kale

The second dish we ordered was the Enchiladas con Mole. I had never had mole before and holy cow, I have been missing out. It's spicy, rich and full of pure win. These are served open faced with the most amazing mushrooms I have ever had and cashew cheese. My mouth is seriously watering just thinking about it!

I MAY have started on the beans before taking this pic...

And lastly we ordered the Platillo de Legumbres which is rice, beans and two sides of your choice. We went for mushrooms and fried plantains. 

So much goodness on one plate

All the food was beyond amazing, I was so sad to leave. I have heard a rumor though that there will be a Gracias Madre in L.A. within the next year. I can't even put into words how happy that would make me!

Overall I had so much fun in SF with my bestie (I really do hate that word) and it was fun subjecting her to some amazing vegan food!

Vegan Enchiladas

I have been craving Mexican food something fierce lately I haven't found a vegan place that satisfies my need in L.A. yet so I figured I would make my own. I figured a fairly easy place to start was enchiladas.

As I was checking out at the grocery store with my tortillas, enchilada sauce and veggies the clerk asked me if I was making enchiladas, when I replied yes he immediately asked "where's the meat??" Haha, that gave me a good opportunity to educate our youth on yummy vegan food, maybe I should have brought him some :)

Anyhoo, here is what you will need:

Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic (at least) minced or crushed
1/2 - 1 cup diced yellow onion
3 zucchini
8 oz mushrooms
1-2 cup fresh spinach
1 can black beans, drained
Mexican Spice blend (cumin, salt, pepper, garlic powder, etc)
1 lrg can enchilada sauce
Vegan cheese shreds
10-12 Corn tortillas
Bell peppers (about 1/2 cup diced) for garnish
Avocado

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Heat 1/2 TBS olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté diced onions and garlic until tender.

2. While onions are cooking, chop mushrooms and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Add to pan with a little more olive oil and Mexican spice blend (I used about 4 TBS). Stir frequently.

3. Add beans and continue to cook.

4. Coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with the enchilada sauce, just enough to cover the bottom. In a smaller skillet, heat a dash of olive oil.

5. Place tortilla in small skillet until it is soft, remove and place on a paper towel. Quickly add fresh spinach leaves and a couple spoonfuls of the vegetable mixture to tortilla, roll it up and place it in the pan. Repeat until all the tortillas are filled and in the pan. *You may need to add more oil to the skillet as you go along.

6. Cover with remaining enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with vegan cheese and diced bell peppers.

7. Bake 25-30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling hot. Serve with fresh sliced avocado.