Testing My Veganism

 Last weekend I thought that I was done with birthday shindigs for a minute but its seems that Wednesday night I had one more left in me. Another friend had a birthday and I found out that he didn't have any plans for his birthday and you know my rule: No one should be unhappy on their birthday. So I asked if he would like to go out. The first task I had to conquer was a sitter. Finding a sitter is a very hard task as a single parent but lucky for me I have a great friend that watched my child as well as his. ( thanks Aisha) Now that I had the children settled I had to work on a plan as to what to do on a Wednesday night.

  I decided to stay in my comfort zone and go someplace where I would not look like the weird vegan asking a million questions about the menu. So off to GreenCork we went. I called the day before to make sure they were able to veganize what I think is their signature item and lucky for me they were. When I first saw the picnic basket I knew that I had to have this. He is an omni but I don't hold that against him but mama has to eat as well so being able to include things that I could eat as well is great. My side of the basket was filled with lots of raw veggies, fresh and dried fruit, olives, figs and I even had stuffed grape leaves. There were a ton of things to nosh on, so much that we weren't able to finish the basket.

My favorite thing about Greencork is of course the way the wine is served and as the seasons change so does the wine selection. I am the weirdest wine drinking in the world. I have never picked a wine by the notes that it has or any of that madness, I always pick it by the bottle. Crazy I know but it has yet to fail me. Sadly with the changing of the wine selections my 19 Crimes wine was out of rotation. It made me a little sad but I have discovered another wine that ranks right out there on my list of favorites. Its called Flirt. I love that there motto is Cheat on Your Wine and yes I cheated on Chuck but hey its ok. Its a new year time to try new things. Plus I will always go back to 2 Buck Chuck. Flirt is a blend of Shirah and Zinfandel so it is slightly sweet with a nice bite at the end. Plus the bottle is kinda sexy. What's not to like about this wine?

We had great wine and nice food the evening was going well, then it took a turn for the worst. They brought out cake. Not just any cake chocolate cake. Mama loves chocolate cake but of course this cake was not vegan, yet there were two spoons on the plate.  Of course being the gentlemen that he is he offered me the cake and I politely told him thank you but I can't eat it, its not vegan. He of course understood and said ok but then he decided to test  my vegan pimpin. He said if you don't eat the cake I'll consider this a date.  Crap I was screwed. Cassi does not date, dating scares the shit out of me so I avoid it all possible cost. Too much work goes into it. I have to be "on" at all times, making sure I don't say anything stupid, trip over anything, making sure I put on the good bra. Its too much work and I will have no such parts of it!  So I had to make a choice eat the cake or have the evening considered a date. Minus the wine this may not have been a hard descison to make but I was about 3 glasses in. I picked the spoon up a few times but could not bring myself to eat unborn chicken fetus and morphine filled cow pus. ( that's what I call eggs and milk to keep myself in line) So I had to take one of the team. I was on a date....crap. Now before you go after him, he knew I was NOT going to eat the cake.  It was his way of letting me know he was into me. It was a corny move but cute at the same time. 

Since he was able to have cake hell I wanted cake too so we strolled down to Imagine Vegan Cafe where I snagged a orange "hostess" cupcake. It was not chocolate but it was sugar. 

All in all it was a nice date. ( i'm sure he will giggle if he reads this) My veganism was still  safe, I discovered a new wine and even got a cupcake.  What more could a girl ask for from a night that went from hanging out to being on a date?

Blah

Today the rug has been pulled from underneath me but I know I can't let  too many days go without posting. So here are a few pics I found online. Now please excuse me while I go back into my fort.

Spaghetti Tacos and a New Living Room

 So a few last weekend I got this wild hair up my ass and decided to redo my living room and when I say redo I mean I gutted it out and started from scratch. The true inspiration was a pillow that Brenna gave me for Christmas. It is a purple and green pillow that says "Men may come and go but stilettos are forever". My first idea was to just get a high heeled shoe chair and get a purple couch and be done with it. Then Christmas rolled around and my Kindle Fire had a prime membership so I started to stream my cooking shows and then I discovered I can stream iCarly! I turned off my cable about a 2 years ago just as iCarly was getting good. (Yes I love all of Dan Schneider's shows) So I got caught up on the last two seasons I missed. Then more inspiration hit me! I WANT AN ICARLY ROOM. So I got to work.

  While I was looking for a link to connect to Dan Schneider I discovered his is a from MEMPHIS! Like born and raised. That would explain his crazy sense of humor. Another fun fact is he was on Head of the Class another show that I watched growing up! So setting to work on my living room I knew I wanted it fun and colorful. ( I'm a big kid at heart) It's the 1st room I see when I come home from a crazy day so this room had to make me happy. But instead of the shoe chair I stuck with the purple theme but I went with inflatable furniture!  I now have 2 inflatable chairs and a full sized couch! No these are not the crappy ones we had in the 90's this is real useable stuff!

I did keep one piece of adult furniture though. I kept the recliner from my sectional and Nicole and I redid it purple. It is the only chair I sit in and I do my writing from. I guess it's like my Sheldon spot. Before I even started on the living room I told Nicole the theme and when she came over to help me redecorate she brought walls decals that fit me perfectly and the one over my archway is my new mantra.

Today I also put a boarder around the picture mainly because it needed a POP.

Of course no iCarly room would be complete without a cool candy machine. I wanted a real gumball machine but that was too old school so I found this automatic dispenser at Walgreen for 4 bucks!

I also got a cool color changing chandelier from Big Lots.

Now an iCarly room would not be complete without iCarly food and since we don't have a Groovy Smoothie here I decided to make Spaghetti Tacos! Yep the same Spaghetti Tacos Spencer made in iDateFreddie. And guess what this is a REAL recipe. It turns out Dan is married to Lisa Lillien! For all you Food Network fans yes I am talking about Hungry Girl! I almost peed myself when I found this out. The recipe is a real recipe that she created just for the show and get this. The real recipe is a vegetarian/vegan recipe. I squealed and almost pissed a rainbow I was so excited! So I set to work on the tacos. Check out the recipe below.

Dan's Wife, Lisa Lillien (Hungry Girl) Recipe
iHungry Spaghetti Tacos

Ingredients:
4 oz. uncooked whole-wheat spaghetti
2 cups frozen ground-beef-style soy crumbles
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 tbsp. taco seasoning mix
12 corn taco shells (flat-bottomed shells, if available)
1 1/2 cups shredded fat-free cheddar cheese ( I used Dayia)
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded lettuce
Break pasta in half and prepare per package instructions.
Bring a large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat on the stove. Add soy crumbles, crushed tomatoes, and taco seasoning, and mix well. Cook and stir until hot, 2 - 4 minutes.
Drain pasta and add to the skillet. Mix well. Evenly distribute pasta mixture among the taco shells, about 1/3 cup per shell. Evenly top each taco with cheese, onion, and lettuce. Tara

  Needless to say I was a little concerned eating the Spaghetti Tacos because well it is spaghetti in a taco shell. This was amazing! It didn't take like spaghetti it tasted like a taco! I guess it was because of the taco seasonings. It was so good that I even had one for breakfast the next day.

Needless to say the Spaghetti Tacos were a hit and I love my new living room. I even learned a few things about my favorite show creator. Yet my favorite new piece is the one thing that caught fire. Yep you guessed it. The gummy bear lamp! Yep, I made one. Yes I know gummy bears aren't vegan and I resisted the urge to eat one. (They smelled awesome and I miss them so)

Vegan Recipe Gold!

A few nights ago I was running out of ideas for dinner so I turned to my friends via Facebook for recipe ideas. Heather and I went back and forth. She suggested recipe after recipe because a lot of the dishes she suggested I already cooked. This went on for 38 comments until she struck vegan recipe gold!  She suggested a Greek Spaghetti Squash recipe. The recipe she suggested was vegetarian because of the feta cheese so I omitted it and put my own spin on it. I added basil to the tomato sauce and capers. I love the salty taste of capers.

  I've made spaghetti squash one before so I knew Keithon would love it. Last time I only picked up 2 small squash and Keithon and I almost killed each other or the leftovers, so this time I grabbed 1 large squash maybe a little too big, it came in at a whooping 3 pounds! ( We still have leftovers) I season it lightly with salt and pepper before putting it in the oven.

 While the squash was in the oven I set my sights on the sauce. I love the bright colors of tomatoes and basil.

Once the squash is cooled. I "spaghettied" it by pulling it from the shell with a fork. It is amazing that a vegetable can come off in strands.

 After all the squash was off the shell I made a well in middle and poured the sauce, capers and olives and mixed them well. I had to make the well because I had more squash than I made sauce for and I wanted to make sure it was mixed well.

 Needless to say this dish went over well and Keithon went in for seconds. He may have gone back for thirds there was so much left I couldn't tell. This is also a dish I feel good about giving my child because it is a whole food. We don't eat a lot of mock meats but sadly we do carb load and that's my fault, so I love when I can make a meal where you don't miss the starches.

Greek Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti Squash

1 onion, diced small

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2-3 tomatoes, diced

2 Tbsp chopped  basil

1/2 cup chopped black olives, sliced

parsley, for serving

1 Tbsp chopped capers  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Cut squash lengthwise and remove seeds from each half. Place facedown on rimmed cookie sheet, sprayed with cooking oil. Bake for 45 minutes. 
2. In the meantime, heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tomato, basil and sauté until softened. 
3. When squash is finished, pull out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. When cool enough to handle, flip squash over and scrape insides of each half with a fork. Little spaghetti-like strands will easily come off the squash. 
4. Stir squash with sautéed onion and tomato mix. Add capers and olives. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve and enjoy

Mexican Tortilla Pie

 A few months ago I won a copy of Pies and Tarts with Heart by Dynise Balcavage. I was really excited when I won this cookbook because it would be my 2nd new release vegan cookbook. (Bianca 's was the first) I tried to make a pie crust from Dynise's book but I failed miserably because I was in a rush. Don't be alarmed she does have savory pies as well as sweet ones. So for my second crack at this cookbook I went for a savory dish. No way I can screw that up right. Since Keithon loves Mexican food, I picked the Mexican Tortilla Pie.

This by far is the simplest and tastiest tortilla pie I've ever had. The one thing that confused me about the recipe ingredients is that it called for vegetarian refried beans. What could not be vegetarian about beans? Now before becoming vegan I steered clear of beans because I just didn't like the texture. So I while I was shopping for refried beans I flipped over the can and saw what made them un-vegetarian. LARD! ::vom:: PLEASE make sure you buy the vegetarian ones. Aside from the refried beans it called for black beans, black olives, onions, cilantro, Dayia cheese, tortillas and vegan sour cream.

 Keithon could have made this dish alone. There isn't any pre-cooking involved. I just layered everything up and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes.

  Once this dish came out of the oven it looked picture perfect, even in my aluminum pie pans. (Pyrex dishes are on my kitchen wish list) For the top layer the recipe said to pour a cup of salsa on the top layer and sprinkle with cheese. It didn't seem right to cook salsa but hey I always follow a new recipe to the letter.....the first time. It came out perfect.

  Needless to say this dish went over very well it Keithon. Of course Keithon had to have his side of avocado and I decided to be generous and give him more than one slice. Being a single mom I love one pot dishes and Pies and Tarts with Heart is full of them. I have a couple more recipes bookmarked that I can't wait to try. So if you haven't gotten your hands on this one pan wonder grab it. Sweet or savory you won't be disappointed.

Liquid Cheese

 Sorry for not posting last night but my girlfriends and I were redecorating my living room! I'll share pics on Friday.

  The hardest thing for me to give up as a vegan was cheese! My friends knew if there was cheese to be had Cassi was all over. My favorite cheese by far was the WORST type for you. The liquid kind, I would literally eat with with my fingers when I ran out of whatever the liquid goodness was suppose to cover. Now after becoming a vegan and reading Skinny Bitch I learned why I was addicted to cheese and ice cream. It was the morphine that cows naturally produce. That combined with the other hormones I was screwed. So l was TOTES ( that's the last time Jennifer, I promise) excited when Mama and Papa Crunk gave me VEGAN liquid cheese for Christmas!

  It was a triple hit for me. 1. Because Bianca's parents thought enough of me to get me a gift. 2. It was liquid cheese and 3. The name. It's called Nacho Mom's. I was in heaven and at 10 calories an ounce I could eat the whole jar and only intake 160 calories! This product is a God send and I had 2 jars! The ingredients are super simple and one day I will try to recreate this. The bases of this cheese dip are tomatoes, gluten free rice flour and nooch.

 I had to figure out what to do with this liquid gold beyond eating it right from the jar and making cheese fries. Now Keithon loves Mexican food but we haven't been able to go out and get any because his favorite types contain cheese and dairy is now a four letter word in my house. So I do my best to recreate dishes at home. So for lunch a few Saturdays ago I made my baby DIY burritos. I made a pot of brown rice and while it was still hot combined it with 1/2 cup of the Queso.

  I paired it with black beans, tomatoes and avocado.

 I repurposed the avocado shell to hold his salsa because heaven forbid his tortilla gets wet. I can't hold it against him because I hate for my foods to touch as well.

  I am so in love with Nacho Mom's. Thanks to them I can now have my liquid cheese and not feel guilty about eating it. I am hoarding the last jar because of course it's an online item. The good stuff always is.

Pizza, Movie and a Magic Show

Friday nights in my home is a normally a no cook night and after leaving work early, due to gastric problems I was more than thrilled when Keithon asked for pizza for dinner. Sadly in Memphis there only a handful of place that have vegan cheese and only two places that have vegan cheese in midtown. So we headed to Trolley Stop Market since we haven't been there in awhile.  Trolley Stop is cool because the vast majority of the products are locally grown by farmers, they also have locally made items and they carry a lot of the products from the farms for you to take home. Trolley Stop is not a vegan restaurant but they do have a vegan and vegetarian section on their menu that is nothing to scoff at.

  Another great thing about Trolley Stop is they have no clue what portion control is and I learned this on my 1st visit. I ordered a calzone that took me three days to eat. So on this visit I knew better. Keithon and I opted for the build your own 10 inch pizza. This was more than enough for just the two of us. We loaded our pizza with mushrooms, black olives and spinach. The dough at Trolley Stop is deep dish style so it is thick and soft.

  Trolley Stop has made a few changes since my last visit as well. The bar has been extended and they now have a projector to show movies. To our surprise they are testing Fridays as a family night. Last night's movie was Monster's Inc. Keithon owns this movie but he wanted to stay and some of it. I didn't mind I used that time to type my blog post.

Along with the movie there was also a Magic Show! Who doesn't love a good magic show. Now I have been to magic shows before but this was my 1st time seeing a show that was up close and EVERY trick included me! (Ok maybe more Keithon than me but I did get to do one trick.) Tim Friday is not your normal magician oh no! He performs sleight of hand magic up close! For the life of me I can not explain how he turned the two balls he put into my hand to four when I opened my hand. I actually squealed like a child. Keithon on the other hand was the calm one when Tim Friday pulled a playing card from his wallet that Keithon wrote his name on. Mind you the wallet was in his back pocket zipped! Keithon just looked at me and I told him "son I can't explain it". I love that Tim really enjoys his craft. He really involves whoever he is performing for. Plus he actually remembered and pronounced our names correctly! He is a great magician and an awesome performer. Check him out Friday night's at Trolley Stop from 6:30 till 8 or on the first Thursday night at Tin Roof in Nashville from 11pm to 1am. You won't be disappointed trust me.

So if you are in the mood for a good slice of pie or a Magic Show stop by Trolley Stop. The food is great, farm to table and the magician is sure to bring a smile to your face.

Good Luck Foods for a Day Equals a Year of Good Luck

  Now New Year's Eve is all about the booze and kissing at midnight but New Year's Day is equally important in my book. Aside from being OCD I am really superstitious, so on the days leading up to the New year I had to make sure I had all my superstitions together. Keeping change on the windowsill, keeping money in your pocket, wearing new clothes, not breaking anything and paying old debts backs. There are a lot so I knocked out as many as I can.

  This year I got to add a new tradition to my New Year's, thanks to Bianca and Greg. Every New Year's Day they go to Pho Saigon and order a Vietnamese Omelette also know as Tofu  Bahn Xeo. The omelette part is made from rice flour, coconut milk and turmeric. It was loaded with fried tofu, cabbage, broccoli, celery, carrots and on the side it had lettuce, pickled carrots and daikon and lots of mint, basil and cilantro. They failed to tell me it was the size of the Titanic! I ordered 2 of these monsters.  Keithon struggled with his and quit before he made a dent but I went toe to toe with the beast of a meal. I now understand why this is only eaten once a year. There was grease for days but it was oh so good. I also foolishly ordered Spring Rolls. There was so much food.

Now of course the most superstition is the food. Being a Southerner I made sure that I purchased a can of black eyed peas. (Yes a can I did not feel like soaking peas.) Instead of cabbage I remembered I still had kale and I also picked up a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix. The superstition is that the peas are for luck, the greens are for wealth and the corn bread is for gold. Mama needs all of that in the coming year because I have plans BIG plans.

   Since one of my big plans for this New Year includes going to Japan, this year I decided to incorporate a few Japanese traditions and Greg and Bianca helped unknowingly! Your 1st meal of the New Year is suppose to be super indulgent. (Yep I covered that one.) You are also suppose to drink the finest champagne. The Moet covered that base. We had it with our dinner, yes Keithon had a bit, only about a tablespoon. Hey he's my child, he deserves the best as well. For the New Year in Japan they have soba noodle soup with shrimp. The noodles if slurped without breaking brings good luck and the the curve in the shrimp represents longevity. Now I THOUGHT I picked up vegan shrimp but not reading and after cooking and biting into one I discovered it had egg powder in it. FML. Keithon asked what it was made from because the texture was gross and to be honest so was the taste. Vegan foul I know but I am human. I ate one and gave the others to Hollywood. I also taught Keithon how to slurp his noodles.

   We ended our dinner with good luck New Year's candies and Keithon got his lucky money envelope! The candy is made from peanut and sesame. I made Keithon test the puff pieces because of my peanut allergies. Sure as shit peanuts! Lucky for me I could still eat the Senate pieces.

So being the Power Ranger that I am I managed to make 2 dinners at the same time! We got in all of the good luck foods we needed. Plus the one superstition that I always screw up is the first footer and this year I had one that even came bearing gifts! All in all  we had a great start to our New Year. I know many great things are to come and I got to wear my new outfit that Aisha gave me for Christmas with means I will get plenty of clothes in the New Year!

New Year's Eve for One Was So Much Fun

  New Year's Eve is right up there with Valentine's day  because it is a couples holiday and well Cassi is single. Yes, I have a great group of friends but they are ALL married or in long term relationships. So what's a single girl to do? Well my original plan was to stay home and stream cooking shows and bring in the New Year with my son but that plan was nipped in the bud when his grandmother called me at work to see if he could go to a New Year's Eve party that his uncle was throwing for the children. Now if my 10 year had plans I had to find something to do. After a pep talk from Bianca, Aisha and Jennifer I made up my mind that I was going out ALONE  (Enter dramatic music here) Yes it took all three of them to convince me. I saw that Greencork was throwing a party, since I knew the space I figured it would be cool. After Aisha came over and give me another pep talk, in person this time, I went to get some Chow Mei Fun for dinner and a bottle of bubbly.

  I loved what my fortune cookie said. It was the same thing Bianca told me minus the unicorn, sparkly stuff. (The girl has an obsession with unicorns and glitter)

 

Now my plan when I went to the liquor store was to buy a single serve bottle of bubbly, since it would just be me but when I got there I decided, I deserve the best so I am getting the best! And of course one of the best is Moet! I settled on the bottle of Rose well honestly because it's pretty.

I walked out the liquor store feeling like a rap star's girlfriend!
Once I got home I painted my toes and got dolled up!

I couldn't let all that pretty go to waste for I jumped in the car and headed to Greencork.  Needless to say my nerves were shot to hell! I was walking into a bar on New Year's Eve alone but I held my head up high smiled and walked in. It was a decent crowd, not to crowded and not too empty.  So I put my money on my card and made my way to the bar. After sitting at the bar for a minute, I struck up a conversation with another group over the music that was playing. It was straight 90's hits! Music will always be the one thing that brings people together. The bartender Lexie was SUPER awesome! She was the one in charge of the music and the one that keep the party going. She even showed us how to slap sage and gave me my 1st REAL maraschino cherry. Dear God it was orgasmic. I will be ordering a whole case of these.

Now if you are drinking you need to make sure you have food and Mrs. Robin was kind enough to whip up this non menu item for me. It had all types of vegan goodness. I loved the pickled green beans.

And of course New Year's Eve is not complete without a champagne toast at midnight. Lucky for me I made 3 new friends to toast with.

At the end of the night I asked Miles, the host, if I could have a balloon and a Sharpe. I wrote all the things I wanted for myself on the balloon and Miles along with another guy that was with us, released them into the night sky. All in all going out alone for new years was the best decision I made. I made new friends, tried new foods and I held my head up high like the awesome, unicorn sparkle that Bianca said I was! It was an amazing night and I wouldn't trade it for the world! Check back on Friday for the recap of my New Year's Day food awesomeness!