Your Vegan Mom

Show Me Yours

Knowing that this could be my last super luscious tomato and eggplant of the year makes me feel a little panicky.  What are you doing with the last of your summer produce?  I'll show you mine tomorrow.    

Your Tuesday Tip

Baby Hanger Bag Dryer

How do you dry your freezer bags?  

Your Vegan Hospital Stay

...will require take-out.  

 

That lasagna is not vegan.  And those steamed vegetables?  Not delicious.  I should have specified.  My special diet is vegan and delicious.

If you have any overnight plans for Cedars Sinai, put this list of take-out options in your hospital bag:

Mani's (323) 938-8800
Holy Cow (323) 852-8900 
Real Food Daily (310) 289-9910
Cafe Flourish (323) 939-3932
Chipotle (310) 855-0371 
Vegan Glory (323) 653-4900
 

Also, there's a Starbucks on site for your coffee with soy milk and New York Times needs, but if it's not an emergency, I'm sure you know that Mani's has much better coffee and those fruit turnovers.      

(With Desmond's birth, I fared no better at Kaiser Harbor City.  There was a really yucky incident involving Not Vegan Salsbury Steak.  Does anyone have anything nice to say about veganism and hospital food?  I would think that a center of health and wellness would put a greater emphasis on healthy meals and meeting the needs of special diets.  I would love to hear about your experiences.)

Vegan and Delicious.  

Zucchini Cake

We've inadvertently started a family tradition.  For Felix's one week birthday we made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  When he was two weeks old there was that classic vegan chocolate cake from the Depression.  So today he is three weeks old and of course there has to be cake.  It's apparently what we do.  Fortunately I had a giant zucchini languishing in the fridge just waiting to become my mom's classic zucchini bundt cake and a toddler size helper always willing to dump cups of flour in a bowl and lick sugar off the counter (What?).  

Also it turns out this new tradition is fantastic for spreading fraternal goodwill.  It kind of makes me feel like an accidental mom genius, and I think maybe the tradition should be added to the parenting books.  Here's the thing - it gives Desmond and me something special to do together which is so important right now with this new kid in the house demanding so much of my time.  It gives us cake.  It makes Desmond feel all magnanimous and big brotherly because he is making something for his little brother.  But he gets to eat it himself because babies can't eat cake.  Hence making him feel all the more big and important and happy... because there's cake.   

And yes, just like any time that I suspect I might be a mom genius, even an accidental one, my child had a complete melt down - maybe his biggest tantrum yet, right in the middle of our lovely little family tea and cake party to remind me that this child-rearing thing is all cyclical.  The second it's easy it will get hard again and so on and so on teaching me all sorts of stuff along the way.   

Zucchini Cake
makes: a big ol' bundt cake
takes: about 80 minutes (20 active), plus 30 to cool

4 cups grated zucchini
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup flax meal
3/4 cup water
3 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cups all purpose and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, mix together the flax meal and water and set aside to thicken.  Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.  Heat the oven to 350.  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.  Beat the flax mixture for a minute to make sure it's thoroughly goopy and a little bit aerated.  Add the zucchini, sugar, walnuts, oil, and vanilla to the bowl and stir.  Fold the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula and stir until just combined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for an hour or until a knife comes out pretty clean - a few moist crumbs clinging to the blade are fine, but goopy cake batter is not.  Depending on your oven and your pan, it may need closer to an hour and fifteen minutes.

Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, before gently loosening it from the sides of the pan and flipping it onto a plate.  Let it cool for at least 15 more minutes before serving.  This cake is so wonderfully moist, that it will stay delicious for a few days. 

Cranberry Margarita

With a baby and a toddler in the house, there are no vials of homemade fruit syrup hanging out in my fridge waiting for cocktail hour.  There's not even a lime for squeezing.  If cocktail hour is going to happen around here at all (and it is), it's going to have to be really, really easy.  I have recently discovered that a bottle of cranberry juice cocktail is a great pre-made margarita mix  - you have the tart cranberry juice bit standing in for your fresh-squeezed citrus, the sugar and water in lieu of simple syrup and melted ice.  Now all you do is add some tequila and triple sec.  A wedge of tangerine is lovely too if you happen to have it around - plus it just looks so seasonally festive.  Thanksgiving margaritas anyone?        

Cranberry Margarita

 2 oz. tequila 

 4 oz. cranberry juice cocktail

 splash of triple sec

 ice

 wedge of tangerine or orange

For individual cocktails, pour over ice and serve with a wedge of orange.  You can also stir up a larger batch in a pitcher or cocktail shaker.  

Cheers to the vegan month of food (VeganMoFo) and all its participants!   

If you're looking for some more cocktail ideas here's the spiced apple - bourbon number that concluded my first MoFo.