Daiya, oh my - a!

There's a great new(ish) vegan cheese on the market that has been all the rage lately in the vegan community. It even received a VegNews Award!  Previously, Daiya cheese was only available to the restaurant industry, but it is slowly becoming more readily available to consumers (at least in Los Angeles). By popular demand, Whole Foods is now offering pre-weighed containers of it in their alternative dairy sections, or if you can't find it there, you can ask for it at the pizza counter.

I, for one, am completely addicted to the soy-free melty goodness of Daiya Cheese.


Now, I'd like to point out that I have never been a fan of vegan cheeses. For starters, I'll fully admit that I was a cheese addict for way too long so the fake stuff just couldn't come close to replacing the real deal. "I love cheese too much" was my excuse for years as to why I wasn't vegan. I just couldn't give the stuff up! Slowly, I have been able to ween off of it and my discovery of Daiya has helped me to not even miss the real thing. I can have "cheese" filled burritos, ooey gooey pizzas, comforting grilled cheese, homestyle lasagna... the options are endless and I've only just started experimenting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Daiya actually tastes like the real cheese it mimics (cheddar or "italian style", which I guess means mozzarella), but more so than any of the other vegan options it sort of stands alone as it's own delicious variety. Like choosing gouda instead of muenster, or swiss instead of brie.

On top of it's melty deliciousness, Daiya also deserves praise for being a relatively nutritious product, made from natural non-GMO, plant-based ingredients. It is completely free of all common food allergens and it's ingredients are all completely pronounceable. Rockin'!

For more info, check out the Daiya website: http://www.daiyafoods.com/

Vegan Charity Dinner

I've been involved with a Los Angeles non profit group called Reading to Kids for over three years now. Of course, I started out with the group because it was a low commitment volunteer opportunity and I'm now on three of their committees and serve as co-chair for Special Events. I love it! On the second Saturday of every month, Reading to Kids hosts reading clubs in eight Los Angeles elementary schools where I read with a partner (for the last year, it's been the BF) to a small group of kids. I prefer second grade. Every year, between October and December, Reading to Kids holds its Annual Fund Drive. This year, the goal is $45,000 from 850 donors (since it's a community organization, the number of donors is equally important to the money raised). Go to www.readingtokids.org for more info about the drive and the organization in general.

Rather than just asking my friends to give money, I thought I'd provide a bit of incentive. A friend hosts weekly vegan charity dinners at Handmade Galleries in Sherman Oaks and invited me to have Reading to Kids as the recipient charity, and of course, I offered to prepare the food! The event was a success on multiple levels. For starters, this was the first dinner event I've prepped and planned since becoming a certified chef and everybody, including my friend's 2 year old, was raving about the food! Second, we raised several hundred dollars for the organization, which will go towards expanding the program into more schools, purchasing more books for kids to take home, and helping to increase book collections at the school libraries.

Now for the food part, the menu. Since it was a casual space, and a standing only dinner, I wanted to keep the food simple. Also, since it was a Sunday, I thought comfort food would be best. Since I'm still rather fixated on the amazing Caesar dressing, I started with the salad. A hit! For the main course, I turned to my favorite vegan mac and cheese recipe from vegnews.com. I love this recipe because it uses vegetables and cashews to mimic cheese sauce, instead of the standard soy cheese and/or nutritional yeast. There's a ton of Earth Balance in it so it's not exactly "healthy", but to me, the veggies make it seem like it's better for you than the alternative alternatives. :) Finally, it was all served with a side of garlic bread, lovingly prepared by my boyfriend/sous chef for the evening.

And now the photos....

The yummy vegan mac and cheese.


Large bowl of vegan Caesar.


The cash box with garlic bread in background.

Latest Fixation: Vegan Caesar (and some other stuff)

Since the last post did not include photos, this one will make up for it with some of my favorite meals, entrées, etc over the past couple of weeks. For starters, my latest fixation is vegan Caesar salad (recipe is from my Bauman cookbook). I made the first Caesar as part of the boyfriend's birthday dinner -- photos to follow -- and haven't been able to get enough of it. There was plenty of leftover dressing and some Romaine remaining so I proceeded to eat as much of this salad as I could last week. An added bonus, croutons made from an amazingly delicious spelt bread I just discovered in the freezer section at the Santa Monica food Co-op (also available elsewhere) from French Meadow Bakery. Oh man, is it good! Lots of yummy seeds baked into the bread and a better than sourdough taste. This and the "best Caesar dressing ever!" combined made for one mighty tasty salad. The salad then made another appearance at a surprise engagement pot luck last night and all the carnivores in the room were raving. Score! Onward to the photos, with caption.

Vegan Caesar with French Meadow Bakery Spelt Bread Croutons


First course of birthday dinner: Thyme Roasted Beets over Pine Nut Cream "Mousse".


Main course of birthday dinner: Chickpea Cutlets with Mustard Sauce; Saffron Garlic Rice; Roasted Green Beans.


Tonight's Dinner: Arugula Pear Pizza with Soy Bleu and Mustard Cream Sauce.
Oh so dreamy delicious. Upon tasting this fine specimen of a pizza, I immediately suggested it as a fall menu item at the vegan cafe at which I work. Hopefully it will make the cut!

Dining Well

I've been back in LA for almost three weeks now and making my best efforts to settle. Part of this, of course, includes making the rounds at as many vegan restaurants as I can around town. Since the beginning of the year, new restaurants have been popping up all over the place and since I've been away for the majority of the year, I'm just getting a chance to check some of them out now. We may be in an economic downturn, but it would seem that vegan is the new wave of cuisine.

First, I want to share an article from the LA Times, written in April, about the upsurge of restaurants specializing in Macrobiotic cuisine. While my chef training was not specifically macrobiotic, it did adhere to many of the philosophies of macrobiotics through the emphasis of whole grains, seasonal produce and unrefined sugars. I was glad to see this was a new trend and that it was getting recognized in an extensive article. http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-macrobiotic22-2009apr22,0,7966804.story

I've been a fan of M Café for years now and am excited that they continue to expand and grow. In addition to three café locations, they now also have their delicious food available at Whole Foods locations throughout LA. I had the pleasure of meeting the president, Yuta Tsunoda, earlier this week, and had a long conversation today with their Director of Operations. Both men were wonderful and I was honored that they took the time to speak with me.

Branching off from M Café to his own restaurant, Chef Eric Lechausser cooks up tasty vegan, macrobiotic fare at Seed Kitchen in Venice, where I enjoyed every last bite of my blackened tempeh sandwich a couple weeks ago. The same blackened tempeh that inspired my previous post. :) I will be back to Seed to try out other menu items.

Outside of the macrobiotic world is newcomer Green Peas, a casual eatery that is not strictly vegan, but has a very large menu of vegetarian and vegan options. It appeared that nearly every menu item had a veg couterpart listed, or could easily be turned into a vegan treat. I'm not usually a fan of overtly fake meats, but Gardein chicken seems to be all the rage among the vegan community so I figured I'd give it a try and ordered the "chicken" piccatta sandwich. My sandwich appeared to be lacking any obvious sign of capers, a piccatta staple, but the vegan pesto aioli smothered over the crusty ciabatta bread was delicious. Green Peas is another place I'll put on my "to try again" list, especially since their prices are incredibly inexpensive. I'll probably stick to the vegetables and tofu though since fake chicken isn't really my thing. If you're into the fake meats, you'll love it.

Finally, I discovered a tiny raw food restaurant in Santa Monica on Broadway, just west of Lincoln and decided to stop in to see what they are all about. It's called Better Life Cuisine. The place was empty, save for me and a couple that walked in 30 seconds before I did. We had a lot of the same questions about the food and the young man at the counter was incredibly helpful. He offered us a taste of their "tuna" and "salmon" salad, the "fried beans", and their "ricotta cheese". They were all pretty tasty, although I can't for the life of me remember what he said they were made of, other than cashew (which I don't think was the case for all). I decided to take home a couple of small desserts, but unfortunately did not choose wisely. The coconut macaroon was delicious, pretty basic in that it was coconut and coco nibs, so as long as you like coconut, you can't really go wrong there. I also chose a pumpkin bite which was really not up my alley at all. It was just too dense and had an odd flavor. Supposedly the pumpkin pie is good, however, I think I'll stick to cooked pumpkin. With the competition of the more popular and upscale "RAW" down the street from Better Life, I hope this little casual cafe does well for itself.

Tempeh; It's The New Chicken

Last night I got a craving for tempeh -- weird, I know. Yes, I could have easily created my own marinade and gotten positive results, but truthfully, it was getting late, I was hungry and figured it was even easier to go with a tried and true than start experimenting at that moment. Instead, I turned to the good ol' reliable "Ultimate Vegan Cookbook", Veganomicon, because I knew they'd have a trusty recipe that could close to replicate the delicious blackened tempeh I'd had for lunch at Seed in Venice the day before. I pulled out a recipe for a hot sauce glazed tempeh and was not disappointed. As the tempeh was browning in the pan, and the delicious spicy aromas wafted through the apartment, my non-vegetarian boyfriend saunters into the room, exclaiming "Mmmm! Something smells good!" He looks in the pan, sees that it's tempeh for dinner, and proclaims, "ah, tempeh, I guess it's the new chicken in this apartment." Not surprisingly, I've been doing all of the cooking since I've been back in LA, which means that meat-free is the way to be and tempeh will remain the "new chicken". On the plus side, he really digs the tempeh and was upset to learn that I'd finished all the leftovers at lunch. (I put it into an amazing sandwich on whole wheat bread with wilted arugula, homemade honey dijon vinegarette and avocado.) See... what have I been promoting all this time about vegan food? It's great, and flavorful and interesting, and leaves no need for chicken.