FUCK. APPLES. – Vegan MoFo Day 9

As the offensive title says, FUCK APPLES.

I love them, yes. I cherish apple season and look forward to it each and every years. But this year, my apple pile never seemed to shrink at all which left me panicked and wondering what to do with them. Let them rot and waste away? Make and can more apple things? Eat only apples for a week? GAHHHH!!!!

Yesterday was my day off so I took it upon myself to reign in the pile. The one thing I knew you could never have too much of is pie filling!! Fuck yeah, pie!!!

The one plus side in my mind to needing large amounts of apples peeled is that I get to use this awesome childrens science project looking apple peeler! I love it! It reminds me of the giant gear setup they have at The Strong Museum Of Play in Rochester NY. On a side note, if you ever get a chance to go there, do it. Bosslady and I once took all five children and it was a blast!

How could you not want to play with this!?

Soooo many apples. What the hell, man.

I truly wish there was something that could be made with apple peels. I had a pile of epic size when I was done.

I got a little camera happy with the apples.

So there was no need to take pictures of the canned filling. I already made a post about the last batch I made. Let’s just say I am now trying to find any excuse I can to put apple on things. Pancakes? SURE! Stir fry? Maybe not.

After the apples were done I realize I had missed lunch and was starving. I racked my brain trying to think of something quick and easy to throw together. Beefy Cheesy Mac came to mind.

The last time I made it, I was super excited but also super skeptical. There was SOUR CREAM in it.

White. Gooey. Gelatinous.

Same reason I’m not a fan of mayo’s. And what do you know?! I didn’t have sour cream and I didn’t feel like making it. I did, however, have a jar of Veganaise.

Scared doesn’t even begin to describe my anxiety about making this, but I went ahead and took the risk.

It might not be much to look at but it was definitely reminiscent of the Hamburger Helper of years past. I definitely couldn’t taste the Veganaise which was a shocking surprise.

 

Don’t forget to enter my Vegan Food Gifts Giveaway!

Vegan Food Gifts Giveaway!!

YAY! A GIVEAWAY!!

It sure has been awhile since I hosted one of these!!

I’m not going to bore you all with the details, but a few months back I had the opportunity to become one of Joni Marie Newman’s tester’s for her newest book, Vegan Food Gifts. Apparently, I pre-ordered the book from Amazon and now have in my possession TWO copies of the book! Why not give one away to a lucky someone?!

OOOO LA LA!!

The giveaway is pretty self explanatory. Just click the link below for the Rafflecopter page (WordPress doesn’t allow JavaScript so the widget won’t show up. BOOOO!!!) and you have a chance to enter up to 10 times a day! Easy peasy!!

Good luck everyone! I can safely say the person to win this will LOVE it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vegan MoFo Day 5, 6, and 7 (I SUCK)

Yeaaaaaaah, I slipped again.

I neglected you, dearest blog.

And what do I have to show for my time away? A few silly pictures, but not many.

It’s been a busy weekend for sure! I had hopes of sleeping in and catching up on some much needed rest after battling sinuses for the past two weeks. Luckily, I slept until 7:30 this morning so that’s a plus! And yes, that is considered sleeping in for me. I have always been an early riser and have always felt that if I don’t wake up early enough, I will have wasted the day away. Well, we can’t have that on a day off, now can we?!

 

Pizza with pesto base, spinach, gardein buffalo chicken and tempeh bacon! And let’s not forget the EPIC garlic knots that I had been obsessing over thanks to Annie over at Meet The Shannons. YEAH, ANNIE!! I just called you out! They were tasty, but not nearly garlicky enough for me.

 

This morning I finished up grocery shopping for the week and stumbled into the isle that houses the maple syrup and the thought went throught my head that I wanted waffles and I wanted them RIGHT NOW!! Dilemma  no syrup. How do we solve that? We purchase a $27 thing of syrup. DUH! And wait a second, is that BOYSENBERRY syrup hanging out right next to it?! Fuuuuuck.

At IHOP, I once stole a poury thing of boysenberry syrup. Yeah.

I LOVE THAT STUFF.

 

I may have spent a small fortune on maple syrup, but I definitely didn’t use it this morning! Boysenberry all the way, mofo’s. Buckwheat Oat Waffles in my FACE!

 

HAND PIIIIIIIIE!!

 

Homemade Pie Guts!!

 

I made those this afternoon….and ruined my dinner with them.

Dinner was….

 

 

Beef. Stew.

 

This is one of my favorite meals ever. The slow cooked gardein beefless tips become chewy in texture after slow cooking for 8 hours on low. They definately are a favorite of the fella’s for the same reason. They remind him of meat!

 

So that about does it. Like I said, this weekend was super busy due to mother things and work. Luckily, I have Tuesday off so I will have all day to MoFo my ass off!

 

Hoarding, Never Ending Apples, and Ugly Food – Vegan MoFo Day 4

People who know me know very well that I have a problem when it comes to collecting. Or hoarding. Or obsessing.

Yeah, obsessing is a better choice of words.

I become easily addicted to things wether its a new craft, a method I have never tried, or just simply an idea.

Current obsessions include :

1. Embroidery

2. Aromatherapy

3. Tacos

4. NAIL POLISH

5. Vegan Cookbooks

My obsessions come and go, but I always return to them at some point! I guess that’s due to throwing myself in and having the All-or-Nothing idea.

The point is, I have so many damn vegan cookbooks that it boarders on ridiculous. I have all the newest ones (thanks to Amazon Prime and pre-orders) and have many more coming in the next few months. I simply can’t seem to stop myself from ordering them! NOT UNTIL I OWN THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!

Prove it you say? SURE! Feel free to point and laugh at the hoarder.

Shelf 1 (above my iPod dock)

 

Shelf 2 (above my sink)

 

Shelf 3 (in my dining room)

 

Shelf 4

Okay, so shelf 1…. Until today, that housed all of my newest, along with random ones I just threw there. Now it’s not much different and I tried to organize by theme? Yeah right.

Shelf 2 is ones I use the most and the main authors I dedicate my life to.

Shelf 3 is overflow and my records, along with shelf 4.

Below shelf 4 is my VegNews collection and my knitting and Make magazines.

For the most part, all are vegan. There are one or two novelty books and a handful of vegetarian books, but 99.7% are vegan!

 

My name is Megan and I am obsessed.

 

NEXT!

 

Apples. I love you, but please go away now.

A whole bushel of Honeycrisp is what I started with. Just under half is what I have left. Everytime I make something with them, I am hopeful it will make some sort of dent in the bag. Ohhhh, but it never does! They must be regenerating or something. I’be made preserves, pie filling, butter….WHAT THE HELL ELSE IS LEFT?!?!

Apple butta, fresh from the slow cooker! Yes, it’s only four jars, but I promise you my one slow cooker would have exploded had I put any more apples in.

Give me ideas, people. I’m hyperventilation here!

 

Meep.

 

Today I had two slow cookers going when I left for work.

Between the slow cooker and the casserole dish, it’s a tossup as to which is my favorite way to prepare a meal. If I could, I would make someone help me write a casserole slash slow cooker book just so I had the best of both worlds in one neat-o binding.

BAM!

 

The green one held this delicious breakfast favorite :

 

Old-fashioned Cinnamon Sugar Oatmeal! For some added awesome, I slapped on a bit of the apple butta from earlier in the day. It became coarse one of my dinner!

 

Cream of Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup! What a beautiful picture…of…bland looking goo.

Both of those pictures look like poop, I’m aware. Did they taste like poop? FUCK NO.

 

Aaaaand recipes for both are brought to you by…

I AIN’T NO IDIOT! MY MOMMA SAYS I HAVE THE BRAIN SMARTS!!

It was vegan….and involved slow cooking. Criteria for being pre-ordered? Yessssss.

I’m actually pretty impressed with how both of these recipes turned out! Both are super and I’m looking forward to bringing them to work tomorrow.

Now, I am off to bed! Tomorrow marks my final day of working 8 days in a row and I couldn’t be more pleased!!

SUGAR COOKIES!!! (VeganMoFo Day 3)

My god, do I ever love sugar cookies. Honestly, I would rather have a soft and chewy and PLAIN sugar cookie anyday. I’m not plain by any means, but sometimes you just crave the simple things.

Whenever I make cutouts, I tend to make the dough the night before and bring it to work with me so the kids can enjoy the decorating part of it. I mean, it simply isn’t as fun doing it at home as it is at my work, with children throwing flower and eating sprinkles and sneaking tastes!

Today’s recipe for sugar cookies comes from Vegan Food Gifts by Joni Marie Newman (for which I was a tester!). I never did try the sugar cookies when they were up for testing so I figured now would be a good time!

Usually, I tend to stick to Kelly Peloza’s recipe just because. Then again, I don’t think I have ever tried another recipe….so maybe I’m biased?

So I made the dough yesterday before work, knowing full well I was going to be putting in a ten hour day, most of which to be spent with Spencer. The kid LOVES to play cooker/baker. He’s so curious and always attached to my hip, wanting to do everything I’m doing and eating everything I’m eating.

So of course, when I got to work this morning and I told him I had a surprise for him, he was all into it and demanded we get to work right away!

 

This picture he asked me to show you all. It’s his worm that he made and he is damn proud of it! He looked at the cookie making as more of an experiment with play-dough. HA, see what I did there? Play-DOUGH? HA!

 

He demanded I let him do EVERYTHING. For the record, when I say demand I mean he simply looked at me and said “Megan, I love you. Can I do the rolling? Can I do press and lift?”

HEART MELT!

Yes little man, you may do whatever the hell you want! ANYTHING!

Oh, and every few seconds when my back was turned to him, I would turn around and find him eating the dough. He probably ate three cookies worth in just dough!

 

 

Contemplating eating more? Or just thinking about smacking bitches with the rolling pin.

 

SPRINKLES!! Zombie ones even. I love Halloween.

 

This face has no words. I’m honestly not sure if maybe his mouth is full or he was right about to say something.

Pumpkin shaped Sugar Cookies! These things are amazing. Just the right amount of crisp and chewy. My own sadness was the oily-ness it left on my fingers.

MEGAN LOATHE OILS.

That small con was worth it though. They were amazingggg.

Yup, I gushed about my man AND got to post things with sprinkles. TODAY IS A WIN!