vegan golden oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies

The BEST hot chocolate eveeeeeerrrrrr

We have a coffee machine at work so sometimes I will pack myself some vegan “milks” and froth me up some hot chocolate. 

This time I mixed Almond Breeze’s chocolate almond milk AND it’s newer one, coconut almond milk. 

That’s what those fabulous layers are… layers of different awesomess. 

vegan pizza night!! sauteed onions, bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, yves pepperoni, tofurkey italian saucages, daiya cheddar

Tofurkey bowl! Suck it WaWa! (tofurkey slices with brown gravy on homemade corned marshed potatoes surrounded by stuffing)

One thing I used to love, as a meat-eater, was the turkey bowls (turkey slices on mashed potatoes that eventually came to include stuffing as well) at WaWa. The only thing I had always complained about that “agencement” was that it lacked corn. 

FIXED IT, VEGANIZED IT… WHAT?!?! 

And that’s how that shit’s DONE!

Ps: if you don’t know what WaWa is, well you’re not from the tri-state area and you don’t know what you’re missing. 

I miss you WaWa. 

(Taken with Instagram)

Gateau faux-mage / vegan cheesecake TAKE OUT! (Taken with Instagram)

Grilled “cheese” sammich. Daiya jack slices on black bread. All vegan, all mind blowing! (Taken with Instagram)

Home Made Vegan Poutine!! (Taken with Instagram)

Homemade brownie cake with rasberries drizzled with heavy soy cream and cane sugar (Taken with Instagram)

Last trip to Philly was an all around incredible food-time! I had rented a car and was free to roam to which ever food spot I fancied. In this case I was able to convince some friends with meeting me in Bethlehem so we could hit the amazing and incomparable Vegan Treats! 

Yes, I am quite aware that many shops in Philly carry vegan treats’ cakes and whatnots BUT I wanted soft serve. Yup travelled over an hour and such for iced cream. Guess what YOUZ GUYS!? It was FUCKING WORTH IT. 

I had the cake batter soft serve and well, let me tell you… it was the best damned iced cream I have ever tasted in MY LIFE. It was perfect. 

As for cakes, I had the brownie teasecake, my mother had the coconut one (which is my favourite), Ang had the cherry teasecake and Syl the peanut butter bomb. Not shown here is the 3 extra cakes I took home. A keylime teasecake, a vanilla pudding cake (which has now taken the crown from the ever delicious coconut cake, sorry coconut) and some other fruity little gem I can’t recall. 

The box of cakes was eaten in its near entirety later on, that day, in a giant house in West Philly with my partner in Philly vegan crime; Andy. 

Lesson learned: You can never have too much cake in one day. 

thunderstorm last lunch.
Tomato, avocado, fresh basil on veganaised raisin & nuts bread.

Veganaised is totally a word!!
(Taken with Instagram)

Ahhhh Aux vivres…

The Go-To resto for vegans in Montreal. 

One night, after drinking and being bored… I was madly craving a burger but had none at home nor was I close to Lafleur’s. So I complained about this lack of burger via twitter and facebook. 

The next day, to make up for this, a friend of mine and I decided to have our first “summer” terasse moment at Aux Vivres and I got the aux vivres burger for the first time. I am always weary of vegan burgers. Why, you ask? Because I make the best ones and nothing compares. 

Well… This one still doesn’t compare but it tastes so delicious in its on way that I became addicted and eventually, a few days later, ordered it as take out. AGAIN!

I had their café frappé as well (decaf)… so amazing that I ordered another one to go. Eventually, a few hours later, I had another decaf latte and had major acid reflux and heart palpitations. Too much decaf. Hard to believe. 

Aux Vivres

4631 Boulevard Saint-Laurent  Montreal, QC H2T 1R2
(514) 842-3479

My Sundae is super messy. Mainly because I had already exhausted all the chocolate syrup and was trying to squeeze the little bit that was left, out of the bottle. It kept farting all over the place. I ended up going in that bottle with a knife and “scooping” the rest out. NO MISSION IS TOO TOUGH!

Purely Decadent’s Cookies and Cream Ice Cream with banana slices and chocolate topping!

Sometimes I’m on a budget, sometimes I’m just lazy. Well, most times I am just lazy. So how I roll is: I’ll take an hour or 2 out of one day a week and make a humongous batch of food that I’ll proceed to eat throughout the entire rest of the week. 

Chili is good for that. It’s full of awesomeness and protein and whatnot. I can’t really give you my chili recipe because quite frankly I have no clue what I’m doing here… I just put whatever I have in a pot and stuff. But I can certainly run the bases on some ingredients that could be helpful in making your own recipe… quite honestly, if you need a recipe for chili… ppssshhhh

Basics

-red bell peppers

-chili peppers

-1 large spanish onion (or whatever onion you chose to love, it’s cool, wtvs)

-carrots

-tomatoes

-mushrooms

-celery

I shove all that stuff (individually) in my food processor because I’m too lazy to chop and I don’t have sweet knives. 

I first brown the onions in olive oil for 5mins, the add a spoonful or 2 of garlic (I have YET to buy a garlic press, when I do I’ll put like 3 cloves in that shit) and cook for another 2 or 3 mins… then add the peppers… mushrooms and whatnots. 

I then add 2 cans of diced organic tomatoes with the juices and all… and about 3/4 of a small can of tomato paste.

After that I dump the “real” tomatoes then carrots and celeri into the mix. Stir it up. 

I then add a can of drained black beans and a whole can of corn… cause i loves corn.

After all this is in there and simmering (on medium-low) I sprinkle some spices up on it. 

Whatever you want… I put cilantro, those little dried pepper things, salt and crushed pepper… some oregano or thyme, depends on how I’m feeling. 

When I have fresh cilantro around I substitute the dried kind for the fresh kind, for obvious reasons. It also gives it a much spunkier kick. 

I then pour some vegetable broth and add 1/4 cup of basmati rice. The broth really helps with moisture and for cooking the rice. I find it essential. 

I let it simmer until my house reeks of delicious spiciness. I also judge the spiciness level by smell alone… If it doesn’t smell like chili, make it smell like chili… add more shit to it. 

When serving it (to myself, not guests who are salivating and awaiting impatiently to savour my sweet cooking)… I scoop up a whole avocado and splash it on that chili.

BOOM

This seems like a very unappetizing bowl of pasta, I know… I took this shitty picture. But Honestly it is hard to make avocado pesto pasta look good on “film” (saying this makes me sound like an art student), it’s all green and yucky and creamy… But one thing it is not, it’s not “dégeux” as we say in french Québec!

I did the usual pesto recipe…. 

-about 2C of fresh basil

-1 Tbsp of Olive Oil

-1/4 C of pine nuts (these shits are expensive, dude)

-1/2 C of heavy soy cooking cream

salt + pepper

To jazz this jawn up, I added diced tomatoes (that ended up being all mushed in the blender… great thinking Val!) and a whole avocado (minus the peel and “seed/nut” youz crazy people).

Spooned that mush up on some fresh tomato/spinach linguini and voilà… an ugly looking bowl of delicious pasta.

Get some. 

I miss my old apartment for 2 things.

1- My awesome neighbors

2- The downstairs pizzeria. They’d sell me a large pie for 8$ on the premise that they thought I was nuts for not putting any meat or cheese on my pizza and that they thought I was a student. I’d then put it back in the oven for a few, after adding daiya.