Bear Box #2! Chickpea Omelette, Rice and Marinated Tofu

More bento! Bear was in the mood for Asian food for dinner again so I made another bento. I decided to play on some bento classics, white rice with umeboshi (pickled plums), omelettes, and marinated tofu. My version has brown rice, a chickpea omelette and tofu marinated without fish sauce.

Tofu marinade-

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tbsp chili sauce  

1 tsp Worcestershire 

Simply mix these together with the tofu and let it sit for at least 30 min. Cubing the tofu lets it soak in easier. Then I fried the tofu and set it on a bed of spinach.

Chickpea omelette-

1 part chickpea flour

1 part water

1 tsp baking powder

This is the basic ingredients for the omelette. However, this would be a bit pain. The great thing here is that chickpea omelettes are very easy to season in different ways so they can be eaten with a lot of different things. For this recipes I added sesame seeds, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then you just cook them like a pancake. 

I then shredded up some carrot and diced some onion and sliced a handful of mushrooms, sauteed them in sesame oil and garlic and then rolled them up inside. 

The rice was pretty simple. Brown rice cooked in the rice cooker, some pieces of nori, a hanful of shelled edamame and an umeboshi with the pit removed. Steam the soy beans and the rice and layer it all neatly into the box and you're done. 

Vegan Anywhere- Tiger Lily Cafe, Port Jefferson New York

Tiger Lily Cafe is located in downtown Port Jefferson, it specializes in sandwiches, salads and coffees and teas. It advertises itself as vegetarian friendly, and at least half of the menu is meat free. The vegan options, sadly, are a bit more limited. There is room to sit down and eat inside, and a bathroom for customers, but the cafe only takes cash payment, so have money before you order (there is an ATM inside).

The shop is pretty easy to find, and has roadside parking. When the street is full there's a paid lot right down the road. When you approach the building the first things you notice are all the signs and stickers, and the music. Tiger Lily plays great music, which makes it a bit more pleasant to hang out in than a place like Starbucks.

In addition to the normal menu items there is also a large selection of made to order juices, smoothies and shakes, many of which are vegan friendly. Next to the register there is also a display case of fresh salads, and other dishes. Those items are listed on the normal menu so be sure to take a look before you order. It's also a great idea to get food to go and make at home.

The back deck is a great place to enjoy meals when the weather is nice. No kids or smoking allowed means you relax, eat, drink and just enjoy the area. I always eat out back when I can, it's too pretty to pass up.

Tiger Lily has good food. Maybe even great food. The vegan options may be limited, but the ones offered are at least substantial. Sesame tofu cutlet wraps, made in house veggie burgers, salads, fresh falafel with tahini, a hummus wrap and a balsamic veggie wrap are all offered for under $10.00. I always want a veggie burger which comes with diced tomato and greens on top while Bear favors the sesame tofu. Those two main dishes plus two iced teas will run you around $24.00, which is a little steep for vegan fare with no sides. But the quality is always amazing and the service is fantastic, plus the atmosphere is amazing (the whole restaurant has a perfect coffee shop vibe with lots of cool art and books). Overall, I can say the price is pretty fair for what you get, which is fresh, quality food. 

Visit the site for hours and a menu.

Final Scores-
Food- 4.5/5
Cost- 3/5
Service- 5/5

Cook Book Review- The Vegan Stoner Cookbook

I am not a stoner. I have friends who are and I have nothing against pot, I just don't smoke because I have wicked asthma and my man gets tested for work. BUT I do love The Vegan Stoner Cookbook.
My grandma, who recently passed away, got me this cookbook for my last birthday. She was very supportive of my going vegan and thought this book was something I would enjoy because it had simple recipes that were a lot of fun and also a bunch of cute illustrations. I like my cookbooks with lots and lots of pictures.
The book is divided into sections, breakfast, lunch, munch, dinner and dessert, with different recipes in each section. It's a small book but each recipe is only a single page so they really make use of the space. The back of the book has a short guide on making basics like vegetable broth, a basic tomato sauce, and "herb oil" which is handy if you want to make edibles instead of smoking or vaping. I haven't tried that one though, so I'm not sure how great it is.
The best thing I can say about this book is that it is super useful on a regular basis. It is very uncomplicated. The recipes don't need a million ingredients, and they don't take a lot of time or effort to make. They're also very easy to customize. I always end up adding own fave fruit or veg or spices, and that is something this book encourages.
Today I am going to be making two great recipes, partly to show how awesome this book is and partially because I am going to go see friends tonight and that's an excuse for me to cook for a bunch of people and I love that.  
This is how The Vegan Stoner presents recipes; in super cute illustration form with a simple list of instructions on the side. Easy and cute!

I love coconut dishes. It's not a flavor you see a lot in western savory cuisine, but it's something I have grown to love. This recipe is amazingly simple and so easy to customize. The recipe is fine as is, I just happen to like more spices in most of my dishes, so I add the following:

Optional Spices-

2 tsp turmeric

1.5 tsp curry powder

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

.5 tsp fresh grated ginger

Simply follow the normal directions and stir in any or all of these ingredients when you mix the coconut milk and flour.

The second recipe I chose was a dessert, baked banana cake! I don't bake a lot but it's some I really want to do more of. Vegan baking can be difficult but this recipe makes dessert simple.

Once again, I decided to change this recipe a little. I love bananas but I also love a lot of other fruits. So I chose to add some strawberries and raspberries. Strawberries have a great sweetness while the slightly tart raspberries will keep the dish form being too sugary. Again, this recipe is great as is, but the thing I love most about this cookbook is using it as a starting point for some great dishes that are entirely my own.

And here is how mine turned out-

Overall I give The Vegan Stoner Cookbook a 5/5!

Keep up with lots of awesome recipes by going the Vegan Stoner Blog

Bear Box #1! Lime Portobello Caps with Spicy Cabbage and Peppers

Bear works on a boat, and he works long hours. So when it comes o food here's not a lot of options. He can buy some things at work, but the vegan options are limited and he can only do that on his rare day shifts. The rest of the time he has to bring food in. A lot of his coworkers bring in fast food or store frozen meals on board, but it can be expensive and unhealthy, so I started making him food to go. This one was pretty easy. 

Ingredients- 

1/2 Bell Pepper

1 Large tomato

1 Portobello Cap

1 onion

1 Handful Cilantro

1 small can Diced Green Chiles 

2 handfuls Red Cabbage

1 Lime

Hot Sauce, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper

Start by chopping your cilantro and setting it aside. 

Dice the onion.

Mix the can of chiles with the juice of one lime.

Slice the mushroom cap and toss them with the chilles, lime juice and cilantro, then set it aside for at least fifteen minutes.

Chop your tomato and bell pepper

Sautee the cabbage, pepper and tomato on medium. I added 2tsp of garlic powder, a dash of pepper, a dash of salt and several large shakes of tobasco. Adjust seasoning as you see fit.

Toss the shroom mix into a pan on medium high heat. The onions should become clear and the mushroom tender. Takes about 10-15 minutes.

I served min on a bed of seasoned brown rice. My secret for great rice? I add seasoning while it cooks. This time it was 2 tablespoons of adobo for 2 cups of uncooked rice, stirred right into the water. The great thing about this recipe is it microwaves really well and still tastes great.

Wedding Progress- Invites!

I reached another wedding milestone! Invitations are done and out, and people have begun to e-rsvp already. It's pretty exciting, and a bit worrisome just because I was a bit late getting these done. My grandma passed away after a long battle with cancer so I was too preoccupied to do much wedding planning. 

I drew up this cute little graphic for the invite and then scanned it into the computer and printed it onto different colored cardstock. It's simple, cute and cartoony which is perfect for my casual/nerdy afternoon wedding. I added some small details to try and make it look a bit like a comicbook cover, since Mike and I are such big comic fans.

This is the rsvp card. Nice and simple and it has a space for a song request, which is going to help us create our wedding playlist (we didn't want a traditional DJ or band). 

Wedding Shower!

Mike got to wear the bow hat!!

Mike and I just had our wedding shower! It was a lot of fun. The whole event was at my Aunt's house, because she has an amazing backyard and is great at throwing parties.

It was great weather and a ton of friends and family came out to see us and bring us awesome gifts. I had fun at my engagement party but honestly this was even better because I was able to have friends come, not just family.

The whole event was pretty casual. We got sandwiches and salads and chips and home made dips, and my aunt put out jars of candy for guests to make goody bags. We didn't play any wedding shower games because I'm not a fan of those things, but just drinking and talking with guests was a lot of fun.

Sweet to Lick

This is me eating a mother fucking batarang cookie. A delicious bat themed treat.

This week I got to do a lot of fun stuff! One of which was going to meet the baker for my wedding. Sweet To Lick bakery is is Nassau County on Western Long Island, and it's AMAZING. They do cake, cookies, cupcakes, pies, specialty iced teas, everything a vegan with a sweet tooth could want. So I placed an order for a fantastic array of cookies and brownies and other treats for my big day (not a cake person), and picked up a few snacks to sample. 

We got a whole bag of desserts and ended up eating them ll on the ride home and feeling a bit sick but it was so worth it. Everything was really tasty and pretty cute as well. I am a sucker for food that looks as good as it tastes. 

Sweet to Lick has a website HERE as well as an instagram feed with a ton of pictures of cute desserts that will make you drool.