A Blueberry Muffin Obsession

This is not the first (or the second, even) time I have posted about blueberry muffins.  I don't know what it is about a delicious, warm blueberry muffin that makes any morning so much better!  So I have posted recipes for muffins before (search breakfast), but I do not usually have time to make muffins from scratch.  Surprise!  Most of the time I have not given much thought to the muffin mixes at the store until now.  Duncan Hines has a Blueberry Streusel muffin mix that is amazing.  Not only do they use real ingredients with nothing artificial, but they also include a can of REAL, wild blueberries.  Fast, simple, but you will need to make sure you have a box of egg replacer handy.  If you try this mix, please let me know what you think, my kids gave it two thumbs up!

A Meal Away From Home

So here in the USA, it is summer (yeah!), which of course to many means summer vacation.  We typically go to the beach and avoid busy places like theme parks so that we can spend at least a few days being relaxed...not stressed out!  Because we are not staying at resorts, we often end up looking for places to eat out.  I love cooking, and it is very economical to cook during your vacation, but on vacation I do not want to be cooking all the time.  Enter HappyCow.net.  You can use this website to search for veg friendly and all-veg restaurants all over the world.  We typically find at least a few good places to eat whenever we use Happy Cow.  For example, let's say you are in...New Zealand.  Love New Zealand, used to live there, it should be on your bucket list!  Now that I am vegan, I need to find a place to eat because I am starving!  It is so easy to click on the map on Happy Cow, narrow down the search to cities, and I now see that there are 47 veg-friendly restaurants in Auckland!  Woah!  While the website is very user-friendly, the mobile app is even better, check it out.  Oh, and make sure you download the app BEFORE you are starving,it's better that way ;-)

A Home Run Dinner!

Many people are familiar with the famous White Castle...a burger joint famous in the northeast for it's pint-sized, greasy burgers, also called sliders.  In my home town, we have a similar burger joint called the Snow White Grill.  It's burgers are about 3/4 of the size of a regular burger, but full of flavor.  I do not often miss things I used to eat before going veg, but I do occasionally miss those burgers.  They were just right, and I admit it, while I try to cook healthy most of the time, I LOVE a greasy burger.  Don't know why, I just do.  So whenever I miss something that I used to eat, my first thought is...I can totally veganize that.  So I did.
You can get slider-sized buns at the grocery store sometimes, OR you can use square rolls like the kind grandma used to serve for dinner.  Either way, you need something like a mini hamburger bun.  For the burger itself, I actually minced and sauteed onions (about one onion) and mixed them with GimmeLean vegan sausage.  It looks like sausage in a tube, but it makes a better, more flavorful burger than the "ground beef" style that I usually use for meatloaf.  Shape about a palmful of that mixture into a square-shaped patty.  Slice another onions into rings and also some mushrooms and throw into a large pan with some vegetable oil...sautee for about 5 minutes, shove to the side of the pan, and use the same pan to fry your patties.  You should have about a centimeter of standing oil in the bottom of your pan (for the "greasy spoon" experience).  Flip your patty after a few minutes and then put a slice of vegan American cheese on top.  Cover that with some mushrooms and onions and cook till the cheese is melty.  Put your buns on the counter (no, don't sit on the counter!), and put on patty on each bun.  Make as many as you are going to eat, although leftover taste AWESOME heated in the microwave the next day.  Before you put the top on, place it face down (the flat side that hugs the patty) in the oil you were just cooking in for about 10 seconds.  Greasy.  That step is optional.  Put the top on the burger and serve with fries.  This will taste so good, like something your doctor would tell you not to eat, but because of the fact that it's vegan and you are cooking with vegetable oil instead of animal fat, you can indulge and still rest easy.

This Not-So-Little Piggy

So if you have been following my blog for a while, you remember that back in August of 2010, my husband bought me an adorable teeny pot-bellied pig.  We call him Ollie.  At almost 2 years old, Ollie is now as tall as a Labrador and WAY heavier.  Well over 100 pounds.  Now, I think he is just the most handsome pig in the world, but most of our friends and family are shocked at how big he has gotten.  He even has some nice tusks, to boot!  I meet people all the time who want a pig when they find out that I have one, they see videos on YouTube of a sweet little football-sized piggy doing tricks.  It is a myth that even the famed "teacup" pigs stay really small...a mini potbelly can get up to 200 pounds!  And SO, this is the problem with fad pets.  Fad pets are pets that suddenly become popular and everyone "has to have one".  The problem is that many folks will acquire a fad pet and not think about how much work it is to take care of one.  For example, even our yard has to be pig-proof.  Ollie will tear up trash if it is left around.  He needs to be fed and watered regularly.  He needs a pool of water and a warm, dry bed.  He even has his own pig house, and comes inside often during the cold months.  These reasons contribute to why so many fad pets end up in sanctuaries or abandoned.  People just do not educate themselves.  If you have the time and the patience, a mini potbelly is a great pet.  If you like your yard hole-free, your furniture upright, and your time to yourself, it is not a good choice.  Of course, you can say that about most pets.  If you are not willing to love them unconditionally, perhaps you should reconsider owning a pet.  If the demand goes away, the population of these animals will naturally go down over time because humans will stop intentionally breeding them to sell as pets.

Pesto!

We have been lazily enjoying our summer vacation here in Northern Virginia...wait...no, that must be some family from some other house because I have been "losing my mind" busy!  I have increased my tutoring hours trying to make a little extra dough, especially since those fine folks at the student loan institution insist on having their money.  Go figure.  We decided not to go on a big vacation, so that means lots of little trips here and there.  All is not lost for my adventures in the kitchen, though, because there is always time for pesto!  Man, this stuff is really easy to make and we will eat it on anything from Italian bread to plain old pasta.  Here is my quickie recipe, even quicker if you are growing your own basil like we are.
Quickie Pesto
What you need:
About a cup or two of fresh basil leaves
Olive oil
Salt
Walnut halves (Pine nuts...I am currently walnuts because, well, read the student loan line above)
Fresh garlic cloves...maybe 2-4, depending on how much you like garlic
What you do:
Get out your blender.  The best thing for a quickie recipe is a "Magic Bullet", but a blender works fine.  Crush your garlic into the blender.  Pour in about a quarter cup of olive oil and about a half cup of walnuts or pine nuts.  Throw in a half teaspoon of salt, less if you want less salt.  Blend for 10-15 seconds.  Put in all the basil, and pour another half cup of olive oil on top of that.  If using a blender instead of a magic bullet, you will want to use a wooden spoon to mash everything down before blending for about 20-30 seconds more.  Mix it up, add more oil to give it a syrup-like consistency.  Notice that this recipe is not terribly accurate...go with how it looks.  Taste as you go...that's the best part of cooking.  If it is too lumpy, add a little more oil and blend a little more.  Leave out the salt if you want.  Make it your own, and enjoy it right away, super-fresh!