Foody McFood Food

*I mentioned Pacific soups in one of my last posts, but I actually meant Imagine soups. The Pacific soups aren't all vegan, but I believe most of the Imagine ones all are.*

I hate having to make titles when I have a random post to make. I can never think of anything witty!

Oh, I posted the recipe for the lime raspberry muffins on my recipes blog, look under my links!

For as much as I like working for Herbivore, I love being home. Now that the store is open I work most weekends so this week I had Monday and Tuesday off. That means lots of cooking.

I really like how some of you post your groceries online. I really like being able to see what everyone buys to fill their homes with yummy food all week. So, here were my groceries yesterday from a trip to Trader Joe's.


It included:
~Almond Breeze Chocolate milk. OMG, get this if you've never had it! Hands down the best!
~Unsweetened Organic soy milk (for cooking/baking)
~Unsweetened Almond milk (for cereal)
~Organic powdered and granulated sugar. I'm baking for the store's grand opening this weekend.
~Organic flax cereal
~Apple raspberry sauce
~Organic extra firm tofu twin pack. I love these packs, so convenient for cooking for two!
~Half of a par baked loaf of organic Ciabatta.
~Assorted cans of organic beans and tomatoes- restocking the pantry.
~Organic oregano
~Earth Balance
~Organic rice pasta
~Farfalle noodles
~One of my all-time favorite drinks, green tea with bergamot.
~Orange juice
~Organic mini peanut butter sandwich cookies. I just noticed these and they are vegan (obviously)!
~Garlic
~Tahitian vanilla extract
~Rice flour. I haven't used this before, but it intrigues me.
~Bruschetta. I LOVE this TJ's bruschetta. It's super cheap and incredible!

Now, while Trader Joe's is a gold mine for things like pictured above, fresh produce is not their strong suit. I get organic bagged salads from them sometimes and they are really cheap and they have great deals on organic basil, but their other produce is generally not organic and comes in plastic clamshells, which are crappy waste-wise and you can't select your produce yourself. Thankfully, attached to the TJ's I shop at is a place called Limbo. They have an incredible produce selection and their famed "Wall of Herbs". Anything you've ever needed for a recipe is there in a jar and you can just measure out a pinch of it and be on your way, without having to spend $10 on a jar of something that you need only a teaspoon of. They also have a very yummy smoothie bar. I like going there when I haven't had time to hit up a farmer's market. All the produce I buy is organic.


Red potatoes, Honeycrisp apples, avocadoes (.50 each!), broccoli, butternut squash, bananas (I'm making that cake again for the store, we don't eat that many bananas!), zucchini and summer squash, a giant sweet potato and a sweet onion.


Yesterday night we were way too stuffed from our leftover biscuits and gravy to have a formal dinner, but I was seriously craving some warm pudding. I made a vanilla version of the chocolate pudding I have posted under my recipes blog (see links section), with a hint of cinnamon. For the truffle center I used this amazing espresso candy bar I got at Food Fight the last time I was there. This brand is hands down the best vegan candy bar ever. With the temperatures dropping, making shipping chocolates easier, you should consider getting some as a treat. If you liked Caramello's try the carmel one. The raspberry one is heavenly, too.

Anyway, last time I was at Food Fight, I got an espresso bar and some wafer cookies, which went deliciously with the pudding. Placing the chocolate in the pudding while it's still warm gives you a decadent surprise in the middle. Warning- if you put it in the fridge, the chocolate will harden and it's not nearly as good.

I was inspired by Leslie's recent post for her quinoa tacos, so I made up some quinoa burritos tonight. I made a very veggie chili, using her recipe as a guide but using stuff I had laying around: onions, paprika, cumin, oregano, black beans, pinto beans, canned tomatoes, frozen corn and zucchini. It turned out delicious. Even Jim, who normally doesn't like big chunk of veggies in his burritos, loved the zucchini.

I served them on spelt tortillas with homemade guac, Toffuti Sour Supreme, and some organic salsa on top. It made so much that I made containers for us to take to work tomorrow and I froze a big container too!

Now my super busy work week starts, so my cooking fun is coming to an end. :( But I will be baking like a fool on Friday and Saturday, so be prepared for cavities!