This week on the show, we talk about making mac and cheese work and eat vegan Sicilian pizza and Vegan Zeastar Calamari!
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The day we recorded, I had a stellar lunch! I made a sushi bowl with some leftover rice and spinach topped with sliced avocado, pickled ginger, and Gardein Nashville Hot Chickenless Tenders.
I cooked the tenders in the air fryer at 400° F for 10 minutes.
What a great lunch!
The little guy wins!
This week's news item is so exciting!! Herbivorous Butcher won its trademark fight against Nestle!
Nestle, who owns Sweet Earth Foods, tried to trademark the slogan "The Vegan Butcher" in 2017. That was the same year that the Trademark Office denied the Herbivorous Butcher's application to trademark "Vegan Butcher."
And Nestle almost got that trademark in 2019! It takes a long time to get a trademark approved!
Herbivorous Butcher filed an opposition, and the two have been duking it out ever since.
Nestle has finally dropped the case, and I am so glad to hear it! It's not often that a small company wins against a huge corporation like that.
Hooray Herbivorous B!
PS: The vegan soul food restaurant that we ate at in New York was called Urban Vegan Kitchen. If you can eat there, we can't recommend it enough!
We made mac and cheese work!
We eat baked mac and cheese every Friday, and Dave thinks that is too much rich mac and cheese. He just wants something lighter, and I finally figured it out! Maybe?
Really, I can't believe it took me this long to realize that I could just set aside some of the pasta for Dave before I mix the rest into the cheese sauce.
Dave gets plain pasta with a green veggie and tofu, and we get the same thing, but with decadent vegan cheese sauce all over it.
But that's not the only way I made it work this Friday! We were also out of oat milk, which is a key ingredient in the cheese sauce. It needs two cups of milk, so I made lazy oat milk to substitute it.
The method is one I've seen my friend Kathy Hester do in some of her live cooking videos, so I used that technique and estimated the amounts. Here's how:
- 1 ¾ cups of water
- ½ cup rolled oats
- blend until smooth
I ended up having to add more water to the sauce, because it thickened too quickly. That was probably because oats absorb water?
Anyway, this worked like a charm. Undetectable, and so much cheaper than store-bought. I think this is just what we do now.
We ate Sicilian pizza!
Dave was super craving a deep dish pizza, so he ordered us a vegan Sicilian from Junior's Pizza. Junior's is a spot in the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta.
This pizza is incredible, y'all. You know I'm not a fan of lots of bread, but this crust is light and fluffy. And they tile the whole top with Chao slices!
We got this pizza with Impossible grounds and jalapeno on top and a Greek salad (no feta) to go with. It was perfect, and there was plenty left for a second meal.
Junior's delivers, but if you go in person, definitely hop across the street to Big Softie, which offers vegan soft serve! They have some awesome vegan toppings, too, including the cornflake streusel and house-made chocolate magic shell.
Vegan Zeastar Calamari
I got this calamari as part of that big order I placed with GTFO It's Vegan for the Vegan Zeastar salmon.
This was both of our first times eating calamari since we went vegan, and boy oh boy. They sure did nail that texture! Vegan Zeastar seems to be great at texture in general. That salmon's texture was on point, too.
The calamari had that ultra-firm pop that I associate with animal calamari. It came breaded, so I cooked it in the air fryer at -- you guessed it! -- 400° F for 10 minutes. Perfect.
For me, the breading was a little bit too sweet, which sort of detracted from the experience. Dave didn't have that problem, though. He absolutely loved it.
My sister also ordered the Vegan Zeastar calamari, and she shared it with my dad. They both loved it! So maybe this breading problem was a me problem?
If you do find it too sweet, dipping it in a sweet sauce does the trick. I dipped this in sweet chili sauce, and it was a delight.
Where to listen
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