Let Them Eat Vegan! {giveaway} – ENDED 5/8/12
Goooooooood morning <3 Fun news 🙂 The blog was chosen as a reader’s choice winner for best personal training blog over at Fitness Magazine. Thank you SO much to those of you who took the time to vote – I’m honored to have been included in such wonderful company.
Last week’s little photo shoot was for an upcoming issue of Fitness Magazine- exciting stuff!
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Lots of food prep went down in our kitchen last night: the usual stuff for the week (chopped veggies, salsa, grains, a baby meal)
and a seriously amazing dinner.
(Sorry for the weird color. My camera died so I had to resort to the iPhone)
As you guys know, Dreena Burton is one of my all-time favorite cookbook authors. My copy of “Eat, Drink and Be Vegan” has tamari stains and chocolate smudges all over it- it’s been well-loved. Her Supercharge Me cookies are a dessert favorite and my hardcore carnivore husband loves her recipes, too. Even though they’re vegan, they never feel like they’re missing anything, because they’re satisfying and filled with bold flavors.
I also love that a majority of the recipes aren’t dependent on faux meat and soy: mostly whole foods with fresh fruits and veggies as the star of the show.
When Dreena offered to send me a copy of her new cookbook, “Let Them Eat Vegan!” I was so excited to try out some of her new recipes. While I’m still getting back in the swing of making dinners that aren’t prepped by myself and then grilled by the Pilot, I’ve only tried a few of the new recipes. I’ve made the kale slaw a couple of times, and it’s incredible.
When I realized we had all of the ingredients on-hand for her Almond Curry Chickpea recipe, it was an easy choice for dinner.
Creamy spiced almond butter sauce,
chickpeas and zucchini,
baked and served over brown rice.
It was absolutely perfect, and just as before, Mr. Pilot didn’t seem to mind the lack of animal protein at all.
Dreena kindly offered to giveaway a cookbook to a lucky reader, so if you’d like a copy of your own, all ya have to do is leave a comment with a recent kitchen disaster.
I’ll go first:
I set the smoke alarm off while making a salad beast. I was grilling chicken on the George Foreman to put atop the salad and before I knew it, the alarms started beeping. Livi was sound asleep and managed to stay sleeping upstairs while I opened doors and frantically fanned a pillow over the alarm. The Pilot just laughed.
I’ll pick a winner tonight at midnight EST and post it in tomorrow’s AM post.
Edited: This giveaway has ended as of 11:52 AM EST, 5/8/12. Please stay tuned for more giveaways in the future! Did you win? Find out here.
Have a great day and I’ll see ya tonight!
xoxo
Gina
Yesterday’s #smoothieaday:
PB & J
-1.5 C almond milk
-1/2 banana
-1 C frozen mixed berries
-1 scoop Sun Warrior
-1 T peanut butter
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My latest and most frequent kitchen disaster has been the oatbran overflowing out of the pot! It may not have triggered the fire alarm, but it sure is a pest to clean up!
I was baking a dessert, using my hand-held beater, when I sprayed batter all over the place. Then, as I was cleaning up, I had the cupboard over the counter open, and proceeded to knock spice containers into my batter–twice! Oh, and then I knocked over the hand beater again, onto the floor. This small kitchen is going to be the death of my baked goods! 🙂
My recent kitchen disaster: my mom’s chocolate birthday cake flowed over its pan like molten lava onto the oven floor. Nearly burned the house down. Last minute brownies with fresh whipped cream and berries saved the day 🙂
My kitchen disaster: I was making my own trail mix bars and while boiling the honey mixture i turned around for a split second and before I knew it the honey mixture was running quickly out of the pot…onto the stove top…down the side of my stove and onto the floor…it was such fun to clean up! lol 🙂 Fortunately i was able to redo them and they are my husbands fav treat!
This book would be perfect for me, my husband and my veggie loving 4 year old daughter! 🙂
The most recent kitchen disaster involved a pie at Thanksgiving…liquid filling, thin disposable pie tin. Folded right in two as it was going in the top oven, pouring directly into the vents for the door of the lower oven. Needed to have the gasket replaced and some serious cleaning!
My latest kitchen disaster was burning TWO grilled cheeses before finally being able to eat the third one. Easy dinner FAIL 🙁
I tried making a special meal for my boyfriend for our anniversary with a great piece of fresh halibut. I usually grill halibut but decided to try a recipe from glutenfreegirl.com for baking the fish in parchment paper. The recipe called for spices and white wine to be placed in the parchment bag. Well… I eyeballed the amount of wine I put in and must’ve gotten carried away…as the fish turned out SUPER “moist”. Gross! I redeemed myself by trying it out another night with proper measurements and the halibut was PERFECT!!
My disaster was burning my whole pot of rice. Isn’t that supposed to be the hardest thing to mess up? Agh!
Hi Gina! Do you recommend smoothies as snacks or meal replacements? Does it depend on the smoothie? Thanks!! 🙂
In our kitchen, nothing really bad has happened, but our microwave has been going off by itself a lot and has been for a few years!
I tried to make sticky rice out of regular rice and molasses since I forgot to get sushi rice at the store (and had already run out to WF twice before in the day). Needless to say, it didn’t work. I was trying to make my own protein bars…it all tasted good…it was just one gloppy mess to eat. 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
Umm, the inside of my microwave legitimately went up in flames last Wednesday, and I have NO idea why! I guess that was my most current kitchen disaster- a little boring I know:p.
Xxx
While attempting to wash the french press and make a salad at the same time (don’t ask–haha), I dropped the french press and glass shattered. Then, the hummus fell off the counter and spilled on the floor. Multitasking backfired!
I had an ovensafe glass casserole dish on my stovetop ready for a turkey and turned on–or thought I turned on, the oven to pre-heat. Instead I accidentally turned the stovetop on and about 20 minutes later as I leaned over the stovetop to realize my error—BAM! the casserole dish exploded into a zillion tiny pieces. Luckily, there was no damage and we’re still finding pieces of the dish when we sweep. Ugh!
Thanks for the giveaway!
I am a teacher, and I was making cookies for my kiddos. I was trying to sub ingredients to make them healthier. I think I made a few too many substitutions, because the cookies came out sticky and goopy. Lesson learned: sometimes, just make the unhealthy cookies. I ended up buying my class treats from the bakery instead.
I was making homemade organic coconut milk and had the blender filled to capacity with coconut and water. As I turned on my Vitamix blender I had left it on the highest settings and apparently did not get the lid fastened down tight and all of the sudden it was raining coconut all over me and my kitchen – All I could do was laugh but the mess made me want to cry!!!
The husband and I had a day we needed a super quick dinner to get out the door fast. It was near the end of the weak and the pickin’s were slim, so a frozen pizza seemed like a great idea…until the timer dinged, I took the pizza out of the oven and realized I’d baked it cheese side down. Pizza fail.
I would love that cookbook – in great need of new ideas! I was making a frozen pizza for my boyfriend and in my tired state forgot to take the cardboard off the bottom. You could probably imagine what happened after….. I blame grad school tiredness! Don’t judge.. don’t judge… haha 🙂
I’d love to make that almond butter bake!! Please please I need this book – I am a gluten free fish eater but mostly vegan!
Thanks!!!
Megan
http://www.etsy.com/shop/florachild
I made cookies last week for a friend who had just had a baby. Unfortunately I left out the salt and baking soda. They didn’t taste all that great. 🙁
Not so much a cooking disaster as lack of sleep, but running the coffee maker without water! It started steaming and gurgling before I realized!
The cumin and cinammon sit next to each other in my spice rack, on more than one occasion my oats have been sprinkled with cumin! Time to rearrange the spices!
I had spent about a week trying to figure out how to cook brown rice (I don’t have a rice-cooker and the directions on the package weren’t working for me . It would turn out overcooked and gummy or undercooked every time!). Properly cooking rice was my white whale. After about three attempts I finally got it right! . . . And promptly over-salted it so I couldn’t eat it, haha!
We had friends over for dinner and decided to make artichoke hash. It took forever so we ate at like 9pm and it looked and tasted disgusting!
My most recent kitchen debacle would have to be when i tried to make my own tortilla chip (maybe a bit ambitious) and the oil created so much smoke it filled my whole living room! From now on, I’m sticking to the ones from a bag!
I would LOVE to get my hands on this cookbook!! I just recently switched from vegetarianism to veganism and I am really enjoying exploring so many new, exciting recipes! As for a recent kitchen disaster, I’d have to say probably the weird Mac & Cheeze thing I made last week… the noodles were undercooked, and then I burnt them in the pan because I wasn’t paying attention, AND I forgot to add the Tamari in the cheeze sauce, so it was clumpy and really strange-tasting. We ended up throwing it out and ordering pizza instead. 😉
I was sauteeing english peas in a skillet with a little veggie broth. I put them on low and decided to go into the living room. I saw Storage Wars was on TV and I’m crazy obsessed with it so I started watching it. About 10 minutes later, I start to smell smoke and the fire alarm goes off! I totally forgot about my peas. When I saw them, they looked like little, black rabbit turds! It was the last of my supply so I was bummed.
I was trying to move out of my apartment so I was combining foods and hoping for the best. Well I decided to make granola by just using oats and half a jar of peanut butter. who would’ve thought to melt it first? then it was just huge clumps so I stuck it in the oven hoping once it melted it’d be fine. hoppe in the shower and forgot about it until I smelled it burning. law school finals brain fail
I was toasting coconut to sprinkle on my chai oatmeal, and I forgot about it in the oven. When my son asked about the extra coconut, I jumped up to grab it just in time for it to burst into little tropical flames! I had to throw the pan out the door. But I’m happy to say, the chai oatmeal was still delish. 🙂
I was using all four burners and was not paying attention-all four overflowed and got crap deep into them. I tried cleaning them, but I still can’t use a burner without the kitchen getting smoky!
I’d love a copy of the cookbook! For the past 3 months, my husband and I have been living in a hotel room (oh how we love TDYs enroute!) with no kitchen. In an effort to maintain a healthy diet, I still make dinner for us, using our 3 quart crock pot and toaster. I found a crock pot recipe for an egg dish, and I tried to make it one night. I must have done something wrong, because my husband, who has eaten everything I’ve ever made for him, couldn’t stomach it. We ended up throwing away the food and going out to eat. Fortunately, that’s been my only epic fail in the past 3 months!
My latest kitchen fail was quite likes yours. I live in a small apartment and set the fire alarm almost every time I cook somehow, but this time I was just stir-fry some veggies and there went the fire alarm!
Those curry chickpeas sound amazing! My most recent disaster was an attempt at inventing a platain-falafel recipe. The plantains were so dry. I had Imagined I would mash the
Like potatoes but they were so dry and hard I had to use the food processor. On top of that I got the spices all wrong. These were inedible, dry, disgusting little pucks!
I’m nannying for the summer, and need to cook dinner for the family each night. I don’t usually eat a lot of meat and am not very good at preparing it – on my second day they put a chicken roast type thing into the crockpot, so before they came home I thought I’d thicken the sauce into a gravy. Turns out I’m not exactly sure how to make gravy! It ended up being a cornstarch sauce that was thin and…still just like cornstarch. I tried to hide the sauce when I served the chicken 😉 I would love to introduce them to some new vegan recipes!
I over toasted my almonds for homemade almond butter 🙁 I still tried to process them, but it was a major fail.
My latest disaster was trying to cook something without a recipe from memory and needless to say it wasn’t good. AT. ALL!
My last attempt to make brownies I added 3/4 cup of water instead of 1/4- they still came out ok but this is why I don’t bake.
I left my oatmeal on high heat and walked away for a second and it was overflowing onto the stove when I came back!
My most recent disaster was a dinner I was making for my fiancé – shrimp and chorizo tacos. I used small salad shrimp and I let it cook so long that the shrimp actually dissolved!! So ended up just chorizo tacos. The fiancé was a little disappointed! I now use large shrimp when making him this meal! 😉
Awesome giveaway! My most recent kitchen fail is a bit embarrassing. It involved a toaster, and me burning 6 consecutive pieces of toast. Let’s just say the birds ate well that day;) Those curried almond chickpeas look amazing!
I like to toast up my corn tortillas to get them a little crunchy to use as tostadas. I looked away for a second. I turned around and saw my toaster oven on fire. I felt particularly stupid because that isn’t the first time I made the same mistake. My bad. My kitchen smelled for several days.
My last kitchen “disaster” was dropping an open-faced peanut butter sandwich on the floor. Why do food items always have to land sticky-side-down on the floor? I mean, it’s not like I would salvage it for consumption either way, but it makes cleanup more annoying!
That salad looks amazing!! Basically everytime I cook I burn whatever I cook – ie. eggs, toast, chili, pancakes, popcorn haha
I was making a champagne cake – champagne in the cake batter and the frosting. The cake turned out all right. I’m still not sure exactly how I messed up the frosting, but it separated and was greasy and disgusting!! Such a bummer waste of yummy bubbles!
I tried to make a blueberry bread made with almond flour, but it just did not come out right! Thanks for the giveaway 🙂
I went vegan over 3 years ago, after being vegetarian for 20 years. The cookbooks that I originally purchased relied a lot of processed foods and meat substitutions. Over the past year I’ve tried to avoid those types of foods and eat only whole foods, nothing out of a box. Dreena’s cookbook sounds like just what I’ve been looking for! My most recent kitchen disaster didn’t really come from a cooking mishap. My husband was on the counter getting something for me from the top shelf of the cupboard, I opened the cabinet under where he was standing, unbeknownst to him. He jumped down, landed on the cabinet, breaking it in half and ripping it off the hinges. I was so furious that I didn’t even ask him how he was at first! He fixed the cabinet (you can’t even tell it was broken!) and he was fine after a week or so!
I was making a batch of steel cut oats in the rice cooker and apparently used too much liquid. I went to check on the oats and had goo flowing out of the rice cooker and all over my counter. Note to self – double check your liquid measurements! I’d love to try this new cookbook!
My most recent disaster was a couple of weeks ago. I was making almond milk and in a hurry. Rather than carefully squeezing the muslin to get the milk out, I squeezed too hard. I hadn’t twisted the cloth tightly enough and almond milk shot out in all directions. It was on the counter, on the mixer, on the Vitamix, but mostly, it was down the entire front of my shirt. Not just a little bit, but about a cup of almond milk and paste, all over me. I was in a hurry for a conference call (I work from home), so didn’t have time to change before the call. Thankfully, it was a short call and I was able to go clean up my mess, and change into a dry shirt. Yes, I’m more careful now!
My latest cooking catastrophe was trying to make tzatkiki sauce using plain almond yogurt – not so good folks 🙁 I would LOVE to win this cookbook!
My recent kitchen disaster was actually yesterday when I left a pan on the stove without anything in it and the heat on high! I left for an hour to get groceries and came back to a horrible small and VERY hot kitchen! WOOPS!