The Roos need your help!

(Photo taken at Detroit Zoo - A Mommy Roo)

Kangaroos need your voice! California is currently considering Senate Bill 880, which would allow sales of kangaroo skin. If passed, SB 880 would mean suffering and death for countless kangaroos, including babies who are orphaned when their mothers are shot.
Please click on the link below to watch video footage of kangaroo hunts and to send a quick note to members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee asking them to oppose SB 880.

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/p2_kangarooskin/

From Peta2.

Thank you!

So well put.....

Being vegan helped me realize I
can say and do what I believe is right.
That's powerful. -Alicia Silverstone

Mangos - Lick-a-Dee Splitter

I am like, the best girlfriend ever. I bought Goods, for his birthday,
a Mango Splitter!

So easy to use (especially if Goods is doing it for you). Just stand the mango on end, line the inside of the cutter up with the ridge on the mango and press the splitter right straight down.

And this is what you get-

One seed & two pieces of mango- and what you don't get is bloody fingers!

Then you slice it up from there. It actually doesn't leave too much meat on the seed, but you can cut off any if you like. No, it doesn't peel the mango- but that's the easy part.

I love kitchen gadgets...some good, some not so good....THIS IS GOOD!

It's made by OXO International , but I bought it locally at Bed Bath & Beyond. Since it was a gift to Goods, I won't put the price here, on the blog- but you can see it buy following the links. (Don't forget to use your BBB coupon that you get bombarded with in the mail!)

A Good Addiction

Okay – Let’s see where to start – Let us see- Letus see – LETTUCE!
That’s it, Lettuce wraps.

Goods & I have a serious new addiction to lettuce wraps.
It all started when we went to Mon Jin Lau’s -He ordered their lettuce wraps. He loved their lettuce wraps (none for me, they consisted of chicken) – so that put me on a quest to make my version.

So here we go…..

First I press 1- block of extra firm tofu- (I do mine for at least an hour)

Make the marinate for both veggies & tofu:
¼ c. minced onion
1 T. fresh grated ginger
3-5 minced garlic cloves
1/3 c. of canola oil
½ T. sesame oil
2 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. tamari
2 T. Hoisin sauce
½ c. water
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1 T dried parsley
1 tsp. cilantro (I would use fresh, but I didn’t have)
Ground pepper to taste
Dash of Cayenne Pepper (if desired)

**this should make about 2 cup of liquid – if it doesn’t add more of liquid of preference to do so.

(sometimes I add orange juice - to be wild)

I receive weekly, beautiful veggies from Door To Door Organics.
So I cut up all sorts of fresh veggies in small pieces- approx 8 cups total
Some suggestions:
Broccoli
Carrots
Boy Choy
Onion
Bean Sprouts
Peppers – Red, Green, Jalapeno, Banana etc.
Waterchestnuts (canned of course)

After the tofu is done being pressed– cut in small pieces (½” square or smaller) pour some of the marinate on the tofu (how does ¼ c. sound??)
Pour the rest of the marinate on the cut up veggies…oh - make sure they are in a bowl or some sort of container before you pour it on the veggies.

Now let the marination begin! I let it set for at least an hour.

After all the flavors have infiltrated the tofu & veggies – it’s time for cooking-
Tofu: Heat a skillet with a tablespoon of peanut oil (or oil of choice). Stir fry tofu until desired crispness. Reserve liquid marinate for tofu or veggies if needed.
Veggies: In separate large skillet, stir fry veggies (no need to pre-oil pan)

After all is done to your liking – toss veggies and tofu together.

Door to Door sends beautiful leaf lettuce that allows us wrap the veggies & tofu to feed our lettuce wrap addiction. Take a lettuce leaf and spoon in the cooked mixture.

I like to top my wrap with chopped peanuts and put a big smidgen of Vegan with a Vengeance Peanut Sauce (Page 165) . (BTW, I don’t cook the sauce as in the recipe- because I’m lazy- but it is still excellent!) Goods prefers a Ginger Dressing that we buy at a local oriental market. Also I like to put top it with some chopped peanuts. (Also served store bought veggie potstickers.)

Oh – have lots of napkins ready......

Now this is the first time I have written anything down for making lettuce wraps. I like everything highly seasoned, so I would increase the amount of seasoning next time….but over all I was happy with the outcome.

By the way – if you want to know how many this recipe serves – humm…. yes this is scary- but it’s 2 with a some left over for a lunch for me. I told you we had a problem of lettuce wrap addiction.

Overall rating 5 out of 5 forks - or should it be forkless?

Lazy Bones

I have a lot of blogging catching up to do….
I’ve been cooking, I’ve been taking photos, but I’ve also been lazy
…like my cat Guido. Goods & I got back from our glorious trip to Los Cabos ….and I think that is where my laziness started. We did an excellent job eating, drinking and lying in the sun. I was lucky that the resort had many tasty food options for my vegan palette, and they were extremely accommodating if the menu gave me no choices. They also had a hibachi restaurant on site- which was wonderful for me- and now their sushi chefs know how to make vegan sushi….but no wasahbi??? Not sure what was up with that.

On the flight back from Cabo, we had a plane change in Phoenix- because of technical difficulties we missed out flight to Detroit (this was Sunday evening) The next available flight back to Detroit was Tuesday night at 11:00 (major weather issues). After Goods calmed my down, we made the best of it – Hey American West was paying for our hotel and gave us food vouchers….so Goods rented a car and off we went-

We went to the Desert…. We went to Scottsdale…..
Where I was totally ecstatic to have wasahbi with my sushi!
And I got my tofu fix – oh how I missed my tofu in Mexico!

And we went to the Phoenix Zoo….
We finally made it home…..and I cooked and cooked, baked and cooked. See, who had time for blogging with all that cooking?
So stay tuned for some yumminess, and some not so yumminess!

VEGAN SUGAR

Since I'm a newbie in the Vegan lifestyle, I have a lot to learn. I try and read the labels of products, I'm learning a whole new Vegan vocabulary, and I've learned that you have to ask a lot of questions. I've learned so much already just from other Vegan Bloggers- it's made the switch to vegetarianism to veganizm so much easier and exciting.

I learned from other Bloggers about how most white sugar is processed with bone char. I was not all giddy about that when I read it. I've always loved baking & I bake a lot- My man, Goods, likes his bake goods and since I refuse to by all that sugary, fat loaded, chemical loaded bake goods at the grocery store for him - I bake. So the dilemma then came about concerning what white sugar (I do use my share of Turbinado sugar) do I use???? The past few years I've been buying a local Michigan manufactured brand - Pioneer Sugar. So I sent them an email asking them about their manufacturing process and here is what their response.........

Dee,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Michigan Sugar Company’s sugar products do not contain any animal products. In addition, Michigan Sugar Company does not use bone char as a filter aid or any other animal products in the production process.

Sincerely,

Matt Tucker
Quality Assurance Supervisor
Michigan Sugar Company

So Yeaaaahhh, Pioneer Sugar is vegan friendly!!!!!!!

BTW- I live in Southeastern Michigan, so I'm not sure how far their distribution area extends.

Here is a page from their website explaining their manufacturing process
http://www.michigansugar.com/documents/supplement/17.pdf

Pioneer is a beet sugar. I've been reading a little on sugar cane vs. beet sugar, and there seems to an industry preference to cane sugar. As I stated previously, I've been (unknowingly) using VEGAN beet sugar for years. I've canned with it, baked with it, and made cocktails with it. I haven't noticed a difference. Has anyone out there have a preference???

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

Really - stop what you are doing right now and go make these cookies!

http://squirrelsvegankitchen.com/recipes/

....be back soon!