Let's go Phillies!

This past weekend my dad took me to game three of the World Series. I'm originally from Philly and my family still lives there, so I've been a Phillies fan all my life. The last time they made it to the big show I was in 6th grade, we are so due! Despite a two hour rain delay and generally miserable weather, we had a great time. There's nothing quite like being part of a happy mob of 45,000+.

Adding to the fun - vegan cheesesteak! As this article notes, the Phillie's ballpark has lots of vegan food offerings, so many that it was named North America's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Ballpark. Sweeet. While I think it's great that they have vegan burgers and hotdogs (the sign at the concessions stand even says that they're vegan!) a vegan cheesesteak sounded like more fun. The Rick's steaks stand offers vegan chickensteak and regular steak (sadly no soy cheese, so it's really a steak sandwhich, not a cheesesteak). My dad was awesome enough to wait in line with me, in the rain, for the better part of an hour so I could get mine. Not like there's anything better to do during a rain delay, right?
The last time I went to a game I got the regular steak, so this time I tried the chicken. They're both yummy, but I think the chicken has the edge. You can customize your sandwhich and I piled it all on - onions, mushrooms, peppers and pizza sauce (aka The Works). All on the classic Philly steak sandwhich roll.
The perfect food to get me through to 2 am, cheering my lungs out!

Jaime's peanut butter cookies

I got the best surprise ever in the mail yesterday - a box of vegan peanut butter cookies, baked by my best friend! She moved across the country a few months ago, and I miss her terribly. She wrapped these up tightly and they stayed moist and yummy on their journey.
She included the recipe, and since these are crazy good I'll share it with you:

Combine 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 3/4 tsp salt. In another bowl mix 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup maple syrup, 1/3 cup olive oil, and 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix the wet and dry together until just combined. Let sit 5 minutes. Give it two quick stirs and spoon onto parchment covered cookie sheets. Bake 10-11 minutes at 350.

She dusted the tops with brown sugar, very fancy. These are quite possibly the best vegan cookies I've ever had!

Give a girl a sugar pumpkin...

...and she'll be eating pumpkin all week. One little pumpkin goes a long way!

For dinner the other night I made Curried Pumpkin Cream Sauce. It came out super rich and creamy, like an autumnal vegan alfredo.

Ingredients:
-flesh from 1/2 of a roasted sugar pumpkin (about 2 cups)
-1 cup unsweetened MimicCreme (you could substitute any non-dairy milk, but you'll lose the richness)
-1 tbsp curry powder
-1/2 tsp ground coriander
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp salt
-dash black pepper
-1 lb. fettuccine (I used whole wheat)
-4 vegan sausage patties (I used Whole Food's brand)

1. Slice the pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds and stringy stuff and put on a lightly greased baking sheet, cut side down. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes, until very soft.
2. Scoop out flesh from one half and place in a medium saucepan(save the other half for another time).
3. Add all other ingredients and blend with an immersion blender. Add more creme if you want it thinner.
4. Simmer the sauce at medium-low for about ten minutes, till heated through.
4. While the sauce is cooking, boil pasta and heat sausages in a pan.
5. Mix sauce with pasta. Crumble sausage with a fork and mix in.It kind of looks like barf, I know. But I swear it tasted awesome. And MimicCreme is my new favorite thing - so so rich with such simple ingredients!

With the leftover pumpkin I tested an iced pumpkin bread recipe for an upcoming Happy Herbivore cookbook. If I didn't know better I'd swear this had a cup of oil in it. Way too good to still be so healthy!Slice being devoured. Hee.

I still have about 1/2 a cup of pumpkin left!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I know I'm behind the times, but how awesome are Lindsay's carrot cake cupcakes?
Sooo yummy, with gobs of cream cheese icing. It really doesn't seem possible that these are vegan, whole wheat, and low fat. Can't wait to make them again!

Sheese-y breakfast

Thanks to My Organic Market, I got to try Sheese. Definitely the best vegan cheese I've tried so far - blows the FYH cheddar out of the water, in my opinion. It's good on all its own, right from the package.
I made a sheese-themed breakfast featuring sheese-y tofu scramble (grated on top at the end) and sheese-y black beans (put a can of beans in a pan, added grated sheese, heated through). Mmmmm. OB went a step further and had sliced sheese on toast alongside.

Isn't he cute?