Happy Friday, everyone! I’m pretty sure this week was extra long. I don’t care that the calendar says it had 5 days like every other work week. It. Was. Long.

With that said I feel like it’s too easy to focus on the negative and complain about my week so let’s do Friday Favorites as top 5 positive things from this week, shall we? That’s way more fun…

1. Saturday I partied it up with my friend, Rachel, and her very cool friends. It was a birthday/cinco de mayo party. I didn’t drink a drop of margaritas. I know! Who am I?? I did have two very large glasses of the world’s best sangria though. Seriously. I tried to get the recipe and Eric was not having it. It was also the first time I’ve had people who I haven’t met before say “Oh! You write Wicked Vegan? I read your blog all the time!” Or something along that line. It was a very cool moment. Hey, Deanna!

1. Rachel punched the Pinata open. Bats are for woosies and 2. it was filled with little bottles of liquor!

2. SOWA is finally open! I walked around Sunday in the sunshine with my friend, Lisa. She bought the world’s cutest teal dress that looked like it was straight out of New Girl. I bought an umbrella necklace and a cactus. It was a good day.

3. I received the following rant from my friend Melissa, via email, this week that made me laugh out loud in my cube. This comes AFTER she sent me a dress from modcloth to consider for Lisa’s wedding this summer:

“Also, Modcloth is sort of evil because I imagine they must be  bunch of tiny little Zooey Deschenel clones in colored tights and vintage cardigans. Manic Pixie Dreamgirls at their worst, not even realizing their power to destroy another girl’s self-esteem because they can’t imagine a dress size that accommodates for hips.
Evil hags.”

LOL! Well, ok then!

4. but that email couldn’t top my Dad’s discovery of emoticons. After he sent me some clapping hands (he’s partial to the animated ones), I firmly told him he was WAY too old for emoticons and he needed to stop. Immediately. This did not work. Instead, I got messages like this:

Note: The little dude in red dances..and the beer glasses clink…and the smiley face bounces… and the whale spurts water…yeap.

BUT, the cherry on top was when I found out that he sent Mom a “hive with bees buzzing”:

He’s firmly sticking to his bee hive story but clearly, I’m not buying it! He definitely sent my mom an animated emoticon of poop! My parents are hilarious.

and last but not least, 5. I made these cookies as a sugar-free snack for post-yoga. Rachel and I are still going strong with the hot yoga, even though the Team Lean Challenge has concluded. Well, I should say Rachel is going strong. I seem to be getting progressively worse. But silverlining- I get to chill in child’s pose and watch the very hot guy in yoga attempt Warrior 1. “mmhmm…it is really hot in here… I’m sure taking off your shirt would be a total improvement… Thank you, yoga gods!”

I know I’m being annoyingly clique right now but I REALLY wish it wasn’t Monday. I could have used one more day this weekend.

My oh-so-awesome landlord decided that the construction he has been doing the last several week should continue at 7 am on Saturday, my one day to sleep in. I was thrilled to turn over in bed at such an early hour and see a middle aged latino man working outside my window as I slept and he worked on the apartment. Thankfully, my blinds were mostly shut. Mostly.

I was then even more overjoyed to see that our driveway was strewed with wooden boards, discards shingles, tools and machines making it impossible for me to get out until around 4 pm, when they were finish their work and had cleaned up. So much for a fun filled day of errands and shopping

Yes, I was in an excellent mood on Saturday.

Thankfully, I made good use of my Saturday evening by having a few friends over and watching the first few episodes of Games of Throne. I may be kind of addicted! Can we just talk about how infuriating the Lannisters are?! ARGH! Every time Cersei Lannister and her ugly ass, scheming self are on the screen I just want to punch her!

But I digress, a TV viewing party would be incomplete without some good food. I whipped up these vegan-friendly Sloppy Joes and they got thumbs up all around from my non-vegan friends. My friend, Rachel’s boyfriend, had three of them and he definitely isn’t vegan. I consider that a win!

Sloppy Chicks
from Keepin’ It Kind

the original recipe says it makes 4; we used average hot dog bugs and we got 7 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ red bell pepper, diced
• 2 15oz cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 15oz can of fire roasted tomatoes, diced
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 2 T soy sauce
• 2 T Sriracha Sauce
• 1 T Maple Syrup
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 ½ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 T nutritional yeast (optional)
• salt/pepper to taste
• optional toppings: avocado or vegan cheese

• 4 vegan hamburger or hotdog buns; could also serve it on a baked potato or with lettuce in a wrap

Instructions:

• Pour the chickpeas into a bowl.  Use a fork to mash them until they are in small chunks/shreds.  I like to mash about half the chickpeas and keep half whole for texture. Set aside.

• Preheat the oven to it’s lowest temperature.  Open the buns (if you are using them) and place the halves, cut side up, on the center rack (or on a baking sheet).  Let them heat up for about 10-15 minutes.

• Heat the olive oil in a large shallow saucepan over medium heat for about one minute.  Add the onion and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant.  Add the bell pepper and the chickpeas and sauté for about two minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes, until heated through and slightly thickened.  If it sticks, add a little water to scrape the pan and lower the heat a bit.

• Once the buns are warmed and the chickpea mixture is hot, scoop the mixture onto the buns.  Serve while hot.

I did spend Sunday eating brunch, working out and soaking up the sunshine so my landlord was not able to destroy my whole weekend. Can I just say, Sunday was beautiful here in Boston! If I could have  one wish, it may be that everyday is as beautiful as that day was.

So, any Game of Throne fans? Thoughts? I’m only on season 1 so don’t spoil anything but please, tell me I’m not the only one who wants to punch some of these characters in the face.

Unplugged. Picnicking on my porch after work, reading a book, eating veggie scramble and oranges and soaking up the warmth and fresh air

Hello, all and Happy Friday!

Things have been quiet over here at Wicked Vegan. Here’s some reasons why:

First, a few weeks ago, I realized I was getting a number of headaches. The kind of headaches where you are taking extra strength Tylenol PM at 6pm and zonking yourself out so you can sleep away the pain. I haven’t had headaches like that since I gave up dairy so I was kind of surprised. After taking a mental step back I realized, I was in front of a screen A LOT! Computer when I get up to check email and blogs, computer at work, cell phone at lunch to play candy crush, computer when I got home, cell phone all day. I caught myself at one point watching TV, while on my laptop and on my cell phone texting people. No wonder I was giving myself a headache! So, I’ve been trying my best to unplug. After work is spent at hot yoga, ballet, reading or hanging out with my friends. I’ve pushed my book club to get their act together, practiced my guitar and overall, felt a lot better. This means less time to write blog posts and edit pictures, though. I’m working on setting up a balance where I update the blog once a week, set the posts to launch at a certain time and then walk away. It’s a work in progress. I haven’t abandoned the blog though and I look forward to sharing some great recipes next week

And second, last week was CRAZY in Boston. I actually had a post for cookies and Friday favorites scheduled to launch on Friday but I was woken up at 5:30 to my work being cancelled “Due to Police Activity”. WTF? Turns out my work, which is in Watertown, was closed because the Boston Marathon Bomber was on the loose. Then the whole of Boston was on lock down! I live approximately 2 miles from Watertown so you bet your butt my roommate and I were glued to our TVs all afternoon watching the drama unfold. With everything as tense as it was, I didn’t feel like a comical blog post on cookies was appropriate so I pushed the blog back…to next week. Stay tuned!

Now, onto some Friday Favorites… because I can!

1. Favorite New Blog Find: Thug Kitchen. It’s hilarious and vegan. Homeboy’s only been up and running since August and Gwyneth Paltrow is already throwing props his way on Rachel Ray. Go. Read. Learn how to avoid dick cancer…

(picture 100% property of Thugkitchen.com)

2. Best Call-em-out, point-the-finger, and tear-them-a-new-one News Reporting. Ahh, Jon Stewart. Thank you for saying what we were all thinking.

3. New Music Video Obsession:Paramore- Still into you

4. Favorite Way to Stay hydrated: Water + muddled Fruit + a few hours to sit and get yummy= Aqua Fresca. Shown here is Pineapple Strawberry and All Citrus (Lime, Orange and Lemon). You’re supposed to get something like 8 glasses of water a day. WATER. Not fruit juice, coke, coffee or booze, all of which can actually dehydrate you and do crazy things to your blood sugar and digestion. WATER. Making water fun helps get that done.

Half-gallon mason jars hold 6 cups. That’s almost the Doctor recommended amount of water you should be drinking. Get on this!

5. Favorite New Subscription: Boston Organics! Its like channeling the excitement of getting a package in the mail, except it’s all organic produce. Isn’t that exciting!!! I’m currently signed up for a bi-weekly produce drop off. My box is half veggies, half fruit and it’s all organic. You can also have add on’s like eggs, coffee, tea, chocolate, milk, etc. Again, all organic. I’m pretty stoked! My first box arrived last Thursday so I’m still trying to work it all out.

6. Favorite concert: Andrew McMahon.  I’m so in love with him right now. I saw him a few weeks ago and I’m still riding the high. Favorite song- Hammer and Strings by Andrew’s band, Jack’s Mannequin. This wasn’t played at my concert but it is easily one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time. Check it out below.

What have you been up to lately? What are you into? This weekend I have a date with some friends and season 1 of Games of Thrones. I’m told I’ll love it. I’m skeptical… Whatever your plans are though, I hope you have a great weekend and I will be back next week with some new recipes

This week has been rough. On Tuesday, our dog Ace, died really unexpectantly. The vet thinks it was cancer in his chest. He was still pretty young at 8 and it hit us all really hard. He was a super good dog, even though he was mildly neurotic. He didn’t like red rugs. He had a nightly routine which involved giving his blanky a tour of the house before settling down. And overall, he really didn’t like change. But, don’t we all have quirks? I can’t eat m&ms or skittles without sorting them into groups by color. Is that any less weird then avoiding red rugs? Needless to say, he fit into our family pretty well and it’s been hard losing him.

So, I’ve been trying to stay busy all week. Tuesday night, despite the news, I went to ballet class, swollen red poofy eyes and all. Last night, I went on a bit of a shopping spree with my friend, Rachel. Container store, Lush, Barnes and Noble, fro-yo with soy yogurt AND Whole Foods. It was kind of epic. And perfectly fun and distracting.

Thankfully and completely by coincidence,  I managed to get my act together on Sunday evening and make food for the whole week. So, despite my running around and blurred vision, I have still been eating well.

This salad seems like it may be boatloads of work, but you can make everything in advance and it makes several servings so you can have it for lunch or dinner throughout the week. Check out some substitutions all the way at the bottom if you want to save some time.

To roast the zucchini, summer squash and asparagus, I used the new baking sheet my Grandma gave me. Look how much bigger it is compared to my old ones!

Roasted Veggie Salad with Herb Quinoa Oat Bread

Roasted Veggie Salad:

• 2 small zucchini
• 2 small summer squash
• 1 large bunch of asparagus (skinny stalks are the best! But that may be personal preference…)
• 1/2 butternut squash
• baby spinach or arugala (Whichever you prefer. I have had both and both were delicious. I tend to have baby spinach on hand more frequently though because I also use it in smoothies)
• coconut oil
• salt and pepper to taste (optional)
• pepita seeds

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Dice your butternut squash into cubes and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with coconut oil (I didnt measure but I would estimate 1 TBSP) and toss until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste if you are using.

Dice your zucchini and summer squash. Remove the tough ends from the asparagus and cut into thirds. Put the zucchini, summer squash and asparagus on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with coconut oil (again, around 1TBSP) and toss until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place the butternut squash in the oven for 30 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, put the other tray of veggies in.

When the 30 minute are up, remove the veggies from the oven. Veggies can be hot or cold when served, both are delicious so it’s a matter of preference. To serve, place a slice of toasted Herb Quinoa Oat Bread down (recipe below), top with a bed of spinach or arugala, then your roasted veggies, drizzle with apple cider vinaigrette (recipe below) and sprinkle with pepita seeds. Dig in!!

Apple Cider Vinaigrette
from Food Network

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put in a jar, shake it up and serve.

Herb Quinoa Oat Bread
recipe from Edible Perspective
2-3 servings (I cut mine into 6 servings to get me through the week)

• 1/2c GF oat flour*
• 3/4c quinoa flour
• 1/4c almond flour
• 1c water
• 1.5T ground chia seeds or ground flax seeds
• 1.5T coconut oil
• 1T unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4t salt
• 1/4t garlic powder
• 1t parsley
• 1t oregano
• 1t thyme
• 5-8 grinds of black pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 375.

2. Add 1/2T coconut oil to a 9” round/square pan and place in the oven.  A cast iron pan works really well.  Or line a 9” round/square pan with parchment paper.

3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

4. Pour in the water, applesauce, and 1T of melted coconut oil.

5. Stir until just combined and let sit for 5min.  Batter should be thick, but pourable after sitting.

6. While the batter is sitting, place the pan in the oven with 1/2T coconut oil for 5min.  Remove from the oven and spread the oil around the sides + bottom of the pan.  *If using parchment paper, skip this step.

7. Pour the batter into the pan, spread to the edges, then shake lightly to even out.

8. Bake for 38-42min, until the bread is cracked on top, pulled away from the sides, and edges are golden brown.  I always bake mine for 40min.

9. Let cool to fully firm up, then remove from the pan + slice.

10. Store in a sealed container for 3-4 days.

* notes from Wicked Vegan: Don’t be intimidated by the list of unusual flours. I currently have at least 5 different flours in my pantry, none of which are the ones listed above and I was determined not to buy another. So I made these flours with the oats, quinoa and almonds that I already had. Just put the oats, quinoa and almonds in a food processor or magic bullet, separately, and blend until they have broken down into a flour consistency.  The oat flour and quinoa flour were very easy to turn to flour. I had a bit of trouble with the almonds, which resulted in a corn-bread texture to my bread. It was still delicious, it just didn’t look like the pictures from Edible Perspective but I was ok with that.

notes from Edible Perspective: I have found coconut oil to be the best to prevent sticking.  Feel free to sub another high-heat safe oil.  This recipe would be great as a base for pizza.  Remove the bread from the pan, pile on toppings, then bake for 5-10min.  Feel free to sub buckwheat, millet, amaranth, or corn flour for the oat or quinoa flour but not the almond meal.  You can easily make these gluten free flours at home in your blender or food processor.  For GF oat flour, use rolled oats, oat groats, or steel cut oats.  Process until turned into a fine flour.  You can make almond meal by processing almonds until turned into a soft meal with no almond pieces.

You can roast any veggies that you want for this salad. California Pizza Kitchen has a salad similar to this and they use eggplant. You could also throw in mushrooms, green beans, bell peppers or onions. I really think whatever you like would work in here.

Store bought Naan can be subbed in for the quinoa bread. I had originally bought roasted garlic naan for this recipe but holy crap was that stuff delicious! I ended up eating the four pieces before I even began to make this recipe so I decided that maybe I didn’t need more of that deliciousness in the house! After all, oatmeal with a side of roasted garlic naan for breakfast, soup with roasted garlic naan for lunch and just warm roasted garlic naan dipped in hummus for dinner doesn’t exactly make a well rounded day of food.

Balsamic vinaigrette, bottled or homemade, can be subbed for the apple cider vinaigrette dress.

ok, I promise no more sad stuff tomorrow on WV. I’ll try and bring you some fun Friday Favorites complete with some upbeat music.

So, I’m typing this on Sunday evening. I’ve painted my figure nails with Butter London nail polish (free of Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP, the three harshest chemicals in nail polish); I just finished up a roasted veggie salad on home made gluten-free flat bread for dinner (recipe to come); I’m working on my vegan blog about homemade granola; aaand, I’m watching the Academy of Country music awards? Yeah… one of these things doesn’t belong. I feel like country music should go with beer swiggin’, not herbal tea sippin’.

I’d like to think Luke Bryant would find my “Blow Raspberries”-painted nails pretty sexy, though…

Anyway, this is my favorite, go-to granola recipes. I almost always have all the ingredients on hand, it goes together super fast and it goes with everything. Enjoy!

Almond Coconut Granola
recipe in Skinny Bitch in the Kitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin; found online at Spark Recipes

• 2 c. rolled oats
• 1 1/4 c. slivered almonds (you can use whatever almonds you have on hand. I prefer slivered because it provides a nice crunch)
• 3/4 c. unsweetened coconut (both shredded and flaked will work. I prefer flaked)
• 1 tsp of sea salt
•  2 TBSP safflower oil (or other high heat safe oil)
• 3/4 c. maple syrup
• 2 TBSP brown rice syrup (if you can’t find this, you can sub in agave or 2 more TBSP of maple syrup)
• 1 cup of dried cranberries (or any combination of dry you want. I like 1/2 c. dried cranberries and 1/2 c. apple-juice infused dried cherries. I bet pineapples would be tasty, too)

Directions

So, what has happened since I left you at St. Patrick’s Day? Um…

I didn’t die, yeah! But I was insanely sick for about a week. Hence the lack of posts.

Girls had its season finale. Thoughts? I love/hated it. Half of me is like, ‘Aww, Adam!’ because what girl doesn’t want some guy to come and rescue her? Like even just a tiny bit? Come on…you so do! Even if he’s as creepy as Adam. Because nothing says ‘I Love You’ like your ex dumping that prissy new girlfriend of his and sweeping you off your feet…even though it looks like you haven’t showered in a month…and you have a crusty raptured ear drum…and you’ve been wearing that oversized t-sirt and no pants forever…yeah, that storyline was clearly written by a girl. BUT, the other half of me is like, “really, Hannah? Get off your butt and get your crap together. You don’t need a guy!” So yeah, I’m clearly bi-polar on the whole thing. Share your thoughts.

Speaking of season finales, Taylor Swift is set to guest star on New Girl during the season finale. I’m about to explode from excitement! It’s my two biggest girl crushes on one show. Yes. Please!

I got instagram from my phone. I am now addicted. It’s like facebook but better cause you get pictures! I know I’m like 2 years behind on this trend…

I also got Spotify Premium. Best $10 a month purchase ever. I had to get rid of Netflix but being able to listen to any album, ever, anytime I want on my phone is way better then getting a random DVD, forgetting I got a random DVD and then paying $9 a month for 3 months for one DVD that you end up watching and hating. Truth.

What else? Easter happened. I didn’t give you one single Easter recipe. Why you ask? Because Easter usually ain’t my thing. I dont love pastel colors, and jelly beans and scary giant bunny suits. Also, mom cut me off from getting an Easter basket this year. I mean, I’m only 27! Whatevs. I did end up making the worlds cutest baskets though for some friends with homemade goodies. I will share that with you later this week…mostly so I have another chance to lament on how I didn’t get an easter basket this year! Whatevs.

Here is something that has nothing to do with Girls or Spotify or Easter, though. Its Orange Grapefruit Orange Sorbet and it’s so good you’ll want to cry.

Orange Grapefruit Sorbet
modified slightly from How Sweet Eats

• 4 1/2 cups of fresh squeezed grapefruit (if you can find 100% all natural grapefruit juice, no sugar-added, that is an option)
• 1 cup of fresh squeeze orange juice (again, all-natural juice can be used)
• 1 1/2 cup vegan cane sugar

Combine 1 cup of grapefruit juice and all of the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until sugar dissolves, cooking for about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and pour in a large bowl, mixing it with the remaining grapefruit and orange juice. Refrigerate for 25 minutes, or until chilled.

Once chilled, pour the mixture in your ice cream maker and churn according to the directions. I used my mom’s KitchenAid  attachment and churned it for 25 minutes. After churning, pour in a container and freeze for 6-8 hours until frozen.

It’s no secret Jessica is one of my favorite bloggers. It’s also no secret that my most favoritest non-vegan treat ever, which I always end up cheating on my vegan diet with, is ice cream. So when I saw that Jessica posted a vegan-friendly frozen treat that could help me break my scandalous affair with ice cream, I died of excitement…and then I waited two months to make it. Fail. Don’t wait two months to make this! This is the best sorbet I’ve had. It’s refreshing and a perfect balance of tart and sweet. And Delicious! I’m telling you, don’t wait to make this!

I lied my face of when I said I wasn’t doing another Friday Favorites. As I sit here, contemplating how I could possibly top the brilliance of my Veronica Mar’s post,  I realized, Oh wait, I don’t have to! I’ll just throw together all my favorites from the week and have that entertain you! Because really, the only thing that is more awesome then me rambling on about the pope, V-Mars and (more) St. Patty’s Day recipes, is Justin Timberlake…dressed as tofu!

Justin Timberlake’s SNL performance, which every vegan blog has posted this week. I don’t care. It’s brilliant!

Chocolove Chocolate bars- namely dark chocolate with almonds and sea salt or dark chocolate coffee. I’ve pretty much given up all desserts since Rachel and I entered this Team Lean Challenge…except this chocolate. It gets me through man…it gets me through…

The Top 16 White People Song Lyrics Statuses and Tweets of All Time by Matt, aka Goose. I went to high school with this kid and have seen him exactly zero times since we graduated but I’m wishing that that wasn’t the case after reading this. It’s hysterical in a ‘oh-crap-I’m-totally-F*ing-guilty-of-this’ sort of way. If you are 20-something-ish or younger and have ever posted lyrics in your AIM away message/Myspace Profile/Facebook status, and your white, you’ve probably posted one of these lyrics. Or if you’re me, 6.5  of  them (not that Zac Brown song but definitely two others…crap). I’m apparently super white. Just read it.

from Matt’s blog, The Goosefiles

I can’t NOT post my favorite Dropkick Murphy’s song, Wicked Sensitive Crew, 2 days before St. Patrick’s Day,. “…And we sure ain’t vegan!” It’s ok guys. I still love you.

and last but not least, Sunday brunch with friends! These donuts were made for the ‘donuts and carbs’ brunch we had a few weekends ago. That theme wasn’t intentional but no one cared. The food was excellent.

Are you even seeing all the donuts on that table?! This was my contribution to the brunch:

Thin Mint Donuts

from Cheeky Kitchen;

For the Donuts:

• 1 cup garbanzo beans
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Earth Balance ‘butter’, melted
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips, melted
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

In a blender, combine garbanzo beans, almond milk, baking powder, vanilla, white vinegar, salt, sugar, and melted butter. Blend until pureed. Transfer to a large bowl and blend with the melted chocolate chips and flour. Transfer to a large zip-top bag and allow the dough to sit for about 5-10 minutes before snipping the corner of the bag, and piping into donut pans that have been generously sprayed with nonstick baking spray. Be gentle. This is a thick, sticky dough and I definitely popped my the ziploc bag I was using. Trust me, you do not want to have to spoon this dough in. I made such a mess!

Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, or just until the donuts set. Remove and cool for 3-5 minutes before turning your donuts onto a cooling rack.

For the Glaze:

Melt everything in a double boiler and frost the donuts!

Two weekends ago, before donut baking, I would have bet you a million dollars I had two, large, regular donut bans. I would have lost. Apparently, I only own heart shape pans. Nothing screams St. Patty’s day like heart donuts? Just roll with it…

Ok, I think this may be my last St. Patty’s Day post. I was hoping to post one more dessert recipe tomorrow (guinness truffles? Carbomb cupcakes?) but I’m not sure if I will get the chance. Double check on Saturday just in case. If you are celebrating all things irish this weekend, be safe! Don’t drink and drive! That’s illegal. Don’t wander around completely drunk! That’s dangerous. Don’t urinate in public. That’s also illegal, I hear. Don’t drunk text exes! That’s also dangerous…and dumb.  Be smart. And may the luck of the irish be with you!

Check back in at 5 and I will send you into the weekend with a donut recipe! YUM!

<3

Serious news is going down, people. This has nothing to do with Veganism, St. Patrick’s Day or food BUT it does have to do with some serious awesomeness, which is pretty much the corner stone of Wicked Vegan. Awesomeness with a side of food.

It has nothing to do with a new Pope because let’s be serious. Yeah, smoke signals are cool and all but the whole electing the Pope thing was way more interesting when Dan Brown told it. Where’s the exploding helicopters, the murder, the car chases? The art history lessons about Bernini which I totally nerded out about? No? None of it? Bah! Definitely not awesome.

It also has nothing to do with the fact that those backstabbing traitors known as The Patriots let my beloved Welker walk away. That is not awesome at all! In fact, where just not going to talk about it…

Nope, this is bigger. Ok. Deep breath. After YEARS of speculation…

…there is going to be a Veronica Mars movie.

I KNOW! I’m so excited!!

What? Were you expecting something else? I mean, weren’t you texting your equally excited friend for like, 2 hours counting down the Kick Starter bids to $2 million (seriously, watch the video on that site. It’s frickin’ hysterical!), stalking Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas’s twitters for the latest updates and rewatching your favorite Kristen Bell and Veronica Mars videos?

No? Oh, ok. Um, neither was I. I was totally working on this super yummy protein shake for you… Clearly.

Chocolate Mint Protein Smoothie aka Thin Mint Smoothie
from Rabbit Food for My Bunny Teeth

1 cup frozen spinach (or 2 cups fresh)
1 cup almond milk
2 scoops vegan chocolate protein powder (I used vega protein powder which I talked about here. You can buy individual serving sizes. I found mine at Whole Foods)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/8 tsp peppermint extract

Toppings:
1 Tbsp walnuts
1 Tbsp 70% dark chocolate chips

Combine the almond milk, spinach, protein powder, rolled oats, and peppermint extract in a high powered blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a glass and top with walnuts and chocolate chips.

It’s not exactly Irish but it is green. And it will taste great when you go to hot yoga at 9am on St. Patty’s day after lord-only-knows what sort of debauchery went down the night before. (yeap, that’s my plan!)

I’m really sorry this post was long and rambly. I average 1-2 post a week and this is my third with another one coming tomorrow. My life is clearly not interesting enough to fill 4 posts a week!

Guinness bread

So…This daylight savings thing is kicking my butt in the worst way! Let’s just say that according to my stove clock, I was TOTALLY on time for work today.  I think Arizona was right to boycott this non-sense.

Pumpkinhead Beer Bread

With that said, let’s keep this short and sweet, shall we?

I whipped up this beer bread to go along with the Guinness stew I gave you yesterday. It’s SUPER easy and a thousand times better then Soda Bread, which usually comes with raisins. And you know I don’t do raisin. Plus it has booze!

Bread -raisins+booze=St. Patrick’s Day Awesomeness!

(this math problem is brought to you by an English/Art major.)

So the first recipe I’m giving you I made with Shipyard Pumpkinhead. ummmm, yeah. I still have some leftover from Halloween. I’m hoarding it and drinking like, 1 a month to hold me over until October when it’s released again. Or, let’s be real, August, since halloween/fall crap is pulled out in the summer now.

Pumpkinhead Beer Bread

Beer Bread:
via Rachel Robin’s Nest

• 3 cups flour
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 12 oz (1.5 cups) beer

Combine all ingredients and put into a well-greased bread pan.  Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

That’s it! Crazy, right? No rising, no kneading, no nothin’!

ok, now the second one is for Guinness. You can definitely use Guinness in the recipe above. Rachel said it comes out delicious but I was thinking brown sugar might be tastier with the Guinness. So I gave this recipe a try:

Guinness Beer Bread

1. Preheat oven at 350F
2. Grease a loaf pan with the 1 tbsp butter.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ⅓ cup oats and brown sugar.
4. Slowly beat in the Guinness into the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer on the low setting. Do not over mix the batter, but make sure that it is not too lumpy.
5. Pour the batter in the greased loaf pan and sprinkle the 1 tbsp of oats on top ( I totally forgot this step because I was all, COOK FAST SO I CAN EAT YOU!)
6. Bake the bread for 50-60 minutes. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted, comes out clean. Check at 45 minutes just in case the bread is done early.
7. Place on a cooling rack until at room temperature.

Mine took longer to cook, about 60 minutes.

Guinness Beer Bread

Both of these are delicious, though I think my favorite is the first recipe. This could just be because I adore Pumpkinhead beer above all others, including Guinness. The Pumpkinhead is sweeter so it just makes a super yummy bread. BUT, experiment with your own breads and let me know what beers work.

Guinness Beer Bread

Would you believe I have TWO more, maybe even three, St. Patrick’s Day-themed recipes for you guys?? I’m am all over this holiday!

PS. I’ve had a few requests for an easier search engine for recipes. I’m looking into adding a Recipage tab, which would help organize things a bit. Stay tuned and if you see some weird, pseudo-complete changes going on, hold tight. It means better things are coming =)