It’s been 2 weeks since I made a “What Vegans Eat” post. I was on a roll, posting daily for over two months and then things came to a crashing halt. The last few days before our Happy B’Earthday review were intense and there simply were not enough hours in the day for simple things like preparing food and sleeping. We were eating of course, but I did not remember to photograph the food. I will try to piece together what I can in order to catch up and get back on track with daily posts.
April 20, Day 70.
Our favorite cornbread recipe seemed like a good thing to make to have for the days ahead. I made a double batch.
I made a big pot of millet and another pot of beans to prepare for the busy days ahead. We had a great Happy B’Earthday Revue rehearsal with our musicians, John Roggie and my brother, Barry. We served them dinner, which began with an appetizer of carrot and celery sticks with Creamy Balsamic Dressing for the dip. A kale salad, vegetable bean soup, millet, Field Roast Sausages and corn bread. We cooked and then we COOKED, playing great music and singing up a storm.
When the rehearsal was over we sat down for drinks. I had my daily green juice of kale, collards, celery and lemon, followed by some mint tea. John had Tanqueray and tonic.
April 21, Day 71.
I have no food photos for this day just some memories. David, a friend from California flew in to help us with the event. He arrived in the afternoon. I was determined to get everything that needed to be done finished in time to get to bed at a reasonable hour. David came by to help and I tried to delegate tasks. I was tired, cranky and hungry and it wasn’t easy making decisions. Gary came home after being out shopping for last minute items. He could not believe I had not offered David anything to eat or drink. He was amazing and whipped up a delicious pasta dish with a quick homemade tomato sauce. We had some kale salad that was leftover from the day before. Thank you, Gary, you saved the day!
Unfortunately we learned that evening that our apartment elevator would not be working the next day. We had no energy to think about how we were going to get everything (props, sets, sound system, microphones, gift bags, silent auction items, bar stools and costumes) downstairs to bring to the event.
April 22, Day 72.
It was the big day! My birthday and Earth Day. The Happy B’Earthday Revue was here. I must have had some tea in the morning and nothing else. I met David and we picked up a rental car to use for the day. Then we drove to a designated location to pick up our Vegan Treats cakes. We delivered the cake to the event space and got to see the beginning of the room setup.
During this time, I did not realize Gary was slowly bringing all the items for the event down the stairs, one by one, from the third floor to the basement garage level. When I got home with the car, everything was downstairs to be loaded in. Thank you, Gary, again, you saved the day! After loading up the car I drove back to the event space and met Gary and David there who walked over since there was no room in the car. We unloaded everything and set up the space. I was getting excited! Everything looked great.
I did not eat all day. There was no time. My hair stylist, Evilina offered to do my makeup for the event. I got to the salon and I was parched and vacuumed down a bottle of water. I got back to the event space. We had a quick sound check and the guests were let in at 6pm. We offered passed hor d’oeuvres (vegan of course), wine and sparkling water. I would have my wine after the performance, but I guzzled down the water and ate whatever came in front of me. I had different kinds of vegetable maki, vegetable skewers, samosas, vegetable tempura. It was all so good!
The show went very well. The entire event was better than I could ever imagine. After the performance, more appetizers came out and then we got to serve the cakes. We had a Chocolate cake with Coconut Macaroon filling and a gluten-free Peanut Butter Bomb. These cakes were pure decadence and everyone loved them.
When the event was over we had to load up everything in the car and bring it all back to the apartment. Fortunately there was a lot less to pack, without gift bags and silent auction items, now given away. We brought everything back home and decided to return the car rather than look for a spot to park it. When everything was done, Gary, David and I were still very wound up and HUNGRY! Fortunately we found a restaurant open near our home, called Cabana, Nuevo Latino. We had never eaten there because it did not seem vegan friendly. We were wrong! We ordered up some beers, Dos Equis, which Barnivore.com says are vegan and Coco Cabana Vegetales, a dish that consisted of broccoli, red potatoes, green peas, spinach, carrots, snap peas and Caribbean root vegetables (yuca, calabaza, and yautia) sautéed with curry, coconut milk and habenero peppers. It was so good and the perfect dish to fill our bellies and make us sleepy. The portions were large and I looked forward to having this dish again the next day.
April 23, Day 73.
This day I promised myself I would do nothing, just relax and read a bit. For breakfast, I enjoyed my leftover Coco Cabana Vegetales.
I spent a good part of the day in bed, enjoying the flowers I received the day before, peanut butter, cornbread and cake, tea and the New York Times.
After a long day of rest I got up and made some avocado maki with millet. Maki is great with millet instead of rice. It’s sticky enough to hold together.
After all we did the day before I was amazed at how much energy Gary had. He cooked up very flavorful cauliflower stew with saffron rice.
April 24, Day 74.
I was right to make a lot of corn bread because it lasted about half the week. I was still wiped out and exhausted and craving kale which made a good breakfast.
Kale salad was also good for lunch.
We had planned to see the movie Woman In Gold. It was important for me to see because of my mystical connection with the painting. We went to the Paris Theater in Manhattan to see it. Afterwards we continued celebrating a successful fundraiser and my birthday week by going to the Plaza Hotel for drinks. I enjoyed the Thé Du Hammam, a fruity blend of green tea, rose petals, green dates and berries. Delicious and beautiful.
We were hungry when we got home. There was still plenty of leftover birthday cake to enjoy. We froze what was leftover from the party in slices.
April 25, Day 75.
My energy had still not been restored. I could not sleep in because the Food Revolution Summit was about to begin and I was a part of it. In addition to offering up a recipe of the day and a helpful tip of the day, I was monitoring and responding to incoming posts throughout the 3-hour program. I enjoyed the remainder of Gary’s cauliflower dish after the summit.
April 26, Day 76.
I parked my self on the couch with my laptop to get ready for the 2nd day of the Food Revolution Summit. Gary prepared polenta to fuel me through to the afternoon.
Lunch was a kale salad. They are so easy to make. I crave them all the time.
Sandwiches sounded really good. David, our friend visiting from California was coming over for dinner. Gary grilled up veggies and made a pistou with basil, garlic and olive oil. He picked up some French bread from a local bakery. This was heavenly.
April 27, Day 77.
David had stayed for a week and it was his last night before going to California. We had planned to meet him in Manhattan to visit the Neue Gallery and have dinner. None of us had the energy and we decided to stay in the ‘hood. We went to Sato, a Japanese restaurant that we had not been to in years. It was superb! I had a seaweed salad, edamame, avocado maki, sweet potato maki and Sake. We went home and had more leftover birthday cake.
April 28, Day 78.
It was another busy day. I had the Food Revolution Summit in the morning, followed by my It’s All About Food radio show. In the evening I was the invited guest at the Engine 2 Extra Chat. It was a full day all about food. Fortunately I was well fed.
For breakfast Gary served me a delicious pink grapefruit before the start of the summit.
For lunch, I enjoyed a nutrition-packed miso vegetable soup, topped with mushrooms.
Later for dinner Gary made me a sumptuous mushroom stew with the leftover grilled mushrooms. Keep in mind that Gary doesn’t like mushrooms. I am lucky that he will make them so deliciously for me.
We really had not been eating a lot and we were both very hungry. We still had French bread and pistou for little sandwiches.
Gary also made a big pot of cabbage soup.
April 29, Day 79.
It was one week after my birthday and our big event. The celebration continued. I made pancakes.
Gary has been amazing at creating all kinds of tasty cheese-like schmears anbd dips. This was was fabulous! No recipes have been posted yet. Wait for the cookbook!
We had picked up garlic pickles at the store and Gary introduced me to a delicious taste sensation, topping the cheesy bread with pickle slices.
More cabbage soup, this time topped with nutritional yeast and red pepper flakes.
That night we watched a movie and made snacks! I had received samples from Chef Ernesto frozen foods and we tried them out. You can read about what we tried along with my review here.
April 30, Day 80.
We’ve been eating a lot of kale salads. We like them but also know how good they are. When we look at a head of Romaine lettuce in the store for the same price or more than kale and think about the nutritional bang for every buck, kale wins every time But sometimes you just want Romaine. We also have been out of sesame tahini for a long time and bought a new jar. A romaine lettuce salad with tahini dressing seemed so right. And it was.
May 1, Day 81.
We eat a lot of oatmeal in this house and breakfast can be challenging when we are out of it. I always think of polenta as my backup for oatmeal. This breakfast was colorful and yummy with coconut flakes and pumpkin seeds.
Rice with tahini dressing is one of my favorite comfort food dishes. I first discover this at Dharma’s, a vegetarian fast food restaurant in Capitola, California. I prepared a big pot of California organic brown Basmati rice (which scores lower than other rice varieties for arsenic) and a pot of pink lentils. These lentils cook up light and fluffy. I really enjoyed this simple plate of my kind of comfort food.
That Romaine salad was so good the day before we wanted another. This time we dressed it up a little more with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast and red pepper flakes.
May 2, Day 82.
With polenta AND rice leftover, they came together for a great breakfast. I was still working on the Food Revolution Summit. I woke up hungry and I needed to eat quickly. This rice/polenta mix hit the spot.
While I was working Gary prepared this treat for me of peanut butter, bananas and raisins on toast.
We went for a spin around the neighborhood and ended up at the Red Pipe Cafe for hot cocoa. They make it with almond milk and it’s so good.
On the way home we thought we would dine at Chipotle. It’s been in our neighborhood for a while now and we had never been there. This night was the night and we both had veggie bowls. They were very satisfying.
May 3, Day 83.
Coming to the end of this catchup post. Yesterday began with one of our favorite waffle recipes, Buckwheat. Gary made a refreshing fruit salad with apples, oranges and coconut to top them.
Later on we had another salad, not your average day salad! This was a celebration salad, celebrating Spring and renewal now that we’ve finished some big projects. This salad is smothered in a cheesy pink lentil sauce, and topped with sautéed onions, avocado, grilled zucchini (I love the grill marks) and grilled scallions and tossed with tahini dressing
I missed mentioning all the meals we had because with things being so busy and me being so hungry I would forget to photograph the food before it was all gone. Hopefully things will be a little calmer now and I can get back to being complete. I am grateful for the donations of Raw Revolution bars we received for our Happy B’Earthday Revue gift bags. There were a few extras and in a pinch they have been great to grab when hungry and in a hurry. Thank you Raw Revolution!