vegansaurus!
07/23/2012
JB’s summer vacation: Chicago, cupcakes, beauty, and bags! »
Hey everyone! I’ve been on a hiatus, on summer vacay if you will. I went to Chicago, Michigan, and my parent’s house out in the East Bay. All kinds of exciting things happened—I drank rum in the back of a pick-up truck at a wedding in Michigan (a wedding where vegan food was served! The bride loves me), I ate at The Handlebar AND Native Foods (OMG, I so get what the big deal about Native Foods is now!), and back in California, I made cupcakes for my sister’s baby shower! That was a really big deal, as it’s a huge step for my family to have the dessert be completely vegan!
Now that I’m back, I have all sorts of exciting things to share! First, for all you vegan beauty and fashion fiends out there, check out the blog Logical Harmony! I absolutely love this blog, and actually found it because Tashina is a huge fan of Source (where I spend most of my waking hours). She’s always taking the most fantastic pictures (via Instagram, like all the cool kids nerds) of our food there, as well as all things beauty related. Follow her on Twitter, and be sure to check out her lovely and informative blog!
A couple months ago, I bought a bag from Alex Eaves’ company, Stay Vocal, and let me tell you, it’s a wonderful, sturdy travel companion! His company is awesome (and he’s vegan!) because all of his apparel and bags are reused. For instance, my bag is an old MXPX tote, turned inside out with a Stay Vocal logo on it! At first I was like, “it’s going to be inside out? I don’t know about this…” but I love it! I highly recommend his stuff—the hippie in me digs his mission, plus it’s great quality. My bag reads “Reuse because you can’t recycle the planet,” and fellow “re-usetarians” are always beaming at me when they read it.
I also finally took the Vegansaurus new food challenge! It happened in July, but that’s me—always late to the party. I worked with jackfruit, making a dish similar to this one. I was inspired by the jackfruit sandwich that Rachel had in Colorado. I can’t wait to play with it some more, so I can post a recipe I’m super proud of. I’m stoked that jackfruit is a meat substitute of sorts (for carnitas or pulled pork) that is actually not processed flour, soy, or some other crazy combination of ingredients that tend to be hard to digest.
That’s it for now—I got a lot of posts to catch up on before the coffee wears off.
∞ posted at 15:49 by jennybradley 
06/22/2012
I tried a new food: Jackfruit! And I didn’t even have to do any work for it!
My buddy* Amie of Denver’s Vegan Van has jackfruit on her menu pretty often, so I was counting on her to help me expand my horizons. Luckily my husband dragged my in-laws there for lunch the other day, and I got them to bring me a sandwich! It was barbecue jackfruit something or other, for free (to me) and with no effort! WIN! Marriage is worth it, guys!
The barbecue flavor was obviously amazing because everything Amie makes is good, and the jackfruit didn’t have much flavor beyond that, kind of like how tofu works. Overall it reminded me of a cross between artichoke hearts and seitan. It was a little weird to have something with such a meaty treatment be so … vegetable-y in texture.
It doesn’t have the same protein-y oomph as seitan or even tempeh, but if I were looking for a gluten-free, soy-free carrier of delicious sauce, I’d definitely turn to my good friend Jack.
I’m curious to try cooking it myself sometime, but it’s apparently kind of hard to come by around here, Amie uses all sorts of secret voodoo to get it.
Jenny says she’s going to try jackfruit too! Jenny, tell us what you think!
*”Buddy” might be overstating. But she does remember my name sometimes! And I am a huge fan! A girl can pretend.
∞ posted at 08:50 by reportingrzurer 
