Vittles from Rhode Island

I promised I would post about these amazing Cinnamon Rolls, from Vegan Brunch on my last post, so here they are in all their glory! A picture cannot do these bad boys justice. I wanted to put my face into the pan :) Luckily, there were lots of people around, so I made do with a half...and then another half...and then a bit or nibble more. Five stars *****, if I can give that many - I can never remember my new rating system....

My big sister from Rhode Island (almost a veg-head) made these from scratch along with: tofu scramble, fresh watermelon and blueberries (which were a thousand times better than the ones in VA!), potato hash (sweet and regular), and banana-chocolate French toast. It was a brunch to remember....wish we didn't live so far away!
We also ate at Crazy Burger while we were up there, which had a pretty decent number of vegan burgers on their menu, despite the plethora of dead-animal ones :( The link above shows you a menu slightly different than the one we saw. The burger shown here is the Just Plain Nuts one, which was served open-faced on a pepita-corn cake (polenta) with this amazing sun dried tomato-artichoke pesto. Gluten free and a good price! My only complaint was that it was way too much to eat :) Three stars ***. (Oh, and that isn't a Styrofoam container. It was biodegradable paper!).

Back home, I was saddened to see that my zucchini plants are just about dead (even with a friend watering them, they just didn't make it). However, my tomato plants are making up for it! This handful is about what I pick during one afternoon lunch break. Warm from the sun, I just pop them in my mouth along with whatever goodies I'm munching on. These are my first self-grown tomatoes since I was a little kid!


They also go well on a raw salad, featured here with a lemon-dill dressing from Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. I was pretty disappointed in this dressing. It was wicked easy, but seemed to curdle and froth up, and was way too lemony. One star *. Oh well. The greens, cucumber, zucchini and larger cherry tomatoes were straight from the latest CSA pick up. Can't wait to dig into the first cantaloupe of the season that came with it!

We also got twelve ears of corn - wow! I put one on a salad (minus the cob, of course - raw corn is so good!) and turned four more into this Harvest Corn Chowder from Rawvolution. It was really easy to make, but I was disappointed in the flavor. It just didn't taste enough like corn! The other flavors (cumin, garlic, tamari) were nice enough, but I really wanted that corn taste. Perhaps the corn just wasn't sweet enough! I have to say, it isn't the best corn I've ever had. But at least it's organic - yay!

We also got a small bag of shiitake mushrooms from the pick up. Here they are, soaking in some Bragg's, alongside some chopped and diced tomatoes, red pepper, carrots and chives (from my own garden- yay!). The chopping was pure pleasure today, as Mr. PLV sharpened all our knives. I held the red pepper in the air and slid the knife across - it sliced through like non-dairy butter!


Mushrooms are so good for you. Besides offering selenium, copper, and other vitamins, they have shown to be anticancer, antiviral, and absorb cholesterol. We are advised (see link above - although I've heard this from many sources) to avoid raw white button, portobello, and cremini mushrooms, though.

These Raw Veggie Wraps from Vegan A Go-Go, were whipped up with ease from the ingredients in the above photo, wrapped in rice papers with a little raw zucchini hummus (I really like the one from Rawvolution). The dipping sauce was just the leftover Bragg's from the mushroom marinade. A quick, cool, delicious lunch, alongside a green smoothie. Ahhh....nothing like eating raw vegan food in the summer! Have a great weekend everyone!