{VeganMoFo} Restaurant Review: Sun in Bloom

chocolate chip cookie sandwich (gluten-free)

Sun in Bloom is an adorable little vegan restaurant, nestled in the heart of Park Slope, Brooklyn.  CH and I first dined there when we were scouting out Brooklyn neighborhoods to relocate to from the Chicago suburbs.

While waiting for our check, I remember fantasizing about living nearby - imagining that I'd visit at least once a week, laptop or Kindle in tow, seeking refuge from my busy New York life at a place that makes food so delicious I could weep.

{VeganMoFo} Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seed pudding.  The quintessential vegan food.  It sounds healthy, looks weird, and seems vaguely edible.

  

Fortunately, only one (well, okay, two) of those descriptors is correct...

{VeganMoFo} Silent Saturday: My Vegan Tattoo (w/ Vegan Ink!)

{VeganMoFo} Raw Taco Salad

This raw taco salad is something of a revelation.

In it, crisp lettuce marries with seasoned taco meat and tangy cashew cheese to form the main components of the most coveted raw recipe in my arsenal.  The trick is to throw in just a few of the usual taco suspects:  tomatoes, scallions, olives, and cilantro, and to top the whole thing off with nothing more than a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice, which allows every flavor to shine through brilliantly.

Yes, there's a little advanced prep work here.  Yes, it's totally worth it.

This is pretty much heaven in a bowl.

{VeganMoFo} Restaurant Review: Peacefood Cafe

fluffy quinoa salad w/ baby greens, sprouts, avocado, sweet peppers, onions, corn, & creamy lime mustard vinaigrette 

Peacefood Cafe is not only one of the first vegan restaurants I visited when I moved to NYC, but it's also one of my favorite restaurants in all of NYC, period.

Why?

Not because it's 100% vegan, so you don't have to ask questions about a single, solitary, ingredient.  Not because of the atmosphere, which is the perfect combination of sexy and cute.  Not because of the bakery case, which beckons you like a siren song with its decadent desserts.  And, certainly not because I once saw Sam Waterston (of "Law and Order" fame) dining there.

{VeganMoFo} The Perfect Bowl of Oatmeal

Blueberry, Walnut, Cinnamon Oatmeal

I'm a sucker for a good bowl of oatmeal.  Always have been, always will be.

And although I do have a bit of nostalgia for the old days - when making "oatmeal" meant tearing open a packet of instant Quaker Oats (maple 'n' brown sugar, represent!) - I'm quite enamored with the weekend ritual of preparing oatmeal from scratch.  The slow-cooking, don't-walk-away-or-the-pan-will-overflow cadence of breakfast preparation kinda feels good.  In my soul.

{VeganMoFo} Silent Saturday: Costco, Vegan-Style!

{VeganMoFo} Raw Zucchini Pasta w/ Fresh Tomato Sauce

I absolutely love the way that eating raw foods makes me feel.  It's kinda my equivalent to that feeling some people describe when making the leap from an omnivorous diet to a vegan one.

Since my path to veganism essentially started at birth (my mom can attest to this fact), and I was a long-time vegetarian before becoming a vegan, I didn't experience an overnight change in my mood and energy when I altered my diet.

Honestly, my changes have been much more subtle (but nonetheless magnificent), which sometimes makes me envious of people who have a different story.  Fortunately, however, I've been able to cultivate that missing feeling through raw foods.

{VeganMoFo} Restaurant Review: 'Snice

I have a bit of a confession to make: I'm kind of addicted to 'Snice.  And.  I.  Don't.  Care.

Even though NYC is full of great vegan options, I generally fall back on the same few places, mostly due to proximity (in this case) or to sheer picky-ness (my trademark).

Now, I'm not gonna sit here and claim that 'Snice is the be-all-end-all of vegan cuisine.  It's not.  But it is reliably good, and it's one of those places that you can take just about anyone - even non-vegans (le sigh!) - for a satisfying, relaxing meal.

Bonus: they even have vegan desserts.

{VeganMoFo} Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

Bananas are a staple in our house (ahem... very small apartment).  If we don't have them, it's a pretty safe bet that something crazy has happened.  Yet, because they're always around, they sometimes get passed by for more novel fruit, which means that overly-ripe bananas occasionally plague my kitchen counter.

Whenever I notice said offender(s), my mind instantly flashes to an episode of 'The Simpsons,' where Marge says to Lisa, "We have black bananas, and you know what that means!"  To which Lisa gleefully shouts, "Banana bread!"