Bianca Phillips's Blog, page 168

Sneak Peek Into Vegan Options at the Germantown Whole Foods!

The Mid-South area (that's Memphis and our surrounding suburbs) is getting a new Whole Foods! For years, we've only had one Whole Foods in the area, and it served a ton of people. So it's often crowded at peak times, despite the store's massive size. But on Tuesday, a second Whole Foods is opening in Germantown, a little suburban town on the outskirts of Memphis.


I'll be honest. Midtowners (those of us who live in the city's urban core) like myself spend a great deal of time poking fun at uppity, well-to-do Germantown, and when we have to drive out there, it's like, "OMG, I have to drive ALL THE WAY OUT EAST!" I even have a tee-shirt that says "A Bad Day in Midtown Is Better Than a Good Day In Germantown."

But for real — it's only about 30 minutes away on the interstate, and with this new Whole Foods, the new Germantown Sprouts store, and the rumored, soon-to-come G-town Trader Joe's (!!!!!!!), well, I may have to stop whining and start frequenting the 'burbs more often.

On Friday night, the new Germantown Whole Foods hosted a special sneak peek tour and tasting for local bloggers. So I was there! Of course, product-wise, this store will carry much of the same stuff that the East Memphis Whole Foods does. But the in-store food counters are very different, and dare I say, better, than the East Memphis store in terms of vegan options. While the East Memphis Whole Foods has a BBQ joint inside (with no vegan options ... sigh), this new store features a very vegan-friendly Korean place called Genji Kei Jei Kitchen.



They serve ramen bowls (sadly, with egg noodles though). But they also sell Sushi Burritos! And for vegans, they offer a Tofu Inari Sushi Burrito. Inari (fried tofu skin) is basically my favorite thing ever. So this makes me very happy! Besides the inari, this is also stuffed with brown rice, spring mix, beets, carrot, teriyaki sauce, and fried shallots.

And they have bao (steamed sandwich buns)! The Angry Soy Bao is made with soy chicken and lots of fresh greens!

At the end of our blogger tour, each blogger was given a personal charcuterie board filled with meats and cheeses from the Whole Foods deli. But they made me a special vegan board featuring some of the vegan cheese products and other specialties they'll be selling. On the top are two jams from Blackberry Farms (a cherry jam and a smoked onion jam), pickled cucumbers and pickled tomatoes from Doux South, and candied walnuts. On the bottom are Kite Hill Almond Ricotta (my fave!!), eggplant tapenade, and Heido Ho Smoky Chia Cheeze.

Sampling my way around the board was so much fun! And so tasty! Another cool feature about this store are the dining tables. They reclaimed the wood from the trees cut down to build the store, and a local company called City Wood fashioned the wood into tables.


This Germantown Whole Foods may be quite a haul for city folks like me. But I'll most certainly be making the drive back after it opens to the public on Tuesday. I need more sushi burritos and bao in my life!

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Pink Diva Cupcakery

Y'all remember my friend Cassi, right? The vegan cupcake lady. A few months ago, I told you that her cupcake catering business had morphed into an actual bakery. At the time, she had just begun sharing space with Midtown Crossing Grill, a vegan-friendly pizza joint.

Well, Cassi has been dreaming of having her very own space for some time. And by some fortunate twist of fate, she landed a building all to herself! And now the stand-alone Pink Diva Cupcakery is open for business at 936 Florida Street downtown (Memphians: You'll recognize this place as the old DeJaVu). Cassi had her soft opening this past Wednesday, and now she's officially open for regular business.


I stopped by at opening time (11 a.m.) on Wednesday! I picked up two cupcakes — a Diva Delight (chocolate cupcake with chocolate mousse filling, whipped topping, and ganache) and a Chocolate Covered Orange (chocolate cupcake with cream filling, citrusy frosting, and ganache).


The coolest thing about the new Pink Diva Cupcakery is the food though! Cassi is now serving daily lunch and dinner specials. Wednesday was Build-Your-Own Vegan Mac & Cheese Bowl Day! That's basically the food of my dreams. First, you fill out a card with your desired toppings.


And then Cassi gets to work.


And voila! You get a big ole bowl of lunch! Mine had chickpeas, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, and a side of vegan sour cream. I got takeout because Cassi announced her soft opening at the last minute the night before, and I already had lunch plans. So I actually grabbed this to eat for lunch today! It was delicious.


While I was there, I convinced a dine-in customer to let me take a pic of her pretty plated bowl.


I thought getting there at opening time would mean she wouldn't be busy yet, but before I left, four more customers had come through the door. And two arrived before me! Before official opening time! Here's Pink Diva fan Emily Yellin ready to order.


The space is a work in progress. She doesn't have her big outside sign yet, but her banner is displayed. And she's still working to fill up the walls with pictures, news clippings, and cupcake memorabilia. But it's filling up fast.


Cassi will be offering several cupcakes flavors each day, but the flavors will vary. Here's what was on offer Wednesday.

She always keeps a few of each flavor in her cute little cupcake fridge (but don't worry — there are more in the big fridge in the kitchen!).

She has a variety of fizzy drinks and coconut water. Cassi is really into bubbles.

You can check out the Pink Diva Cupcakery Facebook page daily for cupcake flavors and lunch specials. But if you stop in Friday (August 14th), Cassi will be cooking up fried vegan fish, spaghetti squash with tempeh, avocado & kale salad, and corn muffins.
Pink Diva Cupcakery is located at 936 S. Florida. She's open from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays (except she's closed on Thursday) and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Call 901-946-0056.

Coconut Dream Yogurt!

Somehow, I get lots of stuff in the mail to review for this blog. I'm not sure how it started, but once you get on a few PR lists, you're in. And the delicious vegan samples just keep flowing, unsolicited. I have everything shipped to my office since I'm there during delivery hours, and often, the products are things that need to be kept cold.

Our receptionist — Martin — likes to tease me about much mail I get. And sometimes, my co-workers are like, hey, why don't you share with us? But I'm kind of a food hoarder, and I've never been good with sharing. Most of the stuff goes home with me. But the folks from Hain Celestial obviously wanted me to share the new Coconut Dream Coconut Non-Dairy Yogurt they sent. The box they sent was stuffed with 10 yogurts (2 of each flavor) and all these sampling spoons, cups, and napkins.


So I decided that I'd be nice and share. We had a little yogurt-tasting party at the office. I sent out a company email and asked everyone to stop by the editorial department and sample yogurts. Some people even took detailed notes on their thoughts from each flavor. Here are the flavors we tried — Plain, Raspberry, Strawberry, Vanilla.

And blueberry! Let's not forget blueberry!

Here's a little background on these new yogurts. They're made from real coconut, and they're vegan, of course. They also contain live and active cultures, as well as calcium. The flavors come from real fruit — nothing artificial. And there are no GMOs.
Here's Toby (news reporter) and Chris (music editor), taking their sampling very seriously.

Here are some thoughts from Toby:* Blueberry - "The blueberry flavor tasted like real blueberries, not artificial flavorings."* Vanilla - "The color is dark. Made it look unappealing. But tastes and feels more like dairy yogurt than the others."
* Raspberry - "Raspberry was subtle, almost just a nondescript sweet flavor."

And from Chris:* Vanilla - "Tastes like real vanilla. Best tasting one so far. Coconut flavor not as present, thick like real yogurt."* Blueberry - "Tastes like coconut and blueberry blended together. Not overpowering with blueberry. Not too sweet."
And, not pictured, from my editor Susan (who is also a vegetarian):* Vanilla - "Tastes like pudding. I like it!"* Strawberry - "Tastes like Strawberry Quik!" (yes, the drink mix)* Raspberry - "Fruity taste but not necessarily raspberry taste."
Others weighed in too. Most all agreed that the vanilla was the best, thanks to its tiny flecks of vanilla bean (even if Toby did find the natural coloring to be "unappealing"). A few people in the office are already non-dairy yogurt eaters, and they had the most favorable opinion of these. I've been enjoying coconut yogurts for years, and I thought these new Coconut Dream yogurts were on par with other coconut yogurt brands. Some flavors, like the vanilla, are better than the others on the market now.
After the tasting party, I took the rest of the yogurts home, and I've been eating them for breakfast. One day, I had the Vanilla Coconut Dream with Fresh Peaches, Granola, and Maca-Covered Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds.

A similar bowl made with Strawberry Yogurt and blueberries.

I made a parfait one day! Raspberry Yogurt, Blueberries, Granola, and Toasted Coconut Chips!

In the morning, I'll be having my last yogurt — Plain — with granola and lemon preserves. Yum! Really love these yogurts. The texture is thick and creamy like other coconut yogurts, and they're lightly sweetened. I especially love that the fruit in these is all-natural.

The Complete Guide to EVEN MORE Vegan Food Substitutions

If you're vegan, you've heard the questions a million times.
How do you get your protein?How do you live without cheese?How do you bake without eggs?Is there life after bacon?We all have standard rote answers to these questions. But next time someone asks me any of the above, I think I'll skip the speech and just hand them a copy of The Complete Guide to Even More Vegan Food Substitutions by Joni Marie Newman and Celine Steen.

This is the follow-up to the dynamic cookbook-writing duo's 2010 book, The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions. I have that book, too, and it's definitely become a staple on my cookbook shelf. But after cooking a few dishes (and drooling over others) from this sequel, I dare say it's "even more" better!
Like the 2010 book, each chapter of the new book contains recipes for a group of vegan foods that can be subbed out for a group of non-vegan foods. For example, there's a Milk Substitutions chapter, and there's one on cheese, one on eggs in savory applications and one on eggs in sweets. There's a chapter on subbing for seafood (vegan bacon-seared king oyster "scallops" made with king oyster mushrooms!). And of course, there's a chapter on bacon. 
Oh, where to start? Well, when I went vegan in 2004, I think savory breakfast eggs were the hardest thing for me to give up. So I flipped through the Egg Substitutions in Savory Dishes chapter and found the perfect thing — Egg-in-a-Hole!! But veganized!

My mama used to make this dish for me as a kid. You'd take a piece of toast, cut a hole in the center, and fry an egg in it in a skillet. It was such fun it eat. And Joni and Celine's substitution recipe was genius. The white is made from silken tofu and spices and thickened with agar. It seriously cooks up just like an egg white. The yolk is made with black salt, nooch, and xanthan gum, and it stays a little runny just like an egg yolk should. At first reading, the preparation seemed a little difficult, but honestly, in practice, this came together in minutes. I was able to make these every morning before work for breakfast.
I also wanted to try something for dinner. And at the time that I was picking out recipes from this book, my oven was broken (Paul fixed it!). So my options were limited to stovetop recipes. I'm going through a bit of a food-in-a-jar phase right now. Maybe that's what summer does to me. Anyway, I settled on the BBQ Kale Parfait.

There are layers of dinosaur kale, brown rice, barbecue jackfruit, and creamy coleslaw. The recipes for the jackfruit and the slaw are separate recipes in the book. I made up four jars like this for my lunches for last week, and it was so convenient to just grab a jar and head to work. I typically spend at least 10 to 15 minutes every night or morning packing my work lunches. 

And it was delicious! At work, I'd scoop off the cold slaw and heat the kale, rice, and jackfruit in the microwave. And then I topped the bowl with the cold slaw. This warmed my little Southern heart. Nothing (and I do mean NOTHING) beats bbq and slaw.
I want to make so many more dishes from this book — Chickpea Scramble (subbed out for scrambled eggs), Smoked Truffle Gouda-Style Almond Cheese, Tapenade French Toast Sandwiches, Cranberry Nut Butter Scones, Asian-Flavored Nuggets (made with chickpeas and tempeh instead of chicken), and Lemony Cream & Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream! 

Vegan Jokerz Cupcakes with Coconut Sea Salt Caramel Drizzle

I remember a few years ago, when Go Max Go came out with vegan versions of all my favorite childhood candy bar treats. I was beside myself with joy. And of course, I was most excited to try the Jokerz bars — the vegan version of a Snickers. Jokerz has vegan nougat, peanuts, and caramel all wrapped up in ricemilk chocolate!


Go Max Go recently shipped me a box of candy bars to review. But rather than do straight reviews, I agreed to get creative and come up with some fun recipes. I was googling around the internet, looking for ideas for Sheridan's birthday cupcakes (see yesterday's post) when it hit me — vegan Snickers-style cupcakes! A quick search for "Snickers cupcakes" turned up a pretty popular recipe reprinted on many blogs, so I used that for inspiration.

But in the end, I wound up using adaptations of several different recipes from the internet. So, just so you know, none of these recipes alone are mine. The chocolate cupcake recipe was adapted from Isa's Chocolate Cupcakes on the PPK. The caramel frosting was adapted from this recipe on Six Sisters' Stuff. And the coconut sea salt caramel drizzle came from Eff Yeah, It's Vegan. But I've combined them in my own new way, and I've made some minor adjustments.


Vegan Jokerz Cupcakes with Coconut Sea Salt Caramel Drizzle
Makes 12 cupcakes

Coconut Sea Salt Caramel Drizzle
1 can coconut milk, refrigerated for about 24 hours
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup cashew milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Caramel Buttercream1/2 cup vegan margarine1/2 cup vegan shortening1/4 cup cooled caramel sauce (from recipe above)Pinch salt1 Tbsp. cashew milk3 cups powdered sugar
Toppings1 Go Max Go Jokerz bar, sliced into 12 piecesChopped peanutsCaramel sauce
To make the caramel sauce:After refrigerating for 24 hours, turn the can of coconut milk upside down and open it. The fat should be thick and creamy and separated from the coconut water. If not, try another brand. Some brands contain emulsifiers, and this doesn't work. But it's crucial that you don't get any of the liquidy water in there. My favorite brand is Coco King because it actually solidifies on the shelf at room temperature.
Scoop the fat out, and discard the water. Put the coconut fat in a medium saucepan. Add the brown sugar, and heat over medium-low for about 25 minutes, stirring often. It should cook down and thicken a bit. After 25 minutes, if the sauce seems separated, you've gotten too much coconut water mixed with your fat. That's okay! Put the hot sauce into a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until thickened and cool.
To make the cupcakes:Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a cupcake pan with liners.
Mix the cashew milk and vinegar together and allow to sit for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches. Stir until only a few tiny lumps remain. Don't over-stir!
Fill the cupcake liners 3/4th of the way full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting:Use a bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer to beat together the margarine and the shortening. Add the completely cooled caramel sauce. Beat again. Add the vanilla, salt, cashew milk, and half the powdered sugar. Beat until lightly whipped. Add the rest of the powdered sugar, and beat for about five minutes, until very whipped.
To assemble:Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag or a large ziploc bag. If using a ziploc, cut off one corner, and pipe the frosting onto each cake. Transfer the remaining caramel sauce to another ziplock bag, and cut a tiny hole in the corner. Drizzle over the cupcakes. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over each cake, and then place a Jokerz slice on top of each cake.

My Best Friend's Birthday!

Saturday was my best friend Sheridan's birthday. We're besties from way, way back when we met in 7th grade and eventually formed a tight bond in 8th grade over our mutual love for teen actor Jonathan Brandis (RIP, Jonathan!). Sheridan lives in Little Rock now, just a couple hours from Memphis. So Paul and I drove down there yesterday for her birthday party!

Here's me and Sheridan!


And a group shot with our beaus — Paul and Drew.


Sheridan invited a few friends over for a small party at her and Drew's new house. We arrived early enough to help her make snacks. Sheridan whipped up some easy and delicious Vegan Pigs in Blankets.

And she cooked up some 365 brand Chickenless Nuggets, which we dipped into Follow Your Heart Vegan Ranch, ketchup, and BBQ sauce. Paul, who is a meat eater, declared these to be better than meat chicken nuggets. Win!


There were Chips and Salsa. They buy the Frontera salsa, and it's amazing. I guess I'd never tried it before, but it's my new fave.

Sheridan plated up some pretty fruit! But I didn't really eat much of it because I'm not that into fruit. Wish I was, but I much prefer junk food!

I brought over some Miyoko's Creamery Sundried Tomato Garlic Double Cream Cheese. Miyoko's Creamery sent me a package of cheeses to review, but I've already done a big post with my opinions. So I'm using this review package to either share with friends (and get their reviews) or to develop recipes. This cheese was a big hit! 

Leslie Dancer said "it's flavorful and seasoned well, but it's not hot." She detected a little spice in there but said it wasn't overly spicy. Holly just declared that it was delicious, as she shoveled it in her mouth using tortilla chips instead of crackers because she tries to avoid gluten. Sheridan said the cheese actually had a bacony flavor from the smoky sundried tomatoes. By the end of the night, the cheese was all gone!
I made Sheridan some Vegan Jokerz Cupcakes using Go Max Go Jokerz bars. Jokerz is the vegan version of Snickers. They sent me some candy bars to develop recipes with, so that's what I did here. I'll post the full recipe, which is actually just an adaptation of several existing recipes, tomorrow!


We didn't have any birthday candles, so Drew lit a toothpick for Sheridan's wish.

Here's some birthday fun! Sheridan and Holly.

And Leslie found something quite amusing here!

We had fun night. Lots of wine, beer, and Tom Collins cocktails were consumed, and we stayed up until about 2 a.m. And then this morning, Sheridan, Drew, Paul, and I went out for brunch at the vegan-friendly Root Cafe.

Most of us (except for Paul) ordered the Tofu Scramble Banh Mi-Style. There's scrambled tofu with vegenaise, topped with shredded carrot, daikon, and cilantro. 

And we each got a side of Solfood Catering's Vegan Sausage. This was a hearty patty made with lentils and rice. Good stuff.

After brunch, we walked over to the Green Corner Store for ice cream from their Loblolly ice cream counter! I got the Arnold Palmer (iced tea and lemonade) Sorbet, and Paul opted for a Chocolate Sorbet in a Vegan Waffle Cone.

We had such a great time this weekend. Back home in Memphis now and getting ready for the work week!

Stuff I Ate

I was planning to review an awesome new vegan cookbook tonight. But I'm sleepy, and I have a very early start tomorrow. I'll save that review for next week. But for now, here's a photo dump of some stuff I've been eating.

We did a food-on-a-stick issue in the Memphis Flyer, the newspaper I write for. And my assignment was to eat this yummy Tofu Kabob Platter from The Blue Nile and write about it. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. By the way, these kabobs are the best tofu in Memphis. No joke.


A couple weeks ago, Midtown Crossing Grill — the awesome pizza joint by my house — was offering a special on their vegan and vegetarian menu items. Dropped by after work and picked up this Greek Flatbread with hummus, kalamata olives, radishes, arugula, and olive oil. I think I'm starting to like arugala. Don't tell anyone.

Had some Amy's Alphabet Soup from a can for lunch at work one day. Classic.

This is the most unflattering pic ever of my Dillweed Potato Salad from Cookin' Crunk. But I promise it was good. Brought this to a non-vegan potluck, and everyone loved it.

This Mango Tart Cherry Smoothie was a healthy and filling breakfast! Frozen cherries, cherry juice, frozen mango, coconut water, and French Vanilla Vega One. One of my new smoothie faves!

My mama bought me one of those Rapid Ramen Cookers that lets you cook ramen in the microwave for three minutes. Love it. Ramen is lazy food anyway, so why not make it even lazier? Plus, it works with rice noodles. These are the Thai Kitchen Spring Onion Rice Noodles.

Our friend Nigel and his partner Andrea were cooking a weekly vegan brunch at The African Place downtown. Sadly, their last brunch in that spot was last week, but they're looking for a new location. The week before the last brunch, Cassi, Pam, and I had brunch there. I got the Breakfast Sandwich with tofu scramble, vegan cheese, vegan sausage, and spinach. On the side I had some Garlic Kale.

Last week, I had brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe and got my very favorite dish — the Memphis Slam (biscuits topped with tofu scramble, sausage, vegan cheese, and gravy. Mmmmm. More kale on the side (not pictured).

One day last week, I got the Reuben from Imagine Vegan Cafe. LOVE this messy sandwich. By the end, you have to eat it with a fork. Also, garlic kale on the side. It's a thing right now.

Last night, I met my friend Misti for dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Since I had that big ole lunch from LYFE Kitchen (see yesterday's post), I wanted a lighter dinner. So I got the Greek Salad (hold the feta) with Marinated Tempeh. They really hooked it up on the tempeh! So good!

That's it for now! Have a great weekend!

Bluff City Vegan Eats: LYFE Kitchen

Believe it or not, Memphis is now the headquarters of LYFE Kitchen, a vegan-friendly, healthy fast-casual chain founded by former McDonald's executives with menu assistance from vegan chef Tal Ronnen (and non-vegan chef Art Smith).

The company's HQ was relocated to Memphis from Chicago last year, and they already have many locations across the country. But when LYFE moved its corporate offices here, Memphis didn't have a LYFE restaurant. But we do now! They immediately got to work on concepts for two LYFE locations here. One will be downtown in the old Chisca (close to my office!), but construction on that is a ways off. However, our first LYFE location officially opens on Wednesday morning in East Memphis! And I got a special media sneak-peek today (because in real life, I'm a newspaper reporter).


My editor Susan and I headed to LYFE for lunch. The first Memphis location is at 6201 Poplar in East Memphis. The restaurant is all modern and zen-like inside. Check out the herb garden!

While LYFE isn't a totally vegan restaurant, it's VERY vegan-friendly. All vegan menu items are marked with a V. And many non-vegan items (including the buffalo chicken wings!) can be made vegan. They also have lots of gluten-free items.

What I love the most (besides the awesome menu) is that LYFE is a counter-service joint. I much prefer fast-casual places. No need for servers. Susan and I placed our order at the counter, and then we went to fill up our glasses at the water station. Look! You can choose between Chilled, Ambient (room temp), and Sparkling. We got sparkling because we were feeling fancy.

Susan is vegetarian, so we decided to try more things by splitting a few orders. We started with the Spicy Vietnamese Lettuce Wraps made with Gardein beefless tips, wheatberries, scallions, thai basil, and chile-ginger sauce. Y'all know Tal Ronnen loves his Gardein, so all of their faux meats are Gardein. Yay!

We got the LYFE Veggie Burger with smoky pepper aioli and avocado. And we added Daiya cheddar because we could. They use Gardein patties, of course! And man, is this burger SOLID! The vegan bun is all soft and wheaty, and that smoky pepper aioli really adds fantastic flavor. On the side, we picked a salad with dried cranberries and pickled onions.

And we got the Thai Red Curry Bowl with Garlic-Lime Tofu. This had broccoli, eggplant, peppers, peas, thai basil, wheatberries, and coconut curry sauce. Wheatberries are pretty much my favorite grain, and I forget to use them at home. I love how chewy they are. The tofu was pan-fried and the sauce was just spicy enough to be palatable for anyone.

Because this was the media preview, the LYFE staff sat out a bunch of prepared dishes for us to photograph. It was a food photographer's dream! Most of those were the non-vegan dishes, but they did have this vegan one sitting out — Ancient Grain Stir-fry with Gardein beefless tips. I'll definitely be checking this one out on my next visit.

Our friend — and former co-worker — Pam was there, too. And she ordered the vegan Quinoa Crunch Bowl — quinoa tabbouleh, veggies, avocado, edamame hummus, greens, and hot sauce. It looked so fresh and healthy. Can't wait to try this!

While we dined, there were people walking around the restaurant handing out bite-sized samples of menu items. Some of those weren't vegan, so I passed on those. But I did grab one of these vegan Banana Date Shakes. Wow! It's just a banana soft serve shake with date syrup, but they make their own date syrup. And it's amazingly thick and creamy.

The Memphis location is the first LYFE restaurant with a full bar! For now, the others just serve wine and beer. But ours has fancy cocktails. It was lunch time, and we still had to go back to the office, but that didn't stop us from ordering booze. So Mad Men! I had a Grapefruit Paloma with organic tequila, grapefruit and lime juice, organic cane syrup, club soda, and a pinch of salt. It tasted like a grapefruit margarita!

Susan ordered a Perfect Storm, LYFE's spin on a dark 'n' stormy — rum and house-made ginger beer. This is some seriously stout ginger beer! So spicy and gingery!

I'm just so excited about LYFE Kitchen! I've been counting down the months for the grand opening, and it's hard to believe it's finally here. As much as I love supporting local businesses (and I do all the time!), I also have a soft spot for chain restaurants with vegan options. I think it's so important that, as vegans, we show our support to big business that supports us. Restaurants like LYFE have the power to push vegan and healthy food to the masses, and that's what we need. I'm thrilled that a healthy food chain like this would choose Memphis, which isn't exactly known for health food, as it's HQ. Despite our reputation for barbecue and fried chicken, there's really a hunger for healthier fare in this town. And I have a feeling LYFE is going to feel very welcome here.
LYFE Kitchen is located at 6201 Poplar Ave. 

Badass Power Cookie

You can't go claiming something's badass unless it truly is badass. And these new Badass Power Cookies completely live up to their name.

The folks at Badass (I just like saying that) offered to send me some samples of their Oatmeal Raisin Power Cookies with Spirulina. I'm always down for cookies, especially when those cookies double as health food bars. 
First of all, I love the packaging. It has these little punk rock comic ladies and a Mr. T-looking dude on the front, and on the back, there's a drawing of John Lewis, the badass founder of Badass Power Cookies. Lewis is an Arkansas-born (holla!), Missouri-raised vegan fitness trainer, and he developed these power cookies as a healthy, tasty source of protein, B12, and phytochemicals.
Now, upon opening the shiny wrapper, you might be surprised by the cookie's dark greenish color. Admittedly, they don't look that appetizing. But that's the spirulina! That's plant-based protein source that has more than three times the protein of beef. 

Don't worry. The spirulina doesn't have much of a flavor. Instead, you taste rolled oats, raisins, evaporated cane juice, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and a combo cinnamony spices. I had this cookie after a short walk/run one morning in lieu of my usual smoothie, and not only was it soft and delicious, it also kept me full until about 11 a.m. And that's as far as my smoothies take me as well. I tend to snack on nuts or popcorn around 11 a.m.
Badass Power Cookies are all-natural, vegan, non-gmo, and they contain 10 grams of plant-based protein and 15 percent of your RDA for iron. I especially love that these cookies tout ethical veganism on the wrapper. On the back, the words "loving animals and our earth without sacrificing nutrition" are printed. Nice. I can definitely see these fueling or helping me recover from future workouts!

Hush Puppies & Pea Salads

I developed a couple new recipes for my vintage vegan cookbook last week — one from the 1920s and another from the 1910s.

For the 1920s, I made Hush Puppies! Yep, the good old-fashioned Southern-fried kind. There's a healthier baked hush puppy in Cookin' Crunk, so I wanted this one to be a more traditional fried version.


Hush Puppies go way, way back. But before they were called hush puppies, they were known as "red horse bread." That's because they were commonly served with a species of fish by that name. But the first printed reference — as far as I can tell — to "hush puppies" was in 1927, when the Macon Telegraph, a Georgia newspaper, reported that a men's bible class was hosting a fish fry and serving "hush puppies" with the fish and coffee. You can read the whole fascinating history of hush puppies in this Serious Eats article.

Basically, they're just fried balls of cornbread, but I like to add minced onion to mine to step it up a little. And I dip mine in ketchup because ketchup!

On the side, I made these pretty little Pea Salads!


I found this great website called RecipeCurio.com, and on it, they've reprinted the entire contents of a 1910 salad cookbook called The Salad Book. There are so many salads listed. Some are pretty basic, and some are quite archaic. Like this little thing! I mean, it's served in a hollowed-out lemon half for god's sake. And it's topped with mayo (vegan Just Mayo!) because that's what folks used to do for salad dressing.

Inside, english peas are tossed with walnuts, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. The lemon juice left inside the wedge adds flavor as well. Weird as it may seem, this was really good!