The Cutting Board Bakery & Cafe, Mesa, AZ

The Cutting Board Bakery & Café Sign

Southeast Mesa welcomes new vegetarian/vegan joint, The Cutting Board Bakery & Café!

The veg café is tucked into a new strip mall in Kiowa Village, just south of Baseline on Power Rd. The Cutting Board Café is open now, but the grand opening is on October 12th. They currently have just a banner sign up, and there's an old sign from the former tenant above their doors, so don't let that confuse you.

This past weekend, I made a last minute stop to check them out and found a very promising place to eat. I can't wait to see them grow into their potential.

I visited right between breakfast and lunch, and so I ordered breakfast, which is very hard for me to resist.

The Cutting Board Service Counter

Right from the start, the Tamari Tofu English Muffin called to me, which is a toasted English muffin with macademia pesto spread, baked tofu, avocado, and tomato slices. It came with a side of fresh melon, I'm not sure what kind. Simple, healthy, and yet still quite tasty. I'd definitely order it again.

Tamari Tofu English Muffin, side of Fresh Melon, Mr. Marley Smoothie

I'm not a coffee person, but I did note they had fancy gourmet coffees, plus things like soy, almond, hemp, and coconut milks, agave nectar and raw cane sugar; and perhaps most importantly, chai lattes, which is what I order when I am not ordering smoothies. This trip I picked a smoothie, and they had tons to choose from, so I tried the Mr. Marley, with pineapple, banana, coconut water, and hemp seed. Very refreshing, and a nice breakfasty choice.

I do wish they had some kind of almond/peanut/nut butter smoothie, but maybe in the future. ::hint, hint!::

Some of the things I'd like to try on return trips: the Santa Monica (kinda like a bread pudding French toast?), Lentil Cabbage Wrap, Olive Tapas, Tacos Duo (with "nutty meat"), Cheesy Mac, and the Seasonal Veggie appetizer with the walnut dill dip (I'm a sucker for dill!). That'll keep me busy.

The Cutting Board Dining Area

Follow them on Facebook for daily lunch specials and regular events, and check out their website, it's got everything you need including the full menu.


The Cutting Board Bakery & Cafe
Ranking: ****

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Cutting Board Bakery & Café
2235 S Power Road, Suite 116
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 654-8081
http://cuttingboardcafe.com

Hours
Tuesday - Sunday 7am to 3pm
Closed Mondays




The Cutting Board Front Façade (main doors to the left)



The Cutting Board Bakery & Café (behind the palm tree)

Bragg's Factory Diner, Phoenix, AZ

Bragg's Factory Diner's Flatiron Front Door

Bragg's Factory Diner is the latest of the all-vegetarian restaurants to hit Phoenix. Located off Grand Avenue in a one story flat-iron building, this cute diner itself is pretty dang small, but there is plenty of parking. So keep in mind, peak diner hours might include a little wait if you hit the rush. That said, I was there on a Sunday during brunch with a couple of friends and we were seated right away.

The diner is full of fun kitschy salt and pepper shakers and mismatched vintage dinnerware, which gives it a cozy and welcoming vibe. The art on the walls is a nod to the history of Phoenix, with lots of old photos from residents and a giant painting near the registers featuring some of our more famous icons and residents.

clockwise from front left: Frank Lloyd Bite, Koo-Koo-Pancakes, The Classic, Side Biscuit & Gravy (part of Frank Lloyd Bite)

Bragg's is a vegetarian diner serving breakfast (all day) and lunch. Breakfast includes entrees like coconut curry waffles, cinnamon ginger French toast, banana pancakes, scrambles, soyrizo breakfast burritos, and hash browns. And lunch includes tasties like the eggplant "bacon', lettuce and tomato; the portabello reuben, the beet burger, and a kale salad. But they all have much more clever names like the Frank Lloyd Bite, which is what I had (two pancakes, hash browns, eggplant "bacon", & a side biscuit & gravy).

Frank Lloyd Bite (minus the Side Biscuit & Gravy)

I really liked the pancakes, they so hit the spot. I dislike eggplant, but I wanted to try it anyway because it sounded so interesting. It was okay, very edible for eggplant. The one person in our party who liked eggplant enjoyed it. The hash browns were hash browns, so nothing fancy there, but delicious as usual. I'm not big on biscuits and gravy, this one had a poblano gravy, but I think if you like those things you would really like these. I'd eat it again, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Side Biscuit & Gravy (smaller version of Bwiscuits & Gravy entrée)

I sampled the Koo-Koo Bananas Pancakes that my friend order and it was really good. The side of fruit that came with it was fresh and ripe which I really appreciated even though it wasn't even my meal! I begged some forkfuls of another friend's Classic scramble which was pretty good but not my favorite entrée that day.

Koo-Koo Bananas Pancakes with Side of Fruit

The Classic

My friends agreed they would come back and make this place a part of their regular rotation. And I am definitely going back because I want to try those coconut curry waffles that I hear such good things about and the French toast which is one of my favorite foods.

And of course they serve PIE, they are a diner and housed in the old Bragg's Pie Factory building afterall. Plus donuts and other pastries, and they all rotate in a little display case as any proper diner would host.

Diner Seating and Dessert/Pastry Spinner

Alright, so give this place a try and let me know what you think! Check out Bragg's Instagram for a deeper look at their goodies.


EDITED TO ADD:
They now serve dinner and have extended hours which have been updated below.


Bragg's Factory Diner
Ranking: ****

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bragg's Factory Diner
1301 NW Grand Ave (Grand Ave runs diagonally across the Phoenix grid)
Phoenix, AZ 85007
 602-733-8076
http://braggsdiner.com

Hours
Tuesday - Thursday 7am to 9pm
Friday - Saturday 7am to 10pm
Sunday 7am to 2pm

Bragg's Factory Diner from the Parking Lot

Girl and Foxes Mural (on a nearby building)

Recycle Mural in Bragg's Factory Diner Parking Lot

Recipe Round-up: Vegan Croque Monsieur et Madame

I'd never heard of Croque-anything until I took a French class in college and was suddenly having to order them from my classmates, along with a café au lait and croissant. I don't know what made me think of them recently, but I suddenly decided I wanted a vegan version. This meant digging through recipes online to see if I could find something workable. A few vegans have beat me to the punch and created their own vegan Croques. Of course, I had to share.

By the way, I saw a couple of non-vegan, vegetarian recipes (heavy on the gruyere) that used mushrooms and/or spinach instead of vegan ham, so you might consider substitutions like that if you don't want the faux ham that some of the recipes use.

There aren't very many recipes, so people, get on this!
~Parsley Soup's Vegan Croque Monsieur

~The Vegan Croque Monsieur with Dijon Dill Aioli at Veganize It...Don't Criticize It

~D.I. Wine and Dine's Vegan Croque Monsieur aka Savory French Toast

~The Vegan Croque Monsieur (with a side of Dijon Potatoes!) over at Yummy-Licious

~Shins' Vegan Lovin' has a Vegan Croque Madame Panini

~Animal Emancipation showcases a Croque Madame...no real recipe but you should be able to figure it out with all the ingredients listed.

Recipe Round-up: Chayote/Mirliton/Choko/Chow Chow

Chayotes are light green, puckered fruits that are part of the gourd family. In the South, they tend to be called mirlitons/merlitons. Choko in Australia, and chow chow in India. They have many other names in many other places, but those are the ones you are most likely to encounter, I think.

I've never cooked with them, nor eaten them to my knowledge, but they are in season now and cooked much like summer squash. I see them at my local grocery stores whenever they are in season, and I always think, I should try those. I never do. But this summer, I am determined to fix that. However, I needed to find an interesting recipe or two first. I found quite a few recipes and thought I would share them here.

In honor of True Blood returning, I am super pleased to start with a couple of mirliton recipes which are popular in the South, like Lousiana. I think the first thing I want to make with chayotes is the Seaside-Stuffed Mirlitons.

Mirlitons
*Fat Free Vegan's Seaside-Stuffed Mirlitons and Mirliton and White Bean Stew
*Emeril's Spicy Shrimp Stuffed Mirliton (requires veganizing: use vegan shrimp and vegan cheese)

Chayotes
*Fat Free Vegan's Southwestern Chayote Casserole and Creamy Mexican Chayote Soup
*Vegan Adventures of Meggie and Ben's Chayote with Fire Roasted Tomatoes and Green Pepper
*All Creatures [dot] Org's Chayote Squash and Potatoes
*Bon Appetit's Chayote Soup with Lemongrass and Ginger (use veggie broth to veganize)
*The Tropical Vegan's Cucumber and Chayote Slaw
*Stewed Chayote with Tomatoes and Epazote
*The Boulders Resort's (Scottsdale/Carefree) Chayote Squash and Jicama Slaw

Choko
*Choko Chutney

Chow Chow
*Cooking and Me's Chow Chow Kootu and Chow Chow Sambhar with Curd Rice

Calabacitas
(Calabacitas means little squashes, and you can really use any summer squash in most calabacita recipes.)
*Vegan Mischief's Breakfast Calabacitas
*Salad in a Jar's Calabacitas with Potatoes (optional vegan cheese)
*The Temporary Vegetarian's Tacos de Calabacitas (use vegan cheese)


Also, Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan cookbook has a recipe for Chayote and Potato Salad with Capers and Peas as well as one for Calabacitas.


If you've got a great chayote recipe, or even a Mexican grey squash recipe, send them my way!

Stuff I've Been Eating

I finally started making some of the recipes in Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction (AfR) cookbook, which is full of healthy recipes. Very few meat analogue recipes, low fat, light on calories, and no sugary desserts. She has a great selection of interesting salads which are filling meals, not just sides. That Irish Stew I made came from this book too.

Here's the Sushi Roll Edamame Salad from Appetite for Reduction. I thought this was fantastic.

Sushi Roll Edamame Salad

In the photo below you can see the OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings also from Appetite for Reduction. Delicious! So what I needed. Also, the Prospect Park Potato Salad from Veganomicon, and a Tofurky Kielbasa. The potato salad was only ok, but I know I am picky, and I haven't found a recipe I like yet. Loving the Kielbasa.

Link to Onion Rings recipe.

OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings, Prospect Park Potato Salad, Tofurky Kielbasa

My sister made this cherry peach pie with fresh peaches from Schnepf Farms Peach Festival. Not sure where she got the recipe, but the peaches in it were especially yummy!

Cherry Peach Pie

Some friends had me over for dinner and made this Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca. I know my friends really like it, and I thought it was good, just not something I would make often. The Tropical Avocado Salasa Fresca would be great to use on tacos or other things too.

Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca

My sister made me some Rosemary Infused Olive Oil so that I could make Giada de Laurentis' special popcorn. It was quite tasty, and I started wondering why so many people use microwave popcorn when cooking it in a pot is just as easy.

Rosemary Popcorn

Rosemary Popcorn

I made this Apricot Cardamom East Coast Coffee Cake from Isa's Vegan Brunch cookbook for a birthday brunch. I think it turned out pretty well. I used St. Dalfour's Thick Apricot Spreadable Fruit instead of chopping up dried apricots. I would recommend my method for sure.

Apricot Cardamom East Coast Coffee Cake

More food from the brunch. Mmmmm.

Buckwheat Pancakes, Maple Syrup, & Strawberries; Hash Browns, Fakin' Bacon Tempeh Bacon, Fried Platanos, Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes/Crumbles,  Apricot Cardamom Coffee Cake

I made the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes (vegan crabcakes)  in Vegan Brunch. They were ok, but a bit strong in tangy flavor and I inadvertently messed them up so they were more crumbles than cakes. I stared at them as crumbles trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. I finally decided I was going to use the crumbles as pizza toppings. Best idea ever. As tempeh cakes on their own, they were just ok, but as pizza topping, they were sooooo good! I used Enrico's pizza sauce, Daiya mozzarella-flavor, and the Chesapeake Tempeh Cake crumbles on pita bread.

Link to Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes recipe.

Vegan Crab Cake Pizza

And last, but not least, I made the Lasagne Marinara with Spinach from Isa's Veganomicon. Oh, my delicioso! I served this to omnivores in my extended family and they approved. You must make it with the Cashew Ricotta and the Pine Nut Cream. The pine nut cream really elevates the lasagne to outstanding in my book. I also sprinkled in some bread crumbs, just for the heck of it. I recommend using the noodles where you do not cook them first.

Lasagne Marinara with Spinach

Bonus: Fancy [virgin] drinks from True Foods at the Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix. I had the Medicine Man which features olivello juice, an extract from sea buckthorn berries. Olivello is reportedly full of powerful natural anti-oxidants and other protective phytonutrients. True Foods claims they are the only restaurant in the nation to offer olivello juice. If you want to try it, I recommend Andy's Elixir. I think I like that one better than the Medicine Man, plus you'll get a better idea of taste with that one. True Foods offers clearly labeled gluten-free and vegan menu items, including desserts. One of these days I will get around to reviewing the food there.

True Foods - Red Moon and Medicine Man

Scramble, Sunnyslope/Phoenix, AZ

Scramble

I was pretty excited to eat at Scramble, breakfast foods are my favorites and they offer several different vegan menu items; Vegan Mushroom and Spinach Scramble, Vegan Veggie Scramble, Vegan Soyrizo Burrito, and Vegan French Toast. You won't see these items on their menu board, but pick up one of their paper menus from the wall holder and they are listed there.

I cannot stress how much I appreciate them simply for offering a vegan breakfast menu. However, I visited Scramble twice and had two very different experiences, good and not-so-good.

First visit: Good.
I ordered the french toast and sweet potato hash instead of fruit. The french toast was really good, the hash was not my thing. The hash I could tell was good, but it was stuffed with loudly-flavored mushrooms, and I dislike mushrooms. I don't know if the hash always has mushrooms, as the next visit I was told by my eating companions it didn't, but this day it did.


Vegan French Toast with Sweet Potato Hash

Second visit: Not-so-good.
I think they were having an off day. At least I hope so. There was a mix-up with our order. First they were out of soyrizo, and several of us had to order something else, so I ordered the Vegan Veggie Scramble instead. In the end, I ended up with both the Vegan Soyrizo Burrito (last batch) and the Vegan Veggie Scramble. I was secretly glad because it meant I could sample both.


Vegan Soyrizo Burrito with Sweet Potato Hash & Side of Fruit

Unfortunately, the slight mix-up was not the only problem. The tofu scrambles were rather bland and the toast was cold. I easily forgive the toast, but not the bland scrambles. A couple of my friends had eaten there before and said they were normally rather tasty. And I know I liked the French toast from my first visit. So I am not entirely sure what to think. I'm going to rate Scramble with the caveat that I need to try them one more time to really decide if they are worth future visits. Certainly, they would beat out any other non-vegan-friendly places to dine and I'd hope to rate them at least 3 stars.

Vegan Veggie Scramble and Toast

Scramble

Ranking: **1/2

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scramble
9832 N. 7th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85020
(602)374-2294
http://www.azscramble.com/

Hours
Daily 6am - 2pm

On the Road: Le Cave's Bakery, Tucson, AZ

Le Cave's Bakery Inc.

As I was in Tucson for breakfast, it was quite fortuitous that I had heard about the vegan donuts there just a couple of weeks before. So I dragged my crew to Le Cave Bakery.

Apparently, this place is a Tucson institution. It's been around since 1935 and the building certainly shows its historicness. This is not necessarily a terribly thing. It's just a dive bakery. But, what I didn't understand was the lack of seating should someone want to have breakfast on site. I don't expect much from a donut shop; just donuts, coffee (I don't drink it, I just expect it there), and a couple of table/chair units. This place only had the donuts. No coffees or beverages to accompany the donuts. It's kinda like a donut warehouse. Which is fine I suppose, if you know what you are getting and are not an out-of-towner looking for a place to chill over breakfast. And perhaps that also explains the lack of parking.

Veggie Glazed Donuts

So, their claim to fame are the glazed donuts which just happen to be vegan. I asked  the lady behind the counter if any of the others were vegan, and she indicated that a few of them used the same glaze and base but just added things like cinnamon and apples, so they should be. I didn't catch which ones they were, and I was pretty much there for the veggie glazed, but if you visit you can just ask.

The glazed donut was cheap and pretty tasty, a satisfying intake of sugar. I'd probably be worshipping them if I hadn't recently had Ronald's Donuts of Las Vegas. Ronald's is far superior. So, in short, I wouldn't drive to Tucson for this place, but if you are there already this is a decent place to visit for breakfast, just expect to take the donuts elsewhere for consumption. And stop for coffee on the way.

Veggie Glazed Donut...mmm

Le Cave's Bakery Inc.
Ranking: ***

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Le Cave's Bakery Inc.
1219 S. 6th Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85713
(520)624-2561
Hours
[Call Ahead]
Tuesday - Friday 6:30am-6pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm
Sunday 8am - 1pm
Closed Mondays

I Dream in Tangerine

I love tangerines. Love. So I was mega-excited when I saw the big tangerine display at Whole Foods showcasing several different varieties of tangerines. I decided I needed to taste-test every kind they had in stock. I got the Page, Gold Nugget, Honey (sometimes called a Kinnow or a Murcott), TDE (Minneola), Yosemite Gold, and Satsuma. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Fairchilds or Clementines, both of which I think are earlier in the season.

Bio specifics about the varieties.

Page. A clementine-minneola tangelo cross, or tangor. Dark orange, round, intensely flavored. Harder to peel; quarter for easy eating. Mainly seedless, but not always.

Gold Nugget Mandarin. A variety of mandarins. Deliciously sweet with a bright orange, seedless interior. Bright and slightly bumpy rind. Easy to peel and separate into segments.

Honey Mandarin. Previously marketed as Kinnow mandarins. Rich, aromatic, and distinctive flavor. They peel and segment easily, and are extremely juicy. The fruit is thin skinned, slightly flattened with no neck and are smooth, almost glossy, in texture.

Minneola Tangelo. Easily identified by the knob-like formation at the stem end. Cross between a Duncan grapefruit and a Dancy tangerine. Grows large in size and will display a deep red-orange exterior color, with a slightly pebbled texture. Delicious tart-sweet flavor. Peel very easily, and have few if any seeds.

Yosemite Gold. Newer variety. Big; bright orange, seedless, easy to peel. The exterior peel has small pimply bumps. Sweet and juicy.

Satsuma Mandarin. Peels and segments easily. The exterior is light orange color and perhaps a tinge of green, but the interior will be a bright orange. Pebbly in texture and varies in shape from flat to necked.

[And more details on several other varieties here.]

Tangerine Slices

Eating Experience+

Key
***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.



Page *****
 These were my favorite of the varieties. Great flavor, zero seeds. Easy to de-rind and peel apart. Perfect.

Gold Nugget ****
I think these were my second favorite, maybe tied with the Satsuma. Good flavor, but slightly chewier than the Page.

Honey **1/2
These have great flavor. It's unfortunate that the skin is so tough and there are so many rind bits and several huge seeds to get around. These I think would be perfect for juicing, because they are not much fun to eat. And in fact, that is what I did, shoved them into the juicer.

TDE (Minneola) **
Ok, first of all, these were labled as TDE hybrids on the sign but their stickers all said Minneolas, and well, they sure look like Minneola tangelos to me. So I am betting that is what they are. Unfortunately the flavor was a bit watered down. Perhaps the paleness of the fruit in the photo above is an indicator of that. Anyway, after my sample slice, I also added these to the juice

Yosemite Gold ***
These tangerines have the weirdest peel, covered in pimply dots. Too bad you can't tell from the photo. Not all of the Yosemite Golds had such pronounced pimples, but mine did. This one was ok, a little tart. Much better flavor than the Minneola, but not as good as the Page and Gold Nugget. I added this one into my juice.

Satsuma ****
Probably 3rd place, or tied for 2nd. These were pretty good.  Good flavor, easy to peel. No annoying issues with rind or seed. I believe the Satsumas are usually the ones you find canned as mandarin oranges, which I do love adding to salads.


OVERALL
I highly recommend the Page, and also the Satsuma and Gold Nugget. I'd be interested to see how the Fairchilds and Clementines compare. I know that the Minneola tangelos can be super awesome, and I might have just had a less than perfect specimen. I usually pick tangelos over any kind of orange if they have both at the market. Of course, I tend to choose other kinds of tangerines over tangelos though too.

Even if you get a less than stellar batch of tangerines, all is not lost. Salvage the juice for some fresh-squeezed goodness. I mixed the juice of the Minneola, Honey, and Yosemite Gold and it was downright amazing. Of course, tangerines are small, so I really only got one glass out of my samples and a couple of extra Honey tangerines.

Whatever variety you do get...**Beware of puffy tangerines.** Everything I read about them suggested that puffy tangerines means they were picked past their prime and will likely not give you a good taste experience. Good luck! And happy tangerine dreams to you.


~~~~

+Keep in mind that each single fruit is a completely different experience which also depends on where we are in the season. In other words, my results may be different from yours based on fruit condition, ripeness, etc.

On The Road: Coffee Importers, Dana Point, CA

The Coffee Importers Menu



I failed in the photographic part of this blog post. No pics of the sandwich I ordered, no pics of the buildings...just a blurry shot of the menu. Sigh. I was in a hurry. But I shall make up for it with photos of wildlife.

Anyway, I felt it was important to share this place with you. When I was in California for the holidays, I went whale watching in Dana Point. We didn't see any whales, sadly, but we did see a mega pod of dolphins and some sun bathing sea lions on a buoy. The point is, it was lunchtime around our depature and I hadn't planned well, so I was hungry. This place came to my rescue.



Common Dolphins



The Coffee Importers is located in Dana Point Harbor's Mariners Village and it looks to have a lot of vegan-friendly options. I mean, they have veggie cream cheese on their menu! Many bagel places make vegan bagels, as long as you stay away from the obvious ones like the egg, cheese, and everything bagels. But make sure you confirm that, dairy can sneak into anything. They also have Gardenburgers on their menu in several different sandwich options, plus a veggie panini, a veggie wrap, and several vegetarian salads you can modify to vegan. They also have quite a few breakfast options, bagels plus oatmeal, granola, and cereal...you'd just need to make sure they have some soymilk. I can't imagine them not, since they serve fancy coffees.

The only thing I confirmed here was my Veggie Sandwich. I ordered it with no sauce, just bread and bunch of veggies with a side of fruit. And it was really good. So if you are touristing in the area, it may just be the place to go. I don't drink coffee, but they seem to have a good rep for that too.

This place was packed, so beware of that. I mean, I have never been to a bagel/coffee place where you get a pager to pick up your order. But considering that, the line moved fast and it didn't take long for my order. The seating is all outside on the patio right near the water, because the restaurant is right there harborside. This is a place you come to just so you can enjoy your meal or coffee outside and shoo away the seagulls. And despite the amount of tourists they must get (although the locals seem to like the place too), the prices were not outrageous tourist prices; they seemed to be on par with other California joints though a little steeper than a comparable Arizona locale. Overall, a nice place.



The Coffee Importers

Ranking: ***

***** awesome! Highly recommended.

**** hey, this is pretty dang good.

*** not bad at all.

** eh.

* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Coffee Importers
Dana Point Harbor- Mariner's Village
34531 Golden Lantern
Dana Point, CA 92629
(949) 493-7773
http://www.coffeeimporters.com/


Hours
Open 7 days a week at 7am

Monday - Saturday 7am - 9pm



California Sea Lions



On the Road: Ronald's Donuts, Las Vegas, NV

"Come to Chinatown. Ask for Ronald's. They will help you."
That was my lame rip off of a quote from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.

My aunt and uncle recently visited Las Vegas, and jokingly, I asked them to pick me up a couple of the vegan donuts at Ronald's Donuts in Chinatown. Not only did they grant my wish, they went above and beyond and bought me one of each vegan flavor. Holy wow, that is a lot of donuts!

Ronald's Donuts, Box 1

I tried the glazed, maple nut, apple burrito thingy, apple turnover thingy, the Boston creme, and I can't remember what else I nibbled on. I shared with my [grateful] coworkers because I didn't have time to put together a vegan donut tasting party.

These donuts were really, really good. They tasted like what I remember Dunkin' Donuts tasting like, which always had the best donuts. My favorites from Ronald's were the glazed and the apple burrito thing. So good. And there are so many vegan ones to choose from, it was hard for me to decide which ones to try.

Ronald's Donuts, Box 2

I just have one request...Ronald's, could you maybe make me a French Crueller? Those are my abso-faves!

Ronald's Donuts
Ranking: *****

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ronald's Donuts
4600 Spring Mountain Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89102
702-873-1032

Hours
Monday-Friday 4am-4pm
Saturday 5am-4pm
Sunday 5am-2pm

Recipe Round-up: Chanukah/Hanukkah

*Vegetarians in Paradise Chanukah Spread: Mock Chopped Liver, Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht, Horseradish Coleslaw, Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes, Potato Latkes with Tofu Sour Cream and Applesauce, Festive Fruit Relish, and Cranberry Apple Cinnamon Strudel.

*Healthy Voyager's Chanukah Menu: Chickpea Cakes With Beet Horseradish Salad, Sweet Potato Kugel, Potato/Kale Casserole, Matzoh Ball Soup, Grilled Veggie Pesto Matzah (or Pasta) Lasagna, and Death By Chocolate Toffee Matzoh.

*Girlie Girl Army's Vegan Latkes.

*Beverly Lynn Bennet of The Vegan Chef's Holiday Fruit and Nut Rugelach.

*Meet the Shannon's Challah Bread.

*One of the recipes at Fat Free Vegan is for Chocolate Chanukkah Cookies.

*VegKitchen's Vegan Latkes (with oatmal or quinoa flakes!)

*VegNews compiled these Chanukah recipes: Challah, Vegan Latkes, Veggie Knishes, Cherry Noodle Kugel, and Jelly Donut Cupcakes.

*Vega Yum Yum has some delicious looking Mini Doughnuts.

*Over at The Discerning Brute, there's Pistachio Chocolate Cinnamon Rugelach and Noodle Kugel.

*Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine features Debra Wasserman's Broccoli Latkes, Potato Latkes, as well as Roberta Kalechofsky's Gourmet Applesauce and Incredible Spread.

*JewishRecipes.Org has Bimuelos (aka loukoumades (or loukoumathes) or lokma.

*PETA has a recipe for Glazed Donuts.

*Follow Your Heart's Mock Chicken Liver Pate, Butternut Squash Soup, and Vegan Moroccan Chicken with Almonds.

*Raw Vegan Holiday/Hanukkah Menu (non-traditional): Guacamole and Raw Jalapeno Corn Chips, Walnut Mushroom Pate, Raw Split Pea Soup, Pear and Blueberry Salad, Zucchini Spaghetti and Walnut Meatballs, Chia Pudding with Pomegranate Seeds, and Raw Tropical Chocolate Truffles.

*Gone Raw's Hanukkah Raw Vegan Gefiltefish.

*Jewish Vegetarians of North America has a fantastic compilation of vegetarian Jewish Recipes online.

*The Joy of Vegan Baking by Collen Patrick-Goudreau has a Rugelach recipe that I have made and liked.

And don't forget, Isa Chandra Moskowitz has vegan traditional Jewish recipes throughout her cookbooks.

Veganomicon has Autumn Latkes, Potato Latkes, Spinach-Noodle Kugel, Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes with Pecans and Raisins, and Jelly Donut Cupcakes.

Vegan with a Vengeance has Matzoh Ball Soup, Sweet Potato Knish, Potato Knish, and Spinach Potato Knish, and Cauliflower Leek Kugel with Almond-Herb Crust.

Vegan Brunch has Matzoh Brie, Potato and Mushroom Sauerkraut Pierogi, and a ton of cream cheeses.

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Enjoy!

Zucchini Cake

My sister made this cake for me as a prezzie. She omitted the chocolate chips and walnuts that the original recipe called for because she knows I don't care for either in zucchini cake. This cake tasted very good. It's the best vegan version of zucchini cake I have had so far. Plus, all of the ingredients for this cake are standard cake ingredients, so no hunting for oddball or new-to-you or special vegan items.


Zucchini Cake
(adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen recipe board)

INGREDIENTS

2 and 1/2 cups grated zucchini
2 ripe bananas, mashed well
1 cup canola oil
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tea salt
1 tea soda
1 tea cinnamon
1 tea vanilla
DIRECTIONS
In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine zucchini, bananas, oil, and vanilla. Stir well or beat. In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients. Add wet mixture to dry, mix well. Pour into lightly greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool upright 15 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack. Allow to cool 30 minutes before tasting.

Smoothie Sunday: Green Pom Raspbery Smoothie

This smoothie was really good with no spinach flavor! Keep in mind that with the raspberry seeds and the pom arils, it does have a little bit of seedy granules in case that turns some people off. You can see it in the photo a bit.


Green Pom Raspberry Smoothie

INGREDIENTS
1 banana, frozen and sliced
1/2 cup raspberries, frozen
1/2 to 1 cup pomegranate arils, fresh or frozen
1 handful spinach leaves, fresh
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1 cup ice

DIRECTIONS
Blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Smoothie Sunday: Ginger Grape Smoothie

Poor little faded Superman glass. He had an accident with kryptonite dish detergent.

Anyway, I pretty much eye-balled the ingredients in this one, so the measurements are approximate. The ginger adds a nice tang to the grape and banana. I've been spoiled and now I always want some kind of spice enhancement for my smoothies.Ginger, Cinnamon, Cayenne, etc. Yum.


Ginger Grape Smoothie

INGREDIENTS
1 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1 banana, frozen and sliced
1 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup red grapes
1 cup ice

DIRECTIONS
Blend until smooth and fully mixed.

Vegan Breakfast Sausages

Yves vs. Lightlife vs. Tofurky

I realized as I was taste-testing these snausages that I am not very good at describing the details of flavors or textures. I can give you a number rating on a scale, I can tell you if I will eat something again, and I can tell you if I like something. So that's what I am gonna do.

To start with, I cooked all of these by lightly pan frying them with cooking oil spray til they were sufficiently browned and warmed. I tasted each of them plain, with some water refreshment to cleanse the palette.

Onward to the review!

Tofurky Breakfast Links

These are juicy, which is good, but they have a weird peppery taste, like red bell pepper or something that I'm not too keen on. They're ok but not my preferred product. I'd eat them if I needed to. I was disappointed because so far I like the Tofurky Franks the best of all the faux hot dogs.

Yves Meatless Breakfast Patties

I couldn't find the Yves Breakfast Links, I suspect they are only available in Canada, so I got these. I wasn't impressed with them when I did the comparison testing of all three brands. They were kind of crumblyish in texture though they held together. Eh, ok.

But when I ate a patty cut up onto an oven-cooked pita pizza a couple of days later, they were far better tasting. They were firmer and just plain tastier. In fact, they were pretty dang good on the pita pizza. So, these were redeemed. I'd eat them again, but mostly just on pizza.

Lightlife Smart Links Breakfast Sausage Style

These are by far my favorite. I can eat them plain or dipped in maple syrup and they are flavored the way I remember sausage links tasting, firm and um, sausage-y. They're a nice quick addition to breakfast whether you are eating a tofu scramble, toast, or oatmeal.






Tofurky Breakfast Links

Ranking: **


Yves Meatless Breakfast Patties
Ranking: ***

LightLife Smart Links Breakfast Sausage Style
Ranking: ****
***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.


[Tofurky can be found at Whole Foods, and sometimes Trader Joes. Yves can be found at Whole Foods, and sometimes Fry's Marketplace. LightLife can be found at Whole Foods, and sometimes Sprouts and Fry's Marketplace.]
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Note: None of the Morningstar Farms Sausages are vegan, they all contain milk and egg ingredients. Match Foods has a vegan breakfast sausage, but you'd have to order it online as there are no local stores that carry Match products (according to their website). And don't forget about the LightLife Gimme Lean Ground Sausage Style option. You can easily make breakfast sausage patties with it.

Smoothie Sunday: Canteloupe Banana Smoothie

Ok, so I bought a canteloupe which was a bit mediocre and I didn't want to eat it plain because the taste was a bit disappointing. So I decided to make it into a smoothie rather than waste the fruit. I was actually quite pleased with the result. Just enough canteloupe flavor came through, even though it wasn't a great specimen, enhanced by the banana and other flavors. Yum!


Canteloupe Banana Smoothie

INGREDIENTS
1 banana, frozen and sliced
1/2 canteloupe or 1 cup sliced canteloupe bits
2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 cup ice

DIRECTIONS
Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth.

Carmelized Bananas on Peanut Butter Toast

This recipe came about because I wanted something like pancakes but healthier and using toast. Plus I had extremely ripe bananas needing to be used and absolutely no desire to bake anything. I wanted something super easy but different. My directions are a bit slack, but hopefully you can figure it out.

Carmelized Bananas on Peanut Butter Toast

INGREDIENTS

1 ripe banana

2 pieces of bread, for toasting

agave nectar

sprinkles of cinnamon

peanut butter

cooking spray

DIRECTIONS
Spray pan with cooking spray. Slice banana and place into pan. Drizzle agave nectar over banana slices in pan. Cook on medium heat for several minutes. Sprinkle banana mixture with cinnamon. While the bananas continue cooking, toast the two slices of bread. Try to time this so the bread will be ready when the bananas are.

When the toast is ready, spread peanut butter onto slices. Split the carmelized banana mixture in half and add it to each slice of bread. Eat!

(The banana topping itself can be used in many ways, over vanilla ice cream, over actual pancakes, over [white] rice, etc.)