In all of our prideful, veg glory

With all the odds against us- constant rain, flakey people, no truck, a busted up trailer, blah, blah, blah- we some how managed to get our float in the Pride Parade, and had a hell of a good time doing it. Somehow, we managed to pull it all together about an hour before the parade started. Someone/thing must have really, really wanted us to be in that parade.

Assembly required. Putting the finishing touches on our float.

One of the marvelous posters. The parade was Lone Star themed, thus the cowboys/girls, stacks of hay, and..

Best lil Veggie House in Texas theme

Basking in our hard work, and drunkeness

My memories of the evening pretty much end there. After so much Jack, you can really only remember so much. There was a very unpleasant hour toward the end of the night where I vividly remember expelling practically everything from my body. Other than that, I think I had a really amazing time. Can't wait til next year!

Put the lime in the coconut

There's nothing that is more summery than a bunch of fresh vegetables tossed together into some wonderful salad-like concoction. When I came home and found a big bowl of fresh picked cherry and plum tomatoes on the counter, I was immediately inspired.

I sliced them in half and put them in a bowl

I added sauteed red onion...

quinoa, chopped artichoke hearts, chopped fresh basil, and...

freshly picked figs from down the street. Mmmm..

I tossed it all together with a dressing of- dijon mustard, basil jelly, red wine vinegar, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. This wonderful combination made my taste buds have a veganasm.

I love summer and all of it's glorious vegetable goodness. I also quite like the fact that sno cones are vegan and the perfect summer treat. Coconut lime is my new special flavor.

Changing days

I have to confess that I haven't been in much of a cooking mood lately. I have basically been putting various things together in a somewhat satisfying fashion, in an attempt to clean out my fridge before I move. I did get a few good outcomes, helped out mostly by my last weekly farmers market trip, which was bursting with summer goodies.

I picked up some local tomatoes (it is tomato season afterall), a funny shaped eggplant, a sweet yellow pepper, a mystery squash, and the juciest blackberries I have ever eaten.

A couple of weeks ago, I made the pistachio-arugula pesto I found at Vegan Yum Yum. I wanted to make some kind of napoleon with the eggplant and squash and a tomato based sauce. When I cut open the squash, it seemed more like an acorn squash than the summer squash I was expecting, but not as hard. I decided to roughly follow the recipe in VwaV, subbing the artichoke for squash. I had it with some roasted long beans, which I picked up at the market (but forgot to include in the picture-whoops!) It was tasty, a bit messy, and a great compliment for the pesto, which should always be the showcase of any meal it is included in.


I put together this yummy fruit salad for breakfast one morning. It is a prime summer meal, cool, light, and refreshing. It has those scrumptious blackberries, organic kiwi, and orange, and a fresh picked peach from the tree growing right on the sidewalk at T'afia.

This is a dish inspired by a recipe I found somewhere for potato, broccoli, and chickpeas tossed with a vinagrette. I don't remember where it comes from, but this is my spin on it. Steamed red potatoes, edamame, and chickpeas, tossed with T'afia's Sherry Vinagrette and thyme. The thyme was a last minute thing I had lurking in my fridge, and was a really nice addition. Simple summer salad, would have been good on some crisp lettuce, but none was to be found. I put it on half of a hemp tortilla.

I'm not a big fan of fake meats, but they do come in handy. I was pleasantly suprised with this dish. I followed the recipe on the Garden burger box for these lettuce rolls, putting my own spin on it, using what I had. Garden burger strips, green onion, red cabbage, a soy sauce/ginger/red pepper mix, dotted with sesame oil, topped with peanuts. I didn't have whole lettuce leaves, but some chopped romaine. Pretty tasty, but didn't much remind me of the lettuce wraps I loved pre-vegan. Maybe one day I will find a good substitute.

My posts will be more sparse than usual for a while. So sorry to all of my (3 or so) readers. I will update every now and then to track my journeys. I will be leaving next weekend to spend a week or so at my friend's house in Austin. I'm sure I will have plenty of fun experiences to share, and free internet access. The pride parade is also coming up this weekend. We will have a Go Veg float (the Best lil Veggie House in Texas) in it, which I will be on, loud and proud. Many fun pictures are sure to come out of that. See you around!