Vegan Buffalo Pizza

Well its time for another pizza recipe! Yup another amazing vegan pizza recipe for you pizza loving people out there!

One of the best things I have learned recently was that Franks Red Hot Sauce is vegan! Even the Buffalo Flavour, which I thought would have had milk ingredients in it, but thankfully it does not (horay!) I remember before, when I was silly and didn’t read the ingredients, I would just smell the hot sauce and imagine all the wonderful things I could put it on. Like broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower.

So when I found out that I could eat it I went crazy and started putting it on everything, such as my all time fav - Steamed Cauliflower with Daiya Cheese and Hot Sauce, super creamy and really satisfying. But my newest creation had me blown away! It was spicy, flavorful, surprisingly light, and a total flavour explosion. My Buffalo Pizza!

If love experimenting with different types of pizza, I highly recommend you try this one out. And what nice about it is you can control how spicy it is. Don’t like spice – omit the jalapeno sauce. Love the spice – add jalapenos on top of the pizza too! The world is your oyster!....mmm whats a vegan equivalent to oyster…. Olive? They are salty right?.... I like it!

Okay the world is your olive! Go on and try my awesome pizza! 

 

Pizza Dough

1½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp ground flax
2 ¼ tsp quick-rising yeast
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. date syrup *recipe below

In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, yeast and salt. Mix well.
Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. 

Pour mix over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins. 

Grease inside of another bowl with olive oil and place dough inside. 

Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size (about 20mins).

While the dough is rising I cut up the vegetables to have ready.

Roll out dough over lightly floured surface into a circle. 

Pinch the outer edges up into a crust.

Put on toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 mins.

Date Syrup - makes 1 cup

10 dates

1/2 cup water

Blend in high speed blender until smooth, store the rest in the fridge!

Buffalo Pizza - Personal Sized Pizza – ¼ of pizza dough batch

¼ pizza dough

1 cup of sliced cremini mushrooms

1 orange pepper, diced

½ yellow onion, diced

¼ cup Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce

¼ cup Daiya Mozzarella

Cashew Cheese

1 cup of soaked cashews

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 lemon juiced

1 clove garlic

Pulse in high speed blender or food processor until smooth. If you have time spread out mixture in a metal bowl or on cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes to reduce some of the moisture. Scrape once or twice to avoid possible burning.

Jalapeño Sauce

1 jalapeno

1 green onion

Small handful of parsley, de stemmed

3 dates, or 3 tbsp of date syrup

Enough water to process

Set to high in a high speed blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

Make your pizza dough and place in the oven on low to rise.

While its rising sauté your vegetables in the hot sauce for 5-10 minutes until they are almost cooked.

Remove dough from oven and divide into quarters.  Take ¼ of the dough and roll it out thinly.

Spread the cashew cheese on the bottom. Then the vegetables and Daiya.

Place in the a 400 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Top with Jalapeno sauce and for added pizza flavor, dip in pizza sauce! Enjoy!!!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Can Vegans Eat Here?

Eating out at restaurants can be difficult when you have food allergies or dietary requirements. I know with my family going out for a meal can be quite the novel when ordering what we want. Most waitresses now a days are really cool with taking our orders and usually say “oh you are one of ‘those’ families”. So that got me thinking about the chain restaurants and what they had to offer us vegans. Seeing that they are big box restaurants and all of their menus in Canada should be the same, I thought that they would be able to tell me what meals they could offer. So I set off to email 5 major restaurants, Montana’s, Boston Pizza, Original Joe’s, Chili’s and Earls and this is what I wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if you could tell me all of your menu items that do not contain any meat, dairy or eggs. I am a vegan and would love to continue to eat at your restaurant. I understand that you cannot guarantee the cross contamination of the food in the kitchen but I was just wondering the actual ingredients in the meals themselves. Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Kindly,

Nikki Clark Murray

I didn’t know what I was expecting, maybe a them saying that I could safely eat the lettuce and the water and that’s all they could promise me or maybe a detailed list explaining everything. Any route I was just wanting to see what the upper management could tell me about the food that their company sells. And really, I can’t be the first one to email them about vegan food, surely they would already have this question answered. Right?

Well out of the 5 restaurants, I have received  emails back, Chili's still hasn't replied.

And these are their responses:

This is the email that I got from Montana’s in response to my question:

Dear Ms.  Murray,

Thank you for contacting Montana’s restaurants with your inquiry.
All of our allergen information can be found at the website below.http://www.montanas.ca/pdf/nutrition.pdf

Where cross contamination may be a concern regarding allergies, it is
important that you speak with your server at the restaurant so that they
can minimize the possibility of cross contamination occurring in the
kitchen. Please advise them of all allergy concerns you have prior to
ordering to ensure your concerns are addressed.

As well, please be advised that there is always the possibility for cross
contamination to occur and that we cannot guarantee your item will not
come in contact with allergens in our other food items.

We value your patronage and look forward to serving you in the near
future.

Sincerely,
Montanas Guest Services

Miranda

Well the link to the nutritional information didn’t work, but luckily it wasn't hard to find on their website. To access the PDF file you go to the website and click on the menu button, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on nutritional guide. You will get a PDF file which states all of the allergens in each menu item. The only problem with this is it doesn’t tell you what you can have with substitutions. Such as, the veggie burger has cheese on it so it is listed as having milk ingredients, but if I was to remove the cheese would it be dairy free? So this some what helps you in deciding if you can eat out at Montana’s but you are going to have to ask your server when you order. The only things that were safe on the menu was the guacamole, fries, sweet potato fries (if they aren’t deep fried with other meat or dairy), plum sauce, salsa, Thai sauce, and it says that the baked potato contains dairy but that is something I would ask about because it could just that they add sour cream to it. Other than that everything else contains milk, eggs or meat.

This is the response that I got from Boston Pizza

Hello Nikki,

Due to the periodic product substitutes from our suppliers we cannot provide allergen information except at the store level.

Please feel free to contact one of our staff member the next time we visit us and we will gladly provide you with any specific allergen questions you may have. For Boston Pizza locations and contact information please visit us at  http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/locations/

We value you patronage to our restaurants and once again thank you for contacting us.

Kind regards,  

Joe Avila

Guest Services Manager

Boston Pizza International Inc.

I looked on their website and they only have a gluten free menu listed along with the nutritional information. So as it looks right now you need to ask your waitress about what foods you can have and be specific in what you are asking. I had one waitress bring me fries with a mayo dipping sauce because she didn’t know that mayo was made from eggs.

This is the response I received from Earls,

Dear Nikki, Thank you for contacting us about our Vegan options. We understand dining out when you are a vegan can be limiting at times and as all of our recipes are made from scratch, we are aware of exactly what is in each product and all of our Chefs are trained to be aware of specific dietary needs so that we can easily accommodate vegan customers on the spot; however, if you wish to call the head chef of the Earls restaurant in your area, they will be happy to answer specific questions about any menu items and discuss your options for future reference. At this time we do not have a Vegan specific menu on hand but it is something that you will see from us in the future as we do pass all comments about our menu to our Product Development and Menu Teams for their review. We hope to see you in Earls soon! Sincerely, Miko Bryson Earls Restaurants Ltd

This was the response I was hoping for with the previous two restaurants. They are not giving me exact menu items but they are reassuring me that as a vegan I am able to eat there. Also stating that in the possible future there might be a vegan menu is an added bonus because it makes me feel that they are taking into consideration people's dietary need.
Plus I feel that the response wasn't just generated by a computer, it was actually written by a human being, which is always a nice touch. Like when calling a customer service line, you want to talk to a person not an automated answering service. 

This is the respsonse I got from Original Joe’s, by far the best response I received.

Hello Nikki,
Unfortunately we do not have a ton of vegan options available.  I have however, compiled a list of options that you may have with some simple modifications.  Please see the attached word document.

I hope this helps you to still enjoy a meal with us and if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me directly at jbates@franworks.com

Thank you,

Jason Bates |Operations Specialist |Regional Kitchen Manager |Franworks Group of Companies

This is the information he supplies me through a Word Document:

VEGAN OPTIONS

MAIN DISHES
**Dragon Boat Lettuce Wraps – ask for no noodles and no chicken.
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl – ask for no chicken and no spiced yogurt.
Tomato Basil Linguini – ask for no cheese, bread or panko topping.
*Mixed Greens Salad – ask for no almonds and no cranberries. (cranberries are produced in a facility with milk ingredients)
Spinach Salad – ask for no cheese, bread, almonds or cranberries.
Thai Chicken Salad – ask for no bread and no chicken.
*West Coast Chop – ask for no cheese, bread, cranberries and almonds.
*Veggie Burger – ask for no bread or cheese and choose from the sides listed below.

SIDES
Broccolini – ask for no butter.
*Fresh Veggies & Dip – ask for no ranch, choose a salad dressing from below.
Home Cut Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Sweet Potato Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Mixed Greens – no almonds or cranberries
**Hummus – ask for no bread and have vegetables instead
**Quinoa Salad

DRESSINGS
Oil & Vinegar
Balsamic Berry Vinaigrette
Italian

* I have personally tried them
**my favourites

I don’t know about you but I am super impressed with the information and effort put forward by Jason. Not only did he get back to me within hours of my email, but he typed up a list of everything I am able to eat. Even stating that the cranberries were made in a facility with milk ingredients. This not only makes me want to go back to OJ’s it makes me want to promote them as a business. If only other chain restuarants could have emailed me back with a more indepth email I would feel the same about it. So I gues chalk one up for Original Joe’s!

Hopefully the other restaurant will get back to me soon, when they do I will post their responses!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Vegan Camping with Cheesy Burger Bush Pie

I just went camping this past weekend for the St. Victor Boogie, a motorcycle rally that is held ever year here in Saskatchewan by the Southern Independent Riders. It always promises to be a great time and this year it didn’t disappoint. I even got to sing on stage with one of the bands! So basically I am a rock star now! As for the food, I didn’t really eat like a rock star, because I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked, but I survived and actually came up with some awesome things to eat.

The Burnout Pit!

Being vegan and going camping you have to be prepared. Everyone usually packs to much food so you could share, but most people usually pack lots of meat products. So now what? You could eat the grass right? Haha no I wouldn’t suggest that, and I hope you don’t get that desperate. Basically you need to be really prepared, so take some time and think about what you would like to eat, especially snacking food.

If you have a fridge I would strongly suggest you take as much fresh fruit and veggies as possible. I brought out avocados to make fresh guacamole for one of those afternoons when you are craving something salty, and fruit and my 3 Ingredient Cookies for when I was craving something sweet. If you have the time before hand I suggest making these cookies for your trip. They are the perfect substitute for granola bars because there is no added sugar or mystery ingredients in them!

The groceries I brought out were:

Dempsters Vegetable Bread

Daiya

Vegan burgers

Vegan hot dogs

Coconut oil

Bananas

Frozen Fruit to make smoothies (we have a small generator so I brought my magic bullet!)

Spinach

Avocados

Salsa

Blue corn chips

Banana oatmeal cookies

Things I forgot - my mangos and grapes

And last but not least – vegetarian beans that were generously given to me by my friend Amber

As you can see there is not a ton of fresh stuff, but I think I ate pretty good for camping. 

I would say that the one thing that saved my butt this weekend was the bush pie maker. They are the greatest camping invention ever and without it I would have probably starved (okay I wouldn’t have, but you get the picture). If your family goes camping and don’t own one, go to Walmart or Canadian Tire and get one now. There are two types out there, aluminum and cast iron. The aluminum ones are cheaper and you get what you pay for. My sister in law Jen put hers in the fire to heat up and the whole thing melted. Clearly that wouldn’t happen with the
cast iron version, so if you can spend a little more, splurge on the cast iron version.

These burgers turned out awesome!
And I love how they are vegan,
gluten free and soy free! 

So what did I make with my bush pie maker? First I made a grilled cheese. If you have ever had Daiya before you know that it takes a while for it to melt, well not in this baby. She was perfectly toasted in less than 5 minutes and the cheese was melted and stringy, YUM!

Second I made a grilled cheese but this time I added beans to it, which was even better! If you are cringing right now I don’t blame you, its not something you eat everyday, but if I could I would. When my sister Ashley got back from Europe she brought back this tasty treat with her and I have loved it ever since. Apparently it is something that they eat all the time, crazy Europeans!

Its always good to drink lots of water!

But you can sneak in a few Palm Bays too!

But the main star of the weekend was the grilled cheese burger, yup I said it and I made it, a grilled cheese burger. This was super simple to make and I was eating it in less than 10 minutes. First I took the vegan burger (Santa Fe variation from Big Mountain Foods) and cooked it in the bush pie maker for 5 minutes, then sandwiched it in between cheese and cooked it once more for 3 minutes. It was pure heaven, even my meat lovin friends were saying how awesome it looked.

Now that I have found a new delicious meal, I am now considering asking Devon to make me a fire this week so I can eat another one because I have never had a better grilled cheese in my life.

Also, there are so many different versions you could make:

Grilled chili cheese

Pizza (think of the toppings)

Fruity ones

The sky is the limit really, so go and have some fun with  your food!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Quick and Easy Curry Stew

I LOVE CURRY! Like L.O.V.E LOVE  I have made a couple different curry dishes and this is by far the easiest and best I have ever made. I know I have said this about every curry dish I have made, but honestly it just keeps getting better and easier. I was surprised at how quick this meal came together and how great it turned out. 
Like always, when trying a new dish I am always a little wary on if I will like it, but man this is good. Now, I can see a couple of you out there thinking that this might be too hard, you are wrong, it’s only 4 easy steps to awesomeness for this dish. If you are unsure of whether or not you like curry then maybe start off with no curry spices and add little by little instead. For me I used 2 tbsp of curry spice to really bring out that extra punch.

So if you are in the mood for something really fun tonight, why not try out my amaze-balls curry stew, I dare you!

Serves 2-6 people ( I ate the whole pot so really 1-6 people)

Stew
2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of coconut oil

2 good-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, or 2 small ones, chopped

1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 lime

Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

2 inch fresh ginger, peeled

2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground red pepper flakes

2 tablespoon curry powder

1 tbsp maple syrup

½ can coconut milk

Directions:

Step one – chop up all the veggies

Step two – sauté the veggies, hick peas and oil for about 10 mins in a large pot on medium high, until almost fork tender

Step three – put all of the sauce ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth

Step four – pour sauce over veggies and let simmer for 15 minutes, the longer you simmer the thicker it gets!

Garnish with lime and serve over rice or noodles. Enjoy!

Substitutions

*coconut milk for any that you have on hand

*peanut butter for any other nut or seed butter you have

*sweet potatoes for regular potatoes

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N