Hi again, for the last time. I’m not sure how you guys feel, but this year went pretty quickly to me. I did a quick Wegmans run when I got back to school and I decided to try vegan garbanzo bean burgers. They were Wegmans brand and premade but not frozen. They actually changed shape in the grocery bag on the way home. I do not have a grill at my apartment, so I had to cook them on the stove in a pan. I sprayed the can with some Smart Balance cooking spray, and then heated it on medium heat.

While the stove heated, I prepped some asparagus tips to roast. I personally love asparagus and it is so easy to roast. First, I washed and dried the asparagus. Next, I chopped a clove of garlic. Then, I laid the asparagus on a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread the garlic out on top, and drizzled some olive oil on. I then tossed around the asparagus a little so they were each thinly coated in olive oil and the garlic was spread evenly. Finally, I put some lemon pepper on and popped them in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until tender (test with a fork). 

Once the pan was heated, I placed the garbanzo bean burger on and then covered it. My dad said I should cover it because sometimes when you cook burgers on the stove the tops/bottoms (the parts touching the pan) will get cooked but the middle will still be kind of raw. Luckily I was not cooking a meat burger so it would not be a huge deal if the burger was not fully cooked; however, I still would like my food fully hot not chilly in the middle. 

While the burger cooked, I prepped my buns and toppings. I like to toast my buns beforehand. I put tomato, lettuce, and red onion on. I would really have liked to add cheese but I could not find vegan cheese at Wegmans (to be honest I probably did not look hard enough) and I did not want to ruin the whole vegan theme. 

I had to split the burger into two pieces and make it into sliders because it was too big to fit on the buns I bought. The burger was actually huge. It was hard to flip. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I got it prepped so you guys could see. Also I should have taken a picture of the wrapper just in case any of you wanted to try it. Sorry 🙁

The first time I ate the burger (it came in a pack of two so I ate the second one on Monday) I really enjoyed it. I was also really hungry so maybe my opinion was slightly skewed. The second time I ate it I was not a fan. I am not really sure why, but for some reason it just did not sit right with me. I did not get sick or anything, but I could not finish it and I almost always finish my food, especially if I only have one or two bites left, which I did in this case. Maybe I just was not as hungry. Overall I would give these burgers like a 6/10. Maybe if I had some cheese they would have been better. 

I hope you guys have enjoyed reading my blog this semester! I really liked reading all of yours! Best of luck!

Hi guys! This week I did things a little differently. I was home, and on Tuesday morning my mom got notified that there were openings for vaccines in my county and that I was eligible to get one. I got the vaccine, and within a few hours I was very tired. Today (Wednesday) I woke up and my arm was in so much pain. By 12 noon, I was already ready to go back to sleep and was feeling very achy. I was originally supposed to cook veggie burgers today from the same list of vegan recipes, but I definitely did not have the energy. I decided to keep it simple and order out from a vegan restaurant in my area called Simply Green Cafe. I am not sure where you all are from but if you are ever near Ramsey, New Jersey and want to try some really good but also not super fringe vegan food then I highly recommend going here. 

My two cousins who are vegan (I mentioned them in a previous post) brought me food from this cafe the last time they came to visit. I got french toast sticks and let me tell you, I would definitely not have known they were vegan if nobody told me. They were absolutely delicious! My cousins are no joke obsessed with this place, they order food from it at least three times a visit, sometimes two times a day. 

I did not have the energy to go out, so I paid my little brother to go and pick up the food for me. Today I tried one of their specials: a buffalo chick’n sandwich. The sandwich came on a bun with lettuce, tomato, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, and fries on the side. Let me just remind you, everything is vegan! I honestly could not tell the difference between this chick’n (chicken spelled ‘chick’n’ usually means that it is a vegan “meat” patty) and regular chicken. I am not sure what the exact ingredients of the patty are, but if I had to guess I would say soy. I was also pleasantly surprised with the blue cheese sauce. Once again, I do not know the ingredients, but I would not know it was vegan unless someone told me. It really amazes me how so many things can be made vegan with little to no impact on the flavor and texture of the meal. It makes me realize that maybe going vegan is not so hard after all. If I can still eat my buffalo chicken sandwiches then what is the big deal!

This cafe’s menu has many good options that I want to try. I might have to make ordering out from this place a bi-weekly thing. The next thing I want to try is their eggplant parmesan. My cousin had it when we ordered out and she said it was delicious. I feel like an eggplant parm is relatively easy to make vegan because all you have to do is swap regular mozzarella cheese for a non-dairy mozzarella. I am also now interested in finding more vegan restaurants in my area!

This week I cooked another vegan meal from the list of 85 Vegan Meals from Love and Lemons that I mentioned in my last post. I made the first recipe: Creamy Vegan Pasta. The recipe is linked here. Overall I was very pleased with this dish. It was a little irritating that I had to buy a food processor (I was at my apartment at school not at home so I did not have one), but I bought a little one for 10 dollars at Walmart and it worked perfectly. At first I thought it might be too small but I was halving the recipe because I was only cooking for myself and it worked out. 

Even though this recipe looks like mac and cheese, it is not. The sauce is made of white beans, vegetable broth, olive oil, and some spices including red pepper flakes. I like spice, so I think the red pepper flakes add a nice flavor and give the sauce some much needed spice. Without the red pepper flakes I think the sauce would have been too plain. 

I would recommend cooking the broccoli for a little longer than the recipe says. I personally am not a big fan of the trunk part of the broccoli tree (I do not know what it is actually called), and if I do eat them I need them to be on the softer side. The broccoli was a little undercooked for my liking so I would adjust as you see fit. 

I used whole wheat elbows for my pasta. I wanted to try the vegetable pasta but I was nervous because I have never had it before. If you are a fan of zoodles (zucchini noodles), I think this recipe would work well with them. 

My one issue with this recipe is that it does not reheat well. I made two servings so that I could put half of it in the refrigerator for during the week to save myself the time and struggle of cooking again. I like to be able to just heat up leftovers during the week so I can manage work and school without having to worry about cooking. I was really excited to have this recipe again because I enjoyed it the first time, but I was disappointed. The sauce reheated is not even a sauce, it is like a paste that just got stuck to the pasta and broccoli. It was not creamy at all, it was pasty. Obviously this is not the website’s fault, this is just a natural occurrence with certain foods I guess. It is like how I personally think burgers are never the same when you reheat them, but pizza can be just as good or even better depending on the pizza. If you want to try this recipe for yourselves, eat it when you first make it. Also, add red pepper flakes! It is a must trust me. Here is a picture of the creamy vegan pasta when I first made it:

I decided to run with my idea of cooking vegan dishes from now on. I’ve really started to embrace the vegan lifestyle, however I am not fully a vegan. To start with vegan recipes, I looked at the list linked here from Love and Lemons of 85 vegan recipes. I started with the Jamaican Jerk Vegan Tacos (recipe linked here). 

The journey to make this dish was filled with roadblocks for me. First, it was kind of difficult to find canned jackfruit. I called Weis and they did not have jackfruit so I called Wegmans thinking that they would. They told me they did so I went to Wegmans, but they only had actual jackfruits that were uncut, not in a can. I have never worked with jackfruit before and this recipe calls for jackfruit in a can so I wanted to stick with that. If you have never seen jackfruit before, you know that they are huge and intimidating. I finally was able to find canned jackfruit at the Trader Joe’s. 

My next issue was when I was actually cooking the dish. The recipe calls for either a habanero, serrano, or jalapeno pepper; all of which are very hot. I had some things cooking on the stove, and the pepper was one of them. I felt completely fine, but next thing I know all four of the other people in the apartment with me were coughing and sneezing. After about 10 minutes, one of them finally asks me if I am cooking with peppers, and I was. It turns out that peppers can make people cough and sneeze even if they’re being cooked 20 feet away. I had no idea! I also felt fine for the most part, maybe a little tingly in the eyes but I had nowhere near as bad a reaction as the other people I live with. I felt really bad about it. If you ever decide to make this recipe, make sure you warn the people around you first!

The jackfruit was really weird. Like I previously mentioned, I have never worked with jackfruit before, or even seen it before, so I had no idea what to expect. The recipe says that jackfruit gives a really good impression of meat, and this is definitely true. If I didn’t know that these tacos were vegan and someone served them to me, I would think that they had meat in them. And the jackfruit is also so much healthier than meat which is a big plus! Jackfruit pretty much takes the taste of whatever you season it with. With nothing it is really plain, kind of like tofu. 

The meat part of the taco was really spicy but it balanced nicely with the mango salsa. I was lucky to find a really ripe mango that was super juicy and absolutely delicious. If you’re not a fan of spicy foods I would not recommend this recipe, or just don’t add the pepper. I also toasted my tortilla in a pan on the stove before stuffing.

Hello again, I am now back at school in my own apartment, so I’ve had to start cooking for myself. This post is not going to be so much about exploring my own cultures, but about exploring a new diet. Being able to cook for myself has given me the opportunity to experiment with the vegan diet. Two of my cousins both decided to go vegan when they were around 13 years old (about three years ago). When they first told me they were going vegan I thought it was radical and way too difficult to ever even imagine for myself. About a year after they went vegan I had to take a seminar at school from one of the teachers on how veganism helps the environment. The evidence for this is astounding, and even though I stopped seeing the vegan diet as completely outlandish I still never imagined myself doing it. 

Fast forward to the June after my senior year, and the video footage obtained by an undercover investigation of Fairlife Farms is released. I watched the video not really thinking it would move me that much. Obviously I would be sad but I know terrible things happen so I could handle it. Well I was totally wrong. To give you some perspective, I would not consider myself an emotional person, I probably cry about 1-3 times a month. After seeing this video, I bawled my eyes out several times a day for about a week straight. I started saying I wanted to go vegan. It still seemed almost impossible to me but I wanted to do it, for the animals. Sure it is nice that the environment benefits, as well as my health, but that stuff didn’t matter as much to me as knowing I didn’t play a part in the atrocities that were committed on these farms. 

Even though I really wanted to, I was unable to commit to the vegan diet while at home. I kept putting it off saying that I would do it when I got to school. Then I got to school, which at the time was Northeastern University in Boston, and I could not fathom eating what they served in their vegan section. It just did not look appetizing whatsoever. Why eat some weird looking tofu when I could just go get a piece of pizza? Then it got put off until I got my own place and could cook for myself. And here I am. 

For my first time cooking a vegan dish, I made rice with vegan pesto and roasted asparagus. I got the recipe from MyFitnessPal, an app that helps you achieve your fitness goals and also has lots of cool blogs. The recipe is linked here. 

Overall the recipe is pretty good. I am personally not a huge fan of lemon so the next time I cook it I will add less. I was really impressed with how well roasted asparagus with garlic tastes. Honestly, I liked the roasted asparagus more than I liked the rice with pesto. Pesto is also one of my favorite sauces so I love that I can still eat it even though I am trying to stay vegan now. Also another note about being vegan, I have decided that I am going to try and be vegan in my daily life but not necessarily 100% vegan. If I go to an Italian restaurant, I am not going to hold back. I’ll get the penne alla vodka with parmesan on top. But on the regular I am being vegan. For example, I switched my creamer for almond milk creamer, my ice cream for almond milk ice cream, and my yogurt for cashew milk yogurt. Stay tuned to see how long this lasts!

Here is my bowl 🙂

This week’s blog is going to be a little different. I currently have covid, so I am quarantined in my room and do not have access to a kitchen. Last semester I also had to quarantine because of covid but it turns out that I had gotten a false positive then. I figured this out because I got tested for antibodies in January (less than two months after I tested positive for covid) and I did not have them. I spoke to my sister-in-law who is a nurse and she said it was likely that I never had covid. That explains how I had no symptoms and nobody else around me tested positive. When I was quarantined then I was able to write about a recipe that I made a few weeks earlier that was not part of my original blog plan, but I have not been cooking recently so I decided instead to review a show about cultural foods on Netflix called Street Food Latin America. 

I watched four out of six episodes of this limited series. I watched the episodes on Buenos Aires, Argentina, La Paz, Bolivia, Lima, Peru, and Bogotá, Colombia. I found all of the episodes very interesting and I think the writers did a good job of making the episodes about more than just the street food of these cities. The vendors in each episode are well-developed characters who share their stories. The food is definitely a central theme, but it is not the sole focus. I especially appreciate how in all of the episodes besides Lima there are strong female figures who are the main focus of the episode. For them, food is much more than just making ends meet. For Patu in Argentina, food is a rebellion from the typical gender stereotypes. For Doña Emi in Bolivia, food is a way to embrace the culture of the indigenous cholitas. And for Mama Luz of Bogotá, food is a way to connect with all different types of people.

One thing that I have never really thought about before is the idea that other countries embrace cuisines outside of their own. I always thought that in Peru, they predominantly ate Peruvian food; or in Argentina they predominantly ate Argentinian food. I didn’t realize that there was so much immigration to South America and that those immigrants brought different cuisines with them. In Buenos Aires, there is a strong Italian influence in the street food as you can see in the episode through Patu’s borderline excessive use of mozzarella cheese and the fuggazzeta rellena (stuffed pizza). Lima apparently had a lot of Japanese immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, which is why Peruvian cuisine such as ceviche incorporates many Japanese staples and flavors. 

Even though I am not South or Central American, I still think it is really interesting to explore not only my own cultures but other cultures as well. Maybe the next chapter in my cooking journey will be to try recipes from all different countries around the world. Additionally, if you love food as much as I do and like learning about other cultures, I highly recommend watching Street Food Latin America on Netflix. Pretty much all of the episodes are fully in Spanish (or Portuguese if it takes place in Brazil), so unless you speak Spanish you will need subtitles. There is also a Street Food Asia which I will probably watch this weekend 🙂