Author: Victoria

Follow my journey as a vegan with rheumatoid arthritis. I post about my food, easy recipes, music, and travel. New posts every Tuesday and Friday.

Veganized Crunchwrap Supreme

On By VictoriaIn Recipes

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I really like Taco Bell. It’s our go-to anytime we get fast food because it’s so easy to customize and veganize (the Taco Bell app is a game-changer!). I also love making Taco Bell-style food at home. We’ve been making tacos a lot recently, and I’ve been reheating the soft tacos in a microwave for lunch. These reheated in the microwave are so good and taste like Taco Bell, and I really don’t know why I like it so much.

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There are a ton of other recipes out on the internet for vegan crunchwraps, but we’ve been on such a Taco Bell kick lately I wanted to share how we made them.

Ingredients:

  • A large burrito flour tortilla (we bought la banderita homestyle tortillas)
  • refried black beans (we get the Winco brand refried black beans with jalapeños)
  • corn tortilla chips (Julio’s tortilla chips are one of our favorites)
  • shredded iceberg lettuce
  • Boca veggie crumbles
  • Daiya American cheese slices
  • salsa (we really like Pace’s mild chunky salsa)
  • taco seasoning (or chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and cumin)
  • diced white onion
  • pico de gallo (diced tomatoes, cilantro, white onion, and cilantro)

For the bean mixture:

Heat the black beans in a pan over medium high heat and covered. While that is heating up, warm up the Boca ground crumbles in a separate pan with a little bit of oil, some diced white onion, and add the spices. Mix together the refried beans, ground crumbles, and salsa once the ground crumbles are browned and the onions are caramelized.

Next, assemble the crunchwrap. This is how I stacked mine:

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(Tortilla, black beans + veggie crumbles, lettuce, pico de gallo, a slice of Daiya’s American cheese, and finally some tortilla chips on top.

Try to fold it up in the center, and place it in a pan over medium heat with the open side down. It may not be pretty, but make sure the edges on the open side all come together in the middle. Mine was not looking too good at first, and I had to refold it, but it ended up holding together pretty nicely.

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I did not use any oil, just a non stick pan over medium-high heat, and I cooked both sides until each side was crispy and the side that was open stayed shut.

That’s how we made our homemade crunchwraps! It was pretty quick and easy to make, plus it was such a nice treat to have after a long day at work.

If you liked this, also check out my Veganized 5-Layer Burritos!

Where I’ve Been // what I ate today + a cheap pad thai inspired recipe and pumpkin spice cookies

On By VictoriaIn Recipes, Tofu, Vegan baking, What I Ate Today3 Comments

I’ve been away for the past month, and a lot has changed. I needed a little break while adjusting to new things. I now have a new job where I can sit most of the day and have a regular sleep schedule and I’ve been feeling so much better mentally and physically.

I’m going to be posting regularly again, and to start it off here’s what I ate today.

Brunch:

We started out Labor Day with some vegan breakfast burritos and donut holes from one of our favorite breakfast places, OMG Donuts. Their burritos are really cheap, but they are so tasty and nice to pickup for a quick breakfast. We took these to the mall to eat (because it was way too hot to eat outside which was our original plan) and walked around the mall for a bit.

Dinner:

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I wanted pad thai for dinner, but I wanted something quick and easy to make and kinda healthy so this is what I came up with.

You will need:

  • noodles (rice noodles would probably be best, but we just used fettuccine noodles)
    • we made about half of the box
  • a block of extra firm tofu
  • spices for the tofu:
    • black pepper
    • paprika
    • onion powder
    • garlic powder
    • cumin
  • for the sauce:
    • 2 tbsp sesame oil
    • 1-2 tbsp soy sauce (we used low sodium soy sauce and added about 1 1/2 tbsp, but add more if you’d like it saltier)
    • 1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
    • a splash of lime juice
    • 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • lots of veggies
    • we combined an asian stir fry and sugar snap pea stir fry mix from Winco. We used half a bag of each for this meal. These included: broccoli, carrots, onions, celery, red peppers, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and sugar snap peas.

First, I cubed the block of tofu and coated it with the spices. I put it in the air fryer and cooked it for about 20 minutes at 400ºF.

While the tofu cooked I boiled the pasta and defrosted the veggies in a pan. Then, I mixed together the sauce.

I moved the veggies to a separate bowl to add the sauce to the empty pan. Let the sauce heat up for a minute, then mix everything together (the sauce, veggies, noodles, and tofu) and let it fry in the pan for a minute or two, stirring it occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn.

This turned out so good. I’d also recommend adding peanuts on top if you have them to make this a little more like pad thai. Pad thai is one of my favorite comfort foods (honestly, anything with noodles is), and this was a cheap and easy way to satisfy the craving. Nothing beats actual pad thai, but this was really tasty.

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Dessert:

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Winco had some pumpkin spice cookie mix for pretty cheap, so we picked some up (even though it’s super hot out but it’s pretty much fall already, right? The Halloween Oreos are already out).

We used half of the cookie mix and mixed that with 1/2 of a flax egg, half of a stick of Earth Balance vegan butter, and 1/8 cup water (we just veganized the instructions on the back of the package). We also added dairy free dark chocolate chips and sprinkled the cookies with cinnamon, all spice, and brown sugar before we put them in the oven.

I really recommend picking this up and making these if you see it in store, they turned out SO moist and pumpkin-y.

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That’s what I ate today on this last day of a very lazy Labor Day weekend. We had a relaxing weekend filled with lots of yummy vegan food, video games, and movies. Hope everyone had a great weekend. ♡

What a vegan orders to drink on a night out

On By VictoriaIn Favorites, LifestyleLeave a comment

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I always say, if the only thing I can get during a night out is french fries and beer then that’s okay with me, but that usually leads to a trip to Taco Bell at 2am (which is also okay with me).

An app I use when we go out is called Vegaholic, plus there’s a website that it gets its information from called Barnivore that lets you know if liquor is vegan or not. They’re both useful tools to quickly check, but I have my go-to beers since I don’t like checking the app while I’m out with friends. Here’s some of my favorite drinks to get:

1. Guinness

A classic dark beer. This is my go-to beer, I usually have the classic Guinness or Extra Stout. The Black Lager and The 1759 are not vegan.

2. Bishop Cider

Living in North Texas, this has been easy to find at a lot of places near us. Bishop Cider is made in Dallas, TX in one of our favorite barcades (cidercade, specifically).

3. (512) Pecan Porter

A nice, dark beer that DJ compares the taste of to cigarettes. I personally love the flavor of it, but you have to be into thick, dark beer to enjoy it.

4. Dream Crusher IPA, Deep Ellum Brewing

One of the lighter beers on this list, it’s my go-to at Spiral Diner, a vegan diner located in Denton, Dallas, and Fort Worth. It’s hoppy and fruity and goes well with the burgers and nachos we usually order.

5. Dos Equis

The Lager, XX, and Ambar are all vegan. This one is not one of my favorites on this list, but it’s at most restaurants and easy to find.

6. Blue Moon

A lot of Blue Moon’s beers are vegan, but not all. Some have honey in them, so I would double check before ordering.

7. Chief Justice Stout, Legal Draft

Another dark beer we discovered at Spiral Diner that has a nice, light coffee flavor.

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8. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey

Most, but not all of Jack Daniel’s whiskey is vegan (Tennessee Honey and Jack Daniel’s Ready to Drink are not).

9. Or, if you don’t want anything alcoholic, there are quite a few bars around us that serve Kombucha on tap.

Honorable mentions: Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Corona, and Heineken beers are vegan.

Hope this is a helpful guide! I definitely prefer darker beer over light, so are there any lighter beers you’d like to recommend? Let me know! Be safe and responsible while out. ♡

3 Easy Vegan Meals // what I’ve been eating lately

On By VictoriaIn RecipesLeave a comment

It’s been a busy month. I haven’t had a ton of time to cook and a lot of my meals have been beige and ugly. Here are some quick meals I’ve been making:

1. Egg-less Egg Salad

I made this the other day just with some leftover tofu scramble and Vegenaise.

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For the tofu scramble I broke up a block of medium firm tofu in a pan over medium heat and added turmeric, paprika, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and black pepper. I had that for breakfast in a burrito that day, and stored the leftovers in the fridge. The next day I mixed the leftovers with 1 tablespoon of Vegenaise and a little bit more black pepper. I had it on some sourdough toast for breakfast.

2. Pasta + whatever is in the fridge

This first example is a cup of shells with red peppers, green peppers, and onions cooked with olive oil and half of a Beyond Meat Sausage.

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Next, this is some elbow macaroni with spinach and a vegan burger patty. I would also recommend adding a little olive oil or something, since I ate this as-is and it was a bit dry. It was alright, but definitely could have used something.

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Finally, this is some penne pasta with a cup of frozen stir-fry veggies with a sauce I made out of hummus, nutritional yeast, and a splash of low sodium soy sauce.

3. Nachos + Loaded Fries

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Not healthy comfort food, but really easy. We air fried some french fries, added a few slices of Daiya’s American Cheese, cooked some Boca veggie crumbles, and topped it with green onions and a dollop of vegenaise (would recommend vegan sour cream too).

what I ate and did today // some easy vegan meals

On By VictoriaIn Low Spoon Recipes, What I Ate TodayLeave a comment

Here is a look at what I realistically eat in a day as a vegan, plus what I enjoyed doing today. Nothing too fancy, just a few simple meals.

tea I’ve been drinking today:

Nutty Almond Cream Apple Cinnamon Herbal Tea from Tiesta Tea.

We bought a bunch of bulk tea the last time we shopped at Winco, and this one has been one of my favorites. It tastes really creamy and rich, and has a nice apple cinnamon flavor. If you want to try it out you can buy it online here: Nutty Almond Tea.

breakfast:

I ate breakfast a lot later than usual, so I had some leftover avocado sushi and rice noodles with sriracha sauce. Avocado rolls are my go-to sushi roll to order when we go out to eat. Honestly, I would eat this everyday if I could.

lunch:

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For lunch I had white rice, baked beans (the same ones from my last post), and spinach mixed with some salsa.

dinner:

I got lazy when it was time to eat dinner and made some nachos. I used Follow Your Heart’s vegan American cheese with Julio’s home style mild salsa and tortilla chips. Like I said in the beginning of this post, nothing too fancy.

snack:

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Some vegan m&m’s we found at Natural Grocers. These were so good and so nostalgic for me, since I haven’t had m&m’s in years.

what I played today:

World of Final Fantasy MAXIMA on Nintendo Switch. I’ve only had it for a few days but I’m hooked. It’s like Final Fantasy meets Pokémon and it’s just a ton of fun. 

what I listened to today:

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Thom Yorke // ANIMA

This is the third time I’ve listened to ANIMA since it released, and it just gets better every time.

This is Thom Yorke’s third solo album, and may slowly be becoming one of my favorites (nothing will beat The Eraser for me, though).

That’s everything I ate today. Nothing too extravagant or healthy, but a sustainable vegan diet.

a really simple pasta dish

On By VictoriaIn Low Spoon Recipes, Recipes5 Comments

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This is another simple low-spoon meal. It’s also an, “I needed to clean out the fridge but it turned out really good so I’ll make it again” meal. It’s a really easy recipe to make without much effort, but it is filling and extremely tasty.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup medium shell pasta (or any pasta you like)
  • olive oil
  • diced onions (I used some diced red onion we had leftover)
  • 1/2 can of baked beans (I really like the Cracked Pepper baked beans from Serious Bean Co we found at Winco)
  • 2 tbsp hummus (I had Sabra’s roasted pine nut hummus and it turned out really good, I’d recommend picking this up but any hummus will do)
  • Boca veggie crumbles (or any vegan protein you’d like to add, Gardein’s meatless meatballs are really good in this too)
  • 1/2 – 1 cup spinach (however much spinach you’d like to add)
I don’t usually use exact measurements for low spoon recipes because it’s more of a throw everything together with as few dishes as possible meal, so add however much or as little of the ingredients as you’d like. This is just how I make it. 

1. First, I boiled a cup of pasta. I only made one serving since it’s easier to drain. After I drained it I left it in the colander and left the empty pot on the stove over medium heat.

2. Next, I drizzled about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in the pot. I added about 1/4 cup of red onions and cooked them until they were caramelized. Once they were I mixed in about 3/4 cup of the Boca veggie crumbles. I added just enough water so it wouldn’t stick, covered it, and let it cook for 5-7 minutes.

3. After the veggie meat cooked thoroughly I added half of the can of baked beans and covered the pot again to let the beans heat up.

4. While that was warming up I microwaved 1 cup of frozen spinach to defrost it. I’d also recommend adding it to the bean mixture to cook it, but someone doesn’t love spinach as much as I do and I made leftovers of the mixture for us to share. (• ◡•)

5. Then, in a separate cup, I mixed 2 tbsp of hummus and enough water to thin it out into a sauce.

6. I combined everything into a bowl (but only about 1/4 cup of the bean mixture, I saved the rest for leftovers), and this is what it looked like:

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This is a really savory meal that doesn’t take a lot of time to make. The sweetness of the baked beans mixes really well with the other ingredients and creates a flavorful pasta dish without much effort!

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some rad things on my wishlist

On By VictoriaIn Music3 Comments

Life got a little hectic after my birthday. I’ve also been focusing a lot more on music and discovering lots of really neat pedals. Here are some of the pedals and other odds and ends that are on my wishlist that I think are just really cool.

IMG_0056Matthews Effects Cosmonaut V2 Modulation Reverb & Delay Effects Pedal

I’ve needed a delay and reverb for awhile now. I have the TC Electronics Skysurfer and The Prophet, but they’re just not doing it for me. I fell in love with this one from this demo I saw. I love the atmospheric and ambient tones you can get out of it

 

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JHS Pedals Unicorn V2 Analog Uni-Vibe Effects Pedal

This demo of it from JHS’s YouTube channel made me want to get this. I already have a lot of modulation effects on my board, but I think you can never have too many.

 

 

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Walrus Audio Monument Harmonic Tap Tremolo V2 Effects Pedal

I just really want a tap tremolo on my board, and I like the way this one sounds.

 

 

 

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Caroline Guitar Company – Kilobyte Lo-Fi Delay

I saw this on a pedalboard on r/basspedals and was curious so I looked up some demos on YouTube. I fell in love immediately, and this will probably be the next pedal I pick up. Definitely check this one out: Kilobyte Lo-Fi Delay Demo

 

Vegan Leather Guitar Strap

I’m so happy I was able to find a vegan leather guitar strap online. All of the straps that I saw at my local guitar store had leather or suede on them (and even if they were cotton or nylon the ends still had leather). I found this one for $19.99: Perri’s Vegan Guitar Strap. I ordered it in both colors since I couldn’t decide.

I would recommend checking out JHS’s YouTube channel if you’re interested in learning more about pedals. I’ve been binge watching his videos and learning a lot this past week.

I know this is a little different from what I usually post, but I’ve been having a lot of fun playing and building my pedalboard. Food post coming Friday!

what a vegan eats on their birthday

On By VictoriaIn What I Ate Today2 Comments

I took this past weekend to spend time with friends and family and enjoy lots of tasty vegan food. Here’s some of what we ate:

Friday 

We started the day off with vegan donuts from OMG Donuts in Denton, TX. I got the coffee/espresso flavored one and it tasted so delicious! They also have tofu scramble burritos and coffee, so we stop by here for breakfast often.

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For dinner we met up with some friends at BrainDead Brewing in Dallas. We ordered the vegan queso (which I forgot to take a picture of, we were so hungry!) and DJ and I split the Mac and Trees and the Hail Seitan BBQ sandwich (the best BBQ sandwich I’ve ever had).

Saturday 

We went to Seven Mile Cafe in Highland Village, TX for breakfast. They have a lot more vegan items on the menu since the last time we were there! I ordered the Congress Street Benny which was avocado, grilled tomatoes, and seasoned grilled tofu over sourdough toast with chipotle sauce, and it was so delicious and flavorful. I make grilled tofu sandwiches like this for myself at home sometimes, but it was nice to have it at a restaurant! The hashbrowns are to die for too.

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Sunday 

I made tofu scramble burritos for breakfast. Tofu scramble is something I always make on special occasions as a treat because it is so easy to make but so delicious. This time I seasoned it with turmeric, cumin, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and topped it with Daiya mozzarella cheese.

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For dinner my mom treated us to a vegan feast on my birthday. She made Hot For Food’s cauliflower buffalo wings for an appetizer. We had them with carrots, celery, and Daiya’s ranch dressing.

She also made us a homemade pizza with sundried tomatoes, spinach, and Daiya’s vegan mozzarella cheese.

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And a homemade vegan birthday cake for dessert! There are tons of recipes for vegan cakes and frosting to choose from, especially on Pinterest. This vegan cake she makes for our birthdays and special occasions is always so moist and soft.

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I like to post these what I eat in a weekend posts to show how easy it is to be vegan and veganize your favorite meals! We enjoyed lots of food with our friends and family and didn’t have to eat any animal products to do it.

Check out last year’s birthday meals here: what I ate on my birthday // vegan.

tofu, veggies, + rice // how I make tofu

On By VictoriaIn Low Spoon Recipes, Recipes, Tofu2 Comments

This is how I’ve been making tofu for the past month. I usually put it in rice bowls, burritos, or pasta dishes when I get home from work, but today I made it with rice and a big bowl of veggies. It’s just a really quick and easy meal and I wanted to share it with you all.

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for the tofu:

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  • 1/4 block extra firm or medium firm tofu
  • paprika
  • cayenne pepper
  • black pepper
  • cumin
  • garlic powder
  • onion powder

First I cubed 1/4 of a block of tofu. Then I threw it into a bowl and mixed the tofu with the spices. I placed the pieces in my air fryer and baked them for 350º for about 15-20 minutes, flipping the cubes every 5-10 minutes.

the veggies:

  • carrots
  • red, green, and yellow peppers
  • white onion
  • frozen spinach

I steamed the carrots in a pan until they were soft, then added the frozen veggies. I used a frozen pepper stir fry mix that had all the peppers and onions in it to make it easier. I also added garlic powder and onion powder to season it. I just cooked everything over medium heat with the lid on for 10-15 minutes, at least until everything was soft.

and the rice:

I make the perfect white rice by boiling 1 3/4 cup of water for every 1 cup of rice I make. Once the water is boiling I add the rice, mix it once, then let it simmer for 18 minutes. Once that’s done I take it off the burner and let it sit for another 5minutes. After the 5 minutes I finally fluff it with a fork.

I plated everything once it was done, added a little bit of low sodium soy sauce, and topped everything with sriracha.

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It’s nothing fancy, but delicious low spoon meals are always a treat for me. Let me know how you guys like to make tofu in the comments!